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Revealed: French police used UK-funded 4x4 vehicles to charge student protesters

French police have used 4x4 vehicles paid for by British taxpayers to charge at student protesters during the school protests that have swept the country. The French government has confirmed that an investigation has been launched into why the cars, funded by the UK government specifically to prevent asylum seekers crossing the Channel, were used during a protest involving school students in Dunkirk. School protests have been taking place across France for a third week with an estimated 160,000 people involved, with protesters raising concerns about crumbling schools and teacher shortages. Demonstrators have criticised policing tactics after teargas was fired at protesters in two areas. The incident involving the UK-funded 4x4, a land cruiser known as Masstech VEZI (Vehicule d’Eclairage de Zone d’Intervention), was reported by French media outlet BFM TV on 10 October. The report included footage of the VEZI driving at speed, reversing backwards then driving forwards again with a bin caught under the vehicle’s front wheel and dragged along. Students can be heard screaming and scattering from the path of the vehicle. According to reports, a 14-year-old girl was injured by the vehicle and was taken to hospital, sustaining a haematoma. She was later discharged from hospital. She is now recovering, but she told reporters that what happened to her was “unacceptable”. The VEZI was earmarked for UK-funded operations on French beaches to stop asylum seekers boarding dinghies, part of an Anglo-French border agreement signed in January 2018 and known as the Sandhurst treaty. This treaty specifies cooperation between France and the UK in combating irregular immigration and secures UK financial support for French efforts through the “Sandhurst funds”. These funds enable France’s National Gendarmerie (police service) to acquire additional resources such as all-terrain vehicles suited to dunes and beaches, including the VEZIs, which are reinforced with grilles. According to a recent French parliamentary cross-party inquiry into Anglo-French border agreements known as Le Touquet, nine of these specialised VEZI vehicles have been bought under the terms of the Sandhurst treaty. The inquiry report states that to be eligible for Sandhurst funding the equipment must contribute directly to combatting illegal migration in the UK. A spokesperson from the office of Laurent Nuñez, France’s minister of the interior, when asked why a vehicle funded by the UK and specifically earmarked for border control was used to counter a schools protest, said: “We can confirm the opening of an investigation into this.” Sources close to the investigation said: “I don’t think the British are aware that their money is being used to beat French kids.” Another expressed concern about the expanding militarisation of French policing to support authoritarian policies. A spokesperson for Utopia 56, a French association that provides support to asylum seekers in northern France, said: “In Dunkirk, the 4x4 that ploughed into high school students during the protests is a vehicle funded by the British Sandhurst fund – money earmarked for combating Channel crossings. The practice of using 4x4s to chase people in the student protest is the same one used on the beaches. “Disproportionate force is employed to silence, intimidate, and deter. The repressive tactics being tested at the border to prevent crossings should serve as a warning to everyone. These are surveillance, control and repression methods that will be replicated in other contexts. The incident involving the vehicle in the student protest is proof of this.” The UK Home Office declined to comment.

