Nine high school students in Florida have been arrested after allegedly beating a classmate who stood up to them and stopped them from picking on a girl in the cafeteria, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office said.
Braden Peters, 20, better known as the "looksmaxxing" influencer "Clavicular," walked up to court with a barking dog ahead of his arraignment in a Massachusetts courtroom on Thursday.
Peters appeared in Orleans District Court and entered a not guilty plea on charges relating to an alleged rape. A court clerk confirmed to Fox News Digital that he posted $10,000 bail relating to the charges.
The incident allegedly involved a 17-year-old victim that occurred in 2025 at his family's Cape Cod home.
Former criminal defense attorney and Fox News Contributor Ted Williams said Peters arriving at court with a dog was not necessarily unusual.
"I don't think it's really out of the ordinary for a defendant to show up at court and the dog is left outside on a leash at a specific location or left with a person," Williams told Fox News Digital.
Williams said the dog could have served as a source of support for Peters ahead of the court appearance.
"There are people who are more attached to their dog than they are attached to a human being, believe it or not, and that may be just his support mechanism — the dog," Williams said.
What would be unusual, Williams said, is if the animal were allowed inside the courthouse under normal circumstances — as dogs or animals of any sort are not permitted in courts, he said.
Peters has amassed more than 1 million followers on his Instagram account and is known for rating people's looks via livestream and providing "advice" like surgery and personal training.
In this specific case, Fox News Digital previously reported the teenage victim told investigators she messaged Peters online looking to connect and make content – to which he allegedly sent for an Uber to pick her up and bring her to his house.
On Wednesday, Peters’ attorneys filed a memorandum asking the court to release him on cash bail, arguing he was neither a flight risk nor a danger to the community and offering to surrender his passport and have no contact with the alleged victim.
He was not jailed awaiting Thursday’s arraignment; he appeared in response to a summons and then posted bail.
READ IT: Braden Peters’ defense memorandum for his release.
He went on to say, "The fact that these allegations first arose in June 2026 when the complainant and her Florida attorney appeared together at the Chatham Police Department just days before filing an amended civil lawsuit seeking thousands of dollars from Mr. Peters speaks for itself."
This is not Peters' first run-in with the law. He was previously arrested in Florida on battery charges in Kissimmee after a reported fight between two women at an Airbnb property.
The Cape & Islands District Attorney's Office in Massachusetts did not provide a comment to Fox News Digital on Thursday's court proceeding, citing the pending case.
The head of France's leading leftist trade union has called for strikes to support the youth riots after the government refused to meet demands for minimum wage hikes and more spending on education.
Mark Zuckerberg's Meta has blocked Shou Zi Chew's company, TikTok, from advertising in some markets.
Finn Gomez/Getty Images; Shawn Thew-Pool/Getty Images
TikTok is moving on quickly after losing access to Meta's ads platform in some markets.
It's shifted ad spend to YouTube, Pinterest, and mobile-app networks, according to Sensor Tower.
TikTok was a prominent ad spender on Meta before its ousting on October 8.
TikTok's message to Meta: If you won't take our ad dollars, your competitors will.
Meta took a bold stance this month by blocking ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, from running ads on Meta apps in some markets. Why? Well, Meta's answer was pretty straightforward. It didn't want to "run ads from a competitor whose goal is to pull people off our apps."
TikTok is now redirecting that ad spend elsewhere.
Since the ban went into effect on October 8, TikTok has shifted its ad budgets to other platforms like YouTube and Pinterest, according to allocation estimates provided to CMO Insider by the analytics firm Sensor Tower.
The share of TikTok's ad spend that went to YouTube rose to 17% between October 9 and October 16, up from 9% in the first week of October. Meanwhile, its ad spend on Pinterest grew to 9% during the same period, up from 3% in the first week of October. A majority of TikTok's spend — 58% — went to mobile-app ad networks like Google's AdMob, up from 19% at the start of October, when Meta was still an option.
Meta's move against TikTok "highlights the growing intensity of the competition across the digital landscape and across the two of them," said Kate Black, EVP of social strategy at Horizon Media. "For marketers, this really just reinforces the need to be agile and build balanced media strategies — and not having all your eggs in one basket."
Meta's TikTok ousting isn't unprecedented. Other platforms like Amazon have previously blocked competitors from running ads, while Twitter in late 2022 restricted users' ability to link to their accounts on social apps like Instagram and Mastodon, calling it "free promotion."
"Declining promotional services to a competitor is a normal business practice across industries," a Meta spokesperson said. Meta's changes will impact advertising policies in the US, Canada, Egypt, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, and Vietnam.
For Meta, a company that pulled in $117 billion in revenue in the first half of 2026, losing one advertiser won't hurt much. Still, TikTok and ByteDance were notably prominent spenders on Meta's apps, according to Sensor Tower.
