ABP Live News Shots: No-Confidence Motion Against Govt To CBI Probe Into Manipur Video — Top Headlines This Week

ABP Live News Shots: From a no-confidence motion against Modi government to CBI probe into Manipur video — bringing to you all the big news that made headlines this past week, in case you missed it.

ABP Live News Shots: From a no-confidence motion against Modi government to CBI probe into Manipur video — bringing to you all the big news that made headlines this past week, in case you missed it. ( Image Source :ABP )

This week, Parliament continued to witness chaotic proceedings as the opposition remained firm on its demand for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement on the Manipur issue and moved a no-confidence motion against the government to build pressure. The motion was admitted by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. Meanwhile, the Centre has handed over probe into the Manipur viral video case to the CBI. On the other hand, several states like Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Telangana among others battled severe flood situation as incessant rain continued to wreak havoc, disrupting normal life. Scientists have suggested that July 2023 could be the warmest month on the planet ever. Meanwhile, another G20 meeting concluded without a joint communique, weeks before the summit.

INDIA

The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered an FIR in the Manipur viral video case, two days after it filed an affidavit in the Supreme Court informing it that the case will now be probed by the central agency, reported ANI citing CBI officials. The news agency PTI reported that the agency has taken over the FIR registered by the Manipur Police against unidentified people in accordance with its procedure. On Thursday, the Centre, in an affidavit, said the CBI would probe the video incident and asserted that the government had "zero tolerance towards any crimes against women".

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Wednesday admitted a no-confidence motion against the Narendra Modi government after a head count of over 50 MPs as per the requirement under the rules, as reported by the news agency PTI. He said a date and time for discussion on it will be fixed by him after consultation with all parties. He asked members supporting the admission of the motion to stand after which INDIA alliance members, including Congress parliamentary party chief Sonia Gandhi and National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, stood up for a head count, as reported by PTI.

As heavy rain continued to batter Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, locals in the affected areas were seen reeling under the flood and the waterlogging situation. Parts of Delhi received light to moderate rainfall on Friday. Heavy rains were witnessed in most parts of the Nanded district of Maharashtra while Kolhapur Disaster Relief Force rescued a person stranded on a tree in the middle of the Warana River. Telangana also has been receiving heavy rain for the past several days, causing low-lying areas to be inundated with road links disrupted. At least 16 people lost their lives in different rain-related incidents following the heavy downpour that lashed Telangana over the past one week, said officials

WORLD

After the G20 Finance Ministers meeting, Agriculture group meet and Labour and Employment group huddle, the G20 Energy Transitions Ministerial meeting in Goa also concluded without a joint communique. The group released an outcome document and Chair’s summary which is issued when a consensus is not arrived at. According to the statement, Russia and China had reservations on some points that hindered the group from reaching a common ground. 

The United States has announced a military aid package worth $345 million for Taiwan in a bid to help the island nation to counter China, reported the Associated Press. It is the first such major package by President Joe Biden drawing America’s own stockpiles. It comes days after former US diplomat Henry Kissinger visited China to ease the tensions between the two nations. Kissinger met China’s defence minister Li Shangfu in a surprise visit to Beijing, reported The Guardian. According to a readout from the Chinese defence ministry, Kissinger said that neither the US nor China can afford to treat the other as an adversary.

Niger soldiers announced the removal of President Mohamed Bazoum from power on national television on Thursday. A group of soldiers who appeared on the West African nation's national television late on Wednesday made the announcement, hours after the president was held in the presidential palace, news agency Reuters reported. Reading from a statement, Colonel Amadou Abdramane said defence and security forces had decided: "Put an end to the regime that you know due to the deteriorating security situation and bad governance."

BUSINESS

The last date for filing income tax (I-T) returns for the financial year 2022-23 (assessment year 2023-24) is July 31. The I-T department has advised taxpayers not to wait until the last minute and file their returns as soon as possible. According to Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman already 7.4 crore entities, including individuals have filed their income tax returns."There has been a 6.18 per cent increase in the number of persons filing Income Tax Returns in FY22-23 as compared to persons in FY21-22," Sitharaman said in the Lok Sabha on Monday. With the rise in ITR filings and the finance ministry's top official already dismissing the need for a deadline extension, it seems taxpayers have no other option but to complete the task in the next few days. 

Retail inflation is expected to increase on account of high vegetable prices in India. Farmers and traders believe vegetable prices will stay on the higher end for longer, due to delayed planting caused by erratic monsoon rains and damaged ripening crops. According to a Reuters’ report, prices generally start lowering down from August, when harvest starts coming to the market, but due to tight supplies, they are expected to stay sky-high until October this year. Vegetable prices have a 6 per cent weighting in the overall consumer price index (CPI). These have been rising 12 per cent month-on-month and touched a seven-month high in June, according to official data.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed 'Semicon India' 2023 on Friday morning and said, "This event is similar to how it is necessary to update software. Through SemiconIndia, relations with Industry, experts and policymakers keep updating. I also think that this is essential for the synchronisation of relations", while welcoming all the participants, both local and global. He further added, "Today, the world is becoming a witness to Industry 4.0. Whenever the world has undergone any industrial revolution, its foundation has been the aspirations of the people of any region. This was the relation between earlier industrial revolutions and the American dream. Today, I can see the same relations between the fourth industrial revolution and Indian aspirations."

TECH

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 and Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 — the latest foldable offerings from the South Korean tech giant are now official. President and Head of 'Mobile eXperience Business' at Samsung Electronics TM Roh introduced the two new foldables at the Galaxy Unpacked 2023 event, held in Seoul, South Korea. The Galaxy Z Flip 5 comes with a 3.4-inch Super AMOLED cover display, dubbed Flex Window, which is touted to be 3.78 times larger than Galaxy Z Flip 4. The Galaxy Z Fold 4, on the other hand, sports a 6.2-inch Dynamic AMOLED cover screen. 

