KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    6,40,118              /             33,06,140            /             9,814     /             1,82,68,215               /             424.1

1             USA        21,989   /             5,95,812              /             241        /             64,41,273            /               1,791

2             India      3,66,499              /             2,46,146              /             3,748     /             37,50,998               /             177

3             Brazil     34,162   /             4,22,418              /             934        /             10,48,237            /               1,975

4             France   9,128     /             1,06,392              /             115        /             7,96,471              /               1,627

5             Iran        14,141   /             74,910   /             386        /             4,70,199              /             882

6             Italy       8,292     /             1,22,833              /             139        /             3,83,854              /               2,034

7             Ukraine 5,372     /             46,393   /             193        /             3,13,366              /               1,066

8             Germany              8,290     /             85,371   /             119        /             2,82,969              /               1,016

9             Turkey   15,191   /             43,029   /             283        /             2,71,385              /             506

10           Russia    8,419     /             1,13,326              /             334        /             2,70,804              /               776

11           Argentina            11,582   /             67,325   /             283        /             2,63,250              /               1,478

12           Mexico  2,743     /             2,18,928              /             271        /             2,61,681              /               1,683

13           Spain                    /             78,792   /                            /             2,40,606              /               1,685

14           Netherlands        6,553     /             17,323   /             4             /             2,25,247              /               1,009

15           Hungary               1,145     /             28,602   /             98           /             1,94,778              /               2,967

16           Poland   3,852     /             70,012   /             147        /             1,93,539              /               1,852

17           Sweden                /             14,173   /                            /             1,42,808              /               1,396

18           Honduras             958        /             5,617     /             32           /             1,32,289              /               560

19           Belgium               3,364     /             24,511   /             28           /             1,06,111              /               2,107

20           Colombia             17,222   /             77,854   /             495        /             1,05,030              /               1,516

24           Pakistan               3,786     /             18,915   /             118        /             81,830   /             84

27           Philippines           7,174     /             18,472   /             204        /             61,294   /             167

31           Bangladesh         1,386     /             11,934   /             56           /             51,417   /             72

CHINESE SCIENTISTS DISCUSSED WEAPONISING SARS CORONAVIRUSES 5 YEARS BEFORE COVID PANDEMIC: REPORT

A document written by Chinese scientists and health officials before the pandemic in 2015 states that SARS coronaviruses were a "new era of genetic weapons" that could be "artificially manipulated into an emerging human disease virus, then weaponised and unleashed, reported Weekend Australian.

The paper titled The Unnatural Origin of SARS and New Species of Man-Made Viruses as Genetic Bioweapons suggested that World War Three would be fought with biological weapons.

The document revealed that Chinese military scientists were discussing the weaponisation of SARS coronaviruses five years before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Peter Jennings, the executive director of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), told news.com.au that the document is as close to a "smoking gun" as we have got.

"I think this is significant because it clearly shows that Chinese scientists were thinking about military application for different strains of the coronavirus and thinking about how it could be deployed," Jennings said.

"It begins to firm up the possibility that what we have here is the accidental release of a pathogen for military use," Jennings added.

He also said that the document may explain why China has been so reluctant for outside investigations into the origins of Covid-19.

"If this was a case of transmission from a wet market it would be in China's interest to co-operate ... we've had the opposite of that."

Robert Potter, a cyber security specialist who analyses leaked Chinese government documents, was asked by The Australian to verify the paper.

"We reached a high confidence conclusion that it was genuine ... It's not fake but it's up to someone else to interpret how serious it is," Potter said.

NASA DENOUNCES CHINA OVER 'IRRESPONSIBLE STANDARDS' AFTER ITS ROCKET DISINTEGRATES OVER INDIAN OCEAN

American space agency NASA on Sunday slammed China for failing to meet "responsible standards" regarding its space debris, hours after remnants of the country's largest and an out of control rocket disintegrated over the Indian Ocean near the Maldives.

The debris from China's Long March 5B rocket re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere at 10.24 a.m. Beijing time and fell into an open sea area at 72.47 degrees east longitude and 2.65 degrees north latitude, China's Manned Space Engineering Office said.

Reacting to China's space programme, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said: “It is clear that China is failing to meet responsible standards regarding their space debris.” “Spacefaring nations must minimize the risks to people and property on Earth of re-entries of space objects and maximize transparency regarding those operations," he said in a statement.

