News
Man seriously injured following knife attack - A young man has been seriously injured following a knife attack at a sports stadium in Nice. The man in his twenties was taken to hospital after being stabbed on Tuesday evening shortly after 6pm. The incident occurred following an altercation, the exact circumstances are still to be determined. Police have since opened an investigation.
Police officer arrested in the Var - Following a national manhunt, police in the Var have arrested a fellow officer for femicide. Authorities say the officer gave himself up on Tuesday morning after phoning from his father’s house near Draguignan. He has been wanted since January 28th, when the body of his 28-year-old girlfriend was found strangled at their apartment in Paris. The man is already known for domestic abuse, and avoided prosecution in 2019 with another partner, after agreeing to take an awareness course on the danger of domestic violence. His father has last week appealed on national television for his son to turn himself into the police.
Mayor of Saint-Raphael gives sponsorship to far right - The mayor of Saint-Raphaël Frédéric Masquelier has given his sponsorship to far right leader of the National Rally Marine Le Pen. Masquelier made the announcement on Tuesday. It comes after earlier this week the mayor of Cannes gave his sponsorship to far left leader Jean Luc Mélenchon. Both mayors say they remain republican but have given sponsorship to other leaders for democratic reasons. Candidate in the presidential election Marine Le Pen is still missing about fifty of the 500 sponsorships needed to be part of the race for presidency in April.
Macron top of the polls - Meanwhile French President Emmanuel Macron, who has still not announced his official candidacy is quietly continuing his race at the top of the polls for the election. According to the Opinion 2022 poll carried out by Elabe for BFMTV and L'Express in partnership with SFR and published this Wednesday Macron continues to maintain his lead, with 24.5% of voting intentions. Marine Le Pen is second at 18%, and Éric Zemmour remains at 13.5%.
Nice Carnival - The gradual lifting of government covid restrictions has allowed the city of Nice to release 3,000 extra tickets for the finale of the Nice Carnival. The final show, with its massive, illuminated procession, will take place Saturday night after which the king of the carnival will be burned.
Port Vauban - A pontoon in Port Vauban in Antibes has reopened after being closed for several weeks. The floating structure with 76 berths cost 200,000 euros to renovate and now boasts a new water and electricity network.
Cannes Film Festival recruiting - Organisers of the Cannes Film Festival are recruiting with 300 jobs on offer. The festival runs from Tuesday 17th to Saturday 28th May and applications are now being accepted for a range of positions. For more information go to Randstad.fr
Road closure to help save toads and frogs from being run over - As the breeding season for toads and frogs is fast approaching, elected officials in Brittany have closed one of the region's longest departmental roads to save thousands from being squashed by cars and to preserve biodiversity. The move, however, has not pleased everyone with some residents expressing their anger saying that “the closure of the road, which has existed for 200 years and never bothered anyone, is causing many to take a diversion to get to work on narrow roads which are in poor condition”.
Business
Asian markets have steadied a little this morning and demand for safe-haven assets has fallen slightly as investors looked at Russian troop movements near Ukraine and initial Western sanctions against Russia as leaving some room for a diplomatic solution to the spiralling crisis. Commodity prices remain elevated although oil fell back a little after reaching 7 year highs on Tuesday as markets reacted to the latest developments and the S&P 500 tipped into correction territory having dropped by 10 percent since January’s record peak. US stock futures have risen this morning after President Biden left the door open to diplomacy as he announced sanctions on two Russian banks as well as some oligarchs close to President Vladimir Putin. The European Union and the UK also announced some sanctions targeting banks and Russian elites while Germany halted plans for the new Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline which resulted in an 11 percent jump in Europe’s benchmark gas price. Analysts say that markets see the various sanctions as modest and perhaps not as aggressive as feared.
Oil prices have dipped slightly this morning as the market judged that sanctions against Russia will not do much to disrupt supplies from the world’s 3rd largest producer. Crude prices have surged in recent weeks on alarm about a potential conflict in Ukraine which might affect supplies from Russia which produce
