French and Riviera News.Thursday 30th May 2019

Death Penalty-A 24 year old man from Cagnes-sur-Mer has been sentenced to death  in Iraq after being handed over to authorities there by Arab Kurd forces in Syria.

Mohamed Berreri is thought to have joined up with Islamic State forces in Syria in 2014 or 2015 after leaving France.

Authorities here say that Berreri had a chequered past and was on a register of suspected radicalised French nationals.

He’s  appeared before a judge in Baghdad to answer crimes related to his involvement with Islamic State and was given the death penalty.

 

Traffic-The French road monitor Bison Fute has warned of heavy traffic at times in our region over the long Ascension holiday weekend.

With many people taking the day off work tomorrow ,roads are expected to be busy at times today and motorists are advised to avoid large towns until after lunch.

Busy motorway junctions such as the one around Aix en Provence are also expected to be thick with traffic.

Sunday is also set to be bad for driving as people make their way home after the break.

The advice is to avoid the roads between midday and 9pm on Sunday.

A particular black spot is likely to be the A7 motorway between Orange and Lyon.

 

 

Top Marques-Authorities in Monaco are taking special measures during the Top Marques luxury and supercar show which starts at the Grimaldi Forum today.

Last year ,there were a number of incidents involving the owners of high powered vehicles who caused safety concerns and disruption in and around the Principality.

Authorities have warned that such incidents will not be tolerated this year and that offenders can expect the full penalty of the law.

The show opens with world premiers of the Ferox and Zacaria advanced technology cars from Australia and there’s a must see stand from Yvel of Israel.

More information is available at www.topmarquesmonaco.com

 

 

Negresses Vertes-The famous French group Les Negresses Vertes will be giving a special concert here in Monaco this coming Saturday.

The band rose to fame in the 1980’s and are known for their style of mixing traditional gypsy music with elements of punk ,and South American Styles.

In recent years ,their music has taken a more electronic slant and they’ve collaborated with  a number of top artists including Massive Attack.

The concert starts at 8.30pm this Saturday at the Espace Leo Ferre and tickets are available from the usual outlets.

 

Recycling -From the first of June ,residents in the metropolitan area of Nice are going to find recycling plastics more easy.

Local authorities are increasing collection of yellow bins from once to twice a week and a full range of plastics and aluminum cans and containers can now all be put in the yellow bin.

From the plastic packaging on foods such as biscuits to yoghurt pots and styrofoam containers ,pretty much any household recyclable waste will be processed.

Between 2015 and 2019 ,it’s estimated that 25 percent of all plastic waste was dumped straight into black bins instead of yellow ones.

Authorities are hoping to vastly increase the amount of recyclable household waste.

The metropolitan area of Nice doesn’t just include the city and its suburbs but also some nearby towns.

 

 

Uber Eats-The UberEats app is now working for service in both Frejus and Saint-Raphael in the Var.

The popularity of the service has been growing rapidly across France in recent months and the firm is now concentrating on extending its reach to medium sized towns as well as large cities.

16 different restaurants in Frejus and Saint Raphael have signed up for the delivery service with orders usually turning up at your front door within 30 minutes.

 

In National News.

 

Renault Fiat Chrysler-A report in the Financial Times has said that the proposed merger between Fiat Chrysler and Renault of France is “unavoidable”.

French authorities have already fired a warning shot across the bows of both companies by saying that any tie-up must protect jobs.

Renault has expressed interest in the merger which is seen as a way of protecting its market and funding its development in electric vehicles.

If a merger went ahead it would create the world’s 3rd largest carmaker behind Volkswagen and Toyota.It would also save the combined firm billions  of euros.

The FT says that the merger might be the only way that the firm’s can remain profitable and is crucial to development of both the  hardware and software involved in the construction of new vehicles.

The report also says that the scale of production vastly outweighs the particular nationality of any constructor.

 

Consumer confidence-Figures released by the French National Statistics Agency INSEE show that growth in the first quarter increased by 0.9 percent.

The agency also said that consumer confidence had also increased by 0.9 percent in the period to the end of March.

Growth is running at an annualised pace of 1.7 percent according to INSEE  but the trade gap is increasing with imports up by 1.4 percent and exports up by only 0.4 percent.

Disposable household income increased by 1 percent in the quarter-lower than the 1.4 percent registered in the final quarter of 2018.

 

Ring road-The mayor of Paris is set to announce a 50 kilometer per hour speed limit on the city’s infamous ring road or peripherique.

