KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    3,02,958              /             39,44,715            /             5,581     /             1,15,00,724        /             506.1

1             USA        8,149     /             6,19,539              /             97           /             49,28,715            /             1,861

2             Brazil     27,804   /             5,14,092              /             548        /             12,60,981            /             2,402

3             India      37,037   /             3,97,668              /             907        /             5,59,124              /             285

4             Russia    21,650   /             1,33,893              /             611        /             3,69,708              /             917

5             UK          22,868   /             1,28,103              /             3             /             3,07,776              /             1,877

6             Argentina            18,389   /             93,142   /             574        /             2,84,186              /             2,042

7             Mexico  2,384     /             2,32,564              /             43           /             2,82,618              /             1,785

8             Iran        12,351   /             83,985   /             140        /             2,48,065              /             987

9             Indonesia            20,694   /             57,561   /             423        /             2,18,476              /             208

10           Colombia             28,478   /             1,05,326              /             648        /             2,01,607              /             2,048

11           Honduras             703        /             6,922     /             6             /             1,61,100              /             688

12           South Africa       12,222   /             60,038   /             138        /             1,57,199              /             1,000

13           Poland   52           /             74,979   /                            /             1,53,029              /             1,983

14           Spain     3,332     /             80,789   /             4             /             1,20,254              /             1,727

15           Turkey   5,283     /             49,634   /             58           /             84,118   /             582

16           Iraq        6,346     /             17,121   /             30           /             79,002   /             416

17           Bangladesh         8,364     /             14,276   /             104        /             74,821   /             86

18           Costa Rica                          /             4,602     /                            /             69,155   /             895

19           Bolivia   922        /             16,581   /             30           /             62,785   /             1,402

20           Malaysia              5,218     /             5,001     /             57           /             61,812   /             153

25           Philippines           5,604     /             24,456   /             84           /             52,029   /             220

39           Pakistan               914        /             22,231   /             20           /             32,225   /             99

MOSCOW, BEIJING EXTEND FRIENDSHIP TREATY BY 5 YEARS

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed on Monday to work together as they extended a 20-year-old bilateral agreement on friendship and cooperation to forge closer ties, amid the US and the EU push against both the countries over human rights and a host of other issues.

The two leaders issued a joint statement after their talks via video link, officially announcing the extension of the China-Russia Treaty of Good-Neighbourliness and Friendly Cooperation (TGNFC) signed between the two countries in 2001, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

They held talks amid growing anxiety in Beijing, especially after the June 16 meeting between Putin and US President Joe Biden that Washington is attempting to wean away Moscow out of its close ties with Beijing.

Also Putin-Xi talks took place ahead of the July 1 centenary celebrations of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), which had a roller coaster relations with the erstwhile Soviet Communist Party before the disintegration of the Soviet Union.

Xi told Putin that China and Russia have injected positive energy into the international community through their close cooperation, as the world is entering a period of turbulence and change and human development is confronted with multiple crises.

The two countries have set a good example for a new type of international relations, Xi said.

JOE BIDEN TELLS ISRAEL PRESIDENT REUVEN RIVLIN HE WON'T TOLERATE NUCLEAR IRAN

US President Joe Biden, in a meeting on Monday with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, said his commitment to Israel is “iron-clad” and he looks forward to meeting with new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett soon.

Biden, in his first meeting as president with a top Israeli official, also said Iran would not come to possess a nuclear weapon during his time in office.

“My commitment to Israel is … ironclad,” Biden told Rivlin at the start of their meeting in the Oval Office. He said the two officials would discuss a range of topics, including Iran.

“What I can say to you is that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon on my watch,” Biden said.

The meeting took place just weeks after Bennett took over as Israel’s new prime minister, replacing Benjamin Netanyahu.

MIXING VACCINES OFFERS STRONG IMMUNE PROTECTION, OXFORD STUDY SUGGESTS

Amid the global shortage of the Covid-19 vaccines, a study conducted by Oxford University has found out that alternating doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines generate robust immune responses against the coronavirus.

