KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    23,63,867            /             54,88,909            /             6,259     /             3,76,01,186        /             704.2

1             USA        6,48,439              /             8,55,309              /             1,618     /             1,65,22,931        /             2,561

2             UK          1,79,756              /             1,49,515              /             231        /             32,44,822            /             2,185

3             France   2,61,481              /             1,25,013              /             204        /             26,64,194            /             1,909

4             Spain                    /             89,837   /                            /             17,08,408            /             1,920

5             Italy       2,19,441              /             1,38,474              /             198        /             15,93,579            /             2,295

6             Russia    15,316   /             3,13,817              /             802        /             6,63,806              /             2,149

7             Germany              56,787   /             1,14,207              /             305        /             6,58,296              /             1,357

8             Turkey   68,413   /             83,231   /             156        /             4,86,374              /             971

9             Argentina            1,09,608              /             1,17,386              /             40           /             4,80,726              /             2,562

10           Netherlands        24,575   /             21,041   /             12           /             4,57,058              /             1,224

11           Mexico  20,626   /             2,99,805              /             94           /             4,07,526              /             2,289

12           Poland   16,576   /             99,311   /             646        /             3,96,410              /             2,628

13           Canada 39,752   /             30,581   /             57           /             3,74,634              /             800

14           India      1,17,100              /             4,83,178              /             98           /             3,71,363              /             345

15           Switzerland         15,029   /             12,411   /             12           /             3,67,371              /             1,418

16           Australia              72,508   /             2,302     /             13           /             3,60,132              /             89

17           Greece  33,711   /             21,185   /             70           /             3,51,117              /             2,048

18           Vietnam               16,472   /             33,644   /             169        /             3,45,504              /             341

19           Norway 7,879     /             1,349     /                            /             3,38,435              /             246

20           Belgium               27,796   /             28,429   /             22           /             3,24,626              /             2,437

46           Philippines           17,220   /             51,743   /             81           /             56,561   /             463

90           Sri Lanka              584        /             15,083   /             18           /             13,423   /             700

93           Pakistan               1,085     /             28,955   /             5             /             13,046   /             127

101        Bangladesh         1,140     /             28,097   /             7             /             11,486   /             168

BIDEN TEARS INTO TRUMP ON ANNIVERSARY OF 'INSURRECTION'

US President Joe Biden on Thursday savaged Donald Trump's "lies" and attempt to overturn the 2020 election, vowing on the first anniversary of the January 6 Capitol riot that he would let no one put a "dagger at the throat of democracy."

After largely ignoring Trump for a year, Biden took off the gloves, describing the Republican as a cheat whose ego wouldn't let him accept defeat and whose supporters almost shattered US democracy when they stormed Congress to prevent certification of the election.

It was a searing speech, signaling Biden's decision to abandon his previously cautious approach — and it immediately prompted an equally bitter Republican backlash.

"This was an armed insurrection," Biden declared from Statuary Hall inside the Capitol, where a year ago thousands of people brandishing Trump flags trampled over police to invade the chamber, forcing lawmakers to flee for their lives.

"For the first time in our history, a president not just lost an election. He tried to prevent the peaceful transfer of power," Biden said.

"I will allow no one to place a dagger at the throat of democracy."

Biden's voice filled with anger as he laid out the dangers facing a country that has long styled itself as leader of the free world.

"Are we going to be a nation that accepts political violence as a norm?" he asked.

During the assault on Congress, Trump was "sitting in the private dining room off the Oval Office in the White House, watching it all on television and doing nothing," Biden said, his anger clear.

Trump, who has spent the last year spreading conspiracy theories about his election loss to millions of followers, quickly fired back with a series of statements doubling down on his lie about the election "crime" and dismissing Biden's speech as "political theater."

NOVAK DJOKOVIC TO REMAIN IN AUSTRALIA AS COURT APPEAL AGAINST VISA CANCELLATION ADJOURNED UNTIL MONDAY

Novak Djokovic's appeal against his visa cancellation in Australia has been adjourned until Monday, with the Serb to remain in Melbourne quarantine until then.

