9 October 2026
The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2026 to Navanethem "Navi" Pillay.
The committee cited her efforts to promote peace and international law.
Pillay is a South African jurist of Indian Tamil origin and a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
She has served as a judge of South Africa's High Court, of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and of the International Criminal Court.
She also chaired the UN Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The committee chair, Jorgen Watne Frydnes, announced the decision in Oslo. It is the 125th Nobel Peace Prize.
The prize is 12 million Swedish crowns and will be presented in Oslo on 10 December.
Prize amount:
12 million Swedish crowns
Edition:
125th Nobel Peace Prize
Ceremony:
Oslo, 10 December
Why it matters for exams: The Nobel Peace Prize laureate of the year is a standard one-mark question, and Pillay's offices link the prize to the UN human rights machinery and the international criminal courts.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
OHCHR Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights — The UN office in Geneva that leads the organisation's human rights work.
7 October 2026
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2026 to Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai.
The citation is "for the discovery of nonlinear effects and autocatalysis in asymmetric organic synthesis".
Many molecules of life exist in two mirror-image forms, like a left and a right hand. Living organisms use almost only one of them, a puzzle known as homochirality.
Kagan and Soai showed how a chemical reaction can be driven to favour one mirror image over the other.
The work matters for making medicines, because the two mirror forms of a drug can act differently in the body.
Nobel Committee chair Heiner Linke called it a solution to a chemical mystery more than a century old.
Kagan is French and Soai is Japanese. The prize of 12 million Swedish kronor is shared equally.
Laureates:
Henri B. Kagan and Kenso Soai
Prize amount:
12 million Swedish kronor
Announced by:
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Stockholm
Why it matters for exams: Chemistry Nobel citations are asked directly, and chirality, enantiomers and asymmetric synthesis are core organic chemistry concepts in the science papers.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Homochirality Homochirality — The fact that living things use almost exclusively one of the two mirror-image forms of a molecule.
Autocatalysis Autocatalysis — A reaction in which a product of the reaction itself speeds up that same reaction.
6 October 2026
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 2026 to Francis Halzen.
He was recognised for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.
IceCube is a detector built into the clear ice beneath the South Pole in Antarctica.
When a neutrino strikes an atomic nucleus in the ice it makes a flash of light that buried sensors record.
Neutrinos are called ghost particles because they pass through matter almost without interacting.
Halzen, a Belgian physicist, first proposed the project in 1988.
The award ceremony is on 10 December.
Laureate:
Francis Halzen
Observatory:
IceCube Neutrino Observatory, South Pole
Project proposed:
1988
Why it matters for exams: Physics Nobel citations are asked directly, and neutrino astronomy, Antarctic science facilities and particle detectors recur in the science and technology section.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Neutrino Neutrino — A nearly massless subatomic particle that passes through matter almost without interacting.
8 October 2026
The World Meteorological Organization published its Global Seasonal Climate Update for October to December 2026.
The update says forecasts point to a further intensification towards stronger El Nino conditions.
The Nino 3.4 sea-surface temperature anomaly is forecast at about plus 3.7 degrees Celsius for the season, peaking around December 2026.
Forecast systems agree closely with one another, which the update treats as high confidence.
Most regions are expected to be warmer than normal, especially in the Northern Hemisphere and across equatorial regions.
A positive Indian Ocean Dipole is expected to peak in October and then weaken, leaving a seasonal mean anomaly of plus 0.5 degrees Celsius.
The equatorial Atlantic is expected to stay warm, with both the North and South Tropical Atlantic above normal.
Nino 3.4 anomaly forecast:
about +3.7 degrees Celsius
Expected peak:
around December 2026
Indian Ocean Dipole anomaly:
+0.5 degrees Celsius seasonal mean
Why it matters for exams: El Nino, the Nino 3.4 index and the Indian Ocean Dipole are standard geography and environment questions, and the WMO is the UN's authority on them.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Nino 3.4 Nino 3.4 region — A box in the central equatorial Pacific whose sea-surface temperature anomaly is the standard measure of El Nino strength.
IOD Indian Ocean Dipole — The difference in sea-surface temperature between the western and eastern tropical Indian Ocean.
7 October 2026
The World Health Organization published guidelines on the integrated management of obesity in adolescents.
The guidelines cover adolescents aged 10 to 19 and use a primary health care approach.
They are addressed to policy-makers, programme managers and health workers.
