US to refuse visas to Palestinian officials at UN summit on state

The United States said Friday it will deny visas to members of the Palestinian Authority to attend next month’s UN General Assembly, where France is leading a push to recognize a Palestinian state.The extraordinary step further aligns President Donald Trump’s administration with Israel’s government, which is fighting a war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.Israel adamantly rejects a Palestinian state and has sought to lump together the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority with rival Hamas.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio is denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) ahead of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly,” the State Department said in a statement.”The Trump administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” it said.Using a term favored by Trump to deride his legal troubles while out of office, the State Department accused the Palestinians of “lawfare” by turning to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice to take up grievances with Israel.It called on the Palestinian Authority to drop “efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.”Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, writing on X, thanked the Trump administration “for this bold step and for standing by Israel once again.”The Palestinian Authority called for the United States to reverse its decision, which it said “stands in clear contradiction to international law and the UN Headquarters Agreement.”- Abbas hopes to attend -Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, a veteran 89-year-old leader who once had cordial relations with Washington, had planned to attend the UN meeting, according to the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour.UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it was “important” for all states and observers, which includes the Palestinians, to be represented at a summit scheduled for the day before the General Assembly begins.”We obviously hope that this will be resolved,” Dujarric said.The United States and Israel have accused France and other powers of rewarding Hamas, which launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, through their recognition of a Palestinian state.French President Emmanuel Macron, exasperated by the relentless nearly two-year Israeli offensive on Gaza in response to the attack, has argued that there can be no further delay in pushing forward a peace process.Since his announcement, Canada and Australia also said they would recognize a Palestinian state and Britain said it would do so unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.- Shattering norms -Under an agreement as host of the United Nations in New York, the United States is not supposed to refuse visas for officials heading to the world body.The State Department insisted it was complying with the agreement by allowing the Palestinian mission.Activists each year press the United States to deny visas to leaders of countries that they oppose, often over grave human rights violations, but their appeals are almost always rejected.In a historic step in 1988, the General Assembly convened in Geneva rather than New York to hear PLO leader Yasser Arafat after the United States refused to allow him in New York.In 2013, the United States refused a visa to Sudan’s then president Omar al-Bashir, who faces an ICC arrest warrant over allegations of genocide in Darfur.Trump plans to attend the General Assembly, where he will deliver one of the first speeches in a marathon session of leaders, but his administration has sharply curtailed relations with the United Nations and other international institutions.Trump has moved to pull out of the World Health Organization and UN climate pact. He has also moved to slap sanctions on ICC judges over an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

US to refuse visas to Palestinian officials at UN summit on state

The United States said Friday it will deny visas to members of the Palestinian Authority to attend next month’s UN General Assembly, where France is leading a push to recognize a Palestinian state.The extraordinary step further aligns President Donald Trump’s administration with Israel’s government, which is fighting a war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.Israel adamantly rejects a Palestinian state and has sought to lump together the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority with rival Hamas.”Secretary of State Marco Rubio is denying and revoking visas from members of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) ahead of the upcoming United Nations General Assembly,” the State Department said in a statement.”The Trump administration has been clear: it is in our national security interests to hold the PLO and PA accountable for not complying with their commitments, and for undermining the prospects for peace,” it said.Using a term favored by Trump to deride his legal troubles while out of office, the State Department accused the Palestinians of “lawfare” by turning to the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice to take up grievances with Israel.It called on the Palestinian Authority to drop “efforts to secure the unilateral recognition of a conjectural Palestinian state.”Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, writing on X, thanked the Trump administration “for this bold step and for standing by Israel once again.”The Palestinian Authority called for the United States to reverse its decision, which it said “stands in clear contradiction to international law and the UN Headquarters Agreement.”- Abbas hopes to attend -Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas, a veteran 89-year-old leader who once had cordial relations with Washington, had planned to attend the UN meeting, according to the Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour.UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said it was “important” for all states and observers, which includes the Palestinians, to be represented at a summit scheduled for the day before the General Assembly begins.”We obviously hope that this will be resolved,” Dujarric said.The United States and Israel have accused France and other powers of rewarding Hamas, which launched an unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, through their recognition of a Palestinian state.French President Emmanuel Macron, exasperated by the relentless nearly two-year Israeli offensive on Gaza in response to the attack, has argued that there can be no further delay in pushing forward a peace process.Since his announcement, Canada and Australia also said they would recognize a Palestinian state and Britain said it would do so unless Israel agrees to a ceasefire in Gaza.- Shattering norms -Under an agreement as host of the United Nations in New York, the United States is not supposed to refuse visas for officials heading to the world body.The State Department insisted it was complying with the agreement by allowing the Palestinian mission.Activists each year press the United States to deny visas to leaders of countries that they oppose, often over grave human rights violations, but their appeals are almost always rejected.In a historic step in 1988, the General Assembly convened in Geneva rather than New York to hear PLO leader Yasser Arafat after the United States refused to allow him in New York.In 2013, the United States refused a visa to Sudan’s then president Omar al-Bashir, who faces an ICC arrest warrant over allegations of genocide in Darfur.Trump plans to attend the General Assembly, where he will deliver one of the first speeches in a marathon session of leaders, but his administration has sharply curtailed relations with the United Nations and other international institutions.Trump has moved to pull out of the World Health Organization and UN climate pact. He has also moved to slap sanctions on ICC judges over an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Israel army says Gaza City now ‘a dangerous combat zone’

