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NATO allies set to provide ‘heavier weapons’ to Ukraine

NATO countries are set to announce new "heavier weapons" for Ukraine, the alliance's chief said on Wednesday, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on his backers to speed up their decision-making. US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin will convene a meeting of around 50 countries on Friday at the US-run Ramstein military base in Germany, including all 30 members of the NATO alliance. "The main message there (in Ramstein) will be more support and more advanced support, heavier weapons, and more modern weapons, because this is a fight for our values," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told the World Economic Forum in Davos. Many of Ukraine's allies have announced plans to step up their military support to Kyiv this month despite the risk of antagonising Russia, notably Brita...

World population at 8 billion humans and still growing

The UN Population Division estimates that the number of humans on Earth will grow to eight billion on November 15, more than three times higher than the 2.5 billion global headcounts in 1950.

However, after a peak in the early 1960s, the world's population growth rate has decelerated dramatically, Rachel Snow of the UN Population Fund told AFP.

Annual growth has fallen from a high of 2.1% between 1962 and 1965 to below 1% in 2020.

That figure could potentially fall to around 0.5% by 2050 due to a continued decline in fertili...

UN decries Russia’s ‘intimidation’ of opponents to Ukraine war

AFP The UN's acting human rights chief decried on Monday the "intimidation" of people in Russia voicing opposition to the Ukraine war, warning it was undermining fundamental freedoms. Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council, deputy UN rights chief Nada Al Nashif decried the "intimidation, restrictive measures and sanctions against people voicing opposition to the war in Ukraine." These actions, she warned, "undermine the exercise of constitutionally guaranteed fundamental freedoms, including the rights

Days after school shooting, gun group holds convention in Texas

Just a few days after a lone teenage gunman entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and killed 19 children and two teachers, the National Rifle Association will proceed with opening its annual convention on Friday in Houston. This comes just days after the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. On Friday, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott planned to make a personal appearance at the conference to give an in-person message; however, he has decided not to make the presentation and instead fly to Uvalde. However, former President of the United States Donald Trump is still set to give a speech at the three-day event that the gun rights lobbying organisation is hosting. The police in Texas are being grilled on their actions, and the amount of time it took them to rush to t...

New Zealand re-opens its borders to world tourism

After being desolated since 2020 due to the spread of COVID-19, New Zealand has reopened its border to the world. As part of the government's gradual reopening strategy, the border reopened to vaccinated and Covid-negative travellers from roughly 60 visa-waiver nations on Monday morning.

By: Ibnul Hasan

As of March 2020, New Zealand's borders were closed, requiring even returning residents to endure weeks in quarantine upon arrival. In addition to measures such as rapid testing, monitoring, and lo...

China, Indonesia to strengthen cooperation in developing cyber security capacity and technology

China and Indonesia have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on developing capacity building of internet security and tech cooperation, marking the first-of-its-kind internet security agreement China signed with a foreign country. The MoU, which will provide a framework for cooperation in developing cyber security capacity and technology, is signed during Chinese State ...