Junior Digest

Ahmedabad,June 11,2022: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday said many sectors remained unexplored in the country in the past due to lack of conducive policies.
Amit Shah was speaking at the launch of headquarters of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) in Bopal area of Ahmedabad. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“We are celebrating 75 years of our Independence. I want to say that governments before 2014 did not pay much attention to policy making. In the absence of conducive policies, many sectors remained unexplored or remained out of the reach of the people as well as technocrats,” said Amit Shah in his address before PM Modi’s speech.

“The biggest change Modiji brought after becoming PM was formulating new policies and launching government programmes around those policies. This change created new opportunities for our sectors, and space is one of those sectors,” said Amit Shah.
He said new policies formulated by the government under PM Modi have also opened the Indian market and created a platform for the youth, adding that IN-SPACe will become a medium to realise numerous possibilities in the space sector.

“We have achieved a huge milestone with the launch of IN-SPACe today. This will help us in utilizing all those technologies which were created by ISRO till now. It was Modiji who came up with this idea of creating an ecosystem wherein private players and startups also play an important role,” said Amit Shah.

He expressed confidence that IN-SPACe will become a platform to give opportunity as well assistance to the private sector talents.

June7,2022: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has survived a confidence vote that could have seen him removed from power.

Despite profound discontent within his ruling Conservative Party, Johnson won a vote of confidence on Monday by 211 to 148 votes.
Winning the vote means there cannot be another leadership challenge for a year, but the rebellion of his Conservative Party legislators has dealt a serious blow to his authority.

Johnson put a positive spin on surviving the confidence vote, saying his “convincing” and “decisive” victory would now enable the country to move on.

“I think it’s a convincing result, a decisive result and what it means is that as a government we can move on and focus on the stuff that I think really matters to people,” he told reporters.

The confidence vote was triggered on Monday when party official Graham Brady said he had received letters calling for a no-confidence vote in Johnson from at least 54 Conservative Party members of parliament – enough to trigger the measure under party rules.

Johnson needed to win the backing of a simple majority of the 359 Conservative legislators in the parliament of the United Kingdom to remain in power. If Johnson had failed to secure that majority, the party would have been forced to choose a new leader who would also have become the next prime minister.

New Delhi,June 04,2022: Union Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi on 3 June accused the Delhi government of doing less work and more publicity in the field of education.

The minister said the National Achievement Survey (NAS) is not a high-stake exam, but it was matter of great satisfaction that it has induced competency-based teaching-learning process in the country.

The comments by the MoS came after Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the NAS was shifting along the same lines of the traditional examination process where getting high scores has become the priority of state education departments.

Sisodia made the comments at the National Education Minister’s Conference in Gujarat which concluded on 2 June.

“The problem of the Delhi government is that it does less work and more publicity, especially in the field of education. Self-indulgence is an incurable disease from which it is afflicted. Dust is on their face and mirror is being blamed,” Devi tweeted in Hindi.
The minister pointed out that the recently released findings of the NAS 2021 showed Delhi to be lagging behind the national average in all subjects at the primary level and that the performance has come down as compared to the NAS 2017 results.

“NAS is not an exam or a test. It is a survey to arrive at the Granth of the educational system. All children don’t take this survey. Out of approximately eight to 10 crore in classes 3, 5, 8, 10, only 34 lakh were randomly sampled. The test is scientifically designed and items of questions are based on learning outcomes. No advance preparation can be done for this survey as this is not content-based or rote-based.

“It is not an examination of the individual student but the evaluation of the process of transaction of education at the district, state and national level. A scientifically worked out sample size cannot be trained to have temporary achievement enhancement and therefore in the present form, NAS cannot change into a high-stake examination,” she added.

June 08,2022:In a surprising result for an ongoing medical trial, 12 rectal cancer patients were completely healed of the disease after taking a drug for six months. The patients underwent a series of medical exams — physical exam, endoscopy, bioscopy, PET scans, and MRI scans — and none of the reports showed any signs of the tumour.

The findings were published in a paper in the New England Journal of Medicine. The paper lists the names of 32 authors.

The initial purpose of this study was listed to find out whether the study drug, TSR-042 (commonly called dostarlimab), followed by standard chemoradiotherapy and standard surgery is an effective treatment for advanced deficient MisMatch Repair (dMMR) solid tumours.

The medical trial was supported by the Simon and Eve Colin Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, Stand Up to Cancer, Swim Across America, and the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health.

