Paris, France:

France’s government on Tuesday gave the go-ahead for construction of a floating landing pad on the River Seine for flying taxis set to be shown off during the Paris Olympics.

An official decree said that the pad “can be used until December 31, 2024” after months of suspense over whether the taxis would take to the air during the July 26 – August 11 Games.

The landing site will float on the Seine near the Austerlitz railway station in southeastern Paris.

Flights will be limited to two per hour, between 8:00 am to 5:00 pm, and no more than 900 over the whole trial period “given the experimental nature” of the vehicles, the decree read.

Private firms involved in the flying taxi project include Paris airport operator ADP and Germany-based Volocopter.

Its “Volocity” two-seaters are fitted with 18 electric-powered rotors on a circular frame above the fuselage.

They hope to use the global draw of the Olympics to show that the technology can efficiently link “vertiport” take-off and landing sites.

While four vertiports — airports for vertical take-off and landing vehicles — have already been set up in the Paris suburbs, including one at Charles de Gaulle airport, the Austerlitz site will be the first within the city proper.

Backers tout flying taxis as a low-carbon form of aviation and hope future larger versions could be used as ambulances or in other roles.

But many city officials in Paris have derided the plans as harmful to the environment.

France’s national environment authority found that an impact assessment for the landing pad was “incomplete” on issues including noise pollution, energy consumption and greenhouse emissions.

Neither have the taxis been certified by the European Union’s Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) — meaning operators can only offer free demonstration flights during the Games.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi interacts with the Olympic-bound athletes in New Delhi on July 4, 2024. Photo: X/@narendramodi

Confident that India’s bid to host the 2036 Olympics will be successful, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged athletes bound for this month’s Paris Games to share their views on the arrangements in the French capital to help the country’s ambitious push to bring the showpiece to India.

In an interaction with Paris-bound athletes, conducted both in person and online on July 4, Mr. Modi said those travelling to the French capital would do the country a huge service by providing inputs from their experience.

“We are hoping to host the Olympics in 2036, it will help in creating a sporting atmosphere. Work is in progress to prepare infrastructure for it,” he said in the interaction, which was attended by the national men’s hockey team, the shooting contingent, boxers and track-and-field stars such as Neeraj Chopra.

The interaction’s complete video was shared by Prime Minister’s Office on July 5.

“I won’t ask you to do anything in the middle of your events but when you are free, I would urge you to observe the arrangements. Your inputs will help our bid for 2036. We will have an understanding on how to make sure that we are better-prepared,” he added.

The upcoming Games will be held from July 26 to August 11 and India would be hoping to better its best ever tally of seven medals, including Chopra’s historic javelin throw gold, achieved in the Tokyo Games.

Over 100 Indian sportspersons have qualified for the Games, including an unprecedented 21 shooters, who would be aiming to end the medal drought of last two editions.

Paris:

The French civil aviation authority has ordered airlines to cancel 70 percent of flights at Paris Orly airport on Saturday and Sunday because of a strike by air traffic controllers.

The cancellations will affect commercial flights from 0400 GMT Saturday through to late Sunday, the DGAC authority said.

The strike comes as France’s second busiest airport prepares for a massive influx for the Paris Olympics, that start July 26. It is the second major air traffic controllers strike in a month. The last one caused the cancellation of thousands of flights across Europe.

That dispute ended with an accord between airport authorities and the main union, the SNCTA. But the second biggest labour group, UNSA-ICNA, ordered the latest stoggage saying that staffing levels were inadequate.

“The managers at Orly continue their penny-pinching and shopkeeper accounts which will quickly lead to our teams being understaffed” by 2027, it said in a statement.

The government condemned the strike.

“I deplore the behavior of some local level agents who refuse to recognise the legitimacy of a majority accord and are making passengers pay the price,” deputy transport minister Patrice Vergriete told AFP.

Orly, south of Paris, is the capital’s second-biggest airport after Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle and last year carried more than 32 million passengers.

It is a hub for national carrier Air France and the home base for its low-cost subsidiary Transavia. More than 20 other airlines, including easyJet, Iberia and TAP, fly out of Orly.

Only flights between Orly and French overseas territories would operate normally this weekend, the DGAC said.

