KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    4,14,192              /             49,77,995            /             7,279     /             1,79,48,601        /             638.6

1             USA        63,199   /             7,59,849              /             1,368     /             93,66,916            /             2,278

2             UK          40,954   /             1,39,834              /             263        /             15,14,985            /             2,046

3             Russia    36,446   /             2,32,775              /             1,106     /             8,69,660              /             1,594

4             Turkey   29,643   /             69,559   /             215        /             4,93,273              /             813

5             Mexico  1,121     /             2,86,496              /             150        /             3,48,423              /             2,192

6             Ukraine 19,120   /             64,936   /             734        /             3,48,111              /             1,497

7             Iran        9,096     /             1,25,519              /             156        /             3,08,694              /             1,470

8             Honduras             187        /             10,202   /             3             /             2,48,983              /             1,009

9             Poland   6,265     /             76,540   /             93           /             2,15,485              /             2,025

10           Brazil     13,424   /             6,06,246              /             362        /             1,98,651              /             2,826

11           Romania              16,765   /             45,503   /             511        /             1,97,053              /             2,386

12           Germany              20,955   /             95,794   /                            /             1,90,027              /             1,139

13           India      13,508   /             4,55,684              /             584        /             1,69,509              /             326

14           Serbia    7,840     /             9,634     /             63           /             1,23,587              /             1,108

15           Norway 1,144     /             895        /             1             /             1,12,707              /             163

16           Finland  659        /             1,150     /                            /             1,08,397              /             207

17           Thailand               7,706     /             18,865   /             66           /             98,150   /             269

18           Netherlands        5,747     /             18,340   /             20           /             97,088   /             1,067

19           France   6,603     /             1,17,555              /             47           /             95,018   /             1,796

20           Belgium               5,847     /             25,889   /             15           /             94,436   /             2,221

61           Pakistan               572        /             28,392   /             6             /             24,196   /             125

96           Bangladesh         276        /             27,834   /             6             /             8,243     /             167

PAK PM IMRAN KHAN APPROVES APPOINTMENT OF LT GEN NADEEM ANJUM AS NEW ISI CHIEF

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday approved the appointment of Lt Gen Nadeem Anjum as the new chief of Pakistan's spy agency ISI, putting an end to the ongoing tiff between the government and the powerful Army over the key post.

The army on October 6 announced Lt Gen Anjum replacing Lt Gen Faiz Hameed as the chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence or ISI but the Prime Minister's Office withheld the official notification, saying that the civilian government was not properly consulted.

However, the issue was resolved after a meeting of Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa and Prime Minister Khan on Tuesday, according to a statement by the PMO.

"The meeting was part of the ongoing consultation process between the Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff about the timing of change of command in ISI and selection of the new DG (Director General) ISI, it said.

It further stated that during this process of appointment a list of officers was received from the ministry of Defence and the Prime Minister interviewed all the nominees.

"A final round of consultation was held between the Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff today. After this detailed consultative process, the name of Lt. Gen. Nadeem Anjum was approved as new DG ISI, it said.

The designated ISI chief shall assume charge on 20th November, according to the statement.

US DETAILS NEW INTERNATIONAL COVID-19 TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS

Children under 18 and people from dozens of countries with a shortage of vaccines will be exempt from new rules that will require most travelers to the United States be vaccinated against COVID-19, the Biden administration announced.

The government said Monday it will require airlines to collect contact information on passengers regardless of whether they have been vaccinated to help with contact tracing, if that becomes necessary.

Beginning Nov. 8, foreign, non-immigrant adults traveling to the United States will need to be fully vaccinated, with only limited exceptions, and all travelers will need to be tested for the virus before boarding a plane to the U.S. There will be tightened restrictions for American and foreign citizens who are not fully vaccinated.

Under the policy, those who are vaccinated will need to show proof of a negative COVID-19 test within three days of travel, while the unvaccinated must present a test taken within one day of travel.

Children will still need to take a COVID-19 test unless they are 2 or younger.

The U.S. will accept any vaccine approved for regular or emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration or the World Health Organization. That includes Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca and China’s Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines. Mixing-and-matching of approved shots will be permitted.

