Category: World news

(LONDON) — Prince Andrew, the brother of King Charles III, has been stripped of his prince title, Buckingham Palace announced Thursday.

Andrew will now officially be known as Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, according to the palace.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

 

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(LONDON) — Russia bombarded Ukrainian cities with 705 missiles and drones overnight into Thursday, according to Ukraine’s air force, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reporting strikes on civilian targets and energy infrastructure all across the country.

Russia launched 653 drones and 52 missiles of various types in its attack, Ukraine’s air force said. Of those, 592 drones and 31 missiles were shot down or otherwise suppressed, the air force said. Sixteen missiles and 63 drones impacted across 20 locations, the air force said.

Wednesday night’s attack was the second-largest Russian drone and missile barrage of the full-scale invasion to date, according to Ukrainian air force data analyzed by ABC News.

Only the bombardment of the night of Sept. 6 to 7 — in which Russia launched a combined total of 823 drones and missiles into Ukraine — was larger.

Zelenskyy said attacks were reported in the capital Kyiv and at least nine other Ukrainian regions, stretching from frontline areas in the southeast of the country to the border with Poland in the west.

“It was a complex, combined strike,” Zelenskyy said in a post to social media. At least two people were killed in a strike on a residential building in the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, with “tens of people” injured, the president said.

“There have also been many vile strikes on energy facilities and civilian life across the regions,” Zelenskyy wrote. “All the necessary services are deployed on the sites. All efforts should be made to restore power and water supply as swiftly as possible wherever it’s been disrupted.”

“Russia continues its terrorist war against life itself, and it’s crucial that every such vile attack on civilians boomerangs back on Russia with concrete consequences — sanctions and real pressure,” Zelenskyy continued.

“We count on America, Europe, and the G7 countries not to ignore this,” he wrote. “New steps are needed to increase pressure — on Russia’s oil and gas industry, its financial system and through secondary sanctions on those who bankroll this war.”

Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces shot down at least 173 Ukrainian drones overnight into Thursday. Nine were downed over the Moscow region, including six that were “heading to Moscow,” the ministry said.

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(LONDON) — President Donald Trump touted an “amazing” meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in South Korea, saying the two leaders reached agreements to reduce tariffs on Chinese imports, delay Chinese restrictions on its rare earth mineral exports and secure Chinese purchases of American soybeans and other farm products.

Still, key topics — including Chinese designs on Taiwan and a potential deal to keep TikTok operating in the U.S. — were not addressed, according to the post-meeting remarks from Trump and official Chinese readouts.

Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One following the meeting with Xi, which lasted about 1 hour and 45 minutes, Trump said the 20% tariffs on China related to fentanyl were being reduced to 10%, bringing the total amount of duties imposed on Chinese imports from 57% to 47%.

Trump said he agreed to reduce the tariff rate because China had agreed to “work very hard to stop the flow” of fentanyl.

Trump said the U.S. had reached a one-year agreement with China ensuring Beijing would not impose dramatic restrictions on rare earth minerals — materials key for producing computer chips that are needed for everything including smartphones, AI systems and defense technology.

China’s Ministry of Commerce confirmed the temporary suspension of those restrictions in an official readout. Trump said he believes the one-year deal will be “routinely” extended.

Meanwhile, Trump also said Xi had “authorized China to begin the purchase of massive amounts of Soybeans, Sorghum, and other Farm products.”

“We have a deal now,” Trump told reporters. “Every year we’ll renegotiate the deal, but I think the deal will go on for a long time, long beyond the year. We’ll negotiate at the end of the year. But all of the rare earth has been settled, and that’s for the world.”

The president said the meeting touched on most key bilateral issues. “A lot of decisions were made,” Trump said. “There wasn’t too, too much left out there.”

Overall, Trump said the meeting with Xi in South Korea was “amazing,” and on a scale of 1 to 10 gave it a 12. “He’s a great leader, great leader of a very powerful, very strong country, China, and we, what can I say? We have — it was an outstanding group of decisions, I think that was made,” Trump said.