In the early hours of Thursday morning in Australia, Djokovic was denied entry into the country after his visa was cancelled by border force officials at Melbourne airport.

The 34-year-old challenged the Australian Border Force's refusal to allow him a visa to enter the country and his appeal has now been adjourned until 10am on Monday in Melbourne, court officials confirmed.

After Australia's Border Force confirmed Djokovic's visa had been revoked, the Serb's injunction request against the visa cancellation was initially listed for hearing at 4pm (0500 GMT) in the Federal Circuit and Family Court, according to court documents.

The hearing was later adjourned until 6pm (0700 GMT), and now until 10am on Monday (2300 Sunday GMT).

The record nine-time Australia Open champion has been told by the Federal Court of Australia that he can remain in Melbourne until his appeal resumes.

UK IDENTIFIES RARE CASE OF AVIAN FLU IN A HUMAN

Health officials in Britain said Thursday they had identified a rare case of avian flu in a person, as the country battles its largest-ever outbreak of the virus among birds.

Transmission of avian flu from bird to human is very rare and has previously only occurred a small number of times in Britain, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said.

The infected individual, in southwest England, was said to be "well" and was self-isolating, it added.

"The person acquired the infection from very close, regular contact with a large number of infected birds, which they kept in and around their home over a prolonged period of time," the UKHSA said in a statement.

"All contacts of the individual, including those who visited the premises, have been traced and there is no evidence of onward spread of the infection to anyone else."

The agency noted the risk to the wider public from avian flu remained "very low" but cautioned people not to touch sick or dead birds.

Britain culled around half a million birds in 2021 as it grappled with what Environment Secretary George Eustice has called the country's "largest-ever" avian flu outbreak.

However, officials have voiced concerns that wild birds migrating from mainland Europe during the winter months may be carrying the disease.

‘ABSOLUTELY WRONG, COUNTERPRODUCTIVE, MUMBO JUMBO’: UK'S JOHNSON CALLS OUT ANTI-VAXXERS

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Thursday hit out at anti-vaccine groups who spread "mumbo jumbo" on social media but ruled out the UK following some European countries in making Covid-19 vaccination a mandatory legal requirement.

Speaking during a visit to a vaccination centre in Northampton in eastern England, Johnson said the UK will maintain a “voluntary approach” to its vaccination programme as opposed to "coercion". However, he condemned anti-vaxxers for spreading complete nonsense and urged people to take up their booster doses to protect against the surging Omicron variant.

"They (anti-vaxxers) are totally wrong and I think it is time that I, the government, call them out on what they are doing,” Johnson told reporters.

"It is absolutely wrong, it is totally counterproductive, and the stuff they're putting out on social media is completely mumbo jumbo… You haven't heard me say that before, because I think it's important we have a voluntary approach in this country and we're going to keep a voluntary approach,” he said.

Johnson said while Omicron is milder than previous variants, "the pressures on hospitals are clear". He pointed out that the National Health Service (NHS) was under "huge pressure" at the moment and that it was a “tragedy” that some people were refusing what would keep them safe and out of hospital.

"What a tragedy that we've got all this pressure on the NHS, all the difficulties that our doctors and nurses are experiencing, and we've got people out there spouting complete nonsense about vaccination,” he said.

"The saddest words in the English language are 'too late'. When you're in ICU and you haven't been vaccinated, sadly it's too late to get vaccinated, so get boosted now," he added.

RIOTERS, SECURITYMEN DEAD IN KAZAKHSTAN; RUSSIA SENDS TROOPS

Fresh violence erupted in Kazakhstan’s main city on Thursday after Russia rushed in paratroopers overnight to put down a countrywide uprising in one of Moscow’s closest former Soviet allies. Police in the main city Almaty said they had killed dozens of rioters overnight. The authorities said at least 18 members of the security forces had died, including two found decapitated. More than 2,000 people had been arrested. After a night of running confrontations between protesters and troops on the streets, a presidential residence in the city and its mayor’s office were both ablaze, and burnt out cars littered the city, Reuters journalists said. Military personnel regained control of the main airport, seized earlier by protesters. Thursday evening saw renewed battles in Almaty’s main square, occupied alternately by troops and hundreds of protesters throughout much of the day.

