The Yellow Vests have reached critical mass. And the movement has now created the perfect storm for President Emmanuel Macron.

He can no longer ignore it, even though he tried to do so. And his lack of understanding of the situation as well as his open contempt for his opposition has placed him in a political vice.

Ignoring the problem will only make him look weaker and more disinterested. He could address the situation, put France first and step aside for new elections, which is the decent thing to do.

But, he’s chosen the predictable third option, crack down on the protesters in a futile show of strength. Authoritarians react to challenges like clockwork.

French Democracy Dead or Alive? Or perhaps one should say, buried or revived? Because for the mass of ordinary people, far from the political, financial, media centers of power in Paris, democracy is already moribund, and their movement is an effort to save it. Ever since Margaret Thatcher decreed that “there is no alternative”, Western economic policy is made by technocrats for the benefit of financial markets, claiming that such benefits will trickle down to the populace. The trickle has largely dried up, and people are tired of having their needs and wishes totally ignored by an elite who “know best”.

Yellow waistcoats do not want to leave doubts as to what their country's membership in the EU is about.

Protests in France have begun as a revolt against the idea of Emanuel Macron to increase gasoline taxes, however, as the demonstrations move to the surface, deeper problems with the policies of the French president are emerging.

On social networks, various versions of the requirements of the Yellow Vests circulate in everyone's request that France leave the European Union and NATO. Protestant groups have been stripped from across the Paris flag today by a flag of the EU flag that stands next to the state flag in order to keep only French symbols on masts.

After Makron had given up fuel taxes, the protests were initially reduced to an extent. However, in recent weeks there has been a rapid increase in the number of demonstrators who are still unhappy with the drastic fall in living standards and the authoritarian control of the media.

December 15, place de l’Opéra, Paris. Three yellow vests read out an address ‘to the French people and the president of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron’ saying: ‘This movement belongs to no one and to everyone. It gives voice to a people who for 40 years have been dispossessed of everything that enabled them to believe in their future and their greatness.’

The anger provoked by a fuel tax produced, within a month, a wider diagnosis of what ails society and democracy. Mass movements that bring together people with minimal organisation encourage rapid politicisation, which explains why ‘the people’ have discovered that they are ‘dispossessed of their future’ a year after electing as president a man who boasts he swept aside the two parties that alternated in power for 40 years.

Macron has come unstuck. As did previous wunderkinder just as young, smiling and modern: Laurent Fabius, Tony Blair, Matteo Renzi. The liberal bourgeoisie are hugely disappointed.

The early XX century French monarchist philosopher, Charles Maurras, wrote: “The Republic is bad at governing but good at defending itself.” Seldom have these words seemed more true than during the Gilets Jaunes protests.
I live right in the heart of Paris, overlooking the Prime Minister’s office, Hôtel Matignon, and a short distance from the scenes of some of the violence witnessed last Saturday. Ever since the Yellow Vests started to demonstrate at the beginning of December, I have seen, just outside my own front door, the massive police presence defending the seat of government while leaving the rest of the city, and indeed the rest of the country, to the mercy of rioters.

The partnership at the center of European integration is unraveling just when Euroskeptic forces are coming together. If French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel cannot start rebuilding the political center, next year's European Parliament election will produce the biggest victory yet for anti-EU populists.

French President Macron has been acting very odd during the commemorations of the end of World War I which were held in Europe recently. He called for a European army and likened the USA as posing as big a threat to Europe as Russia or China. Macron wants a “real European army” and likened “nationalism” to leprosy” (first link). That last comment is clearly an insult to US President Donald Trump, who is a leading nationalist, as well as to various European heads of state who are strong nationalists. Macron’s insistence that the USA is as big a threat to Europe as Russia or China is a huge insult to all Americans and all the nations of the British Empire that saved France in two world wars.

Yellow Vest protesters are hoping to trigger a bank run with a nationwide coordinated cash withdrawal. By threatening the French financial system, protesters say, they want to peacefully force the government to pass their reforms.

