Bonjour et bienvenue to the Paris Edition. I’m Bloomberg Opinion columnist Lionel Laurent. If you haven’t yet, subscribe now to the Paris Edition newsletter.
With just hours to go before the Olympic Games’ make-or-break opening ceremony, train services have been disrupted across France due to “coordinated malicious acts” via multiple fires targeting rail infrastructure. Delays are racking up nationwide, affecting 800,000 people, and normal service isn’t set to resume until Monday. It’s an inauspicious start to a day intended to get Paris in a festive mood, and a grim reminder of the huge security risks facing global events at a time of rising conflict.