Daily News Briefing: French PM says 1,200 arrested as cost-of-living protests turn violent across France

Katie: To our lead story, and Thomas. Thomas: French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu says about twelve hundred people were arrested after protests over living costs and school conditions turned violent yesterday. He says at least a hundred and fifty police officers were injured. The government estimates that five hundred and fifty thousand people marched; unions and organisers put the figure at about eight hundred thousand. In Limoges, the local prefecture says fire partly collapsed the town hall. Lyon’s tourist office burned, and police used tear gas and water cannon in Paris. President Emmanuel Macron says attackers and looters will be prosecuted. Katie: How are the mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon pressing the government after the violence? Thomas: They have demanded a meeting with Lecornu early next week. They want him to explain the chain of events that led to the violence. Katie: Thank you, Thomas. Katie: Our second top story, and Ezra. Ezra: Yemen’s government says two Houthi missiles landed near the runway at Aden airport on Friday. The Houthis say they targeted a military headquarters and a weapons depot at Badr camp, near the airport. Yemen’s information minister, Moammar al-Eryani, says the missiles landed about five hundred metres from a plane preparing to take off. All its passengers and crew were safe. Aden is the seat of Yemen’s internationally recognised government, which is fighting the Houthis with Saudi backing. Katie: Egypt has offered to help Saudi Arabia. What limits has its president put on that offer? Ezra: President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi says Egypt is ready to help defend Saudi Arabia, but would not take offensive action. That limits the military support Riyadh could expect from Cairo. Katie: Thank you, Ezra. And now to other headlines. Over the Black Sea, Romania says its fighter jets shot down two attack drones that entered its airspace yesterday. Foreign Minister Oana Toiu says NATO’s North Atlantic Council will discuss the incident on Tuesday. And in Gaza, UNICEF says more than three hundred and forty children have been killed since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire began. Its spokesman says around eight hundred thousand children remain displaced, most living in tents or damaged buildings. Katie: Next, to the United States, with Hugh and Hank. Hugh: The Justice Department has warned California election officials they could face prosecution for counting ballots cast by people federal agencies identify as noncitizens. Its letter went to Los Angeles County on Friday, less than three weeks before the midterm election. Acting deputy attorney general Trent McCotter says knowingly counting such ballots could make officials accomplices to a federal crime. California’s secretary of state, Shirley Weber, says the administration has provided no evidence for its claim. The department sued on Thursday to stop California counting the ballots until voters’ immigration status is checked. Hank: Both sides in a lawsuit over the green-card lottery have secured two more weeks to arrange its reopening. Judge Jinsook Ohta ordered the State Department earlier this week to restart registration for the twenty twenty-seven lottery. Red Eagle Law, which brought the case, says the department must now announce entry dates by October twenty-ninth. Registration must open by November first and stay open for thirty days. The department must accept electronic entries from eligible applicants and notify those selected. Hugh: In communities around the United States, residents are packing town halls to oppose data centres. Quartz reports that local campaigns have persuaded developers to drop plans worth billions of dollars. It says opponents may have to fight the same plans at state level. Katie: Thank you, Hugh and Hank. Katie: Onward to Britain, with David. David: Britons under thirty are set to regain the chance to work in European Union countries as the UK pushes for a post-Brexit reset. Brussels is negotiating with member states ahead of a UK–EU summit next month. Those talks will determine whether the proposed change becomes an agreement. Katie: Thank you, David. Katie: Now to China, with Wei and Vivian. Vivian: China’s Defence Ministry has promised “resolute and effective measures” against what it calls Philippine provocations in the South China Sea. Spokesman Chen Xi says China has “indisputable sovereignty” over the disputed islands and reefs. The Philippine military has raised concerns about Chinese vessels in nearby waters. Chen accuses Manila of drawing outside forces into the dispute. He says China’s actions are lawful and calls the Philippines a destabilising influence in the region. Katie: Does any Chinese source propose a way back to talks? Vivian: A Global Times opinion piece by a South China Sea researcher