PARIS, Sept 19 (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron will have a call with US President Joe Biden in the next few days, the French government spokesman said on Sunday, amid a diplomatic crisis triggered by Australia’s cancellation of submarine contract with Paris. France said on Friday it was recalling its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra over a trilateral security deal also involving Britain which sank the multi-billion dollar order for French submarines. read more“President Biden asked to speak to the President of the Republic and there will be a telephone discussion in the next few days between President Macron and President Biden,” Gabriel Attal told news channel BFM TV. France would be seeking “clarification” over the cancellation of a submarine order, Attal said. read moreAfter the initial “shock” of the cancellation, discussions would need to take place over contract clauses, notably compensation for the French side, Attal added.

FILE PHOTO: A vial and sryinge are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken January 11, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo/File PhotoCAIRO - 19 September 2021: Egypt would receive 3.5 million doses of the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccines this week, besides 1.6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine this Friday, announced the Egyptian Ministry of Health in a statement on Sunday. These shipments of vaccines will be provided in travel vaccination centers, the ministry added. The campaign contributed to raising awareness of 18,000 people about the importance of the vaccination for protection from the coronavirus. Egypt recorded on Saturday 637 coronavirus infections, and 16 deaths as well as 711 recoveries at isolation hospitals.

CAIRO – 19 September 2021: Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shokry headed Sunday to New York to participate in the high-level debate held on September 21-27 within the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA 76). UNGA 76 had opened on September 14 where Maldives Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdulla Shahid was sworn in as the president of the session. Minister Shokry will also hold meetings with a number of high-ranking UN officials, heads of other regional and international organizations such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and the Union for the Mediterranean. The Egyptian minister will also present during those meetings the achievements accomplished on the national level in the political, economic, and social realms. That is in addition to ways of building upon them to fulfill mutual interests with allies and international partners as well as achieve the goals of the Egyptian foreign policy in the coming period.

Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population has started working to provide new drugs that will change coronavirus resistance by reducing the viral load. The ministry noted that the new drugs it is working to provide includes medicines to people in contact with infected cases. The ministry said that it has provided two million doses to vaccinate university students and workers in the Ministry of Higher Education before October 9. It added that Egypt will receive 1.6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine on September 24, and more than 1,000 refrigerators will be contracted to store the vaccines, as a gift from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). Also, during the next week, Egypt will receive more than 3.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

CAIRO – 19 September 2021: Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shokry made a phone call Sunday to his Israeli counterpart Yair Lapid to stress the Egyptian stance necessitating the revival of negotiations between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Minister Shokry added that for negotiations to succeed, it is essential to create suitable political conditions and a stable climate in order to spare the region any tensions or escalation. Equally, the minister asserted that Egypt is carrying on with its persistent efforts over the matter. The call also addressed ongoing endeavors in the framework of reconstruction, and the delivery of aid and development support to the entire Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories in coordination with the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi discussed the optimal use of rainwater and torrential rain in the development of rain-fed crops in a meeting with Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly, Minister of Irrigation and Water Resources Mohamed Abdel-Aty, Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation al-Sayed al-Quseir. Sisi followed up on joint efforts between the Ministries of Irrigation and Agriculture in sequestering and distributing rainwater and torrential rain to prevent its waste and achieve optimal use of it in rainy areas across Egypt. The project aims to reach the maximum possible amount of storage especially in Sinai, the northern coasts and some areas of the Red Sea governorate. Sisi ordered to continue all efforts that would achieve the optimum use of all available water resources in Egypt, and integrate it with the state’s national project to line canals and drains. The Minister of Irrigation reviewed the hydrological and engineering studies of planned dams to conserve rainwater, in addition to the efforts to modernize the nation’s irrigation systems.

HONG KONG (AP) — Select Hong Kong residents voted for members of the Election Committee that will choose the city’s leader in the first polls Sunday following reforms meant to ensure candidates with Beijing loyalty. The changes are part of a broad crackdown on Hong Kong civil society following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019. Also Sunday, Hong Kong’s largest opposition trade union — the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions — said it would disband out of concerns for the safety of its members. Critics say the changes restrict freedoms Hong Kong was promised it could maintain for 50 years following the territory’s 1997 handover to China from colonial Britain. “This election lets us select solid patriots who love our country and Hong Kong to rule Hong Kong, and who demonstrate their strengths in Hong Kong’s administration and politics,” said Armstrong Lee, a candidate representing the social welfare sector.

Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population on Saturday reported 637 new coronavirus cases, 16 deaths, and 711 recoveries. A total of 296,276 cases have been disclosed in Egypt, alongside 16,951 deaths and 249,793 recoveries. Moreover, the Health Ministry has stated that official figures likely only represent 10 percent of actual cases. Egypt has imported a number of major coronavirus vaccines, including AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, and Johnson & Johnson. According to World Health Organization data, as of September 14 over 12 million vaccine doses have been administrated in Egypt.

CAIRO-19 September 2021: The leading company in the organization of mega events, Tazkarti, headed by Montasser El Nabarawy, will cooperate with the Egyptian Shooting Federation (ESF) to organize the World Helices Championship with the participation of 20 nations. The prestigious event will start on 12 October and the Olympic City at the New Administrative Capital will host the games. The opening ceremony will be organized by Tazkarti and Synergy. Tazkarti through El Nabrawy's vision managed to achieve a series of sucesses in the last few years by organizing many big sports events, starting from the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations, in addition to the the Handball World Cup. Tazkarti was also the creator of the Egyptian Fan ID for the first time in Egypt under the trademark Tazkarti Fan ID.

PARIS (AP) — One slept on the streets of Paris, the other in a massive makeshift migrant camp in northern France. BECOMING ‘NORMAL’There was no welcome mat or refugee services for Youssoufi or Wali when they arrived in France in 2015 and 2016, respectively. When the French government decided to close the camp, Wali helped authorities load thousands of other migrants onto buses to assigned homes around France. In Afghanistan, his Hazara ethnic group has long been targeted by other Afghans, including the Taliban. He tells the Afghans he helps with administrative steps, “We’re in France.

Sept 19 (Reuters) – New Zealand reported 24 new locally acquired coronavirus cases on Sunday, up from 20 on Saturday, showing an upturn after several days of lower numbers, as the country’s largest city Auckland awaits to hear if its lockdown restrictions will ease. All of the new cases have been reported in greater Auckland, a city of about 1.7 million people which has been in a full level 4 lockdown since mid-August. Until the weekend, New Zealand was on a path to eliminate the latest outbreak, which began in mid-August and has infected 1,050 people with the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus. Director of Public Health Caroline McElnay said that health officials are “still cautiously optimistic” that the vast bulk of the latest outbreak was under control. New Zealand had been largely virus-free for months until the latest outbreak.

The two members of the Islamic Jihad militant group were apprehended before dawn from a house in the Palestinian city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, Israeli Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai said. Palestinians see members of armed groups jailed by Israel as heroes in the struggle for statehood in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians hurled rocks and explosives towards Israeli troops and shot live fire as the troops exited the city, the military added. There was no immediate comment from the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the West Bank and coordinates with Israel on security in the territory. Palestinians have protested in support of the men across the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Junior Jean, a 32-year-old man from Haiti, watched as people cautiously carried cases of water or bags of food through the knee-high river water. Jean said he lived on the streets in Chile the past four years, resigned to searching for food in garbage cans. The announcement marked a swift response to the sudden arrival of Haitians in Del Rio, a Texas city of about 35,000 people roughly 145 miles (230 kilometers) west of San Antonio. It sits on a relatively remote stretch of border that lacks capacity to hold and process such large numbers of people. “In Haiti, there is no security,” said Fabricio Jean, a 38-year-old Haitian who arrived with his wife and two daughters.

CAIRO - 19 Septemebr 2020: The Health Ministry said that 637 new coronavirus cases were detected in Egypt over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of infections to 296,276. In a statement on Saturday, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said that 16 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 16,951. As many as 711 patients were discharged from hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recoveries to 249,793, he added. The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population received a shipment of 20 refrigerators to store Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccines, which will be received in the coming period, said the World Health Organization (WHO) Egypt in a statement on Friday. The shipment was delivered by UNICEF through the COVAX facility, the statement added, noting that the delivered refrigerators are the first shipment out of a total of 63 refrigerators that the ministry will receive in the coming period.

SALERNO, Italy (Reuters) – Duvan Zapata’s brilliant turn and finish earned Atalanta a battling 1-0 victory at Salernitana on Saturday as Gian Piero Gasperini’s side got back to winning ways in Serie A. Former Bayern Munich veteran Frank Ribery made his debut for Salernitana but was taken off at half time after an ineffective 45 minutes. Mamadou Coulibaly had the best effort of the opening period, with his long range effort flicking the crossbar. The newly promoted hosts continued to have the better of the chances after the break, but a lack of quality in the final third cost them dear as, in one movement, Zapata’s second league goal of the season secured all three points for Atalanta. Davide Zappacosta should have added a second late on, while Salernitana’s Norbert Gyomber headed against his own crossbar in stoppage time, but one goal was enough for Atalanta to climb to seventh in the standings, while the hosts stay bottom.