Macron is set to fly into Paris late morning after attending a G20 summit in Argentina and will meet the prime minister, interior minister and top security service officials at the presidential palace.

New figures released from the Paris police service showed that 412 people were arrested on Saturday during the worst clashes for years in the capital and 378 were still in custody.

A total of 133 had been injured, including 23 members of the security forces who battled rioters for most of the day in some of the most famous parts of the capital.

    “I will never accept violence,” Macron told a news conference in Buenos Aires before flying home.

“No cause justifies that authorities are attacked, that businesses are plundered, that passers-by or journalists are threatened or that the Arc du Triomphe is defiled,” he said.

In a fresh incident on Sunday morning, a motorway pay booth was set on fire by arsonists in southern France near the city of Narbonne, a judicial source told AFP.

The main north-south motorway in eastern France, the A6, was also blocked by protesters near the city of Lyon on Sunday morning, its operator said.

The capital was calm, however, but as groups of workers moved around cleaning up the mess from the previous day, the scale of the destruction became clear.

In famed areas around the Champs-Elysees, the Louvre palace, the Opera or Place Vendome, smashed shop windows, broken glass and the occasional burned out car were testament to the violence.

Dozens of cars were torched by the gangs of rioters, some of whom wore gas masks and ski goggles to lessen the effects of tear gas which was fired continually by police.

One person was in a critical condition after protesters pulled down one of the huge iron gates of the Tuileries garden facing the Louvre museum, crushing several people.

Nearly 190 fires were put out and six buildings were set alight, the interior ministry said.

At the Arc de Triomphe, a monument to France’s war dead, graffiti had been daubed, saying: “The yellow vests will win.”

— What response? –

This was a reference to the so-called “yellow vest” anti-government protests that have swept France over the last fortnight, sparked initially by a rise in taxes on diesel.

The movement has since morphed into a broad opposition front to Macron, a 40-year-old pro-business centrist elected in May 2017.

Violent anarchist and far-right groups have since infiltrated it and are thought to be behind Saturday’s clashes.

Macron faces a dilemma in how to respond to the “yellow vests”, not least because they are a grassroots movement with no formal leaders and a wide range of demands.

Some representatives have also insisted on public talks broadcast on TV.

“We have said that we won’t change course. Because the course is good,” government spokesman Benjamin Griveaux told BFM television defiantly on Sunday morning.

“It’s been thirty years that people change course every 18 months,” he added, referring to Macron’s presidential predecessors who have often caved in to pressure from French street protests.

Macron has so far refused to roll back taxes on fuel, which he says are needed to fund the country’s transition to a low-emission economy.

And he remains a fervent defender of the tax cuts he has delivered for businesses and high-earners, which he believes were necessary to lower the country’s chronic high unemployment.

“We’re at a time when a bit of national unity around our security forces, around those who are really struggling would be a good thing for the country,” Griveaux added.

– State of emergency? –

An estimated 75,000 demonstrators, most of them peaceful, were counted across the country on Saturday, the interior ministry said.

The number was well below the first day of protests on November 17, which attracted around 282,000 people, and also down from the 106,000 who turned out last Saturday.

Interior Minister Castaner attributed the violence to “specialists in sowing conflict, specialists in destruction”.

He did not rule out imposing a state of emergency — a demand made by the police union Alliance — declaring: “Nothing is taboo for me. I am prepared to examine everything.”

Two people have died and dozens have been injured in the rallies, which opinion polls suggest still attract the support of two out of three French people.

Tributes poured in from world leaders in memory of the 41st US president, who guided America through the end of the Cold War and launched the international campaign to drive Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait.

Many of those same leaders are expected to attend Bush’s state funeral next week, alongside President Donald Trump and his wife Melania. Trump was notably absent from the funerals of the statesman’s late wife Barbara, and of veteran fellow Republican John McCain.

Although the two Republican presidents were in many ways polar opposites — the soft-spoken, patrician Bush reportedly once dismissed the blustering New Yorker as a “blowhard” and even voted for his rival Hillary Clinton — Trump paid the late leader a gracious tribute, saying he had “inspired generations of his fellow Americans to public service.”

    “His accomplishments were great from beginning to end,” Trump tweeted.

