Saboteurs struck France’s TGV high-speed train network yesterday in a series of pre-dawn attacks across the country, causing travel chaos and exposing security gaps ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony later in the day.

In the midst of its own political upheaval and rising global tensions, France is set to host an unprecedented Olympic showcase, marking a significant departure from traditional stadium settings for the first time since the Summer Olympics began in 1896.

The world’s richest one percent increased their fortunes by a total of $42 trillion over the past decade, Oxfam said yesterday, ahead of a G20 summit in Brazil where taxing the super-rich tops the agenda.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Armenia’s tilt towards Nato was a cause for regret and concern, and said Yerevan’s actions risked destabilising the wider South Caucasus region.

UK police yesterday arrested two pro-Palestinian demonstrators after a protest at Britain’s Cenotaph war memorial in central London.

Russia downed 22 Ukrainian drones overnight in the west of the country and over Crimea, Moscow’s defence ministry said yesterday.

France’s left-wing parties still plan to form a joint government after they emerged as the strongest bloc in parliament in a snap election, but any pact is unlikely to come this week, the head of the Socialist Party (PS) said yesterday.

The Kremlin on Saturday warned that the deployment of US missiles in Germany could make European capitals targets for Russian missiles in a repeat of Cold War-style confrontation.

The Kremlin yesterday said it did not believe the US administration was responsible for Saturday’s assassination attempt on US presidential candidate Donald Trump, but that it had created an atmosphere that provoked the attack.

France’s political parties yesterday scrambled to break a parliamentary deadlock brought on by an inconclusive snap election, as the outgoing Prime Minister vowed to prevent any government with far-right or hard-left members.

Italian viewers appeared to be abuzz with anticipation — and some surprise — ahead of the broadcast of a two-part television series that portrays Angela Merkel as an Agatha Christie-style sleuth

A French mayor exasperated by summer downpours has ordered the sun to come out, and encouraged clergy to start “top-priority communication with heaven” to help end an unusual bout of wet weather engulfing his village.

Thousands crowded into the Bosnian town of Srebrenica yesterday to remember the 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims, families of victims in tears, some burying loved ones whose remains were only recently discovered.

French left-wingers attacked President Emmanuel Macron yesterday after he called for a broad coalition government, demanding that their movement alone should propose a prime minister.

India stands ready to give all possible support to restoring peace to war-torn Ukraine, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday in Vienna after a Kremlin visit criticised by Kyiv.

Russia yesterday named The Moscow Times news outlet an “undesirable organisation”, outlawing its activities inside Russia and leaving anybody who cooperates with them open to criminal prosecution.

Tulip Siddiq has been appointed Britain’s City Minister, the minister responsible for overseeing the financial services sector, Bloomberg News reported yesterday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday told President Vladimir Putin that “war cannot solve problems” and urged peace on a trip to Moscow over two years into the Ukraine offensive.

French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday asked his prime minister to stay in the role for now, pending what will be difficult negotiations to form a new government after a surprise left-wing surge in elections that delivered a hung parliament.

Two pistols that Napoleon Bonaparte once intended to use to kill himself were sold in France on Sunday for 1.69 million euros ($1.8 million), the auction house said, with the government insisting that they stay in the country as national treasures.