General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - May 2018

May 2018

Apr 30, 2021

UK Allows Driverless Cars

The United Kingdom has become the first country to announce regulation for the use of self-driving vehicles at low speeds.
The UK wants to be at the forefront in rolling out autonomous driving technology. The Government of UK forecasts that around 40% of UK cars will have self-driving capabilities by 2035. This will create 38,000 jobs in the country.
The Government of UK has been working on the highway code for the use of self-driving vehicles. The Ministry of Transport is to begin with Automated Lane Keeping Systems (ALKS).
The speed limit of the ALKS is to be set at 37 miles per hour.
The ALKS shall drive itself in a single lane.

Palestinian Elections: Abbas Postpones Rare Polls

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas postponed rare parliamentary elections amid a dispute over voting rights.
He said that they could only happen if Israel allows Palestinians to vote in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem.
Israel has not made clear whether it will allow this without restrictions.
Parliamentary and presidential elections - the first since 2006 - were scheduled to take place in May and July.
It was not immediately clear whether the presidential vote would go ahead.
It comes as Mr. Abbas is facing unprecedented challenges from political rivals which could weaken his party's chance of success.
If elections are shelved, it would deal a blow to Palestinians hoping for a show of national unity after years of deep splits.

Zulu Queen Mantfombi Dlamini Dies

The Zulu royal family in South Africa announced the death of its monarch Queen Shiyiwe Mantfombi Dlamini Zulu just a month after she became regent.
Queen Mantfombi became interim leader of the country's largest ethnic group last month after the death of her husband, King Goodwill Zwelithini.
A successor as ruler of the 11 million-strong nation has not yet been named.
She had been appointed to the role on 24 March 2021 after the death of her husband.
Queen MaDlamini Zulu held the highest status among the king's wives, as she came from royalty.

US Eyes Major Rollback in Iran Sanctions to Revive Nuke Deal

The Biden administration is considering a near wholesale rollback of some of the most stringent Trump-era sanctions imposed on Iran in a bid to get the Islamic Republic to return to compliance with a landmark 2015 nuclear accord, according to current and former US officials and others familiar with the matter.
As indirect talks continue this week in Vienna to explore the possibility of reviving the nuclear deal, American officials have become increasingly expansive about what they might be prepared to offer Iran, which has been driving a hard line on sanctions relief, demanding that all US penalties be removed, according to these people.
American officials have refused to discuss, which sanctions are being considered for removal. But they have said they are open to lifting any sanctions that are inconsistent with the nuclear deal or that deny Iran the relief it would be entitled to should it return to compliance with the accord. Because of the complex nature of the sanctions architecture, that could include non-nuclear sanctions, such as those tied to terrorism, missile development and human rights.

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.

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