The Israeli military declared Gaza City “a dangerous combat zone” on Friday ahead of a looming offensive to conquer the Palestinian territory’s largest city after almost two years of devastating war.Israel is under mounting pressure at home and abroad to end its offensive in Gaza, where the vast majority of the population has been displaced at least once and the United Nations has declared a famine.The Israeli military, however, is gearing up to expand the fighting and seize Gaza City, with its Arabic-language spokesman saying on Friday: “We are not waiting.”We have begun preliminary operations and the initial stages of the attack on Gaza City, and we are currently operating with great force on the outskirts of the city,” Avichay Adraee said on X.Late on Friday, Israeli military chief Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir said in a video statement his forces were “enhancing the strikes in the Gaza City area, and we will intensify our efforts in the coming weeks”.The UN estimates that nearly a million people currently live in Gaza governorate, which includes Gaza City and its surroundings.The UN declared a famine in Gaza governorate last week, blaming “systematic obstruction” by Israel of humanitarian aid deliveries.A military statement on Friday said that Gaza City now “constitutes a dangerous combat zone”, and daily pauses in military activity that had allowed limited food deliveries would no longer apply there.The military did not call for the population to leave immediately, but Adraee said earlier this week that the city’s evacuation was “inevitable”.In southern Gaza City on Friday, AFP footage showed Palestinians picking through the wreckage of a building following an Israeli strike. Mohammed Abu Qamar, 42, who is originally from Jabalia camp in northern Gaza but was heading south, said his “heart is burning”.”We don’t want to leave our home. We’re exhausted,” he told AFP by telephone. “Death is closing in around us.”- ‘Fear chases us’ -In a statement on Thursday, COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said it was undertaking preparations “for moving the population southward for their protection”.Aid groups on the ground have warned against expanding the military campaign.On Friday, Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA, warned that there were “nearly one million people between the city and the northern governorate who basically have nowhere to go, have no resources even to move”. Abdul Karim Al-Damagh, 64, told AFP he was heading south and that it was the fifth time he had been displaced.”Today, once again, I must abandon what remains of my home and memories… The south may be a bit quieter than here, but it’s not safe — fear chases us, and death is always near,” he said.Spokesman Adraee said the military would intensify its strikes until all hostages held in Gaza were returned and Hamas was dismantled “militarily and politically”.The military said it had recovered the remains of two hostages during an operation in Gaza. It identified one as Ilan Weiss, who was killed in the Hamas attack that triggered the war and his body taken to Gaza. The name of the second hostage has yet to be released.Hamas warned Israel that its planned offensive in Gaza City would subject hostages in the area to the “same risks” as its fighters. “We will take care of the prisoners the best we can, and they will be with our fighters in the combat and confrontation zones, subjected to the same risks and the same living conditions”, the spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing, Abu Obeida said.Of the 251 hostages seized during the October 2023 attack, 47 are still being held in Gaza, around 20 of whom are believed to be alive.- ‘Endless’ horrors -Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 55 people killed by Israeli forces across the Palestinian territory on Friday.Asked for comment by AFP, the Israeli military requested coordinates to look into the reports.Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.UN chief Antonio Guterres has condemned the “endless catalogue of horrors” in Gaza, calling for accountability and warning of potential war crimes.Hamas’s October 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli figures.Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 63,025 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the UN considers reliable.

