Lunchtime News Wednesday 17th February 2021

News

Defence Council - Ahead of today’s new Defense Council chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron the government has said that while the “health situation still remains tense in some departments, nationally the number of new cases of Covid-19 contamination continues to slowly decline”. Faced with the relatively “stable situation”, the government does not want to change restrictions before the end of the half term break for schools with classes resuming for the last zone, zone B which includes Marseille, Lille, Strasbourg and Nantes on Monday March 8th.

Covid figures for the Alpes Maritimes - The Regional Health Agency has declared seven new deaths from Covid-19 in hospitals in the Alpes-Maritimes and twenty-eight in nursing homes. Since the start of the epidemic, the coronavirus has claimed 1,353 victims in the department (961 in hospitals, 392 in nursing homes). The number of patients being admitted to hospital in the region has decrease slightly on Tuesday 16th February with ten less than the day before. Currently 731 people are hospitalised and 99 are in intensive care. The incidence rate in the Alpes-Maritimes remains the highest in France with 493 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the last seven days.

Law to fight extremism and separatism - France's National Assembly has approved a law to fight Islamist extremism and separatism. The text significantly expands the government's powers to close religious organisations and places of worship if they are found to air "theories or ideas" that "provoke hate or violence". It will also require all associations to commit in writing to uphold "republican values" if they want to receive state subsidies.

Monaco Economic Board and Riviera Radio - The Monaco Economic Board has launched for its members a new section on Riviera Radio.  Since February 1st, every Monday morning 7:46 and 9:46 entrepreneurs in the Principality can listen to a new short and dynamic section entitled Monaco Business Brief. The program focuses on emblematic news from a member company of the MEB, representative of the success and know-how made in Monaco. The partnership will allow members of the MEB to benefit throughout 2021 at Riviera Radio from 25% more advertising space, for any advertising campaign "on air" and " online”.

Work by Proust thought to be lost is to be published - French publisher Gallimard has announced that it will be releasing a never-before-published work by the great French writer Proust. “Les Soixante-quinze feuillets” was written in 1908 around the time when Proust began working on “In the Search of Lost Time” published between 1913 and 1927. The texts in The Seventy-Five Pages were thought to be lost, and were searched for by French academics for decades, with some even believing the texts did not exist. The work is to be published on March 18th.

And Finally

A study has found that humans may be to blame for the sneaky mouse, Researchers looked at three populations of house mice which have been living with humans, in early farms and boats, for between 3,000 and 11,000 years.

The mice which have been with us the longest were best at problem-solving tasks such as opening a lid or the window of a Lego house to get a tasty treat.  Experts believe house mice increased their  abilities because they rely on people for food and shelter.  Experts say that with urban environments increasing rapidly, how wild animals adjust to the challenges of living in close proximity to humans becomes increasingly more relevant.’

 

 

 

 

 

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