* Easing global lockdowns spur demand for Chinese goods
* U.S. inflation expected at 4.9% in June
* German Bund yields hover near 3-month lows
* Global asset performance http://tmsnrt.rs/2yaDPgn (Updates with U.S. futures, pricing, quote, graphic)
By Tom Arnold
LONDON, July 13 (Reuters) &#8211; Global shares hung near record highs on Tuesday, buoyed by better than expected Chinese export data as markets awaited the release of U.S. inflation data for further clues about the global economic recovery.
The surprisingly strong Chinese data implied that global demand remained strong and helped reassure investors that the world economy was recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the spread of the Delta variant.
Focus now shifts to the release of U.S. consumer price data, expected to tick marginally lower from last month, and likely to further feed debate about when U.S. stimulus may be scaled down.
MSCI&#8217;s all-country equity index added 0.1%, having touched a record high earlier in the day. The pan-European STOXX 600 index was flat after hitting a record high in early trading.
In the U.S., S&amp;P 500 futures were unchanged. But futures for the Nasdaq, tech-heavy and benefiting from lower yields, rose 0.3%.
MSCI&#8217;s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1%, its best daily gain since late June, led by a 1.6% rise in Hong Kong, where tech stocks rose broadly. Japan&#8217;s Nikkei was up 0.5% while Australian shares closed broadly flat.
A Reuters poll put expectations for Tuesday&#8217;s inflation data at 4.9% for the month of June when the numbers are released at 1230 GMT, compared to 5% the month before.
&#8220;Today will be one of the last numbers that are of strong inflation, because of the base effect, and from then we should have confirmation that inflation will be transitory,&#8221; said Francois Savary, chief investment officer at Swiss wealth manager Prime Partners. &#8220;Inflation will remain a key feature for markets as it will drive interest rates.&#8221;

POWELL TESTIMONY
Investors are navigating a busy week, with the onset of U.S. earnings season and a testimony by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, which will also be scrutinised for any indications on the timing of potential U.S. tapering.
In Hong Kong, tech behemoth Tencent Holdings Ltd jumped 3.9% after China&#8217;s antitrust regulator on Tuesday approved its plan to take China&#8217;s No.3 search engine, Sogou Inc , private in a $3.5 billion deal.
&#8220;We have clearly seen a (new) round of corrections of the technology sector, which places a heavy weight on Hong Kong&#8217;s stock market, due to concerns over a new round of regulatory crackdown following the probe into Didi. Against this backdrop, there is room for short-term rebound,&#8221; said Zhang Zihua, chief investment officer at Beijing Yunyi Asset Management.
Overnight, Wall Street&#8217;s main indexes closed at their highest levels ever, lifted by Tesla and bank stocks.
The S&amp;P 500 banks index climbed 1.3% ahead of quarterly earnings reports this week from major banks. JPMorgan Chase rose over 1% and Goldman Sachs rallied more than 2%, fuelling the Dow&#8217;s gains.
The next question is whether company earnings will support Wall Street&#8217;s run higher.
S&amp;P 500 companies&#8217; earnings per share for the June quarter are expected to rise 66%, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and other big banks kick off results from Tuesday.
In the short term, equity markets have &#8220;considerable support from earnings revisions&#8221;, said Michel Iglesias del Sol, managing director, Investment Strategy Advisory, Kempen Capital Management, who expects this season to mark the peak of the earnings rebound in the U.S., with Europe likely to peak in coming months.
&#8220;Equity valuations are high when compared to historical levels, but not when you compare them with other asset classes,&#8221; he said.

DOLLAR STABLE
Concerns that increasing Delta variant cases around the world could derail a global economic recovery have fuelled appetite for safe-haven U.S. Treasuries. The benchmark U.S. 10-year bond yield fell last week to a five-month low of 1.25%.
While markets have since stabilised, yields are not far off last week&#8217;s lows at 1.3577%.
Euro zone government bond yields have fallen in line with U.S. Treasuries in recent weeks, and are running close to their lowest levels since early April.
Germany&#8217;s 10-year bond yield was unchanged at -0.30%, close to a three-month low of -0.344% that was hit last week.
In currency markets, the dollar hardly moved against major currencies ahead of the U.S. inflation data. The greenback was slightly stronger versus the euro at $1.1856 after rising more than 2% over the last month.
South Africa&#8217;s rand dropped to a three-month low, slipping 1.2% to 14.4000 against the dollar, as violence esclated over the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma.
U.S. crude ticked up 0.1% to $74.18 a barrel. Brent crude rose 0.3% to $75.40 per barrel.
Spot gold traded 0.1% up at $1,806.90 per ounce.
(Reporting by Tom Arnold in London and Julie Zhu in Hong Kong; Additional reporting by Sujata Rao and Vidya Ranganathan; Editing by Stephen Coates and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
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GLOBAL MARKETS-Stocks simmer near record highs ahead of U.S. inflation data

