Hundreds of Germans have donned yellow vests to match protesters in France, demonstrating in the bastion of Germany's car industry in Stuttgart against a recent driving ban on older diesels.

The protest came after organizers asked people to hit the streets clad in the yellow high-visibility vests that have defined months of protests in France -- themselves triggered by an increase in tax on diesel.

"The French are an example to us, because they dared take to the streets to protect their rights," organizer Vasilos Topalis told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Stuttgart is home of Mercedes-Benz maker Daimler, Volkswagen subsidiary Porsche and the world's biggest car parts supplier Bosch.

Since January 1, only diesel vehicles meeting the Euro 5 emissions standard are allowed into Stuttgart, with efforts underway to implement similar driving bans in many German cities.

One week after a Yellow Vest organizer was "handicapped for life" by French police, protesters dedicated Saturday's demonstrations to denouncing police violence - only to be beaten and gassed by said police.

There have been 1,900 protesters and around 1,000 police injured since the movement began in November, and 10 fatalities, including an 80-year-old Marseille woman who was killed when a police tear-gas canister was launched into her apartment window while she was trying to close the shutters. She was taken to a nearby hospital but died during an operation after suffering shock, according to a local media report.

Emmanuel Macron is mulling over the possibility of holding a referendum in France in an attempt to resolve the socioeconomic crisis that triggered the wave of yellow vests rallies, while officials have already launched preparations for the vote in the event that Macron gives the signal, the Journal du Dimanche reported.

According to the sources, Macron is thinking about organizing the referendum on May 26, the day of the elections to the European Parliament, and the chances that the vote will be held on this very day are "very high," the outlet reported.

Yellow Vests protesters have turned into a "new political factor" in French domestic affairs, Karel Vereycken, vice-president of the Solidarity and Progrès Party, told Sputnik, commenting on the movement's bid to take part in the upcoming EU parliamentary elections.

"What the Yellow Vests have gained after 12 weeks of protest is less tangible but much 'bigger' than the scrapping the planned increase of taxes on fuel and some pocket money," Karel Vereycken, a French journalist and vice-president of Solidarity and Progrès Party, headed by Jacques Cheminade, said.

Yellow Vest protesters have returned to the streets of Paris to honor those injured in months of demonstrations and to condemn the police for using rubber-ball projectiles.

An estimated 13,800 people gathered between Daumesnil and Republic avenues, according to a count by Occurrence cited by Liberation.The police, however, provided lower estimates, stating that some 10,500 people turned out for the rally in Paris. All across France, around 58,600 people participated in the protests.

Coverage of the protests show clashes, with police firing tear gas into the crowds of demonstrators on the smoke-choked streets in Paris.

Lines of riot police are facing off against protesters.

Some of those marching through the French capital bear the scars of their injuries, with prominent protester Jerome Rodrigues covering his wounded eye with a patch.

Other than voicing their usual demands, protesters will also raise the issue of police violence following protest leader Jérôme Rodrigues sustaining an eye injury in an earlier rally.

Yellow Vests demonstrations are underway on Saturday, with the anti-establishment movement reaching its twelfth week of nationwide protests. Rallies are expected to take place not only in Paris, but in Bordeaux, Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon, Lille and numerous small French towns.

Yellow Vest protesters have returned to the streets of Paris to honor those injured in months of demonstrations and to condemn the police for using rubber-ball projectiles.

An estimated 13,800 people gathered between Daumesnil and Republic avenues, according to a count by Occurrence cited by Liberation. Live coverage of the protests show clashes, with police firing tear gas into the crowds of demonstrators on the smoke-choked streets in Paris.

Lines of riot police are facing off against protesters.

French politicians have approved controversial measures to ban what the government calls “brute” troublemakers from street demonstrations as gilets jaunes (yellow vests) anti-government protests enter their 12th week.

There were tense and heated exchanges in parliament late on Wednesday night, including from rebels within Emmanuel Macron’s own centrist party, as deputies backed giving regional prefects – local state security officials – the power to ban people presumed to be violent from taking part in demonstrations.

Deputies on the left and some on the centre said the measures posed an “authoritarian” threat to civil liberties.

The French government is under growing pressure to review police use of explosive weapons against civilians after serious injuries were reported during gilets jaunes street demonstrations, including people alleged to have lost eyes and to have had their hands and feet mutilated.