PAK, CHINA URGE WORLD TO SEND HUMANITARIAN AID TO AFGHANISTAN

In a rare joint appeal, the leaders of Pakistan and China on Tuesday urged the international community to swiftly send humanitarian and economic aid to Afghanistan, where people are facing food and medicine shortages in the shadow of winter. A government statement said Pakistani PM Imran Khan and Chinese President Xi Jinping discussed Afghanistan by phone, saying afterward that people there need international help “to alleviate their suffering, prevent instability” and rebuild after the United States withdrew and the Taliban seized power in August.

The latest development came a day after Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi met with the Taliban representatives in Qatar to discuss a range of issues. Pakistan and China are a longtime allies and along with other countries, they have sent humanitarian aid to Kabul over the past two months. Pakistan wants the world community to unfreeze Afghanistan’s assets to enable Kabul use its own money to avert the deepening crisis. Currently, the Taliban government does not have access to the Afghanistan central bank’s $9 billion in reserves, most of which is held by the New York Federal Reserve.

CHINA’S FOREIGN MINISTER MEETS TALIBAN, OFFERS SUPPORT

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has pledged support and assistance to the Taliban in a meeting in Doha.

Coming three months after Mr. Wang hosted the Taliban in Tianjin, near Beijing, in late July, the Chinese Foreign Minister met with acting Deputy Prime Minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who assured Beijing that “a friendly policy towards China” was “a firm choice” by the Taliban.

Mr. Wang “expressed China’s willingness to continue to provide humanitarian aid to Afghanistan within its capacity and work with the international community to help Afghanistan alleviate temporary difficulties and realise economic reconstruction as well as independent development”, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said. Mr. Wang last month announced China would “urgently provide 200 million yuan ($30.96 million) worth of grains, winter supplies, vaccines, and medicines to Afghanistan” as well as 3 million vaccines.

He also called on the Taliban to “further demonstrate openness and tolerance, unite all ethnic groups and factions in Afghanistan to work together for peaceful reconstruction, and effectively protect the rights and interests of women and children.”

In a veiled dig at the U.S., which China has criticised for its “hasty” withdrawal as well as its legacy in Afghanistan, Mr. Wang said China “has never interfered in the internal affairs of Afghanistan and never sought selfish gains or a sphere of influence”. He called on the U.S. and the West to lift sanctions, and said the country faced “a historic opportunity” to “master its own destiny” and was “at a critical stage of transforming from chaos to governance”.

FDA ADVISERS BACK PFIZER’S COVID-19 VACCINE FOR CHILDREN AGED 5 TO 11

The US moved a step closer to expanding Covid-19 vaccinations for millions more children as a panel of government advisers on Tuesday endorsed kid-size doses of Pfizer's shots for 5- to 11-year-olds.

A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted unanimously, with one abstention, that the vaccine’s benefits in preventing Covid-19 in that age group outweigh any potential risks — including a heart-related side effect that's been very rare in teens and young adults despite their use of a much higher shot dose.

While children are at lower risk of severe Covid-19 than older people, ultimately many panelists decided it's important to give parents the choice to protect their youngsters — especially those at high risk of illness or who live in places where other precautions, like masks in schools, aren't being used.

The virus is “not going away. We have to find a way to live with it and I think the vaccines give us a way to do that,” said FDA adviser Jeannette Lee of the University of Arkansas.

“I do think it’s a relatively close call,” said adviser Dr. Eric Rubin of Harvard University. “It’s really going to be a question of what the prevailing conditions are but we’re never going to learn about how safe this vaccine is unless we start giving it.”

The FDA isn’t bound by the panel’s recommendation and is expected to make its own decision within days.

IRAN SAYS CYBERATTACK CLOSES GAS STATIONS ACROSS COUNTRY

A cyberattack targeted gas stations Tuesday across Iran, shutting down a government system managing fuel subsidies and leaving angry motorists stranded in long lines at shuttered stations.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, though it bore similarities to another months earlier that seemed to directly challenge Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the country's economy buckles under American sanctions.

State television quoted an unnamed official in the country's National Security Council acknowledging the cyberattack, hours after it aired images of long lines of cars waiting to fill up in Tehran. An Associated Press journalist also saw lines of cars at a Tehran gas station, with the pumps off and the station closed.

