KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    2,95,254              /             37,50,941            /             7,052     /             1,27,20,901               /             481.2

1             USA        8,851     /             6,12,596              /             212        /             54,38,480            /               1,841

2             India      87,345   /             3,51,344              /             2,115     /             13,08,806            /               252

3             Brazil     37,156   /             4,74,414              /             919        /             11,01,403            /               2,217

4             Argentina            22,195   /             81,946   /             732        /             3,35,540              /               1,798

5             Iran        4,907     /             81,183   /             120        /             3,24,115              /             955

6             Russia    9,429     /             1,24,117              /             330        /             2,68,547              /               850

7             Mexico  1,401     /             2,28,804              /             50           /             2,65,281              /               1,757

8             Italy       1,273     /             1,26,588              /             65           /             1,88,453              /               2,097

9             France   1,164     /             1,10,062              /             64           /             1,78,594              /               1,683

10           Colombia             21,949   /             92,496   /             535        /             1,59,977              /               1,800

11           Poland   194        /             74,160   /             8             /             1,55,291              /               1,961

12           Honduras             252        /             6,479     /             19           /             1,49,197              /               645

13           Spain     3,122     /             80,236   /             14           /             1,36,309              /               1,715

14           UK          5,683     /             1,27,841              /             1             /             1,17,537              /               1,874

15           Netherlands        1,377     /             17,681   /             3             /             1,10,955              /               1,030

16           Indonesia            6,993     /             51,803   /             191        /             99,663   /             188

17           Nepal    3,370     /             7,990     /             92           /             85,544   /             270

18           Malaysia              5,271     /             3,460     /             82           /             84,269   /             106

19           Turkey   5,647     /             48,255   /             91           /             78,022   /             566

20           Germany              1,562     /             89,965   /             114        /             77,676   /               1,071

29           Philippines           6,539     /             21,969   /             71           /             58,854   /             198

36           Pakistan               1,490     /             21,323   /             58           /             47,376   /             95

37           Bangladesh         1,970     /             12,869   /             30           /             46,851   /             77

GLOBAL COVID INFECTIONS DROP TO SLOWEST PACE SINCE MARCH

Fresh Covid-19 cases for the week ended June 6 were the lowest since mid-March, at 3 million, according to data from Johns Hopkins. Weekly cases worldwide have been declining for six weeks as the outbreak in India wanes and global vaccination efforts ramp up. The US reported the lowest number of daily cases — 5,455 — since March 2020, when the virus began its rapid spread across the country.

The global toll is also easing, falling from a peak of over 92,000 a week at the end of April to less than 80,000 in the last week of May. A revision of Peru’s fatalities — the country more than doubled its official death count — skews comparisons for the latest week.

Despite the trend, rising cases in places from Uganda to Indonesia are a reminder that the pandemic won’t disappear anytime soon.

GOOGLE OVERHAULS GLOBAL AD MODEL AFTER FRENCH ANTITRUST FINE

Google announced on Monday that it would change its global advertising practices after caving into pressure from French antitrust authorities for the first time.

The landmark deal struck with the French competition watchdog was made to ensure that the tech giant does not abuse its dominance and to help rebalance the power over advertising in favour of publishers.

Aside from the changes to its policy, the deal also includes a €220m fine for Google.

"The decision to sanction Google is of particular significance because it's the first decision in the world focusing on the complex algorithmic auction processes on which the online ad business relies," said France's antitrust chief Isabelle de Silva.

The watchdog found Google guilty of favouring its ad management platform for large publishers - Google Ad Manager - and its own online ad marketplace - Google AdX - where publishers sell space to advertisers in real-time.

Ad Manager provided AdX with strategic data such as the winning bidding prices.

AdX also enjoyed privileged access to requests made by advertisers via Google's ad services, the authority said according to Reuters.

The deal will require Google to improve its Ad Manager services and the relationship with competitors. The changes are expected to begin to be implemented in the first quarter of 2022.

Google also said it had agreed to make it easier for publishers to use its data and tools.

"We will be testing and developing these changes over the coming months before rolling them out more broadly, including some globally," the company added.

