EY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

Position               Country,              New Daily cases /             Total Deaths       /             Daily Deaths  /             Active Cases       /             Deaths/1M pop

               World    3,81,258              /             38,47,963            /             8,909     /             1,16,54,921               /             493.7

1             USA        12,778   /             6,16,129              /             407        /             51,33,622            /               1,851

2             Brazil     85,861   /             4,93,837              /             2,673     /             11,05,276            /               2,308

3             India      67,104   /             3,81,931              /             1,411     /             8,33,578              /               274

4             Argentina            25,878   /             87,261   /             646        /             3,19,380              /               1,914

5             Russia    13,397   /             1,27,576              /             396        /             2,93,914              /               874

6             Iran        10,487   /             82,480   /             129        /             2,81,221              /             970

7             Mexico  4,250     /             2,30,424              /             239        /             2,69,141              /               1,769

8             UK          9,055     /             1,27,926              /             9             /             1,67,382              /               1,875

9             Colombia             27,827   /             97,560   /             595        /             1,67,161              /               1,898

10           Poland   241        /             74,688   /             62           /             1,54,189              /               1,976

11           Honduras             1,003     /             6,674     /             21           /             1,51,896              /               664

12           Spain     3,832     /             80,615   /             36           /             1,32,251              /               1,724

13           Indonesia            9,944     /             53,476   /             196        /             1,20,306              /               194

14           France   3,058     /             1,10,578              /             44           /             1,11,974              /               1,690

15           Italy       1,400     /             1,27,153              /             52           /             1,01,855              /               2,106

16           South Africa       13,246   /             58,223   /             136        /             95,772   /             970

17           Turkey   6,221     /             48,950   /             71           /             83,645   /             575

18           Costa Rica           1,845     /             4,437     /             30           /             76,471   /             863

19           Netherlands        1,016     /             17,719   /             4             /             74,647   /               1,032

20           Bolivia   2,571     /             15,738   /             124        /             69,455   /             1,331

24           Philippines           5,414     /             23,121   /             158        /             56,170   /             208

29           Bangladesh         3,956     /             13,282   /             60           /             50,213   /             80

35           Pakistan               1,038     /             21,828   /             46           /             39,905   /             97

BIDEN AND PUTIN PRAISE GENEVA SUMMIT TALKS BUT DISCORD REMAINS

The presidents of the US and Russia have praised their talks in Geneva but have made little concrete progress at the first such meeting since 2018.

Disagreements were stated, said US President Joe Biden, but not in a hyperbolic way, and he said Russia did not want a new Cold War.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Mr Biden was an experienced statesman and the two "spoke the same language".

The talks lasted around three hours, less time than was scheduled.

Mr Biden said they did not need to spend more time talking and there was now a genuine prospect to improve relations with Russia.

The two sides agreed to begin a dialogue on nuclear arms control. They also said they would return ambassadors to each other's capitals - the envoys were mutually withdrawn for consultations in March, after the US accused Russia of meddling in the 2020 presidential election.

However, there was little sign of agreement on other issues, including cyber-security, Ukraine and the fate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is currently serving a two-and-a-half-year sentence in a penal colony.

Mr Biden said there would be "devastating consequences" for Russia if Navalny died in prison.

Mr Putin hinted at a possible deal on exchanging prisoners, saying he believed compromises could be found.

On cyber-attacks, Mr Putin brushed away accusations of Russian responsibility, saying that most cyber-attacks in Russia originated from the US.

Mr Biden said he told Mr Putin that critical infrastructure, such as water or energy, must be "off-limits" to hacking or other attacks.

Mr Putin dismissed US concerns about Navalny, who recently undertook a 24-day hunger strike.

He said Russia did not want disturbances on its territory comparable to the Capitol riots or the Black Lives Matter movement.

Mr Biden dismissed Mr Putin's comments about Black Lives Matter as "ridiculous", and said human rights would "always be on the table".

Asked why Russia would want to co-operate with the US, Mr Biden said it was "in a very, very difficult spot right now".