“If the banks weaken, the state weakens immediately,” said Yellow Vest “sympathizer” Tahz San on Facebook. “It’s elected officials' worst nightmare.”

Activists from a French protest movement encouraged supporters Wednesday to set off a bank run by emptying their accounts, while the government urged citizens to express their discontent in a national debate instead of weekly demonstrations disrupting the streets of Paris.

Activists from the yellow vest movement, which started with protests over fuel tax increases, recommended the massive cash withdrawals on social media. One protester, Maxime Nicolle called it the “tax collector’s referendum.”

Marking up the Arc de Triomphe, smashing the face of the Marianne statue, a symbol of the French state, and trashing private property along the Champs-Elysees will be considered minor incidents if the Yellow Vests pull off their next move—an organized run on the banks.

According to activist Tahz San, the aim of the latest protest is to “scare this (French) state completely legally and without any violence, yet more effectively than ever expected.”

The Associated Press reports Gilets Jaunes activists “hope the move will force the government to listen to their demands, notably their call for more direct democracy through the implementation of popular votes that allow citizens to propose new laws.”

Instead of listening to the demands of a majority of the French people—polls show around 80% support for the movement—the state will roll out the military and pass a draconian law criminalizing organized protest.

Construction will begin soon on a "big new wall" in the French port city of Calais to prevent refugees and migrants from entering Britain, the UK has announced.

The four-meter (13 foot) high wall is part of a £17 million ($23 million) deal struck between Britain and France earlier this year to try to block migrants from crossing the English Channel.

"We've done the fence. Now we're doing a wall," British Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill announced at a government hearing on Tuesday.

It is the latest attempt to enhance border security in Calais, home to a controversial makeshift camp known as "The Jungle," where thousands of displaced people live in squalid conditions.

Italy’s Euroskeptic deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini has said he wants Italy and Poland to join together to create a “European Spring” which could end the long-standing French and German domination on the continent.

Speaking during a press conference with Polish Interior Minister Joachim Brudzi?ski in Warsaw on Wednesday, Salvini said that Poland and Italy “will be part of the new spring of Europe, the renaissance of European values” which would create a “new equilibrium” where the dominance of France and Germany is diminished.

The leader of the Northern League party said that upcoming European parliamentary elections, set for May, could lead away from a Europe “that is run by bureaucrats.”

France is signaling it's making preparations for a massive new crackdown on the gilets jaunes or "yellow vests" anti-government protests that have gripped the country for seven weeks. A new law under consideration could make any demonstration illegal to begin with if not previously approved by authorities, in an initiative already being compared to the pre-Maiden so-called "dictatorship law" in Ukraine.

In the name of reigning in the violence that has recently included torching structures along the prestigious Boulevard Saint Germain in Paris, and smashing through the gates of government ministry buildings, the French government appears set to enact something close to a martial law scenario prohibiting almost any protest and curtailing freedom of speech.

The Yellow Vests have reached critical mass. And the movement has now created the perfect storm for President Emmanuel Macron.

He can no longer ignore it, even though he tried to do so. And his lack of understanding of the situation as well as his open contempt for his opposition has placed him in a political vice.

Ignoring the problem will only make him look weaker and more disinterested. He could address the situation, put France first and step aside for new elections, which is the decent thing to do.

But, he’s chosen the predictable third option, crack down on the protesters in a futile show of strength. Authoritarians react to challenges like clockwork.

Disobedience is met with violence. More disobedience is met with more violence.

Within hours of the “Yellow Vest” protesters announcing a bank run in France, the Euro has begun to plunge sharply, already falling 0.23%.

With the proposed “bank run” idea already spreading to neighboring countries such as Italy and the UK, it appears that the effects may be strong. It is important to note that it appears that the alleged “bank run” has not even yet begun – it is only an idea being floated in social media and elsewhere – but it seems to already be shaking up the Euro markets.

