Global coronavirus deaths exceed 800,000

People wearing protective masks walk in the Montorgueil street in Paris, France, on Saturday. The global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 800,000 on Saturday, according to John Hopkins University data, with the United States, Brazil and India leading the rise in fatalities. Nearly 5,900 people are dying every 24 hours from COVID-19 on average, according to Reuters calculations based on data from the past two weeks that ended on Friday. That equates to 246 people per hour, or one person every 15 seconds.SD-Agencies

Tymoshenko in serious condition with COVID-19

Yulia Tymoshenko, a former Ukrainian prime minister, has been admitted to a hospital after having tested positive for COVID-19. She was classified as being in serious condition, Reuters indicated.

“Her temperature is up to 39 degree Celsius,” a spokeswoman for Tymoshenko’s Fatherland party was quoted as saying on Sunday.

The news came amidst a recent surge in COVID-19 cases flaring up in Ukraine. Tymoshenko is considered to be the most high-profile public in Ukraine confirmed to have COVID-19. The Verkhovna Rada (Supreme Council of Ukraine), the country’s parliament, is currently on a summer vacation.

At least five dead in

California wildfires

Five people have died, two are still missing and tens of thousands more are at risk of losing their homes as dozens of wildfires rip through Northern California, the United States, on Saturday.

A further 33 civilians and firefighters have been injured across several counties in the state, as fire services have struggled to contain more than 20 separate blazes sparked by lightning strikes during a heatwave.

Among those who have died are a helicopter pilot who crashed while trying to drop water on one conflagration in central California and a utility worker from Pacific Gas & Electric.

Russian opposition

politician ‘in coma’

Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny was in a coma in a Siberian hospital on Thursday after drinking a cup of tea that his spokeswoman said she believed was laced with poison.

Navalny, 44, was in intensive care and on an artificial lung ventilator, spokeswoman Kira Yarmysh said on social media.

A fierce critic of President Vladimir Putin, Navalny started feeling ill when returning to Moscow from Tomsk in Siberia by plane a day earlier, Yarmysh said.

“We assume that Alexei was poisoned with something mixed into his tea. It was the only thing that he drank in the morning. Doctors say the toxin was absorbed faster through the hot liquid. Alexei is now unconscious,” Yarmysh said.

Mali’s president quits after soldiers mutiny

Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita has resigned, after being detained by soldiers last week.

In a televised address, he said he was dissolving the government and parliament, adding: “I want no blood to be spilled to keep me in power.”

He and PM Boubou Cisse were taken to a military camp near the capital Bamako, drawing international condemnation. A spokesman for the soldiers called for “a civil political transition leading to credible general elections.”

UK leader urges parents to let their kids go to school

Britain’s prime minister is asking parents to set aside their fears and send their children back to school next month when schools in Britain fully reopen for the first time since the coronavirus pandemic shut them down more than five months ago.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was the government’s “moral duty” to reopen the schools as he stressed that authorities now know more about COVID-19 than they did when the country went into lockdown on March 23. Johnson’s comments came hours after Britain’s top public health officials issued a joint statement saying that children were more likely to be harmed by staying away from school than from being exposed to COVID-19.(SD-Agencies)