It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Intelligence chief says Germany is engaged in 'shadow war' with Russia
05.10.2026, DPA
Photo: Kay Nietfeld/dpa
The German intelligence services believe that Germany must become significantly more resilient, particularly in the face of the threat posed by Russia.
"Russia is waging a shadow war against us," Martin Jäger, president of the international Federal Intelligence Service (BND), said during a public hearing of the Bundestag's Parliamentary Oversight Committee.
This involves, for example, attempts at intimidation, against which, Jäger said, the intelligence services are "the first line of defence."
The president of the domestic intelligence service, formally known as the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), Sinan Selen, told the committee that Russia is demonstrating its willingness to engage in sabotage and murder.
The spectrum, he said, also includes disinformation campaigns and attempted attacks, such as the one at Leipzig airport in August when a drone rigged with explosives was discovered next to Ukrainian cargo aircraft.
"We have already achieved some successes in thwarting these threats," Selen added. However, he believes the situation is escalating, which is why the German intelligence services must align their capabilities with those of other European partner services.
Selen, Jäger and the president of the Military Counter-Intelligence Service (MAD), Martina Rosenberg, are normally only available to answer questions from members of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee in closed-door sessions. A public hearing takes place just once a year.
So far in this parliamentary term, only lawmakers from the conservative bloc, the Social Democrats and the Greens have been represented on the committee, which keeps a close eye on the intelligence services. Candidates from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the hard-left The Left parliamentary groups failed to secure enough votes.
(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH
Minister says Russia tried to 'intimidate' Germany with drone attacks
05.10.2026, DPA
Photo: Katharina Kausche/dpa
German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche sees the Russian drone attacks during Chancellor Friedrich Merz's recent visit to Kiev as attempts by Moscow to intimidate the government in Berlin.
Reiche, who had also travelled to Ukraine, said in a podcast hosted by the deputy editor of the Bild newspaper, Paul Ronzheimer, that the attacks were taking place with great regularity. Targets very close to the city centre had been hit, she said.
Reiche explained that the attacks were a sign that the Russians wanted to cause disruption. They were demonstrating that they had no respect for whoever was meeting there at the time. "It is cynical," she said.
"I firmly believe that the Russian leadership knew exactly where to strike to send a clear message," she added, and said it was an attempt to "frighten, to deter, perhaps to create uncertainty, perhaps to prevent agreements from being concluded, to prevent people from reaffirming their solidarity."
She told the podcast that instilling fear was a favourite tactic of the Russian leadership.
Merz travelled to the Ukrainian capital at the weekend, along with Reiche and others. Russia intensified its airstrikes on Kiev and across the country during the visit.
(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH
German family minister defies Russian threats with Kiev visit
05.10.2026, DPA
Photo: Basil Wegener/dpa
German Family Minister Karin Prien arrived in the Ukrainian capital Kiev on Monday morning, shortly after Chancellor Friedrich Merz completed his own visit to the country.
Prien said it was important to show support for Ukraine "across the full spectrum" after arriving at Kiev's central railway station.
The overnight train journey from Poland was calm, Prien said.
"But it is quite distressing, the idea of travelling into a war zone, distressing also because the Russians have threatened to intensify attacks on the civilian population and also on diplomats and guests," the conservative politician said.
"But it is important, especially in this situation, not to shrink back, not to show fear, but to be very clear," Prien said, adding that Germany stands "firmly by Ukraine."
On her trip, she said she wanted to draw attention in particular to the fate of children and young people and to support for civil society.
It was also about remembering the past that shapes the two countries together, she said. Meetings with Ukrainian ministers were also on the agenda.
Merz visited Ukraine over the weekend. The chancellor's return journey and Prien's outward journey did not coincide in timing.
(c) 2026 dpa Deutsche Presse Agentur GmbH
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Ossoff and El-Sayed: Two Senate races and what they say about the Democratic Party
ANALYSIS
Senator Jon Ossoff, a Democratic favourite, is running for re-election in Georgia in the 2026 US midterms while Abdul El-Sayed is a Senate candidate in the battleground state of Michigan. The two Democrats have very different profiles and platforms, underscoring divergences within the party. They could also determine the party's future ahead of the 2028 presidential election.
Top Republicans have had it in for Senator Jon Ossoff and Abdul El-Sayed, both Democratic candidates for the US Senate, for a while now. As the November 3 midterms approach, campaign battles get more stinging, bruising – and at times, amusing.
Ossoff, the incumbent senator from Georgia running for re-election, has long been in President Donald Trump’s sights. But the 37-year-old Democrat can give as good as he gets.
Just months after Trump called the Georgia Democrat “Senator Os(jerk!)off” in a Truth Social post, Ossoff hit home with a quip on the president’s zealous aide, Natalie Harp. While accusing Trump of not wanting to “do the job”, Ossoff remarked that the US president simply wants to “build his ballroom and travel with Natalie on their apparently defenseless flying palace".
The Republican response came swift and hard, with White House communications staff labeling Ossoff a “lightweight”, “Jon Jackoff” and “the biggest cuck loser”, among other epithets.
