KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    4,78,719              /             47,96,177            /             7,582     /             1,84,09,149        /             615.3

1             USA        1,09,496              /             7,16,635              /             1,693     /             98,86,242            /             2,149

2             UK          36,480   /             1,36,662              /             137        /             13,46,478            /             2,000

3             Russia    23,888   /             2,07,255              /             867        /             6,31,004              /             1,419

4             Turkey   29,104   /             64,054   /             216        /             4,74,108              /             749

5             Iran        14,078   /             1,20,428              /             268        /             4,34,920              /             1,411

6             Brazil     27,527   /             5,96,800              /             637        /             4,05,134              /             2,783

7             Mexico  9,796     /             2,76,972              /             596        /             3,71,464              /             2,120

8             India      27,300   /             4,48,372              /             282        /             2,81,592              /             321

9             Honduras             735        /             9,777     /             22           /             2,45,853              /             968

10           Poland   1,208     /             75,650   /             27           /             1,68,937              /             2,002

11           Malaysia              12,735   /             26,335   /             192        /             1,64,536              /             801

12           Vietnam               7,940     /             19,301   /             203        /             1,62,623              /             196

13           Germany              11,015   /             94,250   /             59           /             1,47,356              /             1,120

14           Philippines           14,286   /             38,294   /             130        /             1,38,294              /             344

15           Serbia    7,549     /             8,234     /             47           /             1,30,033              /             947

16           France   5,204     /             1,16,713              /             56           /             1,25,585              /             1,783

17           Spain     2,400     /             86,415   /             18           /             1,16,938              /             1,847

18           Thailand               11,646   /             16,727   /             107        /             1,16,075              /             239

19           Ukraine 11,757   /             56,274   /             194        /             1,11,914              /             1,296

20           Norway 581        /             861        /                            /             99,618   /             157

34           Pakistan               1,742     /             27,729   /             39           /             47,832   /             123

85           Bangladesh         860        /             27,510   /             23           /             12,460   /             165

BEIJING DELIVERS FIRST BATCH OF $31 MILLION AID TO TALIBAN GOVERNMENT

China has delivered the first batch of its USD 31 million humanitarian assistance, comprising emergency supplies such as blankets and jackets, to the Taliban's interim government in Afghanistan.

The China-donated supplies, which arrived at the Kabul International Airport on Wednesday night, have been handed over to the Afghanistan side, state-run Xinhua news agency reported from the Afghan capital.

China's Ambassador to Afghanistan Wang Yu and Acting Minister of Refugee Affairs of the Afghan caretaker government Khalil-ur-Rehman Haqqani attended the handover ceremony at the airport.

Wang said amid many difficulties, China has managed to arrange the emergency humanitarian aid materials for Afghanistan in a short time, which included blankets, down jackets and other winter supplies urgently needed by the Afghan people.

He said China would continue to prepare for other materials, including food aid, which are expected to arrive before long. Haqqani thanked China for providing the emergency supplies.

JAPAN'S FUMIO KISHIDA SET TO BECOME NEW PRIME MINISTER AFTER LEADERSHIP VOTE

Fumio Kishida, Japan's former foreign minister, is set to become the country's next prime minister after winning a vote to lead the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Kishida will replace the outgoing party leader and prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, who is stepping down after serving only one year.

Kishida is certain to be elected the next prime minister on Monday in parliament, where the LDP and its coalition partner control both houses.

He has vowed to tackle "national crises” including COVID-19 and the pandemic-battered economy after his predecessor, Suga, was criticised for allowing the Tokyo Olympics to go ahead this year despite surging infection rates.

He also said he would pursue “important issues related to Japan's future” through a vision of “a free and open Indo-Pacific” that counters China's assertiveness in the region.

Kishida defeated the popular vaccinations minister, Taro Kono, in a runoff after finishing only one vote ahead of him in the first round, in which none of the four candidates, including two women, was able to win a majority.

In a landslide 257-170 victory in the second round, Kishida received support from party heavyweights who apparently chose stability over change advocated by Kono, known as a maverick and a reformist.

The long-ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party desperately needs to quickly turn around plunging public support ahead of lower house elections coming within two months.

