News in Short

• The Lancet retracted an article that caused the WHO to suspend the hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) arm of its ongoing Covid-19 solidarity trial.
• The WHO Data Safety Committee found no evidence of HCQ-linked mortality in Covid positive patients, asking the world body to resume trials.
• The Lancet said they were unable to complete an independent audit of the data underpinning their analysis. As a result, they have concluded that they “can no longer vouch for the veracity of the primary data sources”.

• Joe Biden formally clinched the Democratic presidential nomination, setting him up for a marqueeclash with President Donald Trump.
• The former Vice President has effectively been his party’s leader since his last challenger in the Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders, ended his campaign in April.
• Mr. Biden spent 36 years in the Senate before becoming Barack Obama’s Vice President. This is 77-year-old Mr. Biden’s third bid for the presidency and his success in capturing the Democratic nomination was driven by strong support from black voters.

• Akshay Kumar is the only Indian celebrity to grab a spot on the list of Forbes 100 top paid celebrities. The actor is on the 52nd position with earnings of $48.5 million from June 2019 till May 2020.
• The list is topped by 22-year-old entrepreneur Kylie Jenner, who has earnings of $590 million.
• Other celebrities who feature in the list in the top-10 spots include Roger Federer, Christiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, actor and comedian Tyler Perry, footballer Neymar, television host Howard Stern and American basketball player LeBron James.
• Akshay Kumar was the fourth highest-paid actor in the world. He earned a staggering $65 million (around ? 466 crore) between June 1, 2018, and June 1, 2019.

• The Hubballi railway station will have the world’s longest platform within one year when the existing 550-metre long Platform No 1 will be extended to 1,400 metres.
• Platform No 1 of South Western Railway's Hubballi railway station which is an inspection carriage line, is being converted into a full platform of 1,400-metre length and 10-metre width. Presently, Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh has the longest platform in the world at 1,366 metres.
• The extension is being done as part of doubling between Hubballi and Bengaluru, which is underway since November 2019. The railway station will also get three more platforms at the end of the ongoing project.

• India’s foreign exchange reserves surged $3.43 billion to a fresh all-time high of $493.48 billion for the week ended May 29.
• The reserves, which are counted as a key strength as the country faces the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, had risen by $3 billion to an all-time high of $490.044 billion in the previous week.
• The foreign currency assets include the effect of appreciation or depreciation of non-US units like the euro, pound and yen held in the foreign exchange reserves.
• Total value of the gold reserves continued to decline and were at $32.682 billion, lower by $97 million as compared with the previous week.