Trump’s pause on Russia sanctions is ‘reward’ for Putin, Zelenskyy says

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has described Donald Trump’s decision to roll back sanctions on Russia as a “reward” for Vladimir Putin and warned it will embolden the Russian leader and intensify the Kremlin’s war, as Moscow launched one of its worst strikes yet on Ukraine’s power plants in an attempt to black out the country’s cities before winter. The Ukrainian president also said he expected the Trump administration to lift more sanctions against Russia in the future and called for Europe to establish its own negotiations with Moscow as the US has sought better ties and business deals with the Kremlin. “Unfortunately, the lifting of sanctions will continue, and I believe that the ‘diesel deal’ is the first step,” said Zelenskyy on Saturday. “Unfortunately, it seems to me that this cannot stop Putin; on the contrary, he feels joy and happiness that he has such support.” In a social media message earlier, Zelenskyy wrote: “A US ⁠sanctions blackout, easing pressure on the aggressor, financial rewards for Putin – all of this only encourages him to keep attacking. We must not give up ground. “We must keep trying to end the ‌war. To end it, not give Putin every reason to continue it indefinitely.” In the Trump administration’s latest effort to reduce tensions with Russia, the US president announced on Friday that he would put a hold on a sweeping new sanctions package targeting the Russian economy, telling Congress the pause on the legislation passed by both chambers was in the national interest. The act, named after the late senator Lindsey Graham, who championed the legislation, would have introduced tough new sanctions on Russia including a 100% tariff on major importers of Russian oil such as China and India, as well as sanctions on Russia’s energy sector, financial institutions and shadow fleet of oil tankers. On Saturday, Zelenskyy said the decision to waive the sanctions would encourage Vladimir Putin to intensify the war in Ukraine and called for support in the US to resurrect the bill. “At the time when the Russians launched such a massive strike against our energy sector, in America, regrettably, a decision was made to completely ignore the Lindsey Graham law, which was supposed to impose truly effective pressure on Russia to end this war,” he wrote in a statement. “This law could have – and still can! – help a great deal. But the law needs to actually work, and every voice in support of it matters.” The move was greeted by the Russian presidential envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, who wrote on social media: “The Trump administration’s suspension of the Graham Act is an important and truly historic moment.” The legislation, which sanctions Russian officials, banks and a shadow fleet of tankers that keeps the country’s energy supplies moving, was due to be implemented in two days. It also directs Trump to impose up to 100% tariffs on the top five importers of Russian oil or natural gas, with an exception for countries that import less than 15% of Russia’s natural gas exports and have taken significant steps to reduce those imports. Zelenskyy also said the military-grade Starlink terminals used by Ukrainian forces still had limited functionality, and would disconnect from the network when travelling at more than 161km/h (100mph), interfering with drone operations. The service was throttled inside Ukraine without warning on Tuesday, and Zelenskyy said his government had determined that the restrictions were a “deliberate operation … to prevent us from defending ourselves”. By sending vehicles with the terminals into EU countries, the Ukrainians found they operated at speeds of more than 180km/h, in effect proving that the terminals were only experiencing restrictions in Ukraine. “The conclusion is clear: the restrictions are in effect within Ukraine but do not apply within the European Union,” he said. “In other words, this is a planned operation.” Trump’s announcement that he would pause US sanctions came a week after he said Washington had agreed to purchase diesel from Russia to try to bring down global energy prices, upending years of US and western pressure on the Kremlin to end its war against Ukraine. Trump said last week that Russia would immediately supply more than 300,000 tonnes of diesel, followed by an additional 500,000 tonnes in November and 1m tonnes “immediately thereafter”. Russia would deliver an additional 3m tonnes “within a short period of time” after that, he wrote. The Trump administration’s decision to waive the sanctions is the latest consequence of a brutal quarrel between Trump and Zelenskyy. Several times this week, the US did not provide intelligence of impending ballistic missile attacks to Ukraine, in addition to the White House reportedly ordering the Pentagon to throttle the military-grade version of the Starlink satellite internet network used by Ukraine’s armed forces. “We very much hope – and I personally hope – that the president of the United States of America will do everything so that Putin stops the killings, stops the strikes on our energy infrastructure, and stops this war,” Zelenskyy said. “But once again, you cannot achieve this by restricting Ukraine’s responses to Russia for killing our people. And even less so by lifting sanctions.” Trump has demanded that Ukraine halt its strikes on Russian oil refineries, as he has blamed the war in Ukraine, rather than the closure of the strait of Hormuz, for the worldwide spike in diesel prices. Ukraine unilaterally halted the strikes after Trump declared an “energy ceasefire” last week, but resumed them when it became clear that Russia was stepping up its attacks on Ukrainian power plants and substations. Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Russia had launched one of its worst strikes yet against the country’s energy infrastructure, hitting more than 15 critical power generation and transmission facilities and causing “severe consequences”. He also indicated that Ukraine’s dwindling stock of anti-air weapons made it difficult to shoot down many of the loitering munitions, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles being launched each night at Ukraine. “Although our warriors are shooting down a significant number of them,” he said, the “sheer scale and unrelenting pace of Russia’s strikes, specifically against our energy sector, are unfortunately having severe consequences.”

