KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    3,50,048              /             47,04,929            /             5,710     /             1,86,75,324               /             603.6

1             USA        32,731   /             6,91,880              /             311        /             97,05,031            /               2,075

2             UK          29,612   /             1,35,203              /             56           /             13,12,859            /               1,979

3             Russia    20,174   /             1,98,218              /             793        /             5,78,028              /               1,358

4             Iran        15,975   /             1,17,182              /             391        /             5,42,655              /               1,374

5             Turkey   26,398   /             61,574   /             213        /             4,48,615              /             721

6             Mexico  11,711   /             2,71,303              /             765        /             3,77,120              /               2,078

7             Brazil     9,458     /             5,90,786              /             239        /             3,68,703              /               2,756

8             India      30,809   /             4,45,165              /             296        /             3,25,065              /               319

9             Honduras                            /             9,491     /                            /             2,39,901              /               940

10           Vietnam               10,040   /             17,090   /             233        /             2,12,468              /               174

11           Malaysia              14,954   /             23,443   /             376        /             2,10,468              /               713

12           Spain                    /             85,783   /                            /             2,10,236              /               1,834

13           France   5,814     /             1,16,030              /             28           /             2,09,022              /               1,773

14           Philippines           19,271   /             36,788   /             205        /             1,78,196              /               330

15           Germany              5,682     /             93,585   /             30           /             1,69,325              /               1,113

16           Poland   540        /             75,488   /             1             /             1,62,964              /               1,997

17           Thailand               13,576   /             15,363   /             117        /             1,31,095              /               219

18           Italy       3,838     /             1,30,310              /             26           /             1,13,536              /               2,159

19           Serbia    5,255     /             7,770     /             37           /             1,02,716              /             894

20           Costa Rica                          /             5,949     /                            /             92,554   /               1,155

30           Pakistan               2,580     /             27,206   /             71           /             63,909   /             120

74           Bangladesh         1,383     /             27,225   /             43           /             13,917   /             163

UK PM SEEKS TO SOOTHE FRANCE’S RAGE OVER SUBMARINE DEAL WITH ‘INERADICABLE LOVE’

On Sunday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson played down the diplomatic break with Paris over a new security pact with Australia and the United States, saying “his country’s love for France is ineradicable”.

Speaking to reporters as he flew to New York, Johnson insisted that Britain and France have a “very friendly relationship”, which he described as “of great importance. huge”.

Australia’s security deal and related decision to tear up a multibillion-dollar deal for French submarines in favor of US nuclear-powered ships sparked outrage in Paris, with President Emmanuel Macron recalling the ambassadors of France in Canberra and Washington in an unprecedented gesture.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said this weekend that Britain was a “third wheel” in the affair, and accused London of “constant opportunism”.

France has canceled a meeting scheduled this week between its Defense Minister Florence Parly and his British counterpart Ben Wallace, a source at his ministry told TBEN on Sunday.

But on the plane, Johnson played down France’s concerns.

He said the pact, dubbed AUKUS, was “by no means meant to be zero-sum, it wasn’t meant to be exclusive.”

“It is not something that nobody has to worry about and especially not our French friends”, he declared.

KABUL GOVERNMENT’S FEMALE WORKERS TOLD TO STAY AT HOME BY TALIBAN

Women employees in the Kabul city government have been told to “stay home”, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said on Sunday, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers.

The decision to prevent most female city workers from returning to their jobs is another sign that the Taliban, who overran Kabul last month, are enforcing their harsh interpretation of Islam despite initial promises that they would be tolerant.

In Jalalabad, Nangarhar province, a stronghold of the IS group, two civilians were killed in a blast at a bus stop on Sunday morning, Sputnik reported citing an eyewitness. The explosion also injured one Taliban member, the eyewitness said.

FROM PRAISING TALIBAN TO DEFENDING JOE BIDEN: IMRAN KHAN DOES A U-TURN

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan defended US President Joe Biden’s decision for the botched pullout of American troops from Afghanistan, insisting that it was a “sensible” move and Biden is being “unfairly criticised” for it. "There was so much unfair criticism of President Biden, and what he did was the most sensible thing to do," Khan told a Russian news channel on September 17.

