KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    5,10,960              /             47,31,412            /             8,993     /             1,85,75,887        /             607

1             USA        1,23,042              /             6,99,619              /             2,097     /             97,66,004            /             2,099

2             UK          34,460   /             1,35,621              /             166        /             13,18,749            /             1,985

3             Russia    19,706   /             2,00,625              /             817        /             5,90,719              /             1,374

4             Iran        17,433   /             1,18,191              /             286        /             5,12,267              /             1,386

5             Turkey   28,168   /             62,307   /             242        /             4,58,670              /             729

6             Brazil     36,473   /             5,92,316              /             798        /             3,95,713              /             2,763

7             Mexico  12,521   /             2,72,580              /             815        /             3,68,955              /             2,087

8             India      31,957   /             4,46,080              /             279        /             3,07,779              /             319

9             Honduras             830        /             9,561     /             24           /             2,42,374              /             947

10           Vietnam               11,527   /             17,781   /             236        /             2,13,920              /             181

11           Malaysia              14,990   /             24,565   /             487        /             2,01,274              /             747

12           France   6,794     /             1,16,309              /             58           /             1,72,195              /             1,777

13           Poland   882        /             75,523   /             20           /             1,64,525              /             1,998

14           Philippines           15,592   /             37,228   /             154        /             1,62,580              /             334

15           Spain     2,840     /             86,085   /             102        /             1,62,303              /             1,840

16           Germany              11,165   /             93,770   /             51           /             1,60,287              /             1,115

17           Thailand               11,252   /             15,753   /             141        /             1,29,071              /             225

18           Serbia    7,201     /             7,885     /             39           /             1,13,078              /             907

19           Italy       3,970     /             1,30,488              /             49           /             1,06,559              /             2,162

20           Norway 799        /             850        /             9             /             94,807   /             155

29           Pakistan               2,333     /             27,374   /             47           /             61,947   /             121

78           Bangladesh         1,376     /             27,313   /             36           /             13,727   /             164

AUKUS PACT: FRANCE AND US SEEK TO MEND RIFT

President Joe Biden spoke for the first time Wednesday with French President Emmanuel Macron after a major diplomatic crisis exploded between the two longtime allies over a deal to equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines.

In the 30-minute call, Biden appeared to acknowledge missteps in how the United States approached the talks. A joint statement between the United States and France afterward said Macron and Biden "agreed that the situation would have benefitted from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners."

"President Biden conveyed his ongoing commitment in that regard," the statement said.

The rare, if indirect, admission of error was a signal of how seriously both sides are taking the diplomatic dispute, which has led to the lowest point in relations between the United States and France since the "Freedom Fries" era at the start of the Iraq War.

In their call, Biden and Macron agreed to meet in person at the end of next month in Europe. Biden had already planned to attend a Group of 20 summit in Rome at the end of October and an official said the assumption is that the meeting between the two leaders will take place there.

"The two leaders have decided to open a process of in-depth consultations, aimed at creating the conditions for ensuring confidence and proposing concrete measures toward common objectives," the statement read.

Macron also agreed to return his ambassador to Washington after recalling him for consultations in Paris. And Biden voiced support for "the importance of a stronger and more capable European defense," a longtime priority for Macron.

TALIBAN WANT TO ADDRESS UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY, APPOINT NEW ENVOY

The Taliban, which recently took power in Afghanistan, have reportedly asked the United Nations to allow their foreign minister to represent the country and deliver a speech at the UN General Assembly that is currently being held in New York.

Leaders and other representatives of UN member countries began giving their speeches at the annual General Debate at the UN headquarters on Tuesday. A delegate from Afghanistan is scheduled to give a speech next Monday, the final day of the meeting.

A UN deputy spokesperson told NHK that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres received a letter from the Taliban interim government on Monday. The letter was signed by Amir Khan Muttaqi, who is currently in charge of diplomacy in the Taliban interim government. In it, he said that he would like to participate in the meeting.

The letter also reportedly says that the Taliban have nominated Mohammad Suhail Shaheen to be the country's new UN ambassador. He is a spokesperson for the Taliban.

Observers say the moves reflect the Taliban's intention to try to get the international community to recognize them as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.

Last Wednesday, Guterres also received a letter from the current accredited Afghan Ambassador to the UN, Ghulam Isaczai, with a delegation list for the UN meeting.

