KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    3,80,369              /             39,62,118            /             8,214     /             1,14,55,327               /             508.3

1             USA        12,456   /             6,20,212              /             216        /             48,98,036            /               1,863

2             Brazil     45,859   /             5,18,246              /             2,127     /             11,82,286            /               2,421

3             India      48,878   /             3,99,475              /             991        /             5,29,580              /               287

4             Russia    21,042   /             1,35,214              /             669        /             3,78,992              /               926

5             UK          26,068   /             1,28,140              /             14           /             3,47,891              /               1,878

6             Argentina            22,673   /             94,304   /             636        /             2,99,149              /               2,068

7             Mexico  5,711     /             2,32,803              /             195        /             2,82,980              /               1,787

8             Iran        11,748   /             84,264   /             137        /             2,43,465              /             991

9             Indonesia            21,807   /             58,491   /             467        /             2,39,368              /               212

10           Colombia             27,908   /             1,06,544              /             610        /             1,98,282               /             2,072

11           South Africa       19,506   /             60,647   /             383        /             1,65,283              /               1,010

12           Honduras             1,188     /             6,980     /             22           /             1,62,686              /               694

13           Poland   104        /             75,021   /             16           /             1,53,104              /               1,984

14           Spain     9,227     /             80,875   /             46           /             1,28,361              /               1,729

15           Iraq        7,300     /             17,186   /             30           /             83,190   /             418

16           Bangladesh         8,822     /             14,503   /             115        /             82,505   /             87

17           Turkey   5,496     /             49,732   /             45           /             81,635   /             583

18           Costa Rica           1,777     /             4,667     /             6             /             69,739   /             908

19           Malaysia              6,276     /             5,170     /             62           /             64,129   /             158

20           Bolivia   2,055     /             16,702   /             71           /             62,070   /             1,412

28           Philippines           4,509     /             24,662   /             105        /             48,649   /             222

39           Pakistan               979        /             22,281   /             27           /             31,606   /             99

CHINA’S COMMUNIST PARTY TO TURN 100 ON THURSDAY, EYES SECOND CENTURY IN POWER

China’s ruling Communist Party which had a vice-like grip on the destiny of the world’s most populous nation besides diverse influence on international leftist movements and global politics will turn 100 on Thursday.

The highlight of the occasion, according to officials, is an address to a special gathering in the morning by President Xi Jinping, who cast himself in the mould of Mao Zedong, the founder of the Communist Party of China (CPC) as it is officially called.

Xi’s address would be telecast live by official media networks, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

While much of the “grand celebrations” as Xi put it earlier were shrouded in secrecy, the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted the officials as saying that there will be no military parade.

The sprawling Tiananmen Square, where the Great Hall of People is located, has been completely blocked for about a month and also much of the events in the past few days like Wednesday’s presentation of medals by Xi to 29 CPC members who have made “outstanding contributions to the Party and the people”.

Much of the focus would be on Xi’s speech, considering China faces global adversity over the origins of the Covid-19, allegations of genocide against Uygur Muslims in Xinjiang, massive crackdown in Hong Kong to put down the mass dissent, besides murmurs over his tenure.

Xi who is expected to remain in power for life in his Wednesday’s speech at the medal awarding ceremony exhorted the party men to set their sights on the ruling party to remain in power for a second century.

“On the new march to a fully established modern socialist nation, keep moving toward the goals of the second century,” Xi said.

CHURCHES SET ABLAZE AS MORE UNMARKED GRAVES FOUND AT CANADA INDIGENOUS SCHOOLS

Two churches in Canada went up in flames Wednesday amid calls for a papal apology over abuse at indigenous residential schools where hundreds of unmarked graves were recently discovered, including 182 at a third burial site.

Police said the fires at the Morinville church north of Edmonton, Alberta, and the St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church on Sipekne'katik First Nation near Halifax in Nova Scotia are being investigated as possible arson.

"We are investigating it as suspicious," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Corporal Sheldon Robb told AFP, speaking on the fire that engulfed the Morinville church.

