French and Riviera News Monday 18th November 2019

Local

Yellow Vest movement - The Yellow Vest movement has returned to the roundabout of the A8 motorway toll in Cagnes sur Mer to mark the first anniversary of the movement. About 30 gathered on Sunday evening after the movement announced plans to demonstrate ahead of the anniversary in several cities across France. There were gatherings in Nice and Frejus in the Var.In Antibes,police closed the entrance to the A8 motorway for a time on Sunday afternoon owing to the presence of demonstrators. In Paris  demonstrations were marred by outbreaks of violence after “yellow vest” protestors gathered at Place d’Italie south of the capital. Blackbloc anarchists tore up paving stones, set up barricades and set alight to objects.  French police detained dozens of protesters participating in Saturday's 'Act 53' yellow vest movement marking the first serious clashes with police in months in central Paris between security forces and demonstrators.

Nearly 6000 protesters were out in the southwestern city of Bordeaux along with big numbers out in Lyon and Toulouse.

No electricity or running water after heavy snowfall - 70,000 homes are still without electricity and running water in the Rhône-Alpes region four days after heavy snowfall last Thursday. As a result, a couple in their 70s were found dead on Sunday in the Isère poisoned with carbon monoxide from a generator. Residents are outraged by the situation. According to the energy provided Enedis the “situation was a lot worse than first thought” and teams are being deployed with “services expected to return to normal by Tuesday”.

Junior Eurovision - 14-year-old Carla Lazzari from Nice is to represent France a the junior Eurovision on November 24th. The young singer was finalist of the Voice Kids in 2018 and will represent the colours of France in Polond with her single “Bim Bam Toi”. Carlo already has a fan club on Facebook including the Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi who wished her luck adding “Nice is behind you!” on his Twitter account.

World’s most expensive watch - The world’s most expensive watch has sold at auction for 28 million euros. The unique prototype, sought after by collectors, was the star of fifty unique pieces offered by the biggest brands of the watch industry, put on sale to support the Monegasque association against myopathies (AMM).

National

Domestic violence - A report published on Sunday has shown that eighty percent of complaints stemming from domestic violence are not followed through by French officials, Nicole Belloubet, the Minister of Justice, acknowledged on Friday that the system for protecting female victims of domestic violence “is not functioning.”

Business

Saudi Arabia has placed a preliminary valuation on the state owned Aramco oil company of between 1.6 and 1.7 trillion dollars.

The firm has published an updated prospectus for its initial public offering which will seek more than 25 billion dollars for the sale of 1.5 percent of its shares.

It could be the world’s largest ever IPO but is short of the two trillion dollar valuation that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was reportedly keen to achieve.

If priced at the top end then the IPO could just beat the record-breaking 25 billion dollars raised by the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in 2014.

Shares will be made available to both large institutions and individual retail investors when they’re floated on the Riyadh stock market.

Aramco says that there are no current plans for an international share sale.

 

The US car giant Ford has unveiled an electric Mustang that it hopes will help to turn around its fortunes.

The Mustang Mach E electric sport was unveiled in Los Angeles on Sunday and is seen as the latest phase in Ford’s restructuring that has been marred by profit warnings ,costly quality problems and the troubled launch of the Ford Explorer sport utility earlier this year.

Officials at the firm are hoping that the new Mustang’s aggressive design and futuristic interior will represent a visible sign that the process of product overhaul is on the right track.

Ford wants to become a leader in clean vehicles and wants to become carbon neutral by 2030.

The firm is to spend 11.5 billion dollars developing electric and hybrid models by 2022.

 

And-The PC maker Hewlett Packard has rejected a takeover bid from the printer manufacturer Xerox despite pressure from billionaire investor Carl Icahn to agree a merger.

The HP board said on Sunday that they had unanimously rejected an unsolicited proposal from Xerox Holdings Corporation  and concluded that the 33.5 billion dollar offer undervalued the firm and was not in the best interests of shareholders.

The firm said that it was concerned that the proposal would leave HP with “outsized debt levels” but also recognised the “potential benefits” of consolidation suggesting that talks should continue.

Carl Icahn ,who has stakes in both firms supports a merger which he says would make sense for investors.He’s built up a 4.24 percent stake in HP and holds 10.6 percent of Xerox stock.

Sport

Football-England won their final Euro 2020 qualifier 4-0 in Kosovo last night to top the group and make the top seeding positions for next summer’s finals.

Harry Kane was on the scoresheet again and there were goals for Harry Winks ,Mason Mount and Marcus Rashford.

Coach Gareth Southgate says that the squad are “further ahead” than they were before the World Cup finals in 2018 and that he’s expecting a “good tournament”.

France also guaranteed themselves a place at next summer’s finals with a 2-0 win in Albania.

In the FA Women’s Super League in England on Sunday Manchester City hammered West Ham 5-0.Brighton beat Birmingham 3-0.Chelsea beat Manchester United 1-0.Reading and Bristol City drew 3-3.Liverpool lost 1-0 at home to Everton and Arsenal were 2-0 winners at Spurs.

Tennis-Stefanos Tsitsipas has won the season ending ATP World Tour Finals in London.

The 21 year old Greek beat Dominic Thiem 6-7 6-2 7-6 to claim the biggest title of his career.

He got prize money of just over 2 million pounds and is the youngest player to win the event since Lleyton Hewitt in 2001.

Formula 1-Max Verstappen in the Red Bulll won the Brazilian Grand Prix at Interlagos on Sunday with Pierre Gasly in the Toro Rosso second and Carlos Sainz taking a welcome podium place for McLaren in third.

The race developed into a dramatic finale with the Ferrari’s of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc colliding while disputing 4th place.

Lewis Hamilton also collided with Alexander Albon in the Red Bull and was demoted to 7th place by the stewards after crossing the line in third place.

The final race of the season is in Abu Dhabi on the 1st of December.

Rugby Union-There were three games in the European Champions Cup on Sunday.Northampton beat Lyon 25-14.Defending champions Saracens lost heavily by 30- 10 at Racing 92 and Connacht beat Montpellier 23-20.

Golf-Tommy Fleetwood of England climbed to second place in the Race for Dubai with victory in the Nedbank Golf Challenge at Sun City.

Fleetwood beat Marcus Kinhult in a play-off after both players had ended on 12 under par.

Fleetwood won at the first extra hole.

Weather

Hazy sunshine this morning-clouding over this afternoon with rain on the coast and snow over higher ground.

Light to moderate easterly winds and a high of 12 degrees.

Overnight lows of 10 degrees on the coast and 7 degrees inland with more rain.

Tuesday and Wednesday-Rain for most of tomorrow ,partially cloudy on Wednesday.Highs of 12-15 degrees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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