🎧 Behind France’s Riots, a Far-Left Network Years in the Making

Welcome back to the Morning Brief——brought to you by one of America’s largest independent newspapers—The Epoch Times. 

It’s Wednesday October 28, and I’m Keegan Billings.

Let’s jump right in.

Good morning, happy Wednesday! Here are today’s top stories. 

• The school blockade-turned-national protest movement in France that devolved into looting and violence has been backed and promoted by a range of left and far-left actors, 

• Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro fled to the United States following his presidential election loss, with the State Department confirming that it will issue visas to the senator and his family. 

• Vote tallying in Israel’s national election began yesterday evening, and exit polls from Israeli media outlets showed no clear winner yet.

• The United States has been expanding exports to Southeast Asia as it seeks to diversify agricultural trade and reduce dependence on China, a senior USDA official told The Epoch Times.

• 🍵 Health: Sourdough is a long-fermented bread that benefits digestion, blood sugar, and the gut. Its potential health benefits, however, depend on more than just the length of fermentation.

 

NOW, BACK TO OUR TOP STORY:

Behind France’s School Blockades and ‘Yellow Vest’ Riots, a Far-Left Network Years in the Making

PARIS–Five weeks have passed since students in the Paris suburbs blockaded a high school to protest overcrowding and staff shortages. Within a month, they joined forces with the Yellow Vests, and rioting led to nearly 8,000 arrests.

On Oct. 17, at least 3,000 shops were looted or damaged, according to French Commerce Minister Serge Papin. The movement’s next round of protests followed on Oct. 24, with 70,000 police officers deployed across the country.

Statements from trade unions, social media posts, and the far-left, as well as foreign flags and slogans seen and heard at the protests, show that the movement was backed and promoted by a range of left and far-left actors, including LFI lawmakers, Trotskyist groups, and activists linked to political Islam.

Since Oct. 1, the French government has blamed France Unbowed (LFI), a hard-left party led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for the upheaval, calling it “a maneuver organized by LFI and its ultra-left proxies.” Mélenchon, LFI’s presidential candidate and a former deputy of the National Assembly, once belonged to the International Communist Organization (OCI) and has voiced support for socialist regimes, including those of China, Cuba, and Venezuela.

LFI denies this accusation. Manuel Bompard, LFI’s national coordinator, called on the government “not to descend into conspiracy theories.”

Among the groups active in the blockades was Permanent Revolution, a Trotskyist organization that emerged from a 2021 split within the New Anticapitalist Party.

Its student wing, Le Poing Levé (the Raised Fist), called for a “black week” of school blockades beginning on Oct. 5. On Oct. 11, the group’s spokesman, Anasse Kazib, launched his 2027 presidential campaign in Saint-Denis, an event the organization described as taking place “under the sign of the high school revolt.”

Another group involved in online promotion of the protests is the far-left RED Youth.

In 2025, the group was among the founding associations of Generation EDR alongside the USL, the Young Guard, and Muslim Students of France. In May 2025, a French government report on the Muslim Brotherhood named Muslim Students of France as among those part of the federation, which it described as the organization’s branch in France.

Among the online posts promoting the protests, one by Franco-Iranian influencer Shahin Hazamy drew millions of views on Instagram.

External actors multiplied during the unrest.

Olivier Vial, director of the Center for University Studies and Research, a think tank that studies emerging forms of radicalism, told The Epoch Times.

No single organization is behind this autumn’s unrest, but many groups have a stake in fueling and sustaining the protests, 

“The people who want to manipulate and mobilize don’t even need to get their feet wet anymore,” Vial said. “They just need to fuel tensions on social networks and indicate the targets.”

Vial said that many demonstrators have already bought into the idea that far-left violence can be justified.

NOW, OVER TO POLITICS:

• Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro fled to the United States following his presidential election loss, with the State Department confirming that it will issue visas to the senator and his family. In the aftermath of President “Lula” da Silva’s reelection, the country faces deepening political divisions, 

Lula’s camp has said that defeating the Bolsonaro family in courts and at the ballot was about “saving democracy” and preserving rights against “fascism,” rhetoric that propelled Lula to gather about 11 million more votes in the election’s second round than he had in the first and come from behind to win it all.

The political environment is polarizing, as Brazil’s elections carry high stakes.