The two leaders agreed that Trump will visit China in April, the president said, with Xi then visiting the U.S. “sometime after that.”

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce released a statement following the meeting saying that Beijing “looks forward to working with the United States to do a good job in implementation and inject more certainty and stability into Sino-U.S. economic and trade cooperation and the world economy.”

Leaders talk soybeans, but not Taiwan
Trump said China would begin purchasing U.S. soybeans “immediately” as part of the new deal. The Chinese pause on purchasing Americans soybeans had been a major part of the ongoing trade war and had deeply affected American farmers.

“We’re in agreement on so many elements, large amounts, tremendous amounts of the soybeans and other farm products are going to be purchased immediately, starting immediately,” Trump told reporters after the meeting.

In a later social media post, Trump said Xi “authorized China to begin the purchase of massive amounts of Soybeans, Sorghum, and other Farm products.”

Trump also said that he discussed computer chips with Xi, claiming China said they would speak with U.S. chipmaker Nvidia and some others about purchasing products from America.

Trump said the two men did not discuss Nvidia’s high-end Blackwell artificial intelligence chip during the talks.

In his post to social media after the meeting, Trump said China also agreed to “begin the process of purchasing American Energy. In fact, a very large scale transaction may take place concerning the purchase of Oil and Gas from the Great State of Alaska.”

Trump did not address a potential deal to keep TikTok running in the U.S. China’s Commerce Ministry said it is committed to “properly resolving issues related to TikTok.” The statement did not say a deal had been finalized. 

The thorny issue of Taiwan did not come up, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Russia’s war in Ukraine was discussed at length, the president added, with Trump saying he and Xi agreed to work together to get the war “finished.”

“Ukraine came up very strongly,” Trump said. “We talked about it for a long time, and we’re both going to work together to see if we can get something done.”

“We agree the sides are, you know, locked in fighting, and sometimes you have to let him fight, I guess, crazy, but he’s going to help us, and we’re going to work together on Ukraine. Not a lot more we can do,” Trump said.

Trump said that he didn’t broach China’s continued purchases of oil from Russia.

“He’s been buying oil from Russia for a long time. It takes care of a big part of China,” Trump said. “But we didn’t really discuss the oil. We discussed working together to see if we could get that war finished. You know, it doesn’t affect China. It doesn’t affect us.”

The president said his pre-meeting announcement on the planned resumption of U.S. nuclear testing was not aimed at China. Rather, he said, it “had to do with others.”

“They seem to all be nuclear testing,” he said. “We have more nuclear weapons than anybody. We don’t do testing. We’ve halted it years, many years ago. But with others doing testing, I think it’s appropriate that we’d … also testing.”

When pressed, Trump would not say who the “others” were. The U.S. and Russia, he added, have the most nuclear warheads, with China able to “catch up within four or five years.”

“I’d like to see a denuclearization,” Trump said. “I think de-escalation would be — they would call denuclearization — would be a tremendous thing, and it’s something we are actually talking to Russia about that and China would be added to that, if we do something.”

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(LONDON) — Five more suspects have been arrested in connection to the the Oct. 19 jewel heist at the Louvre museum in Paris, according to Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau.

The arrests took place on Wednesday in the Seine-Saint-Denis region in the suburbs of Paris though French authorities have not yet named any of the suspects.

Beccuau, who was speaking on French radio station RTL, said that the stolen jewelry has still not been found but that police believe one of the suspects arrested in yesterday’s raid could be a major person of interest due to his DNA being found at the scene of the crime.

French police told ABC News that one of the suspects was already identified and had been under surveillance for a few days already.

The fresh arrests bring to seven the total number of people detained related to the heist. Two other people — both men in their 30s and from the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis — were arrested last weekend, French National Police confirmed to ABC News.

Investigators said they matched trace DNA evidence recovered from a helmet left at the scene of the crime to one of the suspects, enabling police to put the alleged thief under phone and physical surveillance.

One suspect was arrested at 10 p.m. on Saturday at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport while trying to board a plane bound for Algeria, according to police.

