Paris police on Saturday fired tear gas and issued hundreds of fines to break up a convoy of vehicles that attempted to block traffic in a protest over COVID-19 restrictions and rising living costs.
Inspired by truckers who shut down the Canadian capital Ottawa, thousands of demonstrators from across France made their way to Paris in a self-proclaimed “freedom convoy” of cars, trucks and vans.
The police, who had banned the protest, moved quickly to try to clear cars at entry points to the city, handing out fines for participation in an unauthorized protest.
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, more than 100 vehicles managed to converge on the Champs-Elysees, where police used teargas to disperse protesters in scenes reminiscent of the “yellow vest” anti-government riots of 2018 and 2019.
Among those arrested in Paris was Jerome Rodrigues, one of the leading figures in the “yellow vest” protests and a supporter of the convoy, a police source said.
French Minister of the Interior Gerard Darmanin wrote on Twitter that officers had arrested 54 protesters in Paris and handed out 337 fines.
The demonstrators oppose the COVID-19 vaccine pass required to access many public venues, but some also took aim at rising energy and food prices, issues which ignited the “yellow vest” protests.
Across the capital, more than 7,600 other people protested against the vaccination pass, the French Ministry of the Interior said.
Nearly 7,200 officers equipped with armored vehicles and water cannon were deployed around Paris.
“People need to see us, and to listen to the people who just want to live a normal and free life,” said Lisa, a 62-year-old retired health worker traveling in from Chateaubourg, who did not want to give her surname.
About 24,000 more people demonstrated in other parts of the country, including in the southern city of Montpellier, where radical fringe activists broke the glass facades of two banks, authorities said.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
RSS