World Current Affairs MCQs

Italy has withdrawn from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), more than four years after becoming the only Group of Seven (G7) nation to sign up. After months of uncertainty regarding Italy’s involvement in the ambitious project, Rome conveyed its decision in a recent letter to Beijing, news agencies Reuters and AFP reported on Wednesday.

Sayyed Razi Mousavi was an Iranian brigadier general serving in the IRGC’s Quds Force. On December 25, 2023, He was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Sayyidah Zaynab, Rif-Dimashq, Syria during the 2023 Israel–Hamas war.

The United States and Sweden sign a first-ever defense cooperation agreement that will strengthen military ties and permit bilateral exercises as the Scandinavian nation awaits accession to NATO, authorities said. US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed the agreement with Swedish Defense Minister Pal Jonson, the Pentagon said.

Donald Trump is ineligible for the US presidency because of his involvement in the January 2021 assault on the Capitol, Colorado`s supreme court ruled on December 19, 2023, setting off a political earthquake that could upend next year`s election. The decision is stayed due to having been appealed to the United States Supreme Court. Later that same month, Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows also ruled that Trump engaged in insurrection and was therefore ineligible to be on the state’s primary election ballot.

New Zealand’s new government will scrap the country’s world-leading law to ban smoking for future generations to help pay for tax cuts – a move that public health officials believe will cost thousands of lives and be “catastrophic” for Māori communities

Italy has withdrawn from China`s vast Belt and Road infrastructure initiative, more than four years after becoming the only G7 nation to sign up, a government source said on 6 December 2023. The long-expected decision was communicated to Beijing three days ago, according to the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera, which first broke the news

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on 8 December 2023 approve two gene therapies for sickle cell disease, making one of them the first treatment in the United States based on the Nobel Prize-winning CRISPR gene editing technology. Casgevy, develop by partners Vertex Pharmaceuticals (VRTX.O) and CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP.BN), and bluebird bio’s (BLUE.O) Lyfgenia were approved for people aged 12 years and older.

China frames ‘One Province, One Policy’ plan for financial risk. China’s financial regulator has called on provinces to develop their own plans to address financial risks, as reported by Xinhua News Agency. This comes after officials previously committed to establishing a mechanism to tackle local debt issues. In an interview, Li Yunze, the head of the National Financial Regulatory Administration, emphasized the need for China to enhance its efforts in financial risk management.

According to USNI News, a new pact gives the U.S. military access to 15 bases in Finland. The U.S. has nearly 800 military bases in over 70 countries and territories.

The world`s biggest experimental nuclear fusion reactor in operations was inaugurate in Japan on December 1st, 2023, a technology in its infancy but billed by some as the answer to humanity`s future energy needs. Fusion differs from fission, the technique currently used in nuclear power plants, by fusing two atomic nuclei instead of splitting one.

The United States on 8 December 2023 vetoed the UAE resolution that call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, although 13 of the 15 members of the UN Security Council voted on its favor. Britain abstained. The US veto ended a desperate effort by the UN Secretary General António Guterres who warned that if not stopped now, the fighting in Gaza would endanger the world peace and destabilize the Middle East.

Japan has unveiled the world’s largest operational experimental nuclear fusion reactor. This colossal machine, dubbed JT-60SA, is house in a hangar north of Tokyo in Naka, and represents a pivotal moment in the quest for clean and limitless power. The JT-60SA, a six-story-high tokamak, is designed to contain and control plasma heated to a staggering 200 million degrees Celsius. The objective is to explore the viability of fusion as a secure, expansive, and carbon-neutral net energy source, where the energy produced surpasses is more than the input require for its production.

The decade from 2011-2020 was the warmest ever in history. While there has been a rise in economic losses from extreme weather and climate losses, this was the decade with the lowest number of deaths from extreme events, said a report from the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) on 5 December 2023.

The International Anti-Corruption Day is observe on December 9. International Anti-Corruption Day (IACD) aims to shed light on the detrimental effects of corruption on progress, development, and society at large. All countries, regardless of their standing, are entangled in the complex web of corruption, a phenomenon that intertwines social, political, and economic dimensions.

As many as 118 countries DUBAI, signe a pledge to triple install renewable energy capacity by 2030 during the ongoing COP-28 climate summit The pledge committed to tripling worldwide installed renewable energy generation capacity to at least 11,000 gigawatts (GW) and to double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements to more than 4% by 2030. Excluding India, China and Russia.