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North Korea's Kim Lauds Ruling Party as Foreign Delegations Visit for 80th Anniversary

HANDOUT - 08 February 2025, North Korea: A picture released by the North Korean state news agency (KCNA) on 09 February 2025, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks as he visits the country's defense ministry, to mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of its armed forces. Photo: KCNA/KNS/dpa
HANDOUT - 08 February 2025, North Korea: A picture released by the North Korean state news agency (KCNA) on 09 February 2025, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks as he visits the country's defense ministry, to mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of its armed forces. Photo: KCNA/KNS/dpa
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North Korea's Kim Lauds Ruling Party as Foreign Delegations Visit for 80th Anniversary

HANDOUT - 08 February 2025, North Korea: A picture released by the North Korean state news agency (KCNA) on 09 February 2025, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks as he visits the country's defense ministry, to mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of its armed forces. Photo: KCNA/KNS/dpa
HANDOUT - 08 February 2025, North Korea: A picture released by the North Korean state news agency (KCNA) on 09 February 2025, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks as he visits the country's defense ministry, to mark the 77th anniversary of the founding of its armed forces. Photo: KCNA/KNS/dpa

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has praised the legacy of the country's ruling party in a speech ahead of Friday's 80th anniversary of its founding, as delegations from China, Russia and Vietnam arrived in Pyongyang to attend celebrations. Chinese Premier Li Qiang, a delegation from Russia led by former President Dmitry Medvedev as well as Vietnam's Communist Party chief To Lam, are among foreign dignitaries joining events to mark the anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea in the isolated state this week.

Li, who was met by an honor guard at Pyongyang's airport, said that China and North Korea "as socialist neighbors connected by mountains and rivers had a profound traditional friendship," China's foreign ministry said in a statement.

Vietnam's top leader Lam and his delegation attended a welcome ceremony at a Pyongyang sports center, the Vietnam News Agency (VNA) reported. It is the first visit by a Vietnamese Communist Party leader to North Korea in nearly 20 years and cooperation agreements are expected to be signed during the visit, according to people familiar with the planning.

Medvedev, who is now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, is visiting with a delegation that includes Natural Resources Minister Alexander Kozlov and the governor of the Kursk region, Russia's TASS news agency reported.

Kim visited the Party Founding Museum in Pyongyang on Wednesday with senior party officials and delivered what state media called a "significant speech" honoring the party's founders and revolutionary forerunners, North Korean state media KCNA reported.

The North Korean leader paid tribute to his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung and anti-Japanese fighters for laying a "solid cornerstone" for the party's enduring strength and success, the report said.

Reflecting on eight decades of party history, Kim said it was a time for the current generation to renew its understanding of its "revolutionary obligations and duties" to complete the socialist cause begun by its predecessors, reported Reuters.

Kim also pledged to preserve the party's ideological purity and vitality "without decrepitude and discoloration," calling the Party Founding Museum a "sacred sanctuary" representing the party's tradition.

Last month, the North Korean leader stood alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a massive military parade in Beijing to celebrate the 80th anniversary of Japan's defeat at the end of World War Two, a move aimed at bolstering Kim's diplomatic standing.

Nuclear-armed North Korea has not yet confirmed whether a military parade will take place to mark this week's holiday. South Korean officials said there were signs that Pyongyang will stage a military parade to commemorate the founding of the Workers' Party of Korea, the Yonhap news agency reported last week.

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World

Police Made 1,314 Arrests in France’s Protests, Says Govt

A pedestrian walks past a broken window, a day after a demonstration in favor of purchasing power, the protection of public services, and fiscal and social justice, in Paris on October 25, 2026 as part of a nationwide call for mobilization bringing together former members of the Yellow Vest movement, labor unions, high school and university students. (AFP)
A pedestrian walks past a broken window, a day after a demonstration in favor of purchasing power, the protection of public services, and fiscal and social justice, in Paris on October 25, 2026 as part of a nationwide call for mobilization bringing together former members of the Yellow Vest movement, labor unions, high school and university students. (AFP)
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Police Made 1,314 Arrests in France’s Protests, Says Govt

A pedestrian walks past a broken window, a day after a demonstration in favor of purchasing power, the protection of public services, and fiscal and social justice, in Paris on October 25, 2026 as part of a nationwide call for mobilization bringing together former members of the Yellow Vest movement, labor unions, high school and university students. (AFP)
A pedestrian walks past a broken window, a day after a demonstration in favor of purchasing power, the protection of public services, and fiscal and social justice, in Paris on October 25, 2026 as part of a nationwide call for mobilization bringing together former members of the Yellow Vest movement, labor unions, high school and university students. (AFP)

Police arrested 1,314 people in weekend protests across France, the interior ministry said Sunday, adding that 53 officers were hurt in clashes.

