Lunchtime News Thursday 1st October 2020

Local News 

Fitness centres  - The closure of gyms has been confirmed by the administrative court of Nice despite an appeal from unions.

The court on Wednesday rejected the request of the professional union France Active and five fitness brands which demanded the suspension of new measure.

Changes 1st October - As with every first of the month in France today marks several changes; there will be a rise in the price of gas, caregivers will be entitled to three month paid leave from today and a new family allowance service is to be introduced for single-parent families.

Auction - A jacket and a long silk skirt embroidered with pearls and sequins from the fashion house of Chanel and worn at the Cannes Film Festival by Jeanne Moreau in 2003 is to be auctioned.

The outfit is just one of the 300 lots of the actress's memorabilia, to be auctioned online from October 16th to 22th with all proceeds going to the actress's foundation.

National

Food aid - The French charity Secours Populaire has warned that a new report shows a huge increase in the number of people requiring food aid during the Covid-19 lockdown in levels not seen since the Second World War.

The charity said that during the lockdown in France they recorded that 1.27 million people came to collect food at one of their branches compared to 3.3 million across the whole of 2019.

According to the study, one in three people in France suffered from a loss of revenue due to the Covid crisis – 16 percent of them said it was a substantial loss. Some 57 percent didn’t go on holiday during the summer this year with one out of four saying it was due to financial reasons.

Among them, 61 percent earned less than 1,200 euros per month.

Crazy Horse cabaret to reopen - After a closure of more than six months linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, the famous Parisian cabaret, the Crazy Horse, has finally reopened its doors today with a mixture of apprehension and excitement among the dancers.

Covid-19 measures in place will mean that the establishment will be open only two evenings per week at first and will welcome 150 spectators instead of the usual 250.

Warehouse fire - A fire has destroyed 7,000 m2 of a warehouse in Seine-Saint-Denis north east of Paris. No injuries have been reported and the cause of the blaze remains unknown.

Melting of Greenland’s ice sheet - A study published on Wednesday in the Nature journal has shown that the melting of Greenland’s ice sheet will cause, in the 21st century, an increase in sea level something which has not been seen for 12,000 years.

Scientists have reconstructed for the first time the history of the ice sheet's melting making it possible to dissociate the natural fluctuations of the mass of ice from the impact of climate change caused by man.

Its authors conclude that if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the same rate, the layer of ice of several kilometers could shrink by 36,000 billion tons enough to raise the oceans by 10 cm.

Until the late 1990s, this sheet of ice was gaining roughly as much mass from snowfall as it was losing in summer with glacier collapse and ice melt. But this balance has been upset by the acceleration of climate change. Last year, the Greenland ice cap lost more than 500 billion tonnes, a record since the start of satellite data in 1978, contributing 40% to the rise in sea level in 2019.

Weather alert - Five departments in western France have been placed on an orange weather alert by météo france as storm Alex looks set to hit the region today with heavy rainfall and violent winds.

Gusts are expected to exceed 100 km / h inland, and reaching up to 140 on the coast.

And Finally

A UK official government report shows that happiness level have dropped for all age groups since Covid arrived — except for the over-65s,

It comes as a separate report reveals people drank more booze but smoked less in lockdown.

In terms of happiness, researchers recorded a drop of around five per cent in the emotion for all age groups, except for those over 65 who are feeling happier.

People were most fed up in Scotland, which saw a 15 per cent fall in happiness in one week.

Under-30s were suffering the worst mental health depression and anxiety.

The report also found that support for the UK government’s approach to handling the pandemic increases with age.

Nearly half of over 65s backing it, but only around three in ten in the 18-24 age group.

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