Paris:

The Olympic rings will remain on the Eiffel Tower until at least 2028, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has announced. The rings were mounted ahead of the Paris Olympics and became a popular tourist attraction. However, the mayor’s decision to keep them as is has received opposition from lawmakers, residents, and conservation groups, who argue that the symbol of the International Olympic Committee does not belong to a protected historical landmark like the Eiffel Tower. Her rivals accuse her of political opportunism ahead of the 2026 mayoral election.

“The proposal that I have made for the rings… is a proposal that until 2028, until the Games in Los Angeles, we will leave the rings on the Eiffel Tower,” she said at a press conference.

The Eiffel Tower was a central backdrop for several Olympic events, including the opening ceremony and beach volleyball. However the temporary structures built for the Games are supposed to be dismantled, and the city is expected to return to its original state.

Mayor Hidalgo claimed she wanted to preserve the “festive spirit” of the successful Games, but her opponents see it as an attempt to leave her mark on the iconic monument. David Alphand, a right-wing city councillor and ally of Ms Hidalgo’s rival Rachida Dati, accused the mayor of trying to “recuperate the positive spin-offs” of the Olympics for her political gain.

Ms Hidalgo’s camp has dismissed criticism as typical Parisian resistance to change, citing the initial opposition to the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre’s pyramids. However, descendants of Gustave Eiffel (who designed the Eiffel Tower), including Olivier Berthelot-Eiffel, argue that the rings disrupt the tower’s design and disrespect their ancestor’s work.

“The rings completely break the design of the monument… it does not respect the work of our ancestor,” Mr Berthelot-Eiffel, chairing an association of Eiffel’s descendants, told Politico. 

While decorating the tower is not unprecedented, this is the first time the Eiffel family has publicly opposed plans related to the monument. Meanwhile, the Mayor claimed the decision was hers to make, as the tower was owned by the city of Paris. But rivals like Rachida Dati and heritage groups argue that modifications require careful consideration and approval.

“The Eiffel Tower is a protected monument that can only be modified under certain conditions and after an impact assessment,” Ms Dati noted.

Julien Lacaze, president of the association “Sites & Monuments,” France’s oldest heritage defence association, slammed Ms Hidalgo’s proposal as a way to promote herself, latching onto the Eiffel Tower like a “parasite” to “take advantage of its fame… to say these are my Games.”

The current 30-ton steel rings will have to come down as they are too heavy to remain there permanently. The Mayor said the city planned to replace them with new, lighter ones.

The controversy comes as Ms Hidalgo prepares to face off against Rachida Dati in the 2026 mayoral election. Ms Dati is the outgoing culture minister and current mayor of the arrondissement where the Eiffel Tower is located. 

Paris:

The investigation into Telegram boss Pavel Durov who has fired a warning shot to global tech titans was started by a small cybercrime unit within the Paris prosecutor’s office, led by 38-year-old Johanna Brousse.

The arrest of Durov, 39, last Saturday marks a significant shift in how some global authorities may seek to deal with tech chiefs reluctant to police illegal content on their platforms.

The arrest signalled the mettle of the J3 cybercrime unit, but the true test of its ambitions will be whether Brousse can secure a conviction based on a largely untested legal argument, lawyers said.

In an unprecedented move against a major tech CEO, prosecutors argued that Durov bears responsibility for the alleged illegality on his platform, placing him under formal investigation on organized crime charges. He is suspected of complicity in running an online platform that allows the posting of child sex abuse images, drug trafficking and fraud. 

Durov’s lawyer said on Thursday it was “absurd” for him to be held responsible and that the app abided by European laws, echoing an earlier statement by Telegram itself.

Being placed under formal investigation in France does not imply guilt or necessarily lead to trial, but indicates judges consider there is enough evidence to proceed with the probe. Investigations can last years before being sent to trial or dropped. Durov is out on bail but barred from leaving France.

Brousse’s unit began investigating Durov earlier this year after seeing his app being used for countless alleged crimes, and growing frustrated by the “almost total lack of response from Telegram to judicial requests”, Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said on Wednesday.

Brousse declined to comment.

In an interview with the newspaper Liberation in January, Brousse said her office was overseeing a growing number of probes involving Telegram and rival messaging app Discord, adding that tackling crime on them was “one of my battles”. 

Jason Citron, Discord’s CEO, did not respond to a request for comment. 

Brousse’s J3 cybercrime unit is France’s most important, with a licence to prosecute nationwide. But it also is small, with just five prosecutors, well below the 55-60 cybercrime prosecutors in Switzerland, a 2022 parliamentary report found. With limited resources, they “prioritize the most serious crimes”, Brousse told Le Figaro last year.

Brousse said in a 2022 podcast appearance she wanted to be tough “so cybercriminals believe that if they attack France, they will be judged and punished very severely”.

“We want people to be prosecuted, either in their country … or in France through arrest warrants,” she said.

Her office was used to “extremely sensitive cases”, she added. “Sometimes, legal and geopolitical issues intersect.”

Patrick Perrot, who coordinates AI-assisted probes at the French gendarmerie and advises the Interior Ministry’s cyber command unit, said the J3 had been innovative in seeking to prosecute cases that set an international precedent. 

