General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - February 2017

Feb 2017

Jan 21, 2022

Angela Merkel Rejects United Nations Job Offer

Former Chancellor Angela Merkel turned down an offer from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for a job.
Guterres had offered Merkel the chair of a high-level UN advisory body on global public goods. The advisory board is one of the flagship reform projects that Guterres proposed for the UN in his second term, which started in January.

Jan 20, 2022

Afghan Acting PM Calls for Official Recognition of Taliban Administration

Afghanistan's acting Prime Minister, Mullah Hasan Akhund, called for international governments to officially recognise the country's Taliban administration, saying at a news conference in Kabul that all conditions had been met.
Foreign powers have been reluctant to recognise the Taliban administration which took over Afghanistan in August while Western nations led by the United States have frozen billions of dollars worth of Afghan banking assets and cut off development funding that once formed the backbone of Afghanistan's economy.
Akhund and other Taliban administration officials made an appeal at the conference, also attended by United Nations officials, for a loosening of restrictions on money into the country, blaming its growing economic crisis on the freezing of funds.

France's Emmanuel Macron Calls for EU Plan to Ease Russia Tensions

French President Emmanuel Macron called on the European Union to quickly draw up a new security plan containing proposals to help ease tensions with Russia, as concern mounts that Russian President Vladimir Putin is planning an invasion of Ukraine.
Macron's remarks to EU lawmakers in Strasbourg, France, came the day after NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the military organisation was in the process of finalizing its own security proposals. Stoltenberg hopes to set up a series of meetings with Russia in the near future.

Jan 19, 2022

Nepal Names Province 2 Bordering India as 'Madhes Pradesh'

Nepal's south-eastern Province 2 was named Madhes Pradesh with Janakpur retained as its capital, settling a long-standing debate on the region's official reference after it was made a province in 2015.
Madhes is Nepal's smallest province in terms of area but second largest in terms of population. It borders Bihar in the south and has eight districts — Bara, Parsa, Rautahat, Sarlahi, Mahottari, Dhanusha, and Siraha.

Electric Vehicle Sales Overtake Diesel Models for First Time in Europe

According to Financial Times preliminary estimates, the sale of electric vehicles (EV) in the European market has surpassed that of diesel cars for the first time ever.
Across 18 European markets – including the UK—more than a fifth of vehicles sold were electric, while diesel cars slumped to less than 19 per cent.
In December, around 176,000 battery EVs were sold in Western Europe—an all-time record high and a 6 per cent increase on December 2020 levels – while European car makers sold 160,000 diesel cars.

Indonesia Names New Capital that will Replace Jakarta

Indonesia has announced that its new capital will be called Nusantara, meaning "archipelago" in Javanese.
It came as parliament approved a bill to relocate the capital from Jakarta, which is rapidly sinking.
The idea of building a new capital 1,300 km (800 miles) away on the island of Borneo was first proposed in 2019.
But critics have said the new name could be confusing and that the move itself fails to take environmental factors into consideration.
Jakarta has become crowded, polluted and is sinking at an alarming rate due to the over-extraction of groundwater. Home to more than 10 million people, it sits on swampy land on the large island of Java.

Malta Legislator 3rd Woman EU Parliament President

Christian Democrat Roberta Metsola of Malta was elected president of the European Union's parliament, taking over for a two and a half years term following the death of Socialist David Sassoli last week.
Metsola is only the third woman elected to the post. She is the European Parliament's youngest president. Metsola was the candidate of the Parliament's biggest group, and she received 458 of the 616 votes cast.

Jan 18, 2022

World Employment and Social Outlook Report

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) released its report titled "World Employment and Social Outlook". In the report, ILO projected global unemployment of 207 million in 2022.
Global unemployment will reach to 207 million in 2022. It is almost 21 million more than 2019.
Total hours worked in 2022 will be about 2% below than the pre-pandemic level.
There will be deficiency of 52 million full-time equivalent jobs in 2022.
ILO is a United Nations agency, that advances social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. It was established in October 1919, under the League of Nations. ILO is the first and oldest specialised agency of the UN. It has 187 member states. 186 are among 193 UN member states and the Cook Islands. Its headquartered is in Geneva, Switzerland as well as 40 field offices worldwide.

Credit Suisse Chairman Horta-Osorio Resigns

Credit Suisse will stick to its strategic overhaul despite the abrupt departure of its mastermind Antonio Horta-Osorio following an internal probe into his personal conduct, including breaches of Covid-19 rules.
Horta-Osorio's exit comes less than a year after he was hired to help the bank deal with the implosion of collapsed investment firm Archegos and the insolvency of British supply chain finance company Greenshill Capital, even as it was still reeling from the 2020 exit of CEO Tidjane Thiam over a spying scandal.

Jan 17, 2022

Ireland Marks 100 Years since British Handover of Power

A ceremony was held to mark 100 years since Dublin Castle, the then headquarters of the British in Ireland, was handed over to Irish authorities.
Irish President Michael D. Higgins and Taoiseach Micheál Martin attended.
In 1922, the handover took place a week after the Dáil (Irish parliament) voted to ratify the Anglo-Irish Treaty.
The treaty allowed for the creation of an independent Irish Free State within the British Empire and confirmed the partition of the island of Ireland.
President Higgins then unveiled a plaque marking the site where Dublin Castle was formally handed over by the representatives of the British government in 1922.

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