Europeans tell Iran offer on table to avoid sanctions

European powers said Friday they were ready to drop a new sanctions push on Iran if it addresses concerns on its nuclear program over the next month, but Tehran denounced the offer as insincere.Britain, France and Germany, known as the E3, triggered the so-called “snapback” mechanism the previous day to reinstate UN sanctions on Tehran for failing to comply with commitments made in a 2015 deal over its nuclear program.In July, “we offered Iran an extension to snapback, should Iran take specific steps to address our most immediate concerns,” Barbara Woodward, the British ambassador to the United Nations, said alongside her German and French counterparts ahead of a closed-door Security Council meeting on the issue.”As of today, Iran has shown no indication that it is serious about meeting” the E3’s requests, she said.But triggering the snapback mechanism “does not mark the end of diplomacy. Our extension offer remains on the table,” Woodward said.On a visit to Copenhagen, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that the 30-day window before the sanctions took effect offered an “opportunity” for diplomacy.”We have this 30 days to sort things out,” she told reporters.The 2015 deal negotiated under former US president Barack Obama offered Iran sanctions relief in return for drastically scaling back its nuclear work. President Donald Trump effectively killed the deal during his first term when he pulled out the United States and imposed sweeping US sanctions, including on countries that bought Iranian oil.Trump had moved toward diplomacy in his second term but Israel swept the push aside in June when it carried out a major bombing campaign in Iran, which the United States eventually joined.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Thursday the United States was also open to direct talks with Iran.- Iran cries foul -Iran accused the Europeans of bad faith and “blackmailing” Tehran by speaking of the 30-day window.The E3 “has put forward an extension plan full of unrealistic conditions This is a hypocritical move,” Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir-Saeid Iravani, told reporters after the Security Council meeting. “They are demanding conditions that should be the outcome of the negotiations, not the starting point, and they know these demands cannot be met,” he said. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned again via social media of “significant adverse impacts” of the European decision, including on Iran’s relationship with UN nuclear inspectors, who this week were allowed back to observe the key Bushehr plant.Russia and China have proposed extending the resolution behind the 2015 deal, which they signed, for another six months.Russia said President Vladimir Putin will meet with his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian on Monday on the sidelines of a gathering in China.The Russian foreign ministry urged the Europeans to reconsider the sanctions, which it said risked “irreparable consequences.”Western countries accuse Iran of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons — something Tehran denies, defending its right to what it insists is a civilian nuclear program.

Julia Roberts looks to ‘stir it up’ with cancel culture film at Venice

Julia Roberts said she hoped to “stir it all up” for viewers of her new film about a university professor grappling with fraught US campus politics, as the Hollywood star made her debut at the Venice Film Festival on Friday.The star walked the red carpet at the city’s festival for the first time in her career at the premiere of “After the Hunt”, a cancel-culture and MeToo-themed psychological drama from Italian director Luca Guadagnino. Early reviews could make difficult reading for the “Pretty Woman” actress, however. The Hollywood Reporter wondering how Guadagnino “could deliver something so dour and airless”.While Variety praised Roberts’s performance, it nevertheless described the film as “muddled”.Roberts, speaking at a news conference Friday ahead of the premiere, said the film did not aim to answer questions, but provoke them.She plays a Yale University professor haunted by a secret from her past after a student accuses one of her colleagues of sexual assault.Questions over truth and fiction, and whether characters are reliable narrators, course through the film.Touching on Gen Z culture and the generational divide between students and professors, the Amazon-produced film has overtones of Todd Field’s 2022 drama “Tar”, which earned Cate Blanchett a best actress award at Venice. “Not everything is supposed to make you comfortable,” Roberts’s character in the film tells the student who claims she was assaulted.- A challenge to conversation -Roberts said the film did not advocate any one point of view. “We are challenging people to have conversations and to be excited by that or to be infuriated by that, it’s up to you,” she said.”We are kind of losing the art of conversation in humanity right now and if making this movie does anything, getting everybody to talk to each other is the most exciting thing I feel we could accomplish.”  Guadagnino is a Venice regular.His 2017 “Call Me By Your Name” helped launch Timothee Chalamet to stardom.And he was back in Venice’s main competition last year with “Queer”, an adaptation of the William Burroughs novel, starring Daniel Craig.- Offing the competition -Friday, the festival’s third day, also saw the return to Venice after 20 years for Park Chan-wook, South Korea’s master of black comedy, with his new feature, “No Other Choice”.It is one of 21 films in the main competition for Venice’s top award, the Golden Lion. Howls of laughter filled the theatre at an early press screening for the thriller-comedy.It tells the story of a loyal paper company employee with a devoted family.”I’ve got it all,” says protagonist Man-su (played by Lee Byung-hun) at the movie’s start — before everything goes terribly wrong.After he gets laid off, he decides to kill off any potential rivals for a new job. It was a critique of modern capitalism that underscores the comedy is universal, Park told journalists. “Anyone who is out there trying to make a living in the current modern capitalist society, we all harbour that deep fear of employment insecurity,” he said.The acclaimed director was last in Venice in 2005 with “Lady Vengeance”, part of a trilogy exploring the dark recesses of the human experience. – Early contenders -The two strongest early contenders for the Golden Lion include opening night feature “La Grazia” by Italy’s Paolo Sorrentino about an Italian president grappling with indecision about euthanasia.Thursday brought the return of Oscar-winner Emma Stone in Yorgos Lanthimos’s darkly satirical “Bugonia”, about two conspiracy-obsessed misfits who kidnap a pharmaceutical company CEO.Stone and Greek director Lanthimos, collaborating on a fifth production, are hoping to repeat their successful formula from 2023 when “Poor Things” won Venice’s top Golden Lion prize.Variety called Bugonia “riveting”, saying Lanthimos was “at the top of his visionary nihilistic game”. Time magazine said Stone could “do no wrong”.George Clooney’s turn as an ageing Hollywood star struggling with his career choices in Netflix-produced “Jay Kelly” by Noah Baumbach drew less favourable reviews.The Guardian called it “a dire, sentimental and self-indulgent film”.  Another keenly awaited film, to be shown Sunday, is Olivier Assayas’s “The Wizard of the Kremlin”, in which British star Jude Law portrays Russian President Vladimir Putin during his ascent to power.A film about the war in Gaza, “The Voice of Hind Rajab”, by Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania, has attracted heavyweight Hollywood attention and will premiere next week.The festival, which has become a crucial launching pad for major international productions that have gone on to Oscar success, runs until September 6.