Declaring a national day of mourning for December 5 — when the federal government and New York Stock Exchange will close in Bush’s honor — Trump also signaled his respect by calling off a press conference planned at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires.

The days-long national farewell to Bush will begin Monday with a commemoration in Houston, where the Bushes lived for years and where he died on Friday surrounded by friends and family.

From there, Bush’s casket will travel to Washington on board Trump’s presidential aircraft — in what the US leader called “a special tribute that he deserves very much.”

The former president will lie in state in the US Capitol between Monday and Wednesday ahead of a state funeral at the towering National Cathedral, expected to draw dozens of dignitaries from around the world.

Bush’s remains will travel back to Texas on Wednesday, where he will lie in repose at St Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston with a funeral service the next day preceding his interment at the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station. He will make his final journey aboard a funeral train.

At the presidential library on Saturday, people came to sign the memorial book in Bush’s honor, or lay flowers at the feet of his statue.

Chris Griffin, a student at the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University who helped organize a candlelight vigil Saturday, said: “I think his legacy is really what inspires all of us.”

– ‘Grace, civility and social conscience’ –

Bush was a decorated World War II pilot, diplomat and onetime CIA chief who saw his son George follow in his footsteps to the Oval Office — making them only the second father-son duo in American presidential history, after John and John Quincy Adams.

From former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev to current heads of state, leaders praised Bush both for his strength and his moderation, as well as the commitment to internationalism typified by his assembling of a global coalition to oust Iraqi invaders from Kuwait in 1991.

Jimmy Carter, now the oldest surviving former US president, said Bush’s administration “was marked by grace, civility and social conscience.”

Britain took the rare step of lowering flags in government buildings.

Gorbachev called him “a true partner” in winding down the Cold War, and French President Emmanuel Macron mourned the loss of a leader who “strongly supported the alliance with Europe.”

Suffering from Parkinson’s disease, Bush had been wheelchair-bound and in failing health. He is survived by his five living children and 17 grandchildren.

Former secretary of state James Baker recounted anecdotes from his longtime friend’s final days to The New York Times.

He said Bush’s last words were to the younger George, who was put on the speaker phone to say goodbye, saying he had been a “wonderful dad” and that he loved him.

“I love you, too,” Bush replied.

– ‘New world order’ –

Born on June 12, 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts into a wealthy political dynasty, Bush left school to join the US Navy during World War II. He was rescued at sea after being shot down over the Pacific.

After graduating from Yale University, he briefly worked in the Texas oil industry.

But the world of politics was calling this son of a US senator.

He served in the US House of Representatives, as Washington’s envoy to China and as chief of the Central Intelligence Agency before becoming Ronald Reagan’s vice president.

Eight years later, in accepting his party’s nomination for president in 1988, Bush pleaded for a “kinder, and gentler nation.”

Bush was a foreign policy pragmatist who led the United States through the turbulent end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet Union.

He declared a “new world order” in 1990 and — backed by a 32-nation coalition — drove Iraq from Kuwait with a lightning air and ground assault.

The crushing sanctions he imposed on Iraq, however, were blamed by Iraqis for thousands of deaths, drawing him the bitter nickname of “Mr Embargo.”

And Panamanians said his invasion of their country in 1989 claimed hundreds of civilian lives.

But it was primarily a weak economy at home that cost him the 1992 election, won by upstart Democrat Bill Clinton.

In his later years, Bush turned to philanthropy, joining forces with Clinton to raise funds for victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, and with ex-presidents Clinton, Carter, Barack Obama and son George to raise money for hurricane victims in Texas last year.

Mayra Berenice Gallo, 24, apparently went into a rage on October 27 after ordering food through the drive-through at the fast food outlet in the town of Santa Ana.

Police spokesman Anthony Bertagna told AFP that an infuriated Gallo stormed into the restaurant through the employee back entrance and started pushing and choking the victim after being told she couldn’t be in that area.

“She was irate that she didn’t get ketchup,” Bertagna said.

The incident, which was caught on video, ended after a man accompanying Gallo pulled her away.

She was arrested on Tuesday after police received tips from the public and was being held on assault charges.

Bertagna said such incidents are sadly becoming all too common.

