Today's Event – 30th December 2021

• 1702 – Queen Anne's War: James Moore, Governor of the Province of Carolina, abandons the Siege of St. Augustine.

• 1813 – War of 1812: British soldiers burn Buffalo, New York.

• 1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the united Ottawa, Ojibwa, and Potawatomi Indian tribes is proclaimed.

• 1825 – The Treaty of St. Louis between the United States and the Shawnee Nation is proclaimed.

• 1853 – Gadsden Purchase: The United States buys land from Mexico to facilitate railroad building in the Southwest.

• 1890 – Following the Wounded Knee Massacre, the United States Army and Lakota warriors face off in the Drexel Mission Fight

• 1896 – Filipino patriot and reform advocate José Rizal is executed by a Spanish firing squad in Manila.

• 1896 – Canadian ice hockey player Ernie McLea scores the first hat-trick in Stanley Cup play, and the Cup-winning goal as the Montreal Victorias defeat the Winnipeg Victorias 6–5.

• 1897 – The British Colony of Natal annexes Zululand.

• 1903 – A fire at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago, Illinois kills at least 605.

• 1905 – Former Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg is assassinated at the front gate of his home in Caldwell.

• 1906 – The All-India Muslim League is founded in Dacca, East Bengal, British India (later Dhaka, Bangladesh).

• 1916 – Russian mystic and advisor to the Tsar Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin is murdered by a loyalist group led by Prince Felix Yusupov. His frozen, partially-trussed body was discovered in a Petrograd river three days later.

• 1916 – The last coronation in Hungary is performed for King Charles IV and Queen Zita.

• 1922 – The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) is formed.

• 1927 – The Ginza Line, the first subway line in Asia, opens in Tokyo, Japan.

• 1935 – The Italian Air Force bombs a Swedish Red Cross hospital during the Second Italo-Abyssinian War.

• 1936 – The Flint sit-down strike hits General Motors.

• 1943 – Subhas Chandra Bose raises the flag of Indian independence at Port Blair.

• 1944 – King George II of Greece declares a regency, leaving the throne vacant.

• 1952 – An RAF Avro Lancaster bomber crashes in Luqa, Malta after an engine failure, killing three crew members and a civilian on the ground.[3]

• 1958 – The Guatemalan Air Force sinks several Mexican fishing boats alleged to have breached maritime borders, killing three and sparking international tension.

• 1972 – Vietnam War: Operation Linebacker II ends.

• 1993 – Israel establishes diplomatic relations with Vatican City and also upgrades to full diplomatic relations with Ireland.

• 1996 – Proposed budget cuts by Benjamin Netanyahu spark protests from 250,000 workers who shut down services across Israel.

• 1997 – In the worst incident in Algeria's insurgency, the Wilaya of Relizane massacres, 400 people from four villages are killed.

• 2004 – A fire in the República Cromagnon nightclub in Buenos Aires, Argentina, kills 194.

• 2005 – Tropical Storm Zeta forms in the open Atlantic Ocean, tying the record for the latest tropical cyclone ever to form in the North Atlantic basin.

• 2006 – Madrid–Barajas Airport is bombed.

• 2006 – The Indonesian passenger ferry MV Senopati Nusantara sinks in a storm, resulting in at least 400 deaths.

• 2006 – Former President of Iraq Saddam Hussein is executed.

• 2009 – A segment of the Lanzhou–Zhengzhou–Changsha pipeline ruptures in Shaanxi, China, and approximately 150,000 l (40,000 US gal) of diesel oil flows down the Wei River before finally reaching the Yellow River.

• 2009 – A suicide bomber kills nine people at Forward Operating Base Chapman, a key facility of the Central Intelligence Agency in Afghanistan.

• 2013 – More than 100 people are killed when anti-government forces attack key buildings in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.

National Events- 

•  “As of now Covid cases are under control. We’ll review the situation in the first week of January,” Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur told. He was here to attend the Chief Ministers’ pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

•  The government is in the process of finalising a system to provide ration to all homeless people who do not have ration cards, Union Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said on Thursday.

•  The Union government has approved additional assistance of more than Rs 3,000 crore to six states this year to cover damages caused by natural disasters, a Home Ministry statement said Thursday.