Investigators previously told ABC News that the second suspect was arrested as he was about to travel to Mali, but on Wednesday, Beccuau said the man had no intention of leaving the country.

One of the suspects has dual citizenship in France and Mali, and the other is a dual citizen of France and Algeria, investigators said, adding that both were already known to police from past burglary cases.

Investigators say they’re still determining whether a source inside the Louvre may have had a role in the theft.

“They knew exactly where they were going. It looks like something very organized and very professional,” French Culture Minister Rachida Dati told ABC News last week.

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(PARIS) — The Paris public prosecutor reported on Wednesday that investigators are making “major progress” in solving the brazen Oct. 19 Louvre Museum heist and said two suspects in custody will be charged with “organized robbery.”

During a news conference on Wednesday, Laure Beccuau, the Paris Public Prosecutor, released new information about the two suspects arrested last weekend, but said the stolen jewels remain missing.

Beccuau said that if the suspects are convicted, they’ll face a sentence of up to 15 years in prison and heavy fines.

A 96-hour deadline for charging or releasing the suspects was set to expire on Wednesday. Both suspects are from the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, authorities previously said.

Beccuau also said in her press conference that the two suspects arrested on Saturday “partially admitted their involvement in the events to investigators.”

A massive manhunt continued on Wednesday for at least two other suspects in the robbery. Beccuau said she has not ruled out the possibility that more perpetrators were involved in the heist, but added that, at this stage, evidence has not suggested any additional accomplices.

Beccuau said trace DNA recovered from a scooter used in the heist and a window at the Louvre helped investigators identify the suspects, whose names have not been released.

One man was arrested about 8 p.m. local time on Saturday at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport as he was about to leave the country without a return ticket, Beccuau said. She said the suspect has lived in France since 2010 and had been convicted of a previous robbery.

Beccuau said the second suspect is a taxi driver who was arrested at 8:40 p.m. on Saturday near his home. She said the suspect’s DNA was found on one of the windows at the Louvre.

Beccuau said the suspect had been previously convicted of “aggravated robberies” in 2008 and 2014.

Investigators previously told ABC News that the second suspect was arrested as he was about to travel to Mali, but on Wednesday, Beccuau said the man had no intention of leaving the country.

ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge and Joseph Simonetti contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Melissa made landfall on Jamaica early Tuesday afternoon as a Category 5 storm, with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph — the most powerful hurricane to strike the Caribbean island nation and one of the strongest on record in the Atlantic Basin.

The storm is anticipated to bring catastrophic winds, rain, flooding and storm surge to Jamaica, where residents and tourists are sheltering in place.

But the island is no stranger to dealing with destructive storms. Several hurricanes over the past several decades have struck Jamaica, causing fatalities and billions of dollars of damage.

Hurricane Beryl: July 3, 2024
Hurricane Beryl — the first hurricane of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season — battered Jamaica when it passed just south of the island as a Category 4 storm.

Beryl slammed the island with up with 130 mph winds, between 8 inches and 12 inches of rainfall and a storm surge that sent ocean water rushing into coastal areas, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The storm ripped roofs off of buildings and sent several feet of floodwater onto roadways in low-lying areas.

At least four people died in Jamaica as a result of the storm, three due to freshwater flooding and one due to rain, while more than 1,000 people were evacuated to shelters, according to officials.

In the aftermath of the storm, about 60% of the island was without electricity, and 20% of the population lacked access to clean water due to the storm’s impact on the piped water network, according to a situation report by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Healthcare on the island was also compromised, with 82 healthcare facilities reporting major damage. Minor damage was reported at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston.

Beryl’s damage was especially extensive in rural parts of Jamaica, where debris from destroyed homes littered the landscape and banana and coconut farms were severely damaged, according to the United Nations. An estimated 45,000 farmers were impacted, with $15.9 million in damage done to farming infrastructure that led to food shortages, according to the report.

The storm tallied about $995 million in damage to infrastructure, homes and in lost revenue, according to the National Hurricane Center. Beryl caused also caused a 1.1% drop in Jamaica’s GDP, according to the U.K.’s Centre for Disaster Protection.

