AS Monaco Basket, the reigning champions of the game’s biggest French league, has announced a new partnership with Pineappli, a Monaco-based start-up that provides secure digital document management services via its innovative cloud solution.
Jean-Marc Rietsch’s Pineappli, which became the first private company in Monaco to be certified as a Trusted Service Provider (PSCO) by the Monegasque Digital Security Agency (AMSN) back in 2022, is quickly establishing itself as the go-to place for top-level data security within and beyond the Principality’s borders.
Through the company’s new partnership with the league-topping AS Monaco Basket team, Pineappli will be hoping to introduce an even larger audience to its highly secure document management services and shine a light on Monaco’s growing reputation as a hub for excellence, whether that be in the tech world or the sporting realm.
“By partnering with Pineappli, we highlight shared values such as resilience, determination and innovation,” says a representative for AS Monaco Basket. “Known for our remarkable performances in the French championship and Euroleague, the Roca Team embodies the competitive spirit and dynamism of Monaco. Together, Pineappli and the Roca Team will demonstrate that seemingly opposing sectors can collaborate to create unique synergies.”
According to the league-topping side, the partnership is about much more than “financial support”.
“It also includes joint initiatives aimed at promoting digital security and sporting excellence,” continues the spokesperson for the team. “These actions will emphasise the importance of local solidarity and our ambition to showcase Monegasque talents on the global stage. By working together, Pineappli and the Roca Team hope to inspire the community and show that Monaco is a hub of innovation and excellence.”
To discover the most popular treatments and innovative therapies available today, Monaco Life spoke with Anna Lunhu from Glam Monte Carlo MediSpa.
Staying up to date with the latest beauty treatments is essential for maintaining a fresh, youthful appearance and ensuring that you are benefiting from the most advanced, effective therapies available. The beauty industry evolves rapidly, with new techniques and products constantly emerging that can offer significant improvements in skin health, body contouring, and overall well-being.
To explore the most popular treatments and innovative therapies available today, Monaco Life spoke with Anna Lunhu from Glam Monte Carlo MediSpa, who shared insights into the cutting-edge treatments and trends that are currently making waves in Monaco’s beauty scene.
Monaco Life: What are the most popular treatments offered by Glam Monte Carlo MediSpa?
Anna Lunhu: The most popular treatments include face treatments for clean, fresh, and glowing skin. We offer our clients the Aquapure hydro facial for face cleansing and deep hydration, as well as exosomes for a great glow, which is the latest trend worldwide.
Face massages and Jettpedl are excellent for face lymphatic drainage and a fresh look. Our hair spa treatments by the Japanese brand Tokio Incarami are also popular to help your hair look soft and shiny. So are the body slimming treatments such as manual body sculpting massage, Icoone laser for anti-cellulite and skin tightening, and slimming body wraps. Nutritionist follow-ups, IV drips to increase metabolism, and sports coaching are also available as part of a package.
What innovative treatments does the spa offer?
Our innovative treatments include exosomes for the face, Icoone laser for the body, and IV drips for beauty and health from within.
How does the spa ensure it offers the latest trends?
We ensure we have the latest trends by attending anti-aging congresses in Monaco and purchasing the latest technologies and products, following diverse master classes, and travelling around the world to bring back the newest treatments from leading countries in the beauty industry, such as Korea, the US, Ukraine, and Russia.
What ingredients are used in the treatments?
Our treatments are personalised and depend on the skin’s needs, making it difficult to answer directly. Currently, exosomes are highly recommended for many skin conditions as they boost faster skin regeneration and rejuvenation. Exosomes can be combined with other treatments, such as Morpheus or peelings. We love natural and organic treatments and offer options for pregnant ladies, such as face massages with bio products and jet peels with vitamins that have almost no contraindications.
For the most impressive results, we sometimes rely on more medical-grade treatments, such as skin peels and skin vitamin boosters, which are also made with natural ingredients but are more efficient.
How important is technology in your treatments?
Technology plays a crucial role in our current beauty offerings. It can solve the majority of aesthetic problems for the face and body. By regularly taking care of your skin with technological treatments and adapted skincare, you can easily look 10 to 15 years younger than your age.
What are some current beauty trends you recommend?
Current beauty trends we recommend include face massages for lifting and detoxification by lymphatic drainage, microneedling with exosomes for collagen regeneration to help skin look naturally beautiful and glowing, IV drips packed with vitamins and glutathione for glowing skin from the inside, and Icoone laser and body sculpting massages for a beautiful body, especially in the summer.
What beauty advice do you offer for maintaining good health and appearance?
