PARIS — The French news broadcaster BFM TV says a 32-year-old French journalist was killed Monday in Ukraine.

It says the journalist was hit by shell shrapnel while covering a Ukrainian evacuation operation.

BFM TV said Frédéric Leclerc-Imhoff was killed as he was “covering a humanitarian operation in an armored vehicle” near Sievierodonetsk, a key city in the Donbas region.

French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Leclerc-Imhoff.

Macron tweeted he “was in Ukraine to show the reality of the war. Aboard a humanitarian bus, alongside civilians forced to flee to escape Russian bombs, he was fatally shot."

Since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in late February, at least seven journalists have been killed, according to numbers gathered by Reporters Without Borders.

At least nine journalists have been injured while covering the invasion.

A climate activist wearing a T-shirt with the message “We have 1028 days left” interrupted the French Open men's semifinal between Marin Cilic and Casper Ruud by attaching herself to the net and kneeling on the court.

Play was delayed for more than 10 minutes during a game with Ruud serving in the third set while leading 3-6, 6-4, 4-1, 15-all.

Tournament director Amelie Mauresmo looked on from near the entrance to the court and both players left while the protester was carried away by four security guards.

Eventually, Ruud and Cilic returned and were given three minutes to warm up before resuming their semifinal.

The winner of the match will face 13-time Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal in Sunday's final.

There have been other episodes involving people interrupting matches at Court Philippe Chatrier over the years.

During the 2013 men's final, a topless man carrying a fiery flare jumped onto the court. At the 2009 final, a man went up to Roger Federer and tried to put a hat on his head. At the 2003 final, a male streaker hurdled the net.

PARIS —

Young rioters clashed with police into early Sunday and targeted a mayor's home with a burning car, injuring members of his family, as France saw a fifth night of unrest after the police killing of a teenager. Overall violence, however, appeared to lessen from previous nights.

Police made 719 arrests nationwide by early Sunday following a mass security deployment aimed at quelling France's worst social upheaval in years.

The crisis posed a new challenge to President Emmanuel Macron's leadership and exposed deep-seated discontent in low-income neighborhoods over discrimination and lack of opportunity.

The 17-year-old whose death Tuesday spawned the anger was laid to rest Saturday in a Muslim ceremony in Nanterre, a Paris suburb where emotions over his loss remain raw. He has been identified publicly only by his first name, Nahel.

As night fell Saturday, a small crowd gathered on the Champs-Elysees to protest his death and police violence but met hundreds of officers with batons and shields guarding the avenue and its boutiques. In a less chic Paris neighborhood, protesters set off firecrackers and lit barricades on fire as police shot back with tear gas and stun grenades.

A burning car hit the home of the mayor of the Paris suburb of l'Hay-les-Roses. Several schools, police stations, town halls and stores have been targeted by fires or vandalism in recent days but such a personal attack on a mayor's home is unusual.

Mayor Vincent Jeanbrun said his wife and one of his children were injured in the 1:30 a.m. attack while they were sleeping and he was in the town hall monitoring the violence.

Jeanbrun, of the conservative opposition Republicans party, said the attack represented a new stage of "horror and ignominy" in the unrest, and urged the government to impose a state of emergency.

Regional prosecutor Stephane Hardouin opened an investigation into attempted murder in the attack, telling French television that a preliminary investigation suggests the car was meant to ram the house and set it ablaze. He said a flame accelerant was found in a bottle in the car.

Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne went to l'Hay-les-Roses to meet Jeanbrun along with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin and other officials, and promised that "we're going to do everything to bring order back as soon as possible."

Macron planned to hold a special security meeting Sunday evening with Borne, Darmanin and the justice minister.

Skirmishes erupted in the Mediterranean city of Marseille but appeared less intense than the night before, according to the Interior Ministry. A bolstered police contingent arrested 55 people there.

Nationwide arrests were lower than the night before. Darmanin attributed that to "the resolute action of security forces."

More than 3,000 people have been detained overall since Nahel's death. The mass police deployment has been welcomed by some frightened residents of targeted neighborhoods and shop owners whose stores have been ransacked — but it has further frustrated those who see police behavior as the core of France's current crisis.

The unrest took a toll on Macron's diplomatic standing. On Saturday, a day before he was scheduled to depart, he postponed what would have been the first state visit to Germany by a French president in 23 years.

Hundreds of police and firefighters have been injured in the violence, although authorities haven't said how many protesters have been hurt. In French Guiana, an overseas territory, a 54-year-old died after being hit by a stray bullet.

