WORLD

Canada plans to increase oil and gas exports this year by up to 300,000 barrels per day, the country’s natural resources minister has said, as nations seek to wean themselves off Russian energy supplies.

Minister Jonathan Wilkinson said in a statement that the move which would amount to an increase of about 5 percent aims to help Canada’s allies respond to “an energy security crisis” caused by Russia’s ongoing invasion.

G7 warns against threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons

The G7 countries have warned against the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, rebuking Russia over what they called “completely

The United States in a bid to do some damage control on Wednesday – after US president Biden called India’s desire to end the war in Ukraine ‘shaky’ – said that India is an essential partner for its shared vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific.

Speaking to a news agency, state department spokesperson Ned Price said that regardless of historical relations between India and Russia, the United States is ‘a partner of choice for India now.’ He told the news agency that the Indo-Pacific is at the heart of QUAD’s policy and India holds an important place in realising this shared vision.

“When it comes to the values we share in a free and open Indo-Pacific and we’ve invested in that relationship in terms of our defence and security. So historical relationships notwithstanding, we are a partner of choice for India now, as are many of our partners and allies around the world,” Price was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Russian accusations that Kyiv has biological and chemical weapons are false and illustrate that Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering using them himself in his war against Ukraine, U.S. President Joe Biden said on Monday, without citing evidence.Putin's "back is against the wall and now he's talking about new false flags he's setting up including, asserting that we in America have biological as well as chemical weapons in Europe, simply not true," Biden said at a Business Roundtable event.

"They are also suggesting that Ukraine has biological and chemical weapons in Ukraine. That's a clear sign he's considering using both of those."

A Boeing 737 plane with 133 passengers on board crashed in China's Guangxi province early afternoon on March 21. While the casualties are still unknown, eye witnesses suggest that the crash was so severe, hardly anyone could survive the incident. If that's the case, this will be one of the most tragic incidents reported by any Chinese airline.

According to Aviation Safety Network, China's air safety record has been among the best in the world over the past decade. China's last fatal jet accident was in 2010, when 44 of 96 people on board were killed when an Embraer E-190 regional jet flown by Henan Airlines crashed on approach to the Yichun airport in low visibility.

China’s top envoy to Washington pledged his country “will do everything” to de-escalate the war in Ukraine and said its relationship with Russia is “not part of the problem.”

Ambassador Qin Gang’s comments follow U.S. President Joe Biden’s warning to Chinese President Xi Jinping of “implications and consequences” should China support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Xi assured Biden that his country didn’t want the war, according to Chinese readouts of the video call on Friday.

“There’s disinformation about China providing military assistance to Russia,” Qin said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. China isn’t sending “weapons and ammunitions to any party,” he said. “We will do everything to disescalate the crisis.”