El-Sayed, who is running in Michigan, has also been the target of virulent attacks. At the Republican midterm convention in Texas, Senator Ted Cruz accused El-Sayed, whose parents are Egyptian immigrants, of seeking to implement Sharia law. Hecklers in the crowd roared back, “He should be shot,” sparking headlines in the US press. Weeks later, Cruz was at it again. In an interview with a conservative radio show, the Texas senator warned of a “green-red alliance of Marxists and Islamists” who are “taking over” the Democratic party.
Two candidates, two states, one goal
In the 2026 US midterms, Ossoff and El-Sayed are both trying to defend Democratic seats in high-stakes races. The Georgia senator is running for re-election after serving his first term in the US senate. In Michigan, El-Sayed is running for the seat vacated by outgoing Democratic Senator Gary Peters.
The two candidates also happen to be running against two Mikes: Ossoff’s Republican opponent is Mike Collins, who currently holds a seat in the US House of Representatives. El-Sayed is taking on Mike Rogers, a former FBI agent, veteran and staunch Trump ally.
As Senate candidates, Ossoff and El-Sayed have very different profiles.
The Georgia politician is ahead in the polls and is viewed as a rising Democratic star, a potential “hot presidential possibility” for the 2028 White House race. Feisty, media savvy and with choirboy looks, Ossoff is the country’s youngest serving senator and the only Democrat in the chamber to be seeking re-election in a state Trump won in 2024. Within the party, Ossoff is viewed as a moderate Democrat, capable of appealing to a broad base of voters in one of America’s right-leaning southern states.
El-Sayed, on the other hand, has never held elected office. The 41-year-old physician and public health expert is considered a left-wing politician, part of a wave of progressive Democrats focused on affordability and state services.
But in a battleground state that is home to cities with major Muslim communities such as Dearborn, “the capital of Arab America”, his position on the Israeli-Palestinian crisis often overshadows his economic justice messaging – and grabs global headlines. El-Sayed narrowly won his party’s nomination in August after a nasty primary against his pro-Israel rival Haley Stevens that exposed bitter divides within the party. In a state that regularly sends Democrats to the US Senate, the Michigan race is considered a tossup.
They are two candidates running in different states, but both are critical to the common Democratic goal of attempting to wrest control of the Senate in the November elections. “They're both important states where Democrats have sometimes struggled, perhaps Georgia more than Michigan, but they’re both seen as important wins for Democrats," said Matt Duss from the Center for International Policy and a former foreign policy adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders, who is a leading progressive in the Democratic party.
"Obviously, Abdullah El-Sayed is an Arab Muslim who is taking a much more progressive populist approach. But Ossoff has been a leader on the issue of anti-corruption, which is a major issue in American politics, and particularly for the progressive left. So they've both been offering what will be really important arguments for the party going forward.” Left or right or in-between
The 2026 midterm race has increased attention on a progressive, leftward trend in the Democratic party that has picked up steam since Trump returned to the White House last year.
Democratic Socialism – a largely anodyne political ideology in many parts of the world, but which has long been stigmatised in the private capital-driven USA – is now the subject of polls and headlines across the country.
In barely two weeks, for instance, a Gallup poll found that Socialism is more popular than ever, with 43 percent of Americans holding a positive view. But The New York Times, citing another poll, informed readers that roughly half of US voters view socialism unfavourably.
For many Democratic strategists, that means a "Socialist" label is not a problem in primary race, but broadening a Socialist candidate's appeal in a general election could remain a challenge.
“In some ways, these are more differences in tone and manner and style rather than in policy,” said Richard Johnson, a US politics and policy expert at Queen Mary University of London.
While Ossoff is widely viewed as a moderate, Johnson notes that, “what people call moderate Democrat today is not what people called a moderate Democrat 20 or 30 years ago. Twenty or 30 years ago, a moderate Democrat was much more to the right of a moderate Democrat today because the whole party has moved much more consistently to the left.”
‘About three letters’
The party’s leftward move has put the focus on the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA), a political group founded in 1982 that spent decades in obscurity before the 2016 presidential primary catapulted Sanders to national prominence before his defeat to Hillary Clinton. While Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist, the Vermont senator is not formally affiliated with DSA.
The group got a boost in 2018, when DSA member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez won the New York primary and went on to win a House of Representatives seat. A high-profile breakthrough came in late 2025 with the election of Zohran Mamdani as New York City mayor.
Since the DSA is a movement that aims to promote progressive issues and not a political party, it can be a source of messaging gymnastics and sometimes panic for Democrats on the campaign trail. In a CBS interview last week, Florida's Democratic Senate nominee Angie Nixon stressed that "this is not about three letters" amid Republican criticism of her DSA membership. Nixon was one of the big surprises of the 2026 Democratic primaries, when the African-American self-described “former single mama” overcame a vast fundraising disadvantage to defeat former military officer and fellow Florida Democrat Alex Vindman.
While most analysts place El-Sayed on the left of the political spectrum, the Michigan candidate is not a DSA member. “El-Sayed has made it clear that he is not a Socialist. He describes himself as a capitalist who understands capitalism, that’s where his critique of capitalism comes from. But still, he is arguing for many things that DSA argues for. So, however he may identify himself, there is a formation behind him that includes the DSA that sees his message as consistent with their broader agenda,” explained Duss. US Mideast policy on the ticket
A distinctive feature of the 2026 midterms race is the prominence foreign policy has played on the campaign trail. That’s largely because Trump’s Iran war has seen an overlap of domestic and international issues.