urges the Philippine government to rein in its military and coast guard and return to bilateral talks. The writer warns that China’s restraint “is not unlimited.” Katie: Wei, what is happening inside Hong Kong? Wei: Hong Kong’s security chief says talks are nearing completion to connect private shopping-mall cameras to the police surveillance network. Chris Tang, the Secretary for Security, oversees the city’s police and public order. He says police would get a live feed from places with persistent crime; elsewhere, they would request footage when needed. The network already connects cameras at the airport, railways and public housing estates. Tang says police are also testing facial recognition in limited areas. Vivian: Shanghai’s Grand Opera House opened yesterday with a concert launching the city’s international arts festival. Jiemian, a Chinese commercial news outlet, says its opening season will run for about four months and include nearly a hundred performances. Its programme includes opera productions from Venice, Berlin and the Mariinsky Theatre. Katie: Thank you, Wei and Vivian. The future sounds crowded today; I suspect you have found room for a dissenting footnote, Bradford. Bradford: Only a small one. Italy’s Corriere della Sera predicts that artificial intelligence will put millions out of work. It runs through six industrial revolutions, from steam to AI, and says workers may need new trades — or a society less centred on paid work. Katie: Millions is a striking prediction. What does the paper offer to support it? Bradford: For scale, it cites a European and American average of one worker for every quarter-million in revenue. At OpenAI, it says, the figure is one worker for every five point six million. Revenue, though, is not a tally of displaced workers. Katie: Fair. Does it have advice for the people it expects to lose their jobs? Bradford: Learn another trade, it says, or rethink how much life depends on a job. Its title refers to labourers who once worked with hoes before machines replaced much of that work. It says people using AI to write are helping speed the process. Katie: Another argument about AI: what is Al Jazeera asking us to fear? Bradford: The damage already being done. In an opinion piece, Qatar’s Al Jazeera names job losses, power-hungry data centres, biased algorithms and AI in warfare. It argues that predictions of catastrophe are drawing attention away from problems people face now. Katie: So Corriere’s warning about jobs is part of its case, not its target? Bradford: Exactly. They agree that jobs are at risk. Al Jazeera objects to the priority given to existential risk. It cites Senator Bernie Sanders’s calls for bans on superintelligence and Hillary Clinton’s warning about open-source AI, while arguing for attention to harm already affecting workers. Katie: From future jobs to today’s chairs: what has Arwa Mahdawi noticed? Bradford: They have gone from American airport document-checking stations. Arwa Mahdawi wrote in Britain’s Guardian on Wednesday that the government says standing “helps reinforce professionalism”. She contrasts that with Aldi, which seats its American cashiers because it finds them more efficient. Apparently, a chair now needs a character reference. Katie: And from standing all day to dating a screen: what amused the New York Times? Bradford: A South Korean television show matched three celebrities with AI partners on tablets, the New York Times reports. Cartoonist Kian84 went on a pool date with one avatar and a fishing trip with another. The fishing date ended early: his partner decided they had nothing to talk about and left him there. Katie: At least the fish were spared the small talk. Katie: Thank you, Bradford. Katie: Over to Europe, with Luca and Konrad. Luca: German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has rejected Ireland’s compromise for the European Union’s next seven-year budget. He says spending must fall further. Ireland holds the rotating presidency of the Council, where the twenty-seven governments negotiate. Its plan would spend about eight per cent less than the European Commission proposes. The Commission wants roughly two trillion euros. Merz says the budget must be affordable for the countries funding most of it. Ireland’s plan leaves agriculture and regional development untouched, but cuts competitiveness and defence spending, priorities for Germany. Katie: Does the European Parliament agree with Merz about the cuts? Luca: No. Negotiators from the European People’s Party and the Social Democrats say Ireland’s proposed cut would weaken the EU’s ability to act, Tagesschau reports. Katie: Konrad, what else is making news? Konrad: In Hungary, Prime Minister Peter Magyar says Ukrainian grain may cross the country, but must remain in transit. President Volodymyr Zelensky wants overland routes because Russian attacks have nearly stopped grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. Katie: Thank you, Luca and Konrad. Katie: