France is set to deploy 40,000 officers on Thursday evening amid fears of a third night of rioting in the capital triggered by the fatal police shooting of a 17-year-old boy.
Bus and tram services are also set to shut down early so they are not “targets for thugs and vandals”, a Paris region official has said.
Meanwhile, a town in the capital’s southwest suburbs announced an overnight curfew to last through the weekend.
Clamart, a town with a population of 54,000, said the curfew would be in place between 9pm to 6am from Thursday night through to Monday.
Buildings and vehicles were set on fire as thousands took to the streets after a video emerged of a teenager, identified only by his first name Nahel, who was shot during a traffic stop on Tuesday in the Parisian suburb of Nanterre.
Image: The killing of 17-year-old Nahel during a traffic check Tuesday, captured on video, shocked the country Pic: AP
The footage has shocked France and stirred up long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects and other disadvantaged neighborhoods.
The police officer who fired the fatal shot will be investigated for voluntary homicide after an initial investigation concluded that “the conditions for the legal use of the weapon were not met”.
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Sky News’s Europe correspondent Adam Parsons is on the ground in Nanterre and said: “The first thing that hits you is the lack of uniformed police.
“Whenever we cover a protest in France, you don’t have to go far before you see a police officer in uniform.
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“But the message is very clear today. The police are considered the enemy.”
Nahel’s mother received condolences from those gathered to protest against his death.
“It certainly feels quite tense, and many youngsters are threatening to return to the streets tonight, and continue the violence that we have seen across France since the death of Nahel,” Sky’s correspondent said.
Image: A masked protester throws a stone amid clashes with police
“The march finished at a large square near the Prefecture building in Nanterre, a location loaded with symbolism.
“For one, it’s a legislative hub – and was, inevitably, well protected by the police.
“For another, it was very near to the point where Nahel was shot by a policeman on Tuesday morning. His car careered to a collision on one corner of the square.
Image: French riot police react amid clashes
“Up to this point, the march had been tense and noisy but there had been no violence.
“At the square, confronted by teams of riot police, that all changed. Tear gas and stun grenades came from one side; rocks, flares and fireworks from the other.
“Perhaps it was inevitable. It certainly didn’t feel like a surprise that a march clouded with suspicion about the police should end with clouds of tear gas and confrontation. Now we wait to see what happens tonight.”
Ministers appealed for calm as they gathered for a crisis meeting this morning.
Image: French riot police stand in position near a firefighter truck
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said: “The professionals of disorder must go home.
“The state’s response will be extremely firm,” he added.
The minister also confirmed that the number of officers on duty tonight would more than quadruple – from 9,000 to 40,000 – with the number of officers deployed in the Paris region alone more than doubled to 5,000.
Demonstrations spread to other towns on Wednesday night despite an increased police presence.
Image: Burning vehicles are seen in a street amid clashes
Protesters shot fireworks and threw stones at police in Nanterre, who returned with repeated volleys of tear gas.
Schools, police stations, town halls and other public buildings were damaged from Toulouse in the south to Lille in the north as police and firefighters struggled to contain the riots and extinguish several fires.
But a spokesperson for the national police said most of the damage was in the Paris suburbs.
Image: People attend a march in tribute to Nahel
Mr Darmanin said 170 officers had been injured in the unrest but their injuries were not life-threatening.
The local prosecutor in Nanterre, Pascal Prache, said officers tried to stop Nahel because he looked so young and was driving a Mercedes with Polish license plates in a bus lane.
He ran a red light to avoid being stopped but got stuck in a traffic jam.
Image: Protestors with signs reading “Police kill. Justice for Nahel”
Both officers involved said they drew their guns to prevent him from fleeing.
According to Mr Prache, the officer who fired a single shot said he feared he and his colleague or someone else could be hit by the car.
A lawyer for Nahel’s family told the Associated Press they want the police officer prosecuted for murder instead of manslaughter.
Image: Mounia, the mother of Nahel
French President Emmanuel Macron held an emergency meeting on Thursday about the violence.
“These acts are totally unjustifiable,” Mr Macron said at the beginning of the meeting, which aimed at securing hot spots and planning for the coming days “so full peace can return”.
French activists renewed calls to tackle what they see as systemic police abuse, particularly in neighborhoods where many residents struggle with poverty and racial or class discrimination.
Former Bank of England governor Mark Carney has been named Canadian prime minister after winning the Liberal Party leadership race in a landslide victory.
Mr Carney, who also used to be the head of Canada’s central bank, emerged as the frontrunner in the contest as the country deals with the impact of tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.
He ended up winning 85.9% of the vote.
During his victory speech, he told the crowd: “Donald Trump, as we know, has put unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell and how we make a living.
“He’s attacking Canadian families, workers and businesses and we cannot let him succeed and we won’t.”
Mr Carney said Canada would keep retaliatory tariffs in place until “the Americans show us respect”.
Mr Trump’s tariffs against Canada and his talk of making the country America’s 51st state have infuriated Canadians.
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The American national anthem has been repeatedly booed at NHL and NBA games.
“Think about it. If they succeeded, they would destroy our way of life… America is a melting pot. Canada is a mosaic,” Mr Carney added.
“America is not Canada. Canada will never ever be part of America in any way, shape or form.”
