Author: News Desk

Australia: In line with other Western nations, the Australian government has prohibited the utilization of the Chinese social media platform TikTok on its official devices. Mr. Mark Dreyfus, the Attorney General, has approved the secretary of his department to issue a compulsory directive to forbid the use of TikTok on devices given out by Commonwealth departments and agencies. The government’s protective security direction accompanying the prohibition reveals that TikTok has been identified as a significant security and privacy threat to non-corporate Commonwealth entities. This is due to the app’s extensive collection of user data and susceptibility to extrajudicial commands from…

United States: The United States space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has revealed the four-member crew for its upcoming mission around the moon, including the first woman, the first person of colour, and the first Canadian assigned to a lunar mission. NASA announced that Mr. Reid Wiseman, Mr. Victor Glover, Ms. Christina Hammock Koch, and Mr. Jeremy Hansen would crew the Artemis II mission for a 10-day flight, marking the agency’s first manned moon voyage in over half a century. “For the first time in more than 50 years, these individuals will be the first humans to fly…

London, UK: In a surprising move, struggling cinema chain Cineworld has announced the termination of its plans to sell its UK, US, and Ireland businesses. The decision comes as a shock to industry insiders who expected the sale to be a lifeline for the beleaguered company, which has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. The move is expected to have significant implications for the cinema industry and the future of the company itself. The company also disclosed its intention to secure new funding of $2.26 billion to help it emerge from bankruptcy protection. In September 2022, Cineworld, which operates…

Japan: A new government survey has found that almost 1.5 million people of working age in Japan are living as social recluses, with one fifth of cases attributed to the pressures unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Large numbers of hikikomori, or people who withdraw from society, spending all or almost all of their time isolated at home, stated that they had begun retreating from mainstream society due to relationship issues and after losing or leaving their jobs. A significant proportion commented that their predicament had been triggered by changes in lifestyle imposed during the pandemic. The survey found that hikikomori…

London, UK: The UK Prime Minister Mr. Rishi Sunak is set to unveil new measures to address the problem of grooming gangs in the UK. Mr. Sunak has stated that political correctness will not impede the government’s efforts to crack down on this issue, which has been a source of concern for many years. The announcement comes amid ongoing controversy over the language used by some politicians and officials in discussing child sexual exploitation. However, the Home Secretary has been criticized for her use of “dog whistle” language in this context, with some accusing her of stoking racial tensions and…

Finland: The National Coalition Party (NCP) has claimed victory in a tightly fought parliamentary election in Finland. With all of the votes counted, the centre-right party came out on top with 20.8 percent. They were followed by the right-wing populist party, The Finns, with 20.1 percent, and Prime Minister Ms. Sanna Marin’s Social Democrats with 19.9 percent. “We got the biggest mandate,” NCP leader Mr. Petteri Orpo stated as he claimed victory, surrounded by supporters in the capital, Helsinki. “Based on this result, talks over forming a new government in Finland will be initiated under the leadership of the National…

Russia: The Wagner Group from Russia has declared that they have gained legitimate authority over Bakhmut, Ukraine. However, Kyiv has rebutted the claim, asserting that its military still holds the town in the eastern region and that there is intense fighting taking place there. Mr. Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the paramilitary force, announced that his troops had successfully surrounded and attempted to seize the destroyed town for several months. The leader further stated that they had hoisted a Russian flag on the administrative building of the town. “From a legal point of view, Bakhmut has been taken. The enemy…

United States: The United States has confirmed that the country is planning to open an embassy in Vanuatu as Washington moves to boost its diplomatic presence in the Pacific to counter China’s growing influence. “Consistent with the US Indo-Pacific strategy, a permanent diplomatic presence in Vanuatu would allow the US government to deepen relationships with Ni-Vanuatu officials and society,” the state department remarked in a statement. Establishing US Embassy Port Vila would facilitate areas of potential bilateral cooperation and development assistance, including efforts to tackle the climate crisis,” the statement added. Recently, the US reopened its embassy in the Solomon…

United Kingdom: A new, groundbreaking technology is being developed by British researchers to monitor genetic changes in respiratory viruses as they circulate around the world. The system will be used to spot dangerous new variants as they emerge and act as an early warning system for new diseases and future pandemics. The team, which is based at the Wellcome Sanger Institute in Cambridgeshire, intends to make the technology cheap, easy to use, and capable of being scaled up to provide global surveillance of a wide range of viruses. The major targets include influenza viruses, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), coronaviruses, and…

North Korea: A US think tank has reported that satellite images show a high level of activity at North Korea’s main nuclear site. The report comes after the North Korean leader Mr. Kim Jong-un ordered an increase in the production of bomb fuel to expand the country’s nuclear arsenal. The Washington-based 38 North North Korea Monitoring Project remarked that the activity it had spotted, based on images from March 3 and 17, could indicate that an Experimental Light Water Reactor (ELWR) at the Yongbyon site was nearing completion and transitioning to operational status. According to the report, the images showed…