Image source, AFP

Millions of children in France went back to school today after being at home for more than three months.

Pupils up to the age of 15 returned to schools as part of a gradual reopening.

Schools were closed on 16 March, a day before France went into lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

One parent in Nice, Noémie, told AFP news agency that she "cried with joy" when she was told her two children would be able to go back to school full-time.

Image source, AFP

Image source, AFP

The UK government will give its daily briefing at 17:00 BST (16:00 GMT).

It will be led by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

He will be joined by Dr Jenny Harries, deputy chief medical officer for England.

Service stations are the beating heart of the UK's road network.

On the first Monday since the coronavirus alert level was downgraded the BBC visited the UK's first motorway services to find out where its visitors were heading.

At Watford Gap services on the M1 in Northamptonshire, father-of-10 Atiq Rahman, a 41-year-old Royal Mail lorry driver, stopped off for a picnic with four of his children on their way from Leicester to London.

Atiq's family were making a surprise trip to see his mother who lives in Peckham, south-east London, for the first time in five months.

He told the BBC: "I'm a hugger and the first thing I'm going to do when I see my mum is hug her.

"I can't wait. It's such an emotional trip, I'm so excited to see her I have a lump in my throat just thinking about it."

Read more here.

Image source, Getty Images

An organiser of the Black Lives Matter protests in South Carolina has said all upcoming protests there have been cancelled after a number of infections were linked to demonstrations.

Lawrence Nathaniel said in a Facebook video that at least 24 activists had become ill in recent days.

"If we're going to keep doing protests and we're talking about Black Lives Matter, and Covid-19 is affecting the African American community at a higher rate, we can no longer have mass protests right now," Nathaniel said, adding that he is awaiting the results of his own test.

"If you want to protest, and you care about black lives, stay home," he continued, calling on protesters to "get tested immediately".

South Carolina recorded more than 900 new cases on Sunday.

Black Lives Matter protests have continued across the US, although not at the scale seen immediately after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody on 25 May.

Image source, Royal Ascot

Royal Ascot, flat racing's biggest UK meeting, took place behind closed doors for the first time this year due to coronavirus.

Now, more than 40 rainbow-themed hats to celebrate the five-day event happening during lockdown have raised £24,000 for frontline charities.

Rainbows have become popular symbols of hope during the pandemic, with Royal Ascot and the British Hat Guild inviting milliners to create hats using this theme.

Of the 44 hats, Jane Taylor and Lisa Tan's raised the most, with £1,250 and £1,200 respectively.

Image source, Royal Ascot

Some of the other high-profile milliners involved in the project included Stephen Jones - who has created catwalk designs for Vivienne Westwood - Rachel Trevor-Morgan and Vivien Sheriff.

The cash raised will be split between four front-line charities - The National Emergencies Trust Relief Fund, NHS Charities Together, The Care Workers Charity and the Berkshire Community Foundation.

You can read more here.

Leo Kelion
Technology desk editor

Image source, PA

The Irish Republic plans to press ahead with the launch of a coronavirus contact-tracing app based on Apple and Google's technology, despite concerns raised about the tech's accuracy in its current state.

The Health Service Executive told the BBC that it would submit a memo to government this week, and "subject to approval" would launch its Covid Tracker app shortly after.

The UK government has said it is worried about false alerts, while researchers advising the Irish effort have also questioned whether the software should be rolled out in its current state.

Read the full story here.

Kerry Allen
BBC Monitoring, Chinese Media Analyst

Image source, EPA

Despite recent concerns in China about a potential second wave of Covid-19, media have been calling on netizens to praise Beijing’s patient zero, a 52-year-old man who has been affectionately termed “Uncle Xicheng”.

“Uncle” is a common term of affection, and Xicheng is the name of the district he lives in. The man, surnamed Tang, contracted Covid-19 on 11 June and was the first patient in an outbreak that saw 236 people testing positive.

Today, people have been seeing footage of “Uncle Xicheng” on local broadcaster Beijing TV. He thanks social media users “for their concern” from his hospital bed and says: “I am now in a stable condition, and will definitely fight this virus!”

On Friday, the official China Daily noted that Mr Tang had been winning mass praise as “thanks to his great memory, he has contributed much to narrowing down the source of the infection”.

