Current Affairs

1. VOLCANIC VORTEX RINGS –

• Mount Etna, the largest volcano in Europe, and among the world’s most active volcanoes, has been sending up almost perfect rings of smoke into the air, which is a rare phenomenon that scientists refer to as volcanic vortex rings.
• Vortex rings are generated when gas, predominantly water vapour, is released rapidly through a vent in the crater. The vent that has opened up in volcano’s crater is almost perfectly circular, so the rings that have been seen are also circular.
• Volcanic vortex rings were first observed at Etna in 1724 and have since been documented at various volcanoes worldwide. These rings can remain in the air for up to 10 minutes but tend to disintegrate quickly if conditions are windy and turbulent.

 

2. APPLE HAS RECENTLY ISSUED URGENT SECURITY ALERTS TO IPHONE USERS IN INDIA AND 91 OTHER COUNTRIES –

• Mercenary spyware attacks are exceptionally rare and highly sophisticated compared to regular cybercriminal activity or consumer malware.
• Unlike common cyber threats, mercenary spyware aims to gain unauthorised access to a user’s device.
• If a device is compromised by a targeted mercenary spyware attack, the attacker may be able to remotely
• access sensitive data, communications, or even the camera and microphone.
• These are strategically aimed, high-cost attacks, historically linked to states, targeting select individuals like journalists, activists, politicians, and diplomats.
• Pegasus, developed by the NSO Group is one of the examples of Mercenary Spyware.

 

3. INDIA TO RECEIVE ABOVE-NORMAL MONSOON RAINS: IMD –

• IMD in a press briefing has forecast that the rains in June-September will be 6% more than these months, an annual average of 87 cm.
• The forecasts also indicate that “above- normal” rain was likely over most parts of the country except northwest, east and northeast India.
• The models indicate a 30% chance of monsoon rains being over 10%, categorized as ‘excess’. Usually the chances of excess rain in any given year is only a 17%
• The El Nino is expected to fade away by June and progress to La Nina (a converse cooling effect in the Central Pacific region that is usually linked to surplus rainfall by the second half of the monsoon ie. August and September).
• El Nino last year dented India’s monsoon by 6%.