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Question for French Members: Can I Buy Minoxidil in France at a Supermarket? Carrefour, Casino or SuperU?
In my country (The Netherlands), Minoxidil is not available. I am only able to buy Minoxidil online from abroad. But, as I go on holiday to France in two weeks, I might buy it over there. So question for the French visitors of this reddit: Will I be able to buy Minoxidil in a one of those huge Supermarkets like Carrefour, Casino or SuperU? Or do I go to a Pharmacy? Does anybody know? Thanks!
Investors in Big C, one of Thailand's largest supermarket chains, will on an up to $3.5 billion deal by France's Casino Group to sell its majority holding to TCC Group. If the deal completes, Big C will hand TCC Thailand's second-largest hypermarket operator after the Thai unit of Tesco PLC.
Investors in Big C, one of Thailand's largest supermarket chains, will on an up to $3.5 billion deal by France's Casino Group to sell its majority holding to TCC Group. If the deal completes, Big C will hand TCC Thailand's second-largest hypermarket operator after the Thai unit of Tesco PLC.
Investors in Big C, one of Thailand's largest supermarket chains, will on an up to $3.5 billion deal by France's Casino Group to sell its majority holding to TCC Group. If the deal completes, Big C will hand TCC Thailand's second-largest hypermarket operator after the Thai unit of Tesco PLC.
Usual disclaimer English isn't my first language (3rd actually) and iam on a cell phone. Not as aggravating as the usual posts in here and rather sweet so I thought I'll post it anyway. À few years ago I was a cop in South of France (since changed into the medical field). We often stopped at a bakery or a supermarket to get something to eat and take back to the station to eat on our break. That day, it was summer I did go alone into the supermarket (casino) while my partner waited in the car. While I was browsing for some sweets (in full uniform) an older lady asked me if I could fetch her something from a higher up shelf, of course I oblidged. After I got her her cookies (or was it madeleines I can't remember) she asked me where the cat food was and I showed her after that something else that I didn't know where it was located so I told her we're looking for it together... She was slightly disappointed that I didn't know where everything was located and asked me if iam new here... That's where I cracked up laughed and told her : sorry madame I don't work here, iam à cop ! and pointed to the big patch that read POLICE MUNICIPALE on my vest... She changed color went red and excused herself profoundly I told her no worries it was my pleasure and left her with an employee who came by... I love this story as the lady was very sweet but I never understood how she could mistake a big guy in a dark blue uniform with body armor and armed (not to mention at least 3 patches declining my function) with the employees of the store that all wear red. Tldr : Older lady mistook me as a store employee but i was just a cop
Ever wanted to buy a stock before it's a rocket or 10 bagger? SBW got you covered.
Hello, you may know me from DD posts about IVZ and 3DP. I'm still heavily in these. But today I bring you SBW. Ok for real, this might be the laziest DD you've read because it was copy pasted direct from hotcopper. But it will also be the best DD you've read (no offence to u/bigjimbeef recent DD on this but he's always drunk and while his DD did get me interested in this, I think maybe some people didn't take his post seriously because the post read like he had a beer in one hand and his dick in the other). But I've been thinking lately... wouldn't it be nice if I could, for once, jump on a stock, before it rockets? Like... Every stock I've been in so far has holders who are already 10 bagging. How do they find these stocks and how can I become one of them? Well, here is your chance. Full disclosure, I'm in at 26.5c, closing price today is 24.5c. It IPOd at 35c so we are still at bargain prices. No rocket yet. If you can think of a reason not to buy, please say so, before I take a larger position tmw morning, as I am trying to keep myself from getting overly keen on yet another stock but so far I can't find a good reason to put money anywhere else. Copy pasta below: I thought it was about time that I made the “Ultimate Guide to SBW” and consolidated months of research and analysis into one comprehensive post. Then we can add bits to it from there as more positive news develops. Let us start with capital structure. Capital Structure and Why This Is Important! There are currently 139 million shares on issue, sitting at a price of 32 cents. This gives a Market Capitalization of approximately ~45 million AUD. Keep this in mind when we discuss partners and peers later - it’s arguably a more important metric than share price. The Top 20 shareholders of SBW (which includes key management as the Top 2 holders) have about 90% of the stock on issue. The interests of management are well-aligned with shareholders. What does this mean in plain English? It means management are extremely incentivized to perform, and are not just idly sitting by collecting an easy paycheck like so many other ASX companies. They have as much at stake as you do! Probably more. The Core Business The core business is a profitable operation which has been selling weighing systems to both retail and healthcare sectors – with reliable recurring revenue from customers including, but not limited to, household names like Toshiba and Fujitsu. SBW have a combination of weighing + artificial intelligence + advanced mathematics which cannot be easily duplicated. The company was first founded in 1971 and was one of the first to shift from mechanical to digital weighing and ultra-thin IoT load sensors. If you are interested in reading up on some of their patents, please see this link: https://patents.justia.com/search?q=Shekel scales I found 11 separate patents here, which are probably not an exhaustive list, but ranging from weighing vehicles in motion, to load cell devices (this is the flagship technology), point of sale apparatus and infant weight systems (for their medical customers) SBW's three main technology pillars, including patented ultra-thin high precision load sensors, can distinguish between Coke, Fanta & Pepsi - even if they are all in 1.5 litre bottles! The Hitachi Project (Hitachi’s Market Cap = roughly ~33 billion USD at time of writing, SBW = ~45 million AUD) http://hlds.co.jp/product-eng/1079 [Translated from Japanese] Hitachi-LG Data Storage. Inc. exhibited in “NRF 2020 Retail’s Big Show” which took place at Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York from 1/12-1/14/2020, where Unmanned Store solution using 3D LiDAR(TOF) was jointly exhibited with Hitachi America, Hitachi Vantara, and Shekel Brainweigh (Israel). Some quotes I found from Hitachi themselves “Micro-markets are the fastest growing segment of convenience shopping. We see them exploding in high traffic areas, such as workplaces, campuses, train stations and airports,” said Hideki Hayashi, Sales and Marketing Manager, Hitachi EU Ltd. “Deploying the joint Shekel-Hitachi solution enables retailers and micro-market operators to provide the 24/7 frictionless shopping experience consumers demand without sacrificing accuracy, performance or profitability.” “As the manager responsible for LiDAR products in EMEA markets, I consider the R&D and commercial collaboration with Shekel Brainweigh to be the perfect partnership as we both bring our respective capabilities to develop a seamless consumer shopping experience. We are extremely pleased to collaborate with Shekel Brainweigh, which we believe is the best digital weighing technology developer globally." “The collaboration builds on our expertise in optical motion sensors, together with Shekel’s advanced Product Aware Technology, and further strengthens our commitment to overcome the challenges, and address the significant opportunities, in global retail store automation.