Sébastien Lecornu

Hundreds of thousands of workers across France joined a one-day nationwide strike on Thursday over wages and living costs. The interior ministry put participation at 575,000, down from an earlier 600,000, with 60,000 marching in Paris, while the CGT union claimed 1.6 million. Police fired tear gas and water cannon in Paris and Lyon, where officers charged protesters and fires were set in the streets. Firefighters put out blazes across the country, and the Eiffel Tower was closed for the day. Strike marches came six months before elections to replace President Emmanuel Macron.

An Aer Lingus Airbus A320 flying Dublin to Rome landed safely at the Evreux airbase in Normandy after a bomb alert, French authorities say. All 151 passengers and six crew are safe, and a French fighter jet escorted the plane while military bomb-defusal teams inspect it. At least ten other European passenger flights were also diverted after bomb threats, including a Finnair service from Helsinki escorted to Rome. Czech police cleared four aircraft bound for Prague, finding no explosives. Police in France have opened an investigation after the pilot resisted diversion orders.

False bomb threats against European flights and media outlets led to diversions, evacuations and fighter escorts on 5 and 6 Nov, but no explosives were found and all aircraft landed safely. Eurocontrol counted threats against 14 flights on 5 and 6 Nov and against 7 flights on 3 Nov. Broadcasters RTE in Ireland, Sky and Nova TV in Croatia received threat emails from a sender calling himself Mikhail Andropov. Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares called the campaign a hybrid attack on Europe's democracy, and investigations are under way in several countries.