Man stabbed to death in Marseille - A 35-year-old man has been stabbed to death in Marseille. The incident occurred in the early hours of Tuesday morning. The victim was not known to police and an investigation has been opened to determine the reason for the fatal attack.
Eric Ciotti declares that the “French deserve to know the truth” – Local MP Eric Ciotti has asked, in a letter addressed to the president of the National assembly Richard Ferrand, that the fact-finding mission on the Covid-19, which Ciotti is conducting be changed into a commission of 'investigation.
According to Ciotti, the commission "intends to collect information deemed necessary on the coronavirus crisis with regard to health prevention, management of the crisis, adaptation of the healthcare system, the strategy of deconfinement and the economic and budgetary consequences of the crisis. "
The goal is to maximum transparency and to ask all the necessary questions in order to understand the events and especially public decisions taken since the appearance of the Covid-19.
In a statement released on Tuesday Eric Ciotti said that "The French deserve the truth,"
Building permit refused by the mayor of Cagnes sur mer - The mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer Louis Nègre has rejected a building permit requested by Bouygues immobilier for the construction of the La Vilette eco-neighbourhood.
The mayor said on Tuesday that the project needs to be “improved” before being accepted, adding that there are too many non-conformities such as the height of buildings along with the flood risk and not forgetting “the new way of life after the coronavirus crisis”.
Support for the elderly – Meanwhile the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi, is one of 150 well known personalities who have signed a manifesto calling for changes to be made to support the elderly. The Mayor said that he was calling for a "rethink of the link between generations and to mobilize all the levers of society to meet the demographic challenge of old age".
Île de Porquerolles - Two beaches on the Île de Porquerolles are set to reopen. The municipality of Hyeres said that the Argent and Notre-Dame beaches will be reopened. La Courtade is already open. The beaches will be open from 8am to 6pm and restrictions will be in place, including the banning of alcohol consumption and picnics, as well as social distancing of two metres between groups of people.
“Conversations” of the Mediterranean - A team of scientists at University of Toulon have taken advantage of the lockdown period to carry out an exceptional experiment recording the "conversations" of those that inhabit the Mediterranean.
With no sea vessels and fewer fishermen, the underwater life of the Mediterranean from Marseille to Monaco took full advantage of the “silence”. The "historic opportunity to be able to characterize the marine environment in a state of low acoustic pollution", gave rise to an exceptional mission.
Leaving Toulon on April 23rd, the mission was led by Professor Hervé Glotin and initiated by the University of Toulon, the company Sea Proven, the journal Marine Oceans, and supported by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation.
For seventeen days, the team visited creeks in Marseille to the principality of Monaco, passing by Toulon and Nice.
Monaco Yacht show to take place 23rd-26th September - The organisers of the Monaco Yacht show have announced that this year’s show will be held on Port Hercule here in the Principality from the 23rd – 26th September.
While there will be fewer exhibitors and superyachts, it will be one of the few events able to go ahead in the face of the coronavirus crisis.
StopCovid to be launched this weekend in France - France’s StopCovid contact tracing smartphone app for tracing cases of coronavirus, is set to be launched at the weekend, after it got the green light on Tuesday from the national data protection authority.
The technology used by many governments around the world to monitor the coronavirus has been developed in France by researchers and companies under the supervision of the government.
StopCovid, will be purely voluntary, but its use needs to be widespread if it’s to play any meaningful role in breaking the epidemic chain.
Coronavirus – The number of patients in intensive care in France continues to decline with 1,555 Tuesday evening, 54 less than the day before. In total, the epidemic has killed at least 28,530 people in France, according to a consolidated assessment by the Directorate General of Health.
Law passed to extend bereavement leave for employees - A unanimous vote in French parliament on Tuesday has passed the bill in France to increase the number of days leave for employees, following the death of a child, to 15 working days.
At the beginning of the year the bill to increase the number of days from 5 to 12 days was surrounded by controversy, after it was rejected. The incident led to French President Emmanuel Macron, calling for “compassion” and recognising an “error” which in hand saw his political party propose a leave of fifteen working days.
Europétanque postponed - The French Federation of Pétanque has confirmed that no competition will be organised before 31st July.
