Current Affairs - Hajela's IAS Academy (HIA)

PM Modi to attend AI Action Summit in France

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit to be held in France next month.

France will host the AI summit on February 10-11.
President Macron announced the hosting of the AI Summit while addressing the 30th Conference of Ambassadors.
Countries like America, China and India along with Gulf countries will also participate in the summit.
This will include countries like the US, China and India, as well as Gulf countries, which play an important role in the development and regulation of AI technology.

Former US President Donald Trump has become the first president in US history to be convicted.

On January 10, Trump was sentenced in New York's Manhattan Court on 34 counts related to the case of paying money to silence the porn star.
At present, the court has acquitted Trump without any conditions and did not send him to jail.
The punishment given to Trump is merely symbolic. Meaning, he will neither go to jail nor will he have to pay any fine.
However, he will take oath as US President as a convicted criminal.

The US and Japan on January 10 announced new sanctions against Russia over the Ukraine war.

Apart from this, America has also banned two Indian companies, Skyheart Management Services and Envision Management Services.
These Indian companies had transported liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia, which is a violation of US sanctions.
At the same time, Japan has imposed sanctions on 11 individuals, 29 organizations and 3 banks of Russia.
Apart from this, action has also been taken against a bank in North Korea and Georgia for helping Russia.
Due to US sanctions, crude oil prices increased by 3% and the price of crude oil in the international market crossed $80 per barrel.

Army commander Joseph Aoun has been elected the new President in Lebanon.

60-year-old Aoun has got the new responsibility after two rounds of voting in Parliament on January 9.
President-elect Joseph Aoun was the fifth army commander and was elected army chief in March 2017.
Generally, in Lebanon, an army commander or public servant cannot become president until two years after his resignation.
However, this did not happen in Aoun's case and he remained the Army Chief until he became President.
In Lebanon, the President is a Christian, the Prime Minister is a Sunni Muslim and the Speaker of the Parliament is a candidate from the Shia community.
There the President alone has the right to select or remove the Prime Minister and the Cabinet.