Meta will also lose ad spend from third-party marketers that link to TikTok or other ByteDance properties in their ads, further increasing its potential losses. Direct-to-consumer brands that may want to drive potential customers to TikTok Shop will miss out.
No Meta, no problem
For TikTok, losing access to Meta's more than 3 billion monthly users is a setback.
Like any social media giant, TikTok is incentivized to grow, grow, grow. Ads that target new users and drive new app downloads are part of the playbook — a strategy Meta uses to promote its own apps, like Instagram, too.
One TikTok staffer focused on user acquisition, James Gao, posted a LinkedIn callout on Sunday asking people to get in touch if they had ad inventory that could help the company meet its goals.
Horizon Media's Black said that while Meta controls the "lion's share" of social budgets, there are plenty of viable alternatives when it comes to using an ad to drive an action like an app download. Besides Google, YouTube, and Pinterest, marketers are increasingly turning to other platforms like Snapchat and Reddit, she said.
Romania has formed a new government after six months of political deadlock, with parliament approving a minority administration led by independent diplomat Luca Niculescu on Tuesday, 20 October. The vote brings an end to repeated failed attempts to establish an executive, although the new prime minister faces considerable uncertainty over his government’s parliamentary support.
Niculescu secured 280 votes in favour and 58 against, comfortably exceeding the 233 required for confirmation. His ministers were sworn in before President Nicuşor Dan at the Cotroceni Palace in Bucharest later that evening, formally ending the prolonged government formation process.
The new administration comprises 18 ministers, including two delegated ministers. The Social Democratic Party (PSD) controls the majority of portfolios, while independent specialists hold several important positions, including finance and foreign affairs.
A government built on temporary parliamentary support
The appointment represents a political success for President Dan, who nominated Niculescu on 5 October following three unsuccessful attempts to assemble a functioning government.
The new cabinet is heavily dependent on agreements between parties that have frequently disagreed over economic policy and public spending. Although the parliamentary vote demonstrated sufficient support for its installation, the arrangement does not provide the government with a permanent majority.
The National Liberal Party (PNL) and the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (UDMR) supported the investiture while remaining outside the administration.
The arrangement gives Niculescu an opportunity to govern, but each major legislative proposal will require continued cooperation between parties with competing priorities.
The Social Democrats, who hold 11 of the ministerial positions, will exercise substantial influence over domestic policy, particularly decisions involving public-sector spending, welfare and taxation.
Budget deficit presents immediate challenge
Romania’s public finances represent the government’s most urgent problem.
The previous administration, led by Ilie Bolojan, collapsed in May following unpopular austerity measures. Political opposition to fiscal consolidation has complicated efforts to stabilise the budget and meet Romania’s commitments under the European Union’s fiscal framework.
Niculescu has indicated that addressing the deficit will be an immediate priority. Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare, appointed as an independent, faces the task of establishing a credible budget programme without provoking another parliamentary crisis.
The choices are politically difficult. Spending reductions risk resistance from public-sector employees and households already affected by higher living costs, while substantial tax increases could place further pressure on businesses and consumption.
Failure to establish a credible fiscal programme would prolong uncertainty over Romania’s borrowing requirements and its ability to comply with European budgetary obligations.
Brussels has a direct interest in the outcome. Romania remains subject to EU fiscal oversight, and the European Commission will assess whether the new administration’s financial plans are consistent with the country’s obligations.
The government’s credibility will depend on whether its parliamentary supporters are prepared to approve the measures that fiscal consolidation requires.
European funds and political credibility
The change of government also comes at a sensitive moment in Romania’s relationship with European institutions.
Romania has faced scrutiny over reforms linked to the EU’s Recovery and Resilience Facility, particularly legislation concerning public integrity and institutional accountability.
Although the EU recovery programme reached its principal implementation deadline in August, outstanding assessments and financial decisions continue to carry consequences for national budgets.
A functioning government is therefore important not only for domestic legislation but also for negotiations with Brussels over fiscal commitments, investment and the wider EU budget.
Romania must also address longer-term weaknesses in public administration, infrastructure financing and the implementation of European legislation.
Political stability remains uncertain
Niculescu takes office against the background of Romania’s unusually turbulent political history since the annulment of the 2024 presidential election amid allegations of Russian interference.
The subsequent institutional disputes damaged confidence in the political system and contributed to the fragmentation of parliamentary support.
Opposition parties, including the nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR), are positioned to challenge the government’s legitimacy and economic measures as the administration begins work.
Romania’s strategic importance extends beyond its domestic political difficulties. As an EU and NATO member bordering Ukraine and Moldova, it plays a substantial role in Black Sea security, military logistics and regional infrastructure.
Prolonged instability in Bucharest has therefore affected a country whose decisions carry consequences for European security and cross-border economic cooperation.