For maintaining good health and appearance, we advise drinking plenty of clean, purified, preferably alkaline water; sleeping at least seven hours and going to bed before midnight as skin regenerates mainly during sleep and before 3am; focusing on healthy food; engaging in regular movement and sports to keep your body, skin, and spirit in good shape through increased oxygen supply and improved lymphatic circulation; taking supplements; and using Glam Monte Carlo MediSpa treatments to help you be in your best shape from head to toe.
With the White Pirate preparing to set sail on a two-week philanthropic adventure along the French Riviera at the end of the summer holidays, the mission’s Georges-Olivier Kalifa and the Michel Pastor Group have begun collecting donations for the Lenval Foundation.
On 28th August, the White Pirate, portrayed by the Editor-in-Chief of La Gazette, Georges-Olivier Kalifa, will be casting off on his annual mission to raise funds and collect presents and gifts for the children cared for by the Lenval Foundation.
Over the next few weeks, wooden chests will appear in harbours and marinas right along the coast, as well as in tourism offices and partnered establishments between Cassis and Menton. The public is being invited to deposit new toys, games, books and comics in these chests, which will be collected by the White Pirate at the close of the summer holidays. Scheduled stops include visits to Monaco, Saint Jean Cap Ferrat, Antibes and Saint Tropez. Click here for a full site of the chests’ locations.
The donated items will then be given to the Lenval Foundation staff on 9th September, who will distribute the items among the young patients in their care.
The White Pirate will begin his 15-day mission from Cassis to Monaco on 28th August. Photo supplied
“The Michel Pastor Group has been supporting the White Pirate since the inception of this wonderful initiative, which has been a tremendous success, with over 10,000 donations collected in four summers,” says Jean-Baptiste Pastor, President and CEO of the Michel Pastor Group. “The White Pirate’s activities positively impact thousands of children… We wish to continue this commitment. [It] is more than just a philanthropic gesture, it’s the opportunity to bring smiles to faces at a critical and often complex time in our children’s lives.”
The Lenval Foundation is a public utility that provides comprehensive healthcare and social services to children throughout the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. The hospital in Nice is an internationally renowned paediatric centre that manages as many as 55,000 emergency visits and 15,000 hospitalisations annually.
Following the journey
The public at large, as well as the patients themselves, will be able to follow the White Pirate on his mission as he will be making live broadcasts on his social media platforms and website for the duration of his mission.
“The idea is to extend the hospital walls so that everyone can participate,” explains Kalifa. “It is a true sea adventure lasting over 15 days, during which we reconnect with our inner child to create a unique story full of surprises and twists. Through these short videos, we virtually take the children into a world of pirates, games and gifts, using all the elements that build a true modern-day epic.”
The local leg of the journey, from Cap d’Ail to Monaco, will take place on 7th September. After a quick rest, the White Pirate will board his boat for a final excursion and make the trip to Nice to deliver the gifts on 9th September.
The Monaco branch of Banque Havilland has entered into acquisition negotiations with an unnamed private bank in the Principality, amid reports the European Central Bank is set to revoke the operating licence of its Luxembourg-based parent company.
Banque Havilland Monaco announced in a press release that it had entered into negotiations on 25th July for the acquisition of its shares.
“The purpose of this negotiation is to secure a long-term and sustainable solution to ensure the continuity and excellence of its banking services,” said the company.
On Friday, the Financial Times revealed that the European Central Bank (ECB) is set to revoke the operating licence of Banque Havilland, a Luxembourg-based bank owned by David Rowland, financial adviser to Prince Andrew. The bank, which has been involved in multiple regulatory probes and compliance failures, has reportedly been informed of this draft decision.
Once finalised and approved by the ECB’s board, Luxembourg’s Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier will officially revoke the licence, ceasing the bank’s operations in Europe.
Banque Havilland has faced numerous controversies, including compliance issues, leading to fines from the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority. The bank’s branches outside the ECB’s jurisdiction, such as in Monaco, Dubai and Switzerland, may continue operating, though they face restrictions and scrutiny from local regulators.
Banque Havilland Monaco has not named the private company with whom it is negotiating, but said that “the transaction, with an independent private bank with one of the highest solvency ratios in the industry with excellent track record in Monaco, would be perfectly in line with the bank’s development strategy.”
A signing is expected by the end of 2024, while the transaction is subject to approval by relevant regulatory authorities.
According to its 2023 financial statements, Banque Havilland has assets of just over €1.35bn and a €463mn loan book.
Team Brady has clinched victory at E1 Monaco 2024 and reclaimed the top spot in the E1 World Championship standings after an exciting weekend of electric powerboat racing in the waters off Port Hercule.
