France riots: Burning car used in ram-raid attack on mayor’s home in ‘assassination attempt’

Published

2 years ago

July 3, 2023

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A burning car has been used to attack the home of a mayor during a fifth night of rioting by protesters sparked by the police killing of a teenager in France.

Vincent Jeanbrun, who runs the Paris suburb of L’Hay-les-Roses, claimed the incident was an “assassination attempt” and authorities said they were treating it as attempted murder.

Mr Jeanbrun, who was not at home at the time, said his property was “ram-raided” and set alight while his wife and two children, aged five and seven, were asleep.

His wife broke her leg and one of the youngsters was injured as they fled the building through the back garden. Mr Jeanbrun told France’s prime minister that his wife had had surgery and faced a three-month rehabilitation.

The mayor, who had been at the town hall, claimed the perpetrators started a fire “to torch my house”.

Prosecutors said the vehicle was stopped apparently by a low wall before reaching the veranda of the house, adding that a flame accelerant was found in a bottle in the car.

The town hall was targeted over several nights since the shooting of a 17-year-old boy and has been protected with barbed wire and barricades. But such a personal attack on a mayor’s home is unusual.

In a statement, Mr Jeanbrun wrote: “A milestone was reached in horror and ignominy. My home was attacked and my family was the victim of an assassination attempt. My determination to protect and serve the Republic is greater than ever. I will not back down.”

French prime minister Elisabeth Borne has “condemned” the attack and gave her full support to the mayor and his family.

A spokesperson for the PM said “the culprits will be prosecuted with the greatest firmness” and the government is “at the side of all the mayors”, adding: “These attacks and violence against elected officials are unacceptable.”

No suspects have been arrested over the incident.

President Emmanuel Macron will have a meeting later with Ms Borne, interior minister Gerald Darmanin and justice minister Eric Dupond-Moretti to discuss the protests.

Locals blame government for being too soft on criminals

Few expected violence to shatter the tranquility of L’Hay-les-Roses.

The street itself is now cordoned off by the police. The vehicle used to attack the house, as well as a burnt-out family car, have already been removed. But what lingers is a sense of shock.

We spoke to Gerard and Josie, who have lived in the area for 45 years and said nothing like this had ever happened before.

Josie, articulate and anxious, blamed the government for being too soft on criminals and, like many in France, wondered aloud why so many “10,12 or 13-year-old children” are roaming the streets at night.

“The death of Nahel is not the issue behind attacks like this,” she told us. “It is the excuse.”

Nils came past with his young son in a pram. He’s lived near the mayor’s house for two years, liked the area and said he’d always felt safe here but this morning he was checking the locks and worrying.

He said he was worried and scared. “I have a family at home, just like the mayor,” he said.

Around the town hall, there are now barricades and razor wire, but the shock of this attack runs beyond this small town.

Mob violence is indiscriminate and wanton, which is what makes it so ferociously intimidating, but what happened to the Jeanbrun family was something different – targeted, planned and premeditated.

If that is a sign of things to come, France has another headache to deal with.

Meanwhile, officers in Marseille fired tear gas at protesters as the escalating crisis in France continued.

Sky News footage showed crowds dispersing in the moments after the substance was deployed by officers.

Police in Paris cleared protesters from the Place de la Concorde and increased security at the city’s landmark Champs Elysees avenue after a call on social media to gather there.

Officers later said they arrested 37 people in the French capital after officers confiscated weapons in the area.

Some 2,400 people have been arrested after five nights of violent protests throughout the country following the death of 17-year-old Nahel Merzouk, who was shot by police during a traffic stop in the Paris suburb of Nanterre on Tuesday.

People have taken to the streets over consecutive nights to protest, setting cars alight, throwing stones and fireworks, and ransacking shops.

A funeral for the teenager was held in Nanterre on Saturday afternoon, with family and friends viewing an open coffin before it was taken to a mosque for a ceremony and later burial.

Nahel’s killing ignited long-simmering tensions between police and young people in housing projects who struggle with poverty, unemployment and racial discrimination.

It has resulted in the worst riots France has seen in years and put pressure on Mr Macron, who has blamed social media for fuelling the violence.

Street clashes continue to rage

Early on Saturday firefighters in Nanterre, on the outskirts of Paris, extinguished blazes set by protesters that left the scorched remains of cars strewn across the streets, while in the neighbouring suburb of Colombes protesters overturned bins to use them as makeshift barricades.