Participants of the trial with mismatch repair-deficient stage II or III rectal adenocarcinoma were given the drug every three weeks, for six months. According to the initial plan, the treatment was to be followed by standard chemotherapy and surgery, and patients who had a clinical complete response would proceed without both. After at least six months of follow-up, all 12 patients showed a clinical complete response with no signs of the tumour.

At the time of publication of the paper (June 5, 2022), no patients had received chemoradiotherapy or undergone surgery, and no cases of progression or recurrence had been reported during follow-up that ranged from six to 25 months.

Another notable highlight of the trial is that none of the participants reported significant severe side effects. According to The New York Times, around 3-5% of patients who take checkpoint inhibitors (like dostarlimab) show severe complications. The absence of significant side effects shows that they “either they did not treat enough patients or, somehow, these cancers are just plain different,” Dr. Alan P. Venook, a colorectal cancer specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved with the study, was quoted as saying.

Jun 15, 2022:A massive recruitment drive was announced by the Prime Minister himself. There will be lakhs to be employed every month by the government of India over the next 18 months of time. This tweet comes from the Prime Minister’s office where Prime Minister Narendra Modi has reviewed the status of the human resources of all departments and ministries. A big step is being taken by the Prime Minister’s office and the Prime Minister himself has reviewed all departments and ministries as well. This means that the government will hire more people in the next few years.

June 11,2022:Security concerns raised by Turkey in its opposition to Finland and Sweden joining NATO are legitimate, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to Finland.

Sweden and Finland applied to join the Western military alliance last month, in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But they have faced opposition from Turkey, which has accused them of supporting and harbouring Kurdish militants and other groups that Ankara deems “terrorists”.

“These are legitimate concerns. This is about terrorism, it’s about weapons exports,” Stoltenberg told a joint news conference on Sunday with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto in Naantali, Finland.

Stoltenberg said Turkey was a key NATO ally due to its strategic location on the Black Sea between Europe and the Middle East, and he cited the support Ankara has provided to Ukraine since Russia invaded on February 24.

“We have to remember and understand that no NATO ally has suffered more terrorist attacks than Turkiye,” Stoltenberg said, using the Turkish word for the country’s name, as preferred by Turkey and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Stoltenberg and Niinisto said talks with Turkey would continue, but gave no indication of progress in the negotiations.

He also said that a NATO meeting in Madrid at the end of June was “never a deadline” for Finland and Sweden to be accepted as members of the military alliance.

After decades of military non-alignment, Russia’s war in Ukraine has pushed Finland and Sweden to apply to join NATO.

Erdogan, however, accuses the Nordic nations of supporting Kurdish militants deemed by Turkey to be “terrorists” and has vetoed against their entry into the 30-member alliance.
Demands from Ankara to Helsinki and Stockholm include lifting restrictions on arms exports to Turkey and extraditing members of certain Kurdish organisations that are opposed to Erdogan’s government.
In the past weeks, the NATO chief has been working to resolve the dispute.

WELLINGTON, June 8,2022: New Zealand on Wednesday released a draft plan to put a price on agricultural emissions in a bid to tackle one of the country’s biggest sources of greenhouse gases, belching sheep and cattle.

The proposal would make New Zealand, a large agricultural exporter, the first country to have farmers pay for emissions from livestock, the Ministry for Environment said.

New Zealand, home to 5 million people, has about 10 million cattle and 26 million sheep.
Nearly half its total greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture, mainly methane, but agricultural emissions have previously been exempted from the country’s emissions trading scheme, drawing criticism of the government’s commitment to stop global warming.

Under the draft plan, put together by government and farm community representatives, farmers will have to pay for their gas emissions from 2025. Short-and long-lived farm gas will be priced separately, although a single measure to calculate their volume will be used.
“There is no question that we need to cut the amount of methane we are putting into the atmosphere, and an effective emissions pricing system for agriculture will play a key part in how we achieve that,” Climate Change Minister James Shaw said.

The proposal includes incentives for farmers who reduce emissions through feed additives, while on-farm forestry can be used to offset emissions. Revenue from the scheme will be invested in research, development and advisory services for farmers.
“Our recommendations enable sustainable food and fibre production for future generations while playing a fair part in meeting our country’s climate commitments,” said Michael Ahie, chair of the primary sector partnership, He Waka Eke Noa.

The proposal would potentially be the biggest regulatory disruption to farming since the removal of agricultural subsidies in the 1980s, said Susan Kilsby, agricultural economist at ANZ Bank.

A final decision on the scheme is expected in December.

June 09,2022:China and Russia have accused the United States of stoking tensions on the Korean Peninsula during a landmark meeting held to explain their decisions to veto new global sanctions over Pyongyang’s renewed ballistic missile launches.

