TOP HEADLINES

• Italy's daily COVID-19 death toll of 26 was the lowest since 2 March. The country of 60 million has now suffered 34,371 coronavirus fatalities.

• Norway will halt its track-and-trace app and delete all collected data after criticism from the Norwegian Data Protection Authority.

• Sweden will extend its ban on visits to care homes for the elderly until the end of August, said health minister Lena Hallengren. The country of 10 million has suffered 4,891 COVID-19 deaths. 

• Finland is withdrawing the emergency powers its parliament adopted in March to tackle the coronavirus as the infection rate has slowed and exceptional measures are no longer needed, the prime minister said on Monday.

• Portugese prime minister Antonio Costa said "talks are going well" with the UK over an "air bridge" that would let British tourists dodge a mandatory two-week COVID-19 quarantine upon returning home.

• A UK government review into the two-meter social distancing measure "will be completed in the coming weeks," a spokesman said.

• Germany's second supplementary budget in three months includes stimulus measures worth around $115.98 billion, a finance ministry document showed on Monday.

• The UK's online immigration form, which must be filled out by all people entering the country, includes the option to have arrived from several countries which no longer exist, including the USSR, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

• Russia's COVID-19 death toll has passed 7,000, with 143 more fatalities in the past 24 hours, according to the country's coronavirus crisis response center.

• Greece reopened its main airports to more international flights on Monday, with passengers from "high-risk" countries tested and quarantined if necessary. Restrictions remain for passengers from the UK and Turkey.

• The World Health Organization's regional European director Hans Kluge has warned that lockdown restrictions in England should not be further eased until the government's contact-tracing system is proved to be "robust and effective."

• France's health minister, Olivier Veran, says COVID-19 has peaked but urged vigilance. "The largest part of the epidemic is behind us but the virus is not dead," he said on Monday, after president Emmanuel Macron's TV address hailed the "first victory" over COVID-19. 

• Denmark has announced a slimmed-down stimulus package as it starts to phase out generous aid initiatives introduced at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis. The country has injected more than $45 billion into the economy during the pandemic.

• Budget airline easyJet returned to the skies on Monday for the first time since 30 March, with a small number of mainly domestic flights. Passengers must wear face masks.

• Three weeks after declaring it was COVID-free, Montenegro has reported a new case – a visitor from Bosnia. The Balkan country of 620,000 people has so far reported 325 cases and nine deaths.

ACROSS EUROPE

Ross Cullen in Paris

President Emmanuel Macron told the French people the country has won the first battle in what he described as "a long war against COVID-19." In his fourth address to the nation since the start of the coronavirus crisis, the president said all cafes and restaurants can now open across the country; this particular announcement came a week earlier than expected. 

All of France, apart from two overseas territories, is now considered to be a "green zone" in which the coronavirus is only circulating at a low level. All primary and secondary schools will reopen nationwide from 22 June and the president said he now hopes to focus on economic revival, aiming to build "a strong, lasting and environmentally friendly economy."

Isobel Ewing in Budapest

The output of Hungary's automotive industry plunged 80 percent year-on-year in April due to shutdowns at major manufacturing sites, according to the country's statistics office. 

On a monthly basis, output fell 30.5 percent in April, following a 10.4 percent slide the previous month – the first back-to-back monthly double-digit decline on record. 

As vehicle manufacturing fell by 94 percent and parts manufacturing by 69 percent, the automotive sector accounted for about 10 percent of Hungary's industrial output for the month, compared with 25-26 percent in most months. 

Suzuki, Daimler and Audi closed their Hungarian operations for April. The three companies have a combined 5 percent share of the country's GDP and including suppliers, the vehicle sector accounts for roughly 9 percent of total output. 

Ira Spitzer in Berlin

Germany reopened land borders at midnight local time on Monday, ending almost three months of strict border controls – although entry from non-European countries is still being tightly controlled.

While Germany has posted a dramatic decrease in new infections over the past two months, church services have been the cause of at least two outbreaks. A cluster of 112 infections has been traced to a church service in the town of Bremerhaven earlier this month.

Berlin will launch its coronavirus tracing app on Tuesday, according to the country's health ministry. The app, which is voluntary, uses Bluetooth to inform users if they have been close to another user with a confirmed coronavirus infection. The telecoms company Deutsche Telekom and software giant SAP helped develop the app. 

Rahul Pathak in Madrid

From Monday, thousands of German tourists will be allowed to fly to Spain's Balearic Islands in a two-week trial designed to test coronavirus precautions. About 10,900 German tourists will arrive over the next few days, with most staying in Mallorca, the largest of the Balearics.  

The holidaymakers won't be subject to a COVID-19 test, but will have to fill out a detailed questionnaire and receive temperature checks on arrival. While the tourists won't have to go into a 14-day quarantine, they will have to stay a minimum of five nights.

The safe tourist corridor initiative comes a week before Spain prepares to reopen its borders to EU countries on 21 June. The government of Pedro Sanchez is under huge pressure to reactivate the tourism sector, which generates 12 percent of the nation's GDP.

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