Negotiations over a future Prime Minister, wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, business life… All the news for Monday, September 2, 2024.
> The main news of the day
07:49 – China: Factory activity picked up again in August
China’s purchasing managers’ index (PMI) of manufacturing activity, compiled by S&P Global and Chinese business news outlet Caixin, came in at 50.4 points last month, up from 49.4 points in July. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in activity. Below 50 indicates contraction. However, the index runs counter to official figures that indicate contraction.
The number of new orders returned to growth, according to the survey published in a joint Caixin-S&P Global statement. The improvement in demand also led to a stabilization of staffing levels at companies, after a long period of decline of 11 months.
07:44 – Sanofi: Tolebrutinib for multiple sclerosis misses its targets in phase III trials
The French drugmaker said two phase III trials showed its experimental daily drug tolebrutinib, the most advanced against multiple sclerosis, was no more effective than Aubagio, its usual drug for the disease.
Sanofi also announced that a third, separate, late-stage trial showed that tolebrutinib met its primary endpoint, which is the treatment of a progressive – or steadily worsening – form of MS that is less common and currently untreatable. In that trial, Sanofi’s drug candidate slowed disability progression compared with placebo.
07:29 – Eurofins announces its third share buyback plan
The analytical laboratory group Eurofins announces its third share buyback plan for a maximum amount representing 2% of the shares. The plan starts this Monday and will last until August 31, 2026.
07:18 – Marine Le Pen calls in a letter for the convening of an extraordinary session of Parliament
In an open letter to the group presidents in the National Assembly, the president of the National Rally deputies Marine Le Pen calls for the convening of an extraordinary session of Parliament. “The group that I chair considers it intolerable that parliamentarians are not meeting in an extraordinary session to honor without further delay all the responsibilities that we have entrusted to our fellow citizens,” she writes. A request that she had already made following her meeting with Emmanuel Macron a week ago.
Yesterday, Yaël Braun-Pivet, President of the National Assembly, was in favour of calling such an extraordinary session. “It is essential that the next Prime Minister be able to defend his action programme before the French people and that parliamentarians be able to debate it,” she explained on France Info.
“With the support of more than 11 million French people, the group that I chair believes that it is intolerable that parliamentarians are not meeting in an extraordinary session to honour without further delay all the responsibilities that we have… pic.twitter.com/Vm3HeP6f2m
— Marine Le Pen (@MLP_officiel) September 2, 2024
06:46 – Taiwan: Former Taipei mayor targeted by corruption investigation released
A Taiwanese court has ordered the release of a former Taipei mayor and presidential candidate arrested over the weekend following a corruption investigation.
Ko Wen-je, leader of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), was arrested Saturday over his alleged role in a real estate scandal that occurred during his term as Taipei mayor from 2014 to 2022. But the Taipei District Court objected Monday that prosecutors did not have enough evidence to keep him in custody.
06:31 – Russian strikes on kyiv
The Ukrainian Air Force said via Telegram that repeated salvos of ballistic missiles targeted kyiv in the early hours of the day. Representatives of the capital said that air defense units were working to repel the attacks.
The city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported on Telegram that a fire broke out in the Chevchenkivsky district, where emergency services were dispatched. Several universities and schools are located in this district.
06:27 – Elections in VSEs: employees have until September 27 to check their registration
Some 5 million employees of very small businesses (VSEs, less than 11 employees) and home workers have until September 27 to check their registration with a view to voting for a union between November 25 and December 9.
This election makes it possible in particular to complete the measurement of the audience of each organization at the interprofessional level and in the branches, by aggregating the result of the election in the VSEs with those of the professional elections to the social and economic committee (CSE) in companies with 11 employees and more, as well as with the results of the elections to the departmental chambers of agriculture.
06:22 – Back to school day for 12 million students
Some 12 million primary, secondary and high school students are going back to school. For her first and potentially last term as Minister of Education, the resigning Nicole Belloubet will respect tradition by visiting schools: in the morning in Bourg-la-Reine (Hauts-de-Seine) and in the afternoon in Orléans. Because, she insisted, “current affairs are neither a suspended time for school, nor a dead time”.
Gabriel Attal is expected this morning at a school in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine). The resigning Prime Minister will present a new national campaign against bullying at school, launched on social networks, television and radio.
06:14 – Australian casino group Star suspended from stock market
Embroiled in a series of scandals, the group, which is accused of being lax in its fight against money laundering, has been suspended from the Sydney Stock Exchange for failing to publish its annual results. Star did not “submit the relevant periodic reports by the deadline”, the exchange said. It had until August 30 to do so.
06:11 – Venezuela: release of 86 adolescents detained since the post-election crisis
Venezuelan authorities have released 86 teenagers, out of a total of 114 minors held in detention since the start of the political crisis that the country has been going through following the contested re-election of Nicolas Maduro at the end of July, the NGO Foro Penal reported yesterday. The day before, Foro Penal had reported 40 releases as precautionary measures, and two days earlier, 16 others.
06:06 – Israelis called for ‘general strike’ to demand agreement on hostages
The Israeli trade union center has declared a “general strike” for today in order to force the government to reach an agreement to release the hostages held in Gaza. Starting at 6:00 (3:00), “the entire Israeli economy will be on general strike,” declared yesterday the head of the powerful Israeli trade union center, Arnon Bar-David.
This decision comes after the Israeli army announced yesterday that the bodies of six hostages had been discovered in the Gaza Strip, the scene of a devastating war that has pitted Israel against the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas for almost eleven months.
06:02 – Emmanuel Macron resumes his consultations at the Elysée
The denouement is approaching in the quest for a Prime Minister. Emmanuel Macron receives Bernard Cazeneuve and Xavier Bertrand, whose names are insistently cited for Matignon, as well as François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy in the context of consultations to find a personality who will not be immediately censored by a majority of deputies.
Received first at 8:45, the former socialist Prime Minister is now the favorite to return to Matignon. But nothing has been decided, nearly two months after the legislative elections which resulted in a National Assembly without a majority.