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December 21, 2021: National / International Current Affairs
1. NCOC allows people over 30 to get booster shots from Jan 1
• The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on December 20, 2021 allowed booster shots for people over the age of 30 years as Covid-19`s latest strain, Omicron, infects 58,000 people in 95 countries.
• On the other hand, as a large number of people have been denied travel by several countries because of vaccine `discrimination`, mix-and-match booster vaccine shots have been permitted free of cost.
• The term mix-and-match refers to an arrangement under which a person gets a booster shot of a vaccine which is different from the one he/she had received earlier.
• People over the age of 50 years and immune-compromised persons were earlier allowed to get free booster jabs of the same vaccine they had received earlier.
2. SC suspends Sindh govt`s minimum wage decision
• The Supreme Court suspended on December 20, 2021 the Sindh government`s July 19 notification of raising the minimum wage for workers to Rs25,000 per month, but decided to set up a three judge bench to hear the matter next month.
• A two-judge Supreme Court bench, consisting of Justice Qazi Faez Isa and Justice Yahya Afridi, issued notices to Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP) Khalid Jawed Khan and Sindh Advocate General Salman Talibuddin on a set of appeals moved by a number of petitioners.
• The Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the Employers Federation of Pakistan, Phoenix Security Service (Pvt) Ltd Karachi, Aziz Tabba Foundation Karachi, Gray Marchenzie Restaurants International Limited Karachi and SRG Service (Pvt) Limited Karachi are the petitioners
3. Current account deficit hits $7bn in five months
• The country`s current account recorded a deficit of $7 billion in the first five months (July to November) of the current fiscal year, mainly on account of increasing imports, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) data showed on December 20, 2021.
• At $1.91bn, November saw the highest monthly current account deficit since July 2018when it reached $2.1bn. This was the year when the country faced a record $20bn current account deficit.
• Besides, the five-month figure of $7bn this year stands in total contrast to a current account surplus of $1.64bn during the same period a year ago.
• The current account deficit widened from $1.76bn in October to $1.91bn in November `as imports outstripped strong exports [and] robust remittances`, the SBP tweeted
4. Tarin wins Senate poll from KP Assembly
• Adviser to the Prime Minister on Finance Shaukat Tarin was elected senator from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on December 20, 2021 by securing 87 votes.
• According to unofficial results, a total of 122 members of the provincial assembly cast their votes in the Senate election for one seat from the KP Assembly. Awami National Party and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl candidates got 13 votes each. Four votes were rejected.
• Mr Tarin became senator after Pakistan Tehreek-iInsaf`s Mohammad Ayub Afridi resigned from the upper house of parliament.
5. $252m IDB loan okayed for KP dam, Covid support
• The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has approved $252 million loans to Pakistan for two projects the construction of Mohmand Dam in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and for anti-Covid vaccine support in the country.
• The approval from the bank`s board of directors was conveyed by IDB President Dr Muhammad Sulaiman Al-Jasser to Minister for Economic Affairs Omar Ayub Khan at a meeting in Islamabad, the ministry said on December 20, 2021.
• A financing agreement of $72.5m for obtaining Covid-19 vaccines was signed by the Jeddah-based bank and the economics ministry. Dr Al-Jasser updated the minister that the bank has also approved $180m financing for Mohmand Dam Hydropower Project
6. Pro-Beijing candidates sweep HK elections
• Candidates loyal to China`s Communist Party won a landslide victory in Hong Kong`s legislative elections after pro-democracy activists were imprisoned and authorities received the power to exclude those deemed inappropriate for office.
• Candidates loyal to Beijing won a majority of the seats in Sunday`s election after the laws were changed to ensure that only pro-Beijing patriots could run the city.
• Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam said during a news conference she was satisfied with the election despite a 30.2pc voter turnout the lowest since the British handed Hong Kong over to China in 1997
7. Casualties in Afghanistan, Iraq much higher than US admitted: NYT
• Data collected after years of litigation and months of investigation persuaded The New York Times to conclude that civilian casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan were much higher than the United States ever acknowledged.
• Summing up its efforts to probe the US wars in the greater Middle East region, the newspaper wrote: `The promise was a war waged by all-seeing drones and precision bombs.` But the documents NYT obtained showed `flawed intelligence, faulty targeting, years of civilian deaths and scant accountability`.
• The newspaper got access to the Pentagon documents about the war through Freedom of Information requests beginning in March 2017 and lawsuits filed against the US Defence Department and the Central Command
8. Chile celebrates as leftist Boric elected president
• The streets of Santiago erupted in celebration on December 20, 2021 after leftist millennial Gabriel Boric became Chile`s youngest-ever president-elect with an unexpectedly large victory over his far-right rival in a polarising race.
• Boric, 35, garnered nearly 56 percent of the vote compared to 44 percent for ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast, who conceded even before the final result was known.
• Tens of thousands of Chileans took to the streets of the capital and other cities after Kast`s concession, honking car horns in approval, brandishing pro-Boric placards, waving the rainbow LGBTQ flag and shouting: `Viva Chile! Fireworks lit the skies for hours on end.
9. Russia expels two German diplomats in tit-for-tat move
• Russia on December 20, 2021 expelled two German diplomats in response to a spat with Berlin over a German court`s ruling that Moscow had ordered the 2019 assassination of an ex Chechen commander in a Berlin park.
• `The German ambassador was informed that two diplomatic employees of the German embassy in Russia were declared `persona non grata` as a symmetrical response,` Russia`s foreign ministry said in a statement. It did not say when the German diplomats needed to leave Russia.
• The ministry added that it had registered a `strong protest` with theGerman envoy over Berlin`s expulsion last week of two Russian diplomats last week.
10. Japanese space tourists return to Earth after 12 days on ISS
• A Japanese billionaire returned to Earth on December 20, 2021, after 12 days on the International Space Station where he made videos about performing mundane tasks including brushing teeth and going to the bathroom.
• Online fashion tycoon Yusaku Maezawa and his assistant Yozo Hirano parachuted onto Kazakhstan`s steppe at around the expected landing time of 0313 GMT on Monday, along with Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin.
• Footage from the landing site, around 150 kilometres southeast of the central Kazakhstan town of Zhezkazgan, showed the trio smiling after being helped out of the Soyuz descent module and into evacuation vehicles in freezing, foggy conditions
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