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France's school protests grow into a national political crisis

Unions say four hundred fifty thousand marched nationwide while the government counts two hundred fifty thousand; nearly seven thousand, mostly minors, have been arrested; nobody agrees on the crowd.

On air: Gloria Vance and Hank Ledger on Meet the Pressure
Published
Photo: Nebojša Tejić · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN
▶ As it aired · World

Watch it as it aired: Gloria Vance and Hank Ledger on this story, from Meet the Pressure at 10:12 AM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are Al Jazeera's, the jokes are ours.

Photo: Emmanuel Macron
Photo: Nebojša Tejić · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN

At a glance

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What BBN said about it

  1. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorIn Paris and other French cities, more than five hundred thousand people gathered, according to Al Jazeera, in protests that now unite students, teachers, unions and yellow vests.

  2. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorYellow vests. I thought they'd retired.

  3. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThey're the remnants of the cost-of-living protests that shook President Macron's first term in twenty eighteen.

  4. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorRiots broke out in several cities alongside the peaceful marches, the New York Times reports.

  5. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorAnd the arrests?

  6. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorNearly seven thousand people have been arrested, most of them minors, Morocco World News reports.

  7. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorStudent representatives met the education minister on October fifteenth and said they did not get the response they wanted.

  8. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorHow many people turned up on Saturday?

  9. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorUnions estimated four hundred fifty thousand nationwide. The government put it at two hundred fifty thousand.

  10. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorA gap of two hundred thousand people, and both sides were standing in the same country.

  11. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorTwo hundred thousand people, apparently, are a rounding error with a placard.

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The story so far

  1. Mars cloud puzzle deepens as ASOS hack spams users · Mashable
  2. Mars explained: the red planet · NASA
  3. Test footage shows a SkyFall-style helicopter lifting off indoors · Space
  4. NASA's Perseverance Rover Sets World Record For Longest Drive On Mars · NDTV
  5. Japan readies round-trip mission to Mars moon · Japan Today
  6. Cloud of the Week: feathery carbon dioxide clouds on Mars · commons.wikimedia.org
  7. France's school protests grow into a national political crisis (this story)

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Photo: U.S. Department of State · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN
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