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This report shows improvements in the situation for coronavirus in Pakistan. It is still to early to tell how the reopening of the economy is likely to affect the cases for coronavirus. Not enough testing is taking place. The Eid holiday taking place this weekend also could have repercussions later in August with more crowds and gatherings for the religious event. Pakistan has 278,000 cases of infection and 6000 reported deaths. At one point the situation seemed to be following the situation in Brazil but has stabilized recently.

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Is India relaxing its earlier tight vigilance for the coronavirus? This report in DW.com points out that the earlier vigilance has slackened after the reopening of the economy leading to a jump in cases.

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In the U.S., Brazil, and now Mexico wearing masks during the coronavirus pandemic has become politicized. Here "Amlo" as president Lopez Obrador is popularly called says he will wear a mask once corruption is ended in Mexico and he does not need to talk about corruption. Amlo gives his own advice for fighting the pandemic- stop eating junk food or taking junk drinks, lose weight, and find spirituality, which is all good advice. President Trump recently wore a mask and called it "patriotic" to wear a mask taking some of the politics out of this simple and basic prevention action. The governor of Texas made it mandatory to wear a mask after initial hesitation.  

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New bicycle lanes in Paris, Milan, to Mexico City are changing the way cities see people getting to work or moving round. New bicycle lanes are popping up in many cities. In Paris the plan by order of the mayor is to provide 400 miles of pop-up bicycle lanes throughout Greater Paris. Car lanes are giving way and being transformed into bicycle lanes. 

Oakland has moved to have 10% of the roads for bicycle lanes. In Montreal extra 70 miles are added. Bogota added 47 miles.

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Transmission for people visiting other households is a big part of the transmission problem in northern England in July. Lockdown for these visits is being reinstated as cases rise. This is seen as a bigger problem than going to work so that restrictions have to be placed in a way that restricts the kind of activity that causes transmission, says Matt Hancock, health secretary. People from different households are now barred from meeting indoors in the Manchester area. 

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Masks will be mandatory in more public spaces in Britain starting August 8. Prime minister Boris Johnson says it is time "to squeeze the brake pedal" as cases jump to 4200 a day July 30, as provided by ONS. Northern England has more cases and new restrictions. Face coverings will be mandatory in more indoor spaces such as cinemas. Standing next to Mr. Johnson at a briefing, Prof. Chris Whitty, England chief medical officer said the "idea that we can open everything and keep the virus under control is wrong."

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The resistance of some youth and younger people to social distancing and mask wearing guidelines and restrictions on gatherings, is one of the hard to understand behaviours in France, Florida, California and other parts of the western world. On one day alone 500,000 persons went to bars in Los Angeles County the day after after they reopened on June 20, according to some reports. The surge in California today is not something that just happened or fell suddenly from the sky.

In France after 72 cases were detected in the Quiberon peninsula the top regional official told about "the irresponsibility of young people vacationing or living here gathering in large numbers for festivities, ignoring the danger." Some of the people 18-25 years have with the risky behaviours increased the level of the dangers in this pandemic in many countries.

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Macron gets a well deserved boost in France as his popularity grows after he worked hard with Germany's Merkel at his side in long drawn out negotiations with the Dutch and Swedes to get the $390 billion non repayable aid for the European Recovery Fund. The money goes to hard hit Spain, Italy, Greece and other nations who had great difficulty borrowing to support recovery.

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Germany's second quarter GDP drops by 10.1%. For the year 2020 a 2.8% drop in GDP is expected. The jobless rate held steady at 6.4% unchanged from June. About 6.7 million people are enrolled in a German state funded furlough scheme in May up from 6.1 million in April.

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An ancient custom in Provence used to catch thrush birds by putting glue on twigs and branches so that birds get stuck is now banned by European Union rules. The French government plans to ban hunters from using this practice any longer. Hunters use the birds to act as call birds to attract other birds for hunting.

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Perseverance at NASA, and after eight years of patient hard work overcoming the hurdle of doing the Mars Mission during coronavirus lockdown, lead to the final launch of the spacecraft to Mars on July 30, 2020. The mission craft is aptly called Perseverance. Names matter, the ship James Cook used to make the first trip of discovery to Australia was aptly called Endeavour and a replica can still be seen at the British Museum. The mission will provide clues to why the planet Mars once warm and wet turned into a dry desert, what about its ancient history made this happen. The mission will send rock samples back to earth, investigate the geology and climate on the planet, search for any signs of life, and look at the prospects for human exploration. A small helicopter Ingenuity will make the first flight on another planet.  Some facts about this mission- It can only be launched every 26 months as the earth and the planet Mars have to be on the same side of the sun which happens every 26 months for 3 weeks.  It costs 500 million dollars just to store the craft if the mission was delayed 26 months because of the pandemic. Other than the cost the reason for launching now without error was the need to give America enthusiasm about new frontiers to be explored even as it conducted the fight against the pandemic. NASA has 2000 scientists and engineers at JPL in California and 400 technical workers at KSC in Florida who do the work for missions. This mission used an essential team that did the work during the lockdown even as other scientists and engineers worked from home.   ...

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U.S. GDP fell by 9.5% in the second quarter of 2020.

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If all goes well the U.S. spacecraft Perseverance Rover will land on Mars February 18 after traveling 300 million miles. The nuclear powered Perseverance craft is on a 2 year mission. After 6 weeks from the landing the rover will unpack an experimental robotic helicopter called Ingenuity which will be flight tested in the first powered flight on another planet.

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In India for the whole country about 500,000 samples are being tested each day at the end of July 2020. This is leading to a jump in cases. It also ensures people who test positive are being asked to isolate to stop the spread of the virus.

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The vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India with research at Oxford University in Britain will cost about Rs 1000 or $13, and it will be called Covishield. It is expected by November 2020 with 1 billion doses of production planned.

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Coronavirus cases on a daily basis exceed 70,000 in one day in Brazil with 26,000 in Sao Paulo alone. Brazil's cases now exceed 2.5 million, the worst hit after the U.S. followed by India. President Bolsonaro has failed to provide leadership in the pandemic, himself contracting the virus and not following social distancing, mask covering till recently.

President Macron of France gains in popularity with over 50% satisfied with his performance after his hard fought gains in getting the 390 billion euros nonrepayable common debt funds for the European Recovery Fund for hard hit pandemic countries. Macron was able to get the full support of Merkel of Germany to get this approved after Dutch premier Rutte's effort to stall the aid effort in weeks of long negotiations. It is a show of European solidarity and brings Europe together, giving much needed aid to Spain and Italy.