Tear gas, arrests and chaos as protests grip France

Paris looks like a war zone. We're in Place de la Republique in the middle of the city where the air is thick with the smell of tear gas and you can hear the crowd control grenades exploding everywhere in the background. Protests happen a lot in France, but this one is different. For one, the people who started the original movement were teenagers in high school. They're pushing for more money to be spent on their education. But today they're getting help and support from many others who've come out. We shouldn't have to be scared of making ourselves heard. We are claiming our rights. I'm scared, but I have to do it. We're a really rich country, but a lot of our wealth is redirected to the ultra-ultra-rich. The country is angry, the people are angry, and I understand why. One analyst called it convergence. You've got university students, members of trade unions, and other protesters fighting against the high cost of living. The so-called gilets jaunes, or yellow vests, all of them are trying to make the government of President Emmanuel Macron pay attention to spend more on schools, more on social services, and less on the things that they don't believe government should be spending on, such as defense. But this violence, it's extreme. We've seen many people injured, lots of property damage, And President Macron has said he will not be intimidated by what happens here in the streets. So, after all of this, it's political gridlock.