PARIS: A row over the Olympics logo becoming a longterm feature of the Eiffel Tower has taken a fresh turn with a French government minister bidding to take de facto control over the monument away from the city of Paris.
The popular landmark sported giant Olympic rings during this summer’s Olympics and Paralympics. The capital’s mayor Anne Hidalgo — encouraged by the popular success of the Games — said a version of the decoration should adorn the tower until the next Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.
But that proposal has polarized opinion in the French capital and at the highest level of state. Already, it has been severely criticized by descendants of the tower’s designer Gustave Eiffel, as well as conservation groups.
At the end of last month, workers removed the 30-ton steel rings that were first installed in June between the first and second floors of the tower.
Hidalgo has campaigned for lighter, less prominent, versions of the originals to be installed in their place.
But even this toned-down proposal is too much for skeptics, some of whom are also bitter political enemies of Hidalgo. The Socialist mayor has riled opponents with ambitious pro-cycling and anti-car projects, as well as a recent decision to cut the speed limit on Paris’s ring road, the Peripherique.
One of her most prominent critics is right-wing politician, Rachida Dati, who as leader of the opposition in Paris city hall has often locked horns with Hidalgo. Having failed in a previous bid, she is expected to run for mayor again in 2026 at the next municipal election.
Dati was last month reappointed Culture Minister in Prime Minister Michel Barnier’s government, a position that gives her much influence over listed buildings and their protection.
On Tuesday, she announced that she had asked for the Eiffel Tower to become part of the state’s top heritage list.
If granted, that would, de facto, wrest control over work done on the tower from the city and her rival Hidalgo, placing it in the hands of the central government.
Dati told the daily Le Parisien that the tower’s current status as an ordinary listed monument was no longer sufficient. Only its inclusion on the French state’s top heritage list, reserved for sites of national importance, would offer “true protection,” she argued.
Any work done on a building or monument with full heritage status requires the approval of the regional prefect, who answers to the government, or other state-run agencies.
Should Hidalgo refuse Dati’s request that the tower be added to the state’s top heritage list, Dati said she would make the change “by force.”
Asked about the initiative Tuesday, Hidalgo said the Eiffel Tower was already “very, very well protected.”
Dati’s remarks also caused anger at SETE, the company running the Eiffel Tower, which is majority-owned by the city of Paris.
SETE president Jean-Francois Martins told AFP that the culture minister was entitled to ask for heritage status if a site was endangered. “But that’s not the case for the Eiffel Tower,” he said.
The company was embarking on the tower’s “most ambitious ever” paint job, had renovated lifts and improved accessibility, he added.
Martins accused Dati of using the Eiffel Tower “to further her political aims.”
Meanwhile, some opposition members of Paris’s municipal council have suggested displaying the Olympics logo elsewhere in the capital.
After months of gloom and self-doubt in the run-up to the start of the Olympics on July 26, Parisians threw themselves into the spirit of the Games, which have been hailed as a resounding success.
Hidalgo, in power since 2014, also wants to retain other symbols of the event such as the cauldron placed in front of the Louvre museum, and the statues of illustrious women placed in the river Seine during the opening ceremony.
French minister ups ante in Eiffel Tower Olympic rings row
https://arab.news/5z8tm
French minister ups ante in Eiffel Tower Olympic rings row
- At the end of last month, workers removed the 30-ton steel rings that were first installed in June between the first and second floors of the tower
Activists target Picasso work in protest against Israel arms sales
As he was on the floor, the protester said the UK government was “complicit in genocide” in Gaza
LONDON: Activists on Wednesday briefly pasted a photo of a bloodied mother and child in Gaza over a Picasso painting at a London gallery, calling for an arms embargo on Israel.
The National Gallery said two people had been arrested by police after an incident involving Picasso’s 1901 work “Motherhood” and that no damage had been carried out.
The Youth Demand group said two protesters stuck a photograph of the mother and child on the protective glass cover over Picasso’s work.
