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00:00The UN Secretary-General delivers a stark warning after the hottest day on record.
00:13The rail network in France has been targeted by acts of sabotage a few hours ahead of the
00:19Olympic Games opening ceremony.
00:21French state railway company SNCF described it as a massive attack to paralyze the network,
00:28causing many disruptions.
00:30In a post on X, SNCF asked all travellers who can to postpone their trip and not to
00:37go to the station.
00:38In particular, that concerned travellers to and from London beneath the English Channel
00:44and to neighbouring Belgium.
00:48Those across the west, north and east of France were also affected.
00:53An attack on the south-east line was foiled, according to the authorities.
00:58It's probably a large-scale sabotage with some malicious acts probably coordinating.
01:09We're still in the process of analysing all the impacts, assessing what we're going to
01:15implement as solutions because it's going to have impacts also over the weekend and
01:20we want this not to jeopardize the quality of the experience for the athletes and for
01:25the spectators.
01:27Some 800,000 travellers would be affected by the disruption.
01:32In response to the attacks, Paris police have said they are stepping up security and focusing
01:37manpower on the capital's train stations just as the Games begin.
01:45The opening ceremony for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics is kicking off tonight, starting
01:507.30pm local time.
01:53Some 300,000 spectators are expected to attend this highly ambitious event along the Seine
01:59River.
02:00As you can see, the weather here is not great.
02:02Some rainfall is expected later tonight, but organisers have reassured us that they are
02:07ready for any sort of scenario.
02:10The city is really abuzz.
02:12You can really feel the excitement, the festivity, but you can also feel a lot of tension in
02:16the air.
02:17I'm currently standing behind one of the major train stations here, the Gare de Montparnasse,
02:22where thousands of travellers have been stranded since this morning after saboteurs set fire
02:28to the country's high-speed railroad tracks.
02:31Delays and cancellations are expected for the rest of the weekend.
02:35Sofia Katzenkova reporting from Paris for Euronews.
02:42A little over a third of the Refugee Olympic team at the Paris Games are women.
02:47The female representation has continued to decline since the team's creation in 2015.
02:54While the International Olympic Committee emphasises that this year's event will be
02:59the first gender-equal one in history, individual sports cases reveal a different story to the
03:05reality of the bigger picture.
03:09They're, you know, consistently promoting the achievements related to gender equality
03:16at the Games, but not then kind of enforcing or really requiring them of any national team,
03:27but even this refugee team over which they have control.
03:31The number of refugees has tripled just in the last decade.
03:36Around half of them are women and girls.
03:38In addition to poverty and other issues that all refugees may face, women refugees encounter
03:44an added layer of oppression caused by gender discrimination.
03:49So for some, having the number of women athletes reach almost 40% is an achievement that should
03:56be celebrated.
03:57I think we need to be really realistic that even the teams that are sending gender-equal
04:02teams to Paris, it doesn't mean that women's sport is somehow solved in those countries.
04:09We would love to see a gender-equal refugee team at an Olympics in the future, of course
04:13we would, but I think for this time we should really be celebrating the fact that, you know,
04:19these amazing women have made it this far.
04:20However, not everyone shares this opinion.
04:23I don't think it's enough.
04:25The teams at the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games can be used to raise awareness about
04:31and draw attention to the global refugee crisis that we have, should also be drawing
04:38attention to that not everybody has the same experiences of being a refugee, and that there
04:45are these increased risks and challenges for women, for gender minority folks, for disabled
04:53folks, right, as refugees, and that all of that does influence who then ultimately gets
04:59to be or is able to be part of the Refugee Olympic and Paralympic teams.
05:05The Olympic Refugee Foundation, which runs the team, states that a balanced representation
05:10in terms of sport, gender and regions is taken into consideration, and to be legible, athletes
05:17must be elite competitors in their respective sport and be refugees in their host country,
05:23recognized by the UN Refugee Agency.
05:30World and business leaders have pledged billions of dollars to finance sporting initiatives
05:35aimed at accelerating sustainable development a day before the Olympic Games opens.
05:41Five hundred participants, including 50 heads of state and government, attended the Sport
05:46for Sustainable Development Summit in Paris.