Corporal Chris Marshall of the Nova Scotia RCMP said the same about the fire that severely damaged the St. Kateri Tekakwitha Church.

At a news conference, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the "horrific discoveries" of childrens' unmarked graves has forced Canadians "to reflect on the historic and ongoing injustices that Indigenous peoples have faced."

He urged all to participate in reconciliation, while denouncing vandalism and arson of churches across the country.

"The destruction of places of worship is not acceptable, and it must stop," he said. "We must work together to write past wrongs. Everyone has a role to play."

The blazes bring to eight the number of churches across Canada destroyed or damaged by suspicious fires, most of them in indigenous communities, in recent days.

Several others were vandalized, including with red paint.

WORLD BANK APPROVES $800M LOAN FOR PAKISTAN: REPORT

The World Bank has approved a loan of $800 million to cash-strapped Pakistan, financing schemes on clean energy and human capital development, according to a media report on Wednesday.

The loan amount would be utilised for schemes which are not covered due to the budget deficit for 2021-22 fiscal, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

The board of directors of World Bank approved financing for two programmes- Pakistan Program for Affordable and Clean Energy (PACE) and Securing Human Investments to Foster Transformation (SHIFT-II).

Citing the World Bank documents, the newspaper reported that the board approved the $400 million PACE loan only after the government accepted at least six pre-conditions- ensuring reduction in power generation cost, competitive bidding for all new power generation projects, shift to clean energy, Rs 1.95-per-unit increase in electricity tariffs, reduction in circular debt and appointing independent boards of power distribution companies.

The PACE programme prioritises actions needed to initiate critical power sector reforms focused on reducing power generation costs, better targeting of subsidies and tariffs for consumers.

The World Bank also approved $400 million for SHIFT-II which supports a federal structure to strengthen basic service delivery for human capital accumulation.

Pakistan has already planned to take $17 billion in foreign loans in the next fiscal year.

U.S. AIRCRAFT INVOLVED IN BLACK SEA INCIDENT: PUTIN

Russian President Vladimir Putin said a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft was operating in sync with a British destroyer during last week's Black Sea incident.

Moscow said one of its warships fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of British destroyer Defender on Wednesday to force her out of an area near the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed in 2014. Britain denied that account, insisted its ship wasn't fired upon and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters.

Speaking Wednesday during a marathon live call-in show, Mr. Putin said that the U.S. aircraft's apparent mission was to monitor the Russian military's response to the British destroyer. He added that Moscow was aware of the U.S. intentions and responded accordingly to avoid revealing sensitive data.

In Wednesday's incident, Britain insisted the Defender had been making a routine journey through an internationally recognized travel lane and remained in Ukrainian waters near Crimea. The UK, like most of the world, recognises Crimea as part of Ukraine despite the peninsula's annexation by Russia.

Russia denounced the Defender's move as a provocation and warned that next time it could fire to hit intruding warships if they again try to test Russian military resolve.

ELON MUSK'S STARLINK TO DELIVER INTERNET NEARLY WORLDWIDE WITHIN WEEKS

Elon Musk's satellite network Starlink is on track to beam broadband internet everywhere in the world except polar regions by August, he said on Tuesday.

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. has launched more than 1,500 satellites so far and has Starlink operations in about a dozen countries, Musk said during a presentation at the Mobile World Congress conference. That's costing a lot. SpaceX's total investment in the network will be between $5 billion and $10 billion before cash flow is positive, he said.

"We recently passed the strategically notable number of 69,420 active users," Musk joked. "We're I think on our way to having a few hundred thousand users, possibly over 500,000 users within 12 months."

SpaceX aims to offer broadband to as much as 5% of the world's population where conventional fiber and wireless networks can't reach. Musk said he's signed two deals with "major country" telecom operators but he couldn't name them yet, and he's in discussions with more. Starlink will provide so-called "data back haul" spines for their networks. The satellite network currently moves about 30 terabits of data per second, and Musk said he's targeting a user latency -- or network response time -- of less than 20 milliseconds.