UniFocus IAS ( UNIFOCUS UNIVERSAL )

 During Prime Minister Netanyahu’s tenure after 2009, Israel has threatened multiple times to act militarily to destroy or set back Iran’s nuclear program. Israel, which for decades has presumably maintained a nuclear arsenal but has not officially acknowledged it, has taken preemptive action against nuclear programs in the region—destroying an Iraqi facility in 1981 and a Syrian one in 2007. In the 2010s, Israel apparently executed a number of covert actions against Iranian facilities and personnel to disrupt and delay the program. Alongside U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports, the Obama Administration led international efforts to reach a 2015 agreement (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA), which placed new physical constraints, as well as inspection and monitoring provisions, on Iran’s nuclear program. In 2018, President Trump (with strong support from Netanyahu) ended U.S. participation in the JCPOA, citing what he described as the accord’s defects, and increase...

Panel aims to support  the sound management of chemicals and waste and to prevent pollution. As the impacts of the triple planetary crisis – the crisis of climate change, the crisis of nature and biodiversity loss, and the crisis of pollution and waste – become ever more extreme, this new panel works with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change ( IPCC ) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services ( IPBES ). Newly established panel is expected to conduct global assessments, identify knowledge gaps, communicate complex science in policy-friendly formats, and integrate capacity for national decision-making in relation to the panel’s function.  UNEP News

Elected Countries:  Bahrain, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Latvia, and Liberia They were  elected on Tuesday to serve as non-permanent members of the UN Security Council, with two-year terms beginning in January 2026. They will serve through the end of 2027 on the UN body. The non-permanent seats on the Security Council are distributed according to four regional groupings: Africa and Asia; Eastern Europe; Latin America and the Caribbean; and the Western European and other States group. UN News <<< UN Security Council

  In furtherance of the commitment made during the high-level dialogue between India and Chile, the Terms of Reference for negotiating the India-Chile Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) were signed on 8th May, 2025.   The next round of negotiations is expected in July/August 2025. Discussions during the round were held across 17 thematic tracks including: Trade in Goods, Trade in Services, Movement of Natural Persons, Rules of Origin, Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures, Technical Barriers to Trade, Customs Procedures and Trade Facilitation, Initial Provisions and General Definitions, Core and Institutional Provisions, Final Provisions, Transparency, Dispute Settlement, Economic Cooperation, MSMEs, Women’s Economic Empowerment, Critical and Strategic Minerals Trade & Sustainable Development, Global Value Chains, Investment Promotion & Cooperation, and Intellectual Property Rights. The CEPA aims to unlock the full potential of the trade and commercial r...

  The  Caspian gull  ( Larus cachinnans ) is a large  gull  and a member of the  herring and lesser black-backed gull complex . The scientific name is from  Latin .  Larus  appears to have referred to a gull or other large seabird, and  cachinnans  means 'laughing', from  cachinnare  'to laugh'. [ 2 ] The Caspian gull has a long, slender bill, accentuated by the sloping forehead. The legs, wings, and neck are longer than those of the herring gull and  yellow-legged gull . The eye is small and often dark, and the legs vary from pale pink to a pale yellowish colour. The back and wings are a slightly darker shade of grey than the herring gull, but slightly paler than the yellow-legged gull. The outermost  primary feather  has a large white tip and a white tongue running up the inner web. The Caspian gull breeds around the  Black  and  Caspian Seas , extending eastwards across  Central Asia ...

  The    Seventy-eighth World Health Assembly   (WHA78), the annual meeting of World Health Organization’s (WHO) Member States, came to a close Tuesday, as health leaders lauded vast accomplishments and global solidarity. The Assembly, WHO’s highest decision-making body, convened from 19 May to 27 May, under the theme “One World for Health”. Member States considered approximately  75 items and sub-items  across all areas of health, engaging in lively debate and adopting consequential resolutions to improve health for all. World’s first pandemic agreement: equity for all On 20 May, Member States adopted the historic WHO Pandemic Agreement. The moment was met with heartfelt applause, celebrating over three years of intense negotiations by the Intergovernmental Negotiating Body, comprising WHO’s Member States. The adoption of the Agreement is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to safeguard the world from a repeat of the suffering caused by the COVID-19 pandemi...

