French and Riviera News Monday 28th September 2020

Local

Covid-19 - Cafe and restaurants owners in the Alpes Maritimes are to meet with the prefect today ahead of the possible closure of their establishments at 10pm due to Covid-19. 

Several meetings were held on Sunday as the measure announced by the government last Wednesday is expected to come into force from today. 

The restriction would affect the 1,300 bars and restaurants between Cannes and Nice and 17,000 employees.

Demonstration in Marseille - Meanwhile on Saturday, bar and restaurant owners in Marseille demonstrated outside the city's commercial courthouse against forced closures which were introduced on Sunday.

Lockdown - Meanwhile a new poll has shown that a majority of people in France are overwhelmingly in favour of a new nationwide lockdown. The opinion poll published in the Journal du Dimanche reveals the public’s anxiety towards Covid-19 remains high with 72% in favour of a new lockdown.

Figures - About 14,500 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours on Sunday with health officials warning that the situation is worsening and medical staff declaring they “do not want to have to choose which patients they care for” as the number of admissions increase. Over the last seven days, 4,102 people have been hospitalised, 763 of whom are being treated in intensive care.

Doctor warn of saturation in hospitals - One of Frances top medical figures Patrick Bouet, head of the National Council of the Order of Doctors warned on Sunday that the second wave is arriving faster than we thought," and that there would be no medical staff available to provide reinforcements, and France's health system would be unable to meet all the demands”.

And - During a press conference at the weekend France’s Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, dismissed the idea of ​​"preventive" national return to lockdown ahead of the festive season.


Covid-19 Monaco - Five new cases of Covid-19 have been declared in the Principality and one 91-year-old coronavirus patient has died at the Princess Grace Hospital.

To date in Monaco 210 residents have been affected by Covid-19 and two people have died. Nine patients are currently hospitalised including 5 residents and 30 people are being followed by the Home Monitoring Center.

In other news

Fire - A fire has destroyed three restaurants in Saint Laurent du Var. The blaze broke out in the early hours of this morning on the promenade des Flots Bleus. Firefighters have reportedly contained the blaze and an investigation has been launched to determine the cause.

Mushroom season - As mushroom season begins the regional health authority has warned people to be careful when picking mushroom. Thousands of people are poisoned every year in France by mushrooms. Mushroom pickers are advised to collect mushrooms that "you know perfectly well, to not pick mushrooms near potentially polluted sites and do not consume mushrooms identified through a smartphone mushroom recognition application, due to the high risk of error".

National

Paris attack - Seven people have been detained in connection with an attack outside the former offices of the magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

A man armed with a meat cleaver wounded two people in the attack on Friday. The main suspect, identified as an 18-year-old man of Pakistani origin, was arrested near the scene. Police said six others were in custody and being questioned.

The attack is being treated as a terrorist incident.

Statue - Paris is to put up a statue of a black woman involved in a 1802 rebellion against slavery on the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe.

The woman, named only Solitude, was captured and possibly executed. Opening a public garden in her honour on Saturday, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo called Solitude a "heroine" and a "strong symbol". France's history of slavery has been under new scrutiny, in part because of the US Black Lives Matter protests.

Business

A report by Reuters says that stocks could face more volatility this week as Donald Trump faces Joe Biden in the first televised Presidential debate ahead of November’s election .

A strong performance by Biden in Tuesday’s debate could boost stocks related to global trade and renewable energy while a perceived victory for Trump might see the stock of fossil fuel and defence firms rise.

Biden is currently holding a modest lead in betting odds and opinion polls over Trump but the outcome of the election is far from certain and may well end up in the courts.

The first debate comes at a fraught time for markets with the S&P 500 down by 10 percent  from record highs in recent weeks as investors worry about a prolonged recovery from the coronavirus pandemic and uncertainty related to November’s election.

 

Industrial profits at Chinese firms has risen for the fourth straight month as the country continues to lead the global recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.

The official Chinese Statistics Bureau said that the results were supported in part by a rebound in commodity prices and equipment manufacturing.