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

Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of High Priestess gives the torch to the President of the Hellenic Olympic Committee and member of the International Olympic Committee Spyros Capralos during the Handover Ceremony.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Between six and eight Palestinian athletes are expected to compete at the Paris Olympics, with some set to be invited by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) even if they fail to qualify, its head Thomas Bach said.

Mr. Bach told AFP on Friday that qualification events for the Paris Games, which start on July 26, were ongoing for a number of sports.

Also Read | World Athletics introduces prize money at the Olympics; Paris winners to get $50,000

“But we have made the clear commitment that even if no (Palestinian) athlete would qualify on the field of play … then the NOC (National Olympic Committee) of Palestine would benefit from invitations, like other national Olympic Committees who do not have a qualified athlete,” he said in an interview at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland.

He said he expected the Palestinian delegation to number “six to eight”.

Mr. Bach said that the International Olympic Committee “from day one of the conflict” in Gaza had “supported in many different ways the athletes to allow them to take part in qualifications and to continue their training.”

Palestinian militants from Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, resulting in the deaths of about 1,170 people, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign to destroy Hamas has killed 34,356 people, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Mr. Bach dismissed suggestions the IOC has treated Russia differently over its invasion of Ukraine compared with Israel and its war in Gaza.

Russia was suspended from many international sports after its invasion and its athletes have been banned from competing under the national flag at Paris 2024.

Also Read | Despite weather glitch, Paris Olympics flame lit at the Greek cradle of ancient games

In order to take part in the Paris Games, they are also required to have never publicly supported the war against Ukraine and not be employed by the military or security services.

The sanctions against Russia were a result of Moscow violating the “Olympic truce” in its invasion of Ukraine soon after the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022 and for annexing Ukrainian sports organisations.

“The situation between Israel and Palestine is completely different,” Mr. Bach said.

He said he had been even-handed in his public statements on Ukraine, the Hamas attack on Israel and the “horrifying consequences” of the war in Gaza.

“From day one, we expressed how horrified we were, first on the seventh of October and then about the war and its horrifying consequences,” Mr. Bach said.

“We have always been very clear as we have been with the Russian invasion in Ukraine.”

Villacoublay, France:

Security is the Paris 2024 Olympics’ hottest topic and France intends to leave no stone unturned as it prepares to secure the Games with the help of anti-drone units.

The military base of Villacoublay just outside Paris will be the home of an anti-drone coordination centre where police, gendarmerie and army officers will work hand in hand to contain the threat posed by drones.

“Drones can be used to carry out a protest, or with a terrorist intent,” General Arnaud Bourguignon, General Officer in charge of air and anti-drone protection for the Games, told reporters on Thursday.

“We’ve seen that it was easy to use a drone for other purposes and turn it into a weapon.”

Officers will monitor air traffic during the Olympics and will be able to identify drones – either with radar or pictures sent by officers on the ground at the Olympic sites.

Some of the drones will be identified as ‘friends’ while others will be neutralised.

Officers will use one of the 15 heavy anti-drone units, which feature radar, cameras and a jamming antenna and can neutralise a drone kilometres away.

At their disposal will also be anti-drone rifles, which scramble the radio signal of a drone or take them down by laser.

Not all drones will need to be scrambled though.

“Some drones are being used by the media, but also to referee some events, so we cannot just ban them altogether,” said Bourguignon.

Although France has never been subject to a drone-led attack, the country was the target of Islamist attacks which involved a simultaneous assault by gunmen and suicide bombers on entertainment venues and cafes in Paris in Nov. 2015.

The Olympics will be held from July 26-Aug 11.

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

Paris:

A bag containing a computer and two USB memory sticks holding police security plans for the Paris Olympic Games was stolen on Monday evening from a train at the capital’s Gare du Nord station, police sources said Tuesday.

The bag belonged to an engineer from Paris City Hall, the police said, confirming a report by BFM television, adding that he had put the bag in the luggage compartment above his seat.

As his train was delayed, he decided to change trains at which point he discovered the theft. 

The engineer said his work computer and two USB sticks contained sensitive data, in particular the municipal police’s plans for securing the Olympics.

An investigation is being conducted by the regional transport police.

Paris City Hall was not able to immediately comment when contacted by AFP.

Two thousand municipal police officers will be deployed during the Games, with a total of around 35,000 security forces expected to be on duty each day for the Olympics that start on July 26.

(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.