The recommendations span dietary interventions, physical activity, sedentary behaviour and sleep, behaviour-changing interventions, digital health interventions, pharmacotherapy, bariatric surgery and multimodal interventions.
WHO frames the guidelines as a response to the growing global burden of obesity.
The document runs to 133 pages and carries ISBN 978-92-4-012387-8.
Age group:
Adolescents aged 10-19
Pages:
133
ISBN:
978-92-4-012387-8
Why it matters for exams: WHO guideline documents, the 10-19 definition of adolescence and non-communicable disease policy are recurring health questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Bariatric surgery Bariatric surgery — Surgery on the stomach or intestines to treat severe obesity.
8 October 2026
The World Trade Organization released its Global Trade Outlook and Statistics update.
It raised its forecast for world merchandise trade volume growth in 2026 to 3.9 per cent, from 1.9 per cent in the earlier estimate.
For 2027 it expects merchandise trade volume to grow 4.1 per cent.
The forecast for commercial services trade volume in 2026 was cut to 3.3 per cent, from 4.8 per cent in the March forecast.
Services trade volume is expected to expand 6.4 per cent in 2027.
WTO Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said an integrated global economy and a rules-based trading system gave economies the flexibility to keep essential goods flowing.
Merchandise trade volume growth, 2026:
3.9%
Earlier 2026 estimate:
1.9%
Merchandise trade volume growth, 2027:
4.1%
Commercial services trade volume growth, 2026:
3.3%
Services growth expected in 2027:
6.4%
Why it matters for exams: Trade body forecasts and the name of the WTO Director-General are standard economy questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
WTO World Trade Organization — The intergovernmental body that administers the rules of international trade and settles trade disputes.
Trade volume Trade measured in quantity terms — Trade counted by quantity rather than by value, so price changes do not distort the growth figure.
8 October 2026
US prosecutors unveiled a superseding indictment against ousted Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, 63, and his wife Cilia Flores, 69.
It adds a count of conspiracy to commit torture to the drug trafficking charges they already faced.
The case is before a Manhattan federal court in New York, where US District Judge Alvin Hellerstein presides.
Both had pleaded not guilty to the earlier drug trafficking charges, and their trial is scheduled for 1 June 2027.
The couple were captured by the US military on 3 January in their Caracas home and brought to New York, and have been held at Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center since.
On the same day, Judge Hellerstein denied Flores' request for release for medical treatment, agreeing with prosecutors that she is an extreme flight risk.
US Attorney Jamie McDonald described the conduct set out in the indictment as truly unthinkable.
New count added:
Conspiracy to commit torture
Court:
Manhattan federal court, New York
Presiding judge:
Alvin Hellerstein
Trial date:
1 June 2027
Date of capture:
3 January
Why it matters for exams: The prosecution of a former head of state in a national court, and the court and trial dates involved, are standard international-law questions.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
Superseding indictment A replacement indictment — A fresh indictment that replaces an earlier one, often to add or change counts before trial.
Flight risk Risk that an accused person will abscond — A court's assessment that a person released from custody may not return for trial.
8 October 2026
A four-member international astronaut crew returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Thursday.
The SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom spacecraft made a parachute-assisted splashdown in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, confirmed at 1534GMT.
The flight concluded a 237-day scientific expedition in orbit.
The returning Crew-12 complement was NASA astronauts Jessica Meir, who served as mission commander, and Jack Hathaway, the mission pilot, with European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev.
The four astronauts had launched toward the station on Feb. 13 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket.
Their return followed the arrival of the replacement Crew-13 mission, which launched on Oct. 1.
NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said teams aim to validate mobility suits, habitability, power systems and communications on the lunar surface before attempting crewed flights to Mars.
Mission duration in orbit:
237 days
Crew size:
four-member
Spacecraft:
Crew Dragon Freedom
Splashdown confirmed at:
1534GMT
Launch date and rocket:
Feb. 13, Falcon 9
Replacement mission launch:
Crew-13, Oct. 1
Why it matters for exams: Crewed spaceflight missions, the agencies that fly them and mission durations are regularly asked in the science and technology section.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
ISS International Space Station — A crewed research laboratory in low Earth orbit run jointly by several national space agencies.
Splashdown Landing of a spacecraft on water — A return in which the capsule descends on parachutes and comes down in the sea rather than on land.
ESA European Space Agency — The intergovernmental space agency of European member states, which flies its astronauts on partner vehicles.