International Current Affairs MCQs

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In the recently held presidential election of Taiwan, Tsai Ing-wen was re-elected as the country’s President. With more than 57% of the votes, Tsai won her second presidential term. Her victory in the election has gained significance as she vowed to protect the sovereignty of Taiwan amidst of the threats posed by China.
China has announced that Taiwan must be united with China at any cost and it would use power if necessary. There were several protests across the country against China’s Authoritarian behaviour.

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After the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin announced certain constitutional amendments that would extend his powers beyond Presidency, the entire government of Russia resigned. This also includes the Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev.
Putin made this announcement during his annual state of the nation address. He also proposed Mikhail Mishustin, the head of Russia’s tax service as the next Prime Minister. The leaving Prime Minister Medvedev may take on the position of deputy head of Russia’s Security Council.

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The People’s Congress of Tibet recently passed a law that makes ethnic unity in the region mandatory. The regulations, which are meant to strengthen the ethnic unity are expected to come into effect from May 1st, 2020.
The new law stated that it is the common responsibility of the people of all ethnic groups to safeguard reunification of the country and strive hard against separatism. There are more than 40 ethnic minorities in the region, which constitute nearly 95 per cent of the population of Tibet. This decision is expected to improve the socio-economic development of the country.

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More than thirty thousand doses of Measles and Rubella vaccines to the Maldives to control the outbreak of Measles in the island country.
Though Maldives has eliminated the spread of Measles, the government in Male suspected an outbreak of the disease after it detected the case. The country made an emergency request to India, for the vaccines, which was handed over within three days of the request. Maldives had earlier approached Denmark and UNICEF for the vaccines. It is also said that four people of Maldives tested positive for the disease in the past one week.

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A former deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia, Muhyiddin Yassin has been recently appointed as the country’s new Prime Minister.
The appointment was announced by Malaysia’s King Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah. Muhyiddin recently sworn in as the new Prime Minister. He replaced the previous head of the country Mahathir Mohamad, who resigned from his Prime Minister role last week.

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Scientists at the Australian National University announced that they are designing the country’s first satellite to predict the bushfire danger zones.
Australia has witnessed devastating bushfires across the country especially in South Wales. The proposed bushfires measure forest cover and moisture levels using infrared detectors. The resultant data would be used to determine where bushfires will probably start and where they would be difficult to control.

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Recently, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has pledged 5 Million US dollars to the COVID-19 SAARC Emergency fund, which was proposed by Prime minister Narendra Modi.
This Emergency Fund will as a security blanket for the SAARC countries, which can be used by the countries for dealing with issues related to COVID-19. After India made an initial contribution of 10 million US Dollars, other SAARC member countries also started pledging to the fund.

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The Democratic party of the United States has selected former Vice President Joe Biden as the nominee for the American Presidential Election.
Earlier, US Senator Bernie Sanders announced that he is not participating in the upcoming elections, which are due in November. Hence Joe Biden became the official Democratic nominee for the election to take on the incumbent US President Donald Trump.

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The United States has recently notified about its approval to sell Harpoon air-launched anti-ship missiles and Mark 54 lightweight torpedoes to India, which are worth USD 155 million.
As India was recognised as the Major defence Partner of the US in 2016, it can buy advanced defence equipment from the US similar to its closest allies and partners. The missiles are estimated to cost $92 million and the torpedoes will cost $63 million.

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Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging, which means beating with whips, as a punishment, as per the order of the Supreme Court. Hereafter, the judges will pronounce fines, jail sentences or community services as punishments.
Several Human rights activists have been condemning the Court-ordered floggings in Saudi Arabia, which sometimes extend to hundreds of lashes. Recently, a blogger named Raif Badawi was sentenced to 7 years in prison and 600 lashes and then resentenced to 10 years and 1,000 lashes. He later won the European Parliament’s Sakharov human rights prize.