Tag Archives: Paris

“An attack on France” and “coordinated sabotage” disrupt travel ahead of the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics

vandals-targeted-Frances-high-speed-train

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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Le Pen wins First Round in election campaign in Paris putting Macron in third place

Riots-in-Paris

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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Olympics in Paris around the corner and ISIS encourages lone wolf attacks

Lone-Wolf-poster-ISIS

Important Takeaways:

  • ISLAMIC terror outfit ISIS has threatened chilling attacks on the upcoming Paris Olympics in an appalling poster message.
  • The death cult posted a propaganda image showing one of its terrorists seemingly flying an “armed drone” to attack the iconic Eiffel Tower.
  • The poster, pushed by ISIS-linked social media channels, was captioned: “Lone wolves’ Olympics have begun with the Will of Allah.”
  • The chilling threat vaguely indicates there could be attempts to carry out lone-wolf-style terror attacks across Paris amid the upcoming games.
  • France is already on high alert amid a slew of vile threats made by Islamic terror outfits.
  • Tony Estanguet insisted that “security is the priority” to ensure the safety of 15 million fans and more than 10,000 athletes.
  • But the July 26 ceremony along the River Seine — the first not held in a stadium — has already been scaled back from 600,000 spectators to 300,000.
  • The 10,500 athletes from 203 nations will take to boats on the Seine, watched by one billion globally.
  • There will be 30,000 police, 15,000 soldiers and 22,000 security guards on duty.

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Paris, Nantes, Marseille protesters set fires and clash with police after Macron tries to pass pension reform without a vote

Revelations 6:4 “And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Paris Burns: Hundreds Arrested as Rioters Set Trash Fires, Clash with Cops After Macron Tries to Pass Pension Reform Without a Vote
  • Rioters also set fire to barricades and clashed with police, who deployed water cannons and tear gas canisters in response.
  • As of midnight Paris time, some 217 people were arrested in the French capital after the city erupted in rage after the National Assembly was bypassed by the globalist Macron government which used article 49.3 of the constitution to pass through its controversial plans to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64-years-old by the year 2030 in order to keep the program from going under.
  • Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin also asked for police to give extra protection to senators and MPs amid the growing anger among the populace. This was said to be a precaution.
  • According to the BFMTV broadcaster, riots were also witnessed in the city of Nantes, where some 3,500 people flooded out onto the streets… Radicals were also witnessed throwing Molotov cocktails and makeshift missiles at police officers.
  • The same could be said in Marseille, where rioters smashed windows and painted the fronts of shops with graffiti, with banks and high-end clothing stores being the primary targets.

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France begins nationwide strike amid soaring inflation

French trade unions began a nationwide strike on Tuesday, asking for higher salaries amid decades-high inflation and posing President Emmanuel Macron one of his stiffest challenges since his reelection in May.

The strike, which will primarily affect public sectors such as schools and transportation, is an extension of the weeks-long industrial action that has disrupted France’s major refineries and put petrol stations’ supply in disarray.

Trade union leaders are hoping workers will be energized by the government’s decision to force some of them to go back to work at petrol depots to try and get the fuel flowing again, a move some say put in jeopardy the right to strike.

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Freedom Convoy spreads across Europe from Vienna, Paris and now Brussels

Proverbs 22:8 “Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.”

Important Takeaways:

  • ‘They Can’t Stop Us’: Freedom Convoy Rolls into EU’s Capital Despite Government Ban
  • A Freedom Convoy of anti-mandate motorists is arriving in Brussels, the de facto capital of the European Union, despite authorities banning the demonstration.
  • Some 1,300 vehicles are on the move into capital of the European Union Brussels
  • Authorities in charge of other European cities, such as Paris and Vienna, have made similar attempts to ban demos styled on anti-mandatory vaccine protests in Canada, though all so far have been futile.
  • While authorities in Belgium have issued a ban on the forthcoming anti-lockdown protest in the nation’s capital, the nation has also seemingly acquiesced to calls for the country to loosen its lockdown restrictions.
  • From February 18, rules regarding the closure of establishments after a certain time, as well as the mandatory wearing of masks are set to be loosened.
  • “Today, we are taking a huge step forward. We are returning to normalcy,” Politico reports Alexander De Croo, Belgium’s Prime Minister

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Freedom Convoy spreads, thousands descend on Paris

Proverbs 22:8 “Whoever sows injustice will reap calamity, and the rod of his fury will fail.”

Important Takeaways:

  • Nearly 360,000 protesters descend on Paris in convoy against vaccine mandates
  • Taking inspiration from Canada’s Freedom Convoy, French truckers and protesters have taken to the streets of Paris to protest vaccine mandates in a convoy that has already come into conflict with French authorities
  • Labeled “Le Convoi de la Liberte,” the convoy is made up of trucks, cars, and motorcycles.
  • The convoy made its way to Paris from southern France, but more convoys are anticipated to arrive in the capital from other parts of the country, the report noted.
  • Similar movements have begun taking shape in Australia and New Zealand, according to the report.

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Paris attacks suspect tells trial he’s “an Islamic State soldier”

By Tangi Salaün and Yiming Woo

PARIS (Reuters) -The main suspect in a jihadist rampage that killed 130 people across Paris described himself on Wednesday as “an Islamic State soldier” at the start of the long-awaited trial into the 2015 attacks.

Salah Abdeslam, 31, appeared in court dressed in black and wearing a black face mask, one of 20 men accused of involvement in the gun-and-bomb attacks on six restaurants and bars, the Bataclan concert hall and a sports stadium on Nov. 13, 2015.

Asked what his profession was, the French-Moroccan removed his face mask – obligatory because of the COVID-19 pandemic – and told a Paris court defiantly: “I gave up my job to become an Islamic State soldier.”

Abdeslam is believed to be the only surviving member of the group that carried out the attacks. The other suspects are accused of helping to provide guns and cars or playing a role in organizing the attacks, in which hundreds were also injured.

Responsibility for the attacks was claimed by Islamic State, which had urged followers to attack France over its involvement in the fight against the militant group in Iraq and Syria.

Asked by the court’s top judge to give his name, Abdeslam used the Shahada, an Islamic oath, saying: “I want to testify that there is no god except Allah and that Mohammad is his servant.”

Jean-Pierre Albertini, whose 39-year old son, Stephane, was killed in the Bataclan, told Reuters the reference to being an Islamic State soldier meant “we have in front of us … someone who is at war.”

Thierry Mallet, a Bataclan survivor, said: “I need more to be shocked … I’m not afraid.”

IMPATIENT AND ANXIOUS

Before the trial, survivors and relatives of the victims had said they were impatient to hear testimony that might help them better understand what happened and why it did so, and that they were also anxious.

“It is important that the victims can bear witness, can tell the perpetrators, the suspects who are on the stand, about the pain,” said Philippe Duperron, whose 30-year-old son Thomas was killed in the attacks.

“We are also awaiting anxiously because we know that as this trial takes place the pain, the events, everything will come back to the surface,” said Duperron, who is the president of a victims’ association and will testify at the trial.

The trial will last nine months, with about 1,800 plaintiffs and more than 300 lawyers taking part in what Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti has called an unprecedented judicial marathon. The court’s top judge, Jean-Louis Peries, said it was a historic trial.

The 20 defendants include 11 who are already in jail pending trial. Six will be tried in absentia – most of them are believed to be dead. Most face life imprisonment if convicted.

Police mounted tight security around the Palais de Justice courthouse in central Paris. Defendants will appear behind a reinforced glass partition in a purpose-built courtroom and all people must pass through several checkpoints to enter the court.

“The terrorist threat in France is high, especially at times like the attacks’ trial,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told France Inter radio.

The first days of the trial are expected to be largely procedural, with plaintiffs being registered, though judges may read a summary of how the attacks unfolded.

