KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

Pos   /   Country   /   New Daily cases   /   Total Deaths   /        Daily Deaths /           Active Cases   /           Deaths/1M Pop

               World    7,11,622              /             31,21,779            /             9,275     /             1,89,28,127               /             400.5

1             India      3,54,531              /             1,95,116              /             2,806     /             28,14,544               /             140

2             Turkey   38,553   /             38,358   /             347        /             5,17,967              /             451

3             USA        34,360   /             5,86,148              /             269        /             68,58,484            /               1,762

4             Brazil     32,572   /             3,90,797              /             1,188     /             11,40,821            /               1,828

5             France   24,465   /             1,02,858              /             145        /             10,31,943            /               1,573

6             Iran        19,165   /             69,574   /             454        /             4,49,113              /             820

7             Colombia             17,190   /             71,351   /             465        /             1,14,909              /               1,390

8             Argentina            15,012   /             61,644   /             170        /             2,81,073              /               1,354

9             Italy       13,158   /             1,19,238              /             217        /             4,61,212              /               1,974

10           Germany              12,014   /             82,237   /             43           /             3,22,064              /               979

11           Russia    8,780     /             1,08,232              /             332        /             2,66,329              /               741

12           Netherlands        8,013     /             17,049   /             11           /             2,24,917              /               993

13           Ukraine 7,930     /             42,323   /             231        /             4,10,420              /             973

14           Poland   7,219     /             65,415   /             193        /             2,54,029              /               1,730

15           Belgium               3,934     /             23,990   /             36           /             1,22,915              /               2,063

16           Mexico  3,308     /             2,14,853              /             349        /             2,63,708              /               1,652

17           Hungary               2,328     /             26,625   /             205        /             2,60,686              /               2,762

18           Honduras             685        /             5,100     /             5             /             1,23,742              /               508

INDIA WELCOMES ASEAN'S INITIATIVE TO END MYANMAR CRISIS

India on Sunday welcomed an initiative by ASEAN to end the ongoing crisis in Myanmar which has been in turmoil since its military grabbed power in a coup in February.

External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said India will continue to play a constructive and meaningful role in resolving the current situation in Myanmar.

"We welcome the ASEAN initiative on Myanmar agreed to at the ASEAN summit held on April 24. Our diplomatic engagement with Myanmar will be aimed at strengthening these efforts," he said.

Myanmar has been rocked by massive protests since the military seized power in a coup on February 1. Hundreds of people including children were killed in the crackdown against the protesters by Myanmarese authorities.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Saturday released a "five-point consensus" on Myanmar that included "immediate cessation of violence" and holding constructive dialogue among all parties concerned to seek a peaceful solution in resolving the crisis.

Myanmar is a member of the 10-nation grouping.

"India, as a friend of the people of Myanmar, will continue to play a constructive and meaningful role aimed at resolving the current situation in Myanmar. India''s support to the democratic process in Myanmar remains steadfast," Bagchi said.

According to the five-point consensus, the ASEAN will provide humanitarian assistance in Myanmar and it will appoint a special envoy to facilitate mediation in the dialogue process.

TURKEY SUMMONS U.S. AMBASSADOR OVER GENOCIDE ANNOUNCEMENT

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has summoned the U.S. ambassador in Ankara to protest the U.S. decision to mark the deportation and killing of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire as “genocide.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal met with David Satterfield late Saturday to express Ankara’s strong condemnation. “The statement does not have legal ground in terms of international law and has hurt the Turkish people, opening a wound that’s hard to fix in our relations,” the Ministry said.

On Saturday, U.S. President Joe Biden followed through on a campaign promise to recognise the events that began in 1915 and killed an estimated 1.5 million Ottoman Armenians as genocide. The statement was carefully crafted to say the deportations, massacres and death marches took place in the Ottoman Empire. “We see that pain. We affirm the history. We do this not to cast blame but to ensure that what happened is never repeated," it said.

The White House proclamation immediately prompted statements of condemnation from Turkish officials, although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is yet to address the issue.

Mr. Erdogan and Mr. Biden spoke on the phone Friday for the first time since the U.S. elections.

Ibrahim Kalin, the spokesman to the Turkish President, tweeted on Sunday: “President Erdogan opened Turkey’s national archives & called for a joint historical committee to investigate the events of 1915, to which Armenia never responded. It is a pity @POTUS has ignored, among others, this simple fact and taken an irresponsible and unprincipled position.”