On Saturday, Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti warned that young people who share calls for violence on Snapchat or other apps could face prosecution. Macron has blamed social media for fueling violence.

While concerts at the national stadium and smaller events around the country were canceled because of the violence and some neighborhoods suffered serious damage, life in other parts of France went on as usual.

Fans tuned into the start of the Tour de France cycling race in neighboring Spain; Marseille hosted a championship in pétanque — a game involving rolling metal balls as close as possible to a small wooden or plastic one; and families who could afford it headed for summer vacation.

In the capital, tourists thronged to the Eiffel Tower, where workers set up a nearby clock counting down to next year's Paris Olympics. A short walk from Nanterre, a shopping mall bustled Sunday with customers from all walks of life.

Hundreds of mourners stood on a road Saturday leading to a hilltop cemetery in Nanterre to pay tribute to Nahel as his white casket was carried from a mosque to his grave. His mother, dressed in white, walked inside the cemetery amid applause. Many of the men were young and Arab or Black, coming to mourn a boy who could have been them.

Nahel's mother told France 5 television that she was angry at the officer who shot her son at a traffic stop, but not at the police in general.

"He saw a little Arab-looking kid. He wanted to take his life," she said. Nahel's family has roots in Algeria.

Video of the killing showed two officers at the window of the car, one with his gun pointed at the driver. As the teenager pulled forward, the officer fired once through the windshield. The officer accused of killing Nahel was given a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide.

Thirteen people who didn't comply with traffic stops were fatally shot by French police last year, and three this year, prompting demands for more accountability. France also saw protests of police violence and racial injustice after George Floyd's killing by police in Minnesota.

The reaction to the killing was a potent reminder of the persistent poverty, discrimination and limited job prospects in neighborhoods around France where many trace their roots to former French colonies.

In 2005, France was shaken by weeks of riots prompted by the death of two teenagers who were electrocuted in a power substation in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois while fleeing police. Several buildings there were set on fire this week -- including the town hall, a high school, library and a supermarket.

"I feel hate toward the police officer who killed Nahel. He wanted to kill him," said 15-year-old Abdel Moucer, a Clichy resident. "In 2005 when Zyed and Bouna were killed, we had no video and no social media. Today we have all seen what happened.''

But Moucer lamented the recent violence and the damage it has wrought on disadvantaged towns like his.

"I feel sad, I don't know why they set the town hall on fire," he said.

At the foot of a bridge near the Eiffel Tower where generations of couples have attached padlocks to symbolize lasting love, a Senegalese man selling cheap locks and keys shook his head when asked if Nahel's killing and the ensuing violence would change anything.

"I doubt it," he said, giving only his first name, Demba, for fear of retaliation. "The discrimination is too profound."

PARIS —

Rioting raged in cities around France for a fourth night despite a huge police deployment and 1,311 arrests, with cars and buildings set ablaze and stores looted, as family and friends prepared Saturday to bury the 17-year-old whose killing by police unleashed the unrest.

France's Interior Ministry announced the new figure for arrests around the country, where 45,000 police officers fanned out in a so-far unsuccessful bid to quell violence.

Despite an appeal to parents by President Emmanuel Macron to keep their children at home, street clashes between young protesters and police raged on. About 2,500 fires were set and stores were ransacked, according to authorities.

The funeral ceremony for the teen, identified only as Nahel, who was killed by police in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday, began on Saturday. Family and friends were viewing the open coffin before it will be taken to a mosque for a ceremony and later burial in a town cemetery.

As the number of arrests continued to mount, the government suggested the violence was beginning to lessen thanks to tougher security measures.

Still, the damage was widespread, from Paris to Marseille and Lyon and even far away, in the French territories overseas, where a 54-year-old died after being hit by a stray bullet in French Guiana.

Video below: French president says violence 'unjustifiable'

France’s national soccer team — including international star Kylian Mbappe, an idol to many young people in the disadvantaged neighborhoods where the anger is rooted — pleaded for an end to the violence.

“Many of us are from working-class neighborhoods, we too share this feeling of pain and sadness” over the killing of 17-year-old Nahel, the players said in a statement. “Violence resolves nothing. … There are other peaceful and constructive ways to express yourself.”

They said it's time for “mourning, dialogue and reconstruction” instead.

The slaying of Nahel stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects who struggle with poverty, unemployment and racial discrimination. The subsequent rioting is the worst France has seen in years and puts new pressure on Macron, who blamed social media for fueling violence.