U.S. CONGRESS SCRAMBLES TO PREVENT GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

President Joe Biden has signed into law a temporary measure to keep the government funded until early December and avoid yet another federal shutdown.

Congress narrowly passed the bill hours before funding lapsed, which would have forced federal museums, national parks and safety programmes to close.

The funding bill also includes money for hurricane relief and resettling Afghan refugees.

Mr Biden signed the bill with just hours to go before the shutdown began.

"There's so much more to do," Mr Biden said in a statement after signing the measure. "But the passage of this bill reminds us that bipartisan work is possible."

The newly approved funding ensures that federal agencies do not need to close down on Friday and hundreds of thousands of government employees will not have to take unpaid leave.

On Wednesday night, Republicans and Democrats in the Senate reached a deal to keep the government open until 3 December, through a temporary budget called a continuing resolution.

The measure passed the Senate by a vote of 65 to 35 on Thursday, with 15 Republicans voting to support it. In the House of Representatives, the lower chamber, it passed 254 to 175.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she will move forward with a vote on the president's $1tn (£722bn) infrastructure bill Thursday. The bill would provide $550bn for roads, bridges, internet and other domestic priorities.

ASIAN NATIONS START TO OUTPACE US IN COVID VACCINATION RATES

As the US and Europe ramped up their Covid-19 vaccination programmes, the Asia-Pacific region, once lauded for its pandemic response, struggled to get them off the ground. Now, many of those laggards are speeding ahead, lifting hopes of a return to normality in nations resigned to repeated lockdowns and onerous restrictions. The turnabout is as much a testament to the region’s success in securing supplies and working out the kinks in their programmes as it is to vaccine hesitancy and political opposition in US.

South Korea, Japan and Malaysia have even pulled ahead of the US in the number of doses administered per 100 people — a pace that seemed unthinkable in the spring. Several have surpassed the US in fully vaccinating their populations or are on track to do so, limiting the perniciousness of Delta strain. In South Korea, vaccines have helped keep most people out of the hospital: About 0.6% of fully vaccinated people who contracted Covid had severe illness and about 0.1% died from May to August. In Japan, serious cases have fallen by half over the last month, to a little over 1,000 a day. Hospitalisations have plummeted from a high of just over 2,30,000 in late August to around 31,000 on Tuesday.

In contrast with the US, vaccines were never a polarizing issue in Asia. Although each country has had to contend with its own anti-vaccine movements, the opposition has been relatively small.

BIDEN ADMINISTRATION'S NEW RULES WOULD LIMIT ARREST, DEPORTATION OF MIGRANTS

Facing bipartisan criticism over its approach to immigration, the Biden administration on Thursday announced new rules that require authorities to only pursue migrants who recently crossed into the country without permission or are deemed to pose a threat to public safety.

The new guidelines replace interim rules issued in February that were initially blocked by a federal judge in August as part of a lawsuit brought by Texas and Louisiana. They break from a more aggressive approach to immigration enforcement under former President Donald Trump, who early in his presidency directed authorities to apprehend anyone who was illegally in the country.

The release comes as President Joe Biden has come under fire from allies for his reliance on a Trump-era public health authority to rapidly expel migrants encountered on the US-Mexico border while also facing Republican criticism that he hasn't done enough to counter a sharp increase in migrants seeking to enter the country. His administration has expelled about 5,000 Haitians who crossed the US-Mexico border at Del Rio, Texas, in recent weeks.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told reporters that the new policy was based on the reality that the US can’t go after all people in the country without legal status and shouldn’t try because many “have been contributing members of our communities for years.”

RUSSIA TO HOST 1ST ROYAL WEDDING IN OVER A CENTURY

Russia’s former imperial capital is set to play host to the wedding of a descendant of a royal family in the first such event in more than a century. Grand Duke George Mikhailovich Romanov will tie the knot with Italian fiancée Victoria Romanovna Bettarini in St Petersburg on Friday.

INDIAN INVENTOR WINS COMMONWEALTH AWARD

A 20-year-old architecture student from India, Kaif Ali, who invented low-cost portable housing for Covid-19 quarantine and shelter from extreme weather such as earthquakes and floods is among 15 worldwide winners of this year’s Commonwealth Innovation for Sustainable Development Award.