Lula will now be able to nominate four more justices to the Supreme Court and have a supermajority; the country has rising debt to manage while interest rates are into double digits; persistent violent crime remains a critical concern; and U.S.–Brazil relations are at an all-time low as Lula rejected the U.S.’s designations of two cartels as foreign terrorist organizations and broke a regional trend of Washington-led cooperation.

With everything at stake, he faces an institutional crisis ahead. The very first 24 hours after his electoral win are telling.

The opening statement of Lula’s first speech after results were announced listed stricter regulations on social media as a top priority.

His rift with big tech is under scrutiny, as many fear it could restrict freedom of speech. Lula’s political camp has sided with the Supreme Court as it took down X in the country in 2024 and censored some posts and profiles. X said it believed the move did not involve due process and violated Brazilian law.

On Oct. 27, the local stock market opened down more than 17 percent. Regulators stopped all trading for one hour to contain the volatility of “despair sell-offs” in the worst downward slide since the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, the dollar rose by about 10.5 percent against the real, Brazil’s currency, as money fled the country.

On the same day, Flávio Bolsonaro, after conceding the elections, was ordered to turn his passport in to the authorities in an attempt to prevent him from leaving Brazil.

The move is part of investigations into money laundering linked to a friend of Flávio’s and came from controversial Supreme Court justice Alexandre de Moraes—the same justice who led the prosecution against his father and has been accused of weaponizing the justice system alongside Lula’s party.

At the time of writing on Oct. 27, Flávio Bolsonaro had left Brazil for the United States, a source close to the family told The Epoch Times. His departure came a day after he was ordered to surrender his passport within 24 hours. Flávio Bolsonaro had previously stated publicly that he had no intention of leaving Brazil.

The United States previously sanctioned Moraes for human rights violations under the Global Magnitsky Act. Washington and Brasília went back and forth to resolve a diplomatic crisis, and the sanctions were lifted in December 2025.

Although Brazil’s right lost the presidential election, conservative parties made significant gains in Congress. About 64 percent of the incoming Senate and 59 percent of the newly elected Chamber of Deputies align with the right.

Flávio Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party emerged with the largest delegations in both chambers, securing 28 Senate seats and 121 seats in the Chamber. Lula will need to negotiate with centrist parties to secure legislative majorities.

If campaign rhetoric is any indicator, Lula could face adversarial speakers in both the House and Senate, have Supreme Court nominations blocked, and face unprecedented impeachment processes against Supreme Court justices, which Brazilian law puts in the Senate.

Furthermore, unforgiving economics might leave Lula stalled in Congress.

• Vote tallying in Israel’s national election began yesterday evening, and exit polls from Israeli media outlets showed no clear winner in a multi-party contest.

Early exit polling from Israel’s Channel 12 showed the Likud Party, led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, projected to win 24 seats—the most of any single party. The same exit polling also showed that a bloc of opposition parties are together projected to win about 52 seats, positioning the opposition bloc ahead in the contest to achieve a governing majority of at least 61 seats in Israel’s 120-member Knesset.

The ballot count is not expected to be finalized until Oct. 30, after which it will be published on Nov. 4.

A party must win at least 3.25 percent of the vote tally to hold any seats in the Knesset.

In the likely event that no single party wins a 61-seat majority, Israeli President Isaac Herzog will choose the political party leader he believes is best positioned to form a governing coalition and give that party 42 days to form a multi-party government.

If no coalition is achieved after this first 42-day window, other party leaders may attempt to form a governing coalition before a new election may be called.

•  a senior USDA official told The Epoch Times. The United States has been expanding exports to Southeast Asia as it seeks to diversify agricultural trade and reduce dependence on China,

The region has emerged as the fourth-largest buyer of American farm goods, according to a new USDA report seen by The Epoch Times ahead of its release.

Vietnam led growth among the 11 countries in Southeast Asia, taking in about $4.7 billion in American farm commodities last year—a 38 percent increase from 2024.

U.S. cotton sales to Southeast Asia nearly doubled last year and were trending higher over the first eight months of this year.

Rising shipments were driven by Vietnam, which accounted for nearly 80 percent of the trade and offset reduced purchases from China, according to the USDA report.

U.S. corn exports to the region hit record highs in 2025, and tree nut exports also surged by more than 40 percent from a year earlier, the report states.

Southeast Asian nations also ramped up their purchase of U.S. ethanol.

The Philippines alone imported ethanol worth a record $192 million in 2025, fueled by rising consumption and limited domestic production.