* Traders say CPI surprises either side can move USD
* Major moves minimal ahead of the data due at 1230 GMT
* EUR steady at $1.1856, JPY at 110.36 per dollar
* Graphic: World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E
By Marc Jones
LONDON, July 13 (Reuters) &#8211; The dollar was little changed against the euro and yen on Tuesday ahead of U.S. inflation data, while the main petrocurrencies got a lift as oil prices began climbing again and China reported reassuring export numbers.
The possibility of U.S. stimulus withdrawal &#8211; brought to the fore by a surprise shift in tone last month from the Federal Reserve &#8211; has boosted the dollar in recent weeks despite a renewed rise in coronavirus cases in many parts of the world.
With U.S. consumer price inflation later likely to feed the debate, the greenback was fractionally firmer against the euro at $1.1856 after a more than 2% rise versus the common currency over the last month.
Economists polled by Reuters expect the June CPI data due at 1230 GMT to show a 0.5% rise from May and 4.9% from a year earlier. Dealers reckon a miss on either side could move the dollar and the bond market by shifting expectations on interest rates.
Analysts at JPMorgan said central banks around the world are becoming increasingly hawkish at the moment with a few notable exceptions &#8211; the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and People&#8217;s Bank of China, which made an dovish adjustment on Friday.
&#8220;Monetary policy divergence remains a tradable theme both in G10 and EM,&#8221; JPMorgan&#8217;s analysts said. &#8220;In the portfolio, we stay long USD vs euro, yen, Swiss franc; overweight Czech crown vs Romanian leu and overweight Brazilian real, Mexican peso vs Colombian and Chilean pesos.&#8221;
Top European Central Bank policymakers, including both its President and Vice President, flagged on Monday that the bank would stay supportive and is readying new &#8220;forward guidance&#8221; for its policy meeting next week to take into account a newly tweaked 2% inflation target.
&#8220;We expect another firm (U.S.) CPI in both the core and headline,&#8221; RBC&#8217;s Global Head of FX Strategy Elsa Lignos said.
She said it might mark a high point for the figures. &#8220;However, we are less interested in when the peak is and much more interested in how enduring price pressures are likely to be.&#8221;
Chris Weston, head of research at broker Pepperstone, said a headline CPI number below 4.5% should see USD/JPY and USD/CHF come under some pressure, while Brown Brothers Harriman pointed out that if core inflation picked up to 4.0% y/y, as expected, it would be the highest such reading since December 1991.
&#8220;We believe that the continued low rate environment will give the Fed more confidence to taper,&#8221; BBH&#8217;s analysts said.

CHINA
In early afternoon London trading, the Japanese yen stood at 110.26 per dollar having moved little more than ten pips all morning. The Swiss franc was a touch lower at 0.9166 per dollar but still close to a one-month high.
Rising oil lifted Norway&#8217;s crown, Canada&#8217;s dollar and the Russian rouble between 0.3% and 0.7%, while escalating violence over the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma sent South Africa&#8217;s rand tumbling 1%.
Sterling sagged 0.3% to $1.3847 as COVID cases surged ahead of England&#8217;s plans to remove all remaining restrictions.
&#8220;It is an experiment and we have to wait to see if it is successful,&#8221; said TD Securities&#8217; European Head of Currency Strategy Ned Rumpeltin, adding there was &#8220;a certain degree of cautious scepticism&#8221; about the move.
China&#8217;s yuan rose to a near one-week high after surprisingly strong trade data eased fears about a slowdown in what has been one of the world&#8217;s strongest economic recoveries.
Exports in dollar terms rose 32.2% in June from a year earlier, compared with 27.9% growth in May. The analysts polled by Reuters had forecasted a 23.1% increase.
&#8220;Exports surprised on the upside in June, shrugging off the impact of the temporary Shenzhen port closure and other supply chain bottlenecks,&#8221; said Louis Kuijs, head of Asia economics at Oxford Economics.
Beyond U.S. inflation numbers later, further tests loom for the dollar with officials Neel Kashkari, Raphael Bostic and Eric Rosengren making appearances on Tuesday.
Traders are also looking to Fed head Jerome Powell testifying before Congress on Wednesday and Thursday and to New Zealand on Wednesday, where the central bank meets for the first time since a strong business survey prompted swaps markets to price in rate hikes beginning as soon as November.
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand is not expected to change policy or publish forecasts, but a guidance tweak is possible.
&#8220;The narrative should endorse current market pricing,&#8221; Westpac analyst Imre Speizer said in a note, a move which he said could give the kiwi a slight lift.
The New Zealand dollar was down 0.1% at $0.6973, just below its 20-day moving average.
(Additional reporting by Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Editing by Angus MacSwan and John Stonestreet)
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FOREX-Dollar waits on inflation data, oil lifts petrocurrencies