Pope Leo discharged from hospital after cancer operation

Pope Leo has been discharged from hospital in Rome after undergoing an operation to remove a cancerous tumour from his lung. Leo, 71, was deemed “fit for discharge”, his doctors, Luigi Carbone and Stefano Margaritora, said in a statement published by the Vatican. He walked unaided from the hospital on Saturday afternoon, to cheers from well-wishers. Leo, who in May last year became the first US-born leader of the Roman Catholic church, has been in the Gemelli hospital since Tuesday, when doctors removed part of his right lung in order to extract the tumour. “Considering the blood tests, the chest X-ray done this morning, and evaluating the clinical picture, the Holy Father has been deemed fit for discharge,” the statement said. Doctors said on Wednesday that Leo’s recovery from the operation was progressing normally. They are waiting for the results of tests to determine whether the cancer has spread and if more treatment will be needed. Leo was diagnosed with the most common kind of lung cancer – adenocarcinoma. The pontiff celebrated mass in his room on the 10th-floor of the Gemelli hospital in the north-west of the Italian capital before being discharged. The Vatican said he would recite the Angelus prayer on Sunday “from the window of the papal apartment”. It was during his angelus last week, in a rare moment of Vatican transparency, that Leo made the shock announcement to the crowd gathered in St Peter’s Square that a small nodule on his lung had been detected during a check-up. The pope has worked from hospital, including making a phone call on Friday to Vladimir Putin, during which he urged the Russian president to call a ceasefire in the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Oleshky. The Vatican had originally estimated a week-long stay in hospital. The pope’s appointments had been cancelled until 20 October. However, the pope’s surgeon told Vatican media on Saturday that there were “no clinical reasons” to prevent him from traveling to Latin America as scheduled from 6 to 17 November. Dr Stefano Margaritora said that “the Holy Father has put his heart and soul into his recovery” and that he expected the pope to recover fully from surgery “in another 10 days or so”. “As for a long trip involving air travel in about three weeks, I would say there are no clinical reasons why it should not take place,” he told Vatican News. Before the cancer diagnosis, Leo, who enjoys sports, especially playing tennis, was generally believed to be in good health. He often makes use of the papal retreat in Castel Gandolfo, close to Rome. The Gemelli, located in the north-west of the Italian capital, is renowned for treating reigning popes. Pope John Paul II stayed there so many times that the Vatican worked with the hospital to establish a high-security papal suite.