Turning to Asia, with Allison and Cooper. Allison: Pandu Sjahrir, chief investment officer of Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund, says Danantara plans to invest five billion dollars in domestic companies. MSCI has proposed downgrading Indonesia from emerging-market to standalone status. Sjahrir says consumer stocks have fallen, but argues that the businesses remain healthy. Katie: Will Danantara put commercial returns first? Allison: Economic value comes first, Sjahrir says, rather than commercial returns. He expects Danantara to back projects with wider economic benefits, provided they stay within the fund’s cost of capital. Katie: And Cooper? Cooper: Gold exports without a traceable origin face a ban in Japan under a Finance Ministry plan to curb tax evasion. The country imports gold, but its exports reached two hundred and twenty-eight tonnes last year. Katie: Thank you, Allison and Cooper. Katie: On to Africa, with Pieter and Chiedza. Pieter: Belgian prosecutors have confirmed that police searched addresses around Brussels earlier this week in a money-laundering investigation. Lawyers for Congolese groups say the homes belong to relatives and associates of President Félix Tshisekedi. Their complaint alleges the laundering of money diverted from Congolese mining revenues. Prosecutors say the investigation stems from a complaint filed last year, but have not confirmed whose homes were searched. Congo holds some of the world’s largest copper and cobalt reserves. Katie: Why did the groups bring a complaint about Congolese mining revenues in Belgium? Pieter: Several people named in the complaint are Belgian citizens living there. The lawyers filed it on behalf of nongovernmental groups from Congo’s southern Katanga province. Katie: Chiedza, over to you. Chiedza: In Morocco, King Mohammed the Sixth has appointed Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri as the country’s first woman prime minister. Her four-party coalition has a parliamentary majority. Her government faces concerns over living costs and jobs as Morocco prepares to co-host the twenty-thirty World Cup. Katie: Thank you, Pieter and Chiedza. Katie: And now, South America, with Mateo and Catalina. Mateo: Brazil’s electoral court has ordered Meta not to unjustifiably restrict either presidential candidate’s reach through the runoff. The order came on Thursday. On Friday, Folha de S.Paulo published internal messages in which Meta staff acknowledged that restrictions had harmed President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s Instagram accounts. Lula’s campaign estimates that nearly one million three hundred thousand people missed its ads during one restriction. The messages also described Instagram recommending his rival, Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, in breach of election rules. Meta denies favouring either candidate and says technical failures and election-rule enforcement caused the incidents. Katie: Do the internal messages show that Meta deliberately favoured Bolsonaro? Mateo: No. Folha de S.Paulo says none of the conversations it reviewed admitted interference. The messages also recorded problems for Bolsonaro’s campaign, including ads blocked over suspected use of artificial intelligence. Katie: Catalina, what else is happening? Catalina: In Bolivia, a United Nations drug agency official says foreign cartels have made the country an operations hub. Mónica Mendoza names groups from Mexico and Brazil among them. She says a rise in contract killings shows the groups fighting over territory. Katie: Thank you, Mateo and Catalina. Katie: People are remarkably keen on local democracy when the locals agree with them. Let's pause with Hollis for his read of the day. Hollis: Katie, I'm pleased as punch to see neighbors make big developers listen. But I won't cheer every American town hall that stops a data center. When plans worth billions get dropped, that decision reaches beyond the people who packed the meeting. We've seen this habit before: the people facing a change get heard, while the people who might benefit from it are easier to miss. A town deserves a say, not the only say. Katie: But the locals have to live with a data center, Hollis. If they can't stop one they oppose, what does their say amount to? Hollis: A great deal, if the developer has to answer their objections and a bad site can still be rejected. I'm not asking anyone to put up with a project just because it costs a fortune. But if this fight moves to the state, that's a chance to hear people beyond the town as well. I like my neighbors. I wouldn't ask them to decide for everybody else's neighborhood. Katie: Thank you, Hollis. Katie: Next, to Markets, with Joe and Gwen. Joe: Big American bank shares were heading for a sixth straight weekly loss on Friday, their longest such run since the financial crisis. The KBW Bank Index remains in correction territory after falling from its August high. Hotter-than-expected inflation has complicated expectations for Federal Reserve interest rates. Banks’ latest results offered little relief: stronger equities trading did not offset weaker bond trading. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Herman Chan says rates staying high could slow growth and increase loan losses. Investors are also weighing the threat artificial intelligence poses to banking. Gwen: Apple says demand for its first foldable iPhone has been “nothing short of extraordinary”. Online delivery estimates for the iPhone Duo have slipped to late January, though it goes on sale this week. Apple is still taking orders. Katie: China’s diesel exports reached their highest level in more than three years in September. Does that change the global fuel picture? Joe: It adds supply after Beijing eased export restrictions imposed to protect its domestic market. But conflicts are curbing fuel production in the Middle East and Russia, and China’s refined-fuel exports for the year so far remain below last year’s. Katie: Thank you, Joe and Gwen. Katie: Onward to Technology, with Jack and Curtis. Jack: Anthropic says an internal version of Claude has traced the unexplained numbers behind five cryptography standards to an old software random-number generator. The National Security Agency supplied the numbers when the standards were adopted in two thousand, but never explained its choices. Anthropic says Claude linked them to a program started with timestamps from the late nineteen nineties. That makes a hidden NSA weakness less likely, the company says. News dot bitcoin dot com reports that cryptography engineer Filippo Valsorda reproduced the result and Anthropic released code for others to check it. Curtis: A federal appeals court ruled on Friday that thousands of California Tesla buyers cannot pursue their Full Self-Driving claims as a group. The judges said the buyers had not shown that each saw the allegedly false statement. The case continues; the ruling does not decide whether Tesla misled them. Katie: India’s Supreme Court has recognised internet access as a fundamental right for children and suggested a child mode for social media. Does that put the burden on platforms rather than children? Jack: The judges say keeping children offline because platforms fail to remove harmful material mistakes the victim for the problem. They suggest private accounts by default and limits on contact from unknown adults. They also say children in remote areas rely on the internet for learning. Katie: Thank you, Jack and Curtis. Katie: Now, the State of Our Discourse, with Owen. Owen, what are people saying about the California election fight? Owen: Benny Johnson, a political commentator, framed the lawsuit as a fight over suspected noncitizen voters. California Governor Gavin Newsom accused Donald Trump of asking election officials to break federal law. Senator Alex Padilla said the administration's ballot claim lacked evidence. Senator Adam Schiff called the case a distraction from rising costs. They were arguing about the same lawsuit, but not quite the same question. On Apple’s new phone, market accounts declared a sellout. Technology analyst Dan Ives stuck to saying preorders looked strong. The accounts could not even agree on the delivery dates. Katie: Dates aside, what else are people arguing about? Owen: Economist Diane Swonk wrote about the emotional response to inflation, pointing to years of lost purchasing power. Some K-pop fans argued over boycotting an album because of its use of artificial intelligence. One fan objected to boycotting that album while accepting AI in other releases. Political scientist Larry Sabato shared a warning about activists pressing for martial law if they believed the American election was rigged. And Anthony Scaramucci urged Americans to stop hating their political opponents. The former White House official’s next instruction was to buy his book. Katie: Thank you, Owen. Katie: Over to Health, with Doc and Clara. Doc: Researchers in Uruguay have proposed reviewing school start times to better match children’s biological clocks. A national survey found one in six children aged five to ten gets less than nine hours’ sleep on weekdays. A similar share keeps markedly different weekday and weekend sleep schedules. The researchers also propose longer breaks between workdays and sleep assessments in medical care. Clara: Bangladesh’s measles outbreak has killed more than eleven hundred people, the World Health Organization says. Almost all were children under five. Health authorities have recorded more than two hundred thousand suspected cases since March. Cases rose again in September, despite a spring vaccination drive. Katie: Why did the first vaccination drive miss so many children? Clara: Its target list was incomplete. A routine health programme later counted four million more children in the same age group. Bangladesh has since begun another campaign aimed at three point four million children who were missed. Katie: Thank