For the new prime minister, the immediate objective is to translate Tuesday’s parliamentary majority into support for legislation. His first serious test will come when the cabinet presents the fiscal measures that its supporters have so far struggled to agree upon.
The parliamentary vote has ended Romania’s government formation crisis. It has not resolved the disagreements that produced it.
Protests rarely remain confined to the grievances that first bring people into the streets. When the citizens believe their concerns are being ignored, a grievance over a particular policy or administrative decision can evolve into a broader challenge to the political authority. Consequently, what begins as a demand for correction becomes a question of accountability. […]
What began as peaceful demonstrations over school conditions culminated in nationwide cost-of-living protests and, subsequently, riots.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said Tuesday that curfews imposed on Monday contributed to a calm night, though more protests are planned, according to Reuters.
The riots and protests echo many in France's long history of mass demonstrations. From nationwide strikes to student demonstrations, several have brought the country to a standstill, in some cases prompting France's leaders to announce a state of emergency.
Take a look at some of France's biggest and most impactful protests and riots over the past 100 years.
1934 — February 6 riots
War veterans marching with their National Association of War Veterans banderoles at Place de la Concorde, Paris, February, 6th 1934.
Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images
Veterans and right-wing demonstrators took to the streets following a government corruption scandal. At least 15 people were killed.
The French Prime Minister at the time resigned the following day, stoking fears of a fascist coup.
1936 — Popular Front strikes
A demonstration in Paris in May, 1936.
AFP via Getty Images
Alongside an economic crisis, fears of a fascist coup after the 1934 riots helped unite left-wing parties and trade unions. Mass strikes and factory occupations in May and June 1936 led to major labor reforms, according to France's National Assembly.
1948 — Miners' strike
Striking miner on October 27, 1948.
-/AFP via Getty Images
In 1948, 300,000 French coal miners went on strike to protest economic conditions, per The New York Times. There was a heavy government crackdown, where some striking miners were killed, and another 3,000 were fired, according to AFP.
1961 — Paris Algerian demonstration and massacre
Algerian demonstrators arrested during the peaceful demonstration wait with their hands above their heads in a bus requisitioned by the police, October 17, 1961.
AFP via Getty Images
About 30,000 Algerians peacefully demonstrated against a curfew and in support of Algeria's independence, according to the BBC.
French police brutally cracked down. Historians estimate that at least 120 Algerians were killed, though some estimates put that number closer to 300, Al Jazeera reported.
1968 — May 1968
Students occupy the Sorbonne in Paris, May 14, 1968.
Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
What started as a student movement demanding university reforms turned into millions of people striking after trade unions joined the uprising.
Between the protests and rioting, the demonstrations brought the nation to a standstill. To restore order, then-president Charles de Gaulle dissolved the National Assembly and called early elections, which his party won in June.
In this year's student protests, many banners referenced "May 1968," Time reported.
1986 — Anti-Devaquet student protests
Students demonstrate in Paris, December 6, 1986.
Michel SETBOUN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Hundreds of thousands of students protested proposed university reforms they feared would restrict access to higher education.
Three weeks of violent clashes with police left hundreds injured and 22-year-old Malik Oussekine dead, forcing Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to withdraw the reforms, Time reported.
1995 — Strikes against pension reforms
Tram drivers of the RTM group demonstrate during a strike in Marseille, December 28, 1995.
Anne-Christine POUJOULAT / AFP via Getty Images
Between October and December 1995, public-sector workers went on strike against proposed austerity measures and pension reforms, bringing the country to a standstill, per the Global Nonviolent Action Database.
Then-prime minister Alain Juppé withdrew the proposed changes to public-sector pension plans, though other parts of his reform package went ahead.
2005 — French riots
Firefighters battle a warehouse blaze in Aubervilliers, on the outskirts of Paris, November 4, 2005.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images
After two teenagers died while hiding from the police, riots began in Clichy-sous-Bois, a Parisian suburb, which then spread to other cities, the BBC reported at the time.
The government declared a state of emergency as unrest spread. The riots lasted about three weeks, while the state of emergency ended after about two months.
2018 — Gilets Jaunes
A "yellow vest" anti-government demonstrator in front of French riot police during a protest in Bordeaux, December 29, 2018.
MEHDI FEDOUACH/AFP via Getty Images
"Les Gilets Jaunes," or 'the yellow vests' in English, was a 2018 protest movement against a planned increase in fuel taxes that evolved into broader anti-government demonstrations, leading to deaths.
The French Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe, froze the tax hike in December that year and then fully canceled it days later.
2023 — Pension reform protests
Protesters march during a demonstration in Lille, March 23, 2023.
SAMEER AL-DOUMY/AFP via Getty Images
Hundreds of thousands of people protested and went on strike against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms, which raised the retirement age from 62 to 64, according to Le Monde.