“We’re seeing more and more of this kind of stuff. Why? we don’t know,” he said. “We had one guy at a 7-Eleven (convenience store) who tried to buy a bag of almond M&M’s and when his credit card didn’t work, he basically trashed the store.”

    Officers responded with tear gas after being targeted by protesters hurling rocks and other projectiles on the third weekend of demonstrations which have morphed into a broader rebuke of French President Emmanuel Macron.

Smoke engulfed several shopping districts as the violence spread from the Arc de Triomphe, where crowds had gathered earlier hoping to march down the Champs-Elysees.

While several dozens were allowed into the avenue after an ID check and search, many others — some wearing gas masks or ski goggles — remained behind and fought police manning barricades and water cannons.

    Protesters then led police on cat-and-mouse chases through other parts of the capital, setting cars and construction equipment alight and smashing windows.

An assault rifle was stolen from a police vehicle, a source told AFP, though it was unclear if it was loaded.

One person was in a critical condition after protesters pulled down one of the huge iron gates of the Tuileries garden facing the famed Louvre museum, crushing several people.

“Those responsible for this violence don’t want change or improvement, they want chaos,” President Emmanuel Macron said in Buenos Aires where he was attending the G20 summit.

Macron added that he had convened a meeting with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, Interior Minister Christophe Castaner and other top officials in Paris on Sunday after his return from Argentina.

“No cause justifies that authorities are attacked, that businesses are plundered, that passers-by or journalists are threatened or that the Arc de Triomphe is defiled,” he said.

Philippe said the violence was “incredibly shocking” during a visit evening to a police barracks on Saturday evening.

Authorities said at least 287 people were arrested in Paris and 110 injured, including 17 of the 5,000 police officers mobilised for the protests. Nearly 190 fires were put out and six buildings were set alight, the interior ministry said.

​​​​​​– ‘Idiots who come to fight’ –

An estimated 75,000 demonstrators, most of them peaceful, were counted across the country in the afternoon, the interior ministry said.

The number was well below the first day of protests on November 17, which attracted around 282,000 people, and also down from the 106,000 who turned out last Saturday.

Acrid plumes of smoke and tear gas, however, were testament to the escalation in violence in Paris, to the consternation of many of the “yellow vests”, so-called for the high-visibility jackets they wear.

Along the opulent Avenue Foch near the Arc de Triomphe, home to embassies and luxury residences, protesters ripped out benches to form a blockade, one person waving a skull-and-bones pirate flag.

Interior Minister Castaner attributed the violence to “specialists in sowing conflict, specialists in destruction”.

He did not rule out imposing a state of emergency — a demand made by the police union Alliance — declaring: “Nothing is taboo for me. I am prepared to examine everything.”

“We’re a peaceful movement, but we’re disorganised — it’s a mess because we don’t have a leader,” said Dan Lodi, a 68-year-old pensioner on the Champs-Elysees.

“You always have some idiots who come to fight, but they don’t represent us at all.”

– ‘Macron has to listen’ –

Stores and restaurants along the Champs-Elysees as well as surrounding streets had boarded up windows, anticipating a repeat of the clashes last Saturday which Macron compared to “war scenes”.

Chantal, a 61-year-old pensioner, said she was avoiding the “hooligans” but was determined to send Macron a message on the rising costs of living.

“He has to come down off his pedestal,” she said under rain in the Champs-Elysees. “Every month I have to dip into my savings.”

The “yellow vest” movement erupted on social media in October and has since become a wider protest against Macron, who is accused of failing to recognise the rising cost of living that has left many struggling.

The countrywide protests have included many pensioners and have been most active in small urban and rural areas where demonstrators blocked roads, closed motorway toll booths, and even walled up the entrance to tax offices.

Two people have died and dozens have been injured in the rallies, which opinion polls suggest still attract the support of two out of three French people.

Attempts by the government to negotiate with the grassroots movement have failed, in large part because representatives have insisted on public talks broadcast on TV.

Macron has sought to douse the anger by promising three months of nationwide talks on how best to transform France into a low-carbon economy without penalising the poor.

He also vowed to slow the rate of increase in fuel taxes if international oil prices rise too rapidly but only after a tax hike due in January.

The coveted award was given by China Telecommunications Technology Labs, governed by the Ministry of Information and Industry Technology.