"It is critical that China and all spacefaring nations and commercial entities act responsibly and transparently in space to ensure the safety, stability, security, and long-term sustainability of outer space activities,” said Mr. Nelson, former Florida senator and astronaut who was picked for the role in March.

China is expected to carry out more launches in its space station programme in the coming weeks as it aims to complete the space station project next year.

AMID WEEKEND CLASHES, ISRAEL VOWS TO KEEP JERUSALEM ORDER

Israel vowed on Sunday to restore order in Jerusalem after hundreds of Palestinian protesters were wounded in a weekend of clashes with Israeli security forces, while the Justice Ministry put off a key court ruling on a flashpoint property dispute.

Consecutive nights of violence around the revered Al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City has been the worst since 2017, fuelled by a years-long bid by Jewish settlers to take over nearby Palestinian homes in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Israel “would decisively and responsibly impose law and order in Jerusalem”.

Tunisia said it has called for a meeting on Monday of the UN Security Council to discuss the situation.

KABUL ATTACK: FAMILIES BURY SCHOOLCHILDREN OF BLAST THAT KILLED DOZENS

Afghan families have been burying their children who were killed in explosions outside a secondary school in the capital, Kabul, on Saturday.

More than 60 people, mostly girls, are now known to have died in the attack that hit students as they left class.

No-one has admitted carrying out the attack in Dasht-e-Barchi, an area often hit by Sunni Islamist militants.

The Afghan government blamed Taliban militants for the attack, but the group denied involvement.

The exact target for Saturday's bloodshed is unclear. The blasts come against a backdrop of rising violence as the US looks to withdraw all its troops from Afghanistan by 11 September.

VICTORY DAY: PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA WILL ‘FIRMLY’ DEFEND INTERESTS

President Vladimir Putin on Sunday promised that Russia will “firmly” defend national interests and denounced the return of “Russophobia.”

“Russia consistently defends international law. At the same time, we will firmly defend our national interests to ensure the safety of our people,” Putin said while reviewing Russia’s traditional World War II victory parade in Moscow.

The Russian leader also denounced what he called a creeping return of ideologies of the time, when “slogans of racial and national superiority, of anti-semitism and Russophobia, became ever more cynical.”

Putin also warned against attempts to falsify history and relativize the actions of “traitors and criminals.”

The parade on Moscow’s Red Square commemorating the 76th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in WWII featured over 12,000 troops and more than 190 pieces of military hardware, including intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, as well as fighter jets and helicopters.

SPACEX ACCEPTS DOGECOIN AS PAYMENT TO LAUNCH LUNAR MISSION NEXT YEAR

SpaceX will launch the “DOGE-1 Mission to the Moon” in the first quarter of next year, with Elon Musk’s commercial rocket company accepting the meme-inspired cryptocurrency dogecoin as payment.

“SpaceX launching satellite Doge-1 to the moon next year – Mission paid for in Doge – 1st crypto in space – 1st meme in space”, Musk said in a tweet.

“This mission will demonstrate the application of cryptocurrency beyond Earth orbit and set the foundation for interplanetary commerce”, SpaceX Vice President of Commercial Sales Tom Ochinero was quoted as saying in the statement released by Geometric Energy.

Musk had said on Twitter in April that SpaceX was going to put a “literal Dogecoin on the literal moon”.

Dogecoin lost more than a third of its price on Sunday, after Musk called it a ‘hustle’ during his guest-host spot on the “Saturday Night Live” comedy sketch TV show.

Musk’s tweets this year turned the once-obscure digital currency, which began as a social media joke, into a speculator’s dream.

On crypto data tracker CoinGecko.com, dogecoin has jumped more than 800% over the last month and is now the fourth-largest digital currency, with a market capitalization of $73 billion.

CELEBRATIONS AS SPAIN’S STATE OF EMERGENCY ENDS

Impromptu street celebrations erupted across Spain as the clock struck midnight on Saturday, when a six-month-long national state of emergency to contain Covid spread ended. Teenagers and young adults poured into central squares and beaches in different cities to celebrate the government’s move. Similar scenes were seen in Belgium, where a few restrictions were lifted.