5 THINGS FIRST All-women bench to hold court in SC; NIA court likely to frame charges in Malegaon blast case; US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Pakistan; Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg, Twitter's Jack Dorsey to face questions from US Congressabout Russia and censorship; Teachers Day 1. A 'noisy' judge will be the next chief justice of India Justice Ranjan Gogoi is set to be the country's next chief justice after Chief Justice Dipak Misra officially recommended to the President to appoint him as the next CJI. It is a convention that an outgoing CJI recommends the name of his successor a month prior to retirement. CJI Misra's letter ended speculation whether he would deviate from 'most senior SC judge succeeding the CJI' tradition by succumbing to anguish and hurt caused by Justice Gogoi's participation in an unprecedented press conference by four most senior SC Judges on January 12 to question the CJI's administrative functioning. In a speech days after the press conference, Justice Gogoi had said, to defend democracy, we need "not only independent judges and noisy journalists, but even independent journalists and sometimes noisy judges". Son of Keshab Chandra Gogoi, a former Assam chief minister under the Congress regime, Justice Gogoi will be the first from Assam and the north-east to hold the highest position in the judiciary. He will take over on October 3 and have a tenure of 13 months till November 17, 2019. Read the full story here 2. Why soldiers' use of smartphones is not an open & shut case Indian Army Chief General Bipin Rawat on Tuesday said soldiers could not be denied access to the social media and should be allowed to use smartphones within a line of "controlled discipline". His argument:  He says, despite the "psychological warfare" against soldiers, the army should leverage social media to its advantage. Also, soldiers need smartphones to stay connected with their family. But here's why he may be wrong The threat posed by smartphone isn't limited to "psychological warfare" (read criticism) — enemy forces could track them and gain crucial intelligence. Hackers can use the GPS signal on smartphones to track the location of the soldiers, and with reasonable judgement, identify residential camps and stations — if a phone is moving from Point A to Point B every morning and back in the evening, A could be a residence or camp and B a training base or station. Chinese security agencies are thought to possess among the most advanced cyber-spying techniques and are responsible for numerous attacks in the US, Europe and Russia. Worse, the popularity of social media and fitness apps mean hacking would not be even necessary. A fitness app, Strava, had given away secretive locations of US army bases in Iraq, prompting Pentagon to initiate a review. (The same happened with Dutch soldiers) FYI: Google and many phone makers have their own fitness apps that are often pre-installed. Does the army chief know what apps and what phones his soldiers use? And what China is up to? 3. What's wrong with India's bridges? A flyover: A portion of a bridge in south Kolkata collapsedTuesday evening, snuffing out one life, trapping several people and crushing many vehicles. The bridge is over 40 years old. Bridge after bridge: This is the second major bridge collapse this year after Varanasi in which 18 died and the fifth big one in the last two years. In 2016, an under-construction flyover had collapsed on Vivekananda Road in Kolkata killing 27 people. In the same year, 22 people died when a British-era bridge on Mumbai-Goa highway collapsed. Health of bridges: A government survey of 1.62 lakh bridges released in 2017 found 23 on national highways were over 100 years old, 147 required immediate attention and 6,000 were structurally distressed. The problem: Bridges have a shelf life and require regular monitoring, audit and maintenance. That's not been as high on priority as the tenders for new bridges. 4. Airfare cheaper than auto rickshaw ride. Big deal! Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha reminded everyone again (at least the third time in just over a year. Reminders 1 & 2) that you pay less for air tickets per kilometre than for an auto rickshaw ride in the city today. "You will ask how is that possible? When two people take an auto-rickshaw they pay a fare of Rs 10 which means they're charged Rs 5 per kilometre but when you go by air you are charged Rs 4 per kilometre." He obviously credited 'Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership' for the 'maximum development' but the magic is also happening at places where that leadership is not available. The reason: market forces. So, which is the cheapest airline? A global flight pricing report for 2018 ranks airlines