France on Saturday prepared to throw open the doors of the capital’s Notre Dame cathedral after a half-decade closure, in a ceremony attended by dozens of world leaders celebrating the rebirth of the Paris landmark ravaged by a devastating fire.

Held up as an example of French creativity and resilience by President Emmanuel Macron, Notre Dame’s renaissance so soon after a 2019 blaze that destroyed its roof and spire comes at a difficult time for the country.

The re-opening will officially take place when archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich opens the doors to the cathedral at 1800 GMT, by knocking three times, to herald the start of the almost two-hour ceremony.

Macron has scored a major coup by attracting US president-elect Donald Trump, on his first foreign trip since his election, for the ceremony along with some 40 other leaders, including Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and the UK’s heir to the throne, Prince William.

It is “a cathedral like we have never seen before,” Philippe Jost, the head of the restoration project, told Franceinfo radio, saying he was proud to “show the whole world” a “great collective success and a source of pride for all of France”.

In one last-minute hitch, harsh weather forced officials to move Macron’s planned speech indoors and pre-record a concert planned for after the ceremony, with forecasts for winds of up to 80 kilometres (50 miles) per hour.

The service will feature prayer, organ music and hymns from the cathedral’s choir, followed by the televised concert — pre-recorded Friday night due to the weather — with performances by Chinese piano virtuoso Lang Lang, South African opera singer Pretty Yende and an orchestra conducted by Venezuelan maestro Gustavo Dudamel.

US singer and fashion designer Pharrell Williams is also believed to have taken part.

The sense of national accomplishment in restoring a beloved symbol of Paris has been undercut by political turmoil that has left France without a proper government and in a budget crisis.

Macron is hoping the re-opening might provide a fleeting sense of pride and unity — as the Paris Olympics did in July and August.

The scale of the immense security operation also recalls the Olympics — with some 6,000 police officers and gendarmes mobilised.

The re-opening “is the proof that we know how to do grand things, we know how to do the impossible” Macron said Thursday.

During a visit with TV cameras last week. however, he somewhat undermined the suspense behind the re-opening, revealing the cathedral’s freshly scrubbed limestone walls, new furniture and vaulted wooden roof cut from ancient oak trees selected from the finest forests of France.

The reconstruction effort has cost around 700 million euros ($750 million), financed from donations, with the re-opening achieved within five years despite predictions it could take decades.

“This state-of-the-art restoration, the fruit of a worldwide collective effort and the use of many traditional French skills, has enabled this masterpiece to regain all its splendour,” said Audrey Azoulay, the head of the UN cultural agency UNESCO, describing the work as “dazzling”.

Trump accepted an invitation from Macron to attend earlier this week, saying the French leader had done “a wonderful job ensuring that Notre Dame has been restored to its full level of glory, and even more so.”

Travelling on a private plane, he landed at Orly airport in the south of Paris Saturday morning, followed by Zelensky a few hours later. US President Joe Biden will be represented by his wife, Jill.

One surprising absentee will be Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, who is instead visiting the French island of Corsica. A message from Francis addressed to the French people will be read out to the congregation.

Parisians watched in horror in 2019 as flames ravaged Notre Dame, a landmark famed as the setting for Victor Hugo’s novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” and one of the world’s most visited monuments.

The apocalyptic images were seen by some as a sign of the demise of Western civilisation, with the 850-year-old wonder saved from complete collapse only by the heroic intervention of firefighters.

The exact cause of the blaze has never been identified despite a forensic investigation by prosecutors, who believe an accident such as an electrical fault was the most likely reason.

On Sunday, the first mass with 170 bishops and more than 100 Paris priests will take place at 10:30 am (0930 GMT), followed by a second service in the evening at 6:30 pm which will be open to the public.

AFP

Tens of thousands of people across the UK were left without power on Saturday morning after Storm Darragh hit the country with strong winds and caused pre-Christmas travel disruption.

The UK’s Met Office had issued a rare red alert for high winds overnight to Saturday morning (0300 to 1100 GMT) covering parts of Wales and southwest England.