Former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani appointed him to the post. The Ghani administration lost control of the country last month.

The UN's credentials committee will decide how the matter should be dealt with. Both letters have been sent to the committee.

AUSTRALIA SETS CONDITIONS FOR CHINA TO JOIN TRADE PACT

China must end a freeze on contacts with senior Australian politicians if it hopes to join a trans-Pacific trade pact, Canberra’s Trade Minister said on Wednesday, setting de facto preconditions for accession.

Dan Tehan linked China’s bid to join an 11-nation trading alliance with steps to improve bilateral relations that are at their lowest ebb in decades.

China formally applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) last week, and is lobbying to gain the consensus support of members, including Australia.

This comes after a war of words between the two countries, a string of sanctions on Australian goods and a months-long freeze on senior-level government contacts. “When I became Trade Minister, I wrote to my Chinese counterpart in January setting out how we can work more closely together. I am still waiting for a reply,” Mr. Tehan said in a Monday speech.

“One of the most important things about negotiating the accession process of any country into the CPTPP is that you have to be able to sit down at ministerial level, look your economic partner in the eye, and talk about that accession process.”

Mr. Tehan also indicated China would have to resolve disputes at the World Trade Organization stemming from a slew of politically driven sanctions on Australian imports.

RUSSIA, CHINA, PAKISTAN SPECIAL ENVOYS HOLD TALKS IN AFGHANISTAN

Russian, Chinese and Pakistani envoys to Afghanistan held talks with representatives of the Taliban administration in Afghanistan, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Wednesday.

It said President Vladimir Putin's Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, Pakistan's Special Representative for Afghanistan Mohammad Sadiq and China’s Special Envoy to Afghanistan, Yue Xiaoyong, held two-day talks in Kabul on the invitation by the Taliban.

Acting premier of the interim Taliban government, Mullah Muhammad Hassan Akhund, along with acting foreign and finance ministers gathered with the envoys and discussed the latest developments in Afghanistan in a constructive and elaborate manner.

The statement noted that encouraging friendly relations with foreign countries in addition to Afghanistan's neighbors, the inclusiveness of the government to ensure territorial integrity and unity of the country, human rights, improving economic and social ties were highlighted at the event.

The parties agreed to maintain constructive talks for peace, prosperity, regional stability and development.

The special envoys also met with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, the former head of the national reconciliation council.

US TO DONATE 500MN MORE DOSES TO OTHER COUNTRIES

The United States on Wednesday promised to buy 500 million more Covid-19 vaccine doses to donate to other countries as it comes under increasing pressure to share its supply with the rest of the world.

The White House is hosting a four-hour virtual summit aimed at boosting global vaccination rates and the administration of American President Joe Biden wants to show it is leading by example.

“To beat the pandemic here we need to beat it everywhere,” Biden said, kicking off the summit, which includes leaders from Canada, Indonesia, South Africa and Britain, as well as World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Ghebreyesus.

“This is an all hands on deck crisis,” he said of the pandemic that has raged since early 2020, killing at least 4,913,000 people.

The additional vaccines will bring US donations to the rest of the world to more than 1.1 billion doses. The vaccines from Pfizer and BioNTech will be made in the United States and shipped to low and lower middle-income countries starting in January.

CHINA WORST ABUSER OF INTERNET FREEDOM; PAKISTAN IN TOP 10: REPORT

China and Pakistan are among the bottom 10 countries on the global rankings on internet freedom released by an international freedom advocacy group. Washington-based Freedom House has published a report titled "Freedom on the Net 2021: The Global Drive to Control Big Tech" which claimed global internet freedom declined for the 11th consecutive year.

Myanmar, Belarus, and Uganda witnessed the greatest deteriorations in internet freedom amid electoral and constitutional crises. Myanmar reported a massive 14-point decline, the largest since the group started the documentation project. Myanmar’s military recently captured power in a coup and frequently shut down the internet to crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

On the other hand, Iceland, Canada and Germany were among the top 10 countries with greater internet freedom.

The report has measured the level of internet freedom for 70 countries and assigns them numerical scores ranging from 100 (the freest nation) to zero (the least free). The report determines the level of internet freedom by examining three broad categories: obstacles to access; limits on content; and violations of user rights.

Countries with scores between 70 to 100 are designated as ‘Free’ on internet freedom status while those with points between 40 to 69 are designated as ‘Partly-free’. Countries scoring less than 39 are designated as ‘Not free’.

China remained the world’s worst abuser of internet freedom for the seventh consecutive year and failed to score a single point in the ‘violation of user rights’ category.

COVISHIELD: UK RECOGNISES COVID JAB AFTER INDIA OUTCRY

The UK government has amended its foreign travel guidance to clarify that the Indian-made version of the AstraZeneca vaccine is an approved jab.

But it is not clear whether people from India can travel to the UK without having to self-isolate for 10 days.

The UK's refusal to recognise Covishield had triggered a firestorm of protests in India.

With more than 721 million doses administered so far, Covishield is India's primary vaccine.

On Tuesday, India described the rule as "discriminatory" and asked the UK to stop requiring fully-vaccinated Indians to self-isolate on arrival.

At present, India is not listed as a country where people are recognised as fully vaccinated even if they've had both doses of an approved jab.

So, Indians travelling to Britain have to self-isolate as well as book and take Covid-19 tests before they are allowed to move freely.

UKRAINE PREZ AIDE SURVIVES BID ON LIFE

A volley of automatic gunfire hit a car carrying a senior aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Wednesday, an incident a senior official called an assassination attempt. Serhiy Shefir, the top aide and a close friend of Zelenskiy’s, escaped unscathed, but his driver was badly wounded and hospitalised. The Audi was pockmarked with at least 10 bullet holes. Irina Venediktova, Ukraine’s prosecutor general, said the car had been ambushed as it drove between two villages outside Kiev. Police said they had opened a criminal case on suspicion of attempted murder and saw three possible motives and versions: an effort to pressure the country’s leadership, an attempt to destabilise the political situation, or an attack engineered by a foreign intelligence service.

“The purpose of this crime was not to scare, but to kill,” Denys Monastyrsky, the interior minister, said.

PAKISTAN PM WARNS OF A CIVIL WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

Pakistan PM Imran Khan has called on the Taliban to form an inclusive government and warned that failure to do so could see the country descend into civil war. “If they do not include all the factions, sooner or later they will have a civil war,” he told the BBC in an interview aired on Tuesday. Khan said Pakistan was primarily concerned about the possibility of a humanitarian and refugee crisis if a civil war breaks out, as well as the possibility of Afghan soil being used by armed groups that are fighting the Pakistani government. “That would mean an unstable, chaotic Afghanistan,” Khan said. “That (Afghanistan) is an ideal place for terrorists, if there is no control or if there is fighting going on. And this is our worry. So terrorism from Afghan soil, and secondly, if there is a humanitarian crisis or a civil war, a refugee issue for us,” Khan said.

The Pakistan PM laid out three conditions to formally recognise the new Taliban government: the new leadership should be inclusive, it must respect human rights, and Afghanistan should not be used to house terrorists who could threaten Pakistan’s security.

On formally recognising the Taliban government, Imran said, “All neighbours will get together and see how they progress,” he said, adding whether to recognise them or not will be a collective decision. Pakistan, however, was a key ally of the previous Taliban government in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001.

Meanwhile, he also described the act of preventing girls from attending school as un-Islamic. He continued, adding that he expected Afghan women would eventually “assert their rights”. The PM also urged the international community to be patient with the latest change on the Afghan landscape.

6 BILLION SHOTS INJECTED WORLDWIDE: REPORT

Over six billion doses of anti-Covid vaccines have been given around the world, according to an AFP tally Wednesday based on official sources. The vaccination drive has reached a steady rhythm taking 29 days to clock up the sixth billion, almost the same speed as the fourth and fifth billion at 30 and 26 days respectively. In contrast, it took around 140 days to administer the first billion doses. Nearly 40% (about 2.2 billion) of the six billion shots have been administered in China. India (826.5 million) and the US (386.8 million) complete the trio of countries that have given the most jabs. Among countries with a population of over one million, the UAE leads the way with 198 doses per 100 habitants, with over 81% of its population fully vaccinated. Uruguay comes next with 175 doses per 100 inhabitants, followed by Israel (171), Cuba (163), Qatar (162) and Portugal (154). Some of these countries, including Israel, UAE and Uruguay, have also started to give booster jabs. While most poorer countries have now started vaccination drives coverage remains very patchy, although injections have picked up in recent weeks after donations by richer countries. Three countries have not yet started vaccinating at all.