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‘Block Everything’ protests sweep France, intensifying pressure on Macron

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PARIS — Protesters set fires as they blocked highways and gas stations across France early Wednesday as part of a new nationwide movement. Authorities deployed 80,000 police, who made hundreds of arrests and fired tear gas to disperse crowds.

The “Block Everything” movement was born online over the summer in far-right circles, but spread on social media and was co-opted by left-wing, antifascist and anarchist groups. It now includes France’s far-left parties and the country’s powerful labor unions.

Their joint day of unrest adds to the country’s political turmoil, after the collapse of centrist President Emmanuel Macron’s government earlier this week in a similar backlash over proposed budget cuts and broader anger at the political class.

Anti-riot police officers during clashes with protesters in Toulouse, France, on Wednesday.Ed Jones / AFP via Getty Images

Barricades were erected in several major French cities, including Lyon, Marseille, and Toulouse. Entry to an Amazon depot in northern France was also blocked as the country’s largest union said some 715 disruptions had been organized nationwide.

In the capital Paris, groups gathered and set up barricades at several entry points to the city. Demonstrations were expected to continue throughout the day, with travel disrupted as some of the main transport unions joined the strike.

Hundreds remained gathered outside Gare du Nord, one of the city’s main train stations, despite earlier attempts from police to disperse the crowds with tear gas.

“We are here, even if Macron doesn’t want us, we are here,” they chanted.

There were dramatic scenes outside a high school in eastern Paris, where police clashed with dozens of students who had blocked entry to the building.

French Protest Groups Stage 'Block Everything' General Strike
Protestors outside of a high school in Paris on Wednesday.Kiran Ridley / Getty Images

“Police forced the opening of one of the doors to let students in and there was some violence with tear gas,” Ariane Anemoyannis, spokesperson for the youth group ‘Le Poing Leve,’ who was at the scene, told NBC News.

An earlier strike, organized by transport workers near the high school, was also broken up by police, said Anemoyannis.

“There were several hundred people who showed up in support of the workers,” she said, “the police charged against the picketline to break up the strike.”

Public anger in France grew when then-Prime Minister Francois Bayrou announced his plan to cut the budget by over $50 billion. He proposed striking two national holidays from the calendar, freezing pensions for 2026 and cutting billions in health spending.

The two extremes of the political spectrum joined forces in the National Assembly on Monday, causing the collapse of the French government in a no confidence vote fueled by opposition to the budget cuts.

But although Bayrou might be gone, the deep mistrust over his proposed austerity plan and the government as a whole remains.

Some are turning their sights on Macron, calling for his resignation before his tenure is scheduled to end in 2027. He named his fifth prime minister in less than two years on Tuesday, choosing close ally Sébasten Lecornu.

Many taking to the streets say they resent being asked to make sacrifices while those they describe as the ruling elite are increasingly disconnected from their reality and daily struggles.

For police, there’s an element of unpredictability: the demonstrations are decentralized and leaderless, with no specific union, organization or individual leading the charge.

Image: TOPSHOT-FRANCE-POLITICS-SOCIAL-PROTEST
A student protester sits on a bin blocking the street as part of the “Block Everything” movement in Marseille, France, on Wednesday.Miguel Medina / AFP via Getty Images

On the eve of the demonstrations, the now-outgoing Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau, said no violence would be tolerated and announced the deployment of 80,000 police and gendarmes — the French military police.

It’s a show of force not seen since the height of the Yellow Vests protests in 2018, sparked by Macron’s proposed fuel tax to curb carbon emissions.



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Romania becomes second Nato country to detect Russian drones in airspace

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Romania says a Russian drone has breached its airspace – the second Nato country to report such an incursion.

Romanian fighter jets were in the air monitoring a Russian attack in Ukraine on Saturday and were able to track the drone near Ukraine’s southern border, the defence ministry said in a statement.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the incursion could not be a mistake – it was “an obvious expansion of the war by Russia”. Moscow has not commented on the Romanian claims.

On Wednesday, Poland said it had shot down at least three Russian drones which had entered its airspace.

In its statement, Romania’s defence ministry said it detected the Russian drone when two F-16 jets were monitoring they country’s border with Ukraine, after “Russian air attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure on the Danube”.

The drone was detected 20km (12.4 miles) south-west of the village of Chilia Veche, before disappearing from the radar.

But it did not fly over populated areas or pose imminent danger, the ministry said.

Poland also responded to concerns over Russian drones on Saturday.

“Preventative operations of aviation – Polish and allied – have begun in our airspace,” Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in a post on X.

“Ground-based air defence systems have reached the highest state of readiness.”

Earlier this week Russia’s defence ministry said there had been “no plans” to target facilities on Polish soil.

Belarus, a close Russian ally, said the drones which entered Polish airspace on Wednesday were an accident, after their navigation systems were jammed.

On Sunday, the Czech Republic announced it had sent a special operations helicopter unit to Poland.

The unit consists of three Mi-171S helicopters, each one capable of transporting up to 24 personnel and featuring full combat equipment.

The move is in response to Russian’s incursion into Nato’s eastern flank, the Czech Defence Minister Jana Cernochova said.

In response to the latest drone incursion, President Zelensky said the Russian military “knows exactly where their drones are headed and how long they can operate in the air”.

He has consistently asked Western countries to tighten sanctions on Moscow.

US President Donald Trump also weighed in on airspace breach earlier this week, saying he was “ready” to impose tougher sanctions on Russia, but only if Nato countries met certain conditions, such as stopping buying Russian oil.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has been making slow progress in the battlefield.

Trump has been leading efforts to end the war, but Russia has intensified attacks on Ukraine since President Vladimir Putin returned from a summit with Trump in Alaska last month.



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Utah campus concealed carry permit under fresh scrutiny after Kirk shooting | Utah

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As authorities at the federal and state levels parse the details of the fatal shooting of far-right activist Charlie Kirk at a university in Utah, a recently passed state bill that allows people with concealed-carry permits to carry firearms on college campuses has drawn fresh scrutiny.

Utah has allowed for permitless open and concealed carry of weapons since 2021. But before the passage of HB 128, firearms had to be concealed when carried on college campuses. The law allowed people with the proper permit to carry them openly.

When the law passed in August, university staff voiced concerns about what carrying could mean for classroom emergencies that might require students to act as armed responders and their presence in laboratories where harmful and potent chemicals were stored.

While it’s unclear whether the suspected shooter, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was legally allowed to own the hunting rifle used in the shooting, or have one on a university campus, the proximity between the bill’s passing and the shooting has pushed the law into headlines across the US.

The bill did not come in a vacuum, but added to Utah’s already second amendment-friendly legislative landscape. The state doesn’t have extreme risk protection orders (Erpo), known as red-flag laws, which allow people like police officers and family members to petition a judge to have someone’s firearms temporarily taken away. It is one of 29 states that allows people to carry concealed firearms without a permit. It has a law aiming to get guns out of the hands of people in crisis, but requires people to flag themselves in the federal background check system.

When Utah lawmakers have addressed campus safety, their efforts have typically centered on K-12 schools, where there’s a greater expectation and need for campuses to be largely closed to the public.

There, in lieu of policies restricting gun access and training requirements for prospective concealed-carry permit applicants, the state has leaned into legislation meant to make it harder for shooters to enter and move freely around schools – for example, by adding doors with automatic locks, surveillance cameras and fencing. This approach, known as school hardening, is to deter shooters from entering schools and responding quickly to stop them and secure students.

For example, HB 119, which passed last year, incentivizes K-12 teachers to get training so they can keep a firearm in their classroom. HB 84, a sweeping piece of legislation passed in 2024, requires classrooms to have panic devices and schools to have at least one armed person – be it a school resource officer or security guard – on campus daily.

Advocates of Utah’s gun laws have argued that making sure guns are easily accessible can serve as a deterrent, whether to would-be home invaders, carjackers or shooters hoping to take advantage of “soft targets” like malls, campuses and grocery stores, and allow for armed responses if some start shooting.

“We sort of take the view here that the second amendment is very broad and a permit to carry a concealed weapon is just one obstacle in being able to exercise that right. There’s a mentality that there should be as few obstacles as possible,” said Johnny Richardson, a Utah-based attorney and former editor at the Utah Law Review.

