Theme: Protests

Serbian authorities detained nine active police officers and one former officer for allegedly using excessive force against detainees during last year’s anti-corruption protests in Belgrade, according to Reuters, in a text republished by The Straits Times. The Interior Ministry said the suspects, from an elite unit, tortured and intimidated people detained in the garage of a government compound in downtown Belgrade on August 14-15, 2025. According to the statement, by using force and threats they inflicted great pain and severe suffering on a larger number of people to obtain information from them and to intimidate and unlawfully punish them. These were the first major arrests in connection with violence against the protesters who took to the streets over the past two years, and the ministry released only the detainees’ initials. The protests swept the country, a candidate for European Union (EU) membership, in 2025 and 2026, after 16 people died when a concrete canopy collapsed at a renovated railway station in Novi Sad on November 1, 2024.

The Central Bank of Paraguay ordered the intervention of Ueno Bank after finding a solvency ratio below 50% of the required minimum, following adjustments to its balance sheets during the regularization process. President Santiago Peña asked for the resignation of Central Bank president Carlos Carvallo and agreed with the heads of both chambers of Congress on a bill authorizing the use of the Guarantee Fund to start immediate payment to savers, including public funds and the IPS. Peña was a business partner of the bank until March 2025 and gave up his shares after criticism over a conflict of interest; the institution, linked to former business partners of the president, held hundreds of millions of dollars in public resources, including investments from Paraguay's social security system. On Wednesday, lawmakers began collecting signatures to file an impeachment request against Peña and Vice President Pedro Alliana. On Tuesday night, account holders and retirees protested outside the National Congress and the presidential residence, demanding the return of the blocked money and that authorities be held accountable.

Some 40,000 students were on strike at 57 schools across Denmark, including 12,000 to 13,000 at the protest in Copenhagen, according to organizers. Under the banner “Enough is Enough,” 11 high school and university student associations marched from Copenhagen’s City Hall Square to parliament over the proposed cuts to free up funds for defense spending. In a draft budget bill, Denmark’s center-left government plans to abolish the student grant (SU) for students who live with their parents and whose parents’ total annual income exceeds 700,000 Danish kroner (US$104,000). According to the Higher Education Ministry, around 14,000 students are expected to lose their grant, and some 8,000 would see it reduced. Student protests that started in France have spread in recent weeks to other European countries.

Britain’s highest court on Wednesday heard an appeal against the ban on Palestine Action, which the British government classifies as a terrorist organization, as police moved to arrest protesters outside. A lawyer for the group’s founder argued that only three of 385 acts by the organization cross the legal threshold of terrorism. Twenty-five protesters were arrested outside the Supreme Court on suspicion of expressing support for a proscribed organization, according to the Metropolitan Police. The court heard that more than 3,000 people have been arrested since the ban came into force, and that the High Court found the ban unlawful in February, a ruling overturned by the Court of Appeal in June.

Bangladesh’s garment wage board, set up by the government on Sunday, agreed to raise workers’ pay, without specifying the size of the increase. Workers are demanding a minimum monthly wage of 30,000 taka (about $240), a 140 percent increase on the current 12,500 taka, citing rising food, housing, transport and healthcare costs in a country with eight percent inflation. Babul Akter, the workers’ representative on the board, said the board will conclude its work by December so that revised salaries can be paid in January, and that the factory owners’ representative agreed on this point. Protests continued on Wednesday morning in industrial hubs including Gazipur, Mirpur, Narayanganj and Savar, with reports of factories being vandalized. According to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the unrest has forced 529 garment factories to shut down and left 987,190 workers out of work.

Paramilitary forces were deployed to Gazipur and Narayanganj, where garment workers demanding a 30,000-taka minimum wage are staying on the streets for a fourth day, with 58 police officers injured, according to police and to Agence France-Presse (AFP), in a text republished by The Hindu. The protests continue despite the government's announcement of a board to review the minimum wage.

Activist Amadou Sarang Diallo, 27, was arrested on Friday after posting a video on TikTok condemning Israel’s participation in the Youth Olympic Games, according to activists. The Games began on October 31 and run until November 13, with nearly 2,700 athletes. It is the first Olympic event of any kind to take place on the African continent.

Unions and housing-rights associations from seven European countries, meeting in Paris, called for coordinated demonstrations against the cost of living for November 20, 21 and 22. Organizations from France, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Portugal, Greece and Belgium are taking part, and they hope to bring “millions” of people into the streets. Their demands include guaranteeing public services such as education, healthcare and public housing, defending the “right to work” without “excluding migrants,” “taxing the rich” and an “end to rearmament policies” and to the expansion of “fossil fuels.” In Spain, the death of 87-year-old pensioner Maricarmen Abascal after an eviction in September triggered a wave of protests and led Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call early legislative elections for November 29; the country’s main unions have called a general strike for November 11. In the European Union, housing prices rose more than 60% between 2010 and 2025 and rents by about 29%.

Protests against the cost of living and rent prices began with the occupation of a square in the city of Porto three weeks ago, where demonstrators set up tents, and were repeated at Rossio Square in Lisbon. This weekend, Lisbon’s administrative court authorized the occupation of Rossio to remain until November 24. Housing costs in Portugal rose 41.5 percent from 2020 to 2025, the largest increase in the whole European Union, whose average rise was 3.2 percent in the period, according to the Pordata portal.

Spanish police cleared the housing protest camp at Madrid's Puerta del Sol in the early hours of Tuesday, and municipal cleaning staff swept away remaining debris, tents and tarpaulin in the morning. The central government delegation in the Madrid region said the eviction took place overnight “without incident or episodes of violence”, with 334 people removed and two arrested. Firefighters, social services and 400 national and municipal police officers took part in the operation. In a post on Telegram, protest organisers called it “a violent police operation” that left several people injured after being hit or as a result of tear gas. The camp began on September 26, after the eviction and subsequent death of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, who had lived seven decades in the same home. Major unions called a general strike for November 11 in defence of housing and wages sufficient to afford it.

Rada member Artyom Dmitruk claimed on Telegram that there were fatalities and serious injuries in clashes during protests near Kyiv, according to TASS, still without independent confirmation. Dmitruk wrote that fighters dispatched by Volodymyr Zelenskyy beat people and opened fire on them.

Israel's National Security Minister, Itamar Ben Gvir, accused Police Commissioner Daniel Levy on Monday of ordering “harsh violence” against Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) protesters to appease the opposition after last week's election. Ben Gvir also petitioned the High Court to cancel an April injunction that forbids him from interfering in the police's use of force. On Thursday, three protesters were arrested after a Haredi protest near Bnei Brak turned violent, leaving three police officers wounded and several protesters injured.

French high school students resumed school blockades on Monday, and the country is bracing for more protests. President Emmanuel Macron called for classes to resume after the government announced new measures to address the education crisis, which student groups found insufficient. The head of a student union had said on Sunday that the blockades would restart on Monday.

Bangladesh’s garment factories reopened on Monday, November 2, 2026, after widespread closures and production disruptions a day earlier, and manufacturers remain concerned about further unrest over workers’ demands for higher wages. Workers are asking for a minimum monthly wage of 30,000 taka ($243), up from 12,500 taka, according to Reuters, in a text republished by WHTC.

French students blocked some high schools on Monday, November 2, as they returned from the autumn holidays, determined to reinvigorate the protest movement despite government concessions during the break. Turnout for the blockades is uncertain, and the students vow to “keep up pressure”.

Demonstrators rallied in several Israeli cities on Saturday evening to demand a new government involving Arab parties, while right-wing activists held a counter-protest opposing their inclusion and calling for another election. In Haifa, right-wing Israelis protested against Arab parties joining the next government.

Police moved to disperse protesters in Jerusalem on Sunday evening on Haim Bar-Lev Boulevard after the demonstration escalated into clashes, with demonstrators blocking roads and throwing objects at officers, according to a statement from Israel Police. The protest was against the arrest of an ultra-Orthodox man accused of draft evasion near the Mea She’arim neighborhood. No injuries or arrests were reported as of the latest police update.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Delhi on Sunday at Ramlila Maidan for a rally by the opposition INDIA bloc, led by Rahul Gandhi’s Congress party, demanding the resignation of India’s chief election commissioner over a controversial revision of voter lists, according to the BBC. The Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has removed more than 130 million names from India’s draft electoral rolls. Opposition leaders allege the process gives Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) an electoral advantage and have called for the resignation and impeachment of chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar; the BJP denies the claims.

Police clashed with protesters in Portugal after thousands demanded that the government scrap a proposed law that they say would deepen the country's housing crisis, Al Jazeera reported.

French prosecutors opened an investigation into attempted murder after Molotov cocktails were thrown at security forces during Saturday’s protests in Paris, according to Al Jazeera. The prosecutor’s office said that “explosive devices were thrown at around 15 gendarmes as well as police officers,” referring to military police officers who are part of the French armed forces, and that no suspects had been arrested at this stage. The gendarmerie said 13 members of the injured officer’s unit were hurt, and the interior ministry counted more than 770 arrests across France.

Bangladesh formed a new board on Sunday, November 1, 2026, to review the minimum wage for garment workers as authorities sought to quell protests that have disrupted key industrial hubs around Dhaka, according to The Hindu. Despite the announcement, thousands of workers demanding higher wages continued protesting around the capital, Dhaka, and clashes were reported with police, who fired tear gas and sound grenades, according to Al Jazeera.

