Latest / The Rest of the World Podcast / The Rest of the World Report | October 17, 2026 — Saturday Edition

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The Rest of the World Report | October 17, 2026 — Saturday Edition · The Rest of the World Podcast

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Hello from Paris.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez with The Rest of the World Report for Saturday, October 17th.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: The No Kings Network,
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: which opposes President Donald Trump,
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: held rallies across the United States on Saturday.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Their aim was to get people to vote early in the midterm elections.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: The organizers call the day No Kings Vote Early.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: They describe it as nonpartisan voter participation.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Hundreds of events were planned.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: They were billed as nonpartisan,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: though they billed on nearly two years of no kings marches by people upset
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: with Trump's presidency.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: The group said the events would range from block parties to rallies to marches to
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: the polls where early voting is available.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: In Washington,
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: a band played at the Lincoln Memorial for what looked like a few hundred people
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: in coats and caps.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Signs in the crowd read,
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: In Atlanta,
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: City Councilman Michael Julian Bond told a rally to urge voters to vote before
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: the November 3rd general election.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: The organizer's website says families across the country are struggling
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: to afford groceries, gas, and electric bills.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: It says efforts to undermine trust in elections and make it harder for people
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: to be heard are underway nationwide.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: It also asks people to pledge to join mass nonviolent action if the vote is disrupted.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: Trump has long been suspicious of mail voting and has claimed Without evidence
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: that fraud cost him the 2020 election.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: On Thursday, October 15th, his administration sued California election officials.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: The suit asked a judge to bar the state from counting mail-in ballots from people
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: the federal government has identified as likely non-citizens
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: until their immigration status is confirmed.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: On Friday,
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: October 16th,
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: the Justice Department warned local officials who process such ballots
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: that they risk criminal investigation and possible prosecution.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: The same day,
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Senators Alex Padilla,
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: Sheldon Whitehouse, and Dick Durbin wrote to Attorney General Todd Blanche.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: They asked the Justice Department to commit to not seizing ballots
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: or other election materials before the midterm results are certified.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: Organizers held No King events across the United States on Saturday to get people voting early.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: The general election is November 3rd.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: They call the events nonpartisan, and the network itself opposes Donald Trump.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Paris.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Around 550,000 people joined cost-of-living protests across France on Saturday,
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: the Interior Minister said.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Organizers put the number at 800,000,
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: and France's biggest trade union, the CGT, had earlier said more than 500,000.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: The Rest of the World Report was there,
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: and I suspect by the time this is all said and done,
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: the number is going to be closer to a million than 500,000.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Paris Mayor Emmanuel Gregoire said the vast majority of demonstrators were marching peacefully.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I found the crowd to be peaceful,
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: the atmosphere jubilant, and I even danced with a few of the marchers myself.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: Violence broke out on the sidelines in several cities,
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: and the interior minister said police had arrested around 400 people.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Police made extensive use of tear gas in Paris.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: I can confirm that.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: In Lyon, protesters set fire to a tourist office.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: In Limoges, authorities said the 143-year-old town hall was on fire after a group attacked it.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: According to witnesses,
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: masked protesters torched a police car outside,
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: broke windows, and went in to set the fire.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: Several shops in the city center were also looted.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: In Marseille,
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_00: the mayor said the town hall had been vandalized and
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: that more police were being sent and dozens of shops were looted.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: Protesters forced their way into the town hall of Paris' 10th arrondissement,
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: trapping about 100 people at a breast cancer awareness event.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: The district mayor asked police to evacuate the building.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: In Bordeaux,
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: A prefecture spokeswoman said individuals ransacked the residents of the prefect
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: of Gironde.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: President Emmanuel Macron wrote on X that there is no place for violence in the Republic.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: Those who attacked prefectures and businesses and looted town halls,
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_00: he wrote, will be prosecuted and punished.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: He pledged the support of the nation to law enforcement.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone would close ranks,
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: he said,
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: against the sowers of chaos whom he accused of seeking only
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: to tear down institutions and of preventing people
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: from peacefully expressing their demands.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: The Post said,
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: He
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: wrote
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: that the government would not be intimidated by anyone using the violence
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: as a warm-up for the presidential election.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Paris Mayor Gregar said entire streets in the city had been ravaged.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: The protests began in mid-September at high schools in Paris's poor northern suburbs.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Anger over teacher shortages and run-down facilities grew into wider movements,
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Over inequality, public spending, and living standards.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: The call for Saturday began on social media as a protest against rising fuel prices,
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: and then it widened to the cost of living.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: For more than a month, it spread without union backing.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: The CGT now backs the protests and calls for higher wages and pensions,
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: lower prices, and protection of public services.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Social media calls urged a revival of the Yellow Vest movement,
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: which emerged in 2018 against social injustice.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Student groups protesting since mid-September urged their supporters to join.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: One sign in the Paris march read, sick government, sick society.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Camille Allian,
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: an 18-year-old high school student,
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: said he was protesting over the 2027 elections,
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: politicians who lie and the ultra-rich.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: A 50-year-old actor who gave only her first name, Agnes,
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: said the government has done nothing about years of climate,
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: economic, and equality problems.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Police tactics are under scrutiny.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: A 15-year-old lost a hand to a police stun grenade in Lens on October 5th,
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: and Interior Minister Laurent Nunez suspended their use
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: against student demonstrators.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Then today,
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: a police source said a male protester in Saint-Etienne had his hand blown off by
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: a police crowd-controlled grenade.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: Nunez said stun grenades could be used on Saturday, today.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Le Corneau said...
