The government has announced that all health care workers in France must be fully vaccinated against Covid-19 by September or risk not being paid.

The requirement applies to doctors, nurses, office staff and volunteers.

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President Emmanuel Macron has also said that from next month, health passes will need to be shown to access places like shops, bars, cinemas and long-distance train journeys in France.

The passes show the holder has been jabbed, or had a recent negative test.

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Thousands of Cubans have joined the biggest protests for decades against the island’s Communist government.

They marched in cities including the capital Havana, shouting, “Down with the dictatorship!”. Images on social media showed what appear to be security forces detaining and beating some of the protesters.

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Cubans have been angered by the collapse of the economy, as well as by restrictions on civil liberties and the authorities’ handling of the pandemic. The protesters were demanding a faster coronavirus vaccination programme after Cuba reported a record of nearly 7,000 daily infections and 47 deaths on Sunday.

IN THE UK – Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to confirm later the plan to lift almost all legal restrictions on social contact in England on 19th July.

But ahead of a news conference this afternoon, Johnson has urged people to be cautious. He warned that Covid-19 cases, currently at about 30,000 a day, would continue to rise as society reopened.

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A passenger plane carrying 28 people has gone missing in the Russian Far East.

According to local officials, the An-26 aircraft lost contact with air traffic control shortly before it was due to land in the settlement of Palana, in the north of the remote Kamchatka peninsula.

Reports say the plane crashed into the sea and a signal from its black box has been detected. Officials said 22 passengers, including one child, were on board, as well as six crew members.

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ELSEWHERE – The US military left Bagram Airfield – its key base in Afghanistan – in the dead of night without notifying the Afghans.

the base’s new commander General Asadullah Kohistani told media that the Afghan military found out hours later. Bagram also contains a prison, and there are reportedly up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners left in the facility.

The Taliban have been advancing rapidly in Afghanistan as US troops withdraw. General Kohistani said on Monday that Afghan forces were expecting the Taliban to attack Bagram, adding that he was already receiving reports the group was making movements in rural areas nearby.

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Former Philippine president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino, the reserved scion of one of Asia’s most famous political families, has died at 61.

Aquino, who was in office from 2010 to 2016, was the only son of the late former president Corazon Aquino and her assassinated husband, senator Benigno “Ninoy” Aquino, both revered for leading the struggle to restore democracy in the archipelago nation.

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President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman announced Aquino’s death hours after local media reported the former leader had been rushed to a Manila hospital.

ELSEWHERE; an indigenous group in Canada says it has found hundreds of unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in Saskatchewan province.

The Cowessess First Nation said that the discovery was “the most significantly substantial to date in Canada”. However the group did not specify the exact number of graves found. It comes weeks after the remains of 215 children were found at a similar residential school in British Columbia.

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West African leaders have suspended Mali from the Economic Community of West African States-ECOWAS at an extraordinary summit, but stopped short of re-imposing sanctions, after a second military coup in nine months.

READ ALSO: President Muhammadu Buhari meets with former President Goodluck Jonathan in Aso Rock over political crisis in Mali

Speaking after the summit, Ghana’s Foreign Minister Shirley Botchwey said the suspension from ECOWAS takes immediate effect until the deadline of the end of February 2022 when they are supposed to hand over to a democratically elected government.

Reports say ten regional heads of state and three foreign ministers attended the summit in the Ghanaian capital Accra, with former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan serving as a mediator in the crisis.

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key Israeli opposition party has backed a unity government that would bring to an end to Benjamin Netanyahu’s time as the country’s longest serving prime minister.

The ultra-nationalist leader Naftali Bennett said his party would join talks to form a governing coalition with centrist party leader Yair Lapid. Lapid has until Wednesday to announce the result of his efforts.

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Netanyahu, meanwhile, said the proposed deal would “weaken Israel”. The prime minister, who is on trial for fraud, fell short of a decisive majority at a general election in March. It was the country’s fourth inconclusive vote in two years – and again Netanyahu failed to secure coalition allies.

49year old Bennett, who leads the Yamina party, made his announcement in a televised address.

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France has become the latest European country to introduce restrictions on UK tourists due to the spread of the Indian coronavirus variant.

The French government announced that from 31 May, anyone arriving from the UK must quarantine for seven days.

Reports say Germany had imposed a two-week quarantine on UK arrivals last week, while Austria has banned direct UK flights from 1 June.

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By last week, the UK had recorded 3,424 cases of the new COVID 19 variant. Meanwhile England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, has said the Indian variant is “more transmittable” than the UK variant first identified in Kent, which was responsible for the UK’s deadly wave of coronavirus infections during the  winter. 

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US President Joe Biden has laid out a sweeping investment plan for jobs, education and social care in his first speech to a joint session of Congress.

Delivered on the eve of his 100th day in office, the Democrat pitched some 4 trillion dollars in spending – the largest overhaul of US benefits since the 1960s according to analysts.

He called it a “once in a generation investment in America itself”. But the plans face a battle in Congress before they can become law. There has been widespread opposition to the proposals from the Republican Party, which is unlikely to back tax increases and more government spending. And while there is a slim Democratic majority in both houses, there has been division among the party over how far to go with the plans.

ELSEWHERE – China has launched a key module of a new permanent space station, the latest in Beijing’s increasingly ambitious space programme.

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The Tianhe module – which contains living quarters for crew members – was launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre on a Long March-5B rocket.  China hopes to have the new station operational by 2022.

The only space station currently in orbit is the International Space Station, from which China is excluded.

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