Global News Podcast - France rocked by student protests

Episode Date: October 2, 2026

French students set fire to bins and erected blockades outside schools, as they protest against overcrowded classrooms, teacher shortages and crumbling facilities. Hundreds of people have been arrested and dozens injured. Fires have broken out at some schools that are being blockaded. President Macron said concerns over funding and studying conditions were legitimate but do not justify violence. Also, from the US: the family of Renee Good, who was killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis, is suing the Trump administration. The Tennessee prisoner who survived a botched execution, Christa Pike, is critically ill in hospital. New York's Attorney General Letitia James is appointed to investigate the alleged Cornell University gang rape. British scientists launch a clinical trial for a vaccine to protect against lung cancer. And Cristiano Ronaldo walks away from the Portugal football team.The Global News Podcast brings you the breaking news you need to hear, as it happens. Listen for the latest headlines and current affairs from around the world. Politics, economics, climate, business, technology, health – we cover it all with expert analysis and insight. Get the news that matters, delivered twice a day on weekdays and daily at weekends, plus special bonus episodes reacting to urgent breaking stories. Follow or subscribe now and never miss a moment. Get in touch: [e-mail]: Clashes occur between riot police and demonstrators during a high school students' protest against education conditions in Saint-Denis, north of Paris, France, 01 October 2026. Credit: EPA/Shutterstock

This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. Growing businesses deal with the same problem, too many tools, too much back and forth, and not enough time. Odu helps bring it all together. It's an all-in-one business management platform, fully integrated from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing, so your team can spend less time chasing information and focus on growth. Whether you're in retail, manufacturing or service, O-Doo gives you one place to manage your business. Visit Odu.com to book a demo. It's O'D-O-O-O.com.

It's late 2007, and while attending a Christmas party, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meets a woman who would change the course of his company forever. She joined Facebook as chief of operations in 2008 and has been credited for making the company profitable. And herself enormously rich. On Good Bad Billionaire, we're exploring the life and fortune

of billionaire tech leader Cheryl Sandberg. Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News Podcasts from the BBC World Service. I'm Charlotte Gallagher, and in the early hours of Friday, the 2nd of October, these are our main stories. French police have arrested almost 2,000 people during violent student protests that have spread across the country. The family of Renee Good, who was shot by a US immigration agent. agent in Minneapolis is suing the Trump administration. The American death row inmate, Krista Pike, is reported to be receiving life-saving medical

care after surviving a botched execution. Also in this podcast, Vladimir Putin repeats his warning that Russia is prepared to use nuclear weapons if it finds itself at war with Europe. I'm glad that our show sort of helped him stay calm. and if anything, not make the situation worse. Delighted that we played a very, very small role in this event. The makers of an air disaster TV show respond after a fly Dubai passenger said the program taught him

how to stop the plane from crashing. For more than a week now, pupils across France have been protesting outside secondary schools about an education system, they say, is failing them. They're frustrated about a shortage of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and run-down buildings. But on Thursday, demonstrations took a more violent turn with clashes between police and protesters at schools across the country. Almost 2,000 people were arrested and 300 police officers injured. At least two high schools were set on fire and one reported that a head teacher was doused in petrol.

The government has accused hard-left politicians of, encouraging the unrest to create tension ahead of next year's presidential elections. But students see it very differently. The buildings are like falling apart. There's no nurse. There's no teacher. We need money. This is also with the rise of the far right and the election, which are coming soon.

And if we cannot vote, the only way to make everybody hear us is to do this. We heard more about how the demonstrations of the demonstrations of the election. escalated from Lisa Louis, a freelance journalist in Paris. They started off as mostly very peaceful protests. And then police were deployed and then clashes happened across France. Hundreds of schools are now hit by these blockades or demonstrations. And then the protests would get quite violent in certain areas. I was at one school where there's a blockade going,

on just north of Paris in Agnes-Sorcens, secondary school. And the pupils there were telling me that they were sitting basically peacefully in front of their school. And then the police arrived and used tear gas and arrested one pupil there. So, you know, it's very difficult to figure out what happened exactly where. But it seems like clashes are now multiplying. And when you look at the pictures that are being broadcast on TV here in France today, there's lots of fire. you know, burning waste bins across France, clashes between protesters and the police, and their protests really seem to get more violent. A far-left party France unbode under Jean-Lieu-Milancheon,

