KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    3,20,950              /             39,92,940            /             5,761     /             1,16,60,367        /             512.3

1             USA        3,985     /             6,21,293              /             38           /             48,73,965            /             1,866

2             Brazil     27,783   /             5,24,417              /             718        /             11,62,515            /             2,450

3             India      40,387   /             4,02,758              /             743        /             4,89,128              /             289

4             UK          24,248   /             1,28,222              /             15           /             4,40,556              /             1,879

5             Russia    25,142   /             1,37,925              /             663        /             4,04,115              /             945

6             Indonesia            27,233   /             60,582   /             555        /             2,95,228              /             219

7             Mexico  6,228     /             2,33,580              /             155        /             2,93,123              /             1,793

8             Argentina            9,000     /             95,904   /             310        /             2,83,563              /             2,103

9             Iran        13,781   /             84,792   /             165        /             2,43,760              /             997

10           Colombia             26,265   /             1,08,896              /             582        /             1,94,452              /             2,118

11           South Africa       16,585   /             61,840   /             333        /             1,92,974              /             1,030

12           Honduras             1,744     /             7,081     /             22           /             1,66,878              /             704

13           Poland   54           /             75,084   /             1             /             1,53,021              /             1,986

14           Spain                    /             80,911   /                            /             1,46,168              /             1,730

15           Bangladesh         8,661     /             15,065   /             153        /             95,955   /             91

16           Iraq        6,264     /             17,316   /             35           /             88,704   /             421

17           Turkey   4,418     /             49,924   /             50           /             79,932   /             586

18           Costa Rica                          /             4,686     /                            /             70,424   /             912

19           Malaysia              6,045     /             5,497     /             63           /             67,669   /             168

20           Tunisia  4,686     /             15,377   /             116        /             66,018   /             1,288

25           Philippines           5,966     /             25,149   /             86           /             52,708   /             226

37           Pakistan               1,228     /             22,408   /             29           /             32,621   /             100

TALIBAN SEIZE KEY KANDAHAR DISTRICT

Amid the ongoing US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the Taliban on Sunday took control of a key district in their former bastion of Kandahar.

after fierce night-time fighting with government forces, officials said, just two days after US and Nato troops vacated their main Bagram Air Base near Kabul from where they led anti-Taliban operations for two decades.

Panjwai district governor Hasti Mohammad said Afghan forces and the Taliban clashed during the night, resulting in government forces retreating from the area.

“The Taliban have captured the district police headquarters and governor’s office building,” he said.

Kandahar provincial council head Sayed Jan Khakriwal confirmed the fall of Panjwai, but accused government forces of “intentionally withdrawing”.

Assadullah, a commander of the border police in the area, said only the police force was fighting against the insurgents. “The army and the commandos who have better military equipment are not fighting at all,” he said.

The leader of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, hails from Panjwai. The province of Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, who went on to rule Afghanistan in the 1990s until being overthrown by a US-led invasion in 2001.

Scores of families of Panjwai fled their homes after the Taliban captured the district, an AFP correspondent reported.

AMERICA MISSES BIDEN'S COVID-19 VACCINATION GOAL ON INDEPENDENCE DAY

Independence Day has arrived, but the United States has not met the vaccination goal set by President Joe Biden.

Biden challenged the country to vaccinate 70% of American adults with at least one dose before Independence Day. According to data collected by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), America had administered at least one dose to 172,941,345 people 18 and older by July 4.

That’s only 67% of the adult population.

Even so, Biden has chosen to focus on the progress the country has made in recovering from the pandemic.

"This Fourth of July, America is back," Biden said in a tweet Sunday morning. "We’re headed into a summer of joy – of freedom – thanks to the millions of Americans who stepped up to get vaccinated. To the frontline and essential workers who have made this day possible: thank you."

Biden celebrated America's progress against the COVID-19 pandemic but conceded that there is more to do to beat the coronavirus.

"My fellow Americans, it’s the most patriotic thing you can do," Biden said, urging Americans to get vaccinated. "We don’t want to go back to where we were a year ago today."

Biden also honored the more than 600,000 lives lost to COVID-19 in the United States.

"This day falls hard on all those who’ve lost a loved one," the president said. "Each day, I carry a card in my pocket with my schedule on it. On the back of that schedule, on that card, I have the number of Americans who’ve lost their lives to COVID."

