Virus: Pfizer calls for a 3rd dose as Delta fuels the pandemic

Pfizer/BioNTech recommends a third dose of its vaccine to increase its effectiveness at a time when the highly contagious Delta variant is causing epidemic outbreaks in Asia and Africa and raising the number of cases in Europe and the United States. In this context, the Olympic flame arrived in Tokyo on Friday for a ceremony without an audience and two weeks before the start of the Olympic Games (23 July to 8 August). Japanese organizers and authorities announced on Thursday that the majority of the events would take place behind closed doors. However, the public should be allowed on certain sites outside of Tokyo. The Japanese government had just announced the reinstatement of a state of health emergency in Tokyo from Monday to August 22, a system that will thus cover the entire Olympic period, while the city currently has around 900 cases of Covid-19 per day, including 30% of Delta. This variant, which initially appeared in India, is the most contagious known since the outbreak of the pandemic in early 2020

The noose is tightening around the assassins of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse

The noose tightened on Thursday around the assassins of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, with police announcing the arrest of fifteen Colombians and two Americans of Haitian descent, while controversy grew in the country over the role of the police and the legitimacy of the transitional executive. The assassination of President Moïse, riddled with bullets at his home on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, was carried out by an armed commando of 28 attackers, according to the police. “We arrested fifteen Colombians and two Americans of Haitian origin,” announced Léon Charles, Director General of the Haitian Police at a press conference, adding that three Colombians had been killed and that eight others were still at large. The police had previously said they had killed “four mercenaries”.

AT A GLANCE

U.S. President Joe Biden said on Thursday that the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan would be “completed on August 31,” and assured that the Taliban's takeover of the country was “not inevitable.”

For their first Olympic preparation match, the French basketball players lost in Malaga against the Spanish rival 86 to 77, a bit too short physically and without Rudy Gobert, Nicolas Batum and Thomas Heurtel.