Briefly

UNITED STATES

Failing virus effort conceded by official

With the country recording its highest daily COVID-19 caseload in six months, a top public health official warned on Sunday that the US is "failing" in its battle to keep the coronavirus in check. A surge of the highly transmissible Delta variant has deepened fears in the United States, which has the highest reported death toll worldwide from COVID-19 at more than 616,000. Total daily new cases have soared to 118,000, their highest level since February; deaths are up 89 percent over the past two weeks, even while slightly declining around the world. Children's hospitals in US states like Florida are being severely strained as young people are increasingly affected. "We should not really have ever got to the place we are," Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, said on ABC's This Week. "In that regard, yes, we are failing."

JAPAN

Nagasaki marks atomic bomb attack with plea

Nagasaki on Monday marked the 76th anniversary of the United States' atomic bombing of the city with its mayor urging nations to do more to eliminate nuclear weapons. In his speech, Mayor Tomihisa Taue urged Japan's government to take the lead in creating a nuclear-free zone in Northeast Asia rather than staying under the US nuclear umbrella－a reference to the US promise to use its own nuclear weapons to defend allies. At 11:02 am, the moment the B-29 bomber dropped a plutonium bomb, Nagasaki survivors and other participants in the ceremony stood in a minute of silence to honor the more than 70,000 lives lost.

SERBIA

Smoke from dump fire engulfs Belgrade

Acrid smoke and haze engulfed the capital Belgrade on Sunday after a fire broke out at the city's main garbage landfill site. Authorities prompted people to stay indoors as firefighters struggled to extinguish the flames at the Vinca landfill, the largest unmanaged landfill site in Europe. Much of the fire was doused by late Sunday, but authorities said the site will continue to smolder in the coming days.

Agencies - Xinhua