10 PEOPLE KILLED ON MONDAY DURING A STAMPEDE DURING MASS LOOTING AT A SHOPPING CENTRE IN SOUTH AFRICA&#8217;S GAUTENG PROVINCE &#8211; PROVINCIAL LEADER
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10 PEOPLE KILLED ON MONDAY DURING A STAMPEDE DURING MASS LOOTING AT A SHOPPING CENTRE IN SOUTH AFRICA’S GAUTENG PROVINCE – PROVINCIAL LEADER

* Rise in volume of oil transfers by countries hit by sanctions
* Top oil shipping companies concerned over fake documentation
By Jonathan Saul and Marianna Parraga
LONDON/MEXICO CITY, July 13 (Reuters) &#8211; Top oil shipping companies say they have tightened operational guidelines and deployed technology to prevent accidental breaches of sanctions, as the countries hit by ever tougher restrictions fight back with elaborate strategies to dodge them.
Washington has ramped up shipping-related sanctions over the last two years to make it harder for countries, such as Iran and Venezuela, to export the oil that provides their main source of revenue.
In response, Iran and Venezuela have developed sophisticated methods to bypass sanctions, which are also imposed to a lesser extent by the European Union.
As a result, it is harder for shipping firms to avoid facilitating blacklisted exports unwittingly, potentially laying them open to being cut off from the U.S. financial system or even having assets seized.
One way to evade sanctions is to hide behind the practice of transferring oil from one ship to another at sea, known as a ship-to-ship (STS) transfer.
STS transfers are widely and legitimately used to avoid the need for vessels enter a port area and incur port fees or when vessels are too big to enter a terminal.
Sanctions dodgers can use STS to falsely document the origin of the oil as a country near to where the transfer takes place rather than its true origin.
As both Iran and Venezuela have boosted exports, cargo trackers have detected an increased number of STS transfers in open waters over the last year. They take place off Malaysia&#8217;s coast, at locations off Africa and also in the Caribbean, shipping and trading companies say.
Maersk Tankers, which commercially manages the world’s largest fleet of more than 220 product tankers, said the company was contending with the falsification of cargo documentation, making legitimate use of STS transfers harder.
&#8220;The increase in practices to evade sanctions, and the increased creativity applied to these require companies to have the ability to respond with stronger measures,&#8221; Maersk Tankers&#8217; chief compliance officer Eva Birgitte Bisgaard told Reuters.
Maersk Tankers said it had deployed new technology to screen vessel movements and ownership structures to detect any suspicious activity that it can investigate further.

NEAR-MISS
In separate incidents in December and January, two vessels managed by Maersk Tankers almost took on cargoes of Iranian oil whose origin was concealed.
The STS operations were halted before the cargoes were transferred after Maersk Tankers was alerted by U.S. pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI).
UANI, which monitors Iran-related tanker traffic through ship and satellite tracking, said it was aware of multiple illicit oil transfers that affected shipping companies conducting regular trade.
&#8220;Most often, by the time the STS gets to a large company, such as Maersk Tankers, the vessels have engaged in numerous STS in an attempt to mask the origin of the cargo,&#8221; Claire Jungman of UANI said.
Other major companies are separately trying to unmask the illicit activity.
U.S. agribusiness group Cargill, one of the world’s largest charterers of ships, said it had increased scrutiny of every party it trades with, including ownership structures.
Royal Dutch Shell, which used over 4,000 ports, terminals and berths around the world last year, has raised the issue of risks with cargo documentation, which is not standardised across the industry with different regulations in different jurisdictions adding to the complexity, a spokesperson said.

