Italy to Deploy 500 Troops to Milan after Days of Protests and Looting

THE GUARDIAN: Protests over poor public services and living costs spiralled into violence over the weekend, with shops looted and property vandalised

Protesters clash with police in Piazza del Duomo in Milan, Italy. The unrest followed clashes on Saturday in other northern cities including Bologna, Brescia, Bergamo and Turin. Photograph: Alessandro Bremec/NurPhoto/Shutterstock
Italy’s government is sending 500 soldiers to Milan as it vowed a “firm response from the state” after protests against the high cost of living descended into clashes with police, vandalism and looting, and ahead of further demonstrations planned on Saturday.

The government, led by the far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, is also planning to swiftly approve tougher new security measures, including extending preventive detention for minors, cracking down on youth gangs and banning gatherings for people deemed a threat to public order, according to reports in the Italian press on Tuesday.

Police in Milan detained 271 young people after hooded youths set bins ablaze, ransacked shops and smashed windows, including in the area surrounding the city’s Duomo, during the unrest on Saturday and Sunday.

Police used teargas and water cannons to disperse the violent groups, who were on the fringes of an initially peaceful protest.

Of those detained, 32 have been arrested, including 23 minors and 13 foreign nationals, police said on Monday. A further 28 people were reported to judicial authorities. » | Angela Giuffrida in Rome | Tuesday, October 20, 2026

France Stunned by October 17 Rioting • FRANCE 24 English

Oct 19, 2026 | France didn’t just erupt on Saturday, it exploded. Police doubly overwhelmed by the turnout of the big October 17th cost of living demonstrations and-a-half times the crowds they expected. Also overwhelmed by determined flashmobs, some radical militants hellbent on a fight, others who came for the looting. The whole world watching the assault on symbols like the Republic like the 19th Century city hall in Limoges, the usually quiet porcelain capital of France. There's anger over rioting, and over growing inequality six months out from a presidential election where the extreme right and left lead all comers. What response? How does Emmanuel Macron’s minority lame duck government with no money in the state coffers to throw at the problem, restore faith in leadership, institutions including the police and democracy? What message to the youth that sparked the movement to draw attention deteriorating conditions in their schools? How to offer hope to the next generation?

President Macron Could Have Said More to Curtail ‘Mayhem’ in France

Oct 19, 2026 | “He could have announced a change in public order doctrine in an attempt to get hold and stop the complete mayhem that we saw on Saturday… he didn't do that either.”

Facing widespread violence and looting, President Macron failed to deliver the bold policy shifts needed to rein in the protests, says Paris correspondent for The Times Adam Sage.

Andrew Neil Explains the French Protests In 9 Minutes

Oct 19, 2026 | Andrew Neil explains the French protests, and the ramifications for the country’s leadership.

France’s Far Right Seizes the Moment as Rioting Stuns the Country

THE NEW YORK TIMES: The National Rally, already ahead in the polls, presented itself as the party best placed to restore law and order.

The aftermath of protests in central Bordeaux on Sunday. Credit: Philippe Lopez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
After riots erupted this weekend in cities across France, its centrist government blamed the main far-left party, accusing its politicians of inciting the violence. That party blamed the government, accusing it of stirring public anger through years of bad governance and heavy-handed policing.

What did the main far-right party do? It blamed both, and launched into campaign mode. >br />
“We are paying for decades of being soft on crime, of weak authority, of the moral, psychological, and material disarmament of our internal security forces,” Jordan Bardella, the president of the far-right National Rally party, said after emerging from a police station in central Paris on Sunday. He said had gone there to support police officers.

Then he addressed France’s “honest citizens” who were stunned on Sunday by the smashed storefronts and burned-out businesses destroyed by rioters the night before. He said they had a vital role to play in reinstating national stability. And that would be by voting in the coming election for his party.

“People need to wake up now,” Mr. Bardella said. “They need to make the right political choices, and in any case, we stand ready to restore order in the country.”

Sunday was a day of mourning, shock and finger pointing in France. The day before, huge peaceful protests for better school conditions and against rising living costs were overshadowed by black-clad and often masked agitators of unclear affiliation who attacked government buildings and shops across the country, sometimes stealing wine or electronics.

For the National Rally, which bills itself as the party of law and order as well as an advocate for expelling unauthorized immigrants, Sunday was also a day of political opportunity. It is six months before a presidential election that the party’s candidate, Marine Le Pen, is the favorite to win. » | Catherine Porter | Reporting from Paris | Monday, October 18, 2026

France Protests Will Be ‘Very Good’ for the National Rally | Peter Conradi

Oct 18, 2026 | “I suspect it is going to play into the hands of Marine Le Pen and her potential Prime Minister Jordan Bardella.”