State TV said Oil Ministry officials were holding an “emergency meeting” to solve the technical problem.

The semiofficial ISNA news agency, which first called the incident a cyberattack, said it saw those trying to buy fuel with a government-issued card through the machines instead receive a message reading “cyberattack 64411.” Most Iranians rely on those subsidies to fuel their vehicles, particularly amid the country's economic problems.

CLIMATE CHANGE: UN EMISSIONS GAP REPORT A 'THUNDERING WAKE-UP CALL'

National plans to cut carbon fall far short of what's needed to avert dangerous climate change, according to the UN Environment Programme.

Their Emissions Gap report says country pledges will fail to keep the global temperature under 1.5C this century.

The Unep analysis suggests the world is on course to warm around 2.7C with hugely destructive impacts.

But there is hope that, if long term net-zero goals are met, temperatures can be significantly reined in.

Just a few days before COP26 opens in Glasgow, another scientific report on climate change is "another thundering wake-up call", according to the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

This week, we've already had a study from the WMO showing that warming gases were at a new high last year, despite the pandemic.

Now in its 12th year, this Emissions Gap report looks at the nationally-determined contributions (NDCs) or carbon-cutting plans that countries have submitted to the UN ahead of COP.

The report finds that when added together, the plans cut greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 by around 7.5% compared to the previous pledges made five years ago.

This is nowhere near enough to keep the 1.5C temperature threshold within sight, say the scientists who compiled the study.

To keep 1.5C alive would require 55% cuts by the same 2030 date. That means the current plans would need to have seven times the level of ambition to remain under that limit.

BRAZIL SENATORS BACK CRIMINAL CHARGES AGAINST BOLSONARO OVER COVID-19 RESPONSE

A Brazilian Senate committee recommended on Tuesday that president Jair Bolsonaro face a series of criminal indictments for actions and omissions related to the world’s second-highest Covid-19 death toll.

The 7-to-4 vote by the 11-member committee ended its six-month investigation of the government’s handling of the pandemic and calls for prosecutors to put Bolsonaro on trial for charges ranging from charlatanism and inciting crime to misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity.

Sen. Omar Aziz, the chairman of the inquiry, said he will deliver it to the prosecutor-general Wednesday morning.

More than 600,000 people have died of Covid-19 in Brazil. Bolsonaro has denied any wrongdoing.

The Brazilian Senate committee voted on a report, the culmination of the 11-member committee’s six-month investigation of the government's handling of the pandemic. It called for Bolsonaro to face charges ranging from charlatanism and inciting crime to misuse of public funds and crimes against humanity, and so hold him responsible for many of Brazil’s more than 600,000 Covid-19 deaths.

Once approved, the decision on whether to file charges is now up to Brazil’s prosecutor-general, a Bolsonaro appointee who is widely viewed as protecting the president. The allegation of crimes against humanity would need to be pursued by the International Criminal Court.

11 KILLED IN IS ATTACK NEAR BAGHDAD

Gunmen from the Islamic State extremist group attacked a village northeast of Baghdad on Tuesday, killing at least 11 civilians and wounding six others, Iraqi security officials said.

The officials said the attack occurred in the predominantly Shiite village of al-Rashad northeast of Baqouba in Diyala province. The circumstances of the attack were not immediately clear, but two officials who spoke to The Associated Press said Islamic State group militants had kidnapped two villagers earlier and then raided the village when their demands for ransom were not met.

Machine guns were used in the attack, they added, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. They said all the dead and wounded were civilians.

Attacks targeting civilians have become rare in Iraq since the Islamic State group was largely defeated in the country in 2017, although it remains active through sleeper cells in many areas. Militants from the Sunni Muslim extremist group still conduct operations, often targeting security forces, power stations and other infrastructure.

A roadside bomb attack targeted a Baghdad suburb in July, killing at least 30 people and wounding dozens of others at a crowded market. In January, twin suicide bombings ripped through a busy market in the Iraqi capital, killing at least 32 people and wounding dozens. Iraqi officials blamed IS for those attacks.