The Var Prefecture has reminded everyone that wearing a mask outside remains compulsory in the department until July 30 in public places where social distancing cannot be respected, such as open air markets, and on Saturdays in 3 open-air shopping centres - L'Avenue 83 in La Valette du Var, the Galerie Geant in Frejus and Le Village des Talents Creatifs in Puget-sur-Argens. The prefecture also reminded people that the wearing of a mask is also obligatory in all public enclosed spaces.
Mayor of Antibes Jean Leonetti has said that what he called the "brutally and widely imposed" Health Pass goes against previous commitments and poses problems of application and respect for everyone's freedoms. The mayor added that he is in favor of the compulsory vaccination of caregivers and encouragement for everyone to be vaccinated.
Employees of ground handling services company Aviapartner staged a demonstration inside Terminal 2 at Nice Cote d'Azur airport this morning and occupied the tramway tracks at the airport. The airport has said that the industrial action may affect flights today as well as road access and tram services at the airport and is advising travellers to arrive early and to follow their flight in real time on nice.aeroport.fr
Elected officials in our region have expressed their support for those affected by the floods in Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg which have claimed the lives of over 100 people. President of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d´Azur region Renauld Muselier expressed his condolances on behalf of the region and said that "we stand alongside our European friends in this ordeal". Nice mayor Chistian Estrosi tweeted a message in French and German and said his thoughts are with the families of the victims and that the images of the floods "remind us of the violence of Storm Alex which hit the Alpes-Maritimes in October".
The Eiffel Tower in Paris has reopened to the public this afternoon for the first time in nine months. The number of visitors allowed in the tower will be reduced to about 50% of normal capacity because of health protocols and a health pass will be required for visitors from next Wednesday, 21 July.
BUSINESS
Consumer prices in the Eurozone rose by 1.9% in June year on year according to figures from EU statistics agency Eurostat. Portugal recorded the lowest inflation figure in the bloc, with consumer prices falling by 0.6%.
Fashion retailer Burberry has reported strong sales growth in a trading update for its first quarter. It said that comparable store sales had rebounded strongly and were 1% above the level seen in the first quarter of the 2020 finacial year. Digital full-price sales more than doubled compared to that quarter. CEO Marco Gobbetti said that "despite the continuing challenging external environment", the company is very pleased with its progress.
Car registrations in the European Union in June increased by 10.4% compared to the same month last year but the French market saw a large fall in numbers, contracting by 14.7%. Germany posted the biggest gain with a 24.5% increase. Over the first half of 2021, EU demand for new cars reached almost 5.4 million units. However, this is still 1.5 million units below the pre-COVID volume recorded over the first six months of 2019.
SPORT
Tour de France... Matej Mohoric won today's satge with a time of 4hrs 19mins 17secs. Tadej Pogacar is still in the lead overall with the Tour set to end on Sunday.
Motorsports... First practice for this weekend's British Grand Prix has been taking place at Silverstone this afternoon. Max Verstappen was fastest, followed by Lando Norris in second and Lewis Hamilton in third. A new experimental sprint qualifying format is being tried out for the first time this weekend. Tomorrow afternoon there'll be a so called “sprint qualifying" event that will decide the grid for the main race on Sunday. The starting order for the sprint race, which is just over 100 kilometres in length, will be decided in a qualifying session which is taking place from 7pm this evening.
Football... Felipe Anderson has rejoined Lazio from West Ham. The Brazilian midfielder moved to West Ham from the Italian club in 2018
Tennis... Novak Djokovic has confirmed he'll be competing in the Tokyo Olympics. He'd previously said that he was "50-50" about taking part. However, he has now Tweeted that he will be joining Team Serbia for the Games and said that he had booked his flight for Tokyo.
Speed restrictions are in place on all major roads in the Alpes-Maritimes today because of a smog alert....
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A Marseille magistrate has been sentenced on the 17th of June in Nîmes for repeatedly avoiding motorway tolls using fake license plates. ...
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A major police stop-and-search operation along France's borders is being carried out today, involving 4,000 police officers, gendarmes and customs off...
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SFR has announced automatic compensation of 100GB of free mobile data for affected customers following a major network outage on the 16th of June....
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French President Emmanuel Macron will chair a high-level Security and Defence Council meeting at the Élysée Palace today Wednesday, June 18th at 4pm, ...
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