On the other hand, this story, reported by Gavin Mortimer in The Spectator, strikes me as truly demented (or as a rationalization of failure): There are said to be 6 million rats in Paris.

It could be an embarrassment as the Olympics spotlight falls on Paris. “All of the Olympic sites and celebration areas were analysed [for rats] before the Games,” said deputy mayor Anne-Claire ...

In June 2023, the Paris deputy mayor for public health announced that a committee was being established to consider the prospect of ‘cohabitation’ with the city’s rats. This marked a ...

Vladimir Zelensky entered his meeting with US President-elect Donald Trump in Paris with the highest of ... or continue to be looked at as a street rat," he wrote on his Telegram channel.