More than 400,000 protest across France, challenging Macron as Paris clashes erupt
PARIS (AP) — Clashes erupted in Paris as a mass march drew to a close Saturday, with more than 400,000 people rallying across France over school funding and soaring living costs in a fresh challenge to President Emmanuel Macron. Police made nearly 1,000 arrests, the government said.
The Paris march began peacefully, a week after widespread rioting and looting during protests across the country. But near the demonstration’s endpoint in eastern Paris, masked protesters hurled objects and fireworks at police, who answered with clouds of tear gas, deafening sound grenades and jets of water cannons.
Officers with megaphones urged protesters to disperse. Some demonstrators panicked as tear-gas canisters landed in their midst, scattering with screams. Veteran protesters shouted after them: “Don’t run!”
The Interior Ministry put nationwide turnout at 410,000 — fewer than the 550,000 it said protested last weekend — while the CGT union that helped organize some of Saturday’s protests estimated nearly 800,000. The ministry’s estimate included 110,000 in Paris, where authorities confined the march to the city’s southeastern edge, away from the center. The CGT put the number of protesters in Paris at 250,000.
More than a month of unrest that started with protests in high schools for more funding and teachers is testing Macron’s authority in the final months of his presidency before voters choose his successor in May.
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Ukraine and Russia eye new peace talks — and Melania Trump’s mission — but steep obstacles remain
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine and Russia have signaled their willingness to resume U.S.-brokered peace talks and are backing a humanitarian mission led by U.S. first lady Melania Trump. But deep disagreements over territory and security guarantees that re-emerged this week underscore obstacles to ending the war.
The new diplomatic push comes after more than 4 1/2 years of fighting, bringing with it a surprise announcement on Friday: Kyiv and Moscow have agreed to a local ceasefire to allow aid next week into a stranded town in Ukraine’s southern war-divided region of Kherson, following secret consultations between Melania Trump and civilian negotiators from Russia and Ukraine.
While the initiative raised hopes of similar humanitarian missions in the future, there were few indications that any of the key positions have shifted. Russia continues to demand Ukrainian territory it does not fully control, while Kyiv insists any agreement must include ironclad guarantees against another invasion.
Within hours of Russian President Vladimir Putin saying he agreed “in principle” to restart talks, Russia launched a deadly barrage of ballistic missiles and drones on Kyiv. Moscow on the same day said it had destroyed more than 800 Ukrainian drones heading toward its cities.
Here’s a look at where the two countries stand as potential negotiations loom.
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Trump casts his midterm ballot early in Florida
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump cast his ballot in the midterm elections Saturday, saying he voted for all Republicans in Florida before speaking at a Georgia rally.
Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrived at their West Palm Beach polling location at the Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections office together after the president spent the morning at his nearby golf course. Trump has been criticized in the past for voting by mail despite his long history of railing against that method of submitting ballots.
Asked if he voted the party line, Trump, who was wearing an “I Voted” sticker, said, “Very much so.”
Speaking to reporters at the poll site, Trump again defended an ad from Ohio Republican gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy. The ad has faced intense blowback for featuring the estranged mother of Democratic rival Dr. Amy Acton, who lost custody of her children after her husband, the children’s stepfather, was indicted for raping Acton when she was 12.
Trump also defended his decision to instruct his administration to file its lawsuit to block certification of the U.S. Senate race in Alaska if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses over the inclusion of a second candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot.
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Israelis hold final rally against Netanyahu before election, and other Mideast news
Israelis held a final large rally against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ahead of what has been described as the most consequential election in the country’s history.
Meanwhile, the death toll rose from Friday’s attack on a church in Jordan. And an Iranian military commander said his country will not allow U.S. warships to enter the Persian Gulf as concerns grow of a return to all-out war.
Here is the latest news from the Middle East on Saturday. Read our full coverage here.
A large crowd gathered in a final protest against Netanyahu and his government ahead of Tuesday’s close election.
The crowd heard calls for a commission of inquiry into the security failures that led to the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023, that sparked the war in Gaza. Netanyahu has refused such an inquiry.
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Musk says he was behind Starlink speed restriction after service in Ukraine is restored
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Elon Musk said on Saturday that his company SpaceX had throttled the Starlink satellite internet service in Ukraine, disrupting operations that the country relies on to defend itself against Russia.
Musk’s admission on social media came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine’s access to Starlink and Starshield satellite links has been restored to the speeds it had before restrictions that disrupted front-line operations for more than a week.
Questions have persisted since last week about who ordered the interruptions to the Musk-made satellite internet system that Kyiv has relied on for years to counter Moscow’s attacks.
“The speeds are now where they need to be,” Zelenskyy wrote on X, adding that restoration began overnight and were sufficient by Saturday morning, improving front-line logistics and defense against Russian jet-powered Shahed drones.
After Ukraine said the services had been restored, Elon Musk spoke out on the speed restrictions that began last week. In a post Saturday on X, Musk acknowledged that his company SpaceX throttled the Starlink satellite internet service.
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Soldiers guard center of Milan as thousands of protesters march in cities across Europe
MILAN (AP) — Thousands of young people marched Saturday through the streets of several Italian cities, including Milan, Rome and Turin, as authorities deployed large numbers of police and soldiers in a largely successful bid to stave off a repeat of the violent clashes and looting that marred similar protests last week.
