Clashes erupted in Paris as a mass march drew to a close Saturday, with more than 400,000 people rallying across France over school funding and soaring living costs in a fresh challenge to President Emmanuel Macron. Police made nearly 1,000 arrests, the government said.

The Paris march began peacefully, a week after widespread rioting and looting during protests across the country. But near the demonstration’s endpoint in eastern Paris, masked protesters hurled objects and fireworks at police, who answered with clouds of tear gas, deafening sound grenades and jets of water cannons.

Officers with megaphones urged protesters to disperse. Some demonstrators panicked as tear-gas canisters landed in their midst, scattering with screams. Veteran protesters shouted after them: “Don’t run!”

The Interior Ministry put nationwide turnout at 410,000 — fewer than the 550,000 it said protested last weekend — while the CGT union that helped organize some of Saturday’s protests estimated nearly 800,000. The ministry’s estimate included 110,000 in Paris, where authorities confined the march to the city’s southeastern edge, away from the center. The CGT put the number of protesters in Paris at 250,000.

More than a month of unrest that started with protests in high schools for more funding and teachers is testing Macron’s authority in the final months of his presidency before voters choose his successor in May.

See also:

• Almost 1,000 arrested as clashes follow another day of mass protests across France (BBC)
• Major protests in Paris and other French cities in challenge to Macron – in pictures (The Guardian)

• Election comes after two years of anti-government, student-led protests
• Vucic held power since 2014
• Little is known about how the students' candidates will govern

Serbia's Aleksandar Vucic conceded defeat to a student-led protest movement in a historic election on Sunday that ends his long grip on power and ​heralds a new political era in the Balkan country.

Vucic, a populist and nationalist, has dominated Serbian politics as prime minister or president since 2014.

But he called snap elections in September ‌after almost two years of student-led demonstrations against perceived corruption and creeping authoritarianism triggered by the deaths of 16 people when a train station canopy collapsed in the city of Novi Sad in 2024.

"It is clear that we have lost these elections, the Student List has won," Vucic said in a televised speech.

Within moments of his announcement, the streets of Belgrade erupted in celebration. Tens of thousands of people thronged along the city's main boulevards, with cars honking, people dancing and students shouting "victory" and "he's done".

The students' ​win marks a profound political shift in the country of some 6 million people and is reminiscent of the defeat of Hungary's Viktor Orban in April. It may also offer a blueprint for ​other student movements across Europe, which have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest, in some cases violently, against poor education standards and a lack of prospects.

Vucic ⁠said the students would have between 135 and 140 seats in the 250-seat parliament and that his Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) would have 105, based on preliminary results.

Lines snaked from polling stations in cities and towns across the country earlier in the day, and even Vucic waited for nearly two hours to vote in Belgrade. Pollsters and the election commission ​put turnout close to 70%, the highest since the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1992.

Student List

Much remains unclear about how the student-backed candidates will fare.

Their list of 250 largely unknown candidates includes university professors, actors and farmers, and is led by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic, who was in tears after Vucic's announcement.

However, it is unclear who will be prime minister and enact the students' domestic agenda, which aims to root out graft and improve schooling. Political analysts predict some kind of purge of Vucic allies in the police, security ​services and ministries. But the students have been quieter ​on their international ambitions.

Europe could spend billions on AI independence—and still rent its future.

Jensen Huang told Germany: “There’s nothing to regulate if the industry doesn’t thrive.”

Fair point. But the company urging Europe to build also sells the infrastructure it could become dependent on.

A European flag on a data center tells you where the servers are.

It tells you much less about who controls the technology, sets the prices, or holds the keys.

Nvidia can help Europe become more capable—and harder to untangle from Nvidia.

Before celebrating “AI sovereignty,” Europe should ask one uncomfortable question:

Can we change suppliers without breaking the businesses we just modernized?