ADVANCE WARNING
Under the MARPOL international maritime convention, ships planning STS in territorial waters are required to give notice to the coastal authority 48 hours in advance, while companies carrying out STS in open sea lanes are meant to notify the flag registry.
All commercial ships have to be registered, or flagged, with a particular country, partly to comply with safety and environmental regulations. Smaller flag registry countries usually lack the resources to monitor the volume of STS that takes place in open seas.
Illicit STS was unlikely to follow the rigorous MARPOL standards, shipping specialists said.
A ship captain who supervised Venezuela-related STS until this year told Reuters that U.S. sanctions had led to more covert transfers of Venezuelan oil that were unsupervised and used equipment that flouted standards. He declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.
The violation of maritime safety rules threatens tourism and fishing.
&#8220;Our pristine Caribbean waters are the major attraction for tourism on which most countries depend for their economic livelihood and fishing,&#8221; Peter Brady, Director General of the Maritime Authority of Jamaica, told Reuters.
&#8220;Any major pollution incident would have severe consequences for both island states and the littoral countries within the basin.&#8221; (Editing by Barbara Lewis)
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Shipping industry seeks to combat dark oil transfers at sea

SOUTH AFRICA DEFENCE MINISTER SAYS MILITARY CURRENTLY DEPLOYED TO KEY NATIONAL POINTS IN COUNTRY LIKE AIRPORTS
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SOUTH AFRICA DEFENCE MINISTER SAYS MILITARY CURRENTLY DEPLOYED TO KEY NATIONAL POINTS IN COUNTRY LIKE AIRPORTS

JOHANNESBURG, July 13 (Reuters) &#8211; South African security officials said on Tuesday the government was working to ensure violent protests do not spread further, warning people will not be allowed &#8220;to make a mockery of our democratic state&#8221;.
&#8220;No amount of unhappiness or personal circumstances from our people gives the right to anyone to loot, vandalise and do as they please and break the law,&#8221; Police Minister Bheki Cele told a news conference, alongside other officials. (Reporting by Alexander Winning and Wendell Roelf; Writing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
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South Africa says protests will be curbed

SOUTH AFRICA STATE SECURITY MINISTER SAYS &#8216;WE WERE NOT MISSING IN ACTION&#8217; OVER VIOLENCE
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SOUTH AFRICA STATE SECURITY MINISTER SAYS ‘WE WERE NOT MISSING IN ACTION’ OVER VIOLENCE

* South African rand at 2-mth low on fears over civil unrest
* Tencent surges on Sogou privatisation approval
* MSCI EM stocks index set for best day in 3 weeks
By Ambar Warrick
July 13 (Reuters) &#8211; Emerging market stocks surged on Tuesday on positive cues from Chinese trade figures, while most currencies edged higher ahead of U.S. inflation data that could spur more hawkish moves from the Federal Reserve.
MSCI&#8217;s index of emerging market stocks jumped 0.9% and was set for its best day in three weeks. Polish stocks were the best performers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, rising 0.5% in early trade.
Data showed Chinese exports grew much faster than expected in June, pointing to a strong recovery in global demand as COVID-19 measures were eased. But officials warned that growth may slow in the second half of the year.
&#8220;While a collapse in trade is highly unlikely, we do expect moderation in the months ahead as the economy gradually slows,&#8221; Mitul Kotecha, chief EM Asia and Europe strategist at TD Securities, wrote in a note.
Chinese blue-chip stocks rose 0.2%, as did the yuan. Tencent, one of the largest stocks on the MSCI emerging market index, surged more than 4% after China&#8217;s market regulator approved its plan to take search engine Sogou Inc private.
But gains in most emerging market currencies were muted, with MSCI&#8217;s index rising 0.1%. Investors were wary of another spike in U.S. inflation, which could prompt the Fed into tightening its policy sooner than expected.
South Africa&#8217;s rand sank 0.7% to a more than two-month low as investors remained on edge over civil unrest in the country.
The currency had tumbled 1.6% on Monday as violence over the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma spread to the capital Johannesburg.
Russia&#8217;s rouble rose 0.4%, tracking some gains in oil prices, while Turkey&#8217;s lira added 0.2%. Data showed Turkish industrial output surged in May from a year earlier.
Unexpected hawkish signals from the Fed had cut short a rally in emerging markets this year, as a spike in U.S. treasury yields made risky assets appear less attractive. Fears of Fed rate hikes have somewhat offset positive cues from improving economic growth across emerging markets.
&#8220;Even though central bank chair Jerome Powell underlined that the Fed continues to expect a temporary phase of raised inflation rates, if the next inflation publications were to suggest that inflation is more persistent, the Fed&#8217;s approach might change further,&#8221; You-Na Park-Heger, FX and EM analyst at Commerzbank, wrote in a note.
In central Europe, the Czech crown led gains among its peers, rising 0.3% ahead of local inflation data later in the day.

