France's National Day

Macron's last parade to show support for Ukraine

Tens of thousands of people are expected to brave the heatwave and take to the streets of Paris today to celebrate France's National Day, writes AFP.

The French are celebrating traditionally with a large parade through the capital. This year, 6,700 soldiers will participate, of which 500 soldiers from the "coalition of the willing" which is Emmanuel Macron's initiative to support Ukraine.

From Sweden, 21 soldiers from the Södra Skåne Regiment P7 will participate. A Swedish Gripen plane will also fly over Paris.

The parade, which will be Macron's last as president, is described by France 24 as a show of support for Ukraine and a demonstration of Europe's military strength. 

National Day, heat wave and World Cup semi-final put French police on high alert

Tuesday, July 14, is not only France's National Day. It is also the day when the French national team meets Spain in the semi-final of the World Cup.

In Paris alone, 7,000 police officers and 2,000 firefighters will be deployed to ensure that everything goes smoothly during tonight's football match. In total, the country is expected to deploy 70,000 police officers to ensure order among both National Day celebrants and football fans.

Le Figaro describes it as the police being on "high alert".

At the same time, a heat wave is underway in France and a large forest fire is raging south of the capital. It is also ten years since the terrorist attack in Nice, when 86 people were killed when a truck plowed through a National Day celebration.