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.

Violence in Paris, right?

That’s what the useless news media would like you to believe.

The real action is in the countryside – and it’s been peaceful and devastatingly effective.

The government was brought to its knees in just one week.

US President Donald Trump recently announced in a Twitter statement that the Daesh* terrorist group has been defeated in Syria, adding that this was the only reason for the United States to be in the Middle Eastern country during his presidency.

"Daesh is weaker than ever. Daesh has gone into hiding and insurgency in its manner of fighting. Daesh has lost more than 90% of its territory. Daesh has no more logistics as it could have had. But Daesh is not removed from the map, nor its roots, it is necessary to definitively defeat militarily the last pockets of this terrorist organization", French Minister for the Armed Forces Florence Parly said on Twitter.

Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from Syria could hurt fight against the Daesh terror group in the country, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas stated.

It looks like the liberal President Macron has turned to his right-wing predecessor for help with the protests raging across France.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who is widely considered to be a left-wing liberal, seems to have turned to his right-wing predecessor, Nicolas Sarkozy — who led France from 2007 to 2012 — for assistance, as the so-called "Yellow Vests" protests ravage the country.

On December 7, the current and the former presidents met at the Elysee Palace for a lunch. According to Le Figaro, the two politicians discussed public order as well as Macron's recently announced tax exemption for overtime work.

The French government bowed to police demands for a salary boost and decades of unpaid overtime, according to a statement issued early Thursday by the Interior Ministry. It said that two days of meetings with three leading police unions produced an agreement to boost pay. The deal comes after police officers – stretched by containing violent ‘Yellow Vest’ demonstrators and guarding against extremist attacks – staged their own protests, including at the main Paris airport.

Capital garners the gains, and labor's share continues eroding. That's the story of the 21st century.

The middle class, virtually by definition, is not prepared for downward mobility. A systemic, semi-permanent decline in the standard of living isn't part of the implicit social contract that's been internalized by the middle class virtually everywhere:living standards are only supposed to rise. Any decline is temporary.

Downward mobility is the key context in the gilets jaunes "yellow vest" movement in France. Taxes and prices rise inexorably while wages/pensions stagnate. The only possible outcome of this structural asymmetry is a decline in the standard of living.

PRESIDENT Emmanuel Macron gave way to eurosceptic activists pushing for a ‘Frexit’ from the European Union (EU) on the eve of a mass police revolt, following five weeks of violent protests from the Yellow Vest movement.

Activists who are pushing for France to leave the EU won their first victory on Tuesday – and a step closer to the country voting on ‘Frexit’. The news comes as the country prepares for Black Wednesday and further riots in the nation. The beleaguered French President told ministers that he would consider changing the law to allow what he called “citizens’ initiative referendums”, following calls from Yellow Vest activists who have been putting the idea forward as part of their revolt against Mr Macron’s government.

The French government has sought to soothe police forces demanding improved working conditions by proposing a 300-euro (£270) bonus to officers deployed to the violent protests that started last month.

President Emmanuel Macron committed to the idea of protest duty pay earlier this month. The government's offer came a day after two police unions announced work slowdowns to protest staffing and other budget issues.

Interior minister Christophe Castaner is meeting police union representatives later. It is not clear if the proposed premiums would calm the growing anger in police ranks.

The damages have cost the road operator tens of millions of euros already.

French protesters, commonly referred to as "yellow vests," have occupied highways in France and set fire to toll booths, sparking chaos in the country's transport system just days before the Christmas holidays, according to a report by Reuters.

Vinci Autoroutes, France's largest toll road operator, has reported protesters occupying some 40 sites across its network and damaging some intersections. In particular, damaged intersections were reported in Avignon, Orange, Perpignan and Adage.

France’s Interior Minister Christophe Castaner is to meet with representatives of police unions on Tuesday evening, following complaints about strained resources in the wake of five straight weekends of violent protests. Two police unions complained Monday about working conditions and strained resources in light of the past few weeks of protests, which have seen officers sent in to clear road blockades and control demonstrations. The Alliance union has urged the government to invest in law enforcement while calling for a work slowdown on Wednesday to protest planned cuts in the national police budget.

What if protesters in Paris win, and the French government gives in to all their demands?

