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🇫🇷 "I have two passions: the brass band and the revolution." A chant led by marching orchestras has become an anthem of France's protest movement. In Paris on Thursday, several hundred musicians and singers from the Orchestre du Nouveau Monde led the march from Place de la République to Place de la Nation. The orchestra, founded about six years ago, has about 250 members, mostly students, young workers and amateurs, and uses classical music to campaign for social and climate justice. Conductor Étienne Jarrier marked the general strike day on Thursday and urged the movement to "block the country." The orchestra has called for bands to form at protests nationwide under the slogan "Orchestras everywhere, silence nowhere." Organizers say 25 cities answered, including Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux, Strasbourg and Lille. The chant's lyrics: J'ai deux passions (I have two passions), La fanfare, la révolution (The brass band, the revolution). Vive les blocages, les sabotages (Long live the blockades, the sabotage), Les ZAD et les manifs sauvages ! (The ZADs and the wildcat marches!) J'ai deux passions (I have two passions), La fanfare, la révolution (The brass band, the revolution), Se soutenir, construire le rêve (Support each other, build the dream), Que la terre entière se soulève ! (Let the whole world rise up!) teapaw.org/ciancianella/status/21…

🇫🇷 Journalist asks 8-year-old Marcel: “Why are you protesting today?” Marcel: “Well, I think Macron is an asshole.” Journalist: “Merci, Marcel.” Protesters took to the streets across France for a fourth straight Saturday, with student unions saying about 250,000 people joined. Police fired tear gas in Paris, where fires burned and officers detained protesters. The government deployed 70,000 police and gendarmes, and Paris police banned a Yellow Vest rally at Place de la Concorde and refused many other protest permits. Police arrested two Yellow Vest leaders, Benjamin Ball and spokesperson Azelma Sigaux, near the National Assembly, according to AFP. The movement began in late September, when high school and university students protested overcrowded classrooms and unfilled teaching posts. It has grown into a broader revolt, joined by unions and the Yellow Vests, against the rising cost of living and the government's plan for €61 billion in spending cuts. About 6,800 people, most of them minors, have been arrested since it began.

🇫🇷 French presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon pledged Saturday that, if elected, French navy ships would escort citizen flotillas trying to break Israel's blockade of Gaza “if necessary." "We will act head-on to help the Palestinians, against both the genocide in Gaza and the gradual annexation of the West Bank," Mélenchon, the leader of the left-wing party La France Insoumise, said at a rally at Le Bourget, near Paris, where he presented his program for the 2027 election. He said France would not accept Israel's "gradual annexation" of the West Bank, southern Lebanon or the Golan Heights.

BREAKING | The U.S. military is expanding its blockade campaign against Iran, announcing a new task force to disrupt shipments across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea. CENTCOM says the 20-person Task Force Iron Gate will coordinate with federal agencies to target weapons shipments, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials and alleged illicit revenue streams. The Pentagon claims its naval blockade, imposed in July, has already prevented Iran from exporting more than $25 billion in crude oil.