The decision means that this year’s “Europetanque” due to take place on July 18th is cancelled and will be postponed until next year. Organisers have promised plenty of surprises in 2021 marking the 20th anniversary of the event.
Business
The New York Stock Exchange has opened its trading floor again following a two month closure due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The New York Exchange is one of the few remaining bourses to still feature floor trade with many others having moved to fully-electronic trading some time ago.
New York City has been hit hard by the virus with more than 200,000 cases and over 20,000 deaths.
Stock Exchanges around the world have managed to keep trading during the pandemic but in New York ,the trading floor was closed and all activity was temporarily moved to fully electronic trading to protect workers.
The governor of New York Andrew Cuomo rang the opening bell on Tuesday to widespread applause but only a quarter of the normal number of traders have been allowed to return to work to respect social distancing rules.
The French government has announced an 8 billion euro rescue package for the country’s car industry which has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
Proposals put forward by President Emmanuel Macron include 1 billion euros to provide grants of up to 7,000 euros to encourage people to buy electric vehicles.
There will also be more investment to make France a leading centre for electric vehicle production.
The country’s two main carmakers Renault and PSA have promised to focus on production in France in return for desperately needed state investment.
The French car industry is bracing for thousands of job cuts.
Mr Macron wants to see 1 million electric cars produced annually in France by 2025.He’s also aiming to triple the number of electric charging points around the country to 100,000 by the end of next year.
French car dealers currently have 400,000 vehicles in unsold stock languishing in showrooms.Mr Macron says that people upgrading to a less polluting vehicle will be eligible for a 3,000 euro bonus with a grant of up to 7,000 euros for the purchase of a fully electric vehicle.
And-Apple is planning to re-open around 100 stores in the United States ,mostly with drive-up pickups but some with in-store service.
The tech giant closed stores worldwide as the coronavirus spread but has slowly started to open them again based on local health data.
A handful of stores have already opened in Alaska ,Oklahoma and Idaho and more stores will be opening in the coming weeks.
Under Apple’s new procedures ,stores offering walk-in service will require customers and employees to undergo temperature checks and wear masks before entering.
Apple will provide masks to customers if required and social distancing requirements will limit the number of people inside at any one time.
Sport
Football-The big game in the German Bundesliga last night ended Borussia Dortmund 0 Bayern Munich 1.
The win puts Bayern seven points clear at the top of the table with 6 games left and seriously dents Dortmund’s chances of winning the title.
Leipzig and Borussia Monchengladbach make up the remaining Champions League spots.
Formula 1-McLaren is cutting around quarter of its workforce including staff at its Formula 1 operation.
Some 1,200 staff will lose their jobs ,mostly in the UK as the supercar maker suffers with a slump in sales and advertising revenue as a result of the coronavirus crisis.
The company said that it had worked hard to cut costs and avoid layoffs but it had been left with no choice to let some staff go.
Around 70 staff out of 800 will go at the Formula 1 operation with a second round of redundancies once the team has taken into account the recent budget-cap agreement for 2021.
Many other teams in the sport including Ferrari ,Mercedes and Red Bull are also likely to make job cuts over the coming months.
Tennis-Marin Cilic and Borna Coric have joined Novak Djokovic in an 8-man tournament to tour the Balkans.
Dominic Thiem , Grigor Dimitrov and Alexander Zverev will also take part with the first leg of the tournament played in Belgrade on the 13th and 14th of June.
Matches could be played behind closed doors as Serbia’s coronavirus containment measures still ban large -scale gatherings.
Golf-World number one Rory McIlroy says that he thinks the Ryder Cup will be postponed until next year.
The event is due to be held at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin from the 25th to the 27th of September but McIlroy says that he doesn’t see how that’s going to happen.
He said that the vast majority of players would prefer to see it pushed back to 2021 so that they can play in front of crowds and have the atmosphere that makes the Ryder Cup so special.
Weather
Partially cloudy with moderate easterly winds.
Top temperatures 23-25 degrees.
Overnight lows of 16 degrees on the coast and 13 degrees inland with clear skies.
Thursday and Friday-Mainly fine but clouding over in the Alpes Maritimes during the afternoon with the chance of some thunderstorms.Unsettled with scattered thunderstorms on Friday.Highs of 22-25 degrees.
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