Garment factory workers in Dhaka and Gazipur protested on Sunday for better wages and blocked the Dhaka-Tangail highway to demand a monthly minimum wage of 30,000 takas, according to the Hindustan Times. In Dhaka’s Mirpur area, protesters torched a police vehicle after a clash with police, and at least 80 factories were shut in the two cities during the unrest, according to Prothom Alo, cited by the Hindustan Times. Nineteen people were detained in Dhaka in connection with the violence, according to the Daily Star, also cited by the Indian newspaper.

Protests against compulsory military service organized by the group Gen Z regelt, which means “Generation Z takes charge” in German, were scheduled in 34 German cities on Saturday, including Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, according to Reuters. The group says it opposes compulsory military service and wants greater investment in education. Official figures released on Saturday afternoon fell well below the 182,000 participants the organizers had expected: police in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin registered 6,000 demonstrators, according to Reuters.

London’s Metropolitan Police said on Sunday that 325 people were arrested on Saturday at the protest outside the US embassy, 320 of them for “expressing support for a proscribed organisation under the Terrorism Act.” The demonstration preceded a two-day Supreme Court hearing starting Wednesday on the UK government’s July 2025 decision to outlaw Palestine Action under anti-terrorism legislation, according to France 24.

Dozens of ultra-Orthodox protesters blocked roads outside the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) central induction base on Sunday, where more than 200 members of the Haredi community were joining the army, according to Times of Israel. The Israel Police said the protesters were trying to intimidate the recruits who arrived at the Tel Hashomer base, where inductees are processed before being sent to their units. Some 230 Haredi men were expected to be drafted into the IDF for noncombat roles.

France’s Interior Ministry counted 779 arrests on Saturday, “without major incident in the second part of the evening”, according to RFI. Pierre Sourzat, head of the “Lyceens!” student group, said that some high schools will be blockaded from Monday, November 2, 2026, when students return from a two-week holiday, according to The Hindu. The blockade campaign will restart on Monday, he said, adding that the government’s proposals did not go far enough.

Tens of thousands of people protested in more than 50 cities across Italy on Friday, October 30, 2026, against soaring living costs and the poor state of public services such as healthcare and education, CNN reported. The nationwide general strike, called by the anti-capitalist union Unione Sindacale di Base (USB), brought together teachers and workers from the agricultural and healthcare sectors, among others, and farmers dumped manure on the streets of Turin. The largest rallies took place in Milan, Turin and Rome, where young and old criticized Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her right-wing government.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters, most of them young, returned to the streets across France on Saturday in a third consecutive weekend of demonstrations over living costs and education, according to the Associated Press (AP). France’s government estimated 320,000 protesters nationwide on Saturday, fewer than in previous protests, and about 70,000 police and gendarmes were deployed, with Paris marches rerouted to the edge of the capital.

Thousands of people took to the streets of New Delhi on Sunday to demand the resignation of the country’s election chief, Gyanesh Kumar, over changes to voter lists that opposition parties say favor Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling party. The demonstration was led by Rahul Gandhi and is the latest in more than a month of protests against the revision of the electoral rolls. Opposition parties allege the exercise removed more than 130 million names and disproportionately affected Muslims and other minorities, according to Al Jazeera.

Rioters looted several shops in Frankfurt late on Saturday and clashes erupted in the city and in other German cities after largely peaceful mass protests over the cost of living. Frankfurt police said windows of several shops were smashed and Molotov cocktails were thrown at emergency services, and there were incidents of violence in Berlin, Cologne and Hamburg, with police using water cannon. The demonstrations, organized by the group Gen Z regelt, took place in 34 cities, including Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, against compulsory military service and for more investment in education, amid the cost of living. Authorities in Frankfurt, Munich and Berlin counted as many as 18,000 protesters, roughly half of the organizers' estimate. In France, more than 320,000 people demonstrated on Saturday and 565 were arrested across the country, and a police officer was struck by a Molotov cocktail in Paris.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Phuket to demand that Thai authorities end the activities of the Chabad movement in the country and take action against alleged illegal economic activities by foreigners, including Israeli-linked organizations, according to the Times of Israel. The protest came several days after Thailand revoked the citizenship of Rabbi Yosef Chaim Kantor, the head of the Chabad movement in the country, for using his American passport to travel abroad.

Dozens of officers, some accompanied by police dogs, moved into Rossio Square at about 4:30 a.m. GMT on Sunday to disperse a housing encampment, a day after thousands marched in Lisbon demanding that the government withdraw a rental bill, according to Al Jazeera. Protesters had erected more than 50 tents following Saturday’s march in the capital. The intervention followed operations in the same squares the previous Sunday, when police arrested 25 people in Lisbon and six in Porto.

London’s police arrested 139 people at a demonstration outside the US Embassy on Saturday after protesters expressed support for Palestine Action, a pro-Palestinian group that has been outlawed in the UK, according to the Jerusalem Post. The demonstration was organized by the activist group Defend Our Juries, which is campaigning against the British government’s decision to outlaw Palestine Action.

Opposition parties in India led by Rahul Gandhi announced a march of nearly 1.5 km through central New Delhi to Ramlila Maidan for Sunday, a ground designated for their rally, to demand the resignation of election chief Gyanesh Kumar. Delhi police surrounded the site with officers carrying batons and shields, accompanied by riot-control vehicles, and announced traffic diversions, according to Reuters. The opposition parties have held near-daily demonstrations since last month against Kumar over the voter list revision that critics say favors the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to The Guardian.

More than 560 people were arrested across France by Saturday night, according to French authorities cited by the Associated Press (AP), in a third consecutive weekend of protests over living costs and education. In Germany, rioters smashed storefronts in downtown Frankfurt and stole weapons from a gun store, which police later recovered, according to the Korea Herald.

France’s government estimated 320,000 protesters nationwide on Saturday, with about 70,000 in Paris, in a third consecutive weekend of demonstrations against the cost of living and inequality, according to AFP. The estimate was lower than in previous protests, according to AP. More than 500 people were arrested and police fired water cannon and tear gas to disperse rioters on the sidelines of the demonstrations, according to AFP.

Human rights lawyer Margaret Owen, 94, was arrested again on Saturday at the protest outside the US embassy in London against the ban on Palestine Action. The Metropolitan Police said the majority of those detained at the demonstration were held for expressing support for a proscribed organization, and that further arrests were expected throughout the day.

Young people in Germany took to the streets in some 34 cities calling for greater political say and a more hopeful future, according to DW. In Frankfurt, masked rioters looted shops on Oct 31 as the demonstrations turned violent, and police fired water cannons at youths hurling Molotov cocktails, according to the Straits Times. A gun store was among the shops looted, with its windows smashed; police said they arrested a suspect and seized two weapons.

London police arrested 139 people on Saturday at a protest outside the US Embassy in support of the banned group Palestine Action, up from the 48 detentions announced earlier at the same rally. The majority of those taken into custody had expressed support for a proscribed organization, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement cited by AP News. Al Jazeera reported at least 139 arrests after protesters defied a warning not to attend the rally against the proscription of Palestine Action.

London police arrested 48 people on Saturday at a protest by Palestine Action supporters outside the US Embassy, days before a two-day Supreme Court hearing on the ban on the group, according to Middle East Eye. “The majority of arrests have been for expressing support for a proscribed organisation,” the force said. Nearly 4,000 people have been arrested for allegedly showing support for Palestine Action since the British government proscribed it under anti-terrorism laws in July 2025.

France’s interior ministry estimated that around 320,000 protesters took part in demonstrations across the country on Saturday, while student unions counted nearly half a million, according to France 24.

Organizers of the GenZ regelt! movement expect more than 170,000 participants in more than 30 German cities, including Berlin, Frankfurt and Cologne, according to G1. The demands include the rising cost of living, deteriorating conditions in schools and budget cuts.

France is bracing for a third weekend of protests, with police deploying 70,000 officers to prevent a repeat of the riots and looting that have swept the country in recent weeks, and in Germany protests are scheduled in more than 30 cities on Saturday, the Guardian reported.

France will deploy about 70,000 police officers in Paris and other cities ahead of a new round of nationwide protests on Saturday, with Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warning of a very high risk of public disorder, France 24 reported. According to Le Monde, Nuñez said demonstrations will be allowed, but not in city centers, where there is a risk of public disorder.

Polish President Karol Nawrocki entered the building of the Constitutional Tribunal early on Saturday, accompanied by Zbigniew Kapinski, according to Nawrocki’s chief of staff, Pawel Szefernaker. Police said they had arrested three people who tried to enter the court complex.

London’s Metropolitan Police has warned that anyone attending a demonstration in support of Palestine Action near the US Embassy on Saturday will face arrest, “as part of a robust policing operation.” The force says expressing support for the group is an offense under the Terrorism Act after its proscription in June 2025, a decision upheld by the Court of Appeal in June 2026.

More than 160,000 people are expected to join demonstrations across Germany on Saturday, organizers say, in a youth-led movement inspired by protests elsewhere in Europe to demand better education and lower living costs. The rallies, organized by the campaign group Gen Z regelt, are planned in 34 cities including Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich. The group says it opposes compulsory military service and wants greater investment in education.

