♦ The World Health Organization's (WHO) member countries on 20 May 2025, approved an agreement to better prevent, prepare for and respond to future pandemics in the wake of the devastation wrought by the coronavirus.
♦ The pandemic agreement and the resolution calling for its adoption will be discussed by the full plenary of the World Health Assembly.
♦ The vote in favour of the Pandemic Agreement resolution follows a more-than-three-year process, launched by governments during the COVID-19 pandemic, to negotiate the world’s first such accord to address the gaps and inequities in preventing, preparing for and responding to pandemics.
Posted Date: May 20, 2025International
♦ India was awarded the Certificate of Elimination of Trachoma as a Public Health Problem by the World Health Organisation (WHO) at the 78th World Health Assembly in Geneva on 20 May 2025.
♦ This recognition is a testament to India’s sustained efforts in disease elimination, preventive healthcare, and commitment to ensuring health for all.
♦ On 8 October 2024, the WHO declared that the Government of India had eliminated Trachoma as a public health problem.
♦ India also became the third country in the Southeast Asia region to reach this public health milestone.
♦ The government has taken various steps under the National Programme for Control of Blindness and Visual Impairment (NPCBVI) to eliminate Trachoma.
♦ Since 2019, the National Programme has developed a continuous surveillance setup for trachoma cases by collecting case reports from all the districts in the country via sa pecific WHO shared format.
♦ The National Trachomatous Trichiasis survey was done in 200 endemic districts of the country during 2021-24, which was a mandate set by WHO.
Posted Date: May 20, 2025♦ India has signed 13 MoUs with the Maldives for enhancing ferry services in the island nation with an MVR 100 million (Rs.55,28,47,552) grant, expanding maritime connectivity and uplifting community livelihoods.
♦ The MoUs were signed by Abdulla Khaleel, Minister of Foreign Affairs, on behalf of the Maldivian government, and G Balasubramanian, the High Commissioner of India to the Maldives.
♦ Mohamed Ameen, Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation, signed on behalf of the implementing agency.
♦ The MoUs signed for projects to be implemented under the Indian grant assistance schemeHigh Impact Community Development Project (HICDP) Phase III.
Posted Date: May 19, 2025♦ A team of US surgeons has performed the world’s first in-human bladder transplant, it was announced on 18 May 2025.
♦ Surgeons in Southern California have performed the first human bladder transplant, introducing a new, potentially life-changing procedure for people with debilitating bladder conditions.
♦ year-old man who had lost much of his bladder capacity from treatments for a rare form of bladder cancer.
Posted Date: May 18, 2025♦ Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney named Anita Anand the foreign minister in his new cabinet on 14 May 2025.
♦ She replaced Mélanie Joly, who will now serve as the Minister of Industry.
♦ Carney also appointed Maninder Sidhu as the international trade minister, and two others of Indian descent as secretaries of state, the equivalent of ministers of state.
♦ Anita Indira Anand is a Canadian lawyer, academic, and politician.
♦ She had served as Canada's defence minister, transport minister and minister of innovation, science and industry so far.
♦ She is also the first Hindu woman to be appointed as Canada’s Foreign Minister.
Posted Date: May 14, 2025♦ Brazilian microbiologist Mariangela Hungria was named the 2025 World Food Prize Laureate on 13 May 2025.
♦ Her research has helped farmers in the country sharply boost grain production.
♦ Hungria was a researcher for more than 40 years at Brazil’s state-run agricultural center Embrapa, where she works on seeds and soil treatments that enable plants to source nutrients through soil bacteria, a particularly important development for soybean crops.
♦ Her work helped Brazil increase soybean production from around 15 million metric tons in the 1980s to more than 170 million tons today, making the country the world’s largest producer and exporter of the commodity.
♦ Hungria will receive $500,000 for being named a Laureate. The World Food Prize was created by Norman E. Borlaug, an American agronomist who developed solutions to increase agricultural production.
Posted Date: May 13, 2025♦ A fourth round of talks between the US and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear programme concluded in the Omani capital, Muscat.
♦ The US has insisted that Iran must scrap its uranium enrichment to prevent the country from developing nuclear weapons, but Tehran denies it has any such aim and again stressed it does not intend to give up the programme.
♦ Donald Trump pulled out of a previous nuclear agreement between Iran and five other world powers in 2018.
♦ Two previous rounds of the negotiations were held in Muscat, with one taking place in the Omani embassy in Rome.
Posted Date: May 12, 2025♦ American Cardinal Robert Prevost (69) was elected as the 267th pope on May 8, 2025.
♦ He chose the paple name Leo XIV following his election.
♦ He is elected the first American pope in history, succeeding Pope Francis. Now he is leader of the world's 1.4 billion Catholics.