Many in France have become disillusioned with their government, who they see as openly selling them to globalist interests, and with the EU in particular, who they feel is a tyrannical organization which is overriding the sovereignty of their nation.

Yellow vest activists are urging French citizens to empty their bank accounts and spark a massive run on French banks in their long-standing fight with the government.

Ahead of a ninth straight weekend of planned protests in Paris and across France, yellow vests are issuing calls on social media for massive cash withdrawals from banks.

Protesters hope the move will force the government to listen to their demands, notably their call for more direct democracy through the implementation of popular votes that allow citizens to propose new laws.

Activist Maxime Nicolle called it the “tax collector’s referendum.”

In a video message, Nicolle said “we are going to get our bread back ... You’re making money with our dough, and we’re fed up.”

Emmanuel Macron earlier voiced the idea of building a European military so that fellow EU nations could defend themselves from wide-ranging threats. The French leader subsequently came under fire from the White House, which called on him to pay his fair share of NATO membership.

Donald Trump took to Twitter on Saturday to deliver a rebuke to Emmanuel Macron, chastising the French president's ideas of a pan-European army and divisive environmental policies.

Trump scolded Macron for his proposal to create a single European army so that Europe would have a greater military autonomy. The 45th POTUS has repeatedly claimed that many NATO members have not been dishing out enough cash for the alliance's needs.

"The idea of a European Military didn't work out too well in WWI or WWII. But the US was there for you, and always will be. All we ask is that you pay your fair share of NATO," he added.

Last spring Donald Trump confessed that his relationship with Emmanuel Macron, who became the first foreign leader to make a state visit to the United States under 45, was indeed special. Today, the presidential bromance is back in the spotlight amid Trump’s visit to Paris and his somewhat angry tweet directed at the French president.

The French government has announced plans to tighten laws on undeclared protests, in response to violent unrest from the Yellow Vest, or 'Gilet Jaunes', movement.

"Macron your goose is cooked, the chicks are in the street!"

That was the chant by one large contingent of women marching in the French city of Toulouse on Sunday as female-led demonstrations took place across France in order to keep the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron while also pushing back the increasing displays of violence some within the broader "Yellow Vest" (or Gilets Jaunes) movement argue is overshadowing the underlying political message.

"All the media ever reports is the violence, and we are forgetting the root of the problem" which is the fight against austerity, one protester named Karen, a 42-year-old nurse, told Agence France Presse on the streets of Marseilles.

Sunday's demonstrations followed a day of protests on Saturday during which violence broke out in Paris and other cities as those participating in "Act VIII" protests under the Yellow Vest banner clashed with French riot police, erected barricades, and started fires:

After the protests began peacefully, Paris police deployed teargas and batons as protesters began to riot during the so-called 'Act VIII" Day of Rage, while marches were underway in several other cities across France and London. Protesters in Paris hurled objects at riot police manning bridge barricades over the Seine river, while garbage bins were torched along the upscale Boulevard Saint Germain.

French authorities have arrested a key organizer of the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement for leading an unauthorized demonstration, signaling a crackdown on the anti-government demonstrators after nearly two months of violence-filled protests.

Eric Drouet, a truck driver from the suburbs of Paris, was arrested in Paris on Wednesday evening near the iconic Champs-Élysées avenue - a prime location for the yellow vests to gather. Drouet was detained while leading a commemoration of yellow vests who have died since the movement's inception, most of whom were hit by cars during protests at roundabouts throughout the country, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Masked thugs broke into a French government ministry tonight - leading to the 'emergency evacuation' of government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux during a day of Yellow Vests rioting.

The 41-year-old, who is one of President Emmanuel Macron's most senior lieutenants, was rushed to safety by police during the drama.

Dramatic footage shows how a forklift taken from a nearby construction site was used to smash through the entrance of the building.

'Around fifteen masked people dressed in black broke into Mr Griveaux's office at about 4.30 on Saturday,' said an investigating source.

The Yellow Vest movement has become full of agitators who only want to “overthrow the government,” a spokesman for President Emmanuel Macron’s government said of the protests that gripped France since November.