The E1 World Champion, the world’s first all-electric championship for powerboats, made its debut in the Principality on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th July.
Rodi Basso, the CEO and co-founder of E1, said, “To see our revolutionary electric racing series come to life in the capital of yachting is an extraordinary feeling. The weekend provided a spectacular racing festival and an opportunity to instigate change and accelerate our mission to work with partners to develop clean technologies for marine mobility.”
After a series of intense and technical courses in Monaco’s Mediterranean waters – and some very testing qualifying rounds – Team Brady and its pilots Sam Coleman and Emma Kimiläinen emerged as the winners of this stage of the event as Tom Brady, NFL legend and the owner of the team, watched on from the Yacht Club de Monaco
“It’s great to see the team win here in Monaco,” said the former American football quarterback. “The teamwork has been incredible. We’ve been grinding through different issues all weekend, but we proved again that we can deal with any conditions. I am so proud of Emma, Sam, the whole team, and our resilience. I have full confidence, and we’re going to keep fighting. I love our team and what we are doing.”
Left to right: Emma Kimiläinen, Tom Brady and Sam Coleman celebrate their win in Monaco. Photo by Monaco Life
In second place came Team Drogba, which is owned by football icon Didier Drogba, for whom it was the first podium finish of the season. They were closely followed by Rafael Nadal’s Team Rafa in third.
Highlights of the competition
The finals saw the Team Brady, Team Rafa, Team Blue Rising, Team Drogba and Westbrook Racing go head-to-head.
In the first race, Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq of Team Drogba secured first place, finishing over 15 seconds ahead of Team Brady.
Spurred on by a desire to improve on their fifth place in the first race, Team Rafa returned to the port arena with full power for Race 2. The team’s Tom Chiappe secured the win and gave the Nadal-backed side a place on the podium for the first time since Jeddah in February.
Team Brady’s two second-place finishes were enough to give the team the edge and they ascended to the top spot on the podium, where Prince Albert II of Monaco personally handed over the winning trophy.
The event also saw the season’s first yellow cards in the Championship’s history be issued to Team Aoki and Sergio Pérez E1 Team for dangerous driving. Meanwhile, Team Miami, who had been leading the rankings, was eliminated in the Race Off, while Team Brazil was eliminated just before the finals.
Lisa Battaglia, a Monegasque pilot for Team Blue Rising, told Monaco Life, “It was a dream to compete in this race, and I saw my family during the race. It’s a beautiful, sustainable and equal event as pilots are both women and men. I hope for a podium for the next race in three weeks as, for now, we don’t have a podium.”
The next E1 Championship will take place on Lake Como between 23rd and 24th August.
To watch some of the E1 Monaco 2024 action, check out the Monaco Life Instagram reel below:
After numerous delays, a November launch date has been set for the EU’s new Entry/Exit System. Known as EES, it is hoped that the system will enhance border security and data accuracy while reducing illegal overstays and waiting times for travellers.
The automated system for registering all travellers from third countries, both those coming on short-stay visas and those who are visa-exempt each time they cross an EU external border, had been due to come into force on 6th October, but that date has now been pushed back to 10th November 2024.
There has been no official word on the cause of this most recent delay, but it is believed that some EU member states have requested more time to prepare themselves for the new system, which will eliminate the need for border stamps in passports but increase security measures in other areas.
How it works
Once operational, the EES will register a non-EU visitor’s name, travel document, biometric data and the date and place of entry and exit “in full respect of fundamental rights and data protection” for a three-year period.
The system will automatically track these individuals’ movements across external borders, ensuring that non-EU visitors to the bloc remain in compliance with the current 90/180-day rules on stays, which stipulates that these types of visitors are allowed to remain in the EU for 90 days out of every 180-day period.
In addition to EES, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System, or ETIAS, is estimated to launch during the first half of 2025. ETIAS will require visa-exempt travellers, including those from the UK, to apply for a travel authorisation before their trip. The application will cost €7 for adults aged 18 to 70, and will be valid for three years.
Delays?
As all non-EU travellers—regardless of visa status—will need to register for either EES, ETIAS or both, border entry delays are anticipated in the early days of the two systems as many airports in the EU say they simply aren’t ready to implement the new rules.
Despite this, the European Commission has high hopes for the system, with representatives saying, “EES will contribute to preventing irregular migration and help protect the security of European citizens. The new system will also help bona fide third-country nationals to travel more easily while also identifying more efficiently over-stayers as well as cases of document and identity fraud. In addition to this, the system will enable a wider use of automated border control checks and self-service systems, which are quicker and more comfortable for the traveller.”