“The Iran war is raising gas prices, impacting the global economy and the US economy. But it's also feeding into a longstanding sense among many American voters, both Democrat and Republican and Independent, that America has been wasting time, resources and energy on all of these wars, particularly in the Middle East,” said Duss.
“But in the Democratic side, especially, I think Gaza continues to be a very severe tension point between the progressive left and the conservative establishment,” he added, referring to Israel’s military onslaught on the Palestinian enclave after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack.
In Michigan, while El-Sayed’s platform is focused on providing healthcare and cost-of-living issues, the spotlight in the bitter primary race was on the two candidates’ positions on Israel.
His Democratic rival, Stevens, ran on a pro-Israel platform and raised a record $60 million, around half of which came from sources affiliated with pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). El-Sayed criticised Stevens for taking AIPAC donations, calls Israeli military onslaught in Gaza a genocide and opposes unconditional US aid to Israel. Stevens supported continuing US aid to Israel without conditions.
“The Democratic party is changing quite a lot on this issue. The party used to be pretty much as pro-Israel as the Republican Party. Now many Democratic voters are much more sceptical on Israel. There are elements where you can see the grassroots moving the party in a direction that's different from where it has been in the last few decades,” said Johnson.
Following El-Sayed’s primary win, Michigan Democrats – including Stevens and establishment figures such as Senator Elissa Slotkin, who holds the state’s other seat in the chamber – have rallied behind their candidate in the race against Republican Mike Rogers.
But it’s been a tripwire issue. El-Sayed has had to downplay his relationship with leftwing influencer Hasan Piker, who campaigned with him during the primary. Barely weeks after his primary victory, the Democratic candidate apologised to the state’s Jewish Democratic caucus for comments he made after a synagogue attack in March.
The controversies have sparked debates over whether El-Sayed, who won the primary by just 15,000 votes, can sway undecided voters and an estimated 130,000 Jewish Americans who live in Michigan, 61% of whom identified with or leaned Democrat, according to a 2021 study.
It also fuels Republican attacks as they eye a crucial Senate seat in a battleground state. Shortly after El-Sayed was projected to win the August primary, Trump declared it was “great news” for the Republicans in a Truth Social post. “El-Sayed, a Communist loser who hates Jews and Israel, is the projected winner in this race with the Socialist,” Trump wrote. Rogers, El-Sayed’s Republican opponent in the Senate race, released a statement claiming that after spending “years hunting terrorists” he was now “running against someone who believes America deserved 9/11”.
“There's been so much attention on El-Sayed being an observant Muslim and much of it is, unfortunately, very bigoted and inflammatory,” said Duss. “Going back to 9/11, there has been an unfortunate tendency to see Muslim Americans as a source of threat. I completely reject that. And I think many Americans reject that.” ‘An almighty battle’ within the party
Ossoff, whose father is Jewish, has managed to negotiate the minefield of the Mideast crisis in US politics relatively unscathed.
On the Senate floor, Ossoff has attempted a balancing act between supporting Israel’s right to defend itself while criticising the humanitarian impact of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Gaza policies.
Last year, for instance, Ossoff voted to block a proposed US arms export to the Israeli police. But he also voted against another resolution that would have blocked the sale of air-to-ground munitions to Israel. “Despite my opposition to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s conduct of the war in Gaza, I believe the United States must continue to support the Israeli people,” said Ossoff in a press statement. Both resolutions were introduced by Sanders and failed the floor vote.
“Georgia is a more conservative state [than Michigan], Senator Ossoff has a read on his own politics,” said Duss, while noting that Ossoff’s vote to block arms exports to the Israeli police “took some courage”. The former foreign policy adviser to Sanders admitted that, “Personally, I wish he would go farther. I think he can go farther, and I would expect that if he wants to play a role as a leader in the Democratic Party in the future, he is going to need to go farther.”
In terms of policy shifts, Johnson believes the 2026 midterms will have a limited impact even if the Democrats manage to take over Congress. “I think government shutdowns in the US will be more likely to happen. If they win, the Democrats will use bargaining over budgets basically to try to extract some policy concessions over Trump, perhaps on immigration or such issues. But I think these will be fairly modest policy changes,” he explained.
The real impact of the November elections, Johnson predicts, will be the Democratic bench or the likely party candidates the midterms propel into the 2028 presidential race.
If El-Sayed and Ossoff win their respective races, the two men could influence their party’s future trajectory, according to experts.
“If El-Sayed wins the Senate, I think he is well very well-positioned to play a major national role, perhaps not running for president right now, but he is a very skilled candidate, a very courageous voice. And the United States is changing,” said Duss.
While Ossoff has dismissed speculation about his presidential ambitions, analysts believe the Democratic “star of the south” could be a strong candidate for the 2028 White House race.
“If Jon Ossoff is going to become the next [presidential] nominee, I think he’ll have a hell of a fight on his hands because I think the left of the party is going to really want someone that they view as a less compromising figure politically,” said Johnson. “The next Democratic primary is likely to see an almighty battle between the moderates and the left of the party.”
Gina Rinehart backed Lynas to buy rare earths miner Meteoric
Caldeira rare earth project in Brazil. Image from Meteoric Resources.