On Friday evening looters broke into a gun shop and stole weapons in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille, police said.

Despite Mr Macron’s appeal to parents to keep their children at home, street clashes between young protesters and police raged on, with authorities saying around 2,500 fires have been set and stores were ransacked.

As the number of arrests increased the government suggested the violence was beginning to subside due to tougher security measures.

However, the damage has been widespread from Paris to Marseille and Lyon, and even further away in the French overseas territories, where a 54-year-old died after being hit by a stray bullet in French Guiana.

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Ukraine ‘hits Russian tanker in Mediterranean Sea for first time’

Published

10 hours ago

December 19, 2025

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Ukraine 'hits Russian tanker in Mediterranean Sea for first time'

Ukraine has struck a Russian tanker in the Mediterranean Sea for the first time, a Kyiv intelligence source has said.

The ship, called the Qendil, suffered “critical damage” in the attack, according to a member of the SBU, Ukraine’s internal security agency.

The tanker is said to be part of Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” – a group of ageing vessels that Kyiv alleges helps Moscow exports large quantities of crude oil despite Western sanctions.

The ‌SBU source said Ukrainian drones hit the ship in neutral waters more than 2,000 kilometres (1,243 miles) ‌from Ukraine.

They said: “Russia used this tanker to circumvent sanctions and earn money that went to the war against Ukraine.

“Therefore, from the point of view of international law and the laws and customs of war, this is an absolutely legitimate target for the SBU.

“The enemy must understand that Ukraine will not stop and will strike it anywhere in the world, wherever it may be.”

The vessel ‍was empty at the time of the attack, the Ukrainian source added.

Speaking during a live TV event, Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, claimed the attack would not disrupt supplies, but vowed that Russia would retaliate nonetheless.

He added that Russia regularly responded with “much stronger strikes” against Ukraine.

Putin also warned against any threat to blockade Russia’s coastal exclave Kaliningrad, which he said would “just lead to unseen escalation of the conflict” and could trigger a “large-scale international conflict”.

Sky military analyst Michael Clarke said Ukraine’s claim about causing significant damage to the ship was “probably true”.

He added: “The Ukrainians obviously feel that they can legitimise this sort of operation.”

The attack comes after the European Union announced it would provide a €90bn (£79bn) interest-free loan to Ukraine.

Oleksandr Merezhko, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the Ukrainian parliament, told Sky News that the money would “tremendously enhance” Kyiv’s defensive capabilities.

However, he said the International Monetary Fund estimated that Ukraine needed $137bn to “keep running”.

“The aggressor should be punished”, Mr Merezhko added, as he argued that frozen Russian assets in Europe should be used to help fund his country’s defence.

He vowed that Ukraine would “continue to fight” for the move, adding that it was “a matter of justice”.

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Trapped journalists rescued after mob sets fire to Bangladesh newspaper offices

Published

11 hours ago

December 19, 2025

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Trapped journalists rescued after mob sets fire to Bangladesh newspaper offices

Protesters have stormed the headquarters of two major newspapers in Bangladesh, amid widespread unrest following the death of a political activist.

A mob set fire to the offices of the Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily newspaper and the English-language Daily Star in the capital Dhaka, leaving journalists and other staff stuck inside.

One of the Daily Star’s journalists, Zyma Islam, wrote on Facebook: “I can’t breathe anymore. There’s too much smoke.”

Both dailies stopped updating their online editions after the attacks and did not publish broadsheets on Friday.

Troops were deployed to the Star building and firefighters had to rescue the journalists trapped inside. The blaze was brought under control early on Friday.

Political activist Sharif Osman Hadi died in hospital late on Thursday, six days after the youth leader was shot while riding on a rickshaw in Dhaka.

Bangladesh’s interim government urged people on Friday to resist violence as police and paramilitary troops fanned out
across the capital and other cities following the protests overnight. They have sparked concerns of fresh unrest ahead of national elections, which Mr Hadi had been due to stand in.

He was a prominent activist in the political uprising last year that forced the then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to flee the country. Mr Hadi spent six days on life support in a hospital in Singapore before he succumbed to his injuries.

Hundreds of protesters took to the streets following news of Mr Hadi’s death on Thursday night, where they rallied at Shahbagh Square near the Dhaka University campus, according to media reports.

