General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - August 2018

Aug 2018

Sep 20, 2020

France, UK, Germany Reject US Call to Return Iran Sanctions

The U.S. has no authority to demand a snap-back in sanctions against Iran after quitting the 2015 nuclear deal two years ago.
Since quitting the nuclear accord in May 2018, the Trump administration has intensified efforts to pressure the Islamic Republic, ratcheting up sanctions. But the U.S. moves have united partners like the U.K., France and Germany with Russia and China, who have sought to salvage the accord.
That has left the U.S. isolated on the UN Security Council, with most nations saying America has no authority to demand the return of international sanctions since it's no longer a party to the agreement.

White House Receives Envelope Containing Poison Ricin

Federal officials intercepted an envelope addressed to the White House that contained the poison ricin.
The letter was intercepted at a government facility that screens mail addressed to the White House and President Donald Trump.
A preliminary investigation indicated it tested positive for ricin, a poison found naturally in castor beans.

Thai Protesters Challenge Monarchy as Huge Protests Escalate

Openly challenging the monarchy of Thai King Maha Vajiralongkorn, thousands of protesters marched in Bangkok to present demands that include a call for reforms to curb his powers.
Protesters have grown ever bolder during two months of demonstrations against Thailand's palace and military-dominated establishment, breaking a longstanding taboo on criticising the monarchy - which is illegal under lese majeste laws.
The Royal Palace was not immediately available for comment. The king, who spends much of his time in Europe, is not in Thailand now.
The marchers were blocked by hundreds of unarmed police manning crowd control barriers.

Sep 19, 2020

Bolivia's Interim Leader Jeanine Áñez Quits Presidential Race

Bolivia's interim President Jeanine Áñez has quit the presidential election due on 18 October.
She said she did not want to split the vote and see the return to office of former President Evo Morales' Mas socialist party.
Mas candidate Luis Arce is leading in opinion polls, with Ms Áñez trailing in fourth place.
Ms Áñez was sworn in last year after Mr Morales resigned and left the country amid allegations of electoral fraud.
Mr Morales, who currently lives in Argentina, later said he was forced into exile by the police and the military.

Israel Marks Jewish New Year

Israel is entering a second nationwide lockdown to curb surging coronavirus cases, just as people begin to mark the start of Jewish New Year.
Rosh Hashanah is traditionally a time for big, family get-togethers.
But under the new three-week lockdown, Israelis must stay within 1km (0.6 miles) of their homes, with exceptions, and the number of people allowed in synagogues has been greatly reduced.

Gaza Violence Flares After Israel Signs Deals With Gulf States

There has been a fresh round of violence between Palestinian militants in Gaza and Israel, after a ceremony in Washington at which Israel and two Gulf Arab states normalised their relations.
Militants fired two rockets into Israel. One hit the coastal city of Ashdod, wounding two men.
Another barrage of 13 rockets was launched.
In retaliation, the Israeli military bombed sites in Gaza it said belonged to the Palestinian group Hamas.

Sep 18, 2020

Smart City Index 2020

The Institute for Management Development (IMD), in collaboration with Singapore University for Technology and Design (SUTD), released the 2020 Smart City Index, with key findings on how technology is playing a role in the COVID-19 era.
Four Indian cities — New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru — witnessed a significant drop in their rankings in the global listing of smart cities that was topped by Singapore.
In the 2020 Smart City Index, Hyderabad was placed at the 85th position (down from 67 in 2019), New Delhi at 86th rank (down from 68 in 2019), Mumbai was at 93rd place (in 2019 it was at 78), and Bengaluru at 95th (79 in 2019).
The 2020 Smart City Index (SCI) was topped by Singapore, followed by Helsinki and Zurich in the second and the third place respectively. Others in the top 10 list include Auckland (4th), Oslo (5th), Copenhagen (6th), Geneva (7th), Taipei City (8th), Amsterdam (9th), and New York at the 10th place.

Trump Campaign Denies Sexual Assault Claims by the President in 1997

US President Donald Trump's re-election campaign denied a Guardian newspaper report in which a former model accused the New York real estate developer of sexually assaulting and groping her at the US Open tennis tournament in 1997.
The Guardian reported that Amy Dorris told the paper in an interview that Trump assaulted her outside a bathroom in his VIP box at the tournament that year. She was 24 at the time, the newspaper said.