UAE agrees with Saudi Arabia to re-enter Yemen conflict amid Houthi gains

The United Arab Emirates has agreed to re-enter the Yemen conflict by resuming payments to some government forces fighting Iran-aligned Houthis in the south, according to sources in Yemen. In return, Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide air cover for the anti-Houthi force. The new cooperation agreement is the first tangible sign that the deep rift between the UAE and Saudi Arabia over Yemen’s future is starting to be healed – if only because the advance by Houthi forces across Yemen has alarmed all the rival Gulf state rulers. Saudi Arabia is facing daily drone and missile attacks and is struggling to maintain an atmosphere of normality, as Houthi strikes immobilise its airports and some of its energy infrastructure. Southern forces – mainly in the Giant Brigades – were previously trained and funded by the UAE, and are regarded as some of the most effective in the disjointed anti-Houthi military coalition. But the UAE quit operations inside Yemen in January, cutting off its funding supply line. Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE have responded to a demand this week by southern Yemen separatists for a referendum on secession, a move that would restore the 1967-1990 borders, when Yemen was two separate states. The separatist Southern Transition Council has also not yet agreed for its troops to fight outside the borders of the old Southern Yemen, but an explicit agreement by Saudi Arabia to allow a referendum would be likely to lead to the lifting of that restriction. Yemen’s UN-recognised government, based in Aden, declared last week a counteroffensive to drive Houthi forces from the capital Sana’a, but so far the military drive has met with limited success around Majzar near Marib and the Bab al-Mandab strait. There is also no direct contact between the STC leader, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, and Saudi officials. Zubaidi fled to Abu Dhabi in January after a failed STC attempt to take charge across the south and announce a referendum on separation in two years’ time. In response, the Saudis bombed UAE arms shipments for STC forces. The UAE then announced it was quitting all involvement in Yemen, and the Saudi-backed government said it would seek to try Zubaidi for treason. UAE officials are deeply concerned by the state of the conflict. Despite massive losses, the Houthis are determined eventually to capture Taiz and Marib, the two remaining cities outside the boundaries of the old Southern Yemen. On Friday two missiles fired by the Houthis struck the airport of Aden while a passenger plane was preparing to take off. No casualties were reported. The missiles landed about 500 metres from the Yemenia Airways aircraft, and approximately 100 metres from the midpoint of the runway, said Yemen’s information minister, Moammar Al-Eryani. The strike came a day after at least five people were killed and 16 injured in a Houthi attack on a presidential palace in Aden. Egypt’s president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, said he was convening an emergency session of parliament to grant his country’s military the powers to take action in defence of Saudi Arabia. He stressed Egypt would not be taking any offensive action, and would only defend Saudi Arabia. In the UK, discussions are continuing about a Saudi request for further military aid. The UK has sent an RAF Voyager air-to-air refuelling aircraft, but regional diplomats are pressing for the UK to do more. Some concern is being expressed over whether Riyadh should be engaging more closely with other Gulf States, including Oman and Qatar, on the issue. The legal implications of a blanket UK backing for the largely Saudi air campaign is also being considered, since the court of appeal in 2019 found the UK had acted unlawfully in issuing arms export licences during a previous Saudi bombing campaign of Yemen in 2015-16. The Campaign Against Arms Trade said the UK had made no proper assessment of potential Saudi breaches of international humanitarian law, forcing the UK to revise its procedures. Saudi Arabia claims to have revised its methods substantially since then, and certainly argues that it is acting in self-defence in line with the UN charter. The UN security council on 15 October adopted a UN presidential statement on 15 October asserting Saudi Arabia’s right to act in self-defence in line with international law. No accurate death toll in the war since August is available, but more than 200,000 people have been displaced, according to the UN, which is placing increasing pressure on Aden-based humanitarian groups.