Victims’ testimonies are set to start on Sept. 28, with one week devoted to the attacks on the Stade de France and cafes, and four to the Bataclan.

The questioning of the accused will start in November but they are not set to be questioned about the night of the attacks and the week before them until March.

A verdict is expected in late May.

(Reporting by Tangi Salaun, Michaela Cabrera, Antony Paone, Benoit Van Overstraeten, Ingrid Melander, Blandine Henault; Writing by Ingrid Melander; editing by Philippa Fletcher, William Maclean and Timothy Heritage)

Eerily silent Paris CDG marks Easter without air travel rush

By Tim Hepher and Christian Hartmann

PARIS (Reuters) – Easter at Paris’s Charles de Gaulle airport typically starts two weeks early as extra staff are trained to cope with one of the busiest weekends of the year. On Friday, an eerie calm pervaded Europe’s largest airport as France slides back into lockdown.

Instead of crowded check-ins and relentless take-offs and landings, rows of unused trolleys and redundant queuing barriers greeted visitors to one of the world’s busiest transport hubs.

“It’s nothing like what you would normally see,” said Amor, who has worked at the airport for 20 years, organizing check-in zones and passenger assistance for an airport sub-contractor.

“The airport would be full of people going to Turkey, Greece, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt for the spring holidays. We handled a Tunisia flight yesterday and there were 80 people,” he said. Air France typically serves Tunis with 150-seat jets.

Charles de Gaulle on Thursday handled 18.1% of the number of passengers seen on the same day in 2019, Aeroports de Paris said.

Adjusting for different dates for Easter, throughput on the few open concourses is closer to 20-25% of a usual Easter.

The enforced lull is more striking given that the airport’s 11 terminals have been condensed into two during the pandemic, though some were already closed for maintenance.

Terminal 2E, usually used by Air France and partners for U.S. flights, is handling all long-range traffic, throwing competing carriers from across the globe into a shared space.

A dedicated check-in zone for business class – worst hit by the coronavirus travel crisis – has been suspended and a large COVID-19 testing area takes up one end of the vast hall.

Europe’s border-free Schengen area is served opposite at 2F.

JOBS AT RISK

Charles de Gaulle airport, built in wheat fields northeast of Paris, has seen explosive growth since the first jumbo touched down from New York in 1974.

Terminal 2 opened in 1982 as a hub for Air France, with its undulating modular design shortening the time from gate to curb.

The original 2B was closed for repairs before the crisis but much of the rest of the Terminal 2 complex has been transformed from a snarl of traffic jams to a bowl of deserted concrete.

The global travel slump has cast a shadow over the local economy where 100,000 people work at Charles de Gaulle, a major employer in the capital’s depressed northern suburbs.

Airport staff say less than half of those people are actively working this Easter, with the rest on furlough or finding that the usual temporary jobs have not materialized.

Up to 30,000 jobs could disappear for good, the deputy head of Paris CDG Alliance, which groups the airport’s largest employers and regional government agencies, told Le Monde newspaper.

That contrasts with crowded scenes observed this week in China and the United States, two fast-recovering markets.

On Thursday, the U.S. screened 1.56 million air travelers, 65% of the comparable 2019 level, official data showed.

In Europe, progress in pushing back a third wave of coronavirus infections has been widely described as patchy. On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered France into its third national lockdown.

With Easter already a wash-out, the airline industry is fretting over bookings for summer. Experts say a second lost summer would threaten more bankruptcies..

The drop in passenger numbers means fewer staff from security to cleaners and wheel-chair attendants. Check-in for one Gulf airline now uses 4 agents per flight rather than 7.

Inconsistent border rules for dealing with the pandemic further complicate the planning.

“For Denmark and Sweden we have to have 5-6 agents to check the paperwork rather than the normal two,” one employee said.

On the airport’s most southerly runway, the morning wave of long-haul jets continued to arrive on Friday from as far away as Buenos Aires, Taipei or Douala. But industry statistics show such international flights are much emptier than usual.

