KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    6,75,966              /             53,44,577            /             7,381     /             2,23,38,059               /             685.7

1             USA        1,17,788              /             8,23,101              /             1,420     /             1,01,26,212               /             2,466

2             UK          78,610   /             1,46,791              /             165        /             12,45,554            /               2,146

3             Germany              55,650   /             1,07,675              /             509        /             9,88,786               /             1,279

4             Russia    28,363   /             2,92,891              /             1,142     /             9,70,636              /               2,006

5             France   65,713   /             1,20,983              /             151        /             8,82,949              /               1,848

6             Netherlands        13,469   /             20,255   /             41           /             6,06,093              /               1,178

7             Belgium               9,076     /             27,685   /             54           /             4,74,303              /               2,374

8             Poland   24,266   /             89,714   /             669        /             4,47,413              /               2,374

9             Vietnam               15,527   /             28,616   /             283        /             3,67,131              /               290

10           Mexico  2,695     /             2,96,983              /             262        /             3,47,079              /               2,269

11           Spain     27,140   /             88,619   /             77           /             3,42,769              /               1,894

12           Turkey   19,872   /             79,696   /             193        /             3,33,363              /             930

13           Italy       23,195   /             1,35,178              /             117        /             3,05,653              /               2,241

14           Honduras             27           /             10,424   /                            /             2,45,627              /               1,029

15           Czechia 16,691   /             34,813   /             56           /             2,40,426              /               3,242

16           Norway                /             1,141     /                            /             2,38,654              /             208

17           Switzerland         5,188     /             11,905   /             18           /             2,32,833              /               1,361

18           Ukraine 8,109     /             91,958   /             356        /             2,27,283              /               2,121

19           South Africa       26,389   /             90,226   /             54           /             1,91,596              /               1,494

20           Brazil     5,446     /             6,17,271              /             150        /             1,69,632              /               2,874

27           India      6,838     /             4,76,135              /             101        /             87,562   /             340

70           Sri Lanka              772        /             14,677   /             16           /             16,186   /             681

76           Philippines           237        /             50,449   /             100        /             10,193   /             452

79           Pakistan               370        /             28,843   /             4             /             9,292     /             127

86           Bangladesh         297        /             28,038   /             4             /             7,331     /             168

PUTIN, XI AFFIRM RUSSIAN-CHINESE COOPERATION TO COUNTER WESTERN PRESSURE

Chinese President Xi Jinping and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin held a video summit on Wednesday, lauding bilateral ties as a pillar of multilateralism and hoping to boost economic engagement in a show of solidarity as Beijing and Moscow come under increasing pressure from the western bloc on issues like Taiwan, Ukraine and human rights.

Putin said he looks forward to attending the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing and meeting Xi. He is the first leader of a country to do so in a show of strength with China against the backdrop of several western democracies announcing a diplomatic boycott of the Games over the state of human rights in Xinjiang.

China and Russia have come increasingly closer under strongmen leaders Xi and Putin, seemingly forming a bloc of their own against the US and its allies.

Putin won support from Xi for his push to obtain binding security guarantees for Russia from the West, a Kremlin official said, according to Reuters.

The all-round practical cooperation between China and Russia has demonstrated tremendous political strengths and huge potential, Xi said.

The Chinese President added that trade between China and Russia in the first three quarters of 2021 has topped $100 billion for the first time, and for the whole year, bilateral trade looks to reach a record high.

“A new model of cooperation has been formed between our countries, based among other things on such principles as not interfering in internal affairs (of each other), respect for each other’s interests, determination to turn the shared border into a belt of eternal peace and good neighborliness,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin.

Xi added that the Russian president “strongly supported China’s efforts to protect key national interests and firmly opposed attempts to drive a wedge between our countries.”

AS U.S. NEARS 800,000 VIRUS DEATHS, 1 OF EVERY 100 OLDER AMERICANS HAS PERISHED

The United States has surpassed 800,000 coronavirus-related deaths, according to recently updated data from Johns Hopkins University.

A total of 800,266 deaths and 50,226,427 coronavirus cases were reported as of 15 December.

The United States has the highest number of reported total Covid-19 deaths in the world, followed by Brazil and India.