The award came as an official nod to China Daily app’s protection of user data as the app immediately made itself compliant with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) after it became enforceable in May.

Known for some of the strictest online privacy rules in the world, GDPR is designed to protect user data storage and usage, and to ensure that the user is in control of their data, rather than companies being in charge of user data.

Formerly known as Barrow, Utqiaġvik is the United States’ northernmost city at 330 miles above the Arctic circle. The city is home to indigenous Iñupiaq people and also houses several research stations.

According to weather.com, the sun doesn’t rise north of the Arctic Circle from mid-November through late January. This is due to the tilt of the Earth away from the sun’s most direct radiation.

Read also: Denali National Park welcomes its first (and last) luxury hotel

Instead of complete darkness, Utqiaġvik will experience “civil twilight”, which happens when the sun is 6 degrees below the horizon and creates little illumination. It lasts six hours per night, but it will decrease to three hours per night by the end of December.

Its 4,400 residents saw its last sunrise on Nov. 18 and won’t see another for 65 days. However, they can expect 80 days without a sunset starting in May.

The city spent three years under the iron-fisted rule of the Islamic State group, which punished those caught drinking alcohol with public lashings or worse.

But more than a year since Iraqi forces ousted the jihadists from Mosul, liquor stores are flourishing.

The western commercial district of Al-Duwasa is home to several modest outlets, including Khairallah Tobey’s.

The enterprising 21-year-old bounced between well-stocked shelves, pulling down bottles of beer priced at an affordable 1,500 Iraqi dinars — just over a dollar.

“Our sales are good right now,” said Tobey, a member of Iraq’s Yazidi minority.

Owners of Mosul’s bottle shops are all Yazidi or Christian, as Iraq does not grant alcohol licenses to Muslim citizens.

But under IS, which violently enforced a strict interpretation of Islamic law when it overran Mosul in 2014, everyone was banned from selling, buying, or drinking alcohol.

Booze never completely disappeared from the city — its residents found ways to smuggle in the devil’s drink — but it was expensive and dangerous.

With Mosul back under government control since July 2017, liquor stores are now back in the open.

“At work, I feel relaxed and not afraid or nervous at all, thanks to the security and freedom now present in Mosul,” Tobey told AFP.

‘Openly, without fear’

Across the Tigris river in the city’s east, vendor Abu Rayan said he has had the last laugh.

“I opened up my shop again just to spite Daesh, after it kicked us out of the city and confiscated our property and money,” he said, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

Islam forbids the consumption of alcohol, but drinking has remained commonplace across Muslim-majority Iraq.

Two years ago, the country’s presidency shot down a draft bill in parliament that proposed a ban on the production, sale, and import of alcoholic drinks.

There are no restrictions on consuming alcohol in Mosul, but those who sell, buy and drink it take certain precautions.

Most shops keep their signs relatively discrete, hanging just a few posters advertising Turkish beer Efes or its Korean counterpart Cass to help customers find the store.

Bottles are always packed in opaque black bags, and when they are cracked open, it’s typically out of public view — usually a spot on the Tigris river late at night or in the privacy of a home.

Not everyone in Mosul is thrilled with the city’s burgeoning booze sector.

Some residents have demanded liquor stores be shut for religious reasons or to protect young people.

But others say doing so would be a violation of individual rights.

“Drinking wine is a personal freedom that is allowed by the law. It has nothing to do with the difficult circumstances that this city has gone through,” says Ali Hassan, who paints homes.

He has heard stories of a different Mosul, in the 1960s and 1970s, when people visited bars, clubs, and liquor stores across the city.

“They drank openly and without fear,” says Hassan, 33.

Regulation for revenue?

Soon after this golden age, Iraq’s troubles began.

A string of conflicts in the 1980s was followed by an international embargo that brought shortages of most goods.

Then, in 2003, the US-led invasion of Iraq toppled strongman Saddam Hussein — but paved the way for the rise of religious militias across the country, including in Mosul.

As extremists gained traction, they targeted liquor stores with gun and grenade attacks.

Now, Mosul may have the opposite problem — too many unlicensed liquor stores are opening up, which has worried authorities and angered those shopkeepers who do have the right paperwork.

“We’ve received more than 100 requests for licenses, and so far 25 have been issued,” said regional official Zuhair al-Aaraji.

