KEY COVID NOS. WORLDWIDE

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

               World    7,70,483              /             32,40,515            /             13,541   /             1,85,60,268               /             415.7

1             USA        41,573   /             5,92,396              /             840        /             67,16,611            /               1,781

2             India      3,82,691              /             2,26,169              /             3,786     /             34,93,665               /             163

3             Brazil     69,378   /             4,11,854              /             3,025     /             10,05,962            /               1,926

4             France   24,371   /             1,05,387              /             247        /             8,57,661              /               1,612

5             Iran        20,150   /             73,219   /             344        /             4,79,932              /             862

6             Italy       9,116     /             1,21,738              /             305        /             4,13,889              /               2,016

7             Ukraine 2,472     /             44,916   /             166        /             3,53,864              /               1,032

8             Turkey   28,997   /             41,527   /             336        /             3,33,554              /             488

9             Germany              12,305   /             84,285   /             265        /             3,02,397              /               1,003

10           Russia    7,770     /             1,11,535              /             337        /             2,70,935              /               764

11           Argentina            26,238   /             65,202   /             410        /             2,64,757              /               1,432

12           Mexico  1,027     /             2,17,345              /             112        /             2,60,180              /               1,671

13           Spain     4,515     /             78,399   /             106        /             2,43,849              /               1,676

14           Hungary               726        /             28,045   /             137        /             2,23,802              /               2,909

15           Netherlands        7,725     /             17,221   /             32           /             2,22,349              /               1,003

16           Poland   2,296     /             68,133   /             28           /             2,02,988              /               1,802

17           Sweden                /             14,091   /             33           /             1,56,678              /               1,388

18           Honduras             505        /             5,367     /             33           /             1,29,815              /               535

19           Colombia             14,551   /             75,627   /             463        /             1,06,421              /               1,473

20           Belgium               1,334     /             24,322   /             31           /             99,391   /               2,091

AUSTRALIA WALKS BACK 'RACIST' INDIA BAN AFTER BACKLASH

Australia's prime minister fended off accusations of racism and having blood on his hands Tuesday, as he retreated from a threat to jail Australians trying to escape Covid-wracked India.

Scott Morrison's government moved to ban travellers from India from entering Australia until May 15, threatening rule-breakers -- including Australian citizens -- with prison time.

Amid a widespread backlash, Morrison on Tuesday said it was "highly unlikely" that Australians who skirted a ban would be jailed.

"I think the likelihood of any of that occurring is pretty much zero," Morrison said in a breakfast-time media blitz on Tuesday.

Around 9,000 Australians are believed to be in India, where hundreds of thousands of new coronavirus cases are being detected every day and the death toll is soaring.

Among those trapped are some of Australia's most high profile sporting stars -- cricketers playing in the lucrative Indian Premier League.

Commentator and former Test cricket star Michael Slater was among those who pilloried Morrison's decision, saying it was a "disgrace".

"Blood on your hands PM. How dare you treat us like this," he tweeted. "If our Government cared for the safety of Aussies they would allow us to get home."

Morrison said the idea he had blood on his hands was "absurd".

"The buck stops here when it comes to these decisions, and I'm going to take decisions that I believe are going to protect Australia from a third wave," he said.

"I'm working to bring them home safely," he added, indicating that repatriation flights could begin soon after May 15.

THOUSANDS OF AFGHANS FLEE HOMES AS FIGHTING ERUPTS AFTER US PULLOUT

Thousands of Afghans were forced to flee their homes as fierce fighting erupted between government forces and the Taliban in a southern province after the US military began withdrawing its remaining troops from Afghanistan, officials said Tuesday.

Afghan forces pushed back insurgent attacks on multiple checkpoints in the past 24 hours itself in the province of Helmand where the US military on Sunday handed over a base to government forces as part of its formal pullout that began on May 1.

About 1,000 families have fled their homes to escape the fighting that erupted on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, and some other parts of the province, said Sayed Mohammad Ramin, the region's director for refugees.

He said the families had taken refuge in Lashkar Gah and had come from areas where fighting was intense in the past two days.

"We will survey their needs tomorrow, but many who still have not found shelter in the city need urgent assistance," Ramin told AFP.

The defence ministry said government forces had killed more than 100 Taliban fighters in Helmand in the past 24 hours when the insurgents attacked some checkpoints on the outskirts of Lashkar Gah.

Another 22 al-Qaida fighters from Pakistan were also killed in the fighting, the ministry said.

