Oldest living person dies in Toulon at 118

Lucile Randon, a French nun born in 1904 and the world’s oldest living person, has died in her sleep at the care home she resided in in Toulon. She previously cited work as the secret to her long life.  

Known for most of her life as Sister André, Lucile Randon led a long and interesting life. Born in Alès, France, on 11th February 1904, she grew up as a protestant. She was sent to live in Marseille at the age of 12 to become a governess before moving onto Versailles four years later, where she became a teacher and governess for a prominent family.  

It was during this time that she converted to Roman Catholicism and, in 1944, she joined the Daughters of Charity order, where she was assigned to a hospital in Vichy. She remained there for 31 years before retiring at the age of 75.  

She had long been the oldest living person in France, taking the title in 2017 when Honorine Rondello passed away at the age of 114. She took over the world title in April 2022 after the death of Kane Tanaka at 119 in Japan.  

Sister André famously survived Covid in 2021, being given the all-clear just days before her 117th birthday. She told reporters last year that her longevity was down to her work and being able to care for others.  

“People say that work kills. For me, work kept me alive, I kept working until I was 108,” she said.  

Despite being wheelchair-bound and blind, she would look after other care home residents much younger than herself. The people in the home are upset by the loss, but it was her wish to move onto the next chapter.  

“There is great sadness but… it was her desire to join her beloved brother. For her, it’s a liberation,” David Tavella of the Sainte-Catherine-Laboure nursing home told news agency AFP. 

Now the oldest living person is thought to be 112-year-old Marie-Rose Tessier from the Vendée, also in France. The world record holder for longevity was set by another Frenchwoman, Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 in Arles. 

 

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Photo source: AFP

Monaco grows school potager project

A programme to create vegetable gardens in Monaco schools has been renewed for another year, allowing more children than ever to get their hands dirty and connect with nature. 

A generous donation from Monaco Telecom of €10,000 has helped extend the project, which was launched in 2020 by the Prince Albert II Foundation (FPA2), the Department of National Education, Youth and Sport, and Monaco-based agricultural company Terrae. 

The FPA2’s vice president, Olivier Wenden, was handed the cheque at the Ecole des Révoires primary school on Monday and commended the boost to the hugely popular project.  

“We welcome Monaco Telecom’s commitment to this important project [that raises] schoolchildren’s awareness on sustainable development through practical and fun urban vegetable garden activities,” said Wenden. “This programme, which enables children to create a link with the earth and change their view of food, actively participates in forging a new relationship with nature, from a very young age. We are pleased that the Foundation can help to perpetuate it.”  

The donation was offered through the fees Monaco Telecom has collected from customers under 60 who still are being sent paper bills rather than paying for services online.  

“For several years now, paper bills have been paid for by subscribers under 60 years of age. The objective is environmental, the idea being to gradually reduce paper consumption in favour of digital invoicing. It is therefore normal that the amounts collected contribute to ecological initiatives. I am particularly pleased this year with our lasting commitment to Terrae and the Ecole des Révoires for the development of educational vegetable gardens,” said Martin Peronnet, the CEO of Monaco Telecom. 

This is Ecole des Révoires’ second year in the programme, and their rooftop potager is one of the Principality’s largest, covering over two terraces. Roughly 100 students take part in looking after the gardens via the 35 hours of workshops that take place during the school year.  

Terrae founder Jessica Sbaraglia has been a key feature in the collaboration, known as “Planting a Responsible Future with Young Shoots”, and has played an active role in teaching the Principality’s schoolchildren how to grow and harvest their own food through workshops in the gardens. Seven schools have participated in the project since autumn 2020, allowing more than 2,000 students to learn the value and importance of knowing where food comes from.  

  

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 Photo source: FPA2 

 

 

 

 

 

Cost of weekly shop rises by more than 12%

Supermarkets across the country saw the prices of its most commonly purchased goods rise by 12.2% in 2022. The worrying trend looks set to continue this year. 

Inflation, global food shortages and widespread disruption to supply chains have created the perfect storm for escalating prices in supermarkets across not just France, but essentially the entire world.  

Year-on-year, the prices of France’s most frequently bought items have increased by more than 12.2%, according to the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE) in a report released in mid-January. Last month saw the 13th consecutive rise, adding another 0.8% to the 1.4% increase seen in November. 

The figures omit the costs of fresh fruit, vegetables, fish and shellfish as well as a range of non-durable household goods and appliances, and personal care items and products, but are still revealing of the stresses of the current climate. The price of meat, for example, increased by almost 15% in 2022. Beverages rose by 8.2%. Household cleaning and personal hygiene products saw their average costs accelerate by 13.6%.  