Polish police entered the premises of the Constitutional Tribunal on Friday after demonstrators gathered in Warsaw to protest the suspension of its head judge, Bogdan Swieczkowski. Police said there were incidents outside the court, with objects thrown at officers, and that three people were detained. Justice Minister Waldemar Zurek requested that the immunity of Swieczkowski and his deputy be lifted for preventing judges elected by the parliamentary majority from taking up their duties. Prime Minister Donald Tusk wrote on X that restoring the rule of law is the government’s duty.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly students and workers, took to the streets across Italy on Friday to demand higher wages and stronger public services, protest against the rising cost of living and oppose increased military spending, according to Reuters, in an article republished by U.S. News. In Genoa, around 15,000 port workers, students and other demonstrators entered the port, joining similar protests in Europe and elsewhere against the use of ports for arms shipments.

Shops and other businesses in Paris and other cities boarded up their windows on Friday, as France braced for a third consecutive weekend of protests coinciding with Halloween celebrations, according to Le Monde. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said on Thursday that demonstrations would be allowed, but “not in city centers, where there is a risk of public disorder.”

Thousands of students and workers took to the streets across Italy on Friday to demand more school funding and relief from the cost of living, with a heavy police presence to avert possible clashes, according to the Times of Israel. Marches were held in dozens of cities, including Bologna, Genoa, Naples and Turin, where a few minor skirmishes between protesters and riot police occurred at the start of the protest.

More than 25 dockworkers’ unions across at least 110 ports in 22 countries went on strike on Friday (October 30), according to Al Jazeera. The stoppage is part of an international campaign against arms shipments and for better working conditions, the unions said. Unions in France, Italy, Greece, Spain, Turkey and Morocco issued a joint call for an end to the wars in the Middle East, including the war in Gaza.

France’s Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez warned of a very high risk of public disorder and announced the deployment of around 70,000 police officers for a new wave of protests this weekend, according to Le Monde. Demonstrations will be allowed, but not in city centers where there is a risk of public disorder, with a pledge of an extremely firm response, also according to Le Monde.

Ecuador's main unions, alongside social and Indigenous organizations, called for a demonstration this Thursday against the policies of President Daniel Noboa, according to Página/12.

The Gen Z Regelt collective has called protests in German cities for October 31, with more than 150,000 people reportedly registered, according to TRT World. The group demands more education funding, stronger climate action and a fairer distribution of social costs, and in its demands to Chancellor Merz and his coalition government asks for “money for schools instead of cuts” and “an affordable life.”

Serbia's student movement demanded on Thursday the resignations of top officials in the police, intelligence agencies and the judiciary as it prepares to take power after last weekend's election win against former strongman leader Aleksandar Vucic, according to AP News. The students also urged the country's election authorities to officially declare the final results without delay after a rerun at some 50 polling stations next Sunday.

UN experts said excessive use of force, violence and mass arrests are not appropriate responses to a social protest movement in a State governed by the rule of law, referring to nationwide marches in France. The experts condemned police crackdowns, warning they deter demonstrators from exercising their rights.

Ten years after Mouhcine Fikri’s death sparked the Rif protests, six Hirak leaders remain in prison, including Nasser Zefzafi, sentenced to 20 years, according to Middle East Eye. The movement grew out of the fishmonger Fikri’s death; he was crushed inside a garbage truck in Al Hoceima on October 28, 2016 while trying to retrieve his confiscated catch, according to the outlet.

Hundreds of Indonesian security personnel were deployed in Jakarta ahead of student protests against several policies of President Prabowo Subianto and his government’s handling of forest fires, according to the South China Morning Post, in republished Reuters reporting. University of Indonesia students demand the government declare the wildfires in Sumatra and Borneo a national disaster and halt spending on programs such as the free meals scheme.

Protesters stormed a Serbian television station supportive of former President Aleksandar Vucic after his loss at the polls, Al Jazeera reported. With 97% of polling stations counted, the election commission said the students had won 2.25 million votes and the former ruling party 1.67 million, the BBC reported.

The Netherlands has withdrawn from the Eurovision Song Contest 2027. Its public broadcaster NPO confirmed the withdrawal from the contest, citing “sensitivities” over Israel’s participation, according to Al Jazeera. Tuesday’s announcement reverses a September decision to return to the show, according to the AP News, in a text republished by U.S. News.

South Africa halted a new directive for processing asylum applications after violent protests broke out in Johannesburg and Durban, according to DW. The suspension of asylum applications followed recent unrest, France 24 reported.

Serbia’s Aleksandar Vučić conceded defeat to the student-led protest movement in Sunday’s parliamentary election, according to Reuters. He said the Student List would have between 135 and 140 seats and his bloc 105. The election commission indicated a record turnout, which commentators had suggested would favor the student movement, according to the BBC.

French President Emmanuel Macron promised on Monday that his government would announce a package of measures in response to weeks of street protests over a broad set of grievances, according to Reuters, in a text republished by Quews News. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said earlier that further disturbances are expected on October 31, and the interior ministry deployed 70,000 police for Saturday’s demonstrations, which unions called to denounce the high cost of living and public services.

Thousands of people protested in Prague on Sunday against the plan to abolish household licence fees and fund public media through the state budget, after the lower house fast-tracked the bill in a rare overnight vote on Saturday, according to Al Jazeera.

Serbia voted on Sunday with queues of two to three hours at the country’s embassy in London and long lines in Belgrade, according to the Guardian. The EU ambassador to Serbia, Andreas von Beckerath, said the bloc was “deeply concerned about reported violent incidents” at a number of polling stations. US Republican senator Joe Wilson said Serbians were turning out “in historic numbers” and that he was concerned by reports the government might be preparing to use violence against citizens to obstruct the vote. The paper frames the election as the sternest test of Aleksandar Vučić’s 12-year grip on power.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the initial reaction of European leaders to the unrest in Europe was anti-American, with claims that the events resulted from the US administration’s actions and its support for right-wing parties, according to TASS. He said the reaction surprised him, in an interview with Vesti reporter Pavel Zarubin. According to Putin, claims that Russia was inciting mass unrest in Europe did not emerge immediately.

France’s interior ministry said on Sunday that police arrested 1,314 people in weekend protests across the country and that 53 officers were hurt in clashes. The ministry also said police responded to 75 fires during Saturday’s protests and that 24 shops were looted. Late on Saturday, interior minister Laurent Nuñez spoke of two serious injuries among protesters, one in Toulouse and one in Clermont-Ferrand.

Hundreds of thousands marched across France on Saturday protesting the rising cost of living and a lack of government resources for essential services like schools. Nearly 1,000 people were arrested as fresh clashes erupted during nationwide protests against the rising cost of living and fuel prices, The Hindu reported.

Soldiers guard central Milan as thousands of protesters march in cities across Europe, The Hindu reports. The protests run from Milan to Madrid, with security forces curbing clashes, and include campus, pension, housing and anti-corruption demands, the paper says. In several Italian cities, the demonstrations drew tear gas and water cannon fire, according to TRT World.

Protests against the war and the rising cost of living returned to major Italian cities on Saturday, a week after unrest erupted across the country, with clashes between demonstrators and police in Turin, Rome and Bologna and largely peaceful rallies in Milan, Reuters reported in a text republished by the Jerusalem Post. Authorities deployed a heavy police presence and many shops closed as a precaution; Reuters witnesses did not observe any shops being looted or property vandalized.

One hundred people were arrested in Barcelona on Saturday evening after hooded demonstrators at an anti-establishment rally looted shops and set fire to street furniture around the city's central Plaza de Catalunya, Reuters reported in a text republished by the Jerusalem Post. The rally was called in social media posts under the slogan “against the system”, using the phrase “Institut Indignats”, a translation of “Lyceés Indignés”, the banner of student protests in France in recent weeks. Núria Parlon, the interior minister for the Spanish region of Catalonia, said more than 30 fires were set and 14 stores were vandalized or looted, adding that around 25% of those arrested were minors.

Nearly 1,000 people were arrested across France on Saturday at the end of another day of protests that drew hundreds of thousands and ended in clashes, according to the BBC. The interior ministry said an estimated 410,000 people protested nationwide, while the unions put the number at about 800,000. After largely peaceful demonstrations, police fired tear gas and water cannon in a number of cities including Paris, and barricades were set alight in Marseille.

Thousands of people heeded the organisers' calls and attended the rally in Tirana, where authorities counted several government buildings attacked, dozens of demonstrators arrested and more than 300 protesters and police injured, according to Al Jazeera. Riot police used tear gas, water cannons and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who threw rocks at officers and started a fire at the door of the agriculture ministry, according to The Hindu. Student-led demonstrations, fuelled by anger over perceived government corruption, a lack of jobs and poor education standards, have engulfed central Tirana and spread to other cities this month.

Thousands of people gathered in Tel Aviv on Saturday for a large anti-government demonstration, three days ahead of a general election widely seen as a referendum on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to France 24. The protest was organised by the October Council, a group founded by the families of victims and of hostages taken by Palestinian militants on October 7, 2023, to demand accountability for the failure to prevent the Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza war. On Hostage Square, participants demanded a commission of inquiry into the failures of the October 7, 2023 massacre, with most opposition leaders present, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The French Interior Ministry put nationwide turnout at 410,000, including 110,000 in Paris, according to the Associated Press (AP), in a text republished by PBS NewsHour. The Paris prosecutor’s office said 64 people had been arrested in connection with Saturday’s demonstration in the capital and 40 placed in police custody, including six minors. Near the march’s endpoint at Porte de Vincennes, some protesters threw projectiles while police fired volleys of tear gas and used water cannons to disperse people. Authorities had confined the capital’s march to the city’s southeastern edge, keeping protesters away from central neighborhoods.

The Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, the Picasso Museum and the Grand Palais, which is hosting a major exhibition of works by Paul Cézanne, closed their doors on Saturday, on a new day of protests in France. In Orléans, thousands of people shouted anti-fascist slogans as they marched against Marine Le Pen and against Emmanuel Macron.

Thousands of people marched in Madrid in defence of the public pension system, with 25,000 present according to the government delegation and 50,000 according to the organisers. The protest comes five weeks before the November 29 general elections, with pensions at the centre of the campaign and a warning to all parties: “Whoever governs, pensions are defended”.

France is set to deploy more than 70,000 police officers and gendarmes for a new round of protests against deteriorating school conditions and the rising cost of living, according to Al Jazeera. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said police had arrested 135 people and seized a variety of weapons as they deployed for nationwide demonstrations, according to DW. President Emmanuel Macron condemned what he called a “racist terrorist attack” after a gunman opened fire from a car west of Paris on Friday, killing one person, wounding a 12-year-old girl and injuring four others.

Italy has sent 500 additional soldiers to Milan, on top of hundreds already stationed there, to support about 5,000 police and other law enforcement personnel ahead of new protests, according to the Associated Press (AP), in text published by The Times of Israel. Authorities are conducting drone surveillance, checks at railway stations and online monitoring for potential calls to violence. Protests are scheduled on Saturday in many other European cities, from Portugal to Albania, according to the AP.

Police in Lyon fired tear gas to disperse around 150 protesters who briefly blocked a road near the city centre, where demonstrations had been banned, according to TRT World. In Paris, armoured vehicles were stationed near the Élysée Palace, where the security perimeter was expanded beyond its usual size, according to TASS. In Orléans, thousands of people marched against Le Pen and against Macron, yelling anti-fascist slogans.

The Louvre, the Orsay Museum, the Picasso Museum and the Grand Palais are closed on Saturday in Paris because of planned protests, France 24 reported. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said as many as 70,000 officers will be deployed nationwide, along with helicopters, armored vehicles and water cannons.

The French government deployed 70,000 police officers and special agents for protests planned for this Saturday (24) in several cities, according to G1. The demonstrations come a week after protests against the high cost of living drew more than 500,000 people, according to estimates from the country's press. In Orléans, the municipality hosts on Saturday and Sunday (25) a congress of the National Rally (RN), the far-right party of presidential candidate Marine Le Pen.

French President Emmanuel Macron condemned as a “racist terrorist attack” the shooting that killed one person and wounded five in the Paris suburbs, including a 12-year-old girl shot eight times, according to the SCMP. The gunman fired from his car on Friday. Macron visited Trappes, the working-class town southwest of Paris where the attack took place and which is suspected of having targeted people of foreign origin. Amid protests in the country, the president met student union representatives, France 24 reported.

France will deploy some 70,000 police officers across the country for this weekend's protests, the government said on Friday, after some of the worst urban violence in years erupted on the sidelines of demonstrations a week ago. In a statement to the Associated Press (AP), the Culture Ministry said the Louvre, the Orsay and Picasso museums, as well as the Grand Palais, would be closed. Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said courts have already sent 217 people to prison over the events on Saturday, half of them first-time offenders. President Emmanuel Macron, according to aides, is postponing a visit later this month to Nigeria and Senegal amid the crisis. He held a meeting of his defence council of top ministers and officials and was to meet security forces.

Serbia votes on Sunday in an early parliamentary election seen as a referendum on the countryʼs future, after two years of student protests, according to the BBC. The main threat to Aleksandar Vučićʼs 12 years in power comes from the Student List-Students Win movement, with no defined leaders and outside the traditional parties, also according to the BBC.

French President Emmanuel Macron said “illegitimate” demonstrations will be banned in the coming days as the country seeks to get a grip on civil unrest. Paris police banned a student protest planned for Thursday, and Lyon authorities declared a ban on “all protests” on Saturday, Le Monde reported. Students had held four weeks of protests before the October 17 rallies. Protests planned for Thursday in Paris, Lyon, Lille and Grenoble were also banned, DW reported.

Thousands of people protested in more than 20 towns and cities across Poland, calling for access to free and legal abortion services, according to Al Jazeera. The demonstrations come days after parliament passed two bills easing abortion restrictions that are likely to be vetoed by conservative President Karol Nawrocki, also according to Al Jazeera.

Tunisian police fired tear gas to disperse protesters in Ettadhamen, a suburb of the capital, following the death of a man detained on suspicion of drug dealing, according to Al Jazeera. In Jebiniana, in Sfax governorate, police clashed with protesters following the death of a man whose relatives said he had died while being chased by security forces, also according to Al Jazeera.

Thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets this Thursday in the first nationwide opposition protest in nearly two years, calling for elections and political change, with a notably thin presence of security forces. The march was organised by María Corina Machado's Vente Venezuela movement in Caracas and other cities, including Valencia, Maracay, San Cristóbal and Maracaibo. The interim government of Delcy Rodríguez and US President Donald Trump say there will be elections, but no date has been set.

Tens of thousands of supporters of Serbia’s student-led opposition movement gathered in central Belgrade for their final rally ahead of Sunday’s parliamentary election, in which they hope to oust the party of veteran leader Aleksandar Vucic. The vote follows nearly two years of student-led protests triggered by the 2024 collapse of a canopy at a newly renovated railway station in Novi Sad that killed 16 people.

Hours after the preventive detention of opposition leader and former presidential candidate Luisa González, her party, Citizen Revolution, called a nationwide mobilisation in Ecuador for her release on Thursday, October 22.

A truckers’ protest in southern Italy halted production of buffalo mozzarella, with an estimated loss of €3 million (US$3.37 million) in just 24 hours as the milk cannot reach dairies in the Naples region, according to SCMP. The protests, which seriously affected fuel and food supplies in southern Italy, were easing on Thursday as Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government was lining up aid, according to Reuters, in a text republished by U.S. News.

President Emmanuel Macron said only authorised union protests will be allowed in French towns and cities on Saturday, after demonstrations across the country turned violent last weekend. The Rhône prefecture decided to prohibit by decree any demonstration in the city of Lyon this Saturday, “in light of the events of 17 October”. At least 2,500 people have been arrested across France since the disorder broke out, and Macron met intelligence services and ministers on Thursday to prepare for the next national day of protests, according to the BBC.

Senegal’s labour unions have called a 72-hour general strike, from October 21 to 23, 2026, according to AllAfrica. The two texts behind the stoppage were promulgated on September 3, 2026, under laws no. 2026-18 and no. 2026-19, before their publication in the Official Journal on September 18.

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that “illegitimate” protests would be banned in the coming days and that he would convene a defence council under his chairmanship on Friday, while protests by organised groups such as unions would be offered alternative routes to protect businesses, according to France 24. Only union-organised protests would be authorised during nationwide demonstrations on Saturday, he said. In Lyon, the Rhône prefect decided to ban by decree all protests in the city this Saturday, October 24, according to The Hindu.

French President Emmanuel Macron began on Monday, October 19, a Gulf tour aimed at securing oil and diesel supplies in an effort to bring down prices, after a weekend of violent protests sparked by soaring living costs, according to Le Monde. Macron acknowledged security and intelligence failures but refused his interior minister’s resignation, after more than 2,500 people were arrested in some of France’s worst violence in years, with town halls and shops looted and set on fire, according to RFI.

Thousands of people rallied in Lisbon, Porto and other Portuguese cities on Tuesday evening, Deutsche Welle reported. Demonstrators vow to continue their campaign for affordable housing after police cleared tent camps and arrested at least 55 people.

Thousands of students and teachers took to the streets across Greece on Wednesday to demand higher state funding for education, better facilities and less-crowded classrooms, according to Reuters. About 10,000 demonstrators, including school and university students, rallied peacefully in central Athens and its suburbs, according to police. G1 also reported protests by students, teachers and public servants in the country.

The yield on France's benchmark 10-year government bond surpassed 5% on Wednesday, its highest level since 2002, as investors demanded a higher return for holding the country's debt amid a budget standoff and violent street protests, according to Le Monde. According to the newspaper, the spread over the German 10-year bond, the eurozone's credit benchmark, surged to nearly 160 basis points.

President Emmanuel Macron criticized world leaders on Wednesday for making stupid comments about the rioting on the sidelines of protests in France and said images generated by artificial intelligence showed scenes that never took place in France, alongside claims that the country had been invaded by hordes of migrants and Islamists. According to Le Monde, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that France had been hit by an invasion of extremist Islam, and US President Donald Trump said what is happening in France has to do with immigration.

Fresh curfews were imposed across the city centers of Paris and Lyon on Tuesday after the first quiet night since the worst rioting in years, adding open-ended bans to the entry-and-stay ban already applied in Paris, according to NPR. Paris police said the curfew in two zones — around Place de la République and the Les Halles shopping district — had restored public peace and would remain in place for as long as necessary, and Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the deployment of forces for Saturday’s protests will be massive, with Sentinelle troops guarding sensitive sites.

