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Schools blockaded as tens of thousands of protesters take to streets in France

Nearly 90,000 students, staff and parents have taken to the streets in cities across France as protesters blockaded hundreds of high schools in a nationwide day of action against long hours, missing teachers and crumbling classrooms. The French interior ministry said 86,000 people took part in marches in cities including Marseille, Nantes ⁠and Lyon on Tuesday morning, with up to 40,000 more expected to join the largest demonstration, in Paris, later in the day. The demonstrations come after a fortnight of protests that ⁠began in the capital’s northern suburbs before snowballing across the country. They have been marred by frequent and often violent clashes with riot police that have left hundreds injured, some severely. While many protests have been peaceful, some demonstrators have set dustbins on fire, destroyed bus shelters and thrown projectiles at police, who have responded with batons, teargas and riot-control rounds. Twenty-four schools have been burned or ransacked since the start of the protests, according to the education ministry. At least 715 police officers and 215 teenagers have been wounded, according to government figures, while 6,100 people have been arrested, almost all minors. More than 1,800 are being prosecuted, 1,483 of them under 18, the justice ministry said. The national union of lycée students said 1,800 of the country’s 3,700 high schools were blockaded or had been closed for the day on Tuesday, although some local education authorities attempted to move classes ‌online. Students on the marches held aloft smoke flares and placards with slogans including “Under our text books, anger” – a reference to a celebrated slogan from the May 1968 student riots, “Under the paving stones, the beach” – and “Schools with no money = country with no future”. Océanne, 18, was among the marchers in Marseille. “We just want to save our education and be educated,” she said, adding that she had suffered from absent teachers who were replaced either by “pointless substitutes” or not all. Many teachers were also demonstrating. In the western city of Rennes, Romain Dubourg said he and “about 30 colleagues” had “talked about the police brutality that we’ve witnessed, and decided to be there for our students if they need us”. Trade unionists were also on the marches, with the head of the CGT union, Sophie Binet, urging members to “protect high school students”. The Green party leader, Marine Tondelier, urged local officials and parents to wear white and “go and protect our children during demonstrations”. Trade unions and rights groups have accused the police of unnecessary force against the young protesters, with Amnesty International saying French authorities should “put an end to the disproportionate police repression seen in recent days”. Anne Savinel-Barras, the president of Amnesty France, said: “The images and testimonies widely circulated over the past week raise alarming concerns about the dangerous use of teargas, batons and policing techniques by the police.” The interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said police had launched 10 internal investigations into allegations of brutality since the protests started. On Monday, a 15-year-old’s hand was blown off as protesters battled riot police in northern France. A 16-year-old lost the use of his right eye after he was seriously injured in the head on Wednesday during the blockade of a high school in Tours. The local prosecutor, Catherine Sorita-Minard, said the wounds were “compatible with the impact of a defensive bullet of the blast ball type”. In another incident, a 14-year-old lost most of his teeth on Monday when a police officer appeared to fire a grenade at him at close range during a protest north-west of Paris. “His jaw is sealed shut, he can no longer speak and he eats through a straw,” his mother told reporters. The prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has ordered his ministers to tackle the students’ core demands which include ensuring absent teachers are replaced, reviewing the length of the 8am to 6pm school day, and repairing ‌ageing buildings. But the protests, seven months before crucial presidential elections to choose a successor to Emmanuel Macron, have piled pressure on a government trying to reduce a ballooning budget deficit amid mounting investor concern over France’s mountainous debt and weak economic growth. The government has accused the radical-left La France Insoumise party of encouraging and even orchestrating the movement after numerous LFI MPs attended school blockades. The party’s veteran leader and presidential candidate, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has strongly supported the protests, while urging non-violence.

