With AI, jets and police squadrons, Paris is securing the Olympics — and worrying critics

PARIS (AP) — A year ago, the head of the Paris Olympics boldly declared that France's capital would be “ the safest place in the world " when the Games open this Friday. Tony Estanguet’s confident forecast looks less far-fetched now with squadrons of police patrolling Paris' streets, fighter jets and soldiers primed to scramble, and imposing metal-fence security barriers erected like an iron curtain on both sides of the River Seine that will star in the opening show.

France's vast police and military operation is in large part because the July 26-Aug. 11 Games face unprecedented security challenges. The city has repeatedly suffered deadly extremist attacks and international tensions are high because of the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Rather than build an Olympic park with venues grouped together outside of the city center, like Rio de Janeiro in 2016 or London in 2012, Paris has chosen to host many of the events in the heart of the bustling capital of 2 million inhabitants, with others dotted around suburbs that house millions more. Putting temporary sports arenas in public spaces and the unprecedented choice to stage a river-borne opening ceremony stretching for kilometers (miles) along the Seine, makes safeguarding them more complex.

Olympic organizers also have cyberattack concerns, while rights campaigners and Games critics are worried about Paris' use of AI-equipped surveillance technology and the broad scope and scale of Olympic security.

Paris, in short, has a lot riding on keeping 10,500 athletes and millions of visitors safe. Here's how it aims to do it.

A Games-time force of up to 45,000 police and gendarmes is also backed up by a 10,000-strong contingent of soldiers that has set up the largest military camp in Paris since World War II, from which soldiers should be able to reach any of the city's Olympic venues within 30 minutes.

Armed military patrols aboard vehicles and on foot have become common in crowded places in France since gunmen and suicide bombers acting in the names of al-Qaida and the Islamic State group repeatedly struck Paris in 2015. They don't have police powers of arrest but can tackle attackers and restrain them until police arrive. For visitors from countries where armed street patrols aren't the norm, the sight of soldiers with assault rifles might be jarring, just as it was initially for people in France.

“At the beginning, it was very strange for them to see us and they were always avoiding our presence, making a detour,” said Gen. Éric Chasboeuf, deputy commander of the counter-terror military force, called Sentinelle.

“Now, it's in the landscape," he said.

Rafale fighter jets, airspace-monitoring AWACS surveillance flights, Reaper surveillance drones, helicopters that can carry sharpshooters, and equipment to disable drones will police Paris skies, which will be closed during the opening ceremony by a no-fly zone extending for 150 kilometers (93 miles) around the capital. Cameras twinned with artificial intelligence software — authorized by a law that expands the state's surveillance powers for the Games — will flag potential security risks, such as abandoned packages or crowd surges,

France is also getting help from more than 40 countries that, together, have sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements.

Attacks by lone individuals are major concern, a risk driven home most recently to French officials by the assassination attempt against Donald Trump.

Some involved in the Olympic security operation were stunned that the gunman armed with an AR-style rifle got within range of the former U.S. president.

“No one can guarantee that there won't be mistakes. There, however, it was quite glaring,” said Gen. Philippe Pourqué, who oversaw the construction of a temporary camp in southeast Paris housing 4,500 soldiers from the Sentinelle force.

In France, in the last 13 months alone, men acting alone have carried out knife attacks that targeted tourists in Paris, and children in a park in an Alpine town, among others. A man who stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school in northern France in October had been under surveillance by French security services for suspected Islamic radicalization.

With long and bitter experience of deadly extremist attacks, France has armed itself with a dense network of police units, intelligence services and investigators who specialize in fighting terrorism, and suspects in terrorism cases can be held longer for questioning.

Hundreds of thousands of background checks have scrutinized Olympic ticket-holders, workers and others involved in the Games and applicants for passes to enter Paris' most tightly controlled security zone, along the Seine's banks. The checks blocked more than 3,900 people from attending, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said. He said some were flagged for suspected Islamic radicalization, left- or right-wing political extremism, significant criminal records and other security concerns.

“We’re particularly attentive to Russian and Belorussian citizens,” Darmanin added, although he stopped short of linking exclusions to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Belarus’ role as an ally of Moscow.

Darmanin said 155 people considered to be “very dangerous” potential terror threats are also being kept away from the opening ceremony and the Games, with police searching their homes for weapons and computers in some cases.

He said intelligence services haven't identified any proven terror plots against the Games “but we are being extremely attentive.”

Campaigners for digital rights worry that Olympic surveillance cameras and AI systems could erode privacy and other freedoms, and zero in on people without fixed homes who spend a lot of time in public spaces.

Saccage 2024, a group that has campaigned for months against the Paris Games, took aim at the scope of the Olympic security, describing it as a "repressive arsenal” in a statement to The Associated Press.

“And this is not a French exception, far from it, but a systematic occurrence in host countries,” it said. “Is it reasonable to offer one month of ‘festivities’ to the most well-off tourists at the cost of a long-term securitization legacy for all residents of the city and the country?"