A social media video posted by the group showed a security guard taking down the photo. One protester shouted “Free, free Palestine” as he was frogmarched out of the room and detained.
As he was on the floor, the protester said the UK government was “complicit in genocide” in Gaza, and that there was widespread support for stopping weapons sales.
Youth Demand has previously protested at the Cenotaph war memorial in London and planned to disrupt King Charles III’s coronation last year.
The National Gallery said in a statement that two people entered the room housing the Picasso. “One was apprehended after initially attempting to attach what appeared to be a piece of paper to an artwork. Some paint was thrown on the floor,” it added.
“Police attended and arrested the pair. The room is currently closed. There has been no damage to any paintings.”
Two climate activists from the group Just Stop Oil were last month jailed for 20 months and two years for throwing soup at Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” at the National Gallery.
Several other paintings have been targeted in protests by climate campaign groups.
Balkan summit to rally support for struggling Ukraine
- Zelensky said the summit “will discuss international efforts to bring peace closer... as well as cooperation on the path to the European Union and NATO“
- Zelensky has stepped up a bid to rally backing from allies amid doubts about future US support after the November presidential election
DUBROVNIK: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Wednesday in Croatia for a summit with Balkan leaders as his country pushes for more military aid as it struggles to repel Russian advances.
But a key meeting with international allies planned for Saturday was postponed after US President Joe Biden called off a planned visit to Europe as millions were warned to leave their homes in Florida because of Hurricane Milton.
Zelensky announced his arrival in the Croatian resort of Dubrovnik on the X social media platform and said the summit “will discuss international efforts to bring peace closer... as well as cooperation on the path to the European Union and NATO.”
Zelensky has stepped up a bid to rally backing from allies amid doubts about future US support after the November presidential election.
The heads of state, premiers and foreign ministers from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkiye were to join Zelensky and Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic at the talks.
The summit will show that the “whole region supports Ukraine and the Ukrainian people in the fight for freedom,” Croatia’s Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said.
He pledged continuous “solidarity with Ukraine... including military support.”
The gathering in the Adriatic resort is the third “Ukraine-Southeast Europe” summit.
At the last one in Albania in February, Zelensky called for greater backing to help fend off Russian forces.
He has been pressing for more aid to counter Russia’s advantage in manpower and ammunition. Zelensky also wants clearance to use long-range weapons supplied by allies including the United States to strike military targets deep inside Russia.
A joint declaration at the end of the summit is likely to condemn Russian aggression, support Ukraine’s territorial integrity and Zelensky’s peace plan, push to prosecute war crimes in Ukraine and support Kiev’s European integration and NATO membership, according to the media.
Zelensky was also to attend an international meeting of more than 50 countries to discuss military support for Ukraine in Germany on Saturday.
But the meeting at the Ramstein air base “is postponed,” the US military said in a statement, without specifying a new date.
Zelensky had also pressed for greater military support at the last Ramstein meeting in September.
The US presidential election in November could compromise the billions of dollars of support that Ukraine receives from its biggest backer.
Republican candidate Donald Trump has repeatedly defended Russian President Vladimir Putin and voiced skepticism over US funding for Kyiv.
Plenkovic, who carried out his third visit to Ukraine since the invasion in February 2022, said that in the past two years EU member Croatia’s aid to Ukraine, mostly military, totalled 300 million euros ($329 million).
The Balkans summit is Zelensky’s first visit to Croatia.
The Ukrainian leader is expected to sign an agreement with Plenkovic on long-term support and cooperation between the two countries.
It will focus on Croatia’s experiences in prosecuting war crimes and removing mines after the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
But the meeting comes amid a domestic row between Croatia’s conservative government and President Zoran Milanovic over Ukraine.
Milanovic refused this month to back the government’s proposal to send Croatian officers on a NATO mission in Germany to train Ukrainian soldiers.
The president, who has limited powers but is the armed forces commander, said he would not allow Croatian soldiers to “participate in activities that push Croatia into war.”