SUPPORT POURS IN FROM COUNTRIES AMID INDIA'S DEVASTATING SECOND COVID-19 WAVE

As India battles a devastating second wave of coronavirus, support from other countries continue to pour in.

After days of being criticized for their silence on the COVID-19 outbreak ravaging India, top officials of the executive branch of the U.S. government, all the way to the Vice President and President, expressed their solidarity with the country over the weekend.

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have assured India and its people of providing all assistance, including urgently sending necessary medical life-saving supplies and equipment, to help the country combat the deadly coronavirus crisis.

“Just as India sent assistance to the United States as our hospitals were strained early in the pandemic, we are determined to help India in its time of need,” Biden said in a tweet.

“The US is working closely with the Indian government to rapidly deploy additional support and supplies during an alarming Covid-19 outbreak. As we provide assistance, we pray for the people of India — including its courageous healthcare workers,” Harris said in a tweet.

The U.S will immediately deploy supplies and other assistance to India, the White House said, following a Sunday call between the National Security Advisers of two countries, Ajit Doval and Jake Sullivan. The U.S.’s assistance will include making raw materials for COVID-19 vaccine ‘Covishield’ immediately accessible and pursuing options to generate oxygen “on an urgent basis.”

'Vital medical equipment' on its way to support India in Covid-19 fight, says UK

Britain said Sunday it was sending life-saving medical equipment to India, including ventilators and oxygen concentrators, as the south Asian country reels from record numbers of daily Covid-19 infections and deaths.

"We stand side by side with India as a friend and partner during what is a deeply concerning time in the fight against Covid-19." "Vital medical equipment, including hundreds of oxygen concentrators and ventilators, is now on its way from the UK to India," Johnson said in a statement.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday her government was preparing emergency aid for India as the country struggles to cope with an explosion in coronavirus infections.

"To the people of India I want to express my sympathy on the terrible suffering that Covid-19 has again brought over your communities," Merkel said in a message shared on Twitter by her spokesman Steffen Seibert.

France joins other countries such as Germany, Britain and the United States in coming to the aid of India. France said it plans to offer India "significant" extra oxygen capacity in the coming days to help the country cope with a record surge in Covid-19 infections, the French presidency said on Sunday.

The assistance is to include badly needed oxygen ventilators, a source told AFP without providing further details.

IRAQIS BLAME MISMANAGEMENT, CORRUPTION FOR BAGHDAD HOSPITAL FIRE

The death of over 80 people in a Baghdad Covid-19 hospital fire was seen by Iraqis Sunday as more proof of the deadly consequences of mismanagement and corruption.

Iraqis, some of whom evacuated the injured themselves, blamed Health Minister Hassan al-Tamimi, who was suspended Sunday, with calls for him to be sacked resounding across social media.

The deadly inferno broke out overnight Sunday at Baghdad's Ibn al-Khatib hospital, blamed on poorly stored oxygen cylinders.

The interior ministry said 82 people were killed and 110 people injured.

An official with the Iraqi Human Rights Commission said 28 of those killed were patients who were taken off critical ventilators to escape the flames.

The evacuation was slow, painful and chaotic, with patients and their relatives crammed into stairwells as they scrambled for exits.

President Barham Saleh tweeted on Sunday "the tragedy at Ibn al-Khatib is the result of years of erosion of state institutions by corruption and mismanagement".

A doctor at the hospital said that "in the whole Covid intensive care unit, there were no emergency exits or fire prevention systems".

Witnesses and doctors told AFP many bodies had yet to be identified, the remains too charred by the intense flames.

INDONESIAN NAVY SUBMARINE FOUND SPLIT INTO THREE ON SEA BED

An Indonesian navy submarine that sank off the coast of Bali on Wednesday has been found split into three pieces on the sea bed, officials say.

All the vessel's 53 crew have been confirmed dead.

Navy officials said they had received signals from the sub's location more than 800m (2,600ft) deep early on Sunday.

An underwater rescue vehicle loaned by Singapore was sent down to get visual confirmation of the wreckage.

The KRI Nanggala disappeared after requesting permission to dive during a torpedo drill. The reason for its sinking is not yet clear.

Navy Chief of Staff Yudo Margono said more items from the submarine had been recovered including an anchor and crew safety suits.

"The KRI Nanggala is divided into three parts, the hull of the ship, the stern of the ship, and the main parts are all separated, with the main part found cracked," he told reporters on Sunday.