For GRAPHIC on emerging market FX performance in 2021, see http://tmsnrt.rs/2egbfVh For GRAPHIC on MSCI emerging index performance in 2021, see https://tmsnrt.rs/2OusNdX

For TOP NEWS across emerging markets
For CENTRAL EUROPE market report, see
For TURKISH market report, see
For RUSSIAN market report, see
(Reporting by Ambar Warrick; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
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EMERGING MARKETS-Stocks boosted by Chinese data, FX up before U.S. inflation

By Sisipho Skweyiya
JOHANNESBURG, July 13 (Reuters) &#8211; At an emergency COVID-19 ward run by a charity in southern Johannesburg, medics wheel gasping patients to their beds, rush from room to room with oxygen cylinders and pat the back of someone in the grip of a coughing fit.
The scenes in the converted community hall are a reminder of how badly South Africa has been hit by its third and most debilitating COVID-19 wave yet, as the infectious Delta variant surges through a mostly unvaccinated population.
&#8220;The Delta variant has caused enormous strain on the resources &#8230; Every hospital is getting strained, every healthcare worker is getting strained,&#8221; said Fatimah Lambat, the doctor in charge of the ward set up by Gift of the Givers, a Muslim charity, to ease overloaded public hospitals.
&#8220;It&#8217;s very draining &#8230; patients are still phoning me from the community for help. And when we&#8217;re full here, we still need to help them,&#8221; she said. &#8220;We don&#8217;t want them to be lost.&#8221;
With South Africa recording an average of about 20,000 cases a day and nursing active cases, cumulatively, of more than 10 times that, Africa&#8217;s most economically advanced nation has also been its worst hit by the virus, with 64,000 deaths.
A vaccination campaign has been slow, with just 4.2 million doses administered to a population of 60 million. Officials aim to reach a vaccination rate of 300,000 a day by the end of August.
Doctors say they have never had to deal with so many COVID-19 infections all at once. Hospitals in the largest city Johannesburg, where the latest wave started, are full.
For 79-year-old Catherine Naidoo, the most terrifying thing about falling gravely ill was knowing that so many had died.
&#8220;You don&#8217;t know what lies ahead. You look at the news and see how people are passing away,&#8221; the recovered COVID-19 patient said, lying on her back and adjusting her mask. &#8220;It was the most frightening experience.&#8221;
Behind another curtain, medics covered head to toe in protective gear adjusted the drip of a sleeping patient, while in another, a medic was getting a patient to do some exercises before getting her to blow into a tube to test her lungs.
President Cyril Ramaphosa extended COVID-19 restrictions on Sunday for another 14 days, including a ban on gatherings, a curfew from 9 p.m. to 4 a.m. and a nationwide ban on the sale of alcohol.
(Writing by Tim Cocks; Editing by Janet Lawrence)
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In South African COVID-19 ward, medics battle worst infection wave yet

JOHANNESBURG, July 13 (Reuters) &#8211; Rioters looted shops and threw stones at police on Tuesday as days of violent protests triggered by the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma spread across South Africa.
The military prepared to send in 2,500 troops as outnumbered police seemed helpless to prevent attacks on businesses in Zuma&#8217;s home province KwaZulu-Natal and in Gauteng province, where the country&#8217;s biggest city, Johannesburg, is located.
At least 30 people have been killed in the unrest that broke out last week when Zuma handed himself over to authorities.
Zuma, 79, was sentenced last month for defying a constitutional court order to give evidence at an inquiry investigating high-level corruption during his nine years in office until 2018.
(Reporting by Tim Cocks and Alexander Winning, Additional reporting by Wendell Roelf in Cape Town and Tanisha Heiberg in Johannesburg, Editing by Angus MacSwan)
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Looting, violence grips South Africa after Zuma court hearing

