Local
Weather warning - Météo France has placed six departments of the Massif Central on an orange weather alert with snow forecast and four departments of the South-East the Var, the Alpes Maritimes, North and South Corsica with heavy rain and flooding expected. The warning remains in place until 6am on Tuesday with hail and strong winds forecast to accompany heavy rainfall.
The bad weather led to the A8 motorway being temporarily closed on Saturday night following an accident westbound after the Antibes exit. The incident resulted in long delays and a traffic jam of several kilometers.
Train network - Due to work being carried out on the regions train network there are no trains circulating between Ventimiglia and Menton and between Toulon and Cannes. A normal service will return from 6am on Wednesday. In the meantime a bus service has been put in place for passengers.
Road safety - Police in the Var have warned of an important increase in the number of driving offences following spot checks during the first week of the half term holidays. Controls carried out in Pierrefeu, Bormes, Le Lavandou and La Londe led to over 190 vehicles being stopped with many motorists fined for using their mobile phone at the wheel and excess speeding.
Tram ticket - With the opening of the two tram stations in December at Terminal 1 and 2 of Nice International Airport questions are being asked about the price of a ticket which has not yet been decided. The current bus ticket is 6 euros.
National
Gang-related violence - Six youths aged between 15 and 20 have been charged over two murders in the Paris region. One appears to be related to gang-related violence that has killed a growing number of youngsters in or near the French capital this year. A total of 159 clashes between gangs have been recorded in France this year, according to Le Parisien newspaper, a slight rise on the previous year but with more deadly consequences.
Johnny Hallyday - During his lifetime Johnny Hallyday sold 110 million records, and 10 months after his death his album is on course to sell a million more. In a sales record for France, Mon pays c'est l'amour (My country is love) has sold 780,177 copies in one week. That number, described by his record company as historic, tops even the US sales for the biggest album of 2018, by Canadian rapper Drake.
Business
Asian markets have barely managed to hold their ground this morning on the back of big falls on Wall Street last week and Chinese markets deep in the red on fresh signs of cooling in the world’s second largest economy.
Losses today have mainly been triggered by China’s blue-chip index which tumbled by 2.5 percent following a series of disappointing earnings reports.
Wider sentiment in global financial markets has been hit by a range of factors over the past couple of weeks including the intensifying US-China trade conflict,worries about US corporate earnings and the budget standoff between Italy and the European Union.
Analysts are warning of more volatility with bears on the rise and some indices already in correction territory amid heightened worries about corporate earnings and global growth.
The UK Finance Minister Philip Hammond will deliver his final budget before Britain leaves the European Union today and has said that a new approach will be necessary if the country leaves without a Brexit deal.
Mr Hammond is under pressure to loosen the purse strings after Prime Minister Theresa May promised an end to cuts in public spending introduced in 2010 at last month’s Conservative Party Conference.
There may be extra cash for the controversial universal credit welfare reform as well as an increase in spending on mental health,roads and planting trees.
The Chancellor may also allocate cash for relief on business rates and to rejuvenate high streets.There’s also likely to be another freeze in fuel duty.
And-IBM has said that it intends to acquire the US software company Red Hat for 34 billion dollars.
The move comes as IBM seeks to diversify its technology hardware and consulting business into higher margin profits and services.
The deal is by far the largest in IBM’s history and underpins the firms attempts to expand its subscription-based software as it faces slowing sales and waning demand for mainframe servers.
Red Hat specialises in Linux Operating Systems and is based in North Carolina.
Sport
Football-Leicestershire police have confirmed that 5 people died when a helicopter crashed outside the Leicester City stadium on Saturday night following the match against West Ham.
Those who died in the crash include the owner of Leicester City Football Club Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha,two members of his staff,the helicopter pilot and a passenger.
Thousands of bouquets and Leicester City scarves have been left outside the King Power stadium in tribute.
Mr Srivaddhanaprabha who was 60,bought Leicester City in 2010 and in 2016 the club won the English Premier League title against all expectations.
He was described by Leicester City as “a man of kindness,generosity and a man whose life was defined by the love he devoted to his family and those he so successfully led”.
There were 3 games in the English Premier League on Sunday.Arsenal’s winning run came to a halt after they were held to a 2-2 at Crystal Palace while Burnley lost 4-0 at home to Chelsea and Manchester United beat Everton 2-1.
There’s one game tonight.Spurs play Manchester City.
In the Scottish League Cup semi-finals on Sunday.Celtic beat Hearts 3-0 and Aberdeen beat Rangers 1-0.
Formula 1-Lewis Hamilton has equaled Juan Manuel Fangio’s record of 5 world championship titles after finishing 4th in Sunday’s Mexican Grand Prix.
Hamilton needed only to finish 7th in the race and he struggled with tyre problems but held on to become the joint- second most successful driver of all time.
Max Verstappen took the chequered flag with Sebastian Vettel second and Kimi Raikkonen third.
Nearest rival Vettel congratulated Hamilton on his achievement.
The 33 year old British driver may now have Michael Schumacher’s all time record of 7 Formula 1 drivers’ championships in his sights.
Cricket-Pakistan have beaten Australia by 33 runs in the third Twenty20 international.
Pakistan made 150-5 in their 20 overs with Australia putting in another under par performance with the bat after being bowled out for 117 in 19.1 overs.
Tennis-Elina Svitolina has beaten Sloane Stephens to win the season ending WTA Finals in Singapore.
The Ukrainian came through in 3 sets 3-6 6-2 6-2 to become the first player to go unbeaten in the tournament since Serena Williams in 2013
Weather
ORANGE WEATHER ALERT IN FORCE FOR THE ALPES-MARITIMES AND THE VAR UNTIL 6AM ON TUESDAY.
Heavy rain mixed in with thunderstorms and moderate to strong easterly winds.
Top temperature 19 degrees Celsius.
Overnight lows of 8 degrees on the coast and 4 degrees inland with partially cloudy skies.
Tuesday and Wednesday-Partially cloudy tomorrow with a high of 16 degrees.Rain returning on Wednesday with a high of 17 degrees.
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