SWITZERLAND - The World Health Organization on Saturday warned the coronavirus pandemic was likely to be "lengthy" after its emergency committee met to evaluate the crisis six months after sounding the international alarm. The committee "highlighted the anticipated lengthy duration of this COVID-19 pandemic", the WHO said in a statement, and warned of the risk of "response fatigue" given the socio-economic pressures on countries. The novel coronavirus has killed at least 680,000 people and infected at least 17.6 million since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by AFP.

UK - Last week we warned readers to be cautious about new COVID-19 vaccines, highlighting how key parts of the clinical trials are being skipped as big pharma will not be held accountable for adverse side effects for administering the experimental drugs. A senior executive from AstraZeneca, Britain's second-largest drugmaker, told Reuters that his company was just granted protection from all legal action if the company's vaccine led to damaging side effects. "This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in… four years the vaccine is showing side effects," said Ruud Dobber, a top exec at AstraZeneca.

"In the contracts we have in place, we are asking for indemnification. For most countries, it is acceptable to take that risk on their shoulders because it is in their national interest," said Dobber, adding that Astra and regulators were making safety and tolerability a top priority. The major red flag is how governments are allowing big pharma to rush experimental vaccines, with no legal recourse if something goes terribly wrong.

USA - Nearly 8,000 residents of Riverside County in Southern California were forced to evacuate their homes on Saturday as a wildfire spread uncontained across more than 4,000 acres, the County fire department said. The fire - dubbed the Apple Fire by local firefighters, who routinely give blazes identifying names - was reported on Friday in Cherry Valley, a community about 75 miles east of Los Angeles. It had destroyed at least one family home as of Saturday evening (Sunday morning UK time). The fire had grown from 700 acres on Friday evening to 4,125 acres by Saturday evening and was not contained.

ECUADOR - China's 300-mile fishing fleet which is visible from space and hoovers up all sea life is decimating endangered species - and plastic waste thrown overboard is polluting the shores of Darwin's Galapagos Islands, scientists warn. Stretching for miles across the horizon, a vast armada of Chinese fishing boats trawl the pristine waters close to the Galapagos Islands. Ostensibly fishing squid, the real target for the 265-strong fleet are sharks to serve the appetite for expensive fin soup, costing up to £350 a bowl, sold in markets across China and Hong Kong.

Night and day, the vessels – many the size of a football pitch – ransack the seabed, scooping up not only whale and hammerhead sharks but other species including turtles and birds. The scale is staggering. When a single vessel was intercepted straying into the protected waters around the Galapagos three years ago, 300 tons of refrigerated scalloped hammerhead shark fins were found. Since then, the cluster of islands where Charles Darwin first developed his theory of evolution by natural selection, have become the epicentre of the multi-billion-pound industry.

SOUTH AFRICA - A team of German technical experts is expected to touch down in South Africa on Thursday to provide essential services to local German businesses and local entities, such as embattled Eskom. This agreement is the result of close cooperation between International Relations and Cooperation Minister Naledi Pandor and Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, supported by the efforts of the South-African-German Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Lufthansa and the German Embassy, together with the relevant South African authorities. Steffen Scholz, spokesperson of the German Embassy in South Africa, said many businesses had come to a halt during the lockdown in South Africa. On Thursday morning, a special Lufthansa flight is due to arrive from Frankfurt in Germany at Johannesburg's OR Tambo International Airport. On board are engineers, technicians and other experts whose skills are urgently needed to help get the economy going and South African exports rolling again, according to Scholtz.

USA - From the New England Journal of Medicine: “We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic …they give a false sense of security to both the wearer and those around the wearer”.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES - The United Arab Emirates has become the first nation in the Arab world to produce nuclear energy, following the start-up of a newly constructed plant in Abu Dhabi. The Barakah Nuclear Power Plant’s Unit 1 is now using nuclear fuel to produce energy after the facility successfully executed initial tests on Saturday. Three other reactors are still under construction and the plant still needs to be connected to the country’s power grid, local media reported. The Dubai leader also said the plant’s launch illustrates that “the Arabs are able to resume their scientific ambitions” and hinted that the next step for the UAE is space exploration.

