US records more than 3,000 Covid deaths a day for first time

On September 11th 2001, 2,977 people died in the Al Qaeda attacks on the United States. On December 9th 2020 - yesterday - more than three thousand were registered as having died from Covid-19 just on that day.

Also in the programme: the Lebanese judge investigating the Beirut port blast has charged the outgoing Prime Minister Hassan Diab and three other former ministers with negligence; and Morocco becomes the fourth Arab country in a few months to normalise relations with Israel, in return for the United States recognising its claim to sovereignty over Western Sahara.

(Photo: A volunteer places American flags representing some of the lives lost in the United States in the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on the National Mall in Washington, United States. Credit: Reuters/Joshua Roberts)