Important Takeaways:
- France’s high-speed train lines were targeted by multiple “malicious” acts including arson on Friday, in what has been described as “an attack on France” and “coordinated sabotage” to disrupt travel ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
- No-one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, but given their scale and precision, it is clear they are more than just random acts of vandalism.
- The operator said the Atlantic, Northern and Eastern high-speed lines were impacted, with damage caused to several of its facilities
- At the same time, France has been among many European countries impacted by a wave of attacks that have been linked by officials to Russia. They have included arson and acts of sabotage against infrastructure. Russia has not responded to the allegations.
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Important Takeaways:
- French police have arrested a Russian man suspected of planning to destabilize the Olympics, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday, just days before the Games begin.
- The 40-year-old man was detained on Tuesday after police raided his house at the request of the Interior Ministry, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
- The evidence found at his home raised “fears of his intention to organize events likely to cause destabilization during the Olympic Games,” it said.
- Relations between France and Russia have been deteriorating for months as President Emmanuel Macron is a prominent critic of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and a strong supporter of the Kyiv government.
- The arrested man has been placed in pre-trial detention and could face up to 30 years in prison, the statement said.
- Russia’s embassy in Paris said it had not received official notification of the detention.
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Important Takeaways:
- French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies this morning launched a fresh week of intense campaigning hours after their party was humiliated last night in the first round of parliamentary elections by the hard-right National Rally (RN).
- Rioting engulfed the streets of Paris last night as thousands of enraged left-leaning voters set light to rubbish, smashed up shop windows and launched fireworks after Marine Le Pen’s RN steamed to victory with 33% of the first round vote.
- Hordes of riot cops were dispatched across the city, particularly in the French capital’s Place de la République where the police clashed with flare-toting rioters into the early hours of the morning.
- Macron’s Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who is likely to be forced to resign after the second round, warned that the right was now at the ‘gates of power’ and implored voters to block the RN in the second round set for Sunday July 7.
- But Macron’s centrist alliance is languishing in a distant third place with just 20% of the vote behind the left-wing New Popular Front alliance on 28%.
- Le Pen late last night gleefully declared that Macron’s party had been ‘wiped out’ as she celebrated the victory, with the RN now targeting an absolute majority in the second round of elections this coming Sunday.
- Such a victory would mark the first time a hard-right force has taken power in France since World War II amid the occupation by Nazi Germany – a fact not lost on left-wing politicians.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Ukrainian government praised France’s “determination” for sending military advisors to the country, saying it hoped Paris making the first move would encourage other Western partners to deploy troops too.
- A months-long drama over French President Emmanuel Macron’s apparently intractable desire to deploy French soldiers directly to Ukraine appears to be approaching the point of action, as Ukraine reveals it has now legally cleared the way for foreign troops to arrive.
- Ukraine’s new Commander in Chief General Oleksandr Syrskyi and the nation’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov had talks with their French counterpart Defense Minister Sebastien Lecorne, they said on Sunday, underlining how they welcomed French troops and appealed to the country for more equipment and ammunition to be donated.
- France’s Macron faced a barrage of criticism from fellow NATO leaders over going public with his views on sending troops to Ukraine, but despite the furor has restated that position dozens of times since. Earlier this month, Macron said he would not “rule anything out”, stating his view that: “If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe”.
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Important Takeaways:
- Emmanuel Macron has said he would be prepared to send troops to Ukraine if Vladimir Putin’s forces break through the front lines – further raising the risk of NATO forces clashing with Russia’s armies.
- In an interview published today, the French president said the issue of sending troops would ‘legitimately’ arise if Kyiv and President Volodymyr Zelensky made such a request.
- The Economist said Macron gave the interview after delivering a keynote speech last week where he declared that Europe is ‘mortal’ and could ‘die’ partly due to the threat posed by Russian aggression after its February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
- It also came as Russia claimed its forces had taken another town in Donetsk, eastern Ukraine, with Moscow’s armies continuing to push against Kyiv’s defenses.
- Russia is rushing to advance against struggling Ukrainian forces ahead of the long-awaited arrival of the bulk of US weapons to the front for Kyiv’s outgunned troops.
- ‘I’m not ruling anything out, because we are facing someone who is not ruling anything out,’ Macron said when asked if he stood by comments earlier this year not excluding the sending of Western troops that sent shockwaves around Europe.
- Such a move would see NATO troops go head-to-head with those in the Russian army, dramatically increasing the risk of an escalation.
- ‘I have a clear strategic objective: Russia cannot win in Ukraine,’ Macron said.
- ‘If Russia wins in Ukraine, there will be no security in Europe,’ he warned.
- ‘Who can pretend that Russia will stop there? What security will there be for the other neighboring countries, Moldova, Romania, Poland, Lithuania and the others?’
