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England pilots new support initiatives to boost self-isolating in higher COVID areas By Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - New support initiatives will be piloted in nine areas of England with higher COVID rates, including from variants, as part of government efforts to boost testing and self-isolation, the health ministry said on Monday. The incidence of infections in Britain is still low but clusters of the Indian variant, believed to be more transmissible than the dominant Kent variant, are growing, and could derail plans to further ease lockdown measures. A total of 12 million pounds ($17 million) will be provided by government for accommodation for those in overcrowded households, social care...

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Global aviation stunned by Belarus jetliner diversion By Reuters

By Tim Hepher PARIS (Reuters) - The United Nations' aviation agency said it was "strongly concerned" by the apparent forced landing of a Ryanair jetliner in Belarus, as global airlines called for an investigation into Sunday's rare incident. Aviation leaders reacted with shock after Belarus scrambled a fighter and flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force a Ryanair jet to land, before detaining an opposition-minded journalist who had been on board. The UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) said the incident may have contravened a core aviation treaty, part of the...

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Solutions 30 says it has given EY all requested information By Reuters

By Benoit Van Overstraeten and Sudip Kar-Gupta PARIS (Reuters) - Luxembourg-based Solutions 30 said it had provided all the information at the technology group's disposal in response to requests from its auditor EY, which were mentioned in its financial report on Sunday. Solutions 30 had been under pressure from France's AMF market regulator to release its annual financial report and an auditor's signed-off report. The company published its 2020 financial report on Sunday, which included a disclaimer from EY. "We have not received from those in charge of the Group all the representations requested....

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Heavy metal rocks French President’s palace after YouTube bet By Reuters

PARIS (Reuters) - Millions of people tuned in on Sunday to watch France's Emmanuel Macron at a private heavy metal gig in the gardens of his Elysee presidential palace, part of a YouTube video by two comedians. Macron pledged in February to welcome McFly and Carlito, two French YouTubers followed by 6.5 million people, in the Elysee if they succeeded in garnering more than 10 million views for a video promoting social distancing measures during the pandemic. McFly and Carlito won the bet and were allowed to shoot a 36 minute video, which within hours of...

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Rock on: Germany on track for open air gigs, fans at soccer games By Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany is on target for outdoor concerts this summer, with social distancing and COVID-19 testing for attendees, and if cases fall further fans should be back at soccer matches in August, Health Minister Jens Spahn said. Coronavirus cases have been falling steadily over the last month in Germany and the seven-day incidence - the number of new infections - now stands at 64.5 per 100,000, data collated by the public health institute shows. Spahn said on Friday that Germany had broken a third wave of the virus. Asked if the downward trend would...

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UK’s Neptune Energy plans 7 billion pound IPO -The Times By Reuters

(Reuters) - Neptune Energy Chairman Sam Laidlaw is considering a potential 7 billion pound ($9.9 billion) initial public offering (IPO) for the British oil and gas company, The Times reported on Sunday. Laidlaw, who was formerly head of Centrica (LON:CNA), is close to appointing JP Morgan to explore options for Neptune, including a listing or sale to a rival, the report said https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ex-centrica-chief-sam-laidlaw-readies-gas-giant-neptune-for-7bn-float-hd56q3cnc. Neptune Energy did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. The company was founded in 2015 with private equity backing from investors including Carlyle and CVC. It has operations...

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CureVac works to boost production capacity ahead of expected vaccine approval By Reuters

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's CureVac expects European approval of its COVID-19 vaccine in June at the latest and is working to expand production capacity, the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper quoted a company spokeswoman as saying. Since starting out in 2000, the biotech company has focused on so-called messenger RNA (mRNA), a drug and vaccine technology that has also become the recent focus of the European Union's procurement negotiations. The mRNA approach has been validated by the wide use of coronavirus vaccines developed by pioneers BioNTech and its partner Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), as well as by ...

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Two COVID shots effective against India variant – English health body By Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) - A double dose of COVID-19 vaccines is almost as effective against the fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus first identified in India as it is against Britain's dominant strain, English health officials said on Saturday. Britain's health minister said the data was groundbreaking and he was increasingly hopeful that the government would be able to lift more COVID restrictions next month. A study by Public Health England found the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the B.1.617.2 variant two weeks after the second dose. That compared with 93% effectiveness against the...

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Virgin Galactic moves one step closer to commercial space flights By Reuters

By Rich McKay (Reuters) - Flying at Mach 3 and reaching more than 55 miles above the Earth Saturday, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson's private spaceship company Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc completed its first manned space flight from its new home port in New Mexico. This is a milestone in Branson's near two-decades effort to create a commercial "spaceline" to take paying customers into outer space. Touted as the first human spaceflight from the state, Branson's SpaceShipTwo craft lifted off in the desert about 45 miles northeast of Las Cruces, New Mexico, about 10:35 a.m....

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Musk says he supports crypto in battle with fiat money By Reuters

(Reuters) - Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk tweeted on Saturday that in a battle between fiat and cryptocurrencies, his support is with crypto. "The true battle is between fiat & crypto. On balance, I support the latter," he said https://twitter.com/TheRealShifo/status/1396034017179406338 on Twitter in reply to a user who asked him what his thoughts were about people who were angry at him because of crypto. Musk has previously compared bitcoin to fiat money and often tweets about cryptocurrencies that have sent values for bitcoin and the meme digital currency dogecoin up and down....

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