has had on our figures over the christmas period. the situation they're in northern ireland and scotland. the french government has announced new measures, to deal with a spike in covid infections. working from home will become obligatory again where possible for at least three days a week, although schools will open on schedule in the first week of january. there are also no plans to impose an evening curfew, but there will be limits on the size of audiences for indoor and outdoor events. 0ur correspondent hugh schofield has the latest. there was a cabinet meeting, a special cabinet meeting, this afternoon convened by president macron at a distance. he is down in the south of france and he spoke via video leak with his government in paris, because of, as you say, the huge growth of 0micron related covid, and their projecting really very, very sharp increase in the