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

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August 10, 2020: National / International Current Affairs

1. PM launches drive to `save posterity` from climate disaster

• Launching the largest tree plantation campaign with the goal to plant 3.5 million saplings across the country in a single day, Prime Minister Imran Khan on August 9, 2020 said it was a long battle but the initiative had been taken to save future generations from the impact of global warming.
• `Pakistan is in the list of 10 most vulnerable countries to impacts of global warming,` PM Khan said, adding that the country`s wheat production had fallen over the past two years due to climate change and unprecedented rainfall.
• `It is our responsibility to make the country green for future generations,` he said.

2. Textbook board MD removed for `banning books`

• The Punjab government has removed Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board Managing Director (MD) Manzoor Hussain from his post who recently banned around 100 textbooks.
• According to a notification, Mr Hussain has been transferred and directed to report to the Services and General Administrative Department.
• Recently, the MD had banned 100 textbooks the board found to be `against the two-nation theory` or deemed `unethical and illegal`.
• Mr Hussain had faced severe criticism on social media for banning the books.

3. 11 members of Pakistani migrant family found dead in India: report

• The bodies of 11 members of the same family were found in a field in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan state in India, said a report on August 9, 2020.
• A BBC report as saying that the family had migrated to India from Pakistan and only one member of the family now remains.
• Police launched an investigation into the incident while traces of insecticide were found at the scene. A police official, Rahul Barhat, told the publication that forensic experts had been called in to assist in the probe. `An investigation is being carried out to ascertain the exact cause of the incident,` he said

4. British-Pakistani appointed lifetime House of Lords member

• Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar on August 9, 2020 congratulated British-Pakistani businessman and philanthropist Aamer A. Sarfraz for his lifetime appointment as a member of the House of Lords.
• Mr Sarfraz was appointed by Queen Elizabeth on United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s recommendation.
• The minister, in his message, said that this would help enhance diplomatic, economic and trade ties between the UK and Pakistan. “Aamer Sarfraz also played his due role in building a bright image of Pakistan internationally,” he added.

5. Rajapaksa sworn in as Lankan PM, cementing family rule

• Sri Lanka`s former President Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as the prime minister for the fourth time on Sunday after his party secured a landslide victory in parliamentary elections that cemented his family`s hold on power.
• Rajapaksa took oath before his younger brother, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, at a prominent Buddhist temple on the outskirts of the capital Colombo.
• Mahinda Rajapaksa served as the island nations president from 2005 to 2015 and is highly popular among the ethnic majority Sinhalese for ending the country`s 25-year civil war against Tamil rebels in 2009

6. Highest-level US visit to Taiwan in decades

• A senior member of US President Donald Trump`s administration landed in Taiwan on August 9, 2020 for Washington`s highest-level visit since switching diplomatic recognition to China in 1979, a trip Beijing has condemned.
• During the three-day visit Health Secretary Alex Azar will meet President Tsai Ing-wen, who advocates Taiwan being recognised as a sovereign nation and is loathed by China`s leaders.
• Tsai`s office said the meeting would take place on Monday morning.
• Azar is the most senior US cabinet member to visit Taiwan in decades and his visit comes as relations between the world`s two biggest economic powers plunge to historic lows.

7. India`s allies told to work for restoration of Kashmir statehood

• The International Crisis Group (ICG) has urged India`s international allies to `strongly encourage it to restore Kashmiri statehood, free detained politicians, and end security forces` abuses against civilians` The ICG, a global think tank, advises India in its new report to reengage with held Kashmir`s political class and end security forces` abuses in the occupied valley and urges New Delhi`s `international partners should press it in that direction`.
• The report `Raising the Stakes in Jammu and Kashmir` warns that India`s recent actions have increased the `risks of an incident setting off an unintended military escalation` between the region`s two nuclear powers.
• The ICG asked both India and Pakistan to dial down bellicose rhetoric and respect a ceasefire they agreed to in 2003

8. Trump signs orders for Covid-19 relief as talks hit deadlock

• President Donald Trump on August 8, 2020 signed executive actions extending financial relief to Americans hit by the coronavirus pandemic as polls showed a large majority of voters unhappy with his handling of the crisis.
• The four measures marked a presidential show of strength after Trump`s Republican party and White House team failed to agree with opposition Democrats in Congress on a new stimulus package aimed at stopping vulnerable Americans from falling through the cracks.
• `We`ve had it and we`re going to save American jobs and provide relief to the American workers,` Trump said at a press conference at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he was spending the weekend

9. Chinese companies launch pilot projects of driverless taxis

• Chinese entrants to the race to put autonomous vehicles on the road are bringing `robotaxis` online in hopes that a hired-car format can be the key to un locking wide acceptance of the futuristic technology.
• It is expected to be years before cars that operate completely without human intervention are unleashed owing to lingering technological, regulatory, and safety hurdles. But as China challenges US tech dominance, Chinese players such as Baldu, Alibaba-backed AutoX and ride-sharing king DiDi Chuxing recently launched autonomous taxi pilot projects in cities around the country.
• Similar efforts are under way in the US, and AutoX`s chief executive Xiao Jianxiong said the first fully autonomous vehicles could be on the roads by the end of the year.

10. GCC backs extending UN arms embargo on Iran

• A six-nation bloc of Gulf Arab nations torn apart by internal strife endorsed on August 9, 2020 an extension of a United Nations arms embargo on Iran, just two months before it is set to expire.
• The Gulf Cooperation Council said it sent a letter to the UN Security Council backing an extension of an arms embargo that`s kept Iran from purchasing foreign-made weapons like fighter jets, tanks and warships.
• The GCC comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates alleged Iran had `not ceased or desisted from armed interventions in neighbouring countries, directly and through organisations and movements armed and trained by Iran

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