GERMANY EYES NEW AFGHANISTAN ROLE AFTER TROOP WITHDRAWAL

Politicians and civil society in Germany are giving clear signals that they want to go on supporting development in Afghanistan even after the NATO troops go home. But what would that look like?

The countdown has started. The withdrawal of NATO troops from Afghanistan officially began on Saturday, May 1. The German army plans to bring all of its 1,100 soldiers stationed there back to Germany by mid-August.

So are Afghanistan’s allies abandoning the country — leaving it to deal with both the current violence and the threat of more to come? German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was keen to counter this impression when he visited the country at the end of last week. Germany would continue to provide Afghanistan, he assured, and remain a reliable partner for the Afghan people. Despite the fact that the military operation was coming to an end, “we are continuing our commitment in all other areas,” Maas declared.

U.S. TO SEND ABOUT 10% OF ITS VACCINES TO OTHER COUNTRIES BY JULY 4: BIDEN

U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday said countries that receive U.S. vaccines, will receive them by July 4 – India and Brazil are likely on this list. His comments were made during remarks he delivered on Tuesday afternoon, updating the public on his administration’s vaccination program and achievements.

The U.S. , which entered into an agreement with Canada and Mexico in March to share 4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine said last week that another 10 million doses would become available in the coming weeks, followed by a further 50 million by the end of June. India expects to receive the largest share of the 60 million doses, Reuters had reported last week.

“With regard to the AstraZeneca vaccine …we have sent that vaccine to Canada and to Mexico and to other countries we are talking to now,” Mr Biden said, adding that he had spoken to a head of state on Tuesday and was not prepared to announce which other countries would be getting the vaccine.

“We are going to, by the fourth of July, have sent about 10% of what we have to other nations, including some of the ones you mentioned.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that five of six shipments of assistance had already reached India and that “more flights are on the way,” with a total of over $ 100 million in assistance including rapid tests, oxygen cylinders and concentrators and masks.

U.S. ready to send an additional 12.5 million N95 masks to India.

COVID VACCINE: BIDEN AIMS TO EXPAND VACCINES FOR ADULTS AND CHILDREN

President Joe Biden has laid out plans to vaccinate 70% of US adults by 4 July and roll out the shots for 12- to 15-year-olds as soon as possible.

Mr Biden's new goal includes having 160 million adults fully vaccinated by Independence Day.

The target is well within reach given that 105 million have already had Covid-19 jabs and the US is vaccinating nearly a million adults per day.

But the vaccination rate is half of what it was just three weeks ago.

Mr Biden said his administration was working to win over "doubters" about the shots.

Mr Biden said at the White House on Monday: "In two months let's celebrate independence as a nation and our independence from this virus. We can do this. We will do this."

NETANYAHU LOSES MANDATE TO FORM ISRAEL GOVT, OPENING DOOR FOR RIVALS

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's mandate to form a government following an inconclusive election expired on Wednesday, giving his rivals a chance to take power and end the divisive premier's record tenure.

Netanyahu, on trial over corruption charges he denies, had a 28-day window to secure a coalition following the March 23 vote, Israel's fourth in less than two years.

The 71-year-old's right-wing Likud party won the most seats in the vote, but he and his allies came up short of an absolute majority in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel's parliament.

The results delivered by a deeply fractured electorate left Netanyahu with a daunting path towards 61 seats, as voters broadly chose not to reward him for a successful coronavirus vaccination campaign.

President Reuven Rivlin's office said in a statement that Netanyahu had "informed (the presidency) that he was unable to form a government and so returned the mandate to the president."

BIDEN QUADRUPLES TRUMP REFUGEE CAP AFTER BACKLASH

President Joe Biden formally raised the nation’s cap on refugee admissions to 62,500 this year, weeks after facing bipartisan blowback for his delay in replacing the record-low ceiling set by former President Donald Trump.

Refugee resettlement agencies have waited for Mr. Biden to quadruple the number of refugees allowed into the United States this year since February 12, when a presidential proposal was submitted to Congress saying he planned to do so.

But the presidential determination went unsigned until Monday. Mr. Biden said he first needed to expand the narrow eligibility criteria put in place by Mr. Trump that had kept out most refugees. He did that last month in an emergency determination. But it also stated that Mr. Trump’s cap of up to 15,000 refugees this year “remains justified by humanitarian concerns and is otherwise in the national interest”, indicating that Mr.Biden intended to keep it.

