Omar Sy Backs France's High School Protests and Faults the Crackdown

The French star Omar Sy has voiced support for the high school student protests sweeping France and decried the authoritarian crackdown, Deadline reports — a crackdown the outlet says has seen one teenager lose a hand and more than 6,000 young people taken into temporary police custody. According to Deadline, the protests have been building since late September and were sparked by complaints of staff shortages and dilapidated schools. A celebrity endorsement does not change the underlying grievance, but it changes who hears about it. Sy's audience is global and largely tuned to entertainment rather than French domestic politics, which makes his intervention one of the few ways the dispute travels beyond the country's own news cycle.