Student unrest that has swept across France has crossed the border into Belgium, where clashes between police and masked protesters have intensified.

Thousands from Belgium’s French-speaking community took to the streets to oppose deep reductions in education spending. The government is seeking to save at least €10 billion in the coming years as it works to bring down the country’s substantial budget deficit.

Belgian students in several towns have joined demonstrations in recent days, drawing inspiration in part from the unrest unfolding across the border in France.

Police estimated that up to 30,000 people descended on Brussels, describing the turnout as unprecedented. Demonstrators began arriving at around 9.30am local time.

Some protesters hurled cobblestones, bricks, glass bottles, fencing and road signs at officers. In one incident, a police officer was filmed taking a samurai sword from a demonstrator.

Groups of protesters gathered around Brussels Central Station, located between the European Parliament and Belgium’s federal legislature.

Videos from the scene showed disorder near the major transport hub. In one recording, masked and hooded figures appeared to throw objects into a fire while police watched from nearby.

The crowd could be heard cheering as more items were tossed into the flames.

In another video, a group of young demonstrators pushed a large rubbish container toward a police line before overturning it.

Protesters also threw pieces of timber and a flare at riot officers equipped with shields and batons.

Officers were seen moving back as demonstrators launched smoke grenades and flashbang devices in their direction.

A separate clip showed a masked protester aiming fireworks at police. Officers responded with a water cannon, forcing the individual to retreat.

Trade union members joined the student demonstrations, calling on the government to raise taxes on the highest earners instead of cutting services such as healthcare and increasing VAT.

“Things are getting worse at an ever-faster rate, and people have had enough. Like teachers, pupils can also see that conditions are deteriorating,” union representative Luc Toussaint said.

Belgium has faced several waves of strikes in recent months over Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s plan to save €10 billion over the next few years and tackle the nation’s growing deficit.

Like neighbouring France and Italy, Belgium is struggling under a heavy public debt burden.

The Flemish conservative is currently locked in protracted talks with his coalition partners to try to find a deal on the cuts by October 13.

The ABVV union has threatened to launch another general strike in November if it does not get its way. 

Many people spoke about their frustrations with the cost of living. One protester told local media: ‘Everything just keeps getting more expensive. I don’t even dare look at the pump anymore when I go to fill up. I have two small children; there has to be food on the table.’

He called for the richest of society to pay their fair share: ‘Get the money where it is. I am in favour of a billionaire tax. It is always sought from the people who already have almost nothing left.’

Another protester echoed this sentiment: ‘[The government] does not have its priorities in order. It protects the rich and creates poverty. Choices are made for the richest, while people and children in poverty are left out in the cold.’ 

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‘I work, but I cannot make ends meet,’ said Marie Gobert, a single mother and social worker who came from the city of Namur with one of her daughters for the march.

She told The Associated Press that school costs have just gone up along with the price of public transport and train tickets. 

‘I don’t think I’ve ever been this anxious about all the measures making my daily life difficult,’ she said.

Traffic and public transport across the city were disrupted on Friday.

‘You can feel the social tension, you can feel anger starting to simmer everywhere,’ Miss Gobert said. ‘The education system is being dismantled and when young people want to speak out no one listens to them.’

Many parts of the country were shut down or disrupted today. Brussels Airport was forced to cancel around 140 flights to and from the travel hub, as workers from the Alyzia baggage handling firm began striking. 

Over in France, where riots engulfed cities and towns for days on end, students were largely back in the classroom today, with the UN voicing ‘concern’ over the sometimes violent clashes. 

Tens of thousands have taken to the streets across France since students in late September began blocking entrances to high schools, which in turn saw squads of riot police deployed.

The students – most aged 15 to 18 – have complained of absent teachers, overloaded timetables, dilapidated classrooms and buildings that cannot cope with rising temperatures.

More than 6,800 people have been detained since the start of the demonstrations, of whom 86 per cent are minors, the justice ministry said Friday.

The United Nations said Friday it was watching the events ‘with concern’ and urging people on all sides to remain peaceful.

‘We are following with concern incidents related to the student protests and high school blockades in France, some of which have turned violent,’ said Shabia Mantoo, spokesperson for the UN human rights agency.

While the demonstrations have been largely peaceful, some protesters have started fires and vandalised bus shelters.

In response, police have used tear gas, batons and blast balls, leading to accusations from rights groups and the children of a disproportionate use of force.

Police have opened 18 internal investigations into allegations of misconduct.

