Covid: vaccination is slowing down, “we need to do much better”, urges Castex

Jean Castex deplored the drop in the number of first doses of vaccine injected each day, urging to “do much better”, during a trip to the Landes where a “reinforced action plan” will be deployed due to a renewed Covid epidemic. “We vaccinate 200,000 people per day” with a first injection, “that's too little”, regretted the Prime Minister in Mont-de-Marsan, observing that “appointments” were “decelerating”. He launched a “solemn appeal” to caregivers who would not yet be vaccinated. “It is imperative that the caregivers, the staff of these nursing homes are all vaccinated, we will say by the end of August (...), otherwise we should obviously take our responsibilities”, pleaded Mr. Castex, without however clearly expressing a clear opinion on the possibility of making this vaccination mandatory. “We did much better, we need to do much better,” he said. The executive has set a target of 35 million French people fully vaccinated by the end of August (19.6 million currently), and 40 million first doses injected (32.7

Biden meets with Afghan president to discuss American withdrawal

US President Joe Biden welcomes his Afghan counterpart Ashraf Ghani on Friday to discuss the future of Afghanistan at a time when the current withdrawal of American troops opens a period of immense uncertainty. The White House's stated aim is to work closely with the government in Kabul to ensure that Afghanistan “never again becomes a haven for terrorist groups that pose a threat to American territory.” But the questions are numerous and vertiginous: will the Taliban take over Kabul after the last Western soldiers leave? How will the safety of Western diplomats - and the capital's airport - be ensured? What will happen to the thousands of Afghans who worked with American forces as interpreters? The two leaders are due to meet in the afternoon in the Oval Office to discuss these thorny issues. Notable fact: no press conference is planned at the end of the meeting. Joe Biden decided in April to withdraw the 2,500 American soldiers still present in Afghanistan. He set the deadline of September 11, the 20th anniversary of the attacks that led Washington to overthrow the Taliban regime that sheltered Al Qaeda

IN A NUTSHELL

An indigenous community announced the discovery during excavations of more than 750 unmarked graves at the site of a boarding school in Canada, and

a new illustration of the decades-long ordeal of indigenous children in schools run by the Catholic Church.

French midfielder Thomas Lemar injured his left foot in a contact during training late in the afternoon, leaving the session a few minutes after Marcus Thuram, who was also hit.

Uruguay and Paraguay qualified for the 2021 Copa America quarterfinals on Thursday by beating Bolivia in Cuiaba (central Brazil) and Chile in Brasilia, respectively, by the same score of 2-0.