GLOBAL OIL DEMAND MAY HAVE PASSED PEAK, SAYS BP ENERGY REPORT

BP has called time on the world's rising demand for fossil fuels after

finding that demand for oil may have already reached its peak and faces an

unprecedented decades-long decline.

Demand for oil may never fully recover from the impact of the coronavirus

pandemic, according to the oil firm, and may begin falling in absolute terms

for the first time in modern history.

BP's influential annual report on the future of energy says oil will be

replaced by clean electricity from windfarms, solar panels and hydropower

plants as renewable energy emerges as the fastest-growing energy source on

record.

Spencer Dale, BP's chief economist, said the company's vision of the world's

energy future had become greener due to a combination of the Covid-19

pandemic and the quickening pace of climate action, which has hastened "peak

oil".

The report in effect sounds a death-knell for the growth of global oil

demand after two of the report's three energy scenarios for the next 30

years found that demand reached a peak in 2019. In BP's third scenario,

showing a world in which climate action does not accelerate, oil demand

plateaus at similar levels seen in 2019 through the 2020s before declining

from 2035.

The report's central scenario, which aligns with the goals of the Paris

climate agreement to keep global temperatures well below 2C above

pre-industrialised levels, shows demand for oil tumbling by 55% over the

next 30 years. Meanwhile, the report's greenest scenario, in which the world

aims to limit global heating to an increase of 1.5C, oil demand falls 80% by

2050.

MISTAKE TO BELIEVE ATTACK WAS 'ONE-OFF': AL-QAEDA THREATENS CHARLIE HEBDO

FOR REPRINTING PROPHET CARICATURES

Al-Qaeda has threatened French satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo with a repeat

of a 2015 massacre of its staff, after it republished controversial cartoons

of the Prophet Mohammed, the SITE observatory said on Friday.

Al-Qaeda in its publication One Ummah had warned that Charlie Hebdo would be

mistaken if it believed the 2015 attack was a "one off", after the magazine

printed the "contemptible caricatures" in a defiant issue that marked the

start of the trial in Paris of suspected accomplices in the attack.

The comments came in an English edition of the Al-Qaeda publication that

purported to mark the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the

United States carried out by the terror network.

It said it had the "same message" for the France of President Emmanuel

Macron as it did for his predecessor Francois Hollande who was president at

the time of the 2015 attacks.

It said France under Macron "gave a green light" to the republication of the

cartoons.

The comments came in an English edition of the Al-Qaeda publication to mark

the anniversary of September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States carried

out by the terror network.

Charlie Hebdo's republication of the cartoons drew new condemnation from

states including Iran, Pakistan and Turkey.

The trial, which began on September 2 and is expected to continue until

November, sees 14 suspected accomplices face justice even though all the

perpetrators were killed in the wake of the attacks.

The trial, which will run for 10 weeks may be filmed throughout.

TRUMP CLAIMS MODI TOLD HIM HE HAS DONE A GREAT JOB IN COVID-19 TESTING

US President Donald Trump has claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi

praised him for doing a great job in coronavirus testing, as he continued to

slam his Democratic opponent Joe Biden for being a complete disaster in

handling the swine flu during the previous administration.

"By far, we've tested more people than India, than many, many big countries

put together. India is second (in coronavirus testing after the US). We're

44 million tests ahead of India. They have 1.5 billion people. And Prime

Minister Modi calls me and says, what a job you've done with testing," Trump

said at an election rally in Reno, Nevada.

Trump is currently making a swing of some of the key states in the West

Coast and has been spending a considerable amount of time in Nevada. The

president said that Modi's comment on testing being done by the US needs to

be explained to the media, which is after him over his handling of the

Covid-19 pandemic.

"I said, explain that to these dishonest people (media people) back (at the

election rally). Biden's record demonstrates that if he had been in charge,

when the China virus arrived, hundreds of thousands of more Americans would

have died. As vice president, he presided over the worst and the weakest and

the slowest economic recovery, since the great depression," Trump said.

'COVID-19 MADE IN WUHAN LAB CONTROLLED BY CHINA GOVT', CLAIMS VIROLOGIST,

OFFERS EVIDENCE

Chinese virologist Dr Li-Meng Yan has claimed that the novel coronavirus was

made in a government controlled laboratory in Wuhan and asserted that she

has scientific proof to back the claim.

The virologist, who became the whistleblower against the Chinese government

over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, was in December last year

tasked with looking into a cluster of Sars-like cases coming out of mainland

China. The top scientist working in Hong Kong claimed that she discovered a

cover-up operation during her investigation and said that the Chinese

government knew about the spread of the virus before publicly acknowledging

it.

Dr Li-Meng, who specialised in virology and immunology at the Hong Kong

School of Public Health, was allegedly forced to flee to the United States

over safety concerns.

