French authorities have announced public alcohol consumption and sales bans in Paris, in a bid to ease pressure on the capital’s hospitals during the heatwave.

Parisians will be restricted from drinking alcohol in public from noon on Friday until 07:00 on Saturday. The measures will be in place during the same hours from Saturday to Sunday.

Heatwave conditions that have left Spain, the UK and France sweltering for days are set to shift to the east, with forecasters in Germany and the Czech Republic warning of extreme conditions.

Temperatures in Germany could hit 40C across the country on Friday. An extreme weather warning is now in place in much of the Czech Republic.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the health alert level was being raised to its highest, to boost hospital staffing and protect the vulnerable.

Bans on takeaway alcohol sales will be in effect from 18:00 on Friday until 07:00 on Saturday in the capital, and again during the same hours from Saturday to Sunday.

Licensed bars and restaurants are exempt from the restrictions.

After France recorded its hottest day on Wednesday for the second day in a row, records continue to be broken. Météo-France said the average minimum temperature reached 22C on Wednesday night. Nantes saw 27.2C in the north-west.

After days of record-breaking temperatures in France, officials have warned people to adjust their behaviour, with Health Minister Stéphanie Rist saying there were risks to young people as well as the elderly.

Paris mayor Emmanuel Grégoire said the mortality rate was on the rise in the capital.

“We must not believe we are invulnerable,” he told French TV. “I am thinking especially about the youth… At about 19:30 last night… I saw 100 or so joggers on the street. Frankly, that’s irresponsible.”

“It’s fine to take a couple of days off from exercising,” he added.

Meanwhile, a three-year-old child has been found dead in a car in the Paris region, days after two young children were found dead in the family’s car in the southern town of Carpentras.

In the north-western city of Rennes, the head of the Accident and Emergency department Professor Louis Soulas linked the deaths of five or six people in their homes in the region to the extreme temperatures.

Emergency services had gone to check in on them after they had failed to pick up their phones during welfare calls, said Soulas: “It’s not just the very elderly; it’s people aged 60 and up.”

Rennes saw a record 40.6C on Monday, only for that to be broken by 41C the following day. The previous record dated back to 2022.

Three nuclear plants in France have gone offline due to the heat.

Some western regions are now bracing for huge thunderstorms from Thursday afternoon onwards.

Gusts of up to 110km/h (68mph) were expected on France’s Atlantic coast, and the first day of the Garorock festival has been cancelled in the Lot-et-Garonne region – where temperatures could reach 42C. (BBC)

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Sri Lanka made its debut at France’s premier tea showcase this month, as the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Paris, together with the Sri Lanka Tea Board, successfully represented Pure Ceylon Tea at the Paris Tea Festival 2026. 

Held on June 13–14, the two‑day event drew tea lovers, industry professionals, and trade stakeholders, offering Sri Lanka a valuable platform to highlight its heritage, authenticity, and global reputation for excellence. 

The two-day festival was structured with distinct focus areas. The first day, held at the 15th  Region Mairie of Paris, was open to the public and attracted a vibrant gathering of tea lovers and visitors eager to discover the unique story and diversity of Ceylon Tea.

The second day, held at the Maison Internationale, Cité Universitaire de Paris, was dedicated to trade professionals, buyers, and industry stakeholders, creating valuable opportunities for discussions on tea sourcing, market access, and future commercial collaboration.

Throughout the festival, the Sri Lankan pavilion received exceptional public interest and engagement, with over 1,000 French tea lovers and 1,500 cups of Pure Ceylon Tea being served for tasting across the two days.

Visitors were introduced to the distinctive qualities of Sri Lanka’s seven tea-growing regions, the rich traditions of orthodox tea manufacturing, specialty tea grades, and the globally recognized Lion Logo, which guarantees authenticity and quality.

The Embassy’s participation attracted strong interest from tea professionals and consumers alike, with many expressing enthusiasm for sourcing larger quantities of Ceylon Tea and exploring potential trade partnerships. The event demonstrated the increasing recognition of Sri Lankan tea in France and reaffirmed the country’s position as the world’s leading exporter of orthodox black tea.

France continues to emerge as a growing and promising market for Ceylon Tea, particularly within the premium and specialty tea segments, where consumer interest in origin, authenticity, sustainability, and artisanal production continues to expand. The Embassy’s participation in the Paris Tea Festival has therefore created significant visibility for Sri Lankan tea and opened new avenues for market development and commercial engagement.

