Singapore

Singapour, 18 October 2026. Singapore's Channel News Asia and The Straits Times, which largely reproduce AFP dispatches, focus on the material and security assessment of Saturday, 17 October. "It's as if we had been at war," testifies Mehmet Ozeden, 78, a resident of central Paris, quoted by CNA. The Minister of the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, mentions 1,800 arrests and investigations to "identify the perpetrators." In Paris, 557 people are in custody after a "record" number of arrests, and Deputy Mayor Lamia El Aaraje speaks of a level of violence "never seen."

The figures vary from one title to another. The Straits Times mentions either more than 2,000 arrests or nearly 2,400, with almost 1,000 police and gendarmes injured, including seven seriously, compared to more than 600 officers in another dispatch. CNA estimates around 1,500 businesses damaged, with losses of several hundred million euros. More than half a million people marched, in the convergence of a month-long student movement with anger over the high cost of living; one protester died of a heart attack in Paris.

On Sunday, 18 October, clashes resumed at the Place de la République: tear gas, stun grenades, 42 arrests, and at least five looted stores, according to The Straits Times. In his address, Emmanuel Macron declares: "Tonight, we all feel anger and shame." He distinguishes between protesters with "legitimate claims" and those who "destroyed, broke, looted," promises to be "inflexible" with ultra-left "troublemakers," and announces that local authorities will be able to ban certain gatherings "if necessary." The newspaper notes that he stops short of declaring a state of emergency or curfew.

The domestic political dimension comes second: six months before the presidential election, Marine Le Pen judges the Macron administration "exhausted." The international aspect occupies two separate articles: Donald Trump writes on Truth Social "France is burning!" and attributes the unrest to immigration, while J.D. Vance mentions a failure of "assimilation" and links it to the American mid-term elections on 3 November.