A group of demonstrators gathered outside the head office of the Muslim-majority country’s leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily, before vandalising the building and setting it on fire.

A few hundred yards away, another group of protesters pushed into the Daily Star offices and set fire to the building. The protesters are believed to have targeted the papers for their alleged links with India and closeness to Bangladesh‘s interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.

Although calm had returned to much of the ⁠country on Friday morning, protesters carrying national flags and placards
continued demonstrating at Shahbagh Square in Dhaka, chanting slogans and vowing not to return until justice was served.

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Last year’s mass uprising erupted from student protests against a quota system that awarded 30% of government jobs to relatives of veterans.

The July 2024 protest, which resulted in as many as 1,400 deaths according to the United Nations, was dubbed the first “Gen Z” revolution.

Bangladesh’s former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed was forced to resign in August 2024 and fled to India. She was later sentenced to death in absentia.

Dr Yunus was then sworn in as interim leader.

The country’s Islamists and other opponents of Ms Hasida have accused her government for being subservient to India.

Mr Hadi was a fierce critic of Ms Hasina and neighbouring India.

He had planned to run as an independent candidate in a constituency in Dhaka at the next national elections due to be held in February.

Authorities said they had identified the suspects in Mr Hadi’s shooting, and the assassin was also likely to have fled to India. Two men on a motorbike followed Hadi and one opened fire before they fled the scene.

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TikTok faces legal action over moderator cuts

Published

11 hours ago

December 19, 2025

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TikTok faces legal action over moderator cuts

TikTok is being threatened with legal action over cuts to its UK online safety teams.

In August, the social media company announced more than 400 workers would lose their jobs, with AI replacing some of the workers and other jobs being rehired abroad.

TikTok is being accused of threatening those safety workers with redundancy days before they were due to vote on forming a union.

Now, two moderators have sent a legal letter to TikTok laying out the terms of a potential legal case on grounds of unlawful detriment and automatic unfair dismissal.

Unlawful detriment is when an employer treats a worker unfairly because they used a protected employment right, for example, being a union representative, asking for flexible working or whistleblowing about the company.

“In June, TikTok said it was going to hire hundreds more content moderators, then two months later, they fired everyone,” said Stella Caram, head of legal at Foxglove, a non-profit supporting the moderators.

“What changed? Workers exercised their legal right to try to form a trade union. This is obvious, blatant and unlawful union-busting,” she said.

TikTok has been given one month to respond to the legal claim.

A TikTok spokesperson said: “We once again strongly reject this baseless claim.

“These changes were part of a wider global reorganisation, as we evolve our global operating model for Trust and Safety with the benefit of technological advancements to continue maximising safety for our users.”

As well as Foxglove, the two moderators launching the case are working with the United Tech & Allied Workers (UTAW), part of the Communication Workers’ Union, and law firm Leigh Day.

In exclusive interviews last month, three whistleblowers told Sky News the cuts would put UK users at risk, a claim repeated by Julio Miguel Franco, one of the moderators behind the legal action.

“TikTok needs to tell the truth,” he said.

“When it says AI can do our job of keeping people safe on TikTok, it knows that’s rubbish.

“Instead, they want to steal our jobs and send them to other countries where they can pay people less and treat them worse. The end result is TikTok becomes less safe for everyone.”

Internal documents seen by Sky News show that TikTok planned to keep its human moderators in London for at least the rest of 2025.

The documents lay out the increasing need for dedicated moderators because of the growing volume and complexity of moderation.

TikTok’s head of governance, Ali Law, also told MPs in February that “human moderators … have to use their nuance, skills and training” to be able to moderate hateful behaviour, misinformation and misleading information.

After a series of letters between TikTok and MPs, Dame Chi Onwurah, chair of the science and technology select committee, said she was “deeply” concerned about the cuts.

“There is a real risk to the lives of TikTok users,” she said.

Last month, in an exclusive sitdown with Sky News, however, Mr Law said user safety would not be compromised.

“We set a high benchmark when it comes to rolling out new moderation technology.

“In particular, we make sure that we satisfy ourselves that the output of existing moderation processes is either matched or exceeded by anything that we’re doing on a new basis.

“We also make sure the changes are introduced on a gradual basis with human oversight so that if there isn’t a level of delivery in line with what we expect, we can address that.”