The successful organization and coordination of the Sri Lankan participation at the Paris Tea Festival 2026 was led by , First Secretary (Commercial) of the Embassy, Prasadi Boomawalagewith the dedicated support and collective efforts of the Embassy staff, reflecting the Mission’s continued commitment to promoting Sri Lankan exports and strengthening the international presence of Pure Ceylon Tea. (Newswire)

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Inoshan Sooran, a Sri Lankan-born resident of France, has successfully completed a 10,000-kilometer solo cycling journey from Paris to Jaffna, traveling through 13 countries including Germany, Turkey, and India.

Beginning his journey on September 1, 2025, Sooran arrived in Jaffna on October 23, where he was warmly received by the Sri Lanka Army during a special welcoming ceremony.

The journey, titled “From Paris to Jaffna,” aimed to promote Jaffna as a vibrant travel destination while fostering intercultural understanding and reconciliation.

Sooran said that his mission was to highlight Jaffna’s rich traditions to the international community, promote tourism, and build stronger cultural and social ties between Sri Lanka and the global diaspora. (Newswire)

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Traffic at Paris’ Gare du Nord train station has been halted after an unexploded World War II bomb was discovered on the tracks leading to France’s busiest rail terminal, officials confirmed.

The explosive device was found in the middle of the tracks overnight during routine maintenance work in the suburb of Saint-Denis, according to the French national railway company, SNCF. 

The suburban RER B train service confirmed on X (formerly Twitter) that the bomb dated back to the Second World War.

Following the discovery, French authorities quickly halted all train traffic to and from Gare du Nord, including high-speed TGV and Eurostar services. The terminal, which accommodates approximately 700,000 passengers daily, saw major disruptions as police and bomb disposal experts worked to neutralize the threat.

According to Eurostar’s official website, at least three morning departures were canceled as a precaution. Passengers traveling to London, Brussels, and other destinations faced significant delays.

Authorities have yet to confirm the origins of the bomb, though unexploded ordnance from World War II is occasionally unearthed in Europe during construction and maintenance work. (Hindustan Times)

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Sri Lanka has announced the opening of tickets for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France.

Accordingly, tickets for the Paris Olympics can be reserved through the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka.

For details on ticket availability visit https://shorturl.at/P1Nz1. For more information, contact +94-11-268-4420 or email games@olympic.lk. 

Five Sri Lankan athletes have qualified for the 2024 Summer Olympics. 

Middle-distance runner Tharushi Karunarathna and Javelin Thrower Dilhani Lekamge have qualified for the track and field events. 

Viren Nettasinghe will compete in the Badminton Men’s Single. Kyle Abeysinghe and Ganga Seneviratne will compete in the swimming events. 

Meanwhile, athletes Aruna Dharshana, Yupun Abeykoon, and Rumesh Tharanga are hopeful of qualifications depending on other withdrawals and personal achievements. (Newswire)

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President Ranil Wickremesinghe discussed the country’s experience with debt restructuring and the need for a comprehensive approach to address the challenges faced by middle-income nations.

The President made the remarks while participating in a high-level panel discussion at the Global Leaders’ Summit for a New Global Financing Pact, in Paris yesterday (22).

He said Sri Lanka faced limited access to financing and took ownership of its debt and economic restructuring program. The president emphasized the need for timely and automatic access to concessional financing and highlighted the high costs incurred during the process. He also called for improved interaction between creditors and debtors and suggests a new approach to address geopolitical issues.

President Wickremesinghe emphasized the urgency of restructuring to avoid instability and advocated for a separate process for middle-income countries to address their unique challenges.

He expresses gratitude for the IMF’s intervention and Sri Lanka’s coordination, which allowed dealing with both creditor groups. Ongoing negotiations with Japan, India, and China regarding trade integration and development programs also aided the process. 

However, President Wickremesinghe highlights the need for improved interaction between the committee and debtors during the restructuring process, suggesting that a new approach is necessary.

Following is an excerpt of the question posed by the Moderator First Deputy Prime Minister of Spain Nadia Calvino at the panel discussion and the response by President Wickremesinghe;

Q. So President Wickremesinghe, you are in a somewhat special situation. We move now into a middle-income country The coordination challenges are maybe, greater in the sense that you are not subject to the common framework, which is heard that it was an important instrument in the case of Chad. The official creditor committee has been formed with Paris Club and non-Paris Club members and we understand that India’s decision to participate and co-chair these creditors gathering is a major milestone. So what is your view about the restructuring process and what do you consider to be the main bottlenecks? We have already heard from the President of Chad that we need to reduce bureaucracy and we all agree on that. Simplification is sometimes the most complex thing to achieve. But, we are very interested to hear your experience in this regard.

A. When Sri Lanka was declared bankrupt as a middle-income country, we were not eligible under the common framework for debt restructuring. We had limited access to concessionary financing and there was a complete loss of external financing. Therefore, Sri Lanka’s response was to take ownership of this program, both for debt restructuring as well as the economic restructuring needed for growth. Then we negotiated our conditionality with the IMF and the creditors.

