6 November 2026
Pedro Alliana, a 52-year-old conservative politician, has been sworn in as President of Paraguay, becoming the 53rd holder of the office. He had served as Vice President under Santiago Pena since the start of that term. Earlier the same day, 44 of the 45 senators in the upper chamber voted to remove Pena from office, with one senator abstaining. The impeachment followed the sudden collapse of Ueno Bank, which the central bank had seized after announcing that the lender had fallen below legal solvency standards, transferring its remaining assets to other banks. With roughly three million members, Ueno counted close to two-thirds of adults in Paraguay among its customers and was the fifth-largest bank in the country by deposits. Prosecutors ordered Pena placed under house arrest, and an arrest warrant was issued for Carlos Carvallo, the former head of the central bank, who had resigned earlier in the week. Pena, a member of the long-governing Colorado Party, had offered to step down citing the need to preserve democratic institutions.
Senate vote to remove:
44 of 45 senators, one abstention
Office:
53rd president of Paraguay
Why it matters for exams: Pedro Alliana is the President of Paraguay, Santiago Pena belonged to the Colorado Party, and the capital of Paraguay is Asuncion.
Kerala PSCUPSC
6 November 2026
Pope Leo XIV has arrived in Uruguay to begin a 12-day tour of South America, three weeks after lung cancer surgery that had put the trip in doubt. The 71-year-old pontiff flew from Rome to Montevideo, where the Vatican estimated that 30,000 people turned out for his first event. He was formally welcomed at the Plaza Independencia by President Yamandu Orsi, and in a speech in Spanish he praised the transition of Uruguay to clean energy, spoke about mental health and urged universal healthcare. It is the first papal visit to the country in nearly four decades. The pontiff will spend three days in Uruguay before travelling to Argentina and then to Peru, where he served for almost two decades as a missionary. He heads a Church of 1.4 billion Catholics.
Length of tour:
12 days across three countries
Crowd at first event:
30,000, as estimated by the Vatican
Why it matters for exams: Pope Leo XIV is the head of the Roman Catholic Church, the capital of Uruguay is Montevideo and its President is Yamandu Orsi.
Kerala PSCUPSC
6 November 2026
President Donald Trump has named Stephen Miller, the architect of his hardline immigration policy and until now deputy chief of staff, as his new White House chief of staff. Miller, who is 41, replaces Susie Wiles, who had held the post since the start of the term and submitted her resignation after Republicans lost control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections. Trump said Wiles had done a very good job and would move over to the political operation. Miller served as a senior adviser during the first Trump administration and is set to take up the new role on Monday. Democrats won both the Senate and the House of Representatives in the midterms, taking control of Congress for the remainder of the presidential term. Trump said he elevated Miller because he gets it, is very good politically and is a very good manager.
Outgoing chief of staff:
Susie Wiles
Earlier role:
Deputy chief of staff
Why it matters for exams: The White House chief of staff is the senior-most aide to the President of the United States, and the Congress of the United States has two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives.
Kerala PSCUPSC
6 November 2026
Battlefield gains by Russian forces in Ukraine have fallen to almost nothing this year, according to figures from independent observers and the Ukrainian military. Territory seized in the first ten months of the year amounts to 117.38 sq km, according to the Institute for the Study of War, a think tank based in Washington that uses open-source geolocated footage. The comparison is stark: gains in the previous year were 5,304 sq km, including 473 sq km of Russian territory recaptured in the Kursk region, and the year before that 3,604 sq km. That works out to an advance of 0.38 sq km a day this year against 13.25 sq km a day in the previous year. Ukraine, through its General Staff, puts the estimated number of Russian personnel killed or seriously wounded over the ten months at 381,300, a figure the news organisation says it cannot independently verify. Estimated losses have repeatedly set new monthly records since the summer, well beyond the estimated Russian recruitment capacity of 24,000-30,000 a month.
Territory seized in ten months:
117.38 sq km
Previous year gains:
5,304 sq km
Daily rate:
0.38 sq km a day
Why it matters for exams: The Institute for the Study of War is a think tank based in Washington that tracks the war in Ukraine using open-source geolocated footage.
Kerala PSCUPSC
6 November 2026
TikTok has been preliminarily found in breach of the Digital Services Act by the European Commission, over what is being called the rabbit hole effect of its recommender system. Personalised videos run in a continuous stream on the For You feed, and they keep coming even where the subject is mental health struggle or body image. The pattern feeds itself: the more a user engages with one kind of clip, the more of that kind the feed algorithm puts up next. Harm can follow from that endless, repeated exposure when the material turns on sadness, isolation or body image. Rabbit holes of this sort can tell on the mental health of users, and vulnerable adults and minors are the most exposed. Two things are at the centre of the preliminary findings, the risk assessment the platform carried out and the mitigation measures it put in place. The Commission supervises designated very large online platforms and search engines under the regulation.
Law invoked:
Digital Services Act
Feature examined:
the For You feed recommender system
Why it matters for exams: The Digital Services Act is the European Union regulation under which the European Commission supervises designated very large online platforms and search engines.
Kerala PSCUPSC
7 November 2026
Confirmed cases of measles in the United States now stand at 5,182 for the year, on figures put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and no year since 1991 has seen the agency report so many. Vaccines prevent the disease, yet it spreads very easily. Of the confirmed cases, 18 per cent are in children under five and 41 per cent in those aged five to nineteen, so roughly 59 per cent in all are children and teenagers. Outbreaks account for the bulk of them, 4,993 cases. Protection among children entering kindergarten has slipped over six school years, from 95.2 per cent down to 92.4 per cent. Against 2,289 cases confirmed the previous year, the present count is more than twice as high. Four deaths appear in the agency tally, while the worst-hit state, Pennsylvania, puts its own toll at six deaths out of 1,487 cases.
Confirmed cases:
5,182
Outbreak-associated cases:
4,993
Kindergarten coverage:
from 95.2 percent to 92.4 percent
Why it matters for exams: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is the public health agency of the United States that publishes national disease surveillance data.
Kerala PSCUPSC
6 November 2026
Afghanistan sits at a difficult crossroad, a senior United Nations official has said, more than five years on from the return of the Taliban to power. Calm and security of a sort are there, but a weak economy, broad curbs on rights and sharp humanitarian need pull against them. The official, Bruno Lemarquis, is Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General for the country and also its Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator. Restrictions on the freedoms of women and girls remain severe and broad, he said, and they are shut out of much of the space in which people learn, earn and take part in public life. Among the most sensitive education problems anywhere, in his description, is the barring of girls from schooling beyond the primary stage. Secondary education has been refused to more than 2.6 million girls, and not one woman is enrolled in a university at present. Boys too are being kept home by some families because money is short, and Afghan women employees are still not allowed through the doors of United Nations offices in the country. Services are under further strain from the return of 6.7 million nationals, many of them pushed out by neighbouring states that had hosted them.
Girls denied secondary education:
over 2.6 million
Female university enrollment:
zero
Nationals returned:
6.7 million
Why it matters for exams: Bruno Lemarquis is the Deputy Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan and the Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the country.
Kerala PSCUPSC
5 November 2026
Two further Ebola vaccine candidates are to be taken into a clinical trial in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the World Health Organization has said, while an outbreak of the Bundibugyo species of the virus runs on there. Prioritising them was the recommendation of an independent expert panel, the Technical Advisory Group on Candidate Vaccines Prioritization. Never before has a vaccine built specifically against the Bundibugyo virus been put to the test in the middle of an outbreak of the disease. One candidate, ChAdOx1, comes from the University of Oxford; the other, mRNA-1469, comes from Moderna. That they are ready for trial speaks to what science and partnership together can do, said Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who added that vaccines by themselves will not finish the outbreak but could turn into a powerful new tool for controlling it. Nothing on this scale has been seen in the country before, with confirmed cases past 10,500 and deaths at 5,126. Tumaini, which is Swahili for hope, is the name of the trial, and it opened at Bunia, the capital of Ituri province and the centre of the outbreak, where Ervebo, the vaccine for the Zaire species, is under test as well.
New candidates:
ChAdOx1 and mRNA-1469
Confirmed cases:
more than 10,500
Deaths:
5,126
Why it matters for exams: The Tumaini trial, named from the Swahili word for hope, is run with WHO support at Bunia in Ituri province, and Ervebo is the vaccine used against the Zaire species of Ebola virus.
Kerala PSCUPSC
6 November 2026
Whether European Union money set aside for improving a Spanish railway line was misused is now the subject of an inquiry by prosecutors of the Union. Sixty-nine people died in a train crash on that line. Investigative measures have been started at the Spanish rail authorities, the European Public Prosecutor Office said, after it opened an investigation into possible fraud touching the funds granted for renovating and upgrading the safety, signalling and communications systems of the high-speed line that runs from Madrid to Seville. The offices visited were those of Adif, which holds the rail infrastructure, and AESF, the rail safety agency, and a special unit of the Guardia Civil worked alongside the prosecutors. The crash took place near Urda, a village roughly 130km to the south of Madrid, and ranks among the worst rail disasters in Europe in this century. It was the second lethal accident on that same line inside the year; the earlier one, at Adamuz, took 46 lives. Between the two, 115 people have died.
Rail line:
Madrid-Seville high-speed line
Bodies searched:
Adif and the rail safety agency AESF
Lives lost in two accidents:
115
Why it matters for exams: EPPO, the European Public Prosecutor Office, is the independent prosecution body of the European Union for crimes against its financial interests.
Kerala PSCUPSC
6 November 2026
Military strikes on the Iranian island of Qeshm have been acknowledged by Donald Trump, President of the United States, who said at the same time that a lot of progress has been made in the talks Washington is holding with Tehran. Asked by reporters at West Palm Beach in Florida, he called the action minor strikes on Iranian air defence systems, saying an anti-aircraft device had been taken out within a few minutes. Two missile strikes in the Suza area of the island had already been reported by Iranian state media. Qeshm lies inside the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which a great part of the oil trade passes. IRIB, the state broadcaster, also carried an army statement claiming that Iranian air defences brought down an American MQ-9 drone above the island. Reports of explosions drew a short response from United States Central Command, which runs American operations in the region and described the situation as relatively calm. Separately, Central Command held out a reward of up to 20 million dollars, with relocation possible, for information on the nuclear programme of Iran.
Island struck:
Qeshm island, Suza area
Drone reported downed:
an American MQ-9
Why it matters for exams: Qeshm island lies in the Strait of Hormuz, the route through which a large share of seaborne oil moves, and US Central Command (CENTCOM) oversees American military operations in that region.
Kerala PSCUPSC
Background
The Nagoya Protocol is an agreement under the Convention on Biological Diversity on who may reach a country's genetic resources and how the gains from using them are shared. Its long formal title covers access to genetic resources together with the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits their use brings, and the stated aim is that those benefits reach people fairly. The Protocol came into force on 12 October 2014, 90 days after the fiftieth instrument of ratification was deposited, and it now carries 143 ratifications or accessions. Article 14 of the Protocol created the Access and Benefit-sharing Clearing-House, a platform for exchanging information about access and benefit-sharing, which sits inside the clearing-house that Article 18, paragraph 3 of the Convention set up. The Clearing-House is meant to add legal certainty and transparency, to let providers and users of genetic resources and associated traditional knowledge find each other, and to carry the internationally recognized certificate of compliance. Parties meet as the Conference of the Parties acting also as the meeting of the Parties to the Protocol, a mouthful shortened to COP-MOP. The Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety is the other protocol under the same Convention.
Full title:
Nagoya Protocol on Access to Genetic Resources and the Fair and Equitable Sharing of Benefits Arising from their Utilization
In force since:
12 October 2014
Clearing-House created by:
Article 14 of the Protocol
Ratifications and accessions:
143 ratifications/accessions
Why it matters for exams: That the Nagoya Protocol sits under the Convention on Biological Diversity, what it governs, the Article that created its Clearing-House and the Cartagena Protocol beside it are the durable facts.
Kerala PSCUPSC
Background
The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species is the most comprehensive source of information on the global extinction risk of animal, fungus and plant species, and it is open to everyone - governments, non-profit bodies, businesses and individuals all use it. Each assessed species goes into one of nine Red List Categories. They run from Extinct and Extinct in the Wild through Critically Endangered, Endangered and Vulnerable, on to Near Threatened and Least Concern, with Data Deficient and Not Evaluated for species that cannot be placed. Three of those - Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered - are taken to mean threatened with extinction. An assessment records a species' range, population size, habitat and ecology, use and trade, the threats it faces and the conservation work already done. Out of the Red List comes the Red List Index, which shows the trend in overall extinction risk and which governments use to track progress against targets for reducing biodiversity loss. The work is carried out with 13 Red List Partner organisations. The Red List also holds the IUCN Green Status of Species, which measures recovery rather than risk and has eight Green Status Categories of its own, among them Extinct in the Wild and Fully Recovered. IUCN itself is the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, with headquarters at Gland in Switzerland.
Categories:
nine Red List Categories
Counted as threatened:
Vulnerable, Endangered and Critically Endangered
Partner organisations:
13 Red List Partner organisations
Recovery measure:
IUCN Green Status of Species
Why it matters for exams: The nine Red List Categories, which three of them count as threatened, the Red List Index, the Green Status of Species and what IUCN stands for are the exam-worthy facts here.
Kerala PSCUPSC