•  Belonging to Akola in Maharashtra, Kalicharan, who is in his mid-30s, first became known in 2020 after a video of him reciting the Shiv Tandav Strotam went viral. Originally called Abhijit Dhananjay Sarang, Kalicharan reportedly changed his name after he met with an accident while in his teens that badly twisted his leg but left him with only a hairline fracture. He believed it to be the blessing of Goddess Kali, of whom he was a devotee.

• The government on Thursday said that there have been extensive deliberations on whether the precautionary (third) dose of the Covid vaccine should be the same as the first two doses, adding that a decision on the same is expected before doses are administered to healthcare and frontline workers and citizens above 60 years with comorbidities.

International Events- 

•  Tesla Inc is recalling more than 475,000 of its Model 3 and Model S electric cars to address rearview camera and trunk issues that increase the risk of crashing, the U.S. road safety regulator said on Thursday.

•  Thousands of people left messages on the social media account of the late Chinese COVID-19 whistleblower Li Wenliang on the anniversary of the day he learned of possible pneumonia-causing virus cases in Wuhan and shared the information with fellow doctors

• Chinese bishops and religious leaders briefed senior Hong Kong Catholic clergymen on President Xi Jinping’s vision of religion with “Chinese characteristics” in an unprecedented meeting organised by the mainland’s representative office in the city, according to four clerics. 

• Within weeks, the Omicron variant has fueled thousands of new Covid-19 hospitalizations among US children, raising new concerns about how the many unvaccinated Americans under the age of 18 will fare in the new surge. 

• Today is different, however. This 425th vigil will be the last. Later this month, the Brokdorf nuclear power plant will be shut down as part of Germany’s 2022 nuclear phaseout.

Job alerts-

• AIIMS Gorakhpur Jobs for Professor and other posts. Last date 31 January 2022

• AIIMS Rishikesh Jobs for Junior Resident and other posts. Last date 07 January 2022

• Raipur District Court Jobs for Stenographer, Peon and other posts. Last date 31 January 2022

• NHM Satara Jobs for  Medical Officer, Supervisor, Staff Nurse, Lab Technician, Pharmacist and other posts. Last date 10 January 2022

• Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission Jobs for Ayurveda Medical Officer and other posts. Last date 14 February 2022

Sports-

•  South Africa wicketkeeper-batsman, Quinton de Kock, announced his retirement from Test cricket with immediate effect on Thursday. The announcement comes on the backdrop of South Africa’s defeat in the first Test match against India in Centurion, where the visitors won by 113 runs and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

•  The U-16 Vijay Merchant Trophy has been postponed due to the recent surge in Covid-19 cases in India.

•  It’s not only the big-wigs of sport, or the ones who have played for India, that are a muse for biopics. There is another motion picture coming soon, based on the life of Mumbai’s leg-spinner Pravin Tambe.

•  Jammu and Kashmir-based alpine skier Arif Mohammed Khan has become the first Indian athlete to qualify for two different events of the Winter Olympics, set to be held in Beijing from February 4, next year.

• It was U Mumba who came up trumps against Jaipur Pink Panthers in the first match of the day and in the final encounter it was Pawan Sehrawat who led from the front as the Bengaluru Bulls toppled Haryana Steelers by a margin of 42-28.

Awards and honours-

• TBA 

Technology-

•  Food ordering from platforms including Swiggy and Zomato may become costlier soon as they will be required to collect and pay tax on behalf of all restaurants starting January 1, 2022. The new move comes as a result of the update issued by the finance ministry under which food aggregators are directed to pay five percent of Goods and Services Tax (GST) for cooked food orders through their platforms. Experts believe that the update will impact both end consumers and small restaurants. At the same time, platforms including Swiggy and Zomato are also expected to have additional compliance load due to the change in the tax regime.

•  Bitcoin was created in 2009 by an anonymous person pseudo-named Satoshi Nakamoto, whose identity still remains a mystery. In a recent interview, Tesla CEO Elon Musk named computer scientist Nick Szabo as the anonymous creator, who could have been the brains behind the birth of the world's first ever cryptocurrency. Musk was being quizzed on Lex Fridman's podcast when he made the statement. Musk also revealed that people often suspect him to be the originator of Bitcoin, a claim which he has denied so far.

•  TikTok is the most downloaded app worldwide with 656 million downloads in 2021, as per a new report. It is followed by other social media apps like Instagram, and Facebook (now Meta) as well as instant messaging platforms WhatsApp and Telegram. Meanwhile, when it comes to category wise distribution, Netflix is the most downloaded entertainment app, Shopee tops shopping apps list kicking Amazon out of top three, Google Maps is first in travel app category, and Spotify is the most preferred music and audio app globally. The list takes into account download numbers from both Apple App Store or Google Play store.