  In a landmark development poised to transform the global standing of traditional medicine systems, an agreement was signed between the Ministry of Ayush and the World Health Organization (WHO) on May 24, 2025. The agreement marks the beginning of work on a dedicated Traditional Medicine module under the International Classification of Health Interventions (ICHI). Highlighting the significance of this achievement during the 122nd episode of Mann Ki Baat, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi said:  "Friends, something has happened in the field of Ayurveda as well, which you will be very happy to know about. Just yesterday, i.e. on 24th May, an MoU was signed in the presence of WHO Director General and my friend Tulsi Bhai. Along with this agreement, work has started on a dedicated traditional medicine module under the International Classification of Health Interventions. This initiative will help in making Ayush reach maximum number of people across the world in a scientific mann...

  The 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics is awarded to co-authors of publications based on CERN’s Large Hadron Collider Run-2 data released between 2015 and July 15, 2024, at the experimental collaborations ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb. The $3 million prize is allocated to these four experiments at CERN and will be used by the collaborations to offer grants for doctoral students from member institutes to spend research time at CERN, giving the students experience working at the forefront of science and new expertise to bring back to their home countries and regions. 5,345 researchers were involved in ATLAS; while 4,550 researchers in CMS; 1,869 researchers in ALICE; and 1,744 researchers were involved in LHCb. Indian scientists and researchers have played a significant role in the international collaboration for the ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) and the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) experiments. Several Indian institutes, universities, and scientists have contribu...

 The Kirana Hills Site is an extensive rocky mountain range and a reservation of the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and nuclear arsenal storage location of Pakistan army, located in the Sargodha District in Punjab, Pakistan. Known locally as "Black Mountains" due to its brownish landscape, it is expanded between the township of Rabwah and the metropolitan city of Sargodha. The highest peak of the Kirana Hills is measured at 1,050 ft (320 m)[3] with average peaks at highest peak is about 600 feet (180 m). In 1970, the Ministry of Defense (MoD) acquired the Kirana Hills as a defense site for the Pakistan Air Force. The Pakistan Air Force established a radar station with the commissioning of the No. 4091 Squadron at the Kirana Hills, which is still in commission at the Kirana Hills. The Kirana Hills forms a larger part of the Mushaf Air Force Base in Sargodha, which falls into its area of command. In 1978–79, the Pakistan Army Corps of Engineers acquired the range for the possible te...

  Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi and Hon’ble Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Sir Keir Starmer have announced the successful conclusion of a mutually beneficial India – UK Free Trade Agreement (FTA). This forward-looking Agreement is aligned with India’s vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 and complements the growth aspirations of both the countries. The engagement builds upon the discussions held between the two Prime Ministers on the sidelines of the G-20 Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in November 2024. Following the meeting between the two Prime Ministers, intense FTA negotiations resumed in February 2025 marked by several engagements between the Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal and the U.K. Secretary of State Mr. Jonathan Reynolds and their teams. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi stated in his social media post on X (formerly twitter) “In a historic milestone, India and the UK have successfully concluded an ambitious and mutually beneficial ...

The Schuman Declaration was presented by French foreign minister Robert Schuman on 9 May 1950. It proposed the creation of a European Coal and Steel Community, whose members would pool coal and steel production. The ECSC (founding members: France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg) was the first of a series of supranational European institutions that would ultimately become today's "European Union". Historical context In 1950, the nations of Europe were still struggling to overcome the devastation wrought by World War II, which had ended 5 years earlier. Determined to prevent another such terrible war, European governments concluded that pooling coal and steel production would – in the words of the Declaration – make war between historic rivals France and Germany "not merely unthinkable, but materially impossible". It was thought – correctly – that merging of economic interests would help raise standards of living and be the first step...

The Sixth Meeting of the Group of Friends of Traditional Medicine (GFTM) was successfully held on May 9, 2025, at the Permanent Mission of India (PMI) in Geneva. The meeting brought together ambassador’s representatives from various countries committed to strengthening the role of traditional medicine in global healthcare systems. Building on the Gujarat Declaration and the success of past meetings, this gathering supports key global initiatives—particularly the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2025–2034 and the upcoming Second WHO Global Traditional Medicine Summit, to be held in India from 2–4 December 2025. Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha delivered a keynote address virtually that underscored India’s leadership and commitment in promoting evidence-based traditional medicine across the world. In his remarks Secretary, Ministry of Ayush emphasized the growing relevance of traditional medicine in achieving universal health coverage and advancing the goals of One He...

