Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs/News (Jun 27 2023) for CSS

Table of Contents

6. NA body for removal of loopholes in visa issuance to Afghan nationals

• Irked by alleged lack of transparency in visa processing for Afghan citizens, a National Assembly committee on June 26, 2023 called for plugging loopholes in the entire process from submission of visa applications to their approvals.
• The National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, which met with Mohsin Dawar MNA in the chair, sought separate reports from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Interior and the FIA to identify the loopholes and subsequently root out corruption in the visa processes.
• The committee chairman, while commenting on the opacity and corruption, stated that exploiting the vulnerabilities of Afghans was inhuman

7. AI-powered security system installed in Peshawar

• The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has installed an artificial intelligence powered `command and control system` for the security of the provincial capital`s red zone.
• The system, the first of its kind in the country, was inaugurated by Peshawar Corps Commander Lieutenant-General Ahsan Azhar Hayat at the Central Police Office on Monday.
• With the help of 365 surveillance cameras and facial and vehicle recognition features, it will identify all visitors to the red zone, according to provincial police chief Akhtar Hayat

8. Sri Lanka scraps monkey business plan

• Bankrupt Sri Lanka`s government on Monday said it was scrapping plans to export around 100,000 endangered monkeys to China following an outcry and a court case by animal lovers.
• The toque macaque is endemic to Sri Lanka and common on the island of 22 million people but is classed as endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list.
• Agriculture minister Mahinda Amaraweera said in June that China wanted the monkeys for 1,000 zoos across the country, describing the move as a solution to the animals destroying crops. But on Monday, Sri Lanka`s Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC) told the Court of Appeal that it had decided not to go ahead with the export and that the action filed by 30 wildlife and environmental activists could be terminated

9. US, allies not involved in uprising against Kremlin, says Biden

• US President Joe Biden on June 26, 2023 said a brief uprising by Russian mercenaries against the Kremlin was part of a struggle within the Russian system and the Washington and its allies were not involved in it.
• `We made clear we were not involved, we had nothing to do with this, Biden said in his first comments on the uprising by Wagner mercenaries that fizzled over the weekend.
• At a White House event, Biden addressed the dramatic power struggle that erupted over the weekend when the mutineers barrelled toward Moscow only to stop before reaching the capital

10. US to stop funding research at Israeli universities in West Bank

• The United States said on Monday it would stop funding scientific research with Israeli academic institutions in the West Bank, taking a new step away from validating the occupation of Palestinian territories.
• The decision by President Joe Biden`s administration reverses a move made under Donald Trump that rejected the wide international consensus that Israel illegally occupies the West Bank, which it seized in the 1967 war.
• New guidance to US government agencies advises that `engaging in bilateral scientific and technological cooperation with Israel in geographic areas which came under the administration of Israel after 1967 and which remain subject to final-status negotiations is inconsistent with US foreign policy`, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said