#environment26 Mountain gorillas are a subspecies of eastern gorilla found only in the high-altitude forests of the Virunga Mountains and Bwindi Impenetrable Forest in Central and East Africa. They are herbivorous, live in stable social groups led by a dominant silverback, and show complex social behaviour. Classified as Endangered by the IUCN, their population has increased due to intensive conservation. Major threats include habitat loss, poaching, disease transmission from humans, and regional conflict.

Source: The Hindu

#global26 The Delhi Declaration uniformly focuses on the need to uphold the “sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity” of Sudan, Somalia and Libya, and “rejects interference” in their internal affairs. All three nations have been central to the growing rift between two camps in the Middle East — one led by Saudi Arabia as the principal power supported by most of the Arab League, and one led by the UAE and Israel, and supported by the US.
Formally, these camps do not exist — especially as the UAE remains a crucial constituent of the League (co-chairing the January 31 meeting). Notably, the Delhi Declaration features support for the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002.

Source: The Indian Express

#global26 The Arab League, or League of Arab States, is a voluntary association of countries whose peoples are mainly Arabic-speaking or where Arabic is an official language. It is a regional organization of Arab states in the Middle East and parts of Africa.
Formation: It was formed in Cairo on 22 March 1945 with six members: Egypt, Iraq, Transjordan (later renamed Jordan), Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, with Yemen joining on 5 May 1945 + Members: It currently has 22 member states.

Source: WiKi

#global26 In a statement, the multilateral agency said that its global jobs strategy rests on three pillars- investing in critical infrastructure—both physical and human, strengthening a business-friendly environment through predictable laws, rules and regulations and deploying risk-management tools to help private investment scale. This approach focuses on five sectors that generate locally relevant jobs at scale: infrastructure and energy, agribusiness, health care, tourism and value-added manufacturing.

Source: THBL

#global26 Rafah crossing is the southernmost post of exit from the Gaza Strip (Palestine) and borders with Egypt's Sinai peninsula.

Two other border crossings from and into the Gaza Strip which are closed:

Erez, a crossing for people with Israel in northern Gaza.

Kerem Shalom, a solely commercial goods junction with Israel in southern Gaza.

#global26 A ‌Japanese scientific drill ship departed on January 12 for the remote Minamitori Island to explore rare-earth-rich mud deposits, part of Tokyo’s effort to reduce its reliance on China for critical minerals as Beijing chokes off supplies. The mud is believed to contain dysprosium and neodymium, used in electric vehicle motor magnets, as well as gadolinium and terbium, which are used in a range of high-tech products.

Source: The Hindu

#science26 Green steel refers to steel produced with near-zero CO₂ emissions by replacing coal-based processes. The most advanced route is hydrogen-based Direct Reduced Iron (H₂-DRI), where iron ore is reduced using green hydrogen, producing water instead of CO₂, followed by Electric Arc Furnaces (EAFs) powered by renewable energy. Other approaches include EAF-based scrap recycling, biomass substitution, and carbon capture (CCUS) in blast furnaces. Green steel is critical for India’s NDCs, net-zero 2070, and CBAM-compliant exports.

Source: The Hindu

#social26 The new Rules broadens the scope of responsibilities, increases linkages for reuse of waste as fuel in boilers, cement kilns, to promote circular economy, and introduces clear penalties for non-compliance.

Source: The Indian Express

#social26 The new Rules broadens the scope of responsibilities, increases linkages for reuse of waste as fuel in boilers, cement kilns, to promote circular economy, and introduces clear penalties for non-compliance.

Source: The Indian Express

#culture26 Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, on February 2, marked the memory of Adivasi fighters who took on the British in an 1837 battle. But activists and researchers say the event's date is inaccurate, and must be rooted in historical record. This was a battle fought at Serengsia, a valley located in present-day Jharkhand’s West Singhbhum district, where Adivasi rebels exacted a heavy toll on British soldiers — only to face a great personal cost later.

Source: The Indian Express

#global26 Kadugli and Kordofan

Source: The Hindu

#science26 Sodium-ion batteries have lower specific energy than lithium-ion due to higher atomic mass of sodium, but layered oxide cathodes significantly narrow this gap and are approaching LFP batteries. They offer higher safety, with lower thermal runaway risk. Unlike lithium-ion batteries that use copper anodes, sodium-ion batteries use aluminium current collectors on both electrodes, allowing safe zero-volt storage and transport.

Source: The Hindu

#science26 Sodium-ion batteries use Na⁺ ions with a larger ionic radius, leading to slower diffusion and slightly lower rate capability. Graphite is unsuitable as an anode; hard carbon or biomass-derived carbon is used instead. They show better low-temperature performance and no lithium-type plating issues. Recycling is easier due to the absence of copper current collectors. Sodium-ion batteries are best suited for grid-scale storage, renewable integration, and short-range or low-cost EV applications, not long-range, high-energy vehicles.

Source: The Hindu

#global26 The Third REAIM Summit on Responsible AI in the Military Domain was held on 4–5 February 2026 at PALEXCO, A Coruña, Spain. About 35 of 85 countries adopted a non-binding declaration with ~20 principles for responsible military AI, emphasizing human oversight, clear command structures, risk assessment, testing, and training. Major powers like the US and China opted out, reflecting divergent governance priorities. At two prior military AI summits in The Hague ⁠and Seoul in 2023 and 2024 respectively, around 60 nations, excluding China but including the United States, endorsed ​a modest “blueprint for action” without legal commitment.

Source: The Hindu

#security26 The agreement provides, inter-alia, for mini-Secretariat for FNTA, headed by Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary, Sharing of development Outlay for the Eastern Nagaland region proportional to population and area. However, this agreement does not affect in any manner whatsoever, the provisions of Article 371(A) of Constitution of India. Agreement paves way for the formation of the Frontier Nagaland Territorial Authority (FNTA) for six districts of Nagaland

Source: PiB

#global26 The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman, which connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) calls it the “world’s most important oil transit chokepoints”, with around one-fifth of global liquid petroleum fuel consumption and global liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade transiting the Strait.

Context: Iran tensions.

Source: The Indian Express

#social26 The country’s largest lender, the State Bank of India (SBI), Saturday launched CHAKRA — Centre of Excellence (CoE) for financing eight sunrise sectors, including renewable energy, advanced cell chemistry and battery storage.
Other sunrise domains are data centre infrastructure, smart infrastructure, electric mobility, green hydrogen, semiconductors and decarbonisation.
These sectors, emerging as key drivers of the coun­try’s economic future, entail capital investment of Rs 100 lakh crore over five years.

Source: The Indian Express

#science26 Athena consists of 1,024 computing nodes, with each node equipped with two 128-core AMD EPYC ‘Turin’ processors. That’s a total of 256 physical cores per node and over 2,64,000 total cores in the system. At peak performance, Athena is capable of delivering over 20 petaflops, which means it can perform more than 20 quadrillion calculations per second. The new supercomputer is named after a figure from Greek mythology, and the name was chosen through an internal Nasa contest that took place last year.

Source: The Indian Express

#culture26 Rakhigarhi specifically has seven identified mounds (RGR-1 to RGR-7), making it larger than Mohenjodaro in area. Excavations yielded distinct cemetery (RGR-7) with extended burials, circular fire altars, mudbrick architecture (early phase) transitioning to baked bricks, bead-making furnaces, copper celts, terracotta figurines, and the RGR-1 female skeleton DNA sample. Evidence suggests a regional urban centre on the Ghaggar–Drishadvati system with strong local continuity rather than Mesopotamian dependency.

Source: The Hindu