General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - May 2015

May 2015

Apr 29, 2021

Russia: Ties with US Worse than During Cold War

Russia's top diplomat said on Wednesday that relations with the United States were even worse than during the Cold War times because of a lack of mutual respect.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Moscow stood ready to normalise the ties with Washington, but warned that the US should stop posturing like a "sovereign" rallying its allies against Russia and China. He warned: "If the US shuns a mutually respectful dialogue on the basis of a balance of interests, we will live in conditions of a Cold War or worse."
"During the Cold War, tensions were flying high and risky crisis situations often emerged, but there was also a mutual respect," Lavrov said. "It seems to me there is a deficit of it now." Earlier this month, the Biden administration slapped Russia with sanctions for interfering in the 2020 US presidential.

Apr 28, 2021

Lanka Cabinet Approves Proposal to Ban Face Coverings in Public Places

Sri Lanka's Cabinet approved a controversial proposal to ban all forms of face coverings in public places, citing a threat to national security.
The move came weeks after Minister of Public Security Sarath Weerasekara signed a note in March, seeking the approval of the Cabinet to ban burqas—outer garments that cover the body and face worn by some Muslim women.
The proposal now must be approved by Parliament to become a law.

Nigeria Wants US Military Base to Move to Africa

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari called on the US to move its Africom military headquarters to the continent from Germany.
He made the request during US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's online virtual visit to Africa, a substitute for an in-person visit that didn't happened because of coronavirus restrictions.
"Considering the growing security challenges in West and Central Africa, Gulf of Guinea, Lake Chad region and the Sahel, weighing heavily on Africa, it underscores the need for the United States to consider re-locating Africom headquarters... near the theatre of operation," President Buhari said.

Brexit: Tensions Overshadow EU Vote on UK Trade Deal

The European Parliament is expected to ratify the post-Brexit EU-UK trade deal - a key move to ensure that tariff-and quota-free trade continues.
The Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) has been operating provisionally since January. MEPs voted on Tuesday and a result is due on Wednesday.
Brexit tensions remain, including a French threat of "reprisals" against the UK over new fishing restrictions.
Northern Ireland trade is also a thorny issue.
Under a separate protocol, Northern Ireland remains de facto part of the EU's single market, so goods arriving there from Britain have to undergo EU checks. Since Brexit there has been some disruption to that trade.
The TCA covers EU-UK trade in goods, but not services. The UK economy is dominated by services - sectors such as banking, insurance, advertising and legal advice.

Apr 27, 2021

Chad's Interim Prime Minister Named

Chad's new ruling military council has named as interim Prime Minister the runner-up in this month's presidential election.
The appointment of Albert Pahimi Padacké follows last week's battlefield death of President Idriss Déby.
Mr. Padacké served as Prime Minister under Mr Déby until the post was abolished in 2018.
An opposition leader, Yacine Abderamane, has refused to accept Mr. Padacké's nomination saying the transitional military council has no right to make such an appointment.
Mr. Déby was killed the day after he won the presidential election.
He was fighting rebels who swept into Chad from their bases in Libya.

Tanzanian President Pardons 5,000 Prisoners

Tanzania's President Samia Suluhu Hassan has pardoned more than 5,000 prisoners to celebrate Union Day.
President Samia urged the released inmates to put into practice the lessons they learnt in prison and lead responsible lives when re-joining their communities.
Union Day marks the coming together of Tanganyika and Zanzibar to form the Republic of Tanzania on 26 of April 1964.
Pardoning prisoners on Union Day is an annual tradition.
Last year, the late President John Magufuli pardoned 3,973 prisoners in order to ease congestion in prisons.
About 35,000 prisoners are reported to be in the country's jails.