based on price by distance travelled. The results: The average cost of flights, however, hides the airfare spikes when most people want to travel — vacations, holidays, public emergencies etc — and for which you can blame the greedy market. Meanwhile, India's airlines are expected to post combined losses of up to $1.9 billion this financial year driven by rising costs and low airfares. Read more here NEWS IN CLUES 5. Which is the fifth-most spoken language in the world? Clue 1: Its letters are illusion-free — the mirror image of a letter will never give you another letter. Clue 2: The standard alphabet has 33 consonants and 11 vowels. In popular and traditional teachings, three extra consonants are used. Clue 3: It's also free from the usage of articles. Unlike English, there are no equivalents for 'a', 'an' & 'the'. Scroll below for answer 6. F-16s to fly on Indian wings Maryland, USA-based security and aerospace giant Lockheed Martin announced on Tuesday that all future wings of the iconic F16 will be built in India by...wait for it...Tata Advanced Systems (TASL). We're talking of F16s for the global market, outside of the US. While manufacturing is scheduled to begin in Hyderabad from late 2020, Lockheed has also offered to move its entire F-16 manufacturing base for global markets to India. FYI: F16s are Pakistan's military mainstay as well, although the US has stopped supplying F16 jets to the country. Last year, Lockheed Martin and TASL had announced their intent to join hands to produce the F-16 Block 70 in India if the aircraft was selected by the Indian Air Force (IAF). (Lockheed is bidding for a contract, estimated at more than $15 billion, to supply the IAF with 114 combat aircraft). But the latest move is more down to their previous, successful collaboration on the C-130J (Super Hercules airlifter) and S-92 (helicopter). Lockheed says the TASL deal won't affect the US market. The US armed forces, including the air force, continue to use F16s jets. It’s lift-off for Prime Minister Modi’s flagship ‘Make In India’ programme! X-PLAINED 7. What made Haqqani the most-feared terrorist Why: The Taliban announced the death of Jalaluddin Haqqani, whose militant group, the Haqqani network, is considered one of the most dangerous factions fighting Afghan and US-led NATO forces in Afghanistan. They are known for their heavy use of suicide bombers. What: The Haqqani network was founded by Jalaluddin, an Afghan mujahideen commander who fought the Soviet occupation in the 1980s with the help of the US and Pakistan. He was once hailed as a freedom fighter by US President Ronald Reagan, and a US Congressman (Charlie Wilson) called him 'goodness personified'. Then: Jalaluddin joined the Taliban when they overran Kabul in September 1996. He soon abandoned the mujahideen government and returned to Khost region of Afghanistan where he maintained close contact with militants, including bin Laden. In 2012, the US declared the Haqqani network a terrorist organisation. Now: The network is led by Jalaluddin's son Sirajuddin, who is also deputy head of the Taliban. Jalaluddin's death is unlikely to have much strategic impact on the network's operations. India angle: The Haqqanis have close links with Pakistan's ISI as well as Pakistani militant groups, many of whom were being groomed by the ISI to fight India in Kashmir. They have frequently been accused of targeting Indian installations in Afghanistan. 8. Nike decides to just do it, goes public against Trump What: Going against Trump, or even perceived to be doing so, can be harmful to business — think, Harley Davidson. Yet Nike is taking the leap. How: Actually, the fight is between Trump and a former NFL player, Colin Kaepernick, whose protest last season by kneeling during the national anthem ahead of games spawned a debate on race and inequality — and attracted Trump's ire. Kaepernick is currently unemployed — he accuses the NFL teams of succumbing to Trump and not drafting him in the squad this season, and is fighting a case against NFL. (Trump had urged the club owners to drop players who "disrespect the flag".) Now, as the case is accepted in a court and the new NFL season is set to begin this week, Nike has launched a campaign with Kaepernick as the face, and has revealed that it has been paying him all throughout the scandal. Its message is unambiguous: Against Trump. Nike's gamble could be good business, too. For one, it has been praised by other top athletes sponsored by it, such as Serena Williams. Also, it helps differentiate itself from the two US sportswear brands that are considered pro-Trump: New Balance (its owner is a Trump donor) and Under Armour (its founder-CEO endorses the America first policy). A social media campaign for a boycott of Nike products caused its stock to fall by more than 2%. 