Kenya confirms first Ebola case as virus ‘surges’ in DR Congo province

Kenya has reported its first-ever Ebola death, the health minister announced on Tuesday, as the disease continues to spread rapidly through the north-east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the outbreak was announced in May. This is the 17th outbreak of the highly infectious, often deadly disease in the DRC. As of 2 October, 4,082 people had died out of 8,463 confirmed cases in the country since the emergence the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, for which there is still no vaccine nor specific treatment. A Kenyan man who had been living in the DRC for seven years died after returning to Kenya, the Kenyan health minister Aden Duale told reporters. The man, who has not been named, had been treated in the DRC after falling ill about a month ago. He then travelled overland to the Ugandan capital, Kampala, before flying to Nairobi on 3 October. Kenya has previously never reported a case of Ebola, but neighbouring Uganda recorded 20 – almost all people who had travelled from the DRC – and two deaths, before being declared Ebola-free in August. Duale said the man was taken by a relative and a friend from Nairobi’s international airport to Nairobi hospital, where he was immediately isolated, suffering from “fever, chills, intense fatigue, weakness, muscle pain, painful swallowing, sore throat and bleeding under the skin at the injection sites”. He said the man was subsequently screened and confirmed positive for the virus, but “regrettably passed on last night at around 1130” in the evening (2030 GMT). Duale said officials had listed 28 contacts of the deceased, including family members and healthcare workers, but that so far “only one test has turned positive and is the one that we have just discussed”. He added that authorities were looking for another 23 passengers and four crew members who were on the same flight with the man and that “arrangements” for quarantine for those at risk had been prepared. “I wish to assure the public not to panic, as all systems are in place to mitigate the spread of the disease,” he said. Duale said a “safe and dignified burial” of the man had been planned for later in the day, in line with public health standards, but did not give further details. Kenyans reacted furiously to government plans earlier this year to allow the US to set up an Ebola facility at Laikipia airbase, about 125 miles from Nairobi. After starting in the DRC’s north-eastern Ituri province, the current outbreak has spread to seven provinces in the country’s north and east. The response to the virus in the vast central African country has been hindered by instability, including clashes between armed groups, mistrust of authorities – which has led to violence against health workers and other officials – and a lack of resources amid huge cuts in international aid. The medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières warned on Monday of an “alarming surge” in cases in eastern North Kivu province, which borders Uganda. The province now accounts for 40% of all new Ebola cases, compared with 24% at the end of August, the NGO said. “It is like fighting a megafire,” said Stephanie Hoffmann, coordinator at MSF’s Ebola treatment centre in the city of Butembo. “Multiple outbreaks are developing at the same time, with varying intensity and in different locations.” The wider Butembo health zone is home to around 2 million people and only has four Ebola treatment centres, two of which only opened recently, MSF said. Hoffman said: “Because there are not enough beds available, we are sometimes forced to refer confirmed Ebola patients elsewhere, despite the significant risk this poses to the wider community. In addition, standards of care in some peripheral facilities do not always meet the requirements for Ebola treatment.” North Kivu is particularly affected by conflict, with 134 violent incidents there in the past month, according to tracking group Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, more than any other province. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Plague epidemic risk in Russia low after death of lab technician, WHO says

The World Health Organization has said the risk of an epidemic in Russia is lowafter the sudden death of a lab technician who worked at a plague research institute in Siberia. Darya Shipilova, who was 28, died last week, two days after falling ill. Russian media reports suggested she may have become infected after an accident at her workplace, where dangerous pathogens are kept and studied. Russian authorities have downplayed the incident and say Shipilova died of “pneumonia of an unknown aetiology”. Strict quarantine measures have been imposed at the research centre in the city of Irkutsk and in several neighbouring hospitals. Christian Lindmeier, a WHO spokesperson, said on Tuesday that there was no sign of a wider outbreak. “All ‌of the patients’ contacts have reportedly been identified and are being monitored for ‌illness, and none to date have shown symptoms of illness,” he said. Russian ⁠officials were still investigating whether viral pneumonic plague caused Shipilova’s death but the WHO had assessed the health risk as “moderate to low” for Irkutsk, “low” for the rest of Russia and “very low” for Europe, he said. According to Russian media, 60 of Shipilova’s colleagues have been locked in the institute where she worked since Friday, sleeping on the floors and chairs while tests are carried out. Similar measures have been imposed in five hospitals, with relatives forbidden to see patients. The Kremlin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, urged people on Tuesday not to listen to rumours but to rely on statements from Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor. It said the situation in Irkutsk was stable, with no new infectious disease cases reported among institute employees. Washington has been watching developments closely. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, called on Moscow on Tuesday to release more details about the case. “I think it’s incumbent upon ⁠Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” he said. “We’re watching it very closely, hour ‌by hour.“ Donald Trump had said earlier that his administration was willing to offer assistance. “I hate to see them having it. We’ll help. Everybody who has that kind of a problem, we’ll always help,” he told reporters at the White House when asked what Washington was going to do about the risk of plague coming from Russia. In an apparent mirror response, Rospotrebnadzor announced that Russia was prepared to assist the US in combating its own outbreaks of infectious diseases. “The situation regarding dangerous infectious diseases remains unstable,” it said, highlighting a “significantly worsened” measles situation in three US states and a “fatal case of plague” recorded in New Mexico in June.

