French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has said that 55,000 health pass checks were carried out by security forces last week, which he said is a three-fold increase compared to checks at the beginning of the month. 460 fines were issued. He called on everyone to be responsible and said that he has asked prefects to bring together local representatives of the hotel and catering trades "without delay" in order to remind them of their obligations.
Following the decisions of Nice and Antibes to start offering a third vaccination for those over 50, the Antibes town hall has stated that it has also opened booster doses to over 50 year olds.
Details have been released regarding the number of people in the hospital in Antibes because of Covid-19. From November 15 to 22, there were 5 hospitalized patients, including 1 in intensive care and there were no deaths. Regarding tests carried out at Fort Carré during the week, out of 1,147 tests performed, 10.2% were positive.
The Covid-19 incidence rate in Monaco has almost doubled over a period of seven days. Between the 15 and 21 November inclusive 3,487 PCR and antigen tests were carried out with a positivity rate of 3.58%. The incidence rate per 100,000 people was 198.17, up from 106.91 the previous week.
Gerald Darmanin has said that measures will be presented within 15 days aimed at improving safety in French sports stadiums. The move comes after a bottle was thrown at a Marseille player in their match against Lyon, which is the latest in a line of similar incidents. A meeting was held between government ministers and French football authorities yesterday. The Interior Minister said that "the scenes we witness week after week are intolerable and must stop".
A civil security exercise is taking place in the tunnel of tram line 2 in Nice tomorow evening from 11pm until the end of service. The “Port Lympia”, “Garibaldi le Château” and “Durandy” tram line 2 stations and their surroundings will be inaccessible to the public. Throughout the exercise, residents of the area may witness unusual movements such as large groups of law enforcement personnel. Parts of the Line 8 bus route will also be disrupted and there will be traffic changes in the Durandy and Garibaldi sectors. More details are available at https://www.lignesdazur.com/le-mercredi-24-novembre-2021-de-23h-la-fin-du-service-exercice-de-securite-dans-le-tunnel-de-la
Monaco's renewable energy provider MER has acquired five additional photovoltaic parks. Located in the Côte d'Or, Haute Vienne, Landes and Gard, they will produce around 12% of the electricity consumption of the Principality. At the end of 2021, there will therefore be a total of 15 photovoltaic parks operated by MER which will together produce 34% of Monaco's electricity consumption.
Maintainence work is taking place this week on the A8 motorway in the tunnels of Las Planas, Pessicart and Saint Pierre de Féric around Nice, and there are also works being carried out on the A8 in the Menton and Antibes areas. As a result, there'll be traffic changes at the Mougins interchange (n ° 42), Antibes (n ° 44), Nice Nord (n ° 54) and Menton (n ° 59). In order to limit traffic disruption, operations will take place at night between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m., until this Friday.
BUSINESS
The UK had another strong expansion in business activity in November according to a widely watched survey of purchasing managers. However, IHS Markit who carried out the survey said that surging costs for fuel, energy and raw materials led to a record rate of input price inflation. It also said that in the Eurozone, a faster economic upturn was marred by record inflationary pressures and COVID-19 worries. Optimism of businesses about the outlook in the Eurozone sank to a ten-month low on renewed COVID-19 worries and lingering supply constraints.
Amazon and Apple have been fined a total of over 200 million euros by Italy's competition regulator. The regulator alleged that the two companies had colluded to reduce competition by limiting which resellers could sell producs on amazon.it. Both companies have said they will appeal.
Ireland's energy regulator has published new rules for connecting data centres to the electricity grid. It follows concerns that the facilities could contribute to electricity blackouts because of the large amounts of electricity they consume.
Pharmaceuticals company AstraZeneca has formally opened a new research and development facility in Cambridge. The Discovery Centre, which has cost one billion pounds, will accomodate over 2,200 research scientists as well as the most advanced robotics, high-throughput screening and AI-driven technology. The company has two other strategic R&D centres, in suburban Washington, D.C. and Gothenburg in Sweden.
SPORT
Cricket... It's been the first day of England's first practice match before the Ashes begin. Haseeb Hameed made 53 and Rory Burns 39 as England reached 98-0 from 29 overs in Brisbane. England have two warm-up matches against the England Lions before the Ashes start on 8 December.
Tennis... Andy Murray and Emma Raducanu are amongst a line up of top players who will be taking part in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi. Other players at the three day exhibition event include Dominic Thiem, Rafael Nadal, Belinda Bencic, Andrey Rublev and Casper Rudd. It's taking place from 16-18 December.
The Côte d'Azur is on alert for a surge in imported cases of dengue fever. Since the beginning of 2024, a record 1,679 imported cases have been record...
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The post-mortem will take place next Monday for a 33-year-old man whose body was recently found in the Var after being missing for more than a month....
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French scientists have been developing technological tools for the past four years to help athletes optimize their training for the Paris 2024 Olympic...
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Nice airport says as many as 60% of flights will be cancelled tomorrow due to a nationwide strike by air traffic controllers....
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After eight months of work and several sea trials, the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle has begun a six-week operation in the Mediterranean, ...
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