Anti-racism groups joined French unions and a new left-wing coalition in protests across France against the surging nationalist far right as frenzied campaigning is under way in advance of snap parliamentary elections.

About 21,000 police and gendarmes were deployed at rallies on Saturday with authorities expecting between 300,000 and 500,000 protesters nationwide, France’s interior ministry said.

In Paris, those who feared the elections would produce France’s first far-right government since World War II gathered at Place de la Republique before marching.

Crowds have been gathering daily in France, ever since the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) made historic gains in the European Parliament elections last Sunday. This prompted Macron to dissolve the National Assembly and call for a snap legislative election, to be held in two rounds on June 30 and July 7.

A large crowd turned out in spite of rainy and windy weather on Saturday holding placards reading “Liberty for all, Equality for all and Fraternity with all” – a reference to France’s national motto – as well as “Let’s break frontiers, documents for all, no to the immigration bill.”

Speaking from Place de Republique, hard-left CGT union leader Sophie Binet told reporters, “We are marching because we are extremely worried [RN’s leader] Jordan Bardella could become the next prime minister … We want to prevent this disaster.”

‘Ideology based on fear’

Among the protesters in Paris, some also chanted “Free Palestine, viva Palestina,” and wore Palestinian keffiyeh scarves.

Among them was Nour Cekar, a 16-year-old high school student, who has French and Algerian parents and wears the hijab.

“To me, the extreme right is a danger because it supports an ideology based on the fear of the other, whereas we are all French citizens despite our differences,” she said.

Cekar added she will vote for the left-wing coalition because “it is the only political [entity] that addresses racism and Islamophobia.”

Meanwhile, in the French Riviera city of Nice, demonstrators marched down Jean Medecin Avenue, the city’s main shopping street, chanting against the National Rally and its leader Bardella, 28, as well as President Emmanuel Macron.

Protest organisers said 3,000 took part, while police put the number at 2,500.

Nice is traditionally a conservative stronghold, but has, over the past decade, turned firmly in favour of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally and her far-right rival Eric Zemmour.

Nacira Guenif, a sociologist at University Paris 8, called the rise of the far right a “very dangerous situation”, and said many young people who attended rallies on Saturday denounced “the fascists”.

“This is a greater danger than ever. This is the first time where the far right rose to 30 percent of the vote in the European elections. The reason the youth and a lot of people were on the streets today is to say they don’t want this to happen in France,” Guenif told Al Jazeera.

Huge gamble for Macron

Reporting from Paris, Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler noted the French president’s call of the election took everybody, including his own ministers, by surprise.

“Macron says he called this election because he has heard the voice of the people, of the voters. He said he’s seen the EU election that took place and saw that people are unhappy with his policies in this government. Therefore, he says he’s given the choice back to the people.”

The move is a huge gamble, she said. “People are here to say they fear the far right that would destroy France’s values of rights, liberty, freedom and equality.”

To prevent the National Rally party from winning the upcoming elections, left-wing parties finally agreed on Friday to set aside differences over the wars on Gaza and Ukraine and form a coalition. They urged French citizens to defeat the far right.

French opinion polls suggest the National Rally is expected to be ahead in the first round of the parliamentary elections. The party came out on top in the European elections last week, garnering more than 30 percent of the vote cast in France, almost twice as many votes as Macron’s party Renaissance.

Macron’s term is still on for three more years, and he would retain control over foreign affairs and defence regardless of the result. But his presidency would be weakened if the National Rally wins, which could put Bardella on track to become the next prime minister, with authority over domestic and economic affairs.

French voters go to the polls first on June 30 and again July 7.

LONDON (AP) — Britain put on a display of birthday pageantry Saturday for King Charles III, a military parade that marked the Princess of Wales ’ first public appearance since her cancer diagnosis early this year.

The annual event was also a show of stability by the monarchy after months in which both the king and Kate, wife of heir to the throne Prince William, have been sidelined by cancer treatment.

Kate announced Friday that she would attend the King’s Birthday Parade after making progress in her treatment. She disclosed in March that she was undergoing chemotherapy for an unspecified form of cancer.

“I am making good progress, but as anyone going through chemotherapy will know, there are good days and bad days,” Kate said in a statement, adding that she faces “a few more months” of treatment.

