1. World`s Most Powerful Supercomputer `Summit` Unveiled By US.

US scientists have unveiled the world’s most powerful and smartest scientific supercomputer that can complete over 2,00,000 trillion calculations per second — providing unprecedented computing power for research in energy, advanced materials and artificial intelligence (AI).

The US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) supercomputer called Summit will be eight times more powerful than its previous top-ranked system, Titan. For certain scientific applications, Summit will also be capable of more than 3 billion billion mixed precision calculations a second.

The IBM AC922 system consists of 4,608 compute servers, each containing two 22-core IBM Power9 processors and six NVIDIA Tesla V100 graphics processing unit accelerators, interconnected with dual-rail Mellanox EDR 100 Gb/s InfiniBand.

Summit also possesses over 10 petabytes of memory paired with fast, high-bandwidth pathways for data movement. The combination of cutting-edge hardware and robust data subsystems marks an evolution of the hybrid CPU-GPU architecture successfully pioneered by Titan in 2012.

2. World Refugee Day: 20 June.

Today, more than 68 million people around the world are refugees or internally displaced as a result of conflict or persecution. That is equivalent to the population of the world’s 20th largest country.Last year, someone was displaced every two seconds. Mostly, in poorer countries.On World Refugee Day, we must all think about what more we can we do to help. The answer begins with unity and solidarity.

I am deeply concerned to see more and more situations where refugees are not receiving the protection they need and to which they are entitled.We need to re-establish the integrity of the international refugee protection regime. In today’s world, no community or country providing safe refuge to people fleeing war or persecution should be alone and unsupported. We stand together, or we fail.

This year, a Global Compact on Refugees will be presented to the UN General Assembly. It offers a way forward and recognizes the contributions that refugees make to the societies hosting them.As long as there are wars and persecution, there will be refugees. On World Refugee Day, I ask you to remember them.Their story is one of resilience, perseverance and courage. Ours must be of solidarity, compassion and action.

3. US Withdraws From UN Human Rights Council.

US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced the United States is withdrawing from the UN Human Rights Council Tuesday, accusing the body of bias against US ally Israel and a failure to hold human rights abusers accountable.

The move, which the Trump administration has threatened for months, came down one day after the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights slammed the separation of children from their parents at the US-Mexico border as "unconscionable."

Speaking from the State Department, where she was joined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Haley defended the move to withdraw from the council, saying US calls for reform were not heeded.

"Human rights abusers continue to serve on, and be elected to, the council," said Haley, listing US grievances with the body. "The world`s most inhumane regimes continue to escape its scrutiny, and the council continues politicizing scapegoating of countries with positive human rights records in an attempt to distract from the abusers in its ranks."

4. President 3-Nation Visit: Arrived In Cuba On Final Leg.

President Ram Nath Kovind has arrived in Cuba today after the visit to Greece and Suriname. He is on the final leg of his three-nation tour. He reached capital Havana after first arriving in the Cuban city of Santiago. 

Prez Kovind was received in Santiago by Vice President of Cuba, Ms. Beatriz Johnson. The President was escorted first to the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery where he witnessed Change of Guards ceremony. He then paid respects to Jose Marti Memorial.

Jose Marti was Cuba`s legendary poet who led the 1895 Cuban revolution. President Kovind also paid respects at the memorials of Fidel Castro and others.

President Ram Nath Kovind tweeted on his arrival, “Honoured to begin my state visit to Cuba by paying homage to Fidel Castro in Santiago de Cuba. A great friend of India, who lent dignity & strength to the voice of developing countries in the international arena. His leadership shall continue to inspire millions.”

5. SIPRI Yearbook 2018 Released, Number Of Peacekeepers Declined.

At the start of 2018 nine states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea)—possessed approximately 14 465 nuclear weapons. This marked a decrease from the approximately 14 935 nuclear weapons that SIPRI estimated these states possessed at the beginning of 2017.

The decrease in the overall number of nuclear weapons in the world is due mainly to Russia and the USA—which together still account for nearly 92 per cent of all nuclear weapons—further reducing their strategic nuclear forces pursuant to the implementation of the 2010 Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START).

Despite making limited reductions to their nuclear forces, both Russia and the USA have long-term programmes under way to replace and modernize their nuclear warheads, missile and aircraft delivery systems, and nuclear weapon production facilities. The USA’s most recent Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), published in February 2018, reaffirmed the modernization programmes and approved the development of new nuclear weapons. The NPR also emphasized expanding nuclear options to deter and, if necessary, defeat both nuclear and ‘non-nuclear strategic attacks’.