"They are being squeezed by China. They want desperately to remain a major power," he told reporters, shortly before leaving Geneva.

ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES TARGET GAZA SITES, VIOLATE TRUCE

Israeli aircraft carried out a series of airstrikes at militant sites in the Gaza Strip early Wednesday, the first such raids since a shaky cease-fire ended the war with Hamas last month.

The airstrikes targeted facilities used by Hamas militants for meetings to plan attacks, the Israeli military said, blaming the group for any act of violence emanating from Gaza. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Hundreds of Israeli ultranationalists paraded in east Jerusalem in a show of force that threatened to spark renewed violence.

SHENZHOU-12: CHINA LAUNCHES FIRST CREW TO NEW SPACE STATION

China has launched three astronauts into orbit to begin occupation of the country's new space station.

The three men - Nie Haisheng, Liu Boming and Tang Hongbo - are to spend three months aboard the Tianhe module some 380km (236 miles) above the Earth.

It will be China's longest crewed space mission to date and the first in nearly five years.

On Thursday, their Shenzhou-12 capsule successfully took off atop its Long March 2F rocket.

Lift-off from the Jiuquan satellite launch centre in the Gobi desert was at 09:22 Beijing time (01:22 GMT).

The launch and subsequent mission are another demonstration of China's growing confidence and capability in the space domain.

PAKISTAN NA SPEAKER BANS 7 LAWMAKERS FROM HOUSE TILL ‘FURTHER ORDERS’

A day after the Opposition and treasury benches clashed — verbally and physically — during the post-budget address of Leader of Opposition Shahbaz Sharif, Pakistan’s National Assembly (NA) Speaker on Wednesday barred seven lawmakers, four from the opposition and three from the governing Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), from entering the House.

In a Twitter post, Speaker Asad Qaiser said that members who disrupted the session during Sharif's speech have been barred from entering the House as their behaviour was “unparliamentary” and “inappropriate”.

The legislators who have been stopped from entering the House are Ali Gohar Khan, Chaudhary Hamid Hameed, Sheikh Rohale Asghar (all PML-N), Faheem Khan, Abdul Majeed Khan, Ali Nawaz Awan (all PTI) and Syed Agha Rafiullah (PPP).

A separate statement issued by the NA secretariat said that the ban on the lawmakers would last until further orders.

FRANCE DITCHES MASKS OUTDOORS; WILL END NIGHTLY VIRUS CURFEW

France is lifting mandatory mask-wearing outdoors and will halt an eight-month nightly coronavirus curfew on June 20.

The announcement Wednesday by French Prime Minister Jean Castex comes as France is now registering about 3,900 new daily virus cases on average, down from 35,000 in the March-April peak.

Mr Castex welcomed “very good news” and said the curfew will be lifted on Sunday, ten days earlier than expected.

Over 58% of France’s adult population has received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. On Tuesday, the European Union nation opened its vaccination programs to 12 to 18-year-olds as part of a push to protect the nation as restrictions are gradually being lifted.

DELTA VARIANT FUELLED 50% RISE IN ENGLISH COVID PREVALENCE: STUDY

The rapid spread of the Delta coronavirus variant has driven a 50% rise in infections in England since May, a large prevalence study led by Imperial College London found on Thursday after Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed the end of restrictions.

The government said the data supported Johnson's decision to push back the end of Covidrestrictions in England to July 19, citing the threat of the Delta variant first identified in India, and the need to vaccinate more people.

The latest round of the REACT-1 prevalence survey, conducted between May 20 and June 7, found prevalence was 0.15%, compared to 0.10% in the last set of data from late April to early May.

"Prevalence is increasing exponentially, driven by younger ages... and it appears to be doubling every 11 days. Clearly, that is bad news," Steven Riley, professor of infectious disease dynamics, Imperial College London, told reporters.

The study is one of the largest prevalence surveys in Britain, with 109,000 volunteers tested in its latest round.

Although the Delta variant is shown to substantially reduce the effectiveness of one dose of vaccine against mild infection, two doses still provide good protection against severe disease, early evidence has shown.