Paris Museums and Businesses Close as France Braces for Fourth Weekend of Protests

French authorities closed the Louvre and other major Paris museums and deployed 70,000 police officers and soldiers on Saturday as protests began for a fourth straight weekend. Hundreds of thousands of people were expected at rallies nationwide, including high school students, unionists and "yellow vest" demonstrators demanding more school funding and help with housing and the cost of living. The culture ministry told The Associated Press that the Orsay and Picasso museums would also close. Authorities raised policing by 20%, limited where protesters may march and which groups are authorised to do so, and urged shops to close. Many metro stations were shut. Protests the previous Saturday saw fires, smashed windows, looting and clashes with police. France's interior minister said officials had found numerous online calls from hard-left groups for attacks on public buildings. Art Basel Paris cancelled its weekend program, and the NFL closed its "NFL House" in Paris. Separately, the president called a Friday shooting west of Paris, which killed one person and injured five, a "racist terrorist attack." Marine Le Pen's National Rally held a conference in Orléans, where up to 30,000 counter-demonstrators were expected.

The Guardian, the left-leaning outlet, opens with the size and makeup of the protests, the demands behind them, and the 20% police increase. It adds the Friday shooting, the National Rally conference and protests elsewhere in Europe. It describes last week's damage as occurring on the fringes of protests. Breitbart, the right-leaning outlet, carrying AP copy, leads with the Louvre, Orsay and Picasso closures and describes last week's events as mayhem and France's most violent unrest in years. It notes that a Thursday protest was peaceful, and it features Art Basel's cancellation and a quote from an artist. Both sides report the closures and last week's looting. The left gives more weight to the protesters' demands and the political context, while the right gives more weight to the threat of violence and the cultural impact. Straight Arrow News adds the interior minister's warning about hard-left online calls, and the NFL House closure appears in the ESPN and Washington Times reports.