Australia’s Lynas Rare Earths (ASX: LYC) will acquire Meteoric Resources Ltd. in an all-share deal worth about A$968 million ($672 million), giving it access to a new deposit of the critical minerals in Brazil.
Lynas is the largest rare earths producer outside of China. It is seeking to diversify its resources through the acquisition, the company said in a statement. It will offer 0.0207 shares in Lynas for every one in Meteoric, it added.
Backed by Australia’s richest person, Gina Rinehart, Lynas currently mines rare earths — used in permanent magnets for everything from military applications to smartphones — in Australia and processes the material in Malaysia.
“Expanding our operations into a new country will help Lynas maintain its leading position in the global rare earths supply chain and meet increased customer demand for rare earth materials,” Lynas’ Chairman John Humphrey said in the statement. “Brazil is a well-established and supportive mining jurisdiction and its rare earth reserves are the largest outside China.”
Perth-headquartered Meteoric has been working to develop its Caldeira mine in Brazil. Lynas said it expected development of the project would cost more than $500 million and it will undertake further studies on potential processing opportunities.
(By Paul-Alain Hunt)
New click beetle species named after Dominican Republic’s Indigenous Arawak people
A new species of click beetle with a glossy and highly domed black body has been described from cloud forest sites in the mountains of the Dominican Republic, and named in honour of the Arawak peoples who lived on the island before European colonisation.
Lissomus arawak measures under a centimetre long and is easily recognised by its shining and almost hairless black body, alongside its pale-yellow antennae segments. It is only the third species of the genus Lissomus known from Hispaniola, and the third recorded anywhere in the Greater Antilles.
The study, published in the open-access journal Alpine Entomology, was carried out by Paul J. Johnson of South Dakota State University and Jiri Hodecek of the Swiss Human Institute of Forensic Taphonomy, as part of an ongoing survey of Dominican insect life. Specimens were found at three sites in montane broadleaf and cloud forest between roughly 600 and 700 metres, near the Sierra de Bahoruco and in the Cordillera Septentrional.
Rather than resembling the two other Lissomus species already known from Hispaniola, the new beetle turned out to be structurally closer to species from Central and northern South America.
“The morphological differences suggest that the Lissomus species of Hispaniola may not all descend from a single colonisation event,” the researchers explained. “One possible explanation is therefore that ancestors of these beetles reached the Greater Antilles on at least two separate occasions.” They caution, however, that “this remains a testable hypothesis rather than a demonstrated evolutionary history,” pending a fuller phylogenetic analysis.
The species is known from just five specimens, collected individually between 1985 and 2024, all of them female. “With such a small sample, chance and the opportunistic nature of the collecting are probably the simplest explanations,” the researchers said, adding that this “does not seriously weaken our confidence that L. arawak is distinct. All five females share a consistent and unique combination of morphological characters.”
The name is a deliberate tribute to the island’s first inhabitants. “We chose the name arawak to recognise the Indigenous history and continuing cultural heritage of the Antilles,” the researchers said. “We wanted the name of this distinctive endemic species to connect the biological history of the island with its human history.”
The discovery forms part of a wider effort, they added, “to document the island’s still incompletely known insect diversity,” with at least 15 further click beetle species thought to await description in the Dominican Republic alone.
The discovery forms part of EntomoDR, a long-term field and taxonomy project documenting the still incompletely known insect diversity of the Dominican Republic through repeated expeditions and collaboration with an international network of taxonomic specialists. More information about the project and its discoveries is available at https://entomodr.com
Lissomus arawak sp. nov. (Coleoptera, Elateridae), a new species from the Dominican Republic
Lissomus arawak, ventral habitus.
Lissomus arawak, lateral habitus.
Credit
Image by J. Pirkl, 2025.
Type locality of Lissomus arawak in Pedernales province (el. 700 m).
Credit
Paul J. Johnson et al., 2026.
Friday, October 02, 2026
Infantino loses Swiss backing for campaign to remain FIFA chief
Gianni Infantino's drive to remain boss at world football's governing body FIFA was under threat on Thursday after his own country's football association withdrew its support.
Swiss-born Infantino was elected Fifa president in February 2016 and had been expected to sweep to a fourth and final term at elections next March, until a failed bid to allow private investment in the World Cup drew calls for reform.
The Swiss Football Association (ASF), one of Fifa's founding members in Paris in 1904, said in June that it would support Infantino.
However, it has gone back on the pledge following a meeting of its central committee on 25 September.
"From the ASF’s perspective, several events raise fundamental questions regarding leadership, governance, transparency and decision-making processes within Fifa," said a statement issued on Wednesday.
"This relates in particular to issues of clarity of rules and the integrity of competitions." World Cup fallout
Swiss football administrators said they were concerned over the way that Fifa allowed United States President Donald Trump to interfere with the 2026 World Cup in the US, Mexico and Canada.
Trump revealed he had contacted Fifa and urged it to suspend a one-match ban on US striker Folarin Balogun for his red card during the United States' 2-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina on 1 July. The penalty was lifted the day before the Americans played Belgium for a place in the quarter-finals.
Under the scheme, Infantino proposed spinning off commercial and operational rights of Fifa competitions – including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women – into a €17 billion subsidiary, with 20 percent owned by private investors including the Kushner family, which has links to Trump.
"For the ASF, credibility, transparency, accountability and the effective involvement of the relevant bodies in accordance with the statutes are essential prerequisites for confidence in the governance of international football and in Fifa's integrity," the ASF added.
