World News in Brief: September 2

* The Philippine health ministry on Wednesday (September 2) recorded 2,218 new coronavirus infections, the country’s lowest daily case increase in five weeks, and 27 additional deaths. In a bulletin, the ministry said total infections have risen to 226,440 while deaths have reached 3,623, a quarter of which were recorded in the past 15 days.

* Mainland China reported eight new COVID-19 cases as of Sept 1, down from 10 a day earlier, China’s national health authority said on Wednesday. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in mainland China now stands at 85,066, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.

* Brazil reported 42,659 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 1,215 deaths from the disease caused by the virus in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Tuesday. Brazil has registered 3,950,931 cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 122,596, according to ministry data, in the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak outside the United States.

* Mexico’s health ministry on Tuesday reported 6,476 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 827 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 606,036 cases and 65,241 deaths. The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.

* Russia reported 4,952 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, pushing its national tally to 1,005,000, the fourth largest in the world. Authorities said 115 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 17,414.

* India’s novel coronavirus infections rose to almost 3.8 million on Wednesday, as states continued to relax rules on movement despite the surge in cases. The country reported 78,357 new cases in the past 24 hours, according to federal health data, taking total infections to 3,769,523. Some 66,333 people have died. India’s total cases lag only the United States and Brazil, which it will overtake in days based on current trends.

* Australia’s most-populous state reported the biggest daily jump in coronavirus infections in two weeks on Wednesday but said there were no plans to cancel the New Year fireworks show over Sydney Harbour, as new cases nationally also ticked up. New South Wales (NSW) state reported 17 new cases, the biggest one-day jump since Aug. 12, while nationally the count rose to 109 cases from 85 a day earlier. Victoria state remained the hardest-hit region with 90 cases, although this was well down from its daily peak of more than 700 in early August at the height of a second wave of infections.

* Tens of millions of pupils around Europe returned to school on Tuesday, with hand cleansing stations, social distancing and staggered play time set to become the new normal.

* Poland is banning from Wednesday direct flights from 44 countries including Spain, Israel and Romania.

* More than 40% of new cases in Republic of Korea are being found in people over the age of 60, health authorities said. The ROK is battling a second wave of infection, centred in the capital Seoul and surrounding areas which are home to 25 million people. Overall, the ROK has reported 20,449 cases and 326 deaths.

* Japan is considering offering the coronavirus vaccine for free to all citizens, Kyodo news reported on Wednesday.

* US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said after a phone call with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday that “serious differences” remain between Democrats and the White House over the coronavirus relief legislation.

* The US government will send an “overwhelming majority” of rapid COVID-19 tests to governors of states and territories to support school reopenings and other critical tasks.

* Nearly two million children returned to school in Jordan on Tuesday after a five month-absence, although authorities were forced to suspend teaching in some areas due to a spike in cases.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 1,256 to 244,855, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday. The reported death toll rose by eleven to 9,313, the tally showed.

* China’s aviation regulator said on Wednesday it will resume direct flights to Beijing from eight countries including Thailand, Cambodia, Greece, Denmark, Sweden and Canada from Sept. 3. In March, Chinese authorities ordered all international flights to Beijing to be diverted to other airports as their first port of entry, as the capital stepped up measures to battle imported infections.

* Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will visit Belarus for talks on Thursday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said, as Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko faces the biggest political crisis of his 26 years in power. Belarusian Foreign Minister Vladimir Makei, who was in Moscow for talks on Wednesday, told reporters that close ally Russia’s stance on the political crisis in Belarus was helping prevent outside meddling in the country. Makei said he thought the situation was stabilising.

* Executives from Japan’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party have decided to hold the party’s leadership election on Sept. 14, a source told Reuters on Wednesday. The date is expected to be approved at a general meeting of the party on Wednesday afternoon, the source said. The party’s leader will almost certainly become premier because of its majority in the lower house of parliament.

* India is facing potential delays in the harvest of its massive sugarcane crop, threatening supply worldwide, as millions of migrant workers needed for the harvest may be scared to travel due to the novel coronavirus.

