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.

Le gouvernement britannique peut continuer à héberger des demandeurs d’asile dans un hôtel

Soulagement pour le gouvernement britannique: la justice a levé vendredi une interdiction temporaire d’héberger des demandeurs d’asile dans un hôtel au nord de Londres.Le sujet empoisonne le gouvernement travailliste de Keir Starmer depuis le début de l’été, après plusieurs manifestations anti-immigration, pour certaines violentes, devant l’hôtel en question situé à Epping. La semaine dernière, la Haute Cour britannique avait ordonné à l’hôtel Bell de ne plus accueillir des demandeurs d’asile — ils sont plus de 130 à y être hébergés — au delà du 12 septembre, après une demande d’injonction temporaire déposée par le conseil local de la ville.Ce dernier mettait en avant les inquiétudes de la population. Les manifestations devant l’établissement ont démarré en juillet, après l’inculpation d’un demandeur d’asile, accusé d’avoir tenté d’embrasser une adolescente de 14 ans à Epping, ce qu’il nie. Cet Ethiopien de 38 ans était arrivé quelques jours plus tôt en traversant la Manche sur un petit bateau.Vendredi, la cour d’appel à Londres a annulé la décision de première instance, estimant que le juge avait “commis plusieurs erreurs”.Il a “ignoré la conséquence évidente” que la fermeture d’un hôtel nécessitait d'”identifier” d’autres structures d’accueil pour les demandeurs d’asile, a-t-elle notamment fait valoir.Une telle décision aurait “pu inciter” d’autres conseils locaux à demander la fermeture des hôtels hébergeant des demandeurs d’asile, a-t-elle également mis en avant. Et elle risquait d'”inciter ou d’encourager de nouvelles manifestations dont certaines auraient pu dégénérer en troubles autour des centres d’accueil pour demandeurs d’asile”, a-t-elle ajouté.Plus de 111.000 personnes ont demandé l’asile au Royaume-Uni ces douze derniers mois, un record. Les autorités ont l’obligation d’héberger celles qui n’ont pas de solution d’accueil et 32.059 demandeurs d’asile étaient hébergés dans un peu plus de 200 hôtels à la fin juin.Dans plusieurs villes du pays, ce recours à des hôtels, qui coûte 5,5 millions de livres par jour (6,35 millions d’euros), suscite des critiques et des tensions avec manifestations et contre-manifestations.- Fermeture “contrôlée et ordonnée” -Le gouvernement, accusé par ses opposants de ne pas agir suffisamment vite, a promis de ne plus avoir recours d’ici 2029 à ce type d’hébergement.Le ministère de l’Intérieur s’est d’ailleurs bien gardé vendredi de se réjouir trop ouvertement de la décision de la cour d’appel, affirmant avoir fait appel du jugement initial “afin que des hôtels comme le Bell puissent être fermés de manière contrôlée et ordonnée”.Le nombre d’hôtels utilisés pour héberger des demandeurs d’asile “a presque diminué de moitié après avoir atteint un pic en 2023”, a aussi mis en avant Angela Eagle, secrétaire d’Etat en charge des demandeurs d’asile. La cheffe de l’opposition conservatrice Kemi Badenoch a de son côté accusé Keir Starmer de “privilégier les droits des migrants illégaux par rapport aux droits des Britanniques qui souhaitent simplement se sentir en sécurité dans leurs villes et communautés”.”Les migrants illégaux ont plus de droits que la population de l’Essex”, a aussi dénoncé sur X le chef du parti d’extrême droite Reform UK Nigel Farage, dont la montée en puissance dans les sondages accentue la pression sur Keir Starmer pour muscler sa politique migratoire.A l’issue du jugement un conseiller local d’Epping, présent devant la Haute Cour, a lui affirmé que “le combat n’est pas terminé”.Une nouvelle audience est prévue mi-octobre pour décider de l’autorisation ou non d’héberger de manière permanente des demandeurs d’asile à l’hôtel Bell.”Nous comprenons que le gouvernement est face à un dilemme, mais cela ne devrait pas se résoudre au détriment de la population locale”, a-t-il ajouté.”Je suis un parent inquiet. J’apprécie l’immigration quand (les immigrants) contribuent à ce pays, pas lorsqu’ils sont illégaux”, a témoigné un ouvrier de 37 ans, drapé dans un drapeau anglais devant la Cour vendredi, sans vouloir  donner son nom.

Les menaces de Trump sur le numérique “relèveraient de la coercition” et appelleraient une “réponse des Européens”, avertit Macron

Le président français Emmanuel Macron a averti vendredi que les menaces de droits de douane de Donald Trump sur le secteur numérique seraient assimilables à de la “coercition” et que les Européens y répliqueraient.”Si de telles mesures étaient prises, elles relèveraient de la coercition et elles appelleraient une réponse des Européens”, a-t-il lancé au cours d’une conférence de presse avec le chancelier Friedrich Merz à Toulon (sud-est de la France) à l’issue d’un conseil des ministres franco-allemand.”Nous serons inflexibles”, a-t-il insisté en évoquant une “très forte convergence franco-allemande” en la matière et en annonçant avec son homologue un sommet à Berlin le 18 novembre sur la souveraineté numérique.Le président américain, Donald Trump, a vigoureusement attaqué lundi les pays ou organisations régulant le secteur de la tech, les menaçant de droits de douane et de restrictions à l’exportation.S’il n’a pas cité directement l’Union européenne, celle-ci dispose de fait de l’arsenal juridique le plus puissant au monde pour réguler le numérique.L’UE a le “droit souverain” de réglementer la tech, a depuis répliqué la Commission européenne.Bruxelles a aussi “fermement réfuté” l’accusation selon laquelle les entreprises américaines étaient délibérément visées par ces règles sur le numérique.