Germany arrests former intelligence chief over alleged spying

A former head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service has been arrested on suspicion of treason and spying on behalf of an overseas intelligence agency, prosecutors said. August Hanning, 80, was head of the federal intelligence service (BND) – which operates outside Germany to gather information across the fields of political, economic, and military intelligence – between 1998 and 2005. He was arrested at his home in Nordwalde near Münster early on Tuesday. His former chief of staff, identified only as Manfred D, was arrested at the same time in Bavaria, on suspicion of “aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage”, according to a prosecutor’s statement. Media pictures showed Hanning, dressed in an open-necked white shirt, being taken from his redbrick house to a bullet-proof vehicle by masked officers. Manfred D, who continued to work for Hanning’s successors at the BND after Hanning’s departure until the present day, is accused of using his role to gain access to classified information which he then handed to Hanning “in exchange for payment”, the prosecutors’ statement continued. “The current findings suggest that, over the years, Manfred D provided Hanning with approximately 2,000 documents, many of which contained classified information to be used exclusively by the federal intelligence service for internal purposes, particularly for executive intelligence briefings,” the statement said. Prosecutors believe that Hanning intended to resell the documents as part of a paid consulting role he had built up after leaving the BND, prosecutors added. To what extent and to whom he disseminated them remains part of an ongoing investigation. He is accused of using the information to “draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service”, prosecutors said. It was unclear if this information had reached its intended recipient, they added. Over several years Hanning is also believed to have passed on potentially sensitive political information, in part based on information passed to him by Manfred D, to a close contact representing a separate foreign intelligence service. Several properties connected to both men were being searched simultaneously on Tuesday, including in Berlin. Manfred D is due to appear before judges at the federal court of justice in Karlsruhe later on Tuesday, while Hanning is scheduled to appear on Wednesday. Suspicions over Hanning’s activities emerged as a result of an investigation into the kidnappings of the children from a prominent Hamburg business family, which is the focus of a major trial in the north German port city. Investigators were led to Hanning over allegations, which he denies, that he helped Christina Block, the heiress of a steak restaurant dynasty, to organise the violent cross-border seizure in Denmark of her children from her estranged husband who has custody of two of their children. Block denies the charges. After he left the BND, Hanning worked as a global consultant in the fields of security and business, based on his credentials as former intelligence chief. He is considered to have been well connected with government and business sectors in Russia and China. Hanning was an officer stationed at the embassy-equivalent organisation for West Germany in communist East Berlin. After his role as president of the BND ended in 2005 he became the highest-ranking official in Germany’s security sector as the head of all security agencies under the federal interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble.

Former UN food agency official claims he was fired for highlighting hunger in Gaza

