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Articles by Tony Cross
UK Stock Market News: Marshalls, Plus500, Thruvision
Three key news stories unfolding as the UK stock market opens. Check out our companies reporting diary for upcoming results from FTSE 350 and selected international stocks. 1. Tight focus on cost boosts performance at Marshalls Building products manufacturer Marshalls LON:MSLH published interim results this morning which have arguably given investors something to cheer in what remains a depressed broader market.
Stocks in play: Meridian Mining UK S
Three key news stories unfolding as the UK stock market opens. Check out our companies reporting diary for upcoming results from FTSE 350 and selected international stocks. Transport operator Mobico [LON:MCG] has issued a note this morning advising of a major contract win in Saudi Arabia.
The Mystery of the Lake on Crete and the Santorini Earthquake of 1956
Lake Voulismeni (Greek: Λίμνη Βουλισμένη) is an ancient lake located in the center of the city of Agios Nikolaos on the Greek island of Crete. The lake has been known as “the Santorini earthquake” lake, and it’s used as “proof” that it is an ancient volcano. Tony Cross examines the evidence.
The Greek Connection to the US National Anthem
By Tony Cross It’s fairly well known that the words to the US National Anthem were written by a 33-year old lawyer named Francis Scott Key, as he watched the British Royal Navy bombarding Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbour on the 13th and 14th September 1814. The words that he wrote convey perfectly the sense of pride he felt as he saw the huge US flag still flying over the fort in “the dawn’s early light”.
The Little Book of Scotland
25th January, 2019 in Biography & Memoir, Local & Family History As the national poet of Scotland, Robert Burns has naturally been eulogised, canonised, mythologised and, at times, sanitised.
The Magic of Sailing Through the Corinth Canal
What is it like sailing through the Corinth Canal? British expatriates Tony and Tessa Cross describe a fascinating experience. The Greek engineering marvel temporarily reopened for three months Thursday, June 1, 2023, after the landslides of 2021. The British couple spent years living on their yacht while crisscrossing the Aegean. By Tony Cross The Corinth Canal is one of the wonders of the modern world.
The Greek Connection to the US National Anthem
By Tony Cross It’s fairly well known that the words to the US National Anthem were written by a 33-year old lawyer named Francis Scott Key, as he watched the British Royal Navy bombarding Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbour on the 13th and 14th September 1814. The words that he wrote convey perfectly the sense of pride he felt as he saw the huge US flag still flying over the fort in “the dawn’s early light”.
Living on a Yacht in Greece: The Magic of Island Hopping
How is it living aboard a yacht in Greece? British expatriates Tony and Tessa Cross have spent years doing it while crisscrossing the Aegean. By Tony Cross If you walk along the quay of almost any coastal town in Greece you’ll likely find a number of sailing yachts moored there. Most of them are probably owned by locals and are used infrequently, but one or two will be live-aboards; yachts that are used as a home.
The Mysterious Lake of Agios Nikolaos, Crete
Lake Voulismeni (Greek: Λίμνη Βουλισμένη) is an ancient lake located in the center of the city of Agios Nikolaos on the Greek island of Crete. By: Tony Cross The town of Agios Nikolaos, nestled on the shores of the Gulf of Mirabello on the eastern end of Crete, has many treasures for the visitor to discover.
A Walk Through Crete, Birthplace of the Minoans
The only way to truly appreciate the beauty and majesty of the landscape of Crete is to walk through it. There are more walking routes on the island than you can count; some are well-known or signposted, and others can be found in guide books and on maps, but many are known only to the locals. by Tony Cross Wherever you walk in Crete, however, sooner or later you’ll come across evidence of the Bronze Age Minoans.
Geology of Greece: How the Country’s Beautiful Landscape Formed
A stunningly unique phenomenon of geology in Greece: The Folded Marls near Agios Pavlos, on the island of Crete. Credit: Tony Cross. By Tony Cross Greece and its geology are a wonder of nature, with the nation a paradise blessed with high mountains, blue seas, and over six thousand islands. But it’s all a big geological accident, the result of millions of years of violent earth movements on a planetary scale.
