Read Current Affairs
- Why in News?
- The Supreme Court’s recent handling of the stray dog issue reflects an effort to balance compassion with public safety.
- Key Highlights:-
- On August 11, 2025, it directed the Municipal Corporation of Delhi to confine strays in shelters, but later allowed their release after vaccination and deworming, retaining only aggressive or rabid ones. India faces one of the world’s highest rabies burdens, disproportionately harming vulnerable communities.
- Despite updated 2023 Animal Birth Control Rules, sterilisation remains below the 70% threshold needed for effectiveness.
- Concerns about shelter overcrowding mirror wider failures in municipal care and coordination. While dogs are part of India’s urban life, public safety cannot be compromised; rehoming, regulated shelters, and humane euthanasia for incurably ill or aggressive animals are essential.
- A modern law should classify dogs by adoptability, ensure shelter standards, improve waste management, penalise pet abandonment, and be supported by a national veterinary network. Without systemic reform, fear will persist alongside neglect.
- Why in News?
- For months, aid groups, rights organisations, and doctors have warned that Gaza was nearing famine, as reports of malnourished children dying emerged daily. Israel, engaged in a 22-month assault on the enclave, dismissed these accounts, while its allies offered only symbolic concern.
- Key Provisions:-
- Last week, the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) confirmed a “man-made famine” in Gaza City and surrounding areas — the first officially declared in West Asia.
- One in five households faces extreme shortages; over a third of children are acutely malnourished, and at least two in every 10,000 people die each day from starvation or related disease. Israel’s blockade, tightened after March 2025, and the replacement of UN food distribution with the U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, deepened the crisis.
- Over 1,300 have been killed at food centres since May. Evidence now points to deliberate destruction of Palestinian society — a crime unfolding in plain sight.
- Why in News?
- Seaweed farming is increasingly viewed as a promising Blue Carbon strategy to help mitigate climate change. However, scientific data on the actual carbon burial potential of such farms remains limited, leaving a gap in understanding their true contribution.
- Key Highlights:-
- Blue Carbon refers to the organic carbon captured and stored in vegetated coastal ecosystems such as mangroves, saltmarshes, and seagrass meadows. The term “blue” highlights the aquatic nature of these carbon sinks. While most Blue Carbon comes from carbon dioxide absorbed directly into ocean waters, smaller amounts are locked away in underwater sediments, coastal vegetation, soils, biological molecules like DNA and proteins, and marine life ranging from whales to phytoplankton.
- Despite covering only 2% of the ocean’s surface, these ecosystems account for roughly 50% of the ocean’s carbon sequestration. Their capacity to store vast amounts of carbon makes them vital to global climate action, underscoring the need for more research into seaweed farming’s role.