Daily Current Affairs for UPSC CSE
Topics Covered
- Impeachment of US President
- Open Sky Agreement
- Houbara Bustard
- Facts for Prelims
1 . Impeachment of US President
Context : The House on Wednesday impeached President Donald Trump for a second time, a first in American history, charging him with “incitement of insurrection” one week after he egged on a mob of supporters that stormed the Capitol while Congress met to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory.
What is impeachment?
- The US constitution permits Congress to remove presidents before their term is up if enough lawmakers vote to say that they committed “treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.”
- Only two presidents have been impeached — Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998 — and both were ultimately acquitted and completed their terms in office. Richard M. Nixon resigned in 1974 to avoid being impeached.
What is the process?
- In both the Nixon and the Clinton cases, the House Judiciary Committee first held an investigation and recommended articles of impeachment to the full House. In theory, however, the House of Representatives could instead set up a special panel to handle the proceedings — or just hold a floor vote on such articles without any committee vetting them.
- When the full House votes on articles of impeachment, if at least one gets a majority vote, the president is impeached — which is essentially the equivalent of being indicted.
- Next, the proceedings move to the Senate, which is to hold a trial overseen by the chief justice of the United States.
- A team of lawmakers from the House, known as managers, play the role of prosecutors. The president has defense lawyers, and the Senate serves as the jury.
- If at least two-thirds of the senators find the president guilty, he is removed, and the vice president takes over as president. There is no appeal.
The biggest consequence for Trump could be disqualifying him from holding office again.
- Conviction in an impeachment trial would not automatically disqualify Trump from future public office. But if the Senate were to convict him, the Constitution allows a subsequent vote to bar an official from holding “any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States.”
- That vote would require only a simple majority of senators.
- There is no precedent, however, for disqualifying a president from future office, and the issue could end up before the Supreme Court.
2 . Open Skies Treaty
Context : Russia announced on Friday it was pulling out of the Open Skies treaty, saying that the pact, which allows unarmed surveillance flights over member countries, had been seriously compromised by the withdrawal of the United States.
Background of the treaty
- First proposed in 1955 by former US President Dwight Eisenhower as a means to deescalate tensions during the Cold War, the landmark treaty was eventually signed in 1992 between NATO members and former Warsaw Pact countries following the demise of the Soviet Union.
- It went into effect in 2002 and currently has 35 signatories along with one non-ratifying member (Kyrgyzstan).
What is the Open Skies Treaty?
- The OST aims at building confidence among members through mutual openness, thus reducing the chances of accidental war.
- Under the treaty, a member state can “spy” on any part of the host nation, with the latter’s consent.
- A country can undertake aerial imaging over the host state after giving notice 72 hours before, and sharing its exact flight path 24 hours before.
- The information gathered, such as on troop movements, military exercises and missile deployments, has to be shared with all member states.
- Only approved imaging equipment is permitted on the surveillance flights, and officials from the host state can also stay on board throughout the planned journey.
Open Skies Treaty: The US’s withdrawal
- While it was envisaged as a key arms control agreement, many in Washington had for over a decade accused Russia of non-compliance with OST protocols, blaming Moscow of obstructing surveillance flights on its territory, while misusing its own missions for gathering key tactical data. The United States left the Open Skies arms control and verification treaty in November, accusing Russia of violating it
- Russia said in a statement that Moscow had made specific proposals to other members to mitigate against the impact of the U.S. exit but that those proposals were not backed by Washington’s allies. Russia has raised concerns that despite leaving the treaty Washington could potentially retain access to overflight intelligence gathered by allies who remain members in the treaty. Moscow had tried to get guarantees from other countries that they would not share such intelligence with the U.S. but had not been given any assurances.
Significance of the Open Skies Treaty
- The OST was signed in 1992, much before the advent of advanced satellite imaging technology which is currently the preferred mode for intelligence gathering. Yet, as explains a report in The Economist, surveillance aircraft provide key information that still cannot be gathered by satellite sensors, such as thermal imaging data.
- Also, since only the US has an extensive military satellite infrastructure, other NATO members would have to rely on Washington to obtain classified satellite data, which would be more difficult to obtain compared to OST surveillance records that have to be shared with all members as a treaty obligation.
- Notably, the Economist report also mentions the OST’s utility for Washington, which since 2002 has flown 201 surveillance missions over Russia and its ally Belarus. A former Trump official had also hailed OST data gathered during the 2014 Russia-Ukraine conflict.
3 . Houbara Bustard
Context : Eleven members of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) royal family arrived in Pakistan’s Panjgur district in Balochistan on Saturday to hunt the internationally protected and highly vulnerable houbara bustard under a license issued by Pakistan’s foreign ministry.
What is the houbara bustard?
- The houbara bustard is a large terrestrial bird found in parts of Asia, the Middle East and Africa. The North African houbara (Chlamydotis undulata) and the Asian houbara (Chlamydotis macqueenii) are separate species. The Asian houbara is related to the critically endangered great Indian bustard native to India.
- After breeding in Central Asia during the spring, Asian houbara bustards migrate south to spend the winter in Pakistan, the Arabian peninsula and nearby Southwest Asia. Some Asian houbara bustards live and breed in the southern part of their ranges including parts of Iran, Pakistan and Turkmenistan.
- According to the International Fund for Houbara Conservation (IFHC), roughly 42,000 Asian houbara bustards and over 22,000 of the North African houbara bustards remain today.
- The main reasons for the decline in the species’ population are poaching, unregulated hunting and the degradation of its natural habitat, the IFHC website states.
Why is the houbara bustard hunted in Pakistan?
- Vast swathes of land in Pakistan are allocated in blocks to wealthy dignitaries from the UAE, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries, who arrive in the country to hunt the birds every year using hunting gear and falcons. They kill the bird for sport and also because its meat is supposed to have aphrodisiac qualities.
- Media coverage is not permitted of these secretive hunting expeditions, but the scale of each hunt is believed to be considerable. Each party has a convoy of over a dozen SUVs accompanying it and very often the dignitaries come with their own cooks and staff, locals told the BBC.
4 . Facts for Prelims
CSR Expenditure
- All companies with a net worth of Rs 500 crore or more, a turnover of Rs 1,000 crore or more, or net profit of Rs 5 crore or more are required to spend 2 per cent of their average profit of the previous three years on CSR activities every year.
- Expenditure incurred by India Inc on awareness campaigns on the Covid-19 vaccination programme would be counted towards their mandatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure.
Pig Painting
- According to researchers Pig Painting May Be World’s Oldest Cave Art Yet
- The vivid depiction of a wild pig, outlined and filled in with mulberry-hued pigment, dates back at least 45,500 years, according to a study published in Science Advances.
- It was discovered deep inside a cave called Leang Tedongnge in Indonesia , during an archaeological survey
- The animal in the painting resembles the warty pig, a species still living today on the island of Sulawesi where the cave is.