Current Affairs Quiz - June 2022

Notes:
European Space Agency’s Gaia mission has released a set of new data, which has revealed the phenomena of ‘starquakes’.
Starquakes are massive movements on the surface of stars similar to earthquake. The star-mapping Gaia probe has covered almost 1.8 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. The data has also revealed the largest chemical map of the entire Milky Way, showing the DNA of millions of stars.

Notes:
Union External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar addressed the Ministerial Session of the 12^th edition of Delhi Dialogue in New Delhi, attended by other ASEAN Foreign Ministers. The theme this year of DD-XII is ‘Building Bridges in the Indo-Pacific’.
The dialogue followed the Special ASEAN-India Foreign Ministers’ Meeting (SAIFMM), hosted by India in New Delhi. The 24th ASEAN-India Senior Officials meeting also took place in New Delhi.

Notes:
The European Commission has recommended that Ukraine should be granted European Union candidate status.
The recommendation from the EU’s executive arm will be discussed by leaders of the 27-nation bloc during the upcoming summit in Brussels. The European Commission also proposed making Moldova, which shares a long border with Ukraine, an EU membership candidate.

Notes:
England hit a world record one-day international score of 498 against Netherlands and won the match by 232 runs in Amstelveen.
The England team beat their previous mark of 481-6 set against Australia at Trent Bridge in 2018. In the recent match, three England players scored centuries with Liam Livingstone making the fastest half-century in England’s ODI history off just 17 balls. Player of the match Jos Buttler finished on 162 not out, with century off 47 balls.

Notes:
Edakoodam is the name of a wooden puzzle toy, which was popular among children and was a part of every household in Kerala, during earlier times.
There are many efforts being taken in Kerala to popularise the wooden puzzle by teaching the art of making and solving Edakoodam popular among children and adults.

Notes:
Former rebel fighter Gustavo Petro secured majority of votes in the Colombia’s presidential election and is set to become the first leftist President of the country.
A shift of South American politics to the left has been observed with the victories in Peru last year, and in Chile and Honduras this year. During the pandemic, Colombia saw anti-establishment protests against corruption, stagnancy, increased taxation and a new health care reform.

Notes:
The Army Training Command (ARTRAC) has announced partnership with Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras to establish a 5G Test-bed at the Military College of Telecommunication at Indore.
It will be used for the army’s operational use of 5G technology, especially along the borders. Under the MoU, IIT-Madras would provide consultancy, supported by research for feasibility studies and prototype development on 5G-enabled future communications.

 

Notes:
Former US President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863 to free African Americans in secessionist Confederate states from slavery. It remained ineffective for more than two years as the slave owners withheld this information from their slaves. The last of the enslaved African Americans were freed on June 19, 1865 – two months following the end of the Civil War.

Notes:
China’s first independent interplanetary mission Tianwen-1 successfully landed Zhurong rover on the Martian surface. This made China the third country after the US and USSR to land on Mars. It was launched aboard a Long March 5 rocket in 2020

Notes:
The Varada River in central Karnataka is a tributary of Tungabhadra River. The state government of Karnataka is currently facing criticism from environmentalists for the proposed Bedti-Varada river linking project. The Bedti-Varada river-linking project seeks to pump about 524 million cubic metres (mcm) of water from Sirsi in Uttara Kannada to arid regions of Raichur and Koppal districts. It has met with strong opposition from local activists, who say that project will destroy 2,125 acres of forests in the ecologically sensitive parts of Western Ghats.