Author: News Desk

United States: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has reported that a green-hued comet is expected to be the most visible to stargazers on February 1 as it shoots past Earth and the sun for the first time in about 50,000 years. The comet, named “dirty snowball” after its discovery less than a year ago, last passed close to Earth during Neanderthal times. On February 1, the comet will pass within 42 million kilometres (26 million miles) of Earth before speeding away, unlikely to return for millions of years. The cosmic visitor is already visible in a clear northern…

United States: The United States has accused Russia of violating the New START treaty, claiming Moscow was refusing to allow inspection activities on its territory. The treaty is considered the last major pillar of post-Cold War nuclear arms control between the two countries. The treaty came into force in 2011 and was extended for five more years in 2021. It limits the number of strategic nuclear weapons that the countries can deploy and the deployment of land- and submarine-based missiles and bombers to deliver them. The two countries still account for about 90 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads. “Russia’s…

Hong Kong, China: Samsung’s quarterly profits fell to their lowest level in eight years as customers purchased fewer cell phones and laptop computers. It was the company’s lowest quarterly profit since the third quarter of 2014 when its smartphone business fell behind competitors substantially. “Due to weak demand amid a global economic slowdown, the business environment deteriorated significantly in the fourth quarter,” Samsung remarked in a statement. The bleak outcomes were expected. Analysts cited falling memory chip prices and fewer orders of consumer devices as reasons for Samsung’s poor performance in a pre-earnings forecast earlier this month. The electronics maker…

France: A new study has stated that the difference between the carbon emissions of the rich and the poor within a country is now greater than the differences in emissions between countries. The report found evidence for a growing divide between the “polluting elite” of rich people around the world and the relatively low responsibility for emissions among the rest of the population. In a report entitled Climate Inequality Report 2023, economists from the World Inequality Lab dissect where carbon emissions are currently coming from. The report found that “carbon inequalities within countries now appear to be greater than carbon inequalities…

Japan: NATO Secretary-General Mr. Jens Stoltenberg says the Western military alliance will strengthen its partnership with Japan, adding that “our security is closely interconnected” as Russia’s war on Ukraine raises global threats. Mr. Stoltenberg arrived in Tokyo from South Korea, where he urged Seoul to increase its military support for Ukraine. Mr. Stoltenberg stated that his trip was intended to strengthen relations between NATO and “our highly valued partner” Japan. “The war in Ukraine also demonstrates that our security is closely interconnected,” Mr. Stoltenberg noted during a visit to the Iruma Air Base north of Tokyo. “If President [Vladimir] Putin…

United Kingdom: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has warned that the UK economy will shrink and perform worse than other advanced economies as the cost of living continues to hit households. The report stated that the country’s economy will contract by 0.6 percent in 2023, worse than it had been pencilled in just three months ago. In its World Economic Outlook update, the IMF, which works to stabilise economic growth, noted that the UK’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) would shrink rather than grow by 0.3 percent in 2023. Mr. Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas, the IMF’s economic counsellor, remarked that 2023 would be…

United States: According to a statement from the White House the national and public health crises proclaimed as the COVID-19 epidemic spread three years ago will formally end on 11th May 2022. Funds used to support COVID medicines, medical insurance, and other sorts of government aid related to the pandemic will cease to exist with the termination of both federal emergency declarations, which went into effect in January 2020 under the administration of then-President Donald Trump. In practice, Congress’ opposition has already caused a portion of these government assistance programs to stop operating. Republicans, who now control of the House of Representatives,…

Myanmar: The Myanmar military has been invited to take part in the ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting Plus (ADMM-Plus) Experts’ Working Group on Maritime Security, co-chaired by Thailand and the United States. The five-day regional meeting is due to start on February 20, 2023, and will include “tabletop” exercises. The Myanmar military has been accused of ethnic cleansing against the country’s Muslim Rohingya minority. The armed forces launched a military operation in 2017 that forced at least 730,000 of the mainly Muslim Rohingya from their homes and into neighbouring Bangladesh, where they recounted killings, mass rape, and arson. In 2021, Myanmar’s…

Delhi, India: Shares of the majority of Adani Group firms saw steep declines for a third straight trading session as the conglomerate worked to refute allegations made in a report by short-seller firm Hindenburg that it had engaged in stock manipulation and an “accounting fraud scheme.” After the company published a lengthy response to Hindenburg’s report over the weekend that spanned more than 400 pages and stated that it would exercise its right to “pursue remedies” to protect its investors “before all appropriate authorities,” Adani Enterprises erased earlier gains of up to 10 percent and last traded flat in Mumbai’s…

United States: Ms. Lisa Loring, the American actress who played Wednesday Addams on the classic TV adaptation of The Addams Family, has died at age 64. Ms. Loring is best known for her role as Wednesday on ABC’s black comedy The Addams Family, which she took on in 1964. Although Ms. Loring only played Wednesday for two years, she established the standard for live-action portrayals of the character. The actress was recently praised as an inspiration for Jenna Ortega’s interpretation on the hit Netflix series Wednesday. Ms. Loring’s personal friend, Ms. Laurie Jacobson, shared on Facebook that “Loring had suffered…