Benjamin Griveaux made the comments following the government’s first Council of Ministers meeting of 2019 on Friday, as cabinet members returned from their two week Christmas break.

A group associated with Yellow Vests has written a fiery open letter to Emmanuel Macron, warning the French president against treating people like beggars, rejecting his nationwide debate, and demanding a major tax reduction.

The missive was posted in the Angry France group on Facebook, which unites almost 300,000 supporters of the Yellow Vest movement, and was also sent to the local media late on Thursday.

“Anger will turn into hatred if you continue, from your pedestal, you and your associates, to look at little people like beggars,” the protesters warned Macron.

The wave of so-called yellow vest protests — named after the obligatory attribute of French drivers — started in France in mid-November.

"Yellow Vest" protesters are demonstrating for the eighth week in a row in Paris on 5 January.

AFP has reported that the French police in Paris have started using tear gas against the "yellow vests", who began to throw bottles and stones at the guards.

In less than two months, the yellow vests (“gilets jaunes”) movement in France has reshaped the political landscape in Europe. For a seventh straight week, demonstrations continued across the country even after concessions from a cowed President Emmanuel Macron while inspiring a wave of similar gatherings in neighboring states like Belgium and the Netherlands. Just as el-Sisi’s dictatorship banned the sale of high-visibility vests to prevent copycat rallies in Egypt, corporate media has predictably worked overtime trying to demonize the spontaneous and mostly leaderless working class movement in the hopes it will not spread elsewhere.

In a televised speech on Monday, the French president vowed that his reform agenda would move forward in spite of ongoing Yellow Vests protests against his government.

French National Rally Party leader Marine Le Pen has lashed out at Emmanuel Macron over his unconciliatory attitude toward those protesting his socio-economic agenda, calling him an "imposter" and a "pyromaniac" via her official Twitter account.

Her party, meanwhile, offered a more detailed criticism of the president's speech.

"At a moment when the nation is in need of conciliation, of a sublime and fraternal vision, of a president who is once again presidential, that is to say, an arbitrator, the French listened during this new year's address to the speech of a clan chief, an ideologue of globalisation and an impudent professor of morality," the statement, published on the party's official Facebook page, said.

In his New Year's address, the French president called on his countrymen to appreciate what they have and be patient until the effects of his reforms kick in.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that his economic reforms, which sparked mass protests by a popular movement known as the "Yellow Vests", will go ahead regardless of the dissent.

"We have lived through great rifts [this year] and a rising anger," the president said in his New Year's address, according to The Independent. "This anger tells us one thing: that we as nation are not resigned."

"In recent years, we've engaged in a blatant denial of reality," he added, justifying the reforms. "We can't work less, earn more, cut taxes and increase spending."

Looking back at 2018 and the French president's vows to unite the nation, disappointed twitteratti noted the situation in the country, divided by the Benalla affair and the Yellow Vests riots, is not so rainbow-bright after all.

"In my view, 2018 will be the year of national cohesion," the centrist Macron ambitiously wrote in his New Year's Eve message a year ago. That prediction hasn't aged well, and Twitter noticed.

Hikers demanding right of way along a pristine stretch of coastal France are locked in a legal war with villa owners in a posh Brittany resort town, not least the family of US statesman and former presidential candidate John Kerry.

Unless the latest round of lawsuits seeking to curtail free access to the Emerald Coast path near Saint-Briac-sur-Mer succeeds, officials say it will be open to all starting next year.

Anti-government protesters turned out in Paris and other French cities for the seventh Saturday running, as activists called for direct democracy — to take power out of the hands of political elite — and protested against the mainstream media.

As in previous weeks, many protestors carried placards with the abbreviation ‘R.I.C.’ — “Citizens’ Initiative Referendum”, a demand for popular referendums that would be automatically triggered by any referendum calling for a change in government policy getting 700,000 signatures.