Dr Li-Meng dismissed reports suggesting the virus originated in wet markets,

claiming her intelligence is "from the CDCs in China, from local doctors,

doctors and other people around China."

The virologist said she is working on a scientific report since January i.e.

before leaving Hong Kong along with a small group of top scientists and will

soon publish the findings. "We are going to publish it. There are two

reports, the first one will come in several days and it will tell people

about the scientific evidence," she said.

Throwing light on the unpublished research, she said, "The genome sequence

is like our human fingerprint. So, based on this you can recognise and

identify this thing. So, I used the evidence existing in the genome sequence

of Sars-CoV-2 to tell people why this came from China, why they are the only

one who made it."

She also said that anyone, even those without any knowledge of biology, can

read it. "You can check, identify and verify it by yourself. It is the

critical thing for us to know the origins of the virus. If not, it will be

life threatening for everyone," she added.

UK EX-PMS CALL FOR BOYCOTT OF JOHNSON'S BREXIT BILL PLAN

Britain's former prime ministers from rival parties, Tony Blair and John

Major, united on Sunday to call on members of Parliament to boycott Prime

Minister Boris Johnson's proposed law aimed at overriding parts of the

Brexit divorce agreement.

Ahead of the Internal Market Bill coming up for debate in the House of

Commons on Monday, Major as a member of Johnson's own Conservative Party and

Blair from the Opposition Labour Party warned that what is being proposed by

the prime minister is "shocking" and has wide-ranging ramifications on all

future trade negotiations, not only with the European Union (EU) but with

other nations.

"The overt repudiation of the treaty - by seeking to override unilaterally

the provisions agreeing to the application of certain EU rules to Northern

Ireland - strikes at the very heart of the withdrawal agreement," the duo

wrote in a joint article for 'The Sunday Times'.

Major was a Conservative prime minister from 1990 to 1997. His Labour

successor Blair served as Britain's prime minister from 1997 to 2007.

TIKTOK PICKS ORACLE OVER MICROSOFT IN TRUMP-FORCED SALES BID

The owner of TikTok has chosen Oracle over Microsoft as its preferred suitor

to buy the popular video-sharing app, according to a source familiar with

the deal who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.

Microsoft announced Sunday that its bid for TikTok was rejected, removing

the tech giant from the running a week before President Donald Trump

promises to follow through with a plan to ban the Chinese-owned app in the

U.S. over spying concerns.

TikTok and the White House declined to comment Sunday. Oracle didn't return

a request for comment but has previously declined comment.

Walmart, which had planned to partner with Microsoft on the acquisition,

said Sunday it "continues to have an interest in a TikTok investment" and is

talking about it with ByteDance and other parties.

CHINESE MILITARY CALLS US BIGGEST THREAT TO WORLD PEACE

China's Defense Ministry on Sunday blasted a critical U.S. report on the

country's military ambitions, saying it is the US instead that poses the

biggest threat to the international order and world peace.

The statement follows the Sept. 2 release of the annual Defense Department

report to Congress on Chinese military developments and goals that it said

would have "serious implications for U.S. national interests and the

security of the international rules-based order."

Defense Ministry spokesman Col. Wu Qian called the report a "wanton

distortion" of China's aims and the relationship between the People's

Liberation Army and China's 1.4 million people.

"Many years of evidence shows that it is the US that is the fomenter of

regional unrest, the violator of the international order and the destroyer

of world peace," he said.

US actions in Iraq, Syria, Libya and other countries over the past two

decades have resulted in the deaths of more than 800,000 people and

displacement of millions, Qian said.

"Rather than reflecting on itself, the US issued a so-called report that

made false comments about China's normal defense and military construction,"

he said in the statement. "We call on the US to view China's national

defense and military construction objectively and rationally, cease making

false statements and related reports, and take concrete actions to safeguard

the healthy development of bilateral military relations."

Running to more than 150 pages, the Defense Department report examined the

PLA's technical capabilities, doctrines and the ultimate aims of China's

military buildup. It said it includes becoming a "practical instrument" of

China's statecraft with an active role in advancing Beijing's foreign policy

and "aims to revise aspects of the international order."

CORONAVIRUS: WHO REPORTS RECORD DAILY RISE IN NEW INFECTIONS

The World Health Organization reported a record one-day increase in

globalcoronavirus cases on Sunday, with the total rising by 307,930 in 24

hours.

The biggest increases were from India, the United States and Brazil,

according to the agency's website. Deaths rose by 5,537 to a total of

917,417.

India reported 94,372 new cases, followed by the United States with 45,523

new infections and Brazil with 43,718.

Both the United States and India each reported over 1,000 new deaths and

Brazil reported 874 lives lost in the past 24 hours.

The previous WHO record for new cases was 306,857 on Sept. 6. The agency

reported a record 12,430 deaths on April 17.