Eurotopics.net

Domestic flights on routes that take less than two and a half hours to travel by train are to be banned in France. A corresponding bill following up on proposals by the Citizens' Convention for Ecological Transition has been passed by the National Assembly. The move meets with approval in Europe's press, but there are also questions about its impact.

Poland's bishops have voiced "serious moral concerns" about the coronavirus vaccines produced by Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson. Catholics should refuse vaccination with these substances because foetal cells are used in their production, Józef Wróbel, the chairman of the bioethics team of experts at the Polish Bishops' Conference, said on Wednesday. The national press takes the bishops to task.

On Tuesday, Joe Biden called Vladimir Putin and proposed a personal meeting - just a few weeks after criticising him in the strongest possible terms. Now the US government has imposed financial sanctions and expelled ten Russian diplomats after concluding that Moscow was responsible for a major hacking attack and interference in the 2020 US presidential election. European media try to make sense of the zigzagging.

Coinbase, the largest US-based cryptocurrency platform, officially became a publicly traded company listed on the Nasdaq exchange in New York on Wednesday. Its shares were indicated to start trading at 365 US dollars - well above the 250 dollar reference price - and remained considerably higher, closing at 328.28 dollars. Commentators view the hype with scepticism.

US President Joe Biden has postponed the final withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. His predecessor Donald Trump had agreed with the Taliban on 1 May 2021 as the deadline for US troops to leave but Biden has now set September 11 - the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington - as the new date. A symbolic gesture, but one that cannot conceal the failure of the West in Afghanistan, as commentators explain.