‘I cannot carry all of this alone’: the couples kept apart by the war in Gaza

Wijdan Abu Matar, 43, was forced to leave Gaza in November 2023 with her eight children for medical treatment, while her injured husband, Hatem, remained behind. Wijdan and her family were living in the Nuseirat refugee camp when the Gaza war began with the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. Ten days later, on 17 October that year, an Israeli strike hit the al-Muhandseen tower, near their home, injuring Wijdan and every member of her family. “We were sitting together, just about to start lunch when the bombing happened,” Wijdan recalled. “The ceiling collapsed over our heads. Everything went dark. I couldn’t see anything. I just started screaming the names of my sons and daughters.” Her daughter Nour, 15, suffered the most serious injuries, including a fractured skull and bleeding in the brain. Five-year-old Amna suffered severe burns to her chest. The family was initially separated after the strike. Nour spent about 33 days in intensive care, with Wijdan by her side. Amna and Aysel, three and a half, were at a different hospital for 15 days. On 30 November 2023, Wijdan travelled with Nour to a hospital in Egypt for treatment. For months, the family remained scattered across Egypt, receiving medical treatment and staying with other relatives. “I felt completely helpless,” Wijdan said. “There was a fire in my heart because I was away from my husband and my family was scattered.” Eventually, Wijdan managed to bring her children together in an apartment in Egypt. Three years on, however, she is still separated from her husband, who remains in Gaza. “I have become both the mother and the father to my children,” she said. “The responsibility is exhausting me, and I am constantly worried about my husband.” Hatem suffered a serious leg injury that limits his mobility and is now displaced in a tent in Nuseirat. Even speaking to him is difficult because of Gaza’s unreliable internet connection. “When he manages to get online, he calls me and the children. He tells me, ‘I am counting the days until I can see you again.’ I can see the tears in his eyes,” Wijdan says. Wijdan has no regular source of income and relies on donations. Hatem stopped receiving a salary 10 months ago and his injury prevents him from working. In Egypt, life is difficult for Wijdan and her family. She says she cannot afford transportation to send five of her children to school. “I see my children’s future slipping away in front of me, and there is nothing I can do.” Nour still requires medical treatment, but Wijdan often cannot afford her medication. She sometimes considers returning to Gaza to be with Hatem, but fears exposing her children to further suffering. “I dream of getting my children the treatment they need, and I hope we can reunite with my husband as soon as possible so he can also receive treatment,” Wijdan said. “I cannot carry all of this alone. Psychologically, I am exhausted. I have lost 35 members of my family in this war.” Since the war began with Hamas’s attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people, at least 73,783 Palestinians have been killed and 174,738 wounded, according to the health ministry. Earlier this year an independent UN inquiry found that Israel continues to commit genocide by deliberately targeting Palestinian children in Gaza. Sami Abu Tabaq, a 29-year-old Palestinian photojournalist, was forced to leave the Gaza Strip in April 2024, leaving behind his family and his fiancee, Ola. “Loneliness kills me every day,” he said. “Life away from the woman I love and my family is incredibly hard. I’m desperately waiting for the day God brings us together again.” Sami became engaged to Ola five months before the war began. They had met by chance when he chose her family’s home as a location for a photoshoot. Before the war, they saw each other constantly. They went to the sea, had dinner at restaurants in Gaza, and spent months preparing the house where they planned to live after their wedding, which was scheduled for November 2023. Sami and his family fled their home in Tal al-Zaatar, Jabaliya, early on in the war. Their home was badly damaged and later destroyed, along with the house Sami and Ola had been planning to move into once they got married. When his sister decided to flee south with her children, Sami accompanied her but he could not reach Ola to say goodbye. The separation became unbearable. Days, sometimes weeks, passed without Sami knowing whether Ola was alive. Once, he saw reports that an entire residential block near her home in Gaza City had been bombed. “I almost lost my mind. I had never felt so helpless,” he said. Unable to return north, he asked his brother to check on her. Eventually, his brother confirmed that she and her family were alive. Sami continued working as a photojournalist from southern Gaza. Four journalists who had shared his tent were later killed, including Hamza al-Dahdouh, a son of the Al Jazeera journalist Wael al-Dahdouh. As Israel threatened a ground invasion of Rafah in 2024, Ola began urging Sami to leave Gaza, fearing he would be killed. Sami paid a company coordinating exits at the time for both of them to cross into Egypt. But Ola could not reach southern Gaza to travel through Rafah. “She told me, ‘You go, and I’ll follow you,’” Sami said. “And here we are, still waiting, nearly two and a half years later.” They still have not managed to get married. By his second day in Egypt, Sami was overwhelmed by guilt. “The overthinking kills me,” he said. “I felt ashamed to turn on the lights or eat proper food while my fiancee and my family were struggling to find the most basic things.” In Egypt, his life has become dominated by loneliness and sleeplessness. “There is safety in Egypt and there are beautiful places, but I stay home. Happiness has no meaning without her. I cannot enjoy anything while she is not here,” he said. Despite the war, Ola completed her bachelor’s degree in nursing at the Islamic University of Gaza. She has also endured enormous loss: her cousin, the journalist Ayat Khadoura, was killed, along with about 50 other members of her extended family. From Egypt, Sami tries to create moments of happiness for her. For her latest birthday, he contacted her brother in Gaza and secretly arranged a cake, gift and flowers. “When she woke up and saw everything, she was so happy. I love her reaction when she’s happy.” The only problem was the flowers. “They were artificial,” he said. “I wasn’t happy with them, but natural flowers can’t get into Gaza because Israel does not allow them in.” Sami says he has tried every possible way to get Ola out, without success. She is now applying for scholarships abroad, hoping education might provide a route to evacuation and, eventually, to him. Sami recently travelled to Mecca for Umrah, where one prayer remained constantly on his mind. “I prayed, ‘God, please bring us together soon,’” he said. “But one thing I know for sure: I will wait for her for the rest of my life, until God brings us together.”