France riots: Another night of looting and lawlessness – and nobody knows what will happen next
On Pont Neuf, right in the very heart of Paris, a blend of people. Tourists, smart-dressed locals, and lots of police officers in riot gear.
The violence and destruction that has engulfed some of the capital’s suburbs may have not taken over central Paris, but the tentacles of disorder have reached the middle of the city.
As we stood on the bridge, we could see blue lights behind and in front of us, sirens echoing off the buildings.
Near a smart shopping centre, the riot police have arrived in numbers to chase down those who seem intent on causing damage. We can see people being arrested, searched and then put into the back of a van.
As I watch, I catch the eye of one of them – a teenager, probably 16 or 17 years old, dressed in black clothes from head to toe.
He looks completely untroubled by falling into the hands of the police, and returns my gaze with deliberate indifference.
My guess is that this isn’t the first time he’s seen the back of a police van.
A bin burns, billowing smoke into the air; the riot police run down a road to the accompaniment of a busker, who starts playing Careless Whisper as he sees them.
A man, standing with his girlfriend, starts shouting questions at them as they run past. It is a curious blend of the normal and the abnormal.
Because what is happening in France is volatile and unpredictable. Marseille, the country’s second biggest city, succumbed to a night of such looting and lawlessness that, a little after midnight, the government announced it would be sending reinforcements down to the south.
A hurried decision; surely a sign that, for all their words about determination and calls for calm, the government is still playing catch-up.
The interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, said that, despite hundreds of arrests, the intensity of the violence had gone down. That may have been true in some places but not everywhere.
In Marseille, for instance, there was an explosion so large that it created a mushroom cloud.
But in Nanterre, where this wave of violence first started, the streets did seem calmer. The frenzied destruction of Thursday night and the early hours of Friday morning seemed to have dissipated slightly.
Albeit there were still roads blocked by flames, youths throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails and police armoured vehicles on the roads. Incredible to think that we could look at all that and think the situation might have improved.
Perhaps people are gradually growing weary of all this damage. Kylian Mbappe, France’s most famous footballer, who grew up in the Paris suburbs, released a thoughtful and eloquent statement asking for the violence to stop.
“It is your property you are destroying, your neighbourhoods, your cities…there are other peaceful and constructive ways to express yourself.”
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It is a noble sentiment, and there are many who will welcome it, not least those whose cars have been burnt, or whose businesses looted. But there is no guarantee it will be followed.
Today is Nahel’s funeral, which will throw another spotlight upon his death and upon the wholly fractious relationship between his community and the police.
A couple of days ago, a march in his memory ended with tear gas, baton charges and fighting across the very place where Nahel’s life came to an end.
At that march, there were posters and T-shirts demanding “Justice for Nahel”. But there is another slogan emblazoned on walls around Nanterre and beyond that reads “Vengeance for Nahel”. And those are two very different concepts.
So how will his funeral play out, and how will the inevitable tensions express themselves? As with so many things over the past few days, we simply don’t know.
We, like the residents, the police, the government and the people of France, will simply have to wait and see what happens.
World
Om Fahad: Iraqi social media influencer shot dead by gunman on motorbike who posed as food delivery rider – report
A well-known Iraqi social media influencer has reportedly been shot dead in her car by a gunman on a motorbike.
Om Fahad, whose real name is Ghufran Sawadi, was killed outside her home in Baghdad’s Zayouna district on Friday, according to the AFP news agency, citing security officials.
It appears the unidentified attacker pretended to be delivering food to the victim, one security source said.
Om Fahad, who has nearly half a million TikTok followers, became famous for posting light-hearted videos where she dances to Iraqi music.
Six days ago, she shared footage of herself driving in a car and also posing in front of a mirror. They have each been watched hundreds of thousands of times.
The influencer was sentenced to six months in prison in February last year for sharing videos that a court ruled contained “indecent speech that undermines modesty and public morality”.
A campaign was launched in 2023 by the Iraqi government to clamp down on social media content which broke the country’s “morals and traditions”.
The interior ministry set up a committee to look for “offensive” clips on platforms such as TikTok and YouTube, with several influencers being arrested.
“This type of content is no less dangerous than organised crime,” the ministry declared in a promotional video which asked the public to help by reporting such content.
“It is one of the causes of the destruction of the Iraqi family and society.”
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Speaking last year, interior ministry spokesman Saad Maan argued the morality campaign has “nothing to do with freedom of expression”.
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In 2018, gunmen in Baghdad shot dead Tara Fares, who was a model and influencer.
After years of war and sectarian conflict following the 2003 US invasion that overthrew dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq has returned to some semblance of normality despite sporadic violence, political instability and corruption.