Anger erupted in the Paris suburb after Nahel's death there Tuesday and quickly spread nationwide.

Early Saturday, firefighters in Nanterre extinguished blazes set by protesters that left scorched remains of cars strewn across the streets. In the neighboring suburb Colombes, protesters overturned garbage bins and used them for makeshift barricades.

Video below: Police in France conduct raids across country after violence

Looters during the evening broke into a gun shop and made off with weapons in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, police said. Officers in Marseille arrested nearly 90 people as groups of protesters lit cars on fire and broke store windows to take what was inside.

Buildings and businesses were also vandalized in the eastern city of Lyon, where a third of the roughly 30 arrests made were for theft, police said. Authorities reported fires in the streets after an unauthorized protest drew more than 1,000 people earlier Friday evening.

In Friday's night violence, 917 people were arrested nationwide, 500 buildings targeted, 2,000 vehicles burned and dozens of stores ransacked.

While the number of overnight arrests was the highest yet, there were fewer fires, cars burned and police stations attacked around France than the previous night, according to the Interior Ministry. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin claimed the violence was of “much less intensity.”

Hundreds of police and firefighters have been injured, including 79 overnight, but authorities haven't released injury tallies for protesters.

Nanterre Mayor Patrick Jarry said that France needs to “push for changes” in disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Despite repeated government appeals for calm and stiffer policing, Friday saw brazen daylight violence, too. An Apple store was looted in the eastern city of Strasbourg, where police fired tear gas, and the windows of a fast-food outlet were smashed in a Paris-area shopping mall, where officers repelled people trying to break into a shuttered store, authorities said.

In the face of the escalating crisis that hundreds of arrests and massive police deployments have failed to quell, Macron held off on declaring a state of emergency, an option that was used in similar circumstances in 2005.

Instead, his government ratcheted up its law enforcement response, with the mass deployment of police officers, including some who were called back from vacation.

Video below: Aftermath of violent clashes between police and protesters in France

Darmanin ordered a nationwide nighttime shutdown Friday of all public buses and trams, which have been among rioters’ targets. He also said he warned social networks not to allow themselves to be used as channels for calls to violence.

“They were very cooperative,” Darmanin said, adding that French authorities were providing the platforms with information in hopes of cooperation identifying people inciting violence.

“We will pursue every person who uses these social networks to commit violent acts,” he said.

Macron, too, zeroed in on social media platforms that have relayed dramatic images of vandalism and cars and buildings being torched. Singling out Snapchat and TikTok, he said they were being used to organize unrest and served as conduits for copycat violence.

The violence comes just over a year before Paris and other French cities are due to host 10,500 Olympians and millions of visitors for the summer Olympic Games. Organizers said they are closely monitoring the situation as preparations for Paris 2024 continue.

The police officer accused of killing Nahel was handed a preliminary charge of voluntary homicide. Preliminary charges mean investigating magistrates strongly suspect wrongdoing, but need to investigate more before sending a case to trial. Nanterre prosecutor Pascal Prache said that his initial investigation led him to conclude that the officer’s use of his weapon wasn’t legally justified.

Nahel’s mother, identified as Mounia M., told France 5 television that she was angry at the officer, but not at the police in general. “He saw a little Arab-looking kid, he wanted to take his life,” she said.

“A police officer cannot take his gun and fire at our children, take our children’s lives,” she said. The family has roots in Algeria.

Race was a taboo topic for decades in France, which is officially committed to a doctrine of colorblind universalism. In the wake of Nahel’s killing, French anti-racism activists renewed complaints about police behavior.

Thirteen people who didn’t comply with traffic stops were fatally shot by French police last year. This year, another three people, including Nahel, died under similar circumstances. The deaths have prompted demands for more accountability in France, which also saw racial justice protests after George Floyd’s killing by police in Minnesota.

This week’s protests echoed the three weeks of rioting in 2005 that followed the deaths of 15-year-old Bouna Traoré and 17-year-old Zyed Benna, who were electrocuted while hiding from police in a power substation in Clichy-sous-Bois.

___

Lewis Joly reported from Nanterre. Claire Rush in Portland, Oregon, and Angela Charlton in Paris, contributed to this report.

PARIS —

An Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport and whose saga loosely inspired the Steven Spielberg film “The Terminal” died Saturday in the airport that he long called home, officials said.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri died after a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F around midday, according an official with the Paris airport authority. Police and a medical team treated him but were not able to save him, the official said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.

