Japan on Tuesday confirmed plans to gradually ease COVID-19 border restrictions. COVID-19 cases have fallen dramatically in Japan as the nation's vaccination rate has pushed past 70% of the population.    

President Vladimir Putin said Russia may need the army's help to build field hospitals for COVID-19 patients as the country battles a surge in infections that has led to a nationwide workplace shutdown.

* China and Russia are pushing the U.N. Security Council to ease sanctions on the Democratic People’s Reupblic of Korea by reviving a 2019 attempt to remove a ban on Pyongyang's exports of statues, seafood and textiles and expanding it to include lifting a refined petroleum imports cap.

* French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he was postponing planned trade sanctions on Britain so that negotiators from both sides could work on new proposals to defuse their dispute over post-Brexit fishing rights.

* Nearly 90 countries have joined a US- and EU-led effort to slash emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane 30% by 2030 from 2020 levels, a pact aimed at tackling one of the main causes of climate change, a senior Biden administration official said. The partnership will be formally launched later on Tuesday.

* Global equity markets rose at the start of a big week for central bank meetings, helped by bets of fiscal stimulus in Japan and undeterred by concerns of future interest rate hikes that have tempered bonds.

* US manufacturing activity slowed in October, with all industries reporting record-long lead times for raw materials, indicating that stretched supply chains continued to constrain economic activity early in the fourth quarter.

* At least six people have died in Nigeria's commercial capital of Lagos after the collapse of a high-rise building that was under construction, the state emergency services chief said on Tuesday.

* China reported 71 new confirmed coronavirus cases for Nov. 1, compared with 92 a day earlier, the country's health authority said on Tuesday.

* The United States is rolling out Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines for children aged 5 to 11 this week, but most of the 15 million shots being shipped initially are unlikely to be available before next week, the White House said.

* Brazil registered 98 new COVID-19 deaths on Monday, according to data released by the Health Ministry, the lowest daily number since April 2020.

* Mexico's health ministry reported 99 more confirmed coronavirus fatalities on Monday, bringing the country's overall death toll from the pandemic to 288,464.

* Australia's biggest city will lift more COVID-19 curbs for vaccinated residents ahead of schedule next week, while delaying freedoms it has promised for unvaccinated Sydneysiders as officials aim to boost inoculations.

* Authorities planned to seal off the northern tip of New Zealand with police cordons on Tuesday, as they enforce a lockdown in the region over fears of an undetected community transmission of COVID-19 there.

* Novavax Inc expects regulators in India, the Philippines and elsewhere to make a decision on its COVID-19 vaccine within "weeks," its chief executive officer told Reuters, after the shot received its first emergency-use authorisation from Indonesia.

* New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio declared his coronavirus vaccination order for emergency responders a success, with no disruption to city services, despite a sickout by some firefighters who officials said were protesting the mandate.

* The United Arab Emirates has approved for emergency use the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine for children aged 5-11, the health ministry said in a statement carried by state media.

* The Czech Republic recorded 7,591 new COVID-19 cases on Nov. 1, the highest daily tally since the end of March, Czech Radio reported on Tuesday. On the same day last week, 4,277 cases were detected.

* Gulf state Bahrain has approved the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use for children aged between 5 and 11 years, the government media office said on Tuesday.

* Latvia has received shipments of emergency medical equipment from the Netherlands, Finland, Hungary and Sweden as it fights the worst surge in new COVID-19 cases in the European Union amid a low take-up of vaccinations.

* Australia's central bank on Tuesday took a major step toward unwinding extraordinary pandemic stimulus policies by abandoning an ultra-low target for bond yields and opening the door for an earlier hike in cash rates.

* NASA on Monday announced a three-day delay in a SpaceX rocket launch of four astronauts to the International Space Station, the second postponement of the mission in a week, citing an unspecified medical issue involving one of the crew members.

* Record building activity underway in New Zealand will help ease house prices that have reached unsustainable levels in the past year, Reserve Bank of New Zealand Governor Adrian Orr said.

Reuters