Though Biden doubled his initial goal of 100 million vaccine doses administered in 100 days, the U.S. fell slightly short of his goal of 70% of U.S. adults with at least one dose of the vaccine. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 67% of the U.S. adult population has gotten at least one vaccine dose, with 58.1% — more than 150 million Americans — fully vaccinated.

FACE MASKS TO BECOME ‘MATTER OF PERSONAL CHOICE’ IN UK

Face masks will soon become a matter of “personal choice” for citizens in the UK, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Reuters on Sunday. When asked if he would stop wearing a mask if permitted, Johnson responded in the affirmative, insisting that a lot of people would prefer to do away with the mask order if possible.

"I will (not wear a mask). I don't particularly want to wear a mask, I don't think a lot of people enjoy doing it, we will be moving into a phase though where these will be matters of personal choice," Johnson told Reuters.

As the UK is all set to open up its economy after July 19, pandemic essentials like face masks will be left to the citizens' judgement, and the country will “move away” from restrictions that have been difficult for its citizens, said housing secretary Robert Jenrick.

“It will be a different period where we as private citizens make these judgements rather than the government telling you what to do,” Jenrick said.

"It does seem as if we can now move forward and move to a much more permissive regime where we move away from many of those restrictions that have been so difficult for us," he added.

SUEZ CANAL SAYS DEAL REACHED TO FREE SEIZED VESSEL

The Suez Canal Authority on Sunday said it has reached an agreement to settle a financial dispute with the owners of a hulking container ship that blocked the crucial waterway for nearly a week earlier this year.

The authority did not reveal details on the settlement deal with the Shoei Kisen Kaisha Ltd., the Japanese owner of the Ever Given. It said the deal will be singed in a ceremony in the Suez Canal city of Ismailia on Wednesday.

The vessel would be also freed Wednesday, it said.

The head of Egypt’s Suez Canal Authority, Lt. Gen. Osama Rabie, said last month the parties had agreed on a compensation amount. But he said it would not be made public as they had signed a non-disclosure agreement until the signing of the final contract.

The vessel had run aground in the single-lane stretch of the canal on March 23 before it was extracted six days later after a massive salvage effort by a flotilla of tugboats.

At first, the Suez Canal Authority demanded $916 million in compensation, which was later lowered to $550 million.

BEZOS LEAVES ENDURING LEGACY AS HE STEPS AWAY AS AMAZON CEO

As he prepares to blast off into a new career stage, Jeff Bezos leaves an enduring legacy after transforming Amazon from a modest online bookseller into one of the world's most powerful corporations.

Jeff Bezos, 57, was set to hand over the job of Amazon chief executive on Monday to Andy Jassy and turn his attention to his private space exploration firm, philanthropy and other endeavors. He will retain a key role, however, as executive chair at the technology and e-commerce colossus he founded 27 years ago.

The transition comes after a spectacular streak for Amazon, which has drawn attention for its innovations.

His departure leaves questions about the future of Amazon as it faces a torrent of regulatory scrutiny and criticism from activists.

US lawmakers are considering a measure that would make it easier to break up Amazon, amid concerns that a handful of Big Tech firms have become too dominant, hurting competition in a way that eventually harms consumers.

THREE DEAD, 113 MISSING IN JAPAN AFTER HEAVY RAINS TRIGGER LANDSLIPS

At least three people were found dead and more than 100 were missing after torrential rains triggered landslips in the central Japanese city of Atami over the weekend, a local official and media said on Monday.

A person was confirmed dead, bringing the death toll to three with 113 people still missing in the seaside city of Atami 90 km southwest of Tokyo, spokesman Hiroki Onuma told Reuters, after floods, landslips and cascading mud collapsed and half-submerged houses on Saturday.

The third person killed after the landslips was a woman, Kyodo news agency said.

The torrential rains and landslips are a reminder of the natural disasters — including earthquakes, volcano eruptions and tsunami — that haunt Japan, where the capital Tokyo is to host the summer Olympics beginning this month.

The landslips, which affected about 130 buildings, occurred around 10.30 a.m. on Saturday in Atami, which is home to hot spring resorts and sits on a steep slope into a bay.

The water, mud and debris are thought to have flowed along a river for about 2 km to the sea, local media said.