A former senior UN food agency official has alleged he was fired last week for his work highlighting hunger in Gaza, and has launched an appeal against his dismissal. Benjamin Davis said the leadership of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had refused to renew his contract as director of its rural transformation and gender equality division because his team had published a brief on hunger in Gaza and held a seminar on the subject last year, and because he taken part in weekly “moment of silence” vigils on FAO grounds for those killed. The seminar on hunger in Gaza last September triggered a complaint from the Israeli mission to the FAO, which also sent a diplomat to take pictures of staff taking part a moment of silence gathering last October, according to a FAO staff report filed at the time. Davis, 62 and a Spanish-American dual citizen, left the FAO last week after 26 years of service. Video of the event shows FAO staff standing and applauding him as he left the Rome headquarters for the last time. “It’s a nice feeling that I’m not alone, that other people are behind me in this,” Davis said. “I was stopped constantly in the hallways by people, even those that I didn’t know, just to shake my hand or just to thank me or just to say that they supported me or that they were upset.” The FAO did not respond to the Guardian’s request for comment on Monday, but the organisation’s director general, Qu Dongyu, appeared to refer to Davis’s dismissal in public remarks last Tuesday, in which he threatened to fire more people for what he deemed to be political activism. “We are not going to allow you to play the game here of human rights,” said Qu, a veteran Chinese agronomist. “Of course human rights are very important, but they have a human rights agency in Geneva. If you want to take care [of human rights], go there.” “Thats why [when] some senior members play political games here, I fire him,” he said, suggesting that Davis had violated staff regulations. “I’m a very soft person. I didn’t fire that many. I’m going to use my last year … to fire more if they’re against the law.” Davis said he and fellow FAO staff members had been stunned by Qu’s remarks. “Even more than the threat about firing people was just what he said about human rights. I think that really shocked people because it undermined the foundations of why we’re here basically, or why FAO is part of the United Nations and why the United Nations exists,” he said. “We’re surely an organisation which is based on human rights, right?” Davis added, pointing to the FAO slogan: “Leave no one behind.” The official letter informing Davis that his contract would not be renewed said that Qu was “no longer confident in your ability to discharge your obligations in the manner required of a senior international civil servant”. The letter cited paragraphs in the official code of conduct for international civil servants regarding “honesty, truthfulness, impartiality and incorruptibility” and limits on public expression of personal views on “controversial matters”. In his written response, Davis said that approach taken by FAO leadership was “simply wrong”. “Silence in the face of suffering and injustice is not neutrality, it is complicity,” he wrote. “Shutting down discussion on the starvation of the Palestinian people weakens the reputation of the organisation and the legitimacy of our mandate. Being true to our mandate calls for a frank and open discussion around starvation, famine, and genocide in Palestine and elsewhere.” Davis said that FAO leadership had previously criticised him for a briefing paper published by his team in May last year describing the level of hunger in Gaza and setting it in the context of international humanitarian law. “The current conditions in the Gaza Strip … reflect a gross violation of the right to food and the unlawful obstruction of humanitarian assistance,” the report said. It was removed from the FAO website a few weeks later on the orders of its leadership. Davis led a seminar on the same subject in September 2025, which led to a complaint from the Israeli mission to the FAO and other Rome-based international agencies. Davis said he had also been criticised for taking part in moment of silence gatherings held by concerned staff in the FAO car park every Thursday, in remembrance of those in Gaza who had died of hunger. There was an altercation there on 23 October when a woman identifying herself as an Israeli diplomat appeared and took photographs of those attending. “The person explained she was the permanent representative of Israel, and asked if we were allowed to do these events, and asked specifically who says we could not take photographs,” a report by a FAO witness on the day of the incident said. On being told she could not take photographs, the woman complained to FAO security that she was being harassed, the report said. The Israeli embassy in Rome said it had no comment on the report. Davis said that the Gaza briefing paper, the associated seminar, and the weekly moments of silence had all been approved by FAO management, and he had not been told at the time that they represented violations of the code of conduct. He said he had lodged a formal appeal against his dismissal. “I filed the appeal mostly as a matter of principle, not because I’m looking for or expecting any monetary compensation or anything like that,” Davis said. “I have requested to be reinstated, and also for them to take back the accusations that they made against me.”

‘This is state violence’: Paris students rage at politicians and heavy-handed policing

Before dawn on Tuesday outside the Lycée Sophie-Germain in central Paris, hundreds of teenagers dragged wheelie bins, metal barriers and shopping trolleys to build a barricade outside the front door of their secondary school. Climbing to the top of the piles of bins, pupils held banners calling for more funding and greater equality in French schools. But they were also protesting against French riot police, who have been accused by human rights groups of using disproportionate force against children in what is fast becoming the biggest youth protest movement in decades. “Everyone hates the police,” chanted a group of 15- and 16-year-olds. At least 215 teenagers, 715 police officers and 85 teaching staff have been injured in clashes in recent days, according to the government. “We’re teenagers with wheelie bins, and the police have heavy weapons, it’s totally mismatched,” said Livia, 17, who was studying theatre at a lycée in northern Paris and did not want her real name published. “The police are extremely violent in France. This is state violence and it’s horrible seeing police allowed to target children. It’s important to remember this is institutionalised violence, it’s planned and deliberate.” Ten investigations into possible police brutality are under way after injuries allegedly involving the use of police weapons, including one 15-year-old who lost his hand, another who lost his eye and a boy whose jaw and teeth were shattered, leaving him, as his mother said, barely able to eat with a straw in hospital. “The policing is catastrophic, people have been mutilated by weapons – one boy has lost an eye – it’s horrible,” said Lily, 17 (not her real name), who was studying social sciences in her final year of school and demonstrating for more funding in what she called a discriminatory education system that left poorer children behind. “My parents support me being on the barricades and at the protests. They’re worried about the policing, but they said they’d come and get me from the police station if I was arrested.” Teenagers nearby held up cardboard signs protesting against the use of teargas and riot police. “A state that gases high school students is a weak state,” read one banner. “Gas rapists, not children,” said another sign in reference to calls for betters laws against sexual violence. Another banner read: “Not here to riot.” The unprecedented protest movement that began outside one school in a low-income Paris suburb has spread across the country, taking the government by surprise. Hundreds of high schools have been barricaded and forced to close as pupils protest against teacher shortages, crumbling buildings and overcrowded classes. The justice ministry said 5,060 people had been arrested ⁠since the protests began, 87% of them being minors. More than 1,800 people had been prosecuted, including 1,483 minors, the ministry said, without specifying the crimes. It said 790 cases had been dismissed. The government said 24 schools had been burned or ransacked. “In more than 20 years of teaching, I’ve never seen protests this big,” said one teacher at Sophie-Germain high school who planned to join the Paris demonstration on Tuesday afternoon. “The students in central Paris have shown a great sense of solidarity with those in the Paris suburbs who face much worse conditions in their schools. There’s a feeling of solidarity and generosity between teenagers that flies in the face of the notion that we live in an era of selfishness. No one knows how long this will go on for.” Tens of thousands of students, trade unionists and parents are expected to march in support of the protests across France on Tuesday afternoon, including in Paris, Toulouse, Nice and Bordeaux, with riot police on alert. Isabella, 16, said she had the backing of her parents, who work in film and music. “Young people have been teargassed for doing nothing but trying to express their opinion. Everybody told us that school was the great leveller, but today that is not the case at all. A teenager in the banlieue [suburbs] of Paris is never going to have the same opportunities as a student from the city centre. That’s why we’re here today.” Lionel, 17, who was in his final year at school and hoped to study English, said: “The aim isn’t to riot or smash things up, we just want to protest peacefully.” Teenagers also chanted songs against Marine Le Pen, the far-right, anti-immigration candidate in the 2027 presidential election, who is high in the polls as Emmanuel Macron steps down after a decade in office. Many teenagers were worried about the election. “We’re also protesting against the growth of the far right,” said Aislinn. Justine, 17, who had been at the barricade since before dawn, said she hoped the protest would continue and grow into a “massive” movement. “For years, there has been a mental health crisis among young people in France and anger at rundown schools and the stresses of the education system. We need the government to listen to us and make radical change.” Students’ names have been changed.