France’s legal advisory body, the council of state, will on Wednesday examine an urgent request by the French Human Rights League and the CGT trade union to ban police from using a form of rubber-bullet launcher in which ball-shaped projectiles are shot out of specialised handheld launchers. France’s rights ombudsman has long warned they are dangerous and carry “disproportionate risk”.

The Senate is once again debating boycott against Israel today, in a sign that Middle East policy is politicized as never before.

The Senate voted overwhelmingly yesterday, 76 to 22, to proceed forward on S.1, a bill sponsored by Marco Rubio– and AIPAC, the leading Israel lobby group– that encourages states to adopt measures to financially punish “entities using boycotts, divestments, or sanctions to influence Israel’s policies.”

The anti-BDS language is an unconstitutional limitation of free speech, the ACLU has said; state laws aimed at crushing BDS have already cost employment to a number of people of good faith who are opposed to Israeli policies.

The French government won’t stop the Yellow Vests by force, but only by doing what the people demand, according to prominent protester Jerome Rodrigues, who may remain blind in one eye after being injured by the police.

“The president [Emmanuel Macron] declared war on us and our injuries are battle wounds. The traumatic weapons are equipped with collimators [optical sights] – such equipment is used on the battlefield, at war,” Rodrigues told RT.

“I never thought that such a thing could happen in France,” he added, describing what the country has been going through in recent months as “dark times.”

The activist, who calls himself “a hyper pacifist,” was broadcasting live on Facebook from a rally in Paris last weekend when a police officer fired at him from an LBD 40 non-lethal gun. A projectile hit him in the eye, leading to hospitalization and a medically induced coma. The man said “there are no guarantees that the injured eye will be able to see again.”

François Boulo is the a 32-year-old lawyer and spokesman for the Gilets Jaunes Yellow Vests movement in the northern city of Rouen, who is now calling on the French people to form a general strike on February 5th, as “The only way to force a deaf president to call us to the polls.”

As a lawyer, Boulo says, “I defend people threatened with the seizure of their homes by the banks,” and he complains that the “tax devices” of the Macron government work “for the benefit of the richest 1%,” at the expense of public services.

Boulo says he doesn’t seek to become the national spokesperson of the Gilets Jaunes, saying “One spokesperson is not desirable,” in this decentralized movement. Nor does he seek the support of a political party, as being unaffiliated is more powerful. He emphasizes that he “is absolutely neither Left nor Right,” and that the political “quarrels of people are sick.”

Senator Elizabeth Warren fights for middle- and working-class Americans. But she's part of the Top 1%.

On the 12th December, The Guardian published an article entitled ‘If you want to understand the Gilets Jaunes you have to leave Paris’. The article had little by way of analysis, devoting itself to a standard ‘look at me I live in France’ one up man-ship. The ostensible topic, the Gilets Jaunes and questions concerning why now, who and where – surely the key questions – were largely ignored or under-developed.

I too live in France, about 800 kilometres from Paris: in South West France. My department is one of the poorest in the country. Moreover, even within this department, the area where I reside is backward in a developmental and progressivist sense: there are no motorways, the towns are little more than villages, there is little by the way of hospitals, work or facilities and, despite its fantastic natural beauty in the shade of the Pyrenees, the towns display an obvious air of poverty, unemployment and civic decay.

Over 50 people were detained on Saturday during the Yellow Vest rally in Paris, media reported citing the police.

According to BFM TV, as of 06:00 p.m. local time (17:00 GMT) the police detained 52 protesters.

The protesters gathered at the Place de la Republique, where the Yellow Night action will take place. The police had to use tear gas as a result of clashes with activists.

France Info broadcaster reported that about 69,000 people took part in Yellow Vest rallies across France on Saturday, including 4,000 protesters in Paris alone. Last week, 84,000 protesters participated in the rallies in the country with 7,000 in the capital.

French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner condemned the violence in Paris.

"I resolutely condemn the violence and destruction conducted on Saturday both in Paris and in the province by hooligans in yellow vests," Castaner said on Twitter.

France’s yellow vest movement kept up pressure on President Emmanuel Macron with mainly peaceful marches and scattered skirmishes Saturday, its 11th straight weekend action despite internal divisions and growing worries about protest violence.

