Pakistan

Islamabad, October 18, 2026. The Pakistani press, which mainly relays agency dispatches via ARY News, Geo News, Business Recorder, and Daily Times, describes a France awakened on Sunday to "devastated" streets after marches against the high cost of living that turned violent. According to Business Recorder, more than half a million people marched in dozens of cities, at the intersection of a month-old student movement and a broader malaise against price increases and the decline of public services. The Ministry of the Interior reports 550,000 participants, the CGT 800,000.

The toll is detailed: one demonstrator died of a heart attack in Paris, where the police made a record 855 arrests, more than 500 police officers were injured according to Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, several hundred businesses were damaged, and a city hall was set on fire. The figures vary from one article to another: 1,200 arrests according to Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu, nearly 1,800, more than 2,000, and then nearly 2,400 in the Geo text dated the next day. ARY reports that a 17-year-old had his hand torn off by a grenade in Saint-Étienne, and Daily Times relays accusations of excessive use of force by human rights organizations.

Regarding the speech, Geo News quotes Emmanuel Macron: "Tonight, we all feel anger and shame." He distinguishes between protesters with legitimate demands and those who "destroyed, broke, and looted," and promises to be uncompromising towards ultra-left agitators joined by many delinquents, without announcing a state of emergency or curfew. Geo sets the scene in the electoral context: Macron cannot run again, and Marine Le Pen, the Rassemblement national candidate, is high in the polls.

Business Recorder also reports on the message from Donald Trump, "France is burning!", which attributes the troubles to immigration and calls on the country to "close its borders," after comments from Vice President JD Vance. Pakistani texts cite him without commenting. The testimonies give a human dimension: a Dutch entrepreneur, evacuated from his hotel on the Place de la République, compares the area to "a war zone." The common thread remains social: anger against the cost of living that, for these editorial offices, has not yet found a political response.