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-uxk2Ycoqw The Open Retail Initiative https://www.lfedge.org/2020/02/13/n...ensor-fusion-for-intelligent-loss-prevention/ For the one-year anniversary of ORI, six initiative members Edgify, Flooid, Shekel and LF Edge members HP, IOTech and Intel inspired by the initiative, worked together on a demo for the Intel booth that showcased the value of Real Time Sensor Fusion for a loss prevention use case at self-checkout. The retail environment has become incredibly complex. The latest technologies enable data-driven experiences and unlock business value like never before, yet there is still a lack of interoperability making it difficult for retailers to deploy integrated solutions with speed and ease. The demo illustrates how integration roadblocks can be a thing of the past. The demo pulls together real time data through the EdgeX middleware from different common systems including POS real-time transaction log, CV-based object detection, scale solution, and RFID, and data fusion—all in a single pane of glass. Here are some PowerPoint slides of IBM, Intel & Hewlett-Packard talking about the joint solution https://wiki.edgexfoundry.org/downl...amp;modificationDate=1579904283000&api=v2 The Fast Track Project https://www.edgify.ai/retail/ Reduce time at till and selection at self-checkout by up to 98%. Computer vision-based product recognition, that continuously learns directly on the till, so the accuracy of the detection always increases. Friction-less stores are great in theory but extremely complicated to scale in practice. Our edge training solution makes autonomous stores scalable, by having all the AI train directly on the camera. No infrastructure costs and no added complications. Reduce incorrect selections by up to 90%. Either intentional or unintentional, use computer vision that is trained directly on the SCO itself to reduce loss by more than half! No barcodes, no packaging, no worries. Simple USB cameras can detect the produce at close to 100% accuracy. Use as a decision support for cashiers, or to avoid consumers having to go through long and confusing menus. https://www.edgify.ai/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Retail_Intro.pdf https://twitter.com/Edgify_AI/status/1277859718413930505 https://twitter.com/Edgify_AI/status/1230534216133332997 Shekel’s Visual Recognition Platform embedded with Edgify’s machine-learning training framework is the world’s first cloudless software that automatically recognises products, including fresh produce, at a retail self-checkout. This ~45 million AUD Market Cap company allows retailers to potentially bypass expensive cloud services from Microsoft, Google and Amazon. Sending data to the cloud is a very costly process with the Google Cloud Platform charging 1,000 stores more than US$7.2 million in cloud computing power per annum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrpZ56IdFtg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lpqwqQ1tJ4A You can see the Shekel system 35 seconds in. Patnership with Madix (2nd Largest Retail Shelves Manufacturer in NA) https://www.bloomberg.com/press-rel...ade-product-aware-cabinets-to-retail-industry NEW YORK -- January 13, 2020 Madix Inc., the second largest retail shelves manufacturer in North America, and Shekel Brainweigh Ltd. (ASX: SBW), the leader in advanced weighing technology, today announced the availability of ready-made Product Aware shelves and solutions for the retail industry. “By seamlessly integrating Product Aware shelves into our hardware, our customers are armed with accessible data giving them reliable inventory visibility and assisting them in addressing over-stock and out-of-stock problems, as well as better control over shrinkage” said Steve Kramer, VP Sales, Madix. “For the retail industry, this is a defined competitive edge that promotes the opportunity to increase profitability.” Conclusion So, remember - the core scales business is what drives the revenue we see today, but the innovation division is where the real potential resides. That will take a few more months/years to play out. I think most people are buying for the fully autonomous frictionless retail technology which comes with a huge addressable market. That’s still being undervalued in my humble opinion. Considering there are quite a few ASX-listed tech companies with no revenue and over 100 million market cap (some even @ 1 billion market cap right now… I don’t see why SBW couldn’t move past ~45m market cap in the near future. Now if you read all this - links included- I commend you for your diligence. It should be obvious now that the Capsule (in partnership with Hitachi) is the “crown jewel” or “holy grail” of retail disruption technology plays (look at the success of Amazon GO for example). So you are probably thinking: "This sounds great @verce but it’s all just aspirational and hypothetical. When will it be put into operation?" Well I’m glad you asked. The answer might surprise you. And it may be sooner than you think. The SBW Half Year Report from 31 August 2020 had a little snippet that I think a lot of people missed. Specifically, the following text: “Flagship micro-market project Capsule is in an advanced stage of pilot in Europe, and expected to be open to the public for trial in the second half of 2020.” Now you are probably wondering: "That’s great but what if it’s just some obscure insignificant corner store somewhere?" Again, the answer may surprise you, and requires a little digging. Enter Groupe Casino. A historic player in French retailing since 1898, the Casino Group is one of the world leaders in food retailing with more than 12,200 stores worldwide, located in France, Latin America and the Indian Ocean and a turnover of 37.8 billion euro. In their Annual Report this year, they mentioned an exciting new disruptive project they were working on with a relatively obscure company. https://www.groupe-casino.fwp-content/uploads/2020/06/RapportActivite_Casino_2019_EN.pdf And we have some commentary from SBW featured on Page 42-43 of their Annual Report plugging "the first fully autonomous store in Europe". I'll leave it to readers to determine the significance of being mentioned in the Annual Report of a leading mass-market retail group with billions of Euro in revenue. The same group who claim to be the source of many innovations such as the first distributor's brand in 1901, the first self-service store in 1948 or even the display of a sell-by date on consumer products in 1959. They are always pushing the boundaries of innovation, and it's an exciting partner to have. It’s also worth keeping in mind that issuing shares are not the only mechanism by which to raise money. And that a placement at a premium to a sophisticated cornerstone investor can yield great results. Kind of like what happened with 3DP and IHR. If I was them, I’d be asking Hitachi to chip in. SBW also have the luxury of generating enough revenue (we are talking USD millions) in 2H20 from the core scales division, that a capital raising may not actually be necessary at this point in time. So they can wait for a better outcome. Source: “Post 30 June 2020, the business has seen a resurgence of orders for Shekel’s products, resulting in July 2020 sales exceeding July 2019 sales by approximately 18%.” The final thing I would like to add (if you have in fact read my other two posts which are worth reading) is coming to an appropriate valuation. This is the tricky part, especially with microcap stocks which are valued on their future potential. We do know that there are medium to high barriers to entry, and that SBW have accumulated a competitive edge with their technology iterated over several decades, with certain patents in place. We also know that the opportunity is global in scope with a huge total addressable market (TAM) - and that traditional retail is ripe for disruption. Remember when there were more human checkout lanes at supermarkets than self-checkout? Now it's the other way around. We are even starting to see self-checkout in Bunnings. The trend for autonomous and friction-less shopping - what some term "Grab & Go" - was inevitable. And coronavirus has only accelerated this trend. https://www.ibtimes.com/5-tech-tren...-end-year-result-coronavirus-pandemic-3011819 5 Tech Trends Expected To Shape Retail Through The End Of The Year As Result Of The Coronavirus Pandemic “Retailers and brands will need to collaborate more than ever with technology startups to futureproof their businesses and be better equipped to meet fast-changing consumer demand and behavior,” Coresight said. Coresight reported the pandemic has piqued consumer interest in cashierless models. Technology firm Shekel Brainweigh said 87% of respondents to its global consumer survey indicated they would choose stores with self-checkout over those with only cashier lines. So if you ask me, when you consider all the different technology projects SBW are working on - most of which we now know are "close to commercialisation*" - is 45m AUD market cap really fair value for something that has the potential to roll out globally? I personally think it is still undervalued, but the market will eventually decide one way or the other. Even at 70 cents per share, the implied market cap with only 139 million shares on issue is about ~97 million AUD. Which is still less than 100m. And still quite low when you compare SBW's proven technology and revenue to a lot of unproven technology companies with no real customers whatsoever. And extremely low when you compare SBW's market cap to their collaborative partner Hitachi (ranked 38th in the 2012 Fortune Global 500). Even at 32 cents as it currently stands, we are still below the IPO price when SBW first listed at 35 cents per share. How does that make any sense?
