Explanation

On 31 January 2021, Stardust 1.0 was launched from Loring Commerce Centre in Maine, United States. It became the first-ever commercial space launch powered entirely by biofuel.

Explanation

As the end of the Brexit transition period approaches, Turkey and the United Kingdom have signed a Free Trade Agreement ("FTA") to avoid any disruption and amendments to tariffs in place due to the existing E.U. Customs Union. 

Explanation

Israel on January 17, 2021, advanced plans for 780 new illegal settler homes in the occupied West Bank, settlement watchdog Peace Now said, adding the move puts Israel “on a collision course” with the incoming US administration.

Explanation

The UN and humanitarian partners in Afghanistan are seeking $1.3 billion to assist almost 16 million people in need of life-saving assistance as a result of decades of conflict, recurrent natural disasters, and the added impact of the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.

Explanation

Under a rules change, Muslim women officers in the South African armed forces will be able to wear headscarves while in uniform.

The change came after the Legal Resource Center (LRC) defended Maj. Fatima Isaacs in 2019 from charges over wearing a Muslim headscarf under her military beret. Isaacs was working as a forensic pathologist at a military hospital in Cape Town where she wore the headscarf for years, despite orders to remove it.

Explanation

The US Congress has passed a bill named after Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai that expands the number of scholarships to women in Pakistan.

The ‘Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act’ was passed by the House of Representatives in March 2020, and the US Senate adopted it by a voice vote on January 1, 2021.

Explanation

The President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a law that sanctions the ‘Second Optional Protocol’ to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The protocol entails a formal commitment to abolishing the death penalty.

Explanation

Japan to launch the first wood-based satellite by 2023 to reduce space debris. Japan's Sumitomo Forestry company and Kyoto University aims to launch the world's first wood-based space satellite to combat the problem of space junk

There are nearly 6,000 satellites circling Earth, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). About 60% of them are defunct (space junk).

Research firm Euroconsult estimates that 990 satellites will be launched every year this decade, which means that by 2028, there could be 15,000 satellites in orbit.

Explanation

Iran’s Supreme Leader banned the government from importing Covid-19 vaccines from the United States and Britain, labelling the Western powers “untrustworthy”, as the infection spreads in the Middle East’s hardest-hit country.

Explanation

Country of 1.3 billion people hopes to vaccinate 300 million citizens by August