FDA CONDITIONALLY APPROVES CONTROVERSIAL ALZHEIMER’S DRUG

The first new drug against Alzheimer's disease in nearly two decades received a conditional and controversial green light from U.S. drug regulators on Monday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved biotech company Biogen's antibody drug aducanumab. The drug reduces the amyloid plaques that riddle the brains of Alzheimer's patients.

But the approval drew sharp criticism from experts who note that the company has not proved that it slows the debilitating cognitive decline in patients with the disease.

The FDA will require Biogen to continue testing the drug after it is released and ultimately demonstrate that patients actually do fare better on the drug.

In the meantime, the company said the drug will cost each patient $56,000 per year, but is likely to be covered by most insurers, including Medicare.

The FDA decided to approve the drug under what is called accelerated approval, which has a lower standard of evidence than full approval. The FDA said Biogen's data show that reducing amyloid plaques is "reasonably likely to result in clinical benefit."

"This pathway allows FDA to provide patients suffering with a serious disease earlier access to a potentially valuable drug when there is some residual uncertainty about the clinical benefit of the drug," Patrizia Cavazzoni, director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, said on a call with reporters.

HARRIS SAYS TALKS IN GUATEMALA WERE ROBUST, TELLS MIGRANTS: ‘DO NOT COME’

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said on Monday she had held “robust” talks with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on the need to fight corruption and deter undocumented immigration from Central America to the United States.

Speaking at a news conference with Giammattei, Harris delivered a blunt message to anyone thinking of making the dangerous journey north: “Do not come.”

“We had a robust, candid and thorough conversation,” Harris said. “The president and I discussed that fundamentally, most people do not want to leave home, they don’t want to leave the place where the language they know is spoken.”

She said that a task force combining resources from the Justice, State and Treasury departments would work with local prosecutors to punish corrupt actors in Central America.

The Biden administration on Monday also unveiled details of another task force of prosecutors to combat human smuggling in Central America and Mexico.

RUSSIA CONFIRMS EXIT FROM OVERFLIGHT TREATY

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday signed a Bill to withdraw from an international treaty allowing surveillance flights over military facilities, following the US exit from the pact.

The Bill was endorsed by Russian lawmakers after US officials told Moscow last month that President Joe Biden's administration had decided not to reenter the Open Skies Treaty that the US left under President Donald Trump.

As a presidential candidate, Biden had criticised Trump’s withdrawal as “short-sighted”. Moscow had signaled its readiness to reverse the withdrawal procedure and stay in the 1992 treaty if the United States returned to the agreement, but now Putin’s signature seals the Russian withdrawal that would take effect in six months.

Putin and Biden are set to have a summit in Geneva on June 16, a meeting that comes amid soaring tensions in Russia-US ties that have hit post-Cold War lows after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula, accusations of Moscow's interference in US elections, hacking attacks and other issues.

BEZOS GOING INTO SPACE ON JULY 20, BEATING ‘SPACE BARONS’ MUSK, BRANSON TO IT

The world’s wealthiest man, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, plans to also become the first billionaire to go into space. He will be aboard New Shepard, a reusable rocket of his space company Blue Origin, with his brother Mark Bezos and one more person, the winner of an auction for the third berth, when it lifts off on July 20, two weeks after Jeff is scheduled to step down as CEO of Amazon.

“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of travelling to space,” Jeff said in a post on Instagram on Monday. “On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend. #Gradatim Ferociter (a Latin phrase that is Blue Origin’s motto, and translates to ‘step by step, ferociously’).”

“I wasn’t even expecting him to say that he was going to be on the first flight,” said Mark, who is senior vice-president at Robin Hood, a poverty-fighting charity in New York City, in a video in the Instagram post. “What a remarkable opportunity, not only to have this adventure but to do it with my best friend.”

If nothing changes between now and July 20, Jeff Bezos will become the first billionaire to go into space, beating fellow “Space Barons” Elon Musk, whose SpaceX has been flying crewed missions to the International Space Station since 2020, and Richard Branson, who has announced plans several times before to go up in a Virgin Galactic rocket, but hasn’t yet.