* The Chinese Mission to the European Union (EU) on Monday rejected NATO's claim of presenting "systemic challenges," saying it is a slander on China's peaceful development and represents "a continuation of the Cold War mentality and bloc politics."
* Russian President Vladimir Putin has denounced actions aimed at driving a wedge between Moscow and Beijing, stressing that China is a strategic partner, not a threat.
* Japan's lower house of parliament on Tuesday voted down a no-confidence motion against Japanese Prime Minister Suga Yoshihide's Cabinet jointly filed by the main opposition Constitutional Democratic Party of Japan (CDPJ) and three other opposition parties.
* US Federal Reserve officials are expected to begin debate on tapering the Fed's monthly asset purchases as soon as this week's policy meeting, but the central bank is unlikely to publicly reveal that plan until August or September, economists and analysts said.
* Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday discussed Ukraine's bid for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership and its strategic partnership with Britain during a phone conversation with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
* Olympics organisers prepared to unveil their latest "playbook" of rules to control COVID-19 infections as Japan's government pondered whether to extend a state of emergency and senior Olympics official John Coates arrived in Tokyo.
* India reported on Tuesday 60,471 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, the lowest since March 31.
* Brazil registered 827 more deaths from COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, bringing the nationwide tally to 488,228, the health ministry said Monday. A total of 39,846 new infections were detected, raising the nationwide caseload to 17,452,612, the ministry said.
* Russia on Tuesday reported 14,185 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, including 6,805 in Moscow, close to the highest nationwide tally for months.
* Malaysia has granted conditional approval for emergency use to the single dose COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by China's CanSino Biologics and US drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, the government said on Tuesday.
* The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 652 to 3,716,170, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday. The reported death toll rose by 93 to 89,937, the tally showed.
* The Philippines' Department of Health (DOH) reported 5,389 new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) infections on Tuesday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the Southeast Asian country to 1,327,431. The death toll climbed to 22,963 after 118 more patients died from the viral disease, the DOH said.
* Thailand has begun to conduct a clinical test on its locally developed COVID-19 vaccine with humans, Chulalongkorn University's medical professor Kiat Ruxrungtham said.
* The World Bank (WB) and the African Union (AU)'s COVID-19 Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) on Monday announced a decision to work together to deploy vaccines for 400 million Africans.
* The Republic of Korea has administered COVID-19 vaccines to a quarter of its population as of Tuesday afternoon, Yonhap news agency reported citing the health authorities.
* The European Union has passed the 300 million COVID-19 vaccinations threshold, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.
* France's economy is expected to rebound faster than previously expected in 2021 on strong consumer spending and business investment, the country's central bank said on Monday.
* UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed his plans to lift remaining COVID-19 curbs by a month, warning that thousands of more people might die if he did nothing because of the rapid spread of the more infectious Delta variant.
* Asian shares tracked Wall Street higher, though investors looked to a much-anticipated Federal Reserve policy meeting to see if the central bank would signal any change to the US monetary policy outlook.
* The European Union began selling the first bond backing its recovery fund, according to a lead manager, a crucial step in financing member states' economic recovery.
* The European Union and the United States were on the verge of announcing a truce on Tuesday in their 17-year conflict over aircraft subsidies, bringing to a close one set of Trump-era tariffs which had soured relations between them.
* Australia's Victoria state reported two new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 in the state capital Melbourne, both linked to an existing cluster that prompted renewed social distancing measures in the city.
* Fully vaccinated visitors to Walt Disney Co's US theme parks will not be required to wear face masks in most areas starting on Tuesday.
* Chilean health authorities said they would extend a COVID-19 emergency through September to allow the government to impose restrictions.
* Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro asked Pfizer Inc to bring forward planned delivery of COVID-19 vaccines, a government source said.
* Africa will get priority treatment for the Group of Seven's pledged 870 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, a senior World Health Organization adviser said on Monday.
* COVID-19 vaccines made by Pfizer and AstraZeneca offer high protection of more than 90% against hospitalisation from the Delta coronavirus variant, a new analysis by Public Health England showed.
* Johnson & Johnson will export more ready-to-administer COVID-19 vaccines to South Africa beyond the 300,000 doses already pledged, CEO of Aspen Pharmacare said.
* Novavax Inc said its COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective, including against a variety of concerning variants of the coronavirus in a large, late-stage US-based clinical trial.
* The Delta variant doubles the risk of hospitalisation compared with the previously dominant variant in Britain, but two doses of vaccine still provide strong protection, a Scottish study found.