Macron's government enacted the reform despite the protests; the retirement age began rising in September 2023 and is scheduled to reach 64 by 2030.
Researchers say almost 90% of participants in unconditional basic income scheme in Peru adopted environmentally beneficial practices
A pioneering project to provide Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon with an unconditional basic income has contributed to the protection of the rainforest, according to a study.
The analysis from the University of Bath is expected to contribute to a growing debate about the role of direct payments to communities that maintain globally important ecosystems.
En 1953, escalar el Everest era un asunto tan incierto como alcanzar la Luna. Nadie conocía las verdaderas dificultades de la empresa, pero esta se había convertido en un asunto de prestigio nacional. Los occidentales temían los efectos devastadores de la hipoxia y los locales temían la furia de los dioses. Ser los primeros en alcanzar la cima se convirtió en una prioridad para el entonces llamado Imperio británico, en pleno proceso de descolonización. También para un niño, pastor de yaks en la meseta tibetana, criado en un lugar tan inhóspito como privilegiado: creció admirando la cara norte del Everest. Dicen que es más fácil desear, incluso amar, aquello que contemplamos a diario. La montaña posee esta cualidad, por mucho que también cause indiferencia.
San Francisco's federal courthouse held the detention hearing for Abdulrahman Alfozan, the arrested and fired OpenAI engineer, on Monday.
Brennan Smart/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Abdulrahman Alfozan will stay jailed pre-trial, a San Francisco judge decided Monday.
The engineer is accused of bugging a conference room at OpenAI, and he has been fired.
Alfozan posed a risk of non-appearance, the judge said, after discussing his ties to Saudi Arabia.
A former OpenAI engineer accused of bugging the AI startup's office was denied release by a San Francisco judge on Monday, meaning he'll have to mount his defense from jail.
The Justice Department arrested Abdulrahman Alfozan on October 9 and charged him with using or attempting to use a device to intercept oral communications. He's accused of placing a recording device behind a television in an OpenAI conference room — an FBI affidavit includes photos of the device wrapped in toilet paper, and a man they say is Alfozan peering behind the TV.
On Monday, the engineer wore a yellow surgical mask and a jail-issued orange sweatshirt to the San Francisco courthouse. Magistrate Judge Alex G. Tse prodded Alfozan's legal team about the risk that he might not appear for a future court hearing.
Tse said that Alfozan's wife and son had traveled to Saudi Arabia with no plans to return, and went back and forth with Yasin about a one-way ticket that Alfozan had previously booked to the country. Tse said that Saudi Arabia and the US do not have an extradition agreement, and expressed skepticism that he had sufficient ties to the Bay Area to prevent his departure.
William Pernik, Alfozan's attorney, argued that, rather than being detained, Alfozan should be fitted with an ankle monitor, ordered to stay home, and have limits placed on his use of technology. The lawyer also said Alfozan is willing to put up "essentially all the money his family has" as bond, including a roughly $1 million investment account.
"Everything this man has, he's willing to surrender, and say, 'I'm not going anywhere,'" Pernik said.
Pernik and Nas Yasin, another of Alfozan's attorneys, cited his coming naturalization interview as evidence of his local ties.
"He was weeks away from achieving every immigrant's dream in this country," Pernik said.
Yasin told Tse that she learned Alfozan's wife had obtained a short-term visitor visa to return to the US, to help improve her husband's case for ties to the Bay Area.
Tse also asked Alfozan's legal team a slew of questions about his relationship with Saudi Arabia, including a commitment by the Saudi consulate to pay his bond and support his legal effort.
Nick Parker, an assistant US attorney, appeared for the prosecution. He argued that the threat of forfeiting a $1 million bond wouldn't be enough to convince Alfozan to return if he made it out of the US, because he might be able to earn more money in Saudi Arabia.
"There is a real threat here that once he leaves, the case is over," Tse responded.
The judge scheduled the case's next hearing for early November.
OpenAI called the recording device "sophisticated" when the arrest went public, though it said it hadn't found signs that he'd taken AI model weights, source code, or customer information. OpenAI fired Alfozan.
Alfozan's charge carries a maximum penalty of 5 years. Pernik said in a statement last week that the allegations "appear wholly out of character for him."
Alfozan, 35, has a green card that makes him a lawful permanent resident of the United States. He attended MIT, then worked at Facebook (now Meta) from 2017 to 2023. After a stint at the engineering startup Nash Technologies, Alfozan joined OpenAI in 2025.
FBI agents have already taken Alfozan's Saudi passport.
Have a tip? Contact this reporter via email at scouncil@businessinsider.com, or over text, Signal, Telegram, or WhatsApp at 415-757-8198. Use a personal email address, a nonwork WiFi network, and a nonwork device; here's our guide to sharing information securely.
While most of the hundreds of thousands of people who demonstrated across the country did so peacefully, clashes broke out between police and some protesters, with officers firing tear gas.