This post aims to show as many Top 14 jerseys as possible for the upcoming season - after all, since it is also reasonably likely to be cancelled, those might become collector items in the future. And for those who care about it, I have been trying to identify both the brands, sponsors (and what kinds of companies they are) along with other anecdotes when I can find some. The reason is that some sponsors really make the shirts uglier - I'm thinking of Bordeaux' Bourse de L'Immobilier on the chest, this one I'm sure will be more popular without sponsors. It's also interesting to see what kinds of companies sponsor rugby teams in France. I'll try to update it when new kits are revealed (including Away/Third when applicable - although I will just link because the max number of images is reached there) - looking at you Stade Français. Also some sponsors are still missing due to me not having had access to all full kits yet, I'll see if I have the courage to look at butts in scrums to complete the list. Image size has nothing to do with personal preference, I just tried to save some of my sanity by cropping the ones that were easier to crop (e.g. La Rochelle & Toulon). you can click on them I guess. Favorite ones: Bayonne A, Montpellier H, Brive A Edit: BTW, when I wrote "back - bottom" in the sponsor description, it means "bottom of the shirt, in the back", not "on the player's bottom" - that one is marked "shorts - back".
Avia Picoty (filling stations), left & right sleeves
Lea Nature (organic products), back - top
COGEP (accountants), shorts - back
Bigard (meat processing), back - bottom & right thigh
Charente Maritime (La Rochelle's county), left thigh
Bonus: It is the same shirt as last year - the Stade Rochelais decided to cut costs due to the uncertainty of the pandemic (they are the team whose stadium has the highest filling rate in the league and rely on it for their finances, hence why Covid hurts them a lot. Merling is the company founded and owned by La Rochelle's president, Vincent Merling.
Lyon
Home Brand: Macron Main Sponsor: Matmut (insurance) Other sponsors:
6e sens immobilier (real estate), chest - left
GL Events (events), chest - right
Serfin (financial services), left sleeve
Eiffage (construction), back - top
BFM Lyon (media), back - bottom left
Justin Bridou (delicatessen), back - bottom right
EM2C (real estate), left thigh
Crédit Agricole (bank), right thigh
Samsic (business services), shorts - back
Bonus: Matmut is also the brand of Lyon's Gerland stadium.
Montpellier métropole (self explanatory), chest - right
Hérault (Montpellier's county), left sleeve
Tressol Chabrier (car sales), back - top
Sud de France (local food producers), back - bottom
Urbaser (environment services), shorts - back
Crédit Agricole (bank), right thigh
Bonus: Altrad, whose founder Mohed Altrad is Montpellier's owner, is also the French NT's shirt sponsor.
Pau
L: Home, R: Away Brand: Macron Main Sponsor: Total (oil and gas) - also on the back of the shirt Other sponsors:
Terega (gas transportation), chest - left
Cancé (metallic construction), chest - right
Autaa (handling and logistics), left sleeve
essor (real estate, shorts - back
Leclerc (supermarkets), left thigh
PLH (real estate), right thigh
Bonus: The twin peaks on the back of the shirt symbolize the Pic du Midi d'Ossau, the most famous summit in the Pyrénées-Atlantique county, with a height of 2884m, and whose nickname in Béarn is "Jean-Pierre".
Racing
Home Away Brand: Le Coq Sportif Main Sponsor: Natixis (bank) - also on the back of the shirt Other sponsors:
Clarins (cosmetics), chest
Assystem (engineering), chest - left
Hauts-de-Seine (club's county), left sleeve
alila (real estate), back - bottom
Foncia (real estate), right thigh
Andros (fruit and milk transformation), left thigh
Triangle Interim (temp agency), shorts - back
Bonus: Le Coq Sportif is also the brand used by the French NT.
Groupe Loudane (specialized transportation), chest - left
AGV Garelli (real estate), chest - right
Team Interim (temp agency), left sleeve
Volkswagen (automaker), back - top
Pizzorno (environment), back - bottom
yack (air conditioners), shorts - back
JOA (casinos), shorts - left thigh
Bonus:Shirt reveal video. The man in their back is Felix Mayol, whom you might know from the stadium's name - he was a singer in the beginning of the 20th century and a RCT fan, and funded the building of the stadium.
Toulouse
Home Away Brand: Nike Main Sponsor: Peugeot (automaker) Other sponsors:
Airbus (plane manufacturer), chest - right
Jimenez (logistics), left sleeve
Fiducial (accounting), back - top
Parera (cartography), back - bottom
Bonus: The stripes are inspired by the 85-86 shirts - they won back-to-back titles in these years.
The hunt for Xavier Ligonnès is enough to drive you crazy. It’s like looking for a lost object, a bank card for example, of which we can determine the exact moment of disappearance: we used it to pay, it was there, and the next moment it is not there anymore. Logic dictates that we look for it where we usually store it (a wallet, a handbag), then where it could be (a back pocket of pants, a hall cabinet), and the less we find it , the more we seem to see it everywhere. Faced with absence, the brain constructs images (the credit card in an office drawer, as a bookmark in a book, forgotten on the counter of the last store) but these are fictions or mirages; they encourage further research but they do not provide a solution. Xavier Ligonnès’s apparent volatilization follows the same logic and produces the same effects on the investigation. The more weeks and months go by, the more places to look get smaller. Emmanuel Teneur ends up leading the investigators to the Société Générale agency on Place Royale in Nantes, but the safe he holds there is simply empty. A request for information on Joven Soliman is sent to the security attaché for the French Embassy in the Philippines. He is a sedevacantist priest, a fringe of traditionalist Catholicism who considers the Pope to be an imposter. The attaché transmits the hours of mass where he officiates. A trip to the Philippines is being considered, but that would mean going to the other side of the world to look for a needle in the thousands of islands of the archipelago. If this track has never been closed, nothing has supported it to date. Since we must push logic to the end, the investigators even contact the American authorities to corroborate or contradict the story of protected witnesses told by Ligonnès in his famous letter. The DEA has never heard of the individual, and the liaison officer based at the Miami consulate assures us that his last trip to the United States was in 2003: Ligonnès arrived in Florida on July 18 and left on August 22. The study of his entourage also did not highlight anyone capable of providing false papers to the fugitive, and if he had gone through a criminal network, the police believed that an informant would undoubtedly have warned them to protect himself. Then there are the news reports: the portrait of Ligonnès goes around France, and even if he has undoubtedly changed his physical appearance, his hairstyle, perhaps had even resorted to cosmetic surgery, someone, somewhere, might recognize him one day. After all, that’s how John List, a New Jersey insurance salesman who killed his wife and mother in 1971, was arrested. He waited for two of his children to return from school to coldly shoot them, then attended his youngest son’s football game before shooting bullets through him at home. He evaded justice for 18 years until a co-worker recognized him from a report on America’s Most Wanted. Rarely has a criminal case given rise to as many appeals as that of Ligonnès, because his stalking not only bewitches the police, it torments an entire country. More than 1000 reports, thousands of pages of depositions, letters, verifications. You have to imagine the miles of printed paper that this represents when they are stacked on a desk. The most recent: in July, after the broadcast of a Netflix documentary on the subject in the United States, the producers of the film claimed to have received an interesting lead in Chicago; but it’s just one more drop in the bucket. Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès has been seen in Annecy, Nancy, Cholet, Corsica (several times); on the side of a road, thumbs up, by a French tourist in Las Vegas; disguised as a chimney sweep in Nîmes; in a hotel in Cantal and in a pizzeria where he paid cash in a hurry; seen again in Germany, in Italy, and heard on the telephone by the reception of the psychiatric hospital of Troyes. Since he disappeared looking like the ordinary neighbor, since he was a representative and his profession has taken him to all corners of France, there is no less reason to see him in Mulhouse than in Roche-sur-Yon, and you can simply see him everywhere. Aire de Lançon-Provence in July 2020 Extracts: “It was the same look, except that he looked very sad, in the west, but he had the same glasses as in the photo you are showing me”; “He looked like a man like everyone else, but there was something odd in his eyes;” “Yesterday, around 1:00 pm, I was watching the news on television on the TFI channel. I saw a report where an individual killed his children and his wife before disappearing into the wild. (...) Seeing the gentleman in the photo, I made the connection with the person whom I had crossed Sunday afternoon because he had the same smile.” At the Vauvert tourist office: “I hardly look at the news, but Thursday evening I saw the photo of Mr. Ligonnès, I had the impression of having already seen him, my heart was racing.” Between Carpentras and Avignon, when he comes back from the bakery, the manager of one of Nicolas Sarkozy’s brothers crosses paths with a man with a beige bob, which he is certain is the fugitive. “I flashed,” he says. “For me, there is no doubt. This is him.” Still more letters are sent to the police to offer them help. An amateur astrologer requests a copy of the suspect’s birth certificate to establish a birth chart, a woman in child-like writing recommended a great medium who had helped her find her daughter who had become a junkie in Marseille. A prisoner asked in writing to be sent to Guinea to go hunt him down in the jungle, attaching to his letter a list of the necessary equipment, including infrared glasses and a “samurai sword.” With each letter, with each phone call to report a suspicious individual, investigators attempt to cross-reference the information. They patiently collect the testimonies of the depositors to know where Xavier Ligonnès was seen, if he was accompanied or not, what was his size and his outfit. Inconsistent testimonies or those referring to individuals who are too young (Ligonnès would be 59 years old today) and too small (he measures a little over 1.80 meters) are discarded. For the others, investigators check the CCTV recordings, when they have not been erased and when the cameras have actually recorded on tape. If the person has been spotted pumping gasoline, in a Géant Casino, or in a Courtepaille, they trace the means of payment used and seize the duplicates of bank cards. They give priority to the restaurants, especially the Buffalo Grill, Ligonnès’ favorite establishment. And when the trail is still hot and the dishes haven’t been done yet, they collect DNA from the plates and cutlery. A few months after the start of the investigation, the investigating judge in charge of the case will even be forced to ask them to slow down, the seals starting to take on the appearance of a china cabinet in a large restaurant. The Total service station in Lançon-Provence, July 2020 The PJ of Nantes believed on several occasions to finally have in hand the winning ticket and to be on the point of intercepting Ligonnès. This was the case in Borgo, where a photo taken from the video surveillance of a supermarket in this small Corsican town was very similar. Upon verification, it was only a local. They believed in it even more in January 2018 when they were told that an individual with a strong resemblance to Xavier Ligonnès was at the Saint-Désert Notre-Dame de Pitié monastery near Roquebrune-sur-Argens. About twenty police officers raided and searched the premises until they came across Brother Jean-Marie Joseph, who certainly looked disturbingly like Ligonnès, but who was not him. In still other cases, the police were never able to “close the track,” and it is perhaps Ligonnès who was seen. For example, in Lançon-Provence, April 26, 2011. That day, at 2:44 am, Mahjoub B., a handler by profession, parks his vehicle at the Total service station after the Lançon-Provence toll. He fills up, then goes to the store to pay. On his way, he passes a 45- to 50-year-old man, about six feet tall, who hangs out there between the gas pumps and the store. When he returns to his vehicle, his colleague asks him if he has seen the man, whom he is convinced is the one everyone is looking for, the one who killed his family in Nantes. Mahjoub then takes a new look at the individual, notices that he is wearing glasses, light jeans, that he has brown hair a little graying and a beard of a day. At his feet, four rigid shopping bags, one red, one white, one brown and one whose color he cannot distinguish. Inside the store, employees also noticed the individual. He’s been out for almost three hours. At one point, he walks in to ask for free coffee, as part of a promotion. Behind her cash register, Jocelyne H. notes a detail: he is missing a tooth. “The second on the left, I believe,” she says when heard by investigators. This is information that has never filtered out and yet, it’s true – a little detail, Xavier Ligonnès was missing a tooth. Little by little, the space has filled in, but you can always see it when he smiles. The images from the station’s surveillance cameras are confusing: if this man is not the one we are looking for, it must be his twin brother. At 3 a.m., the cameras show him hitchhiking by a Volkswagen Combi, which investigators quickly find. The driver’s name is Christophe B. He has not heard of the case, and he must be one of the only ones in the country; but Christophe is no longer listening to the news because, he says, “the news is bad all the time.” From the hitchhiker on the night of the 25th to the 26th, he remembers that he “did not smell very good” and that he had a growing beard. They didn’t discuss much. The man simply told him that he was coming from Paris where he had gone to see “his sick old father,” and that he wanted to take the train to Aix-en-Provence. Christophe dropped him off at a motorway exit, the 30 or the 31, between 4 a.m. and 4.15 a.m. The surveillance cameras at Aix train station allow you to get back on track. He is filmed on the forecourt at 6 am, he wears light pants, a dark jacket. He buys a ticket at 1.20 euro, free destination. Then we lose track. Despite all the checks, despite all the cameras, it will be impossible to track this man perfectly resembling Dupont de Ligonnès, who could nevertheless have confirmed that he was, at least on this date, still alive. How can one suddenly evaporate in plain sight, and how could a man who has collected chess all his life accomplish this feat? The XDDL mystery makes it possible to scaffold all the theories. These flourish in books, in docudramas and, of course, on the Internet. We imagine Ligonnès protected by the secrecy of a monastery, flown to the United States, where he can go unnoticed thanks to his English without an accent, or even on the escape alongside a woman he would have manipulated. The police officers in charge of the case do not work on theories or psychological profiles, but according to a scientific approach: they always start from a fact, which opens a track, which they then explore until the end, close, and move on to another. This method is also a way to protect yourself from endless guesswork, or insanity, but it doesn’t always work. Several times, the track looks like a highway towards the fugitive, and the police are convinced that they will finally close this investigation. But they end up stumbling upon the worst thing ever, as was the case with the allusion to Emmanuel Teneur’s sailboat: coincidences. Coincidence number 1. When the Ligonnès C5 was discovered in the Formula 1 car park in Roquebrune, the night watchman informed them that two reservations had been made in the name of Dupont Xavier, one on April 5 and the another on April 14. The hotel manager then specifies that the first reservation was actually made for April 6. That day, however, XDDL was in Nantes, probably digging the grave of Thomas, murdered the day before. Had he thought of accomplishing his crimes earlier or had he reserved a room for an accomplice, who might have been hiding something for him? The videos of April 5 and 6 are no longer available, but payment for the room was made with a Crédit Agricole credit card. The number gives a name, Faiçal E., and an address. Could it be an accomplice? The checks are launched immediately lead to a man who simply used “Dupont Xavier” as an assumed name - like Ligonnès - to book a night in the same hotel, the same year, the same month, within ten days. Coincidence number 2. The liaison officer in Miami launches research around the various aliases used by XDDL, for operations of “mystery shopper” or to stay in hotels. In the FBI file, he finds a certain Xavier Laurent, one of Ligonnès’s favorite nicknames, installed in Jacksonville, north of Florida. Jacksonville is not just any city. This is where Hugues, the cousin of XDDL lived, and it is also this locality that Ligonnès and his friend Michel Rétif declared to customs in 1990 during their trip to the United States. At the very end of the personalized letter sent to Michel on April 8, Xavier Ligonnès seemed to allude to it: “I will think about you there.