French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez says nearly 1,000 people were arrested as 70,000 police officers deployed across the country amid nationwide protests.
Page B44From§Eachthe morning edition — 25 October 2026
Same Saturday, Europe's protests get three different tallies — and the mob still makes the New York Post's deadline.
As it ran on the front
It arrived on 18 October, when the Washington Examiner clocked French arrests at 1,800 in the same dispatch where the president told France to close its borders, the number and the verdict filed together. By 21 October, France24 was documenting what that number had been built to carry: the riots recast, at an American campaign rally, as migrants and jihadists rather than the Paris-suburb students who had started the whole thing over rat-chewed classrooms. The same day, in Athens, the Morning Star counted a different protest entirely — teachers and students marching for school funding and housing, the movement already running through Thessaloniki and Patras before France's Saturday had even arrived.
Three days later, the number tried to hold still and could not. The New York Post, on 24 October, counted "nearly 800" — not arrests, protests, a different unit standing in for the old one. The New York Times, that same day, counted 1,000 arrests but graded the week an improvement: "less property damage," a riot handed a report card.…
…(cont) By Sunday's filing the arithmetic had moved again and the geography had widened past recognition. CBS put France's arrests at "more than 1,000," the clashes confined, it reported, to Saturday evening after a day it called largely peaceful. NPR, filing from Milan, found soldiers posted in the city center and marches already running in Rome, Madrid, Lisbon and Tirana — a French number turned into a European one, with no total offered for the continent at all.
The headcount is survived by soldiers posted in central Milan, by rat-chewed classrooms in a Paris suburb nobody has re-funded, and by a ballot nine days off that one candidate has already told an entire country how to read. It is preceded in death by the 135 arrests Fox News filed first, and the "nearly 1,000" Fox filed after, within the same week, the smaller number simply abandoned rather than corrected. That is the shit the count was supposed to settle, and it still hasn't. In lieu of flowers, pick one unit of measure — arrests, protests or property damage — and ask every outlet filing from the same Saturday to use it.
“Three different numbers from the same Saturday ain't an accident, it's the point — you can't argue with a headcount that keeps changing shape, so nobody has to answer for any of it. Soldiers in Milan, kids in Athens marching about rats in their own classrooms, and the one thing every paper agrees on is the mob shows up right on cue, nine days before an election. That's not reporting going sideways, that's reporting doing exactly what it's paid to do.”
“Look, these numbers aren't contradictory, they're just — different reporters, different moments, different — okay, they're different numbers. But the mob was real, the Post guy was standing right there, that's not spin, that's an eyewitness. Did I just defend an anonymous op-ed as my best evidence? That doesn't sound like me.”
Earlier in this story
- Students protesting rats and falling debris in their schools became footage at Trump's midterm rallies; one Saturday's arrest count was filed at 135, then nearly 1,000. By Mort · the evening edition, 25 October 2026
The receipts
France Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez says 135 people were arrested as 70,000 police officers deployed to clamp down on nationwide protests.
The peaceful march that had wound through Paris for hours had suddenly descended into violence
Emmanuel Macron's government faces mounting unrest as networks blamed 'hijacked' protests over cost of living and declining public services in France.
Political France is in for rough times, no matter who sits in the Élysée Palace.
While protests in France have claimed most international attention, large demonstrations also rocked many European cities Saturday from Milan to Rome to Madrid, Lisbon and Tirana.
While demonstrations throughout France were largely peaceful, police reported clashes with protesters Saturday evening.
French AI entrepreneur Brivael Le Pogam warns France has reached the "dead end of socialism" as violent protests, looting and chaos spread nationwide.
After largely peaceful marches on Saturday, clashes broke out in the evening. But a large-scale police presence, 1,000 arrests and the rerouting of protest routes kept a lid on wholesale vandalism.
The US president and his inner circle have repeatedly used the violence of October 17 to denounce immigration and Muslims, warning that a Democratic victory in the midterm elections on November 3 would expose the United States to the same dangers.
