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PARIS — French authorities banned demonstrations in Paris, Lyon, Lille and Grenoble on Thursday, as the government tried to prevent a repeat of the looting and arson that followed last weekend's nationwide protests over the cost of living and conditions in schools.

The Paris police prefecture said Thursday's protests would be barred in key parts of the capital until 8pm, including areas around the Elysee Palace, both houses of parliament, the main railway stations and downtown streets where shops were looted. A police source told the AFP news agency that the ban was necessary because organisers were unable to prevent "violence and vandalism". Similar orders were issued in the three other cities.

The restrictions came after more than half a million people marched across France on Saturday, in a movement that began with high-school students and grew into a wider protest against living costs. Authorities say at least 2,500 people were arrested as groups attacked public buildings, set fires and ransacked shops. The interior ministry has said about 2,000 businesses were damaged or looted, and 60,000 police and security forces were deployed. A town hall was set on fire.

Speaking at the Elysee Palace on Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron blamed the violence on what he called "seditious acts" by "ultra-left" groups that he said were trying to "bring down the Republic". He said France would ban all "illegitimate" protests in the coming days, while marches organised by recognised groups such as trade unions would be allowed only if they took alternative routes outside city centres. He said he would convene the country's defence council on Friday.

The government's account is contested. Critics say much of the violence was carried out by small groups on the fringes of largely peaceful marches, and that ministers were unprepared. Interior Minister Laurent Nunez acknowledged this week that police had "lost control" in some cities and that intelligence had underestimated the turnout, expecting about 200,000 people when more than 500,000 appeared. He offered to resign; Macron refused and asked him to ensure transparency about the planning failures.

The unrest began last month at a high school in Creteil, southeast of Paris, over a shortage of staff. Class strikes and blockades spread to other suburbs and then nationwide. Students complained of underfunded schools, dilapidated buildings and too few teachers, particularly in low-income areas. Their demands merged with wider anger about prices and public services, with the presidential election due in April and May and Macron unable to stand again after two terms.

Alice Cohen-Morzadec, a spokesperson for the French Student Union, told Al Jazeera the demonstrations were an "outburst" of anger at policies she said had "destroyed" students' living conditions. "One student out of two cannot eat properly. One student out of three doesn't have a permanent house to live in," she said. "We cannot study in these conditions."

The crisis has quickly become a political fight. Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally leads the polls, with Jean-Luc Melenchon of La France Insoumise second, and both have been accused of exploiting the unrest. Le Pen and centrist politicians including Macron and Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu have blamed hard-left groups for the disorder.

The unrest also drew comments from abroad. US President Donald Trump said Europe must "close its borders" and blamed migration for the violence. Macron, speaking during a visit to Qatar, dismissed "stupid comments by many, including foreign leaders" and said there was no evidence of foreign interference. French authorities have not linked the violence to migration, and French law bars the collection of ethnic data.

Lecornu met union leaders on Wednesday and said a "massive" security operation would be mounted for Saturday, when "yellow vest" activists are expected to join a new demonstration. Some Saturday marches, including in Lyon, will be banned. Union representatives said the meeting produced no concrete proposals and are now preparing a day of strikes and rallies on 5 November.

It is not clear whether the bans will hold. The right to demonstrate is protected by the French constitution, and the orders have been criticised as a restriction on it. Nor is it known whether Saturday will remain peaceful, what further measures the defence council might approve, or how the crisis will shape the presidential campaign. The immediate test is Saturday.

North Korea said on Thursday that propaganda loudspeakers along its border with South Korea will be ready to switch on within days, setting up the first exchange of cross-border broadcasts in 16 months if Seoul answers in kind.

Kim Yo-jong, a senior Workers' Party official and the sister of leader Kim Jong-un, made the announcement in statements carried by the state Korean Central News Agency. On Wednesday she said the loudspeakers would be in operation along the whole border at some point in October. A day later she said they would be on standby within days and that "new counter means" would be placed on alert along the frontier.

"Our tactical hunting teams are taking new positions, and within October, the loudspeakers for psychological warfare against the ROK will be in operation along the whole border," she said, using the initials of South Korea's official name, the Republic of Korea. She also warned Seoul of "the most horrible and distressing situation" if it continued what Pyongyang calls interference in the North's internal affairs.

Giant loudspeakers have been part of the two Koreas' psychological campaign since the Cold War. In recent years the North has broadcast haunting, animal-like sounds across the line, while the South has played K-pop and news critical of Pyongyang. South Korea's military began dismantling its fixed speakers in August 2025, weeks after President Lee Jae Myung suspended broadcasts in his first days in office that June as a confidence-building step. The North then stopped its own broadcasts.

Ties have deteriorated since September, when a landmine exploded south of the military demarcation line and injured three South Korean soldiers, two of them seriously. Seoul and the United Nations Command, which oversees the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War without a peace treaty, concluded that the device was a North Korean anti-personnel mine and that planting it violated the truce. Pyongyang denied responsibility and called the incident a "self-staged farce".

North Korea has spent the past three years reinforcing its side of the 250km border. Since Kim Jong-un declared in December 2023 that the two Koreas were "two states hostile to each other", the North has laid mines, strung barbed wire and built anti-tank barriers. On Wednesday Kim Yo-jong inspected fortification points with Marshal Pak Jong-chon, an adviser to the defence ministry, and said the border had been "clearly blocked and turned into a fortress more thoroughly". She said her brother wanted it to be "a permanent line never to be crossed".

Seoul says North Korean troops have crossed the demarcation line repeatedly during the construction work, prompting South Korean warning broadcasts and warning shots. Pyongyang describes those as provocations by "armed rogues". At a briefing on Thursday, a South Korean defence ministry spokesperson said that if the North went ahead there would "naturally" have to be a proportional measure, but made clear that no decision had been taken. The joint chiefs said they had observed routine maintenance of the North's loudspeakers before Kim's statements.

Seoul's foreign ministry said on Thursday that it would send a letter to the UN Security Council arguing that the September blast was caused by mines planted by North Korea and amounted to a violation of the armistice. The letter will demand an apology and call for dialogue to prevent an escalation, a ministry spokesperson said.

The threat is a setback for Lee's policy of engagement, which has yet to produce talks. Pyongyang has refused to resume dialogue and has formally designated the South a hostile state. It is not clear whether the loudspeakers will actually be switched on, how far they will carry, or what the "new counter means" are. Seoul has not said whether it would restart its own broadcasts, a step that would end the pause Lee began last year. Nor is it known whether the Security Council will act on the letter, given the divisions among its permanent members. North Korea has given no date beyond October.

For Bangladesh, the peninsula is more than a distant flashpoint. South Korea is a major destination for Bangladeshi workers under its Employment Permit System, and thousands of families depend on the wages they send home. A prolonged rise in tension can affect shipping, insurance and energy costs across Asia, and it complicates the wider trade and migration picture that Dhaka watches.

The immediate test is whether KCNA announces that the speakers have gone live, and how Seoul responds. South Korean officials have left room for a measured reply rather than an immediate resumption of their own broadcasts. Any return of South Korean loudspeakers would remove the last confidence-building measure Lee has with Pyongyang and push the border back towards the tit-for-tat both sides avoided after June 2025.