Dengue fever is back in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur with this seasons first two indigenous cases reported in Gardanne. The infection, which is carried by tiger mosquitos, can cause flu like symptoms with most people getting better in one to two weeks.
Bison Futé has issued its highest-level orange and black warnings for autoroutes this weekend saying the A8 should be avoided this evening between now and 8pm. The first weekend in August is known as nationally as ‘crossover weekend’ … where traffic is extremely busy as July and August holiday makers change over. Tomorrow Saturday is expected to be one of the most difficult days of the entire summer on all the main roads of France.
Police in Nice are investigating an assault on Rue Biscarra behind the Nice Etoile shopping centre at lunchtime today. One of the two, suffered stab wounds. Both are recovering at Pasteur Hospital.
An appearance by 'Lomepal' a headliner at this weekends Plages Electronique in Cannes, could be in doubt after the Paris Prosecutor announced that they will investigate rape claims against the rapper. Festival organisers say they condemn all forms of violence, pointing out that another rapper accused of the same crime in June, has already been dropped from the line-up. However, the late timing of the prosecutors announcement, contractual and legal constraints, and the fact the rapper denies all charges, makes this a complicated situation which the organisers say they will continue to evaluate. Plage Electronique, which starts tonight through to Sunday, has several measures in place to protect women including a dedicated area where people can report sexual crime, an app called ‘Safer’ where you can do the same using your smart phone and bar-staff who are all trained to recognize the ‘Cocktail Angela’ code for harassment.
Monaco continues to take advantage of quieter traffic flows in August with preparatory surveys for a new apartment building on Boulevard du Larvotto taking place from this Monday for the remainder of the month. Traffic will be controlled manually during daytime hours and by traffic lights in the evening. Public works also in place on the Boulevard du Jardin Exotique and the surrounding neighbourhood to refurbish public lighting and create a new sewer network.
BUSINESS
Amazon stocks are up nearly 10% after a buoyant Q2 report which showed quarterly profits of $6.7bn, up from a $2bn loss this time last year. Andy Jassy also laid out some exciting plans to make Amazon’s delivery network run faster and more smoothly.
Apple are not as fortunate. Their earnings call showed a revenue dip of just 1%, but it’s the third consecutive year-on-year drop. While sales of Mac computers are down significantly, and iPhones down slightly, its Apple services including Music and TV+ which are growing to cover the loss. Shares are down almost 3% today but overall since the start of the year Apple has climbed almost 50%.
SPORT
Football - AS Monaco ha completed its €45m deal with Chelsea for AS Monaco defender Axel Disasi. The defender played in all 38 of Monaco's Ligue 1 games last season. He’s also played four times for France, including last years World Cup final defeat against Argentina.
The Women's World Cup will be the best attended ever and is on course to smash the per-match record set in Canada in 2015. So far more than 1.2 million people have passed through the turnstiles. That’s expected to rise to rise to 1.9 million by the time the tournament ends on August 20th. The knock-out stages of the Women’s World Cup in Australia get underway first thing tomorrow morning French time. At 7am, Switzerland face Spain and at 10am (our time) Norway play Japan.
Rugby - As the Rugby World Cup in France gets closer and closer, we’ve a fleet of warm-up games to look forward to this weekend including France against Scotland at Murrayfield, Ireland and Italy at the Aviva in Dublin and England away to Wales in the Principality Stadium. Most matches are being shown on Amazon Prime.
Cycling - World champions Italy were knocked out of gold medal contention after finishing fifth in qualifiers at the UCI World Championships today. Hosts Britain were fastest with a time of 4min 10.33 seconds, followed by New Zealand, the US and France. The first-round tomorrow will start with Britain riding against France.
TGV services across much of France are gradually improving after several arson attacks affected the network in the early hours of this morning....
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Paris is getting ready to shut down it’s city centre and its airspace as well as mobilise 45,000 police and several army units in what has been billed...
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Lucie Castets, the left-wing candidate for Prime Minister, reiterated her desire to lead the government during a media appearance on July 25. A poll s...
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French President Emmanuel Macron is preparing to welcome world leaders to the Olympic games opening ceremony tomorrow night and has been visiting key ...
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France will host the 2030 Winter Olympics in the Alpes, conditional on state and regional financial guarantees. President Macron confirmed his full su...
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