With just 4% of the world’s population, the country accounts for about 14% of all reported Covid-19 deaths and 19% of cases worldwide, according to Reuters.

The deaths this year were mostly in unvaccinated patients, health experts say.

It took 111 days for US deaths to jump from 600,000 to 700,000 and the next 100,000 deaths took just 73 days.

The death rate in the United States was more than three times higher than in neighbouring Canada and 11 times more than Japan.

Older Americans aged over 65 have suffered most from the country’s Covid pandemic with 1 in every 100 succumbing to a Covid-related death.

About 75% of people who have died of the virus in the United States — or about 600,000 of the nearly 800,000 who have perished so far — have been 65 or older, according to the New York Times.

One in 100 older Americans has died from the virus. For people younger than 65, that ratio is closer to 1 in 1,400.

Despite representing a much higher vaccination rate than younger age groups, the demographic accounts for most of the 1,200 deaths from Covid-19 in the nation each day.

The nation is now bracing for a potential surge in infections due to more time spent indoors with colder weather and the highly transmissible Omicron variant of the virus.

RUSSIA LISTS OUT DEMANDS OF SECURITY TO U.S.

Russia said on Wednesday it had delivered its proposals for legal security guarantees over NATO’s expansion to a top U.S. diplomat after President Vladimir Putin said he wanted talks to start immediately.

On Wednesday, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov discussed Russia’s insistence to spell out in writing that NATO would halt its eastward expansion with Karen Donfried, U.S. assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, Moscow said.

“A detailed discussion of the issue of security guarantees took place in the light of ongoing attempts by the United States and NATO to change the military-political situation in Europe in their favour,” the Foreign Ministry said.

TAIWAN ROW: LITHUANIA CLOSES EMBASSY IN CHINA

Lithuania said on Wednesday that it has closed its embassy in Beijing and pulled its last diplomat out of the Chinese capital, a move that came amid a spat over the EU nation allowing Taiwan to open a representative office in its capital, Vilnius. The Lithuanian foreign ministry said in a statement that the Baltic country would carry out its diplomatic activities in China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and does not give diplomatic recognition to nations that treat the island as a separate state.

The ministry said it had recalled Lithuania’s charge d’affaires in Beijing for consultations. “Discussions are ongoing on the technical aspects of the operation of Lithuania’s diplomatic representation in China and China’s representation in Lithuania pending China's decision to renew the accreditation of Lithuanian diplomats in China,” the foreign ministry said.

Beijing previously expelled the Lithuanian ambassador and withdrew its ambassador from Lithuania after the Lithuanian government allowed self-ruled Taiwan, which has a democratic system, to open an office in Vilnius.

BERLIN MURDER: GERMANY EXPELS RUSSIAN DIPLOMATS

Germany announced on Wednesday it is expelling two Russian diplomats after a German court concluded that Moscow was behind the killing of a Chechen man in Berlin two years ago.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock called the state-ordered killing a “grave breach of German law and the sovereignty of the Federal Republic of Germany.”

The 2019 brazen daylight killing of Zelimkhan “Tornike” Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian citizen of Chechen ethnicity, sparked outrage in Berlin and prompted the German government to expel two other Russian diplomats at the time.

The two diplomats being expelled now are linked to Russian intelligence agencies, according to sources.

Judges at Berlin’s regional court convicted 56-year-old Vadim Krasikov of the killing, but said he had acted on the orders of Russian federal authorities, who provided him with a false identity, a fake passport and the resources to carry out the hit on August 23, 2019.

“The central government of the Russian Federation was the author of this crime,” presiding judge said, labeling the killing “state terrorism.”

NEW ZEALAND APPROVES PFIZER'S COVID-19 VACCINE FOR CHILDREN AGED 5-11 YEARS

New Zealand's health regulator Medsafe has granted provisional approval for the Pfizer Inc COVID-19 vaccine for children aged 5 to 11 years old, the health ministry said in a statement.

The provisional approval is for two doses of the paediatric Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, given at least 21 days apart, it said.

If approved by the cabinet, the introduction of the paediatric Pfizer vaccine is expected to start in New Zealand no later than the end of January 2022, the ministry said.