Current Affairs 16th April 2019

Current Affairs 16th April 2019 - Important Points

• New Palestinian government sworn in amid tensions
• Sudan's defence minister removed
• World’s Biggest Plane
• Bhutan to introduce BBIN ratification bill in upper senate
• Israel’s Beresheet Mission Crashes on the Moon
• Cologne Boxing World Cup 2019
• Three-person Baby Boy Born in Greece

Current Affairs 16th April 2019 - Details

New Palestinian government sworn in amid tensions

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on April 13th, 2019 took oath as a new government led by Mohammad Shtayyeh, a long-time ally from his Fatah party.

Mohammad Shtayyeh was directed the oath as the new PM of Palestine in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The new cabinet was also took oath during the occasion. The nomination was conflicted by Hamas, the Palestinian movement that administers the besieged Gaza Strip. The Islamist group viewed it as a blow to unity efforts.

Main Highlights

• The new government was designated after former PM Rami Hamdallah resigned in January 2019. Hamdallah’s resignation came after the failure of reconciliation debates between Fatah party & Hamas.
• The oath of the new government formally marks the end of the stalled reconciliation efforts between the both groups.
• The new government includes solely of the Palestine Liberation Organization factions, primarily the Fatah party & excludes Hamas & the Islamic Jihad group.
• 2 radical leftist secular factions of Abbas’s Palestine Liberation Organization, for instance, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine & the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, declined to participate in Shtayyeh’s government, disagreeing that it will raise division among Palestinians.
• Only 5 ministers from the earlier government have succeeded to retain their posts. The other 17 ministers did not sit in the last government.
• Shtayyeh would be tackling the ministries of interior & religious affairs until fresh appointees are termed for the 2 positions.

Sudan's defence minister removed

Sudan's military council has detached defence minister Awad Ibn Auf from his title role & designated a new intelligence chief. The data was shared the council’s spokesperson Shams El Din Kabbashi Shinto on April 14th, 2019.

With the statement, Lieutenant General Abu Bakr Mustafa will replace Salah Abdallah Mohamed Saleh, also famous as Salah Gosh, as chief of Sudan's National Intelligence & Security Service. 

Main Highlights

• Along with the exclusion of the defence minister, Sudan's ambassadors to Washington & Geneva were also fired.
• The spokesman also proclaimed that all army & police generals who took part in street protests which directed to the ousting of former President Omar al-Bashir would be unconstrained.
• Further, the group which had spearheaded the protests against Bashir, the Sudanese Professionals Association, termed on the military council to proximately transfer power to a civilian government.
• Earlier the military council visited with political parties & commended them to settle on an independent figure to be the nation's PM.
• General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, sworn-in as the chief of the military council following his predecessor stepped down a day after ousting long-time leader President Omar al-Bashir, who is dedicated to having a complete civilian government. 
  
  The foreign ministry of the country also advised the international community to back the nation's new military rulers.

World’s Biggest Plane

World’s largest airplane took-off for the very 1st time on April 13th, 2019. Stratolaunch has manufactured this aircraft in 8 years. Following its effective test flight, company expectations to use the twin-fuselage, 6-engine, catamaran-style aircraft to launch satellite-bearing rockets into space by 2022. This test flight was accomplished at Mojave Desert, California. Stratolaunch was originated in 2011 by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen.

Its 1st flight duration was 2.5 hrs at up to 17000 ft above the sea level. As part of the initial flight, the pilots appraised aircraft performance & handling qualities prior to landing effectively back at the Mojave Air & Space Port.

Objective

The Stratolaunch aircraft is a mobile launch platform that will allow airline-style access to space that is convenient, affordable & routine. The reinforced centre wing can care multiple launch vehicles, weighing up to a sum of 500000 pounds.

Major Features

• The plane weighs around 227000 kgs & has the biggest wingspan ever constructed, measuring 118m from one end to the other.
• It is fabricated to carry approximately 250000 kgs between the 2 fuselages.
• To support its size & weight, the vehicle has 28 wheels. It can hold above 113000 kgs of fuel.
• The aircraft is supported by 6 Pratt & Whitney engines, which were firstly designed for Boeing 747s.
• Its landing gear, which comprises 28 wheels, was also 1st designed for 747s.