The unrest began as student protests over worsening school conditions, but has since grown into a broader movement fueled by frustration over the unaffordability of life in France.
The financial pressures facing French households are familiar to Americans: surging energy prices, wages struggling to keep pace with inflation, and the difficulty of making ends meet.
Here are four numbers that help explain the financial frustrations driving the protests.
1. The poverty rate is at a 30-year high
INSEE defines monetary poverty as having a standard of living below 60% of the national median, adjusted for household size. In 2024, that threshold was €1,337 a month for someone living alone.
France's monetary poverty rate stood at 15.4% in 2024, its highest level since annual records began in 1996, according to INSEE data published in July. The figures are the latest available because calculating poverty rates requires detailed tax and benefits records, which take time to compile and analyze.
That means around 9.8 million people in mainland France were living below the poverty line.
2. Energy prices are up more than 60% since 2015
It's not just Americans who are grappling with rising energy costs.
Energy prices in France increased by more than 60% between 2015 and the first half of 2026, according to INSEE. Electricity prices rose 43% over that period, while fuel prices were 31% higher at the end of 2025 than in 2015.
As with much of the world, the war in Iran and the Strait of Hormuz crisis sent fuel prices soaring. By April 2026, fuel prices in France were 30% higher than at the end of 2025, per the INSEE report.
Rising fuel costs were behind French protests in September, and members of that movement have joined students and trade unions in the riots over the past week.
3. Nearly 3 in 10 French people can't afford unexpected expenses
Data from Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, shows that 28.8% of people in France lived in households that couldn't afford an unexpected expense without borrowing or seeking financial help in 2025.
France isn't particularly unusual in the wider European context — the EU average was also around 29% — but the figures illustrate the financial insecurity facing almost a third of households as people protest over the cost of living.
4. More than 40% of French people experienced some difficulty making ends meet
More than four in 10 people in France (41.1%) lived in households that reported at least some difficulty making ends meet in 2025, according to Eurostat data.
Of those, 19.4% reported some difficulty, 13.7% reported difficulty, and 8% reported great difficulty, highlighting the widespread financial strain facing French households.
Protesters blocked the entrances to the Louvre Museum on Monday to express their support for a nationwide high school student protest movement.
Luc Auffret/Anadolu via Getty Images
The Louvre Museum said Monday it had closed its doors after student protests blocked its entrances.
Riots and unrest have swept France in recent weeks, with violence erupting in Paris this weekend.
The home of artworks like the "Mona Lisa" and the "Venus de Milo" gets around 9 million visitors a year.
The Louvre, the world's busiest and best-known museum, has shut its doors as disorder sweeps Paris.
The museum, home to some of the planet's most famous artworks, such as the "Mona Lisa" and the "Venus de Milo," said Monday that it had closed after protesters blocked its doors, extending the disruption beyond a weekend of demonstrations and riots across France.
"Dear visitors, due to student strikes the museum is currently closed. We apologize for the inconvenience," the Louvre said in a post on X. It gave no reopening time, and did not say whether it would reopen on Monday.
Students from the École du Louvre led the blockade in support of a nationwide high school protest movement and to denounce what they called police repression, AFP reported, citing museum management and unions.
The Louvre is visited by about 9 million people annually, making it by far the world's most visited museum.
Monday's shutdown bookends a difficult year for the museum. On this exact date last year, four thieves broke into the Apollo Gallery and stole eight pieces of France's crown jewels, valued at around $100 million.
The closure followed a weekend of protests over rising living costs and conditions in schools, with violence and looting in several French cities.
A Paris shopkeeper whose gold-buying store was broken into told Business Insider's Nathan Rennolds that thieves had "taken everything." He also found a Nicolas wine store on Sunday, its windows smashed and shelves picked clean.
Employees at a nearby boutique said they had hired extra security but closed early as the violence intensified.
At least 2,400 people were arrested after the weekend unrest, according to the Associated Press.
After an emergency meeting on Monday, French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he had instructed regional officials to impose limited, localized curfews.
In a separate statement, President Emmanuel Macron's office said the president had ordered a review of failures in security planning and intelligence gathering.
What began as a student protest over deteriorating schools has developed into a nationwide revolt against economic hardship, political paralysis and declining public services. With the 2027 presidential election approaching, the violence has exposed problems that neither the government nor its principal opponents have convincing plans to resolve.
France’s latest wave of unrest has developed into one of the most serious domestic crises of Emmanuel Macron’s presidency. More than 550,000 people participated in demonstrations on 17 October, according to official estimates, before violence spread through Paris and other major cities. Shops were looted, police confronted rioters, and the historic town hall in Limoges was largely destroyed by fire.
