French and Riviera News Friday 18th January 2019

Local

Holiday rentals - The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi has announced plans to review the regulations for holiday rentals in the region, such as Airbnb. New measures will see the introduction of agents carrying out regular checks to track down fraudsters. Currently holiday rentals are limited to 120 days a year the new measures hope to end “unfair competition” .Other mayors have already introduced similar measures in other major cities such as Paris, Berlin and Barcelona.

Yellow vest runs for European elections - Patrick Cribouw, a yellow vest from Nice has created an association which will run in the May European elections. "Citizen yellow union" launched its official campaign on Wednesday.

SNCF - Renaud Muselier, president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region and Guillaume Pepy, the president of the SNCF have signed an agreement for the region’s train network. The agreement which will be voted on by elected representatives on the 15th March promises to provide a service where 90% of trains will run on time by 2020.

Legal – Recent French government information has been published concerning Britain’s living in France in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Firstly, there will be a 12 month transition period during which a carte de séjour will not be required. This is a derogation from the normal rules for third country nationals, who must hold a Carte de Sejour to be legal and therefore means that nobody will become illegal, or be unable to work, overnight. Secondly, those with 5 years or more residence will then have to apply for cartes de résident -  expected  to be the carte de résident longue durée as this is what the European Commission is recommending, but this is still to be confirmed.It’s also expected that  there would be no requirement to meet the conditions required for other third country nationals; and it would likewise be expected that those without a Carte de Sejour currently will be able to apply for the new card under the current (EU) conditions.

France’s favourite author - According to a survey published on Thursday Guillaume Musso remains France’s favorite author for 2018 selling more than 1.6 million copies. Musso from Antibes has remained top of the ranking for the last eight years.

Sunshine – Meteo France has reported that between January 1st and 16th, the inhabitants of Rouen have only enjoyed two hours of sunshine, 28 hours less than the average for this time of year. In the capital, Parisians have had 8h37 minutes of sunshine since the beginning of the year. However the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur and Corsica, have had more sunshine than usual.

National

National Debate - The French government and President Emmanuel Macron's advisors are hoping that Tuesday's successful launch of the National Debate could prove a turning point after months of bad news and sometimes violent Yellow Vest protests. The debates themselves are slowly getting underway and will take place across the country over the next 2 months. However, some Yellow Vest protestors on social media have dismissed the National Debate as a sham, predicting that Macron's government will not take into account the opinions and ideas which emerge from the massive consultation calling on protestors to take to the streets across the country again on Saturday.

Meanwhile France’s Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has announced a five-step emergency plan to be implemented if British Parliament does not approve a deal to exit the European Union.  One aspect of the plan is the reinforcement of ports and airports, investing 50 million euros in staffing and infrastructure that will be most affected by a no-deal Brexit.

Sexism - A survey published on Thursday has shown that in 2017 1.2 million women in France were victims of sexism. Figures show that despite movements such as #MeToo, and #Balancetonporc sexism is still very much present in France.

Business

Shares in Netflix have dipped after the streaming service forecast first quarter revenue that fell below Wall Street estimates.

Netflix  ended the year with 139 million paid subscribers,adding 8.8 million new members in the three months to December the 31st  but revenue fell short of expectations .

Netflix has just increased subscriber prices for North America and other regions are set to follow in the not-too-distant future.

The streaming service is also likely to face stiffer competition from Amazon Prime and the new Apple service which is set to start sometime this year.

However,the price increases suggest that demand is strong and could add 1 billion dollars or more to first quarter revenues.

Shares in American Express have fallen  after the firm missed Wall Street estimates.

Slowing customer spending  was the main reason for the shortfall although the firm did enjoy a strong US holiday sales season.

American Express shares fell by 2.5 percent in after-hours trading.

The firm also said that spending had increased by 9 percent as it poured more money into perks such as reward programmes and airport lounge access for customers to better compete  against rivals such as JP Morgan’s Chase Card Division and the payment networks Visa  and Mastercard.

And-Sears,the embattled US department store chain is set to carry on after its chairman won a bankruptcy court action to buy the company for 5.2 billion dollars.

Eddie Lampert’s plan will keep some 400 stores open and save the jobs of 45,000 staff if it’s approved.

Some creditors have objected to the rescue plan saying that Mr Lampert lacks experience and has no business plan.

They added that allowing the plan to go ahead would deprive them of the chance to recover money owed  and that Sears cannot survive as a going concern.

The deal must be approved by a bankruptcy judge to go forward.A hearing has been set for the 1st of February.

Sport

Tennis-It’s day 5 of the Australian Open in Melbourne and Roger Federer has advanced to the 4th round following a straight sets demolition of Taylor Fritz of the United States.

The defending champion came through 6-2 7-5 6-2  as he continues his bid to become the first man to win 7 Australian Open titles.

Also through to round four are Thomas Berdych of the Czech Republic  and the 14th seed Stefanos Tsitsipas who’ll now play Federer. In the women’s event Caroline Wozniacki is playing Maria Sharapova in the third round and Angelique Kerber is up against Kimberly Birrell of Australia.

Football-In the English Premier League this weekend. On Saturday Wolves play Leicester in the lunchtime game and then it’s Bournemouth against West Ham.Liverpool against Crystal Palace.Manchester United play Brighton.Newcastle host Cardiff.Southampton play Everton.Watford host Burnley and Arsenal play Chelsea.

On Sunday Huddersfield play Manchester City and Fulham play Spurs.

Formula 1- The three time world champion Niki Lauda has been discharged from hospital following treatment for ‘flu. Mr Lauda,who’s 69 had been taken into hospital over Christmas after feeling unwell during a family holiday.

Last August he underwent a lung transplant  but he’s now been deemed well enough to return home.

Cricket-Australia are playing India in the third and decisive one day international at the MCG in Melbourne.

India won the toss and decided to field.They’d reduced Australia to 162-6 after 35 overs.

Rugby Union-The England coach Eddie Jones says that his 6 Nations squad is probably the strongest he’s ever chosen.

Captain Dylan Hartley will miss out on the opening game against Ireland with a knee injury and Chris Robshaw is missing too but the Vunipola brothers are back as is Joe Launchbury.

Four uncapped players make the squad-the forwards Jack Singleton and Ben Earl and backs Dan Robson and Ollie Thorley.

Owen Farrell will captain the side.

Weather

Clear skies with light to moderate south westerly winds.

Top temperature 14 degrees.

Overnight lows of 6 degrees on the coast and 2 degrees inland with some frost in places and clear skies.

The weekend-Partially cloudy tomorrow,clouding over on Sunday with some rain towards the end of the day.Highs  of 9-12 degrees.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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