"In view of the developments since June 2026 and the outstanding issues, the ASF central committee considers that these conditions are no longer met."
In September, the football federations of France and Belgium withdrew their backing for Infantino.
The Belgian federation said it also wants the Balogun case to be discussed at the next meeting of the Fifa council on 15 October in Zurich, Switzerland. Possible challengers
Both Fifa and European football's governing body Uefa are based in Switzerland.
ASF president Peter Knabel said the Swiss association expected Fifa's leadership to uphold the highest standards of transparency, accountability and institutional responsibility.
The Swiss move comes a week before top Uefa executives meet in Berlin.
They are expected to discuss the widening rift with Fifa over Infantino's leadership and possible challengers to the president, who retains support from the African and South American football federations.
He also has the backing of 2034 World Cup hosts Saudi Arabia.
On Tuesday, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the president of the European champions Paris Saint-Germain, ruled himself out as a possible contender to topple Infantino.
Speaking in Copenhagen after the annual meeting of the European Football Clubs, Al-Khelaifi said: "I have zero interest in Fifa. I have zero agenda or ambition to be there.
"I don’t think I’m the right guy for this position and I don’t want to go actually. I’m enjoying what I’m doing."
Under his stewardship since 2011, PSG have harvested 43 pieces of silverware including 12 Ligue 1 titles and seven Coupe de France trophies. PSG won the Champions League for the first time in 2025 and in May became only the second team after Real Madrid to win back-to-back crowns since the Champions League morphed out of the European Cup in 1992.
Nominations for Fifa's presidential election next March must be submitted by 18 November. Infantino is the only candidate so far.
Hundreds of French schools remain closed as riot police clash with student protesters
Some 400 French schools were closed Friday as the student protests that began in high schools in the Paris region last week have spread across France and grown increasingly violent. The students are protesting against teacher shortages, dilapidated school buildings and overcrowding in classrooms.
Tear gas choked the streets in the eastern city of Strasbourg, fireworks were aimed at police lines in Marseille in the south and rubbish bins set ablaze in Rennes in the west.
Rights groups have accused the police of using heavy-handed tactics against minors, including the use of batons, tear gas and non-lethal flash-ball guns. French authorities have opened four investigations to examine accusations of police violence.
One such probe will examine the case of a 16-year-old, who suffered an eye injury after police fired rubber bullets into a crowd of protesters, according to his friends.
In Rennes, the tension was already palpable outside the Jean-Mace high school with students dressed in black, wearing balaclavas and standing not far from a heavy police presence.
“As far as we’re concerned, we’ve won – our school is closed this morning,” said Lola, 16, who declined to give her last name.
She condemned what she said was police violence.
“It makes us even angrier – the police have no right to hit us or use tear gas on us.”
James, a high school student in the northern city of Lille, also denounced what he called "extremely violent police repression, which inevitably fuels students' anger."
"When we see fellow students being beaten, choked, blinded in one eye, and tear-gassed from all sides while we're simply trying to have a dialogue with the government, of course it makes people angry," he said. 'Outsiders'
Some 170 students have been wounded since the start of the movement, Education Minister Édouard Geffray said, while more than 100 high schools have suffered “severe damage”.
Speaking Friday evening, he said that some 735 high schools out of the country's 3,700 had been affected "in one way or another" – though he stressed that this was 30 percent fewer than Thursday.
At least 65 staff members – including 40 high school principals – have also been injured as the protests have at times turned violent. Geffray said that three staff members had been injured on Friday, compared with 31 the day before.
In La Ciotat, near Marseille, a young person sprayed petrol at a teacher, said a spokesperson for that region's educational authority. In a social media clip broadcast by BFM TV, a man is seen wiping his face after a hooded person wearing a face-mask sprays a liquid from a bottle at him. Reuters was not able to verify the circumstances. 'Apocalyptic scenes' as France school protests escalate
Protesters in Pantin, on the outskirts of Paris, set items including fences on fire and threw firecrackers at riot police, before running away.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said images from the eastern city of Belfort showing a group of youths encircle a lone policeman and kick him to the ground were of a "rare violence and intolerable".
He said police had arrested 1,747 on Friday, adding there had been "projectiles thrown, attacks on law enforcement, teachers, journalists, passersby".
After a government crisis meeting on Thursday, a source close to the prime minister said the demonstrations had morphed from a protest movement to urban violence, and Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin has said it had been hijacked by "outsiders".
Several students in the Paris region whom Reuters spoke to earlier in the week said they were staying away from the protests on Friday due to escalating violence. 'A real state of anxiety'
Six months before next year's presidential election, opinion polls consistently show the deep unpopularity of Macron and his centre-right government. Planned budget cuts, which exacerbate the funding crisis in education, have fuelled the discontent.
Trade unions meanwhile called a teachers’ strike for Tuesday, a week after public-sector workers walked out.
"(The violence) is regrettable, but ... when demands go unheard for years, and given the political and geopolitical context, there are several conditions that put ... students in a real state of anxiety," teacher Sandra Champain-Seller said.
The protests erupted in the Paris region last week but have turned increasingly violent as they spread nationwide.
Four hundred high schools – roughly one in 10 – were closed on Friday due to the unrest, while Geffray urged parents to keep their children from protesting.
