KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    6,58,173              /             43,36,418            /             9,997     /             1,66,46,495        /             556.3

1             USA        1,05,477              /             6,35,538              /             536        /             63,77,796            /             1,908

2             UK          29,612   /             1,30,607              /             104        /             12,94,294            /             1,913

3             Spain     17,023   /             82,320   /             93           /             7,11,877              /             1,760

4             Brazil     35,788   /             5,66,013              /             1,123     /             5,90,331              /             2,642

5             Iran        42,541   /             95,647   /             536        /             5,67,346              /             1,123

6             Russia    21,571   /             1,67,241              /             799        /             5,36,841              /             1,145

7             France   30,920   /             1,12,410              /             54           /             4,36,865              /             1,718

8             Indonesia            30,625   /             1,12,198              /             1,579     /             4,26,170              /             405

9             Turkey   27,356   /             52,565   /             128        /             4,00,622              /             616

10           India      43,641   /             4,29,702              /             519        /             3,94,663              /             308

11           Mexico  19,555   /             2,45,476              /             541        /             3,92,329              /             1,882

12           Argentina            11,397   /             1,08,388              /             223        /             2,44,466              /             2,374

13           Malaysia              20,780   /             11,373   /             211        /             2,33,358              /             346

14           Thailand               21,038   /             6,795     /             207        /             2,10,042              /             97

15           Honduras             1,581     /             8,270     /             68           /             1,98,885              /             821

16           Iraq        8,635     /             19,402   /             66           /             1,64,676              /             471

17           Netherlands        2,112     /             17,887   /             9             /             1,55,216              /             1,041

18           Poland   198        /             75,289   /             4             /             1,54,517              /             1,992

19           Vietnam               8,766     /             4,487     /             342        /             1,47,260              /             46

20           South Africa       7,478     /             75,774   /             573        /             1,40,875              /             1,260

23           Bangladesh         10,420   /             23,398   /             237        /             1,15,269              /             141

25           Pakistan               4,856     /             24,085   /             81           /             84,177   /             107

26           Philippines           12,021   /             29,374   /             154        /             81,399   /             264

AFGHAN CAPITAL COULD FALL TO TALIBAN WITHIN 90 DAYS: US INTEL

The Taliban could overrun Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, within 90 days – sooner than originally thought – amid the withdrawal of US troops from the country, Reuters and the Washington Post report, citing a US intelligence assessment.

The group has captured nine provincial capitals in Afghanistan since Friday in a blistering military advance. The Taliban could isolate Kabul in 30 days, one official familiar with the assessment told Reuters.

A US official who spoke on the condition of anonymity told the Washington Post that “everything is moving in the wrong direction.”

The evaluation that Kabul could fall to the Taliban so quickly is worse than initially feared. A previous intelligence assessment in June – revealed by several US media outlets – warned that the Afghan capital could be captured by the group in six months.

American and allied forces swiftly took control of Kabul and other major cities but struggled during the following two decades to defeat a rebellion by Taliban fighters.

Still, President Joe Biden said he does not regret the decision to pull American troops out of the country, stressing that Afghan forces must “fight for their nation”.

Despite the withdrawal, Washington had pledged to continue to support Afgan forces with air raids and logistic support, but it is not clear how involved the US military has been in the recent effort to resist Taliban advances.

“I’ll insist we continue to keep the commitments we made of providing close air support, making sure that their air force functions and is operable, resupplying their forces with food and equipment, and paying all their salaries,” Biden said on Tuesday. “But they’ve got to want to fight.”

CHINA SENTENCES CANADIAN TO 11 YEARS IN CASE TIED TO HUAWEI

A Chinese court sentenced Canadian entrepreneur Michael Spavor to 11 years in prison Wednesday in a spying case linked to Beijing's pressure campaign against the Canadian government over the arrest of an executive at tech giant Huawei.

A Canadian court will hear final arguments in the next few weeks over whether to hand over the executive, Meng Wanzhou, to face US criminal charges in connection with possible violations of trade sanctions on Iran.

Spavor and another Canadian were detained in China in what critics labeled hostage politics after the executive's 2018 arrest. On Tuesday, another Chinese court rejected the appeal of a third Canadian whose prison term in a drug case was abruptly increased to death following Meng's arrest.

Canadian Ambassador Dominic Barton attended Spavor's hearing in the city of Dandong, about 210 miles (340 kilometers) east of Beijing on the North Korean border.

No word has been given about a trial date for former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig, who was also detained in December 2018 and charged with spying.

At the Canadian Embassy in Beijing, Deputy Head of Mission Jim Nickel told reporters the timing of the detentions of Spavor and Kovrig and consistent communications from the Chinese government linking them to Ms. Meng makes clear they were arbitrarily detained for the purpose of political leverage. Spavor was based in China but had extensive links with North Korea in tourism and other commercial ventures that brought him into contact with the isolated communist state's leadership.

Nickel said the Canadian government had complained to China that Spavor's trial failed to meet basic standards of fairness and defendants' rights.

The news conference at the Canadian Embassy was attended by representatives from 25 countries, including the ambassadors from Britain, Australia and New Zealand and diplomats from the US, Japan, Germany, France, the EU, Italy and Sweden.

HERD IMMUNITY NOT A POSSIBILITY WITH DELTA VARIANT, WARNS U.K. VACCINE EXPERT

The highly transmissible Delta variant of COVID-19 has rendered the prospect of herd immunity, where the majority of a country’s population becomes immune to a virus, difficult, the head of the U.K.’s Oxford Vaccine Group has warned.