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: More than 900 police officers were injured in earlier protests,
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: and the police watchdog is investigating at least two dozen allegations
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: of police violence.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: At the end of this episode,
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: after I'm done with the news,
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you guys about exactly what I saw when I was there.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: Around 550,000 people marched across France on Saturday,
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: the interior minister said, over prices, fuel, and school conditions.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Violence broke out in several cities,
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: including fires at the town hall in Limoges and a tourist office in Lyon.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Prime Minister blames the ultra-left, and the Paris mayor says most marchers were peaceful.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: Police use of force is under investigation.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: Israeli settlers on Saturday attacked a convoy of European diplomats
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: and beat Bernard Bardot, the 78-year-old mayor of Olnoy-en-Marie in northern France.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: Witnesses and diplomats said he had joined the Palestinian olive farmers in
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: the West Bank of Teba alongside the top French and Belgian representatives
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: in Jerusalem and Polish diplomats.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Baudot said mass settlers yelled defamatory comments about France,
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: kicked him, and hit him with iron bars.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: He was wearing a sash in the French colors and was seen collapsed against a car,
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: but he did not need hospital care.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: Bashar Fawadla,
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: a priest in Taiba,
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: said settlers had already attacked the harvest and taken olives before the attack on
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: the mayor.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: He said one person was hit in the head and needed stitches,
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: and that an older woman in her 70s was beaten after being insulted.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Bordeaux said settler behavior like this points to tolerance on the part of
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: the Israeli government.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barreau called the attack appalling
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: and said Israeli authorities must arrest those responsible and halt the violence.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Israel's Foreign Ministry condemned the incident,
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: and police said they would open an investigation.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: Belgium called for an end to impunity for violent settlers.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alleged a smear campaign against settlers and said
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: the diplomats should have coordinated their movements with the Israeli military.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: He also noted that Bordeaux is a communist known for supporting
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: the Palestinian cause, and his office urged caution before drawing conclusions.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Gadi Eisenkot,
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_00: his main rival in the October 27th election and a former military chief,
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: called the attacks, quote,
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: "...Jewish terrorism under the auspices of the Israeli government." Close quote.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: On Friday,
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: settlers beat Heidi Levine,
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: an American photographer who was in moderate condition on Saturday
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: with broken vertebrae.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu suggested Palestinians and far-left activists had caused the trouble.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: President Isaac Herzog called her in the hospital and described the attacks
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: as outrageous and shocking.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Earlier this month,
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: settlers fractured several ribs of a news agency photographer,
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: Jafar Ashtia, as he covered the harvest.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: Elsewhere on Saturday,
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: settlers attacked residents of Main village,
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: injuring six people,
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: including four women and a child, according to the Palestine Red Crescent Society.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_00: In Khafer Malik,
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: northeast of Ramallah,
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: Mayor Najah Rustam said settlers raided a farm at dawn and killed about 20 sheep.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: What American readers need to know,
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: settlers beat a French mayor in the West Bank on Saturday,
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: a day after an American photographer was beaten there.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: France and Belgium condemned the attack.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_00: Israel's foreign ministry condemned it.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: And police promised an investigation.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: Netanyahu alleged a smear campaign against settlers days before Israel's October 27th election.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, a quick Iran update.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy warned that the Strait of Hormuz is closed,
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: with four tankers reported hit since Friday.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: The UK Maritime Trade Operations Agency said one was struck by
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: a rocket-propelled grenade fired from a small boat 78 nautical miles northeast
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: of Jubail, Saudi Arabia, and that gunmen fired on a fifth tanker off Yemen.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: The agency also reported at least 12 ships attacked in the last week,
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: ending October 16, and said most attacked vessels don't report it.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: The Guard says a supertanker carrying more than 2 million barrels caught fire
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: after hitting a mine on a route it called unauthorized.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Brad Cooper,
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: the chief of the U.S.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Central Command,
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: said the strait is controlled by the United States and its regional partners,
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: not Iran, and that 400 ships move through it this week.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: That's it for this edition of The Rest of the World Report.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: So for those of you who are interested, here's what happened today for me in Paris.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I go down to the protest, and I hop on the Nine Line.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: I get off on the Saint-Denis,
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: which is a couple of stops away from La Republique,
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: which is where everybody was going to.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm walking,
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: and as soon as I get off the metro,
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: there's already thousands of people marching towards La Republique.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: And for those of you who don't know,
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: who have never been to Paris, La République is a big circle.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's that famous statue that you're going to see if you look at
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: the pictures I've got on my Substack.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: And it's a big esplanade.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where most of the protesting ends up, right?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because, I mean, you can have hundreds of thousands of people there.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: So what it also is is a circle.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And so, you know, you can come at it from any number of directions.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's important because we get there.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the cops have it blocked off and they kind of funnel you down to
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: where they want you to go in.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: And what I realized is, one, there was...
