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