That made Manila the sixth-largest market for U.S. ethanol, according to the USDA.

AND MORE ON POLITICS:

• Amid his administration’s push to root out voter fraud, President Donald Trump told reporters he would respect the result of the midterm elections on Nov. 3—“if they’re honest.”

On working with Democrats, he said, “We’ll figure a way. Look, I have a strong veto. I hope that that won’t be the case, but if it is, that’s happened before with many presidents.”

The comments came as Trump said he would give $1 million to ‌anyone who reported voter fraud that leads to an arrest and conviction, as his administration has taken an ​increasingly aggressive approach to election oversight. In one example, the Department of Justice (DOJ) ⁠asked states for voter-registration data and argued that stricter measures are ​needed to ensure public confidence in the vote.

Trump has embarked on a multi-state, campaign-style series of rallies to boost Republican candidates, saying that voters should act as if he were on the ballot. 

The GOP currently holds a small majority in ​both the ⁠House of Representatives and the Senate.

• The Department of Justice asked Washington state to set aside ballots cast by more than 400 registered voters whom the federal government suspects are noncitizens.

In a statement, the DOJ said it had provided the state with a list of voters suspected of being noncitizens or green card holders. Noncitizens are barred from voting in U.S. elections regardless of their legal immigration status.

acting U.S. Attorney Neil Floyd said.

“We have identified over 400 non-citizens who are registered to vote and have voted in multiple elections. This is only the tip of the iceberg,” 

“We will continue to investigate and identify those who are committing crimes by voting illegally.”

In response, Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs said his office would carefully review the DOJ’s letter seeking information about individuals listed on the state’s voter rolls.

“We take our responsibility to protect voter information seriously and will only respond to requests that follow due process,” Hobbs said in a statement.

“We saw what happened in California and don’t want Washingtonians to be harassed.”

According to Hobbs’s office, cases of noncitizen voting are rare, and voters must attest to their eligibility by signing a declaration on their ballot return envelopes in every election. It also stated that the DOJ’s system could mistakenly flag legitimate U.S. citizens as noncitizens.

“The timing of this request—one week before the General Election—is no doubt intended to cast unfounded suspicion on the results,” Hobbs said.

The DOJ said it notified Hobbs in July that it was examining records to determine whether noncitizens were registered to vote in Washington. The department said on Oct. 26 that it would provide the state with a list of individuals suspected of being illegally registered and request that the state set aside their mail-in ballots until their citizenship status could be confirmed.

The department said Washington was responsible for preventing noncitizens from voting illegally and that it was prepared to work with the state on the matter.

• Officials in Alaska urged a federal court to throw out a legal complaint lodged by the Trump administration that pre-challenges the results of an election for a U.S. Senate seat representing the state.

The lawsuit, which says that voter confusion over two candidates having similar names could lead to illegitimate results, should be swiftly dismissed,.

2 Alaska Assistant Attorneys General said

“The United States lacks authority to intervene in state elections at all, much less in support of a favored candidate,” they wrote.

They said the court should follow the “well-established principle” that “lower federal courts should not ‘alter the election rules’ of a state ‘on the eve of an election.’”

Department of Justice lawyers said in the Oct. 22 lawsuit that Daniel J. Sullivan, an independent retired teacher, is only running to confuse voters and mislead supporters of Sen. Daniel S. Sullivan (R-Alaska) into voting for him, making it easier for Democrat Mary Peltola to win.

They said that state officials would be violating federal law that says states must “protect the integrity of the electoral process” if Alaska certifies the results of the race, due to the inclusion of Daniel J. Sullivan on the ballot, and asked the court to commit to barring certification if the incumbent loses and if the incumbent would have won if votes that went to Daniel J. Sullivan were added to the senator’s total.

Attorney General Todd Blanche said that “if it’s clear that there was confusion, and that confusion led to an unjust, improper result that is not the will of the Alaskan voters, we want to make sure that the Alaskan system and the Alaskan state courts and the Alaskan electoral process can understand that in a way that lets them do the right thing.”

Peltola’s campaign filed a motion to intervene in the case and later filed a proposed motion to dismiss the case, saying the Trump administration’s claim in the case “is lawless and utterly unsupported by precedent or statu

• More than 250 hospitals have committed to serving healthier food, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said. The hospitals signed the Make Hospital Food Healthier Pledge, which commits them to providing healthier food to patients and emphasizing nutrition.

