Source: Reuters

COVID-19

▪️ The United States hit a six-month high for new COVID-19 cases with over 100,000 infections, according to a Reuters tally, as the Delta variant ravages areas where people did not get vaccinated.

▪️ Low vaccination rates and the more infectious Delta variant are converging to create a new COVID-19 crisis for Louisiana as the United States and the world face the latest stage of the pandemic.

▪️ The Biden administration is developing a plan to require nearly all foreign visitors to the United States to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 as part of eventually lifting travel restrictions that bar much of the world from entering the United States, a White House official told Reuters.

▪️ The White House said it is prepared to provide COVID-19 booster shots, if needed, suggesting it would not heed a call by the World Health Organization to delay providing additional vaccinations.

▪️ Landlord groups asked a U.S. judge in Washington to immediately lift a new eviction moratorium that was put in place Tuesday by the CDC, saying the new order was “unlawful”.

World

▪️ Hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi will be sworn in as Iran’s president, with the Islamic Republic’s clerical rulers face growing crises at home and abroad.

▪️ Japan was set to expand emergency restrictions to eight more prefectures to fight a surge in COVID-19 cases, as worries deepen about strains on the nation’s medical system in Olympics host Tokyo and around the country.

▪️ Sydney recorded its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic as authorities launched an investigation into a beach party suspected of spreading the virus into a region outside the city, triggering a snap one-week lockdown there.

▪️ A Hong Kong judge cleared singer and pro-democracy activist Anthony Wong of a charge of “corrupt conduct” filed this week by the city’s anti-corruption watchdog over an appearance at an opposition election rally in 2018.

▪️ The International Olympic Committee has yet to talk to any Belarusian team officials involved in the case of sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who took refuge in Poland this week after refusing to return to her homeland from Tokyo.