The demonstration in Milan remained peaceful, but there were brief clashes with police in both Rome and Turin.
In Milan, thousands of young people marched the streets as soldiers were deployed and luxury boutiques were boarded up, but by late afternoon, most shops had opened, Italian media reported.
Premier Giorgia Meloni announced a raft of measures, including sending an additional 500 soldiers to Milan and tougher penalties for minors, who police said made up a large part of the violent protesters last week. In Milan, police detained several minors as a preventive measure, media reported.
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.
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New York’s archdiocese and survivors of clergy abuse agree to $800 million legal settlement
The Archdiocese of New York and attorneys for about 1,300 parishioners who said they were sexually abused by clergy have agreed to an $800 million settlement of their legal claims, the second-largest involving a Catholic archdiocese in the U.S.
Archbishop Ronald Hicks sent an email Saturday to clergy confirming the settlement after attorneys for the survivors of alleged abuse announced it. Hicks said the agreement will not be final until the parties sign it, an action scheduled for the week of Nov. 6.
The only larger settlement over sexual abuse claims in the U.S. was by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which agreed in 2024 to pay $880 million to 1,000 abuse victims, in addition to $740 million in claims it had paid previously. In June, the Archdiocese of San Francisco agreed to a $395 million settlement over about 500 lawsuits filed over clergy abuse, and in December 2025, a federal judge approved a settlement in which the Archdiocese of New Orleans agreed to pay at least $230 million to abuse victims.
The agreement with the New York archdiocese would end more than seven years of lawsuits. The parties agreed to a framework for an agreement in May that required everyone who filed a claim to sign off.
“The unanimous agreement of survivors who filed claims against the Archdiocese of New York marks a powerful moment in the pursuit of justice,” Jeff Anderson, an attorney representing people who filed more than 1,000 of claims against the Catholic Church in New York state, said in a statement. “Through their courage, sacrifice, and determination, survivors have helped bring about a reckoning and a meaningful step toward accountability.”
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Sexual harassment rules for Congress are under review after a flurry of ethics cases
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Rep. Kat Cammack began work on a task force this spring to combat sexual misconduct on Capitol Hill, the Florida Republican soon heard from former staffers who wanted to share their stories.
They “came out of the woodwork” she said, and had stayed silent because it was well established that coming forward would be the end of a career they had worked so hard to achieve.
“Those were some of the hardest conversations to have,” Cammack said. “And the stories were gut-wrenching.”
This year’s spike in House Ethics Committee investigations related to sexual misconduct prompted congressional leaders to set up a working group led by Cammack and Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M. What they have found is disturbing, Cammack said.
Victims are unclear about where they can go for help. They do not trust there will be repercussions for the perpetrator. And the current requirements for reporting harassment can work against them, such as a 180-day “shot clock” for filing a claim after an alleged violation.
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This US House district was once a political battleground. Now it shows why Congress is dysfunctional
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — In 2022, Democrat Wiley Nickel ran as a moderate and narrowly won North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District by about 9,000 votes. Two years later, the current congressman, Republican Brad Knott, ran as a conservative and coasted into the U.S. House by more than 70,000 votes.
Voters didn’t change their minds. Politicians changed their voters.
The Republican-controlled legislature redrew the state’s congressional map to transform what was one of the last remaining swing districts in the South to a safe GOP seat. Lawmakers split the rectangular 13th District into an hourglass shape that carved out Democratic voters in Raleigh and replaced them with a swath of rural counties reaching up to the Virginia border.
Swing seats, meaning districts that a presidential candidate won by 5 percentage points or fewer in the previous election, are disappearing from the national map. For decades after World War II, the number of competitive seats in the House slowly eroded as the United States grew more polarized, voters were less likely to split their ticket between parties and people moved closer to like-minded neighbors, creating Democratic strongholds in urban areas and Republican ones across rural America.
That decline accelerated over the past year after Republican President Donald Trump sparked a partisan redistricting battle. The number of swing districts fell from 45 to 37. There were 96 House seats that fit the modern definition of a swing seat in 1964, according to one count from the 1970s, when the shrinking number of such districts was first noted.
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Frelick and Pratt lift Brewers to 5-4 comeback win over Rays and 2-0 World Series lead
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Sal Frelick tied the score with his first home run in three months, Cooper Pratt hit a go-ahead single in the seventh inning and the Milwaukee Brewers stunned the Tampa Bay Rays 5-4 on Saturday night for a 2-0 World Series lead by overcoming a four-run deficit for the second time in the postseason.
Tampa Bay, which won the AL pennant by forcing opponents into mistakes, committed one error, made two other misplays that could have been charged as errors and had a runner thrown out at the plate.
Down 4-0 in the first inning, Milwaukee rallied for its seventh comeback win of this postseason. The Brewers also rebounded from a 4-0 deficit to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-4 in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series, completing a four-game sweep.
After losing Friday’s opener 3-2, the Rays burst ahead against rookie Logan Henderson but the Brewers started to claw back with two runs in the bottom half against Tampa Bay ace Drew Rasmussen.
David Hamilton cut the deficit to 4-3 with a run-scoring grounder in the fourth and Frelick capped a nine-pitch at-bat against Ian Seymour in the sixth by driving a fastball over the center-field fence.