“In effect, there’s a belief that gun control laws will impede access to those who are already law-abiding and put them at an unfair disadvantage to those who aren’t,” he continued.

While permitless carrying may have some effect on deterring offences like robberies, it is inadequate in the face of grievance and politically driven violence, said Brandon del Pozo, an assistant professor of medicine and health policy at Brown University.

“The deterrence effect of concealed carry only applies to rational actors. And you get to a point in political extremism where you’re not dealing with rational people,” he said.

Before he went to Brown, del Pozo spent 19 years in the New York police department, and four years as the chief of police for Burlington, Vermont, where, like in Utah, permits to carry and licenses to sell firearms are not required. Del Pozo says that the circulation of guns was on his mind while planning safety for rallies and the annual city marathon, which attracts thousands of people. Through these experiences, he’s found that cities and states where many residents are armed in public can fail to account for the large presence of concealed guns and to plan to provide an accompanying level of screening.

“In places like Utah where there’s going to be a lot of guns in circulation, you have to decide when you’re going to carve out spaces where people are screened for guns,” he added.

“And if you’re a small police department, it’s hard to secure something outdoors. But if you’re coming to a provocative political rally, you need to be screened.”

In a press conference following the shooting, Utah Valley campus police chief Jeff Long told reporters that there had been six officers assigned to the Charlie Kirk event, which drew a crowd of about 3,000 people. His department coordinated with Kirk’s personal security detail, he said.

Students who attended the event noted that there were no metal detectors or staff members checking attendees’ bags, according to the Associated Press.



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Fulfill Your NFL Sunday Ticket Fix Without a Big Bill Thanks to This App

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Deal or no deal, streaming live sports takes some maneuvering just to keep up. Now that NFL season has started, you may be thinking of YouTube TV’s NFL Sunday Ticket as an option to stream football. It’s not cheap, though. Whether you pay for it in installments, get it as a perk through Verizon or have a student discount, you’re still shelling out money. But for NFL fans, there’s a way to watch Sunday Ticket without spending money on a subscription. The catch? You’ll have to leave the house. 

DirecTV has an app called Sports Bar Finder that helps you locate bars and restaurants around the US that offer 15 TV sports packages, including NFL Sunday Ticket. It’s available via web browser and operates using your location or by inputting a postal code. 

If you’re unsure about paying $276 for a new Sunday Ticket plan or up to $480 as a returning customer looking to resurrect your subscription for the 2025 season, then this could be an alternative. I tried out Sports Bar Finder (and called a few establishments to confirm they’ll carry the package this season) and have provided a walkthrough on how it works. 

How to use Sports Bar Finder for NFL Sunday Ticket

The Sports Bar Finder app used to be available for Android and iOS devices, but it’s now only accessible via a web browser.

  1. Navigate to Sports Bar Finder, where you’ll be prompted to type in a bar name, share your location or enter a postal ZIP code.
  2. The list will populate with area restaurants and bars, giving you the option to filter the results by sports package. Select NFL Sunday Ticket from the list. You can also skip this step and just look for the Sunday Ticket badge under each establishment’s information. 
  3. directv bar finder sorting for nfl sunday ticket

    Screenshot by Kourtnee Jackson/CNET
  4. You can choose from the main list of bars shown in the results or click Featured to see the app’s highlighted locations. 
  5. Click on View Additional Bar Details. Each bar and restaurant provides the address, hours and available sports TV packages at that location. However, whether you’re in your own neighborhood or visiting another city from out of town, we suggest you call ahead to verify that games will be broadcast. 
  6. Tapping the heart icon will save a location to your Favorites section, so you can easily track some of your favorite places to watch Sunday Ticket or other sports offerings such as Big Ten, Friday Night Baseball or Thursday Night Football.

To tailor the results even more, you can filter by amenities (e.g., Wi-Fi or good for groups) or rating. The app pulls ratings from Yelp reviews. 

Want more NFL and sports-related coverage? Check out CNET’s pieces on streaming services like Fox One, game-day watch information and NBA news.





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