Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs/News (May 27, 2020) for CSS, PMS

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May 27, 2020: National / International Current Affairs

1. Pakistani bid to form group of OIC envoys at UN foiled

• The United Arab Emirates and the Maldives together thwarted a Pakistani attempt to set up an informal group of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) envoys at the United Nations on Islamophobia.
• A senior diplomatic source told Dawn that Pakistan`s permanent representative at the United Nations Munir Akram highlighted the issue of Islamophobia at a recent virtual meeting of the envoys of OIC member countries at the UN.
• It was a routine meeting of the envoys of OIC countries, which discussed other issues as well.
• The Pakistan envoy specifically highlighted the plight of the Muslims in India and the people of occupied Kashmir, who are suffering at the hands of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.

2. $500m AIIB loan to mitigate Covid-19 impact

• The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) will provide budgetary support worth $500 million to Pakistan to mitigate the significant negative economic and social impacts caused by Covid-19, it was learnt here on May 26, 2020.
• Supported under the `Covid-19 Crisis Recovery Facility`, the AIIB loan for the government`s health sector and counter-cyclical development expenditure programme will be co-financed by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to effectively manage the coronavirus outbreak and reduce its immediate social and economic damages.
• Under the financing plan for the programme, the AIIB will provide $500m, while the ADB loan will amount to $500m. The estimated loan closing date has been set for December 2021.

3. OICCI calls for tax reforms in Punjab

• Investors have demanded tax reforms in Punjab to improve the ease of doing business and restore the competitiveness of firms operating in the province.
• In its taxation proposals for the provincial budget 2020-21, the Overseas Investors Chamber of Commerce and Industry (OICCI) has suggested implementation of a raft of reforms to improve ease of doing business and broaden the tax net for incentivising new investments in Punjab.
• The normal rate of sales tax on services in Punjab is 17 per cent compared to 13pc in Sindh and 15pc in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan to which the chamber proposed that Punjab government align its tax rate with Sindh to ensure level-playing field and gradually slash it to 10pc over next three years to bring it at par with other countries in the region.

4. Chaudhry Fateh: the oldest beacon of the Left goes out

• Veteran Communist leader, member of the Communist Party of Pakistan and founder of the Pakistan Kissan Committee Chaudhry Fateh Mohammed was laid to rest at Chak 305-GB. He died of cancer at the age of 97.
• Chaudhry Fateh Mohammed had migrated to the country from Jalandhar after the Partition and settled at Chak 305-GB that later became the centre of Kissan Sabha Movement in Punjab. He joined the Communist Party of Pakistan in 1948 and was elected member of the central committee of the Pakistan Trade Union Federation in 1950 where Faiz Ahmed Faiz was reelected as vice president and Mirza Mohammad Ibrahim as president.
• With the ban on the Communist Part of Pakistan, he and his fellow comrades joined the Azad Pakistan Party of Mian Iftikharuddin, which was later merged into the National Awami Party (NAP) in the famous Dhaka Congress on Sept 25, 1957.

5. Ghazal singer Ijaz Qaiser passes away

• Renowned ghazal singer Ijaz Qaiser passed away on May 26, 2020 and was laid to rest in a local graveyard.
• Afzal Jamal, a singer, told Qaiser had a protracted illness and he had a cardiac arrest on Monday.
• He was shifted to hospital but he could not survive.

6. WHO warns first wave of pandemic not over

• As Brazil and India struggle with surging coronavirus cases, a top health expert is warning that the world is still in the very middle of the outbreak, dampening hopes for a speedy global economic rebound and renewed international travel.
• Right now, we`re not in the second wave. We`re right in the middle of the first wave globally,` said Dr Mike Ryan, the World Health Organisation`s executive director.
• We`re still very much in a phase where the disease is actually on the way up, Ryan said, pointing to South America, South Asia and other parts of the world.

7. Merkel wins backing for EU aid U-turn

• Chancellor Angela Merkel shattered a longstanding German taboo last week when she unexpectedly unveiled a plan to fund the EU`s coronavirus recovery through shared debt.
• It was a stunning U-turn after years of German opposition to joint borrowing, but the risky political gamble appears to be paying off.
• The veteran leader, set to end her political career next year, has already won the backing of key members of her conservative CDU party for the proposed 500-billion-euro ($544 billion) EU recovery fund, aimed at helping the nations hardest hit by the pandemic. Surveys show that a majority of Germans are also on board.

8. Saudi Arabia to end virus curfew next month

• Saudi Arabia said on May 26, 2020 it would end its nationwide coronavirus curfew from June 21, except in Makkah, after more than two months of stringent curbs.
• Prayers will also be allowed to resume in all mosques outside Makkah from May 31, the interior ministry said in a series of measures announced on state media.
• Elsewhere in the Gulf, Kuwait and the emirate of Dubai also moved to ease their lockdown measures, which together with a collapse in oil prices have pushed the region into its worst economic crisis in decades.

9. UK minister resigns over PM adviser`s lockdown trip

• Douglas Ross, a junior minister in the Scotland Office, resigned on May 26, 2020, saying the prime minister`s senior adviser`s explanation of why he travelled during the coronavirus lockdown was based on decisions `others felt were not available to them`.
• Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson`s closest adviser, refused to resign on May 26, 2020, saying he had done nothing wrong by driving 250 miles to northern England when Britain was under a strict lockdown to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
• Johnson, who worked with Cummings on the campaign to leave the European Union, has stood by his adviser, saying at the weekend that the aide had followed the `instincts of every father` when he travelled with his wife for help with childcare.

10. Macau casino tycoon Stanley Ho dies

• Stanley Ho, the Hong Kong-born tycoon who made billions transforming neighbouring Macau from a sleepy Portuguese outpost into the world’s biggest gambling hub, died on May 26, 2020 at the age of 98, his family said.
• Known as the “godfather” of Macau’s casinos, Ho was instrumental in turning the semi-autonomous city on China’s southern coastline into a gambling boomtown.
• He fathered at least 17 children and speculation about how his vast fortune would be divided among his offspring has long occupied Hong Kong’s tabloid media alongside public family feuds.

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