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French towns fly Palestinian flag despite govt orders

A woman walks past a Palestinian flag set up between French and European flags at the Malakoff's town hall, outside Paris, as France prepares to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025. (AP)
A woman walks past a Palestinian flag set up between French and European flags at the Malakoff's town hall, outside Paris, as France prepares to formally recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations General Assembly, Sunday, Sept. 21, 2025. (AP)
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Updated 5 min 36 sec ago
AP
AFP

French towns fly Palestinian flag despite govt orders

French towns fly Palestinian flag despite govt orders
  • The Palestinian flag has been flying at the town hall of Malakoff, a suburb of Paris, since Friday
Updated 5 min 36 sec ago
AP AFP

PARIS: Some French mayors have defied government orders and flown Palestinian flags on town halls, with more expected to follow suit as France prepares to recognize a Palestinian state at the UN General Assembly formally.
It’s unclear how many cities will join the initiative on Monday after Socialist leader Olivier Faure’s call to fly the flags despite warnings from the Interior Ministry against such displays in a country with both Europe’s largest Jewish and Muslim populations.
But the call has been gaining momentum as Palestinian flags have been more and more visible in France over the nearly two-year war in Gaza.
Palestinian banners were on display during demonstrations this week, as part of a large-scale protest day across the country, which criticized several policies by French President Emmanuel Macron and his government.
France's planned recognition of a Palestinian state will not include the opening of an embassy until Hamas frees the hostages it is holding in Gaza, Macron said in an interview that aired on Sunday.
"It will be, for us, a requirement very clearly before opening, for instance, an embassy in Palestine," Macron told CBS News in an interview taped on Thursday.
The Palestinian flag has been flying at the town hall of Malakoff, a suburb of Paris, since Friday.
The city mayor, Jacqueline Belhomme, told The Associated Press on Sunday she was ordered to take it down but refused to comply.
“We stand with the Palestinian people; it is something symbolically important, just as we did some time ago with the Ukrainian flag when we stood with the Ukrainian people who were under attack by Russia.”
In southwestern France, the communist mayor of Mauleon-Licharre, a town of 3,000 residents, raised a Palestinian flag on Friday but removed it the next day after the case was referred to an administrative court.
“The flag is now in my office. This is an attack on my freedom of thought,” Mayor Louis Labadot told local radio station Ici Pays Basque.
The war in Gaza and the broader Israeli-Palestinian conflict are expected to be at the top of the agenda of world leaders at their annual gathering at the UN General Assembly starting Monday.
Mathieu Hanotin, the mayor of Saint-Denis, the Paris suburb hosting the national soccer stadium, said he will fly the Palestinian flag in a solidarity gesture with the Palestinian people.
In western France, the city of Nantes also plans to raise the Palestinian flag on the city hall building, said Mayor Johanna Rolland, a Socialist.
“For municipalities that wish to join, through a symbolic gesture, France’s recognition of the state of Palestine, I believe it makes sense. I will do so without hesitation,” she said.
In a note sent to the state’s representatives in regions, France’s Interior Ministry instructed them to oppose the display of Palestinian flags on town halls and other public buildings, citing the risks of importing an ongoing international conflict onto national territory.
“The principle of neutrality in public service prohibits such displays,” the ministry said, adding that any decisions by mayors to fly the Palestinian flag should be referred to administrative courts.
“The front of a town hall is not a billboard. Only the tricolor flag — our colors, our values — has the right to be represented in what remains, for us, a common home,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said on Saturday.
Ian Brossat, a spokesman for the French Communist Party, accused Retailleau of contradicting France’s official position.
“The interior minister disagrees with French diplomacy. He does not support the recognition of a Palestinian state, unlike the president,” Brossat told BFM TV.
“By asserting his personal beliefs instead of upholding the position of the French Republic, which is to recognize a Palestinian state, he is taking France and its diplomacy hostage.”
In June, Nice city mayor Christian Estrosi, who had put on display Israeli flags on the Riviera city’s town hall to show his support for hostages held by Hamas, was forced by a court decision to remove them.
The Socialist mayor of Paris suburb Saint-Ouen, Karim Bouamrane, said he would display both the Israeli and Palestinian flags on the facade of his town hall in a bid to carry a message of peace.
“We are one community, the republican community,” he told RMC radio. “The community I stand for is that of peace: I do not want to pit Muslims against Jews, nor activists against Hamas supporters and those against (Benjamin) Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister.”