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to be surprised if the 550,000 number is not France, but specifically Paris.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because I've been there before where there were
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: a couple hundred thousand people just in La Republic.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: And there was easily more than that this time.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: There was more than the most I've ever seen.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: And it was like...
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: The Walking Dead, you either moved or you got trampled.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I go in and I'm trying to make my way to the center so I can get some pictures
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: and some video and maybe talk to some kids and whatever.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the thing.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Even though this was advertised as a protest for all of these other things,
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: it was still mostly the kids.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it was mostly the kids,
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: the majority of the adults that I did see,
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: and I did see a handful of yellow vests,
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: but the majority of the adults I saw We're parents and grandparents.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not kidding.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a 54-year-old man tomorrow.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_00: And there were people that were there that were old enough to be my parent.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: And they were walking in lockstep with their granddaughters or their daughters
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: or their sons carrying signs from 68.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: And essentially the vibe was, I can't believe we have to do this shit again.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a couple of times,
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: and I didn't get video of it because I was so focused on where I wanted to get.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_00: But there are videos out there.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: You'll see parents sitting in front of the cops because they want to block the cops
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: from hurting their kids.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that the violence gets clicks.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that the violence sells ad space for a lot of these online places.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So I understand why that is the thing that everybody's talking about.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I would like you to understand that Everything that I saw today,
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: including the violence I did see,
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm going to get to that in a minute,
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: there was so much more good that it was overwhelmingly good.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: I went there.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_00: There was music playing.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: I was dancing with people, strangers.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was singing and chanting.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: You walk...
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: When we were walking towards La Republic,
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: in any direction you looked,
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: there were people up in their barristers of the apartments with signs supporting
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: the protesters,
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: protesting for better schools,
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: protesting for a better education,
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: for teachers,
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: for resources,
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: to not have to have rats in their damn buildings,
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: to have air conditioning when it gets ungodly hot,
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: to have heating when it gets ungodly cold.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: These kids are not asking for the world and everything they're asking
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: for is reasonable in my opinion.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's how most people feel.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I think that the focus is going to be on all of the violence and all
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: the violence and all of the violence.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I want you guys to focus on these kids.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you do nothing else, these kids are not asking for the world.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're going to call ourselves a society,
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: then we need to make sure that we are leaving these kids a better world than the one
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: That we inherited.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that's all they're asking for.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't think it's unreasonable for us to give it to them.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to get off my soapbox and get back to telling you what I saw.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm in there and there was gas everywhere, man.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like I've joked a couple of times that I was gassed five times today.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: And what I mean by that is that three times while I was at Little Republic,
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: there was gas shot in my general direction.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I was standing downwind, so it got to me and it was annoying.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: But even without that, there was just a hate.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like they were constantly shooting off gas canisters all day, constantly.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_00: And so there was always a haze.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I got some of the video I wanted to get.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: I got some of the pictures I wanted to get.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: I talked to some of the kids I wanted to talk to.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it was cool, right?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, And I wasn't carrying a sign,
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: but I was wearing my Stop Killing Kids Free Palestine t-shirt that I made.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I got a couple of hugs because kids saw that and they were like, you know, whatever.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: And when I say kids,
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to understand, I'm not talking about like little, little children.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about like teenagers.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: These could be, then they could have been 20 somethings.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: When I say they're kids, they're young enough to be my child.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was cool because I felt like I was connected with The movement
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: that they're trying to kind of, you know, the space that they're trying to fill.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_00: When I saw the cops,
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: and I have a picture,
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to share it with you guys,
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: starting to kind of mount up when like you just start to see scores and scores
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: and scores and get up on the barricade, like they're getting ready to be unleashed.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's when I'm like, okay, I'm going to start finding my way out.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_00: But it was a pain in the ass to find a way out because they were blocking everything.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Every exit.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: And they were funneling us out to one very specific place or maybe another.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there was two or three specific spaces because this place was massive.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: But I had to walk through at least two different walls of cops before I get to
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: the third one where I was allowed to leave.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: I got where I was and I waited.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then I started to text my wife because she's in the United States right now.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: And both military vets, and she said, are you safe?