Multiple anti-government protests took place in Paris and other cities, centered on Macron policies seen as favoring the rich. France deployed about 80,000 police officers to patrol the events and to disperse trouble.

A few cars were set ablaze in the Normandy town of Evreux. In Paris, crowds gathered at the columned headquarters of France’s lower house of parliament. Police used tear gas on demonstrators at the iconic Bastille Plaza who hurled items within reach.

Protests have hit the streets of French cities for the 11th weekend in a row. In Paris, the rallies were yet again marred with violence and clashes ahead of the very first nocturnal Yellow Vest demonstration in the city.

Saturday’s protest in Paris began uneventful, giving hope of a non-violent demonstration for a change. However, tensions later escalated in the center of the French capital at Bastille Square, with protesters and police engaging in a tense standoff that continued after the sunset.

Venezuela's foreign minister has blasted a European ultimatum to hold elections within eight days as 'childlike'.

Jorge Arreaza insisted that Nicolas Maduro remained the legitimate president despite pressure from Britain, France, Spain, Germany and the US.

'Europe is giving us eight days? Where do you get that you have the power to establish a deadline or an ultimatum to a sovereign people,' Arreaza told the Security Council. 'It's almost childlike.'

"Yellow Jacket" protesters have actually commenced a BANK RUN against banks in France today.

Hundreds are lined up outside bank branches and Automated Teller Machines pulling out their money.

This effort was first put forth as an idea about two weeks ago, but nothing much seemed to come of it. Today, that changed.

Videos are now surfacing on Social Media showing people lined up outside banks, and taking money out. The "run" has commenced.

Former U.S. diplomat Elliott Abrams will lead U.S. efforts on Venezuela, where Washington has recognized an opposition leader as the legitimate president, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Friday.

“Elliott will be a true asset to our mission to help the Venezuelan people fully restore democracy and prosperity to their country,” Pompeo said in announcing Abrams’ appointment.

He said Abrams would accompany him to the United Nations on Saturday for a Security Council meeting on Venezuela where the U.S. will press other countries to support opposition leader Juan Guaido as the country’s interim head of state.

The United Nations Human Rights Office announced yesterday it is beginning an investigation into the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

In a statement, the UN said that an independent panel would seek to establish “the nature and extent of states’ and individuals’ responsibilities for the killing”.

The UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, Agnes Callamard, said she would travel to Turkey next week to head an “independent international inquiry” into Khashoggi’s murder in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on 2 October.

British barrister Helena Kennedy and Duarte Nuno Vieira, a pathology expert and professor at the department of legal and forensic medicine at Coimbra University, Portugal, are among the team. Along with Callamard, they are to visit Turkey between 28 January and 3 February and plan to report to the UN Human Rights Council in June.

Callamard said that the findings will be raised at the UN rights office on 19 June.

Putting a new face to the Venezuelan opposition then immediately allowed for all sorts of anti-Maduro actors use Guaidó as their man to rally around.

So now that there is a new imperial point-man inside Venezuela the real question is, what happens next?

There are two likely outcomes to the rise of Guaidó, one of which is contingent on him succeeding and the other which would be another complete failure for the imperialists.

Guaidó launches his campaign today following several days or organizing protesters at rallies in Caracas. The protests have already started to turn violent as of this writing with at least four dead and the opposition calling for the military to “rise up” against the Bolivarian government.

From 2017, the Trump Administration has been angling for regime change in Venezuela. Back during his tenure as CIA Director, Mike Pompeo was talking about trying to orchestrate such a “transition” of power.

This week, President Maduro’s power began to face a serious challenge. Following calls from Pompeo’s State Department, opposition leader Juan Guaido declared himself interim president. The hawkish parts of the Trump Administration are only too eager to embrace this, and are looking to aggressively back the change.

Backing Guaido means open efforts to undermine Maduro, and that seems to be the near-term direction for the administration. John Bolton says that the main focus right now is on figuring out a way to ensure that all money from Venezuelan oil exports goes directly to Guaido. Bolton said this was only consistent with US recognition of him as the legitimate government of Venezuela.