Some parents supported the protests.
Vincent Martin joined his daughter outside Hélène Boucher high school, in Paris, saying students were "fundamentally right to demand ... better learning conditions". Budget cuts
The students blockading the high schools have voiced anger over overcrowding in classrooms, regular shortages of teachers and rundown buildings, blaming years of under-investment.
"We are 35 per class, we don’t have enough chairs in classrooms, the one-hour lunch break (is too short) for everyone to get food," 15-year-old Kesia told Reuters in the Paris suburb of Pantin before running off as the police used tear gas.
Under the draft 2027 budget presented by the government on Thursday, the education budget is set to increase by a below-inflation 1.7 percent to €65.53 billion ($73.77 billion), excluding teacher pensions.
Education is traditionally the largest budget item, but that changes next year with debt servicing costs expected to reach €74.5 billion, according to the draft bill.
According to the OECD global policy forum, French spending on education is in the middle of the range among member countries and increased between 2015 and 2022, but its share of the budget has slightly decreased.
Intelligence agencies reportedly told the crisis meeting that the protest movement had been initiated by politicians from the left-wing France Unbowed party (LFI).
Senior LFI lawmakers dismissed the allegations, accusing the government of politicising the protests ahead of the election.
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters and AFP)
France closes 400 schools as student unrest over conditions continues
France has closed hundreds of secondary schools amid violent student protests, as ministers urged parents to keep children away from blockades and warned families could be billed for damage.
Issued on: 02/10/2026 - RFI
A sixth-form student adds fuel to a burning barrier during a protest outside Le Corbusier Lycée in Aubervilliers, north of Paris, on 1 October 2026. AFP - LOU BENOIST
Around 400 of France’s 3,700 secondary schools were closed on Friday on the orders of police prefects, with many schools switching to online lessons.
Education Minister Edouard Geffray urged parents to intervene, warning that young people were putting themselves at risk.
“Children are in danger on the streets,” he told BFMTV. “Parents must, quite clearly, take action and tell their children not to go [to the blockades]."
The protests began over staffing, funding and school conditions and have spread rapidly across the country.
The Interior Ministry said 1,027 secondary schools were affected on Thursday, including 222 that were blockaded. Around 30 university campuses were also blocked.
It said 1,949 people were arrested on Thursday alone, mainly in connection with violence, unlawful gatherings and attacks on people in positions of authority.
A total of 305 police officers, gendarmes and firefighters were injured during Thursday’s unrest, while Geffray said 170 pupils and 65 education staff had been hurt since the movement began.
More than 100 secondary schools had also suffered serious damage, he said.
Riot police face off with protesting students carrying out blockading action at the Lycee Kerichen secondary school, in Brest in western France, on 1 October. AFP - FRED TANNEAU
Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin said he had asked prosecutors to seek civil liability against parents whose children were responsible for vandalism, potentially leaving families to pay for repairs.
“When schools are vandalised, when bus shelters are attacked, when public transport is targeted, we will now hold parents civilly liable,” he told radio network RTL.
“It’s not the minor who pays, it’s the parents,” Darmanin said, arguing that the approach could prove “far more useful than detention”.
He said around 90 percent of those detained were minors, while roughly a third of those arrested had been held in connection with violence against other people.
Darmanin described those responsible as an “active and violent minority” and questioned whether all of them were secondary school students.
He said the unrest had moved beyond a conventional student protest to become a matter of “public order”, with the authorities concerned about further violence over the weekend and during a national day of action scheduled for Tuesday.
The government has accused the hard-left France Unbowed party (LFI) of contributing to the radicalisation of the movement and seeking to exploit the unrest.
The prime minister’s office has described the protests as a “manoeuvre organised by LFI and its proxies on the far left”.
LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard rejected the accusation and urged the government “not to descend into conspiracy theories”.
The government’s claims that LFI has orchestrated the unrest have not been independently established.
At the same time, the government has made its first concrete concession to the movement.
On Thursday night, Geffray announced that a proposal in the 2027 budget to introduce registration fees for non-scholarship students in BTS vocational higher education courses and those in preparatory classes for entrance exams for France's elite universities would be dropped.
The planned charges – €178 for BTS students and €270 for those in preparatory classes – had drawn criticism from student groups, trade unions and parties on the left.
Geffray was due to meet secondary school organisations, parents’ associations, education unions and representatives of the national student council on Friday.
“One of the difficulties with this movement is that there is no single national demand,” he said. “It all stemmed from a fairly diverse range of local demands.”
Student organisations are nevertheless calling for protests to continue, with the movement now looking towards Tuesday’s national day of action.
Hundreds of high schools in France cose as new protests against conditions erupt
The students say their school hours are excessively long, conditions inadequate including overheated classrooms, and that there are too many staff absences.
French high school students lit fires outside schools and faced off with police on Friday as a protest movement that has forced the closure of some 400 establishments showed no sign of abating.
The movement, which began last week in the Paris region and rapidly spread nationwide, has seen teenage pupils at lycées in their final years of schooling block access to buildings and clash with police.
The Ministry of Education said earlier on Friday that 564 schools had "been the subject of actions or disruptions since the start of the day."
The students say their school hours are excessively long, conditions inadequate including overheated classrooms, and that there are too many staff absences
The government says the grievances are legitimate but has condemned what it has described as "urban violence."
