World news January 31: The US successfully tested a supersonic missile with a speed of more than 6,000km/h

Lockheed Martin and the US military have successfully tested a hypersonic missile (HAWC) according to a January 30 announcement by Lockheed Martin.

According to the US Department of Defense: “The hypersonic version of the Lockheed Martin missile has been completed, achieving all of its objectives.”

The launch was the final test of the hypersonic missile project conducted by the US Air Force with the Pentagon’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (DAPRA).

During the test, the missile flew at a speed of 6,125 km / h at an altitude of more than 18 km with a distance of more than 555 km. The missile will be mounted on the wing of a US Air Force B-52 strategic bomber and will be launched from mid-air.

The US and Germany refused to send warplanes to Ukraine. According to AFP news agency, on January 30, US President Joe Biden confirmed to the press at the White House that the US would not send F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help it confront Russia.

Earlier, on January 29, German Chancellor Olaf Sholz announced that Berlin would not fight for Ukraine and stressed that it would not allow “tensions to escalate” and that “NATO and Russia are not in direct conflict”.

Ukraine has asked the West to provide weapons such as tanks and fighter jets to the country. The US and its allies have agreed and are preparing tank aid to Ukraine.

However, the size of the aid is quite large and requires a long time for logistical preparation, training and delivery.

Flooding continues to wreak havoc in Auckland. On January 31, the New Zealand government informed people in Auckland – which was heavily flooded over the weekend about a new flood.

According to Reuters news agency, four people have died in flash floods and landslides that have hit Auckland in the past four days due to record heavy rains.

The state of emergency remains in place in Auckland. Many roads are closed. All schools are closed until 7-2. Evacuation centers were established throughout the city.

The New Zealand weather agency warned of heavy rain in the northern part of the country from the afternoon of January 31, causing dangerous conditions such as alarmingly high river levels, massive floods, inundation and isolation of areas. community.

Auckland has had a record amount of rain in the past four days, the ground is soggy and the river is full of water. This means that receiving a new heavy rainfall will increase the risk of flooding.

WHO still considers COVID-19 a public health emergency

On January 30, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that COVID-19 continues to be a public health emergency of international concern – the highest level of warning about the disease.

The WHO added that the pandemic could be at a “transition point” that should be carefully managed to “minimize possible negative consequences”.

Three years after the WHO first declared COVID a global health emergency, more than 6.8 million people worldwide have died from COVID-19. However, the advent of vaccines and treatments has dramatically changed the pandemic situation since 2020.

“We expect that next year the world will move into a new phase in which hospitalizations and deaths (COVID) fall to the lowest possible levels,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. said at the WHO meeting.

Currently, the COVID-19 epidemic is of most concern in China after the country lifted strict COVID-restrictive measures at the end of 2022.

$5.4 billion in COVID-19 support in the US was mistakenly sent to scams? In a report released on January 30, the US federal inspector said that the government is likely to have awarded about $ 5.4 billion in COVID-19 relief money to suspicious people.

The Pandemic Response Accountability Commission (PRAC), said it “identified 69,323 suspicious social security numbers (SSNs) used to receive $5.4 billion from two COVID-19 assistance programs. -19 in the period from April 2020 to 10-2022.

The report was released ahead of a hearing scheduled for February 1 before the Republican-led House Oversight Committee on pandemic spending fraud.

The United States has investigated numerous cases of fraud related to government assistance programs. In May 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland established the COVID-19 Fraud Task Force.

In September 2022, the inspector general of the US Department of Labor said there is a possibility that $45.6 billion from the COVID-19 unemployment insurance program was profited by using the social security number of the employee. died to receive the money.

Also in September, federal prosecutors charged dozens of defendants with stealing $250 million from a government aid program designed to help children during the pandemic.