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I'm fine.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: I sent her a picture of a parking garage that was like 10 yards away from me.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I have an escape if shit goes sideways.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not two minutes later, shit went sideways.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm on this street and it's mostly kids going to the protest, right?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, just honestly, thousands of them.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like 10 at a time, you just see them walking by, walking by, walking by, walking by.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just nonstop.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then all of a sudden you hear screaming.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Well, first you hear the pop, pop, pop, pop.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I think it was four of them, maybe it was five.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh shit, okay.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Those were very, very close.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then you hear the screaming.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then you just see the wall of kids running back to leave.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_00: And they're running in the direction that I was.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I was about halfway up the street from La Republic to the actual street
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: that it crossed on the other side.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And they're coming.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: And I walked across the street calmly and ducked into this parking garage as hordes
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: of kids just went running by and gas followed them.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it snuck around and found me again.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: Good times.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: I waited it out.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was not long.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: And as I was getting ready, I'm like, okay, I'm going to go leave.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm going to get out of here.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: And as I go to leave, I hear the fire truck.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I get my phone out because I'm just waiting because I've seen this happen
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: a couple of times and I was mad that I didn't have my phone ready.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: So for those of you who don't know this,
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: these kids have been getting treated pretty rough by these cops for the last couple
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_00: of weeks that they've been protesting.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Last week,
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: there was a handful of fire department,
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: there was a handful of firemen who pulled the cops off these kids
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: and basically were like, no, you're not going to hurt these kids.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_00: And they were protecting these kids.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: You would have thought a rock star was going by,
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm going to post the video,
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: but like all of the kids stopped whatever they were doing
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: and they just started cheering the fire department truck
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: that was driving down this street to go back, to go into La Republique.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw that so many times whenever there was a firetruck.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: It was kind of adorable.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it goes back to me, to the heart of what this whole thing is about.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: These kids are not the violence that you're going to see, the burning and the whatever.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: It is not these kids.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: It's not.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's a handful of just horrible people taking advantage of a situation to behave horribly.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And do not let it distract you or detract from what these kids are trying to achieve.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Please.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I leave after all that.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And there's gonna be a little bit,
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'll leave it for you with the kids cheering the fire department.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: And if you follow my Instagram, you'd have seen it already.
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_00: I go to leave and I go back to where I got off, only it's closed.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, okay.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: I walk down, see it's fenced off, whatever.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Come back up the stairs.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: I really didn't make it down the stairs very far when I hear the same thing, pop, pop.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: And then kids just,
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: so I go to grab my phone and I see one person,
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: she was being chased,
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_00: gets kind of tackled and manhandled and hit and then just thrown aside.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the cops go running back by.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm on the corner of Strasbourg and Saint-Denis and they go,
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: cops go chasing whoever they're chasing down Strasbourg.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I start hearing, medic, medic, medic.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, fuck.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry about my language, but this is how I talk.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just, I'm scared to death that somebody is seriously hurt.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Got my phone out and I'm recording and go walking down that way and
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: the cop's coming right back at me.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh man.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so I move, let the cops go by.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I noticed there were people tending to this one woman,
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: young lady who was injured and they're calling for a medic for her.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: The cops go by, nothing.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: They don't assist.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_00: They don't try to find help for her.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they go and regroup with the other cops in the middle of the street,
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: and then they go chasing off some kids down the other side of Strasburg.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, cool, cool.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody calls for help for this kid.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: I go walking down where they just come from on Strasburg,
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: and I see one young man who is, his face is just full of blood.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's a pile of blood down, you know, where he is, just gushing from his face.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: And people are tending to him, calling for a medic.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then right next to him is a homeless man.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I A lot of the homeless people here in Paris will, like,
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: they'll have tents and they'll just park them on the sidewalks and tuck them away
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: from wherever and that's where they live.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can, whatever you want about, but, you know.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a homeless man being tended to because this horde of kids and police,
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: and I'm not blaming anybody,
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm saying that it was the entire horde,
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: ran by and trampled him and somebody was helping him.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I was there for probably about 10 minutes,
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: maybe 15, and I didn't see the cops once offer help to these kids.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't see them call assistance for these kids.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: I did see volunteers, again, kids showing up to help these people.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I made my way, I left, and I go get on a metro, and I had to get on the 12 line.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: I live off the 9 line.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: I had to go find,
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: and I don't remember where I was,