Doctors at the hospital he is being treated at also praised him for wearing a mask and riding a bicycle to the hospital to prevent other people from coming into contact with him.

Mr Tang’s online fame is helping China turn the tide domestically on stigma related to Covid-19. After the initial outbreak in the central city of Wuhan, the city’s local economy suffered significantly, as people became nervous about using services or products from the area.

Media are hoping that Mr Tang’s response and openness about the virus will prevent people from hiding their symptoms or feeling ashamed if they test positive.

Image source, Getty Images

Pret a Manger food shops in the UK, US and France have been hit hard by coronavirus lockdowns as many workers have stayed in their homes.

The chain has now re-opened more than 300 of its UK stores for takeaway and delivery services.

But now, a leaked video revealing how sales at the sandwich chain have dropped during the pandemic has raised fears about job cuts.

Boss Pano Christou told staff in a recent online meeting that an announcement about the "job situation" would be made on 8 July.

He said Pret's global weekly takings had fallen to £3m, just 15% of what they would normally be.

A Pret spokeswoman said staff would be the "first to hear about any changes".

You can read more here.

The number of daily coronavirus deaths in the UK has dropped to its lowest level since mid-March, according to the latest government figures.

The Department for Health and Social Care said there had been 15 new deaths, external recorded in the past 24 hours.

In total, 42,647 have died with cornavirus in the UK, with 305,289 people testing positive.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is opening two new field hospitals in Cox's Bazar in Bangladesh to support what it calls "an alarming and growing number" of coronavirus cases.

There is huge concern about possible outbreaks in the area’s refugee camps, which are filled with nearly one million Rohingya Muslims, who fled persecution in neighbouring Myanmar.

The field hospitals will treat refugees as well as loca residents.

So far, more than 1,500 cases have been confirmed in the Cox's Bazar region, including 37 within the camps. But testing is limited and some analysts suggest there could be many undetected cases.

Nationwide, Bangladesh reported 3,480 more cases and 38 further deaths on Monday. The country has seen a total of 1,502 fatalities and 115,786 registered cases.

Image source, Reuters

One further person has died after testing positive for Covid-19, according to Public Health Wales, taking the total number of deaths in the nation to 1,478.

The total number of positive cases in Wales increased by 71 to 15,197.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned of a lack of global leadership over the pandemic.

"The world is in desperate need of national unity and global solidarity. The politicisation of the pandemic has exacerbated it," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has told a virtual health forum.

"The greatest threat we face now is not the virus itself - it's the lack of global solidarity and global leadership."

The WHO has also said the pandemic is still accelerating and that its economic and other effects would be felt for decades.

Almost nine million people have been infected and nearly 470,000​ have died.

Image source, Esther Edun

A UK university that has closed to face-to-face teaching during the lockdown is still looking after about 750 students on its campus.

Half the 4,500 postgraduates at Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, are from overseas and some were unable to go home when borders closed.

Others managed to get back, but had to leave quickly, without their possessions.

Esther Edun, 45, a researcher from Nigeria and who lives on campus with her husband and teenage children, said support during a stressful time had been "phenomenal".

Jesus Ezquerro, 23, from Spain, said daily meetings with his supervisor were helping him "keep on track".

Alison Whaley, director of student experience, said the university wants the students "to feel safe and taken care of", and had taken steps such as opening up extra study spaces and was working on how to ship students' possessions back to them.

You can read more here.

Damien McGuinness
BBC News, Berlin

In another development in Germany, the reproduction number (R number) has risen sharply.

To contain the virus, it should be less than one - but over the last few days, that value has risen sharply and is now 2.88.

Officials say this does not necessarily mean Germany is seeing a second wave of infections. This sudden rise is mainly down to a number of localised outbreaks.

More than 1,300 workers at a meat-processing plant have tested positive for Covid-19. And in Berlin and the town of Göttingen, whole apartment blocks have been quarantined after residents were infected.

So far there’s no sign that Germany is seeing a second wave: because the country’s overall infection rate is low, these sudden local outbreaks have a big impact on the national R number.

They have so far been contained and don’t appear to be causing more infections. And 140 local authorities haven’t seen any new cases at all in the past seven days.