“Hospitals have a responsibility to promote health in every part of patient care, including the food they serve,” Kennedy said in a statement. “ I am calling on every hospital in America to join them, sign the pledge, and help make healthy food a standard part of health care.”

The hospitals include multiple Cleveland Clinic facilities in Ohio, Houston Methodist Cypress Hospital in Texas, and Sanford Medical Center Fargo in North Dakota.

Kennedy’s department told hospitals in March they must provide patients with more nutritious food, and several months later, the agency released the Make Hospital Food Healthier Pledge.

The pledge commits hospitals to limiting highly processed foods and sugar-sweetened beverages, forgoing deep-fried foods, using whole grains rather than refined grains, and limiting processed meats and foods high in added sugar, sodium, and artificial additives.

• U.S. military officials over the past weekend said that an aircraft was intercepted by fighter jets near President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida on Saturday.

In a statement, (NORAD) said a “general aviation aircraft” was intercepted by an F-16 fighter at around 12:20 p.m. on Saturday after it entered a flight restriction area temporarily imposed over Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.

The F-16 jet, NORAD said, “executed a standard headbutt maneuver to gain the pilot’s attention” before communication was established.

The aircraft then exited the restricted area and complied with the military’s flight instructions.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an Epoch Times request for comment about what the “headbutt maneuver” means.

The NORAD statement did not provide an explanation.

According to the military and space company MiGFlug.com, a headbutt is a non-contact move that is “a deliberate pass in front of the intruder, close enough to be impossible to miss, used to redirect a pilot when radio calls have not worked.”

NORAD, which is based in Colorado and oversees joint operations for both the U.S. and Canadian militaries over North American airspace, did not say what kind of aircraft entered the restricted zone.

The statement said that if NORAD intercepts an aircraft, a “pilot should immediately come up on frequency 121.5 or 243.0 and turn around to reverse course until receiving additional instructions on one of those frequencies.”

It added that pilots who violate FAA airspace restricted zones “may also be met by federal authorities upon landing and subject to enforcement action.”

Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were in the Palm Beach area in Florida on Saturday, where they cast early ballots in the Nov. 3 midterm elections.

NOW MOVING ONTO WORLD NEWS:

• French soccer star Kylian Mbappe lost sponsorship deals with several Chinese brands on Oct. 27 after joking about an internet meme depicting him as Mao Zedong, triggering criticism from Chinese state media and a response from Beijing.

The 27-year-old Real Madrid forward was being filmed getting ready for a talk show when he described the meme, referring to the person depicted as a Chinese dictator. The remark prompted commercial boycotts and restrictions on his coverage in China, where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues to promote Mao as a revered founding figure.

Mbappe issued an apology in French, Chinese, and English, saying his comments were “ill-judged” and had upset people in China and Chinese communities overseas.

The controversy stemmed from footage recorded backstage as Mbappe was preparing for The Bridge, a French-language online talk show hosted by his Real Madrid teammate Aurélien Tchouaméni. The short clip circulated on Oct. 26 and was subsequently removed from the show’s social media accounts.

In the clip, Mbappe described the image superimposing his face on Mao as amusing and said he often shared it with friends while playing video games online.

His remark referring to Mao as a Chinese dictator sparked criticism on Chinese social media, where nationalist users accused him of insulting China and demanded a boycott.

On Oct. 27, Mengniu Dairy, Shanghai Milkground Food Tech, and Dongpeng Beverage announced they were terminating their partnerships with Mbappe. Dongpeng’s electrolyte drink brand Bushuila issued a separate termination statement.

State media China Central Television (CCTV) said it had suspended broadcasts of Spain’s LaLiga matches, other matches featuring Mbappe, and advertisements featuring him, beginning Oct. 26. The broadcaster also demanded public apologies as well as a written apology from Mbappe and Real Madrid.

• Two men were charged under the UK’s National Security Act over last month’s incident at a military base, with prosecutors accusing the pair of attempting to ‌help Iranian intelligence in Britain.

RAF Fairford had been used by U.S. bombers to carry out strikes on Iran. The airplanes were removed by the Pentagon shortly ​after five men, described as British citizens, were arrested outside the base in ​southwest England in the early hours of Sept. 27.

Mohmed Ahmad Abdulkarim, 24, a British national, has been charged with engaging in conduct likely ​to materially assist a foreign intelligence service between Aug. 31 and ​Sept. 28, with counter-terror police saying the country is believed to be Iran.

