Category Archives: Paris

Fans clash at football match between France and Israel

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Skirmish quickly quashed by security guards at stadium as riot police is deployed at ‘high-risk’ game

A skirmish involving Israel fans broke out in the stands of the Stade de France during a tense match between Israel and France’s men’s football teams, but a heavy police presence ensured a repeat of the serious violence in Amsterdam was avoided.

The game had been designated as “high risk” after the hooliganism and antisemitism witnessed in the Netherlands before and after a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv last week.

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Paris prosecutor seeks jail and public office ban for Marine Le Pen

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Request in embezzlement trial threatens to undermine National Rally’s efforts to polish image before 2027 polls

A Paris prosecutor has requested a five-year prison sentence and a five-year ban from public office for the far-right leader Marine Le Pen, at a trial in which she and 24 others are accused of embezzling EU funds.

The trial, which comes almost a decade after initial investigations started, threatens to undermine her National Rally (RN) party’s efforts to polish its image before the 2027 presidential election, which many believe she could win.

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Macron to visit Notre Dame Cathedral before reopening after 2019 fire

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French president to give ‘republican and secular’ speech outside monument days before it reopens to public

As firefighters doused the embers of the blaze that threatened to destroy Notre Dame Cathedral on 16 April 2019, Emmanuel Macron promised the church would be restored “more beautiful than ever” within five years.

In two weeks, the French president will visit the monument that has been returned to its former glory with the help of millions in donations and hundreds of specialist artisans using age-old skills.

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Paris drivers warned of fines as city begins limiting traffic in parts of centre

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Three-month ‘educational phase’ begins for scheme it is hoped will reduce through-traffic and improve air quality

Paris authorities have begun limiting traffic in a large zone of the city centre, with police alerting drivers that they are now banned from driving through the French capital’s central four arrondissements and risk a fine if they do so after next spring.

The so-called “limited traffic zone” (ZTL), home to about 100,000 people and 11,000 businesses, is part of a broader push by the socialist mayor, Anne Hidalgo, to restrict traffic and encourage cycling and public transport use across the car-clogged city.

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Eight go on trial over beheading of teacher Samuel Paty in Paris

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History teacher stabbed and decapitated near his school in a Paris suburb in 2020 in case that shocked France

Eight people have gone on trial in Paris for their alleged role in events leading to the beheading of the history teacher Samuel Paty in 2020, a case that horrified France and heightened fears of terrorist attacks on schools.

Paty, 47, was stabbed and then decapitated near his secondary school in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine, by Abdoullakh Anzorov, a radicalised 18-year-old who arrived in France aged six with his Chechen parents and had been granted asylum.

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Four wounded after axe used in fight on Paris suburban train

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Source says one person’s hand was severed in altercation involving several people at Ozoir-la-Ferrière station

Four teenagers were wounded, two of them seriously, after an axe was used during a fight on a suburban train outside Paris, French police sources have said.

One of the victims, all aged 16 or 17, had a hand cut off and another had their skull split open. The main suspect in the incident was later arrested.

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‘Bodies were dropped down quarry shafts’: secrets of millions buried in Paris catacombs come to light

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Researchers hope to uncover how people died and how diseases have developed over 1,000 years

Deep beneath the streets of Paris, the dead are having their last word. They are recounting 1,000 years of death in the city: how many are ­buried in the labyrinth of tunnels that make up Les Catacombes, what killed them and how the diseases that may have led to their demise have ­developed over the centuries.

In the first ever scientific study of the site, a team of archeologists, anthropologists, biologists and ­doctors is examining some of the skeletons of an estimated 5-6 ­million people whose bones were literally dumped down quarry shafts at the end of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th.

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Paris SUV driver charged with murder after cyclist run over

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Motorist accused of deliberately targeting 27-year-old Paul Varry in road rage incident

A motorist accused of deliberately running over a cyclist in a Paris road rage incident has been formally put under investigation for murder and remanded in custody.

The 52-year-old SUV driver, named only as Ariel M, is accused of deliberately targeting the cyclist, who was named by the Paris public prosecutor’s office as Paul Varry, 27.

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High-speed Paris-to-Berlin rail link to launch in December

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Daytime service will take about eight hours and will complement the night route that launched last year

A new high-speed train linking Paris and Berlin is to launch in December, operators have announced.

The daytime service will complement a popular night train route between the two capital cities that relaunched last year to much fanfare but has since been beset by technical problems.

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Paris gives Paralympic Games a send-off for the ages

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Stade de France transformed into huge electronica dance party with world’s elite para athletes doing farewell conga

With an explosion of fireworks, laser beams, breakdance and a thumping set by the giants of French electronica, France bid goodbye to the Paralympic Games on Sunday night with the biggest party it had ever thrown.

The feelgood summer of athletic achievement in Paris had turned crowds hoarse from so much cheering and for ever changed the nation’s attitude to sport and disability, and now Parisians were desperately sad to say goodbye to it all.

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Telegram app founder Pavel Durov reportedly arrested at French airport

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Billionaire CEO, who was travelling aboard his private jet, was subject of arrest warrant, according to TV reports

Pavel Durov, billionaire co-founder and chief executive of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at the Bourget airport outside Paris on Saturday evening, TF1 TV said, citing an unnamed source.

Durov was travelling aboard his private jet, TF1 said on its website, adding he had been targeted by an arrest warrant in France.

