Local
Eric Ciotti defends Donald Trump - The Alpes-Maritimes deputy, Eric Ciotti has defended tweets by the American president Donald Trump mocking his French counterpart. Speaking at the National Assembly on Tuesday Ciotti claimed that comments made by Trump were “not insulting but true”. US President Donald Trump went on Twitter to mock his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, after an awkward Armistice Day visit attacking Mr Macron over nationalism, plans for a European army, French tariffs on US wine imports, and the French leader's popularity rating.
Mayor offers communal housing in an attempt to save school - The Mayor of d’Acros in the commune of Nice, Vincent Giobergia, has offered communal housing at a reduced rate in the hope of attracting families and avoiding the closure of the local school. The Mayor was informed in April that due to the lack of pupils the school faced closure. Created in 2004 the establishment currently caters for 21 children but according to the inspector of the Academy there need to be at least 24 children enrolled.
Marseille - Searches have been conducted at Marseille City Hall in connection with the recent buildings collapse in which eight people lost their lives. Reports say that the offices of the social landlord Marseille Habitat have also been searched. Meanwhile, another building was evacuated on Tuesday morning in the third arrondissement of Marseille. Thirteen people were evacuated from a building in the boulevard de Strasbourg as a precautionary measure after an inspection earlier in the morning.
Lion cub - A lion cub has been found in a flashy car on the Champs-Elysees in Paris in the latest incidence of the wild animal apparently being kept as a pet. The baby lion was discovered inside a hired Lamborghini during a police search on the busy luxury shopping street. The driver was taken into custody and the cub was being looked after, they said. Last month, a six-week-old lion cub was seized from an apartment in a Paris suburb and the owner sentenced to six months in prison. In a separate incident also in October, a tiny lion cub weighing just a few kilos was found in a car garage in Marseille.
President Emmanuel Macron in the Var today - President Emmanuel Macron will be in our region today visiting the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle in Toulon. The vessel has just undergone a significant renovation.
White Truffle - A white truffle has sold for 85,000 euros at auction in Alba, in Italy. The 850 gram truffle was purchased by an individual from Hong Kong whose identity was not revealed.
National
UK border officer found guilty - A corrupt UK border officer has been found guilty of attempting to smuggle firearms and drugs into the country. Simon Pellett, from Dover, was on duty when he was arrested by French officers in October last year. The court heard that he was caught with holdalls containing eight pistols, two revolvers, ammunition, and heroin and cocaine with a combined street value of £3.4m. Pellett, will be sentenced on Friday alongside two accomplices.
Meanwhile twelve migrants have managed to reach the English coast after crossing the Channel in a stolen French fishing boat, using what authorities said on Tuesday was a "unprecedented" means of getting to Britain. French agents monitoring the coastline alerted their British counterparts after seeing a boat that was taking a "bizarre" route between 9.30pm and midnight on Monday. Officials identified the 12-metre (40-feet) boat and contacted its owner, who said the vessel had been stolen from the port of Boulogne-sur-Mer.
Protest against petrol prices - Three days ahead of the movement of "yellow vests" against the rise in petrol prices which is scheduled for Saturday. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe will this morning announce on French radio the planned "support" measures prepared by the government in the face of rising fuel prices. Among the measures envisaged nearly one million euros will be invested by 2022, an increase from 500,000 ,doubling the clean fuel compensation scheme.
Antibiotics - The French Minister of Higher Education and Research, Frédérique Vidal, is to announce today the release of an additional 40 million euros for research on new antibiotics. Doctors and researchers say some patients no longer react to antibiotics, mainly because of overconsumption. Claiming that resistant bacteria could kill around 2.4 million people in OECD countries by 2050 if nothing is done.
Business
The price of oil fell by 7 percent on Tuesday amid rising market concerns about surging supply and faltering demand.
Brent Crude was trading up 4 cents a little earlier this morning after Tuesday’s falls at 65 dollars 51 with West Texas Intermediate down 15 cents at 55 dollars 54.
Crude has lost more than a quarter of its value since early October in one of the biggest declines since prices collapsed in 2014.
Oil markets are being pressured from the joint problems of a surge in supply and increasing concerns about a global economic slowdown.
A surge in US production is one of the main causes of rising stockpiles with output from the country’s 7 main shale basins expected to hit a record 7.94 million barrels per day in December.
