Evening Update Monday 23 June 2025

The French National Assembly is set to debate the current conflict in the Middle East on Wednesday. The government said today that French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou is expected to make a statement to the assembly on Wednesday evening which will then be debated without any vote taking place.

Meanwhile, Air France has temporarily suspended flights to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates because of the current conflict in the region. The company normally operates one flight per day from Paris to Dubai and one flight per day between Paris and Riyadh.

Two people have been arrested in connection with a shooting at a wedding in the Luberon region over the weekend. Two people died in the attack at the wedding in the town of Gault in the Vaucluse department. Two other people were injured. The bride at the wedding was one of the victims.

The second largest union of French air traffic controllers has filed notice of strike action for Thursday 3 and Friday 4 July. The union is protesting over various alleged management failures.

Two senior officers from the Marseille anti-drugs brigade have been taken into custody. The arrests are in connection with an investigation into an operation which tracked a shipment of drugs from Colombia arriving in the port of Marseille during which several hundred kilograms of cocaine apparently went missing.

There are no metro services in Marseille today and tomorrow because of a strike by union members. Services were also affected yesterday. Workers are complaining about alleged poor working conditions, a lack of staff, safety issues and breakdowns of equipment, among other issues.

Authorities in Marseille have launched an operation aimed at clamping down on so-called urban rodeos. Several dozen officers were mobilized in the eighth arrondissement to check vehicle documents. There have been increasing problems with motorbikes, scooters and other vehicles exceeding speed limits late at night in some areas of the city.

Nice has moved up the rankings on the student website l’edudiant. Nice jumped up 15 places in the rankings of student cities, moving from 27th to 11th place. Nice mayor Christian Estrosi said that this progress is "the result of continuous efforts with our partners in student life, higher education and economic world". He said that the city had doubled the number of students, which now number more than 51,000.

 

BUSINESS

The UK government has announced plans to lower energy costs for thousands of businesses. The measures, which exempt some businesses from the costs of green energy levies, could reduce energy bills by up to 25% for more than 7,000 UK businesses, according to the government. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer told the BBC that the move is intended to "stabilize" and help "mitigate" challenges to the UK from abroad.

So-called "robotaxis" manufactured by Tesla have been used for the first time on roads in Austin, Texas. In a social media post, a group of invited industry guests were shown taking taxi rides in the vehicles. A human safety operator was in the passenger seat, according to reports. Analysts said that the low-key launch of the self-driving taxis shows Tesla's aim to compete with existing self-driving taxi operators.

 

SPORT

Cricket...It's day four of the first Test between England and India at Headingley. England in their first innings were all out for 465. India are in to bat in their second innings today.

Golf... US Ryder Cup captain Keegan Bradley has said that he will have what he called a "hard look" at whether he should play in September's event. Bradley won the Travelers Championship over the weekend, which moved him to seventh in the world rankings and ninth in the American Ryder Cup qualification standings.

Football... Legendary Celtic player John Clark died at the age of 84. He played in over 300 games for the club and was part of the 1967 side which defeated Inter Milan to win the European Cup.

 

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