Russia warned that the attempted US coup attempt, which was later backed by the right-wing governments of Brazil, Colombia, and Canada, would result in bloodshed if further actions were taken. Kremlin spokesmen Dmitry Peskov stated said outside interference in the country were “unacceptable” and that talk of US military actions was “dangerous”.

Educated at the CIA-infested George Washington University, Guaido only became president of the National Assembly of Venezuela on January 5th. He immediately claimed that Maduro was not Venezuela’s President and worked to incite rebellion within the military.

Maria Iris Varela Rangel, a leader in Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela, Tweeted of the sedition, “Guaido: I have already gotten your jail cell ready with the right uniform, and I hope you name your cabinet quickly to know who will keep you company, you stupid kid”.

At least 25,000 people demonstrated throughout France demanding fiscal justice and President Emmanuel Macron to step down. Clashes broke out in Paris as yellow vest protesters approached the National Assembly. According to police reports, 103 people were arrested in the capital city.

A group of French Yellow Vests has announced it would put forth a list of candidates for the upcoming European Parliament elections. Yet the move has attracted a wave of criticism from their fellow protesters.

The Citizens’ Initiative Rally (RIC) announced its decision to field a group of candidates for the upcoming May elections on Wednesday, unveiling first 10 names. The list is to be expanded, as the group plans to get 69 more candidates on it.

“The citizen movement… has shown the need to transform the anger into a political project capable of giving answers to the French people who have supported it,” the group said in a statement.

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced in late November that France would raise university fees for students coming from outside the European Union.

Teachers and students take to the streets of the French capital again marching against planned educational reforms by the government of French President Emmanuel Macron.

In December, French students have already gathered in Paris to rally against higher university fees for non-EU citizens coming to study in France.

Oklahoma lawmakers have filed a host of bills that seek to crack down on the methods educators employed to stage a statewide walkout and Capitol protest last spring.

Proposed measures range from criminal penalties for disrupting the Legislature to the mandatory loss of pay and teacher certification for those who strike or shut down schools to resolve differences with state leaders.

At its peak, the two-week teacher walkout in April had more than 500,000 students out of school — about two-thirds of the state’s student population.

The Oklahoma Legislature had just scrambled to pass teacher raises, but teachers walked off the job anyway in protest of the effects on students of Oklahoma’s nation-leading state funding cuts over the last decade.

German Yellow Vest activists protested Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel signing a treaty which aims to bring together the economic and defence policies of France and Germany in a prototype “Sovereign Europe”.
Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron signed the expansion of the 1963 French-German reconciliation Élysée treaty in Aachen, Germany, on Tuesday.

The treaty proposes to integrate aspects of France and Germany, including merging public transport networks and utilities in border regions, creating a common economic area, and developing shared social and political fields, according to Euractiv.

Doctors, activists and others are sounding the alarm over the number of serious injuries suffered by Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement activists at the hands of police during the past several weeks.

The French Interior Ministry has claimed that in the first nine weeks of the Yellow Vest protests around 1,800 protesters and 1,000 police officers have been injured but have not separated out those with serious injuries, L’Express reports.

Doctors in France’s emergency rooms say that some of the injuries have been extremely serious, blaming the police use of “flash-ball” shots which have led to some of the most serious injuries, including at least four protestors, two of them women, who have lost an eye and suffered some form of disfigurement.

Populist firebrand and niece of Rassemblement National (National Rally) leader Marine Le Pen, Marion Maréchal, compared the French Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vests) protestors to supporters of Britain leaving the European Union.

The former French MP spoke to a packed crowd of 500 people at the prestigious Oxford Union earlier this week and made a 20-minute speech calling for the formation of a new “elite” who understand the needs of regular people, saying politicians need to “reconnect with the people,” La Libre reports.

“Yellow jackets are very similar to your Brexiteers,” the 29-year-old said, adding: “We are in the midst of a populist movement. Behind the word populist, there is the word people, people who have been abandoned, people who are not represented.”

Two days ago, we could not confirm a widely shared claim the British press had gotten a D-Notice ordering a clamp on any coverage of the Yellow Vest movement in France. But what there is no doubt of, is the prevalence of such D-Notice orders – media gag orders which prohibit or greatly direct the coverage of certain matters of public interest, normally covered by ‘free’ media, but in fact we find something rather ominous and indeed subversive to the work of independent media.

