Current Affairs May 2020 - Resignations
1 - Peter Ebdon announced retirement from professional snooker
Former world champion Peter Ebdon announced his retirement from professional snooker because of injury. Ebdon won the 2002 world championship, beating Stephen Hendry and reached the 1996 and 2006 finals. He won eight other ranking events, including the 2006 UK Championship.
Ebdon, nicknamed 'The Force', twice achieved a career high world ranking of number three while his last victory at a ranking event came at the 2012 China Open.
2 - Para-athlete Deepa Malik announced retirement
Para-athlete Deepa Malik announced her retirement from active sports in order to serve as the president of the Paralympic Committee of India (PCI) in accordance with the National Sports Code. Deepa is India’s lone woman Paralympics silver medalist.
According to the National Sports Code, an active athlete is not eligible to hold an official post in any federation. Deepa is the only woman para-athlete to have been given the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award. She is also a recipient of the Padma Shri and Arjuna Award.
3 - WTO Chief Roberto Azevedo to resign a year before his term expires
The Head of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Roberto Azevedo has announced to resign, a year before his term expires. Mr. Azevedo, a former diplomat from Brazil, will step down on August 31st. He has held the director-general post since 2013. His second four-year term was scheduled to end in September 2021.
The 25-year-old organisation’s main function is to help negotiate multilateral trade deals. It also aims to settle cross-border commercial squabbles in its dispute resolution body and monitor trade flows.
4 - Alibaba’s Jack Ma resigned from SoftBank board
Alibaba co-founder Jack Ma resigned from SoftBank board of directors. He served for 13 years in the board. Prior to this, he retired as the Executive Chairman of Alibaba in September 2019. Other board member who resigned from board members was Tadashi Yanai founder and CEO of Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing.
SoftBank Group Corp. is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Tokyo. SoftBank reported record financial loss of USD 13 billion recently.
5 - Thomas Thabane resigned as Prime Minister of Lesotho
Prime Minister of Lesotho, Thomas Thabane, has formally resigned after his coalition government fell apart. He was named as a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife. His current wife was charged in connection with the killing in February.
Thabane had formally handed in his resignation to King Letsie III, the top traditional leader of the kingdom. Finance Minister Moeketsi Majoro is expected to replace Thabane as Prime Minister of the nation.
6 - Spanish Striker Aritz Aduriz announced retirement
Athletic Bilbao striker Aritz Aduriz announced his retirement from football. He was a member of Spain's squad at the 2016 European Championship in France. He has won 13 caps for Spain and also become the Spain’s oldest goal-scorer in 2016, scoring at the age of 35 years and 275 days.
Aduriz started his senior career with Athletic Bilboa but also, enjoyed spells with Real Valladolid, Real Mallorca and Valencia. He is Bilboa's sixth-highest scorer with 172 goals.