Nasseri lived in the airport’s Terminal 1 from 1988 until 2006, first in legal limbo because he lacked residency papers and later by apparent choice.

Year in and year out, he slept on a red plastic bench, making friends with airport workers, showering in staff facilities, writing in his diary, reading magazines and surveying passing travelers.

Staff nicknamed him Lord Alfred, and he became a mini-celebrity among passengers.

“Eventually, I will leave the airport,” he told The Associated Press in 1999, smoking a pipe on his bench, looking frail with long thin hair, sunken eyes and hollow cheeks. “But I am still waiting for a passport or transit visa.”

Nasseri was born in 1945 in Soleiman, a part of Iran then under British jurisdiction, to an Iranian father and a British mother. He left Iran to study in England in 1974. When he returned, he said, he was imprisoned for protesting against the shah and expelled without a passport.

He applied for political asylum in several countries in Europe. The UNHCR in Belgium gave him refugee credentials, but he said his briefcase containing the refugee certificate was stolen in a Paris train station.

French police later arrested him, but couldn't deport him anywhere because he had no official documents. He ended up at Charles de Gaulle in August 1988 and stayed.

Further bureaucratic bungling and increasingly strict European immigration laws kept him in a legal no-man's land for years.

When he finally received refugee papers, he described his surprise, and his insecurity, about leaving the airport. He reportedly refused to sign them, and ended up staying there several more years until he was hospitalized in 2006, and later lived in a Paris shelter.

Those who befriended him in the airport said the years of living in the windowless space took a toll on his mental state. The airport doctor in the 1990s worried about his physical and mental health, and described him as “fossilized here.” A ticket agent friend compared him to a prisoner incapable of “living on the outside."

In the weeks before his death, Nasseri had been again living at Charles de Gaulle, the airport official said.

Nasseri's mind-boggling tale loosely inspired 2004's “The Terminal” starring Tom Hanks, as well as a French film, “Lost in Transit,” and an opera called “Flight.”

In “The Terminal,” Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a man who arrives at JFK airport in New York from the fictional Eastern European country of Krakozhia and discovers that an overnight political revolution has invalidated all his traveling papers. Viktor is dumped into the airport’s international lounge and told he must stay there until his status is sorted out, which drags on as unrest in Krakozhia continues.

No information was immediately available about survivors.

___

Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.

The family of an American college student studying in France is asking for help finding him after they say he hasn't been heard from in more than two weeks.

Kenny DeLand Jr. is a senior at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York, who has been studying at the University of Grenoble Alpes, according to his family.

The school is about 75 miles southeast of Lyon in eastern France.

DeLand's parents say they have not heard from him since November 27. "We just shake our heads," his father, Ken DeLand, Sr., told CNN affiliate WHAM. "We don't understand why he is not reaching out to us, if he was reaching out on a daily basis or every other day like he was. It is just not characteristic of Kenny."

To help find him Deland's family has launched a website where people can send tips and information. The family says a missing person's report has been filed, and bank records show Kenny DeLand Jr. last made a purchase at a store on Dec. 3. There has been no record of his whereabouts since, they say.

"St. John Fisher University will continue to do all it can to assist in the investigation to find Kenneth DeLand," the school said in a statement.

"University officials have stayed in close contact with the American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS) who is working with local law enforcement on the search, as well as Kenneth's family to offer support to them during this time. Our campus community remains hopeful that Kenneth will be found safe and return home."

CNN has reached out to the U.S. State Department and French authorities for more information on the search.

