Daily Top-10 Current Affairs MCQs/News (April 23, 2020) for CSS, PMS

WELCOME TO CSS TIMES DAY BY DAY CURRENT AFFAIRS, YOUR BEST SOURCE FOR UP-TO-DATE AND DAILY TOP CURRENT AFFAIRS 2019 FOR PREPARATION OF CSS, PMS, BANKING, NTS, RAILWAYS AND ALL COMPETITIVE EXAMS. “DAY TO DAY CURRENT AFFAIRS” BASICALLY IS TOP 10 NEWS SUMMARY ON CURRENT HAPPENINGS OF NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL IMPORTANCE FOR ALL EXAMINATIONS

April 23 2020: National / International Current Affairs

1. Punjab implements anti-hoarding ord

• The Punjab government on April 22, 2020 promulgated the Punjab Prevention of Hoarding Ordinance 2020 to launch a comprehensive crackdown on hoarders ahead of Ramazan.
• The ordinance has declared hoarding of any article an offence punishable with simple imprisonment up to three years and fine equivalent to 50 per cent of the value of the articles involved in the case.
• For the persons informing the government about hoarding, the ordinance has offered reward equivalent to 10 per cent of the amount released to the government exchequer. The reward will be offered after the information about hoarding results in a conviction and release of funds to the government exchequer.

2. IDB pledges $650 million support to Pakistan

• The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has agreed to provide $650 million financial support to Pakistan to help absorb the impact of Covid-19 outbreak.
• Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar had a video call with Islamic Development Bank President Dr. Bandar M.H. Hajjar and discussed latest situation arising out of the Covid-19.
• Mr Hajjar assured `bank`s support to Pakistan in the testing times under the pandemic,` the statement said adding the president said International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITDC) has been directed to immediately finalise $500 million for import of oil and liquefied natural gas and an amount of $150 million is being allocated to mitigate the pandemic impact.

3. Portal launched to publicise data about cash distribution

• Prime Minister Imran Khan on April 22, 2020 accorded approval to the `Ehsaas Emergency Cash Information Portal` to provide each and every detail of the government`s flagship Ehsaas Cash Distribution Programme to people.
• The prime minister vowed to expand the programme to provide relief to the poor and daily wage earners during the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus-induced lockdown.
• At a meeting, the prime minister expressed satisfaction over transparency and observance of merit in the programme and said it was being run without any political influence and considerations.

4. China to conduct clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines in Pakistan

• The National Institute of Health (NIH) in collaboration with China has decided to conduct clinical trials of inactivated novel coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines in the country.
• Meanwhile, expert on vaccines stressed upon open trial and data sharing as non-implementation on trials protocol could be dangerous for healthy individuals picked for the trial.
• Executive Director (ED) NIH Maj. General Prof. Aamer Ikram and General Manager China Sinopharm International Corporation in this regard held a correspondence for the clinical trials and agreed for expediting the documentation to start the process.

5. Food Deptt bans wheat trading in grain markets

• First time in country’s history Food Deptt Punjab has banned wheat trading in grain markets across Punjab including Rahim Yar Khan.
• As per details some officials of Food Deptt visited grain market on April 22, 2020 and ordered to the traders that all wheat lying in grain market to be shifted to the warehouses of Food Deptt and in future no trader is allowed to sell wheat to any person.
• Officials further told that all food grain licences has been suspended and any person, who will involve in wheat buying or selling will be punished.

6. Ameen-ul-Haq takes oath as Federal Minister

• President Dr. Arif Alvi on April 22, 2020 administered oath to Syed Ameen-ul-Haque of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan as Federal Minister.
• Ameen-ul-Haque has been inducted in the Federal Cabinet after MQM-P’s Dr. Maqbool Siddiqui had resigned from his post as Minister for Information Technology.
• Later he asked the Prime Minister to induct another person from his party because of his engagements relating to party matters

7. Wikipedia breaks five-year record with high traffic in pandemic

• While most technology platforms have stepped up efforts to deal with the proliferation of coronavirus information online, global numbers indicate that users are switching to Wikipedia as a trusted source to share and find Covid-19 updates.
• Around 4,504 Wikipedia pages have been created to record different aspects of the pandemic, its spread to different countries, the race to find a treatment and viral conspiracies. Of the total pages, the English-language articles on Wikipedia about the virus alone have registered over 240 million views.
• Earlier in April, the Wikipedia Foundation observed a record five year high with over 673 million page views in a single day across its projects. The volume of traffic was largely-ifnotentirely-toCovid-19 Wikipedia articles.
• The Wikimedia Foundation is a nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia.

8. US Army to test vaccine on humans in September

• As the United States announced its highest single-day death toll on April 22, 2020, the US Army said it plans to start testing new Covid-19 vaccines on humans in September.
• Statistics released by various monitoring agencies showed that a total of 2,804 coronavirus patients died in the United States on Tuesday, surpassing the previous high of about 2,500 deaths in a day, recorded last week. By April 22, 2020 afternoon, 800 more deaths were added to the list while infections had climbed to almost 825,000.
• As the death tolls began to rise again, a leading US model upped its projected death toll by August to 66,000, a 10 percent increase from its previous prediction.

9. Iran launches military satellite; Trump threatens to attack ships

• Iran said it put its first military satellite into orbit on April 22, 2020, making it an emerging `world power`, as the US issued new threats amid rising naval tensions in the Gulf.
• The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps hailed the launch as a milestone despite repeated US allegations that the space programme is a cover to develop ballistic missiles.
• `Today, we are looking at the Earth from the sky, and it is the beginning of the formation of a world power,` the Guards` commander Hossein Salami said, quoted by Fars news agency.
• Tensions between the United States and Iran escalated again last week with Washington accusing its arch-foe of harassing its ships in the Gulf.

10. 2019 was Europe’s hottest year ever: EU

• Last year was the hottest in history across Europe as temperature records were shattered by a series of extreme heat waves, the European Union’s satellite monitoring surface said April 22, 2020.
• In its annual report on the state of the climate, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said that 11 of the continent’s 12 warmest years on record have been since 2000 as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise.
• Warm conditions and summer heatwaves contributed to widespread drought across southern Europe, while areas of the Arctic were close to one degree Celsius hotter than a typical year, it said

Check our daily updated ‘s Complete Day by Day Current Affairs Notes

April 2020:
[catlist name=”April 2020″]

March 2020:
[catlist name=”March 2020″]

February 2020:
[catlist name=”February 2020″]

January 2020:
[catlist name=”January 2020″]

December 2019:
[catlist name=”December 2019″]

November 2019:
[catlist name=”November 2019″]