Ali Akbar, newspaper vendor, offers copies in a street in Paris's Latin Quarter, September 16, 2025. GUILLAUME BAPTISTE / AFPAmong the recipients of France's highest government distinctions – the Légion d'honneur and the Ordre National du Mérite – lined up Wednesday evening in the Élysée Palace's Salle des Fêtes, Ali Akbar stood out. "Very moved," Paris's last newspaper hawker received the insignia of the Ordre National du Mérite – one of the country's top honors – from President Emmanuel Macron, watched by his wife and children. A local celebrity in this corner of the 6th and 7th arrondissements, few know of his "incredible destiny," as the president recalled on this occasion. Born into a very poor family a few kilometers from Islamabad in 1954, he endured forced labor and violence from the age of six.