Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs / News (July 14, 2022) for CSS, PMS

Table of Contents

6. President appoints three additional judges to PHC

• President Dr Arif Alvi on July 13, 2022 appointed three judicial officers as additional judges to the Peshawar High Court for a period of one year.
• However, the appointment of Fazal Subhan, Shahid Khan and Khurshid Iqbal will be `subject to the final outcome of an appeal pending before the Supreme Court against a judgement of the high court ordering their appointment has been challenged by the government`, read a notification issued by the ministry of law and justice.
• The appointments will take the number of high court judges to the sanctioned strength of 20. The judges` tenure will begin the day they take oath of their offices

7. Top Trump-era official admits to `planning coups`

• John Bolton, former US president Donald Trump`s national security adviser, has admitted that he was involved in planning coups in foreign countries.
• Bolton made the stunning revelation during an interview with CNN anchor Jake Tapper while discussing the Jan 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol building by Trump`s supporters.
• The attack, he claimed, was not a `coup d`état against the US Constitution,` arguing that Trump was not smart enough to plan a coup properly.
• Tapper pushed back, saying that `one doesn`t have to be brilliant to attempt a coup

8. Russia, Ukraine put heads together to solve grain crisis

• Russia and Ukraine met UN and Turkish officials on July 13, 2022 in a bid to break a months-long impasse over grain exports that has seen food prices soar and millions f ace hunger.
• The high-stakes meeting in Istanbul came with Russia`s invasion of Ukraine showing no signs of abating and the sides locked in a furious long-range shooting battle that is destroying towns and leaving people with nothing.
• Ukrainian officials said at least five people were killed in Russian shelling on the region surrounding the Black Sea port city of Mykolaiv

9. Biden greeted as `old friend` in Israel at start of ME tour

• US President Joe Biden arrived on Wednesday in Israel, which embraced him as an old friend on the first leg of a high-stakes trip dominated by efforts to bring it closer to Saudi Arabia and to persuade Washington`s Gulf allies to pump more oil.
• Landing at Ben Gurion Airport, whose tarmac he first trod in 1973 as a senator, Biden bumped fists with Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and President Isaac Herzog and, in a speech, described the connection between the two nations as `bone-deep`.
• `You do not need to be a Jew to be a Zionist,` Biden added, voicing support for the ideology behind Israel`s foundation on lands with ancient Jewish roots, and which is deeply resented by many Palestinians.
• Biden also reiterated US desire for negotiations, stalled since 2014, to create a Palestinian state on Israeli-occupied territory, calling this two state solution `the best hope` for both peoples

10. Rishi Sunak leads in first round of UK leadership contest

• Rishi Sunak, who was Chancellor of the Exchequer under Boris Johnson, led the field of Conservative lawmakers bidding to become Britain`s next prime minister in the first ballot of Tory lawmakers on July 13, 2022, as the race narrowed to six with the elimination of two candidates.
• Early frontrunner Sunak, who quit as finance minister last week to help trigger outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson`s downfall, topped the contest with 88 votes, followed by former defence minister Penny Mordaunt, on 67.
• Foreign Secretary Liz Truss finished third with 50 Conservative lawmakers` support.