US President Donald Trump and his inner circle are using unrest in France to push unsubstantiated claims blaming the riots on immigration, even showing French protest footage at midterm rallies. But there is no evidence linking immigration to the unrest, and it's prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to accuse world leaders of making…
France faces another weekend of civil unrest as left-wing movements try to oust President Emmanuel Macron from office in the upcoming elections.
PARIS — More than 100,000 people marched in Paris on Saturday over school funding and soaring living costs, challenging President Emmanuel Macron’s government in a largely peaceful demonstration before clashes broke out near the march’s end point.
President Trump’s former campaign manager is joining a growing list predicting midterm doom for Republicans, highlighting recent allegations of government corruption as a key reason. Bill Stepien, who managed Trump’s 2020 campaign and had a stint as White House political director in the president’s first term, told CNN’s Abby Phillip…
Whatever France’s immediate future, greatness is not going to be part of the picture.
· Thousands of teachers and students protest against education cuts in Athens from the morgue, 21 Oct 2026
· Trump tells France ‘close your borders’ as police arrest 1,800 in violent protests from the morgue, 18 Oct 2026
· French police arrest 1,800 after clashes and looting from the morgue, 18 Oct 2026
· 'The Government Is Trembling': Protests Erupt in France, Spreading to 140 Cities from the morgue, 17 Oct 2026
· Police fire tear gas at barricaded high school in Paris as protests spread to Belgium from the morgue, 8 Oct 2026
· Police and masked protesters clash in Brussels as anti-austerity rally of thousands from the morgue, 9 Oct 2026
· BBC calls France protests 'mostly peaceful' as footage shows rioters torching cars, battling police from the morgue, 19 Oct 2026
· 'This Is Going Global': Anti-Austerity Protests Spread From Spain and France to Chile, Belgium, and Beyond from the morgue, 8 Oct 2026
· Macron slams Trump for ‘stupid’ comments about French riots and warns public of ‘foreign manipulation’ from the morgue, 21 Oct 2026
· France has fallen. America can’t be next from the morgue, 21 Oct 2026
· Anarchy in France: Behind the riots and violent protests from the morgue, 21 Oct 2026
· Macron scoffs at Trump arch rivalry: ‘Monuments are bigger than ourselves’ from the morgue, 23 Sep 2026
· French student riots spill across Europe as Belgian minister attributes violence to antifa from the morgue, 8 Oct 2026
· Macron says violent rioters will be ‘prosecuted and punished’ as buildings burn in France from the morgue, 17 Oct 2026
· 'The Bastille Has Been Retaken,' Declares Mélenchon as Student-Led Protests Hit New Heights in France from the morgue, 8 Oct 2026
· Trump finds ominous campaign message in French riots from the morgue, 20 Oct 2026
· Trump returns to Washington amid midterms campaign blitz as new polls reveal voters’s concern about US economy – live from the morgue, 15 Oct 2026
· Trump attacks ‘migrants and communists’ as he tries to exploit France unrest from the morgue, 20 Oct 2026
· The Movement: Paris is burning. The American right is watching. from the morgue, 20 Oct 2026
· Torched cars, ransacked businesses: Anti-Sharia crusader warns France 'civil war' could be imported to US from the morgue, 20 Oct 2026
· Ro Khanna thinks torching Jewish businesses is an ‘inspiring’ youth movement from the morgue, 20 Oct 2026
· ‘Page one of repressive playbook’: critics warn of Trump’s conspiratorial attacks from the morgue, 1 Oct 2026
· Trump threads needle between communist attacks against Democrats and warm embrace of Xi from the morgue, 25 Sep 2026
· France’s insane student protests are really about a growing radical Muslim population that wants to get rid of democracy from the morgue, 10 Oct 2026
· The Big Beautiful Bill Is Starting to Bite Before the Election from the morgue, 23 Sep 2026
· 'Sickening and Unacceptable': Anger Mounts as Trump and Vance Gleefully Rip Healthcare From 750,000 from the morgue, 23 Sep 2026
· Many Americans are relying on multiple forms of credit to cover expenses. When is it a warning sign? from the morgue, 23 Sep 2026
· Trump gave ‘the red meat,’ Vance was playing for independents: Bob Cusack from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· Fox News’s Baier presses Vance on Trump’s $5K dividend promise from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Pritzker: Vance is Trump's 'chief bootlicker' from the morgue, 9 Sep 2026
