International & World News – 20 May 2025

INTERNATIONAL NEWS
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1. China has accelerated work on Pakistan’s Mohmand Dam project following India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty after the Pahalgam terror attack. The dam will aid power, irrigation, and water supply. Project started in 2019, aimed for 2025 completion.

2. Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri briefed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Current Foreign Policy Developments regarding India and Pakistan. He briefed the Committee, headed by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, regarding Operation Sindoor and subsequent ceasefire announcement with Pakistan.

3. The Bharatiya Janata Party’s National General Secretary, Tarun Chugh has said the alleged air assault attempt by Pakistan on Sri Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar on 8th of this month, shows the mental bankruptcy of the Pakistani army and the government.

4. External Affairs Minister Dr S. Jaishankar held a meeting with strategic experts at the Hague in the Netherlands. The External Affairs Minister reached the Hague on the first leg of his three nation visit to the Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany.

5. Union Home Minister Amit Shah launched the new Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) Portal in New Delhi. The new portal will provide enhanced functionality, advanced security, and a user-friendly experience for the existing over 5 million OCI cardholders and new users.

6. India’s recent trade restrictions on imports from Bangladesh are expected to have significant long-term implications for Bangladesh’s employment landscape, particularly within the formal sector.

7. Ahmedabad-based National Institute of Design on Monday announced termination of its collaborative agreement with a media institute in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka in the “paramount interest of national priorities and sentiment”.

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WORLD NEWS
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1. A volcano in eastern Indonesia erupted yesterday, emitting an ash cloud more than half a mile high. that Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, on the tourist island of Flores, erupted shortly after midnight, sending an ash cloud 0.7 miles above its peak.

2. Sri Lanka President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has declared that the country remains incomplete in its freedom, despite the end of the civil war. Speaking at the National War Heroes’ Commemoration Ceremony in Colombo.

3. The United Kingdom and European Union have reached a deal on food, fishing access, defence, and UK travellers’ access to eGates.

4. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni held a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump yesterday, ahead of his call to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

5. Former US President Joe Biden has been diagnosed with a relatively aggressive form of prostate cancer.

6. The Baloch National Movement’s Human Rights Department has condemned the intensifying wave of forced disappearances in Balochistan by the Pakistan government, calling it a crime against humanity.

7. South Korea and the United States are scheduled to hold a second round of technical discussions in Washington this week on tariffs.

8. At least four people were killed and 20 others were injured in a car bomb explosion in Gulistan Area of Qila Abdullah, a border area of Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

9. Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Ishaq Dar, embarked on a three-day official visit to China from May 19 to 21, 2025, at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

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