USA - Sam Brownback, US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, said China’s hacking of Vatican computers should warn Church leaders the nation’s communist government is not to be trusted. Speaking with Crux, a US-based online Catholic news outlet, Ambassador Brownback said he really hopes “that the Vatican would look at this and see what they are dealing with,” in reference to revelations this week that hackers tied to the Chinese government had infiltrated the Vatican’s computer networks beginning last May. “If I were a Vatican official and seeing this is who I am dealing with, and this is how they are going to deal with me, it would cause me great pause to think about how can I trust and work with these other individuals that are spying on me,” Brownback said.

USA - Every morning, Charles Boukas drives to six Chase banks in the San Diego area in search of quarters. The most he ever drove to was eight, but one branch was closed that day, and two others didn’t have change. Boukas, the 55-year-old owner of the Coin Hut Laundromat, is in a bind: He’s running low on quarters because residents of apartment complexes are making change and not using his machines. The whole trip takes about two hours, and the total amount of quarters he can get is worth $120 because his banks limit how many coins they give out. So he’s been seeking alternative sources. Under couch cushions? Maybe not that far—but close. “Our biggest success has been friends and family so far, and the banks are just a daily grind that I do,” he says.

USA - Demonstrators in Portland set Bibles and US flags on fire amid protests that have spanned nearly 2 months. The day before, protesters torched a pig’s head with police clothing, though they still claim their movement is peaceful. Footage published by RT’s Ruptly video agency shows a group of protesters on Friday night gathered around a burning Bible, with several individuals mockingly warming their hands around the fire. Laughter and shouts of “F**k Trump” can be heard in the background. US flags were also burned by the protesters, who were seen crowding around the fire and taking photographs. The provocative bonfires come one night after demonstrators torched a severed pig’s head that was placed under an American flag. The head was decorated with a police officer’s hat, leaving little to the imagination.

CAMBODIA - The Mekong River Commission (MRC) has issued a severe drought warning for southern Laos, northeast Cambodia and the Central Highlands of Vietnam amid low rainfall and complaints about water hoarding upstream. The drought is being felt along the length and breadth of the Mekong Delta and in its latest weekly forecast the MRC’s Regional Flood and Drought Management Centre in Phnom Penh said other areas in the region are also suffering moderate to severe drought. Rainfall for the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB) in May and June was about 70 percent lower than a year ago when the region was already in drought. The MRC usually issues flood warnings at this time of year.

USA - US-German relations are beyond repair as the result of a decades-long clash of views and ideas. Troop pullout is only a symptom. While the Trump administration sells the decision to withdraw US troops from Germany as a strengthening of NATO force alignment, the reality is it’s merely the latest manifestation of a relationship on the decline for decades.

USA - The US Africa Command will seek to move its headquarters as the Pentagon plans a major reduction of American forces based in Germany. The German Defense Ministry is now considering how to help regions after the US withdrawal. Since its establishment in 2008, the US Africa Command has been headquartered in Stuttgart, the capital of Germany’s southwestern Baden-Wurttemberg state.

ISRAEL - A major step towards fixing the broken heart of the Jewish people on the Temple Mount was made on Tish B’Av, the day commemorating the destruction of the Temples: the Israeli flag was displayed for the first time since Israel conquered its holiest site in the 1967 Six-Day War. Despite coronavirus restrictions and threats of Muslim violence, almost 1,000 Jews ascended to the Temple Mount on Tisha B’Av. A similar attempt on Jerusalem Day in 2018 ended in Muslim violence and the police arresting the Jews. “This is the first time that a Jew has waved an Israeli flag on the Temple Mount and the police did not arrest him,” Brosh emphasized.

USA - Families trying to squeeze in a summer vacation before school starts better do some homework on COVID-19 restrictions before loading up the minivan. The web of state and local quarantines is growing more tangled by the day: New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have ordered visitors from a whopping 34 states to quarantine for 14 days. Chicago and Washington, DC, have each singled out travelers from about two dozen states. Other states have their own lists. Some have an option for visitors to get tested instead. “Complicated doesn’t begin to describe it. I feel sorry for people. They just want to go to Cape Cod. They want to go to Vermont. I don’t know what to tell them. People are pretty much left on their own to figure out,” said Kathy Kutrubes, owner of a travel agency in Boston. The restrictions — and maybe the confusion, too — are contributing to a sharp drop in travel, dealing a blow to a key industry.