Fireworks, warplanes and axes: How France celebrates Bastille Day

PARIS (AP) — Swooping warplanes, axe-carrying warriors, a drone light show over the Eiffel Tower and fireworks in nearly every French town — it must be Bastille Day.

France celebrated its biggest holiday Monday with 7,000 people marching, on horseback or riding armored vehicles along the cobblestones of the Champs-Elysees, the most iconic avenue in Paris. And there was also partying and pageantry around the country.

Parisians stormed the Bastille fortress and prison on July 14, 1789, a spark for the French Revolution that overthrew the monarchy. In the ensuing two centuries, France saw Napoleon’s empire rise and fall, more uprisings and two world wars before settling into today’s Fifth Republic, established in 1958.

Bastille Day has become a central moment for modern France, celebrating democratic freedoms and national pride, a mélange of revolutionary spirit and military prowess.

The Paris parade beneath the Arc de Triomphe so impressed visiting U.S. President Donald Trump in 2017 that it inspired him to stage his own parade this year.

The spectacle began on the ground, with French President Emmanuel Macron reviewing the troops and relighting the eternal flame beneath the Arc de Triomphe.

Each parade uniform has a touch of symbolism. The contingent from the French Foreign Legion was eye-catching, its bearded troops wearing leather aprons and carrying axes, a reference to their original role as route clearers for advancing armies.

Near the end of the parade, a Republican Guard officer fell from one of the 200 horses but the national gendarme service said the rider and horse were unhurt. Such incidents happen occasionally at the annual event.

The Paris event included flyovers by fighter jets, trailing red, white and blue smoke. Then the evening sees a drone light show and fireworks at the Eiffel Tower that has gotten more elaborate every year.

Every year, France hosts a special guest for Bastille Day, and this year it’s Indonesia, with President Prabowo Subianto representing the world’s largest Muslim country, which also a major Asian economic and military player.

Indonesian troops, including 200 traditional drummers, marched in Monday’s parade, and Indonesia is expected to confirm new purchases of Rafale fighter jets and other French military equipment during the visit. Prabowo, who was accused of rights abuses under Indonesia's prior dictatorship, will be treated to a special holiday dinner at the Elysée Palace.

“For us as Indonesian people, this is a very important and historic military and diplomatic collaboration,'' the commander of the Indonesian military delegation, Brig. Gen. Ferry Irawan, told The Associated Press.

Finnish troops serving in the U.N. force in Lebanon, and Belgian and Luxembourg troops serving in a NATO force in Romania also paraded through Paris, reflecting the increasingly international nature of the event.

Among those invited to watch will be Fousseynou Samba Cissé, a 39-year old Paris man who rescued two babies from a burning apartment earlier this month and received a last-minute invitation in a phone call from Macron himself.

‘’I wasn't expecting that call,'' he told online media Brut. ‘’I feel pride.''

Beyond the military spectacle in Paris are growing concerns about an uncertain world. On the eve Bastille Day, Macron announced 6.5 billion euros ($7.6 billion) in extra French military spending in the next two years because of new threats ranging from Russia to terrorism and online attacks. The French leader called for intensified efforts to protect Europe and support for Ukraine.

‘’Since 1945, our freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,″ Macron said. ’’We are experiencing a return to the fact of a nuclear threat, and a proliferation of major conflicts.″

Security was exceptionally tight around Paris ahead of and during the parade.

It’s a period when France bestows special awards — including the most prestigious, the Legion of Honor — on notable people. This year's recipients include Gisèle Pelicot, who became a global hero to victims of sexual violence during a four-month trial in which her husband and dozens of men were convicted of sexually assaulting her while she was drugged unconscious.

Others earning the honor are Yvette Levy, a Holocaust survivor and French Resistance fighter, musician Pharrell Williams and designer for Louis Vuitton.

Bastille Day is also a time for family gatherings, firefighters' balls and rural festivals around France.

A horse slides on the pavement during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

French troops march on the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Cadets from the military school Saint Cyr march during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Indonisian army band members march march during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Soldiers of the Foreign Legion march during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Jets from the acrobatic Patrouille de France fly over the Champs-Elysees avenue during the Bastille Day parade, Monday, July 14, 2025 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

French and Finland's soldiers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) stand during a rehearsal for the upcoming Bastille Day parade, Wednesday, July 9, 2025 on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to the army leaders flanked by Prime Minister Francois Bayrou, left, and Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu at the Hotel le Brienne, Sunday, July 13, 2025, ahead of the Bastille Day parade in Paris. (Ludovic Marin, Pool Photo via AP)

Foreign Legion soldiers arrive for a rehearsal for the upcoming Bastille Day parade, Wednesday, July 9, 2025 on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

Indonesian troops march during a rehearsal for the upcoming Bastille Day parade, Wednesday, July 9, 2025 on the Champs-Elysees avenue in Paris. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)

CAIRO (AP) — Iran's government is detaining family members and threatening to seize property of Iranian opposition figures in exile, some tell The Associated Press, in the latest crackdown on dissenting voices as the war rages on.

