News updates: In race for monkeypox vaccines, experts see repeat of Covid

Live news updates: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday asked the state governments to clear power sector companies' dues which are estimated at around Rs 2.5 trillion. The Prime Minister regretted that the state governments are yet to clear subsidy commitments amounting to Rs 75,000 crore to power companies. About Rs 2.5 trillion of companies engaged in electricity generation and distribution are stuck, he said while speaking at the closing function of the 'Ujjwal Bharat Ujjwal Bhavishya Power @2047' event.

A team of Indian scientists have found that the monkeypox virus strain circulating in the country is different from the strain that caused 'superspreader events' in Europe, leading to a global outbreak of the disease. The team from Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Virology (ICMR-NIV), Pune, conducted genetic sequencing of two monkeypox cases from Kerala. The data showed that the virus strain present in the country is A.2, that was recently imported to India from the Middle East. 

The World Bank does not plan to offer new financing to Sri Lanka, which is battling its worst economic crisis in decades, until the Indian Ocean nation has an adequate macroeconomic policy framework in place, the lender said. In a statement, the World Bank said Sri Lanka needed to adopt structural reforms that focus on economic stabilisation and tackle the root causes of its crisis, which has starved it of foreign exchange and led to shortages of food, fuel and medicines.

Russia and Ukraine accused each other Friday of shelling a prison in a separatist region of eastern Ukraine, an attack that reportedly killed dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war who were captured after the fall of a key southern city in May. Both sides said the assault was premeditated with the aim of covering up atrocities. Separatist authorities and Russian officials said the attack killed 53 Ukrainian POWs and wounded another 75.