Current Affairs Quiz - June, 2023

Notes:
The ancient Olmec artefact known as “Gateway to the Underworld” has been returned to Mexico from the US five decades after it was stolen.
The piece, officially known as Monument 9 of Chalcatzingo, is considered Mexico’s most sought-after piece from the ancient Olmec civilization.

Notes:
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) plans to send a new spacecraft to an asteroid belt to investigate the history of the solar system and the potential origins of life.
Emirates Mission to the Asteroid Belt (EMA) aims to visit seven different asteroids and land on one of them called (269) Justitia. It is scheduled for launch in 2028.

Notes:
Pisodonophis kalinga is a newly discovered species of eel found in Palur canal in Odisha’s Ganjam district.
It was found by scientists from the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI). The new species has been named Pisodonophis kalinga after the name of ancient Odisha. It has a snake-like appearance and has length from 560 millimetres to 7 metres.

Notes:
A new Jupiter-size exoplanet ‘TOI 4603b’ with the highest density known till this date and mass 13 times than that of Jupiter, has been discovered by an international team of scientists
ISRO says the discovery of this exoplanet has been made using the indigenously made PRL Advanced Radial-velocity Abu-sky Search spectrograph (PARAS) at the 1.2 m telescope of PRL at its Gurushikhar Observatory in Mount Abu.

Notes:
The WHA recently decided to set up the Global Alliance for Drowning Prevention. Its purpose is to prevent drowning worldwide.
This is the first alliance to address global public health concerns on the issue until 2029. The resolution asked member states to study national drowning scenarios within each country and implement policies and programmes to reduce risks.

Notes:
The 11th edition of the World of Work report was released recently by the International Labour Organisation.
According to this report, in 2023, the global unemployment is expected to decline below pre-pandemic level to 5.3 percent.

Notes:
Ambulator is the name given to a new group of ancient marsupials with distinctive leg and foot characteristics.
Researchers have recently discovered Australia’s first long-distance walkers that roamed the continent’s parched interior 3.5 million years ago.

Notes:
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs launched a mobile app for street vendors to ease their loan application process under the PM SVANidhi scheme which completed three years.
It is a micro credit scheme which was launched by the Central government in 2020 to provide handholding support to street vendors, to tackle pandemic-induced economic stress.

Notes:
Zambia’s Kafue National Park (KNP) is the third largest national park in Africa. New reports reveal that lion and leopard population in this region are rebounding, after 50 years of poaching.
Scientists found leopard densities in southern KNP increased threefold — from about 1.5 leopards in 2019 to approximately 4.4 leopards per 100 square kilometres in 2022. This was due to rigorous counter-poaching operations for four years.

Notes:
The Helmand is Afghanistan’s longest river. It originates near Kabul in the western Hindu Kush Mountain range and flows in a south-western direction through desert areas for about 1,150 kilometers before emptying into Lake Hamun, which spans the Afghanistan-Iran border.
Clashes broke out between Iran and Afghanistan along the border due to dispute over the sharing of water from the Helmand River. This conflict resulted in killing and wounding of troops.