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May 21, 2021: National / International Current Affairs
1. Pakistan for deployment of global force to save Palestinians
• Pakistan urged the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on May 20, 2021 to deploy an international protection force to end the ongoing violence in Palestine and to disengage Israelis and Palestinians.
• `The General Assembly should call for concrete steps to protect the Palestinians,` said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi while addressing a special UNGA meeting on Palestine in New York. `We should deploy an international protection force, as was called for in General Assembly Resolution ES-10/20 and as demanded by the Islamic Summit Conference on 18 May 2018,` he said.
2. New KP ministers get portfolios
• Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mahmood Khan on May 20, 2021 assigned portfolios to three ministers more than a month after they were sworn in.
• He also changed the portfolios of his one adviser and two special assistants.
• A notification said Atif Khan had been assigned three portfolios, including food, science technology and information technology.
• Fazal-i-Shakoor Khan, a new entrant to the cabinet, was given the portfolio of law, parliamentary affairs and human rights, while Shakeel Ahmad Khan was notified as the minister for public health engineering.
3. Govt approves proposal to launch e-sports initiative
• The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government on May 20, 2021 approved a proposal to launch e-sports initiative to support e-gamers of the province in developing and enhancing their skills.
• According to officials, Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, who also holds the portfolio of minister for sports and tourism department, has approved a summary moved by the relevant department.
• Documents available with Dawn show that under the proposal, directorate general sports and directorate of youth affairs would collaborate to set up e-sports academies or revive at `Jawan Markaz` across the province and sports stadiums. The proposal says that e-sports have become a major industry globally as some of the top gamers around the world battle each other in a wide range of games and it is a huge spectator sport
4. Israel accepts Egyptian proposal for Gaza `ceasefire`
• Israel`s `security cabinet` approved a end to military operations in the bruising 11-day hostilities in Gaza Strip on May 20, 2021.
• A spokesman for Hamas said the group had decided to accept the `ceasefire`.
• Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu`s office announced the ceasebre after a late-night meeting. It said Israel had unanimously accepted an Egyptian proposal, though the sides were still determining exactly when it was to take effect
5. Boko Haram leader `badly wounded` in bid to kill himself
• Nigeria`s Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau was seriously wounded after trying to kill himself to avoid capture during clashes with the rival jihadists allied to the militant Islamic State group in the north of the country, two intelligence sources said on May 20, 2021.
• Shekau`s Boko Haram faction and fighters from the Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) had been battling in northeastern Borno state, where Iswap has become the dominant force in Nigeria`s more than decade-long jihadist insurgency.
6. World`s largest iceberg breaks off Antarctica
• A huge ice block has broken off from western Antarctica into the Weddell Sea, becoming the largest iceberg in the world and earning the name A-76.
• It is the latest in a series of large ice blocks to dislodge in a region acutely vulnerable to climate change, although scientists said in this case it appeared to be part of a natural polar cycle.
• Slightly larger than the Spanish island of Majorca, A-76 had been monitored by scientists since May 13 when it began to separate from the Ronne Ice Shelf, according to the US National Ice Center. The iceberg, measuring around 170 kilometres (105 miles)long and 25 kilometres wide, with an area of 4,320 square kilometres is now floating in the Weddell Sea
7. US waives sanctions against Russian firm building gas pipeline to Germany
• The Kremlin on May 20, 2021 praised the waiving of US sanctions against the Russian controlled builder of a Russia-Germany gas pipeline, while Ukraine`s leader warned Joe Biden`s administration against cancelling the sanctions altogether.
• The US waiver was announced as Moscow and Washington seek to defuse the biggest crisis in ties in years ahead of a planned summit between Biden and Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
• On Wednesday, the United States formally waived sanctions against Swiss-based Nord Stream 2 AG, the Russian-controlled builder of a major Russian-German gas pipeline
8. Sanders tables resolution in US Senate to block arms sales to Israel
• Bernie Sanders introduced a resolution in the US Senate on May 20, 2021 to block a $735 million weapons sale to Israel, mirroring a symbolic action by the House of Representatives in response to the situation in Gaza Strip.
• `At a moment when US-made bombs are devastating Gaza, and killing women and children, we cannot simply let another huge arms sale go through without even a congressional debate,` said Sanders, an independent who votes with Democrats.
• Democratic President Joe Biden`s administration approved the potential sale of$735m in weapons to Israel this year, and sent it to Congress for formal review
9. Microsoft to unplug Internet Explorer
• Microsoft Corp is pulling the plug on its once omnipresent browser, Internet Explorer, next year as it prepares to battle market leader Chrome with its slicker Edge browser.
• Launched in 1995, Internet Explorer became the dominant browser for over a decade as it was bundled with Microsoft`s Windows operating system that came pre-installed in billions of computers.
• The browser, however, started losing out to Google`s Chrome in the late 2000s and has become a subject of countless internet memes for its sluggishness in comparison to its rivals.
10. Remaining PSL ties to be held in Abu Dhabi in June
• Finally, the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) has come into a position to make the much-awaited announcement that the remaining 20 matches of the HBL Pakistan Super League (PSL) will be played as per plan in Abu Dhabi in the month of June.
• `Pakistan Cricket Board has confirmed it has received all outstanding approvals and exemptions from the United Arab Emirates government for staging of the remaining 20 HBL Pakistan Super League matches in Abu Dhabi,` the PCB stated in a press release issued on Thursday which was the last day to receive these approvals and exemptions, prior to which a postponement looked very much on the cards
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