Topics: War on Gaza Palestine Gaza US France

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Guinea votes in referendum boycotted by opposition

Guinea votes in referendum boycotted by opposition
Updated 7 sec ago
AFP

Guinea votes in referendum boycotted by opposition

Guinea votes in referendum boycotted by opposition
  • Vote opens the way for stalled political elections in the West African nation
Updated 7 sec ago
AFP

CONAKRY: Guineans began casting ballots Sunday on a draft constitution that would pave the way for elections but also permit the junta leader who seized power four years ago to run for president, in a referendum boycotted by the opposition.

The vote, which Guineans and the international community have been awaiting for years, opens the way for stalled political elections in the West African nation.
The country has been ruled by General Mamady Doumbouya since he overthrew elected civilian President Alpha Conde in 2021.
Some 6.7 million Guineans are abled to cast a ballot, out of a population of approximately 14.5 million people.
There was a heavy security presence on the streets of Conakry as polls opened Sunday morning, with armored vehicles and police checkpoints inspecting vehicles in the city center.
At a school in the capital’s Kaloum district, several dozen people queued as polls were monitored by security forces, according to journalists.
“I came to vote of my own free will,” said 23-year-old student Ahmad Diallo, with his voter card in hand.
“This is what everyone is waiting for: to have peace and we want the transition to end.”
First time voter Aisha Camara, 20, she believed the new constitution was “a good thing for Guinea” adding that she “came to support President Doumbouya.”
Results are not expected until Tuesday evening at the earliest, according to the country’s election body.
Authorities deployed no fewer than 45,000 members of the defense and security forces across the country on Sunday to secure the vote, along with 1,000 light and armored vehicles and combat helicopters, the National Gendarmerie said.
Guinea’s military initially pledged to return power to civilians before the end of 2024.
Although its authorities are now promising presidential and legislative elections before the end of the year, the junta has not yet set a date.
Campaigning has been strong in the referendum’s “yes” camp: rallies, marching bands and posters depicting 40-year-old Doumbouya have been prevalent throughout the country.
The “no” campaign, however, was virtually non-existent, mainly taking place on social media and often led by the junta’s critics abroad who fled the country’s crackdown on dissent.
Since 2022, the junta has banned demonstrations and has arrested, prosecuted or pushed into exile several opposition leaders, some of whom were victims of forced disappearances.
On Aug. 23, the junta suspended two of the country’s main opposition parties for three months.
Several media outlets have additionally been suspended and journalists arrested, creating a climate of fear in the press.
Given that context, Guinea’s opposition has called on voters to stay home, denouncing the vote as a “charade” for the junta to keep its hold on power, with the referendum’s outcome determined in advance.
If adopted, the new constitution would replace a “transition charter” established by the military government, which had prevented the junta’s leaders, government members and heads of institutions from standing in elections.
The stipulation does not exist in the draft constitution, thereby paving the way for a presidential run by Doumbouya. All signs point to him standing for office.
The draft also requires candidates be between 40 and 80 years of age and have their primary residence in Guinea — effectively excluding two of the main opponents.
Former President Conde, 87, is living in exile in Istanbul, while opposition leader and ex-Prime Minister Cellou Dalein Diallo, age 73, lives in Dakar and Abidjan.
Since Guinea’s 2021 coup, it has remained suspended from the African Union.
Meanwhile the Economic Community of West African States, which sent a mission to Guinea in recent days, has not invited it to participate in its heads of state meetings.
Writing on X, the UN Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner urged “the military authorities to ensure Sunday’s constitutional referendum is peaceful & transparent.”
It added that “recent bans on political parties & media outlets raise serious questions about inclusiveness & free participation for all.”

 

 

Topics: Guinea

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Cheers, hugs at Palestinian mission as UK recognizes statehood

Cheers, hugs at Palestinian mission as UK recognizes statehood
Updated 21 September 2025
AFP

Cheers, hugs at Palestinian mission as UK recognizes statehood

Cheers, hugs at Palestinian mission as UK recognizes statehood
  • “This is a South Africa moment for Palestine,” the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK said
  • Palestinian Mission will soon be designated as Palestine’s embassy in Britain
Updated 21 September 2025
AFP

LONDON: As Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced Britain’s landmark decision to recognize the State of Palestine on Sunday, the small team in the Palestinian mission to the UK erupted in cheers of joy.
“This is a historic moment,” beamed Palestinian envoy to the UK Husam Zomlot, watching the televised announcement at the mission in west London.
Canada and Australia took the same step in a coordinated decision marking a pivotal shift in Western foreign policy, with Israel under increasing international pressure over its deadly war with Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“This is a South Africa moment for Palestine,” the head of the Palestinian Mission to the UK told AFP in the building, which will soon be designated as Palestine’s embassy in Britain.
He was referring to the end of South Africa’s white apartheid government in the 1990s, which came after growing international pressure and isolation.
Recognition was an “act of assurances to the Palestinian people that they hope for a better future and ... peace is possible.”
Zomlot was born in a refugee camp in Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip. “As a small boy from Rafah, this is all I was raised to know,” he said, gesturing toward the television screen which flashed with breaking news headlines about the recognition of Palestinian statehood.
“Well done, that’s a great moment,” said Zomlot, embracing and congratulating his team, as AFP journalists in the room witnessed Starmer’s announcement after a tense day of anticipation for the mission.
“It’s been decades,” joked one staff member, who wished to remain anonymous.
The UK government had said in July it would recognize Palestinian statehood in September ahead of the annual UN General Assembly unless Israel took “substantive” steps, including reaching a ceasefire in Gaza.
“Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognizes the State of Palestine,” Starmer said in a video message posted around 2 p.m. local time (1300 GMT).
“Merely the beginning”
While the recognition, which will be echoed by France, Belgium and other countries at the United Nations next week, is a largely symbolic move, Zomlot said he hoped it would be “actual, practical, actionable.”
“Recognition is not the destination. Recognition is merely the beginning, the first foundational step toward ... making sure that Britain takes its historic responsibility toward the Palestinian people,” said the envoy.
The UK’s Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy told the UN in July it was “with the hand of history on our shoulders” that London planned to recognize Palestinian statehood, given Britain’s pivotal role in creating the State of Israel through the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
The decision is “not only about Palestine,” said Zomlot. “It’s also about Britain. It’s about correcting historic injustice.”
The team will hold a ceremony to mark the announcement on Monday. A carefully folded Palestinian flag, which will be raised outside the building, sits patiently at the reception of the mission waiting to be unfurled.

Topics: UK Palestinian

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Filipinos take to streets in mass anti-corruption protests

Protesters hold placards during a rally against phony flood control projects in Manila on Sept. 21, 2025. (AFP)
Protesters hold placards during a rally against phony flood control projects in Manila on Sept. 21, 2025. (AFP)
Updated 21 September 2025
Ellie Aben

Filipinos take to streets in mass anti-corruption protests

Protesters hold placards during a rally against phony flood control projects in Manila on Sept. 21, 2025. (AFP)
  • Public anger erupts after multibillion-dollar graft in flood control projects
  • Protest coincides with the 53rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law
Updated 21 September 2025
Ellie Aben

MANILA: Thousands of Filipinos rallied across main Philippine cities on Sunday to protest a growing scandal over fake flood-control projects believed to have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

Over the past few weeks, investigators have uncovered massive corruption in flood prevention and mitigation projects. An audit ordered by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. found last month that out of the 545 billion pesos ($9.54 billion) allocated to the projects since 2022, thousands of projects were found to be substandard, lacking proper documentation, or nonexistent.

