General Awareness

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS - December 2018

Dec 2018

Jun 21, 2021

Swedish PM Set to Lose Confidence Vote

Stefan Lofven was set to become the first Swedish Prime Minister to lose a no-confidence vote, after failing in a last-ditch effort to secure majority support in parliament for proposed rent reforms.
The vote was called last week by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, after the Left Party, which Lofven relies on to pass legislation, withdrew its support over his plan to liberalise Sweden's rigid rent control system. Lofven's centrist Social Democrats have led a fragile minority government since poll in 2018, striking a deal on a broad reform programme with two centre-right parties. In one of many concessions to the Liberals and the Centre Party, he agreed to submit a proposal to parliament to abolish collective bargaining for rents for newly built apartments.

Ebrahim Raisi Wins Iran Presidency

Ebrahim Raisi Iran's hard-line judiciary chief won the country's presidential election in a landslide victory, propelling the supreme leader's protege into Tehran's highest civilian position in a vote that appeared to see the lowest turnout in the Islamic Republic's history.
Former Central Bank chief Abdolnasser Hemmati, a moderate viewed as a stand-in for outgoing President Hassan Rouhani in the election, came in third with 2.4 million votes. Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi was last with just under 1 million.

Jun 20, 2021

Boris Johnson's Party Loses Blue Wall Seat

In a surprising result, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's Conservative Party was defeated in a special election for a seat that it has held for decades.
The Liberal Democrats, which was in a coalition government with the Conservatives between 2010 and 2015 before seeing its electoral fortunes wane dramatically, won the election in Chesham and Amersham, 57 km northwest of London.
Sarah Green, the Liberal Democrat candidate, picked up around 57 per cent of the vote and won a seat the Conservatives have held since it was created in 1974.

Jun 19, 2021

Antonio Guterres Re-elected as UN Secretary General for Five Years

UN General Assembly appointed Antonio Guterres as the UN Secretary General for a second term beginning January 1, 2022, days after the powerful Security Council had unanimously recommended his name to the 193-member body for re-election.
President of the 75th session of the UN General Assembly Volkan Bozkir announced that Guterres has been appointed by acclamation Secretary General of the United Nations for the second term of office beginning on January 1, 2022 and ending on December 31, 2026.
Bozkir then administered the oath of office to 72-year-old Guterres at the podium of the UN General Assembly hall.

Jun 18, 2021

Canada's First Judge of Colour in Supreme Court

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made history by nominating the first judge of colour to sit on the country's Supreme Court, which has only ever had white justices in its 146-year existence.
Mahmud Jamal, who has been a judge on Ontario's court of appeal since 2019, trained as a lawyer and appeared before the Supreme Court in 35 appeals addressing a range of civil, constitutional, criminal and regulatory issues.
Jamal will replace Justice Rosalie Abella, who is due to retire from the nine-person court in July.

Botswana Unearths World's Third Largest Diamond

According to a joint venture between Anglo-American's De Beers and the government, a 1,098-carat diamond, believed to be the third largest gem-quality stone ever to be mined, has been discovered in Botswana.
The stone was presented to President Mokgweetsi Masisi by Debswana Diamond Company's acting managing director Lynette Armstrong. It is the third largest in the world, behind the 3,106 carat Cullinan stone recovered in South Africa in 1905 and the 1,109 carat Lesedi La Rona unearthed by Lucara Diamonds in Botswana in 2015.
This is the largest diamond to be recovered by Debswana in its history of over 50 years in operation.

Iran Votes in Presidential Poll Tipped in Hardliner's Favour

Iran began voting in a presidential election tipped in the favour of a hard-line protege of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fuelling public apathy and sparking calls for a boycott in the Islamic Republic.
State-linked opinion polling and analysts put hard-line judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi as the dominant front-runner in a field of just four candidates.
Former Central Bank chief, Abdolnasser Hemmati, is running as the race's moderate candidate but hasn't inspired the same support as outgoing President Hassan Rouhani, who is term limited from seeking the office again.

Jun 17, 2021

Biden Names Lina Khan as Chairwoman of FTC

President Joe Biden named Lina Khan Chairwoman of the Federal Trade Commission, an unexpected move that puts one of the most prominent advocates of aggressive antitrust enforcement against U.S. technology giants in charge of the agency.
News of Khan's appointment came hours after the Senate confirmed her for a seat on the FTC by a vote of 69-28. She will take over the agency from Acting Chairwoman Rebecca Kelly Slaughter, who has been a commissioner for three years and had been expected by some to be tapped by Biden to lead the agency permanently.

Leftist Castillo Wins Popular Vote in Presidential Race

Leftist candidate Pedro Castillo has won the most votes in Peru's close-run presidential run-off election.
With all ballots now counted, Mr. Castillo has just over 50% of the votes - 44,000 more than right-wing contender Keiko Fujimori.
But Mr. Castillo cannot be declared the winner until electoral authorities have finished processing a slew of legal challenges brought by Ms. Fujimori.
She has claimed electoral fraud, but has not provided any detailed evidence.
Electoral observers, including the Organisation of American States, have said they have found no irregularities. Castillo's Free Peru party has also rejected accusations of fraud.
More than 18.8 million Peruvians cast their votes in this year's race - a turnout of nearly 75%. Observers have said it could take weeks to deliberate over Ms. Fujimori's legal challenges and formally announce a winner.

Biden and Putin Praise Geneva Summit Talks

The presidents of the US and Russia have praised their talks in Geneva but have made little concrete progress at the first such meeting since 2018.
Disagreements were stated, said US President Joe Biden, but not in a hyperbolic way, and he said Russia did not want a new Cold War.
The talks lasted around three hours, less time than was scheduled.
Mr. Biden said they did not need to spend more time talking and there was now a genuine prospect to improve relations with Russia.
The two sides agreed to begin a dialogue on nuclear arms control. They also said they would return ambassadors to each other's capitals - the envoys were mutually withdrawn for consultations in March, after the US accused Russia of meddling in the 2020 presidential election.
However, there was little sign of agreement on other issues, including cyber-security, Ukraine and the fate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a penal colony.

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