Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs / News (July 24, 2021) for CSS, PMS

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July 24, 2021: National / International Current Affairs

1. Kashmiris can opt for independence even after accession: PM

• Reiterating an earlier commitment to the Kashmiris, Prime Minister Imran Khan on July 23, 2021 twice assured them that Islamabad would grant them the right to live as an independent nation if they decided to do so even after acceding to Pakistan through the United Nations-sponsored plebiscite.
• Speaking at two big election rallies in the towns of Tarar Khal and Kotli on the last day of election campaign, he brushed aside allegations by his opponents that he wanted to convert Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) into a province and said he did not know as to where this idea had stemmed from

2. Pakistan seeks UN probe into hacking scandal

• The Foreign Office on July 23, 2021 called for a United Nations probe into the Pegasus scandal and called for holding India accountable for it.
• `In view of the gravity of these reports, we call on the relevant UN bodies to thoroughly investigate the matter, bring the facts to light, and hold the Indian perpetrators to account,` FO spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said while commenting on reports that India used Israeli-made snooping spyware to hack the phones and computers of journalists, judges, diplomats, government officials, rights activists and global leaders.
• The reports emerged after an investigation by various international media organisations on a list of thousands of numbers globally provided by Forbidden Stories, a France-based not for-profit organisation, and Amnesty International of potential targets of surveillance by the clients of NSO, the Israeli firm that sells the spyware.

3. Army troops replace militias at Afghan border

• Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed has said that Pakistan has moved the Frontier Constabulary, Levies Force and other militias from the front line positions along the Pak-Afghan border as the army has started to man those positions.
• He said the FC Balochistan and other militias working under the interior ministry had been called back from border patrolling.
• `Now regular army troops are manning the border after replacing the paramilitary forces,` the minister said, adding the decision had been made in wake of the volatile situation across the border

4. FBR official named member of UN tax body

• United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has appointed Mohammad Ashfaq Ahmed of Pakistan as member of the Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters for a term of four years.
• Selected on the recommendation of the Pakistan government, Mr Ahmed is among the distinguished group of 25 tax experts from around the world to serve as members of the committee for the 2021-25 term.
• He is currently holding the post of director general of international taxes at the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR)

5. G20 ministers fail to agree on climate targets

• Energy and environment ministers from the Group of 20 rich nations have failed to agree on the wording of a key climate change commitment in their final communique, Italy`s Ecological Transition Minister Roberto Cingolani said on July 23, 2021.
• The G20 meeting was seen as a decisive step ahead of United Nations climate talks, known as COP 26, which takes place in 100 days` time in Glasgow in November.
• The failure to agree to common language ahead of that gathering will be seen as setback to hopes of securing a meaningful accord in Scotland.

6. Australia foils UNESCO attempt to downgrade Great Barrier Reef

• Australia on July 23, 2021 garnered enough international support to defer for two years an attempt by the United Nations cultural organisation to downgrade the Great Barrier Reef`s World Heritage status because of damage caused by climate change.
• UNESCO had recommended that its World Heritage Committee add the world`s largest coral reefeco system off the northeast Australian coast to the World Heritage in Danger list, mainly due to rising ocean temperatures.
• But Australian-proposed amendments to the draft decision at a committee meeting in China on Friday deferred the in danger question until 2023.
• In the meantime, a monitoring mission will visit the reef to determine how the impact of climate change can be managed

7. No peace till Ghani`s removal from power: Taliban spokesman

• The Taliban say they don`t want to monopolise power, but they insist there won`t be peace in Afghanistan until there is a new negotiated government in Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani is removed.
• In an interview, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, who is also a member of the group`s negotiating team, laid out the insurgents` stance on what should come next in a country on the precipice.
• The Taliban have swiftly captured territory in recent weeks, seized strategic border crossings and are threatening a number of provincial capitals, as the last US and Nato soldiers leave Afghanistan. This week, the top US military officer, Gen Mark Milley, told a Pentagon press conference that the Taliban have strategic momentum, and he did not rule out a complete Taliban takeover. But he said it is not inevitable. `I don`t think the end game is yet written,` he said

8. President Xi makes rare trip to Tibet

• President Xi Jinping is on a rare trip to China`s politically sensitive region of Tibet, state media reported on July 23, 2021, the first such visit by the country`s top leader in more than three decades.
• Tibet has alternated over the centuries between independence and control by China, which says it `peacefully liberated` the rugged plateau in 1951 and brought infrastructure and education to the previously underdeveloped region.
• In footage released on Friday by state broadcaster CCTV, Xi was seen greeting a crowd wearing ethnic costumes and waving Chinese flags as he left his plane, in a red carpet welcome as dancers performed around him.

9. Senior journalist Arif Nizami laid to rest

• Senior journalist and analyst Arif Nizami passed away on July 21, 2021 after remaining hospitalised for around two weeks. He was laid to rest at Miani Sahib Graveyard in the evening.
• Mr Nizami had suffered a heart attack and was under treatment at a private hospital, but could not survive. He has left behind his wife and sons Ali, Asad and Yousaf.
• Son of Hameed Nizami, the founder of Nawa-i-Wagt media group, Arif Nizami was born in October 1948 and served as the editor of English daily The Nation for around two decades.

10. Tokyo Olympics begin with muted ceremony, empty stadium

• Belated and beleaguered, the virus-delayed Tokyo Summer Olympics finally opened on July 23, 2021 night with cascading fireworks and made-for-TV choreography that unfolded in a near-empty stadium, a colourful but strangely subdued ceremony that set a striking tone to match a unique pandemic Games.
• As their opening played out, devoid of the usual crowd energy, the Olympics convened amid simmering anger and disbelief in much of the host country, but with hopes from organisers that the excitement of the sports to follow would offset the widespread opposition

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