World

Tunisie Numerique world news roundup for July 29

Israeli foreign minister to make the first visit to UAE

Israel’s new foreign minister will head to the United Arab Emirates for the first known visit by a top Israeli diplomat to the Gulf Arab country, the ministry announced Monday.

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s trip comes after the two countries normalized relationships last year.

Covid France: Around 20% of all cases now Delta variant

The Delta variant now accounts for approximately 20% of all Covid cases in France, Health Minister Olivier Véran announced this morning (June 29).

Mr Véran told FranceInfo Radio the variant was “gradually becoming dominant” in France “as it does in all countries in the world, as it is more contagious”.

The World Health Organisation has said the variant is now present in 85 countries.

Former South African president Jacob Zuma sentenced to 15 months in prison

Jacob Zuma, the former president of South Africa, has been condemned to 15 months in jail for contempt of court after failing to appear before a corruption inquiry earlier this year.

Zuma, 79, who was the president for nearly nine years until 2018, was not present to hear the South African constitutional court deliver its ruling and sentence.

The judge ordered the former president to hand himself in within five days. If he fails to do so, police will be ordered to arrest him and ensure he is “delivered to a correctional centre,” Judge Sisi Khampepe said.

More than three billion doses of Covid vaccine administered worldwide

More than three billion doses of the Covid vaccine have been administered worldwide, according to an AFP count made Tuesday from official sources.

While the first billion was reached 20 weeks after the start of the first mass vaccination campaigns in December and the second billion in 6 weeks, it took less than 4 weeks to reach the third billion.

Some 40% of the doses administered worldwide (1.2 billion) were administered in China. India (329 million) and the United States (324 million) complete the podium.

Sanofi to invest 400 million euros in an mRNA vaccines facility

Sanofi will fund about 400 million euros ($476.4 million) in the research and development of following-generation vaccines utilising mRNA technologies, which proved their efficiency in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.

The French drug giant and its British counterpart GlaxoSmithKline surprised investors and customers late last year when they announced a one-year delay to the launch of their joint COVID vaccine, based on a more conventional technology.

Record heat forces western Canada province to shut schools, universities

British Columbia closed schools and universities on Monday due to extreme heat which pushed temperature in the western Canadian province to a national record over the weekend, in a country that is widely known for its brutal winter and snows, Reuters news agency reported.

Lytton, a town in central British Columbia roughly 200km (124 miles) north of Vancouver, reported a temperature of 46.6°C (115.88°F) on Sunday. Prior to the weekend, the historical high in Canada was 45°C, set in Saskatchewan in 1937, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada.

The high sustained heat is unusual to the Pacific Northwest, which is more accustomed to long bouts of rain than sun, and is caused by a high pressure system that isn’t moving, said Greg Flato, a senior research scientist with Environment and Climate Change Canada based in Victoria.

G-20 Ministers in Italy to Discuss Coronavirus, Climate Change, Africa Development

The coronavirus, climate change and food security are on the agenda Tuesday as foreign ministers from the G-20 group of nations meet in Italy.

The discussions in the city of Matera represent the first time the ministers are meeting in person since 2019.

Lebanon hails major drug bust in Saudi Arabia

Lebanese authorities have thwarted a try to smuggle 100,000 amphetamine pills from the country to Saudi Arabia, two days after the Kingdom caught a shipment of 14.4 million pills dispatched from the small Mediterranean country.

In a statement, Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces said the Captagon pills were hidden in a batch of sterilization equipment set to be shipped to Saudi Arabia, adding that three people who admitted to being part of the