A new fuel tax last November sent the French into the streets wearing yellow vests, but so far, Germany doesn’t seem to have gotten the message. Berlin has published proposals for meeting EU climate change reduction goals, and among them are a fuel tax starting in 2023, a speed limit on the Autobahn, lifting Germany’s exemption on taxes for diesel fuel cars, and quotas for electric and hybrid vehicles.

Potential flash points abound. The Autobahn is about the only place that the normally reserved Germans can let loose, not to mention that studies on how much carbon emissions will be cut by enforcing a speed limit are fairly unimpressive and inconclusive. As for electric vehicle quotas, one can only imagine a car shopper pointing at the shiny new BMW: “wunderbar!” only to be met with a resigned sigh from the salesperson: “Actually sir, may I…strongly…‘suggest’ you buy that shoddy, overpriced hybrid over there?”

Venezuela’s government said on Monday it had suppressed a military revolt after a group of officers stole weapons and kidnapped several officials, as a video posted online showed a sergeant demanding the removal of President Nicolas Maduro.

Some two dozen officers attacked a National Guard outpost in the Caracas neighborhood of Cotiza, a kilometer (0.6 mile) from the presidential Miraflores palace, where they met “firm resistance,” the government said. Witnesses reported hearing gunshots at about 3 a.m. (0700 GMT).

Protesters later burned trash and a car outside the outpost, where the 25 officers were arrested, in a sign of growing tensions following Maduro’s inauguration to a second term that governments around the world have called illegitimate.

Vermont lawmakers considering a carbon tax were confronted by protests on their first day in session. Dozens of anti-carbon tax protesters, wearing yellow vests, showed up at the statehouse to voice their opposition to the policy.

The protesters, dressed to mimic the Yellow Vest movement in France, explained that they opposed the carbon tax measure because Vermonters can’t afford any new taxes on gasoline, diesel, and home heating fuels.

“Those who make peaceful revolution impossible … make violent revolution inevitable,” said John F. Kennedy.

In 2016, the U.S. and Britain were both witness to peaceful revolutions.

The British voted 52-48 to sever ties to the European Union, restore their full sovereignty, declare independence and go their own way in the world. Trade and immigration policy would henceforth be decided by a parliament elected by the people, not by bureaucrats in Brussels.

“Brexit” it was called. And British defiance stunned global elites.

Two and a half years later, Britain is still inside the EU, and no one seems to know when or whether the divorce will take place — a victory of London and European elites over the expressed will of the British people.

launched by 27 low-ranking officers and their subsequent arrests in the Cotiza neighborhood of Caracas, which sparked overnight protests and sporadic clashes with police after opposition leader Juan Guaido made a broad appeal to the military in a speech, urging them to demand Maduro step down. Guaido and other opposition leaders in the National Assembly have declared Wednesday a nation-wide protest day seeking to topple the regime — itself a historic date commemorating the end of Venezuela's military dictatorship in 1958.

On Tuesday US Vice President Mike Pence urged the Venezuelan people to "make your voices heard" in follow-up to Guaido's risky appeal, which appears a continuation of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's comments throwing the United States' full weight behind Venezuela's opposition seeking to depose President Nicolás Maduro, which he made over a week ago while in the Middle East after Maduro was sworn in to a widely contested six-year second term.

A new billionaire was created every two days last year, just as the poorest half of the world's population saw their wealth decline by 11 percent

The day before he was killed, in his famous “Mountaintop” speech, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called for a boycott of Coca-Cola and Wonder Bread. Here’s what he said:

We don’t have to argue with anybody. We don’t have to curse and go around acting bad with our words. We don’t need any bricks and bottles. We don’t need any Molotov cocktails. We just need to go around to these stores, and to these massive industries in our country, and say, “God sent us by here, to say to you that you’re not treating his children right. And we’ve come by here to ask you to make the first item on your agenda fair treatment, where God’s children are concerned. Now, if you are not prepared to do that, we do have an agenda that we must follow. And our agenda calls for withdrawing economic support from you.”

They’re still not treating the children right. This time it’s the foundations built on profits from Microsoft and WalMart, among others. It’s time to put Dr. King’s agenda in motion.

And while most of the protests outside of France happened last month, this is a good list to note where discontent is mounting.

