6 November 2026
The UNESCO Global Geoparks Council has put forward eleven places to be added to the global network of geoparks. The Council took the decision at its eleventh statutory meeting, held at UNESCO headquarters in Paris from 2 to 4 November. The eleven sites lie in nine countries, and one of them, Cross Channel - Transmanche, is shared between France and the United Kingdom. The others are Bojonegoro in Indonesia, Cabox and Niagara in Canada, Central Ethiopia Rift Valley in Ethiopia, Charnwood Forest in the United Kingdom, Khon Kaen in Thailand, La Hague in France, Nama-!Garib in Namibia, Pillanmapu in Chile and Vinales in Cuba. For Cuba, Ethiopia and Namibia these would be their first geoparks in the network. The network at present holds 241 geoparks across 51 countries. The Council only recommends; the final decision rests with UNESCO's Executive Board, which will take up the nominations at its spring 2027 session.
New sites proposed:
11
Geoparks in the network:
241
Countries in the network:
51
Why it matters for exams: UNESCO Global Geoparks are recommended by the Global Geoparks Council and endorsed by UNESCO's Executive Board; the network stands at 241 geoparks in 51 countries.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization — The UN agency for education, science and culture, with its headquarters in Paris.
7 November 2026
Mexico is preparing a national instrument it calls the Protocol for the Repatriation and Recovery of Cultural Goods. The work is led by the Ministry of Culture through the National Institute of Anthropology and History, with help from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and UNESCO. A second drafting workshop was held on 4 November at the National Museum of History in Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City. Officers from the Institute's centres in seven northern states took part, along with staff of the Foreign Ministry and UNESCO. The draft sets out the legal basis for such claims, a public register of cultural property, the steps officials must take, how recovered pieces are kept safe and where they finally go. It will apply when the Institute learns of possibly Mexican cultural objects abroad, including in sales, auctions, seizures and confiscations. The Institute's Technical Secretary José Luis Perea González said the protocol lays the groundwork for a wider policy on repatriation and restitution.
Drafting workshop:
Second, on 4 November
Venue:
Chapultepec Castle, Mexico City
Why it matters for exams: Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) leads the country's repatriation work, and UNESCO is the UN body that supports the return of cultural property.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
INAH National Institute of Anthropology and History — Mexico's federal body for archaeology, anthropology and the protection of cultural heritage.
6 November 2026
UNESCO has said that the children's library of the Mexico Chapter of the SDG Book Club is now open to the public at the Audiorama in Chapultepec Forest, Mexico City. Visitors may read its 92 books freely, and the Club's catalogue holds 104 titles in Spanish, including ten in Indigenous languages. The library is open from Tuesday to Sunday between 10 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, and entry is free. The Book Club uses children's literature to introduce young readers to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. The Mexico Chapter is run by the United Nations in Mexico through the UN Information Centre, UNESCO and UNICEF, with partners including IBBY Mexico, the Organization of Ibero-American States, the National Library of Mexico and the Guadalajara International Book Fair. The library was inaugurated on 17 October, and the space opened to mark the 81st anniversary of the United Nations during an SDG Literary Picnic.
Books in the library:
92
Titles in the full catalogue:
104 in Spanish, 10 in Indigenous languages
Goals covered:
17
Why it matters for exams: The SDG Book Club introduces children to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and its Mexico Chapter is run by the UN Information Centre with UNESCO and UNICEF.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
SDG Sustainable Development Goals — The set of 17 global goals adopted by the United Nations to be reached by 2030.
Background
New security pacts around the world are often described as carrying a mutual defence clause, and the model for such clauses is Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. The Article says that an armed attack against one or more members in Europe or North America shall be treated as an attack against all of them, and that each member must then come to the help of the member attacked. The treaty that carries this Article was signed on 4 April 1949 in Washington, D.C. In the whole history of the alliance, Article 5 has been invoked only once, after the attacks of 11 September 2001 on the United States. The alliance's decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, decided the day after the attacks that they would be covered if directed from abroad, and on 2 October 2001 it determined that they were. The clause is what makes the alliance a collective defence arrangement rather than a loose grouping.
Treaty signed:
4 April 1949, Washington, D.C.
Times Article 5 invoked:
Once
Why it matters for exams: Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty is the collective defence clause, the treaty was signed on 4 April 1949 at Washington, D.C., and the Article has been invoked only once, after 11 September 2001.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization — The military alliance of European and North American states set up by the North Atlantic Treaty.
Background
Disputes between states keep reaching the World Court, so it is worth knowing who sits on it. The International Court of Justice has a bench of fifteen members, and the Court's own list of current members names all fifteen. Its President is Judge Iwasawa Yuji of Japan, who has held that office since 3 March 2025. The Court decides two kinds of matters. The first is contentious cases, which are legal disputes between states that the states themselves bring; only states may be parties, and the Court can take up a dispute only where the states have accepted its jurisdiction, whether by a special agreement, by a clause in a treaty or by matching declarations. The second is advisory proceedings, in which certain organs of the United Nations and some specialised agencies ask the Court a legal question. An advisory opinion is not binding.
Members of the Court:
15
President of the Court:
Judge Iwasawa Yuji (Japan)
Why it matters for exams: The International Court of Justice has 15 members, only states may be parties to its contentious cases, and its advisory opinions are not binding.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
ICJ International Court of Justice — The principal judicial organ of the United Nations, which settles legal disputes between states.
Background
Attacks on merchant ships and the safety of busy sea lanes keep shipping in the news, and the body that sets the rules for it is a United Nations agency. The International Maritime Organization is a specialised agency of the United Nations that looks after the safety and security of shipping and works to stop ships polluting the sea. It describes itself as the body that sets the global standards for international shipping, and its purpose is to have one framework applied evenly everywhere so that no operator can profit by cutting corners on safety. Its rules reach across the whole life of a vessel, covering how a ship is designed, how it is built, what equipment it carries, how it is crewed, how it is operated and how it is finally disposed of.
Status:
United Nations specialised agency
Scope of its rules:
Ship design, construction, equipment, crewing, operation and disposal
Why it matters for exams: The International Maritime Organization is the United Nations specialised agency that sets global standards for the safety, security and pollution prevention of shipping.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
IMO International Maritime Organization — The UN specialised agency responsible for the safety and security of shipping and the prevention of pollution from ships.
Background
As islands and border regions across the world report rising arrivals of migrants and refugees, the World Health Organization has a standing review series on their health. Its publication Primary health care-oriented responses for migrants, refugees and displaced populations is the eighth report in the Global Evidence Review on Health and Migration series, and runs to 111 pages. It is a scoping review of evidence from around the world on how a primary health care approach can improve access to care for people on the move. The report examines three approaches: integrated health services, multisectoral policy and action, and empowered people and communities. It finds that such responses improve how reachable, continuous and coordinated care is, especially where services suit people's culture, communities are involved and care sits inside the regular health system, and that even partial use brings gains. It notes that comprehensive care and steady financing remain hard, and that evidence from low and middle income countries is thin.
Place in the series:
Eighth report
Length:
111 pages
Approaches examined:
Three
Why it matters for exams: The Global Evidence Review on Health and Migration is the World Health Organization's report series on migrant health, and this is its eighth report.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
GEHM Global Evidence Review on Health and Migration — A World Health Organization series that reviews evidence on the health of migrants and refugees.
PHC Primary health care — Care given at the first point of contact with the health system, close to where people live.
Background
Planetary defence is back in view as a European spacecraft reaches the asteroid pair that humans once nudged. Hera is the European Space Agency's planetary defence mission, and it has taken its first close picture of the Didymos system. Didymos is a binary asteroid: the parent body is about 780 m across and its moonlet Dimorphos is about 151 m across, with roughly a kilometre between them. NASA's DART spacecraft, weighing 580 kg and travelling at about 6.1 km a second, struck Dimorphos on 26 September 2022 and shortened its orbit around Didymos by 33 minutes, far more than had been expected. Hera's framing camera took the new image from 60 km away, and the spacecraft is now 196.8 million km from Earth. The aim is to turn a single experiment in deflecting an asteroid into a method that is understood well enough to use again.
Diameter of Didymos:
About 780 m
Diameter of Dimorphos:
About 151 m
Orbit shortened by:
33 minutes
Why it matters for exams: Hera is the European Space Agency's planetary defence mission to Didymos, and NASA's DART impact of 26 September 2022 shortened Dimorphos's orbit by 33 minutes.
Kerala PSCUPSC
In plain words
DART Double Asteroid Redirection Test — The NASA mission that deliberately struck the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos to test deflection.
ESA European Space Agency — The intergovernmental space agency of European states.