International Places in News Part 2

/ IR

World’s first yoga University

  • As part of the 6th International Yoga Day commemorations, the world’s first yoga university outside India has been launched in Los Angeles,
  • Offering programmes that combine scientific principles and modern research approaches to the ancient Indian practice of yoga.

The Vivekananda Yoga University (VaYU) was jointly launched Yesterday by Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan and Chairperson of the Standing Committee on External Affairs P P Chaudhary during a virtual event held at the Consulate General of India in New York.

  • Eminent Indian yoga guru Dr. H R Nagendra, Chancellor of Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (SVYASA) is the first Chairman of VaYU.
  • The university “combines best of the East and best of the West. Best of the East is yoga and its applications and the best of the West is modern scientific research.”

Founded on the principles of Swami Vivekananda’s preion for universal welfare, VaYU will offer online graduate programmes based on scientific principles and modern research approaches to yoga.

Nile Dam Deal

  • Ethiopia, which is building the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) which worries its downstream neighbours Egypt and Sudan, said it would fill the reservoir in a few weeks, as planned, providing enough time for talks to be concluded.
  • The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is being built about 15 km from the border with Sudan on the Blue Nile, the source of most of the Nile’s waters.
  • Ethiopia’s statement said the African Union, and not the U.N. Security Council, will assist the countries in the negotiations and provide technical support.

 

Nile states end talks

  • A round of negotiations between three key Nile basin countries over Ethiopia’s contentious hydroelectric dam ended with no agreement.
  • Recent round, mediated by the African Union and observed by American and European officials, proved no different. Filling the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam without a deal would sharply escalate tensions in the bitter dispute.
  • Meanwhile the countries agreed they would send their reports to the president of the African Union, and reconvene in a week to determine next steps.
  • The African country stands to benefit from Ethiopia’s project through access to cheap electricity and reduced flooding, but it has also raised fears over the dam’s operation, which could endanger its own smaller dams, depending on the amount of water discharged daily downstream.

 

Que- The Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (SPO) at The Hague in the Netherlands announced recently that it has filed a 10-count indictment charging X president Hashim Thaci and another X politician Kadri Vesli of war crimes, including murder, forced disappearance of persons, persecution and torture during the X independence war in the 1990s. Here X represents to which country

  1. a) Serbia
  2. b) Kosovo
  3. c) Albania
  4. d) Montenegro

Ans- (b)

  • Kosovo – a landlocked country in the Western Balkans with a population of more than 1.8 million situated north of Greece and surrounded by Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia and Montenegro, whose current residents are ethnic Albanians and Serb, Roma and other minority groups.

 

Que- The USA’s House of Representatives voted nearly along party lines recently to grant statehood to which district as the 51st state of USA

  1. a) Washington D.C.
  2. b) Los Angeles
  3. c) New York
  4. d) Seattle

Ans- (a)

  • Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and also known as D.C. or Washington, is the capital city of the United States of America
  • The bill would create a new state of Washington, Douglass Commonwealth, in honor of the Maryland-born Douglass. It also would reduce the size of the federal district to a tourist-friendly area that includes the White House, the Capitol, the Supreme Court, federal monuments and the federal executive, legislative and judicial office buildings adjacent to the National Mall and the Capitol.

 

World record lightning ‘megaflash’ in South America

  • The largest lightning discharge in recorded history occurred on Oct. 31, 2018, in southern Brazil, although the flash stretched from eastern Argentina all the way to the Atlantic.
  • The complex, spider-like discharge spanned a horizontal distance of roughly 440 miles.
  • The WMO also reported an excessively long-duration lightning flash over Argentina on March 4, 2019. It lasted 16.73 seconds. That flash also spanned several hundred miles.

What is a ‘megaflash?’

  • For years, lightning has been treated as a local event. It result from an imbalance of electrical charge. When the buildup of a charge difference overwhelms the “dielectric strength” of air, a spark jumps between the two charges.
  • But emerging research reveals that some lightning events may be “mesoscale” in nature, reaching the scale of the occasionally massive sprawling storm complexes that create them.
  • Large-scale bands or arcs of thunderstorms, known as “mesoscale convective systems,” can yield extensive electric fields; once in a while, it’s possible for a disturbance in the field to trigger a lightning strike that will distribute charge over enormous sectors of that field. These so-called megaflashes do exactly that, sparks flying over hundreds of miles.

 

ZEALANDIA

  • Once part of the same land mass as Antarctica and Australia, the lost continent of Zealandia broke off 85 million years ago and eventually sank below the ocean, where it stayed largely hidden for centuries.
  • The idea of a potential continent in this area has been around for some time, and the name “Zealandia” was first coined by geophysicist Bruce Luyendyk in 1995.
  • Zealandia used to be part of Gondwana, the supercontinent that once held many of the continents we know today, like Africa and South America.
  • About 85 million years ago, Zealandia split off from Gondwana. The drifting, shifting land mass, about half the size of Australia, was home to dinosaurs and lush rainforest.