Shops selling alcohol must be a certain distance from homes, schools, places of worship, and government offices, he said.

Rights activist Mohammad Salem, 31, said regulation isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but that individual rights should be protected.

“The best situation is to organise the trade and sale of alcoholic drinks, supervised by social, health, and security authorities,” Salem said.

After all, he added, alcohol sales could provide an important source of revenue for Mosul as it rebuilds.

“Any decision to ban liquor would contradict personal freedoms, and deprive the city of economic and financial resources that it needs in this current state.”

There was an implicit contrast in some of the tributes offered at the Buenos Aires summit between Bush and the current White House occupant, Donald Trump, whose disruptive brand of diplomacy has stoked the deepest divisions in the G20’s 10-year history.

“He was a world leader, who strongly supported the alliance with Europe,” said French President Emmanuel Macron, who has been lobbying other G20 leaders to carve out a 19 v 1 statement on climate change excluding Trump.

British Prime Minister Theresa May lauded the late Bush as “a great statesman and a true friend of our country,” words that few observers in Britain would apply to Trump.

Trump himself said Bush had “inspired generations of his fellow Americans to public service.”

There was no immediate comment in Buenos Aires from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who regards the breakup of the Soviet Union under Bush’s presidency as a historical “tragedy.”

Bush also served as US envoy to China in the 1970s as the countries were establishing relations. Chinese President Xi Jinping was also yet to comment, as he prepared to dine with Trump later Saturday for a large helping of debate on trade tariffs.

With markets watching nervously, Trump has described the Xi encounter as a deadline for China to meet his demands or risk even further pressure.

The summit itself has been struggling to carve out any accord on climate change or countering trade protectionism, while hot-button disputes surrounding Ukraine and Saudi Arabia loom large.

Trump, who has already slapped $250 billion in tariffs on China and threatened more to come next month, sounded upbeat about making progress with Xi.

“We’re working very hard. If we could make a deal, that would be good,” Trump told reporters Friday as he met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the G20.

“I think they want to, and I think we’d like to. And we’ll see,” the president said.

Trump has thrown out the traditional US playbook on free trade since his shock 2016 election, vowing to protect forgotten workers and put “America First.”

Xi has in turn cast himself as a defender of stable global capitalism, a startling transformation for the leader of a communist state whose entry into the World Trade Organization less than two decades ago was controversial.

In a speech to fellow G20 leaders, Xi said that the major economies “should firmly uphold free trade and the rules-based multilateral trading system.”

But in a rhetorical olive branch to Trump, Xi pledged to do more to open up China’s economy.

“China will continue to deepen market-oriented reform, protect property rights and intellectual property rights, encourage fair competition and do more to expand imports,” he said.

– Walking away happy? –

Trump has accused China of rampant theft of US technology and demanded that the emerging power end its requirements that foreign companies team up with local partners.

The state-run China Daily said that the Pacific powers could strike a deal in Buenos Aires but warned the United States against pushing too hard on technology.

“Should there be any other aspirations, such as taking advantage of the trade spat to throttle Chinese growth, then an agreement is unlikely to be reached,” the newspaper said in an editorial Friday.

“But a good deal means both sides walking away happy. The US should give its habitual winner-take-all approach to international relations the weekend off,” it said.

Trump counted a victory Friday for his brash strategy as the United States, Canada and Mexico signed a new trade deal, a successor to the North American Free Trade Agreement.

While short of the complete rewrite of NAFTA once promised by Trump, he hailed the new United States-Mexico-Canada-Agreement as an “incredible milestone.”

– Russia probe –

A substantive deal between the United States and China could mark a major feat for the G20 summit, where expectations for collective action have been low.

With Trump feuding with close US allies, not least on climate change, two major summits this year ended without once-routine statements — those of the Group of Seven democracies and the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

Trump has decided to pull the United States from the Paris accord on curbing carbon emissions, despite mounting warnings from scientists leading up to a UN climate summit starting next week in Poland.

Trump called off talks with Putin at the G20 summit, officially due to outrage over Moscow’s naval skirmishes with Ukraine.

But Trump is also under mounting pressure at home in an investigation over whether his presidential campaign colluded with Russia — a topic sure to dominate his press conference shortly before he sits down with Xi.