Beryl was the strongest storm to hit Jamaica since Hurricane Dean in 2007, Rhea Pierre, disaster manager for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said in the aftermath.

Hurricane Dean: Aug. 20, 2007
Hurricane Dean passed just south of Jamaica on Aug. 20, 2007, bringing powerful winds, heavy rains and storm surge to the region.

The storm was so strong that there are “few authoritative observations” for its passage over Jamaica because many of the instruments did not survive the storm, according to the NHC.

The weather station tower at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston was blown over the day before the storm passed the island, and numerous rain gouges were either blown over or washed away.

The highest rainfall report was 13.5 inches in Manchester Parish in West-Central Jamaica, according to the NHC.

The NHC estimates that Dean was a Category 3 hurricane when it impacted Jamaica, with maximum sustained winds of 111-129 mph, per the Saffir-Simpson scale. The most severe impacts were reported in the southeastern parishes of Clarendon, St. Catherine, Kingston and St. Andrew. About two-thirds of the homes that were completely destroyed or required major repairs were located in those parishes.

Agriculture was also significantly impacted, particularly the banana crops, according to the NHC.

Six people died in Jamaica as a result of Hurricane Dean, according to the University of West Indies.

The storm caused damage in all 13 of the island’s parishes, according to USAID. More than 3,120 homes were damaged, while a significant portion of the island’s farmland was also affected, with about 40% of the sugarcane crop, 75% of coffee trees and 100% of the banana crop impacted.

Hurricane Gilbert: Sept. 12, 1988

Before Melissa, Hurricane Gilbert was the strongest tropical cyclone on record to make landfall on Jamaica.

The massive storm made landfall on the island’s east coast near Kingston around 1 p.m. on Sept. 12, 1988, as a Category 4 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

The eye of the hurricane traversed the entire island, with its winds weakening only to 125 mph by the time is exited Jamaica’s western coast several hours later. The storm triggered a massive storm surge, mudslides and heavy rains that caused inland flash flooding, according to the NWS.

At least 45 deaths were attributed to Gilbert, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The eye of the hurricane traversed the entire island, with its winds weakening only to 125 mph by the time is exited Jamaica’s western coast several hours later. The storm triggered a massive storm surge, mudslides and heavy rains that caused inland flash flooding, according to the NWS.

At least 45 deaths were attributed to Gilbert, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Gilbert damaged 40% of Jamaica’s agricultural fields and 95% of the island’s medical facilities, according to Hurricanes: Science and Society. Two of Jamaica’s hospitals were completely destroyed, while only two of those remaining escaped with minimal damage. In addition, about 50% of the island’s water supply was destroyed, including storage and distribution facilities.

More than 100,000 homes were destroyed or damaged, as were hundreds of miles of roads and highways, The New York Times reported at the time.

The destruction amounted to an estimated $4 billion in damages to crops, buildings, roads, homes and other infrastructure, according to Hurricanes: Science and Society.

Jamaica Prime Minister Edward P. G. Seaga described Hurricane Gilbert at the time as “the worst disaster in our modern history.”

Hurricane Charlie: Aug. 17, 1951
The center of Hurricane Charlie skirted the southern coast of Jamaica on the night of Aug. 17, 1951, before it made landfall early the next morning as a strong Category 3 storm, bringing destructive winds to the entirety of the island, according to the NHC. The strongest winds at Kingston were measured at 110 mph.

Heavy rainfall that lingered after the hurricane passed caused landslides across the island, according to the University of West Indies.

Charlie was the deadliest storm of the 20th century to impact Jamaica, resulting in more than 150 deaths on the island, according to the NHC. About 2,000 people were homeless in the storm’s aftermath.

The hurricane caused about $50 million in property and crop damage to the island, according to the NHC. Banana farms, coconut plantations and citrus groves perished in the storm.

Considerable damage was also done to shipping in the Kingston Harbor, with five large vessels pushed ashore, according to the University of West Indies.