By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, July 12 (Reuters) &#8211; U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Monday she is pressing for the easing of coronavirus restrictions that bar much of the world from traveling to the United States but that U.S. health officials remain concerned about more outbreaks.
Dozen of U.S. business groups, lawmakers and officials from foreign governments are urging President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration to relax tough restrictions put in place under former President Donald Trump.
&#8220;We&#8217;re working it,&#8221; Raimondo told Reuters in an interview &#8220;I&#8217;m pushing really hard.&#8221;
She said she met with U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra on Friday but had no information on when a decision could be made.
&#8220;The CDC is nervous, and it&#8217;s hard to know if people are vaccinated,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There&#8217;s no vaccine passport that&#8217;s reliable, and that&#8217;s kind of a big hurdle.&#8221;
The White House says it is continuing discussions with the European Union, Britain, Canada and Mexico on how to eventually lift restrictions, but U.S. officials say they still have no timetable and travel industry officials think the restrictions may not be lifted until August or later.
The White House has repeatedly ruled out a national vaccine passport.
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has joined Raimondo in pushing for lifting restrictions, according to sources familiar with the discussions, but others in the administration remain worried that opening the door to more travelers from abroad could lead to increases in COVID-19 infection rates.
A spokeswoman for Becerra had no immediate comment on the meeting with Raimondo.
Airlines and others are urging the administration to lift restrictions covering most non-U.S. citizens who have recently been in Britain, the 26 Schengen nations in Europe without border controls, Ireland, China, India, South Africa, Iran and Brazil.
The United States also bars non-essential travelers from crossing into the United States from the Canadian or Mexican land borders.
European diplomats and others argue that the list of countries with severe travel restrictions includes some with low infection rates, while others with high infection rates, including Argentina, face no restrictions. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Additional reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Heather Timmons and Peter Cooney)
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Commerce Secretary Raimondo pushing to lift tough U.S. travel restrictions

By Nancy Lapid
July 12 (Reuters) &#8211; Here is a roundup of some of the latest scientific studies on the novel coronavirus and efforts to find treatments and vaccines for COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus.
Air pollution makes severe COVID worse
Dirty air contributes to COVID-19 severity, according to a study from one of America&#8217;s most polluted cities. Researchers who studied 2,038 adults hospitalized with COVID-19 in the Detroit area found those who needed intensive care and machines to help them breathe were more likely to live in neighborhoods with higher levels of air pollution and lead paint. The worse the local air contamination, the higher the odds of needing intensive care and mechanical ventilation. Dr. Anita Shallal of Detroit&#8217;s Henry Ford Hospital said long-term exposure to air pollution may impair the immune system and make it more susceptible to viral infections, while fine particles in air pollution may also act as a carrier for the virus and help it spread. The study &#8220;calls attention to the systemic inequalities that may have led to the stark differences in COVID-19 outcomes along racial and ethnic lines,&#8221; Shallal said in a statement from the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, where she presented the findings on Friday. &#8220;Communities of color are more likely to be located in areas closer to industrial pollution, and to work in businesses that expose them to air pollution.&#8221; (https://www.eccmid.org/)
Beta variant may increase hospitalizations and deaths
The Beta variant of the coronavirus may be deadlier than the original version of the virus, according to researchers in South Africa who studied more than 1.5 million COVID-19 patients. Although the Delta variant now accounts for the largest percentage of new COVID-19 cases in many countries, Beta is still circulating, with mutations that make it highly contagious and harder to prevent or treat than the original version. The researchers found that people infected in the second wave of the pandemic, when Beta was dominant, were more likely to require hospitalization than those infected during the first wave, after accounting for patients&#8217; risk factors and how over-burdened hospitals were. Furthermore, hospitalized COVID-19 patients had a 31% higher risk of death in the second wave, according to the report published Friday in The Lancet Global Health. The researchers did not know each patient&#8217;s infecting variant, so they had to use the first and second wave periods as proxies for the variant type, co-author Dr. Waasila Jassat of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in Johannesburg told Reuters. &#8220;We hope to repeat the analysis, comparing the third wave in South Africa to the first two waves, to similarly try to understand whether the Delta wave is associated with higher risk of death,&#8221; she said. (https://bit.ly/2UItx7z)
mRNA vaccines work well in &#8220;real world&#8221; US study
The COVID-19 vaccines most often used in the United States are effective not just in clinical trials but in the &#8220;real world,&#8221; too, according to a nationwide study. Using data on a sample of U.S. adults hospitalized between March and May 2021, researchers found that the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and from Moderna &#8220;prevented about 87% of hospitalizations for COVID-19 that would have occurred if the vaccines had not been given,&#8221; said Dr. Wesley Self of Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Effectiveness was similar for the two vaccines and was highest &#8211; at 97.3% &#8211; among adults ages 18 to 49, his team reported in a paper posted Thursday on medRxiv ahead of peer review. Among immunosuppressed individuals, the vaccines prevented about 59% of COVID-19 hospitalizations that would have otherwise occurred. That is still a &#8220;substantial benefit,&#8221; Self said, but &#8220;because the protection is not as good for people with immunosuppression, we believe (they) still should take precautions to avoid contracting COVID-19 even if they have been vaccinated,&#8221; Self said. (https://bit.ly/3AQZN90)
Open https://tmsnrt.rs/3c7R3Bl in an external browser for a Reuters graphic on vaccines in development.
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid and Megan Brooks; Editing by Tiffany Wu)
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COVID SCIENCE-Dirty air makes COVID worse, beta variant deadlier than original

