News
Fatal road accident - Two motorcyclists have died in a road accident in the Bouches-du-Rhone. The accident occurred on Sunday afternoon on the D559 between Cassis and Roquefort-la-Bédoule. Emergency services intervened but were unable to save the two men aged 25 and 40. The cause of the collision is still to be determined. Traffic was stopped in both directions.
Accident - Meanwhile two people have been injured in a collision in Roquebrune sur Argens in the Var on the RD7. The accident occurred on Sunday afternoon shortly after 5.30pm. An 18-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man were taken to hospital in Fréjus.
14-year-old boy forgotten at motorway rest area - A 14-year-old boy who was forgotten by his parents on a motorway rest area has been reunited with them. The incident occurred on Saturday at the Roquemaure rest area on the A9 motorway in the Vauclause. Police were quick to intervene and were able to reunited the teenager with his parents thanks to social media.
Weather warning - Meteo France has issued a yellow weather alert in the Var due to high winds. Gust of up to 120 km an hour are forecast today. The warning is in place until early evening.
Covid numbers are stable according to Public Health France - The number of covid patients in France has stabilised according to Public Health France with the number of contaminations recorded over a week showing a downward trend. 32,867 people are currently hospitalised and 3,606 are in intensive care. On average over seven days, 256,329 daily cases have been recorded, a sharp drop from the 345,491 recorded a week ago,
In addition, 54,083,440 people have received at least one injection of the covid vaccination (80.2% of the total population) and 52,894,949 are fully vaccinated (78.5% of the population). Since the start of the booster campaign, 36,531,185 people have received a booster dose.
Emmanuel Macron - French President Emmanuel Macron is to meet today Monday 7th February, with Vladimir Putin to "discuss the terms of de-escalation" at the border with Ukraine. President Macron has indicated that he will "discuss the terms of de-escalation" on the border with Ukraine, where Westerners accuse Moscow of having massed tens of thousands of soldiers for a potential invasion, which Russia denies, claiming it’s only to guarantee its security.
Business
Asian markets have dipped slightly this morning despite stunningly strong US employment data that soothed investor concerns about the global economy but which added to the risk of aggressive tightening by the Federal Reserve. Geopolitical tensions remain a concern after the White House warned that Russia could invade Ukraine any day and President Macron of France flew to Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin. S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures have both eased slightly this morning on the back of company guidance for 2022 which has weakened significantly. Friday’s Non-Farm Payroll report showed a growth in average hourly earnings from 4.9 to 5.7 percent adding to concerns that the Federal Reserve will act soon in a bid to curb inflation. US consumer price figures for January will be published on Thursday and could show that core inflation has accelerated to its fastest pace since 1982 at 5.9 percent.
A report from the New Climate Institute has found that many of the world’s largest firms are failing to meet their own targets on tackling climate change. A study of 25 corporations including Google, Amazon, Ikea, Apple and Nestle are among those who are routinely exaggerating or misreporting progress and are not changing quickly enough. Corporations are under pressure to cut their environmental impact as more consumers want green products. The firms surveyed account for 5 percent of global greenhouse-gas emissions and have enormous potential to lead in the effort to limit climate change. Some of the corporations have said that they disagree with the findings of the report.
The US pharmaceutical giant Johnson&Johnson is facing an attempt to force a shareholder vote to halt its sales of talc-based baby powder across the world amid concerns over alleged links to cancer. The firm withdrew the product from sale in the US and Canada in 2020 after regulators found carcinogenic chrysotile fibres, a type of asbestos, in a sample. Johnson&Johnson is currently facing 34,000 lawsuits in connection with the baby powder, many from women who claim that they later developed ovarian cancer after using the product. The shareholder vote has been proposed by the London-based investment platform Tulipshare that allows clients to pool shares in order to meet the threshold to submit resolutions for shareholder votes. The group hopes to get the proposal approved before the firm’s AGM in April.
Sport
Winter Olympics - China leads the medals table on day 3 of the Winter Games in Beijing with 2 golds in a total of 6 medals so far. Norway are in second place with 2 golds in a total of 3 medals with Sweden in third place with 2 gold medals. France are yet to win a gold medal but have one silver while Great Britain are guaranteed at least a silver in the curling. There are 9 medal events today including in men’s and women’s alpine skiing, biathlon, figure skating, snow boarding, ski jumping and short track speed skating.
Rugby Union - France top the 6 Nations table following the first round of matches. France were far too good for Italy in Paris on Sunday coming out 37-10 winners while Ireland are in second after beating Wales 29-7 in Dublin on Saturday. Scotland are in third place after they beat England in the Calcutta Cup match at Murrayfield for the second consecutive time. Next weekend, Wales play Scotland, France host Ireland and Italy play England.
There was one game in the Gallagher English Premiership on Sunday. Harlequins lost 36-14 at home to Sale.
Football - Senegal have beaten Egypt on penalties in the Africa Cup of Nations final. The scores were tied at 0-0 after extra time with Senegal winning the shootout 4-2.
In the FA Cup on Sunday, non-league Borham Wood caused the shock of the 4th round after beating Bournemouth of the Championship 1-0 to reach round 5. Nottingham Forest of the Championship beat East Midlands rivals and cup holders Leicester 4-1 and Liverpool beat Cardiff 3-1.
In the Scottish Premiership on Sunday, Celtic were 4-0 winners at Motherwell while Rangers thrashed Hearts 5-0.
Formula 1 - Lewis Hamilton has returned to social media for the first time since the controversial end to last season at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. Hamilton has not spoken to fans since he lost the world championship to Max Verstappen in Abu Dhabi after race director Michael Masi failed to follow correct safety car procedures in the final stages of the race. There’s still doubt over whether the 7-time world champion will return to the sport next season after reports said that he’s lost faith in the sport’s governing body. On Sunday, Hamilton posted on Twitter saying “I’ve been gone-Now I’m back”.
Cricket - The England head coach Chris Silverwood has stepped down following the side’s disastrous Ashes tour. Silverwood, who was appointed in 2019 saw his side lose the Ashes 4-0 to Australia and has overseen a decline in Test match performances that’s only yielded one win in the past 14. Earlier this week, England’s director of cricket Ashley Giles was also sacked. Sir Andrew Strauss has stepped into the role on a temporary basis and will be in charge of appointing an interim coach for the tour of the West Indies.
Formula 1 - The sport’s management has put forward a compromise deal on sprint races for next season following an argument over money with the teams. Formula 1 had agreed in principal to double the number of sprint events from three to six but a stand-off developed over financial terms. A compromise to run only 3 sprint races next season on the same financial terms as 2021 has now been proposed but 8 out of the 10 teams will need to approve the plan for it to go ahead.
Weather
Clear skies with light to moderate westerly or variable winds. Top temperature 17 degrees. Overnight lows of 6-8 degrees on the coast and 1-3 degrees inland with clear skies.
Tuesday and Wednesday - Clear skies with highs of 15-16 degrees.
And Finally
We all know that letting our children have too much screen time can end in tears and now a new study has found out why. Previous research has shown that the blue light from television and tablets screen risks damaging the quality of children’s sleep, which can make them more temperamental. But the new study, conducted by Oxford University, has shown that using screens to soothe a toddler could also mean they miss out on learning how to calm themselves down. Researchers found that the longer a child spent in front of a screen the poorer they were at managing their emotions.
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