International Current Affairs

Queen Elizabeth II became the longest-reigning British monarch on 9 September 2015 when she surpassed the reign of her great-great-grandmother Victoria. On 6 February 2017, she became the first British monarch to celebrate a Sapphire Jubilee, commemorating 65 years on the throne. In 2022, Elizabeth II became the first British monarch to reign for 70 years, and large-scale celebrations for her Platinum Jubilee occurred from 2–5 June. She reigned for 70 years, 7 months, and 2 days before her death on 8th September 2022.

Queen Elizabeth II was the queen of 15 Commonwealth realms at the time of her death ¹. These realms include the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several countries in the Caribbean and Pacific. She was also the head of the Commonwealth, a voluntary association of 56 countries, most of which are former British colonies or territories. During her reign, she was queen of 32 sovereign states, although the number varied as countries gained independence and became republics.

Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary) was Queen of the United Kingdom from 6 February 1952 until her death on 8 September 2022. Her reign of 70 years and 214 days was the longest of any British monarch and the second-longest recorded of any monarch of a sovereign country. At the time of her death, Elizabeth was also Queen of 14 other Commonwealth realms, in addition to the United Kingdom.

Truss hence became the first prime minister since Winston Churchill to serve under a monarch other than Elizabeth II. In this, Truss also became the last of fifteen people to serve as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom under Queen Elizabeth II, after Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May, and Boris Johnson.

Ramon Magsaysay Award is also regarded as Asia’s version of the Nobel Prize. Named after the late Philippine president, it is presented annually to individuals or organizations in Asia who undertakes selfless service and transformational actions. This year’s award has been presented to four people across the world for their selfless service to the people of Asia.

The 2022 Asia Cup (also known as DP World Asia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the 15th edition of the Asia Cup cricket tournament, with the matches being played as Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) during August and September 2022 in the United Arab Emirates.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel received the 2022 UNESCO Peace Prize ‘in recognition of her efforts to welcome refugees’. Merkel received the Félix Houphout-Boigny-UNESCO Peace Prize for her ‘courageous’ decision to welcome more than 1.2 million migrants in 2015, particularly those from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Eritrea.

‘Bibi: My Story’ is the title of the memoir of Israel’s former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It is set to be published in November. The country is also set to hold its parliamentary elections in November’s first week. Netanyahu has previously written books including ‘A Durable Peace’ and ‘Fighting Terrorism’.

Punjabi has ranked second after Mandarin among the non-official languages, spoken predominately at home, by the largest number of people in Canada, new census data released by Statistics Canada has revealed. The 2021 census, released on August 18, found that 4.6 million Canadians speak predominantly a language other than official English or French languages at home, among them, Urdu has become the fifth top language in the ranking of 12 spoken languages in Canada.