What if taxes are reduced, wages increased, President Macron steps down?

I am not talking only about the fuel tax; attempts to impose it have been already abandoned. I am not talking about increase of the minimum wage – the government already agreed to rise it by 100 euro per month.

What I am talking about are real, fundamental changes which many protesters seem to be desiring: substantial tax reduction for the majority of French citizens, generous increase in wages and enhancement of social benefits for all.

So, if the Yellow Vests manage to win all this, then what will happen? Who would benefit? But also, who would lose?

*

One of my readers recently wrote to me that France should reduce its military budget and from those billions of euro saved, could easily finance demands of the protesters.

The French are the best. The men don’t get fat. The women don’t sleep alone. The kids are well-behaved. They have the best architecture, the best way of living, best bread, best wine, best olive oil, best cooking, some of the best writing, films, painting, poetry, perfume – and women. They also excel in revolutions. Each revolution of theirs is a peach, perfect, round and juicy. They open a new epoch for mankind.

Just thinking of a French revolution makes me feel young, for I remember the previous one, in May 1968, and it was a beauty, the revolution of Forbidden to Forbid. It ushered us into the short-living paradise of permissible. Believe it or not, we could freely flirt with the opposite sex, we could smoke in the pubs and cafés, we could have a drink and drive. We could rent a room for small price, and roam Europe for $5 a day. Workers weren’t fired, jobs were aplenty, there were no one-year contracts, parking was free and gasoline cheap. Oh yes, and the cotton was high.

In the wake of the on-going street violence in France, Israeli PM Netanyahu has called for a new program to be put in place that will offer Jews living in France help in moving to Israel:

The Israeli government discussed Sunday its readiness to accept a new wave of immigrants amid an increase of antisemitism in France, Ynet reported.

Following the outcome of a government meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered the creation of a national program to encourage the repatriation to Israel of Jewish refugees from France. According to local media, this blueprint program will also be introduced to an inter-governmental commission on integration.

TV channel France3 has “fixed” a placard held by a Yellow Vest protester, which urged President Emmanuel Macron to resign. The broadcaster explained that the sign was broadcast reading just Macron, due to a “human error.”
The unfortunate blunder occurred on Saturday during an evening news program that was covering the ongoing Yellow Vest protests.

Among videos and images of the protests, France3 featured a photo supplied by Agence France Presse (AFP). It shows a couple of mounted police officers watching the crowds outside the Opera building in Paris on Saturday. One of the Yellow Vests holds high a placard, reading “Macron out.”

The French government is set to rush tax cuts and a rise in the minimum wage through parliament in a bid to end the “yellow vest” protests which appear to be waning after a month of disruption.

The measures announced a week ago by President Emmanuel Macron will be discussed at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday and put to the National Assembly and the Senate for votes before Christmas, officials said.

But in the meantime, the protesters must dismantle their road blocks, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said Monday, warning that “we can’t continue to paralyse the French economy.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has acknowledged that the government made mistakes while handing the massive Yellow Vest protests that have gripped the country for the past five weeks.
“We made mistakes. We did not listen enough to the French people. I remain convinced that they want this country to be transformed,” he told Les Echoes newspaper on Sunday.

Violence at the demonstrations has been hitting record levels with hundreds of protesters injured since November 17. At least seven people died during the protests. Police officers have also suffered injuries.

French cities descended into chaos, with protesters smashing store windows, looting, overturning cars, and burning barricades. City centers were shrouded in fog from tear gas, smoke grenades and firecrackers. Earlier in December, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire admitted that the protests were a “catastrophe” for the country's economy and businesses.

The correspondence of the journalist of the BBC Russian Service, Olga Ivshina, in which she asked to find any evidence of “Moscow’s interference” in the mass protests of the yellow vests in France, is an example of propaganda in which the Western media are “most closely” involved. This was announced by the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, on Sunday, December 16.

French intelligence services have not found any signs of Russia's alleged involvement in the dissemination of false information related to the protests that are currently taking place in the country, local media reported on Sunday, citing an intelligence source.

According to the Journal du Dimanche newspaper, as of the end of this week, neither the French Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE) nor the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) managed to establish any facts proving Russia's direct involvement in the spread of fake news or conspiracy rumours within the framework of the "yellow vest" movement.