Several powerful political figures have been implicated, according to ongoing House and Senate probes, igniting public outrage in one of the world’s most typhoon-vulnerable countries.

“The main objective of the mass action is to register the people’s anger with regard to the rampant corruption, the misuse of public funds, the fact that billions of pesos have ended up stolen by certain nefarious individuals with the connivance of certain government officials. That should be a cause for alarm,” Danilo Arao, journalism professor and convenor of election watchdog Kontra Daya, told Arab News at a main protest site in Luneta Park in the heart of Manila.

“Regardless of political ideology, it is important that people say that enough is enough and that we will not take this sitting down … What we’re trying to achieve is giving the government a wake-up call and that those who are involved should come out into the open. They should not hide behind their power and influence or whatever wealth they flex to the public.”

The protest was simultaneously taking place in several locations in Metro Manila, with thousands of people arriving to Luneta and to EDSA — the most important and busiest roads in the capital region.

“It shows the people are angry. People are united. People are coming from all walks of life, and everyone here is represented. This is more personal, not just political. Because it is a statement from the people that we are fed up,” said Roque Poblete, a business owner and member of a cooperative movement protesting in the EDSA area.

“It is important to show the government that all the people are united, to make some changes, not only in the government, but in the whole system.”

Anti-corruption rallies also took place in Cebu City — the second most important urban center after Metro Manila — in Bacolod City, the capital of Negros Occidental, in Cagayan de Oro, the major gateway and economic hub in northern Mindanao, and in Marawi City, the capital of Lanao del Sur in Mindanao’s south.

The rallies, which were endorsed by Marcos, coincided with the 53rd anniversary of the declaration of martial law by his father and namesake. Every year, demonstrations are held on Sept. 21 to remember the abuses during the martial law period, demand justice, oppose repressive laws, corruption and rights violations.

Sunday’s protest was the biggest in a series of demonstrations that over the past weeks have been organized by civil society groups, Catholic church leaders, and anti-corruption watchdogs.

“We’re so tired of corruption, we’re so tired of those projects that we can’t see — those ghost projects. That’s why we are here, as seminarians, as members of the church, to fight for the rights of the people,” said Johnson Aban, a protesting seminarian.

“It’s really amazing that many people participated in this event, not just the people of the church, but also those in the civil society and other groups, even the youth participated. We hope that the government will be awakened with this kind of cry from the people.”

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Estonia says UN Security Council to meet over Russian air incursion

Estonia says UN Security Council to meet over Russian air incursion
Updated 21 September 2025
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Estonia says UN Security Council to meet over Russian air incursion

Estonia says UN Security Council to meet over Russian air incursion
  • Estonia’s foreign ministry said Sunday that UN Security Council would hold an emergency meeting this week following the incursion of three Russian aircraft into its airspace
Updated 21 September 2025
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TALLIN: Estonia’s foreign ministry said Sunday that UN Security Council would hold an emergency meeting this week following the incursion of three Russian aircraft into its airspace.
Three Russian MiG-31 fighters violated Estonian airspace over the Gulf of Finland on Friday, triggering complaints of a dangerous new provocation from the European Union and NATO but a denial from Moscow.
Italian F-35 fighters attached to NATO’s air defense support mission in the Baltic states, along with Swedish and Finnish aircraft, were scrambled to intercept the Russian jets and warn them off.
“On September 22... the United Nations Security Council will convene an emergency meeting in response to Russia’s brazen violation of Estonian airspace last Friday,” a statement from the Estonian ministry said.
It marks the first time in 34 years of Estonia’s membership in the UN that the EU and NATO member nation — a staunch supporter of Ukraine — has officially requested an emergency Security Council meeting.
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said the violation is “part of a broader pattern of escalation by Russia, both regionally and globally,” following violations of Polish and Romanian airspace earlier this month.
“This behavior requires an international response,” Tsahkna said.