The head of Indonesia's military, Hadi Tjahjanto, confirmed that there was no chance of finding any of the crew alive.

COVID-19 VACCINES: LAWMAKERS URGE UK PM JOHNSON TO PUBLISH 'LOBBYING MESSAGES' FROM PHARMA FIRMS

British lawmakers on Monday called on the government to publish all communications with pharmaceutical companies to understand if private lobbying influenced its opposition to a waiver of intellectual property rules for COVID-19 vaccines.

The United States and a handful of other big countries, including the United Kingdom, have blocked negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) involving a proposal spearheaded by India and South Africa that now has the support of 100 WTO members.

The proposal would temporarily waive the intellectual property (IP) rights of pharmaceutical companies to allow developing countries to produce vaccines.

The waiver is opposed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and big pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer PFE.N, BioNTech 22UAy.DE, Moderna MRNA.O, and Johnson & Johnson JNJ.N.

A cross-party group of UK lawmakers has signed a statement calling for Prime Minister Boris Johnson, ministers, and senior civil servants to publish all email, text, and WhatsApp messages exchanged with pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists.

Patient advocacy and vaccine equity organisations have also signed the statement, including Global Justice Now, Just Treatment, StopAIDS, Frontline AIDS, Universities Allied for Essential Medicines UK, Students for Global Health, and Nurses United UK.

"The UK's opposition to an intellectual property waiver on COVID-19 vaccines is utterly indefensible," said Heidi Chow, senior policy and campaigns manager at Global Justice Now, which organised the joint statement.

A spokesperson for the UK government said it prioritised transparency but stakeholders had a right to expect a reasonable degree of confidentiality in their communications.

CANADA SAYS ASTRAZENECA COVID-19 VACCINES, IMPORTED FROM BALTIMORE PLANT, OF 'HIGH QUALITY'

Canada's health department said on Sunday the 1.5 million doses of the Astrazeneca Plc COVID-19 vaccine imported from Emergent BioSolutions' Baltimore facility were safe and met quality specifications.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had stopped AstraZeneca from using the facility earlier this month and halted production of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine at the plant as it began investigations into an error that led to millions of doses of J&J's vaccine being ruined last month.

However, Health Canada said it reviewed test results of all vaccine lots that came into the country and found them to be safe.

J&J doses produced at the Baltimore, Maryland, site have not entered the country, the regulator said, adding that vaccines from the company anticipated to be imported next week were not made at that facility.

EU SLAMS BEIJING FOR ITS ROLE IN ‘ENDANGERING PEACE’ IN SOUTH CHINA SEA

The EU has called out China for endangering peace in the South China Sea (SCS) and urged all parties to abide by a 2016 tribunal ruling that had rejected most of China’s claim to sovereignty in the sea.

“Tensions in the South China Sea, including the recent presence of large Chinese vessels at Whitsun Reef, endanger peace and stability in the region,” an EU spokesperson said. The EU reiterated its strong opposition to “unilateral actions”.

China rejected the EU’s accusation that its ships at Whitsun Reef, which China calls Niu’E Jiao, had endangered peace and security.

China has commissioned three warships, including a nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine, a destroyer and a large amphibious assault ship. All three naval ships were commissioned at a recent ceremony attended by President Xi Jinping at Sanya, a naval base in Hainan province.

UK ECONOMY SET TO GROW FASTER THAN THE US THIS YEAR: GOLDMAN SACHS

Britain looks set to see faster economic growth than the United States this year as the country races ahead with its vaccination programme after its slump in 2020, Goldman Sachs said on Sunday.

The bank said in a note to clients that it now expects British gross domestic product to grow by a "striking" 7.8% this year, "above our expectations for the US."

A Reuters poll of analysts published on April 13 showed an average forecast for growth of 5.0% in the UK, the world's fifth-biggest economy in 2021. The International Monetary Fund has projected a 5.3% expansion.

But since those forecasts were made there have been signs of an acceleration in the pace of recovery with the country now having given a first coronavirus vaccine to more than half of its total population.

"The UK economy is rebounding sharply from the Covid crisis," Goldman Sachs said.

"The April flash PMI was much stronger than expected in the UK, with the services PMI moving strongly further into expansionary territory," it said.

The bank also noted a much-stronger-than-expected 5.4% monthly jump in retail sales in March.