KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    4,14,864              /             41,81,898            /             6,767     /             1,40,20,126        /             536.5

1             USA        23,817   /             6,26,919              /             67           /             50,93,335            /             1,882

2             UK          24,950   /             1,29,172              /             14           /             11,33,895            /             1,892

3             Brazil     18,999   /             5,50,502              /             503        /             8,07,724              /             2,570

4             Spain     20,541   /             81,268   /             15           /             5,64,515              /             1,737

5             Indonesia            28,228   /             84,766   /             1,487     /             5,60,275              /             306

6             Russia    23,239   /             1,54,601              /             727        /             4,88,345              /             1,059

7             India      30,125   /             4,21,411              /             415        /             4,05,306              /             302

8             Mexico  6,535     /             2,38,424              /             108        /             3,61,452              /             1,829

9             Iran        31,814   /             89,122   /             322        /             3,59,778              /             1,047

10           Argentina            12,555   /             1,04,105              /             384        /             2,46,928              /             2,281

11           France   5,307     /             1,11,667              /             45           /             2,08,615              /             1,707

12           Honduras                            /             7,594     /                            /             1,81,611              /             754

13           Thailand               15,376   /             4,146     /             87           /             1,67,057              /             59

14           Malaysia              14,516   /             8,201     /             207        /             1,65,840              /             250

15           Netherlands        3,851     /             17,801   /             1             /             1,64,598              /             1,036

16           Poland   74           /             75,242   /                            /             1,53,619              /             1,990

17           Bangladesh         15,192   /             19,521   /             247        /             1,50,331              /             117

18           South Africa       5,667     /             70,018   /             243        /             1,44,020              /             1,165

19           Turkey   16,809   /             50,997   /             63           /             1,40,687              /             598

20           Iraq        12,180   /             18,347   /             60           /             1,25,486              /             446

28           Pakistan               3,752     /             23,048   /             32           /             57,799   /             102

30           Philippines           6,664     /             27,247   /             23           /             55,140   /             245

CLIMATE SCIENCE REPORT ‘CRITICAL FOR SUCCESS’ OF COP26: UN

Nearly 200 nations started online negotiations on Monday to validate a UN science report that will anchor autumn summits charged with preventing climate catastrophe on a planetary scale.

“The report that you are going to finalise is going to be very important worldwide,” World Meteorological Organization head Petteri Taalas told some 700 delegates by Zoom.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) assessment “is critical for the success of the Glasgow climate conference in November,” he said.

Record-smashing heatwaves, floods and drought across three continents in recent weeks — all amplified by global warming — have added pressure for decisive action.

“For years we have warned that all of this was possible, that all of this was coming,” the UN’s climate chief, Patricia Espinosa, said in a prepared statement.

A key G20 summit with climate on the agenda is slated for late October.

Separately on Monday, the first face-to-face climate talks among governments in over 18 months showed real engagement and possible areas of compromise, officials said.

US COMBAT FORCES TO LEAVE IRAQ BY END OF YEAR

President Joe Biden has said US combat forces will leave Iraq by the end of this year, though troops will continue to train and advise the Iraqi military.

The announcement came after Mr Biden held talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi at the White House.

There are currently 2,500 US troops in Iraq helping local forces counter what remains of the Islamic State group.

Numbers of US troops are likely to stay the same but the move is being seen as an attempt to help the Iraqi PM.

The US presence in Iraq has become a major issue since top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani and the leader of an Iran-backed Shia Muslim militia were killed in a US drone strike in the capital Baghdad last year.

Political parties aligned to Iran have demanded the withdrawal of all forces from the US-led global coalition against IS, despite the continuing threat posed by the Sunni jihadist group.

WILL LAUNCH ‘JOINT ACTIONS’ WITH PAK IN AF TO DRIVE OUT TERRORISTS: CHINA

China and Pakistan have decided to launch “joint actions” in Afghanistan to stop the war-torn country from becoming a “hotbed for terrorism” and drive out terrorist forces from there, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday. The decision was taken during a meeting between Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi and his Pakistan counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the Chinese city of Chengdu on Saturday.