India has nominated Ms. M. Revathi, Joint Wireless Advisor at the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), as its candidate for Director of the Radiocommunication Bureau at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). This marks India’s most significant bid in decades to influence global radio spectrum governance. A specialized UN agency based in Geneva, the ITU ensures that the world’s communication systems work together, safely, securely, and fairly. The Radiocommunication Bureau of the ITU regulates the global radio frequencies and satellite orbits—crucial for 5G, 6G, space broadband, disaster response, managing these finite resources. As Director, Ms. Revathi would play a central role in shaping next-gen radiocommunication standards and ensuring equitable spectrum access. ITU is the United Nations specialized agency for digital technologies (ICTs). ​The Organization is made up of a membership of 194​ Member States and more than 1000 companies, universities and international and ...

SAARC Development Fund (SDF) (also known as SAARC Development Fund Secretariat For Regional Integration) is a regional financial institution based in Thimphu, Bhutan. SDF was founded in 2010 by the member countries of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), an intergovernmental organization comprising eight countries in South Asia, namely Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. It carries out and manages various projects and programs across three key areas: Social, Economic, and Infrastructure. The SDF has its roots in two distinct regional funds known as the SAARC Fund for Regional Projects (SFRP) and the SAARC Regional Fund (SRF). These funds were proposed during the 5th SAARC Summit in Malé in November 1990, with the objective of identifying and executing regional projects that emerged from the SAARC process. These funds eventually became a part of the South Asian Development Fund (SADF), which Bhutan started during the...

  India hosted the 8th meeting of the AITIGA Joint Committee to review the ASEAN-India Trade in Goods Agreement (AITIGA) at Vanijya Bhawan, New Delhi, from April 07 to 11, 2025. The event was conducted in a hybrid format. The meeting was co-chaired by   Shri Rajesh Agrawal, Additional Secretary, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India and Deputy Co-Chair Dr. Sugumari S. Shanmugam Senior Director Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry, Malaysia.   The meeting saw participation from delegates representing ASEAN countries, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The committee's primary objective was to advance the ongoing review of the AITIGA, aiming to modernize the agreement to be more effective, user-friendly, and conducive to trade. Five out of eight Sub-Committees (SCs) under the AITIGA JC also conducted hybrid meetings on the margins of the 8 th  AITIGA JC. Out ...

 It was unveiled by  China at research station in Antarctica. It was jointly developped by  Three Gorges University (CTGU) and Shanghai Normal University (SHNU). CGTN

Biomass is an Earth observing satellite planned for launch by the European Space Agency (ESA) in 2025 from Kourou, French Guiana[1] on a Vega C launch vehicle. The mission will provide the first comprehensive measurements of global forest biomass. It is meant to last for five years, monitoring at least eight growth cycles in the world’s forests. The Biomass satellite is part of ESA's Living Planet Programme, which consists of Earth observation missions.[3][4] Its initial launch date was set to 2020, but that has since been delayed to 2025. The entire cost of the mission was placed at around 400 million euros. The main scientific instrument aboard Biomass will be a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) operating at 435 MHz. The satellite will measure 10 x 12 x 20m, weigh around 1.2 tonnes and it is set to orbit the Earth at an altitude of 666 km. All devices for assembly of the satellite structure, including vertical transport equipment, assembly and disassembly of satellite panels, assemb...

  Following a signing ceremony Tuesday in Bangladesh’s capital city of Dhaka, NASA congratulates Bangladesh as the 54th nation to commit to the safe and responsible exploration of space that benefits humanity. In 2020, the United States, led by NASA and the U.S. Department of State, and seven other initial signatory nations established the Artemis Accords, a first-ever set of practical guidelines for nations to increase safety of operations and reduce risk and uncertainty in their civil exploration activities. That group of signatories has grown to more than 50 countries today. The Artemis Accords are grounded in the Outer Space Treaty and other agreements, including the Registration Convention and the Rescue and Return Agreement, as well as best practices for responsible behavior that NASA and its partners have supported, including the public release of scientific data.  NASA News

  Renewable Capacity Statistics 2025   released by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) today shows a massive increase in renewable power capacity during 2024, reaching 4 448 gigawatts (GW). The 585 GW addition last year indicates a 92.5% share of the total capacity expansion, and a record rate of annual growth (15.1%). Although 2024 marks yet another benchmark in renewable energy capacity and growth, progress still falls short of the 11.2 terawatts needed to align with the global goal to triple installed renewable energy capacity by 2030. To reach this goal, renewable capacity must now expand by 16.6 % annually until 2030. In addition, progress yet again reflects significant geographic disparities. As in previous years, most of the increase occurred in Asia, with the greatest share being contributed by China – almost 64% of the global added capacity – while Central America and the Caribbean contributed the least at only 3.2%. The G7 and G20 countries respectively...