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: and I get on and I go down and I'm like, okay,
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_00: I can get on this and I can go all the way around the other side of town and
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: then get on the nine line and then take the nine line all the way back and blah,
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: blah, blah.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Fine, I don't care, whatever.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm full of gas.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: I reek of gas, you know.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: I get on, we go and I'm like, cool, I'm going home.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: Tell my wife I'm going home.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: And we get to the next stop, Bonne Nouvelle, and they're like, you got to get off.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you ain't got to go home, but you cannot stay here.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Get off.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: That was the end of that.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: I get off.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, cool, whatever, and I go walking up.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_00: I walk off the metro,
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: and there's a gaggle of kids being chased,
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: and they're running,
• 23:11
  SPEAKER_00: and I swear to God,
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: one of them, like,
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: to the cop's credit,
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: I did not see any of them shoot any of these kids directly with the gas canisters,
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: uh, In the report, I talk about the kid who got shot in the hand.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: Some of these cops were doing that.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: They were shooting.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: They're not supposed to, but that's another story.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: They were shooting him up, and then when they land, they break off, right?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: They break into chunks, and the kid was running.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Bless his heart.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's running,
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: and as he's running,
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: his foot just kicks one of the fragments of gas,
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: and I look down, and it's almost right between my freaking legs.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like,
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: this is just,
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like,
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_00: this is what I get for trying to be a good person and coming out here
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: and supporting these kids.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: So anyway, I go back down because they didn't close it.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: They hadn't closed the gate yet.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: I go back down because we're all getting gassed now.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: And the metro workers are like telling us,
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_00: go this way, go this way, go this way, go this way, go this way.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they send us back out and underground.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we're underground for a long while.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: And we come back out and we're almost right back to Saint-Denis again.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, good Lord.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so I did see,
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: I got to see a little standoff of a bunch of these kids with their fireworks
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: and these cops with their flash grenades and tear gas.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's a little video of that too.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then I finally just kind of just,
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: I walked, I just walked and I walked because I know my way around the city.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I live about five miles away from where I was.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm like,
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: you know,
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: if I have to walk five miles,
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I've walked, I've honestly walked 12 miles in this city in one day.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: So fine, I'll walk.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I just walked along the Nine Line where I knew it was.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it takes you right along where all the shopping centers are.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: If you've ever been here for Christmas and you go to the pretty little shops
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: and stuff and the opera and blah, blah, blah.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole time I'm walking on the sidewalk, I hear music.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_00: And I turn around and there's this guy on a bicycle with a big Bluetooth speaker.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_00: And just so you understand, you're not allowed to march without a permit.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't care.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the kids didn't care.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't like they were marching.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: They were dancing and just having a great time.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: And there was so much joy.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot express to you the ability to find joy in things that the French have,
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: or at least the Parisians have.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so, I mean, these kids are getting gassed.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're getting shot at with rubber bullets.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: They're having their protest usurped by
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Horrible people.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: And still they find the ability to find joy.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just, I just,
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm crossing the street because I want to go and be over there with these guys.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen people's videos and I think some of them have me somewhere in them.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: But it was just cool.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, okay, this is what it's supposed to be about, right?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so when you got, and this is all very long-winded.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted to do two things.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: I wanted you guys to understand what it was like for me being there.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, And two,
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: I want to take the focus off of all of the violence that you guys are seeing on
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: the television.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: That is just a fragment of a percentage of people and not at all associated
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: with what this movement is ostensibly about.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: These kids are right.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: They deserve schools that are better.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_00: These kids are right.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: They deserve to have classrooms with a reasonable teacher to student ratio.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: These kids are right.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: They deserve to be in buildings that are safe,
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: where they're not having to worry about asbestos,
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: where they're not having to worry about whether or not a
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna get heat stroke or freeze and need to bring in multiple layers
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: of jackets and blankets just to sit through a winter class.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're not asking for the world.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're not asking for anything that is unreasonable.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I really just wanted to kind of get on my soapbox,
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: use a little bit of a voice that I have and tell you the violence is not these kids.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_00: The violence is not these kids.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: These kids are good.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's it.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'll talk to you guys all tomorrow with some good news.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Rudy Martinez.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: This is The Rest of the World Report.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: I'm out.
• 27:40
  [music]