Bulgaria: Yellow Vests began protesting the same weekend as the French movement – coming out in force on November 16 to protest in front of parliament and demand the resignation of the government.

Canada: Yellow Vest protests have taken place in more than a dozen cities across Canada – largely campaigning against the carbon price, Canada’s participation in the UN’s Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration, the Trudeau administration and other issues.
Croatia: Croatians came out in force on December 15, gathering in Ban Jelacic Square.

Egypt: An Egyptian A lawyer was arrested and jailed for 15 days after he posted a picture of himself wearing a Yellow Vest in support of the French protests.

Finland: Finns came out in force in mid-December as well, gathering in front of Parliament in opposition to the UN’s Global Migration pact.

The ongoing wave of anti-government protests in France is not limited to the Yellow Vests; a lesser known movement, known as the “Red Pens”, is also on the rise. Comprised of teachers and lecturers who are disillusioned with traditional trade unions, the movement is calling for direct action.

Like the Yellow Vests, the "Red Pens" first appeared on Facebook, and although the movement was established just over a month ago, on 12 December, 60,000 people have already joined the group. This is particularly impressive considering there are only 880,000 teachers in the country.

Disillusioned with trade unions, they intend to achieve their objectives via acts of civil disobedience and other tactics, including seizing premises, refusing to report on progress, and urging parents to boycott schools.

The gilets jaunes (yellow vest) movement has rattled the French establishment. For several months, crowds ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands have been taking to the streets every weekend across the whole of France. They have had enormous success, extracting major concessions from the government. They continue to march.

Despite freezing temperatures and rain, tens of thousands of Yellow Vest protesters took to streets across France on Saturday for a tenth consecutive week of demonstrations, completely ignoring French President Emmanuel Macron's call for a "national debate" - the latest scheme we can add to the pile of failed gimmicks aimed at stopping the movement.

And while the MSM is largely ignoring the size and scope of the protests, independent journalists, select foreign news outlets and others have been documenting the mayhem.

Our greatest of Founding Fathers and our third U.S. president had it right: “When the people fear the government there is tyranny, but when the government fears the people there is liberty!” Knowing that the government over time since our founding as a free nation would grow very corrupt and oppressive, Thomas Jefferson predicted and advocated revolution, even a violent one when necessary – in effect to clean out the swamp that would necessarily seek to gobble up liberty. While he saw some government as necessary evil, he thus had a huge fear about its ultimately enslaving the lives of American citizens, as it had in France, where he also was one of the architects of its bloody revolution.

French President Emmanuel Macron's willingness to listen to his people and curtail his arrogance raises doubts, French journalist Gilbert Mercier told Sputnik, commenting on the president's national debate initiative. Dubbing the idea a "political theatre", the journalist opined that Macron's only option is to follow General de Gaulle's example.

French President Emmanuel Macron's "grand national debate" is largely a PR stunt, and an attempt to diffuse a wave of protests which is not fading away, says Gilbert Mercier, a French journalist, serving as the editor-in-chief of the News Junkie Post and the author of "The Orwellian Empire".

"If you wish, it is political theatre, to show 'his people' that he is willing to listen," Mercier told Sputnik. "However, the way it has been choreographed, shows that Macron is planning to do most of the talking, or at least direct the debate, listen to other elected officials, but certainly not open the debate directly with any Gilets Jaunes".

France's "yellow vests" are holding another large-scale demonstration in Paris. The event's Facebook site states that the protesters intend to gather in the square near the Hotel National des Invalides, after which they plan to march through the streets of the French capital.

The demonstration, scheduled for Saturday, is titled "Act 10". As many as 80,000 law enforcement officers have been mobilized across France to keep order during the demonstrations which are also taking place in other French cities, the BFMTV broadcaster reported citing the French Interior Ministry.

The "Yellow Vests" rallies (named after the reflective garment French drivers are required to have in their vehicles) started in mid-November.

More than 84,000 people took part in the protests in Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, Lyon, Strasbourg, and other French cities on Saturday.

Clashes eventually erupted at the iconic Champs Ulysses and Arc de Triomphe, with police using tear gas and water cannons to calm the angry crowds, RT reports. In Paris alone, 156 people were arrested during the standoff, with most of them put in custody, the law enforcers said.