According to the study, 'mixed' schedules of these vaccines induced high concentrations of antibodies against the SARS-CoV2 spike IgG protein when doses were administered four weeks apart.

This study, published on the Lancet pre-print server, means all possible vaccination schedules involving the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines could potentially be used against Covid-19.

UK Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said: 'Today's data are a vital step forward, showing a mixed schedule gives people protective immunity against Covid-19 after four weeks."

JUDGE DISMISSES U.S. GOVT.’S ANTITRUST LAWSUITS AGAINST FACEBOOK

A federal judge on Monday dismissed antitrust lawsuits brought against Facebook by the Federal Trade Commission and a coalition of State Aattorneys general, dealing a significant blow to attempts by regulators to rein in tech giants.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled on Monday that the lawsuits were “legally insufficient” and didn’t provide enough evidence to prove that Facebook was a monopoly. The ruling dismisses the complaint but not the case, meaning the FTC could refile another complaint.

“These allegations — which do not even provide an estimated actual figure or range for Facebook’s market share at any point over the past ten years — ultimately fall short of plausibly establishing that Facebook holds market power,” he said.

The U.S. government and 48 States and districts sued Facebook in December 2020, accusing the tech giant of abusing its market power in social networking to crush smaller competitors and seeking remedies that could include a forced spinoff of the social network’s Instagram and WhatsApp messaging services.

The FTC had alleged Facebook engaged in a “a systematic strategy” to eliminate its competition, including by purchasing smaller up-and-coming rivals like Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014. New York Attorney General Letitia James said when filing the suit that Facebook “used its monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition, all at the expense of everyday users.”

Boasberg dismissed the separate complaint made by the state attorneys general as well.

PAK PM IMRAN KHAN’S AIDE MADE SECRET VISIT TO ISRAEL: REPORT

A former aide of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan made a secret visit to Israel last November for meetings with foreign ministry officials and the then Mossad chief, according to an Israeli media report on Monday.

Sayed Zulfi Bukhari, a British Pakistani businessman who served as Khan’s special assistant on overseas Pakistanis till May this year, conveyed a message from the Pakistani premier to Israeli foreign ministry officials and another message from Pakistan Army chief Gen Qamar Bajwa to then Israeli spy chief Yossi Cohen, Israel Hayom newspaper reported.

The report said Bukhari, who lives in the UK, arrived at Ben Gurion airport from Islamabad on a connecting flight to London in the last week of November, taking advantage of his British passport. He travelled to Tel Aviv for the meetings and the Pakistan-Israel contacts were the outcome of “heavy pressure from the UAE”, the report added.

Bukhari denied the report in a tweet. “DID NOT go to Israel. Funny bit is Pakistani paper says I went to Israel based on ‘Israeli news source’ & Israeli paper says I went to Israel based on a ‘Pakistani source’ – wonder who this imaginative Pakistani source is,” he tweeted, referring to reports in the Pakistani and Israeli media about the matter.

FAMILIES OF AFGHAN TALIBAN RESIDE IN PAKISTAN: PAK INTERIOR MINISTER

In a rare admission, a top Pakistani minister has said that the families of Afghanistan''s Taliban militants reside in Pakistan, including in popular suburban areas of the national capital, and sometimes the members of the insurgent outfit receive medical treatment in local hospitals.

Islamabad has been consistently rejecting allegations levelled by Afghan leaders that the Taliban use Pakistani soil to direct and sustain insurgent activities in Afghanistan.

In an interview aired by private Pakistani TV channel Geo News on Sunday, Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said, "Taliban families live here in Pakistan -- in areas like Rawat, Loi Ber, Bara Kahu and Tarnol."

The areas mentioned by the minister are well-known suburban areas of Islamabad.

"Sometimes their (fighters) dead bodies arrive and sometimes they come here to hospitals to get medical treatment", Rashid told the Urdu-language network.

Pakistan is often accused of hosting and supporting the Afghan Taliban militants who have been fighting the Afghanistan government for about the last two decades. It is rare for a top Pakistani minister and senior politician to accept it.