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French teens clash with police o School blockades intensify Lycee Brequigny in Rennes, Brittany’s largest high school, where around a hundred students hurled projectiles at the building.

Spanish evictee mulls offer to return home MADRID: The 87-year-old woman whose dramatic eviction last week from the apartment she had lived in for over seven decades triggered protests across Spain is assessing her landlord’s new offer to remain in the home, her lawyer said yesterday. Maricarmen Abascal was removed from her home on a stretcher, sparking demonstrations across the country, with hundreds encamped at Madrid’s central Sol square. Following social outcry and intense media attention, UrbaGestion, the fund that owns her apartment, offered a preliminary agreement late on Monday that could allow Abascal to return to her home if she agrees to its terms, her lawyer said yesterday. “She should never have been forced to leave,” Beatriz Duro told reporters. “I hope this case serves to provide a collective response to the housing crisis.” While welcoming the company’s proposal, Duro criticised UrbaGestion for refusing until recently to negotiate or hold talks. She also accused local, regional and national authorities of failing to respond adequately to Spain’s housing problem, particularly evictions that leave vulnerable people without alternative accommodation. Activists want legal reforms including a rent freeze and the automatic renewal of leases. Official sources said the ruling Socialists had reached an agreement with junior partners Sumar yesterday for new measures to curb soaring rental prices. – Reuters

PARIS: French teenagers yesterday set fire to rubbish bins and hurled projectiles in clashes with police, as they kept up a blockade of some high schools demanding better conditions at their establishments. High school students have since last week staged protests outside their schools over grievances including timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers as well as overheated classrooms. The movement in the lycees, which handle the final years of school in France, started in the Ile de-France region around Paris, where blockades in some 10 schools were reported yesterday. It has now spread to other cities. Masked students gathered outside the Lycee Cesar Baggio in Lille, in northern France, setting bins on fire. Bus shelters and advertising billboards were vandalised, with bottles, paving stones and various objects hurled at police who responded by firing tear gas. Teens piled up dozens of bins to prevent entrance to the Lycee Gabriel Guist’hau in the western city of Nantes, while in Paris there was an

hardline CGT union Sophie Binet told BFM TV. A student at the Lamartine school, who asked not to be named, said they had been angered by a lack of resources, overheated classrooms and overly congested timetables. “We are also there to support our teachers who have a crazy amount of work compared to what they earn,” she said. Lecornu on Monday said any escalation of demonstrations at high schools would be “irresponsible” and lashed out at the France Unbowed (LFI) party for encouraging the protests. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 164 arrests were reported on Monday and 180 schools were affected. In the low-income Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, the district’s LFI mayor Bally Bagayoko joined a student protest at the Lycee Paul Eluard. Leading students in a rendition of the Marseillaise , he said the protests were “legitimate” and complained low-income areas received less resources than higher income ones. “We, the children of the suburbs, are abandoned and neglected,” said 16-year-old Victoire, a student at the school, denouncing conditions as “unsanitary”. – AFP

The actions came as unions held demonstrations and strikes over the budget of Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron. Tens of thousands rallied in Paris and other cities, with teachers and fire services striking although with public transport not badly affected. “The anger is immense. I warn the government – it must address the demands and revise the draft budget, which is dangerous for the country and is driving us straight into the wall of recession at 200 kilometres an hour,” the head of the

uneasy standoff between 30 students and a contingent of police at the Arago school. Similar actions were also reported in cities including Marseille in the south, Bordeaux in the west and Lyon in the southeast. At the Lamartine school in Paris around 80 students gathered outside brandishing slogans including “more hours of lessons than sleep” and “8am to 6pm, are we pupils or under arrest?” There were tense scenes at the

Lebanon PM pushes for tighter deal WASHINGTON: Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Monday called for the further implementation of a framework agreement with Israel in his meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington. implementation into practical steps and tangible results on the ground, leading to the restoration of Lebanon’s full sovereignty, the achievement of a complete Israeli withdrawal and the confinement of weapons to the state.”

Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the broader Middle East war in March by attacking Israel, which responded with airstrikes and a ground invasion. Lebanon and Israel concluded a framework agreement in June under US auspices, providing for the gradual withdrawal of Israeli forces and the disarmament of Hezbollah, but its implementation has stalled. Salam’s office said that in his meeting with Rubio, he “stressed the need to move to the stage of implementation of the tripartite framework and translation of the principles of reciprocity and phased

Rubio said he reaffirmed“strong US support as Lebanon implements the Trilateral Framework – the only path to a durable peace with Israel”. The agreement also involves the deployment of the Lebanese army to the south, starting in test areas known as “pilot zones”. On Monday, Lebanon reported a large explosion set off by the Israeli army in the southern town of Mansouri, with the military saying it had dismantled infrastructure. – AFP

French protesters marching in Marseille with a banner which reads ‘Faced with repression, unity and class’ as they take part in a rally during a day of nationwide public sector strikes and demonstrations yesterday. – AFPPIC US forces exit Iraq after two decades

BAGHDAD: US forces are set to pull out from their last bases in Iraq by today, a departure celebrated as a victory by Iran and its allies who now have deep influence in the country where 4,500 Americans died during more than two decades of war. Iraqi security experts say the withdrawal – agreed in 2024 under President Joe Biden and carried out by Donald Trump’s administration even as it wages war against Iran – could give Tehran and its powerful allies free rein, while also allowing other US enemies to stage a comeback. “Iran stands to benefit strategically from the coalition’s departure because it removes a military presence that for years acted as a counterweight to Tehran’s influence in Iraq,” said Jasim al Bahadli, an Iraqi security analyst specialising in studying armed groups aligned with Iran.

those who worry about the strength of the Iran-backed groups fear the withdrawal is premature. “We believe Iraq is still not fully ready to take over the security file at this time,” said Abdulrahman al Zobaie, a Sunni tribal leader in Fallujah, once a bastion of anti American resistance. “All Iraqis aspire to full sovereignty, and no Iraqi would dispute that. But I believe that the (US-led coalition) leaving in this way and creating a vacuum is what all Iraqis fear.” American forces invaded Iraq in 2003 to topple President Saddam Hussein and went on to occupy the country, install a government and fight a counterinsurgency before withdrawing at the end of 2011. They returned less than three years later to help Iraqi forces defeat Islamic State in a major war from 2014 to 2017. – Reuters

He predicted that the pro-Iranian militia groups would not only portray the departure as a victory for their movement, but also “seek to translate that momentum into greater influence over security and political decision-making”. Abu Mojtaba al-Yasiri, a commander in the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of Iran backed factions, described the US withdrawal as “a historic victory for the Iraqi Islamic resistance groups and honorable Iraqis, and a crushing defeat for the American project”. “On Sept 30, we will celebrate the turning of a black page in Iraq’s history and the failure of the occupation to impose its will on our country,” he said. “Iraq has proven that its sovereignty cannot be secured by foreign forces, but by the resistance and the will of its people.” While the departure of US forces is broadly popular among Iraqis,

Israel setting off controlled explosions in the southern Lebanese village of Hanniyeh on Monday. – AFPPIC