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.
At least one person was killed and 10 injured, including three children, in overnight drone attacks by Russia on Ukraine, officials said on Wednesday. Various attacks also damaged energy facilities in two regions, according to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Israel announced a major expansion of military operations in Gaza on Wednesday, saying large areas of the enclave would be seized and added to its security zones, accompanied by large-scale evacuation of population.
A fourth US Army soldier, who together with three others went missing in Lithuania last week when their vehicle sank in a peat bog, has been found dead, US and Lithuanian officials said on Tuesday.
The United Nations on Tuesday dismissed as "ridiculous" an assertion by Israel that there was enough food in the Gaza Strip to last for a long period of time, despite the closure of all 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme (WFP).