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UK, Australia and Canada recognize Palestinian state

Head of the Palestine Mission to the UK reacts as he watches a broadcast of Starmer formally recognizing The Palestinian State.
Head of the Palestine Mission to the UK reacts as he watches a broadcast of Starmer formally recognizing The Palestinian State.
Updated 1 min 45 sec ago
AFP

UK, Australia and Canada recognize Palestinian state

Head of the Palestine Mission to the UK reacts as he watches a broadcast of Starmer formally recognizing The Palestinian State.
  • London’s step aligns it with more than 140 other nations but will irk both Israel and its main ally the US
  • Canada and Australia also recognized a Palestinian state on Sunday and other countries are expected to do so this week at UNGA
Updated 1 min 45 sec ago
AFP

LONDON: Britain, Australia and Canada on Sunday recognized a Palestinian state in a seismic shift in decades of western foreign policy, triggering swift Israeli anger.
Portugal was also to recognize Palestinian statehood later Sunday, as Israel came under huge international pressure over the war in Gaza triggered almost two years ago by the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
“Today, to revive the hope of peace for the Palestinians and Israelis, and a two-state solution, the United Kingdom formally recognizes the State of Palestine,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a message on X.
Britain and Canada became the first G7 countries to take the step, with France and other nations expected to follow at the annual UN General Assembly which opens Monday in New York.
“Canada recognizes the State of Palestine and offers our partnership in building the promise of a peaceful future for both the State of Palestine and the State of Israel,” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney wrote on X.
It is a watershed moment for Palestinians and their decades-long ambitions for statehood, with the most powerful western nations having long argued it should only come as part of a negotiated peace deal with Israel.
But the move puts those countries at odds with the United States and Israel, with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reacting angrily and vowing to oppose it at the UN talks.
Calls for a Palestinian state “would endanger our existence and serve as absurd reward for terrorism,” Netanyahu said Sunday.
A growing number of longtime allies have shifted positions, as Israel has intensified its Gaza offensive, vowing to eliminate the Hamas Palestinian militants.
The Gaza Strip has suffered vast destruction, a spiralling death toll and a lack of food that has sparked a major humanitarian crisis since the start of the conflict which has drawn an international outcry.

“Special burden”

The UK government has come under increasing public pressure to act, with thousands rallying every month on the streets. A poll released by YouGov on Friday showed two-thirds of young Britons aged 18-25 supported Palestinian statehood.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy acknowledged at the UN in July that “Britain bears a special burden of responsibility to support the two-state solution.”
Over a century ago, the UK was pivotal in laying the groundwork for the creation of the state of Israel through the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
Three-quarters of UN members already recognize Palestinian statehood, with over 140 of the 193 having taken the step.
Starmer said in July that his Labour government intended to recognize a Palestinian State unless Israel took “substantive” steps including reaching a ceasefire in Gaza, getting more aid into the territory and confirming it would not annex the West Bank.
Starmer has also repeatedly called on Hamas to release the remaining hostages they captured in the 2023 attack, and is expected to set out new sanctions on the Palestinian militants.
Lammy told the BBC on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority — the civilian body that governs in areas of the West Bank — had been calling for the move for some time “and I think a lot of that is wrapped up in hope.”
“Will this feed children? No it won’t, that’s down to humanitarian aid. Will this free hostages? That must be down to a ceasefire.”
But he said it was an attempt to “hold out for” a two-state solution.
Palestinian foreign minister Varsen Aghabekian Shahin told AFP last week: “Recognition is not symbolic.”
“It sends a very clear message to the Israelis on their illusions on continuing their occupation forever,” she added.

“Worrying evolution”

Hamas’s 2023 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally of official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 65,208 people, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Gazan health ministry that the United Nations considers reliable.
Portugal said that it would also formally declare its recognition in New York on Sunday.
“By acting now, as the Portuguese government has decided, we’re keeping alive the possibility of having two states,” Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said.

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