The scale of the destruction prompted emergency government consultations and a televised presidential address. Macron promised to prosecute those responsible, while stopping short of declaring a state of emergency. Yet the immediate security challenge conceals a more difficult political question: why have protests that began with relatively specific demands over education become a confrontation involving such different sections of French society?
From school protests to a national revolt
The movement originated among secondary-school students demanding better facilities, more teachers and improvements in educational standards. Their complaints subsequently attracted trade unions, workers, farmers and elements of the Gilets Jaunes, the Yellow Vest movement that challenged Macron’s government in 2018.
The resulting coalition has no coherent political programme. Students protesting overcrowded classrooms share demonstrations with workers concerned about purchasing power and motorists angered by fuel prices. Their interests are not necessarily compatible, but they reflect a common dissatisfaction with the government’s ability to deliver functioning public services while containing living costs.
This distinction matters. The presence of masked rioters and organised groups engaged in violence does not establish that the hundreds of thousands who demonstrated peacefully supported their actions. Equally, the destruction of public buildings, attacks on police and widespread looting raise legitimate questions about the state’s capacity to maintain public order.
The economic problem behind the protests
At the centre of the discontent lies a structural problem that successive French governments have struggled to confront: the distribution of public expenditure between an ageing population and the services required by younger generations.
A French government budget assessment published in October revealed that pension obligations accounted for approximately 32 per cent of the education ministry’s budget, including €28.5 billion in pension expenditure. These obligations restrict the resources available for other departmental priorities.
France nevertheless remains a substantial spender on education. According to official figures, expenditure reached €199.2 billion in 2025, equivalent to 6.7 per cent of GDP. However, after inflation, the annual increase was only 0.1 per cent.
The issue is therefore not simply how much France spends, but how efficiently resources are allocated and whether expenditure meets changing educational needs.
The OECD’s 2025 PISA assessment found that French pupils’ performance in mathematics and reading had declined compared with 2022. Results were among the country’s lowest recorded, although broadly comparable with the OECD average.
These figures give the student protests a significance extending beyond the immediate condition of classrooms. They raise questions about France’s longer-term economic competitiveness and its capacity to provide younger generations with opportunities comparable to those enjoyed by their predecessors.
The limits of Macron’s reform programme
Macron entered office in 2017 promising to modernise the French economy and overcome the traditional division between left and right. Nearly a decade later, his administration faces a fragmented parliament, constrained public finances and growing resistance to further structural reforms.
The suspension of his pension reform illustrated the difficulty. Raising the retirement age was intended to reduce pressure on the pension system, but parliamentary opposition forced the government to defer the measure until after the presidential election.
The underlying financial pressures have not disappeared. Nor can they be resolved easily through additional spending when public debt, borrowing costs and budgetary obligations already restrict the government’s room for manoeuvre.
This creates an uncomfortable political reality: the state is expected to provide better services, greater purchasing-power protection and stronger security, while the available resources remain limited.
Can the opposition benefit?
The unrest comes approximately six months before the presidential election, with Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s France Unbowed competing to establish themselves as alternatives to Macron’s political centre.
Le Pen has sought to combine support for economic grievances with demands for tougher policing. That position may attract voters concerned by the violence, but it also exposes tensions within a movement that previously supported the Yellow Vest protests.
Mélenchon faces a different difficulty. Supporting demonstrations against government policy is consistent with his political programme, but the involvement of violent groups risks shifting public attention from social demands towards questions of security.
A recent presidential opinion poll even suggested that Le Pen and Mélenchon could contest the final round, illustrating the weakening position of more conventional political alternatives.
Neither, however, can escape the fiscal constraints that have frustrated Macron’s government. A change of president would not automatically provide the resources required to expand public services, reform pensions and reduce the deficit simultaneously.
A wider problem for France and Europe
President Donald Trump has attributed the French unrest to immigration, although the movement’s documented origins lie principally in education, living costs and dissatisfaction with public services. Without established evidence about those responsible for individual acts of violence, broader claims about the demonstrators’ backgrounds remain speculative.
For the European Union, France’s instability carries consequences beyond its domestic political debate. France is central to European defence, fiscal negotiations and support for Ukraine. Sustained political paralysis would complicate its ability to negotiate and implement decisions requiring substantial public expenditure.
The immediate task for Macron’s government is to restore security without allowing the legitimate grievances of peaceful demonstrators to disappear from political consideration. The more difficult task will fall to whoever enters the Élysée in 2027.
France’s crisis is not simply a repetition of the Yellow Vest movement. It reflects a growing conflict over public resources, expectations of the state and the ability of established political institutions to reconcile competing demands.
The violence may subside, but the economic contradictions that brought such different groups onto the streets will remain. The presidential election will determine who inherits them, rather than whether they exist.
More than a dozen Indigenous representatives from Peru, Brazil, Colombia and Ecuador are participating in the Oct. 19-23 U.N. conference on transnational organized crime, known as COP13.