* The Trump administration on Tuesday announced plans to seek senior-level talks with Mexico over imports of perishable fruits and vegetable as part of a broader series of actions meant to bolster US farmers, raising the possibility of future tariffs.

* EU-mediated negotiations on normalising relations between Serbia and its former province of Kosovo could lead to a deal within months, the EU’s envoy dealing with one of Europe’s toughest territorial disputes said on Monday. Normalisation negotiations broke down in 2018 but resumed in July after Kosovo lifted stiff import tariffs on Serbian goods.

* French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday he would travel to Iraq on Wednesday, his first visit to the country, after two days in Lebanon. French officials have said Paris was concerned by a resurgence in Iraq of the Islamic State group, which is profiting from political uncertainty in the country and rivalries between Iran and the United States in the region.

* Scotland said it would impose a 14-day quarantine on all arrivals from Greece starting on Thursday because COVID-19 infection rates there are too high. There has been a “significant rise” in cases of coronavirus being brought into Scotland, a devolved region of the United Kingdom, from people who have been to Greece, the Scottish government said on Tuesday.

* An Afghan government-mandated negotiation team will fly to Qatar’s capital on Thursday as they prepare for peace talks with the Taliban, a national reconciliation council spokesman said. It was not immediately clear when peace talks will start. The Taliban have demanded a final set of 320 prisoners be released before they will negotiate. The government has this week set free 200, leaving 120 left, some of whom Western governments have objected to releasing.

* The United States will lift a 33-year arms embargo on Cyprus and deepen its security cooperation with Nicosia, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday, prompting an angry response from Turkey. Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said on Twitter after a phone call with Pompeo that he welcomed the move.

* Norway’s quarterly public spending exceeded the government’s overall income for the first time in 25 years during the three months from April to June, Statistics Norway (SSB) said on Wednesday. The unusual deficit, amounting to NOK83 billion (US$9.5 billion), came as the COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp fall in tax revenue and in the price of crude oil, Norway’s top export, while spending rose to protect the economy.

* Ukraine registered a record 2,495 new coronavirus cases and 51 related deaths in the past 24 hours, the national security council said on Wednesday. Ukraine has imposed a temporary ban on most foreigners entering the country until Sept. 28 and extended lockdown measures until the end of October to contain a recent spike in cases. The country has so far reported a total of 125,798 infections and 2,656 deaths.

* Hungary said on Wednesday it had registered 365 new COVID-19 infections, its highest daily tally on record, as people return from summer holidays and the school year starts up. Hungary, with around 10 million people, weathered the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year with fewer infections than many European countries. The total number of cases, as of Wednesday, stood at 6,622, with 619 deaths.

* Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman met with Jared Kushner, senior advisor to US President Donald Trump on Tuesday, according to the Saudi state news agency (SPA). The two parties discussed prospects of peace in the region and the importance of resuming negotiations between both the Palestinian and Israeli sides, SPA added. Kushner started a visit to the region on Monday that included several gulf countries.

* Iraq is seeking an exemption from an OPEC+ deal curbing oil production during the first quarter of 2021 but will adhere to the cuts over the next three months, Oil Minister Ihsan Abdul Jabbar said on Wednesday. Abdul Jabbar has spoken about the exemption to OPEC oil ministers in three separate meetings, he told a local newspaper in comments reported by state news agency INA.

* Tunisia’s parliament approved a technocratic government in a confidence vote on Wednesday, hoping to end months of political instability and focus on tackling worsening economic and social problems. There were 134 votes in favour and 67 against forming the government. The debate, which started on Tuesday, was held amid a tussle for influence between the president and major parties.

* Confirmed deaths in Colombia due to COVID-19 topped 20,000 on Tuesday as cases surpassed 624,000, the health ministry said in its daily update. The Andean country has so far reported 20,052 deaths and 624,069 cases of the novel coronavirus. Active cases stand at 133,155. This week Colombia ended its initial quarantine measures after nearly five months of national lockdowns.

Source: Nhan Dan Online