Overall US production has hit a record 11.6 million barrels per day making America the world’s biggest oil producer ahead of Russia and Saudi Arabia.
The Italian government has defied the European Union by sticking to its budget plan.
The European Commission had told Italy to revise the budget or face possible fines but Rome said on Tuesday that it would maintain its programme of spending.
The Italian deputy-Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said that the country would stick with the main parameters of the spending programme.
The Italian national debt is currently running at 131 percent of GDP and Brussels is concerned about the impact of high spending on already high levels of debt.
And-The pound has surged against both the euro and the dollar following news of a possible breakthrough in Brexit negotiations.
News emerged on Tuesday that the UK had reached agreement on the draft text of a Brexit deal which would keep the whole of the country in a customs union with the EU with Northern Ireland getting special status on customs and the single market.
The British Prime Minister Theresa May summoned some of her key ministers to individual meetings at Downing Street last night ahead of a full meeting of the cabinet this afternoon.
There remains,however strong opposition from the ERG group of Conservative MPs as well as opposition parties.
Reports say that some ministers are considering resignation with no deal possible until the text has been approved by both the cabinet and Parliament.
Sport
Cricket-It’s day 1 of the second Test between Sri Lanka and England in Kandy.
England won the toss and decided to bat.
They lost the early wicket of opener Keaton Jennings for 1 with Ben Stokes coming in at number 3.
After 10 overs,England had reached 29-1.
Football-Wayne Rooney says that it will be strange playing for England at Wembley tomorrow night as he makes his international farewell.
Rooney,who’s 33 retired from international football in 2017 but will make his 120th appearance in a friendly game against the USA tomorrow night.
His inclusion in the team has been criticised by some who feel that England should move on and be building for the future but Rooney says that he’s proud of “running out at Wembley again.
The Football Association has said that the match against the USA was a chance to honour Rooney’s “record breaking international career”.
Tennis-Roger Federer has kept his hopes of winning the end of season ATP World Tour Finals alive with a comfortable win over Dominic Thiem in the Gustavo Kuerten group.
Federer beat the Austrian 6-2 6-3 but will still need to beat Kevin Anderson on Thursday to make sure of qualifying for the semi finals.
Anderson thrashed Kei Nishikori earlier on Tuesday 6-0 6-1.
Formula 1-Lewis Hamilton has questioned taking the sport to new countries and has said that it would be better if more races were staged at places with “real racing history”.
In an interview with the BBC,the 5 time world champion sais that he still had more years ahead of him in Formula 1 and that he still felt that he had “mountains to climb”.
He also expressed a desire to go into space and to fly in a fighter jet.
Rugby Union-George Kruis will miss England’s remaining two autumn internationals with a calf injury.
The 28 year old lock was replaced by Charlie Ewels late on during last weekend’s narrow defeat by New Zealand and will not recover in time to face Japan on Saturday or Australia the following weekend.
Ewels,Courtney Lawes,Maro Itoje and Elliott Stooke are the remaining locks in the 30 man England squad.
Weather
Partially cloudy with light variable winds and a high of 20 degrees.
Overnight lows of 13 degrees on the coast and 10 degrees inland with partially cloudy skies.
Thursday and Friday -Mainly fine with highs of 17-19 degrees.
Finally
You can remember the face, but can’t put a name to it. But researchers say it is often easier to remember someone’s name than what they look like.
Twenty-four volunteers were shown 40 pictures of strangers, paired with random names. They were given time to memorise the faces and names before being tested on which they thought they had seen before.
The participants could remember up to 85 per cent of the names but only 73 per cent of the faces.
According to the study led by the University of York when they were shown a different picture of the same person, the participants could recall only 64 per cent of faces.
A new optional regional transport tax for businesses, introduced in France’s 2025 budget, aims to fund eco-friendly mobility projects. ...
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A judge has authorised a dive to inspect the wreckage of a plane in the sea off Antibes. The plane crashed into the Mediterranean on September 11 1968...
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In France, drinking water is heavily contaminated with "forever pollutants," particularly trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), as revealed by two studies from ...
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The trial of the Tunisian man accused of the murder of three people in the Nice Basilica attack is continuing in Paris. Yesterday the families of the ...
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Four cities in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (PACA) region made Booking.com's 2025 list of the "most welcoming destinations in France." ...
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