you, Doc and Clara. Katie: Turning to Sport, with Declan and Conner. Declan: Erling Haaland scored twice as Manchester City beat Ipswich Town three-two in the Premier League, England’s top football league. City have won all seven league games this season and lead second-placed Arsenal by six points. Conner: Daniel Dubois retained his World Boxing Organization heavyweight title, stopping fellow Briton Fabio Wardley in the second round of their rematch in London. Dubois knocked Wardley down seventeen seconds into the fight. Wardley’s trainer threw in the towel in round two. Declan: Maja Chwalinska beat fellow Pole Iga Swiatek seven-five, six-one in the Wuhan Open semifinals in China. Swiatek needed treatment for a leg injury during the match. Chwalinska, ranked twenty-second, has reached the final. The result also secured Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina a place in the season-ending WTA Finals. Swiatek’s own place is in doubt. Britain’s Sonay Kartal reached the Wuhan final by beating Jelena Ostapenko in two tie-breaks. Conner: Tonga beat England thirty-twelve in their opening match at rugby league’s World Cup in Perth. Haumole Olakau’atu scored twice for Tonga, who crossed for four tries to England’s two. The defeat puts England’s semifinal hopes at risk. Katie: Thank you, Declan and Conner. Katie: On to Culture, with Margaux. My neck has modest ambitions today, Margaux. Your taste usually has other plans. Margaux: Then start with a modest tilt. My standards will give you enough of a stretch. Katie: A modest tilt I can manage. Your standards are another matter. Margaux: Your neck arrived late: the minister says planning began before the loan. In Sydney, Harrie Fasher has won Sculpture by the Sea’s top prize. Australian Arts Review describes her steel-and-bronze sculpture as six metres tall. Fasher dedicated the prize to women involved in the show. Katie: Six metres? My neck has become a crane. Is the exhibition free? Margaux: Entirely. The show marks thirty years and stretches along two kilometres of coast between Bondi and Tamarama beaches. Take your time on the walk, Katie; your neck has six metres to reckon with. Katie: Thank you, Margaux. Birdie and Rhett, what have you found? Birdie: Agence France-Presse reports that Joel and Ethan Coen plan to make another film together. They have not directed one together since twenty eighteen. Joel says, “We’re getting old. It better be the near future.” Rhett: No title yet. Joel says they have scripts already written, along with ideas they have not put on paper. Birdie: Women’s Wear Daily reports that Taylor Swift performed at the Academy Museum gala in Los Angeles yesterday. The evening honoured actors Charlize Theron and Colman Domingo, and filmmaker John Carpenter. Rhett: And Swift wore a Dior gown with a strapless bodice and a full skirt, designed by Jonathan Anderson. Katie: And thanks to Birdie and Rhett. Katie: And now, Passages, with Nora and Gideon. Nora: Norwegian sommelier Nikolai Haram Svorte won the Best Sommelier of the World title on Friday in Lisbon. He is twenty-nine. It was his first appearance in the competition. The final was held in the Coliseu dos Recreios theatre. Contestants had to spot faults in a table setting. They decanted a port from two thousand and three and suggested food to serve with it. They tasted wines without seeing the labels. Terre de Vins says the finalists also had to choose five sparkling wines from five countries for a set menu. Svorte has worked as a sommelier since twenty eighteen. Decanter says he has won Norway’s championship four years running. He now works for a Norwegian Champagne importer. Before the result was announced, he told the magazine: “I was nervous, but I was just trying to enjoy it.” Katie: And the field reached places new to this competition. Gideon: Decanter says India, Kenya, Lebanon and Moldova sent competitors for the first time. France’s Pascaline Lepeltier finished second in Lisbon; Japan’s Wataru Iwata was third. Estadão says the next contest will be held in Japan in twenty thirty. Katie: Thank you, Nora. Thank you, Gideon. On this day in nineteen twenty-nine, Britain’s Judicial Committee of the Privy Council ruled that Canadian women counted as “persons” under the constitution, making them eligible for the Senate. Five Alberta women had brought the case after Canada’s Supreme Court ruled against them. So — what does today add up to? A town hall burned during protests in France. Missiles landed near an airport runway in Yemen. The violence had different causes, but in each place it reached people going about ordinary business. France’s mayors now want an account of how the protests turned violent. Early next week, watch for the prime minister’s answer to their demand for a meeting. On Tuesday, NATO’s council discusses the drones Romania shot down. And the AI dating show may need an upgrade: a setting for awkward silences. Katie: That's the briefing. The watch is ours. The rest is yours.