France fears more riots; sites to close
PARIS — Authorities across France braced Thursday for the possibility of more riots and violence at anti-government protests this weekend, holding emergency meetings and deploying tens of thousands of police and security forces.
Museums, theaters and shops in Paris announced they would close Saturday as a precaution — including the city’s famed Eiffel Tower.
Police unions and city authorities met to strategize on how to handle the protests Saturday, which are being held even though French President Emmanuel Macron surrendered Wednesday night and canceled a fuel tax hike that had unleashed weeks of unrest.
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told senators Thursday that the government will deploy “exceptional” security measures for the protests in Paris and elsewhere.
Mr. Macron agreed to abandon the fuel tax hike, part of his plans to combat global warming, but protesters’ demands have now expanded to other issues hurting French workers, retirees and students.
No deal to cut global oil
VIENNA — OPEC ended a meeting Thursday without striking a deal to reduce oil output and without any clear sign one would be reached when officials from the organization, Russia and other oil producers reconvene Friday.
As he climbed into a car on a rainy street outside OPEC headquarters, Saudi Arabia’s energy minister, Khalid al-Falih, told reporters he was “not confident” an agreement that would keep supply and demand in balance was within reach.
Mr. Al-Falih had said in the morning that “all options” were on the table but that a reduction of 1 million barrels a day — roughly 1 percent of the global oil supply — would be “adequate” to balance the markets. One million barrels a day would likely be considered a modest cut by traders. He said he had heard a range of numbers discussed, from 500,000 to 1.5 million barrels a day.
Ann-Louise Hittle, an analyst at the market research firm Wood Mackenzie, said that it was not surprising for the group to fall short of a deal on its first day of meeting.
“They faced a lot of complicated issues,” she said.
Yemen peace talks
STOCKHOLM, Sweden — Yemen’s warring sides agreed to a broad prisoner swap Thursday, sitting down in the same room together for the first time in years at U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Sweden aimed at halting a catastrophic war that has brought the country to the brink of famine.
Hopes were high that the talks wouldn’t deteriorate into further violence as in the past, and that the prisoner exchange would be an important first step toward building confidence between highly distrustful adversaries.
The 3-year-old conflict pits the internationally recognized government, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition, against Shiite rebels known as Houthis, who took the capital of Sanaa in 2014. The Saudis intervened the following year.
The fighting in Yemen has generated the world’s worst humanitarian crisis and claimed at least 10,000 lives, with experts estimating a much higher toll.
The international Red Cross said it would oversee the prisoner exchange, which is expected to take weeks.
U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths said the two sides have signaled they are serious about de-escalating the fighting through calls they’ve made in recent weeks, and urged them to work to further reduce the violence in the Arab world’s poorest nation.