France faces day of cost-of-living protests

Our top story, massive protests have been organized across France today as anger grows over rising fuel prices and the high cost of living. Local media reporting that several arrests have already been made. Scores have taken to social media to coordinate while experts say the ongoing student demonstrations are giving these online calls fresh momentum. Platforms such as TikTok, are being closely monitored by authorities in an effort to anticipate and manage the gatherings. For more, we can cross now to France 24's Antonia Kerrigan, who's standing by for us in the capital. Now, Antonia, you're at République. That's where the official march through Paris will soon begin. But that's just a part of today's mobilization, isn't it? Yes, well, today's mobilisations are being described as a convergence of the struggles. That's, of course, we've covered heavily the schoolchildren's blockades on their schools and their protests to do with the conditions in their school buildings. But there's also coming together here as well. As you've mentioned, the Gilets Jaunes, you can see behind me, there are a smattering of yellow vests being worn in that crowd behind me. And indeed, we know that the government are anticipating around about 500 possible mobilizations across France today. Some of them authorized, others not. We know that the march today was a pretty hard fought for organizers to get an authorized route. Other options were taken off the table and particular parts of Paris, including Place La Concorde, the Champs-Élysées, for instance. It has been prohibited that any protesters gather there. We'll, of course, see whether that happens. Nevertheless, social media accounts saying that they belong to the Yellow Vest movement are circulating calls to action in 1,700 different locations across the country, some of which will be protests, some of which will be more blockade-style actions on roundabouts and on roads. Here in Place de la République, we're seeing people gather for this official protest. Authorities are expecting 40,000 to protest in the Paris region and 150,000 elsewhere in France. We'll be keeping an eye on those numbers. And, of course, to what extent this heavily anticipated day, both by protesters and by law enforcement, will live up to the expectations in terms of turnout. Now, Antonia, government ministers, I understand, will also be meeting throughout the day to direct the police response to these protests. What can we expect in terms of policing? Well, it's hard to say, but we know that the repression has drawn a huge amount of attention in the last few weeks of the school children's protests. Early on, they were given the instruction to intervene without restraint. But of course, since then, a 16-year-old lost the use of one eye due to rubber bullets. A 15-year-old lost a hand due to a stun grenade. So the Minister of the Interior rolled back the rhetoric a little bit. We've nevertheless seen since a huge amount of tear gas used. And we know that stun grenades are back on the table today, according to the Minister of the Interior, who has said that police must have all the arms at their disposal. The president himself has said the right to protest must be respected, but the right to protest comes with a responsibility that it shouldn't get out of hand. We've also spoken to young people present today who have brought masks to distribute, who have brought saline solutions to distribute in case of use of tear gas, etc. We'll be keeping a close eye on the extent of the repression. I can say that all around me, there are a huge number of police vans. Antonia, thank you so much. We'll be checking in with you throughout the day. That's France 24's Antonia Kerrigan over there at République in the capital.