(Not the right to tell you where, but you went there with me...in November 90…a clue to dig.LOL).” But this Xavier Laurent is another twist of fate: the police come across a certain Evan Shaffer, a petty criminal who has chosen this alias to commit crimes. Coincidence number 3. Ten days before the crimes, XDDL reconnects with a childhood sweetheart, Catherine K., whom he met in Versailles in the 1980s. Between March 22 and 24, they exchange text messages and try to find a date to meet the week of April 12, in Chamonix. These messages intrigue the investigators, some answers seem surprising, almost illogical, and they suspect Ligonnès of having wanted to ensure a logistical relay in his escape. A little later, a certain Patrick O. reports having seen XDDL in the queue of a Sixt car rental agency at Nice airport on April 17, 2011. By peeling the names of dozens of people having rented a car that day, the police officers miss the infarction: in capital letters, white on black, appears the surname of Catherine, who would have rented a vehicle at 1:30 am. A few hours later, their heart rate drops again: it was only a perfect disambiguation. Each coincidence causes the same chain of reactions. First a eureka!, the certainty of having finally found the tiny detail from which to trace everything. The police then cast their nets like fishermen on the high seas, telephone or banking requisitions, requests for listings, identity checks. Then they wait. It can last from a few hours to several weeks, and inevitably it is a burning, nagging wait, tense by the fear that the track will fly away. Finally, there is the immense disappointment and the obligation to face reality again: Xavier Ligonnès is still nowhere to be found, a track has flown again, and we have to hoist the rock up the mountain again. Those who have worked or are still working on the affair strive to maintain a cold, rational, police facade. But little by little, by dint of chasing a shadow - not even a shadow, a ghost - obsession lurks. One of them, a police officer with a professional Protestant pastor, now out of the investigation, still returned until recently to consult the investigation file every week, saying he simply wanted to put the 12,000 pages of documents in order. For a year, a criminal analyst has also been mobilized. He enters all the elements of the file in a software which digests them and spits out, perhaps, new threads to draw. In the meantime, the two police officers who are still following the investigation - one at the PJ in Nantes, one at the OCRVP, in Paris - “live” the case, as their colleagues say. Among these thousands of pages there is no doubt a clue that has gone unnoticed or, better, a lead that has not yet been explored. Track number 1. Who typed “fraternité saint-thomas becket” on Google on April 3 at 11:34 pm, before clicking on a link in the Cité-Catholique forum? Is it the same person who, the same night at 2:01 am, from an iPhone, did the search for “communion state mortal sin,” bringing it to the same forum? On April 8, the user of this phone will in any case send the search engine the request “hello Chacou”, which will lead him (her) again to the Cité-Catholique forum. Chacou was one of the pseudonyms of Xavier Ligonnès. Investigators saw crazier coincidences, but still: can it really be someone other than Xavier Ligonnès, who himself connected to Cité-Catholique almost every day of his escape? The last article published on the site about Saint-Thomas Becket, an ultra-traditionalist fraternity which practices mass in Latin, dates from January 2009. It indicates the name of its founder, Father Jean-Pierre Gac, and specifies this: “Born in the diocese of Blois where there are two communities (…), the fraternity has also extended in the diocese of Toulon - a parish is also entrusted to them in Ollioules.” Ollioules is located six kilometers from La Seyne-on-Mer, where XDDL spent its penultimate known night, and 94 kilometers from Roquebrune. Jean-Pierre Gac was questioned by the police but claimed to have never been in contact with the fugitive. Investigators have always believed in the possibility that Ligonnès took refuge in a monastery in the Var. They considered to search them one by one, before understanding that there are dozens and dozens of brotherhoods and fraternities, that they are not always castles of the Purple Rivers but sometimes simple farms, lost in the hinterland. To mount a search, it would be necessary to ensure that they do not communicate with each other, and therefore to visit them all at the same time. The examining magistrate quickly tempered the fervor of the police and declared the operation impossible. Track number 2. Xavier Ligonnès had two secret Facebook accounts. The first is named after his favorite country singer, Waylon Jennings. One of his nieces had also found him a month before the crimes, sending him a message, “but who is behind this nickname?,” to which XDDL had immediately replied “How did you manage to arrive on the Waylon Jennings Facebook profile? Too clever! Microsoft Advantage??? Kiss.” The second account concerns a certain “George Town” residing in Nantes and is linked to one of Ligonnès’ many email addresses, [email protected]. The police send a requisition to the management of Facebook in Palo Alto to obtain the creation and connection logs of the two profiles. The answer comes in days: the first was created in February 2010, the second in December 2007, when France had barely discovered the social network. Above all, the response indicates that Ligonnès connected to the two accounts on the night of April 4 to 5, between the first assassinations and that of Thomas. The profiles have since been deleted but suggest he could have used them to communicate with a third party. Catherine K., the youthful lover that XDDL contacted a few days before the tragedy, also reported to the police that she had been approached by a certain Philippe Steiner, whom she did not know, around May 20. He sent her a strange message, suggesting that they might have had a relationship in the past. When she went to respond, the profile had already been deleted. Today there are almost 100 Facebook accounts on behalf of Waylon Jennings, some are created and deleted every day. Track number 3. When the Ligonnès family is having their last meal on April 3, 2011, around 9 pm, a young woman walks through the glass doors of the police station on Place Waldeck-Rousseau in Nantes. Originally from a small village near Vannes, Julie is a BTS student and comes to file a complaint: the Twingo that her father lets her drive has been broken into, probably during the night. There was not much inside, but Julie reported the theft of her car radio as well as the vehicle’s logbook, which she normally stored in a small Renault gray faux leather pouch. This same pouch was found on April 22 in the dresser of the Ligonnès living room where Xavier used to store his papers, during the investigation the day after the discovery of the bodies. The police did not follow this track: they put the break-in of Julie’s car on the account of one of the Ligonnès sons, Arthur, who had already been arrested for theft of a bicycle and driving under the influence of cannabis. But why would Arthur have taken the vehicle papers with the car stereo, and why would he put them in the middle of his father’s papers? And if the theft was committed by Xavier Ligonnès a few hours before killing his family, how can this be explained? Was he able to steal other identity papers to facilitate his escape? In this case, it is always about cars. Those imported by XDDL from the United States, the Citroën C5 from the escape, the vehicles he claimed had been stolen over the years: the first at the Brest police station in 1998, while living in Pornic, a second at the same time at the