If enacted, the introduction of referendums triggered by the public rather than given as a gift by politicians would likely see a massive reorientation of political power in France away from the political elite and even traditional political parties, a clear desire of the Yellow Vest movement which has reacted strongly against Emmanuel Macron’s globalist government.

During the seventh consecutive weekend of yellow vest protests in Paris, a group of protesters can be seen taking down the EU flag.

The sources of the video, which surfaced yesterday, say it took place during Act VII (the seventh protest weekend).

When the flag is taken down people cheer and a French account that posted the video calls it “the flag of shame”.

Yellow vest protests took place all over France and one of the targets of the protesters was the mainstream media as it “spread fake news” about the size of the movement.

Moscow believes that demands concerning human rights in Crimea and tensions in the Kerch Strait and the Sea of Azov, put forward by Germany and France, are unacceptable, the Russian Foreign Ministry said, commenting on a joint statement German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron made on December 28.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the second part of the statement is regrettable, "in which Berlin and Paris flatly accuse Russia of violating human rights in Crimea and raising tensions in the Sea of Azov and the Kerch Strait, and also put forward unacceptable demands." "We would like to point out that attempts to question the legal status of Crimea and Sevastopol as Russian regions are useless, as people there made their choice freely and in accordance with international law. Russia will continue to resolutely protect its sovereignty and deter provocations," the ministry added.

Le Monde has issued an apology over its cover after facing a barrage of accusations of ‘comparing’ President Emmanuel Macron to Adolf Hitler. The magazine insisted that it “obviously” had no such parallel in mind.

The controversial image featured on the cover of the M le magazine du Monde, issued on Saturday. It contains a photo collage of Macron and the Yellow Vest protesters on the Champs Elysees.

The image and its art style have definitely caught the eye of readers, with the President of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand suggesting that they might have invoked certain parallels.

The streets of Paris have been set ablaze during 'yellow vests' protests in Paris this evening leaving the Eiffel Tower shrouded in thick black smoke, after riot police fired tear gas at crowds earlier today.

Protesters have set cars alight and left them to burn in the streets of the capital city, as a demonstration against the French government's tax policies resumed for the seventh consecutive week.

Shocking images show the iconic tower masked by a covering of smoke and cars engulfed by burning flames sit abandoned on the roadside as demonstrators continued their stand off with authorities.

Dozens of Yellow Vest protesters have descended on the headquarters of France’s BFMTV channel accusing the station of broadcasting “fake news” and calling for the resignation of President Emmanuel Macron.

The demonstrators arrived at the offices in Paris around an hour after the gathering was announced on Facebook. There was already a heavy police presence at the building in the city’s 15th arrondissement when the crowd formed.

French President Emmanuel Macron has tried to calm protesters by raising the minimum wage, among other concessions. But if the yellow vests continue eroding his authority, it's not just France that will suffer. And Germany is partly at fault.

About 40 participants of the "yellow vest" protest movement have tried to break into French President Emmanuel Macron's summer retreat on the Mediterranean coast, the France Bleu radio station reported.

The protesters tried to storm the medieval fort of Bregancon on Thursday before being stopped by police on their way to the presidential residence, according to the France Bleu radio station.

Forced to turn back, the demonstrators said they would try again on Friday, the outlet reported.

The beleaguered President of France already has enough trouble with Yellow Vest protests throughout all of France calling for his resignation.

Now, his wife, Brigitte, is at the centre of a public controversy, doing her best to alienate yet more of his voter base.

A photo taken of her at the Tuileries Christmas fair with entrepreneur Marcel Campion has sparked outrage. Marcel, known as the “Fairground King” is widely considered a “Homophobe” and even the Deputy Mayor of Paris, Ian Brossat, has weighed in: “Beautiful, the wife of the President of the Republic who displays herself with a notorious homophobe”.

Others chiming in have made even stronger comments, as Thomas Portes of the French Communist Party: “The new world has a rancid smell. Absolute shame. Not worthy of a first lady”.