A 15-year-old lost a hand on Monday after police fired a stun grenade, and the government has suspended the use of the weapon. 

On Thursday evening in the capital Paris, police said they used tear gas in Bastille square to disperse some ‘high-risk profiles’.

In a bid to placate the anger, Education Minister Edouard Geffray announced late Thursday that some 3,000 substitute teachers would be deployed in the coming days to replace absent staff at the 114 worst-affected high schools.

Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu has also promised a plan to respond to the crisis by the end of October, while Economy Minister Roland Lescure said there was room to address demands for more school resources within the highly constrained 2027 budget. 

In the current draft budget, education has the second largest increase in funding – after defence – with a boost of 1.4 per cent to 90.9 billion euros.

Of the 3,700 high schools across France, called lycees, only 141 were closed on Friday, the education ministry reported.

Last Friday, some 800 schools had closed due to the protests.

Christa Pike is making a “remarkable physical recovery” after surviving a botched execution, according to her lawyers.

Pike, 50, survived two doses of lethal injection on September 30. She was believed to be brain dead before regaining consciousness on Tuesday.

She has been held on Tennessee’s death row for the 1995 beating and stabbing death of her classmate, Colleen Slemmer.

“We’re not sure exactly what the long-term effects will be, but she’s clearly not quite back to normal cognitively and may have a long way to go,” Stephen Ferrell, one of Pike’s attorneys with Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, told ABC News on Thursday.

“There’s a lot of psychological trauma that she’s going through and continues to suffer from. But physically, she is improving remarkably.”

Pike’s arms were burned and blistered after her lawyers said the pentobarbital doses were injected into her arms rather than directly into her veins.

Her attorneys said she remained unconscious and on a ventilator during the first several days of her hospitalization.

Pike took her first limited steps on Wednesday and required help walking the following day. She is also beginning to regain movement in her arms and was able to eat for the first time.

However, her lawyers cautioned that questions remain about both her long-term physical recovery and her legal status following the failed attempt to execute her.

They initially described Pike as “confused” after she woke up. On Thursday, they said she was still experiencing difficulties with concentration and memory.

It is not yet clear whether Tennessee will seek to execute Pike again. Her attorneys have asked Governor Bill Lee to commute her death sentence to life without parole.

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A judge ordered the state on Wednesday to preserve all evidence connected to the failed execution.

Judge I’Ashea Myles said: “This case is unique, to say the least.”

“Take special care not to lose, misplace or accidentally delete any information pertinent to this investigation.”

During Wednesday’s hearing, Pike’s attorney Luke Ihnen asked the judge to remove the shackles from her hospital bed and allow her to use a phone.

“Up until yesterday, our client was unconscious, unable to communicate with counsel or with medical providers,” Ihnen said.

The judge did not rule on Pike’s requests, but asked her lawyers and the state to provide more information about how she could use a tablet at the hospital and to prove that medical staff want the shackles removed.

Assistant Attorney General John Ayers claimed there is no pending execution order for Pike and insisted that the Department of Corrections has already preserved the evidence from Pike’s attempted execution.

He said log books, observation logs, medical waste and products, and electrocardiogram readouts have been saved.

‘It’s my understanding that the IV lines were cut, and so there may be portions of those IV lines that could have been still attached to Ms Pike when she was transported to the hospital,’ Ayers said.

‘It would be premature and prejudicial, quite frankly, to enter an order requiring preservation of that kind of evidence before counsel had a chance to confer on it and get a picture of where that evidence might be.’

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is facing accusations that his proposal to livestream the execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan would violate international law, with critics comparing the idea to ISIS propaganda.

The United Nations human rights office said Friday that televising the death would effectively amount to a public execution and violate the absolute ban on torture.

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy made the comparison even more directly during a live broadcast, asking: “What is he mimicking? ISIS executions.”

The criticism was not limited to Democrats. Republican Senator Thom Tillis said public executions are associated with “oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan.”

“It should not be happening in America,” the North Carolina Republican wrote on X late Thursday, describing the decision to stream the execution as “beyond disgusting.”

Georgia Democrat Jon Ossoff told MS Now that Hegseth was “a deeply unwell person who seems to relish this kind of brutality.”

Hegseth disclosed the plan during a Thursday interview with conservative influencer Jack Posobiec for Real America’s Voice, speaking from the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it’s public,” Hegseth said, arguing that the public needed to see that “there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”

Hasan, who previously served as an Army psychiatrist, was convicted of killing 12 soldiers and one civilian at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009. The attack remains the deadliest ever carried out on a US military base.