“I think it shows that you can’t do whatever you want with these platforms,” he told Reuters. “It’s a real question for the future, because these platforms won’t stop multiplying, so the challenge of regulation is essential.”

TOUGH LEGAL GROUND?

Brousse has led the J3 since 2020, which has given her oversight of one of the most important – and controversial – French cybercrime cases ever. 

In late 2020, the J3 took charge of the probe into Sky ECC, which alongside Encrochat was one of the main encrypted communications services used by gangsters to buy drugs and weapons, or murder rivals. A few years earlier, French, Dutch and Belgian police had hacked into their servers, which were housed in northern France, giving French prosecutors jurisdiction over many of the resulting probes. 

There have been more than 6,500 arrests since the takedown of Encrochat in 2020, according to Europol, with the legality of the intercepts challenged in appeals courts across Europe.

Paul Krusky, the Canadian Encrochat boss, was extradited in February from the Dominican Republic to France, where he now awaits trial. Lawyers for Sky ECC’s Jean-François Eap are contesting his French arrest warrant.

Stephane Bonifassi, Eap’s lawyer, said his client was innocent, adding that “Sky ECC was not conceived as a tool for criminals, nor commercialized as such”.

Krusky’s lawyer, Antoine Vey, said his client was innocent.

“The service set up by Paul Krusky, like other services that have enjoyed global success, was only intended to protect the privacy and freedom of exchange of its users, and in no case to support criminal activities,” Vey said in a statement.

Two other French lawyers who have worked on Sky ECC and Encrochat cases told Reuters that these earlier probes gave prosecutors the ambition – and a blueprint – to target Durov.

Robin Binsard, who has fought Encrochat cases at France’s top court, said prosecutors would need to prove that Durov knew and approved of the criminality on the app, calling their argument “totally questionable”.

The fact that Telegram didn’t comply with law enforcement requests “does not automatically make one an accomplice to a criminal project”, he added.

Binsard said it was clear “France is pursuing encrypted messaging providers”, and that other operators of such apps, such as Signal, “should be concerned about whether or not they are in compliance with French regulations. Because the message is clear if they are not, legal action will take place”.

Signal did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

A source at the Paris prosecutor’s office said the Sky ECC probe had no links to the Telegram investigation.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

French railway company SNCF suffered a massive attack of sufficient magnitude to paralyze its TGV network on the night of July 25, 2024 to July 26, the group told AFP and TGV traffic on the Atlantic, North and East routes will be very disrupted, a few hours before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games
| Photo Credit: AFP

High-speed trains around France were hit by several “malicious acts” on July 26 that heavily disrupted traffic on the day of the high-risk opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, according to the national rail company SNCF.

Travel to and from London beneath the English Channel, to neighboring Belgium, and across the west, north and east of France were affected by what SNCF called a series of coordinated overnight incidents.

Also read | Postcard from Paris

Government officials denounced the incidents hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, which are happening around France, though there was no immediate sign of a link to the Games.

National police said authorities are investigating what happened. French media reported a big fire on a busy western route.

Transport Minister Patrice Vergriete said in a post on X that he “firmly condemns these criminal incidents,” and that SNCF is working to restore traffic.

Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castera said authorities are working to “evaluate the impact on travelers, athletes, and ensure the transport of all delegations to the competition sites” for the Olympics. Speaking on BFM television, she said, “Playing against the Games is playing against France, against your own camp, against your country.” She didn’t identify who was behind the vandalism.

Paris police chief Laurent Nunez, speaking on France Info radio, said he would send police reinforcement to overcrowded train stations in relation to the SNCF incidents.

Passengers at St. Pancras station in London were warned to expect delays of around an hour to their Eurostar journeys. Announcements in the departure hall at the international terminus informed travelers heading to Paris that there was a problem with overhead power supplies.

Paris:

The blades of the Moulin Rouge windmill, one of the most famous landmarks in Paris, collapsed during the night, firefighters said on Thursday, just months before the French capital hosts the Olympics.

There was no risk of further collapse, Paris firefighters said. The reason for the accident was not yet known.

“Fortunately this happened after closing,” a Moulin Rouge official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“Every week, the cabaret’s technical teams check the windmill mechanism and did not note any problems,” the source said, adding that there was no more information on the reason for the collapse.

“It’s the first time that an accident like this has happened since” the cabaret first opened its doors on October 6, 1889, the source said.

Images on social media showed the blade unit lying on the street below, with some of the blades slightly bent from the apparent fall.

The Moulin Rouge cabaret, with its distinctive red windmill blades, is located in northern Paris and is one of the most visited landmarks in the city.

Known as the birthplace of the modern dance form the can-can, it opened its doors in October 1889 at the foot of the Montmartre hill.

It quickly became a hit and a stop to look at its facade or catch a show inside is a must-do on most tourists’ lists of things to do in the French capital.

The accident will add to concerns of whether Paris, one of the most visited cities in the world, is ready to host the thousands more that will descent during July-August for the Olympic Games.