Khan’s defence of the American President comes a month after he blamed the US for expecting Pakistan to “clean up the mess” it leaves behind in Afghanistan. “Pakistan is just considered only to be useful in the context of somehow settling this mess which has been left behind after 20 years of trying to find a military solution when there was not one,” Khan told reporters in Islamabad in early August before Kabul fell to the Taliban.

CANADA ELECTIONS: JUSTIN TRUDEAU LIKELY TO PIP ERIN O’ TOOLE TO POST

With just over a day left before voting in Canada elections begins, it appears that barring a miracle, the results will be a rerun of the 2019 polls. Incumbent Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is likely to pip his Conservative rival Erin O’Toole to post and return to Ottawa to head another minority government.

Survey data now consistently points to the Liberals under the leadership of Justin Trudeau emerging as the single-largest party and thereby favoured to form the next government. The polls indicate that maintaining of the status quo, though Trudeau, leader of the ruling Liberal Party, had precipitated snap elections with the intent of securing a majority.

In a release titled “Déjà vu all over again?” the non-partisan polling agency Angus Reid Institute (ARI) emphasised this point, “The Liberals and the Conservatives are separated by very little daylight, fighting for advantage in a race that may now depend on factors not entirely in their control: voter turnout, and the performance of other parties.”

That appears to be direction predicted by the CBC Poll Tracker as it has the ruling party at 150 seats, 20 short of the majority figure, while the principal opposition Conservative Party under Erin O’Toole is at 118. If those figures hold, Justin Trudeau’s party will be seven short of the seats it garnered in 2019 while the Conservatives, led by Erin O’Toole, will drop three.

TALIBAN FLAGS AT PAK SEMINARY, CLERIC BOOKED

The Pakistan police have registered a case against a prominent radical cleric and several others after the flags of the Afghan Taliban were found hoisted on the top of a women’s seminary here run by him, according to a media report on Sunday.

The white flags of the Afghan Taliban were spotted on the rooftop of the Jamia Hafsa, a women’s madrasa in the capital, on Saturday.

After receiving information, the district administration sent a police contingent, including an anti-riot unit, which cordoned off the seminary.

A case was registered against Maulana Abdul Aziz — who is the cleric of the famous Lal Masjid (Red Mosque) — his collaborators as well as seminary students.

NEPAL OBSERVES CONSTITUTION DAY

Nepal Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba on Sunday underlined the need to protect and implement the country’s Constitution as the Himalayan nation observed its seventh Constitution Day.

Nepal celebrates the promulgation of its Constitution on September 19.

In his address to the nation, Deuba expressed pride over the promulgation of the Constitution six years ago by the representatives elected by the people.

He expressed his heartfelt condolences to the country’s martyrs and remembered them for their supreme sacrifices.

In his speech, Prime Minister Deuba underlined the need to protect and implement the Constitution.

“The Constitution of Nepal is a realisation of the dreams of the immortal martyrs and the aspirations of the Nepali people.

“Our goal is to bring prosperity in the country along with the happiness of the people through successful implementation of the Constitution,” he said.

MIGRANTS IN TEXAS: US FLIES HAITIAN MIGRANTS BACK HOME FROM BORDER

The U.S. flew Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to their homeland Sunday and tried blocking others from crossing the border from Mexico in a massive show of force that signaled the beginning of what could be one of America’s swiftest, large-scale expulsions of migrants or refugees in decades.

More than 320 migrants arrived in Port-au-Prince on three flights, and Haiti said six flights were expected Tuesday. In all, U.S. authorities moved to expel many of the more 12,000 migrants camped around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, after crossing from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.

The U.S. plans to begin seven expulsion flights daily on Wednesday, four to Port-au-Prince and three to Cap-Haitien, according to a U.S. official who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. Flights will continue to depart from San Antonio but authorities may add El Paso, the official said.

“Get out of the water,” agents yelled at the migrants who were crossing in the waist-deep river. The several hundred who had successfully crossed and were sitting along the river bank on the U.S. side were ordered to the Del Rio camp. “Go now,” agents yelled.