Author: News Desk

China: After three years of zero-COVID restrictions, China’s rubber-stamp legislature has picked Mr. Li Qiang, a longtime aide to leader Xi Jinping, as premier. Mr. Li Qiang will be in charge of restoring the world’s second-largest economy. At a mostly ceremonial vote held at at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, the National People’s Congress supported Mr. Li. With three votes against him and eight abstentions, Mr. Li received 2,936 votes. One of Xi’s most dependable proteges, Mr. Li, 63, is the nation’s most powerful leader in decades. Premier Mr. Li Keqiang, who has served as Xi’s deputy since 2013,…

Belgium: The Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has announced that the country’s federal government employees will no longer be allowed to use the Chinese-owned video app TikTok on their work phones. Mr. De Croo noted that the Belgian National Security Council had warned of the risks associated with the large amounts of data collected by TikTok, which is owned by Chinese firm ByteDance, and also bexcuase of that that the company is required to cooperate with Chinese intelligence services. “That is the reality. That’s why it is logical to forbid the use of TikTok on phones provided by the…

United Kingdom: The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) proposals to allow Russian and Belarussian athletes to compete once more in international sport and at the Paris 2024 Games have come under fire from the government, which has written to the Olympic Games’ largest sponsors pleading with them to exert pressure on the IOC. The UK chief executives of the IOC’s international partners, including Coca-Cola, Intel, Samsung, and Visa, have also been requested by the culture secretary, Ms. Lucy Frazer, to press the IOC on a number of important concerns it has on the prospective relaxation of the ban. The IOC is…

United States: The United States House of Representatives has approved a bill that would require government intelligence agencies to declassify information related to the origins of COVID-19. The bill was approved with 419 votes in favour and zero votes against it. The bill will be sent to the desk of US President Mr. Joe Biden, who has not indicated whether he plans to sign or veto the legislation, which was approved by a unanimous Senate vote. Even if the president vetoes the bill, both chambers of Congress may have the two-thirds majority needed to pass the bill. “Transparency is a cornerstone…

France: The French President Mr. Emmanuel Macron and United Kingdom Prime Minister Mr. Rishi Sunak have agreed on a multiyear financial package to stop migration across the Channel, days after the UK passed a bill barring unauthorised arrivals. According to the deal, the UK will help fund a detention centre in France while French authorities will deploy a new dedicated permanent policing unit and enhanced technology to patrol the country’s beaches, including drones and aircraft. The UK stated that it would contribute roughly $581 million over the next three years to help pay for the new measures, adding that it…

United States: According to NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, it has been monitoring the new asteroid 2023 DW, which has “a very modest possibility” of colliding with Earth on February 14th, 2046. The European Space Agency predicts that the asteroid will collide with Earth one in 625 times, whereas the Sentry system of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory predicts a collision once in 560 times. The only object that scientists are monitoring and that has a ranking on the Torino scale, which NASA uses to classify potential Earth-impact scenarios, is an asteroid. The chances of the space rock hitting the globe,…

Malaysia: The granting of government contracts during the COVID-19 pandemic has been linked to allegations of abuse of authority and money laundering against Mr. Muhyiddin Yassin, the former Prime Minister of Malaysia. Mr. Muhyiddin, who oversaw the nation from March 2020 until the worst of the pandemic, entered a not-guilty plea to the six accusations in a Kuala Lumpur court. After Mr. Muhyiddin was questioned by Malaysia’s anti-corruption office for a number of hours over a government support scheme that his government devised to aid building contractors during the coronavirus lockdown, accusations were brought against him. Four accusations of abuse…

North Korea: According to state media, Mr. Kim Jong Un instructed the military of North Korea to step up preparations for a “real war” as he oversaw a fire assault rehearsal with his daughter by his side. Photographs showed Mr. Kim and his daughter, both wearing matching black jackets, accompanied by uniformed officers as they watched an artillery unit fire a volley of missiles, as per the statement. The South Korean military claimed to have discovered one ballistic missile launch and to be investigating the likelihood of other launches from the same location. The exercise was conducted as South Korea…

Indonesia: A court in Indonesia sentenced two football match officials to prison terms after being found guilty of carelessness in the instance of a stadium crush that resulted in the death of 135 people and is now one of the deadliest sporting disasters in history. The incident happened in October 2022 during a tense match between bitter rivals Arema FC and Persebaya Surabaya in Malang, East Java. After a pitch invasion, police fired volleys of tear gas at the crowd, choking spectators and forcing them to flee through some locked exits, which led to the deadly crush. Mr. Abdul Haris, who…

Ukraine: After another missile strike that forced the Zaporizhzhia power plant in Ukraine to operate on diesel generators, the head of the UN nuclear agency warned of the threat of ongoing power disruptions at the facility. Pumps that move water to cool nuclear fuel pools and reactors must be powered by electricity. IAEA chief Mr. Rafael Grossi stated to the board of governors of the agency, “Each time we are rolling a dice and if we allow this to continue time after time then one day our luck will run out.” The discussions between Mr. Grossi and Moscow as well…