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United States

US PRESIDENT Joe Biden yesterday commemorated the death of 1 million people in the US from Covid-19, marking “a tragic milestone” and urging Americans to “remain vigilant” amid the ongoing pandemic. He has urged Congress to fund billions more in Covid-19 aid to continue fighting the virus. US lawmakers reached a $10 billion deal but the additional funding has been delayed. Biden was chairing a global virtual Covid-19 summit, taking place as Europe also passed 2 million Covid deaths, focused on efforts to bring the pandemic under control worldwide. | Reuters

N Korea

NORTH Korea fired three ballistic missiles off its east coast yesterday, South Korea and Japan said, in the latest such move as the isolated country races to advance its weapons programmes on the day it first reported a Covid-19 outbreak. The outbreak threatens to deepen a dire food situation, as a lockdown would hamper anti-drought efforts, analysts said. The missiles were fired from Pyongyang, near an international airport. It was also the first since the inauguration of conservative South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol, who wants a hard line against the North’s weapons development. | Reuters

Finland

FINLAND said yesterday it would apply to join Nato “without delay”, with Sweden expected to follow, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine looked set to bring about the very expansion of the Western military alliance Vladimir Putin aimed to prevent. Finland’s announcement angered the Kremlin, which called it a direct threat to Russia and threatened an unspecified response. It came as Russia’s war in Ukraine was suffering another big setback, Ukrainian forces driving Russian troops from around the second largest city Kharkiv, the fastest Ukrainian advance since forcing Russia to withdraw from Kyiv. | Reuters

Austria

POLICE have smashed a group believed to have smuggled tens of thousands of people with two of them found suffocated in a truck last year, Austria’s interior ministry announced yesterday. A total of 205 suspects linked to the group have been arrested in Europe, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said. Of the arrests, 92 of them were in Austria, and the rest in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. Investigators, who began looking into the case early last year, believe the group smuggled more than 36 100 people, including children, raking in an about €152 million (R2.5 billion). | AFP