Miami Herald Apologizes for 'Racist' Insert Column

The Miami Herald is investigating how it published a paid insert with what it called "racist and anti-Semitic commentary" and distributed to readers of its Spanish-language sister paper.
The Florida daily's publisher Aminda Marqués González earlier this week said it will no longer publish or distribute the content of the weekly supplement LIBRE.
Marqués González and the managing editor of El Nuevo Herald Nancy San Martín apologized to readers in a letter saying they had not previously read the advertising insert until a column was widely shared on social media with commentary berating Jews for supporting the Black Lives Matter movement while comparing violent demonstrators to Nazis.

United States Accuses Hezbollah of Storing Explosive Chemical in Europe

Militant group Hezbollah has stored chemicals that can be used to make explosives in several European countries, a senior State Department official said as he appealed to countries in Europe and elsewhere to impose bans on the organization.
Hezbollah operatives have moved ammonium nitrate from Belgium to France, Greece, Italy, Spain and Switzerland in recent years and are suspected to still be storing the material throughout Europe.
Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound commonly used as a fertilizer, but it can be used to make explosives. It can also be dangerous in storage, as demonstrated by the huge explosion last month in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

Sep 17, 2020

Trump Identifies India, 20 Other Nations as Major Drug Transit or Major llicit Drug-producing Cou...

US President Donald Trump has identified India along with 20 other nations as major drug transit or illicit drug-producing countries and asserted that his administration is taking the fight to criminal organisations engaged in narcotics substances and their enablers on an unprecedented scale.
In his presidential determination, Mr. Trump also designated Bolivia and the regime of Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela as having failed demonstrably during the previous 12 months to adhere to their obligations under international counter-narcotics agreements.

NSA Ajit Doval to Participate in BRICS NSA Virtual Meet

The National Security Advisors (NSAs) of BRICS countries met "virtually". India was represented by NSA Ajit Doval.
This was the tenth such meeting of BRICS NSAs. The Chinese side was represented by diplomat Yang Jiechi.
Russia was the host of the meet.

India, Brazil, South Africa Jointly Call for Comprehensive Reforms of UNSC

India, Brazil and South Africa jointly called comprehensive reforms of the UN Security Council at the IBSA Foreign Ministers' virtual meeting on September 16, 2020.
The customary meeting of IBSA Foreign Ministers was chaired by Union External Affairs Minister Dr. S Jaishankar and attended by his Brazilian counterpart Fabio Marzano and South African Counterpart Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor.
During the meeting, the foreign ministers of the three-nation group- India, Brazil and South Africa adopted a joint statement on the Reform of the UN Security Council, as a common endeavour of the Global South.

Sep 16, 2020

India wins Three Elections to Key UN bodies

India has scored a hat-trick of election wins at the United Nations ahead of the General Assembly's 75th session, which will be held virtually due to Covid-19 pandemic.
India beat China to win a four-year term on the UN's Commission on the Status of Women (CWS), a prestigious wing of the world body's Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).
India also won a seat each, through endorsements, to two other ECOSOC bodies — the Committee for Programme and Coordination (CPC) and the Commission on Population and Development (CPD).
Terms will begin 2021 when India will also start its two-year stint on the UN Security Council as a non-permanent member.

Yoshihide Suga Elected as Japan's New Prime Minister

Japanese ruling party leader Yoshihide Suga was elected prime minister in a parliamentary vote, becoming the country's first new premier in nearly eight years.
Suga's ruling Liberal Democratic Party used its majority in the powerful lower house of parliament, which is empowered to pick the premier, to elect him to lead the world's third largest economy as it tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.
Suga's appointment, after he was selected as LDP leader, brings the curtain down on outgoing Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's record run of almost eight consecutive years in the country's top job.

UAE, Bahrain Sign US-brokered Diplomatic Pacts with Israel

Declaring "the dawn of a new Middle East", US President Donald Trump presided over the signing of historic diplomatic pacts between Israel and the Arab states of UAE and Bahrain, which he hopes will lead to a new order in the Middle East and cast him as a peacemaker ahead of the November 3, 2020 election.
The deals, denounced by the Palestinians, make UAE and Bahrain the third and fourth Arab states to take such steps to normalise ties since Israel signed peace treaties with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994.
The signing of the deals, called the Abraham Accords, capped a dramatic sequence of events when the UAE and Bahrain agreed to reverse decades of ill will towards Israel without a resolution of its decades-old dispute with the Palestinians.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined Emirati foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah Al Nahyan and Bahrain's foreign minister Abdullatif Al Zayani for the signing ceremony.

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