China’s recovery has been gaining momentum on the back of pent-up demand ,government stimulus and surprisingly resilient exports.

Industrial firm profits grew by 19.1 percent year-on-year in August to 89.8 billion dollars.

However ,firms are still facing external pressures as rising tensions between Beijing and Washington cloud the global trade outlook.

 

And-The head of the UK Confederation of British Industry CBI has said that a post-Brexit trade deal “can and must be made”.

Speaking ahead of the resumption of talks today between UK and EU negotiators ,Dame Carolyn Fairbairn says that it’s “time for the spirit of compromise to shine through”.

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that a trade agreement must be done by the 15th of October if its going to be ready for the start of 2021.

There are still key areas of disagreement between the two sides ,notably on the Northern Irish border , fishing and levels of acceptable state intervention.

In a recent CBI survey only 4 percent of respondents said that they would prefer no deal to be agreed on trade..

Dame Carolyn said that businesses are facing a hat-trick of unprecedented challenges-rebuilding from the first wave of coronavirus ,dealing with the resurgence of the disease and preparing for significant changes to the UK’s trading relationship with the EU.

Sport

Football-There were 4 games in the English Premier League on Sunday.

Sheffield United lost 1-0 at home to Leeds.Spurs and Newcastle drew 1-1.Manchester City were beaten 5-2 at home by Leicester and West Ham beat Wolves 4-0.

There are two games tonight.Fulham play Aston Villa and Liverpool play Arsenal.

In the Scottish Premiership on Sunday Motherwell were thashed 5-1 at home by Rangers.Celtic beat Hibs 3-0  and Ross County lost 3-0 at home to Aberdeen.

In the English Championship Bristol City beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 and Bournemouth were 1-0 winners over Norwich.

Tennis-It was a grim opening day for British players at the French Open with Andy Murray ,Dan Evans and Johanna Konta all out.

Murray never got out of first gear and lost in straight sets to Stan Wawrinka while Evans was beaten in 5 sets by Kei Nishikori.

Konta admitted that she hadn’t played well as she was beaten 6-3 6-3 by Coco Gauff.

Formula 1-Valtteri Bottas won the Russian Grand Prix on Sunday ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull and Lewis Hamilton who was hit by a 10 second penalty for doing two illegal practice starts.

The penalty was later rescinded by the stewards and Mercedes were fined 25,000 euros instead on the basis that the team gave an instruction not to do the offending practice start in the designated area.

Bottas has closed the gap on Hamilton at the top of the drivers’ championship to 44 points with plenty of races still to go in the season.

The next race is on the 11th of October at the Nurburgring.

MotoGP-Local star Fabio Quartararo has won the Catalonia Grand Prix to regain the championship lead from Andrea Dovizioso.

The 21 year old Yamaha-SRT rider who’s from Nice dominated the 8th race of the season after Dovizioso fell on the first lap.

He’s 8 points clear of Joan Mir of Spain at the top of the championship.

Cycling-Julian Alaphilippe has won the men’s Road World Championships in Imola thanks to a stunning breakaway attack.

The Frenchman joins many top names in the sport in claiming the Rainbow Jersey in the 258.2 kilometer one day race.

He beat a chasing group of riders by 28 seconds to claim the win.

Weather

Partially cloudy with moderate south westerly winds.

Top temperature 21 degrees.

Overnight lows of 14 degrees on the coast and 12 degrees inland with clear skies.

Tuesday and Wednesday-Mainly fine with highs of 21-22 degrees.

And Finally 

A recent study has found that more than 52 per cent of people in Britain avoid discussing their sex life.

Brits are often thought to be quite reserved and new research has compared the nation to more broad-minded countries in neighbouring Europe - and confirmed the theory is true. 

A study of 24,000 people from 12 European countries found that those who live in Britain are most reluctant to talk about sex, with either their partner or friends.

Meanwhile, a surprising 52 per cent confessed that they never discuss what goes on in the bedroom. 

Spain was revealed as the country with people who are the least shy about discussing their sex lives with others. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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