Bhutan to introduce BBIN ratification bill in upper senate

The Bhutan government has finalised to guide the bill for ratification of the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal initiative for road & rail connectivity to its upper congress.

Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal initiative

The Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal is a big enterprise in the region, which is focused at enlightening rail & road connectivity in the area.

The pact for the initiative, the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal Motor Vehicle Agreement, was inked by the 4 member countries in June 2015.

However, only Bangladesh, India & Nepal have executed the pact, Bhutan is yet to agree its ratification of the pact.

Motor Vehicle Agreement

The landmark Motor Vehicle Act was inked by the transport ministers of the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal nations in Thimphu, Bhutan on June 15th, 2015.

The trial runs for cargo automobiles under the Motor Vehicle Act were conducted along the Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala & Delhi-Kolkata-Dhaka ways in the past. The trials were effective in establishing the Pact’s economic profits.

Bangladesh, India, & Nepal sanctioned the pact & agreed to initiate its execution among the 3 signatory nations, with Bhutan joining after it ratifies the pact.

Main Highlights

Under the Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal Motor Vehicles Agreement, Bangladesh, India & Nepal decided on the text of the passenger protocol, the document detailing actions for cross-border movement of buses & private automobiles in the sub-region.

The nations accomplished the internal sanction processes for the inking of the passenger protocol.

The participating nations also agreed to deportment extra trial for cargo vehicles along scheduled routes from April 2018 onwards, prior deciding the protocol for cargo vehicular movement.

Israel’s Beresheet Mission Crashes on the Moon

World’s 1st privately subsidized lunar Mission Beresheet worn-out on the Moon. Beresheet crashed during a landing. It is informed that the spacecraft had issues with its main engine during its descent that made it unable to slow down at time before it smashed into the lunar surface.

About the Mission

Beresheet was an Israeli mission released by a partnership between non-profit SpaceIL & government-owned aerospace company Israel Aerospace Industries.

Beresheet lander had supported a science instrument issued by NASA, a retroreflector instrument scientist would have utilised to make detailed measurements of the distance between Earth & the moon.

Beresheet mission’s outline included risks. To ensure the spacecraft small enough to piggyback with another spacecraft on a Falcon-9 rocket, the engineering team had to fabricate the craft without any backup systems.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu & SpaceIL have declared that the team will now begin working on Beresheet 2.0.

Cologne Boxing World Cup 2019

India completed its campaign at the Cologne Boxing World Cup 2019 with a haul of 5 medals. The Cologne Boxing World Cup 2019 was organised at Cologne, Germany.

Indian Medal Tally

Meena Kumari Maisnam, 54kgs secured the only Gold Medal for India in the tournament.

It was the only game of the tournament for the Manipur pugilist Meena Kumari as she had been sprightly positioned in the final due to a smaller draw.

Youth World Champion Sakshi, 57kgs & India Open Gold medallist Pwilao Basumatary, 64kgs lost their final game & finished with silver medals.

Pinki Rani, 51kgs & Parveen, 60kgs secured Bronze Medals after losing their semi-final match.

Cologne Boxing World Cup earlier known as Chemistry Cup saw participation from above 20 countries & 160 boxers in 7 women & 10 men weight classes. It is one of the strongest international gaming events in Europe with approximately 50 years of traditions. whose 1st edition was organised in year 1970.

Three-person Baby Boy Born in Greece

A team of doctors from Greece & Spain have stated the birth of a baby using DNA from 3 people. The baby boy has inherited the genetic material from 2 women & 1 man.

Mode of action

Doctors utilised an egg from the infertile mother, the father’s sperm & another woman’s egg to conceive the baby boy. The doctors passed genetic material with chromosomes from the mother to the egg of a donor whose own genetic material had been extracted in a process.

A similar DNA switching technique was accepted in Mexico in 2016 to dodge transmission of a mother’s hereditary illness to her child. But this case from Greece is special owing to the fact that for the 1st time an In-vitro Fertilization technique using DNA from 3 people has been positioned to permit a mother otherwise unable to conceive to have a child.

In-vitro Fertilisation

IVF is an artificial reproduction technique wherein the process of fertilization occurs by extracting eggs, retrieving a sperm sample, & then physically combining an egg & sperm in a laboratory. The embryo is then transferred to the uterus of the mother.