they've been showing pictures of themselves with the students in front of the secondary souls, saying basically they need to defend and fight for their rights, and the police should be non-violence towards them. And then we heard also Bali Baga, a yorker. who's the mayor of Sandinie, one of the Paris suburbs, he was saying basically, in certain cases, violence was justified. And that really caused an uproar throughout the political class. Other politicians then came out and said, you know,

no violence is not justified in any case. And LFE, the France-And both party, had to backpedal. Lisa Louis in Paris. When René Good was killed in January by an ice agent in the city of Minneapolis, It sparked protests across the United States. A video showed the officer firing several shots into her car. An action the agency later claimed was in self-defense. It led to calls for the Trump administration to rein in ice agents deployed in cities around the country.

Now Renee Good's family are launching legal proceedings against the government and the agent responsible for her death. The family's lawyer told a news conference, our government has become a grave and mortal threat to its own citizens. Renee Good's brother, Brent Ganga, spoke to journalists. What happened to Renee was completely senseless and the fact that there's been no accountability, no investigation, no expression of condolence, no change in policy is completely mind-blowing.

What happened to America? Something must change now. Our correspondent, Tom Bateman, has been telling us more. civil lawsuits that have been brought by the family of Renee Good. These are civil cases, so they're not criminal cases. One of the things that came out of the press conference that was held by the lawyers was their complaint really was because these are federal agencies, it's a lot harder than if it was state or local law enforcement to lodge these kind of complaints. But they have done so.

And there are two civil lawsuits, the first of which asserts wrongful death through, it says battery assault, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence. And then there is a second lawsuit which alleges a conspiracy to interfere with civil rights. And what the lawyers have said here basically is they argue that the federal government, the Trump administration and these agencies, including the agent who shot Renee Good, were involved in effect in a conspiracy to try to suppress the rights, both of Hispanic and Somali communities that were being rounded up, but also they said to silence those who were trying to protect.

against it. So it's a pretty broad-ranging kind of a lawsuit. I mean, this second one names Christy Noam, who was the Homeland Security Secretary at the time. It names Stephen Miller, President Trump's Deputy Chief of Staff. It names Jonathan Ross, the agent involved in this. So, you know, this is a pretty broad attempt to try to bring damages. The Trump administration's responded to that and said it will vigorously defend what it says are baseless civil lawsuits. It then goes on to give a comment from President Trump himself, quote, saying that he believed that Renee Good was a very solid, wonderful person under normal circumstances, but says her actions were pretty tough. When you look at the way the car pulled away, there are a couple of versions of the

tape that are very, very bad. So it seems the administration very much sticking to its position that it believes that she was a threat to the agent involved. Tom Bateman. In a grim Irony, it's understood Krista Pike, the American death row inmate who survived two lethal injections, is now receiving life-saving medical care. It's still not clear what led to her botched execution. The mother of Pike's victim, Kaleen Slemer, described it as a mess. Prison officials say they followed protocol, but the governor of Tennessee, Bill Lee, has temporarily halted all executions and ordered an investigation. And the people of Tennessee have determined that capital punishment is the appropriate sentence for the most heinous of crimes. The people of Tennessee expect that those sentences

will be carried out in a manner that's not only legal and constitutional, but effective. And that didn't happen. Pike's lawyers have called for her death sentence to be commuted. Randy Spivey said they'd previously argued her small veins and blood disorder would cause unnecessary suffering. Last night was not just inefficient, it was cruel, and it was torturous. It was also predictable. Krista's legal team told the state of Tennessee and the court that her medical conditions would cause her to suffer an agonizing death. The state and the court dismiss Krista's concerns. After having endured solitary confinement for more than 20 years and a full attempt to kill her by lethal injection, Krista has endured punishment greater than

any other person in the history of the American death penalty. Krista Pike is now in hospital. Our correspondent, Inie Wells, has been telling us more. The last that we heard from her lawyer was that she was in a critical condition and that they didn't know how much damage or not had been done to her brain, but her medical information is all confidential. So we don't even know for definite which hospital she is being treated at. They were also unclear whether or not she'll actually remember if she comes around

what happened. And that is still a hugely open question because witnesses who were at that attempted execution recall this moment where the curtain across it was closed for about 20 to 30 minutes and then an ambulance arrived. And no one knows what exactly went wrong. If she received any kind of care at the scene before she was rushed to hospital, there are various theories as to why it didn't work. And one of them is that perhaps the drug was degraded, was perhaps out of date, although this is all unconfirmed, this is all being investigated at the moment. Another is that the drip, which was feeding the drug to her, wasn't attached to her vein properly. Another is simply that she didn't receive enough of the drug in her bloodstream to trigger a cardiac arrest.