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(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Melissa made landfall in Jamaica as a Category 5 hurricane — one of the most powerful hurricane landfalls on record in the Atlantic basin.

After tearing across Jamaica on Tuesday, Melissa is now a Category 3 hurricane as it pounds Cuba on Wednesday morning.

Latest forecast: Melissa to pass Cuba, Bahamas on Wednesday
As of 5 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Hurricane Melissa was a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of 115 mph moving northeast across Cuba.

Melissa — the strongest hurricane on record to hit Jamaica — made landfall on Cuba early on Wednesday near the city of Chivirico in the southeastern province of Santiago de Cuba.

Melissa is forecast to move off the northern coast of Cuba on Wednesday morning as it heads towards the Bahamas. It is expected to pass through the Bahamas as a Category 2 storm in the afternoon. A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the southeastern and central Bahamas.

Rain totals could reach 25 inches for higher elevations in Cuba and 5 to 10 inches of rain is expected across the southeastern Bahamas.

Storm surge is still affecting the islands. Cuba is experiencing a surge of up to 12 feet along the southeast coast, with 5 to 8 feet of surge possible in the southeastern Bahamas through Wednesday.

As Melissa moves into the Atlantic Ocean, it is expected to pass close to Bermuda late on Thursday. The archipelago is under a Hurricane Watch.

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(PARIS) — As a deadline fast approaches to either charge to release two suspects in the $102 million Louvre jewel heist, the president of France’s Senate Culture Committee said the museum is “not up to standard” for guarding it against other bandits.

The Paris prosecutor has until Wednesday to decide whether to file charges when a 96-hour window expires on holding two French nationals arrested over the weekend, just as they were about to flee the country.

As the massive manhunt for at least two other perpetrators in the brazen robbery stretched into its 10th day, Laurent Lafon, president of the Senate Culture Committee, said the Oct. 19 jewel heist at the museum exposed major flaws in its security.

“We have a security system that does not meet what we would expect from a museum,” Lafon said on Tuesday while standing outside the world’s most visited museum.

Lafon said “numerous improvements need to be made” to correct flaws that enable a team of thieves to steal precious pieces of the French crown jewels and other treasures once belonging to Emperor Napoleon and his wife.

“The security equipment was not suitable for a museum worthy of the 21st century and for such a unique site for France. It is our flagship institution; it must be exemplary, and today, we cannot describe the security conditions as exemplary,” Lafon said.

Lafon spoke out ahead of a Wednesday hearing on the museum’s security issues.

In what appeared to be an intricately planned robbery, a team of thieves drove up to the side of the museum in what police described as a stolen truck with a “mobile freight elevator” or cherry picker on the back that was extended up to a window, according to the Paris police.

Two of the thieves dressed as construction workers used the cherry picker to get up to the second floor, where they cut through the window of the Apollo Gallery using angle grinders, authorities said. Upon entering the gilded gallery, the thieves used power tools to cut into the glass cases to reach the precious jewels, investigators said.

The entire theft took about seven minutes, according to investigators.

Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau estimated that $102 million worth of jewels were stolen, including crowns, necklaces, earrings and a diamond-encrusted brooch.

Over the weekend, police arrested two men, both in their 30s and from the Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, French National Police confirmed to ABC News.

Investigators said they matched trace DNA evidence recovered from a helmet left at the scene of the crime to one of the suspects, enabling police to put the alleged thief under phone and physical surveillance.

One suspect was arrested at 10 p.m. on Saturday at Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport while trying to board a plane bound for Algeria, according to police.

The second suspect was nabbed by police as he was about to travel to Mali, in West Africa, an investigator with the Paris Brigade for the Repression of Banditry (BRB), the special police unit spearheading the probe, and a source with the French Interior Ministry directly connected to the investigation told ABC News.

One of the suspects has dual citizenship in France and Mali, and the other is a dual citizen of France and Algeria, investigators said, adding that both were already known to police from past burglary cases.

Investigators say they’re still determining whether a source inside the Louvre may have had a role in the theft.

“They knew exactly where they were going. It looks like something very organized and very professional,” French Culture Minister Rachida Dati told ABC News last week.

