Evening Update Wednesday 8 June 2022

The French Health Minister has announced several measures to improve the working conditions of hospital staff. Brigitte Bourgignon said that the measures would overcome what she called a "difficult summer" in the nation's hospitals. Overtime pay will be doubled for the remainder of the summer for non-medical staff and additional working time for doctors. Financial measures will be introduced to encourage retired carers to resume their activity for the summer. Student caregivers and nurses who completed their training in June and July will be able to practice immediately without waiting for the presentation of their diploma.

The family of the woman fatally shot by police in Paris last weekend will reportedly file complaints against the driver of the vehicle in which they were a passenger and against "X", the person who fired the shot. The car allegedly failed to stop at a police check.

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire has said that employees who receive salary increases to cover rises in inflation will not pay more taxes. In a Tweet this morning he said that it’s out of the question that the French pay more income tax because of inflation, “this is why we are going, like every year, to index the income tax scale to inflation to prevent French people from paying more taxes with unchanged real income”.

The Monaco government has released its weekly update on Covid-19 numbers in the Principality, which shows that the incidence rate has more than doubled. The report released yesterday evening showed that the incidence rate, in other words the number of positive people based on 100,000 people over the period of the past 7 days, showed a large increase at 347 compared to 148 in the previous week. In the week from 30 May to 6 June, 58 new positive cases of Covid-19 were recorded. As at yesterday evening, 10 people were hospitalized at the Princess Grace Hospital. No patients were being treated in intensive care.  88 people were being monitored by the Home Monitoring Centre.

Meanwhile the Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur Regional Health Agency has said that as at yesterday, there were 486 people hospitalized with Covid-19 in the region, which is 63 fewer than the previous week and 61 people were in intensive care, which is down 7.

Gerald Darmanin, French Minister of the Interior, and Yaël Braun-Pivet, Minister of Overseas Territories, have condemned recent violence in the French overseas department of Mayotte. Violent clashes erupted last night between rival gangs in the islands in the Indian Ocean after the fatal stabbing of a youth on Sunday. Roadblocks were erected last night by small groups who also targeted motorists and police.

A businessman from the Var is one of several people on trial in Paris for involvement in the alleged theft of a work by the street artist Banksy. The work was stencilled on an exit door of the Bataclan in Paris, scene of the November 2015 attacks. The prosecution alleges that the work was stolen in January 2019 and transported to a location in La Seyne-sur-Mer. The businessman denies having ordered the theft. The work was finally recovered by police in Italy.

 

BUSINESS

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has said that the world “is paying a heavy price for Russia’s war in Ukraine”. In its Economic Outlook published today the OECD said that the war has triggered a cost-of-living crisis, affecting people worldwide. When coupled with China’s zero-COVID policy, the war has set the global economy on a course of slower growth and rising inflation - a situation not seen since the 1970s. It said that rising inflation, largely driven by steep increases in the price of energy and food, is causing hardship for low-income people and raising serious food security risks in the world’s poorest economies. The organization said that it expected the UK’s economy to perform worse than every other member of the G20 except Russia next year and said that the UK faced the combined headwinds of high inflation, rising interest rates and rising taxes. It expects the UK economy to grow by 3.6% this year, followed by 0% growth next year.

Budget airline Wizz Air has reported a 125% rise in revenue for the year to the end of March. However, it said it had lost 642.5 million euros in the period. The company’s chief executive, Jozef Varadi, said that average fares had gone up and he expects more fare rises in the next few months. He added that the airline industry remains exposed to air traffic disruption and continuing operational issues within the airports sector.

 

SPORT

Rugby Union... Scotland have named their squad for their tour of Chile and Argentina. Stuart Hogg, Finn Russell and Kyle Steyn have all been left out. Grant Gilchrist is named as captain. Uncapped players Ben Muncaster, Murphy Walker and Glen Young are included.

Cricket... Legendary India women’s team player Mithali Raj has announced her retirement from international cricket. The 39-year-old is the all-time leading run-scorer in women's one-day internationals, with 7,805 runs.

Football... Luka Modric has agreed a one-year contract extension with Real Madrid. The 36-year-old joined the club from Tottenham in 2012 and plays for Croatia at national level

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