After the Riots, the Curfews

Mass protests that swept France during the week were taken over by violent rioters, with shops looted and public buildings trashed. Among the buildings set alight were Lyon's Tourist Information and the iconic Limoges City Hall.

After the riots came the curfews, along with hard questions about who took part and why the violence was not stopped in time. President Macron attributed the disorder to seditious groups, ultra-left anarchists and opportunist criminals, offering what was described as a qualified mea culpa while conceding failures in anticipation and intelligence gathering.

Le Pen's Position and Protests Beyond France

Marine Le Pen, the far-right presidential frontrunner, said Macron was out of breath, exhausted and disorientated - and she is now polling in an even stronger position for the presidency.

Criticism also came from abroad. President Trump waded in, and Israel's prime minister, who faces elections of his own, used the unrest to settle old scores ahead of the vote.

The unrest was not confined to France:

• •Milan was a mirror image of the French protests.
• •Demonstrations also took place in Spain, Portugal and Belgium.
• •The wave of protest has been dubbed an Autumn of Discontent.
• •More protests under that banner were planned for the following weekend.

Washington Toasts Putin as a Teacher Goes Free

At St Petersburg's Constantine Palace, President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff raised a toast to Vladimir Putin. The occasion followed the release of Stephen Hubbard, a 74-year-old US teacher held for four years after the Kremlin accused him of serving as a mercenary in Ukraine - a case widely seen as hostage diplomacy.

Witkoff told Mr Hubbard that Putin had sent his blessings, then blessed Putin himself, calling him a "humanitarian". The warm words came as Russia launched another mass aerial attack on Kyiv.

The deal appeared linked to the United States lifting sanctions on Russian diesel, and Moscow apparently committed to renewing trilateral peace talks with Kyiv and Washington. Critics allege the Trump administration has disregarded a just peace over the lure of business deals dangled by the Kremlin.

Israel Votes After the October 7th Attacks

Israel's parties held their final rallies ahead of the country's first election since the October 7th attacks. At them, candidates shouted rather than debated, over responsibility for the wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran, and over the escalating settler violence in the West Bank, which neared lockdown after an attack the day of the report.

• •Voters head to the polls with the government increasingly isolated on the world stage.
• •Benjamin Netanyahu received a last-minute endorsement from President Trump.
• •Trump is said privately to have been frustrated with Netanyahu, reportedly calling him "a conman, who everyone's sick of" according to New York Times insiders Maggie Haberman and Johnathan Swann; Trump dismissed this as untrue.
• •Netanyahu claimed that successive US presidents before Trump had tried and failed for the past three decades to get him out of office.

Israeli voters head to the polls with their government increasingly isolated on the world stage, while more Autumn of Discontent protests were planned for that weekend.