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1:01
‘You can’t take our country or our game’
The 59-year-old will replace Justin Trudeau, who has served as prime minister since 2015.
US President Donald Trump has suggested Ukraine “may not survive” the war against Russia even if American support continued.
In an interview with Fox News channel’s ‘Sunday Morning Futures’, Mr Trump was asked about his controversial decision to pause support for Kyiv as it fends off Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Mr Trump, who had a disastrous meeting with Mr Zelenskyy at the White House last week, was asked about a warning from Polish President Andrzej Duda “that without American support, Ukraine will not survive”.
Asked if he was “comfortable” with that outcome, the US president said: “Well, it may not survive anyway.
“But we have some weaknesses with Russia. You know, it takes two,” Mr Trump added.
It comes as Mr Zelenskyy will visit Saudi Arabia for a Monday meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, while Ukrainian diplomatic and military representatives will meet with a US delegation on Tuesday.
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Mr Trump’s latest remarks come amid global concern over the souring relationship between Ukraine and the US, which alongside the EU has been Kyiv’s main backer in its defence against Russia’s three-year land, air and sea invasion.
The US paused military aid and the sharing of intelligence with Ukraine this month after a meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Zelenskyy on 28 February descended into acrimony in front of the world’s media.
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Mr Trump ordered the pause as he attempts to put pressure on Mr Zelenskyy to negotiate a ceasefire deal with Russia.
Mr Trump has privately made it clear to aides that a signed minerals deal between Washington and Kyiv will not be enough to restart aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, Sky News’ US partner network NBC reported earlier on Sunday.
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How are Americans feeling after nearly 50 days of Trump?
The 78-year-old president is said to want the deal signed, but also wants to see a change in Mr Zelenskyy’s attitude towards peace talks.
Officials have told NBC News that Mr Trump also wants Mr Zelenskyy to make some movement towards holding elections in Ukraine and possibly stepping down as his country’s leader.
Russian special forces crept through a disused gas pipeline for several miles to launch a surprise attack on Ukrainian soldiers in the Kursk region, Ukraine’s military and pro-Moscow war bloggers have said.
Footage circulating on the Telegram app claims to show the elite soldiers crouching as they make their way through the darkness of the pipe to the town of Sudzha.
Some can be heard cursing in Russian and complaining about the commanders who sent them on the mission.
One of the soldiers is heard saying: “F*****g hell, where the f*** are we, boys?”
Another says: “Where does the pipe go? To Sudzha, for f**** sake, that’s f***ing crazy.”
Later in the clip a soldier is heard saying: “We’ll get there of course, but indignantly, because we’re f*****g sick of the f*****g command.”
He later adds: “They took our f*****g assault rifles too.”
Two of the soldiers are seen smoking cigarettes while a separate image shared on Telegram shows an operative wearing a gas mask.
Image: The footage shows soldiers creeping through the pipeline
Image: Soldiers are seen smoking cigarettes
The special forces soldiers walked around nine miles (15km) through the pipeline which Moscow had until recently used to send gas to Europe, according to Telegram posts by Ukrainian-born pro-Kremlin blogger Yuri Podolyaka.
In the footage, the soldiers suggest the mission requires them to walk seven miles through the pipe.
Mr Podolyaka says some of them spent several days in the pipeline before striking Ukrainian units from the rear near Sudzha.
The operation formed part of efforts by Russia to recapture areas of Kursk which were seized by thousands of Ukrainian soldiers in a shock offensive in August last year.
Another pro-Russian war blogger, who uses the alias Two Majors, said a major battle is under way in Sudzha after Moscow’s special forces crept through the pipe.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s general staff confirmed on Saturday that Russian soldiers had used the pipeline in an attempt to gain a foothold, but airborne assault forces promptly detected them, and they responded with rocket, artillery and drone attacks that destroyed Moscow’s units.
“The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high,” the general staff reported.
Image: A close-up image of one of the soldiers in the pipeline
Image: The soldiers crept through the tunnel for several miles
It comes as Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces shared a video on Telegram on Saturday which it claims shows Kyiv’s forces repelling Russian forces in Kursk with airstrikes.
Sky News has not independently verified the footage.
Months after Kyiv’s forces seized parts of Kursk, Ukrainian soldiers are weary and bloodied by relentless assaults of more than 50,000 Russian troops, including some from Moscow’s ally North Korea.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainian soldiers run the risk of being encircled, open-source maps of the battlefield showed on Friday.
Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said this morning that it had captured a settlement in Kursk and another in Ukraine’s Sumy region.
Russia also launched heavy aerial attacks overnight on Ukraine into Saturday – with at least 22 people killed, including 11 in the frontline town of Dobropilla in Ukraine’sembattled eastern Donetsk region.
The attacks come after the US paused military aid and the sharing of intelligencewith Ukraine this month after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Mr Zelenskyy descended into a confrontation in front of the world’s media.
The Trump administration’s stance on Ukraine and apparent favouring of Moscow has sparked concern among European leaders.
Meanwhile, Russian officials have been criticised after presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders on International Women’s Day.
Russia is often accused of throwing its troops into a “meat grinder” with little regard for their lives.
The local branch of government in the northwestern Russian town of Polyarniye Zori defended itself against the backlash, saying critics were making “callous and provocative interpretations” of the gifts.