Another theory is that simply people's bodies do react differently to drug overdoses. Some people survive different levels of drugs to others. And there have been cases before, Ione, where the state has tried to execute someone. It hasn't worked. They've recovered, but then they've been put to death. Yeah, that's right. This isn't the first botched execution that's taking place in Tennessee, and that's being hugely contentious here. People are frustrated that this has happened again. It isn't clear at this stage what the next steps for her will be if she survives this, and there is still an if about that. We don't know if the state would try to execute her again.

At the moment, all we know is that the governor's called off all executions for the rest of the year, so it's unlikely that if she were to face it again in future, it would happen anytime soon. Iney Wells in Nashville. More prisoners are executed in the US than any other country in the Western world. BBC verifies Jake Horton has been looking into the figures. The death penalty is legally enforced in about half of US states. It's something that President Trump has repeatedly advocated. On the first day of his return to office, he signed an order reinstating it for severe federal crimes.

And last year, the number of executions in the US almost doubled from the year before. There were 47 in total, according to Amnesty International, which says only China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Yemen executed more people in 2025. Lethal injection is the most common method in the US, followed by electrocution. But firing squads have also been used in recent years. South Carolina executed free people using that method last year. Using poisonous gas like cyanide is also permitted in several states. but that hasn't been used for decades. So far this year, there have been 29 executions,

mostly using a lethal injection, as was attempted with Pike. There aren't exact figures for how many attempts fail, but there have been a number of other occasions in recent years. Jake Horton. We've already got a vaccine which can prevent cancers caused by the HPV infection, and this summer a trial of a vaccine, given in combination with another drug,

was said to stop skin cancer returning in patients. Now a clinical trial is being launched in the UK for a vaccine to protect against a type of lung cancer, which kills tens of thousands of people every year. Oxford University oncologist Professor Sarah Blagden founded the project which has led to the trial. She's been speaking to Sarah Montague. We know that there are studies ongoing looking at vaccines to treat cancer, and some of these have had really positive results. What we feel is that actually if you get in earlier before the cancer,

becomes established, a vaccine probably has more likelihood of working. People will be familiar with the HPV vaccine, which is already widely used and has been phenomenally successful. Absolutely. I mean, we're really seeing for once that a cancer might be completely eradicated, which is so exciting. And what that vaccine does is it basically prevents people from getting HPV, which is the virus that causes cervical and other cancers actually as well. But unfortunately, not all cancers are actually sparked by a virus. So we have to have a different approach. And that is to really understand the early changes that happen in cells before they become a full-blown cancer and whether we can vaccinate against those early changes.

And that's really the principle that we've been operating with in Oxford. Without somebody actually getting the cancer, how can you, you know that they're the ones that should have the vaccine? That's the million dollar question. If you go into a high-risk group, you know that they have a high chance. So you're already looking at a high-risk population. You can statistically design a study that if you don't see cancers in those high-risk groups, then there's a high chance the vaccine is working. And for lungs, that would be smokers. Yes. So for example, in the lung back study, we're looking at people who've had a small lung cancer resected. We know they're at risk of new cancers as well as recurrent

disease. So that's a good population to test in because their risk is quite high. But, you know, there are other high risk individuals. So the other cohorts of people that will be going into this study are high risk ex-smokers who are already in lung cancer screening. So we know already that their risk is more than the normal population. And ultimately, might there be a way of reaching other types of cancers that affect other parts of the body where you can target pre-cancerous cells? Definitely. We have a project that's being led by a performance. Professor David Church, which is looking at preventing colorectal and endometrial cancer in people who have Lynch syndrome. We have a project looking at protecting women who carry the BRCA gene