It’s surprising how easily the fuel tax protests from France could spread to Belgium and the Netherlands. The demonstrations of people in yellow vests signal a large dissatisfaction of the people over their governments.

France’s fuel protests have partly turned into anti-Macron protests as well. Under his leadership taxes are increased, but he forgets to protect the French people and their culture.

It’s the same for Belgium and the Netherlands. Their leaders lead their country like modern companies, making a profit is seen by them as a success.

But in the meantime some much more important issues are being ignored. An increasing number of people are worried about immigration, about poverty and about the future of their children.

French riot police (CRS) are alleged to have begun deploying assault rifles with live ammunition for the first time during the ninth weekend of protest in a row by the Gilets Jaunes (Yellow Vest) movement.

French officers were caught on video brandishing what appeared to be Heckler & Koch G36 assault rifles on the streets of the French capital near the Arc de Triomphe on Saturday, the Daily Mail reports.

LAST NOVEMBER, THE French started a new Saturday tradition: “Gilet jaune” protesters wearing yellow safety vests started to take to the streets by the tens of thousands in the morning, shouting slogans against the high cost of living, against French President Emmanuel Macron, and against his detested taxes and social service reforms.

By the afternoon, the protesters would clash with riot police, who would fire round after round of tear gas and flash grenades to disperse them. By dusk, protesters would break windows of bus stations and storefronts, and sometimes light cars on fire before fleeing when the cops came. And from the middle of the night into the morning, the other “gilets jaunes” — street cleaners, often immigrants, who also wear the safety vests — would clean up the mess.

Olivier Beziade suffered a “very serious brain injury” after being shot from behind by a police officer using a flash ball gun during the yellow vest demonstration in Bordeaux on Saturday. The father-of-three is currently in an induced coma in hospital, according to his family. A shocking video shows blood pouring from Mr Beziade’s head as he is treated by paramedics.

Mr Beziade’s wife Cindy told French media: “I’m furious. This is unacceptable. I won’t let it go. The pictures speak for themselves.

“The demonstration was calm until about 4.30pm. I was with my husband in Rue Sainte-Catherine.

“Then there was a bit of panic. We turned back to avoid teargas fumes and to go home. I turned first right, he took the first turning on the left.”

Mr Beziade was then shot by an officer with a flash ball gun, while another threw a stun grenade towards him.

Mrs Beziade added: “They shot at us like rabbits.”

Tear gas and baton charges were used by French police on thousands of Yellow Vest protestors threatening the Arc de Triomphe in Paris today during more mass anti-government demonstrations.

The ugly scenes came on the 9th Saturday in a row of violence that now routinely reduces the capital city to a war zone.

In Paris, epicentre of the fiery street clashes and vandalism that have made global headlines, 5,000 riot police were on hand, using tall barricades and armoured vehicles to lock down the central Place de la Concorde and surrounding districts.

Hundreds of officers were also on guard on the Champs-Elysees, where banks, jewellery stores and other shops had boarded up windows in anticipation of renewed looting and violence.

The Yellow Vest movement has taken to the streets across France for a 9th week of anti-government protests, as the Gilets Jaunes movement appeared to surge in both number and intensity. While the demonstrations were largely peaceful for most involved, there were several violent skirmishes with police.

The protesters called for French President Emmanuel Macron’s resignation, pelting police with rocks, bottles and other improvised projectiles, while authorities used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protests which have been ongoing for nine weeks.

More than 200 people were arrested in Paris on Saturday in the ninth weekend of so-called "yellow vests" protests, which have been rocking the country since November.

Protesters called for French President Emmanuel Macron’s resignation and pelted police officers with bottles, improvised projectiles and flares, while officers responded with tear gas and water cannons.

Yellow Vest demonstrators returned to the streets of Paris and other French cities on Saturday, and some were met by police with tear gas and water cannons as the authorities pledged zero tolerance to violence.
More than 84,000 people took part in the protests in Paris, Marseille, Bordeaux, Lyon, Strasbourg, and other cities, according to Interior Ministry data.

Around 8,000 demonstrators, both locals and those coming from other parts of the country, were rallying in the French capital. Some 5,000 riot police with special equipment and armored vehicles oversaw the protests.