Activists overseas play a key role in tracking the crackdown, which is complicated by the internet shutdown imposed earlier this year during massive nationwide protests against the Islamic theocracy. Watchdogs say security forces shot and killed thousands of people.

The war with the United States and Israel has intensified authorities' threats against anyone speaking to outside media or activists. Now that pressure appears to be expanding to intimidate activists in exile.

Intelligence agents in Tehran on March 15 detained the brother of Hossein Razzagh, a former political prisoner who fled last year to Europe, Razzagh told the AP.

“My own brother isn’t at all political and doesn’t do any kind of political activity. It’s to put me under pressure,” he said.

His brother, Ali, was taken from his home in Tehran and was able to phone his wife that night “for a few seconds” from a detention center run by Iran’s Intelligence Ministry, Razzagh said.

Since then, the family and his lawyer have been unable to contact him. But the intelligence ministry told them it was reviewing his contact with his brother, Razzagh said.

Another activist who fled, Behnam Chegini, said his 20-year-old niece was detained on March 10 for a week. The niece was taken from her parents’ house in the city of Arak soon after she returned from Tehran, where her university had closed because of the war.

She was later released on bail and put under a travel ban.

Chegini, who is now based in France, said the detention was at least in part “because she is my niece and they know that.”

Sareh Sedighi, an activist who fled after her 2021 death sentence was overturned, said her mother was detained from her home last month in the western town of Urmia.

"The Islamic Republic took my mother away to make me be quiet,” she said. Her mother suffers from health problems and requires daily insulin doses, she added.

And Mahshid Nazemi, a former political prisoner and activist who now lives in France, said at least one friend was detained and questioned about contact with her.

Iran’s judiciary has begun seizing the property of public figures critical of the country's rulers, under an anti-espionage law approved during last year’s 12-day war with Israel that punishes media and cultural activities deemed to support Iran's enemies.

A judiciary spokesman on March 31 said on state TV that more than 200 indictments for confiscations have been or are being issued.

Borzou Arjmand, an Iranian actor living in California, found out from news reports that his assets in Iran had been confiscated. After his outspoken support for protests in 2022, Arjmand was unable to return to Iran. Since then, authorities have blocked his bank accounts.

Arjmand has expressed support on social media for Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran’s last shah who has organized an opposition movement abroad and supported U.S.-Israeli strikes.

Pressuring exiled figures is meant "so the Iranian people’s voice doesn’t reach the world,” Arjmand said.

At least three other figures living outside Iran — star soccer player Sardar Azmoun, musician Mohsen Yeghaneh and university professor Ali Sharifi Zarchi — have been on lists of confiscations, according to two semiofficial news agencies in Iran. Yeghaneh and Zarchi have expressed support for anti-government protesters on social media.

Iranian security and judicial officials have warned that any new anti-government protests will be met with lethal force.

State media regularly report arrests around the country, describing people as “mercenaries” or “agents” of Israel and the United States, “royalist thugs” or “traitorous elements.”

Reports have alleged that some sent information to “hostile networks.”

Iran Human Rights, a Norway-based group, has tracked several hundred detentions since the war began on Feb. 28, using its networks in the country and state media reports, said its director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghhaddam. He said the full number is likely far higher.

Among those detained is human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, taken by intelligence agents from her house in Tehran, said her daughter Mehraveh Khandan, who lives in Amsterdam. The 64-year-old Sotoudeh had been out on bail for health reasons following an earlier detention.

Little is known about how trials are functioning, as Israeli airstrikes have targeted buildings connected to the judicial system. "It’s like they are half-closed. A lot of judges are staying home,” said Musa Barzin, a lawyer with Dadban, a group of rights lawyers based abroad.

Some report deteriorating conditions inside crowded prisons. Speaking from Tehran, the wife of a political prisoner held at Iran's Evin Prison worried it could be struck as it was during last year's war.

“Explosions and smoke can be heard and seen from everywhere in the city. Every time we hear a sound, we get scared,” she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for her family's safety.

The situation has led to new attempts to organize the highly fragmented Iranian opposition abroad.

Shortly before the war, Razzagh and others began planning an opposition conference in London, the Iran Freedom Congress, to bring together pro-democracy groups. Razzagh represented a group of Iran-based opposition figures including Soutoudeh and imprisoned Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi.

He called the conference a first step toward forming a coalition to push for a “political transition” in Iran.

For decades, Iran’s rulers have quashed organized political opposition. Some activists in the diaspora say the war is worsening that pressure.

“Israel and America are saying, well, if the Islamic Republic doesn’t kill you, let us bomb you. They’ve been taken hostage from both sides,” Nazemi said of Iranians back home.

Associated Press writer Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.

Iranian police special forces stand guard during a funeral procession for Alireza Tangsiri, head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, and others killed in Israeli strikes in late March, in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

A residential building damaged by recent U.S.-Israeli strikes is seen with a sign on its wall that reads in Farsi: “We stand till the end,” in Fardis, west of Tehran, Iran, Friday, April 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)