mutation from getting ovarian cancer and breast cancer. And we're also looking at a vaccine with a sort of more broad effect against colorectal cancer. So we have a pipeline of vaccines and we want to bring in, you know, more cancer types as we go because we're starting to see sort of general principles can be applied across all of the studies that we're designing. Professor Sarah Blagden. Still to come in this podcast. Is it the end of Ronaldo's international career as he walks out of the Portugal camp? I don't think that any Portuguese fan is on Ronaldo's side by now because the feeling we have here in Portugal is that the captain left the ship. Your sales order says one thing. Your inventory says another. Your spreadsheet says, good luck. Odu brings your business together

on a single platform, from sales and accounting to inventory and marketing. Visit Odu.com to book a demo. It's O'DO.O.com. It's late 2007 and while attending a Christmas party, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meets a woman who would change the course of his company forever. She joined Facebook as chief of operations in 2008 and has been credited for making the company profitable. And herself enormously rich. On Good Bad Billionaire, we're exploring the life and fortune of billionaire tech leader Cheryl Sandberg. Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app or wherever you get your podcasts. This is the Global News podcast.

New York's Attorney General Letitia James has been appointed special prosecutor in the investigation of the alleged gang rape at Cornell University. A former student filed a civil lawsuit two weeks ago. saying several members of a fraternity drugged and assaulted her in 2024. The men deny any wrongdoing. The case has sparked national outrage and raised questions about how the university and law enforcement initially responded to it. Our correspondent, Nettau Tauphi, told us there's a dark cloud hanging over the Ivy League campus.

I've just been inside a public hearing being held here on Cornell's campus for students to speak openly about how they feel about the alleged gang. rape that happened here in 2024. A portion of it was open to the media and a few people who spoke described feeling ashamed by what happened here at their university, saying the greatest failure was not protecting Jane Doe. One woman said she was a freshman when this all happened and she cried then and she says she is devastated and continues to cry with this message that she wants Cornell to value safety of students over reputation. There was even a woman who said that she faced her own sexual assault and investigation by Cornell University.

She said the biggest factor in healing for victims is feeling there is a broader support network there, but that the university failed her and Jane Doe. And there was a mother, 50-year-old mother, who said that she was dealing with rape culture on college campuses when she was younger and can't believe that this is still an issue that society is grappling with. But then there was a portion that went off record for this meeting. And most of those students expressed feeling disgusted, appalled, and disappointed with Cornell. So emotions running incredibly high throughout this hearing.

And Cornell University has said that they support presenting a criminal case to a grand jury. But they have rejected any claims that they failed to punish those involved severely enough or that anyone got away with just writing an essay. but they have also agreed to have their whole process essentially reviewed independently by an investigation. Nettaufei. Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has warned his country will use any weapons in its arsenal if it found itself at war with Europe. Adding no one at present has the kind of strike means that Russia has. He made the comments during a wide-ranging speech in Moscow on Thursday, where he also ruled out a long-range strike cease-season. with Ukraine at a time when Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure.

Kiev has called it a deliberate campaign designed to cripple the power grid before winter. Our Russia editor, Steve Rosenberg, has this assessment of the Russian president's words. In the closed world of Russian politics, it's not always clear what the Kremlin is thinking, what it's planning. Will Vladimir Putin escalates in Ukraine? How will the Kremlin, and react to growing tensions with Europe. What clues can we find to what comes next? Some clues here at a foreign policy forum in Moscow. From President Putin, no suggestion is about to end the war

and a message to European states who are supplying weapons to Ukraine. I am not saying that we intend to launch strikes tomorrow against the territory, or the facilities of countries supplying weapons to Ukraine. However, it is a threat that we must clearly understand, assess and keep in mind. Naturally, Russia's armed forces and military intelligence must understand where the threats are coming from. Western officials accuse Russia of waging a hidden war against Europe through acts of sabotage and violations of airspace. So what other clues did we pick up from Putin at the surveillance?

event. Well, the Kremlin leader looked relaxed. He looked confident despite the fact that his so-called special military operation in Ukraine hasn't got at all to plan. He also said he was ready for talks, but those had to be based on Russia's national interest. And that suggests that Russia's position remains the same, that any peace settlement should be on Russia's terms. Foreign policy hawk, Sergei Karaghanov, was at the forum. He says Russia should be prepared to launch a preemptive strike on Europe because of its support for Ukraine. The first series of blows will be conventional.

