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A weekend of protests by a movement initially established against fuel tax hikes which grew on social media, and which claims no political alliances, has attracted several hundreds of thousands of protestors across France this weekend to block roads in what is fast developing into a movement of protest against falling living standards among modest income earners.  

In a speech to Germany's parliament, French President Emmanuel Macron said Europe must not 'become a plaything of great powers' and that 'in this global order, which we have to take very seriously, our strength, our true strength, lies in unity".

Emmanuelle Amar, head of the independent body that raised the alarm over geographic clusters in France of babies born with malformations, and which was initially dismissed by officials, has welcomed the turnaround of the government to launch a broad scientific review into the reasons behind the incidents.

A woman died and more than 200 others were injured in France as an estimated 280,000 people joined the first day of nationwide roadblocks by a protest movement organised on social media and without apparent alliance to political parties, which began as a reaction against a tax hike on fuel costs but which has spread into a broader opposition to President Emmanuel Macron's economic policies, and notably standards of living for low-income earners. 

A growing movement in France against fuel tax hikes and which claims no political alliances, plans a national day of action of road blocks across the country on Saturday as the protests widen to broader demands over diminishing purchasing power for people with modest incomes.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo, who faces a tough re-election campaign in 2020, has plans, if re-elected, to transform the four central Paris districts into largely pedestrian zones as part of a continuing programme to clean up the French capital's chronic air pollution.

Georges Tron, a former French junior minster and Member of Parliament, and mayor of a town near Paris, has been acquitted by a trial jury of charges of raping two women employees of his town hall in sexual assaults abetted by his female deputy, after jurors found no evidence that the plaintifs did not consent to the events.

The Guardian's world affairs editor Julian Borger argues that in the spat between US President Donald Trump and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, 'the outcomes of Trump’s meltdown could be far worse when it is not Macron on the receiving end but, say, Kim Jong-un'.

US President Donald Trump, apparently displeased with remarks warning against rise of nationalism pronounced by French President Emmanuel Macron during Armistice Day ceremonies attended in Paris by the US head of state, took to Twitter on Tuesday to say that 'They were starting to learn German in Paris before the U.S. came along', underlining that France suffers from high unemployment, adding, 'By the way, there is no country more Nationalist than France'.

Jewels which belonged to France's Austrian-born queen Marie-Antoinette, wife of Louis XVI who was guillotined in 1793 following the French Revolution at the age of 37, are to go to auction in Geneva on Thursday, with one pendant valued at 2 million dollars, all part of a major collection of jewellery being sold by Italy's royal Bourbon-Parma house.