France

PARIS, March 27 (Reuters) - Trade union protesters angered by President Emmanuel Macron's move to raise the French retirement age without a final vote in parliament blocked the Louvre museum in Paris on Monday, frustrating crowds of visitors.

Demonstrating peacefully against plans to make most French work an extra two years to 64 to balance the pension budget, a small number of protesters gathered at the foot of the Louvre's glass pyramid. One banner read "Retire at 60 - work less to live longer."

A queue of disappointed tourists snaked through the courtyard.

PARIS (AP) — A big day has come for French high school student Elisa Fares. At age 17, she is taking part in her first protest.

In a country that taught the world about people power with its revolution of 1789 — and a country again seething with anger against its leaders — graduating from bystander to demonstrator is a generations-old rite of passage. Fares looks both excited and nervous as she prepares to march down Paris streets where people for centuries have similarly defied authority and declared: “Non!”

25 Mar 2023; MEMO: Algeria and France have ended their diplomatic crisis and agreed to "reinforce mutual cooperation," news agencies reported on Friday. This came following a phone call between the presidents of both countries.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron agreed to reinforce contact between the two countries: "In order to avoid facing misunderstandings," the French presidency announced.

SAINTE-SOLINE, France, March 25 (Reuters) - Police in western France clashed with protesters on Saturday opposed to the creation of a large water reservoir for farm irrigation.

Thousands of protesters converged on the site of the planned reservoir in the rural district of Sainte-Soline, where a similar protest last October resulted in injuries.

Opponents marched on Saturday in defiance of a ban on gatherings in the Sainte-Soline district.

PARIS, March 24. /TASS/: Russia’s permanent envoy to UNESCO, Rinat Alyautdinov, highly assessed the prospects for cooperation with the Chinese delegation within the framework of the organization, noting that the two countries’ priorities are similar.

"Since my arrival, I have already had several meetings with China’s permanent envoy to UNESCO," he said in an interview with TASS, adding that his Chinese colleague has extensive experience in the field of education and is highly knowledgeable about the work of the organization itself.

PARIS (AP) — French citizens angry at President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms engaged in scattered protest actions Friday, as the ongoing unrest across the country persuaded officials to postpone a planned state visit by Britain’s King Charles III.

Demonstrators had demanded that Charles cancel his trip, which was scheduled to start Sunday. The protests and labor strikes against Macron’s decision to raise France’s retirement age from 62 to 64 already had promised to impact his visit, with workers refusing to roll out the red carpet for the king’s arrival.

PARIS (AP) — French unions on Thursday are holding their first mass demonstrations since President Emmanuel Macron inflamed public anger by forcing a higher retirement age through parliament without a vote. Strikes are upending travel, and blockades are expected at ports, refineries and garbage dumps.

Violence has intensified in recent days at scattered protests against the pension reform and Macron’s leadership.

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that the pension bill that he pushed through without a vote in parliament needs to be implemented by the “end of the year.”

Macron, who made the comments in an interview broadcast on national television, said the bill that raises the retirement age from 62 to 64 will “continue its democratic path.”

The Constitutional Council needs to review the bill in the coming weeks, and it can only be turned into law after the body gives its approval.

PARIS (AP) — Paris police said Tuesday that 234 people were arrested overnight in the capital mostly for setting fire to garbage in the streets, after France’s parliament adopted a divisive bill raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 pushed that was through by President Emmanuel Macron.

Mostly small, scattered protests were held in cities around France, some degenerating late Monday into violent incidents. In Paris, small groups took to the streets to set fire to piles of trash that have formed due to a strike by garbage collectors in the capital that is in its 16th day.

PARIS (AP) — A parody photo appearing on protest signs and online in France shows President Emmanuel Macron sitting on piles of garbage. The image references the trash going uncollected with sanitation workers on strike, but also what many French people think about their leader.

Macron, 45, had hoped his push to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 would cement his legacy as the president who transformed France’s economy for the 21st century. Instead, he finds his leadership contested, both in parliament and on the streets of major cities.