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US travel

GLOBE-TROTTERS will find it more complicated to return to the US after going abroad.

From November, Americans who have not been vaccinated against the coronavirus will have to test negative within a day of leaving on a return flight to the US. Travellers will also have to show proof that they have bought a viral test to take after they return to the country.

The new rules were tucked into a broader White House announcement this week about the end of the ban on travellers from 33 countries. | Washington Post

France

US PRESIDENT Joe Biden and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron have spoken for the first time this week since a row erupted over the sale of submarines to Australia, vowing to restore confidence damaged by what Paris saw as betrayal.

Macron was furious after Australia’s decision to ditch a 2016 deal to buy diesel submarines from France in favour of nuclear-powered ones from the US and Britain, which had been secretly negotiated.

The two leaders vowed to launch “in-depth consultations... for ensuring confidence” and to meet in Europe at the end of next month. | AFP

Libya

LIBYA’S eastern strongman Khalifa Haftar, pictured, said he was suspending his military activities, a step which could lead to his candidacy in elections later this year.

Haftar said this week he had named an interim replacement as head of the self-proclaimed Libyan National Army until December 24, the date of the legislative and presidential vote.

Temporarily elevating his chief-of-staff to the post “appears to be the informal announcement of his intention to run for president,” Libya analyst Emadeddin Badi said in a tweet. | AFP

Dicaprio

US actor and climate activist Leonardo Dicaprio has taken an investment in two different lab-grown meat startups, the companies announced this week.

Dicaprio has bought an unspecified stake in Aleph Farms and Mosa Meat, two companies developing protein products grown from cow cells – an emerging area in the growing alternative meat market.

He will also act as an adviser to the companies, said a joint press release from Israel-based Aleph Farms and Netherlands-based Mosa Meat.

The announcement comes on the heels of Dicaprio’s earlier investments in Beyond Meat, which sells burgers and sausages made from plants. | AFP