Students have accused police of using excessive force and causing injuries by regularly firing tear gas canisters to disperse the protests.
In Paris on Friday, fire damaged the entrances of two high schools, Leonard de Vinci in the south of the city and Gaston-Bachelard in the southeast, with the fire brigade called to extinguish the blazes, an AFP photographer said.
Students hold a sign reading "Stop budget cuts" as they protest against under-resourced schools in Lyon, 2 October, 2026 AP Photo
'Held hostage'
Education Minister Edouard Geffray said "the high school student movement is being held hostage by ultra-violent fringe groups," adding that nearly 400 high schools out of the 3,700 in the country were expected to be closed on Friday.
Many high schools have also planned to conduct classes remotely, particularly in the southern city of Marseille.
At least 65 staff members have been injured, including 40 high school principals, since the start of the movement, Geffray told BFMTV.
Some 170 students have been wounded while over 100 high schools have suffered "severe damage."
"Parents must clearly step up and tell their children not to go" to the protests, he added. "What matters now is ensuring our children are no longer out on the streets, because they are in danger."
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin said he has asked prosecutors to hold parents liable for damage caused by their children during the protests and "pay for repairs."
Since the start of the movement, around 2,000 people have been taken into police custody," 90% of whom were minors," Darmanin told RTL.
Firefighters extinguish a fire as students protest against under-resourced schools in Lyon, 2 October, 2026 AP Photo 'We've won'
In the western city of Rennes, the tension was already palpable outside the Jean-Mace high school with students dressed in black and wearing balaclavas standing not far from a heavy police presence.
"As far as we're concerned, we've won, our school is closed this morning," said Lola, 16, who declined to give her last name.
She condemned what she said was police violence. "It makes us even angrier, the police have no right to hit us or use tear gas on us."
Related
Police used tear gas at the Kerichen high school in Brest, in western France, an AFP photographer said.
The protests have also made a strong political echo just over half a year before presidential elections, with the government accusing the hard left France Unbowed (LFI), whose firebrand leader Jean-Luc Melenchon is again standing for the presidency, of being behind the movement.
French police clash with teens blockading
schools as unions stage day of protests
French teenagers on Tuesday clashed with police as they kept up a blockade of high schools in cities across the country to demand better conditions and more teacher hirings. The escalating standoff came as unions staged a day of demonstrations against a cost-cutting budget drafted by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu's embattled government.
French teenagers on Tuesday set fire to rubbish bins and hurled projectiles at police who responded with batons and tear gas, as pupils kept up blockades and protests at hundreds of high schools, demanding better conditions.
The movement in the lycées, which handle the final years of school in France, has angered the government.
Since last week, high school students have staged protests outside their schools over grievances including timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers as well as overheated classrooms during the recent heatwaves.
The protests started in the Ile-de-France region around Paris but have now spread to other cities nationwide.
According to the education ministry, 400 schools were affected by protests or disruptions on Tuesday, out of some 3,700 across the country.
Some 40 were blockaded and 44 faced attempted blockades. Ten people, both students and staff, were wounded and hundreds, most of them minors, were detained.
"440 were detained across national territory," Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said on BFMTV. "We don't have the final tally yet, but I'm told two thirds led to police custody."
Education Minister Édouard Geffray condemned the violence.
"Legal proceedings have been initiated against these actions. This violence is unspeakable," Geffray posted to X.
"To legitimise it or ... call for an expansion of the blockades is to endanger both our students and public officials. It is irresponsible."
In one lycée in the Paris suburbs, teachers formed a line around protesting students in a bid to protect them from the police.
Masked pupils gathered outside the Lycée César Baggio in Lille, in northern France, setting bins on fire, an AFP photographer reported.
Bus shelters and advertising billboards were vandalised, with bottles, paving stones and various objects hurled at police, who responded by firing tear gas.
There were 40 arrests on Tuesday and 10 people -- students and staff -- were wounded.
In the western city of Nantes, teens piled up dozens of bins to prevent entrance to the Lycée Gabriel Guist'hau, while in Paris there was an uneasy standoff between 30 students and a contingent of police at the Arago school.
Similar clashes were also reported in cities including Marseille in the south, Bordeaux in the west and Lyon in the southeast. 'Children of the suburbs'
Around 80 students gathered outside the Lamartine school in Paris, brandishing slogans including "More hours of lessons than sleep" and "8am to 6pm: are we pupils or under arrest?"
There were tense scenes at the Lycée Brequigny in the northwestern city of Rennes – Brittany's largest high school – where around a hundred students hurled projectiles at the building, an AFP video journalist said.
The actions came as unions staged a day of nationwide demonstrations and strikes over the budget of Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron.
The CGT union said 300,000 marched across France, including 70,000 in the capital. Police put the Paris figure at 30,000, including 8,000 firefighters. Public transport was not badly affected however.
"The anger is immense. I warn the government – it must address the demands and revise the draft budget, which is dangerous for the country and is driving us straight into the wall of recession at 200 kilometres an hour," the head of the CGT union Sophie Binet told BFM TV.
Lecornu said on Monday any escalation of demonstrations at high schools would be "irresponsible" and lashed out at the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, who he accused of encouraging the protests.
Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said 164 arrests took place on Monday and 180 schools were affected, adding: "We cannot tolerate excesses."