Russia Expels Ukrainian Envoy

Russia's foreign ministry said that it had expelled a Ukrainian diplomat in retaliation for Kyiv kicking out an employee of the Russian embassy earlier this month.
Russia and Ukraine expelled a diplomat each earlier this month after Moscow accused a Ukrainian consul in St. Petersburg of trying to obtain classified information.
Ukraine's foreign ministry called the decision "another provocation" and said that in the near future it would announce "on the basis of reciprocity" the expulsion of a Russian diplomat from country.

Apr 26, 2021

3 UN Peacekeepers 'Gravely Wounded' in a Rocket Attack in Mali

Three United Nations peacekeepers were seriously injured in a rocket attack on a military base in the north of the conflict-ridden Sahel state.
Olivier Salgado, the spokesman for the UN's MINUSMA mission in Mali, said the attack took place on a base in Tessalit -- in the north -- which houses Malian soldiers, UN peacekeepers and French troops.
Three peacekeepers were "gravely wounded" in the attack, he added.
A Tessalit tribal leader, who declined to be named, said that the camp had come under rocket fire, hitting the barracks of peacekeepers from Chad.
Mali has been battling a brutal jihadist insurgency since 2012, when Islamist fighters first emerged during a rebellion by ethnic Tuareg separatists in the north.
France intervened to crush the rebellion, but the jihadists scattered and regrouped, taking their campaign into central Mali in 2015 and then into neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

Japan's Ruling Party Loses Seats in Blow for PM Yoshihide Suga Before Election

Japanese opposition parties won all three by-elections for parliamentary seats in a blow for Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who must hold a general election within six months.
The by-elections held Sunday were the first of their kind for Suga since he became prime minister in September. Two of the races -- one on the northern island of Hokkaido and another in Hiroshima -- were to replace ruling Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers who stepped down over graft charges. The LDP didn't field a candidate in the Hokkaido election.
The opposition also won a third election in the central prefecture of Nagano, held after the death of a lawmaker from Covid-19. Despite the losses, the LDP-led coalition kept its majority in both houses of parliament.
While Suga's LDP is unlikely to be toppled in the near future, the losses could weaken support for the prime minister, who has come under fire since he took office last year over scandals and his handling of the pandemic. He faces a party leadership poll in September and must also call a general election by October.

Apr 25, 2021

Israel: Google and AWS Chosen for 1 Billion Nimbus Project

The Government of Israel has chosen Google and Amazon Web Services to provide cloud services for its military and Public Sector Units. The project is to be implemented in four phases and has been named the "Nimbus" project.
The Nimbus Project is to be implemented at an estimated cost of 1 billion USD.
It will establish cloud sites in Israel. These sites will keep the information within the borders of Israel under strict security guidelines.
The four phases of the project are: Acquisition and Construction of cloud Infrastructure, Formulating Government Policy for migrating to the Cloud, Integration and Migration and Control and Optimisation of Cloud Activity.
In future, the project is to be extended, where dozens of local suppliers are to be selected to assist in migration of Government Systems to the Cloud.

AU Condemns Somalia President's Term Extension

The African Union has condemned the extension of the term of Somalia's President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo and is sending a special envoy to Mogadishu to help resolve the political impasse there.
The AU's Peace and Security Council made the announcement after hours of closed-door meeting where it also resolved to mediate the crisis.
The AU council called on all Somali political leaders to exercise maximum restraint and refrain from any actions that may lead to an escalation of tensions and further undermine the stability of Somalia.
Last week, Mr. Farmajo controversially approved an extension of his term in office by two years but the move has been criticised by major world powers including the United States and Britain, the United Nations and the European Union.

US House Passes No Ban Act

The US House of Representatives passed a bill that will limit the ability of the President to impose religion-based travel ban. It is informally called "No Ban Act".
The No Ban Act was passed in response to the controversial "Muslim ban" passed by the former US President Donald Trump. The Muslim ban barred the travel from Muslim-majority countries to the US.
Before imposing a restriction, the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department should report to Congress about the restriction.
The President should present his evidence of credible threat that initiated travel ban to the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary of the State. He shall impose the ban only after getting approval from DHS and the Secretary.

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