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July 22, 2019
1. Four cops among eight killed in D.I. Khan gun, bomb attacks
• A suicide bomber targeted a government-run hospital here on Sunday, killing six people, two of them policemen, and wounding 28 others, shortly after a gun attack on a police check-post left two policemen dead.
• The bodies of the two policemen killed in the check-post attack were shifted to the Trauma Centre of the District Headquarters Hospital where the suicide bomber detonated explosives strapped to his body. At that time, colleagues and relatives of the slain constables had gathered there.
• Officials said that the suicide bomber clad in a black `shuttlecock` burqa was sitting near the entrance of the Trauma Centre.
• They said that the explosion took place when the bodies of the two policemen were being shifted inside the centre.District police chief Salim Riaz told the media that two policemen and four civilians, including a minor girl, were killed in the suicide bombing.
2. Solar tube wells launched in Quetta
• Deputy Speaker National Assembly Qasim Khan Suri and Deputy Chief of Mission at Chinese Embassy Lijian Zhao inaugurated solar tube wells here on July 21, 2019.
• Chinese engineers installed solar panels on five tube wells, said Mr Suri. He had requested the Chinese diplomat to install solar panels on tube wells because people in the province were facing difficulties due to water shortage, he said.
• `China is committed to providing maximum possible assistance to Balochistan for its development projects,` said the Chinese diplomat on the occasion.
3. Pakistan’s exports to increase to $36 billion in 5 years: IMF
• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected that Pakistan’s exports will increase to US $ 36.7 billion in five years by the year 2023-24.
• The pressure of current account deficit on the country will also ease out gradually from its peak US $ 19.9 billion in 2017-18 to as low as $6.95 billion in current fiscal year while US $ 5.49 billion in 2020-21, the IMF said in its recently published staff report on Pakistan.
• The trade deficit would also decline to US $ 24.9 billion in current fiscal year from US $ 29.46 billion in 2018-19, however it will further go up to US $ 26.8 billion mainly on the back of growing import needs in coming years.
• Meanwhile the report also estimated that due to policy measures committed by the Pakistan authorities, the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) is likely to collect around Rs 5.5 trillion during current fiscal year which would increase to Rs7.001 trillion in next year while in 2021-2022 the revenues would reach Rs8.3 trillion and Rs9.48 billion in the subsequent year.
4. SBP allows banks to deal in foreign currency with public
• The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has allowed banks, all of their branches, to deal in foreign currencies with public across the country.
• The central bank in a circular amended chapter of Foreign Exchange Manual providing details about the currency business while assigning the role of exchange companies to banks. The banks were earlier, not allowed to sell or buy foreign currencies directly from public except for those having their own exchange companies.
• Though the bank did not explain the future role of exchange companies but they feel threatened with the latest decision. The SBP said that all incoming persons whether Pakistani or foreign national can bring with them without any limit foreign currencies and other instruments against the submission of a declaration to the customs authorities on amount exceeding $10,000 or equivalent.
5. PM lobbies for US investment in Pakistan
• Prime Minister Imran Khan, now in Washington on a three-day official working visit, spent his first day in the US capital, encouraging Pakistani, American and international business leaders to invest in Pakistan.
• Although a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on July 22, 2019 is the most important event of this visit, the prime minister seems equally focused on the efforts to jumpstart the country`s ailing economy.
• On July 21, 2019 afternoon, he met the World Bank`s new president David Malpass and the acting Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), David Lipton. The World Bank group has assumed a pivotal role in Islamabad`s revival efforts since Pakistan signed a bailout package with the IMF in May.
July 22, 2019: International Current Affairs
6. Bank of England notes its 325 years with trip back in time
• Some of the earliest surviving banknotes and a Cold War nuclear radiation calculator are among 325 historic objects unearthed by the Bank of England to celebrate its 325th anniversary.
• Britain`s central bank is the second oldest in the world after that of Sweden, and its trip back through time means returning to the days when its banknotes were written by hand. Among the exhibits are a 40 note dating from 1702 a huge sum at the time, worth more than 9,000 ($11,000, 10,000 euros) nowadays.
• There is also a forged banknote, which first appeared in 1858 when a customer tried to exchange it for gold.
• It was stamped as counterfeit and handed back, but then reappeared in 1898 afterbeing presented again, with someone having painstakingly managed to erase the stamp.
7. Teen climate activist gets Normandy`s first Freedom Prize
• Greta Thunberg, the Swedish teenage activist whose Friday school strikes protesting government inaction over climate change helped sparked a worldwide movement, received the Freedom Prize in France on July 21, 2019.
• Flanked by two WWll veterans who sponsor the prize, she accepted the award at a ceremony in the nonhwestern city of Caen, Normandy.
• The prize was awarded before an audience of several hundred people and in the presence of several WWll veterans, including France`s Leon Gautier and US native American Charles Norman Shay. Both are sponsors of the prize.
8. Ukraine`s president gets mandate to reboot political order
• Ukrainians gave their comedian-turned-president Volodymyr Zelensky a mandate to reboot the country`s politics on July 21, 2019 by handing his party a record score in parliamentary elections, exit polls showed.
• Zelensky`s Servant of the People party named after the sitcom he starred in before his shock presidential win in April took 43.9 percent of the vote in Sunday`s election, according to combined figures from three pollsters.
• It was the highest score in a parliamentary election for any party since Ukraine gained its independence with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
• The pro-Moscow Opposition Platform-For Life came second with 11.5 percent, the polls said.
9. Uninhabited Scottish island goes on sale for $1.4m
• An inhabited island in Scotland has emerged for sale for just £1.4million – the same price as a terraced house in London.
• Inchmarnock, at the northern end of the Sound of Bute in the Firth of Clyde, is the prefect location for anyone looking to escape from it all.
• In its farming heyday the 660 acre island, a ten-minute ferry ride from the seaside town of Rothesay – had a population of 41. But its last permanent resident, a farmer, left there in 1986. Since 1999 the isle has been owned by a couple who have used the main property there as a holiday home.
July 22, 2019: Sports Current Affairs
10. Li Na first Asian-born player in Tennis Hall of Fame
• Li Na has broken new ground at the International Tennis Hall of Fame.
• The 37-year-old former Chinese star on July 21, 2019 became the first Asian-born player to be inducted.
• She was enshrined along with Mary Pierce of France and Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov during a lengthy oncourt ceremony that followed the Hall of Fame Open semi-finals and stretched from sunset into nighttime, forcing grounds` crew members to scramble and bring in smaller spotlights.
• Li became the first Asian to win a Grand Slam tournament, capturing the 2011 French Open in a final that was watched by an estimated 116 million people in her country.
• She also captured the 2014 Australian Open after being runner-up twice.
