Virus: European health pass comes into force, hope for tourism

The EU hopes to revive tourism frozen by the coronavirus pandemic with a health pass from Thursday for travelers, despite uneven vaccination campaigns and the threat of the Delta variant. Vaccinated, cured or tested negative for Covid-19, it will be necessary from Thursday to show white paw to cross the European borders, using the new "health pass" now essential to travel to 33 countries of the Old Continent, even if the rules vary according to the destinations and the countries of origin. This precious sesame should give a breath of fresh air to the tourism industry, brought to its knees by the pandemic: according to the UN, the collapse of international tourism could lead to a loss of more than $ 4 trillion for global GDP over the years 2020 and 2021, or one and a half times the French GDP. With vaccination rates uneven, with less than 1% of the population vaccinated in some countries and more than 60% elsewhere, the report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) released on Wednesday notes that tourism losses are greater in developing countries.

Discussions in Paris on the consequences of nuclear tests

To assume the impact of nuclear tests in French Polynesia and better compensate the victims, the government is organizing Thursday and Friday in Paris a round table where the Ministries of Defense, Health and Overseas Will Be represented, in front of a Polynesian delegation. At the origin of this meeting, a request from Polynesian President Edouard Fritch, who asked that the France answer the various questions left by these 193 nuclear tests conducted over thirty years in French Polynesia, after the publication in March of an investigation by the online investigative media Disclose entitled "Toxic", according to which the France underestimated, sometimes voluntarily, the consequences of the tests. President Emmanuel Macron is expected to make an intervention thursday at the end of the day, according to Matignon who oversees this meeting. Previously, it is the Minister Delegate to the Minister of the Armed Forces Geneviève Darrieussecq who will lead the first round table, devoted to history and memory.

The Pope receives ten Christian religious leaders from Lebanon at the Vatican

City of the Vatican - Pope Francis - very sensitive to the suffering of Lebanon where he wants to go quickly - will spend Thursday alongside ten Lebanese Christian religious leaders, to reflect on the future of a country in full collapse. All staying at the Sainte-Marthe hotel residence, where the Pope resides in Vatican City, they will go to St. Peter's Basilica, before rolling up their sleeves for three working sessions behind closed doors around a round table. In the late afternoon, after an ecumenical prayer "for peace" punctuated by texts in Arabic, Syriac, Armenian and Chaldean, he will deliver a highly anticipated final speech, in the presence of diplomats. Lebanon, faced with an "extreme danger" that threatens its very existence, cannot be "abandoned to its loneliness", Pope Francis pleaded in September in a vibrant message to the country, a month after the tragedy of the explosions at the port of Beirut. "Lebanon represents more than a state, Lebanon is a message of freedom and an example of pluralism, both for the East and for the West," he said.

IN BRIEF

The Trump Organization, Donald Trump's family group, and its chief financial officer will be indicted Thursday for tax offenses by New York prosecutors, several U.S. newspapers said Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

Tadej Pogacar hit hard: the Slovenian, the outgoing winner, dominated the time trial of the 5th stage of the Tour de France, Wednesday, in Laval, where the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel narrowly preserved the yellow jersey.