The Rivoli street is almost empty Thursday, July 18, 2024 in Paris. A special kind of iron curtain came down across central Paris on Thursday, with the beginning of an Olympic anti-terrorism perimeter along the banks of the River Seine sealing off a kilometers-long (miles-long) area to Parisians and tourists who hadn't applied in advance for a pass. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A pigeon walks in an empty street Thursday, July 18, 2024 in Paris. A special kind of iron curtain came down across central Paris on Thursday, with the beginning of an Olympic anti-terrorism perimeter along the banks of the River Seine sealing off a kilometers-long (miles-long) area to Parisians and tourists who hadn't applied in advance for a pass. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A cyclist rides in an empty street outside the security perimeter set up for the Olympic Games, Thursday, July 18, 2024 in Paris. A special kind of iron curtain came down across central Paris on Thursday, with the beginning of an Olympic anti-terrorism perimeter along the banks of the River Seine sealing off a kilometers-long (miles-long) area to Parisians and tourists who hadn't applied in advance for a pass. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Soldiers demonstrate operational technics for close combat in a training class at a military camp set up for the Paris Olympic games Friday, July 19, 2024, Vincennes, just outside Paris, France. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Soldiers demonstrate operational technics for close combat in a training class at a military camp set up for the Paris Olympic games Friday, July 19, 2024, Vincennes, just outside Paris, France. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A cyclist argues with police officers near Le Louvre museum at the security perimeter set up for the Olympic Games, Thursday, July 18, 2024 in Paris. A special kind of iron curtain came down across central Paris on Thursday, with the beginning of an Olympic anti-terrorism perimeter along the banks of the River Seine sealing off a kilometers-long (miles-long) area to Parisians and tourists who hadn't applied in advance for a pass. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Police check the public for credentials to enter a security perimeter near the Eiffel Tower ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Police give directions to members of the public stopped from entering a security perimeter near the Eiffel Tower ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Paris. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Police officers check a vehicle on the Seine river banks at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

Police officers check an accredited vehicle for Paris olympics at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

A police officer walks past a Paris olympics canvas at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

A woman from Mexico poses in the courtyard of the Louvre museum, which is outside the security perimeter set up for the Olympic Games, Friday, July 19, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

A security officer watches people taken photographs in front of the Eiffel Tower at the 2024 Summer Olympics, Saturday, July 20, 2024, in Paris, France. (AP Photo/Thomas Padilla)

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has long believed diplomacy is about personal relationships — and he'll spend Friday in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as his time in office is on the cusp of ending.

There is also a meeting with other leaders in the “European Quad,” a group that in addition to Biden and Scholz includes French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described Biden as having a “close relationship” with Scholz, who early this year helped broker a multicountry prisoner swap that brought back to the United States the journalist Evan Gershkovich and former Marine Paul Whelan. The German leader told Biden before the deal in words to the effect, “For you, I will do this."

“He wanted to thank the chancellor for his partnership, for his leadership, as well as with Ukraine,” Jean-Pierre told reporters accompanying Biden on Thursday's Air Force One flight to Berlin. “He wanted to thank him and so that's what you're seeing on this trip.”

The whirlwind trip — Biden departed early Thursday and is due back in the U.S. on Friday night — is hardly a social visit.

The U.S. and Germany have been the largest sources of aid to Ukraine as it fights to repel a Russian invasion. And with less than three weeks before the U.S. presidential election, Biden also feels obligated to ready allies for the possible return to the White House of Republican Donald Trump, who has antagonized U.S. friends while displaying an appreciation for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The administration said Biden has no plans while in Europe to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The two spoke on Wednesday about additional military aid, with the White House announcing $425 million in assistance, bringing the total support to more than $64 billion over two and a half years.

In addition to Ukraine, Biden and Scholz plan to discuss European Union relations, democratic values, trade and technology issues, global supply chains, tensions in the Middle East and security issues in the Indo-Pacific region. While in Germany, Biden will also meet with its president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Earlier this month, the U.S. president had delayed a trip planned to Germany and Angola in order to oversee relief efforts ahead of Hurricane Milton making landfall in Florida. He now plans to visit Angola in December.

The trip to Germany comes as Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, has entered an aggressive sprint to persuade and turn out voters in an election that could ultimately determine the future of Biden's legacy of having strengthened NATO and built up relations in Asia to counter China's influence.

Trump has questioned America's commitment to defending NATO allies who are attacked, something that Biden called “un-American” in February.

“The whole world heard it and the worst thing is he means it,” the president said.

Trump has talked about applying tariffs on imports from U.S. allies in Europe and Asia, which could potentially strain relations with countries that could counter Russia, China and other rivals.

“Our allies have taken advantage of us more so than our enemies,” Trump said Tuesday at the Economic Club of Chicago.

Trump declined to say whether he’s continued to speak with Putin since leaving office in January 2021 but added that it would not be a negative if he and the Russian leader had been in touch. Bob Woodward reorted in his new book “War” that Trump and Putin have spoken seven times.

“But I will tell you that if I did, it’s a smart thing,” Trump said. “If I’m friendly with people, if I can have a relationship with people, that’s a good thing and not a bad thing in terms of a country.”

Jake Sullivan, Biden's national security adviser, said during Thursday's flight that he didn't know if the reporting was accurate, but “obviously that would raise red flags if it were true.”

President Joe Biden speaks at a reception marking Italian-American Heritage Month, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)