L’humoriste Canteloup revient à la radio, le matin sur RMC

L’humoriste et imitateur Nicolas Canteloup, déjà présent quotidiennement sur TF1 et ancien d’Europe 1, reviendra à la radio à partir d’octobre, sur RMC chaque matin pour parler politique, a annoncé la station vendredi.”Chaque jour du lundi au vendredi, à 8H50, l’imitateur rejoindra Apolline de Malherbe” pour “clôturer la matinale avec un débrief adapté à l’invité politique du jour”, selon un communiqué de RMC.”A l’aube d’élections cruciales et dans un contexte politique en pleine efferverscence, Nicolas Canteloup apportera sa voix unique au débat démocratique”, souligne la radio.RMC a recruté plusieurs nouvelles voix en cette rentrée dont Louis Sarkozy, le fils de l’ancien président, et l’ex-ministre écologiste Cécile Duflot comme chroniqueurs de la matinale. Nicolas Canteloup, 61 ans, est à l’honneur chaque soir sur TF1 avec sa pastille humoristique “C’est Canteloup”. En 2021, il avait été remercié par Europe 1, après 16 ans d’antenne. Sa voix emblématique avait égratigné sur les ondes le nouvel actionnaire principal de la radio, le milliardaire Vincent Bolloré.”J’en conserve de très grands souvenirs et de grands amis. Il y a eu un changement d’actionnaire qui voulait donner une autre couleur à la station, avec une radio sans doute plus marquée dans ses opinions. C’est le jeu”, retient-il aujourd’hui, dans un entretien au Parisien.

La grève se poursuit à Radio France, pendant des négociations

Le mouvement de grève se poursuit vendredi pour le cinquième jour à Radio France, afin d’obtenir des “garanties” de la direction dans des négociations en cours, avec la perspective d’une poursuite de la mobilisation lundi, ont indiqué les syndicats.Les perturbations sur les antennes étaient cependant réduites, touchant en particulier le réseau Ici (ex-France Bleu). Ni la direction ni les syndicats n’ont fourni de chiffres.Il y a le “risque que les perturbations se poursuivent” la semaine prochaine, ont prévenu les représentants syndicaux en assemblée générale à la mi-journée. Le préavis de grève illimitée a été déposé le 11 juillet par les syndicats CFDT, CGT, FO, SNJ, SUD et UNSA.Deux “points durs” demeurent dans leurs revendications: les changements éditoriaux au sein d’Ici et l’évolution, selon eux, à la baisse des “modes de production” (polyvalence et utilisation des technologies notamment). “On demande le maximum de garanties”, a expliqué Bertrand Durand (CGT) en assemblée générale. Mais “la direction exige la confiance”. Or, “cette confiance a été rompue”, selon Benoît Gaspard (Sud). Des discussions se poursuivaient vendredi après-midi avec la direction du groupe public et, souhaitent-ils, durant le week-end.