The only serious accident the landmark has endured was a fire that erupted during works in 1915, which forced the venue to close for nine years.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

France’s capital Paris is battling an invasion of bedbugs, just 10 months before the 2024 Summer Olympics. The tiny pests were first spotted in hotels and rental apartments across the city during the summer. Then, moviegoers were disgusted by these bugs in theatres and now, social media users have reported bedbugs crawling around on seats in high-speed trains and Paris Metro. Photos and videos of bedbugs in the Metro train are going viral on X (formerly) with passengers warning others to pay attention before sitting on a seat or dropping their bags.

Dans les bus @RATPgroup aussi il y a des punaises pic.twitter.com/DbnmgMwEQY

— Ssiguss (@Ssiguss) September 27, 2023

France24 said in a report that country’s transport minister Clement Beaune has vowed to “protect” the public from the menace by holding a meeting of public transport operators.

Bedbugs had disappeared from daily life in France in 1950s, but their resurgence is mostly due to high population density and more mass transit.

Paris city hall has urged President Emmanuel Macron to take measures to check the infestation, including creating a dedicated task force, said the outlet.

But despite these voices, Paris’ deputy mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said that there is “no threat to the Olympic Games”, and urged everyone to work together to solve the issue. “Bedbugs existed before and they will exist afterward,” he added.

Transport operators have said they will remain “extremely vigilant” and The Local France said there have been no more recent sightings since the one caught on camera by a passenger last week.

Companies specialising in clearing insect infestation say they have been overwhelmed in recent weeks. One visit costs several hundreds of dollars and the pest control operation often needs to be repeated.

These blood-sucking pests have been given the name bedbugs because they have a habit of nesting in mattresses. They come out at night to feed on human blood.

Paris:

Paris will on Friday become the first European capital to ban floating electric scooters from its streets, leaving fans desolate but relieving those who loathed their “nuisance” factor.

Residents voted by almost 90 percent in an April referendum to ban the scooters — celebrated as a win for direct democracy by mayor Anne Hidalgo even though turnout was just 7.5 percent.

The ban applies to rental scooters which have been offered by several operators since 2018, although people will still be able to whizz through Paris on privately-owned contraptions.

With complaints of users jostling through pedestrians on pavements or dumping their rides awkwardly at intersections, the city’s 15,000 two-wheeled machines from providers Tier, Lime and Dott had turned into “nuisances” for many Parisians, Hidalgo said at the time.

But “so many people were sad” at the decision, said Paris-based American influencer Amanda Rollins, 33, who often gets around by scooter — one of 400,000 people to do so in 2022, according to figures from the operators.

“They’re just so much fun!” she added, while noting that being able to just pick one up offers “a really reliable way to get home… like a safety net” on nights when the metro closes before the capital’s bars.

The day scooters arrived in Paris in 2018 was “like Christmas… it was like Santa came overnight,” she recalled, praising their use for tours of the city with friends and their practicality when stopping for a swift Instagram photoshoot.

-‘Turn of the page’ –

Paris “is a unique case” said Clement Pette, head of Tier’s operations in France. “It’s a major turn of the page”.

By Friday, the Berlin-based firm had collected 3,000 of its 5,000 scooters, with growing red areas on its application’s map showing parking forbidden in more and more of Paris each night as it loaded them into vans.

Only a small zone in central Paris will have scooters available until the wheels finally come off.

Like other operators, Tier’s freshly-serviced machines will be heading to other cities where it offers scooter service.

Some tier machines will remain in Paris’ outskirts, with most returning to Germany or Warsaw, while Lime ships them to Lille, London, Copenhagen and German cities and Dott is set to send some as far away as Tel Aviv.

“We’ve turned the page on scooters” for the whole Paris region, said Xavier Mirailles, Lime’s public affairs director.

Instead, like the other operators, Lime is betting on its fleet of 10,000 floating-hire bicycles, against around 5,000 offered by Tier.

– Mixed impact –

Removing floating scooters from Paris won’t mean that they disappear from the capital’s streets altogether, as many people have made the jump to owning their own — or more exotic rides like electric monowheels.

“Shared electric scooters can be a gateway to acquiring a personal scooter,” said Anne De Bortoli, a researcher at Montreal-based sustainability lab CIRAIG.

She highlighted that the scooters had begun to make an impact on emissions from Parisian transport in recent years, with second-generation models producing carbon emissions of around 60 grammes of CO2 per kilometre.

That was “more than a personal bike, the metro or suburban trains” — the modes of transport most often replaced by scooter trips — “but it also replaced some taxi rides and trips in personal cars”, making for “slight gains in terms of carbon footprint”.

“We have to change the way we get around as quickly as possible… scooters allowed people to access this mode of transport, to test it out, see if it met their needs. It often made people want to switch,” Anne De Bortoli said.

While the vehicles may have offered an environmental impact, they also took a toll on users, with 10 riders killed in France in July alone according to government data — the country’s heaviest-ever toll.

Announcing the figures earlier this month, road safety chief Florence Guillaume “strongly encouraged” scooter users to wear helmets, which have been made obligatory in some cities like Italy and Danish capital Copenhagen.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)