♦ Robert was born in Chicago in 1955 to parents of Spanish and Franco-Italian descent, Leo served as an altar boy and was ordained in 1982.
Posted Date: May 8, 2025♦ Russia paid tribute to freedom fighter and former Odisha Chief Minister Biju Patnaik by unveiling a memorial plaque in his honour at its embassy in New Delhi on 7 May 2025.
♦ The event was part of celebrations marking the 80th Anniversary of the Great Victory in World War II.
♦ The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) chief Naveen Patnaik, the younger son of Biju Patnaik, attended the ceremony at the Russian embassy.
♦ Biju Patnaik was the chief minister of Odisha for two terms — from 1961 to 1963 and again from 1990 to 1995. He died on April 17, 1997.
Posted Date: May 7, 2025♦ Germany’s conservative leader, Friedrich Merz, was elected as the new Chancellor of the country on 6 May 2025.
♦ He secured a majority in the second round of voting in the Lower House of Parliament.
♦ A total of 325 of the 630 lawmakers voted in favour of Merz this time around, bringing him over the necessary 316 threshold.
♦ Earlier, in the first round, only 310 members voted for Merz.
♦ It was the first time since 1949 that a chancellor candidate had not won on the first attempt.
Posted Date: May 6, 2025♦ The Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released the World Press Freedom Index 2025.
♦ A total of 180 countries are present in this index. India ranked 151st with a total score of 32.96 in the 2025 index in 2025, moving up 8 places from 159th last year (2024).
♦ Eritrea is at the bottom-most this year, followed by countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and East Asia, which experience a worrying deterioration of 80% of the economic score alongside persistent polarisation and repression.
♦ Top 10 Countries with the Best Press Freedom in 2025:
| Rank | Country | Global Score |
| 1 | Norway | 92.31 |
| 2 | Estonia | 89.46 |
| 3 | Netherlands | 88.64 |
| 4 | Sweden | 88.13 |
| 5 | Finland | 87.18 |
| 6 | Denmark | 86.93 |
| 7 | Ireland | 86.92 |
| 8 | Portugal | 84.26 |
| 9 | Switzerland | 83.98 |
| 10 | Czechia | 83.96 |
♦ Prime Minister Lawrence Wong's People's Action Party (PAP) won the Singapore General Election on 3 May 2025.
♦ PAP secured 87 of the 97 parliamentary seats.
♦ In all, 65.57% of the 2,386,452 valid votes cast went to the PAP — up from 61.24% in the 2020 General Election — in what was PM Wong’s first electoral test leading the ruling party.
♦ The opposition Workers’ Party retained its 10 seats.
♦ Wong was sworn-in 2024, May as the new Prime Minister in 20 years after Lee Hsien Loong stepped down after almost two decades.
♦ The PAP has ruled the Singapore ever since independence in 1965.
Posted Date: May 3, 2025♦ India and Denmark have reinforced their long-standing energy cooperation by signing a renewed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 2 May 2025.
♦ This agreement reflects both countries’ continued commitment to accelerating clean energy transitions.
♦ The MoU was signed by Pankaj Agarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Power, Government of India, and H.E. Rasmus Abildgaard Kristensen, Ambassador of Denmark to India, in the presence of Manohar Lal, Hon’ble Minister of Power and Housing & Urban Affairs.
♦ The renewed MoU supports India's ambitious target of achieving net-zero emissions by 2070.
♦ It aims to foster knowledge exchange and technological collaboration between the two countries, particularly in the area of clean and sustainable energy solutions.
♦ This agreement follows five years of successful collaboration under the original MoU, signed on June 5, 2020, and initially set to expire on June 5, 2025.
♦ The proactive renewal ensures continuity in dialogue and cooperation, allowing for a seamless extension of joint efforts in energy sector development.
Posted Date: May 2, 2025♦ The United States and Ukraine have signed an “economic partnership agreement” that will give Washington access to Kyiv’s mineral resources in exchange for establishing an investment fund in Ukraine.
♦ The deal giving the United States preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals as a milestone.
♦ Ukraine holds some five percent of the world's mineral resources and rare earths, according to various estimates. Ukraine also has around 20 percent of the world's graphite, an essential material for electric batteries, according to France's Bureau of Geological and Mining Research, and is a
♦ major producer of manganese and titanium.
♦ Ukraine has agreed to the minerals deal as a way to secure long-term US investment, as Trump has drastically scaled back US security commitments around the world.
♦ The two countries will establish a joint Reconstruction Investment Fund, with each side having equal voting rights. The fund's profits will be invested exclusively in Ukraine, which will not be asked to pay back any "debt" for billions of dollars in US support since Russia's February 2022 invasion.
Posted Date: May 1, 2025