The head of the Regional Health Agency in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of south-west France has said that he suspects about fifty cases of the Delta coronavirus variant have been detected in the region. Speaking on French television today, Benoit Elleboode said that two cases have been confirmed by sequencing and fifty cases were awaiting confimation. He added that those affected are young, unvaccinated people who do not have a serious form of the virus and hospital admissions are not being impacted.
Network operator Orange has said that the results of its internal investigation into the recent outage of emergency numbers will be made public this Friday 11 June. It said that the aim of the investigation is to identify the precise causes of the incident, to study the alert process and to issue recommendations.
The French government has recognised a state of natural disaster for "land movements" for the municipalities of Lantosque from 2 to 3 October 2020 during Storm Alex, and for Nice for the period from 20 to 22 December 2019. The decree was published in the Official Journal yesterday, June 6. Victims have 10 days from the publication date to submit an estimated statement of the losses they have suffered with their insurance companies, in order to benefit from a compensation scheme. Details can be found on the Alpes-Maritimes Prefecture's website https://www.alpes-maritimes.gouv.fr/
The body of a man was recovered from the sea off Marseille yesterday morning. It's believed he had been freediving. The Maritime Prefecture reminded people not to engage in such activites alone and to take all necessary safety measures.
The Alpes-Maritimes Prefecture has said that local residents should expect to see a series of low altitude helicopter flights across part of the department this week. The flights by the French Air Force are part of an operation to take measurements before major events, in particular next year's Rugby World Cup. The low altitude flights will take place at a rate of 3 per day, from and to Nice airport, and will last approximately 1 to 2 hours each. The flights will take place at about 40 meters above the ground at a speed of 70 km / h and will be made over Nice, Saint-Laurent-du-Var, Antibes , Cannes, Le Cannet and Grasse from Tuesday 8 to Friday 11 June.
Meteo France have a yellow warning for storms in the Var until 4am tomorrow, Tuesday, morning. There are also yellow warnings for the Alpes-Martimes - for storms until 6am and for heavy rainfall and flooding until 4am tomorrow.
The trial has opened in Paris of four people accused of involvement in the death of a policeman on the Champs-Elysees four years ago. The gunman was shot and killed by the police after the attack on the officer in April 2017.
The Cannes town hall has announced a draw to win tickets to this year's Film Festival. The draw is open to all residents and socio-professionals in Cannes older than 18 at the time of registration. You need to register online before Saturday, July 3, 2021 at 1 p.m. There's also the possibility of registering in person instead of online. You can find full details at www.cannes.com
Two of our local towns have once again fared well in a survey of Instagram posts last month by the Observatoire of Social Media. Menton came in first place in the list of medium-sized French towns and Cannes took second place.
BUSINESS
French regulator The Autorité de la Concurrence has fined Google €220 million for favouring its own services in the online advertising sector. The body said that Google had not disputed the facts and in settling the matter had given certain commitments regarding its services which the authority had accepted.
Tesco and Carrefour have confirmed that they have decided not to extend their purchasing alliance beyond the three-year arrangement agreed in 2018. The alliance will now formally end on 31 December this year. The companies said that over the last three years, they have benefited from a number of joint buying opportunities across food and general merchandise categories, enabling access to new suppliers, new sources and new products. However, moving forward, both companies have agreed that they will "continue this work independently and focus on their own opportunities".
Chinese exports grew at a slower pace in May than expected, according to government data. Exports in dollar terms rose by 27.9 percent year on year in May, slower than the year-on-year growth of 32.3 percent seen in April, and below predictions of 32.1 percent.
SPORT
Tennis.... Coco Gauff has reached her first Grand Slam quarter-final after beating Ons Jabeur 6-3 6-1 at Rolland Garros today. She'll now play Barbora Krejcikova after she defeted Sloane Stephens 6-2 6-0. Maria Sakkari beat Sofia Kenin 6-1 6-3. In the mens singles Novak Djokovic beat Lorenzo Musetti and David Schwartzmann beat Jan-Lennard Struff.
Football... Ben White has been included in England's Euro 2020 squad. He's replacing Trent Alexander-Arnold who suffered an injury during last week's friendly against Austria. England are set to play Croatia at Wembley on Sunday in their first match of the tournament.
Cricket... UK Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said this morning that the ECB should "think again" about their decision to suspend Ollie Robinson for historical tweets. He said that the ECB had "gone over the top" in suspending the bowler. This afternoon a spokesperson for Boris Johnson said that the Prime Minister supported the Culture Secretary's comments.
A new optional regional transport tax for businesses, introduced in France’s 2025 budget, aims to fund eco-friendly mobility projects. ...
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A judge has authorised a dive to inspect the wreckage of a plane in the sea off Antibes. The plane crashed into the Mediterranean on September 11 1968...
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In France, drinking water is heavily contaminated with "forever pollutants," particularly trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), as revealed by two studies from ...
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The trial of the Tunisian man accused of the murder of three people in the Nice Basilica attack is continuing in Paris. Yesterday the families of the ...
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Four cities in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) region made Booking.com's 2025 list of the "most welcoming destinations in France." ...
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