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  1. German curfew vote and Denmark reopens restaurants: Latest across Europe

    German MPs vote today on a change to the law that will allow the federal government of Chancellor Angela Merkel to impose an emergency brake of overnight curfews and school closures to help curb the pandemic.The 22:00 curfew will only come in in areas with a seven-day incidence rate of over 100 cases per 100,000 while schools will be shut if it reaches 165. There have been 24,884 new cases in the past 24 hours but the incidence rate has fallen to 160.1.Only the state of Schleswig-Holstein in the north is below 100 – at 71.9 cases per 100,000 people.

    Denmark has taken a big step in reopening this morning, allowing customers inside restaurants, visitors in museums and spectators back in football stadiums. One museum in Silkeborg in East Jutland even opened last night just after midnight.

    Visitors walk outside Museum Jorn in Silkeborg, Denmark, on March 6, 2021
    Image caption: Museum Jorn in Silkeborg opened its doors at 00:01 this morning, so visitors can now see the paintings inside too

    Denmark's corona passport is key to the reopening, as it shows on your phone that you’ve been vaccinated, have had a negative test in the past 72 hours or had the infection in the past 180 days. Find out more here.

    France will vaccinate some 400,000 people in 20 fields of work over a two-week period from Saturday. The list includes bus drivers, cab drivers and inspectors on public transport as well as refuse collectors, butchers and shop cashiers. Infections have begun to fall in France and almost 25% of the adult population (nearly 13 million) have been inoculated.

    Spain’s health service will today start distributing Johnson & Johnson vaccines across the country after the EU’s medicines agency gave the drug its backing while listing the “very rare” side effect of blood clots. The country now has 3.45 million people vaccinated, more than have been infected since the start of the pandemic.

  2. Video content

    Video caption: CEO Secrets: 'This loan could have ruined us'

    CEO Augustin Celier says he was tempted by a €500,000 loan "but it could have ruined our company".

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    Video caption: Ukraine seeks UK help over Russia border tensions

    UK and Ukraine officials meet over the build-up of Russian troops near Ukraine's border.

  4. Rollout of vaccines to Balkans and French mobile app: Latest in Europe

    Women wearing face masks sit in a tram in the midst of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 16 April 2021
    Image caption: Bosnia has introduced a curfew and vaccine shortages have led to protests

    Austria is to oversee the distribution of 651,000 Pfizer/BioNTech doses to six countries in the Western Balkans as part of an EU scheme. Serbia already has a successful rollout so many of the doses will go to Bosnia-Herzegovina, Northern Macedonia and Albania. Bosnia has the lowest vaccination coverage in Europe. Some of the doses will go to Kosovo and Montenegro.

    Denmark is already using a corona pass to allow people to enter hairdressers and beauty salons, but now France has adapted a mobile phone app to enable people to travel to other French territories such as Corsica and Reunion. The TousAntiCovid (everyone against Covid) app can now be updated to show a negative Covid test or proof of vaccination. Travellers will still be allowed to provide their documents on paper.

    All eyes in the Netherlands will be on the government’s evening press conference where a cautious relaxation of Covid measures is on the cards. The cabinet is expected to agree to reopening café and bar terraces under strict rules and an end to a controversial overnight curfew.

    The EU’s medicines agency is set to announce the conclusion of its investigation into the safety of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine today. It’s reviewed four cases of rare blood clots, one of them fatal. The decision is significant as many EU countries have build the vaccine into their rollout.

    French underwear shops have found a novel way of protesting against continued lockdown restrictions. Eight independent stores have sent Prime Minister Jean Castex some lingerie in a symbolic but humorous protest, complaining that it’s not their stores where Covid is circulating.

    Students aged under 18 in Slovenia will get vaccinated ahead of their final exams -17,000 students are due to take final exams from next month but fewer than 3,000 have registered for vaccinations so far.

  5. Video content

    Video caption: NI Protocol 'not a danger' to UK - Irish PM

    Taoiseach Micheál Martin says it is over dramatic to say the NI Protocol is damaging the UK.

  6. Video content

    Video caption: 'Russia is heading for a catastrophe'

    The BBC's Steve Rosenberg travels 2,000 miles east of Moscow to gauge the mood of ordinary Russians.