Author: News Desk

Sri Lanka: The IMF has approved Sri Lanka’s request for a $2.9 billion bailout, according to the country’s President, who also stated that the program will allow Sri Lanka to access up to $7 billion in total cash. The IMF’s board stated that it had approved the loan, paving the path for its release and launching a four-year program to support the nation’s economy. The IMF stated that the decision would provide an immediate transfer of around $333 million and would encourage additional financial support from partners, perhaps assisting Sri Lanka in overcoming its worst financial crisis in decades. IMF…

Switzerland: A new United Nations report has stated that the world has the tools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and secure a sustainable future if more ambitious actions are taken. The report noted that actions taken so far are not enough to deal with the growing threats of climate change. A UN panel of scientists stated in a synthesis report that there are multiple, feasible, and effective options to adapt to climate change. “Mainstreaming effective and equitable climate action will not only reduce losses and damages for nature and people, it will also provide wider benefits,” Mr. Hoesung Lee, chair…

Ukraine: Japanese Prime Minister Mr. Fumio Kishida will meet with Ukrainian President Mr. Volodymyr Zelensky to express “solidarity and unwavering support,” according to Japan’s foreign ministry. As Japan will be hosting the G7 summit in May 2023, Mr. Kishida, the last G7 leader to visit the war-torn nation, has come under increasing pressure to go. The Japanese PM has stated repeatedly that a trip to Kyiv was “under consideration,” despite the fact that logistical and security issues were allegedly a significant barrier. Mr. Kishida was in India and was supposed to fly back to Tokyo, but instead, he went to Poland,…

United States: The US President Joe Biden has signed a bill, requiring the release of intelligence reports of COVID origin, into law. The law demands the release of a report on potential links between the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan. Congress passed and sent the bill to Mr. Biden earlier in March 2023. “We need to get to the bottom of COVID-19’s origins, including potential links to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. In implementing this legislation, my administration will declassify and share as much of that information as possible,” Mr. Biden…

Thailand: According to an announcement in the Royal Gazette, Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn has endorsed a decree to dissolve parliament for elections in May 2023. If the house is dissolute, which takes place right away, an election needs to be held 45 to 60 days later. “This is a return of political decision-making power to the people swiftly to continue democratic government with the King as head of state,” cited in the decree published. However a date for the election has not yet been set, Deputy Prime Minister Mr. Wissanu Krea-ngam earlier in the day stated that if the house…

London, UK: The United Nations is set to release a capstone report, a distillation of nearly a decade of published science on the impacts and trajectory of global warming and tools to prevent climate catastrophe. The approximately 30-page “summary for policymakers” from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which condenses 10,500 pages written by more than 1,000 scientists, will issue a grave warning. While diplomats from 195 countries met in Interlaken, Switzerland, to work out the final language, finalised by fatigued and sleep-deprived delegates two days behind schedule, UN chief Mr. Antonio Guterres warned that “we are nearing a point of no…

Taiwan: The former Taiwan President, Mr. Ma Ying-jeou, will visit China, the first visit by a current or former leader since the defeated Nationalist Chinese government fled to the island at the end of the civil war in 1949. The landmark visit has been presented by Mr. Ma and his party, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), as a chance to enhance friendly cross-strait exchanges at a time of extreme disconnection. The visit is also likely to fuel domestic political division between the KMT and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over relations with China. According to Mr. Ma’s office,the trip was…

Egypt: Israeli and Palestinian officials have met in Egypt to discuss steps to lower tensions ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The talks in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh stressed the need to prevent any disruptive actions at Jerusalem’s holy sites. The joint statement issued following the talks attended by United States, Egyptian, and Jordanian officials further confirmed commitments made at a meeting in Aqaba in February 2023, including an Israeli pledge to stop discussion of any new settlement units for four months. However, Israel recently approved the construction of thousands of new settlement homes,…

United States: Central banks have taken action on a worldwide scale to maintain the flow of credit after a time of uncertainty in the US banking industry and the Credit Suisse merger. The Bank of England was one of six central banks that declared they would increase the flow of US dollars throughout the international financial system. UBS acquired the struggling Credit Suisse in a deal supported by the Swiss government. The coordinated initiative to increase the provision of liquidity was announced by the Bank of England, the Bank of Japan, the Bank of Canada, the European Central Bank, the…

France: An international study has found that COVID-19 has not affected humankind’s happiness, even though it has claimed 6.7 million lives and led to a global economic slump. The study, conducted on more than 100,000 people across 137 countries, found significantly higher levels of benevolence in all global regions than before the pandemic. On a scale of one to 10, people on average gave scores just as high in the 2020–22 COVID years as in the 2017–19 years. “Things were slightly worse in western countries and slightly better in the rest of the world, but overall, the undoubted pains were…