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- Britain’s Home Secretary Amber Rudd on 30April resigned after admitting that she had “inadvertently misled” Parliament over the existence of deportation targets for immigrants, in a major blow to Prime Minister Theresa May.
- The Home Affairs Select Committee questioned Rudd last week over quotas for removal of the Windrush generation, the first large group of Caribbean migrants to arrive in the UK after World War II.
- Rudd, 54, had been under increasing pressure to quit over the scandal involving Caribbean immigrants who were brought to the UK from the so-called “Windrush generation” from the 1940s.
- She had faced criticism over the existence of UK Home Office deportation targets and her knowledge of them.
- Rudd telephoned May to tell her of her decision, but in a letter that officially marked it she wrote: “It is with great regret that I am resigning as home secretary.
- “I feel it is necessary to do so because I inadvertently misled the Home Affairs Select Committee over targets for removal of illegal immigrants during their questions on Windrush.” May said she understood why Rudd was stepping down and confirmed she had read her letter, adding: “I was very sorry to receive it.”“The Prime Minister has accepted the resignation of the Home Secretary,” a Downing Street spokesperson said.
- Rudd had been under pressure to explain apparent discrepancies between her evidence to the Parliament’s Home Affairs Select Committee last week denying any knowledge of deportation targets for illegal migrants in the UK Home Office headed by her and a memo leaked to the media that linked her to such targets.
- The furore has grown since The Guardian reported that some people who came to the UK from the Caribbean in the decades after World War II had recently been refused medical care in Britain or threatened with deportation because they could not produce paperwork proving their right to reside in the country.
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- India and Nepal have agreed to review bilateral trade treaty. The decision was taken at the meeting of India-Nepal Inter Government Committee (IGC) on Trade, Transit and Cooperation to Control Unauthorised Trade, held in Kathmandu last week.
- Both countries agreed to initiate a comprehensive review of bilateral trade treaty by July 2018. The treaty which governs bilateral trade was last revised in 2009.
- The two sides also discussed amendments to the bilateral Treaty of Transit signed in 1999 to further facilitate transit movement of Nepal’s trade with third countries.
- Since most of the bilateral trade takes place through land customs stations across the border between India and Nepal, the two countries also agreed on synchronising development of border trade infrastructure to ensure timely utilisation of the investment in border infrastructure.
- In order to enhance the volume of trade both sides also emphasised the need for harmonisation of standards and expediting progress on MoUs between concerned agencies including BIS and FSSAI from the Indian side.
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- Rafael Nadal won his 11th Barcelona title on 29 April when he breezed past Greek teenager Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-1 in the final.
- It was world number one Nadal’s 55th career clay-court title while he also extended his winning streak on the surface to 46 consecutive sets. The 31-year-old Spaniard won his 11th Monte Carlo Masters last weekend also without dropping a set.
- This victory reinforced his status as the overwhelming favourite to lift the French Open for an 11th time in June. Nadal now has 77 titles overall while his career clay-court match record stands at 401 wins against just 35 defeats.
- His win was greeted by ticker-tape and a video review of all his titles on the centre court in Barcelona which now bears his name. “It’s really emotional to see that video. I never dreamed of having a career like this,” said the 16-time Grand Slam title winner.
- “Last year, they made a video of my 10 titles here. Now they have had to make another video for 11 it makes me feel like I am ageing. “Thanks to everyone for making the tournament so special and thanks to my family who have been with me even when things have not been so smooth.” Tsitsipas, 19 years old and ranked 63, was the first Greek man to make an ATP final since Nicholas Kalogeropoulos in Des Moines back in 1973.
- He was also the youngest Barcelona finalist since Nadal in 2005. “Stefanos, you had an incredible week. You have a great future and I wish you great success,” added Nadal of an opponent who will become just the second teenager in the world top 50 next week after Canada’s Denis Shapovalov.
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- Horses can read and remember emotional expressions of humans, enabling the animals to use this information to identify people who could pose a potential threat.
- Researchers at University of Sussex in the UK conducted controlled experiments in which domestic horses were presented with a photograph of an angry or happy human face and several hours later saw the actual person who had exhibited the expression, now in an emotionally neutral state.
- This short-term exposure to the photograph of a person's facial expression was enough to generate clear differences in subsequent responses upon meeting that individual in the flesh later the same day.
- The study, published in the journal Current Biology, found that despite the humans being in a neutral state during the live meeting, the horses' gaze direction revealed that they perceived the person more negatively if they had previously seen them looking angry in the photograph rather than happy.
- Previous research has shown that animals tend to view negative events with their left eye due to the right brain hemisphere's specialisation for processing threatening stimuli.
- Importantly, in the current experiment the humans did not know which photographs the horses had previously seen, to avoid any risk of behaving differently themselves. Also the differences in reaction only applied to the person the horses had actually seen in the photograph and were not given to a different person.
- "What we've found is that horses can not only read human facial expressions but they can also remember a person's previous emotional state when they meet them later that day and, crucially, that they adapt their behaviour accordingly. Essentially horses have a memory for emotion," said Karen McComb from University of Sussex.
