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.
Continue reading...Guns, for understandable reasons, should be treated with extreme caution. So it’s a surprise that one of the best marksmen in the world treats the pinnacle of his sport like it’s a casual day at the park.
Rather than the hi-tech gear that many of his fellow Olympians have worn in Paris this year, Turkey’s Yusuf Dikeç competed in a baggy T-shirt, with one hand in his pocket and glasses that looked like they were bought on discount at the local opticians.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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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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.
Continue reading...A DJ and LGBTQ+ activist who performed during a controversial scene in the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony has said she is taking legal action after becoming the target of “an extremely violent campaign of cyber-harassment and defamation”.
Barbara Butch, who calls herself a “love activist”, had been “threatened with death, torture and rape, and has also been the target of numerous antisemitic, homophobic, sexist and body-shaming insults”, her lawyer said in a post on her Instagram page.
Continue reading...Dutch artist’s 17th-century work said to have inspired tableau that has offended Christian and conservative critics
A controversial tableau in the Olympics opening ceremony denounced by Christian and conservative critics as an offensive parody of The Last Supper was in fact inspired by a 17th-century Dutch painting of the Greek Olympian gods, art historians have said.
“Does this painting remind you of something?” the Magnin Museum in the French city of Dijon asked (with a wink) on X, inviting people to “come and admire” The Feast of the Gods, painted by the artist Jan van Bijlert between 1635 and 1640.
Continue reading...Gérald Darmanin says activists may have been encouraged to carry out arson attacks that caused disruption
France’s interior minister has suggested that far-left activists were behind the attacks on the high-speed rail system on the eve of the Olympics opening ceremony, as a fresh wave of vandalism targeted internet cables.
Four days after the attacks, Gérald Darmanin said the investigation into the arson attacks had “identified a certain number of profiles who could have committed it”.
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