The arrests occurred as violence broke out on the margins of mass demonstrations in major cities on Saturday over the high cost of living.

It was the second consecutive weekend of unrest in France, which is heading to presidential elections in April and May to choose a successor to Emmanuel Macron, who is reaching his two-term limit.

The interior ministry said police responded to 75 fires during Saturday's protests, adding that 24 shops were looted.

"Several investigations have been opened," it said in a statement, without giving details. It said that the rest of Saturday night, after the clashes had died down, was "calm".

The ministry statement on Sunday did not say how many protesters were hurt.

Late Saturday, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez spoke of two serious injuries among protesters: one in Toulouse and one in Clermont-Ferrand.

- Protesters hurt -

The Toulouse prefecture, which reports to the interior ministry, told AFP that a 20-year-old man was seriously hurt with a wound to his hand.

A street medic who tended demonstrators told AFP, on condition of anonymity, that the man had "several fingers" blown off his right hand.

The prefecture covering Clermont-Ferrand said a man there also had a hand hurt, but did not suffer the loss of any fingers.

A French regional daily, La Nouvelle Republique, reported that a man in Poitiers was hurt in his left eye, showing a photo of a man holding his face.

The newspaper's photographer told AFP he was a 19-year-old who was wounded during a charge by riot police firing stun grenades and tear gas.

There have been several instances in recent weeks, during student protests in France, of people being maimed by police stun grenades or tear gas grenades.

It was not known if the injuries reported from Saturday were from those police weapons. Officials said investigations had been opened in at least some of the cases.

World

Far-right Leader Le Pen Kicks Off Tilt at French Presidency amid Nationwide Protests

26 September 2026, France, Paris: Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen arrive at Place de la Concorde ahead of Pope Leo XIV's Mass in Paris. Photo: Pierre Teyssot / Agf/AGF via ZUMA Press/dpa
26 September 2026, France, Paris: Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen arrive at Place de la Concorde ahead of Pope Leo XIV's Mass in Paris. Photo: Pierre Teyssot / Agf/AGF via ZUMA Press/dpa
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Far-right Leader Le Pen Kicks Off Tilt at French Presidency amid Nationwide Protests

26 September 2026, France, Paris: Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen arrive at Place de la Concorde ahead of Pope Leo XIV's Mass in Paris. Photo: Pierre Teyssot / Agf/AGF via ZUMA Press/dpa
26 September 2026, France, Paris: Jordan Bardella and Marine Le Pen arrive at Place de la Concorde ahead of Pope Leo XIV's Mass in Paris. Photo: Pierre Teyssot / Agf/AGF via ZUMA Press/dpa

Marine Le Pen, France's far-right candidate to succeed President Emmanuel Macron in elections in six months, was to give her first campaign speech on Sunday, a day after protests sweeping the country again flared into violence.

Le Pen -- the frontrunner according to surveys -- is seen benefiting from the convulsions France has been going through for weeks, punctuated by mass rallies and violent clashes on Saturday and a week earlier, said AFP.

More than 400,000 people marched in major French cities on Saturday to protest the rising cost of living, with groups of masked youths breaking away to provoke police, who responded with tear gas and water cannon. Police made more than 1,000 arrests.

Officers faced "an extremely elevated level of violence" from black-clad "ultra-left" extremists who had trailed in the demonstrations, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez said late Saturday.

A week earlier, on October 17, similar nationwide marches took place, also against rising inflation sent surging by the war in the Middle East. They, too, degenerated into street violence, with public buildings vandalized and hundreds of shops looted.

The mass rallies were fed by four weeks of student protests across France, over classroom conditions and access to university places, which at times also descended into clashes.

Unions and Yellow Vest protesters have vowed to keep up their street marches in the weeks ahead, pointing to a febrile period as the elections draw near.

- Anger at Macron -

Le Pen, who will address 10,000 members of her National Rally (RN) party in the city of Orleans, has accused Macron's centrist government of being soft on violent protesters and lacking authority.

Police were on Sunday filtering traffic going into Orleans, after thousands of counter-protesters opposed to Le Pen and her anti-immigration, nationalist RN marched in the city on Saturday chanting anti-fascist slogans.