French security forces arrested a man on Tuesday believed to be linked to ultra-left movements over the burning down of a historic town hall in Limoges, according to The Hindu. The man, 34 according to a source with knowledge of the case, was detained by officers of the RAID unit in the nearby town of Val d’Issoire, the Limoges prosecutor’s office said, and the Counter-Terrorism Sub-Directorate (SDAT) was called in to investigate the suspected arson of the 1883 building, whose roof and belfry collapsed. In parliament, deputies reached an agreement on Tuesday to create a commission of inquiry into the weekend violence, according to Carta Capital.

Hours after police cleared their camps in Lisbon and Porto and arrested 55 people, thousands of protesters returned to two central squares to demonstrate against an intensifying housing crisis, according to Al Jazeera. Activists have demanded that the centre-right government withdraw a bill that makes evictions easier and ends rent caps on new leases, which passed a first parliamentary reading.

The student movement Student List, which has kept up constant protests in Serbia for two years, is fielding 250 candidates in Sunday’s parliamentary election and, according to the Guardian, poses the most serious challenge Aleksandar Vučić has faced in 12 years in power that the paper describes as increasingly authoritarian. Vučić stepped down as president last month, five months before the end of his second and last term under the constitution, with the aim of extending his hold on power as prime minister at the head of his Serbian Progressive party (SNS).

United Nations (UN) experts called on Indian authorities to respect, protect and fulfil the right to peacefully protest and ensure justice for reported violations, according to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. According to reports cited by the experts, over 7,000 youths, journalists, human rights defenders, lawyers and party members were reportedly arbitrarily detained in New Delhi and taken to remote centres, where their phones were allegedly seized and protest-related material deleted. In recent months, hundreds of thousands of students and supporters have gathered peacefully against decisions on the education system and, more recently, against voter-roll deletions affecting 130 million people.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said France has been hit by an “invasion of extremist Islam” after weekend protests over economic conditions degenerated into riots, according to the Times of Israel. In an interview with i24News, he said, according to the interpreter's translation, that French leaders “did not prepare in time” and “succumbed to the invasion of extremist Islam”. Netanyahu also said he told French President Emmanuel Macron after the October 7, 2023 attack that “if we do not eliminate them here, you will have them in Paris”, according to the Hindustan Times.

Italy on Tuesday approved the deployment of 500 troops to Milan after violent clashes as fuel price protests hit pasta production and food deliveries in southern Italy, France 24 reported. The government also announced new security measures aimed at tackling the kind of violent protests that damaged Milan's central shopping district when weekend rioters, many of them minors, looted stores and set fire to property, AP reported. A government decree calls for the deployment of an additional 500 soldiers to Milan through the end of the year, requires parents to pay for damage caused by minors and makes it easier to prosecute minors over 14.

Paris police banned people from entering or remaining in areas around the Place de la République and in the Les Halles district from Monday night until 6 am on Tuesday, the dpa news agency reported. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said one of the aims of the curfew is to protect people and also property, in particular shops.

The French government will reinforce police with troops and mount a large security operation for protests planned for Saturday, the government said on Tuesday, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said “the deployment next Saturday will be massive” and that the immediate priority was to restore order after rioting and looting hit Paris, Marseille, Lyon and other cities on October 17. He also said further curfews will be imposed where necessary, according to NHK World.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said in Parliament that the security deployment for next Saturday will be massive, acknowledging that the operation for last weekend’s protests had been too static and not mobile enough, according to France 24.

The spread between French and German 10-year yields is the highest since the closing levels of January 2012, when the eurozone was in the midst of a credit crisis that required interventions by the European Central Bank, according to Le Monde. The yield on France's 10-year OAT government bond rose to 4.94% on Tuesday, more than 150 basis points above the comparable German government bond, considered the European benchmark of creditworthiness. The Guardian puts the spread at 143.6bps, on track for its highest closing level since early 2012, amid a wave of street protests in France.

France saw a calm night after the first curfews and will impose new curfews in areas where needed on Tuesday, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP), in a text republished by RFI — Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said the previous day's measures helped keep the night calm and police confirmed the night passed without major incidents across the country, according to the same agency.

France's Interior Ministry said more than 2,300 people were arrested and almost 1,000 police and gendarmes were injured in Saturday's protests — when President Emmanuel Macron declined Interior Minister Laurent Nunez's offer to resign and Nunez admitted losing control in major cities after hundreds of shops were looted, according to Al Jazeera.

The student protest that shook France over the weekend brought about 500,000 people into the streets, according to G1. On Saturday alone, about 2,400 people were arrested and nearly 1,000 police officers were injured, according to the Interior Ministry.

Italy’s government will dispatch 500 army troops to “defend Milan” after two days of unrest that saw demonstrators clash with police, loot shops and vandalise property, according to Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini cited by the Guardian on Monday. Saturday’s protest over poor public services and rising costs descended into looting in the city centre, with several hundred hooded protesters setting bins ablaze, and stores including Decathlon, Arc’teryx and Vodafone were ransacked.

US President Donald Trump blamed immigration for the unrest in France, saying Paris will be a Muslim city very soon: “The whole world was coming in, and as you know, Paris is going to be a Muslim city very soon, and that wasn’t the deal,” he said, adding: “We closed our borders. He didn’t.” Vice President JD Vance, a day earlier, wrote on X that “Western liberals imported the third world into France”. The Saturday protests, called over rising fuel prices and falling purchasing power, escalated in several cities, leaving a historic town hall torched and 1,800 arrests, according to The Guardian.

Anti-government demonstrations in Albania continued for a seventh consecutive day as Prime Minister Edi Rama renewed his offer of unconditional dialogue with protesters amid violent clashes with police in the capital, Tirana, local media reported. Riot squads deployed tear gas and water cannon to disperse crowds near Rinia Park, and confrontations escalated as demonstrators hurled stones, pyrotechnics and Molotov cocktails at officers stationed near the Interior Ministry.

AI-generated photos falsely claiming to show an elderly couple “stripped and robbed” during unrest in France have racked up millions of views, amplified by far-right accounts that fueled inflammatory claims about Muslims, Jews and the riots. The Paris prosecutor’s office, contacted by Libération’s CheckNews, said that as of Monday — around 48 hours after the alleged incident — there had been no reports to that effect.

Paris police announced a curfew in specific areas of the city, from Monday night until Tuesday morning, and banned protests in certain areas overnight, Le Monde reported. “I’m absolutely determined to restore public order,” Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said, adding that the government was ready to impose a state of emergency “if needed”. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez offered to resign on Monday, after more than 2,500 people were arrested and nearly 1,000 members of the security forces injured. On Saturday, some half a million people turned out across France to denounce the surging cost of living, a culmination of four weeks of protests that began with high school students.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said on Monday he does not rule out imposing a state of emergency to restore order, speaking after a crisis meeting, France 24 reported. He said he had asked regional authorities to impose “localised” curfews on Monday evening, notably to protect businesses.

Italian police detained 271 young people in Milan on Sunday during unrest, after a second day of protests over poor public services and rising costs, authorities said, in a report by the Jerusalem Post. Of those taken to police stations, 32 were arrested, including 23 minors and 13 foreign nationals, police said on Monday.

Protests against the Albanian government entered a seventh day on Monday, with hundreds of demonstrators outside the Education Ministry chanting “Rama, resign”, The Hindu reported. The demonstrations began on Tuesday, with students demanding better university conditions, lower tuition fees and action on corruption, and Prime Minister Edi Rama rejected calls for him to resign. The European Commission condemned on Sunday the use of violence in Tirana and other cities, and the Health Ministry said 272 people were injured in clashes since Tuesday, including 169 police officers.

The phone of the University of Belgrade rector, Vladan Djokic, was infected in 2026 with Pegasus spyware from the NSO Group, according to a report by the SHARE Foundation reported by CyberScoop. Djokic is a prominent figure in the country’s student protest movement, and Rade Bajic, a lawyer with Serbia’s Public Prosecutor’s Office for Organized Crime, was also targeted, according to the research.

Students blocked access to the Louvre Museum in Paris on Monday, in support of ongoing high school protests and to denounce what they described as police repression, TRT World reported. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu asked regional authorities to impose curfews in some cities on Monday evening. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said, according to Le Monde, that he could not look shopkeepers in the eye after hundreds of shops were looted on Saturday and tell them the police had not lost control.

French President Emmanuel Macron admitted failures after the weekend of violent protests, following failures in anticipation and intelligence that worsened the crisis and the admission by Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, in an interview on Monday, that police “lost control” in some cities. On Saturday, over half a million mainly peaceful protesters demonstrated against rising living costs and access to public services before the escalation.

French President Emmanuel Macron refused the resignation of Interior Minister Laurent Nunez, despite criticizing security “failures” after the weekend protests, which ended with nearly 2,400 people arrested and almost 1,000 police officers and gendarmes injured, according to the Interior Ministry. Florian Philippot, leader of the French Patriots party and a presidential candidate, called on Macron to resign amid the protests.

French President Emmanuel Macron blamed “unrestrained violence” on “insurrectionist elements from radical far-left groups, joined by numerous criminals”, according to The Hindu. Marine Le Pen, who leads first-round polling for the 2027 presidential election, described Macron as a president “without credibility or authority” who had “lost all touch with reality”, according to RT, calling his government “a government on its last legs.”

