There is a new drug for Alzheimer’s but there is also a controversy around it. CO2 levels are at its highest yet and India’s Covid numbers are the best it has been since two months.
CORONAVIRUS NEWS
📉 Good numbers: India daily spike goes below 100,000 for first time since April 5; 20% of eligible population vaccinated at least once. Govt has also issued new treatment guidelines.
🚷 Lockdowns: Except for some South Indian states and a few in north-east India, most of the country is no longer under a strict lockdown, curbs remain.
💉✈️ Special case: For those travelling abroad till August 31, the gap between two doses reduced from 84 days to 28 days.
🦠 New Variant: NIV Pune detects a new variant – B.1.1.28.2 – on international passengers from UK and Brazil. These findings are yet to be peer-reviewed. [NOTE: New variants crop up all the time, their severity is yet to be established.]
⚰️ Goa’s Count: State will act against private hospitals that didn’t report 67 deaths.
🚽 Pune Sewage: City finds traces of the virus in its sewage system, which was expected. This can be used to figure out the prevalence of the disease in a given area.
🌡️ Drone Temp: Malaysia Police is deploying drones to check temperature of people outside.
“I call on all manufacturers to give Covax first right of refusal on new volume of Covid-19 vaccines, or to commit 50% of their volumes to Covax this year.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general
(Photo credit: M. Jacobson – Gonzalez/ Wikimedia Commons)
INDIA NEWS
🔥 Pune Tragedy: 18 people died in a fire in water purifier factory.
🏳️🌈 Don’t be Stupid: Madras High Court banned any attempt “to cure” sexual orientation, orders sensitisation of police, parents and health workers, judicial officers and schools. Tamil Nadu becomes first state to ban “conversion therapy”. This, after judge went to educate himself on the issue.
✋ Congress Turmoil: After Punjab, now rumblings begin again in Rajasthan after deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot says that last year’s panel did nothing to assuage him.
“It has now been 10 months. I was given to understand that there would be swift action by the committee, but now half of the term is done, and those issues haven’t been resolved. “
Sachin Pilot, Rajasthan deputy CM
WORLD NEWS
💊 Confusing: FDA approves Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab although its usefulness is disputed. Earlier, the drug manufacturer appeared not confident and even FDA members disagreed.
💀 Kettle calling Pot?: Terror group ISIS ordered the killing of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram. ISIS was apparently concerned with Shekau’s “indiscriminate killing” of believers.
🇲🇻 Maldives at UN: Island nation’s foreign minister Abdullah Shahid will be 76th president of the UN General Assembly.
♨️ Preventing Tension: Israel stops right-wing groups from taking out a march through Jerusalem.
🇮🇷⚛️🇺🇸🇩🇪🇫🇷🇬🇧 Having Faith: The US and European countries have decided to keep aside an IAEA warning that they couldn’t say for sure if Iran is en route to make nukes. Instead, they will go forward with getting Iran to return to a deal. This even as Iran is heading for presidential “elections”.
“Iran has not provided necessary explanation for the presence of nuclear material particles at any of the 3 locations where the agency has conducted complementary accesses… I am deeply concerned…”
Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief
Picture: Adrian Almazan/Wikimedia Commons
🇺🇸🆚🇨🇳 Coming Together: Republicans and Democrats are on the verge of passing a bill that is expected to counter China by investing heavily into semiconductor research, artificial intelligence and other tech.
🇵🇰 Pak tragedy: Toll from Monday’s train collission goes past 50
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
🔎💰 Fin(e)d This: Google told to pay €220m (Rs 1,953 crore) for favouring its ads over its rivals in France. Firm agrees to change its policy.
📳 PayTM IPO: Firm’s board approves going public with $3bn IPO, looking to raise at least $1.5bn
🚫 Templeton Barred: SEBI has barred Franklin Templeton from offering debt plans for two years and ordered it to refund Rs 512 crore for regulation violations.
🪙 Tracing Bitcoins: US says it has recovered most of the bitcoins paid as ransom to DarkSide, a group that allegedly took over one of the largest oil pipelines in the US last month.
ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE & TECH
🌎 Climate Change: G-7 countries’ GDP shrank by 4.2% during pandemic, but this can be 8.5% if global temp rises by 2.6C over pre-industrial era. India will lose 25%. CO2 levels hit a record high of 419 ppm.
🚀 Frontier: Richest person and Amazon chief Jeff Bezos and brother will take off on the shuttle New Shepard that will go up to 100 km on July 20. A third seat available for auction starting at $2.8mn.
You see the Earth from space, it changes you. It changes your relationship with this planet, with humanity. It’s one Earth. I want to go on this flight because it’s the thing I’ve wanted to do all my life. It’s an adventure. It’s a big deal for me.
Jeff Bezos
Picture: Len Edgerly/Wikimedia Commons
🇦🇺🦕 Titan Downunder: Australian paleontologists have described the continent’s largest dinosaur, named Australotitan cooperensis – a plant-eating dinosaur that lived at least 92 million years ago, the Cretaceous period.
👨💻👩💻 Apple WFH: Firm’s decision to ask people to report to office from September for three days a week does not go down well with workers.
News of Yesterday
☪️ Muhammad, the founder of Islam, died in Medina on this day in 632.
News Of Today 
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