France deploys 70,000 police nationwide to counter protest violence and looting

France will deploy 70,000 police and gendarmes nationwide on Saturday in response to threats of violent protests and looting, Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez announced Friday. Nuñez said authorities will be "implacable" with looters and rioters, citing calls on social media from the "radical far-left" to commit violence. The deployment follows last weekend's unrest that damaged an estimated 3,000 shops, prompting restrictions on authorized marches, with prefects deciding case-by-case. The security plan includes elite units, helicopters in Paris, and armored vehicles nationwide. Legal challenges to the restrictions were filed with the Constitutional Council, while Nuñez condemned the October 17 violence as "totally unacceptable."