The Magic of Sailing Through the Corinth Canal
What is it like sailing through the Corinth Canal? British expatriates Tony and Tessa Cross describe a fascinating experience. The Greek engineering marvel temporarily reopened for three months Thursday, June 1, 2023, after the landslides of 2021. The British couple spent years living on their yacht while crisscrossing the Aegean. By Tony Cross The Corinth Canal is one of the wonders of the modern world.
The Magic of Sailing Through the Corinth Canal
What is it like sailing through the Corinth Canal? British expatriates Tony and Tessa Cross describe a fascinating experience. The Greek engineering marvel will temporarily reopen for three months on Monday, July 4th after the landslides of more than 18 months ago. The British couple spent years living on their yacht while crisscrossing the Aegean. By Tony Cross The Corinth Canal is one of the wonders of the modern world.
A nocturnal surprise!
When I was a newly qualified 'C' ringer living in Shropshire in 1980 I dreamed of catching a Nightjar. One night, at a local forestry plantation near Pontesbury I even, unexpectedly, had one flying around the nets we had set for general warbler netting. Despite placing a white birdbag in the bottom shelf of every net and even tying moths into the mesh we didn't catch it and it was clearly just passing through as it was never seen again.
The Greek Connection to the US National Anthem
The Greek connection to the US National anthem. Credit: Noah Wulf, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0/Wikipedia By Tony Cross It’s fairly well known that the words to the US National Anthem were written by a 33-year old lawyer named Francis Scott Key, as he watched the British Royal Navy bombarding Fort McHenry in Baltimore harbour on the 13th and 14th September 1814.
A Walk through Crete, Birthplace of the Minoans
Agriomandra Gorge, Crete. Credit: Tony Cross The only way to truly appreciate the beauty and majesty of the landscape of Crete is to walk through it. There are more walking routes on the island than you can count; some are well-known or signposted, and others can be found in guide books and on maps, but many are known only to the locals. by Tony Cross Wherever you walk in Crete, however, sooner or later you’ll come across evidence of the Bronze Age Minoans.
Titanic Conspiracy Theories Debunked
The Titanic departing Southampton on April 12, 1912. Credit: Public Domain. The conspiracy theory that the White Star Line ‘swapped’ the Olympic and the Titanic is an old one, but it was comprehensively and thoroughly debunked when explorer Bob Ballard found and photographed the wreck.
Macron, intelligence and the Yellow Vest protests
A leading MP from President Emmanuel Macron's party has caused uproar by saying that the government has been "too intelligent". He says he's been quoted out of context but critics say the remark is typical of the ruling party's style. Tony Cross reports, talking to David Coffey.
Is the French government too intelligent?
President Emmanuel Macron's government has been "too intelligent", the parliamentary leader of ruling Republic on the Move party said this week, sparking uproar. Is it symptomatic of a style of management that has led to the stormy Yellow Vest protests? Gilles Le Gendre this week told an interviewer that the government had "probably been too intelligent, too subtle, too technical" in explaining policies he insists will improve French people's living standards in the long term.
Is the French government too intelligent?
President Emmanuel Macron's government has been "too intelligent", the parliamentary leader of ruling Republic on the Move party said this week, sparking uproar. Is it symptomatic of a style of management that has led to the stormy Yellow Vest protests? Gilles Le Gendre this week told an interviewer that the government had "probably been too intelligent, too subtle, too technical" in explaining policies he insists will improve French people's living standards in the long term.
Strasbourg attack: Do French prisons breed jihadists?
Chérif Chekatt had been imprisoned 27 times and was about to be arrested again when he opened fire on the Strasbourg Christmas market last week, killing five people and injuring 11. Although the motives for his attack are not clear, he was heard to shout "Allahu Akbar!" as he opened fire and had shown signs of radicalisation in jail. So are French prisons breeding grounds for terrorists?