•  Popular Japanese mobile game Elemental Knights Online is planning to release Gensokishi Online "Meta World" — the newest version of the online MMORPG which incorporates elements of play-to-earn (P2E),user-generated non-fungible tokens (NFTs),and the metaverse. Gensokishi Online's “Meta World” metaverse will allow players to purchase land and freely edit their creations, such as buildings and characters. The land, as well as in-game equipment, can be minted as NFTs and sold on different exchanges as it is built on the Polygon blockchain network.

• Polygon, an Ethereum-based network has “silently fixed” a vulnerability that had put its native MATIC tokens worth $24 billion (roughly Rs. 1,78,560) at risk. The issue came to light after a group of ethical hackers informed Immunefi, a bug bounty platform associated with decentralised finance (DeFi). Immunefi hosts the bug bounty for the Polygon network. Despite quick measures to resolve the case, notorious hacker(s) were able to steal 801,601 MATIC tokens, making up for around $2.4 million (roughly Rs. 17.8 crore)

Economy – 

• Airtel Xstream Fiber offers super-fast internet with up to 1Gbps speed, which means a reliable internet connection that allows presentations and calls to run smoothly even when there are multiple smartphones, laptops, smart TVs, etc. using the same WiFi connection. With Airtel Xstream Fiber, you do not have to worry about poor speeds, video calls freezing abruptly or file transfers taking forever, which means fewer missed deadlines and better productivity. 

•  The government has extended by two months till February 28 the deadline for businesses to file GST annual returns for 2020-21 fiscal ended March 2021.

•  The 30-share index ended 12.17 points or 0.02 per cent lower at 57,794.32. Similarly, the broader Nifty fell 9.65 points or 0.06 per cent to 17,203.95

•  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has warned of a rise in bad loans in 2022 and emerging signs of stress in micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and the microfinance segment, which call for close monitoring of these portfolios.

• One of the major assembling units of iPhone 12, in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, has been placed under ‘probation’ by Apple, following findings that the Foxconn-owned unit had lapses in ensuring quality of living conditions for its employees.

Environment –

•  TBA

Local –

•  With the number of Covid cases on the rise in Delhi, the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) will curtail patients visiting outpatient clinics as well as the number of routine admissions, according to the contingency plan that will come into effect on New Year’s Eve. Both old and new patients with existing appointments will receive consultations, only the numbers will be restricted, as per recommendations of the heads of the departments, according to the plan.

• Maharashtra, meanwhile, reported 5,368 fresh Covid-19 cases, 1,193 recoveries, and 22 deaths, taking active cases to 18,217. The number of Omicron cases rose to 450, with the state recording 198 cases of the variant on Thursday. 

• West Bengal on Wednesday recorded 1,089 new Covid-19 cases over the last 24 hours, marking a huge jump from 382 cases on Tuesday. The tally over the last 24 hours also represents the biggest single-day rise in cases over the past one week. 

•  With Covid-19 cases on an ascending graph in a few districts including Chennai, TN Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan advised the public to avoid non-emergency travels and follow safety guidelines issued by the government

• Continuing to see a surge in the spread of Covid-19 infections, Bengaluru Urban logged 565 fresh cases out of 707 cases in Karnataka. The active case tally in the state stood at 8223. The state health department reported 252 recoveries and three deaths in Bengaluru Urban. The state conducted 114,686 tests.

Person in News – 

• TBA 

GK – 

Which country has developed the world’s first ‘AI Prosecutor’?

[A] USA
[B] China
[C] Russia
[D] India

‘Graded Response Action Plan’ (GRAP) is to be implemented by which state, to tackle Covid-19?

[A] Odisha
[B] New Delhi
[C] Telangana
[D] Maharashtra

“India Out” campaign is associated with which country?

[A] Sri Lanka
[B] Myanmar
[C] Maldives
[D] Nepal

Psyche mission, which was seen in the news, is being developed by which country?

[A] USA
[B] UK
[C] Russia
[D] Israel

‘Renukaji Dam project’, seen in the news, is to come up in which Indian state?

[A] Maharashtra
[B] Himachal Pradesh
[C] Gujarat
[D] Bihar