Kenny DeLand Jr., the American student who was reported missing more than two weeks ago in Grenoble, France, is alive, his father Ken DeLand Sr. told CNN on Friday.DeLand Jr. is in Spain, French Prosecutor Eric Vaillant told CNN, adding only that the young man had spoken Friday with his parents.DeLand Jr.'s father had been in the middle of a call with CNN when he suddenly hung up. He later messaged CNN to report "good news" — and said he'd just spoken with his son."He is alive — that's all I can say," he told CNN.Deland Sr. did not elaborate on what his son told him and did not explain where his son has been for the past two weeks.A senior at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York, DeLand Jr. had been studying at the University of Grenoble Alpes, according to his family. His parents in recent days said they had not heard from him since Nov. 27.His fellow students reported him missing on Nov. 29, prompting Vaillant to launch an investigation, the Grenoble prosecutor had said.The woman who had hosted DeLand in France thought he may have left voluntarily, she told CNN before he was found — echoing a theory Vaillant put forward this week.But the young man's parents didn't believe that was the case, and his father as recently as Wednesday decried what he called a response from authorities that was not sufficiently urgent.Interpol on Thursday issued a Yellow Notice for DeLand, saying he went missing on Nov. 27. Such notices are issued to help locate missing persons, often minors, or to help identify anyone who cannot identify themselves, according to Interpol.DeLand had been scheduled to return to the U.S. on Saturday, his father said before he was found, adding that although the student liked to go hiking, he would always keep in touch."For him to not reach out, with no correspondence, this is very uncharacteristic of my son," DeLand Sr. told CNN's Anderson Cooper on Wednesday. "This is what creates all the worry that any parent could ever feel.""As time goes by, it makes you worry even more."He was seen at a store on Dec. 3, a prosecutor saidWhen Vaillant announced Monday he was investigating DeLand Jr.'s disappearance, he said the student seemed "to have left Grenoble voluntarily.""The young man reportedly told several people that he had arrived in France underprepared and was having difficulty making friends," Vaillant said Monday.The student had been seen on Dec. 3 in a store in the town of Montélimar, roughly a 90-mile drive southwest of Grenoble, Vaillant said.And Deland had mentioned he wanted to go to Marseille, a city along the Mediterranean some 190 miles south of Grenoble, before returning to the U.S., Vaillant said.Of all the students DeLand's host mother had welcomed, he seemed to have the most trouble fitting in, the woman told CNN this week on the condition of anonymity out of concern for her privacy.When the host mother hadn't heard from DeLand, she inundated him with messages trying to figure out where he was, but he did not reply, she said. Learning that he'd been seen on Dec. 3 was reassuring, she said, because she felt it confirmed her suspicions he may have left and cut off communications voluntarily.

LUSAIL, Qatar —

Argentina and France are tied 3-3 in the World Cup final at Lusail Stadium in Qatar.

Lionel Messi scored the first goal for Argentina on a 23rd-minute penalty kick after a foul on Di Maria. Thirteen minutes later, Di Maria scored Argentina's second goal.

Messi now has 12 World Cup goals — the same as Brazil great Pelé — and is the first player to score in the group stage and every round of the knockout stage in a single edition of the tournament.

In the second half, Kylian Mbappé scored two goals for France, tying the score 2-2. Just one minute after scoring on a penalty kick, the France forward scored again, on a volley.

An extra 30 minutes was added to the World Cup match after the score was tied 2-2.

Messi scored his second goal of the match for Argentina in the second period of extra time to put Argentina ahead 3-2.

Mbappé scored for France on a penalty kick with just a few minutes remaining of extra time, tying the match 3-3.

Both teams are trying to win the biggest tournament in soccer for the third time. France won in 1998 and in 2018. Brazil in 1962 was the last team to win back-to-back World Cup titles. Argentina won the title in 1978 and 1986. The Argentines also lost in the final in 2014.

Messi, one of soccer's greatest players of all time, is thought to be playing in his final World Cup and could win the ultimate prize for the first time if Argentina wins.

But having experienced defeat in the final of 2014 in Brazil, when Argentina lost 1-0 to Germany through extra time, Messi knows all too well the pain of having his World Cup dreams shattered.

Video below: David Beckham on World Cup: 'I've never seen fans and nations come together like this before'

PARIS —

As bystanders screamed for help, a man with a knife stabbed four young children at a lakeside park in the French Alps on Thursday, assaulting at least one in a stroller repeatedly. The children between 22 months and 3 years old suffered life-threatening injuries, and two adults also were wounded, authorities said.

A suspect, identified by police as a 31-year-old Syrian, was detained in connection with the horrific attack in the Alpine and lakeside town of Annecy. French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said he had refugee status in Sweden.

A prosecutor leading the investigation said the man's motives were unknown but did not appear to be terrorism-related.

The helplessness of the young victims and the savagery of the attack sickened France.

Lead prosecutor Line Bonnet-Mathis said all four children suffered life-threatening knife wounds. The youngest is 22 months old, two are age 2 and the oldest is 3, she said. Two of them were tourists, she said.

One of the young victims is British, the prosecutor and British authorities said. There was confusion over the nationality of the other child, who was not from France. Bonnet-Mathis said the child was Dutch, but Germany’s chancellor said one of the child victims was German.