Strasbourg attack: Do French prisons breed jihadists?
Chérif Chekatt had been imprisoned 27 times and was about to be arrested again when he opened fire on the Strasbourg Christmas market last week, killing five people and injuring 11. Although the motives for his attack are not clear, he was heard to shout "Allahu Akbar!" as he opened fire and had shown signs of radicalisation in jail. So are French prisons breeding grounds for terrorists?
Brazil court orders arrest of Italian former urban guerrilla
Judge Luiz Fux has ordered Battisti's arrest "with a view to extradition", following a request by public prosecutor Raquel Dodge who took office in September. The former far-left activist, now 63, was sentenced to life in prison in 1993, having been found guilty of the murder of a police officer and a prison guard and complicity in the murder of two shopkeepers.
Migration: the long, hard road from Portugal to France
A cluster of six towns along the banks of the River Marne are home to France’s some 83,000 people of Portuguese origin, according to the country’s embassy in Paris. Report on Portuguese in France 12/12/2018 Listen “We came for a better life,” traders selling Portuguese food on the market in Champigny-sur-Marne will tell you, adding that they have kept their links with their country of origin, returning during their holidays to see friends and family still living there.
Macron promises minimum wage rise after weeks of Yellow Vest protests
The protesters "have mixed legitimate demands with unacceptable violence", Macron said at the start of his address, recorded earlier in the evening. With over 4,000 people having been arrested since the protests started on 17 November, Macron condemned the vandalism and attacks on the police during the protests. "It was first of all anger about a tax," Macron commented, adding that it has become a more general expression of discontent.
France's Yellow Vests - new ways to defend old values
"You have a lot of people who say gas is not the only issue," says sociologist Michel Wieviorka. "The general issue for many people is that they cannot live with 1,000 euros a month - or with 1,500 euros [the minimum wage] a month - and they need a little bit more to live a normal life." The Yellow Vests' demands seem largely individualistic. Not for them traditional trade union or social campaigners' calls for pay rises or government action to tackle poverty.
What now for France's Yellow Vest protesters?
The informal nature of the movement is "both a strength and a weakness", says Jonathan Deval, who runs the Yellow Vests Toulouse Facebook page and stresses that, for now, he is not a spokesman of the movement. "It’s a strength, obviously, there’s no denying that," he told RFI by phone on Monday.
Yellow Vests clash with police, curse Macron at Paris protest
A solid cordon of police sealed off the Champs Elysées and surrounding streets, leaving the Place de la Concorde, opposite the French parliament, eerily empty. “They’ve blocked everything off!” exclaimed one of a group of young men striding down the Tuileries Gardens. “We can’t get through. We can’t tell them what we want to tell them. They’ve closed all the metro stations. They don’t want us to speak up.” So what did he want to say? “We’ve had enough. Taxes, it’s too much. The old people.
Yellow Vests clash with police, curse Macron at Paris protest
Clouds of teargas hung over central Paris on Saturday, as thousands of Yellow Vest protesters flocked to the capital to denounce President Emmanuel Macron's policies. They ignored official orders to stage their demonstration by the Eiffel Tower and some clashed with police who sealed off the Champs-Elysées Avenue. A solid cordon of police sealed off the Champs Elysées and surrounding streets, leaving the Place de la Concorde, opposite the French parliament, eerily empty.
France: Hard left challenges ex-PM Valls's successor in by-election
The first round in the fight for Valls's former seat in Essonne, a working-class constituency near Paris, takes place on Sunday 18 November. The by-election was caused by his resignation in order to stand for mayor of the city of his birth, Barcelona. There are 11 candidates but, according to the media, the real contest is between Farida Amrani of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) and Valls's former right-hand man Francis Chouat, the 70-year-old mayor of Evry, a town in the constituency.
