WORLD

Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post on Sunday reported that the Shanghai outbreak has slowed China’s shipbuilding plans and may affect the launch of the country’s third aircraft carrier.

The People’s Liberation Army navy had been widely expected to launch the new carrier around the navy’s 73rd anniversary, on April 23.

“But the plan faces delay as the rampant pandemic in Shanghai has delayed the transport of some key components,” the newspaper reported, quoting anonymous sources.

As the world recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic, many industrialised economies have been hampered by a labour shortage. However, there are a number of skilled vocations that the Australian government believes are vital to the country's economic recovery, and they've put together a Priority Migration Skilled Occupation List (PMSOL).

For visa applications from candidates with a job on the PMSOL list, the following visa subclasses are prioritised for processing:

That means that if you meet the requirements, you can travel to Australia without a visa. Either you or your employer can submit an application for this exemption. However, the 14-day quarantine period will remain in effect, and it will be the responsibility of the traveller or sponsor.

China is creating COVID-style pathogens in Pakistan that experts say has the potential to wipe out much of humanity. Anthony Klan, writing in The Klaxon, said that the Chinese Communist Party has set up highly-advanced scientific infrastructure developing the "technology" in impoverished Pakistan.

Pakistan in recent years has largely become a vassal state of China under China's notorious "debt-trap" style colonial expansion. As per experts, the Pakistan facility is jointly run by the Wuhan Institute of Virology - known for being named a likely origin of Covid-19 - and the Defence Science and Technology Organization (DESTO), which is under the direct control of the Pakistan Army.

US President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced a new $800 million military aid package for Ukraine, including weapons, ammunition, armored personnel carriers and helicopters.

"This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine," Biden said in a statement.

The BBC said that officers and elite fighters may be over-represented in its sample because their elevated status means their bodies are retrieved more urgently and their lives celebrated more widely.

Ukraine has accused Russia of abandoning the bodies of its killed soldiers, refusing to accept them back even when prompted.

Eyewitnesses also told Radio Free Europe in mid-March that corpses and injured soldiers were being transported via Russian ally Belarus in an effort to disguise the death toll.