PARIS: France said on Thursday it would bring in new COVID-19 restrictions for the area around its common border with Germany, as President Emmanuel Macron’s government tries to contain a surge of coronavirus variants in the French region of Moselle.
Cross-border workers, who had exemptions until now, will need to present negative PCR tests to get through if traveling for reasons unrelated to their jobs, France’s European affairs and health ministers said in a joint statement.
Home working in the area will also be reinforced, they said, after France and Germany said earlier this week they were trying to find ways to prevent a closure of their common border.
Joint France-German police patrols could be stepped up, the ministries said, adding that France’s vaccination program in the region was also being sped up and testing would be boosted.
France has resisted a new national lockdown to control more contagious coronavirus variants, but has begun to toughen up restrictions locally, including in the Dunkirk area in northern France, as cases rise.
The area around Dunkirk will temporarily bring in weekend lockdowns.
The eastern area of Moselle, on the border with Germany and Luxembourg, has seen a surge in the South African variant of the coronavirus, prompting regional authorities to call for a local lockdown, which Paris has resisted imposing so far.
Macron, a fervent pro-European, has consistently advocated for internal borders between EU countries to remain open during the pandemic, and had clashed with Germany last year after Berlin precipitously closed the border during the first wave.
France, Germany to beef up COVID-19 controls at common border
France, Germany to beef up COVID-19 controls at common border
- Cross-border workers, who had exemptions until now, will need to present negative PCR tests to get through if traveling for reasons unrelated to their jobs
- Joint France-German police patrols could be stepped up
Trump ‘very disappointed’ with UK’s Starmer for blocking use of air bases, Telegraph says
- UK PM then said bases could be used in “defensive” operations
- Trump says it took “too long” for Starmer to change his mind
LONDON: Donald Trump said he was “very disappointed” with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for not allowing the US to use the Diego Garcia air base to carry out strikes on Iran, the Daily Telegraph quoted the US president as saying in an interview.
Britain had reportedly initially denied the US permission to conduct air strikes from its bases, but on Sunday evening Starmer said he was accepting a request for their use in any “defensive” strikes the US wanted to make against Iranian targets.
In an interview published on Monday Trump told the British newspaper that it took “too long” for Starmer to change his mind.
“That’s probably never happened between our countries before,” he told the Telegraph, adding: “It sounds like he was worried about the legality.”
Trump said Starmer should have approved from the get-go the American use of Diego Garcia — a strategically important US-UK air base in the Indian Ocean — saying Iran was responsible for killing “a lot of people from your country.”
Britain was not involved in the joint US-Israel air strikes on Iran that killed the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday.
Since attacks on Iran started on Saturday, Iran has been targeting Gulf countries with missiles, and on Sunday an Iranian-made drone hit Britain’s RAF Akrotiri base in Cyprus, causing limited damage and no casualties.
Trump said it was “useful” that the US would now be able to launch operations from Diego Garcia, as he also criticized a deal Starmer has made over the sovereignty of the Chagos Islands, where Diego Garcia is based.