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has reported impressive growth in advertising revenue for the second quarter, surpassing expectations on Wall Street. The company also predicts strong revenue for the third quarter, exceeding market expectations. These results come after Alphabet's Google also performed well, indicating that consumers and advertisers are spending despite broader economic concerns.

Meta-owned instant messaging platform WhatsApp has unveiled a new feature that allows users to share personal videos directly within their chats. This move comes as an extension of its voice message functionality. In a recent blog post, WhatsApp expressed their its for the new feature, stating that video messages will enable real-time responses in a visual format, allowing users to convey their thoughts and emotions within 60 seconds. The company believes that this will add a fun and expressive element to communication, facilitating the sharing of special moments, birthday wishes, laughter at jokes, and the announcement of good news.

SPORTS

The Indian men's and women's football team have been given permission by the Sports Ministry to participate in the upcoming Asian Games 2023, set to be held in Hangzhou, China. Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur took to Twitter to give out this information. In his tweet, he mentioned that considering the recent performance of the Indian football team, the Sports Ministry has decided to make an exemption, allowing India to participate in the continental showpiece event, starting September 23.

In what could be a big leap for cricket, it is being reported that the sport is likely to make a return to Olympic Games at the 2028 edition of the competition scheduled to be held in Los Angeles. Even though there is no official confirmation on the same, a media report has quoted sources who claim that it is "very likely" that the T20 format of the sport could be included in the Los Angeles Olympics in both the men's and women's categories. If T20 cricket indeed manages to feature in the 2028 edition of the Summer Games, it will be the first time in 128 years that cricket will be part of the competition.

The 9th edition of T20 World Cup will be played in West Indies and America, next year. According to ESPNCricinfo, T20 World Cup 2024 tournament will start from June 4 and the final will be played on June 20. The previous edition of T20 World Cup was played in 2022 in October in which England won the summit clash by beating Pakistan in the final. India were knocked out in the semi-finals.

SCIENCE

Oppenheimer: The Manhattan Project, led by American physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, gave the world its first nuclear weapons. The first nuclear test was conducted on July 16, 1945, at the Alamogordo Bombing Range, also known as the Jornada del Muerto, located in New Mexico. As part of this field test, the first atomic bomb was exploded, and Oppenheimer called the test "Trinity" in reference to one of John Donne's Holy Sonnets. A plutonium implosion device known as "Gadget" was used. About eight decades after the first nuclear weapon test was conducted, a new study found that the radioactive fallout from Trinity not only resulted in significant nuclear exposure in New Mexico, but also reached 46 neighbouring states in the US, and also Canada and Mexico. The pre-print of the study appeared around the same time as the release of Christopher Nolan's latest movie, Oppenheimer, which documents the triumph and tragedy of the physicist, widely regarded as the "Father of the Atomic Bomb". The study has also described the impact of other nuclear explosions carried out in New Mexico and Nevada between 1945 and 1962, and how the fallout led to widespread radioactive contamination. 

Gaganyaan: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted the second and third hot tests of the Gaganyaan Service Module Propulsion System (SMPS) on July 26, 2023, at the ISRO Propulsion Complex (IPRC) in Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu. A week before, on July 19, the first hot test of the SMPS was performed. These tests are important because they will help determine the performance of the orbital module. All three tests are a part of the Service Module - System Demonstration Model (SM-SDM) Phase-2 test series. The service module consists of the main propulsion engine, while the orbital module contains the habitat in which the crew will stay while in orbit. 

July 2023 may set a global temperature record as the hottest July ever, and the hottest month in 1,20,000 years, according to an analysis by German scientist Dr Karsten Haustein from Leipzig University. The current warmest July is July 2019, but July 2023 is likely to have a global average near-surface temperature about 0.2°C greater than that in July 2019, preliminary analysis suggests. The first three weeks of July constitute the warmest three-week period on record, according to data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), funded by the European Union, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) has said. July 6 was the hottest day on record, followed by July 5 and 7, according to the WMO data. The record for the hottest day was previously set in August 2016. The analysis performed by Dr Haustein, and the WMO data also show that July 2023 will be about 1.5°C ± 0.2°C above pre-industrial levels. 

ENT

After a four-week trial in the UK, a London jury on Wednesday acquitted actor Kevin Spacey of sexual assault allegations, according to the BBC report. During the trial, Spacey said he was a "big flirt" who engaged in consensual flings with guys and whose only mistake was holding a man's groin during a "clumsy pass." The Oscar-winning actor was accused of molesting three men. A fourth man, an aspiring actor looking for guidance, claims that after having a few beers at Spacey's London flat, he fell asleep or passed out and woke up to the actor having oral sex on him.

Varun Dhawan and Janhvi Kapoor's 'Bawaal' has been getting a lot of flak since its release because of how it has blended the tragedy of the holocaust in its narrative. A Jewish organisation has written an open letter to Prime Video to take down the movie. 

The Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), an NGO for the memory of the victims of the Nazi Holocaust, has asked Prime Video to remove the film Bawaal.  SWC Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action, Rabbi Abraham Cooper has written an open letter to the streaming giant for the removal of the film from the platform. 

Time magazine's film critic, Stephanie Zacharek, has recently unveiled a list of 100 best movies from the past ten decades, spanning the evolution of cinema from the 1920s to the 2010s. The illustrious roster commences with the timeless classic 'The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari' (1920) and culminates with Quentin Tarantino's magnum opus 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' (2019). Among these cinematic gems, only one Indian title finds its place, the iconic 'Pather Panchali' (1955), directed by the legendary Satyajit Ray.