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  • Current Affairs 23rd April 2019

    Updated : 23-Apr-2019

    Current Affairs 23rd April 2019 - Important Points

    • US  finished approvals waivers for Iranian oil importers on - 22nd April 2019
    • UAE Cabinet adopts - National Artificial Intelligence Strategy
    • Comedian Zelensky wins Ukrainian Presidential Elections on - 21st April 2019
    • Asian Tea Alliance was released in  - China
    • Earth Day 2019  celebrated on - 22nd April 2019 

    Current Affairs 23rd April 2019 - Details

    US  finished approvals waivers for Iranian oil importers on - 22nd April 2019

    The US is likely to declare on April 22nd, 2019 that all importers of Iranian oil will have to finish their imports shortly/subject to United States approvals. According to the reports, the management will terminate the sanction waivers that it had approved to some importers of Iranian oil late last year. United States President Donald Trump clarified it to his national security team over the last few weeks that he wishes the waivers to finish & national security adviser John Bolton has been working on the issue within the management.
    Important Highlights

    • While re-imposing approvals on exports of Iranian oil, the USA had approved waivers to 8 economies that had compact their purchases of the oil including China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Turkey, Italy & Greece.
    • Since then, 3 of the 8 Nations-Italy, Greece & Taiwan- stopped importing oil from Iran. The other 5, however, lobbied for their waivers to be extended.
    • The approvals waivers are going to pass away on May 2nd & the president Trump management is now planning to inform the 5 nations, including allies Japan, South Korea & Turkey, that they will no longer renew them.
    • It is, however, not directly clear if any of the 5 would be given extra time to wind down their purchases/ subject to United States approvals on May 3rd if they do not proximately halt imports of Iranian oil.

    UAE Cabinet adopts - National Artificial Intelligence Strategy

    The United Arab Emirates Cabinet has approved the National Artificial Intelligence Strategy 2031. The initiative was undertaken during a cabinet meeting at the Presidential Palace in Abu Dhabi on April 21st, 2019, which was led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.
    Objective
    The choice is focused at positioning the United Arab Emirates as a global leader in AI by 2031 and to develop an integrated system that executes artificial intelligence in vital areas in the nation.
    Important Highlights
    The strategy includes 8 strategic aims, a number of initiatives, along with a number of initiatives focused at executing artificial intelligence in vigorous areas including education, government services and the community wellbeing.
    The 8 objectives of the strategy include: 
    1. Reaffirming United Arab Emirates’ situation as a global hub for AI.
    2. Growing the competitive edge of the Artificial Intelligence sector in the United Arab Emirates.
    3. Launching an incubator for Artificial Intelligence innovations. 
    4. Commissioning Artificial Intelligence in the field of customer services to advance the quality of life.
    5. Appealing and training flairs for future jobs.
    6. Appealing leading research abilities.

    7. Delivering a data-driven infrastructure to support Artificial Intelligence trials.
    8. Optimising Artificial Intelligence governance and guidelines.
    The strategy will aim on the following fields of priorities during the 1st phase of execution: resources and  energy, logistics and transportation, tourism and hospitality, healthcare and cyber security.
    The execution process will be supervised by the Emirates Council for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transactions, in harmonization with a number of local and federal entities.

    Comedian Zelensky wins Ukrainian Presidential Elections on - 21st April 2019

    Ukrainian comedian Volodymyr Zelensky on April 21st, 2019 secured a landslide victory in the nation's
    presidential election 2019. With approximately all ballots counted in the run-off vote, Zelensky had taken above 73% of the votes with incumbent Petro Poroshenko trailing far behind on 24%.
    More about Volodymyr Zelensky

    • Volodymyr Zelensky is best known for featuring in the long-running satirical television drama series Servant of the People, in which his character unintentionally becomes Ukrainian president.
    • In the serial, he played a role of teacher who is selected after his expletive-laden rant about corruption that goes viral on social media.
    • He ran in the actual presidential race under a political party with the same name as in his show. All over the election campaign, he sidestepped serious interviews and debates about policy, preferring
      instead to post light-hearted videos to social media sites.
    • With nil earlier political experience, Zelensky's Presidential campaign mainly engrossed on his difference to the other contenders rather than on any concrete policy ideas.
    • Despite this, he secured the 1st round with above 30% of the vote, almost double what Poroshenko got when he ended in 2nd place with 15.95% votes.
    • In his new character, the comedian-turned-president will be faced with a compound bunch of matters including a simmering war with Russian-backed rebels in east Ukraine.
    • Zelensky informed that he sought to ‘reboot’ Western-brokered peace talks that have so far failed to finish the conflict.

    Asian Tea Alliance was released in  - China

    Asian Tea Alliance, which a union of 5 tea-growing and consuming nations was released in Guizhou in
    China. The members of the association are the Indian Tea Association, China Tea Marketing Association,
    Indonesian Tea Marketing Association, Sri Lanka Tea Board and Japan Tea Association.
    Earlier, Indian Tea Association and China Tea Marketing Association had inked an agreement to promote green and black tea consumption in major tea markets of Europe, the United States, Russia and West Asia, besides India and China.
    Objectives of the Alliance
    To work towards upgrading tea business, cultural exchanges, technology exchanges and internationally
    promoting tea.
    To work towards upgrading worldwide consumption of tea, while creating a sustainability agenda for the future of Asian tea.

    Earth Day 2019  celebrated on - 22nd April 2019 

    Earth Day 2019 celebrated on 22 April 2019 highlights the 49th yearly Earth Day. Earth Day 2019 is celebrated with the theme ‘Protect Our Species’. The theme ‘Protect Our Species’ goals to highlight that nature’s gifts to our planet are the millions of species. But tactlessly, humans have irreversibly upset the balance of nature, that’s why, the world is facing the greatest rate of annihilation and the rapid extinction of species in our world today is the result of human activity.
    The Earth Day 2019 through the theme Protect our Species requests people to educate and raise
    awareness about the rushing rate of extinction of millions of species and the causes as well as costs of this phenomenon.
    To achieve chief policy victories that guard broad groups of species as well as individual species and their habitats. To shape and activate a global movement that grips nature and its values. To inspire individual actions including adopting a plant-based diet and ending pesticide and herbicide usage.
    More about Earth Day
    Earth Day was officially proposed by John McConnell at UNESCO conference on Environment in 1969.
    Later in 1971, an announcement was inked to celebrate International Earth Day yearly on the Vernal
    Equinox by United Nations Secretary-General U Thant and was 1st celebrated in 1970.