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The Pentagon said Monday that Hegseth had recommended the punishment and that Donald Trump approved Hasan’s execution by Army firing squad. It would be the first US military execution since 1961.

Murphy said CNN anchor Erin Burnett informed him of the livestream proposal during Thursday night’s broadcast, telling viewers he was hearing about it for the first time.

“I understand that in this country we have the death penalty, but public executions are medieval,” Murphy said, calling them one of the practices people condemn terrorist organizations for carrying out.

Tillis said Hasan should receive the death penalty, but argued that the punishment should not be turned into a public event.

Ossoff accused Hegseth of creating an “obscene medieval spectacle” while leading what he described as a Defense Department descending into chaos.

“The guy cannot run the military competently,” Ossoff said.

The War Secretary has also faced sustained criticism over his handling of the Iran conflict, particularly after Tehran succeeded in halting shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route for roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil.

Despite the controversy, Hegseth’s influence within Trump’s inner circle has continued to increase. He was one of the administration’s few cabinet members to support military action against Iran at the outset of the conflict.

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights said that public executions ‘constitute a form of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,’ the same stance it has taken on Iran and Afghanistan.

Hasan, who was paralyzed when he was shot by police during the rampage, was convicted on 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in 2013. 

Army rules require the sentence to be carried out within 150 days of the president’s approval.

Alonzo Lunsford, a former US Army sergeant who survived the Fort Hood massacre, supports executing gunman Nidal Hasan by firing squad but has questioned plans to livestream the killing.

Lunsford, who was shot seven times during the 2009 attack, told the BBC that the chosen method was “befitting” for Hasan. He said alternatives such as lethal injection would amount to “doing him a favor.”

Hasan, an Army psychiatrist, killed 12 unarmed US soldiers and one civilian after opening fire inside a medical building at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009.

Although Lunsford backs the firing squad, he said the execution should not be broadcast for public amusement, warning that it was “not something you should view for entertainment purposes.”

Speaking to BBC Radio 4 on Friday, Lunsford said he opposed showing the execution in its entirety and without censorship to the wider public.

“To show the whole thing without it being censored for the general public, for me personally, I don’t agree with that, but it’s not about my personal belief,” he said.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has confirmed that the execution will be available to the public via livestream, saying Americans should see the consequences of such a horrific crime.

However, the unprecedented broadcast may never take place. Legal experts told the outlet that the execution could ultimately be blocked.

If the livestream goes ahead, it would be the first public execution in the United States in almost a century.

Lunsford said he was concerned about the “effect” and “message” a livestreamed execution might have on younger viewers. However, he added that survivors and relatives of those affected by the massacre “should be able to look at it.”

“I’m gonna be there [to watch in person], and before they pull the trigger, I want him to look at me in my eyes, and I look at him in his eyes, and I want him to know: ‘Dude, you failed, I’m still here,’” he said.

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“I don’t really have any sympathy for him as far as firing squad vs lethal injection, hanging or gas chamber, because he didn’t have that same compassion when he did the deed on 5 November.”

“I think the method is befitting for him because the lethal injection—that’s doing him a favor. Gas chamber? Is doing him a favor,” he added.

Hasan said he carried out the Fort Hood attack because he was angry that US troops had been deployed to Afghanistan and wanted to protect Islamic and Taliban leaders.

In November 2009, Hasan entered a medical readiness building at the base with two guns and several magazines of ammunition. He shouted “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great,” before opening fire on soldiers waiting for medical tests and vaccinations.

The mass shooting killed 13 people and wounded 32, making it the deadliest attack on a domestic US military installation in the country’s history.

The Pentagon announced on Monday that Hegseth had recommended, and Donald Trump approved, his death by Army firing squad on December 3, the first military execution since 1961. 

On Thursday, it was announced that the execution will be live-streamed, and the move prompted swift backlash.

The UN human rights office said on Friday that broadcasting the killing ‘is tantamount to a public execution and would breach the absolute prohibition of torture.’

Democratic Senator Chris Murphy went further, asking on live television: ‘What is he mimicking? ISIS executions.’

The backlash crossed party lines, with Republican Senator Thom Tillis declaring that public executions are ‘what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do.’

‘It should not be happening in America,’ the North Carolina senator wrote on X late Thursday, adding that streaming the death was ‘beyond disgusting.’