World News in Brief: September 4

* Mainland China reported 25 new COVID-19 cases on Sept. 3, up from 11 reported a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Friday. The National Health Commission said in a statement that all new cases were imported infections originating from overseas, marking the 19th consecutive day with no locally transmitted infections. The total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases for mainland China now stands at 85,012, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.

* The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday (September 3) said the number of deaths due to the new coronavirus had risen by 1,009 to 185,092 and reported 6,087,403 cases, an increase of 39,711 cases from its previous count.

* Mexico’s health ministry on Thursday reported 5,937 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 513 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 616,894 cases and 66,329 deaths. The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.

* France registered more than 7,000 new coronavirus infections over 24 hours for the second time in two days, the health ministry said on Thursday, while hospitalisations for the virus also rose again. The health ministry reported that the cumulative total of confirmed cases rose to 300,181, up by 7,157, just shy of a 7,578 record set on March 31 during lockdown. The death toll increased by 20 to 30,706, the fourth consecutive day of a double-digit death toll.

* Australia’s prime minister pressed states on Friday to reopen their borders by December and ease restrictions, as businesses and locked down households vented their frustration over deepening revenue and job losses. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the country would look to bring more Australians home, raising the cap from 4,000 a week, and suggested an eventual travel bubble with New Zealand would boost tourism and help revive the economy, which has fallen into recession for the first time since 1991.

* New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Friday retained the restrictions put in place to beat the spread of the coronavirus until at least mid-September, as the country reported a new death related to the virus. Auckland, the country’s largest city and the centre of a fresh outbreak, will remain on alert level 2.5, which limits gatherings to no more than 10 people.

* Hungary needs to kickstart its economy while fine-tuning rules to prepare for a second wave of the pandemic, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday. Orban told state radio that unlike in March, when all schools closed under a national lockdown, the government will keep classes open and decide on any closures on a case-by-case basis. Gross domestic product data have shown a year-on-year contraction of 8.2%-13.6% in countries across central Europe. Hungary was the worst hit with its second-quarter GDP falling 13.6%.

* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 782 to 246,948, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Friday.

* India’s army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane said on Friday he was confident the ongoing border stand-off with China could be resolved through talks, even as thousands of troops remained amassed along a disputed Western Himalayan region. Both China and India have repeatedly reiterated that they are keen on talks to resolve the process, with military officials meeting for several days this week south of Ladakh’s Pangong Tso lake, where the latest flare-up occurred over the weekend.

* US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin have informally agreed on a stopgap funding bill to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month, ABC News reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with a phone call between the two officials.

* The US Transportation Department said Thursday it planned to restore the ability of Indian air carriers to conduct ground handling operations at US airports. The announcement comes as India is now allowing US air carriers to perform the full range of ground handling operations at Indian airports, the department said. Air India should be allowed to resume operations after the department adopts a final order.

* France called on the United States to withdraw sanctions on International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday. The US on Wednesday imposed sanctions on Bensouda over her investigation into whether American forces committed war crimes in Afghanistan and said that Phakiso Mochochoko, head of the ICC’s Jurisdiction, Complementarity and Cooperation Division, had also been blacklisted.

* Cyber attacks against Australia have increased in frequency in recent months, Defence Minister Linda Reynolds said on Friday, as the country released its first cyber security threat report which cited 4,500 hacking attempts in one day. Australia said in June it would strengthen cyber defences after a “sophisticated state-based actor” spent months trying to hack all levels of the government, political bodies, essential service providers and operators of critical infrastructure.

* Greece and Turkey have agreed to talks to avoid accidental clashes in the Eastern Mediterranean, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, part of efforts to defuse the worsening dispute over energy resources in the region. Germany is also leading a diplomatic push for broader dialogue and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan by video conference.

* Scotland will require travellers returning from Portugal and French Polynesia from 0300 GMT on Saturday to quarantine for 14 days, Scotland’s Justice Minister Humza Yousaf said on Twitter on Thursday. Wales earlier on Thursday also added Portugal to its quarantine list, but England did not do so, despite the number of cases in the country rising above the threshold at which the measure is considered.

* Israel will impose a partial national lockdown next week to battle a coronavirus infection surge, the head of its pandemic task force said on Thursday, shouting his exasperation in an emotional television address. The health official, Ronni Gamzu, said Israel was facing a “pivotal moment” in trying to contain the spread of COVID-19, with some 3,000 new cases now reported daily in a population of nine million. There have been 122,799 confirmed coronavirus cases in Israel and 976 deaths.

* Police in Nepal used tear gas and water cannon on Thursday to break up a religious rally that defied a government ban on public gatherings imposed to fight the coronavirus pandemic. Despite the ban, about 2,000 residents poured into a major thoroughfare of Lalitpur, near Nepal’s capital Kathmandu, to pull a chariot of the rain god, Rato Machhindranath, a ritual that has been celebrated for countless generations. On Thursday, Nepali Health Ministry spokesman Jageshwor Gautam said the number of coronavirus infections in the Himalayan nation had increased to 42,877, with 257 deaths.

* Libya’s internationally recognised Government of National Accord (GNA) on Thursday restored the interior minister to his post after announcing his suspension last week following protests over living conditions. Fathi Bashagha said in a statement posted online that he had been reinstated after a five-hour hearing about the protests and the role of the security forces.

* Algeria’s Sonatrach said on Friday that two oil leakages occurred at the OK1 pipeline due to bad weather. Sonatrach added in a statement on Facebook that the pipeline connects Hassi Messaoud to Skikda, saying operations are ongoing to control the situation.

Source: Nhan Dan Online