Defiant "Yellow Vest" demonstrators faced off with tens of thousands of police around France on Saturday, but the movement appeared to have lost momentum on a fifth weekend of protests.
- The interior ministry said 66,000 protesters had been counted across France, down from 125,000 last week
- Police in Paris fired water cannon and teargas to disperse groups of protesters in sporadic clashes on the Champs-Elysées and adjacent streets
- Brief clashes were also reported in the cities of Nantes, Bordeaux and Toulouse, but elsewhere the protests were largely peaceful
- President Emmanuel Macron had urged protesters to hold off after a terrorist attack in Strasbourg earlier this week
- Facing the biggest test of his presidency, Macron announced a series of concessions on Monday to defuse the crisis that swelled up from rural and small-town France last month