Nouman Essghir, a 24-year-old with dual British-Iranian nationality, who was among those arrested outside the military base ‌on ⁠Sept. 27, is charged with one offense of entering a prohibited place for a purpose prejudicial to the UK on Aug. 22.

The pair were due to appear before London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Oct. 27.

The incident, which remains largely unexplained, attracted huge international attention at ⁠a time of heightened concern about security implications for Western states amid the war between the United ​States and Iran.

• Congolese health officials say the number of confirmed Ebola cases has surpassed 10,000, with nearly 4,900 people having died since the start of the country’s latest outbreak.

Congo’s Ministry of Public Health in an Oct. 26 update reported 96 new confirmed cases and 46 deaths over the previous 24 hours.

The new cases were reported in North Kivu, Ituri, and Tshopo provinces.

The death toll from the outbreak that was officially declared on May 15 stands at 4,887, with a case fatality rate of 48.6 percent, the ministry said.

Dieudonne Mwamba Kazadi, director general of the National Institute of Public Health, said on Monday that more than 2,500 people had recovered from Ebola, while the contact tracing follow-up rate was about 87 percent.

The United Nations described the outbreak as the deadliest in Congo’s history.

The Ebola response has also been complicated by violence in eastern Congo.

World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Oct. 25 that a nurse responding to an Ebola alert in Bafwasende, Tshopo Province, was killed and another health worker seriously injured in an attack.

According to the U.N. refugee agency, Congo has more than 6.1 million internally displaced people, while continued violence in the east has restricted humanitarian access and complicated the delivery of healthcare.

MAIN

Sourdough: A Long-Fermented Bread That Benefits Digestion, Blood Sugar, and the Gut 

Hi, it’s Helen Billings here back with our mid-week health section, and for today I wanna talk about how Sourdough has been on the map lately.

So you might have seen that there was a New York City bakery selling loaves for $60. As we know, the high price tag is well beyond what an average loaf would cost—but it reflects how making authentic sourdough is much more than baking—it’s bread you raise.

Now Anyone who has made sourdough knows that time and patience are part of what sets the result apart. Unlike conventional bread making, sourdough needs ongoing feeding and care.

A sourdough loaf is fermented by a starter—a living culture of wild yeast and bacteria the baker keeps going with regular feedings of flour and water. The fermentation takes time. A sourdough loaf can take most of a day to make, and some bakers extend the process overnight or longer.

And that starter is often passed from one person to another, sometimes continuing through generations, developing a life of its own.

So sourdough’s nutritional standout may not actually be a nutrient at all, but what fermentation does to an an-tee-nutrient. An-tee-nutrients are naturally occurring compounds in plant foods that can interfere with the body’s absorption of certain nutrients. One is phytic acid—found in grains, nuts, seeds, and legumes. (More)

Foods rich in phytic acid are not inherently unhealthy, but it binds to minerals such as iron, zinc, and calcium and affects how much the body absorbs. During fermentation, natural enzymes, including phytase, can break down phytate. This process may increase the availability of some minerals in the finished sourdough bread.

What’s also interesting is that Sourdough fermentation may make bread easier to digest by partially breaking down carbohydrates and proteins before the bread is eaten. 

These changes may make sourdough more tolerable for some people, although the effects vary depending on the fermentation process and the individual.

Now the type of flour matters as well because different grains and levels of refinement contain varying amounts of phytate, fructans, fiber, minerals, and naturally occurring enzymes.

So when choosing a bread there’s a couple of things to look out for to ensure that the minerals in the loaf are more available for absorption. So Choose Well-Fermented and Whole-Grain Sourdough:

And last, what’s interesting is how the bread gets its “sour” flavor from bacteria. Lactic acid bacteria produce acids during fermentation that contribute to sourdough’s characteristic tang. Warm fermentation tends toward lactic acid, which is milder. And cool fermentation tends toward acetic uh-see-tic acid, which is sharper and more like vinegar. 

Personally I like sourdough bread because I like that sour flavor and I like to include fermented foods in my diet. Anything to help food break down easier, am I right?! Stay well folks!

Thanks Helen, recently I bought some fermented cashews which tasted a lot like sourdough bread. It was interesting to taste that sourdough flavor in a nut.

And before we leave, here are some words of wisdom to start the day…Today’s quote is by Eleanor Roosevelt, 

she said,

“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” 

—Eleanor Roosevelt