WORLD

President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that most US university graduates still trying to pay off student loans will each get $10,000 in relief, addressing a decades-old headache of massive educational debt across the country.

"In keeping with my campaign promise, my administration is announcing a plan to give working and middle class families breathing room," Biden said in a statement issued less than three months before midterm congressional elections, where the issue is seen as a vote winner for Democrats.

The proposed debt relief falls far short of some Democrats' goal of securing complete forgiveness, but is opposed by Republicans who argue that shaving any amount from graduates' loans is unfair to those who have spent years saving to pay off their own debts.

With terror incidents continuing unabated, the ongoing talks between the Pakistani government and the outlawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) being held in Afghanistan are heading for a collapse. This might further complicate Pakistan's government's efforts to end nearly two decades of militancy in the restive border region. In July, Pakistan recorded 99 terrorism-linked fatalities as compared to 102 in June.

Data shows civilian fatalities fell from 20 to 11 (45%) and security forces deaths came down from 51 to 38 (25.49%), while terrorist fatalities increased from 31 to 50 (61.29%). But despite the fall in fatalities among security forces, the number of deaths in this category remains high. Though no organisation has claimed responsibility for most of these killings, given the fact that most of the fatalities occurred within the area of the TTP's operation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, it is quite likely that the terror group was behind these attacks.

The Youth Department of Nepal`s Rashtriya Ekta Abhiyan held a protest rally demanding the revocation of the agreement on China`s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the cancellation of the Muslim Commission, local media reported.The rally from Maitighar Mandal in Kathmandu to Naya Baneshwar witnessed the participation of hundreds of people.The youth wing of the civil society organization accused the BRI agreement of being anti-nationalistic and the Muslim Commission of embracing and promoting `Jihadi` ideology, reported Khabarhub. 

Protesters in the rally chanted slogans, "Revoke anti-national BRI agreement,", "Put an end to Chinese expansionism", and "Establish Nepal as a Hindu nation", among others, during the protest rally. 

The talks regarding metaverse have been happening for a while now. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Whatsapp is at the helm among the giants to bring the virtual world into reality from a science fiction imagination. The reality begins to take concrete shapes when Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has started posting images and videos of his avatar enjoying the virtual world inspired from real world.

While sharing his avatar image with an in-buildup virtual world on Instagram, he talked about the virtual event horizon image which he shared a few weeks ago with Neil deGrasse Tyson, he wrote "Major updates to Horizon and avatar graphics coming soon. I'll share more at Connect. Also, I know the photo I posted earlier this week was pretty basic -- it was taken very quickly to celebrate a launch. The graphics in Horizon are capable of much more -- even on headsets -- and Horizon is improving very quickly.

British Prime Minister hopeful Rishi Sunak on Thursday said he is excited to keep going in the Conservative Party leadership campaign even as surveys of party voters predict a firm lead for his rival, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss.

In an interview with the ITV channel's 'This Morning' programme, the Indian-origin former Chancellor said he "definitely" had a shot at victory as he reiterated his stance that his rival's instant tax-cutting plans would prove inflationary for the economy.

"I'm really excited to keep going, I think my ideas are the right ones," he said.