In the low-income Paris suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis, the district's LFI mayor Bally Bagayoko joined a protest of hundreds of students at the Lycée Paul-Eluard.
Leading students in a rendition of the national hymn, the Marseillaise, he described the protests as "completely legitimate" and complained that low-income areas received less resources than higher-income ones.
When a crowd formed, police with anti-riot shields struck the students and an AFP journalist with batons.
"We, the children of the suburbs, are abandoned and neglected," said 16-year-old Victoire, a student at the school, denouncing conditions at the establishment as "unsanitary".
"Sometimes, violence can be legitimate," Bagayoko, who denied accusations he had set fire to a bin at the school, told BFM TV on Tuesday. "But whenever it can be avoided, it is better," he added.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Transport suspended in some French cities as school protests continue
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting Thursday as students staged new protests against understaffing, onerous schedules and overheated classrooms, with public transport affected in several cities. More than 1,900 people, most of them students, have been detained and hundreds of police injured amid the increasingly violent protests, the interior ministry reported.
French students set fire to bins and erected blockades outside schools in several cities, protesting against overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities.
Several school principals were injured, harassed or assaulted during blockades at high schools on Thursday, according to reports from regional education authorities, prefectures and union representatives.
Riot police have lined up against the students, and the force has launched internal probes after accusations of brutality against three pupils, said Interior Minister Laurent Nunez.
Police have already detained hundreds of protesters at the lycées, which students aged 15 to 18 attend for their final three years of secondary education in France.
In the Parisian suburb of Saint-Denis, crowds of young people massed in front of a line of police. One student held up a sign that read: "Can we explain ourselves without being teargassed?"
The interior ministry said police and gendarmes had made 1,949 arrests on Thursday, while 305 officers had been injured. Nunez condemned what he described as "unbridled violence".
Hundreds held, dozens wounded as French school protests escalate
Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu convened a crisis meeting in the afternoon, asking his ministers to cancel their travel plans over the coming days due to the blockades led by high school students in order to let prefects handle the situation, his entourage reported.
The government said the demonstrations had become "urban violence" and cited the intelligence service to justify claims that it had been organised by the radical left.
Manuel Bompard, a leading figure in the left-wing France Unbowed party (LFI), quickly dismissed the claim, accusing the government of "sinking into conspiratorial thinking".
"LFI has always advocated non-violent demonstrations," LFI lawmaker Louis Boyard told BFM TV after a readout of the crisis meeting was shared with reporters.
"The government, by turning it into a political battle, has added fuel to the fire by insulting and repressing high school students," he added.
"This sense of frustration will not be dealt with through batons; it will be dealt with by showing consideration for these young people," he said.
This latest wave of social unrest comes with tensions already running high over inflation, particularly soaring fuel prices – and just seven months away from France's presidential election, where opinion polls suggest far-right leader Marine Le Pen is the frontrunner.
A security source said there had been 900 blockades or related incidents across the country on Thursday.
More than 160 schools were shut down, and university students joined the protests in Paris, Marseille and other cities.
And the authorities in the Paris region said around 50 schools had been "the scene of violence, clashes and damage". 'It's unbearable'
Since last week, pupils have staged protests outside schools over a range of grievances. They range from timetables, class sizes and a shortage of teachers to overheated classrooms during this year's heatwaves.
The protests have spread across the country from the Paris suburbs.
University students also joined in Thursday, blocking access to around 30 campuses, a student union said.
Among reports of school staff being targeted was one incident in the southern port city of Marseille when a school principal and his deputy were inadvertently splashed with petrol as protesters were trying to fill containers.
In the northwestern city of Nantes, firefighters had to intervene to extinguish a fire in the entrance of a high school "following a gathering marked by violence towards staff", the regional education board said.
Authorities reported violence near high schools, mainly in Nantes, blaming "violent individuals" who "join the students to carry out acts of vandalism".
In the northeastern city of Strasbourg, trams were ordered to halt to "restrict the movements of rioters and demonstrators", the regional prefect said.
Raphael, a 17-year-old who did not give his surname for fear of reprisals, was among the protesters outside a school in Strasbourg, where some used barriers to obstruct the nearby tramway tracks.
"There are 35 of us per classroom. With 35°C in summer, it's unbearable. There aren't enough toilets, and there are water leaks in some rooms," Raphael said.
"The building is falling apart, the cafeteria is too small. There's zero budget, zero resources, not enough supervisors," he said.
Nearby, students took photos of themselves in front of burning rubbish bins, holding up the sign with their school's name ripped off the tram stop.
Most pupils did not take part in any vandalism, instead breaking into a sprint down an avenue when the police fired tear gas.
In the southern city of Toulouse, hundreds of young people flooded the tram tracks, some toppling trash cans and starting fires, hurling projectiles or smashing bus shelters, AFP journalists said.
In the northern city of Lille, AFP reporters saw young people wearing black hoodies destroy the glass of a bus stop. Firefighters intervened to put out the flames on upturned dustbins set on fire.
The government has accused the left-wing LFI of encouraging the protests.
But LFI's candidate for the 2027 presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said on Wednesday that his party "called for non-violent methods of struggle".
In neighbouring Belgium, there were protests and damage at a handful of schools in the eastern city of Liège, police said.
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