Police put their numbers at 13,000, while organizers estimated the turnout at twice that.

If Le Pen wins the two-stage presidential elections in April and May, she has vowed to cut the cost of living through capped household energy bills, reduced taxes and trimming France's contribution to the European Union.

She is also critical of NATO, and of France's support of Ukraine as it battles Russia's invasion.

The RN, which portrays itself as a party of law and order, has also sided strongly with the police in the current unrest.

The head of Le Pen's party, Jordan Bardella, whom she intends to make prime minister if she becomes president, has visited police stations to underline that credential.

French voters, angry over Macron's perceived detachment over his two terms and his recent orders to curb the protests, are turning to more extremist politics, polling shows.

An Ipsos survey published Saturday suggested Le Pen would score 32 to 34 percent of the vote in the first round of the election, with a far-left rival, Jean-Luc Melenchon, getting 17 percent. Centrist candidates from mainstream parties trailed them.

Asked about the protest violence, a majority of the 1,500 people questioned in the survey -- 58 percent -- said they felt anger.

It found 81 percent believed the government was "responsible for this situation", while 79 percent thought radical political groups were, 62 percent blamed the left, and 52 percent blamed the police.

- No money -

Whoever wins the presidency will find limited room to throw money around to placate various clamoring interest groups.

France's public debt and budget deficit have climbed well beyond the ceilings EU member countries are meant to stick to.

Macron's government is trying to get a cost-cutting budget adopted, but faces headwinds from both the sustained protests demanding more spending and the political jockeying by parties eyeing power.

As Macron sees out the final months of his presidency, he has to tread a line between cracking down on street violence and opening dialogue with unions, students and other groups to attempt to restore order.

Although the French president has not invoked a state of emergency, he has ordered bans on non-union demonstrations deemed "illegitimate", and officials under him have imposed bans on protests in city centers and localized curfews in certain zones.

Many protesters on Saturday raged against the measures, describing them as an assault on the French right to protest.

The Yellow Vest movement, which challenged Macron eight years ago with street disruptions, has called for another day of protests next Saturday.

And the powerful CGT union, prominent in the demonstrations, is urging a campaign of strikes starting from November 5.

World

Iran Parliament Speaker Calls for Cutting Gas Consumption by 10 Percent as Winter Nears

Traffic moves past an installation depicting butterflies forming the Iranian national flag in Tehran on October 21, 2026. (AFP)
Traffic moves past an installation depicting butterflies forming the Iranian national flag in Tehran on October 21, 2026. (AFP)
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Iran Parliament Speaker Calls for Cutting Gas Consumption by 10 Percent as Winter Nears

Traffic moves past an installation depicting butterflies forming the Iranian national flag in Tehran on October 21, 2026. (AFP)
Traffic moves past an installation depicting butterflies forming the Iranian national flag in Tehran on October 21, 2026. (AFP)

Iran's parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf on Sunday called for a campaign to cut gas consumption by at least 10 percent, with officials anticipating shortages as winter approaches.

While a major producer, Iran has long suffered shortages of natural gas, essential for powering heating systems, which have been exacerbated by war with the United States and Israel that began in February.

During the most intense phase of the fighting, which lasted nearly 40 days, the two countries struck key Iranian infrastructure including natural gas refineries, according to Tehran.

Winter in Iran often sees temperatures drop below freezing, especially in the country's north.

"To get through the approaching winter, a nationwide effort is essential ... to reduce gas consumption by at least 10 percent," said Ghalibaf in a video carried by Iranian media.

"Anyone who saves gas, regardless of the amount, will immediately receive the corresponding proceeds in their bank account, allowing everyone to see the tangible impact of those savings on their household budget."

Earlier in October, First Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref said the government anticipated a daily "gas shortfall of 100 million to 250 million cubic meters during the cold season because of the damage caused by the war," according to the official IRNA news agency.

He added that he hoped to restore the supply of around 100 million cubic meters by the start of winter.

An April ceasefire brought an end to the initial phase of intense bombardment, but the two sides have continued to vie for control over the Strait of Hormuz, through which around a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas used to travel.

Iran has claimed control over the strait since the outbreak of the war and has regularly targeted vessels that attempt crossings without its authorization.

In response, Washington has imposed a counter-blockade on Iranian ports and in August announced what it called an "economic asphyxiation" campaign on Iran aimed at strangling its already battered economy.