Italy may block big da Vinci loan to Louvre
A blockbuster Louvre exhibition to mark the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci's death may not be as blockbuster as all that, if far-right members of Italy's government have anything to do with it. They are thinking of scrapping a deal to lend Paris's most famous museum all of Italy's Leornados for the event.
Italy may block big da Vinci loan to Louvre
The deal, signed by former Italian culture minister Dario Franceschini, was "unbelievable", current junior culture minister Lucia Bergonzoni, a member of the far-right League, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper. "To give the Louvre all these paintings would put Italy on the margins of a major cultural event," she said. The Louvre is planning the show for 2019. The Renaissance master was born in Italy in 1452 and died in France in 1519.
France braced for protests against petrol price rises
The "Yellow Vests" protests, which have taken motorists' safety jackets as their symbol, were first suggested by individuals claiming to be apolitical on Facebook and other social media. They blame the government's increases in an environmental tax for the rise in petrol and diesel, although the government says that is mainly due to world oil markets.
Storm over Macron's remarks on homage to Nazi-collaborator Pétain
French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday denounced a "pointless polemic" that has flared up after his defence of Nazi-collaborator Philippe Pétain's record as a general in World War I. On Wednesday he declared that a homage to Pétain, who was imprisoned after World War II for heading a pro-Nazi government, would be "legitimate". "I'm telling you quite frankly, our country needs other polemics and other discussions than this one," Macron told journalists on Thursday.
Storm over Macron's remarks on homage to Nazi-collaborator Pétain
"I'm telling you quite frankly, our country needs other polemics and other discussions than this one," Macron told journalists on Thursday. On Wednesday, during a five-day tour of World War I battlefields, he defended the idea of a homage to Pétain's role as a "great soldier" in that conflict, despite his subsequent disgrace. On Thursday he stood by his statement.
Fake news, real anger - Macron faces petrol tax rise protests
About 150 heavy-goods vehicles and trailers disrupted traffic on roads near Reims, Sedan, Troyes and other eastern towns on Monday in protest at a proposal in next year's budget to end cheap diesel fuel for equipment used in construction and industry. The measure, which the protesters say will mean a 60-percent rise, is part of a wider plan to increase taxes on all petrol, in particular high-polluting diesel, which is cheaper than unleaded petrol.
Art exhibitions in Paris, October 2018 - January 2019
Joan Miro, 3 October 2018 - February 2019, Grand Palais. With Catalonia in the news, one of its greatest artists, Joan Miro, is at the Grand Palais. Nearly 250 paintings, sculptures and drawings are on show. He hung out with the Paris-based surrealists but developed a style that was all his own, creating a vocabulary of personal symbols for his brightly coloured paintings and ceramics. At first glance his works are playful and full of joy but there’s a darker undercurrent that adds depth.
Charles Aznavour dies, aged 94
Aznavour, who had just returned from a concert tour of Japan, died in his home in Alpilles in south-eastern France on Monday. He had to cancel several concerts last year after breaking his arm in a fall. Born Shahnour Vaghinag Aznavourian in Paris in 1924, Aznavour became one of the world's most popular singers, Aznavour's parents were ethnic-Armenian immigrants, his father, Micha, from Akhaliskhe in Georgia, his mother Knar Baghdasarian, from Izmir in Turkey.
French right on warpath over teaching Arabic in schools
The controversy was a "typical case of media uproar", Blanquer told LCI television after politicians of the mainstream and far right lined up to criticise his reaction to the report by the Institut Montaigne. "I never said Arabic should be compulsory in primary schools," he insisted. The liberal thinktank said that the number of school students studying Arabic in French schools has halved over the last 10 years, while the number learning it in mosques has increased 10 times to about 80,000.
Kadhafi son accuses Sarkozy of taking Libyan cash in letter to judges
The Sarkozy campaign received a total of 4.5 million euros from Libya in 2007, Saif al-Islam says in a letter dated 11 July 2018, according to Le Monde newspaper. The allegations are not new - Sarkozy was indicted for passive corruption, illegal campaign finance and receiving misappropriated public money in relation to the Libya case in March.