O ator americano Michael Forest, conhecido por interpretar o deus grego Apolo na série “Jornada nas Estrelas”, morreu aos 97 anos, na última quarta-feira. A causa da morte não foi informada.
Ele nasceu Gerald Michael Charlebois em Dakota do Norte, nos Estados Unidos, em 1929, e vivia numa instituição de repouso para idosos em Nevada nos últimos anos. A morte foi confirmada por um amigo numa publicação no Facebook.
Forest era conhecido como um homem de porte atlético e tinha um currículo extenso como ator coadjuvante no cinema e televisão, que iniciou na década de 1950.
Carreira no cinema e na televisão
Além de participações em séries e novelas que inclui ainda “Além da Imaginação” e “The Dick Van Dyke Show”, atuou em diversos filmes do ator e diretor Roger Corman e emprestou a voz a projetos de animação, animes e videogames.
Como dublador, participou de títulos como “Power Rangers” e “World of Warcraft”. Ele era fluente em italiano e dublou centenas de filmes nos anos em que morou em Roma, além de atuar em produções de outros países da Europa.
Entre seus inúmeros papéis, estão particapações em “A Besta da Caverna Assombrada”, “Atlas” e “Náufrago”.
Vida pessoal
Forest foi casado com a atriz Diane Hale por 52 anos, até a morte dela, em 2022. Não há informações se eles tiveram filhos juntos.
Nationwide demonstrations left 150 security personnel injured, one person dead and a historic town hall in Limoges severely damaged by fire.
French authorities reported 855 arrests in the Paris metropolitan area after nationwide protests on Saturday escalated into clashes, looting and property damage. One person died in Paris, while a fire severely damaged the historic town hall in Limoges.
The Paris Police Prefecture released the arrest figure on Sunday, covering cases recorded by 8 a.m. Investigations were continuing, including the review of video footage to identify additional suspects, authorities said.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez reported 1,200 arrests nationwide as of 8 p.m. Saturday and said 150 police officers and gendarmes had been injured. A more recent national tally was not immediately available.
The demonstrations, organized by several groups including students, trade unions and former leaders of the Yellow Vests movement, drew 550,000 people nationwide, according to Nuñez. Organizers estimated attendance at more than 800,000.
Text Reads: Minister Sébastien Lecornu confirmed the number of people detained during the police crackdown on protests across various parts of the country. The Ministry of the Interior reported that 550,000 people took part in demonstrations nationwide, 110,000 of them in Paris. The demonstrations—which included students, “Yellow Vests,” and climate activists—were also met with a crackdown in Marseille, Nice, Lyon, and Lille. Volunteer medics reported a disproportionate use of force, including the deployment of stun grenades, high-intensity sound devices, and pepper spray.
In Paris, 110,000 people took part in the scheduled march, according to the Interior Ministry. The demonstration began at Place de la République and proceeded without major incidents until its conclusion. However, the police prefecture reported that separate groups, including what it described as radical left-wing elements, attacked security forces and looted shops.
From mid-afternoon, several unscheduled marches involving hundreds of people, and in some cases more than 1,000, were accompanied by looting and vandalism. The damage was concentrated around Place de la République and also affected Boulevard de Sébastopol and Boulevard Saint-Honoré. Police said the situation had stabilized by around 11 p.m.
Thirteen members of the security forces and two firefighters were injured during operations in Paris. The police prefecture also reported that one person had died after suffering a cardiac arrest but provided no further details.
Damage remained visible in central Paris on Sunday morning, with shattered shop windows, broken glass scattered across streets and barricades made from bins, barriers, bicycles and street furniture.
Fire damages historic Limoges town hall
In Limoges, firefighters brought a major blaze at the city’s historic town hall under control on Sunday and were working to extinguish the remaining hotspots, Haute-Vienne Prefect Maurice Barate told French television channel LCI.
Authorities said several demonstrators had forced their way into the building on Saturday and deliberately started a fire inside. The flames spread to the upper floors and reached the roof, which subsequently collapsed.
Mayor Guillaume Guérin said the town hall had been almost completely destroyed but pledged that municipal services would continue operating despite the damage.
“They have destroyed a building that the people of Limoges love, but they have not destroyed the public service,” Guérin said. “A monument is burning, but not the Republic.”
Barate said around 5,000 people had taken part in the Limoges demonstration, including several hundred individuals he described as radicalized and extremely violent. After the attack on the town hall, some demonstrators moved toward the prefecture, while others looted businesses in the city center, he said.
The prefect condemned the attacks on public buildings and businesses, describing the fire as deliberate. Guérin expressed hope that those responsible would be arrested and argued that officers deployed during the protest had lacked sufficient resources to contain the violent participants.
Built between 1876 and 1883, Limoges town hall is a listed historic monument featuring architectural elements inspired by the late Renaissance and the reign of Louis XIII.
