Compulsory isolation is to be put in place for travellers entering France from the United Kingdom. Speaking after a Council of Ministers meeting this morning, government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said that the measure is being taken because of the progression of the India coronavirus variant in the UK. He said that the start date for the measures and the duration of isloation will be communicated "in the coming hours", adding that in the past few days Germany had imposed additional measures for people coming from the United Kingdom and "France will take similar measures".
Taking stock of the health situation in France, Gabriel Attal said that the situation "continues to improve significantly" and 24 million people will have been vaccinated by this evening, including 80% of those over 55. He said that there are 2,600 fewer people in hospital than last week and almost 600 fewer in intensive care.
A new vaccination centre has opened today in Bordeaux, where a new coronavirus variant has been detected. Vaccinations are open to all adults at the centre in the Bacalan district of the city where a cluster of the new variant has been found.
Locally, free Covid-19 testing is being made available in Menton for the next six Thursdays from 9.30am to 3.30pm. The antigenic tests with results in about 15 minutes are available without prescription and without appointment at the CCAS parking in Menton.
A thief has stolen a necklace being worn by a woman in rue de la Malonniere in Nice this morning. The municipal police apprehended supects and recovered the necklace just over an hour later at the junction of rue d ' Angleterre and rue de Suisse.
Airbnb have said that the Var is the preferred holiday destination for vacation rentals this year instead of Paris, which is usually at the top of the list. It reflects similar changes seen this year in other countries, including the UK, where Cornwall is the number one Airbnb destination, replacing London. The company said that summer travel on Airbnb used to be largely smaller groups visiting big cities. This summer, the most popular type of travel is families holidaying in remote destinations from their big city homes. However, it said that travellers are starting to return to cities and for longer periods of time. The top three destinations for long-term stays on Airbnb are all cities.
The CAP AZUR metropolitan community has created a sticker to reduce paper waste and to help residents who want to stop flyers being pushed through their letterbox. The "STOP PUB" adhesive sticker is affixed to letterboxes and informs distributors that the household doesn't wish to receive unaddressed advertisements, prospectuses or flyers. You can get a sticker free of charge in town halls or annex town halls in the Cannes, Sophia-Antipolis and Grasse areas.
BUSINESS
Marks & Spencer has reported a pre-tax loss of £201.2m in the 52 weeks to 27 March, down from a £67.2m profit in the previous year. Food sales were up thanks to its tie-up with Ocado. M&S products now account for over 25% of the Ocado average basket. Marks & Spencer said it plans to close another 30 shops over the next 10 years. Another 80 will be moved to better locations or merged with nearby stores. It will also open 17 new or expanded main stores over the next two years.
Amazon has announced an agreement to acquire MGM for a purchase price of $8.45 billion. MGM has a catalogue of more than 4,000 films as well as 17,000 TV shows. Amazon said it will help preserve MGM’s heritage and catalogue of films, and provide customers with greater access to those existing works.
UK energy company SSE has announced plans to invest about £2bn largely in low carbon power projects this year. The investment is part of a £7.5bn investment plan to 2025 including building the world’s biggest offshore wind farm at Dogger Bank in the North Sea and Scotland’s largest wind farm at Seagreen as well as investments in its electricity transmission system.
SPORT
Cricket... It's been announced that Ben Foakes will miss England's two Tests against New Zealand because of injury. Haseeb Hameed and Sam Billings have been added to the squad. The two Tests start on 2 June and 10 June.
Tennis... Carla Suarez Navarro has said that she's planning to play at the French Open. She revealed last September that she had early stage Hodgkin lymphoma and was having treatment but announced last month that she had made a recovery. The 32 year old has previously reached the French Open quarter-finals on two occasions.
Golf...Governing body the R&A has said that The Open at Royal St George's in Kent will go ahead in July. It said that it is "optimistic for a significant attendance of up to 75% of capacity." The Open was cancelled last year because of the pandemic.
Football... Manchester United play Villarreal in the final of the Europa League in Gdansk, Poland this evening. Kickoff is at 9 pm.
A Self-service rental system for paddle boards has been implemented on the Larvotto beach in Monaco. Users can access the equipment through a paying a...
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French president Emmanuel Macron has called for stronger, more integrated European defences as he outlined his vision for a more assertive European Un...
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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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