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August 25, 2019: National Current Affairs
1. UN chief urged to ease plight of Kashmiris
• Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on August 24, 2019 spoke to United Nations Secretary General António Guterres and urged the world body to play its role for alleviating sufferings of the Kashmiris in India-held valley.
• Later at a press conference, Mr Qureshi said that Secretary General Gutterres had promised to speak to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the situation in held Kashmir on the sidelines of the G-7 Summit in Biarritz, France.
• Mr Modi has been invited as a guest by French President Emmanuel Macron to the G-7 Summit, which got under way on Saturday.
• Growing tensions between Pakistan and India over Kashmir in the aftermath of annexation of the occupied valley by Delhi is likely to feature in several meetings on the margins of the event, including the one between US President Donald Trump and Mr Modi.
2. The man striving for Jinnah`s Pakistan is no more
• Mr Ikramul Haque stood resolutely all alone at the Liberty round about with a poster held high.
• `Hamain Jinnah ka Pakistan chahiye (We want Jinnah`s Pakistan)`, the poster stated. That is how the people of Lahore remember him.
• Mr Haque passed away on August 23, 2019 at the age of 90. His funeral prayers will take place on Sunday (today) at 5pm at 112/5 F Model Town.
• Mr Haque had been part of the Pakistan Movement as a student from 1944 to 1948 and was a member of the Muslim Students Federation of Dayal Singh College.
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3. Govt replaces Pakistan LNG head
• Pakistan LNG (PLL) has replaced its top manager with immediate effect, appointing Shahid Yousaf as managing director and chief executive, the state-owned operator said on August 24, 2019 without giving a reason for the change.
• Former Chief Executive Adnan Gilani, a US-educated former Wall Street executive who had been the main public face of Pakistan`s push into the liquefied natural gas (LNG) sector, `will no longer be associated with PLL and we wish him the best, it said in an emailed statement.
• `Yousaf brings a vast and rich experience of LNG/Gas sector to lead and grow the operations of the company,` it said.
• The group gave no explanation for the abrupt change in leadership but denied reports in the Pakistani press that the move was connected with an anti-corruption investigation.
August 25, 2019: International Current Affairs
4. Indian opposition leaders denied entry into Srinagar
• Senior Indian opposition leaders were forcibly turned back from Srinagar on August 24, 2019 after the Indian government claimed they were interfering with the battle against alleged cross-border terrorism in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir.
• Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, heading the 12-member delegation from different parties invited to Kashmir by Governor Satyapal Malik, said the denial of entry to the MPs and senior opposition representatives showed the government was hiding something that was not normal.
• The aborted visit and opposition comments have come at a critical time for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is due to meet major leaders, including US President Donald Trump, at the G-7 summit in Biarritz, France.
• Mr Modi has already met French President Emmanuel Macron who has called for protection of the rights of civilians in occupied Kashmir.
5. EU leaders round on Trump over trade at G7
• EU leaders rounded on US President Donald Trump over his trade threats on August 24, 2019 as they arrived in the chic French seaside resort of Biarritzfor a G7 summit overshadowed by trans-Atlantic tensions and worries about the global economy.
• Already embroiled in a high-risk trade war with China, Trump warned late August 23, 2019 he would impose punishing tariffs on French wine if France doesn`t withdraw a new digital tax that will hit US tech giants.
• The European Union `will respond in kind,` EU Council President Donald Tusk answered to Trump, who issued his threat on departing Washington for Biarritz.
• Host Emmanuel Macron, France`s president, and even British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also sounded the alarm about the dangers of Trump`s escalating trade war with China.
6. Former Indian finance minister Arun Jaitley dies at 66
• Former Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, a key member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi`s first-term cabinet, died in a New Delhi hospital on August 24, 2019 after a prolonged illness. He was 66.
• The All India Institute of Medical Sciences announced Jaitley`s death in a statement, but did not give any details.
• Jaitley held the finance portfolio in Modi`s Hindu nationalist-led government from 2014 through this year but chose not to run for reelection because of poor health.
7. North Korea test-fires missiles again after joint drills end
• North Korea fired two suspected short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on August 24, 2019 in the seventh weapons launch in a month, South Korea`s military said, a day after it vowed to remain America`s biggest threat in protest of US-led sanctions on the country.
• The North had been expected to halt weapons tests because the 10-day US-South Korean drills, which it views as an invasion rehearsal, ended earlier this week.
• August 24, 2019`s launches were made from northeastern South Hamgyong province, South Korea`s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. They flew about 380 kilometres (236 miles) at the maximum altitude of 97 kilometres (60 miles), the military said.
8. UAE confers award on Modi amid Kashmir crackdown
• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi received the United Arab Emirates` highest civilian honour during a visit on Saturday to the oil-rich Gulf nation, reinforcing ties between the countries even as he pursues stripping occupied Kashmir of its special status.
• The induction of Modi into the Order of Zayed shows the importance the UAE places on India, the world`s third-largest consumer of crude oil.
• India is home to a rapidly growing consumer market and labour pool that the federation of sheikhdoms relies on for its own economy.
• Activists, however, decried the UAE bestowing the award on Modi as he pursues a clampdown on the disputed Himalayan region of Kashmir.
• Modi is also to travel to Bahrain to become the first Indian premier to visit the island nation.
9. First death from vaping reported in United States
• A patient who had recently been vaping died in the US after developing severe lung disease, officials said on August 24, 2019, as authorities scrambled to find the cause behind almost 200 more potential cases.
• `Yesterday we received a report of the death of an adult who had been hospitalised with severe unexplained respiratory illness after reported vaping, Jennifer Layden, the chief medical officer in the Midwestern state of Illinois said.
• She declined to provide the person`s gender, but said that the ages of the patients treated in the state had been between 17 and 38.
10. Docking aborted for Russia`s first humanoid robot in space
• An unmanned spacecraft carrying Russia`s first humanoid robot to be sent into orbit failed to dock automatically at the International Space Station on August 24, 2019, in a new setback for Moscow.
• `Russian cosmonauts issued a command to abort the automated approach of an uncrewed Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station, the US space agency Nasa said in a statement.
• `The craft was unable to lock onto its target at the station,` and `backed a safe distance away from the orbital complex while the Russian flight controllers assess the next steps,` Nasa said.
• Russian flight controllers had told the ISS crew it appeared the problem that prevented automated docking was in the station and not the Soyuz spacecraft, Nasa added.
