World Map : May (I) 2020

Brazil and Venezuela. Recently, a boy belonging to the Yanomami Tribe died after contracting with Covid-19. Yanomami is an indigenous tribe, also called South American Indians, who live in the remote forest of the Orinoco River basin in southern Venezuela and the northernmost reaches of the Amazon River basin in northern Brazil. They practice hunting and slash-and-burn agriculture. Brazil is home to an estimated 8,00,000 indigenous people from more than 300 ethnic groups. Guarani, Kaingang, Yanomami, Tikuna and Akuntsu are some of the popular tribes of Amazon.

Iran. Iran has launched its first military satellite called Noor (meaning light) into orbit. The satellite reached an orbit of 425km after being carried by a three-stage Ghased launcher. The launch comes amid tensions between Iran and the US over the collapsed nuclear deal and after a U.S. drone strike in Iraq killed Iran’s most powerful military commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani in January 2020.

Australia. Exercise Pitch Black is a biennial three-week multilateral air combat training exercise hosted by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). It ensures that the training and integration of forces that occur during this exercise directly support the Air Force's ability to conduct operations. Last time it was held in 2018, where Indian Air Force took part in the exercise for the first time. Other participating countries included Australia, Canada, France (New Caledonia), Germany, Indonesia, Netherlands, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and the United States. The exercise Pitch Black 2020 is cancelled due to COVID-19 and the next edition will be held in 2022.

China. Recently, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) has highlighted that China has become the biggest source of applications for international patents in the world. China has pushed the United States from the top position which it has held since the global system was set up more than 40 years ago. China filed 58,990 applications beating the 57,840 applications filed by the U.S. In the current times, more than half of patent applications, almost 52.4%, come from Asia. Japan is on the third rank followed by Germany and South Korea. With 2,053 applications India is among the top 15 countries followed by Turkey (2,058).

Nepal. The Kalapani territory has become a bone of contention between India and Nepal and the controversy has arisen due to the release of a new political map by India after the bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir. In the latest political map of India, India reiterated its claims on the region that Nepal considers its own territory in Darchula district. According to India, the historic Kalapani region forms part of the state of Uttarakhand. It is a valley that is administered by India as a part of the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand. It is situated on the Kailash Mansarovar route.