Zhang Jun, China’s ambassador to the United Nations, told the General Assembly on Wednesday that tension on the peninsula has “developed to what it is today, primarily due to the flip flop of US policies”.
He pushed Washington to take action and made a plea for the sanctions to be lifted.

“There are many things that the US can do, such as easing sanctions on [North Korea] in certain areas, and ending joint military exercises [with South Korea]. The key is to take actions, not just talk about its readiness for dialogue with no preconditions,” said Zhang.

Moscow’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Anna Evstigneeva, also called for sanctions to be lifted.

North Korea needs more humanitarian aid and the West should stop blaming Pyongyang for tensions, she said.

The Wednesday session of the 193-member UN General Assembly was the first at which permanent members of the Security Council had to explain their use of the veto, a step required under a resolution adopted by the global body on April 26.

China and Russia’s vetoes on North Korea last month publicly split the UN Security Council for the first time since it started punishing Pyongyang with sanctions in 2006.

Speaking for the US, Deputy Ambassador Jeffrey DeLaurentis dismissed China and Russia’s accusations and questioned whether Beijing and Moscow had elevated their “no limits” strategic partnership above global security by vetoing North Korea sanctions.

Kyiv, June 15,2022:Russia told Ukrainian forces holed up in a chemical plant in the embattled city of Sievierodonetsk to lay down their arms by early Wednesday, pressing its advantage in the battle for control of eastern Ukraine.

Ukraine is calling for an increase in Western heavy weapons after Russia committed the bulk of its firepower to the eastern Donbas region, a topic expected to feature prominently at a meeting of NATO defence ministers on Wednesday in Brussels.

Ukraine says more than 500 civilians are trapped alongside soldiers inside the Azot chemical factory where its forces have resisted weeks of Russian bombardment and assaults that have reduced much of Sievierodonetsk to ruins.

Fighters should “stop their senseless resistance and lay down arms” from 8 a.m. Moscow time (0500 GMT),” ?Mikhail Mizintsev, head of Russia’s National Defence Management Centre told the Interfax news agency.

Civilians would be let out through a humanitarian corridor, Mizintsev said.

June 14,2022:Australia’s substitute goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne saved the last penalty to secure his country a place at this year’s World Cup in Qatar as they edged Peru 5-4 in a shoot-out following a 0-0 draw after extra time in an intercontinental qualifying playoff on Monday.

Redmayne danced across the goal line before diving to the right to stop a kick from Alex Valera and hand Australia’s football team, dubbed the Socceroos, the win that sealed their fifth successive World Cup appearance.
Redmayne was brought on by the Australian coach as the game inched towards penalty kicks.

The playoff between the Asian and South American qualifiers had been goalless after 120 minutes and was only decided when Valera missed his side’s sixth penalty, giving Australia the win at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Doha.

June 16,2022:A food security crisis stoked by the Ukraine war is set to push more people to flee their homes in poorer countries, driving record levels of global displacement even higher, the head of the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) said.

A report by the U.N. body showed on Thursday that some 89.3 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide as a result of persecution, conflict, abuse and violence at the end of 2021. Since then, millions more have fled Ukraine or been displaced within its borders, with price hikes linked to blocked grain exports set to stoke more displacement elsewhere. “If you have a food crisis on top of everything I have described – war, human rights, climate – it will just accelerate the trends I’ve described in this report,” Filippo Grandi told journalists this week, describing the figures as “staggering”.

“Clearly the impact if this is not resolved quickly will be pretty devastating.” Already, more people were fleeing as a result of price hikes and violent insurgencies in Africa’s Sahel region, he said. Overall, the number of displaced has increased every year over the past decade, the UNHCR report says. It is now more than double the 42.7 million people displaced in 2012.

Grandi also criticised what he called a “monopoly” of resources given to Ukraine whereas other programmes to help the displaced were underfunded. “Ukraine should not make us forget other crises,” he said, mentioning a two-year-old conflict in Ethiopia and a drought in the Horn of Africa.

The European Union’s response to refugee crises has been “unequal”, Grandi added. He compared the bickering between states over taking in small groups of migrants crossing the Mediterranean by boat with EU countries’ generosity with Ukrainian refugees since Russia’s invasion in February. “Certainly it proves an important point: responding to refugee influxes, to the arrival of desperate people on the shores or borders of rich countries is not unmanageable,” he said. The report says that low-and-middle income countries hosted 83% of the world’s refugees at the end of 2021.