Negotiations over a future Prime Minister, the PS summer university, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, business life, the stock market… All the news for Thursday, August 29, 2024.
The main news of this Thursday
8:36 a.m. – Unieuro: no majority on the board of directors to accept the Fnac Darty takeover bid
Unieuro’s board of directors is divided on the valuation of the French takeover bid of 9 euros in cash and 0.1 Fnac Darty share for each share of the Italian group. Five members of the board of directors voted for the offer, five others opposed it and one abstained. On the yes side are the representatives of Iliad Italia, which is Unieuro’s largest shareholder with 12.6% of the capital, and Unieuro’s chairman himself, Stefano Meloni, who holds 100,000 shares.
CEO Giancarlo Nicosanti Monterastelli and Managing Director Maria Bruna Olivieri, who also control a significant portion of the company’s shares, instead voted no.
8:30 a.m. – UNICEF warns of the situation of children sleeping without a roof over their heads
UNICEF France and the Federation of Solidarity Actors warn of the “disastrous” consequences of a childhood without a roof over their heads. They highlight the “systematic failure of accommodation and housing policies” and criticize “short-term” policies.
According to data compiled by UNICEF France and the Fédération des acteurs de la solidarité (FAS), at least 2,043 children – including 467 under the age of 3 – remained without accommodation during the night of August 19 to 20 following their family’s request to 115, the emergency number for homeless people.
8:25 a.m. – Russia: One dead, two injured in Ukrainian strikes in the Belgorod region
One person was killed and two others were injured in Ukrainian airstrikes in the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine on Thursday, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. The strikes also damaged an administrative building and a social infrastructure site, he added.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Thursday that it had shot down a drone over the Belgorod region during the night. Two drones were also shot down over the Bryansk region, which also borders Ukraine, and three others were neutralized over annexed Crimea, the ministry said in a statement on Telegram.
8:18 a.m. – New government: Olivier Faure regrets the absence of negotiations
Invited on RTL, the first secretary of the Socialist Party once again reacted to Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to appoint Lucie Castets to Matignon. “No one is sulking, the reality is that there are no negotiations,” he denounced, while the New Popular Front has decided to no longer attend the negotiations organized by Emmanuel Macron to find a new Prime Minister.
“I am always ready to negotiate, but today the head of state is not negotiating and has gone beyond his role by being the one who seeks to compose majorities (…). This is not his constitutional role,” he also assured. For him, Emmanuel Macron “has not put any proposal on the table.” “The question is not simply a question of name. The question is who is in this majority and what do we do with it,” the first secretary of the PS explained. Before adding: “the socialists said that they would not participate in the extension of Macronism.”
8:15 a.m. – Iliad claims to enter the Top 5 European telecom operators
The French telecommunications group announced a 10.3% increase in its turnover, indicating that the group has entered the Top 5 European telecoms operators. Iliad recorded consolidated turnover of 4.90 billion euros, compared to 4.44 billion euros a year ago.
In the second quarter, the current operating income (EBITDAaL) of Xavier Niel’s group stood at 1.86 billion euros, compared to 1.64 billion euros over the same period the previous year, an increase of 13.2%. In the second quarter, Iliad saw its total number of subscribers increase in France to 22.88 million, in Poland to 15.4 million and in Italy to 11.57 million. In total, the group is approaching the 50 million subscriber mark.
8:10 a.m. – Tokyo Stock Exchange closes on a stable note
The Nikkei index lost 0.02% on Thursday to 38,362.53 points and the broader Topix gained 0.03% to 2,693.02 points.
8:01 a.m. – Automobile: hybrids continued their progression in Europe in July
Hybrid cars were again the only category to progress in Europe in July in a sluggish car market, according to figures published by the Association of Manufacturers (ACEA). Registrations of new hybrid models (with an electric battery that is not plugged in) increased in all the main European countries (+25.7% year-on-year), reaching 273,000 units.
Electric models continued their decline (-10.8% over one year) and their market share fell to 12.1% in August (12.5% since the beginning of the year). Progress in the Netherlands, Spain and Italy did not compensate for the sharp decline in Germany, the leading European market, after the surprise removal of subsidies for the purchase of electric vehicles. Sales of petrol cars fell by 7% (33.4% of the market) and those of diesel cars by 10.1% (12.6% of the market).
8:47 a.m. – China says it has warned Washington against any “military collusion” with Taiwan
Top Chinese military official Zhang Youxia has asked Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan to stop “military collusion” with the island of Taiwan, China’s Defense Ministry reported. And to stop “arming Taiwan and … spreading false news about Taiwan.”