· Bessent Defends Faltering Bond Market Intervention from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· Bessent says Treasury is ‘examining’ ability to cut $5,000 checks without Congress from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· Bessent’s move to tamp down rising rates backfires as bond yields jump, stocks tumble from the morgue, 9 Sep 2026
· The bond market is revolting — and your mortgage is the first casualty from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Fiscal hawks skeptical of Bessent’s claim that US can ‘grow our way out’ of $40 trillion debt from the morgue, 27 Aug 2026
· Bessent blasts Warren’s ‘sciolistic’ letter about yen policy from the morgue, 29 Aug 2026
· Soros-funded Philadelphia district attorney insinuates Trump is a ‘35-time felon,’ calling $5,000 dividend a bribe from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· Soros-funded Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad Thursday from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
· Voters have a blunt message for Trump about his idea to dole out $5,000 checks from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· Why Donald Trump has a Joe Biden problem from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· Does Trump have a 'Biden problem' on the economy? from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· Trump’s $5,000 dividend falls flat with GOP senators from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
· Trump sees backlash over $5K dividend pledge from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Trump plan to raise debt limit on shaky ground from the morgue, 26 Aug 2026
· 5 things to know about Trump's $5K dividend pledge from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Vance strikes back at concern $5,000 Trump dividend will stoke debt: ‘Wealth will go back to the people’ from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Marshall backtracks on support for $5,000 Trump dividend in Kansas Senate debate from the morgue, 12 Sep 2026
· Vance and MAGA Inc. work to defend Roger Marshall in redder Kansas from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026
· Roger Marshall Sued 700 Patients for Debts; 81 Were Arrested. Now He’s a Senator. from the morgue, 8 Sep 2026
· Conservatives would scream ‘bloody murder’ if Democratic president offered dividend to maintain power: Guy Benson from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026
· Will Trump's payout promises boost Republican appeal to white women? from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026
· Republicans need a Reagan-style vision to win the battle over America's future from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026
· Trump’s promised $5,000 ‘dividend’ checks: What to know from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Trump’s Reckless $5,000 ‘Dividend’ from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026
· Republicans bet the House on Trump from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026
· Axelrod dismisses the idea of the proposed $5000 ‘Trump dividend’ from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Trump pledges $5K 'Trump dividend' if Republicans hold onto Congress from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Trump says $5K dividend checks to Americans will 'happen 100 percent' from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026
· Lawler deflects on supporting Trump's $5K dividend pledge: 'How do you pay for it?' from the morgue, 13 Sep 2026
· GOP rep says priority 'needs to be the military,' not $5K checks from the morgue, 13 Sep 2026
· Susan Collins calls Trump’s $5,000 dividend proposal with no cap ‘extraordinarily costly’ from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· Bret Baier presses Paxton on Trump $5K dividend payment support from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· Gavin Newsom calls Trump’s $5K voter payout ‘bulls—’ and a ‘desperate’ power grab from the morgue, 11 Sep 2026
· Trump pitches $5,000 checks, but only if GOP wins House and Senate from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Trump's $5,000 payments would reignite inflation, economists say from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Why Trump's promised $5,000 payments to Americans are unlikely to happen from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Bond yields rise modestly after Trump's dividend pledge from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· GOP leaders blindsided by Trump’s promise of $5K checks from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
· Trump promises Obamacare rebates to people in swing states from the morgue, 10 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.