Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs / News (May 23, 2021) for CSS, PMS

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May 23, 2021: National / International Current Affairs

1. Colleges, varsities to remain closed in Lahore, 22 other dists of Punjab

• The Punjab Higher Education Department (HED) on May 22, 2021 extended closure of colleges and universities in 23 districts of the province due to increase in the number of coronavirus cases.
• According to a notification of the HED, `Pursuant to the decisions taken in the meeting of National Command & Operation Centre (NCOC) held on May 19, all public and private colleges in following districts shall remain closed till further orders. The districts include Attock, Gujranwala, Layyah, Okara, Bahawalpur,Gujrat, Lodhran, Rahim Yar Khan, Bhakkar, Khanewal, Mianwali, Rawalpindi, Dera Ghazi Khan, Khushab, Multan, Sargodha, Faisalabad, Lahore, Muzaffargarh and Toba Tek Singh.
• It further states: `Colleges in the remaining areas will follow staggered attendance schedules while all the authorities concerned shall ensure the observance and compliance of Covid-19 SOPs in letter and spirit.

2. Food import bill increases by 53.93pc in 10 months

• Pakistan`s food import bill grew by 53.93 per cent to $6.899 billion year-on-year during the 10 months of the current fiscal year (10MFY21) mainly due to sugar and wheat imports to bridge the shortfall in domestic production of agriculture produce.
• The rising food import bill also triggered trade deficit, which would cause some uneasiness on the external side for the government in upcoming months.
• Data compiled by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) showed the share of food items in the total import bill reached 15.41pc this year, compared to 11.79pc last year, making the country dependent on imports to ensure food security.

3. AKU awards degrees to 667 students at first global convocation

• The class of 2020 ended its journey at the Aga Khan University (AKU) as some 667 students from three continents received their degrees in the first-ever global convocation of the varsity that was livestreamed to worldwide viewers on May 22, 2021.
• The graduates belonged to Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and the United Kingdom.
• Addressing the ceremony through video link, His Highness the Aga Khan, the AKU`s founder and chancellor, praised the graduates for having chosen the path of service to humanity. He expressed his pride in the university`s contributions to the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic and saluted the courage and resilience of its faculty, staff and students

4. Soldier martyred in terrorist firing from Afghanistan

• A Pakistan soldier was martyred in an exchange of fire with Afghanistan-based terrorists in North Waziristan tribal district on May 22, 2021 night.
• According to an Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) statement, terrorists based inside Afghanistan from across the international border opened fire on a military post in North Waziristan tribal district.
• The Pakistani troops responded to the attack in a befitting manner.
• However, the ISPR said, during the fighting Sepoy Umar Daraz received a bullet injury and embraced martyrdom. The 32-year-old soldier hailed from Jhang.

5. Palestinians pick up pieces in ravaged Gaza after Israel ceasefire

• Gazans tried to piece back their lives on May 22, 2021 after a devastating 11-day conflict with Israel that killed more than 200 people and made thousands homeless in the impoverished Palestinian enclave.
• Authorities started distributing tents, mattresses and covers to those in need in the Gaza Strip, a reporter said, a day after a ceasefire ended deadly Israeli air strikes on the besieged coastal enclave and rocket fire out of it towards Israel.
• Attention turned to rebuilding the territory controlled by Hamas, with the United Nations saying that at least 6,000 people had been made homeless

6. Delhi tells social media firms to take down `Indian variant` posts

• India`s government has ordered social media platforms to take down content that refers to the `Indian variant` of the coronavirus.
• The B.1.617 variant was first detected in India last year and has been blamed for much of a devastating Covid-19 wave that has battered South Asian nations in recent weeks.
• It has spread to Britain and at least 43 other countries, where `Indian variant` has become a widely used term.
• The government order, sent on May 21, 2021 by the electronics and information technology ministry, highlighted government sensitivity to accusations that it has mishandled the new surge.

7. Countries urge broader patent waivers than just Covid vaccines

• Dozens of countries have revised a proposal at the WTO for patent waivers for medical tools needed to combat Covid, insisting it must be broader than just vaccines, non-governmental organisations said on May 22, 2021.
• More than 60 countries have presented a revision of their text before the World Trade Organisation on ditching intellectual property protections for Covid-19 jabs and other medical tools while the pandemic rages, according to the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity and NGO Knowledge Ecology International (KEI).
• KEI published what it said was the revised text, which pushed for the waiver to be broad and long-lasting.

8. In 1958 US considered nuclear strike on China over Taiwan: documents

• US military planners pushed for nuclear strikes on mainland China in 1958 to protect Taiwan from an invasion by Communist forces, classified documents posted online by Daniel Ellsberg of `Pentagon Papers` fame show.
• US planners also assumed that the Soviet Union would aid China and retaliate with nuclear weapons a price they deemed worth paying to protect Taiwan, according to the document, first reported by the New York Times.
• Former military analyst Ellsberg posted online the classified portion of a top-secret document on the crisis that had been only partially declassified in 1975.

9. Lewandowski breaks Mueller`s 49-year record on final day

• With coach Hansi Flick and several players of the old guard Javi Martinez, David Alaba and Jerome Boateng bidding farewell to the club, and 250 invited fans in the 75,000-seat arena, it was an emotional afternoon for Bayern with the championship long wrapped up.
• It did not take long for the hosts to take the lead, with Augsburg`s Jeffrey Gouweleeuw stabbing the ball into his own net from a Serge Gnabry cutback in the ninth minute.
• Gnabry then headed in their second goal in the 23rd after Gikiewicz had saved a point blank effort by Lewandowski.

10. China`s `father of hybrid rice` dies

• Yuan Longping, a Chinese scientist who developed higher-yield rice varieties that helped feed people around the world, died on May 22, 2021 at a hospital in the southern city of Changsha, the Xinhua News agency reported. He was 91.
• Yuan spent his life researching rice and was a household name in China, known by the nickname Father of Hybrid Rice.
• Worldwide, a fifth of all rice now comes from species created by hybrid rice following Yuans breakthrough discoveries, according to the website of the World Food Prize, which he won in 2004

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