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1. Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations begins. The Mumbai police, citing Covid, on Thursday barred the assembly of five or more persons in the city. 2. The five-nation BRICS summit chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday evening calls for settling the situation in Afghanistan through peaceful means. The declaration at the summit said the leaders also sought an "inclusive intra-Afghan dialogue so as to ensure stability, civil peace, law and order". While the theme for the summit is 'cooperation for continuity, consolidation and consensus', the focus remained on Afghanistan. 4. At the UNSC debate on Afghanistan, India says the situation in Afghanistan continues to be very fragile. 5. One dose of vaccine is 96.6 per cent effective in preventing death and two Covid shots are 97.5 per cent effective, the government says on Thursday, citing data between April and August. Vaccination prevents deaths, said the government, adding that new data showed most deaths in the devastating second wave of Covid in April-May were recorded among the unvaccinated. The US President Joe Biden orders all executive branch employees, federal contractors and millions of health-care workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, and that his administration would issue rules requiring large private employers to mandate shots or testing.