TUNIS, July 12 (Reuters) &#8211; Saudi Arabia will send a medical aid package to Tunisia including one million doses of vaccine to help the North Africa country which is struggling to control the rapid spread of the COVID pandemic.
The Saudi Press Agency said on Monday the aid also includes 190 respirators and other equipment. (Reporting By Tarek Amara Editing by Chris Reese)
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Saudi Arabia to send one million doses of vaccine to Tunisia

By Kate Chappell
KINGSTON, July 12 (Reuters) &#8211; Jamaica plans to ask Britain for compensation for the Atlantic slave trade in the former British colony, a senior government official said, under a petition that could seek billions of pounds in reparations.
Jamaica was a centre of the slave trade, with the Spanish, then the British, forcibly transporting Africans to work on plantations of sugar cane, bananas and other crops that created fortunes for many of their owners.
&#8220;We are hoping for reparatory justice in all forms that one would expect if they are to really ensure that we get justice from injustices to repair the damages that our ancestors experienced,&#8221; Olivia Grange, Minister of Sports, Youth and Culture, told Reuters in an interview at the weekend.
&#8220;Our African ancestors were forcibly removed from their home and suffered unparalleled atrocities in Africa to carry out forced labour to the benefit of the British Empire,&#8221; she added. &#8220;Redress is well overdue.&#8221;
An estimated 600,000 Africans were shipped to toil in Jamaica, according to the National Library of Jamaica.
Seized from Spain by the English in 1655, Jamaica was a British colony until it became independent in 1962. The West Indian country of almost three million people is part of the Commonwealth and the British monarch remains head of state.
Britain prohibited trade in slaves in its empire in 1807 but did not formally abolish the practice of slavery until 1834.
To compensate slave owners, the British government took out a 20 million pound loan &#8211; a very large sum at the time &#8211; and only finished paying off the ensuing interest payments in 2015.
The reparations petition is based on a private motion by Jamaican lawmaker Mike Henry, who said it was worth some 7.6 billion pounds, a sum he estimated is roughly equivalent in today&#8217;s terms to what Britain paid to the slaveholders.
&#8220;I am asking for the same amount of money to be paid to the slaves that was paid to the slave owners,&#8221; said Henry, a member of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party.
&#8220;I am doing this because I have fought against this all my life, against chattel slavery which has dehumanized human life.&#8221;
Grange herself declined to give a figure.
The petition, with approval from Jamaica&#8217;s National Council on Reparations, will be filed pending advice from the attorney general and three legal teams, Grange said. The attorney general will then send it to Britain&#8217;s Queen Elizabeth, she added.
The initiative follows growing acknowledgement in some quarters of the role played by slavery in generating wealth in Britain, with businesses and seats of learning pledging financial contributions in compensation.
They include insurance market Lloyd&#8217;s of London, pub owner Greene King and the University of Glasgow.
The petition also coincides with increasing efforts by some in Jamaica to sever formal ties with the United Kingdom.
Opposition lawmaker Mikael Phillips in December presented a motion to remove the British monarch as head of state.
More than 15 million people were shackled into the transatlantic slave trade, according to the United Nations. (Editing by Dave Graham and Nick Macfie)
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Jamaica plans to seek reparations from Britain over slavery

