PARIS (AP) — Protesters across France called for street demonstrations Saturday against rising living costs, joining high school students' grievances over education conditions after more than three weeks of school blockades.
Saturday’s mobilization follows calls on social media to revive the yellow vest movement, which emerged in 2018 against social injustice. Student groups protesting since mid-September have urged supporters to join.
The CGT, one of France’s major labor unions, also backs the protests, calling for “higher wages and pensions, lower prices and the protection of public services that meet people’s needs.”
President Emmanuel Macron appealed Friday for calm and respect for people and property as officials warned of possible violence.
“There is a constitutional right to protest and to express oneself, and I have always been vigilant and attentive that that right is fully respected,” Macron said Friday in Brussels. “But this right comes with the need to respect. Respect for people, respect for property, and therefore a commitment not to insult or destroy.”
Macron denounced as “unacceptable” the potential presence of people “solely to cause damage and create unrest.”
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said hundreds of protest actions and more than 80 marches were expected nationwide, including spontaneous gatherings, street demonstrations and blockades.
In Paris, a march is set to begin in the early afternoon at Republic Plaza, northeast of the city center.
Police banned some other proposed gatherings in central Paris. Many Metro stations were closed Saturday at police request, including those around the Champs-Elysees and near the presidential palace, parliament and government offices.
In recent weeks, France has seen thousands of arrests, hundreds of injuries, and schools set on fire as the new school year descended into nationwide student protests that are influencing the country's presidential election campaign and drawing international attention.
Among protesters, particularly gruesome wounds suffered by some teenagers have been blamed on police riot-control weapons. Nuñez suspended the use of a type of police stun grenade against the young demonstrators after a 15-year-old lost a hand.
On Tuesday, climate and social justice activist Greta Thunberg joined students at a high school in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
Students chant during a protest against under-resourced schools in Rennes, France, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026. The placard reads: "resist to exist." (AP Photo/Jeremias Gonzalez)
An airstrike killed three children in Yemen and wounded others. Iranian-backed Houthi rebels accused Saudi Arabia of the attack.
Meanwhile, a journalist underwent surgery after being attacked by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Saturday. Read our full coverage here.
Iranian-backed Houthi rebels say that airstrikes from Saudi Arabia killed three children in Yemen's southwestern province of Dhamar.
The Houthi-run health ministry said Saturday that the strikes a day prior hit houses in al-Ar village in the Dawran Aness district, killing one child aged 8 and two children aged 10 and wounding more than a dozen people.
The Houthis blamed Saudi Arabia for the strike, which comes amid heightened fighting between the group and the kingdom and its Yemeni allies. Saudi Arabia didn’t immediately comment on the strike.
The children are among 124 people the Houthis say have been killed in their territories since fighting resumed in September, according to the ministry.
Washington Post photographer Heidi Levine is undergoing surgery on her finger Saturday, which was nearly detached from her hand after she was beaten by settlers in the West Bank, her daughter said.
Ashley Milner told The Associated Press that the finger on her mother's left hand was cut to the bone and a tendon was visible. She said Levine also has a broken rib and multiple broken vertebrae as well as lacerations across her body.
Israeli settlers attacked Palestinian villages across the occupied West Bank on Friday, setting fire to cars and trees and beating residents as well as Levine in the latest violence to disrupt the territory’s annual olive harvest this month.
Levine said the perpetrators — armed with bottles and slingshots — “were kicking me for like 10 minutes and I was trying to hold onto my cameras and my bag.” She said her helmet and protective vest, which was marked “PRESS,” likely saved her from more serious injuries.
Settler violence against Palestinians has soared this year and spiked further in the weeks leading up to Israel’s Oct. 27 election. Israeli authorities have done little to stop the attacks, residents and rights groups say.
This report will be updated throughout the day as new developments emerge.
Palestinians and activists collect olives following an attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Abu Falah, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli soldiers stand beside a wounded Palestinian man lying on a road after soldiers shot him following a settler attack on Palestinians harvesting olives in the occupied West Bank village of Abu Falah, Friday, Oct. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