But civil liberties, particularly among women and sexual minorities, are still constrained in a conservative and male-dominated society.
In the nation of ‘Cade Mile Failte’ (a hundred thousand welcomes), the residents of Coolock want to shut the door.
They’ve set up an anti-immigrant camp in the north Dublin suburb, outside a disused factory earmarked to house asylum seekers.
With green, white and orange, they’re staking claim to this ground, their protest tents bedecked with dozens of Irish flags.
Car horns blast every four or five seconds, in response to a large poster reading: “Beep if you support Coolock.”
Their other roadside banners state: “Community concern over 1,000 male migrants being housed in this building” and “Irish lives matter”.
The camp is occupied 24 hours a day, with young men guarding it overnight and residents of all ages during the day.
Two elderly women, two younger women and half a dozen men of various ages were on site when we arrived.
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The camp was marked with a number of Irish flags
Sean Crowe, who describes himself as “a concerned parent”, said: “Coolock’s message is we don’t want them here, we just don’t want them, end of story.
“We have our own gangs and trouble going on that we can’t sort out. The place is bad enough as it is.”
“It’s just going to put more of a strain,” the father-of-one added.
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Asked how he would reply to those who describe protesters as “racist”, he replied: “It’s not about racism.
“It’s about the strain it’s going to put on the community and local amenities around the place.
“That’s all it’s about, concerned parents.”
The camp at Coolock is just one of several that have sprung up across the Republic in the past year.
In several places, like Newtownkennedy in County Wicklow, the tension has reached breaking point, with public order police officers deployed.
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“We fear they’re going to do the same thing here,” said one protestor at Coolock, who wished to remain anonymous.
“If the Gardai [Irish police] attempt to shut down our peaceful protest, all hell will break loose here,” she added.
With the sun shining and the smell of meat cooking on their barbecue, it had a community feel about it.
But they’re fiercely critical of their current government and you can sense that the tension isn’t far beneath the surface.
“Eighty percent of them are crossing the border from Northern Ireland and they knew that would happen,” Sean told me.
“It’s time to close the border” are not words you expect to hear, when Ireland fought hard to keep it open.
World
Family protests outside suspected serial killer’s lair as they wait for news of teenager who went missing 12 years ago
The family of a missing high school student who may have been the first victim of a suspected serial killer in Mexico City have protested at the site where bones were found last week.
The bones were discovered with the belongings of at least six women, police said, and Amairany Roblero’s relatives have been told that evidence was found relating to her 2012 disappearance.
Ms Roblero was 18 when she vanished and, as is often the case in Mexico, her family was left to investigate her disappearance with little help from prosecutors.
Family friend Alejandra Jimenez said: “The prosecutors had the case file but they didn’t ever give any results to her parents.”
Instead, her parents printed flyers and gave them out near her school – the last place she was seen – but they had “nothing, nowhere to start, nor any directions to the end”, Ms Jimenez added.
Friends and family holds images of women who have gone missing. Pic: AP
A suspect, identified only by his first name, Miguel, was detained by neighbours and police last week after he is alleged to have killed a seventh young woman.
He is accused of waiting for a woman to leave her apartment and then rushing inside to sexually abuse and strangle her 17-year-old daughter.
The woman returned to the apartment to see the suspect leaving and she was slashed across her neck before he ran off.
She survived but her daughter died.
Investigators searched a room rented by the suspect and found bones, mobile phones and ID cards belonging to several women in the same block, thought to be mementos.
Miguel is awaiting trial on charges of murder and attempted murder relating to the most recent victims.
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City prosecutor Ulises Lara insisted the suspect was difficult to catch because “he showed no signs of violent or aggressive behaviour in his daily life”.
Ms Roblero’s family and friends were not accepting this, however.
“They (authorities) have all the means to look for missing people,” Ms Jimenez said. “Instead of focusing on their political campaigns, they should help all the women who are looking for their children.”
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Juan Carlos Gutierrez, a lawyer representing the family of another victim, was also frustrated, asking why no investigation had never been launched in that case, despite missing person reports being filed in 2015.
Ms Jimenez said Ms Roblero’s family had not been told which of the items or remains in the apartment had been linked to her, adding: “This is wearing her parents down physically, mentally.”
Some 2,580 women were murdered in Mexico in 2023, according to the country’s National Public Security System but poorly funded and badly trained prosecutors have failed to stop serial killers over the years.
In 2021 a serial killer in Mexico City killed 19 people but their bodies were only found, buried at his house, after the wife of a police commander became one of the victims.
In 2018 another serial killer in Mexico City murdered at least 10 women and was only stopped after he was seen pushing a dismembered body down the street in a pram.
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