On Thursday Funke Media group in Germany published an interview with EU Budget Commissioner and former Prime Minister of Baden Württemberg Günther Oettinger.

Some interesting takeaways from the interview include his remarks that the very beleaguered and embroiled French President Emmanuel Macron “lost authority with his budget for 2019” when he agreed to increase his spending in response to the demands of the Yellow Jackets.

Oettinger further stated “but he remains a strong supporter of the European Union”. The Commissioner also told the newspapers that the EU will accept a French budget deficit above the EU’s three per cent ceiling in 2018 “as a one-time exception”, stating that Brussels had reviewed the French budget several weeks ago and won’t be revisiting it.

French concessions and construction giant, Vinci, has acquired am effective 50.01% stake in Britain's second largest and Europe's eighth busiest airport, despite overall investment and economic uncertainty surrounding UK's exit from the European Union.

On December 27, VINCI Airports, a VINCI Concessions subsidiary, signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake from current shareholders an effective in Gatwick Airport Limited, a freehold property airport.

The other 49.99% will be managed by Global Infrastructure Partners, headquartered in New York.

The freehold ownership structure appealed to Vinci, who see such a perpetual property duration regime "extremely valuable for VINCI Airports as a long term strategic investor and operator."

For the second time this year, the Turkish state-owned media has revealed the locations of the French military bases in Syria

“In four of nine military locations the French are protected by Americans, and in the rest, they operate under the protection of PKK,” the Anadolu Agency said.

The article highlighted the French bases that were mostly located in Syria’s northeastern region, including the border governorate of Al-Hasakah.

The Elysee palace has said in a statement that Emmanuel Macron will use his first visit to Chad to reaffirm his commitment to counterterror efforts amid 6 weeks of Yellow Vests protests in France.

French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Chad for a two-day visit to meet with French soldiers deployed in the Sahel region under anti-insurgent Operation Barkhane. During his pre-Christmas visit to Kossei air base near Chad’s capital N’Djamena, Macron brought champagne, foie gras, and chocolate to share a holiday meal with 1,300 troops.

The yellow vests-proposed "citizens' initiative referendum" (RIC) may pave the way for the rise of a French sixth Republic where the people of France will finally be heard by their government, journalist and author Gilbert Mercier told Sputnik, stressing that the ongoing crisis is not a problem specific to France but a far broader issue.

Yellow vests protesters came up with a referenda initiative which appears to be nothing short of a push to revive democracy, according to Gilbert Mercier, a French journalist, serving as the editor-in-chief of the News Junkie Post and the author of "The Orwellian Empire".

"It is at large an extremely positive idea, providing that it is not used by financial interest and/or foreign interest to serve specific agendas," Mercier told Sputnik.

The yellow vests movement is unlikely to force French President Emmanuel Macron to resign unless protesters have powerful backers within France's political circles, Italian journalist Daniele Pozzati told Sputnik.

There are no doubts about the grassroots nature of the ongoing "yellow vests" protests, however, one should not underestimate the possibility of a split within the French political establishment, Munich-based Italian journalist and political analyst Daniele Pozzati told Sputnik.

"Last October, [conservative Italian journalist Maurizio] Blondet pointed out that a series of resignations at the highest level of French government had left Macron struggling to fill vacant posts, due to the reluctance of French senior politicians to associate their names with an apparently doomed presidency. This was before yellow vests came along," he recalled.

Another finding, despite calls not to protest in Paris, the mobilization of yellow vests has grown from one week to another. The message sent by the Elysee, according to which some "came to kill," failed to reverse the trend. No weapons were seized during the police checks. "Dramatization has not prevented the world, of the order of 10,000 people," admits an official. This December 8, the yellow vests were visible clusters of Bastille to Etoile through Republic and the Grands Boulevards, when the previous weekend, they were concentrated only on the Star. "All the more reason to congratulate ourselves on our device"slips a trade unionist who hopes, without much believe, "that the tension will now fall". "If this Saturday we had done like the weekend before, we would have had another day of chaos, " he said. But I do not know how many consecutive Saturdays we still hold like this .

The White House has announced the withdrawal of its troops from Syria within the next 100 days with President Trump stating that the US had managed to defeat Daesh* and thus should no longer stay in the Arab Republic.

Advisers to French President Emmanuel Macron met with representatives of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Kurdish militants and assured them of future support from Paris, Iranian PressTV reported, citing anonymous French official.

The advisers passed on a message of support and solidarity and explained to them the talks France had with US authorities to continue the fight against Daesh", the official reportedly said.

Turkey has warned France against protecting a US-backed Kurdish militia in Syria, AFP reports. “If France is staying to contribute to Syria’s future, great, but if they are doing this to protect the [militia], this will bring no benefit to anyone,” Hurriyet daily quoted Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu as saying. Washington’s decision to pull out all 2,000 ground forces from Syria has stunned most allies, including France, but was greeted with approval by Turkey.

While her husband is trying to put out the fire of the Yellow Vests protests, the First Lady of France, Brigitte Macron, has found herself at the centre of public controversy after a photo was taken of her with an entrepreneur who went a little bit too far in his war of words with Paris City Hall.

A picture taken at the Tuileries Christmas fair shows Emmanuel Macron's better half standing with a wide smile alongside Marcel Campion, a controversial tycoon widely condemned for homophobic remarks.

Campion said in a statement that Brigitte Macron did not express her personal support for him, but came together with her family to support the Christmas market. He said that those who had accused Macron of supposed homophobia were trying to "instrumentalise" her visit. However, the First Lady still came under fire from outraged commenters.

French President Emmanuel Macron has bemoaned the decision by his US counterpart to withdraw troops from Syria. Such a move is unbecoming of any "ally," since they should be "reliable" and "fight shoulder to shoulder," he said.
"I very deeply regret the decision made on Syria," Macron said on Sunday, speaking at a news conference during his visit to Chad.

Earlier this week, Donald Trump announced his move to withdraw US troops from the country, citing the "defeat" of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS). While the US president had promised to do this previously, the actual decision apparently caught many by surprise.

Syrian government and pro-Iranian sources have increased their activity in the eastern part of Syria in response to the announced decision of the US administration to withdraw troops from the country.

On December 22, a spokesperson for Iraq’s Kata’ib Hezbollah, Jafar al-Husseini, told al-Mayadeen TV that the group is ready to coordinate with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) in order to protect Syrian Kurds.

He noted that the U.S. withdrawal had been expected and revealed that Kata’ib’ Hezbollah has “continuous and intensive communications” with Kurdish commanders in northeastern Syria. According to al-Husseini, the U.S. is planning to hand over its role in the country to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

A tenth person has died during the Yellow Vest protests in France as demonstrations resumed today, with police pulling their guns on activists amid fierce clashes in central Paris.

A 36-year-old motorist, who has not been identified publicly, died when his car collided with a lorry at a road block erected by protesters in Perpignan last night, in the south of the country.

A local police spokesman said: 'The victim was with a group of demonstrators when the accident happened just before midnight on Friday. An enquiry has been launched.'

Protesters also gathered around a tollbooth on a French motorway on Saturday causing huge queues of vehicles and long delays.

Meanwhile Brussels faced renewed demonstrations after a month of mass protests which have seen at least 400 people detained following clashes with police.

Authorities in a south-western French town are furious after Yellow Vest protesters beheaded an effigy of Emmanuel Macron with an ax, put its “head” on a stake and danced. Now the mock executioners face a very real criminal case.

Around 90 protesters dressed in yellow vests – the symbol of the recent wave of anti-government protests in France – gathered in a park in the town of Angouleme to stage the mock beheading on Friday evening. It’s not clear if the day was chosen deliberately, but on December 21 French President Macron celebrated his 41st birthday.