Saint-Nazaire police station, and then again, in Nantes, on May 17, 2006, a Golf convertible finally found then sold a few months later to a mechanic, a friend of Cédric M. Cédric M. is never far away when it comes to cars. He is also a mechanic, that’s how Ligonnès met him in Vannes a few years earlier. He is one of the recipients of the departure letter, therefore a close friend. He was even the first employee of the RDC. Ligonnès regularly went to visit him in Locmalo in the heart of Morbihan, a two-and-a-half-hour drive from Nantes. With Cédric and his partner, Renaud, they went to the local creperie. They had lunch there together on March 31, 2011, four days before the crimes. In the village, it is said that Ligonnès took care of the dark accounts of the “guys,” who have quite a reputation. Could he have built up a slush fund there that no one would have found until now? Cédric and Renaud’s garage is not indicated by any sign. It is at the end of a road. In the yard, wrecks of American cars and a goat on a leash. Inside, Renaud is working on a shiny yellow Cadillac. His attitude is confusing. He is angry with the police who have never come to question him when he is, according to him, “the last to have seen [Xavier] alive. But I will not tell you when, because that the date is important,” he adds before returning to his Cadillac, wrench in hand. To date, Renaud has still not been heard by investigators. At the same time, reports continue to flow. Ligonnès seen in Mulhouse, on the four lanes between Saint-Brieuc and Rennes in a Peugeot 308 and overtaking on the right, Ligonnès seen again in Tunis and Toulouse. Ligonnès seen, but never caught. Next Section-Part 2D
After a successful try in a not so good neighborhood², they decided to add 10 more shop in the next 2 years. This could open a new market in "deserted" residential area. While these are not the norm in France they do exist in mid size city and small town. Casino is one of the biggest retailer group in France. ²: it's not the worst but also not a fancy one. sample of the article translated with deepl : [The box] "will be satellite-based from another shop in order to facilitate supply". These futuristic supermarkets will also allow "Monop'" to establish themselves in new places, previously inaccessible. "We need 15m2 to install a "Blackbox", compared to 150 to 200 m2 for a classic Monop'. This will enable us to set up in areas that are not suitable for traditional shops, such as hotels or car parks. Discussions are underway with players such as airports, hospitals and company headquarters," says Monop''s managing director. With this technology, Casino saves itself the payroll costs associated with cashier staff and considerably reduces its rent costs. However, according to the group, the model is no more profitable than that of traditional shops. "The average BlackBox basket is 6 to 9 euros. The turnover is therefore much lower than in a classic Monop'. But it must be understood that this project was not imagined for economic or profitability reasons. Above all, we will try to meet a real customer need," says Olivier Rego. The project "launched more than 6 months before the pandemic" comes at the right time in the midst of a health crisis. Casino plans to operate the "Boxes" with other shops of the group and to export the concept to other retailers. Link to the article in French
All of Bolsonaro's Men - An Explanation on how Brazil's Current Politics and why a Cabinet Meeting is now on Youtube (Part 3)
This is the final part explaining Bolsonaro's April 22nd cabinet meeting. At the end there are some final remarks, and in the comments my sources. Braga Netto introduces Abraham Weintraub, Minister of Education Note: Weintraub currently is being sued for a racist tweet that implied China created Covid Weintraub: [...] I don't want to be a slave in this country. And end with this crap that is Brasília. This is a cancer of corruption, of privilege. [...] The people here lose perception, empathy, public relations. [...] We are losing the fight for liberty. This is what the people is calling for. They are not calling for more State, for more projects, to have more ... the people are calling for liberty, full stop. Note: This right now is one of the most controversial moments of the meeting, with the Supreme Court taking legal action on what he says right now Weintraub: In my opinion, I'd arrest all those lazy bums. Starting with the Supreme Court. [...] I notice there's many people with a personal agenda. [...] I have a bunch of lawsuits in the ethics committee of the presidency. I'm the only one here that took a lawsuit. [...] I'm really here with an open chest, as you know it, I get shot ... hate ... hate the Communist Party [Redacted] They are trying to turn us into a colony. [...] We need to end this thing of people and privileges. [...] Bolsonaro: Let me complement this. What Weintraub is saying - I'm 65 - we get close to people we shouldn't. I have to police myself in regards to that. It's people here in Brasília, of the three powers, that don't know what's the people. I talk to a few, don't know what's rice and beans, don't know what's a supermarket. Forgot. Think that money falls from the sky. "I have my guaranteed privileges, my 100k per month" on average, 100k per month they earn, right? Legally. And think this will never end. Like some think the liberty "What's the deal with that guy, is he crazy?" I see the oldest one here, General Heleno here. He knows what is six, what was sixty four. Many of the ones here don't know. The people that tried to get into power in sixty four, if they had arrived, we were all fucked here. Cutting ... super happy if we were cutting sugarcane earning twenty USD per month. Can't forget that Note: reference to how it is claimed that the military did the coup in 64 to prevent a socialist revolution Bolsonaro: We can't forget who this people is. I'll invite the ministers to go on Sunday visit Ceilândia and Taguatinga. (Two local neighbourhoods). It's an invitation, not a ... not a mission no. Invitation. To see how the guy in the corner is doing. So that some piece of shit comes up and says, right? Same pieces of shit as always "Ah but the guy broke isolation. You're giving a terrible example" Ok ... Bad example is my dick, fuck! Worst is to starve! You're in shit, fuck! Feel how the people smell, like I said, there. It's an experience for every politician to feel! Go there and see how it is. Or there's people that is, like it was, right, huh? A general in the rear letting the troops get fucked in front. No! The General is, is in the front, the colonel is in the front, the captain is in the front. Our heroes of WW2 had ahead of them a battlefield. If it was needed, I'm sure, our armed forces will do their job, but, right? We have to give an example and show what Brazil isn't - I'm less rude than Weintraub, improved a lot, right? In the language he used - but that's not what people say around. Meeting around midnight, here and there. Informations systems, mine works. Bolsonaro: My particular one works. The ofi ... which have officially, misinform. And back to the theme, I prefer not to have information than to be misinformed by the system of informations that I have. So, people, many will be able to leave Brazil, but I don't want to leave and see my sister form Eldorado, another from Cajati, my poor brother Army captain from ... from ... from ... from Miracatu getting fucked, fuck! It's being pursued all day long! And then the shit Folha de São Paulo, says my brother was kicked from a slaughterhouse, buying meat without a mask. Proved in writing, he was in São Paulo that day. The owner of ... of restaurant of ... of ... of ... of the slaughterhouse said he wasn't there. And that's it. I know it's his problem, right? But the bullshit is the whole time to hit me, messing with my family. I already tried to change the staff of our security in Rio, officially, and wasn't able to! And this ended. I'm not going to wait to fuck my entire family, of bullshit, or friends of mine, because I couldn't switch someone from our frontline security in our structure. It'll switch! If I can't switch, I'll switch his boss! Can't switch his boss? Switch the minister! Full stop! We're not joking here (note): the minister and one of the bosses mentioned here are Ramagem and Moro Bolsonaro: And then some kid shows up, with - all due respect - the one from BNDES, ok? I met him when he wore shorts, and ... Fuck, he came from the United States over here, could very well be there. Came here to try