With elections just around the corner, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday promised to cut migrant numbers and freeze refugee intake.
Morrison said his government would cap annual migrant numbers at 160,000 people per year for the next four years and freeze annual refugee intake at 18,750 people.
"Managing our population growth is very important to the quality of life that we have in our cities," he said during a Liberal party rally in Sydney on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Labor opposition intends to increase the refugee intake to 27,000 by 2025, with promises of increased spending for education, health and welfare.
On Sunday, its leader, Bill Shorten, promised A$4 billion worth of childcare to a million low-income families, including 15 hours a week of free pre-school, if elected.
The pace of migration and overcrowding of Australia's major cities is a sensitive issue amongst voters.
South Korea's Constitutional Court on Friday decided to oust President Yoon Suk Yeol, upholding parliament's impeachment motion over his short-lived imposition of martial law last year that sparked the country's worst political crisis in decades.
At least seven migrants have died, including one boy, one girl and two women, after their boat sank off the Greek island of Lesbos, Greece's coastguard said on Thursday.
The death toll from Myanmar's devastating earthquake has surpassed 3,000, with hundreds more missing, as forecasts of unseasonal rain presented a new challenge for rescue and aid workers trying to reach people in a country riven by civil war.
Russian forces unleashed an hour-long barrage of drones on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second city, late on Wednesday, triggering a number of fires but causing no casualties in the second such attack in the course of the day, the regional governor said.