KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    4,64,223              /             40,25,651            /             8,111     /             1,18,26,010        /             516.5

1             USA        19,048   /             6,22,210              /             258        /             48,51,452            /             1,869

2             Brazil     53,749   /             5,30,344              /             1,733     /             10,09,588            /             2,477

3             UK          32,551   /             1,28,336              /             35           /             5,45,693              /             1,880

4             India      34,443   /             4,05,527              /             470        /             4,65,636              /             291

5             Russia    24,818   /             1,40,775              /             734        /             4,23,422              /             964

6             Indonesia            38,391   /             63,760   /             852        /             3,59,455              /             231

7             Mexico  8,507     /             2,34,192              /             234        /             2,96,636              /             1,797

8             Argentina            19,256   /             97,904   /             465        /             2,88,421              /             2,146

9             Iran        23,391   /             85,397   /             136        /             2,61,110              /             1,004

10           South Africa       22,910   /             63,499   /             460        /             2,08,847              /             1,057

11           Spain     17,317   /             80,997   /             28           /             2,01,503              /             1,732

12           Honduras             669        /             7,175     /             26           /             1,69,671              /             713

13           Colombia             23,275   /             1,11,155              /             577        /             1,66,913              /             2,161

14           Poland   93           /             75,135   /             19           /             1,53,089              /             1,987

15           Bangladesh         11,651   /             15,792   /             199        /             1,17,081              /             95

16           Iraq        9,189     /             17,444   /             31           /             1,00,942              /             424

17           Tunisia  8,315     /             15,861   /             126        /             81,612   /             1,328

18           Turkey   5,171     /             50,096   /             48           /             81,239   /             588

19           Malaysia              8,868     /             5,903     /             135        /             77,275   /             180

20           Costa Rica           1,847     /             4,760     /             7             /             69,783   /             926

27           Philippines           5,484     /             25,650   /             191        /             49,036   /             231

37           Pakistan               1,626     /             22,493   /             24           /             34,531   /             100

BIDEN DEFENDS DECISION TO END AFGHAN MILITARY OPERATION

With U.S. troops almost completely out of Afghanistan and the Taliban making rapid territorial gains in the country,  U.S. President Joe Biden said that the U.S. was not in Afghanistan for nation-building and that it was for the Afghans to decide their future.

Mr Biden said the U.S. had achieved what it had gone into Afghanistan to do, including preventing it from becoming a base from which the U.S. could be attacked.

“We did not go to Afghanistan to nation-build. And it's the right and the responsibility of Afghan people alone to decide their future, and how they want to run their country,” he said, speaking on the troop drawdown from the East Room of the White House on Thursday.

Mr Biden said America’s military mission in Afghanistan would end on August 31.

"And in this context, speed is safety," he said, adding that no U.S. or allied forces had been lost in the drawdown.

"There was never any doubt that our military performed this task efficiently and with the highest level of professionalism," Mr Biden said.

GLOBAL COVID DEATH TOLL EXCEEDS 4 MILLION

The world’s known coronavirus death toll passed four million on Thursday, a loss roughly equivalent to the population of Los Angeles, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

It took nine months for the virus to claim one million lives, and the pace has quickened since then. The second million were lost in three and a half months, the third in three months, and the fourth in about two and a half months.

Those are officially reported figures, which are widely believed to undercount pandemic-related deaths.

The dead overwhelmed cremation grounds in India in May, where at least 400,000 confirmed deaths have been reported and the actual number is likely higher. That was also the case in funeral homes in the United States, which surpassed 600,000 known deaths last month.

Government health data in Colombia show that more than 500 people died from the virus each day in June. The country has also gone through weeks of explosive protests over poverty made worse by the pandemic that were sometimes met with a violent police response.

A wave of cases in Peru cost many people their livelihoods, and thousands of impoverished people occupied empty stretches of land south of Lima. In Paraguay, which as of Tuesday had the highest number of Covid-19 deaths per capita of any country during the previous week, social networks often resemble obituary pages.

Brazil, which recently passed 500,000 official deaths, had the highest number of new cases and deaths of any country in the past week. A recent study found that Covid-19 had led to a significant decrease in life expectancy in Brazil.