International travel is expected to lag short-haul trips in any eventual recovery, hobbled by a video-conferencing craze.

“Zoom is doing well,” said an airline employee who specializes in looking after premium customers.

Still, some export-dependent companies are beginning to test the water, fearing Russian, Chinese or U.S. competition.

“We have to start moving again and keep doing business,” said Marc Vacher, a production executive at French energy services company Idex, arriving early for a flight to Ukraine.

“You can’t go without face-to-face contact with customers; otherwise, it is harder to catch up later,” he added.

(Additional reporting by Laurence Frost, Tracy Rucinski, David Shepardson; editing by Barbara Lewis)

COVID curbs having less impact at keeping Parisians at home: data

By Caroline Pailliez and Leigh Thomas

PARIS (Reuters) – The French government’s anti-COVID-19 measures are having half the impact in encouraging Parisians to stay at home as the restrictions in France’s first lockdown, data shows, underscoring why epidemiologists say the curbs are too weak to stop a third wave of infection over-running hospitals.

Google data shows residents in the capital, the epicenter of a fast-spreading third wave of infections, are spending just 20% more time at home than during pre-crisis times, compared with 40% during the strict three-month lockdown last spring.

The data reflects the tough reality confronting President Emmanuel Macron, who, according to one source close to the government, will have to decide on Wednesday whether to resort once again to a draconian lockdown that risks upending economic activity.

“We have to limit the spread of the virus and we won’t do that with these half-measures,” said Gilles Pialoux, head of infectious diseases at the Tenon hospital in Paris.

The government closed some non-essential stores and limited how far people could travel, adding to a nationwide nightly curfew, in the hardest hit regions on March 20.

While Apple Maps data shows a slight fall in journeys made by car, public transport or on foot, people remain on the move more than during either the spring or autumn lockdowns.

To be sure, part of this is by design. Macron wants to keep the euro zone’s second largest economy open and allow citizens to spend time outdoors. But it also underlines the extent to which government appeals for people to voluntarily restrict their movements are falling on deaf ears.

Intensive care wards are reaching breaking point. In Paris, there are now more COVID-19 patients in ICUs than at the peak of the second wave in November, and critical care wards are operating at 140% of normal bed capacity.

‘CRUSH THE VIRUS’

Macron will convene his COVID-19 war room on Wednesday at a time the surge in coronavirus infections is dragging the death count towards the 100,000 threshold.

The president has this year repeatedly sought to avoid another lockdown, counting on COVID-19 vaccines to reduce the numbers falling gravely ill.

But the vaccine rollout is only now hitting its stride, with about 12% of the population inoculated after three months. Meanwhile, the science shows a vaccinated person can still transmit the virus and it will not be until late summer before all adults have been offered a shot.

“You absolutely first have to crush the virus’ prevalence,” said Philippe Amouyel, head of epidemiology at Lille Hospital, “then afterwards comes the vaccine.”

A full-blown lockdown would entail closing schools and prohibiting people from leaving their home other than for essential reasons such as buying groceries, seeking medical help and exercise.

No decision has yet been taken, a government source said.

If a strict lockdown was imposed across France, the number of intensive care patients in the Paris region would peak at about 3,470 on April 22, according to Paris hospital trust forecasts that Reuters has seen.

If the decision was delayed by one week, that number would rise to 4,470 on April 29, the model predicts. During the first wave, ICU admissions peaked at 2,668.

Police unions told Reuters a full lockdown would be easier to enforce than the unwieldy array of rules now in place.

Last weekend crowds thronged the banks of the Seine in Paris. Police urged picnickers to sit apart but there was little evidence of checks being made on whether people had travelled further than the permitted 10 km (6.2 miles) to be there.

“We see that people now have a little less respect for the rules,” said Denis Jacob of the CFDT union’s police branch. “But it’s very difficult to enforce this set of rules.”

(Reporting by Caroline Pailliez and Leigh Thomas; Additional reporting by Elizabeth Pineau; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)