Massive acts of protest in France || Breaking News, 4th of December, 2018

James Jeffrey, the US Secretary of State for Syria, announced that the United States can’t yet confirm the use of chemical weapons by the terrorists from Idlib province during their shelling of the city of Aleppo on 24th of November. “There was one incident a week ago, during which, presumably, the terrorists from Idlib used chemical weapons, and the Russians struck back with an air strike” — said James Jeffrey. At the same time, he underlined that the United States can’t yet confirm «any attack with the use of chemical weapons during this incident» — TASS reports. “We will try to find more information as soon as possible” — James Jeffrey added.

The Wall Street Journal claims that in the coming days — a group of US Navy ships led by the Nimitz type aircraft carrier will enter the Persian Gulf. According to their sources in the Pentagon — the purpose of the presence of the US aircraft carrier in the Persian Gulf is the demonstration of power to Iran, RIA NEWS reports. According to the sources of the Wall Street Journal in the Pentagon — the presence of the aircraft carrier “certainly provides suppression” of any potentially hostile Iranian activity in the waters of the region. It is assumed that the US Navy aircraft carrier will be placed in the Middle East region for about 2 months, most of that time it will spend in the Persian Gulf.

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko accused Russia in violation of the decision of the European Court of Human Rights, that allegedly obliged Russia to provide Ukraine with the information on the whereabouts and health condition of the detained Ukrainian sailors that were detained after their violation of the Russian border in the Kerch Strait. As he insists according to the Geneva Convention — the Ukrainian servicemen are prisoners of war, and they can’t be judged by a Russian court. Earlier, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Yuriy Lutsenko, spoke about the preparation of a proposal for the introduction of new sanctions against Russia related to the events in the Kerch Strait. In particular he mentioned that Kiev should apply «personal, special, economic and other restrictive measures to certain individuals and legal entities of Russia», which includes the blocking of the assets of Russian businessmen on the territory of Ukraine «until the complete de-occupation of the country».

The French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe announced his intention to declare a moratorium on the increase of the fuel taxes due to the growing mass protests in France against the rise of the fuel prices. This was reported by AFP agency with a reference to their sources in the government. At the same time, the meeting of the French Prime Minister with the representatives of the «yellow vests», which President Macron had previously requested and which was planned on Tuesday morning, was canceled. The mass protests began on 17th of November. During the protest rally in Paris on Saturday — 412 people were detained and 133 were injured, including 23 police officers. The protesters attacked several large supermarkets and luxury stores. They also burned dozens of cars. An eighty-year-old woman died in Marseille as a result of a tear gas grenade thrown in her face.

The State Border Service of Ukraine recommended to the crew of the oil tanker “Mechanic Pogodin”, which is currently being held in the commercial seaport of Kherson, to not leave the ship due to the martial law in the country, the press service of the company “V.F. Tanker” reports. The press service of the ship-owning company announced that the crew of the tanker «remains the same.» The captain «received an oral notification from the representatives of the State Border Service of Ukraine that the crew was recommended to not leave the ship due to the military situation» — RIA NEWS reports. At the same time, “the ban on the entry to Ukraine for the Russian men, aged 16 to 60 years, makes it impossible to send a new crew to the ship”.