The prime minister accused Milanovic of acting against national interests.
He called on lawmakers to reverse the president’s decision, which would require a two-thirds majority in a parliament vote.
Ex-UK soldier denies passing secrets to Iran intelligence
- Daniel Khalife is on trial accused of both the break-out and passing information to Iran for cash while posted in the UK and US
- Details allegedly handed over by Khalife included the names of elite special forces personnel
LONDON: A former British Army soldier allegedly broke out of prison strapped to the underside of a food delivery truck while detained on suspicion of passing secret information to Iranian intelligence, a prosecutor said on Wednesday.
Daniel Khalife, 23, is on trial accused of both the break-out and passing information to Iran for cash while posted in the UK and United States.
Details allegedly handed over by Khalife included the names of elite special forces personnel, a court in southeast London heard.
Jurors were shown a photograph from Khalife’s iPhone of a handwritten list of 15 soldiers he had made, including their service number, rank, initials, surname and unit.
Khalife, who grew up in southwest London with his Iranian mother, joined the army in 2018 aged 16.
Six months after he was posted to the 16th Signal Regiment in Stafford in central England, messages showed he was willing to gather information “to order,” prosecutor Mark Heywood told Woolwich Crown Court.
Nearly two years after signing up, Khalife in August 2020 spent an hour messaging a contact saved as “David Smith,” describing an internal military system which would identify service personnel.
He told his contact that he “won’t leave the military until you tell me to” before adding: “25+ years.”
Khalife allegedly remained in contact with Iranian handlers while posted to Fort Hood in Texas between February and April 2021.
During the posting he took a series of screenshots of systems marked “Secret,” including a password record sheet.
While there he was given the second highest level of NATO security, one below “cosmic top secret,” the jury was told.
Khalife denies the alleged prison escape and a charge of gathering, publishing or communicating information that might be useful to an enemy, namely Iranian intelligence.
He has also pleaded not guilty to gathering information of use to “a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”
The case comes a day after the chief of Britain’s domestic intelligence service, Ken McCallum, said MI5 had responded to 20 Iran-backed plots since January 2022 that presented potentially lethal threats.
Russia says peace in Ukraine is impossible if Kyiv gets NATO membership
- Putin has said peace talks can only begin if Kyiv agrees to abandon large swaths of territory claimed by Moscow and drops its bid to join NATO
MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday that achieving a just peace in Ukraine would be impossible if Kyiv lost its neutrality by joining a bloc such as the US-led NATO military alliance.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said peace talks can only begin if Kyiv agrees to abandon large swaths of territory claimed by Moscow and drops its bid to join NATO.
Zakharova, speaking about reports that the West was discussing an option in which Ukraine could join NATO in return for accepting Russian control over a swathe of Ukrainian territory, said that achieving a just peace in Ukraine would be impossible without ensuring that Ukraine’s status was neutral and non-aligned.
Zakharova said that what Moscow calls the “special military operation” in Ukraine was a reaction to NATO’s eastward expansion.
Pope Francis to meet Ukraine’s Zelensky at Vatican Friday
- A calendar event sent by the Vatican to the media indicated a half-hour meeting between the pontiff and Ukrainian leader
ROME: Pope Francis will meet Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday at the Vatican, officials said, while media reported the Ukrainian leader would also meet Italy’s prime minister in Rome.
A calendar event sent by the Vatican to the media indicated a half-hour meeting between the pope and Zelensky beginning at 9:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) on Friday at the Vatican.
Italian media reported that Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni would be meeting with the Ukranian president Thursday evening, although nothing has been officially confirmed.
Zelensky was in Croatia on Wednesday at a summit with Balkan leaders to seek international military support.
He had been due to attend an international meeting on UKraine at a US air base in Germany on Saturday.
But that meeting of more than 50 countries was pushed back Wednesday after President Joe Biden called off a planned state visit to Germany and Angola due to Hurrican Milton.