Oil production at Kazakhstan’s top field Tengiz was reduced on Thursday, its operator Chevron said, as some contractors disrupted train lines in support of the protests. The internet was shut down across the country, making it impossible to gauge the extent of the unrest. But the violence was unprecedented in a state ruled since Soviet times by Nursultan Nazarbayev, 81. His successor, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev called in the Russian forces as part of a Moscow-led military alliance of ex-Soviet states. He blamed the unrest on foreign-trained terrorists who he said had seized buildings & weapons.

INDIA INKS DEAL TO DEVELOP OIL TANK IN LANKA

Marking a major milestone in a strategic project in Sri Lanka whose fate has remained uncertain for decades, Indian Oil Corporation subsidiary Lanka IOC, Ceylon Petroleum Corporation and the Government of Sri Lanka on Thursday signed three lease agreements on jointly developing the Trincomalee oil tank farm in eastern Sri Lanka.

The move, which finally firms up India’s role in the project discussed since the time of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987, follows Cabinet clearance this week.

TALIBAN ADDING SUICIDE BOMBERS TO ARMY RANKS

The Taliban will officially recruit suicide bombers to become part of the army as the militant group tries to contain its biggest security threat from rival Islamic State since forming government in Afghanistan four months ago. Before sweeping into power last year, the Taliban used suicide bombers as a key weapon to attack and defeat US and Afghan troops in the 20-year war. Now the group wants to reform and organise the scattered squads of suicide bombers across the country to operate under a single unit and protect Afghanistan, said the Taliban’s deputy spokesman Bilal Karimi.

Their main target now would be the local offshoot of the Islamic State. “The special forces that include martyrdom seekers will be used for more sophisticated and special operations,” Karimi said by phone. The militant group is building a “strong and organised army to bolster defence” nationwide and at the borders with the suicide bombers becoming a integral part of the strategy, he added.

FRANCE FINES GOOGLE, FB FOR COOKIES’ USE

Paris:French regulators have hit Google and Facebook with 210 million euros ($237 million) in fines over their use of “cookies”, the data used to track users online, authorities said on Thursday. US tech giants, including the likes of Apple and Amazon, have come under growing pressure over their businesses practices across Europe, where they have faced massive fines and plans to impose far-reaching EU rules on how they operate. The 150-millioneuro fine imposed on Google was a record by France’s National Commission for Information Technology and Freedom (CNIL), beating a previous cookie-related fine of 100 million euros against the company in December 2020. Facebook was handed a 60million-euro fine.

“CNIL has determined that the sites facebook. com, google. fr and (Google-owned) youtube. com do not allow users to refuse the use of cookies as simply as to accept them,” the regulatory body said. The two platforms have three months to adapt their practices, after which France will impose fines of 1,00,000 euros per day, CNIL added. Google said it would change its practices following the ruling. “In accordance with the expectations of internet users. . . we are committed to implementing new changes, as well as to working actively with CNIL in response to its decision,” the US company said in a statement.

Cookies are little packets of data that are set up on a user’s computer when they visit a website, allowing web browsers to save information about their session.

NEAR-EMPTY FLIGHTS CRISSCROSS EUROPE TO SECURE LANDING SLOTS

Europe’s sky is filling up with near-empty polluting planes that serve little other purpose than safeguarding airlines’ valuable time slots at some of the world’s most important airports. The Omicron variant has put many off flying, and because of it, getting people and goods from point A to point B has become an afterthought for thousands of flights. “The EU surely is in a climate emergency mode,” activist Greta Thunberg tweeted sarcastically this week, linking to a story about Brussels Airlines making unnecessary flights. The company has said that if the EU doesn’t take action, it would have to fly some 3,000 journeys this winter primarily to safeguard its network rights. German giant Lufthansa said it would have to fly an additional 18,000 “unnecessary” flights through the winter to hold on to landing sl- ots. Normally, airlines have to use 80% of their given slots to preserve their rights, but the EU has cut that to 50% to ensure as few empty or near-empty planes fly. In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration has waived similar minimum slot-use rules through March 26, citing the pandemic.