Professor Andrew Pollard, who led the team behind the Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine, told the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus on Tuesday that the fear of another even more transmissible variant remains a possibility and therefore there is nothing that can completely stop the deadly virus from spreading. However, he also said there was no cause for “panic” as he expressed his doubts over the U.K. government’s proposed third booster dose of vaccines.

“The problem with this virus is [it is] not measles. If 95% of people were vaccinated against measles, the virus cannot transmit in the population,” Prof. Pollard explained during the online evidence session.

“The Delta variant will still infect people who have been vaccinated. And that does mean that anyone who’s still unvaccinated at some point will meet the virus. We don’t have anything that will stop transmission, so I think we are in a situation where herd immunity is not a possibility and I suspect the virus will throw up a new variant that is even better at infecting vaccinated individuals,” he said.

This was echoed by Paul Hunter, professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia and an expert in infectious diseases, who also highlighted that the current vaccines being administered are very effective at preventing severe COVID-19 and death but they cannot prevent infections entirely.

“The concept of herd immunity is unachievable because we know the infection will spread in unvaccinated populations and the latest data is suggesting that two doses is probably only 50% protective against infection,” said Hunter.

NEW ZEALAND BORDERS TO REMAIN CLOSED FOR REST OF THE YEAR

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has said that that the country's borders will remain closed until at least the end of the year.

She said an elimination strategy was the best way to keep Covid-19 out and the economy open.

Ms Ardern stressed that the priority was vaccinating the whole population by the end of 2021.

New Zealand is seen as one of the most successful countries in the world in controlling the coronavirus pandemic.

The country has recorded just 26 deaths in a population of just under five million people.

"We're simply not in a position to a fully reopen just yet," Ms Ardern said in a speech at a forum about reconnecting New Zealanders to the world.

"When we move we will be careful and deliberate, because we want to move with confidence and with as much certainty as possible."

The prime minister said New Zealand would move to a new individual risk-based model for quarantine-free travel from the start of next year.

WHO SHARES GUIDELINES FOR 'SAFE TRAVEL' AS COUNTRIES REOPEN THEIR BORDERS AMID DELTA THREAT

As the Delta variant of coronavirus threatens global travel plans, the World Health Organization (WHO) has shared guidelines on ‘safe travel’ during the pandemic. In a video shared by the UN health agency, a senior WHO official said that a lot of travel can be managed safely if countries gradually ease the curbs. Several countries have resumed international flights to boost their airline and tourism industry which are badly hit by the restrictions imposed to contain coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Mike Ryan, executive director of WHO’s health emergencies programme, stressed that the economy won’t be revived unless countries get their way out of Covid-19.

“If you go on a country from 10% normal travel and you go overnight to 100% travel, then our advice is always to start slowly, open up slowly, take it step-it-step and see if that affects your situation positively or negatively and then adjust as needed,” Ryan said.

Maria Van Kerkhove, Covid-19 technical lead at WHO, asked travellers to take responsibility while travelling by adhering to guidelines required by governments and airlines.

“If they asked to wear a mask throughout travelling wear that mask, carry your hand gel with you, take all of those precautions as you go through that stage of leaving your house to entering into that other country, that other place that you live,” she said.

“The virus travels in people and so you could be infected in the place that you are travelling. You have a responsibility to keep yourself safe, keep those who you're travelling with safe and also not to bring the virus around with you,” Van Kerkhove added.

‘$600M GONE’ IN ONE OF BIGGEST CRYPTO HEISTS

Hackers behind one of the biggest cryptocurrency heists have returned over a third of around $600 million in stolen digital coins, blockchain researcher said on Wednesday. Poly Network, a decentralised finance platform that facilitates peerto-peer transactions, announced the hack on Twitter posting details of digital wallets to which the tokens were sent.

The value of the coins in the wallets was over $600 million, according to blockchain analysts. Poly Network urged the hackers to return the stolen funds to its digital addresses, saying it planned to take legal action. Blockchain forensics company Chainalysis said roughly $260.9 million worth of cryptocurrency was returned in a range of coins.

The hackers said they perpetrated the heist “for fun” and wanted to “expose a vulnerability” before others could exploit it, according to messages shared by blockchain analyst firm Elliptic and Chainalysis. The identity of the hackers was unknown, including whether a group or individual was responsible.

WHO-LED TRIAL TO STUDY 3 ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DRUGS FOR COVID PATIENTS

The WHO said on Wednesday a clinical trial in 52 countries would study three anti-inflammatory drugs as potential treatments for Covid-19 patients. “These therapies — artesunate, imatinib and infliximab — were selected by an independent expert panel for their potential in reducing the risk of death in hospitalised Covid patients,” it said in a statement on the Solidarity PLUS trial. The trial involves thousands of researchers at more than 600 hospitals, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. Artesunate is already used for severe malaria, imatinib for certain cancers, and infliximab for diseases of the immune system. The WHO warned countries to come together to combat the fast-spreading Delta variant and urged equitable access to essential countermeasures. “At the current trajectory, we could pass 300 million cases early next year,” Tedros said.

HELICOPTER WITH 16 PEOPLE ON BOARD CRASHES IN RUSSIA'S FAR EAST

A helicopter with 16 people on board, including 13 tourists, crashed in Kamchatka in Russia's far east on Thursday, the local government said in a statement.

The helicopter came down in Lake Kuril in the Kronotsky nature reserve, the statement said.

According to preliminary information, "there were three crew members and 13 passengers on board", all tourists, it added.

Rescuers and divers were dispatched to the scene.

According to a local health ministry source, nine people were rescued.

"Nine people have been found, they are all alive," the source told Interfax news agency, adding that the search operation was continuing.