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Paris Olympics gives eurozone economic boost after rise in spending

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French service sector drives growth but experts warn strong figures mask disappointing performance elsewhere

The Paris Olympics have provided a boost to the eurozone economy after a sharp rise in spending as athletes and spectators descended on the French capital for the summer sporting event.

Figures from a closely watched survey of businesses showed monthly French private sector output rose to its highest level in 17 months in August.

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‘Bloody warm, innit?’ says man who climbed Eiffel Tower on last day of Olympics

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Bare-chested climber had ascended halfway up north face of structure when he was intercepted by Paris police

A climber scaled the north face of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Sunday, the last day of the Olympics, but was intercepted by police midway up, police said. “At 2.45 pm, an individual was seen climbing the Eiffel Tower,” a police spokesman said. “The police immediately intervened and arrested the individual.”

Videos showed the bare-chested man skirting the Olympic rings as he made his way up without ropes.

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Georgia Bell leads rush of medals as Team GB enjoy super Saturday

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The runner, who has set a new British record, only took up sport again to stay fit during pandemic

Georgia Bell, an occasional runner during lockdown who made it to the Olympic final of the women’s 1500m, set a new British record to take bronze as a rush of success including silvers in artistic swimming and taekwondo took Britain’s rivalry with France in the medal table into the last day.

At the age of 30, this was Bell’s first Olympic appearance but in a lightning quick race in the Stade de France that saw Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon set a new Games record, the British runner stayed with the leading pack in the first 800m before finding the strength to kick on in the final leg.

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Travis Scott arrested in Paris over altercation with security guard

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The rapper was arrested for an incident involving a hotel security guard while he is in the city for the Olympics

Rapper Travis Scott was arrested at a Paris hotel after an altercation with a security guard, French prosecutors said Friday.

The arrest occurred after police were called to the Georges V hotel early Friday to arrest a man “nicknamed Travis Scott for violence against a security guard”, according to a statement from the Paris public prosecutor’s office.

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Jubilation in Caribbean at St Lucia’s and Dominica’s first Olympic medals

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Sprinter Julian Alfred and triple jumper Thea LaFond both win gold on Saturday

There was jubilation in the Caribbean on Sunday after St Lucian sprinter Julian Alfred and Dominican triple jumper Thea LaFond secured their countries’ first ever medals, both golds.

From entering the Games as a little-known competitor, Julian Alfred demonstrated immense athletics prowess by winning the women’s 100-metre finals on Saturday, in 10.72sec.

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Weather tracker: Record-breaking rain in Delhi leaves trail of destruction

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Almost 200 killed as deluge sweeps northern India, while rain gives way to high humidity at Paris Olympics

Between Wednesday and Thursday morning, 147mm of rain was recorded in eastern parts of Delhi by the India Meteorological Department (IMD), breaking a 14-year record for the highest single day total in July.

Delhi received more than half its monthly rainfall on Wednesday. This torrential rain damaged infrastructure throughout northern India as waterlogged drains led to flash floods.

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Tom Cruise to appear in Olympics closing ceremony – report

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Mission: Impossible star pre-taped stunts in Paris and Los Angeles for the 11 August ceremony, reports suggest

Tom Cruise is reportedly set to assist with the ceremonial Olympic Games handoff between Paris and the 2028 host, Los Angeles.

The closing ceremonies will get a boost from the Mission: Impossible actor who has filmed stunts in both cities as part of a pre-taped segment for 11 August, according to TMZ.

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‘Our bet paid off’: Paris celebrates Olympic triathletes’ swim in the Seine

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City officials say they have ‘reversed the tide of history’ thanks to completion of €1.4bn sewerage system

French city officials have hailed a “historic day” after the Olympic triathlon competitions were held in the River Seine just a day after it was deemed unsafe for swimming.

Tests on the water showed the men’s and women’s competitions could go ahead on Wednesday morning, resulting in victory – against all odds – for the city as well as for French athletes who took medals in the women’s and men’s events.

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Wednesday briefing: Where France’s €1.6bn plan to clean up the Seine for the Olympics went wrong

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In today’s newsletter: The government has spent €1.6bn improving the river, but an ancient sewage system and the climate are muddying the waters

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Good morning.

An ambitious project to clean up the River Seine has left French officials up to their eyes in it.

Israel-Gaza war | Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, has been targeted and killed in Tehran, the group said in a statement early on Wednesday morning. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard confirmed the assassination, which was reported on Iranian state TV early on Wednesday morning, with analysts also claiming Israel killed Haniyeh, the Associated Press said.

UK news | Keir Starmer has said those who rioted in Southport on Tuesday night will “feel the full force of the law” after police vehicles were set alight and missiles hurled at officers. It came after far-right protesters pelted police with glass bottles and bricks and attacked a mosque following a knife attack that killed three children and left five other children and two adults in critical condition.

Conservatives | Kemi Badenoch, the frontrunner to be the next Conservative party leader, has been accused of creating an intimidating atmosphere in the government department she used to run, with some colleagues describing it as toxic, the Guardian can reveal.

US election 2024 | Donald Trump has repeated his weekend remarks to Christian summit attendees that they would never need to vote again if he returns to the presidency in November.

Health | The hidden cost of rising workplace sickness in the UK has increased to more than £100bn a year, largely caused by a loss of productivity amid “staggering” levels of presenteeism, a report warns.

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