French News Thursday 28th March 2019

Local

Strike action in nurseries in Nice - Staff in nursery schools in Nice have called for strike action today. The unions are protesting against new reforms which, in their view will reduce the quality of childcare and working conditions. According to the CGT out of the city’s 27 nurseries 20 will be closed and three will be operating a minimum service. The strike will see educators gather at 10am in Place Massena.

Man suffers heart attack on construction site - Firefighters in Monaco carried out a spectacular intervention on Wednesday evening after a crane driver suffered a heart attack 60 meters above the construction site of the Princess Grace Hospital. The victim was at the time in the cabin perched at the top of a crane. He was taken to hospital where his condition is reported to be stable.

Air France captain - The Mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi has paid tribute to Michel Bacos who has died at the age of 95 in Nice. Michel Bacos an Air France captain, was hailed a hero for refusing to abandon his passengers when Palestinian and German hijackers seized the plane in 1976, The plane, carrying some 260 people from Tel Aviv to Paris, had stopped off in Athens, where the hijackers got on board and demanded it change course. The hostage drama ended six days later at Entebbe airport in Uganda, when Israeli commandos stormed the terminal.

“Stop Burn Out” - According to figures published 12% of the French population suffer from a “Burnout”. An association in Nice, named "Stop burn out" has been working for 4 years with employees which have suffered from a burn out. Following the publication of recent figures “Stop Burn Out” has warned that the number of cases is constantly increasing with an estimated 3.2 million employees in France at risk. Among the most affected professions are police officers, doctors and farmers.

National

Yellow vest protests remain banned - The French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner has announced that the planned “Yellow Vest” protests for Saturday 30th March on the Champs-Elysees in Paris will be banned. Castaner made the announcement on Wednesday declaring that he believes the move to be an “excuse to provoke more violence”. The ban was put in place last weekend in several cities across France following outburst of violence during gatherings. 

French senators have adopted an article which will let individual departments in France choose which roads will have a speed limit of 80km per hour.  The government’s reduction in speed limits from 90 to 80 on secondary roads has been met with fierce opposition from some motorists. The amendment to the draft mobility law by the Upper House of Parliament would give departments the right to keep 90 as the speed limit on selected stretches of road.

European Elections - The French Europe Minister Nathalie Loiseau has strongly criticizes Britain’s pro-Brexit campaigners as she launched the bid of President Emmanuel Macron’s political party for European elections in May this week. Loiseau said “Do you remember the slogan ‘take back control’?” referring to a key slogan of the Leave campaign. “It was a good slogan but the wrong answer, and we can see the state they’re in now. The Minister who stepped down from her position in Macron’s cabinet on Wednesday, already caused a stir this month with another jab at Britain’s disorderly departure from the European Union, joking that she had named her cat Brexit.

Natalie Loiseau is one of three ministers who have announced that they are quitting the government to prepare to run in the European and municipal elections. The two  others are government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux and digital economy minister Mounir Mahjoubi.

Business

Reuters has reported that US officials have said that China has made unprecedented proposals during trade talks including on forced technology transfers as the two sides continue to work towards securing a deal to end their protracted dispute.

The report says that China put proposals on the table that have gone further than in the past with US officials saying that they herald a great deal of progress.

The two sides are working towards agreement in six areas:forced technology transfer and cyber theft, intellectual property rights, services, currency, agriculture and non-tariff barriers to trade.

The US trade representative Robert Lighthizer and the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are in Beijing today for a new round of talks aimed at ending the dispute.

 

Boeing says that its issued changes to controversial control systems linked to two fatal crashes of its 737 Max planes in the past five months.

Investigators are still to determine the cause of the accidents and Boeing has conceded that it can’t be certain when the planes,which were grounded worldwide earlier this month,will be allowed to fly again.

As part of the upgrade,Boeing said that it would install as standard a warning system which was previously an optional safety feature.

The firm has also issued an upgrade to the software  that’s been linked to the crashes.

 

And-Facebook has said that it will  block “praise , support  and representation of white nationalism and separatism” on Facebook and Instagram from next week.

The social media giant has also pledged to improve its ability to identify and block material from terrorist groups.

Facebook has come under intense pressure to make changes after a mass killer livestreamed an attack on two mosques in New Zealand.

The company had previously allowed some white nationalist content that it did not view as racist including permission for users to call for the creation of white-ethno states.

Sport

Golf-Rory McIlroy,Paul Casey,Tommy Fleetwood ,Tyrell Hatton ,Tiger Woods and Ian Poulter were among the winners on the opening day of the WGC Match Play in Austin Texas on Wednesday.

Poulter birdied the final two holes for victory over Kevin Kisner  to beat the American 2 up.

Players are divided into 16 groups of 4 with a round-robin format for the first three days.

The 16 winners will then advance to the knockout phase on Saturday.

Football-Juventus have announced the signing of the Arsenal and Wales star Aaron Ramsey.

The 28 year old has signed a pre-contract with the Turin giants and will join at the end of the season.

His salary will be a reported 400,000 pounds a week on a four year contract.

There was one game in the Scottish Premiership last night.St Johnstone beat St Mirren 1-0.

Tennis-Roger Federer will face Kevin Anderson in the quarter finals of the Miami Open following a straight sets win over Daniil Medvedev.

The 37 year old 4th seed came through 6-4 6-2 in one hour and one minute.

Anderson beat Jordan Thompson 7-5 7-5.

In the women’s event Simona Halep has reached the semi finals after beating Wang Qiang of China 6-4 7-5.

If she reaches the final then she’ll return to the world number one ranking in place of Naomi Osaka.

Weather

Clear skies  with light to moderate variable winds.

Top temperature 16-18 degrees Celsius.

Overnight lows of 10  degrees on the coast and 5 degrees inland  with clear skies.

Friday and the start of the weekend-Clear skies with highs of 17-19 degrees.

Finally 

Experts have claimed that "cyclists" should instead be called “people who ride bikes” because the former term is dehumanising, 

An academic study in Australia found that there is a link between the dehumanisation of cyclists and acts of aggression they face from other road users.

Researchers said that cyclists have been conceptualised as a minority group and being “not completely human”, which they claim makes them likelier targets.

The study saw just over half of non-cyclist respondents and 30 per cent of those who ride bikes rate cyclists as “not completely human,”.

Nine per cent of respondents admitted they had used their car to cut off a cyclist, while one in five drivers said they had deliberately blocked them on roads.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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