Author: News Desk

United States: Facebook users and Instagram will soon have to pay to be verified on the social media platforms as Meta follows rival platform Twitter. The service will launch in Australia and New Zealand later this week, according to Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, who made the announcement in a Facebook post. According to the company, a monthly subscription would cost $11.9 on the web or $14.99 on iOS and Android (or $19.99 on the web or $24.99 on iOS and Android in Australia). According to Mr. Zuckerberg, the service will also provide “extra impersonation protection,” improved reach for verified…

South Korea: The South Korean military has accused North Korea of firing two ballistic missiles off its east coast, as Mr. Kim Yo-jong, the powerful sister of the North’s leader Mr. Kim Jong-un, warned the nuclear-armed state could turn the Pacific into a “firing range.” The launches came just two days after North Korea fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the sea off Japan’s west coast, prompting the United States to hold joint air exercises with South Korea and separately with Japan. Ms. Yo-jong warned against the increased presence of US strategic assets on the Korean peninsula after joint…

Turkey: The Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Administration (AFAD) reports that search and rescue activities have come to an end in the majority of regions about two weeks after this month’s deadly earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. A magnitude 7.8 earthquake that also hit neighbouring Syria and southeast Turkey killed over 45,000 people, left over a million homeless, and is likely to have a billion-dollar economic impact on 6th February 2023. More than 5,800 deaths in Syria have been documented, primarily in the northwest. Since several days ago, the amount has not changed. According to the World Health Organization, over 26 million…

London, UK: The Prime Minister’s efforts to negotiate a deal with Brussels over the Northern Ireland Protocol have put Mr. Rishi Sunak and Mr. Boris Johnson at odds. The Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, which provides ministers with the authority to rip up portions of the protocol and disregard EU standards, is being abandoned by Mr. Sunak, and the former Prime Minister is vehemently opposed to this. Senior government sources indicated that if a settlement is reached on the protocol, the measure that Mr. Johnson sponsored while he was prime minister would be unnecessary. Several pro-Brexit Conservative MPs have also warned…

China: China’s top diplomat accuses the United States of breaking international standards with “hysterical” behaviour when a long-running dispute about a suspected Chinese spy balloon came to the surface at a global security conference in Munich. President Mr. Joe Biden’s administration has a “misguided” impression of Beijing, according to Mr. Wrang Yi, who addressed a group of world leaders at the Munich Security Conference, and he charged that the US was attempting to “smear” the Asian power as it was enacting laws that went against its own ideals, including free trade. Since a massive white Chinese balloon was sighted above…

Netherland: A new study discovered that a child’s facial features may change permanently after just one glass of alcohol every week during pregnancy, and it’s possible that their cognitive ability will as well. Using 3D imagery and a deep learning algorithm, Dutch researchers examined 200 features in the faces of more than 5,600 school-aged youngsters. They discovered disparities between the children of moms who used alcohol while pregnant and those whose mothers did not. Drinking just 12 grams of alcohol a week or one standard drink was linked to permanent alterations in the child’s face. Prenatal alcohol intake was linked…

Ethiopia: As the leaders of the continent gathered for their annual summit in Addis Ababa UN chief Mr. Antonio Guterres urged them to take “action for peace” in order to stop the escalating violence. The African Union (AU) gathering aims to address these challenges and jump-start a faltering free trade agreement. Africa is now dealing with a record drought in the Horn of Africa and deadly unrest in the Sahel area and the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The majority of the two-day summit’s meetings will take place behind closed doors at the AU’s headquarters in the capital…

New Zealand: Water and electrical services began to slowly resume in the cyclone-devastated cities of New Zealand as the number of fatalities from the disaster reached nine. Recovery operations have picked up steam over a week after Cyclone Gabrielle battered New Zealand’s North Island with scouring winds and torrential rains, triggering landslides and severe floods. The National Emergency Management Agency’s acting director, Mr. Roger Ball, stated that some residents of the nearby city of Napier now have power and that water service has been restored to the east coast city of Gisborne. Despite being one of the richest countries in the…

Peru: Amnesty International has accused Peru of using “excessive and lethal force” driven by “marked racist bias” against a largely indigenous and campesino population, following an investigation into more than two months of anti-government protests that have claimed at least 60 lives. An Amnesty International fact-finding mission investigated 46 possible cases of human rights violations and documented 12 cases of deaths from the use of firearms, in which all the victims appeared to have been shot in the chest, torso, or head, following visits to the capital Lima and the southern cities of Chincheros, Ayacucho, and Andahuaylas. Ms. Erika Guevara-Rosas,…

Canada: The Canadian Prime Minister Mr. Justin Trudeau has announced that the country will send navy vessels to the coast of Haiti to gather intelligence as the Caribbean nation continues to reel from economic and political insecurity as well as violence. The decision was stated at a meeting of Caribbean leaders, where discussions were held on the powerful armed gangs operating in the country, leading to widespread reports of murder, kidnappings, and sexual violence. “Right now, Haiti is confronted with unrelenting gang violence, political turmoil, and corruption. Now is the moment to come together to confront the severity of this…