Israeli protesters disrupted a Tel Aviv university event featuring far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, chanting “There will be no fascism here”, staging a sit-in and scuffling with security personnel before Ben-Gvir left the venue under escort, according to Al Jazeera.

Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama rejected protesters’ demands that he resign on the sixth day of violent anti-government protests; Albanian police fired water cannon and tear gas on Sunday. Le Monde reports the same refusal to resign on the sixth day of violent demonstrations.

Detentions in Saturday’s protests across France rose to 2,397, according to the Interior Ministry cited by Agence France-Presse (AFP), and 997 police officers were injured, seven of them seriously. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported about 2,400 people arrested and about 1,000 police officers injured, seven of them seriously. In a Sunday address, President Emmanuel Macron said “nothing justifies” the “unbridled” violence seen in nationwide cost of living protests.

Milan saw a second day of clashes between youths and police around Piazza Duomo on Sunday, October 18, with bottles thrown, stores ransacked and property destroyed by mostly black-clad vandals, according to Le Monde. Police arrested about 70 people since Saturday, according to the Ansa news agency, and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni called a security meeting for Monday. The clashes began on Saturday on the sidelines of a sanctioned demonstration against the high cost of living.

The French government was in crisis talks on Sunday after one of the most violent days of unrest in years left public buildings burned and hundreds of shops destroyed and looted, The Guardian reported.

Tirana saw a sixth consecutive day of violent protests on Sunday: Prime Minister Edi Rama, serving his fourth term, ruled out resigning and a Health Ministry report issued on Sunday morning counted 65 people injured, 37 of them police officers, and 12 hospitalized, according to Al Jazeera. Hundreds of protesters gathered again at noon in front of the Education Ministry, chanting “Rama, resign”, in a tense standoff with police, who later used water cannons and tear gas to hold back the crowds, The Hindu reported.

Roughly 1,500 shops and retailers were damaged during the protests that swept France over the weekend, many of them looted, according to the head of the Retail and Trade Federation, cited by France 24.

French President Emmanuel Macron will deliver a televised address on Sunday night, at 9:00 p.m. Moscow time (6:00 p.m. GMT), in connection with the October 17 unrest, according to the Elysee Palace, in a TASS report citing Le Monde. Organizers count 800,000 participants in the rallies, while the Interior Ministry puts the figure at 550,000, according to TASS.

France counted 1,800 people arrested in the national tally of the violent protests, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP). The demonstrators were protesting against rising fuel prices, the cost of living and deteriorating public services, including schools, according to the BBC.

Police in Paris arrested 855 people during Saturday’s protests, a record for a single event, according to The Guardian. The city’s mayor, Emmanuel Gregoire, said whole streets in the capital were devastated. In Limoges, central France, the town hall was largely lost to a fire set by masked protesters, the top regional official told the AFP news agency.

Italian police fired tear gas in Milan after coming under attack from protesters throwing stones in the square in front of the city’s Gothic cathedral, and used a water cannon and made seven arrests in Bologna after a protest turned violent, according to the ANSA news agency, cited by the Jerusalem Post. In Milan and Bologna, police reported peaceful cost-of-living rallies alongside stone-throwing clashes, according to Al Jazeera.

Albanian police are using rubber bullets and other riot control equipment to disperse anti-government protests in Tirana city center, on a fifth consecutive day of demonstrations in which participants are trying to seize government buildings, according to TASS, which cites the CNA news portal. Protesters in Albania are demonstrating for a fifth day in a row to demand the prime minister’s resignation, according to Le Monde.

More than 1,200 people were arrested in France on Saturday after protesters supporting high school students clashed with police, with some demonstrations later spiraling out of control as buildings were set ablaze and shops looted, according to The Guardian.

The CGT, France’s biggest trade union, said more than 500,000 people have joined Saturday’s nationwide protests over the cost of living, according to France 24. A protester had their hand blown off by a police crowd-control grenade, a police source told Agence France-Presse (AFP), and masked protesters smashed the glass doors of Lille’s town hall as they forced their way in.

Police in Albania fired what appeared to be rubber bullets at protesters on Saturday, the fifth day of mass student protests demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama step down, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Reuters video footage showed police firing a shotgun toward crowds outside the education ministry during clashes with protesters, and reporters found rubber pellets on the ground; pellets hit two Reuters journalists and several protesters, leaving round marks. Rama rejected calls to resign on Thursday, as thousands of protesters smashed windows and fought running battles with riot police firing water cannon and tear gas in the capital.

Pakistan has detained hundreds of members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party of former prime minister Imran Khan, after the central government imposed emergency rule on October 11 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, according to The Hindu. The province is the party’s stronghold, and the move came after major protests demanding the former premier’s release.

Protesters attended a demonstration against the “high cost of living” in Paris, according to an AFP photo dated October 17. French police fired tear gas at demonstrators in Paris who were protesting against rising prices and what they described as the erosion of the country’s social model, according to the Times of India. Clashes were also reported in Marseille, where protesters hurled projectiles at police, who responded by deploying tear gas.

Street protests in India this year are likely to be higher than at any time in the past decade, according to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED), cited by the South China Morning Post (SCMP). Analysts cited by the newspaper say the youth protests and growing support for the opposition form the worst crisis for Modi since 2014, with people under 30 making up nearly one quarter of the country’s 1 billion voters.

India rebutted allegations by UN special rapporteur Gina Romero that young people in the country face retaliation or stigmatization, according to the Hindustan Times. Six US Democratic lawmakers urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to raise concerns with India over alleged excessive use of force against student protesters. The lawmakers' letter mentions, according to the Telegraph India, a pattern of repression, wrongful detention and excessive use of force by security forces during student protests in Delhi and other localities across India.

Protesters in Bangkok called on institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to focus on climate financing and tax reforms that help poorer citizens instead of demanding austerity, according to the South China Morning Post (SCMP). The protest issued six demands to the IMF and the World Bank, including debt cancellation and greater public oversight, according to Khaosod English.

Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama blamed “foreign hands” for the student-led protests calling for his resignation, which have turned increasingly violent, according to Al Jazeera. In a video address on Friday, he said there are “foreign hands that do not wish for Albania to be at peace”. Police said 160 people were detained over alleged acts of violence on Thursday evening, and the protests spread to Elbasan, Shkodra and Korca, where demonstrators broke windows and set fire to rubbish bins, local media reported.

Thousands of students took to the streets on Friday (16) in Rome, Milan, Bologna and Turin to demand structural improvements in public education and protest against the government of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, according to Opera Mundi. Student groups denounced the progressive deterioration of school infrastructure and demanded that the 13 billion euros earmarked for military spending be redirected to education. Representatives of Opposizione Studentesca d’Alternativa announced a general strike for October 30, and organisers estimate that 400,000 people took part in protests across Italy. According to the police union Siulp, at least 18 officers were injured during the march outside the Education Ministry.

In Azerbaijan, girls wearing headscarves have been turned away from schools, triggering unusual protests involving children, according to DW. On October 12, the Interior Ministry said 37 people had been detained in connection with the protests. Students and teachers say they were turned away, and a primary school teacher was dismissed for refusing to remove her headscarf, according to a relative’s account.

France is set for nationwide demonstrations on Saturday, after weeks of student protests, France 24 reported. The Yellow Vest movement, which eight years ago staged street protests against President Emmanuel Macron, has appealed to teachers, workers, pensioners, farmers and students to join.

Thousands of Colombians protested peacefully across the country on Wednesday against right-wing President Abelardo de la Espriella, in the opposition’s first major demonstrations since he took office in August, in a Bogota rally led by former President Gustavo Petro with trade unionists, Indigenous groups, students and feminist activists, according to France24.

Demonstrators broke into Albania's Ministry of Education building overnight and set fire to the interior, according to police, who counted 16 arrests. Hundreds of students gathered, threw rocks at the ministry and demanded better university conditions and the resignation of Prime Minister Edi Rama, according to Al Jazeera. Tens of thousands of students took to the streets of Tirana on Wednesday, setting fire to a government building and two banks and throwing rocks at police during a protest against rising education costs and corruption, according to Reuters, in a text published by Brasil 247.

More than 160,000 schoolchildren, students and trade unionists marched in cities across France as protests over high school education continued into a third week, according to The Guardian. France’s interior ministry said 161,500 people had turned out across the country on Tuesday, after more than 260,000 last Tuesday and 75,000 on Thursday. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg joined an early morning protest outside the Lycée Paul Éluard in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis and said: “Young people are not being included in the conversation.” Riot police fired teargas at the end of Tuesday’s marches in Nantes and near the Montparnasse area of Paris, and an estimated 90% of France’s universities were disrupted, according to the newspaper.

France readied on Tuesday (October 13, 2026) for fresh nationwide demonstrations in support of students who have been protesting poor classroom conditions for weeks, with authorities and participants wary of further violence, according to The Hindu. Demonstrations on Thursday (October 8, 2026) saw more than 70,000 people take to the streets across the country, with about 500 people arrested. On Monday (October 12, 2026), only 130 of France’s 3,700 lycees were closed, according to the education ministry, which stated that “the number of school closures is falling... the violence is intensifying”.

Brazilians took to the streets of several cities in support of Lula, under the rallying cry “to block fascism”, according to Opera Mundi.

Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, announced on Sunday emergency rule in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, on a proposal by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, effectively removing Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party from regional power, as thousands of Khan supporters continue anti-government protests and demand the former leader be released from jail. The province was run by the PTI, whose provincial government was suspended after the state of emergency was declared.

Thousands of people gathered in central London in support of Palestinians after three years marked by what The Guardian describes as Israel's “genocide” against them. The Metropolitan Police said it had made 20 arrests, including for criminal damage, after demonstrators climbed on to the Battle of Britain memorial.

A New Delhi court ordered on Sunday the release of three leaders of the “cockroach” movement, including its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, their lawyer said, a day after they were detained. The trio had been detained on Saturday, ahead of a major protest against the country’s election commissioner, according to AFP, in a text republished by France 24.

The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) said in a statement that its founder, Abhijeet Dipke, and two other leaders were detained before disembarking from a flight in the Indian capital, according to AFP. The Hindu newspaper reported more than 5,000 protesters had been detained, a figure it was not immediately possible to verify, according to AFP. Ahead of the protest, authorities closed dozens of metro stations, cancelled more than 200 trains and temporarily shut down mobile internet around the protest site, according to AFP.

Thousands of people marched across Europe to demand an end to Israel’s war on Gaza, according to Al Jazeera.

Indian police detained the head of the cockroach protest movement on Saturday, October 10, ahead of a protest against the Election Commission, according to AFP, in a text published by Le Monde. Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) founder Abhijeet Dipke and two other leaders were also detained.

Mail/Express trains due to reach New Delhi and Hazrat Nizamuddin between 4:00 and 14:00 on October 10 were cancelled at source, and Delhi police asked the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) to shut 57 metro stations to scupper the movement of youths to the protest, according to PTI, in a text republished by Rediff. The Cockroach Janata Party called the protest at Jantar Mantar for Saturday, demanding the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the revision of the electoral rolls.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu promised a comprehensive government response at the end of October and rejected accusations of a police crackdown, as students press for more resources, building repairs and additional teachers. More than 6,000 people have been taken into police custody in recent weeks and hundreds of schools have closed, most of them minors with no previous criminal records. The Ministry of National Education said that 224 schools were completely closed and 151 were partially reopening, based on projected figures.

The French government has promised 3,000 supply teachers in the coming days for schools with the greatest need, its first sign of giving ground to the teenage protesters, according to the BBC. Education Minister Édouard Geffray pledged to deploy the 3,000 replacement teachers to address the crisis in French high schools, France 24 reported. The government says 6,877 people have been arrested since protests began, 86% of them under the age of 18.

In France, 141 high schools remain closed on Friday, on the fifth day of student protests, with Minister Edouard Geffray pledging 3,000 additional supply teachers, while officials count 71,500 demonstrators on Thursday, 24,500 in Paris, with 504 arrests and 48 officers injured, according to France 24.

South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs withdrew the September 28 directive on the intake of asylum applications following violent anti-immigration protests in Durban and Soweto, a directive that implemented the July Constitutional Court ruling in the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town case, according to AllAfrica.

More than 200 organisations will mobilise mass pro-Palestine protests on Saturday, across 60 countries, according to Middle East Eye. The protests are planned in more than 250 locations worldwide.

Anti-migrant protests turned violent in Soweto, Johannesburg, and Durban on Thursday, with dozens of cars set ablaze and foreign-run businesses forced to close, according to police. Acting national police commissioner Puleng Dimpane said 10 vehicles were torched in Johannesburg and 14 in Durban, where three people were arrested. The protesters oppose a July Constitutional Court decision that removes procedural barriers to seeking asylum, including for people who entered South Africa irregularly. Government spokesperson William Baloyi attributed the violence to deliberately false information about the ruling and said it does not automatically grant refuge, permanent residence or rights to undocumented migrants.

The French police have made more than 6,600 arrests since late September, when students, most of them under 18, began protesting to demand more education funding, according to the Interior Ministry. On Thursday, students barricaded the Lycée Hélène Boucher in northeastern Paris with garbage bins before police moved in with tear gas, according to the Associated Press. The Education Ministry said 375 schools were fully or partially closed on Thursday. Al Jazeera recorded the use of tear gas and water cannons against students in Paris.

Thousands of people marched in Madrid in homage to Maricarmen, an 87-year-old woman who became a symbol of the struggle against evictions, in a march from Sol to her former home, according to laSexta. The Government Delegation put the number of participants in the housing protest at 20,000. The three-kilometer route featured banners such as “el rentismo mata” and the chant “no son muertes, son asesinatos”, with events also in Valencia, Seville and Santander.

High school students across France were preparing for a fresh day of protests on Thursday, with entrances blocked at hundreds of schools since late September, according to AFP, in a text published by Pakistan TV. The protests, on a second day of mass mobilization in the week, denounce missing teachers, overloaded timetables and dilapidated classrooms. More than 6,500 people, mostly minors, have been arrested since the mobilization began, according to AFP, in a text republished by The Standard.

Madrid’s tenants union announced the death of Maricarmen Abascal, 87, whose eviction sparked nationwide protests over Spain’s housing crisis and a political row that triggered early elections. Abascal was forcibly removed on a stretcher from her apartment of more than 70 years in September after she was unable to afford rent increases. The apartment had been purchased by an investment firm that sought to hike her rent by 230%, according to The Guardian. The wave of outrage led Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to call a snap general election after rightwing and far-right parties voted down two emergency decrees.

France’s interior minister suspended on Wednesday the use of stun grenades by police at student-led demonstrations, as allegations of police brutality mounted after days of sometimes violent demonstrations across the country.

Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was detained for the third time in two days during a protest demanding the resignation of the election chief over a controversial revision of voter lists, according to Al Jazeera, in a report citing AP and Reuters. India’s Election Commission has removed more than 130 million names from voter lists, with millions appealing the removals.

The French foreign ministry summoned Iran’s ambassador on Wednesday over a disinformation campaign targeting France’s student protest movement, according to France24. Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux said the misleading content disseminated by official Iranian ministry accounts was absolutely unacceptable and that the provocations had to stop. On Tuesday, Tehran had summoned France’s envoy in Tehran over what it called the violent treatment of demonstrators, according to Reuters, in a text republished by the Jerusalem Post.

Israelis held protests, marches and demonstrations across the country on Wednesday, in addition to memorial ceremonies, on the third anniversary of the October 7, 2023 massacre, according to The Jerusalem Post. Many protesters called for more accountability from officials and a full state commission of inquiry into the national tragedy. The October Council said three years have passed and the truth has still not been fully investigated.

Details of the alleged murder by Marine Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, sparked a protest outside the US Embassy in Tokyo, according to CGTN, and US military authorities in Okinawa imposed movement restrictions on their personnel. The victim was identified as Anna Yagi, 39, a local resident of Naha, the prefectural capital, and an autopsy indicated death by strangulation, according to CGTN, citing local police. Benjamin Watson, head of US forces in Japan, ordered on Wednesday a 30-day off-base restriction starting October 9, banning off-base outings between midnight and 5 a.m., according to CGTN. Genta Koja, newly elected governor of Okinawa, announced he would travel to Tokyo on Wednesday to lodge an official protest with the central government, according to CGTN.

Lance Corporal Devin Jacob Ballard, 20, is suspected of killing a 39-year-old woman at a hotel in Naha on Saturday and taking her wallet and backpack, according to Free Malaysia Today. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi registered a formal protest with the United States on Sunday. On Tuesday, around 100 protesters rallied outside the US embassy in Tokyo against violence by American soldiers, according to AFP, in a text republished by TAG24.

About 250 thousand demonstrators took to the streets across France on Tuesday, with unions and teachers joining high school students demanding better learning conditions, according to France 24. Protests with student walkouts spread across the country and closed schools amid public discontent, according to The Washington Post. A French policeman was charged with violence after firing a tear gas grenade at close range at a 14-year-old student during last week’s protests, according to France 24.

Delhi police detained opposition leaders, including Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, on Tuesday, October 6, after blocking their protest march, according to RT India. The protest demanded the resignation of Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar over alleged irregularities in the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls, according to The Quint. Gandhi and other lawmakers were released shortly after, according to AFP, in a text republished by Geo TV.

Police fired tear gas at protesters blockading French high schools on October 6, according to Al Jazeera. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said there can be no tolerance for violence in the student protests, G1 Mundo reported. At least 715 police officers and 215 adolescents were injured in the clashes, according to Lecornu’s office. The Interior Ministry has arrested 6,100 people since the start of the protests, the majority of them minors, according to Al Jazeera.

Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif invited the PTI, Imran Khan's party, for talks on Tuesday and urged it to call off its long march to Islamabad. The PTI launched the march two days earlier from Lakki Marwat in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa to demand Khan's release; he has been in jail since August 2023. A second round of talks had collapsed on October 4 over the impasse on access to Khan.

France is set for nationwide strikes as school protests escalate, according to The New York Times. Between 400 and 500 French secondary schools had lessons suspended on October 5, after almost three weeks of pupil blockades, according to Brussels Signal.

India’s voter-roll revision cut 130 million voters from the rolls, fueling protests against Modi, and the country’s 200 million Muslims appear to have been disproportionately targeted, according to The New York Times.

