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French government faces fresh test as Yellow Vests mobilise

France's Yellow Vest movement filed plans for a major ​march through Paris on Saturday, presenting the government with its next major test after riots and looting last weekend shook confidence ‌in its ability to maintain order. Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu was due to meet union leaders on Wednesday, seeking ways to defuse one of the worst crises France has faced in recent years and avoid a repeat of the violence that swept French cities on October 17. A representative of the "Gilets Jaunes" (Yellow Vests) movement, which is a grassroots ​group not tied to the unions, presented plans for a march across the heart of Paris, including areas that were ransacked just ​days ago. Student groups have also called for protests the same day to push their demands for more investment ⁠in education. Yellow Vest activists are seeking to revive their campaign, which emerged in 2018, against rising living costs and declining public services. Investors fret, French borrowin...
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Iran says coastal attack will lead to full Gulf closure and mine-laying

An attack on Iran's southern coast and islands will lead to Gulf routes being cut with the laying of sea mines, the country's Defence Council said on Monday, according to state media. The US is considering plans to occupy or blockade Iran's Kharg Island, the country's main oil export hub, to pressure Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to all shipping, according to Axios. "Any attempt to attack Iran's coasts or islands will cause all access routes in the Gulf (...) to be mined with various types of sea mines, including floating mines that can be released from the coast," the statement read. "In this case, the entire Gulf will practically be in a situation similar to the Strait of Hormuz for a long time (...) One should not forget the failure of more than 100 minesweepers in the 1980s in removing a few sea mines." The Defence Council recalled that non-belligerent states can only pass through the Strait of Hormuz by coordinating passage with Iran. Read: Japan could consider Hormuz minesweeping if ceasefire reached, minister says Iran on Monday faces a deadline by President Donald Trump to open up the crucial Strait of Hormuz or face a major US assault on power plants, as Israel warned of weeks more of war. Israel also gave the clearest signs, yet it intends a ground campaign into Lebanon, destroying a key bridge as it vows to crush Hezbollah, the Shia Muslim movement backed by Iran. Trump, after enthusiastically backing Israel in the war the two countries launched on February 28, is under political pressure as fuel prices rise, the result of Iran's attempts to retaliate in the oil-rich Gulf. Trump on Saturday threatened to "obliterate" Iran's power plants if it did not, within 48 hours, end its partial blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway into the Gulf through which one-fifth of the world's oil flows.

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