Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs/News (Aug 16 2023) for CSS

Table of Contents

6. China`s fertility rate drops to record low

China`s fertility rate is estimated to have dropped to a record low of 1.09 in 2022, the National Business Daily said on Tuesday, a figure likely to rattle authorities as they try to boost the country`s declining number of new births.
The state-backed daily said the figure from China`s Population and Development Research Centre put it as having the lowest fertility level among countries with a population of more than 100 million.
China`s fertility rate is already one of the world`s lowest alongside South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore

7. UK charges three with spying for Russia

Five people were arrested in the UK on suspicion of breaching the Official Secrets Act, police said on Tuesday, with reports they were detained for allegedly spying for Russia.
The three individuals are Bulgarian nationals, who were alleged to be working for Russian security services, the BBC said in its report, saying they had been held as part of a major national security investigation

8. German FM axes trip after plane breaks down

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was forced on Tuesday to scrap her trip to Australia, New Zealand and Fiji after her plane suffered recurring technical problems, the latest in a series of incidents to hit the German fleet.
`We tried everything but unfortunately it`s logistically not possible to carry out my Indo-Pacific travel (plans) without the defective plane,` the minister wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. `That is more than annoying,` she added. Baerbock had left on Sunday for the week-long trip but her plane had suffered an outage after refuelling in Abu Dhabi

9. US will welcome Iran`s decision to slow down N-plan, says Blinken

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday he could not confirm a report that Iran slowed its pace of amassing near-weapons-grade enriched uranium but would welcome any Iranian steps to de-escalate its `growing nuclear threat.
Blinken also told reporters that Iran moving US detainees into house arrest was not related to any other aspect of US policy toward Iran, which he said reflected a strategy of deterrence, pressure and diplomacy.

10. Russian strikes hit Ukraine areas far from front lines

Russian air strikes hit two western regions of Ukraine bordering Nato member Poland and other areas on Tuesday, killing three people in a factory and wounding more than a dozen, Ukrainian officials said.
Local media said the attacks were the largest air assault on the Lviv region since the Russian invasion in February 2022. The fatalities were reported in the north-western region of Volyn. Officials said an industrial enterprise in the regional capital Lutsk was struck in the overnight attack. Several people were also hospitalised, Governor Yuriy Pohulyaiko said