The 42-year-old princess traveled in horse-drawn carriage from Buckingham Palace down the grand avenue known as the Mall with her children George, 10, Charlotte, 9, and 6-year-old Louis. Bystanders cheered as they caught a glimpse of Kate, dressed in a white dress and wide-brimmed hat.

She was due to watch the ceremony from a building overlooking Horse Guards Parade, a ceremonial parade ground in central London.

Prince William rode on horseback for the ceremony, also known as Trooping the Color, in which troops in full dress uniform parade past the king with their regimental flag, or “color.” Charles, who also is being treated for an undisclosed form of cancer, traveled in a carriage with Queen Camilla, rather than on horseback as he did last year.

Five regiments take it in turns to parade their color, and this year it was the turn of the Irish Guards, which has Kate as its honorary colonel.

The troops in scarlet tunics and bearskin hats were led onto the parade ground by their mascot, an Irish wolfhound named Seamus, and the pipes and drums of their band.

Charles, 75, disclosed his cancer in February, and has recently eased back into public duties. He attended commemorations last week for the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe on June 6, 1944.

Kate is likely to join other members of the family on a Buckingham Palace balcony to watch a flypast of military aircraft -– and delight the crowds below. The princess has not made any public appearances since December.

Kate said in her statement that she is “not out of the woods yet” and officials stress that Saturday’s engagement does not herald a full return to public life.

In one of the many quirks of British royal convention, Saturday is not the king’s real birthday -– that’s in November. Like his mother Queen Elizabeth II before him, Charles has an official birthday on the second Saturday in June. The date was chosen because the weather is generally good, though early sunshine on Saturday gave way to a blustery, rainy day in London.

Royal fans in raincoats and umbrellas had already gathered along the route several hours before start time, along with a smattering of anti-monarchist protesters chanting “Not my king.”

Spectators will be treated to a display of pomp and precision involving more than 1,000 soldiers, 250 military musicians and more than 200 horses. The equine participants will include Trojan, Tennyson, and Vanquish, three of the five military horses who sparked mayhem in April when they bolted and ran loose through central London.

The horses were performing routine exercises near Buckingham Palace on April 24 when they became spooked by noise from a nearby building site and galloped loose through the capital’s streets, crashing into vehicles and causing chaos during the morning rush hour.

The army says the other two horses are recovering well and are expected to return to duty.

After loudly touting the use of artificial intelligence (AI) during their 11-day conflict against Hamas in 2021, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been fairly tight-lipped about the AI systems they’ve employed in the post-Oct. 7 Gaza battlespace. 

Numerous media outlets have speculated that Israel’s AI platforms are being used recklessly, but Blaise Misztal, Vice President for Policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), told Fox News Digital that he believes Israel is using AI-powered drone swarms, mapping drones and targeting systems as a means to minimize civilian casualties as they seek out Hamas terrorists hiding among the populace or holed up in tunnel systems laced beneath civilian architecture.

Misztal says that available evidence implies drones are a “near constant companion for ground troops as they’re maneuvering through Gaza,” with the IDF telling JINSA researchers that “each unit has its own mini-Air Force” supporting troop movements. 

A number of AI-powered drones may be mapping the underground tunnels built below Gaza, or protecting those who are traversing them as they seek out terrorists or hostages. Iris, a ground-based, throwable unit manufactured by Elbit Systems “can enter small and confined spaces, above or underground, to explore hazardous areas while relaying intelligence and reconnaissance information in real-time.” 

ISRAEL’S ADVANCED MILITARY TECHNOLOGY ON FULL DISPLAY DURING IRAN’S ATTACK

Ghost Robotics manufactures the Vision-60, a ground drone that it says can “continuously push the limits to improve its ability to walk, run, crawl, climb, and eventually swim in complex environments” to “keep our warfighters, workers, and K9s out of harm’s way.” 

Xtend UAV systems are also deployed in the Gaza theater after initially being developed to target Hamas’ incendiary balloons attempting to enter Israeli airspace. Xtend’s Griffon Counter UAV can be used to find and kill rogue drones, an important task as Iran and its proxies have deployed or trained to deploy drones against Israel. 

