On the front of the iWeekend huge plumes of blue, white and red smoke blow into the air over the River Seine as the Paris 2024 Olympics formally kicks off with its opening ceremony. “Let the Games begin,” it headlines. The paper’s main story focuses on the hunt for saboteurs who launched an attack on France’s rail network affecting hundreds of thousands of travellers.
“La farce” headlines the Daily Mail which also focuses on the rail attacks and torrential rain putting a “damper” on the opening ceremony. It writes the first opening ceremony to be held outside a stadium “backfired spectacularly with 320,000 spectators, VIPs, celebrities and athletes getting drenched”. A new biography of the Princess of Wales is also teased on its front page with a picture of Catherine beaming.
“Olympics sabotaged” says the Times as it warns French authorities are braced for further attacks as they try to identify who was responsible for the arson attacks on the high-speed rail network’s fibre optic cables at strategic points in the countryside. Spy agencies are trying to find out if a foreign state such as Russia was behind it, it writes. Meanwhile, Team GB’s flagbearers Tom Daley and Helen Glover pose for a picture.
The Daily Mirror writes “chaos at the Olympics” as the tabloid too focuses on the French railways being “crippled by a string of arson attacks”. It pictures huge crowds at the capital’s Gare du Nord railway station, but it says the chaos did not stop the ceremony wowing crowds in the rain with a flotilla of nations and Lady Gaga performing.
On the front of the Daily Telegraph, flagbearers Daley and Glover recreate the famous scene from the Titanic on Team GB’s barge along the Seine. The broadsheet reports hard-left agitators are suspected of carrying out the attack, as well as suspicion falling on Russia. It writes that Prime Minister Keir Starmer was also affected – he flew to France instead of catching the Eurostar as planned because of the disruption. The paper’s chief sport writer describes the opening ceremony as “miraculous” despite it ridding itself of a stadium and being staged on a river.
Lady Gaga is surrounded by pink feathers as she performs at the opening ceremony. But the FT Weekend’s main story headlines “Reeves to stall hospital and road projects” as it reports on the chancellor seeking to fill an estimated £20bn fiscal hole she attributes to the previous Conservative government. The paper observes the delay to big capital projects will be “awkward” for Labour who promised a “building boom” but the chancellor has insisted all public spending must be paid for.
“The greatest show on earth” says the Daily Express as it too uses the image of red, white and blue smoke blowing into the air from a bridge. The tabloid’s reports the chancellor’s claims of a £20bn black hole in Britain finances being labelled a “con”. It quotes shadow treasury minister Laura Trott saying: “This is nothing but a con designed to mask Labour’s broken promises on tax rises.”
The chancellor is also set to announce millions of public sector workers are likely to receive an above inflation pay rise, the Guardian says. It writes Ms Reeves is expected to accept the recommendations of public sector pay bodies for pay rises on Monday – in a move estimated to cost up to £10bn.
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