So, it’s like we were working on a menu, the argument of what are the items that should get on and what are the items that could be taken off. I think we had an agreement actually to about 90% of the items. So, we own it as much as the IMF is. Of course, we had two exceptional situations.

One is that India came to our help and that was nearly four billion US dollars available when no other source of funding was available. Secondly, through the World Bank and the ADB, we went through the process of reverse graduation.

So the gain became entitled to concessionary funding. But from the time we declared ourselves bankrupt, there was a delay in bureaucracy on both sides. We delayed and if we had funding by May, the upheavals of July could have been avoided.

But anyway, we had the upheavals of July. We went in immediately as it settled down. By September, we had a staff-level agreement, but it took us another six months for the agreement to come before we got any monetary assistance.

So, we undertook significant economic reform that imposed pain on the population but without any predictability. Now, this is the problem we have. I would say given the increasing vulnerabilities facing middle-income nations, MIC’s access to concessional financing must be viewed from a broader perspective. That is access to an automatic and timely, under an agreed criterion. If you fulfill the criteria.

Secondly, I mean, I agree President Acharya defined it. We could have done it much faster.

We did the debt. The staff level agreement came last September. By November, we had the climate prosperity plan, which we announced at COP 27. Now, it’s been followed up by Sri Lanka’s growth agenda for a highly competitive green economy. So our financial needs, both official and private, have virtually quadrupled. So that’s problem others also have to face. Then I would say following the conclusion of the negotiations with the IMF and the successful approval of the Extended Fund Facility (EFF), we have had no roadmap to follow regarding the next phase of debt restructuring. So before we can get the next tranche from the IMF. So it’s a question of us now mapping the road out.

But I would like to certainly point out a few of the experiences. The data-led approach was the key to our success. It was our program, not an IMF program.

Secondly, we found a sponsor for us among the official creditor community. That helps. Thirdly, you have to be very pragmatic when you are implementing this. I’m not sure that a binding framework like the common framework would have rendered the process quicker or more efficient. The approach for a middle-income country would be to move. If you have a common framework, what happens is we move as fast as the slowest creditor.

So we get tied down. So that’s why we are not in favor of a common framework. We were able to create traction with the most committed creditors, raising the general quality and efficiency of the process. Because we are still frustrated by the lack of process.

The cost for us, economic and social, has been very high. Now, as far as the creditors, our creditors include the Paris Club and the non-Paris Club members of which India and China are two of our main creditors, and Japan from the Paris Club.

So we’ve attempted to establish an ad hoc platform for the official creditors, including the Paris Club members and others. India, Hungary, and others came on to participate in the ad hoc platform.

China participated as an observer. We shared the information with all parties on an open transaction, a transparent process. Then I must thank IMF for the intervention of the IMF and Sri Lanka’s coordination, we are dealing with both groups. So what else helped us was that Sri Lanka had ongoing negotiations with Japan, India, and China separately regarding further trade integration and also some of the development programs for the future.

This assisted our process. But as far as my experience is, we need, we have to have some improvement in the interaction between the committee and the debtors because the debt restructuring process is a negotiation and it should in essence be interactive. Looking at the dealing with the Paris Club and non-Paris Club, we need a new approach because this is basically a geopolitical issue.

The mistrust between the US and China and the growing tension, it has to be addressed by all, not merely by Sri Lanka or the country concerned. If you do not resolve it, I think we will still, in Asia and Africa, we will get caught into another situation, not our making. So these will be the major issues that we have addressed.

And restructuring is needed. I agree with it. It has to move fast, otherwise, most countries, whether low-income countries or middle-income countries, will not have much hope and there will be more instability, political and economic instability. And without creating a separate process under this roundtable, we should deal with the issues of middle-income countries because most are under stress. It’s better to deal with them under stress than when they are bankrupt. So that process has to evolve. (NewsWire)

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President Ranil Wickremesinghe has been invited to address a high-level panel discussion at the Global Leaders Summit for a New Global Financing Pact to be held in Paris, France.

According to the President’s Media Division (PMD), the invitation has been extended by French President, Emmanuel Macron.

The PMD further stated that the Global Leaders Summit for a New Global Financing Pact will be held on June 22nd and 23rd, 2023.

According to foreign media, the summit will bring together heads of state and government, leaders of major international organizations, representatives of global financial institutions, and private sector and civil society representatives. 

The Summit’s goal is to lay the groundwork for a new financial system, one that is fairer and more solidarity-based, to meet shared global challenges: the fight against poverty, climate change and the protection of diversity. (NewsWire)

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