Local
Swimming ban - The beaches of Ponteil and Salis in Antibes have been closed to swimmers due to pollution. The ban was put in place on Thursday and will remain until midnight tonight. The Mayor of Antibes introduced the ban following tests which were carried out on the 10th September.
Prostitute on the Prom - Residents on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice have complained to the city council with regards to the disruption caused by prostitutes in the area.Residents have called for action to be taken.
Mayor - The former mayor of La Croix-Valmer, Pierre Bérenguier, has passed away at the age of 85. He was mayor of the town from 1995 to 2008 and served a total of 31 years in elected office.
Vélos Bleus - The “Vélos bleus” in Nice celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Launched in 2009 the service has come a long way since, with 11 million users. Next will be the introduction of a self-service for electric bikes which has already been given the green light by Nice city council.
Classic Yacht Week - The Classic Yacht Week continues into the weekend at the Yacht club here in Monaco. The 14th Monaco Classic Yacht Week is the first event in the world to showcase both sailing and motorboats from the past. This year, Monaco Classic Week has chosen an American theme to pay tribute and showcase American built yachts and their designers. The show is open to all from 9am to 9pm.
Urban surfer - A 35-year-old man from Hyeres, in the Var has been arrested for surfing on the roof of his car. Police arrested the “urban surfer” who was found to be under the influence of alcohol after spotting him surfing on the roof of his Honda civic on security cameras. He is believed to have used the cruise control before climbing onto the roof.
National
Public transport in Paris on strike - Paris’s public transport service the RATP which runs Pairs metro, bus and train network has warned people against travelling on public transport today as unions prepare to stage a mass walk-out in a row over pensions. The strike is the first in a series of actions planned in protest over President Emmanuel Macron's proposed reform of France's pensions system.
Libra cryptocurrency - France's finance minister Bruno Le Maire has spoken out about Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency. Speaking at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Mr Le Maire said: "This eventual privatisation of money contains risks of abuse of dominant position, risks to sovereignty, and risks for consumers and for companies."
Google to pay French authorities – Google has been ordered to pay French authorities almost €1bn (£900m) to end a long-running investigation into its taxes. The settlement includes a €500m fine and additional taxes of €465m. It rounds off a four year investigation that saw authorities raid Google's Paris headquarters in 2016.
Saudi princess receives 10-month suspended sentence - A Saudi princess has received a 10-month suspended sentence over the beating and kidnapping of a plumber in her luxury Paris apartment. Hassa bint Salman is accused of telling her bodyguard to beat up a plumber who allegedly took photos inside her home. On Thursday, a French court found the princess guilty of complicity to violence with a weapon and complicity to kidnap.
Business
President Trump has said that he would prefer a comprehensive trade deal with China but has not ruled out striking an interim pact.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Thursday ,Mr Trump warned that an “ easy” agreement with China would not be possible and that he’d rather “get the whole deal done”.
Washington and Beijing are preparing for a fresh round of trade talks aimed at ending the year long dispute that’s been hurting global economic growth and rattling financial markets.
Both sides have made conciliatory gestures over the past few days which has lowered the temperature in the dispute and cheered investors.
Low level talks are scheduled to start in Washington next week with more formal discussions set for October.
The European Central Bank has unveiled fresh stimulus measures in a bid to bolster the eurozone.
The bank has cut the deposit facility rate that retail banks place with the ECB to minus 0.5 from minus 0.4 and is also to restart quantitative easing from the 1st of November.
The eurozone’s main interest rate remains unchanged at 0 percent.
The ECB said that its asset purchase programme would run “for as long as necessary” while interest rates would remain “at their present or lower levels” until eurozone inflation reached its target of 2 percent.
Outgoing bank president Mario Draghi said that growth forecasts for the eurozone for this year and next had been downgraded .The bank now expects growth of 1.1 percent this year and 1.2 percent in 2020.
And-British Airways has started emailing passengers to cancel flights two weeks ahead of the next scheduled strike by pilots.
Industrial action on the 27th of September is expected to affect hundreds of flights and tens of thousands of passengers.
BA pilots staged a 48 hour strike at the start of this week which forced some 200,000 passengers to change their travel plans and cost the airline around 80 million pounds.
The dispute is centred around a pay claim.
BA says that it wants to give passengers “as much certainty as possible” and that full refunds or booking on alternative dates or with another airline are being offered.
Sport
Cricket-Australia are on top at the end of a topsy-turvy day 1 of the 5th and final Test against England at the Oval.
The tourists won the toss and strangely decided to field on a pitch that wasn’t offering a great deal for the bowlers.
They missed a couple of easy catches in the morning which allowed England to progress to 87-1 at lunch but the wickets started to fall after the break ,mainly due to poor shot selection from the batsmen and the home side slumped five wickets for just 56 runs as they went from 170-3 to 226-8.
A late flourish from Jos Buttler saved England’s blushes somewhat.He’s on 64 not out alongside battling number 10 Jack Leach who’s on 10.
Mitch Marsh took 4-35 as he justified his selection ahead of Mitchell Starc.
England will resume on 271-8 when play restarts at noon.
Football-The English Premier League is back in action this weekend following the international break.
On Saturday Liverpool play Newcastle.Brighton host Burnley.Manchester United play Leicster.Sheffield United face Southampton.Spurs play Crystal Palace.Wolves play Chelsea and Norwich host Manchester City.
On Sunday Bournemouth play Everton and Watford play Arsenal.Aston Villa play West Ham on Monday.
In the FA women’s Super League on Sunday Everton play Bristol City.Reading play Manchester City.Brighton play Chelsea.Spurs play Liverpool and West Ham play Birmingham.
Golf-The Solheim Cup gets underway at Gleneagles today with the USA looking for their third consecutive victory.
The event starts with the foursomes with team USA fielding a total of 6 rookies.
Bronte Law and Carlota Ciganda of Europe are first up against Morgan Pressel and Marina Alex of the USA.
The foursomes this morning will be followed by four fourball matches this afternoon.
Cycling-Primoz Roglic has extended his lead in the Vuelta a Espana after finishing second behind Sergio Higuita of Colombia in Stage 18.
Roglic is 2 minutes 50 seconds clear of Alejandro Valverde with three stages left in the race.
Today’s 19th stage is 165.2 kilometers on the flat between Avila and Toledo.
Boxing-Tyson Fury fights Otto Wallin of Sweden in Las Vegas tomorrow night as he bids to step up his form ahead of what’s set to be a big year in the heavyweight division in 2020.
Fury is the overwhelming favourite to win the fight but he says that his opponent should not be underestimated.
Wallin has a record of 20 fights and 20 wins but Fury is the 25-1 on favourite.
He said that hopefully he’d “ go out for a beer” with his opponent afterwards.
Weather.
Clear skies with light variable winds.
Top temperatures 26-30 degrees.
Overnight lows of 22 degrees on the coast and 17 degrees inland with clear skies.
The weekend-Clear skies with highs of 27-31 degrees.
Finally
The scientists have said that football clubs like Newcastle United, who wear stripes, could take advantage of the findings - if they moved faster.
Research published by scientists shows that animals with stripes can confuse their predators by appearing to be blurred when they move quickly.
To find this out, scientists at Newcastle University played praying mantises footage of rectangular shapes designed to imitate bugs, moving across a background.
The movement was designed to be similar to the experiences of praying mantises in the wild.
The bugs, some of which had narrow or wide stripes, would move across the screen at different speeds, with the mantises tracking them as though they were prey.
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