Anne Hildago says that she’s ready to implement all 40 recommendations made in recent report including banning heavy trucks from the road and the introduction of a dedicated lane for public transport and carpooling.

The speed limit on the peripherique was lowered to 70 km/h in 2014 but is still the scene of numerous accidents and is also responsible for causing much of the air pollution affecting the Paris area.

The Mayor says that she hopes to have the plan implemented by 2024 and maybe even in time for the next Paris municipal elections in 2020.

Another separate idea is to ban cars completely from the road and turning it into an area of parks and green spaces.

Traffic would be diverted onto the outer ring road ,the A86 at a cost of some 2 billion euros.

 

Business.

 

A vote calling for Mark Zuckerberg to stand down as Facebook's chairman is expected to take place at the company's annual general meeting on Thursday.

Mr Zuckerberg is both Facebook's chief executive and the chairman of its board of directors.

Those calling for him to step down as chairman say this would help him focus on running the company.

Mr Zuckerberg is very unlikely to lose the vote, because he owns 60% of the company's shares.

However, the percentage of shareholders who vote against him could indicate how much faith they have in his leadership.

 

The big five European football leagues generated a record €15.6bn in revenue in 2017-18, a 6% annual increase, according to new figures from Deloitte.

It says the European football market is now worth some €28.4bn .

The English Premier League was the market leader, with record revenues of £4.8bn, as five teams competed in the Champions League for the first time.

Germany's Bundesliga overtook Spain's La Liga to become the second-largest revenue generating league in the world.

Deloitte said during the 2017-18 season, European club football was in the "strongest financial position that we've ever seen".

 

And-Factory shutdowns designed to cope with disruption from a 29 March Brexit, slashed UK car production in April by almost a half.

Even though Brexit is delayed the factories still closed and production fell 44.5% according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

In what it called "an extraordinary month", the SMMT said only 70,971 cars rolled off production lines.

That was 56,999 fewer than in April a year ago.

Production for both home and overseas markets fell by 43.7% and 44.7% respectively.

 

Sport.

 

Football-Chelsea have won the Europa League final after beating Arsenal 4-1 in Baku last night.

All the goals came in the second half with Giroud putting Chelsea ahead on 49 minutes.Pedro added a second on 60 minutes and Eden Hazard scored twice in what could be his last game for the club.

Arsenal did get a consolation goal through Iwobi but it was very much Chelsea’s night and Arsenal have to settle for another season in the Europa League instead of qualifying for the Champions League which they would have done if they’d won the final.

 

Attention now shifts to Madrid for the Champions League final between  Liverpool and Spurs on Saturday night.

 

Formula 1-Motoracing stars past and present have attended the funeral of Niki Lauda In Vienna.

Lewis Hamilton .Valtteri Bottas and Nico Rosberg were among those in attendance as well as legends of the sport including Alain Prost and Nigel Mansell.

Mr Lauda died last week at the age of 70.His coffin ,topped with his trademark red helmet was carried into the city’s Saint Stephen’s cathedral with  hundreds lining the street as a mark of respect.

 

Cricket-The World Cup starts today with the hosts England playing South Africa at The Oval.

England are the number one ranked side in the world and are favourites to win the tournament for the first time.

The ten teams in the competition will all play each other once over 50 overs across 11 venues in England and Wales..The top four teams will then advance to the semi-finals before the final at Lords on the 14th of July.

Play at The Oval is due to start at 11.30 French time.

 

Tennis-Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal both reached the third round of the French Open at Roland Garros with ease on Wednesday.

Federer needed only one hour 36 minutes to see off Oscar Otte of Germany 6-4 6-3 6-4 while Nadal beat Yannick Maden of Germany in straight sets.

 

In the women’s event Johanna Konta of Great Britain reached the 3rd round for the first time after beating Lauren Davis 6-3 1-6 6-3.

The 4th seed Kiki Bertens was forced to pull out of her second round match after being taken ill and there were second round wins for world number two Karolina Pliskova ,Sloane Stephens and Garbine Mugurza.

 

Racing-Telecaster and Sir Dragonet have been added to the field for the Epsom Derby on Saturday .

Telecaster won the Dante Stakes at York and is already fourth in the betting for flat racing’s premier classic.

A maximum of 15 horses will line up for the big race-8 of them trained by Aiden O’Brien.

 

Weather.

 

Clear skies with light to moderate south westerly or variable winds.

Top temperatures 22-25 degrees.

Overnight lows of 16 degrees on the coast and 12 degrees inland with clear skies.

Friday and the start of the weekend-Mainly fine with highs of 22-26 degrees.

 

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