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- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) images of the past ten days show large parts of India are dotted with fires, stretching across Uttar Pradesh (UP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and even some southern states.
- In sweltering summer, these fires are intensifying heat and causing black carbon (a component of soot with high global warming effect) pollution.
- Some of these dots may be forest fires but Hiren Jethva, research scientist at Nasa Goddard Space Flight Center, says fires in central India may be mostly crop fires as forest fires are usually uncontrolled and, therefore, produce more smoke and haze.
- Agricultural scientists are linking the massive rise in the incidence of crop fires in recent years to the dependence of farmers on combine harvesters, which leave a short stubble behind. The practice of crop stubble burning is not limited to the northern states of Haryana and Punjab, where the problem is rampant.
- While burning of paddy stubble has been a common practice among farmers since it is unsuitable as fodder, increasing incidence of wheat stubble burning is a relatively new trend. States with crop fires seen in Nasa maps have a dominant rice-wheat cropping system.
- There are two choices of harvesting for farmers manual or by combine harvester. But with acute shortage of labour, combine harvesters are turning out to be the quickest and cheapest mode of harvesting and preparing the soil for paddy.
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- Britain's Theresa May appointed Sajid Javid as her new interior minister on 30 April, elevating the former banker to try to draw a line under an immigration scandal that has threatened the prime minister's authority.
- Known for his passion for detail when he was business minister, Javid, who backed staying in the European Union, will take over Britain's Home Office at a time it is under scrutiny for using targets for the deportation of illegal migrants.
- He may also change the balance adopted by May's team in negotiating Britain's departure from the EU. A lukewarm campaigner to stay in the bloc, he said the referendum result in 2016 meant that "in some ways, we're all Brexiteers now".
- "The Queen has been pleased to approve the appointment of the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP as Secretary of State for the Home Department," May's office said in a statement.
- His predecessor, Amber Rudd, was forced to resign after she admitted in a letter to May that she had "inadvertently misled" a parliamentary committee last Wednesday by denying the government had targets for the deportation of illegal migrants.
- May accepted her resignation, a blow to the prime minister as Rudd was one of her closest allies. It was also a blow to those lawmakers in the governing Conservative Party who want to retain the closest possible ties with the EU after Brexit.
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- A Danish man was jailed for a week in Malaysia 30April after pleading guilty to breaking a law against "fake news", the first person to be punished under the controversial legislation.
- The law, passed in early April, makes the deliberate dissemination of false information punishable by up to six years in jail and a hefty fine. It has sparked outrage from rights groups who believe it is aimed at cracking down on dissent.
- Salah Salem Saleh Sulaiman, a 46-year-old of Yemeni descent, admitted making and posting on YouTube a video accusing emergency services of responding slowly after a Palestinian Hamas member was gunned down in Kuala Lumpur.
- Fadi al-Batsh, said to be a rocket-making expert, was on his way to dawn prayers on April 21 when he was assassinated by motorbike-riding gunmen, a killing his family have blamed on Israel's spy agency. The Jewish state has denied it was behind the murder.
- The Dane, who did not have a lawyer and was wearing white robes and a green skullcap during a court appearance in Kuala Lumpur, said he was not aware of Malaysia's laws.
- "I agree I did a mistake, because I didn't ask what is the law of this country," he said, speaking in English, his hands trembling.
- A clip of the video played in court, which lasted almost two minutes, showed him speaking in Arabic and complaining about what he claimed was the slow response of the police and ambulance service after the shooting.
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- The Maharashtra government will set up an education board for the non-English medium schools in the state, Education Minister Vinod Tawde said 30April.
- "The government has decided to form the Maharashtra International Education Board (MIEB) to prepare the syllabus for the non-English medium schools. It will compete with the existing boards such as CBSE and ICSE," Tawde told reporters here.
- In the first phase, 13 selected Marathi schools will function according to the new syllabus of international standard, he said, adding that every district would soon have least one school affiliated to the international board.
- The MIEB will be an autonomous body which will decide the curriculum for its schools and conduct examinations, Tawde said.
- The MIEB will be the second board in the state after the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education.
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- Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has appointed senior IAS officer D K Jain as the Chief Secretary of Maharashtra.
- Jain takes over from Sumit Mullick, who retires 30April. Jain, a 1983 batch officer was currently the Additional Chief Secretary of the Finance department and has been credited with streamlining the finance of the state and also controlling the ballooning debt of the state.
- The handing over ceremony will take place in Mantralaya between 4-5 PM. Sources said that Mullick will be made the Chief Information Commissioner.
- Jain has been made the CS of state bypassing four senior bureaucrat who were claimant of the post according to seniority.
- Medha Gadgil, ACS (Relief and Rehabilitation), Sudhir Shrivastava, ACS (Home), Sunil Porwal, ACS (Industries), and UPS Madan, Additional chief secretary and Metropolitan commissioner.
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- Barcelona claimed their 25th La Liga title on 29April as a Lionel Messi hat-trick secured a thrilling 4-2 victory at Deportivo La Coruna that wrapped up the league with four matches to spare.
