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People visit the Ipanema beach in Rio de Janeiro, on Sept 13, 2020. PHOTO: EPA-EFE

WHO reports record one-day increase in global coronavirus cases, up over 307,000

The World Health Organisation reported a record one-day increase in global coronavirus cases on Sunday, with the total rising by 307,930 in 24 hours.

The biggest increases were from India, the United States and Brazil, according to the agency's website. Deaths rose by 5,537 to a total of 917,417.

India reported 94,372 new cases, followed by the United States with 45,523 new infections and Brazil with 43,718.

Both the United States and India each reported over 1,000 new deaths and Brazil reported 874 lives lost in the past 24 hours.

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Israel imposes three-week nationwide lockdown after spike in Covid-19 cases

Israel will enter a three-week nationwide lockdown starting on Friday to contain the spread of the coronavirus after a second- wave surge of new cases, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

During the lockdown, which comes during the Jewish high-holiday season, Israelis will have to stay within 500 metres of their houses, but can travel to workplaces that will be allowed to operate on a limited basis.

Schools and shopping malls will be closed but supermarkets and pharmacies will remain open.

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Dozens feared dead as Nepal landslides wipe out homes

Landslides set off by heavy rainfall this weekend killed at least 11 people and left many more missing in a hilly region of Nepal that borders Tibet, officials said, bringing a renewed crisis to an area that was hit hard by a devastating 2015 earthquake.

Many locals had only recently rebuilt their homes in a district that since the earthquake has emerged as one of Nepal's most vulnerable to landslides.

Nepal is also being battered by an economic crisis and widespread unemployment brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, which has left 336 people dead in the country.

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US wildfire crisis brings home the global threat from climate change

Apocalyptic orange-coloured skies filled with choking smoke and ash, communities fleeing raging firestorms driven by freakishly hot and windy weather, thousands of homes and livelihoods reduced to ruins.

The wild fires tearing through the US West Coast are eerily similar to the bush fires that scorched Australia's east coast late last year and earlier this year.

Climate change is the key driver of both disasters, with predictions growing that climate change impacts are going to get worse.

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Disney's Mulan remake collects $31.7 million at Chinese box offices

Mulan, the controversial Walt Disney film about a girl who fights as a man to save her father and country, took in a lackluster US$23.2 million (S$31.7 million) during its debut in Chinese theatres.

The opening weekend number puts it on the low end of other Disney films in the country and below Tenet, the Christopher Nolan spy thriller that generated US$30 million in box office receipts in its China debut last weekend.

The results bring the film's total international box office to US$37.6 million, Disney said.

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