But if Europe does not surrender, then unfortunately we'll have to go nuclear. But if Russia goes nuclear, then there'll be a response from Europe. And nothing will be left of Russia. No. There will be no response. for Europe. Do you agree, though, that the last four and a half years of this so-called special military operation have been pretty disastrous for Russia? We lost a lot of people, yes. And I criticized my government for not being rough enough. But now we are getting rough enough in Ukraine.

Another sign that, for now, Russia feels no compulsion to end hostilities. From here, Peace still feels a long way off. Steve Rosenberg. In our previous episode of the podcast, you will have heard of the apparent attempt by a co-pilot to crash a flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv. The suspect has been questioned in Saudi Arabia where the plane diverted after passengers managed to subdue

the alleged attacker in the cockpit. One of the many surprising details about the incident is how one of the passengers, Yaniv Heion, then managed to stabilize the plane. He was asked on TV by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, how he knew what to do. You can hear a surprise Netanyahu there ask him about pulling the controls backward,

to which Hayun replies, I watch air crash investigation, Prime Minister Sir. Hayon has been hailed as a hero and was praised by the US president, Donald Trump. This plumber, never having flown a plane, had the sense to lift a stick. Who was it? And you know, it's not like planes are different today. He used to have a little serial world. Today, they fly differently. And when I asked why he did that, he said he watches that show, air disasters. You know the show? It's that crazy show. I never want to watch it

because I watch it. I don't like watching it because bad things happen. But he said he watches it a lot. and he learned from watching that show. Well, Alex Beistram is executive producer of the long-running Canadian docudrama Air Crash Investigation. So what did he make of the name check of his series? Obviously, it's great to be recognized and acknowledged that way, and I'm glad that our show sort of helped him stay calm and if anything, not make the situation worse.

our show is focused on aviation safety and every episode provides lessons on how aviation can be made safer. So look, delighted that we played a very, very small role in this event, but I don't for a minute think that we affected the outcome. That's entirely in the hands of the captain of this late, who really took unbelievable superhuman action to save the lives of everybody on board. This guy, look, he took the action of going towards the cockpit, which isn't something he learned on our show. And no, I don't remember doing any episodes where passengers are called upon to help pull the plane out of a absolutely staggering dive like this. Alex Beistram, executive producer of Air Crash Investigation. He's the most famous Portuguese footballer of all time and one of the biggest names in sport. but uncertainty surrounds the future of Cristiana Ronaldo

after he left the Portuguese national team's training camp on Wednesday. The five-time Ballandoor winner was an unused substitute in their 2-1 win over Norway in the Nations League on Sunday. In a social media post, Ronaldo has promised to reveal the truth about his reason for leaving, but it's led to speculation that the 41-year-old could retire from international football. Portuguese football journalist Duarte Montereau has been following the story. Over the last five, ten years, Cristiano Ronaldo gained a lot of power inside of the Portuguese Football Federation. And I think right now we are facing a situation where political decisions,

financial decisions are in play more than necessarily technical aspects of the game. And this is not new. If we go back to 2010, there was the very first moment when Cristiano Ronald played his power over a national coach. There was a rift between Keroz and Ronaldo. If we go a little bit further in time, there was a problem with Paulo Vento, the national coach. And after 2022, the World Cup, Fernand Sanch, who won the Euros with Portugal, had to leave his position because he put Ronald on the bench.

And this is the outcome of someone who clearly didn't accept that he's 41, that this role as a player is not the same as it was 10 years ago. And the decision Ronaldo made by leaving the camp, I think he lost the last ones who standed with him in all of this. And by now, I don't think that any Portuguese fan is on Ronaldo's side by now because the feeling we have here in Portugal is that the captain left the ship. And in the absence of Ronaldo, Portugal beat Denmark 4-2 in their latest Nations League match on 3rd.

Thursday. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at global podcast at BBC.co. You can also find us on X at BBC World Service. Use the hashtag Global NewsPod. This edition of the Global News Podcast was mixed by Rebecca Miller and the producers were Stephanie Zacherson and Chantelle Hartle. The editor is Karen Martin.

I'm Charlotte Gallagher. Until next time, goodbye. It's late 2007 and While attending a Christmas party, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg meets a woman who would change the course of his company forever. She joined Facebook as Chief of Operations in 2008 and has been credited for making the company profitable. And herself enormously rich. On Good Bad Billionaire, we're exploring the life and fortune of billionaire tech leader Cheryl Sandberg. Listen on BBC.com, the BBC app, or wherever you get your podcasts.