7:31 a.m. – Pernod Ricard posts stable annual sales
The spirits producer has published a turnover of 11.6 billion euros for the 2023/24 financial year, compared to 12.14 billion at the end of the previous financial year. A stability that the group explains by a “normalization” of the market after two years of “exceptional” growth. Pernod Ricard reaffirms its objective of organic growth in turnover “at the top of a range between 4-7%” and “organic growth in the current operating margin of +50 to +60 basis points”.
7:25 a.m. – New setback for SpaceX’s Falcon 9
The company’s most widely used Falcon 9 rockets are grounded until further notice after a rare incident. A Falcon 9 caught fire yesterday while trying to land on a barge at sea. It’s the first time in three years that SpaceX has experienced such a failure. Flights are suspended while the US regulator investigates.
7:21 a.m. – The PS in turmoil over its summer university
The Socialist Party is launching its summer days in Blois today in a context of internal tensions over the strategy to be implemented with regard to Emmanuel Macron, who is in the midst of a search for a Prime Minister after having excluded an NFP government led by Lucie Castets. After heated discussions yesterday within a national office, opponents of First Secretary Olivier Faure intend to make their voices heard to express their discontent with his line.
7:20 a.m. – Canada moves from 11th to 4th place among carbon-emitting countries
By examining satellite data on the presence of carbon in smoke plumes from wildfires that burned from May to September 2023, the researchers determined that 2,371 megatonnes of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide were released. This moved Canada from 11th to fourth place among the world’s largest CO2 emitters, behind China, the United States and India.
A significant number of wildfires raged across Canada in 2023, with 15 million hectares – or 4% of Canada’s total forest area – burned and more than 200,000 people evacuated. Researchers warn that the hot, dry weather that is causing these fires is expected to become the norm by 2050 and is “likely to lead to increased fire activity.”
7:18 – Climate change has increased the intensity of Typhoon Gaemi
Gaemi’s wind speeds were 7 percent higher due to climate change, and rainfall was 14 percent more intense in Taiwan and central China’s Hunan Province, according to experts from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network, which assesses the link between extreme weather events and climate change. WWA scientists were unable to measure the impact of climate change on Gaemi’s rainfall in the Philippines because of the complex monsoon regime in that archipelago.
They point out, however, that warm seas, where typhoons form, “would have been virtually impossible” in a world that had not warmed. The global temperature is now 1.2 degrees Celsius higher than in the pre-industrial period. The number of storms of similar intensity has also jumped by 30 percent due to climate change, increasing from five to six or seven per year, the study found.
7:15 a.m. – California Legislature passes law to regulate AI
The Safe Innovation in Pioneering AI Models Act aims to prevent large models from causing major disasters, resulting in mass deaths or significant cybersecurity incidents. Scott Wiener, the Democratic congressman who sponsored the bill, softened the terms of the law: It requires developers of large AI models to test their systems and simulate cyberattacks, but gives California authorities less power than originally intended to hold them accountable or prosecute them.
7:13 – Number of political prisoners in Venezuela explodes, according to an NGO
According to the human rights organization Foro Penal, Venezuela had 199 “political prisoners” before July 28, and 1,581 more since, after the wave of arrests that followed the controversial re-election of Nicolas Maduro as president and the opposition protests. “We have registered (…) the largest number of political prisoners that Venezuela has known, at least since the beginning of the 21st century,” Foro Penal said on the social network X.
7:11 – Judge threatens to suspend X in Brazil within 24 hours
In an injunction made public Wednesday, Judge Alexandre de Moraes of the Supreme Federal Court ordered Elon Musk to indicate “within 24 hours the name and capacity of the new legal representative of X” in Brazil under penalty of “immediate suspension of the activities of the social network.” On August 17, Elon Musk had announced the closure of X’s offices in Brazil, while leaving the service available to Brazilian users.
7:04 – Honduras denounces its extradition treaty with the United States
“The interference and interventionism of the United States, as well as its intention to direct the policy of Honduras through its embassy and other representatives, is intolerable,” wrote leftist President Xiomara Castro on X, adding that she had ordered the Minister of Foreign Affairs to “denounce the extradition treaty.” This treaty, signed in 1912, was one of the main weapons to fight against the “narco-state” that Honduras became under the presidency of Juan Orlando Hernandez (2014-2022).
7:00 a.m. – China: more than a quarter of energy consumed comes from clean sources, according to Beijing
The share of “clean energy” in China’s total energy consumption has increased from 15.5 percent to 26.4 percent over the past decade, according to a document released this morning by the Chinese government. At the same time, wind and solar capacity has increased tenfold, according to the white paper, the main points of which are being reported by the Xinhua news agency.
China has committed to stabilizing or decreasing its emissions by 2030, then achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. It is thus strongly developing its capacities in renewables.