One adult also suffered knife wounds and a second adult was hurt both with the attacker's knife and later by a shot fired by police as they were making the arrest, Bonnet-Mathis said.

Video appearing to show the attack in and around a children’s play park was posted on social media. The footage showed a man in dark glasses and with a blue scarf covering his head brandishing a knife, as people screamed for help.

The man appeared to shout “on name of Jesus Christ” as he waved his knife in the air, while people nearby could be heard screaming: “Police! Police!"

He slashed at a man carrying rucksacks who tried to approach him. Inside the enclosed play park, a panicked woman frantically pushed a stroller as the attacker approached, yelling “Help! Help!” and ramming the stroller into the barriers around the site in her terror.

She tried to fend off the attacker but couldn’t keep him from leaning over the stroller and stabbing downward repeatedly. Afterward, the man strolled almost casually out of the park, letting himself out through a gate, with the man carrying two rucksacks still chasing after him.

French President Emmanuel Macron described the assault as an “attack of absolute cowardice.” Of the victims, he said “children and an adult are between life and death.”

“The nation is in shock,” Macron tweeted.

A witness who spoke to French broadcaster BFMTV said he saw the attacker jumping on an elderly man, and stabbing him repeatedly. The witness said he yelled at police to act.

“I screamed, screamed at them to intervene,” he said.

An ice cream seller who works in the waterside park said he'd seen the attacker there several days earlier, looking out at the lake ringed by mountains.

Eleanor Vincent, an American author vacationing in Annecy, told The Associated Press of her shock at seeing an emergency helicopter descending to the picturesque park.

“As soon as I heard the sirens and saw police running, I knew something horrible was happening. I am in shock. It’s a park where they take children out to walk,” Vincent said.

Crowds stood in “absolute silence,” dumbfounded as the tragedy unfolded, she said.

“As a parent who has lost a child, I know what these parents are experiencing. It’s a horror beyond belief," Vincent added.

In Paris, lawmakers interrupted a debate to hold a moment of silence for the victims.

The assembly president, Yaël Braun-Pivet, said: "There are some very young children who are in critical condition, and I invite you to respect a minute of silence for them, for their families, and so that, we hope, the consequences of this very grave attack do not lead to the nation grieving.”

___

Thomas Adamson in Paris, Jill Lawless in London and Nicolas Vaux-Montagny in Lyon, France, contributed.

French prosecutors say a modeling agent who was close to disgraced U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein was found dead Saturday in his French jail cell.

Agent Jean-Luc Brunel was being held in an investigation into the rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation. The French investigation was prompted by sex-trafficking charges against Epstein in the U.S., and Brunel was considered central to the probe.

Paris police opened an investigation into Brunel's death. Brunel's lawyer did not comment. Epstein killed himself in 2019 in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial.

As the Associated Press reported, Brunel was a frequent companion of Epstein and considered a central part of the French probe into allegations of sexual exploitation of women and girls by Epstein and his inner circle. Multiple women have said they were victims and reported it to police since the investigation was opened in 2019.

PARIS (AP) — People in France are now required to show a QR code proving they have a special coronavirus pass to enjoy restaurants, cafes, long-distance travel, and in some cases, visit hospitals.

The passes were already needed for cultural and recreational venues, including cinemas, concert halls, sports arenas, and theme parks with a capacity for more than 50 people.

The passes are issued to people who are vaccinated against COVID-19 or have proof of a recent recovery from the virus or who have a recent negative test, officials tell The Associated Press.

Those who are found in restricted areas without a pass could be fined 135 euros. Though, there will reportedly be a one-week grace period as the passes are implemented.

The new measure, which also applies to tourists visiting France, is part of a government plan to encourage more people to get the vaccine and to slow down a surge in infections.

Over 36 million people in France, or more than 54% of the population, are fully vaccinated.

Polls show that most French citizens support the health pass. However, the measure has prompted strong opposition from some people who say their freedoms will be compromised.

TOKYO —

A giant flag will be flown from the Eiffel Tower on Sunday that Paris Olympic organizers claim will be the biggest in history.

The unfurling is planned during the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics when the formal handover goes to the next Summer Games host in 2024.

The passing of the hosting baton will be split between the Olympic Stadium in Tokyo and a public party in Paris.

Related video: Tokyo opening ceremony

"It will be biggest flag ever flown," Paris organizing committee president Tony Estanguet said, describing it as the size of a soccer field.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is in Tokyo to take part in the closing ceremony and French President Emmanuel Macron will take part by video link from the French capital.