Day by Day Current Affairs (June 26, 2018) | MCQs for CSS, PMS, NTS

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June 26, 2018

1. International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, 26 June

• By resolution 42/112 of 7 December 1987, the General Assembly decided to observe 26 June as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as an expression of its determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse.
• Supported each year by individuals, communities and various organizations all over the world, this global observance aims to raise awareness of the major problem that illicit drugs represent to society
• Building on the success of last year, the theme for 2018 is: “Listen First – Listening to children and youth is the first step to help them grow healthy and safe.” It is an initiative to increase support for prevention of drug use that is based on science and is thus an effective investment in the well-being of children and youth, their families and their communities.
• The UN General Assembly held a Special Session (UNGASS) on drugs in April 2016. This Special Session marked an important milestone in achieving the goals set in the policy document of 2009 “Political Declaration and Plan of Action on International Cooperation towards an Integrated and Balanced Strategy to Counter the World Drug Problem”, which defined action to be taken by Member States as well as goals to be achieved by 2019.

2. Pak-Afghan Track-II hails move to end blame game

• A PakAfghan Track-II initiative on June 25, 2018 welcomed the commitment by the two countries to ending blame game and urged both sides to restrain their spokespersons from giving `knee-jerk` reactions.
• The third episode of `Pakistan-Afghanistan Joint Committee (PAJC), Beyond Boundaries`, which was held in Kabul on June 24, 2018, welcomed commitment by both governments to ref rain from public blame games as they pursue the new dialogue framework.
• Centre for Research and Security Studies hosts the Pakistan part of the initiative.
• Recently, the two governments had agreed on a new framework for bilateral relations called the Afghanistan-Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS). The commencement of the new arrangement has been promising and seems to have provided the basis on which the two sides could build their rapprochement.

3. 264 officials sent back to their depts from CM office

• On the instructions of caretaker Chief Minister Dr Hassan Askari, implementation of austerity policy has been started in the CM Office.
• Under this policy, 151 officers and other staff deputed in the office have been sent back to their respective departments, while services of 113 other officers and staff were also returned to their departments.
• The services of total 264 officials had been handed over to the departments concerned.
• It said only those officials had been retained in the CM Office who were deemed necessary for running the affairs of the caretaker government.

4. Finance minister in Paris to fight for Pakistan’s case over ‘Grey List’

• A Pakistani delegation led by interim Finance Minister Shamshad Akhter is in Paris to present Pakistan’s case before the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) during a meeting on June 25, 2018.
• Pakistan is expected to be placed on the FATF grey list during the crucial six-day meeting from June 24th to 29th in Paris.
• Akhter will apprise the anti-terror financing body of measures that Pakistan has taken to stop money laundering and strangling the terror financing.
• As a part of efforts to implement the FATF counter-terrorist financing operational plan adopted in February this year, on June 20, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan issued the ‘Anti Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Regulations 2018’.
• Moreover, Pakistan also took measures in keeping with FATF regulations. In this regard, on June 20, the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan (SECP) issued ‘Anti Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Regulations 2018’, following FATF’s recommendations.
• In the past, from 2012 to 2015, Pakistan was placed on the FATF grey list. Whereas, FATF is a global body that work against terrorist financing and money laundering.

5. Erdogan secures sweeping powers as rival accepts defeat

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on June 26, 2018 celebrated winning five more years in office with sweeping new powers after a decisive election victory, as his main rival accepted the outcome despite bitter complaints over the conduct of the campaign.
• A night of triumph for Erdogan saw the man who has dominated Turkey for the last 15 years declared winner of 23^rd June’s presidential poll without needing a second round and lead his ruling party-led alliance to an overall majority in parliament.
• Erdogan, whose victory was wider than predicted by many analysts, vowed to “rapidly” implement the new presidential system agreed in an April 2017 referendum that opponents fear will give him autocratic powers and could keep him in office for another decade.
• The new system creates a vertical of power with Erdogan at the top, giving him the power to appoint cabinet ministers and dispensing with the office of prime minister.

6. EU penalises Myanmar generals for Rohingya violations

• The European Union imposed sanctions on seven senior military officials from Myanmar on June 25, 2018, including the general in charge of an operation accused of driving nearly 700,000 Rohingya Muslims to flee to Bangladesh.
• The seven face asset freezes and are banned from travelling to the EU, after the bloc extended an arms embargo and prohibited any training of, or cooperation with Myanmar`s armed forces.
• The sanctions, first reported by Reuters in April, also mark a shift in diplomacy by the EU, which suspended its restrictive measures on the Southeast Asian country in 2012 to support its partial shift to democratic governance in recent years.
• But the plight of the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State, which the United Nations denounced as ethnic cleansing by the military, has soured relations. Yangon rejects all accusations of wrongdoing.
• Last December, the United States imposed sanctions in response to the crackdown on the Rohingya minority in Rakhine. These included sanctions on Major General Maung Maung Soe, who was transferred late last year from his post as the head of Western Command in Rakhine, where Myanmar`s military launched a sweeping counter-insurgency operation in August.

7. Prince William arrives in Israel for first-ever royal visit

• Prince William arrived in Israel on June 26, 2018 for the first-ever official visit of a member of the British royal family to the tumultuous region London once ruled.
• Arriving from neighbouring Jordan, the Duke of Cambridge landed at Israel`s Ben-Gurion International Airport and then departed to Jerusalem, where he will stay at King David Hotel, site of the former administrative headquarters of the British mandate.
• Three decades of British rule between the two world wars helped establish some of the fault lines of today`s Israeli Palestinian conflict, and Britain`s withdrawal in 1948 led to the eventual establishment of Israel and Jordan. Britain has since taken a back seat to the US in mediating peace efforts, and the royal family has mostly steered clear of the region`s toxic politics.
• The prince arrived from Jordan, where he kicked off his five-day Middle East tour by meeting young scientists, refugees and political leaders. He was hosted by Crown Prince Hussein, 23, a member of the Hashemite dynasty Britain helped install in then-Transjordan almost a century ago.

8. Nine EU countries sign up for European military intervention plan

• Nine EU countries on June 25, 2018 signed up to a French plan for a European defence intervention group, including Britain which backs the measure as a way to maintain strong security ties with the bloc after Brexit.
• The idea is for the so-called European Intervention Initiative to be able to lead humanitarian crisis efforts and evacuation operations as well as take on conventional military duties.
• The scheme is separate from other EU defence cooperation, meaning there would be no obstacle to Britain taking part after it leaves the bloc at the end of March next year.
• France, Britain, Germany, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Estonia, Portugal and Spain all signed up for the EII, which French President Emmanuel Macron hopes will prove more effective than the EU`s four military `battle groups` set up in 2007 but never deployed due to political bickering.
• A tenth country, Italy, has also agreed but its new right-wing populist government needs more time to look at the proposal before putting pen to paper, Parly said, insisting it was `a question of details, not substance`.

9. China developing an army of robot spy doves

• China is stepping-up its mass surveillance, with a flock of camera-equipped drones designed to look like doves.
• The surveillance drones are fitted with flapping wings, allowing them to swoop, dive and glide just like the real thing. The robotic spies are almost indistinguishable from real doves and have even been spotted flying in flocks of real birds – helping them to avoid detection from radar.
• More than 30 military and government agencies have already deployed the birdlike drones to spy on the population.
• China has deployed some of its surveillance drones over the country’s westerly region of Xinjiang Uygur, which borders with Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India.
• This area is home to a large Muslim population, and is viewed by the government as a hotbed for separatism, according to the South China Morning Post.

10. Berlin museum returns Nazi-looted treasure

• A Berlin museum June 25, 2018 said it had formally restituted a 15th century religious wooden sculpture to the heirs of former owners, a Jewish couple who fled the Nazi regime.
• The heirs in turn agreed to sell back the medieval artifact, “Three Angels with the Christ Child”, at an undisclosed price to the Bode Museum, which will keep it in its collection.
• The delicately carved 25 centimetre (10 inch) tall sculpture from around 1430 shows three floating angels in the clouds holding a cloth on which lies the sleeping infant Jesus.
• It once belonged to the private collection of Ernst Saulmann, a Jewish industrialist, and his wife Agathe, an architect’s daughter who was one of the few female pilots of her era. As Adolf Hitler’s thugs stepped up their campaign to terrorise Jews, the couple fled Nazi repression in late 1935, initially for Italy. The Nazis confiscated their wealth, including their land and business, a mechanised cotton mill, as well as their private library, art collection and Agathe’s plane.
• The more than 100 artworks were sold off at a Munich auction in 1936.
• The couple were interned in France in Camp Gurs, where Ernst Saulmann’s health severely deteriorated. He died a year after the war ended, in 1946.
• Agathe, having suffered depression after the horrors she endured, committed suicide in 1951.