Local
Heatwave - The Vaucluse, the Bouches-du-Rhone and the Gard and Herault have been place on a heatwave red alert today with Météo-France predicting temperatures reaching "42 to 45 degrees. In a tweet on Thursday afternoon, France’s Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner underlined that "the prefects of the departments placed on a red vigilance by Météo-France have activated their departmental operational center to coordinate action from State services”. 76 departments remain on an orange alert including the Alpes Maritimes.
As the heatwave sweeps across France a survey published on Thursday has shown that nearly one in two French people are concerned for the health of a loved one during such extreme heat with 75% believing that the public authorities are acting and communicating correctly.
Speaking on France 2 on Thursday France’s Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn has criticized some people’s behaviour during the heat wave, including people who go jogging in the middle of the day. Adding it’s "fairly irresponsible of citizens who continue to jog between noon and two o'clock”, pointing out: "It is these people who will eventually find themselves in emergencies ".
Meanwhile France’s train network the SNCF has allowed passengers to cancel or postpone their travel plans free of charge until Sunday evening, because of the heat wave.
And Nice City council has announced that from this morning and during the weekend tramlines 1 and 2 in Nice will be free for all passengers.
Accident - A 50 year old man has been seriously injured following an accident with his tractor. The incident occurred in Vallauris-Golfe-Juan when the driver lost control of his vehicle on the Chemin de la Colline. Seriously wounded he was taken to hospital in Nice.
New opening in Nice - Once an institution of nightlife on the Côte d’azur the restaurant, cabaret and cocktail bar formerly known as the Sansas is to reopen this evening under a new brand, that of the Scottish artisanal brewer Brewdog. Founded in the Aberdeen area, this small brewery established its first bar in 2009 in northeastern Scotland. Before quickly developing a chain of establishments in all over the world and now here in France in Paris and Nice.
National
Bridges - Following the Genoa bridge disaster in August 2018 which claimed the lives of 43 people, French senators were tasked with studying the state of France’s bridges. Their findings have been made public revealing that 10 percent are not safe. The exact number of bridges in France is not known, but estimates range from between 200,000 and 250,000.
Diamond heist - A Belgian court has sentenced a Frenchman to five years in prison for his role in a spectacular 37 million euros diamond heist at Brussels airport in 2013. Bertoldi was found guilty of taking part in one of the world's biggest diamond thefts on 18 February 2013. Posing as police officers, the gang seized the gems from a passenger plane in an operation that lasted barely six minutes. No shots were fired. More than 30 people were detained in Belgium, France and Switzerland in massive coordinated police operations.
Business
The designer of Apple’s iMac ,iPad and iPhone is to leave the company to set up his own venture.
Sir Jony Ive has helped to turn Apple into the world’s most valuable company over the past two decades but will leave to set up a new firm LoveFrom.
He said that it seemed like the natural time to leave Apple.
Sir Jony’s departure comes at a time of wider change at Apple with the retail chief Angela Ahrensdts leaving in April and investors becoming concerned over falling sales of iPhones.
Not much is known about the new firm LoveFrom apart from that it will be based in California and may focus on wearable technology.
Jony Ive became head of Apple’s design studio in 1996 at a time when the firm was in poor financial health.
The turnaround started with the iMac in 1998 and the iPod in 2001.The iPhone came along in 2007 with the iPad arriving in 2010.
Ford has announced that its to cut 12,000 jobs in Europe by the end of 2020.
The US car giant is trying to cut costs and restructure its European business which is losing money.
The company plans to have closed 5 of its European plants by the end of next year including Bridgend in Wales and will sell another one.
Ford currently employs 51,000 people in Europe and says that it hopes to achieve most of the job cuts through voluntary redundancy.
The entire car sector is currently struggling with falling sales in major markets as well as the huge investment necessary for the shift towards electric vehicles.
And-Oil prices have fallen back in Asian trade this morning as the market waits for a scheduled meeting between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at the G20 Summit in Japan.
Traders are also eyeing next week’s meeting of Opec and its partners.
Brent Crude futures were trading down 39 cents a little earlier this morning at 66 dollars 16 with West Texas Intermediate down 40 cents at 59 dollars and 03 cents.
The trade dispute between the US and China has been weighing on oil prices ,heightening fears that an economic slowdown could dent demand.
The outcome of the meeting will set the tone for next week’s gathering of Opec which is likely to see the cartel extend current production cuts even if talks at the G20 turn positive.
AEROPORT DE NICE –QATAR AIRWAYS FIFA WOMEN’S WORLD CUP REPORT.
England are through to the semi-finals of the women’s World Cup following an emphatic 3-0 victory over Norway in last night’s quarter final in Le Havre.
Jill Scott and Ellen White scored first half goals for Phil Neville’s team with Lucy Bronze adding a brilliant third in the second half.
England will meet with winners of tonight’s second quarter final between the hosts France and the defending champions the USA in Paris.
The match is set to take place in heatwave conditions at the Parc des Princes with a 9pm kick off.
The USA will be favourites to win but home advantage is sure to lift the French team with a capacity crowd expected.
The remaining two quarter finals are being played tomorrow.
Italy play the Netherlands at 3pm and Germany face Sweden at 6.30.
Football-Patrick Viera is among the names being considered for the Newcastle job with current manager Rafael Benitez leaving at the end of the month.
Viera has just completed his first season in charge of Nice and is said to be happy at the club but would listen to Newcastle if they made an approach.
Formula 1-First practice for Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix at Speilberg takes place at 11am this morning with Lewis Hamilton looking to strengthen his grip on the drivers’ championship.
Hamilton leads team-mate Valtteri Bottas by 36 points heading into the race with Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel a distant third.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc conceded on Thursday that the team are unlikely to catch Mercedes and make a fight of the championship before the end of the season.
He said that Ferrari wouldn’t give up until it’s not possible and that they would keep trying.
Second practice is at 3pm this afternoon with qualifying at 3pm on Saturday and the race at 3.10 on Sunday.
Cricket-India have moved a step closer to the World Cup semi-finals after thrashing West Indies by 125 runs at Old Trafford.
India batted first and made 268-7 in their 50 overs before bowling West Indies out for 143.
The defeat ends West Indies slim hopes of making the last 4.
Today-Sri Lanka play South Africa at Chester-le-Street.Play starts at 11.30.
A victory for Sri Lanka would keep their hopes of a place in the semi-finals alive.
Tennis-The British number one Kyle Edmund is through to the semi-finals of the Eastbourne International after beating fellow Brit Dan Evans in three sets.
Edmund will now play Taylor Fritz of the United States in the last four.
The other semi is between Sam Querrey and Thomas Fabbiano.
In the women’s event Angelique Kerber made the last four following a straight sets win over Simona Halep and will now play Ons Jabeur of Tunisia.
The other semi final is between Karolina Pliskova and Kiki Bertens.
Weather
AN ORANGE HEATWAVE ALERT IS IN FORCE FOR THE ALPES MARITIMES AND THE VAR.
RED HEATWAVE ALERT FOR THE BOUCHES DU RHONE
Clear skies but with high air pollution again in the Alpes-Maritimes .
Light south easterly winds and highs of 35 degrees in coastal areas and up to 41 degrees in some places inland.
Overnight lows of 26 degrees in coastal areas and 21 degrees inland with clear skies.
The weekend-Cooling down a bit but still hot with highs of 31-35 degrees and remaining very warm at night in coastal areas.
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