France aims to wow the world on Friday with an extravagant Olympic Games opening ceremony through the heart of Paris.<\/p>\n
It is officially kicking off a Games fraught with security risks at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions.<\/p>\n
Some 45,000 police personnel, 10,000 soldiers and 2,000 private security staff have been mobilised.<\/p>\n
This will ensure the safety of the parade along the river Seine, its banks and surrounding monuments in an unprecedented display of security.<\/p>\n
A procession of barges will take nearly 7,000 athletes along the river past Paris\u2019s most famous landmarks, while more than 300,000 spectators will watch from the banks.<\/p>\n
Since the last Olympics (the Winter Games in Beijing in 2022), wars have erupted in Ukraine and Gaza, providing a tense backdrop to the Games.<\/p>\n
France is, however, at its highest level of security, even though<\/p>\n
officials have repeatedly said there is no specific threat to the opening ceremony or the Games.<\/p>\n
French authorities have ramped up security for the Olympics by placing 155 individuals under surveillance, utilizing powers granted by an anti-terror law. This move significantly limits their freedom of movement.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, Israeli competitors will receive round-the-clock protection from elite tactical units, who will escort them to and from events.<\/p>\n
The opening ceremony, expected to draw a large number of world leaders, will be secured by a network of rooftop snipers, ensuring a high level of safety and security.”<\/p>\n
The Seine\u2019s riverbed has been swept for bombs, and Paris\u2019 airspace will be closed.<\/p>\n
For the Games, more generally, radar-surveillance planes and Reaper drones will watch sensitive sites from above.<\/p>\n
Also, Mirage 2000 fighter jets will be on standby to intercept aircraft straying into restricted airspace.<\/p>\n
\u201dEverything is ready,\u201d French President Emmanuel Macron said in a video he posted on X.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
France aims to wow the world on Friday with an extravagant Olympic Games opening ceremony through the heart of Paris. It is officially kicking off a Games fraught with security risks at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions. Some 45,000 police personnel, 10,000 soldiers and 2,000 private security staff have been mobilised. This will ensure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":40642,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40641"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40643,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40641\/revisions\/40643"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}