The macabre “performance” quickly spread on social networks and in French media, with photos showing the Yellow Vests literally cutting off Macron effigy’s head with a large ax. If that wasn’t enough, the mock head – with a mask of the president’s face – was then placed on a stake. The protesters then proceeded to dance around a burning barricade after apparently setting the rest of the “beheaded” effigy on fire.

The atmosphere at the Yellow Vest protests in the heart of the French capital has become more strained as demonstrators engage in scuffles with police officers.

Saturday’s protest started with calm demonstrations but a few hours later tensions rose and police resorted to force against the rioters near the artistic Montmartre district in the north of the capital.

Covering Yellow Vest protests is a hard job for reporters as they often find themselves amid heavy clashes and clouds of tear gas. Look how RT’s Charlotte Dubenskij is getting ready for the sixth weekend of rallies.
“At RT we believe the best way to tell a story is to get to the heart of it – and that’s essentially what we as a team try to do in the protests,” explained Dubenskij, who has reported on the protests in the French capital.

Moroccan-French journalist Zineb El Rhazoui says she has received death and rape threats for saying “innoccous” things like: “Islam has to submit to French laws, humour, reason and any form of criticism just like any other ideology, sect or religion”.

According to the former cartoonist of Charlie Hebdo “There is no valid reason for Islam to be an exception”.

Blue Vest Victory. Macron making further changes to budget after police organised strikes for the day, called Blue Vests, in solidarity with the Yellow Vest movement.

French police to receive a wage rise, increasing their average monthly salary €120 per month in 2019.

Already exhausted police forces have been called out for five straight weeks of Yellow Vest protests. They have complained of the exhausting hours of patrols and continued need for equipment.

The so-called Tombs of the Kings, which historian Josephus Flavius attributed to Queen Helena of Adiabene, have changed hands several times over the past 150 years, with the current owner being the French government. However, Israel’s Haredi conservatives regard the place as a holy site, to which they should all be given access.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews’ continuous requests to be let inside the Tombs of the Kings in East Jerusalem, the largest historic burial complex in the city, to pray have raised quite a few concerns among the French, whose consulate is located in close proximity to the place, Haaretz reported.

There has of late been another round of protests by Jews, who have been gathering by a locked iron gate on Nablus Road, clashing with the guards who refuse to let them in, marking another twist in a long-standing struggle over one of Jerusalem’s landmark archaeological sites.

The death toll linked to France’s anti-government “yellow vest” protests has risen to nine, the government said on Thursday, as demonstrators kept up major disruptions of road traffic.

“There has been a ninth death, this morning in Agen, by a roundabout. It was a ‘Yellow Vest’ who was protesting outside but was not following roadway safety instructions,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told reporters.

Local officials said the latest victim, a man aged about 60, was hit by a truck near a motorway where demonstrators had been gathering.

French security forces are ready to smother the centre of Paris with a ‘last resort’ chemical weapon in a bid to keep protesters away from key buildings, it has emerged.

Astonishing revelations about the debilitating powder – which can be spread across an area the size of six football pitches in just ten seconds – highlights the increasing desperation of President Emmanuel Macron’s administration as it faces up to a law and order crisis.

The country has been hit by five straight weeks of violence sparked by the Yellow Vests protest movement that has seen national monuments including the Arc de Triomphe ransacked.

UK and France have troops of their own illegally in Syria alongside the US. UK has a platoon of SAS commandos or so in Syria's south at Al-Tanf, and France has a few hundred of soldiers in the east with the Kurds.

Despite that Trump did not tell Macron, May and their defense officials, who earlier this year also helped him cruise-missile Syria, that he's withdrawing in advance. They had to learn about it from the media like the rest of us:

They’ve endured tear gas and rubber bullets, but the Yellow Vests still possess ‘joie de vivre’ – joy of life. A rousing video of protesters dancing cheek-to-cheek as police close in captures the spirit of their movement.

Bloodied protesters on the streets of Paris may be grabbing headlines, but the true zeitgeist of the Yellow Vest movement can be found in the small town of Margencel in southeastern France.