KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    4,96,854              /             40,65,173            /             7,964     /             1,21,02,449        /             521.5

1             USA        24,174   /             6,23,391              /             275        /             48,74,734            /             1,872

2             Brazil     45,094   /             5,35,924              /             1,613     /             8,45,524              /             2,503

3             UK          36,660   /             1,28,481              /             50           /             6,94,852              /             1,882

4             Russia    24,702   /             1,44,492              /             780        /             4,52,469              /             990

5             India      40,215   /             4,11,439              /             623        /             4,36,414              /             295

6             Indonesia            47,899   /             68,219   /             864        /             4,07,709              /             247

7             Mexico  3,074     /             2,35,058              /             89           /             3,07,159              /             1,804

8             Spain     43,960   /             81,033   /             13           /             2,81,471              /             1,732

9             Iran        22,750   /             86,207   /             166        /             2,74,662              /             1,013

10           Argentina            20,023   /             99,640   /             385        /             2,68,727              /             2,184

11           South Africa       12,535   /             65,142   /             633        /             1,92,726              /             1,084

12           Honduras             499        /             7,288     /             29           /             1,73,149              /             724

13           Poland   96           /             75,173   /             13           /             1,53,182              /             1,988

14           Bangladesh         12,198   /             16,842   /             203        /             1,41,146              /             101

15           Colombia             17,532   /             1,13,839              /             504        /             1,34,372              /             2,213

16           Iraq        9,046     /             17,630   /             38           /             1,09,667              /             428

17           Malaysia              11,079   /             6,385     /             125        /             96,236   /             195

18           Thailand               8,685     /             2,847     /             56           /             95,410   /             41

19           Tunisia  8,473     /             16,651   /             157        /             87,396   /             1,394

20           Turkey   6,285     /             50,324   /             46           /             82,908   /             590

29           Philippines           3,604     /             26,092   /             77           /             46,934   /             235

36           Pakistan               1,775     /             22,618   /             21           /             39,644   /             100

GOOGLE FINED $592 MILLION BY FRENCH REGULATOR OVER NEWS COPYRIGHT ROW

France's competition regulator announced Tuesday that it has fined Google 500 million euros ($592 million) over a dispute with French publishers who want the company to pay for the use of their news.

The agency threatened fines of another 900,000 euros (around $1 million) per day if Google doesn't produce proposals within two months on how it will compensate news producers.

Google France said in a statement it was “very disappointed” by the decision, and that the fine “doesn't reflect the efforts put in place or the reality of the use of news content on our platform.”

It said it is negotiating in good faith toward a solution, and on the verge of reaching an agreement with some publishers.

The dispute is part of a larger effort by the European Union to force Google and other tech companies to compensate publishers for content.

The French antitrust agency had issued temporary orders to Google earlier this year to hold talks within three months with news publishers, and fined the company Tuesday for breaching those orders.

Google has been repeatedly targeted by French and European Union antitrust authorities for various business activities seen as abusing its market dominance.

TALIBAN DOESN’T WANT FIGHTING INSIDE AFGHAN CITIES: SENIOR LEADER

The Taliban do not want to battle government forces inside Afghanistan's cities, a senior insurgent leader said Tuesday, as the terrorists also warned Turkey against extending its troop presence.

The insurgents have swept through much of northern Afghanistan in recent weeks, and the government now holds little more than a constellation of provincial capitals that must largely be reinforced and resupplied by air.

On Tuesday, the head of a Taliban commission that oversees government forces who surrender to the insurgents urged the residents of cities to reach out to them.

"Now that the fighting from mountains and deserts has reached the doors of the cities, Mujahiddin don't want fighting inside the city," Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a message tweeted by a Taliban spokesman, using another term for the group.

"It is better... to use any possible channel to get in touch with our invitation and guidance commission," he said, adding this would "prevent their cities from getting damaged".

The strategy is one well-worn by the Taliban -- particularly during their first rise to power in the 1990s -- cutting off towns and district centres and getting elders to negotiate a surrender.

In a separate statement Tuesday, the Taliban said Turkey's decision to provide security to Kabul airport when US-led forces leave was "reprehensible".

"We consider stay of foreign forces in our homeland by any country under whatever pretext as occupation," the group said, days after Ankara agreed with Washington to provide security for Kabul airport.

COVID-19 CASES IN U.S. RISING AGAIN, DOUBLING OVER THREE WEEKS

The COVID-19 curve in the United States is rising again after months of decline, with the number of new cases per day doubling over the past three weeks, driven by the fast-spreading delta variant, lagging vaccination rates and Fourth of July gatherings.

Confirmed infections climbed to an average of about 23,600 a day on Monday, up from 11,300 on June 23, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

And all but two states — Maine and South Dakota — reported that case numbers have gone up over the past two weeks.

"It is certainly no coincidence that we are looking at exactly the time that we would expect cases to be occurring after the July Fourth weekend," said Dr. Bill Powderly, co-director of the infectious-disease division at Washington University's School of Medicine in St. Louis.

At the same time, parts of the country are running up against deep vaccine resistance, while the highly contagious mutant version of the coronavirus that was first detected in India is accounting for an ever-larger share of infections.

Nationally, 55.6 per cent of all Americans have received at least one COVID-19 shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Even with the latest surge, cases in the U.S. are nowhere near their peak of a quarter-million per day in January. And deaths are running at under 260 per day on average after topping out at more than 3,400 over the winter — a testament to how effectively the vaccine can prevent serious illness and death in those who happen to become infected.