A press release posted on the website of the Chinese foreign ministry said Wang, in his talks with Qureshi, “emphasised that as Afghanistan’s neighbours, China and Pakistan are directly impacted by the Afghan situation. It is necessary for the two countries to strengthen cooperation and respond to changes”.

“After in-depth communication, we decided to launch joint actions,” which included making “every effort to pursue peace, give top priority to avoiding the spread of war, and prevent Afghanistan from spiralling into a full-scale civil war,” Wang said. “We will work together to combat terrorism and push all major forces in Afghanistan to draw a clear line against terrorism, firmly combat the East Turkestan Islamic Movement and other terrorist forces, and resolutely stop Afghanistan from becoming a hotbed of terrorism,” Wang said.

FAUCI PROMOTES PLAN FOR ‘PROTOTYPE’ VACCINES TO FIGHT FUTURE PANDEMICS

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is promoting an ambitious and expensive plan to prepare the world for future pandemics. It would cost “a few billion dollars” a year, take five years for the first crop of results and engage a huge cadre of scientists, he said.

The idea is to make “prototype” vaccines to protect against viruses from about 20 families that might spark a new pandemic. Using research tools that proved successful for Covid-19, researchers would uncover the molecular structure of each virus, learn where antibodies must strike it and learn how to prod the body into making exactly those antibodies. “If we get the funding, which I believe we will, it likely will start in 2022,” he said.

FRANCE OKs LAW ON MANDATORY VAX PASS DESPITE OPPOSITION

France’s parliament approved a law on Monday requiring special virus passes for all restaurants and domestic travel and mandating vaccinations for all health workers. Both measures have prompted protests. The law requires all workers in the health sector to start getting vaccinated by September 15, or risk suspension. The vaccine pass rule initially applies to all adults, but will apply to everyone 12 and older starting September 30.

IMRAN’S PARTY SET TO FORM GOVT IN POK, OPPN CLAIMS RIGGING IN POLLS

PM Imran Khan’s party on Monday was poised to form the government in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir for the first time after it won 25 of the 45 seats in the legislative assembly elections marred by deadly violence and claims of irregularities by the opposition.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf won 25 seats while Pakistan Peoples Party came second with 11 and the incumbent Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz secured just six, the state-run Radio Pakistan reported, citing unofficial results announced by the Election Commission. Thus, PTI secured a simple majority to form the government without the support of any other party. It is for the first time that PTI will form a government in PoK. Traditionally, the ruling party in the country wins the elections in PoK. The 2016 election was won by the PML-N.

I&B minister Fawad Chaudhry said PTI’s “resounding victory is manifestation of the common man’s confidence in PM Imran Khan”. Khan thanked the people of the region for placing their trust in his party.

Opposition leaders — PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and PML-N vice-president Maryam Nawaz — alleged that the PTI won the polls through rigging and rejected the results of the elections held on Sunday. The region’s election commission rejected the claims saying the polls were held in a “fair and peaceful” manner.

IN ‘FRANK’ TALKS, CHINA ACCUSES U.S. OF CREATING ‘IMAGINARY ENEMY’

A top Chinese diplomat took a confrontational tone on Monday in rare high-level talks with the United States, accusing it of creating an “imaginary enemy” to divert attention from domestic problems and suppress China.

Amid worsening relations between the world’s two largest economies, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, the second-ranking U.S. diplomat, arrived on Sunday for face-to-face meetings in the northern city of Tianjin that the U.S. State Department described as “frank and open”.

No specific outcomes were agreed and the prospect of a meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping was not discussed, senior U.S. administration officials said following talks that lasted about four hours.

China seized the early narrative, with state media reporting on confrontational remarks by Vice Foreign Minister Xie Feng soon after the session began, in echoes of a similarly combative opening by senior Chinese officials during high-level talks in March in Alaska.

Foreign media were kept at a distance from the site of the talks, held outside of Beijing due to COVID-19 protocols, but Chinese media were permitted on the premises.

“The United States wants to reignite the sense of national purpose by establishing China as an ‘imaginary enemy’,” Xie was quoted as saying while the talks were underway.

The United States had mobilised its government and society to suppress China, he added.