After epic win, BJP may be on course to dominate Rajya Sabha

  • The BJP-led National Democratic alliance (NDA) is likely to dominate the Rajya Sabha by 2021, which will give the government a free hand to clear legislation.
  • The ruling coalition currently has 99 members in the 250-member Rajya Sabha and needs 124 for a majority. The opposition has 65.
  • A majority in the Rajya Sabha will be a huge win for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government as tricky bills like “triple talaq” and the Citizenship Act were blocked by the opposition in the Rajya Sabha. 

Trump expects Japan’s military to reinforce United States in Asia and beyond

  • U.S. President Donald Trump expects that Japan’s military will reinforce U.S. forces throughout Asia and elsewhere, he said on Tuesday, as the key U.S. ally upgrades the ability of its forces to operate further from its shores. 
  • Trump’s comments followed his inspection of Japan’s largest warship, the Kaga, a helicopter carrier designed to carry submarine-hunting helicopters to distant waters. 

4 Prison clashes in Brazil leave 55 dead: Official

  • At least 55 inmates were killed in clashes in four prisons in northern Brazil on Monday, authorities said, a day after violence in one of the jails left 15 people dead. 
  • At least 27 of the victims were in the Antonio Trindade Penal Institute near Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, where all four prisons are located. 

Veer Savarkar Jayanti: Facts, quotes about the freedom fighter’s life

  • Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was a freedom fighter, politician, lawyer, writer, social reformer and formulator of the Hindutva philosophy.
  • Savarkar was born on May 28, 1883 in Bhagpur village near Nasik in Maharashtra. 
  • He was sentenced to 50 years and was sent to the Cellular Jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in 1911. He was released in 1921. 
  • The airport at Port Blair in Andaman and Nicobar’s capital was renamed Veer Savarkar International Airport in 2002.