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August 07, 2019: National Current Affairs
1. OIC reaffirms full support to Kashmiris
• Ambssador Samir Bakr Diab, representing Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), August 6, 2019 expressed OIC’s deep concern over the recent developments in the Indian-occupied Kashmir and reaffirmed full support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their just struggle to achieve their legitimate right to self-determination.
• An emergency meeting of OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir was held in Jeddah in the wake of illegal actions by India to alter the internationally recognised disputed status of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IoK).
• The meeting was chaired by Assistant Secretary General OIC Ambassador Samir Bakr Diab and attended by Minister of Foreign Affairs Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the Foreign Office in a press release said.
• Ambassador Sami Bakr Diab read out the statement of the OIC secretary general expressing “deep concern over the recent developments in IoK including the escalation of violence by the Indian forces and the measures taken by the Indian authorities that might affect the status of the territory and the rights of the Kashmiri people”.
2. Actions against banned outfits key to exiting FATF list: US
• The United States has asked Pakistan to show tangible and satisfactory actions against banned organisations and their leaderships to pacify more countries towards supporting its case to move out of the grey list of Financial Action Task Force (FATF).
• A senior government official told that a US delegation was in Islamabad to have an independent assessment of steps, actions and meas-ures identified during the Florida meetings of the FATF in June this year and the progress made by Pakistan since then.
• The delegation comprising Acting Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Ambassador Alice G. Wells, US Treasury officials Scott Rembrandt, Grant Vickers, David Galbraith and others also met Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance and Revenue Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh on August 6, 2019.
• `The adviser briefed the visiting delegation on the measures pertaining to economic reforms being undertaken by the Government of Pakistan to ensure economic discipline, efforts being made towards implementation of FATF Action Plan and the key challenges being faced,` said an official statement.
3. `China warns India of reverse sanctions if Huawei is blocked`
• China has told India not to block its Huawei Technologies from doing business in the country, warning there could be consequences for Indian firms operating in China, sources with knowledge of the matter said.
• India is due to hold trials for installing a next-generation 5G cellular network in the next few months, but has not yet taken a call on whether it would invite the Chinese telecoms equipment maker to take part, telecoms minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said.
• Huawei, the world`s biggest maker of such gear, is at the centre of a geopolitical tug-of-war between China and the United States. U.S. President Donald Trump`s administration put the company on a blacklist in May, citing national security concerns. It has asked its allies not to use Huawei equipment, which it says China could exploit for spying.
• Two sources privy to internal discussions in New Delhi said India`s ambassador in Beijing, Vikram Misri, was called to the Chinese foreign ministry on July 10 to hear China`s concerns about the U.S. campaign to keep Huawei out of 5G mobile infrastructure worldwide.
4. China vows to counter US deployment of mid-range weapons in Asia
• China said on August 6, 2019 that it `will not stand idly by` and will take countermeasures if the US deploys intermediate-range missiles in the Asia-Pacific region, which Washington has said it plans to do within months.
• The statement from the director of the foreign ministry`s Arms Control Department, Fu Cong, follows the US`s withdrawal last week from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, a move Fu said would have a `direct negative impact on the global strategic stability` as well as security in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.
• Fu said China was particularly concerned about announced plans to develop and test a land-based intermediate-range missile in the Asia Pacific `sooner rather than later,` in the words of one US official.
5. Lok Sabha passes Kashmir bifurcation bill
• India`s Lok Sabha, lower house of parliament, on August 6, 2019 passed the Modi government`s bill to split the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories governed from Delhi.
• The move set off a deep rift between senior leaders of the main opposition Congress party though its former chief Rahul Gandhi slammed the government`s move as divisive and unconstitutional.
• `National integration isn`t furthered by unilaterally tearing apart J&K, imprisoning elected representatives and violating our Constitution. This nation is made by its people, not plots of land. This abuse of executive power has grave implications for our national security,` Mr Gandhi tweeted.
• Party leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury asked Home Minister Amit Shah if the Shimla Agreement, Lahore Declaration and UN resolutions were now dead. The comment was reportedly disapproved of by senior leader Sonia Gandhi.
6. UN chief warns against rising tensions between nuclear-armed states
• UN Secretary General António Guterres warned on August 6, 2019 that the world against rising tensions between nuclear-armed states, as a powerful American newspaper pointed out that tensions in Kashmir were more menacing now than ever before as both India and Pakistan possessed weapons of mass destruction.
• Also, an international advocacy group Human Rights Watch noted that basic freedoms were at risk in the occupied Kashmir where Indian authorities had arrested political leaders and severed communication lines.
• As the news of India revoking Kashmir`s special status sank-in, Kashmiris from both sides of the Line of Control gathered at a restaurant near Washington on Monday night to exchange notes on how to contact their relatives trapped in the valley.
7. Quarter of world`s population facing extreme water stress
• Nearly a quarter of the world`s population lives in 17 countries facing extremely high water stress, close to `day zero` conditions when the taps run dry, according to a report released on August 6, 2019.
• The Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas of World Resources Institute (WRI) ranked water stress, drought risk and riverine flood risk using a peer-reviewed methodology.
• `Agriculture, industry, and municipalities are drinking up 80 per cent of available surface and groundwater in an average year` in the 17 worst affected countries, the W RI said.
• `When demand rivals supply, even small dry shocks which are set to increase due to climate change can produce dire consequences` such as the recent crises in Cape Town, Sao Paulo and Chennai.
• Qatar, Israel, Lebanon, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Eritrea, the UAE, San Marino, Bahrain, India, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Oman and Botswana made up the top 17.
• Even countries with low average water stress can have dire hotspots, the report found. While the US ranl(s a comfortable 71 on the list, the state of New Mexico faces water stress on par with the UAE.
8. Sushma dies after praising Modi’s Kashmir move
• Sushma Swaraj, India’s former external affairs minister and a leader of the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, died August 6, 2019 at a hospital in New Delhi. She was 67.
• Swaraj died of a heart attack and was rushed to the emergency ward of All India Institute of Medical Science hospital, the Press Trust of India reported.
• Swaraj was the external affairs minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet from 2014 to 2019. She distinguished herself with an active presence on social media, often replying to requests for help from Indians abroad. After undergoing a kidney transplant during her tenure as minister, Swaraj decided not to run for this year’s general election, citing health issues.
9. Nobel-winning author Toni Morrison dies
• Toni Morrison, the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature, has died following a brief illness, her family said in a statement August 6, 2019. She was 88.
• She won the Pulitzer Prize and the American Book Award in 1988 for her 1987 novel `Beloved`. Set after the American Civil War in the 1860s, the story centred on a slave who escaped Kentucky to the free state of Ohio.
• The book was later turned into a film starring Danny Glover and Oprah Winfrey.
• Morrison receive d numerous other accolades including the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1993.
10. McCullum to quit all forms of cricket
• Former New Zealand skipper Brendon McCullum will retire from all forms of cricket when the Global T20 Canada league finishes this weekend, bringing the curtain down on a 20-year professional career.
• The explosive batsman, whose decision comes three years after his retirement from international cricket, will not now take part in the inaugural Euro T20 Slam starting this month where he was to represent Glasgow Giants as an icon player.
• McCullum played in the last of his 101 Tests against Australia at Christchurch in February 2016, where he hit the fastest century in the format (54 balls), finishing his career with 6,453 runs including 12 tons and 31 half-centuries.