Macron party ignores call to pick female speaker of parliament
Since President Emmanuel Macron's Republic on the Move (REM) has an outright majority in parliament, Ferrand is more or less certain to win the election in the lower house of parliament on Wednesday. With 299 of the party's 310 MPs casting their votes at a conclave in the western city of Tours on Monday, he won 64.26 percent of the votes, compared to Pompili's 29.21 percent, another woman, Cendra Motin's 5.15 percent and little-known male MP Philippe Folliot's 1.37 percent.
Macron names new environment, sports ministers
Hulot and Flessel were among the most popular ministers in the government and their successors will have trouble matching their public profiles. Hulot's departure was a serious blow to the government, as President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe sink in the opinion polls. De Rugy, 44, does have green credentials, however. He was a member of the Green Party and its successor, EELV, for 20 years before leaving the party in 2015, accusing his comrades of "ultra-left excesses".
PAYE, missing minister - Macron faces tough return to work
The start of the new school year coincides with the return to political normal, with all its challenges, squabbles and media hoohas. There is no shortage of those this autumn and, with the latest opinion poll showing his popularity ratings at the lowest since he was elected, Macron faces testing times.
France to slash 4,500 public-sector jobs next year
Following the loss of 1,600 public-sector jobs this year, about 4,500 will be done away with next year and at least 10,000 the year after that, Philippe told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper. During last year's election campaign, President Emmanuel Macron pledged to slash 120,000 public-service jobs during his term of office, 50,000 from central government. The rate will speed up, Philippe said, as digitalisation improves efficiency and other savings are made.
French wine production to rise 25% this year
French wine production is likely to be 46.1 million hectolitres in 2018, the ministry announced on Friday. That is a rise of a quarter compared to 2017 when all wine-growing regions were hit by frosts that badly affected yields. Winemakers' representatives were also optimistic, although slightly more cautious, predicting output at 44,5 million hectolitres at a meeting in Paris on Friday morning.
Macron government to tackle poverty, pensions, health
The last parliamentary session ended on a sour note for President Emmanuel Macron and his government, with the uproar over presidential bodyguard Alexandre Benalla, who was caught on camera assaulting student protesters while wearing a police crash helmet. The Macron camp is clearly hoping the dust has settled on that question, although the opposition is extremely unlikely to miss any chance to remind the public of such a major embarrassment.
Paris fines on illegal AirBnB-style rentals soar
Some 1.38 million euros had been levied on illegal letters by 15 August, even before the peak summer holiday season was over, Paris housing chief Ian Brossat announced. The total for 2017 was 1.3 million euros. According to Brossat, a Communist Party councillor, 111 premises were concerned with an average fine of 12,000 euros in each case.
Canadian set to be new Air France boss despite union opposition
The Canadian, who is currently president of airlines and chief operating officer at Air Canada, has an "excellent profile", French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire declared before the Air France board meeting on Thursday afternoon. The state has a 14.3 percent share of the company and Le Maire said that government representatives would vote for Smith.
Macron bodyguard investigated over protester assault
Benalla is to be investigated for acts of violence committed by someone in public service and impersonating a police officer after Le Monde's revelation that he was the man filmed grabbing a young man by the throat, knocking him to the ground and hitting him, all while wearing a police helmet. Video of alleged attack by Taha Bouhafs of la France Insoumise It has since emerged that the Elysée presidential palace was aware of the incident but did not notify prosecutors or fire Benalla.
French World Cup win riles racists in Italy, Poland
"This victory has given the country optimism and that's a good thing," Macron told the weekly cabinet meeting on Wednesday, according to government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux. But, although an opinion poll showed most respondents optimistic about the future after the win, it did not reflect in the president's popularity ratings, which were at a low 39 percent. Griveaux put on a brave face about that.
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