Still, amid the rise, health authorities in places such as Los Angeles County and St. Louis are begging even immunised people to resume wearing masks in public.

EU NATIONS APPROVE A DOZEN PANDEMIC RECOVERY PLANS

EU nations approved the pandemic recovery plans of the bloc's four biggest economies and eight other member countries Tuesday, a move seen as a bellwether for an economic revival from the unprecedented recession caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

The approval will allow a dozen of the EU's 27 members to start unlocking funds for the pre-financing of projects that are intended to put Europe on more solid economic footing while also making it greener and more digitally advanced.

The nations include the EU's economic juggernauts — France, Germany, Italy and Spain — and Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Portugal and Slovakia.

“EU funding can now start to flow to finance much-needed reforms and investments in each of these countries. But this is only the start,” EU Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said.

The green light to prepare for the release of funds is a key step in an 800 billion-euro (USD 950 billion) support program that EU members agreed on in principle last summer when their economies were mired in the worst economic downturn of the bloc's existence.

Tuesday's agreement will allow the 12 nations to unlock 13 per cent of pre-financing, perhaps as soon as the end of the month, Dombrovskis said. In the case of France, which is to get some 40 billion euros USD 47.3 billion from the pandemic recovery fund, that would amount to 5.1 billion euros (USD 6 billion.) EU Economy Commissioner Paolo Gentiloni said the action “will boost confidence in the markets, in countries, and allow investments and reforms to start.”

CHINA, LANKA ASK UNHRC TO INVESTIGATE UK FOR RIGHTS ABUSES

Tables were turned at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva after a joint statement initiated by China called for investigating systemic racism, racial discrimination, hate speech, xenophobia in the island nation that routinely makes these allegations against other nations.

“We express our deep concerns on the human rights situation in the UK. Severe systemic racism, racial discrimination, hate speech, xenophobia and related violence have long been existing in the UK,” said the Chinese delegation after delivering the statement.

The discriminatory actions are toxic residues of colonialism and trade in enslaved Africans in UK’s history, it added.

The joint statement signed by China, Belarus, Bolivia, DPRK, Iran, Russia, Sri Lanka, Syria and Venezuela urged UK to face up to its human rights problems, immediately stop all human rights violations, address the root cause of racial discrimination and hate crime, and carry out thorough and impartial investigations into cases of unlawful killings of civilians and other crimes, bring the perpetrators to justice and provide victims with remedies.

The Chinese alleged UK military service men have committed killings of civilians in overseas operations but are at large to this day. The UK is trying to shield them from due accountability by way of legislation.

IRAN CONFIRMS PRISONER EXCHANGE 'NEGOTIATIONS' WITH U.S.

Iran confirmed on Tuesday ongoing "negotiations" with the United States over a potential prisoner swap, after a US official said Washington is working to release its detained citizens.

The U.S. envoy for Iran, Robert Malley, said on Saturday that President Joe Biden insists on the release of all Americans and will not accept a "partial deal".

Malley called the release of Americans detained in the Islamic republic a "priority" and said that negotiations with Iran have "made some progress," NBC News reported.

Asked about Malley's remarks, Iran's government spokesman Ali Rabiei confirmed the talks and said Tehran calls for the release of all Iranian prisoners, not just those held in the U.S..

Iran "is ready to swap all political prisoners in exchange for freeing all Iranian prisoners across the world," he told reporters at a televised press conference.

They include those "who have been detained upon US orders" or at Washington's request, he added, saying that "the negotiations on this issue are ongoing".

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said Monday that Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had "put forth a plan to swap all Iranian and American prisoners", state news agency IRNA reported.

"Biden's administration also considered this issue from the first day" in office, he added.

PAKISTAN SEIZES, BLACKLISTS TEXTBOOK FOR MALALA YOUSUFZAI PICTURE BESIDES WAR HERO

The curriculum and textbook board of Pakistan's Punjab province has confiscated the entire unsold stock of a Grade 7 social studies book published by Oxford University Press (OUP) for featuring a picture of Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousufzai alongside Maj Aziz Bhatti, considered a 1965 War hero.

Page 33 of the book has pictures of many famous personalities, including Muhammad Ali Jinnah, national poet Allama Iqbal, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Pakistan’s first PM Liaqat Ali Khan, philanthropist Abdul Sattar Edhi, Begum Raana Liaquat Ali Khan (the first PM’s wife) and Bhatti, recipient of Pakistan’s highest military award Nishan-i-Haider. Malala's face besides the latter has raised the hackles of the establishment because, unlike in the West, she isn't quite everyone's favourite in her native country.

While copies of the book are already in circulation, sources at the textbook board said the police and other agencies were searching bookstores across Lahore to ensure no more copies are sold.

On Monday, a team of officials reportedly first conducted a raid on OUP’s office in Lahore’s Gulberg locality and confiscated the entire stock kept there for distribution. They also handed over a letter to the press, stating that the book had not been issued an NOC yet.

Quoting an anonymous publisher, Karachi's Dawn newspaper reported that the book had been submitted to the textbook board for a review in 2019 as part of the process of seeking an NOC. "Meanwhile, the Oxford University Press has published the book despite not being issued the NOC," the publisher said.

He said the board’s officials, police and other agencies visited his shop, inquired about the book and read out the confiscation order.