France braces for another weekend of unrest as the Yellow Vests return to the streets under the rallying cry of ‘Act III – Halloween’, with 70,000 police and security forces deployed after the riots and looting of recent weeks. A cash-strapped government faces mounting grievances, a rolling protest movement and little room for manoeuvre ahead of elections, as it struggles to restore order while grappling with crippling debt.
Just before half past four, Marine Le Pen took to the stage under the stadium strobe lights at the Zénith Arena in Orléans. The radical-right leader, whom analysts say is on the doorstep of the presidency, is polarising, yet deeply and increasingly popular with her base, and has topped the popularity polls for months in France. This came 24 hours after the latest protests across the country, which included over ten thousand anti-Le Pen demonstrators outside the venue yesterday.
A coin-flip election in Brazil, with little separating the country's left-wing President, Lula, and his right-wing rival, Flávio Bolsonaro. The results of the run-off vote will become clear in a few hours.
After the French protests turned into riots last weekend, the curfews, and then the alleged racist mass shooting yesterday on the outskirts of Paris, there has been much anxiety, planning and preparation ahead of today's protests.
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, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday.