In France, the third act of mobilization over purchasing power and public services brought between 320,000 and 500,000 demonstrators into the streets, according to competing counts. The interior ministry reported 320,000 protesters nationwide, including 70,000 in Paris, down from 410,000 a week earlier. The youth intersyndicale put the figure at nearly 500,000, with 200,000 in Paris. The demonstrations took place five days before strikes and protests called by the intersyndicale for Thursday, November 5.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said the marches had gone well overall, despite clashes late in the day in several cities and what he described as 'unprecedented violence' by some troublemakers targeting 'ultra-left' groups who confronted police. By midday Sunday, the interior ministry said 779 people had been arrested across France on Saturday, with no major incident reported in the later part of the evening. The Paris prosecutor's office said 89 people, mostly adults, had been placed in custody in the capital. An investigation was opened for attempted homicide against public authority officials after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at gendarmes in Paris.
A French woman was killed in Wednesday's collision of two high-speed trains in central Spain, which left at least 69 people dead, the French foreign ministry said Saturday. The Quai d'Orsay expressed its deep emotion and said Thursday it had no news of several French nationals, while reaffirming France's full solidarity with Spanish authorities and the population. Authorities in Castilla-La Mancha, where the crash occurred, said 67 missing-person reports had been filed, 14 of them concerning foreign nationals from Argentina, Australia, Canada, the United States, France, Japan, the Czech Republic, Tunisia and Venezuela. Regional president Emiliano Garcia-Page did not rule out a higher death toll, saying rescuers had collected complete bodies as well as up to 31 bags containing human remains.
Bulgaria began the second round of its presidential election on Sunday, with two candidates holding opposing views on the war in Ukraine and relations with Russia, amid heightened tensions in the Black Sea. Outgoing President Iliana Iotova, 62, a member of the Bulgarian Socialist Party who advocates dialogue with Moscow to end the war, faced Andreï Guiourov, 50, a former interim prime minister backed by the pro-Western opposition. Iotova led the first round with 34.7% against 32% for her rival, but her result was well below recent polls that had put her at 40% to 47% of voting intentions.
Binance, the leading cryptocurrency exchange, announced Sunday that withdrawals were gradually resuming after a record hack worth $6.3 billion, or about 5.6 billion euros. US investigators said they had identified the North Korean hacking group known as TraderTraitor behind the unprecedented theft, and the FBI accused North Korea of the 'heist of the century.' Investigators also observed that the thieves were converting the stolen funds into ether, the cryptocurrency of the Ethereum network.
In basketball, French international Gabby Williams became a WNBA champion as the Golden State Valkyries won their first title in only their second season in the league. Williams was decisive in the seventh and final game of the finals against the Atlanta Dream, which the Valkyries won 68-63. She was named finals MVP after scoring 30 points in the final game, including 28 in the second half alone, a record for a WNBA final.
Sources: Le Monde.