Local
10 missing after buildings collapse in Marseille – The French Interior Minister, Christophe Castaner has visited Marseille following the collapse of two buildings, both of which were located on the rue d’Aubagne in the city centre. A third building adjoining those which collapsed was demolished by firefighters as a precaution on Monday afternoon. Ten people are reported missing and more than 700 emergency vehicles were deployed in the area. One of the buildings is believed to have been empty while the second was inhabited and reportedly issued with a “danger order” ten days ago due to a partition on the first floor. Both buildings were built 200 years ago. Other buildings near those which collapsed were all evacuated and up to a hundred people were relocated.
Weather Alert - Météo France has issued a yellow weather alert this morning with heavy rain and thunderstorms forecast. The warning is expected to remain in place for the best part of the day with conditions improving by early evening.
Sea Urchin fishing - Fishing for sea urchins has been postponed in the Var due to the oil pollution affecting the coast. The prefecture of the department has decided to postpone it for fifteen days and it will now start on November 16th.
Armistice - Several ceremonies are taking place this week to mark the signing of the Armistice of the First World War. 7,000 soldiers from the region lost their lives and as part of the commemorations in Cannes an olive tree will be planted on Thursday, November 8th. In Berre-Les-Alpes there will be a reconstruction of a real trench with soldiers in uniform on November 11th and the city of Draguignan will commemorate the armistice with a number of conferences, exhibitions and ceremonies.
Lost wallet from 1958 returned - A wallet lost in Paris in 1958 by a man from Cannes has been returned after an appeal was launched on social media. The wallet which was found four years ago in Paris contained an identity card and photos. Posted on Facebook the post was shared more than 1,000 times in five days.
National
Seven day tour - Emmanuel Macron has kicked off a seven-day tour of Northeastern France for the WWI armistice centenary commemorations. A week before as many 80 heads of state meet in Paris on Armistice Day for the 100th anniversary of the end of the First World War, the French president embarked on one of the longest national official tours made by a contemporary French leader that will take him to 16 towns and across former battlefields stretching from the Somme to Verdun.
Petrol prices - Meanwhile truck-drivers staged go-slows on roads in eastern France on Monday ahead of a national day of protest against rises in taxes on petrol. President Emmanuel Macron and his ministers are sticking to their guns, insisting the move is needed to fight climate change. About 150 heavy-goods vehicles and trailers disrupted traffic on roads near Reims, and Troyes and other eastern towns on Monday in protest at a proposal in next year's budget to end cheap diesel fuel for equipment used in construction and industry. This year the price of diesel has risen 23 percent and that of petrol 15 percent.
Business
The head of the Japanese tech group Softbank has defended his ties with Saudi Arabia and says that the company must continue to work with Riyadh.
Masayoshi Son condemned the murder of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi but said that his firm had a “responsibility” to the Saudi people.
Saudi Arabia is a major investor in Softbank’s 93 billion dollar Vision Fund,an investment vehicle focused on emerging technology.
The firm’s close ties with Riyadh have come into the spotlight since Mr Khashoggi’s murder.
Mr Son was one of a large number of high profile executives to withdraw from last month’s investment forum in Saudi Arabia.
Speaking on Monday,he said that Jamal Khashoggi’s murder was a “truly horrible” incident but that Softbank had a responsibility to the Saudi people and “we must not turn our backs on them”.
Concerns over Brexit are resulting in UK holidaymakers delaying booking Channel crossings for next summer.
Brittany Ferries says that forward bookings are down by between 4 and 5 percent from some of its regular customers.
The firm said that customers were worried about the impact of Brexit on areas such as pet travel,health insurance and driving licenses.
The company also said that the drop in bookings was affecting its cashflow and that it was uncertain whether it would be able to fill its 10 ferries.
And - A new poll carried out by Survation has found that British voters would vote to remain in the European Union by 54 percent to 46 percent if a new ballot was held today.
The survey questioned 20,000 people online across every constituency in the UK and the findings are likely to be seized on by those campaigning for a second referendum as evidence that a re-run is justified.
The Prime Minister’s Downing Street office has said that Theresa May has made it clear that there will be no second referendum and that the UK will be leaving the European Union at the end of March next year.
Sport
Football-Huddersfield Town got their first win of the season in the English Premier League last night with a scrappy 1-0 victory over Fulham.
Timothy Fosu Mensah put through his own net on 29 minutes to settle the game.Fulham are now rock bottom of the table as pressure grows on manager Slavisa Jokanovic.
The Champions League is back in action tonight with 8 games in the Group phase.
Monaco are at home to Club Brugge in Group A with Athletico Madrid hosting Borussia Dortmund.
In Group B Inter Milan play Barcelona and Spurs host PSV.
Group C pairs Red Star Belgrade against Liverpool and Napoli against PSG while in Group D Porto play Lokomotiv Moscow and Schalke against Galatasaray.
Cricket-It’s day 1 of the first Test between Sri Lanka and England in Galle.
England won the toss and decided to bat and they lost both Burns and Moeen early on.
England had reached 52-2 midway through the first session of the day.
Rugby Union-England’s Tom Curry will miss Saturday’s autumn international against New Zealand with an ankle injury.
Curry limped off after 42 minutes of the match against South Africa last weekend and could be out for several weeks.
Manu Tuilagi and Courtney Lawes are both expected to be available for selection.
Tennis-Rafael Nadal is to miss the end of season Tour Finals in London to undergo ankle surgery.
The world number two said that he would take advantage of a minor abdominal injury to have surgery on his troublesome ankle and would miss the rest of the season.
Meanwhile Novak Djokovic has been drawn in the same group as Alexander Zverev for the ATP Tour Finals while Roger Federer is in the other group alongside Kevin Anderson.
Racing-Cross Counter has won the Melbourne Cup at Flemington Park with Marmelo finishing second and A Prince of Arran ending third.
The racecourse was hit with a tropical downpour shortly before the big event but the sun came out in time for the race.
Weather
Some brief sunny intervals this morning but mostly overcast with outbreaks of rain and moderate easterly winds.
Top temperature 18 degrees Celsius.
Overnight lows of 12 degrees on the coast and 9 degrees inland with showers at times.
Wednesday and Thursday-Sunshine and showers with a high of 18 degrees.
Finally
A study has suggested that women who are ‘morning people’ are less likely to develop breast cancer than those who are sharpest in the evening.
Research involving more than 400,000 women found ‘larks’ have a breast cancer risk up to 48 per cent lower than ‘night owls’.
The scientists, led by the University of Bristol, also showed women who slept longer than the recommended seven to eight hours a night increased their chances of a diagnosis by 20 per cent for each extra hour spent asleep. One explanation may be that those who function better in the morning have slept better and woken earlier.
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