9. Starting tomorrow, a new football World Cup What: Europe's club football takes a few breaks in between seasons so that international teams can play against each other in friendlies — or at least used it. Beginning this year, the "meaningless friendlies" will be replaced by a competition, at least for the European nations. When: The Nations League begins September 6, with Kazakhstan facing Georgia in the first match. (Kazakhstan, a Central Asian nation, has long been a Uefa member). But it's not all oddball matches, newly-crowned France takes on dethroned kings Germany a day later in Munich. What's at stake: For Uefa, money. The previous international friendlies attracted few eyeballs outside the host cities, and thus few sponsors. A new 'mini World Cup' with 55 nations — after all, there has not been a non-European World champion since 2002 — could fix that. For the teams: They are divided into various leagues based on historic strength, with each league having its own promotion and relegation (like club football). In the end, there would be a finals in June 2019 — and a chance to win a new shiny trophy. But there's already Euro... Yes, Euro is Uefa's top international tournament, held every four years (Portugal are the current champions). But income every year is better than income every four years, so... Nations League. To justify it all, the suited men in Uefa devised a complicated system, wherein four nations from the Nations League can qualify directly to the Euro 2020 — without the need to do so through the Euro qualifiers (yes, there is that too). New game in town: Football administration — it’s tougher than chess, demands smart accounting and suspension of sporting logic. 10. This experiment may take us to space without rocket one day Ever since the first liquid-fuelled rocket was fired in 1926 (it was a failed experiment), they remain our main mode of transport to space. Will we ever find a better, less risky and more cost-effective option? One option is a space elevator. The problem is, it's still in the realm of science fiction. A Japanese team working on a space elevator concept will conduct the first trial this month, blasting off a miniature version on satellites to test the technology. If all goes well, it will provide proof of concept by moving a miniature elevator stand-in (a 6 cm x 3 cm x 3 cm box) along a 10-metre cable suspended in space between two mini-satellites that will keep it taut. It will be the world's first experiment to test elevator movement in space. The idea was first proposed in 1895 by Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and was revisited nearly a century later in a novel by Arthur C. Clarke. But technical barriers have always kept plans stuck at the conceptual stage. Read the full story here PLUS A true story that may sound like cock and bull Karnataka's animal husbandry department has launched a pilot project that promises to limit the birth of male calves, so that farmers only get female calves that grow onto become milk producers. This is no cock and bull story. The department is distributing carefully curated frozen semen to the milk producers union that, it says, guarantees 80% chance of a female calf. The gender selection against male calves is not restricted to Karnataka — in 2017, the Central government asked 10 animal husbandry centres to establish sexed semen production that tackles the problem of "unwanted male calves". "Other countries get rid of unproductive male calves by culling them for meat. However, this is not an option in many states of India," a scientist was quoted as saying. It is a technique that has been popular with the dairy producers in the US; companies like Sexing Technology and Monsanto (of BT cotton fame) offer the technology. The science: Sexed semen is acquired by sorting natural semen based on the X chromosomes (which determines female) and Y chromosomes (male) in them. The method works as dairy farmers in India are turning to artificial insemination as against natural breeding of their livestock. A study published in 2016 says 62% dairy farmers in Punjab have fully adopted artificial insemination, in comparison to 24% in Haryana and 3% in UP. YOU SHARE YOUR B'DAY WITH... Source: Various Follow news that matters to you in real-time. Join 3 crore news enthusiasts. GET APP Answer To NEWS IN CLUES Hindi. On Tuesday, Amazon.com launched a Hindi version of its mobile website and app for Android smartphones in a bid to make deeper inroads into India's e-commerce market. Other players such as Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm Mall do not have a local language version of their app or website, and Amazon's latest move could give it access to millions of customers in India's small towns and villages.