While testifying before France’s Senate Culture Committee on Wednesday, Laurence des Cars, president and director of the Louvre, described the heist as “an immense wound that has been inflicted on us.”

Des Cars said all of the museum’s alarms worked properly, as did its video cameras, but noted a “weakness” in security that was taken advantage of by the thieves. She said the only camera installed outside the Apollo Gallery was facing west and did not cover the window where the thieves broke in and exited.

“The weakness of the Louvre is its perimeter security, which has been a problem for a long time … certainly due to underinvestment,” des Cars told the lawmakers.

Des Cars said a “Grand Louvre renovation project” began 40 years ago “and has only affected half of the museum.”

“We did not spot the criminals arriving from outside early enough,” des Cars said.

“The security system, as installed in the Apollo Gallery, worked perfectly,” des Cars said. “The question that arises is how to adapt this system to a new type of attack and modus operandi that we could not have foreseen.”

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(NEW YORK) — A Navy helicopter and a fighter jet, both conducting routine operations from the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier, went down in the South China Sea about 30 minutes apart Sunday, the U.S. Pacific Fleet said in a statement.

The U.S. Navy MH-60R Sea Hawk helicopter went down at about 2:45 p.m. local time. All three crew members were safely recovered, the Navy said.

“Following the incident, separately, at 3:15 p.m., an F/A-18F Super Hornet fighter assigned to the ‘Fighting Redcocks’ of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 22 also went down in the waters of the South China Sea while conducting routine operations from Nimitz.” 

Both crew members ejected and were also safely recovered, the Navy said.

“All personnel involved are safe and in stable condition. The cause of both incidents is currently under investigation,” the U.S. Pacific Fleet said in the statement.

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(LONDON) — French authorities arrested two men in relation to last week’s major jewel heist at Paris’ Louvre Museum, the French National Police confirmed to ABC News, amid a nationwide manhunt for the perpetrators.

One suspect was arrested at 10 p.m. on Saturday at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport while trying to board a plane bound for Algeria, police said.

Police did not offer any information on the timing or circumstances of the second suspect’s arrest.

Both men are suspected of having been part of a team alleged to have robbed the Louvre last week. They are both from Seine Saint Denis, a northeastern suburb of Paris, police said.

No new information has been made public on the whereabouts of the stolen jewels that Paris Public Prosecutor Laure Beccuau estimated to be worth $102 million.

French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez praised investigators for making the arrests in a social media post on Sunday.

“I would like to offer my warmest congratulations to the investigators who worked tirelessly as I asked them to and who always had my full confidence,” Nuñez said in the post. “The investigations must continue in accordance with the secrecy of the investigation under the authority of the specialized interregional court of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office.”

“We will continue with the same determination! Let’s keep going!” Nuñez added.

Authorities launched a nationwide manhunt for the Louvre suspects after the theft from the museum’s Apollo Gallery on the morning of Oct. 19, shortly after the museum opened to the public.

The stolen items included crowns, necklaces, earrings and brooches, some of which once belonged to Emperor Napoleon and his wife.

The team of thieves drove up to the side of the museum in what police described as a “mobile freight elevator” equipped with a metal ladder on the back that was extended up to a window, according to the Paris police.

“They deployed the freight elevator, securing the surroundings with construction cones, before accessing the second floor, in the Apollo Gallery, by breaking the window with an angle grinder,” according to the police statement.

“Inside, they then smashed two display cases, ‘Napoleon jewels’ and ‘French crown jewels,’ using the angle grinder and stole numerous pieces of high-value jewelry,” police said.

French President Emmanuel Macron vowed that authorities would catch those responsible for what he described as an “attack on a heritage that we cherish because it is our history.”

French Culture Minister Rachida Dati, who is overseeing the investigation alongside the Justice Ministry, described the heist to ABC News as “a simple, but spectacular operation.”

Soon after the theft, investigators said four suspects left the scene on two motorbikes, winding their way through central Paris and last spotted speeding southeast on Highway A6 out of Paris and in the direction of Lyon.

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