In the last decade, the cheapest period for supermarket shoppers was the 2015 spring season. Prices dipped to similar levels in May 2021, but have since skyrocketed.  

A report commissioned by the French Ministry for Economy and Finance at the end of 2022 said, “Since January 2021, inflationary pressures, particularly on food products, have reached levels not seen in 40 years.”   

For their part, supermarkets have already warned the public that the trend is likely to continue well into 2023. In December, French businessman Michel-Edouard Leclerc, the president of the E.Leclerc supermarket chain among other enterprises, shared on Twitter the price hikes he expects will hit consumers in 2023: preserved fruit up 20.55%, preserved vegetables up 17.74%, coffee up 10.53%, pet food up 41%, and poultry up 13%. 

 

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Photo source: Alana Harris for Unsplash

Interview: Paul Mitchell on AS Monaco’s prosperous youth development strategy

Between Benoît Badiashile’s €40m departure to Chelsea, Eliesse Ben Seghir’s explosion onto the scene, and a growing list of academy debutants, it’s clear that youth is once again the centrepiece of the AS Monaco project.

World Cup winners Thierry Henry, Lillian Thuram, David Trezeguet, Emmanuel Petit and, more recently, Kylian Mbappé all came through the Principality side’s academy. It was a winning formula, but one that was altered over time, and while it brought success in the short-term, it wasn’t sustainable.

A much-needed top-down correction was needed and was initiated by the club’s owner, Dimitri Rybolovlev. The change has been all-encompassing and holistic, and, at least on a sporting level, is being led by Paul Mitchell – the club’s sporting director, who joined in 2020.

For the English sporting director, the trajectories of Benoît Badiashile and Aurélien Tchouaméni, who left for Real Madrid in the summer, exemplify the club’s return to what he has previously described as a “historic strategy” of developing youth talent.

“I think when I arrived two and a half years ago, it was well-documented that we lost a bit of focus and vision on our strategy. One of the elements that we recognised was mainly suffering was the academy. There weren’t as many academy players moving from the academy platform to the first team. We were externally recruiting en masse, we spent an awful lot of money, and [change] was one of the key topics and objectives that the owner set for me when he hired me to become the Sporting Director,” says Mitchell.

He continues, “Benoît and Aurélien are interesting profiles because, in the game before the Covid break, they were both substitutes so it’s really intriguing. From a strategy that had lost its way a little bit, you recalibrate, you apply these principles of performance and clarity around wanting to develop talent like Monaco historically has, and you take that player from being a substitute to playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world.”

Badiashile wasn’t the first, and nor will he be the last to leave for such a fee. The Principality club has a reputation and a precedent for receiving big money for their players, whether they be academy graduates or players that have been bought and developed at Monaco. Could the young Eliesse Ben Seghir, who burst onto the scene with a brace against Auxerre on his Ligue 1 debut in December, be the next graduate to fetch a high price?

“He definitely is that modern offensive profile. He is fearless in possession, he’s not scared to take a risk, to try and get past, to penetrate. Already as a young man, he is a bit fearless. What I like about him is – and this is a really good sign of what could be to come – when the team is under pressure to find solutions, he is more than open to taking that responsibility at the age of just seventeen, to go into tight areas, areas of the final third that are dangerous, that are tight, and find the solution,” says Mitchell.

His break-through is a testament not only to his ability, but to the work behind-the-scenes at the club: from recruitment to regimes, training programmes, and perhaps most importantly, a recent re-structuring of the academy’s schedule.

Prior to the beginning of the 2022/23 season, Monaco took their reserve side, which houses many of the club’s brightest academy products, out of the National 2, and created the “Groupe Elite.”

The creation of this team, headed by Damien Perrinelle, allows Monaco’s academy players to compete against Premier League sides such as Manchester United and Arsenal. Whilst giving the players a crucial formative experience within a different context, the less rigid schedule allows the youngsters to integrate more into the first team.

“I think credit to the adjustment that we made, Eliesse is a beneficiary to the development of the Elite Groupe. It was about finding opportunities to have more contact points with the first team. The more contact points the player has with the first team, the more credit he can accumulate with the first team coach. This gives the coach the confidence to expose him more regularly to the first team and then to start and come off the bench, which we have seen Ben Seghir do in this short period of time,” he explains.

Ben Seghir is the beneficiary of this structure, but also of a culture of transparency and interconnectedness, at the club. Mitchell often attends academy games in-person, and was at that game at Old Trafford in November, where Monaco won 2-0. He can also watch the Elite Group’s home matches from his office at the club’s new training centre in La Turbie, which offers an expansive view of the entire Riviera, not that you would know it. The view is concealed by blinds, only the windows leading onto the pitches are unobscured, meaning no details are missed, no progress unrecognised.

Monaco, as it historically has been, is a place where progress is recognised and rewarded. 13 academy players have made their debuts since Mitchell’s arrival, and with youth development once again the “centrepiece” of the project at the club, this figure is only likely to rise further in the coming months. The conveyor belt of talent at the Principality club shows no signs of relenting.

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Photo by Monaco Life

 

 

Francesco Totti to star in Fight AIDS Cup

The Fight AIDS Cup will return for a third edition next Monday with footballing legends Francesco Totti, Clarence Seedorf and Luca Toni all set to participate in the charitable football match. 

The event at the Stade Louis II, organised within the framework of the 45th International Circus Festival, will raise money for Princess Stéphanie’s charity, Fight AIDS Monaco.

As with previous editions, stars of football’s past and present will descend on the Principality for a match – organised by Barbagiuans’ president Louis Ducruet – between Prince Albert II’s Barbagiuans and Princess Stéphanie’s Cirque FC.

Claude Puel, who led AS Monaco to the French title in 2000, will be on a Barbagiuans’ side that has lost the previous two editions.

“Through this match, we are defending a beautiful cause and the stakes are not limited to the result. Despite this, the Barbagiuans really want to win, to reverse the trend, and experience the joy of being, for the first time, the holders of the title,” said 61-year-old Puel, who has also managed local rivals Nice, as well as Leicester City and Southampton in the Premier League.

Sébastien Frey will captain a Cirque FC side that also includes last year’s Man of the Match, Luca Toni, as well as Clarence Seedorf and Robert Pires. On the opposing team, Charles Leclerc will line up for the Barbaguians alongside former Chelsea player Ricardo Carvalho.

A charitable match in name and purpose, next Monday’s Fight AIDS Cup is expected to be once again a fierce contest of some of the former greats of the game, all while raising money for a good cause.

Tickets can be bought on AS Monaco’s online ticket office, or at the Stade Louis II.

 

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Photo by Monaco Life

World Economic Forum 2023: Ukraine, cost of living and climate on Davos agenda

The World Economic Forum kicked off in a big way on Monday, with a serious list of items of concern being tackled by everyone from heads of state to business leaders. Here’s what’s on the schedule.

Known simply as Davos after the Swiss municipality it is held in, the World Economic Forum (WEF) 2023 is running until 20th January with a laundry list of 2,700 invitees discussing and looking to find solutions to major issues facing the world today. In all, 50 heads of state, 200 cabinet ministers and 1,500 business people are set to attend live and in person for the first time since 2020.   

Under the theme of “Cooperation in a Fragmented World”, the week-long conference is touching on five key topics, the first being the war in Ukraine. The war-torn country’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is set to speak via video link. For the second year running, Russia will not be attending the event, but a sizable Ukrainian representation will be there.  

The implications of the conflict in Ukraine are far reaching, disrupting global security, food and energy production, as well as forcing countries to look at their current defence policies.  

The cost-of-living crisis will arguably be the main subject of the week being taken on. Experts from the WEF are calling 2023 the “Year of the Polycrisis”, a rather alarming moniker for the entwined problems facing people all over the planet, which, as such, are more and more difficult to solve.  

Inflation and recession worldwide will be discussed, and leaders from both the banking world and governments will then have to decide whether to spend more on their people to limit the impact on societies or raise interest rates to stave off inflation, with the potential outcome being global recession. 

The climate also tops the programme, with activists already on-site decrying the private jet-flying elites who are attending for not taking this issue as seriously as is necessary. This issue has been a mainstay on the Davos agenda for a decade or more, and this year’s talks will centre on new technologies. Investment in hydrogen energy will be a hot topic, as will sustainable fuel sources. 

Food security also made the top list. Linked with climate in many ways, much of the world is facing food shortages due to unpredictable weather patterns and natural disasters that have played havoc on supplies. Warnings that there will be more people going hungry in 2023 than in previous years is prompting the questions on how to reverse this trend and stop the situation from spiralling even further.  

The “fourth industrial revolution” will also be widely talked about. This term is being used in conjunction with technology and innovation, and talks will go in-depth on interconnectivity, artificial intelligence usages, quantum computing, and how to best govern and regulate these issues.  

  

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Photo source: World Economic Forum/Flickr