- Ernesto Valverde's men completed a league and cup double after thrashing Sevilla 5-0 in last week's Copa del Rey final, regaining the Spanish crown from Real Madrid and relegating Deportivo in the process.
- The only blip on the Catalans' season was the stunning Champions League quarter-final loss at Roma when they blew a 4-1 first-leg lead.
- "We have managed an almost perfect league campaign, without losing so far. I hope we can continue," midfielder Sergio Busquets told Spanish broadcaster Movistar.
- "This season was very good, almost excellent. The Champions League is a regret but we managed a double, it's fantastic."
- Barca knew they just had to extend their record unbeaten streak to 41 La Liga matches to seal a seventh title in 10 seasons, and Philippe Coutinho fired them into an early lead.
- Messi's 38th-minute volley made it two, but Lucas Perez pulled one back for Deportivo before half-time and Turkish winger Emre Colak stunned Barca with an equaliser midway through the second period.
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- Saudi King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attended the ground-breaking ceremony on 28 April of a vast entertainment resort that is at the heart of an ambitious strategy to open the economy and ease social restrictions.
- Qiddiya, about an hour's drive from Riyadh, is being built on a 334 sq km (8,400-acre) site, making it 2-1/2 times the size of Disney World.
- It will include a Six Flags theme park, water parks, motor sports, cultural events, and vacation homes. A spokesman said Qiddiya expects to attract 1.5 million visitors annually when the first phase opens in 2022.
- Local media have reported the cost of the infrastructure alone would reach up to 30 billion riyals ($8 billion) and the project would eventually be worth tens of billions of riyals.
- Little more than a week after Saudi Arabia opened its first cinema after a nearly four-decade ban, the author of the reforms, Prince Mohammed, and his father attended the lavish launch ceremony, which featured a live orchestra, fireworks and a vocal performance praising both leaders.
- "on 30April we invite investors, creators, and operators from around the world to explore what a one-of-a-kind project like Qiddiya has to offer," CEO Michael Reininger told government officials, foreign dignitaries and businessmen gathered in a temporary open-air auditorium.
- "We will seek the best to help us, as we invent a new entertainment experience for all residents and visitors to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia."
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- Britain and the United States launched a $25 million project on 30April to study the risks of a collapse of a giant glacier in Antarctica that is already shrinking and nudging up global sea levels.
- The five-year research, involving 100 scientists, would be the two nations' biggest joint scientific project in Antarctica since the 1940s. Ice is thawing from Greenland to Antarctica and man-made global warming is accelerating the trend.
- The scientists would study the Thwaites Glacier, which is roughly the size of Florida or Britain, in West Antarctica, the UK Natural Environment Research Council and US National Science Foundation said in a joint statement.
- "Rising sea levels are a globally important issue which cannot be tackled by one country alone," UK science minister Sam Gyimah said. Thwaites and the nearby Pine Island Glacier are two of the biggest and fastest-retreating glaciers in Antarctica.
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- NASA’s first-ever mission to study the deep interior of Mars is on schedule to launch this week, the US space agency said.
- The Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) is the first planetary mission to take off from the West Coast of US. Most of US’ interplanetary missions take off from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, located on the East Coast of the country.
- Launching on the same rocket is a separate NASA technology experiment known as Mars Cube One (MarCO). MarCO consists of two mini-spacecraft and will be the first test of CubeSat technology in deep space. They are designed to test new communications and navigation capabilities for future missions and may aid InSight communications.
- InSight is targeted to launch on May 5 at 7:05 am EDT (4:35 pm, Indian Standard Time) from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket. The lander will study the deep interior of Mars to learn how all rocky planets formed, including Earth and its Moon.
- Its instruments include a seismometer to detect marsquakes and a probe that will monitor the flow of heat in the planet’s subsurface.
- The United Launch Alliance two-stage Atlas V 401 launch vehicle will produce 3.8 million Newton of thrust as it climbs away from its launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base.
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- U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the United States and Saudi Arabia have reached consensus on the Iran nuclear deal and would push Iran harder on amending the deal
- The U.S. official said this at a joint press conference after his visit to Saudi Arabia on 29 April in Riyadh.
- Pompeo said the nuclear agreement failed to modify Iran's behavior and stressed that if Iran doesn't accept to amend the deal, the U.S. would unilaterally withdraw from it.
- He also reiterated the importance of Saudi Arabia's security and accused Iran of disturbing the security.
- "Saudi Arabia's security is a priority for the United States of America. We'll continue to work closely with our Saudi partners to counter threats to this country's security. That of course starts with Iran. Iran destabilizes this entire region. It supports proxy militias and terrorist groups," said Pompeo.
- Meanwhile, his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir blamed Iran of providing weapons to Yemen's Houthi, seriously affecting regional security. He said Saudi Arabia completely supports the U.S. attitude toward Iran with regard to the nuclear agreement, and called on the international community to impose more sanctions on Iran.
- "We think we need to enhance examinations on Iran's nuclear facilities. In order to resolve the Iran issue, we should increase sanctions on it for exporting ballistic missile in violation of the international resolutions, supporting terrorism in the region and inferring in the domestic affairs of regional countries," said Adel al-Jubeir.
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