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Important Takeaways:
- Lavrov explained that the US and allies were responsible for blocking the recent review cycles of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), which, Lavrov says Washington long used to pressure its foes. He also noted the potential danger posed by the three-way AUKUS agreement between the US, UK and Australia, which is becoming “increasingly similar to a military bloc,” as well as NATO, which has been boosting its military spending.
- According to the senior official, the West’s support for Ukraine is also fraught with danger, especially as the three major Western nuclear powers, the US, UK and France, are among the main sponsors of the “criminal Kiev regime” and the “main organizers” of provocations against Russia.
- The US and their NATO client states are still dreaming of inflicting a ‘strategic defeat’ on Russia and are ready to carry on with their policy of deterring our country ‘to the last Ukrainian…’ The West is balancing on the dangerous edge of a direct military confrontation between nuclear powers, which could have catastrophic consequences.
- In his address, Lavrov reiterated this stance, saying that he saw “no basis whatsoever” for an arms control dialogue with the US “in the face of a total hybrid war being waged against our country.”
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Important Takeaways:
- As World Marks Easter, ISIS Urges Global Attacks on Christians, Jews in Honor of Ramadan
- As the Christian world celebrates Easter, the Islamic State (ISIS) is calling upon Muslims to attack Christians and Jews globally during the closing weeks of Ramadan, specifically targeting Western and democratic nations, including America, Israel, and European states, as part of its ongoing jihad campaign.
- The directive was issued via Telegram by Islamic State spokesperson Abu Hudhayfah al-Ansari, who also praised the recent deadly attack on Moscow’s Crocus City Hall music venue that saw at least 143 people killed by terrorists from ISIS-K (the Afghanistan affiliate of ISIS) who fired on some of the estimated 6,000 attendees of a rock concert.
- Following the attack, the Islamic State faction circulated a selfie taken by the gunmen, lauding the “bloody attack” against a “large crowd of Christians.”
- Urging the group’s supporters to attack “crusaders” everywhere, the terror group’s spokesman told them, “We ask God that you make it to Palestine so you could fight the Jews face to face in an endless religious war.”
- Furthermore, he called for increased attacks by ISIS members in Mozambique and the Philippines.
- The disclosure comes as French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced last week that the terror threat system had been raised to its highest level. It had previously been raised to its highest level in October after a teacher was stabbed to death by a Chechnyan migrant amid calls from the Palestinian terror group Hamas for a global “day of jihad” in the wake of the October 7 terror attacks on Israel.
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Important Takeaways:
- Moody’s sours on banking sector outlooks for Germany, Britain and France
- The credit rating agency Moody’s said on Thursday that it was downgrading its outlook for the banking sector in a number of European countries as weak economies erode profits.
- It changed the outlook to negative from stable for the banking sectors of Germany, Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden.
- Rising losses for unpaid loans and higher funding costs will chip away at profits, Moody’s said.
- “A deteriorating operating environment with low economic growth and high borrowing costs will hit credit growth as well as loan performance in the largest European countries, particularly in the corporate sector,” said Moody’s analyst Effie Tsotsani.
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Important Takeaways:
- Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Thursday warned France that Russia has “no more red lines” for the country.
- His warning was directed at French President Emmanuel Macron, who earlier in the day reaffirmed Paris’ firm support for Kyiv in its war against Russia’s invading forces while meeting with France’s other party leaders at the Elysee Palace.
- Le Monde reported that after the meeting, Fabien Roussel—national secretary of the French Communist Party—said Macron had expressed how “France’s position has changed” regarding the war, and that “there are no more red lines, there are no more limits.
- Medvedev addressed the report from the French newspaper in a threatening X post.
- “Macron has said, ‘there are no more red lines, there are no more limits’ in terms of supporting Ukraine (Le Monde). Then that means, Russia has no more red lines left for France,” Medvedev wrote.
- The Kremlin official then added, “In hostem omina licita,” a Latin phrase that roughly translates as “everything is legal if it is done to an enemy.”
- “Nothing should be excluded,” the French President said, following a gathering of Ukraine’s backers in Paris on February 26. “We will do anything we can to prevent Russia from winning this war.”
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Important Takeaways:
- ‘Catastrophic scenario’ if NATO troops deploy to Ukraine – top Russian senator
- The possibility mulled by the French president could be taken as a declaration of war on Moscow, Konstantin Kosachev has said
- The potential deployment of NATO troops to Ukraine will lead to a “catastrophic scenario,” and could be interpreted as a “declaration of war” on Moscow, top Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev has said.
- The Vice Speaker of Russia’s upper chamber, the Federation Council, offered his take on remarks by French President Emmanuel Macron on the possibility of sending troops in a Telegram post on Tuesday. The approach exhibited by the French leader carries a risk of the situation devolving into a “catastrophic scenario,” Kosachev warned, stating that the move would not be tolerated by the Kremlin.
- “This is the line beyond which it’s no longer just NATO’s involvement in the war – this has been happening for a long time, but can be interpreted as the alliance entering direct hostilities, or even as a declaration of war,” Kosachev wrote.
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