05:50The event was championed by French President Emmanuel Macron.
05:55The synergy of our actions is key, and everything we can do with the sporting movement in this
06:00direction is absolutely fundamental.
06:02I wanted to thank you for your mobilization.
06:04The Games are a time to highlight what is being done, to launch new initiatives, which
06:09we are doing, and thank you for all the funding that is being mobilized for the African continent,
06:16the Latin American and Pacific continent in this direction, and I thank you for the commitment
06:21of each day in this direction.
06:23A coalition of public development banks pledged to invest 9.2 billion euros across the world
06:29for community-based, inclusive and sustainable sports infrastructure by 2030.
06:35And the French development agency said it would release 500 million euros for sustainable
06:40development in sports.
06:42With his country slated to host the 2026 Youth Olympic Games, Senegal's president said the
06:47Olympic ideal is today challenged by the tragedy of war.
06:51I took this opportunity to draw the attention of the Summit on the unbearable scourge of
06:58racism and racial discrimination that continues to gangrenize sport in a context of banalization
07:05of hateful and xenophobic discourses.
07:08The 2024 Paris Olympics opens on July 26 and runs until August 11.
07:15The United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres issued an urgent call to action after
07:25the world experienced its hottest day on record on Monday.
07:31He states that extreme heat events are increasing in scale, intensity, frequency and duration,
07:37and warns that Earth is becoming hotter and more dangerous for everyone and everywhere.
07:43Extreme temperatures are no longer a one-day, one-week or one-month phenomenon.
07:50If there is one thing that unites our divided world, it is that we are all increasingly feeling the heat.
07:59The UN chief asks for a joint international effort to address the extreme heat and urges
08:05countries to work towards the global goals agreed at COP28.
08:10He calls out the world's wealthiest countries and urges that their leadership is essential
08:15to the phasing out of fossil fuels.
08:18The G20 must shift fossil fuel subsidies to renewables and to the support of vulnerable
08:24countries and communities.
08:26And national climate action plans must show how each country will contribute to the global
08:31goals agreed at COP28.
08:34Guterres attributes extreme heat to the widening of inequalities.
08:39He stresses that the implementation of measures to protect exposed workers and those vulnerable
08:44to climate change must be in place to reflect the reality of the rising heat today.
08:56At least two people have been injured after three fireworks warehouses caught fire in
09:00western Bulgaria.
09:03An explosion was reported at around 6.30 p.m. local time which started the blaze and
09:08ignited the fireworks.
09:11Bulgaria's public warning system BG Alert sent out a hazard warning because of the risk
09:15of further possible explosions.
09:18Fire crews were deployed to the area but had to wait until the danger of further explosions
09:23subsided before tackling the fire.
09:25Two of the Democratic Party's most popular members, former U.S. President and First Lady
09:37Barack and Michelle Obama, have officially endorsed Kamala Harris' presidential bid in
09:43a phone call.
09:45We call to say Michelle and I couldn't be prouder to endorse you and to do everything
09:49we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office.
09:53Oh my goodness. Michelle, Barack, this means so much to me.
09:57The call came almost a week after Harris announced her candidacy for the November presidential
10:03election.
10:05Former Democratic Party presumptive nominee Joe Biden announced he would drop out of the
10:10campaign with 107 days left in the race.
10:14The Democratic National Committee is expected to vote and decide on the party's official
10:19presidential candidate and running mate in August.
10:27On day two of the Paris Olympics, women's sports took centre stage with the first football
10:34and handball games.
10:37Tokyo 2020 gold medalists Canada defeated New Zealand in a 2-1 comeback following a
10:45spying scandal that saw two members of the Canadian staff sent home.
10:53In Lyon, France equalled Wednesday's men's victory by beating Colombia 3-2 as reigning
11:00world champions Spain saw Japan off 2-1.
11:05The hosts won the opening handball game too with a narrow three-goal margin on Hungary,
11:13raising hopes for a second consecutive Olympic gold.
11:19In men's rugby sevens, France beat Argentina in the quarterfinals 26-14.
11:26The French will be joined in the next stage by South Africa, Fiji and Australia.