Police clashed with demonstrators outside Kosovo’s parliament, who demanded the passage of a bill to curb the war crimes court, according to France24. The court is a hybrid tribunal: although it is part of Kosovo’s judiciary, it is staffed with international judges and based in The Hague, according to Balkan Insight.

France’s education minister, Edouard Geffray, said that security conditions have not been met in about 400 to 500 schools, which will be fully or partly closed on Monday, while organizers called for renewed large-scale protests on Tuesday, citing a lack of “concrete measures” from the government. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez says that 1,747 people were arrested on Friday and 24 schools have been burned or ransacked since the protests began.

Lessons will be totally or partly suspended in 400 to 500 schools in France on Monday because security conditions “have not been fulfilled”, the education minister, Édouard Geffray, said on Sunday, according to The Guardian. The minister said 24 schools have been burnt or ransacked and 78 education staff members injured since student unrest began last week.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Paris on Saturday against continued aid to Ukraine, in a national protest by the Les Patriotes party of Florian Philippot, according to RT. The protesters called on President Emmanuel Macron to halt the aid and pushed for France's withdrawal from the European Union and all supranational institutions, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

Iran said on October 3 that it executed Jamshidi, sentenced to death on charges of moharebeh through brandishing and firing a firearm and conspiracy and collusion against national security. The case is linked to anti-government protests, according to The Hindu.

Fresh protests over housing flared in Madrid and other Spanish cities on Saturday, a day after parliament narrowly rejected the government’s proposed relief measures for tenants, France24 reported. The government introduced the measures after nationwide protests following the eviction, on a stretcher, of 87-year-old Maricarmen Abascal from a Madrid apartment she had occupied for around seven decades.

Riot police clashed with students as education protests rage in France, according to the BBC. Student protests involve blockades and tear gas, according to The New York Times.

About 400 schools in France remained closed on Friday (October 2) amid student protests, and the toll includes about 100 schools severely damaged and 40 headteachers injured, according to The Guardian. Nearly 3,000 high school students, aged 15 to 18, have been detained since the start of the protests, according to the Interior Ministry.

France’s Interior Ministry recorded 1,949 arrests on Thursday (October 1, 2026) in student protests marked by fires and blockades spreading across the country, according to the ministry, as cited by The Hindu. A total of 305 officers were injured in the clashes, according to the same report.

French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu called a crisis meeting on Thursday and told ministers to cancel travel plans to deal with the student protests, according to The Guardian. Police counted about 900 demonstrations, blockades and related incidents outside high schools across the country, with more than 160 shut down. Since the start of the protests, hundreds of high school students aged 15 to 18 have been detained, including 625 on Wednesday alone, according to the Interior Ministry, and more than 80 police officers and firefighters and 120 pupils and teachers have been injured.

French security forces detained more than 600 people on Wednesday, while dozens of police officers and gendarmes were wounded in the escalation of protests, which included high school blockades, according to the interior minister, in an AFP text republished by the Hindustan Times. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 625 people were detained in the blockades, pointed to an “expansion of the movement” and condemned an “escalation of violence” outside certain schools.

More than 400 people, mostly minors, were detained on Tuesday over student protests at high schools across France, the French interior minister said, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). At least 400 schools were affected, with blockades driven by overcrowded classes and teacher shortages. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez spoke of 440 people detained, with two thirds taken into police custody.

Pro-Palestine protests have spread across Moroccan cities demanding an end to diplomatic normalization with Israel as Rabat deepens ties with Tel Aviv, according to Al Jazeera. The demonstrations followed the September 16 announcement that Morocco and Israel would elevate their missions to full embassies and appoint ambassadors. In Tangier, authorities banned the planned September 27 demonstration and security forces dispersed hundreds of participants, with more than 12 detained, according to the outlet, citing its own sources.

Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic, resigned on Sunday to pursue the prime minister’s post in an upcoming early parliamentary election, according to the AP. The election, the outlet said, will test his firm rule in the Balkan country after nearly two years of protests. The snap election is set for October 25, and a student-led movement is mounting the most serious challenge to his rule in more than a decade, according to Al Jazeera.

More than 5,000 people took part in Amsterdam in a nationwide demonstration against the Dutch authorities’ push toward militarization, according to the Dutch public broadcaster NOS, which cited the organizers, in a report by the Russian state news agency TASS. After a rally in Dam Square, demonstrators marched through central Amsterdam to Museumplein.

Tens of thousands of people protested in Madrid on Saturday over the government’s handling of the Ceuta migrant crisis, in a rally organised by Sociedad Civil Española and backed by the conservative People’s Party (PP) and the far-right Vox, according to Al Jazeera. The government put attendance at 20,000, while organisers said 180,000; demonstrators called for an early election. At the end of July, more than 70,000 migrants crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco, and most were later returned.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi’s office asked the United States for an exemption to resume flights with Iran on humanitarian grounds related to medical treatment, education, religious visits and the interests of civilians, after four Iraqi airports suspended all flights to and from Iran on Friday, days after Washington announced new aviation sanctions on any global company doing business with Iranian airlines. On Saturday, demonstrators gathered in Baghdad against the suspensions, in a protest organised by Iran-allied militias, and the head of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, Akram al-Kaabi, vowed to organize sit-ins at airports across the country unless normal air traffic resumes.

According to Al Jazeera, organizers of the protests in support of Imran Khan postponed the rallies to test the resolve of the Pakistani government. The march will be launched on October 4 instead of September 27, according to Reuters, in a text republished by the Economic Times. The government placed shipping containers along the main roads to close them on short notice.

New York police arrested 103 people for disorderly conduct during protests against the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, and all of them were released, Al Jazeera reported. The arrests rose above 100, among demonstrators demanding accountability over the war in Gaza and an end to United States military support for Israel. Netanyahu left the visit without being detained, while some of those protesting against him were arrested, according to Middle East Eye.

About 100 protesters were detained by New York City police on Thursday, September 24, 2026, at the protest against Benjamin Netanyahu outside the United Nations (UN) headquarters, before Israel’s prime minister delivered his speech to the General Assembly. Among those held were Oscar-winning actor Susan Sarandon and Hacks star Hannah Einbinder, and hundreds of people blocked traffic on the streets around the UN through the day. The action was organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, a US Jewish group critical of the Israeli occupation.

Spain’s Council of Ministers on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, allowed a US extradition request against activist and donor James Cox Chambers Jr., known as Fergie Chambers, 41, to move to the judicial phase, a decision his defence calls a “dangerous precedent” for the Palestinian cause, according to Middle East Eye. Chambers was arrested in Ibiza on 10 July 2026 at Washington’s request and remains in pre-trial detention in Madrid. The sealed indictment charges him with international money laundering, riot and conspiracy to riot over transfers of about $7.5 million to a company in Tunisia and over 2023 protests at the US facilities of an Israeli arms manufacturer in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, according to The National and The Straits Times, which published a Reuters dispatch. It is the first time the US has sought the extradition of a citizen over alleged support for Hamas, The National says. Government spokesperson Elma Saiz said the decision was “purely procedural” and that the final word rests with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet, after review by the Audiencia Nacional, the Spanish court that handles extradition requests. Chambers’s lead counsel, Baltasar Garzón, said: “Spain cannot defend international law, the rights of the Palestinian people and the protection of those who provide humanitarian aid while at the same time allowing a request to proceed with an extradition that shows clear signs of political persecution by the US government.” The Sumar party, a junior partner in the governing coalition, had urged the government to block the request; Podemos lawmaker Ione Belarra called Chambers “the first political prisoner in Spanish history being imprisoned because of his support for Palestine”. His defence says the transfers funded humanitarian projects in Gaza, including a bakery and a medical clinic.

Venezuelan Wilber Rafael Garcés Pérez, shot by a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on a street in Austin, Texas, on Sunday, September 20, 2026, was readmitted to hospital after protests and pressure from Texas lawmakers over his health, because the bullet lodged in his back had not been removed, according to El País. He had said on a call during a press conference on Monday, September 21, that the bullet fractured his collarbone and was not taken out because it sits close to his spine, and that at the ICE processing centre in Pearsall, where he is being held, he received only a painkiller in the early hours. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said he was stable when he was transferred, and his lawyer, Kate Lincoln-Goldfinch, disputes the official account of an irregular entry: she says Garcés entered with authorisation in 2024 and applied for asylum, and that the deportation order was issued in absentia because a hearing notice went to his old address. Austin congressman Greg Casar has demanded that ICE not deport him, and the city saw a second night of protests.

Moroccans vote on Wednesday in the first parliamentary election since the youth-led protests that filled the country’s streets in late 2025, with 7,288 candidates from 27 parties competing for the 395 seats in the House of Representatives, according to Africanews and Al Jazeera. Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch of the National Rally of Independents (RNI), elected in 2021, is trying to hold on to office. The Gen Z 212 movement, named after the country’s dialling code, began on Discord after eight women died at a public maternity hospital in Agadir and went on to demand that the budget go to hospitals and schools, criticising the stadiums built for the 2030 World Cup; Akhannouch’s resignation never came, and the government responded with higher health and education spending and incentives for young candidates, according to Middle East Eye and The Washington Institute. People aged 18 to 24 are about 12 percent of the population but only 4 percent of the country’s 15.8 million registered voters, according to Africanews. In July, about 72,000 Moroccans crossed into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, according to Middle East Eye; Rabat denies organising the crossings.