to change Brazil invited by Paulo Guedes, who is a friend of his parents. Coincidence, isn't it Paulo Guedes? Bolsonaro: I don't think so. .. I don't remember your parents, I remember you, fuck! All right? But it's someone I'm investing here. And all of those have to think about this. What these sons of bitches want, huh Weintraub, is our freedom. Look, how it is, how easy it is to impose a dictatorship in Brazil. How easy it is. Everybody is home. This is why I want, the Justice and Defense Ministries, let the people be armed! It's the guarantee that some son of a bitch won't show up to impose a dictatorship here! How easy it is to impose a dictatorship! Ridiculously easy! Some bullshit mayor makes some bullshit decree, handcuffs, keeps everybody home. If they were armed, they would go to the street. If I was dictator, right? I'd want to disarm the population, like they did in the past when they wanted, before imposed their respective dictatorship. Then, what's our demonstration, I ask Fernando (Minister of Defense) and Moro that please, sign in the Executive Order today and I want to give a bitch of a note to these pieces of shit! Because why am I arming the people? Because I don't want a dictatorship! There's no way to hold back! Right? No way to hold back. Yeah, who won't accept my flags Damares: "family, God, Brazil, guns, freedom of speech, free market". Who won't accept this is in the wrong government. Wait until twenty two, right? Your Álvaro Dias. Wait for Alckmin. Wait for Haddad. Or maybe Lula, right? Go be happy with them, fuck? In my government it's wrong! It's make the armament question obvious here. I want everybody armed! The armed people will never be enslaved. And that each one does, does your job. Expose yourself. Here I already said: you'll lose the ministry if you get spoken positively by Folha or by Globo! By Antagonista! Right? So there are some blogs there that only have good news from the ministers. No idea how! The president ... takes a beating, but the minister is congratulated. And then we see around. "Ah, the government is, the ... the ministry is doing well, although the president." Go fuck yourself, fuck! I picked the team, fuck! We switched five. Hope I won't have to switch anybody else! I hope! But we have to, in Weintraub's line, in a more gentle way, right? It's ... caring about this. What the guys want is our hemorrhoid! It's out liberty! This is a truth. What these guys did with the virus, this piece of shit governor of São Paulo (João Dória), this shit from Rio de Janeiro (Wilson Witzel), amongst others is exactly that. Made use of the virus, there's a piece of shit mayor in Manaus now, opening mass graves. A piece of shit. Who doesn't know his history, try to learn, which I met inside the House, with him next to me! Right? And we know the ... his ideology and what he preaches. And what he always was. It's what ... he's making use now, of a climate like this, to bring terror to Brazil. Right? So people, please, care about was important with everybody's life, what is your liberty. An arrested man is worth shit. (note: the mayor of Manaus, Artur Virgílio Neto is the son of Artur Virgílio, a Congressman who was exiled and stripped of his position after the military shutdown the Congress under accusations of being communist) Braga Netto introduces Paulo Guedes Guedes begins by presenting a more moderate stance. Saying that although they are breaking of from the establishment, they need to work together to pass the reforms. He then mentions a conversation that he had with the G20 Ministers of Economy and the BRICS. Also mentions the pension reform and how it passed in contrast to France. "Now, the same thing, I've been saying: we are deepening the reforms, we are continuing, we are following". Followed up by saying how he doesn't believe in dogmas, how Brazil was heading in a strong direction, but suddenly crashed. Brazil was one of the first countries to prepare to alleviate the crisis financially, and in his opinion, it's only worse than the United States because Powell and the Fed put out money to help keep markets afloat. Also of note is that part of the economic recovery plan involves unconventional methods, like allowing taxes to be paid later while moving forward government benefit payouts, as they were limited by the constitution. It's been planned to cost around three hundred and something billion, last deficit under Temer was around one hundred sixty. These plans reach seventy million Brazilians. "We made a banking committee, we are there with Montezano now doing exactly the restructuring. There won't be easy work for airlines, none of this. We are putting in money, and it's going to work using the best financial technology available. We are putting in money, and it's going to work and we are going to turn a profit. We are going to turn a profit using public resources to save large companies. Now, we are going to lose money saving small companies. Guedes insists the necessity to continue with the reforms mid pandemic, using the bailouts to reform the economy. "A Marshall Plan per year". Insists on lowering interest rates, and blocking government raises for two years. In his own words, you can't impeach if you're going by the book. "And the president is in the future, because the president said the following: ok, there's the first wave, which is health, but there's the second one that's the economy, and one follows the other. We are still trying to leave the first ... and the second is trying to arrive. I still think we are preserving the vitals of the Brazilian economy". He mentions how the economy will likely be held by the expected large soy production and new logistic projects. A mention of China is also present, as for every USD exported to the US, Brazil exports three to China. Mourão and Guedes talk about this, but it is redacted. In Guedes' words, "We are going to sell our soy to them This we can sell as much as we want. They have to eat, they have to eat. India also needs to eat, they'll need water. They'll say it's the best water trade. Strangely, it's also suggested to have a mobilization of the Young Apprentices Program working with the military, as they could be paid with government spending. He criticizes Damares for being against casinos, mentioning Macau. In his own words "the president speaks about liberty. Let everybody get fucked the way they wan't. Especially if he's overage, vaccinated, and a billionaire. Let him get fucked, fuck!" Also mentioned is a meeting with the US Ambassador, who says there is a few hundred billion dollars earmarked for investments in Brazil, but dependent on a good business environment. "Simplified taxation, juridical safety". He also recommends signing the General Purchase Agreement, and joining into the OECD to allow for more government transparency, allowing for improved trade. Bolsonaro then says he has Trump's support. Guedes disagrees "we can't lose the opportunity of having the president being this friendly with Trump". Tereza Cristina (Agriculture) speaks briefly about how countries are shifting to have government stocks of food post COVID. Currently Brazil is not self sufficient in wheat production, most of it is imported from neighbouring Argentina. Of course, funding is an issue, but there is two million acres set aside in the Matopiba region ready to invest in. 9% interest rates are an issue according to her. Bolsonaro asks if the Banco do Brasil (another one of Brazilian Government Banks) can help Guedes intervenes "Banco do Brasil is neither an armadillo or a snake. It's neither private or public. If you pressure Rubem (head of the bank), poor him. He's super liberal, but if you pressure him and he says "lower the rates", he goes "I can't or else the team, the private, my minoritaires, pressure me". Then if you say "put interest rates high", he goes "I can't or else the government pressures me". Banco do Brasil is a ready case to privatize. It's a ready case and we aren't doing this step. Have you sir noticed that the BNDE and the ... the ... the Caixa which are our, public, we do what we want. Banco de Brasil we can't do anything and we have a liberal there. So we need to sell this shit fast. Bolsonaro makes a quip about Rubem not being invited to the next meeting. Rubem explains how even in the changing situation Banco do Brasil has expanded loans, and the bank doesn't have liquidity issues. At the same time, the bank handles the payments for public companies and the military, which are more stable than private companies. Guedes makes a joke about him to "confess his dream". In Rubem's own words "In regard to privatizing, it's clear that with BNDES taking care of development and Caixa with the social needs, Banco do Brasil would be ready for a privatization program, right?" It is then highlighted that Banco do Brasil has some clear advantages, which would have to be sorted out by the public status. Judicial deposits and government payments would usually be handled by either Banco do Brasil or Caixa, now it's a public competition. The bank is no longer competitive in these sectors. "Then you only keep the bad sides of being a government company. We don't have the same ease in hiring, we don't have the same ease in firing bad employees and ... and ... and ... so forth". He follows with a few closing statements, about how he has to present all documents to the government comptrollers, and Covid perspectives. Braga Netto closes off the meeting. A few takeaways While the meeting was to debate the Pró-Brasil recovery plan, it ended up being more focused on Bolsonaro's gripes with his ministers. Bolsonaro has strengthened himself in this, as it shows he's still going strong in his position. This is both in the campaign promises and the way he has been underplaying Covid. What he says in the video is suspect, but is nothing that can be used as clearcut evidence in an impeachment trial. The Supreme Court has also subpoenaed his phone, but still has not reported on anything. Moro is likely the biggest loser in this. While there is evidence Bolsonaro changed command of the Federal Police for political reasons, there is still a degree of reasonable doubt. This meeting was not the silver bullet he expected. Within the Brazilian right wing, he's now seen as a traitor to a degree. Populism is a hell of a drug. Salles is one of the losers. Supporting the using the Covid news cycle to roll back environmental regulations is not a good look, especially when you're the first one to talk. There is now a movement to impeach him. Damares is another loser with this. Threatening to arrest governors due to human right violations was a bad move. Luckily, her ministry has little to no legal strength, and thus, is mostly an empty threat. Guedes on the other hand, has returned confidence to investors. While Brazil may have no clear plan to deal with Covid medically, it has a plan to deal with it economically. At the same time, there's the favorite word of a Brazilian investors - privatizing. The BOVESPA index has shot up from around 82000 points on Friday to 85400 by Tuesday's close. Weintraub now has a bad look. From having to deal with a racism case, he know is having to explain his threats against the Supreme Court. Outside of Bolsonaro's circle there is now pressure for him to resign or be sacked. Another loser, out from left field has been Bolsonaro's head of security, General Heleno. After reading the news of Bolsonaro's phone subpoena, he has stated there will be "severe implications for Brazil's democratic institutions" if Bolsonaro's phone is analyzed. Many have considered this to be an overt coup threat. He is now facing possible impeachment. Teich, which resigned after the meeting has gone through relatively unscathed. With a simple, stump speech on how Brazil can only leave the distancing after it has the virus under control and how testing must be expanded. Of note is mentioning how a plan to ease restrictions is being created. Given how there has been an expanded focus on creating medical capacity instead of waiting for the virus, it is likely that restrictions would be modified to a looser system, closer to that of Sweden.
Just completed an awesome 2 month road trip in EU and wanted to share my experience.
My wife and I are both retired, low-budget seniors. We have been in Europe several times before, but this trip we decided to extend to two months, much longer than previous trips. Since we are somewhat budget travelers, we wanted to keep costs as low as possible, however, we are too old to want to travel as backpackers. We decided on a road trip since the cost of renting a car is dirt cheap, way cheaper than trains and it gave us the opportunity to stop when we want, explore the smaller centres and just generally be more flexible. We are not huge fans of big cities and have seen a lot of the major attractions before, so we wanted to travel at a slower pace and experience more of the backroads. Our Itinerary: Flew Vancouver to Gatwick via WestJet return, then Easyjet to Edinburgh. We rented a car in Edinburgh and after a couple of days touring Edinburgh, road tripped the Highlands for a week then returned to Edinburgh. We flew Edinburgh to Basel, Switzerland by EasyJet, took the train to Freiburg and rented our long-term car there. We drove through the Alsace area of France 4 days, then drove into Switzerland 3 days, back into Germany about 10 days touring Rhine Valley, east into Bavaria, then 5 days Czech Republic and Prague, then 3 days in Slovakia, 5 days in Hungary and Budapest, 4 days in Austria, 3 in Slovenia, 7 days in Italy, back into Austria, Switzerland, Lichtenstein and returned the car in Freiburg. We flew out Basel to Gatwick and home. Total trip cost was $220Can/day for 55 days. Ways we economized:
We saved on all luggage fees by having only cabin baggage. We packed very light. Once we had the long term car, we provisioned up with a cooler bag, utensils, some cooking supplies at a dollar store in France, bought used clothes at a couple of thrift stores.
We bought a cheap Sim card in Freiburg at an internet cafe when we arrived. We used a Lebara Sim card which gave us 30 days / 5 gigs, 3G coverage for 20 euro. We renewed the 30 days once. Our primary usage was Google Maps and the Airbnb app.
For driving, we set GMaps to avoid all toll roads and it did an excellent job doing that. I can't tell you how great that option is. Avoiding toll roads slowed our pace substantially, it gave us the opportunity to see the small towns and villages, and we paid zero toll charges - except the time the dumbass driver decided not to listen to GMaps and drove into a toll zone. The car was a very economical Skoda and gas costs were not a significant part of our overall costs. In mainland EU, we rented through Europcar and the rate was 8 euros/day throughout the trip. I insured the car through our Visa Platinum.
Airbnb was excellent. We set the filter as low as possible to get bookings in areas we were traveling through. Rates are much lower in fall and we had no problems booking the same day, but we tried to book at least a day or two ahead once we decided on the general route.
If traveling to large cities, we tried to book on the fringes, then rode transit into town, that way we kept our accommodation cost lower, we were more likely to find places to ourselves with a private bath, we didn't have to drive in the large cities and less noise.
Most places we stayed had at least a microwave oven and fridge so about 80% of the time we ate meals from supermarkets like Lidl, Tesco (our favourite) and Coop. We bought wine in the supermarkets in 3L boxes (we would also splurge on the good stuff), bought beer there as well - super cheap. Some accommodations had a full kitchen so we would buy ingredients to actually cook a nice meal.
Total cost was $220Can/day for 55 days. Areas we traveled that were a pleasant surprise:
Alsace region. Beautiful architecture, rolling hills, the FOOOOD.
Switzerland was actually very reasonable cost-wise as a road trip. The Airbnb was in the country, we traveled through the area around Bern and brought our own food, we had to pay a $40euro highway pass, but that was about our only significant cost.
Rhine valley, Germany
Spa region of western Czechia. Wow! Cheb, Karlovy Vary, Pilsen. This region was my favourite.
Rural Slovakia, particularly the area around Martin
The drive from Linz, Austria into Slovenia.
Lake Bled region has been mentioned here many times, but is really worth visiting. We splurged here and got a 100 Euro room at a new casino in Kranjska Gora. Beautiful spa there.
Mountainous region of Tuscany.
Naples and the Amalfi Coast region.
For major cities, I'd say Budapest was number one, although Prague, Edinburgh, Vienna, Rome, Naples were all phenomenal. Bern and Luzern were also very beautiful. As I said though, major cities were not really a big part of the overall trip.
I could go on, but really, there were very few disappointments, perhaps the farming regions of Germany and northeast Italy and maybe the beach zones along the coasts of Italy.
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