By Maytaal Angel
LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) &#8211; World hunger and malnutrition levels worsened dramatically last year, with most of the increase likely due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a multi-agency United Nations (U.N.) report published on Monday.
After remaining virtually unchanged for five years, the number of undernourished people rose to around 768 million last year &#8211; equivalent to 10% of the world&#8217;s population and an increase of around 118 million versus 2019, the report said.
Authored by U.N. agencies including the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), the report is the first comprehensive assessment of food insecurity and nutrition since the pandemic emerged.
&#8220;Unfortunately, the pandemic continues to expose weaknesses in our food systems, which threaten lives and livelihoods. No region of the world has been spared,&#8221; the U.N. agencies said in a joint statement.
The 2021 edition of &#8220;The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World&#8221; estimated that on current trends, the U.N. sustainable development goal of zero hunger by 2030 will be missed by a margin of nearly 660 million people.
That number is 30 million higher than in a scenario where the pandemic had not occurred.
&#8220;Our worst fears are coming true. Reversing such high levels of chronic hunger will take years if not decades,&#8221; said WFP chief economist Arif Husain.
There is increased diplomatic momentum this year to tackle hunger and malnutrition with upcoming summits like the U.N. Food Systems Summit and the Nutrition for Growth Summit. But the report stressed the challenge was huge.
The number of people unable to access adequate food year-round rose by 320 million to 2.37 billion last year – a rise in one year equal to the preceding five years combined.
Of the 768 million undernourished people, 418 million were in Asia, 282 million in Africa and 60 million in Latin America and the Caribbean. In Africa though, 21% of people are undernourished, more than double that of any other region.
After declining for several decades, food insecurity has been on the rise since the mid-2010s, especially in countries affected by conflict, climate extremes, economic downturns, or battling high inequality.
The increase last year however was equal to that of the previous five years combined. (Reporting by Maytaal Angel; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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World hunger, malnutrition soared last year mostly due to COVID-19 – U.N. agencies

SOUTH AFRICA&#8217;S DEFENCE FORCE SAYS DURATION, NUMBER OF SOLDIERS WILL DEPEND ON SITUATION ON THE GROUND
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SOUTH AFRICA’S DEFENCE FORCE SAYS DURATION, NUMBER OF SOLDIERS WILL DEPEND ON SITUATION ON THE GROUND

By Robin Emmott and Sabine Siebold
BRUSSELS, July 12 (Reuters) &#8211; European Union foreign ministers agreed on Monday to launch a global infrastructure plan linking Europe to the world, its latest step after deals with India and Japan and a similar pledge by the Group of Seven richest democracies.
Suspicious of Chinese President Xi Jinping&#8217;s Belt and Road Initiative to link Europe to Asia via infrastructure in a bid for greater influence, the EU set out a formal path for an ambitious &#8220;connectivity&#8221; plan from 2022.
&#8220;We see China using economic and financial means to increase its political influence everywhere in the world. It&#8217;s useless moaning about this, we must offer alternatives,&#8221; German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas told reporters at a meeting with his EU counterparts in Brussels.
&#8220;It is important that the European Union &#8230; coordinates them very closely with the United States,&#8221; he said.
The EU has already signed partnerships with Japan and India to coordinate transport, energy and digital projects linking Europe and Asia. Both Tokyo and Delhi are worried about Chinese largesse that officials say makes poorer countries beholdened to Beijing because they are forced to take on such large debts.
Through development banks, first-loss guarantees to private companies and by offering Western government know-how, the G7, whose leaders met in England in June, also want to provide more transparency in infrastructure partnerships.
Montenegro, a member of the NATO military alliance and an aspirant to join the EU, is the highest-profile casualty of Chinese debt, Western officials say.
Montenegro borrowed nearly $1 billion from China in 2014 to fund a 41-km (25-mile) stretch of road, an amount that has threatened to bankrupt the country. It is now negotiating with Western banks to swap or refinance the debt, Reuters reported this month.
The EU strategy, called &#8220;A Globally Connected Europe&#8221;, makes no mention of China and Luxembourg&#8217;s veteran Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn cautioned on Monday about making China an adversary, noting that German carmakers sold more vehicles in China every year than in Germany.
But one EU diplomat involved in drafting the strategy said the eight-page document had &#8220;China written all over it&#8221;.
Since 2013, China has launched construction projects across more than 60 countries, seeking a network of land and sea links with Southeast Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. Beijing denies any intention to project power and has said the infrastructure corridor focuses on the needs of ordinary people. (Reporting by Robin Emmott; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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