Seventeen's Jeonghan and Joshua are debuting as a duo on October 19 — and hyping up the album with a joint Pinterest diary.
Pinterest
Jeonghan and Joshua from the boy band Seventeen are debuting as a duo.
To promote their much-hyped album, they've launched a visual diary on Pinterest.
The duo told Business Insider about their chemistry, their music — and their joint mood board.
Jeonghan and Joshua from the mega K-pop boy band Seventeen are offering fans a dream to lose themselves in and a mood board for shopping.
The two vocalists are debuting as a much-hyped unit, a spinoff of the 13-member band's activities. As of Monday, they'll be working under the name JxJ — releasing their album, "DREAMSCAPE," and hitting the road together for a concert tour in six Asian cities.
In the meantime, they've been populating not only their Instagrams, but also a sprawling visual diary on their joint Pinterest account.
It's an interesting choice, as far as K-pop goes — usually, teasers are limited to platforms like YouTube or the K-pop-centric social network, Weverse.
In a written interview with Business Insider, the duo described their interest in Pinterest as a means of introducing the "visual world," concept, and vibe of "DREAMSCAPE."
The mood boards and the buffet of photos they've posted for fans to feast on are also a "little gift" to their audience.
"JxJ Diary is a space we created to share the concept and vibe of the album more directly with fans before its release. We spent a lot of time thinking about what kind of content they would enjoy, and decided to launch our first-ever Pinterest channel featuring different sides of ourselves," the duo said.
The singers said they wanted to explore the concept of "dreams" with the posts on their joint account. They've curated a collection of photographs and behind-the-scenes moments, including everything from candid shots to sneak peeks of their album photoshoots.
"We hope fans will take inspiration from the album's imagery and vibe, and express it in their own ways," they added. "It would be really fun to see them create their own version of 'DREAMSCAPE' on Pinterest by collecting photos, experimenting with styling, and curating images that reflect their personal tastes."
The business around the boys
That invitation for fans taps into a K-pop fan economy in which an album is not only heard or watched but also worn, collected, decorated, and remade.
The two Seventeen members belong to a group whose fan base collects their photo cards, travels to their concerts, and goes all in on albums and merchandise. Seventeen's 2023 album, "FML," still holds the record for first-day sales for a K-pop album, with more than 6.4 million copies sold. The band's "NEW" tour from 2025 to 2026 saw them play 31 shows in stadiums across Asia and four US cities, drawing close to a million fans, in person and online.
JxJ now gives Seventeen's fandom something else to get invested in: Jeonghan and Joshua together, and the similarities in theirpersonal style.
Ayumi Nakajima, Pinterest's APAC head of content partnerships, told Business Insider the platform had seen a surge in interest in K-pop, making it prime territory for JxJ to establish a foothold.
Nakajima said that the collaboration with the duo's agency stemmed from the idea that K-pop fans connect with more than just the music. Pinterest gives fans a space to "explore the visual inspiration behind the artist's stories" and "save what resonates with them."
Pinterest has seen a strong surge in interest for all things Korea on the platform. Searches for "K-pop style" rose 19% globally year over year, while "K-beauty" searches rose 114%. In Japan, searches for "K-pop fan art" climbed 368%, while "trading card decoration" rose 77%.
"What visual experiences like the JxJ diary do is bring fans into an artist's creative world earlier, giving them more time to engage with the aesthetics, ideas and storytelling behind a release," Nakajima said.
"That early engagement can really shape fandom-led commerce, because fans aren't just showing up at the point of purchase," Nakajima added. "A look, a mood or a visual reference can spark interest weeks before someone decides what to wear to a concert, what beauty look to try, or what pieces they want to buy."
Chemistry
JxJ's album, "DREAMSCAPE," drops on October 19.
Pinterest
As for the boys behind the Pinterest board, they're prepped to serve up seven tracks spanning genres they're "exploring for the first time" on the new album. The duet songs, from early teasers of the music, involve experiments with house, synthpop, and dance rock. There are also two solo tracks — Joshua's punk rock offering, "Not Personal," and Jeonghan's dreamy bop, "Coloring."
"Seventeen has a certain energy when all 13 members are together, but we think the two of us have a different kind of chemistry when we are together," they told Business Insider. "Rather than trying to showcase something entirely new, we wanted to bring out our natural sides and individual charms as much as possible."
The album is also the product of "a lot of conversations" about the kind of art they each wanted to create.
"By sharing our ideas and the images we each had in mind, we were able to understand each other's tastes on a deeper level," the duo said.
They took a couple of trips together, too, which helped them "get to know each other better and shape a direction that felt uniquely ours."
"We also experimented with our vocals to show a new side of ourselves, so we hope fans will enjoy and support this album," they added.
"DREAMSCAPE" launches on October 19 at 6 p.m. Korea time.
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