Israeli ambassador to Australia says he hopes for return to ‘traditional friendship’ on October 7 anniversary eve

Israel’s ambassador to Australia says the third anniversary of October 7 is an opportunity for both countries to return to “traditional friendship”. But, in the lead-up to commemorations on Wednesday marking Hamas’ terror attack, leaders of Australia’s Palestinian community say the federal government should do more to help the diaspora suffering since the war on Gaza. Speaking ahead of the anniversary, Hillel Newman acknowledged relations had become “strained” between Australia and Israel but wanted to see improvement. “We have challenges, but I have come with a lot of goodwill in order to try and make a positive change in the relationship, perhaps even reset the relationship and return both sides to the initial historical traditional friendship,” the Israeli ambassador told Guardian Australia. “There have been issues between our two countries. We can have differences of opinion, but we should not allow differences of opinion to overshadow and overcrowd the overall relationship. We can understand if Australia has criticism of this issue or another.” Sign up for Guardian Australia’s Politics, really newsletter here The comments come despite Israel’s foreign ministry publicly criticising foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, on social media in recent weeks, branding comments she made to the United Nations about settler violence in the West Bank a “blatant lie”. It follows an earlier intervention into domestic Australian politics, where Israel urged Labor to soften criticism in a draft policy platform that condemned settler violence and a controversial death penalty law. Since the 2023 attack – in which Hamas militants killed about 1,200 Israelis and 250 people were taken hostage, in what is considered the single deadliest day for Jewish people since the Holocaust – there has been a near breakdown in ties between the Israeli government and federal Labor. Israel’s response to the attack and bombardment of Gaza has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians. Australia has joined other countries in taking an increasingly stronger stance against Israel, including action alongside the UK, Canada and New Zealand to sanction Israeli politicians Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, accusing the two of inciting violence against Palestinians. But the federal government last month stopped short of joining the UK and other partners in imposing a ban on goods from illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank. Relations deteriorated further when Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom was killed in a humanitarian convoy struck by Israeli drones in April 2024. Albanese and Wong slammed a decision by the Israel Defense Forces in August not to pursue criminal proceedings over Frankcom’s death. Pressed on Israel’s failure to release audio from the strike, Newman stressed it was an issue for the Israeli military, but that his country remained open to any request for potential reparations for Frankcom’s family and remained in favour of continued discussions. Wong has been working with the Frankcom family on an appropriate response to the decision not to press criminal charges. She said in a statement that the Australian government had condemned the Israeli government’s decision not to pursue criminal proceedings against those responsible for killing Frankcom and her World Central Kitchen colleagues. “The Australian government will not stop pressing Israel for justice for Zomi and her colleagues. We continue to engage closely with the Frankcom family on further action,” Wong said. “7 October is a day of profound grief and remembrance. We mourn those who were killed in the Hamas terrorist attacks, including Australian Galit Carbone, and all those who have suffered from antisemitic violence around the world.” The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network president, Nasser Mashni, said the impact from three years’ of war was measured in two places at once: Gaza and in the diaspora. “In Australia, the impact is a quieter but a relentless erosion of our place in this country,” he said. “Underpinning every discussion that happens about ‘us’, but without ‘us’, is a nagging suggestion that we don’t belong, that we must prove we are Australian, and even human. “This is the domestic footprint of genocide: protesting a demand for its end, and stopping Australia’s complicity in it, is more controversial than supporting it.” In 2025, a UN commission found that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing tens of thousands of civilian deaths and massive destruction. Israel strongly denies accusations of genocide. The Greens leader, David Shoebridge, said Australians would reflect on the devastating toll of violence. “The attacks on October 7 were condemned by the Greens at the time, as our party has a deep belief in peace and non-violence,” he said. “It is that same core value that means we condemn the ongoing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing in the West Bank.” The cooler relations between Israel and Australia come against a backdrop of antisemitic attacks in Australia, as the nation prepares to face the first anniversary of the Bondi massacre on 14 December. Fifteen people were killed in an antisemitic terror attack on a Hanukkah celebration. A royal commission sparked by the Bondi attack is due to release its final report on 18 December. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin said the October 7 attack and the “unsatisfactory responses” to it meant “troubled, uncertain times lie ahead for us all”. “But if the jihadists thought mass terror at home and abroad would bring about some global capitulation by Israel and Jewish communities or that the majority of Australians would turn on their Jewish friends and neighbours, they have failed dismally,” he said. The shadow defence minister, James Paterson, said the October 7 attack had changed Australia in “terrible ways” and culminated in the Bondi attack. “Fixing this societal cancer will take years of sustained effort from the entire community, from the prime minister down,” he said.