Several vaccines have proven effective against the coronavirus, including the highly contagious Delta variant, and death rates have dropped sharply in many parts of the world where large numbers of people have been vaccinated, like the United States and much of Europe.

SINGLE SHOT OF PFIZER, ASTRAZENECA ‘BARELY’ WORK AGAINST DELTA VARIANT, REVEALS NEW STUDY

A single shot of Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccines “barely” induce neutralising antibodies against the Delta variant in individuals previously not infected with Sars-Cov-2, according to new research. The study, published in the journal Nature, highlighted the threat posed by viral mutations of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) as the Delta variant is rapidly becoming the dominant strain across the world.

The researchers found that the Delta variant, first detected in India, has mutations that allow it to evade some of the neutralising antibodies produced either by vaccines or previous coronavirus infection. The study, however, suggests that fully vaccinated individuals, with two doses of Pfizer-BioNtech or AstraZeneca vaccine, retain significant protection against the highly contagious Delta variant.

The latest findings underline the urgency for administering the recommended regimen of two shots of Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccine to contain the virus at a time when Delta variant, a subtype of B.1.617 lineage, is threatening the pandemic response worldwide. India’s second wave of Covid-19 is believed to be largely driven by the Delta strain of coronavirus, which has been classified as a ‘variant of concern’ by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Meanwhile, Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine may require third dose. The Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, sold under the brand name 'Comirnaty', may require a third dose to work more effectively against the original strain of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), news agencies reported on Friday morning, citing a statement from the companies from a day ago.

BILWAL BHUTTO OF PPP SLAMS PAK PM IMRAN KHAN; SAYS US DID NOT ASK FOR A MILITARY BASE

The opposition party in Pakistan dismissed the claims by Prime Minister Imran Khan of "taking a stand" on a military base request by the United States to keep a watch over Afghanistan amid the ongoing troops pullout process. Terming the claims as "false," Pakistan Peoples Party chairperson Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said, "no one has asked him for a base.”

Zardari made the remarks at a public gathering in Haveli during his campaign for the upcoming Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) elections. "To tell you the truth, no one has even asked him, no one has made a phone call, no one has asked him for a base, he is just saying it on his own," the Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper quoted Zardari as saying.

In an interview with Axios last month, Prime Minister Imran Khan categorically said that he would not allow any bases and use of its soil to the United States for action inside Afghanistan. "Absolutely not. There is no way we are going to allow any bases, any sort of action from Pakistani territory into Afghanistan. Absolutely not," Khan told Axios in the interview.

PAKISTAN OPENS STATE-RUN SCHOOL FOR TRANSGENDER STUDENTS

Pakistan opened its first government-run school for transgender students on Thursday in the central city of Multan, a provincial education minister said, promising to set up more such schools in the future.

The school, established by the educational department in Punjab province, where Multan is located, opened its doors on the first day of school with 18 students enrolled.

"We have provided them everything that is required" for their schooling, tweeted Murad Rass, Punjab's education minister. He added hopes that the school will help transgender youth get better job opportunities later on in life.

More trans students were still expected to enroll in time at the school in Multan, where classes are offered from grade 1-12. Human rights activists welcomed the school's opening.

SOUTH AFRICA’S EX-PRESIDENT ZUMA JAILED AFTER LANDMARK RULING

Jacob Zuma on Thursday began a 15-month sentence for contempt of court, becoming post-apartheid South Africa’s first President to be jailed after a drama that campaigners said ended in a victory for rule of law.

Zuma, 79, reported to prison early Thursday after mounting a last-ditch legal bid and stoking defiance among radical supporters who had rallied at his rural home.

South Africa’s top court on June 29 slapped Zuma with a 15-month term for refusing an order to appear before a probe into the corruption that entangled his nine years in power. As police warned that he faced arrest from midnight Wednesday, Zuma handed himself in to a jail in the rural town of Estcourt in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.

Many South Africans hailed his incarceration as a watershed moment.

Zuma had been given a deadline of Sunday night for turning himself in. Failing his surrender, police were given three days, until midnight Wednesday, to arrest him.