Current Affairs in Short: 19 January 2021

Transport Ministry notifies Inter Country Transport Vehicles Rules 2021

• The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has notified Inter-Country Transport Vehicles Rules, 2021. The rules will facilitate and regulate the passenger movement and the movement of good vehicles between India and neighbouring countries.
• Under the rules, the State Transport Authority has been provided the power to grant the Inter-Country Transport Permit after examining the application thoroughly. 
• The permit will be valid for one year from the date of its issue. It will also be renewable for a period of five years on yearly basis.
• The State Transport Department will also be required to take care of formalities such as provisioning of tickets, frisking or checking of passengers, handling of luggage before departure and debugging of the bus. 

US Capitol Hill in temporary lockdown after fire 

• The US Capitol Hill went into a temporary lockdown on January 18, 2021 after a fire broke out under a nearby bridge. 
• The US Secret Service informed later that the fire was extinguished and there is no threat to the public.
• The US Capitol and its surrounding areas have become a military zone ahead of Joe Biden's inauguration on January 20, 2021 in the wake of the Capitol Hill riots. 

Team India creates history, breaches Australia's fortress at The Gabba

• Injury-hit Team India created history on January 19, 2021 by beating Australia by three wickets in the fourth and final Test at The Gabba and retaining the prestigious Border-Gavaskar trophy. 
• India claimed the series 2-1 after chasing down the target of 328 runs in the Gabba Test in Brisbane. This was Australia's first defeat in 32 years at their fortress, The Gabba. 
• Rishab Pant's unbeaten 89, Shubham Gill's 91 and Cheteshwar Pujara's incredible half century played a major role in guiding India to the big Test series win. 
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself took to Twitter to express his joy at the success of the Indian Cricket Team in Australia. He tweeted congratulations and said that their remarkable energy and passion, stellar intent and remarkable grit and determination was visible throughout.

US Donald Trump lifts travel ban on UK, Ireland, Brazil 

• US President Donald Trump issued an executive order on January 19, 2021 lifting the travel ban to the United Kingdom, Ireland and Brazil. The order came at a time when COVID-19 cases are on a rise in the nation, surpassing 24 million. 
• The travel restrictions were placed on much of Europe and Brazil due to the pandemic and were supposed to come into effect from January 26, 2021, a week after he leaves office. 
• As per the new executive order, the travel restrictions will be lifted from 26 European countries in the Schengen Zone and the UK, Ireland and Brazil as they are no longer detrimental to the interests of the US. 

WHO-appointed Independent panel slams China, WHO for slow initial response to COVID-19

• An independent panel has slammed China and the World Health Organisation (WHO) for acting too slowly to the coronavirus pandemic. The panel is co-chaired by former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark. 
• The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response, which was established by WHO in May 2020, released a report on January 18. 
• The panel called for an overhaul of global health alert and response systems, stating that the current system is "not fit for purpose."
• It also described additional early shortcomings at each step of the global response to COVID-19, which contributed to the pandemic. 

Centre asks WhatsApp CEO to withdraw proposed changes to the app's privacy policy

• The Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has written to Whatsapp Global CEO Will Cathcart to withdraw the proposed changes to the Whatsapp Privacy Policy for Indian users.
• The centre has asked the Whatsapp CEO to furnish responses to the government’s query regarding the privacy, data transfer and sharing policies of the face-owned messaging platform.
• The Ministry also raised concerns regarding the users' information security as the new policy of WhatsApp proposes to share the metadata of users’ chat with Business accounts with other Facebook companies. This could create security risks and vulnerabilities for the users.
• The Ministry further objected to the “all-or-nothing” approach of WhatsApp that forces users to accept the new service terms and privacy policies, without giving an option to the users to opt-out of this proposed change.