That brought sharp pushback for not at least taking the symbolic step of authorising more refugees to enter the U.S. this year. The second-ranking Senate Democrat, Dick Durbin of Illinois, called that initial limit “unacceptable” and within hours the White House made a quick course correction. The administration vowed to increase the historically low cap by May 15 — but the White House said it probably would not hit the 62,500 Mr. Biden had previously outlined.

In the end, Biden returned to that figure. Mr. Biden said he received additional information that led him to sign the emergency presidential determination setting the cap at 62,500.

PEOPLE OVER 50 IN BRITAIN TO BE OFFERED 3RD COVID VACCINE SHOT IN AUTUMN: REPORT

Everyone aged over 50 in Britain will be offered a third Covid-19 vaccination jab in the autumn in an attempt to eradicate the threat from the infection entirely by Christmas, The Times newspaper reported. Trials of two options are under way, supervised by Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, the newspaper said.

The first involves vaccines specifically modified to tackle new variants. The second is for a third shot of one of the three versions already in use: Pfizer-BioNTech , Oxford-AstraZeneca or Moderna, the newspaper reported.

A total of more than 34.6 million people in Britain have been given a first dose of Covid-19 vaccine, government statistics showed on Tuesday.

Britain, which has a population of 67 million, has deals for over 510 million doses of eight different Covid-19 vaccines, some of which remain under development.

Britain will buy 60 million more doses of Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine, health minister Matt Hancock said last week, in a deal that more than doubles the country's supply of the shot ahead of a booster programme later this year.

Britain has now ordered a total of 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine, one of three Covid-19 shots being rolled out in the country.

TRUMP LAUNCHES NEW 'COMMUNICATIONS' PLATFORM

Donald Trump has launched a new "communications" website, which says it will publish content "straight from the desk" of the former US president.

Mr Trump was banned by Twitter and suspended by Facebook and YouTube after the Capitol riots in January.

The former president has since been releasing statements by press release - which the new website will now host.

Users will be able to like posts - and also share them on Twitter and Facebook accounts.

MEDIA IS FACING CENSORSHIP, SAY PAKISTAN JOURNALISTS

The media is facing growing censorship, attacks and harassment in Pakistan that are threatening freedom of the press, a union of journalists said on Monday, on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day.

The government said there are no curbs on journalists in the country.

There were 148 documented attacks or violations against journalists in Pakistan from May 2020 to April 2021 — an increase over previous years, according to The Dawn. It said these incidents included six murders, seven attempted assassinations, five kidnappings, 25 arrests or detentions of journalists, 15 assaults and 27 legal cases against journalists.

On Monday, President of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists Shahzada Zulfiqar and Secretary-General Nasir Zaidi said freedom of the press will not be “surrendered at any cost.”

IRAN POLICE PROBE SWISS DIPLOMAT'S DEATH AFTER 'FALL'

Iranian police have announced an investigation into the death of a Swiss diplomat whose body a rescue official said was found Tuesday morning at the foot of a tower block.

"Specialised police units are in the process of examining" the circumstances around the death of a "52-year-old Swiss citizen employed by the Swiss embassy in Tehran," the national police said in a brief online statement.

Mojtaba Khaledi, spokesman for the national rescue service, said that the body was found in the morning after the diplomat "fell from a (residential) tower in Kamranieh," a northern district of Tehran.

Khaledi told AFP that the diplomat lived in the tower block and had fallen from the seventeenth floor.

In a message to AFP's Geneva office, Switzerland's foreign ministry confirmed that "a Swiss employee of the Swiss Embassy in Tehran died in a fatal incident on Tuesday".

The Swiss embassy in Iran was in touch with local authorities over the matter, the ministry added.

HEAVY FLOODING IN AFGHANISTAN KILLS AT LEAST 37 PEOPLE

Heavy rains brought severe flooding to nine provinces around Afghanistan in recent days, killing at least 37 people, some of them children, officials said on Tuesday.

Heavy flooding compounded by mudslides often threatens remote areas of Afghanistan, where infrastructure is poor, especially during the spring and summer months.

Powerful flood waters in western Herat province that began Sunday killed 24 people around the province, said provincial governor’s spokesman Jailani Farhad.

Governor Abdul Tahir Faizzada of Western Ghor province said 10 people, including six children, were killed by floodwaters that flowed from area mountains. He said 163 houses were partially destroyed and 910 people were displaced.

The spokesman for Afghanistan’s natural disaster ministry, Tamim Azimi, said over 405 families were displaced in different provinces around the country. He said some of the flooding came from overflowing rivers.