The government warned three million people living in the area with a siren-like alert on their phones to stay at home on Friday night.

Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the storm posed a “challenging situation”.

“About three million homes will have had the emergency alert system to their mobile phone. I would just encourage anyone who has had that to follow the advice,” Reynolds told Sky News on Saturday.

Darragh, the fourth named storm of the season, is also expected to bring heavy rain through the weekend, with more than 100 flood warnings and alerts in place across the UK.

In Wales, the Met Office estimated gusts of up to 150 kmph (93 mph), which knocked out power for over 50,000 people, according to the PA news agency.

Power cuts affected 86,000 homes in England, Scotland and Wales, according to the Energy Networks Association.

Network Rail Wales suspended trains on the Welsh northern coast due to a “fallen tree blocking the line”, and several bridges in southern England and Wales were closed for safety reasons.

A separate amber warning, which is less serious than the red alert but still poses “potential risk to life and property”, covering a larger stretch of the UK and Northern Ireland is in place until Saturday night.

In Northern Ireland, thousands were left without power, and several bus and train services were suspended or delayed.

Christmas markets and sporting events were postponed, including the Merseyside derby between Premier League leaders Liverpool and Everton.

In Ireland, which issued an “orange” wind warning, 400,000 people were left without electricity, according to the RTE news agency.

Dublin Airport said a “a number of flights scheduled for Saturday morning have been cancelled by airlines” due to the storm.

Darragh comes two weeks after Storm Bert battered much of Britain, causing “devastating” flooding in parts of Wales and knocking out power to thousands of homes in Ireland.



AFP

US President Joe Biden on Sunday issued an official pardon for his son Hunter, who was facing sentencing for two criminal cases, despite assurances that he would not intervene in his legal troubles.

“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong,” the president said in a statement.

The move is sure to bring about fresh scrutiny over the independence of the US judicial system — especially at a time when incoming president Donald Trump has moved to appoint loyalists to the FBI and Justice Department himself.

The younger Biden was convicted earlier this year of lying about his drug use when he bought a gun — a felony — and has also pleaded guilty in a separate tax evasion trial, but had not faced sentencing.


Joe Biden, who is in the final weeks of his presidency before Trump takes office on January 20, had repeatedly said he wouldn’t pardon his son.

“I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,” President Biden said in Sunday’s statement.

“The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election,” he added.

“I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”

The pardon comes as criminal cases against President-elect Trump have stalled after a sweeping ruling on presidential immunity by the Supreme Court — all but ensuring Biden’s Republican rival will likely never see a jail cell, even after his landmark conviction for falsifying business records in May.

– Plea deal gone awry –

US presidents have previously used pardons to help family members and other political allies.

Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother for old cocaine charges and Trump pardoned the father of his son-in-law for tax evasion, though in both cases those men had already served their prison terms.

Trump has vowed to pardon supporters who stormed the US Capitol in a deadly riot on January 6, 2021, in a bid to reverse his 2020 election loss.

He referenced them in a social media post late Sunday, writing, “Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years? Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!”

Hunter Biden pleaded guilty in a tax evasion trial in September, facing up to 17 years in prison. For the separate gun charge, he was facing 25 years in prison.

His lawyers have said he was only being brought before the court because he is the son of the president.

Hunter has paid the back taxes, as well as penalties levied by authorities, and previously reached a plea deal that would have kept him out of jail — but that agreement fell apart at the last minute.

His case has long been a thorn in the Biden family’s side, particularly during this election year when Republicans have charged that Hunter was being treated too leniently.

President Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race in favor of Vice President Kamala Harris took much of the zeal out of the Republican drive to make an example out of his son.

Still, prosecutors appeared unwilling to cut him any slack, rejecting a so-called “Alford plea,” whereby Hunter Biden would admit guilt because of the high probability of conviction, but would maintain his innocence.

In a statement to US media, Hunter Biden, who has grappled with drug addiction, said he would “devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering.