Yellow Vests' encore: Tear gas & dozens of arrests as France's most vocal protest movement makes 1st comeback during Covid-19

Following a pause for summer holidays and Covid-19 lockdown, the signature 'gilets jaunes' have also planned marches in Marseille, Toulouse, Lyon, Lille, Nantes, Nice, Bordeaux, and Strasbourg.

The procession that set off from the Place Wagram saw people chanting slogans and handing out leaflets listing the movement's grievances, including demands for increases in the minimum wage, retirement pay, and other social benefits.

Paris police were prepared ahead of the renewed Yellow Vests demonstrations. A number of heavily armed riot squads were strategically placed all over the protest venues, most notably at the iconic Champs Elysees avenue - previously a site of many violent scenes. This area was declared off-limits.

Previous Yellow Vest marches in the area were overshadowed by violence, destruction of property and injuries to both police and protesters. "There can be no destruction and chaos on the Champs Elysees," police prefect Didier Lallemant told news outlet BFMTV, urging protesters to remain "calm."

For their part, some protesters had also prepared for street scuffles. Officers have seized an array of prohibited items, among them knives, hammers and bolt cutters.

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"End the Nobel Peace Prize," The Atlantic declared in a headline on Friday. The award's past winners have a "spotty" record of achievement, the media outlet said, as many were honored for making efforts at peace that never came to fruition. Trump's nomination was apparently the last straw for The Atlantic, which said it "shows that peace had its chance and blew it."

While it's so far unclear how the freshly-signed deal between Israel and the the United Arab Emirates and the soon-to-be-inked one between Israel and Bahrain will work out, or whether the "peace deal" between Serbia and Kosovo will hold for long, Trump has already earned two nominations for the prestigious award, from a Norwegian and a Swedish MP respectively.

The Atlantic argued that it remains to be seen if any of these endeavors will bear fruit and not flop, as this is precisely what had happened to equally well-intentioned accords involving Israel in the past. But some critics have pointed out that the publication was not so categorical back when former US president Barack Obama received his Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, based more on his campaign promises than any real accomplishments.

After receiving his Nobel, Obama started new wars and finished his last full year in office by dropping more than 26,000 bombs around the world and expanding the presence of US special forces to 70 percent of the world's 138 nations, more than doubling the reach of the George W. Bush administration.

Although Wood acknowledges that Obama won the accolade "for his promotion of, notably not his success in achieving, 'cooperation between peoples'" - and that instead of bringing peace, ended up "expanding America's drone program" - the timing of The Atlantic's vitriolic piece has prompted questions whether its demand to the Nobel Committee has more to do with the outlet's well-known distaste for Trump, rather then any genuine concern about the award's reputation.