 

  • Pacific Plate — the world’s largest tectonic plate — is believed to have sank below the continental crust of Zealandia. This process, called subduction, caused the root of the continent to break off and sink as well.
  • About 94% of Zealandia is now submerged underwater — but some parts of the continent are still above land, making up New Zealand and other small islands. The highest point of Zealandia is Aoraki–Mount Cook at 3,724 meters.
  • GNS Science, a New Zealand research institute, recently published two new maps and an interactive website. The maps cover the shape of the ocean floor and Zealandia’s tectonic profile, which collectively help tell the story of the continent’s origins.
  • The maps also help explain the setting of New Zealand’s volcanoes, sedimentary basins, and other geological features.

 

UN warns of ‘intensified fighting’ in Rakhine state of Myanmar

  • The United Nations has called for ‘urgent measures to spare civilians’ in the Rakhine province of Northwest Myanmar in the midst of a military crackdown on Arakan Army announced by the government.
  • The UN called upon both the parties, the Myanmar military and the Arakan Army to respect international humanitarian law. 
  • The British, US and Canadian embassies in Myanmar also issued a joint statement recently expressing concern over the reports of ‘clearance operations’ by Myanmar military in the Kyauktan village tract.
  • Both Arakan and Chin provinces have been placed under internet blockade by the government.

 

Que- Skardu Airbase recently in news is in which place

  1. a) China
  2. b) Nepal
  3. c) Afghanistan
  4. d) POK

Ans- (d)

  • Pakistani airbases in PoK are under India’s radar after a Chinese refueller aircraft landed in Skardu last week. Chinese air activity along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in Eastern Ladakh has also increased.

 

China passes controversial Hong Kong national security law

  • Critics fear it will crush political freedoms and pave the way for China to cement its control over the semi-autonomous territory.
  •  It criminalises secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces. 
  • The committee also voted to list the law in Hong Kong’s basic law, the city’s mini-constitution.
  • The measure, widely expected to be passed by the rubber-stamping legislative body, deals a devastating blow to Hong Kong’s autonomy as promised under the “one country, two systems” framework, the terms of the former British colony’s handover to Chinese control in 1997.

Que- Which country has become the first African country to submit results for Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

  1. a) Rwanada
  2. b) Kenya
  3. c) Uganda
  4. d) South Africa

Ans- (c) 

  • REDD+ is a mechanism developed by the parties to the UNFCCC to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.
  • The results submission to the UNFCCC has paved the way for potential results-based payments to the country, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said on June 24, 2020.
  • It provides financial incentives to developing countries that prove they stopped deforestation during a certain period of time. This is done through rigorous UN-backed technical evaluations.
  • The country’s forest cover had depleted to 8 per cent from 24 per cent in the 1990s, largely attributed to human encroachment, including for charcoal, timber and agriculture.
  • The document submitted by the government will help Uganda receive funds through the Green Climate Fund’s forest conservation scheme.
  • Brazil, which received $96.5 million under the results-based payments, was the first recipient country.

 

NAFTA 2.0

  • The Agreement between the United States of America, the United Mexican States, and Canada (USMCA) is a free trade agreement between Canada, Mexico, and the United States that has been ratified by each country.
  • Rather than a wholly new agreement, it has been characterized as “NAFTA 2.0.
  • “On July 1, 2020, the USMCA entered into force, replacing NAFTA.
  • It includes bigger incentives to manufacture products in North America, new guidelines for digital trade and stronger labor protections for Mexican workers.
  • But many of the deal’s requirements, like expanding worker rights or opening up the flow of agriculture, have not been fully met, or still need to be phased in over the coming months and years.
  • The three-country pact, which was reached after more than two years of negotiations, sought to change Mexico’s labor rules to ensure that workers had the freedom to form unions and bargain for better wages.
  • Mexico’s refusal to accept American biotech products — like genetically modified corn and other crops.

 

Que- Bodele Depression located at the southern edge of the Sahara Desert in north central Africa, is the lowest point in which country 

  1. a) Niger
  2. b) Chad
  3. c) Nigeria
  4. d) Mali

Ans- (b)

  • Dust storms from the Bodele Depression occur on average about 100 days per year. It is the largest source of dust emissions in the world. 
  • The researchers compared the birth and death data of children with satellite-detected changes in the air particle or particulate levels driven by the Bodele dust storms. Association between the two parameters was studied to see if poor air quality was associated with adverse health outcomes in children.
  • Emissions from Bodele contributed greatly to annual average particulate matter 2.5 concentrations across much of Africa, particularly in the north and west. 
  • Due to climate change, the rainfall over the Bodele region is highly uncertain; researchers calculated that changes in rainfall in the region could lead to a 13 per cent reduction, or a 12 per cent increase, in infant mortality rates.