ISRAEL’S ADVANCED MILITARY TECHNOLOGY ON FULL DISPLAY DURING IRAN’S ATTACK

The capability to “be deployed in parallel” may be a reference to the utilization of drone swarms, groups of drones which communicate with one another to carry out a directive using AI rather than human operators. Drone swarms were used in 30 sorties during Israel’s 2021 war, the Times of Israel reported. They helped Israel identify rocket launch sites used by Hamas. 

The main AI-empowered devices helping Israel avoid unnecessary civilian casualties are targeting systems known as “Gospel” and “Lavender.” While numerous media outlets have reported on these targeting systems, Misztal says many have “fundamentally misunderstood” how they work. Onlookers have described these AI systems as having the ability to both determine and engage targets. Misztal says that the targeting systems have a “man-machine loop,” in which first a human analyst, and then an IDF lawyer, decide whether a target receives final approval. 

An Israeli military helicopter and drone fly above the southern border area with the Gaza Strip on May 30 amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)

Jonathan Conricus, Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former IDF spokesman, also told Fox News Digital that “while the reliance on AI and technology is growing, Israeli policy mandates human decision-making at main junctions.” 

WHAT IS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI)?

According to Misztal, the “Gospel” system identifies hard targets like “buildings, weapons storage facilities, and rocket launchers,” while the “Lavender” system utilizes facial recognition to identify Hamas leaders and fighters.

The real boon in utilizing these targeting systems is their ability to sift through the “constant streams of data” collected by Israel’s multitude of air and ground assets, including the new AI-enabled Oron spy plane. Learned patterns help the systems determine likely targets. “If you can bring in the precision that machine learning enables you to do rather than just having human eyes on it, that is helpful in narrowing down what are likely targets, and minimizing mistakes,” Misztal said.

ISRAEL REVEALS ‘MOST ADVANCED’ SURVEILLANCE PLANE WITH AI-POWERED SENSORS: ‘UNPRECEDENTED’ 

IDF forces are seen operating in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip. (IDF Spokesman’s Office)

Data from Gospel and information derived from AI-powered mapping drones have likely allowed the IDF to avoid situations like one Misztal said they encountered in 2021 while fighting Hamas from the air. According to Misztal, an Israeli bomb strike on a poorly-constructed tunnel resulted in the collapse of the residential building built atop the tunnel, causing civilian casualties.

With ground troops now engaged and tunnel networks better understood, Misztal says the IDF is able to “find strategic intersections between tunnels” that they can “block so that they become unusable” without causing possible collapse of civilian structures atop the terror hideouts. “That mapping process allows them to be much more precise,” Misztal concluded.

Officers utilize a range of information to identify and locate targets. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit)

Misztal believes Lavender’s utilization shows how much care Israel takes to keep civilians from the battlespace. “We’ve heard of Israel using facial recognition technology as they’re screening people, civilians who are moving between different parts of Gaza” when the IDF “is creating safe zones and telling people to evacuate, and guarding them while they evacuate because Hamas wants to keep them from leaving their homes so that they can remain as human shields,” he said. Facial recognition in these situations allows the IDF “to make sure that those protection measures are not being exploited by Hamas fighters.”

Despite remaining mostly quiet about their use, Misztal said Israel’s use of its array of AI-powered systems has “become a normalized part of their operating process” since 2021. When facing a new kind of war after Oct. 7, Misztal said the IDF “told JINSA researchers about how they were uncertain of what they would find on the ground” in Gaza, “but as they got better at understanding the layout, as they got better at deploying their assets, like drones and other surveillance capabilities, they became much more capable of operating surgically.”

Palestinian Hamas terrorists are seen during a military show in the Bani Suheila district on July 20, 2017, in Gaza City, Gaza. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

The Associated Press last week released a report that corroborates Misztal’s observation that utilizing AI has led to lower civilian casualties. Through an analysis of Gaza Ministry of Health data, long questioned by researchers, the AP found that the “proportion of Palestinian women and children being killed in the Israel-Hamas war appears to have declined sharply.” The AP admitted that the shift “went unnoticed for months by the U.N. and much of the media.” 

In addition to reducing casualties, AI has enabled a high level of operations that would otherwise require vast amounts of human capital. According to Conricus, “Without the extensive use of tech and AI to automate and streamline complex or resource intense processes, Israel would need to multiply its intelligence collection and control infrastructure, which is frankly not a viable option. Thus, AI and advanced tech allows Israel to face the multitude of threats within existing manpower and resource limitations.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.