But the drastic measures to contain the outbreaks have a cost: people’s homes have been fenced off, with police preventing residents from going outside.

Read more here.

Image source, Getty

Police reinforcements have been sent to maintain a coronavirus quarantine on a tower block in the German city of Göttingen after violence erupted there on Saturday.

Some 700 people were placed in quarantine, but about 200 who attempted to get out clashed with police.

Residents attacked police with fireworks, bottles and metal bars. Officials say communication problems lie behind the clashes, with residents not understanding that they need to have a second, negative coronavirus test, before they can leave the block.

The quarantine was introduced on Thursday after two residents tested positive, but many more are thought to be infected.

In Berlin as well as Göttingen, whole apartment blocks have been quarantined after residents were infected. People’s homes have also been fenced off, with police preventing residents from going outside.

Read more here.

As lockdown restrictions are beginning to ease in England, councils and local governments are assessing the impact that the cost of the coronavirus measures have had on their budgets.

Greater Manchester's Mayor Andy Burnham has told the BBC he expects councils in the combined authority area to face a net deficit of £368m by the end of this financial year due to increased costs and lost income during the crisis.

Burnham described the projected figure, which covers 10 councils in Greater Manchester, as a “massive number” that “would have a severe impact on social care, on children’s services", and called on the government to help.

Speaking to the BBC, Burnham urged Chancellor Rishi Sunak “not to go down that path” of cutting public spending.

He said the North was "hit very hard over the last decade" and that the government has said it wants to invest in the region, as part of its "levelling up" pledge.

Burnham warned that if there are more cuts to councils in the North in the coming months and years, then the "levelling up" "will not happen" as communities will be "laid low instead".

Image source, Liceu

Spain has finally lifted its nationwide state of emergency, with borders reopening and tourists returning, and Barcelona’s Liceu opera house is marking the occasion with an unusual performance.

On Monday evening the famous venue is hosting a Concert for the Biocene in front of an audience of 2,292 potted plants. Musicians will (fittingly) perform a string composition by Puccini called Chrysanthemum.

The venue said Eugenio Ampudia - the artist behind the idea - wanted to make a comment on lockdown, and the fact that people have been forced out of venues during the outbreak.

Music fans can livestream the event from 18:00 local time (17:00 BST) on the opera house’s website.

Image source, Liceu

James Williams
BBC Wales Political Correspondent

More than 1,000 hospital patients were discharged to Welsh care homes without a coronavirus test at the start of the outbreak, it has been revealed.

The Welsh Government confirmed 1,097 patients were sent from hospital to care homes without being tested for Covid-19 during March and April.

Care Forum Wales said care homes felt under pressure to take hospital patients without tests.

It said this had "turned safe havens into coronavirus warzones".

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show there have been 654 Covid-19 deaths in Welsh cares homes to 5 June - accounting for 28% of all coronavirus deaths in Wales.

Read the full story here.

Image source, PA Media

The UK government's review of the 2m social distancing rule has been completed, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's spokesman has said.

A decision on whether or not the rule will be changed in England is due to be made later today.

The PM is expected to announce on Tuesday if the hospitality sector - for which the 2m rule is a key issue - can reopen on 4 July.

Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will make independent decisions on both social distancing rules and the reopening of the hospitality sector.

Asked whether England might follow Northern Ireland's lead and allow groups of up to six to meet indoors, the spokesman added: "In terms of the next steps in the road map, you'll have to wait until tomorrow when the PM will set out the detail to Parliament."

Image source, Getty Images

Like other places we have reported about on Monday, New York is preparing to further lift its restrictions. It is entering the second phase of its four-phase easing plan and reopening a number of facilities.

For the first time in three months, New Yorkers will be able to dine out, though only at outdoor tables. They will also be able to browse in some of the city’s major stores, including flagship department store Macy's. Playgrounds and hair salons are also due to reopen.

Workers will be able to return to their office buildings, including the World Trade Center’s office towers - though some might choose to remain at home. The city estimates 150,000 to 300,000 additional workers will return to their jobs.

New York was hit particularly hard during the pandemic, with some 400,000 reported cases of the virus, external.