As France wakes up to widespread destruction across France, President Macron’s failure to contain the unrest will likely fuel support for the far-right National Rally, says The Times and Sunday Times’s Europe editor Peter Conradi.

France Reels After Largest Riots in Years

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Centrist and leftist leaders blamed each other after anti-government protests devolved into chaos.

A street in Marseille, France, on Sunday littered with debris a day after nationwide protests. Credit: Thibaud Moritz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
France was in a state of shock on Sunday, as citizens woke to streets littered with shattered glass and images of burned-out government buildings after the country’s largest demonstrations in years devolved into riots and looting.

The unrest on Saturday — which led to some 1,200 arrests — caused widespread damage to several symbols of the state, including a 19th-century city hall in Limoges, a town in central France renowned for its porcelain, that was largely destroyed in a nighttime arson attack.

Rioters attacked city halls from Lille in northern France to Marseille in the south, where masked infiltrators broke into the local government headquarters and tipped over a bust of Marianne, a symbol of the French Republic. Fires also destroyed a tourist office in Lyon.

On Sunday, that violence had given way to a political blame game. Government officials accused the far left of stirring up the unrest, and a left-wing leader blamed the government.

Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu placed the blame for the chaos squarely on a far-left party, France Unbowed. The leader of that party, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, stands a chance of making the runoff in next year’s presidential election to succeed President Emmanuel Macron. » | Catherine Porter and Ségolène Le Stradic | Reporting from Paris | Sunday, October 18, 2026

ALSO READ:

Protests and Unrest Spread in France: What to Know: Student demonstrations converged on Saturday with a broader protest movement against rising living costs, heightening a national reckoning. »

Buildings set ablaze and more than 1,800 arrested as police clash with protesters across France: Police fire teargas in Paris and Limoges town hall ‘largely lost’ to fire – with officials blaming violence on ‘ultra-left’ »

‘If we burn, you burn’: hundreds arrested at protests across France – in pictures: Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets across the country to demonstrate against rising fuel prices and the cost of living »

Michael Lambert: How Farage and Others Deliberately Provoke Racial Tensions for Political Gain

Aug 10, 2024

Naturally, I was equally appalled by the violence and the dreadful rioting, but my opinions on the causes of the violence depart from Michael Lambert’s quite markedly.

Starmer’s conclusion that it was caused by “far-right thuggery” is but a part of the problem. If he sets his sights on trying to solve this problem by treating that as the only cause of the problem, I believe he will be greatly mistaken, and will fail. The causes of these violent protests go far, far deeper than that!

Farage, as much as I dislike the man, especially because he brought us Brexit, is right about the growth of Islam in this country.

I wrote a book more than twenty years ago about the dangers of the growth of Islam in this country. Although I wrote the book way over twenty years ago, I warned everyone I could at that time, pre-Internet, about the growth of Islam in this country coming up to about forty years ago! My experience of working in the Middle East alerted me to the dangers of Islam way back then. But in those days nobody wanted to know about the dangers that lay ahead, people were unaware of the dangers of Islam to the Western way of life. Generally, they knew nothing about Islam in those days, either. The fact of the matter is this: Islamic values and Western values are totally and utterly immiscible.

In my opinion, the growth of Islam in this country played no small part in causing those heinous riots. Add to that, we must remember that we have had nearly fifteen years of austerity under the Conservatives. People with few means have been hurting – and hurting badly, too.

Then there is the ever-widening gap in this country between the haves and have-nots. That certainly hasn’t helped the situation one little bit. And the more the gap will widen, the greater the danger of disturbances will get. A huge wealth gap between the rich and the poor is not conducive to societal cohesion.

The working-class people who rioted probably also had in their minds that so much money can be found to pay millions to house immigrants in hotels, yet the working class’s needs have been largely ignored.

I could write far, far more on this, but I shall leave it at that for now. I should add, however, that I am appalled and troubled by Starmer’s reactions to these riots. There is talk of his shutting up the people, especially online — with possible jail sentences for transgressors — and further, I have read that that there is a possible Islamophobia bill in the pipeline, too. If he passes such a stupid a bill, it will be the beginning of the end for this country. Censorship has always traditionally been the modus operandi of left-wing governments. Starmer’s left-wing government is clearly no exception to the rule. The UK is starting to resemble East Germany. It seems that Starmer is establishing his very own STASI! It is said that they have started keeping tabs on everybody now. Starmer was, after all, a public prosecutor. This development gives me a sense of foreboding about the direction this country is going under this authoritarian government. So just living in this country now makes me feel very uneasy. © Mark Alexander

Hundreds Arrested in Connection with Rioting across Parts of UK | BBC News

Aug 11, 2024 | Police have so far arrested 779 people in connection with rioting, with 349 of those charged, the National Police Chiefs' Council said.

It follows a week of violent disorder, including attacks on hotels housing asylum seekers and the looting of shops, which was fuelled by a false rumour that the Southport triple murder suspect was a Muslim asylum seeker.

Thousands of anti-racism protesters rallied in towns and cities across the country on Saturday. People took to the streets in cities including Belfast, Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and London.

Starmer Will Be Judged on How He Tackles Root Causes of Riots

BBC: "This could have been so much worse,” a Downing Street adviser tells me. “People were trying to set fire to a hotel with people inside.”

But the prime minister, they insist, is “focussed” - and after a career spent largely in the criminal justice system “knows which levers to pull”.

Sir Keir Starmer was the chief prosecutor of England and Wales during the last major outbreak of civil unrest in the UK in 2011, overseeing the prosecution of thousands of people involved in five days of rioting.

Rapid and well-publicised action by the courts was key in bringing the unrest to an end, he said then. And this time ministers have emphasised “strong policing and swift prosecutions” to deter others joining the violence.

How best to get that message across to the public has been a regular discussion at emergency COBR (Cabinet Office Briefing Room) meetings.

Just as government scientists were front and centre in the pandemic, police chiefs and prosecutors have been wheeled out to land core messages with authority in this crisis.

Stephen Parkinson, the otherwise low-profile Director of Public Prosecutions, was put before the cameras. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley made regular appearances.

Yet the prime minister and his aides have pointedly avoided answering questions about the underlying causes of the riots. » | Joe Pike, Political correspondent | Sunday, August 11, 2024

Keir Starmer Confirms Online Safety Act Will Be Reviewed after Far-right Riots

THE GUARDIAN: Remarks follow concern about role of misinformation in unrest and come as people are jailed for inciting violence online

Online misinformation laws will be reviewed after a spreading of falsehoods contributed to this month’s far-right riots, Keir Starmer has said.

The prime minister said social media was “not a law-free zone” during a visit to a police station on Friday, hours before two men were jailed for encouraging people on social media to attack hotels housing asylum seekers.

Starmer was asked about the warning by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, that the Online Safety Act was not fit for purpose and needed to be revisited.

Starmer told broadcasters: “I do agree that we’re going to have to look more broadly at social media after this disorder, but the focus at the moment has to be on dealing with the disorder and making sure that our communities are safe and secure.”

There have been calls for the Online Safety Act, which empowers the media regulator, Ofcom, to fine social media platforms that fail to tackle disinformation, to be enforced more quickly. (+ video) » | Eleni Courea and Mabel Banfield-Nwachi | Friday, August 9, 2024

The New DARK AGE of which I wrote so many years ago has well and truly DAWNED! Goodbye freedom of speech! Hello Mr Stasi! Perhaps those who rue the end of East Germany should think about coming to live in the UK. I think they might feel very much at home here. – © Mark Alexander

Complete Fake News BS!” Piers Morgan vs Andrew Tate on Riots

Aug 7, 2024 | This week, the UK has been gripped in the throes of violent riots; ignited by the murders of three young girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance in Southport, Merseyside. In a matter of hours, disinformation about the suspect began to spread around social media, claiming the 17-year-old assailant was an illegal Muslim migrant; which turned out to be untrue. Andrew Tate in particular made these claims on his X account, leading MP Nigel Farage to push out these falsehoods as well. As a result, both mosques and Muslims themselves have been attacked.

Piers Morgan brings Andrew Tate onto Uncensored to take him to task over his part in the amplification of these falsehoods, and the latter furiously defends himself. A war of words ensues - but at the very least, Tate does call for an end to the rioting and violence.


Please be aware that this discussion contains some very strong language. It is therefore unsuitable for children. – Mark

Far-right Rioters in England Deterred by ‘Swift Justice’, Says Policing Minister

THE GUARDIAN: Diana Johnson says ‘we will come for you’ for online activity as much as physical violence on streets

Far-right rioters have been deterred by the administration of “swift justice”, the policing minister has said as she warned there would be further arrests and charges brought against suspects.

Diana Johnson said the de-escalation of violence on Wednesday night was “just the start” and argued that the speedy mobilisation of police officers had had a deterrent effect.

Shops were boarded up across the country in response to the threat of more than 100 planned anti-immigration protests, but in most places these failed to materialise after thousands of peaceful anti-racism demonstrators turned out.

Johnson told BBC Breakfast that the counter-demonstrations showed the UK’s “tradition of peaceful protest”. » | Eleni Courea, Political correspondent | Thursday, August 8, 2024

United against hate: England’s counter-protesters left with little to counter: From Newcastle to London to Bristol, anti-racist demonstrators stood up against threat of further racist riots »

UK Riots: Looters and Rioters Given 'Tough' Prison Sentences

Aug 7, 2024 | “They are trying to show these rioters that if you go out there, if you loot, if you steal, if you trash places, you will be jailed.” Rioters face “tough” sentences as the government tries to “restore the link between actions and consquences,” says The Times’s political editor Steven Swinford.

Businesses Board Up in London amid Fears of Far-right Violence

THE GUARDIAN: Shops close early, with more than 100 demonstrations planned to take place across capital

Businesses have boarded up, closed or plan to close early amid fears about potential violence as more than 100 far-right demonstrations are planned take place across England on Wednesday night.

Employers in some parts of the UK, including the capital, have also told employees feeling vulnerable that they can work from home.

In Finchley, north London, some shops along the High Road had shut. Foxtons North Finchley estate agents closed “due to the situation in London” and the “potential violence” that could result from the planned rallies, Jenna from the head office reception said.

The company had also closed its estate agents in Croydon, Walthamstow and Harrow, areas with immigration law and advice centres listed as targets.

Violence so far has largely targeted mosques, hotels housing asylum seekers, libraries and shops. » | Mabel Banfield-Nwachi | Wednesday, August 7, 2024

Keir Starmer Dodges Questions about Elon Musk's Bizarre Comments on UK Riots

Aug 7, 2024 | "Starmer might actually be being responsible in not responding to that and ignoring him for the loon he is." Keir Starmer dodged questions from reporters about Elon Musk's comments on X regarding widespread riots in the UK.

If this young lady seriously thinks that there are no indigenous Brits, she is truly and utterly delusional! She needs to wake up! The word 'naïve' doesn't even begin to describe her attitudes. No wonder this country is in the state it is! – © Mark Alexander

Thousands of UK Police Ready as Rioters Warned They Will Be Dealt With Quickly | BBC News

Aug 7, 2024 | UK police are preparing for more possible riots across England - with reports at least 30 protests could be planned for Wednesday. Nearly 6,000 officers have been mobilised, say police sources, and the communities minister Jim McMahon says anyone involved in disruption will face "the full force of the law".

More people are due in court throughout the day, after the first person was jailed over the clashes on Tuesday. The disorder erupted in cities across the country last week after the fatal stabbing of three girls in Southport - with unrest fuelled by misinformation online that the suspect was an asylum seeker.

Inquests have opened into the deaths of the three girls - the coroner said they will be "missed beyond any description".

UK Riots: 'The Next Eruption We See Will Be Bigger' | Tim Montgomerie

Aug 7, 2024 | “We have these people in Britain who have no real prospect of ever being an integrated part of our country.” ‘The next eruption we see will be bigger’ if we don’t help those who feel ‘disenfranchised’ and ‘disassociated’ from British society, says Conservative commentator, Tim Montgomerie.

WIKIPEDIA: Tim Montgomerie »

Rioters in England and Wales Could Be Charged with Terrorism Offences, Prosecutor Says | BBC News

Aug 6, 2024 | The director of public prosecutions in England and Wales says he is "willing" to consider charging some rioters with terrorism offences. Stephen Parkinson said he is “aware of at least one instance where that is happening”.

Suspects charged so far have faced allegations including violent disorder, which can lead to five years in jail. Some other suspects who have been arrested are being assessed for the more serious charge of rioting, that can lead to ten years.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to chair an emergency Cobra meeting tonight on efforts to tackle the unrest. The disorder follows the fatal stabbing of three girls in Southport, with subsequent unrest fuelled by misinformation online, the far right and anti-immigration sentiment.

Violent Rioting Continues in England and Northern Ireland | BBC News

Aug 6, 2024 | There has been more unrest in parts of the UK, with police coming under attack in cities such as Darlington and Plymouth.

Several vehicles and a pub were also damaged in Birmingham after false reports of a far-right march.

There has been violent disorder in towns and cities across the UK since last Tuesday, the day after three young girls were killed in Southport. The riots began after false claims on social media said someone who had arrived in the UK illegally was to blame for the attack.