Street demonstrations and transport strikes disrupted France again on Tuesday as another day of protests against a widely unpopular pension overhaul took place, in what appeared to be a last-ditch effort to pressure the authorities into scrapping the changes. Tuesday’s protest, the 14th day of nationwide demonstrations since January, reflected the lingering anger at the […]
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More Americans are raiding their retirement accounts as the cost of living climbs, and experts predict that the number of workers drawing on their 401(k)s to pay for financial emergencies may increase due to a confluence of factors, like new provisions that make withdrawals easier and high inflation that is straining household budgets. “It’s just […]
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Spreading across a highway so that no cars could pass, 100 or so protesters banged saucepans in a deafening racket that echoed through this remote valley of eastern France last month. They were marching toward a nearby castle where the French president was due to arrive, determined to stand in his way and create cacophony […]
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PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron, straining for a tone of reconciliation after months of bitter conflict over his plan to raise the retirement age in France, expressed regret for the first time that a consensus was not reached and appealed for a new “national élan” based on “calm, unity, ambition and action.” In a 13-minute […]
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Jade Akintola and Brandon Thomas Brown are balancing three competing financial priorities — preparing for the birth of their first child, saving up for a down payment on their first home and contributing to their retirement fund. Something, they decided, had to give, so in the short term, that thing was their retirement savings. “At […]
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President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to increase the legal retirement age in France got constitutional approval on Friday, clearing the way for the measure to be gradually introduced in the fall but doing little to quell the seething popular anger against it. In a highly awaited ruling, France’s Constitutional Council, which reviews legislation to ensure it […]
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Hundreds of thousands of protesters marched across France on Thursday on the eve of a crucial ruling over President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to raise the legal age of retirement to 64, from 62, a step that could pave the way for the measure’s final implementation, even if it does little to dispel persistent popular opposition. […]
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For almost a week, after word leaked that the French cabinet minister Marlène Schiappa would appear on the cover of French Playboy, the country’s talking heads have debated whether it is appropriate for a self-described feminist to appear in a magazine known for its nude centerfolds. The prime minister rebuked the minister’s timing amid monthslong […]
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Ross Levin, the founder of Accredited Investors in Edina, Minn., considered Ms. Keyser’s question. The Keyser family is right on track with their current plan, one they have created mostly on their own, Mr. Levin said, especially given the pressures parents of college students face juggling their needs with their kids’. “I want to stress […]
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The ancient wooden doors are adorned with an ornate metal knocker and a small grilled window, for guards to peek through. Once an imposing part of the elegant facade of Bordeaux’s City Hall, they look more like towering pieces of charcoal since being set on fire last week, after a protest against the French government’s […]
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“I don’t think it’s a problem,” said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “This is what the whole thing is worth, and if Apple or Microsoft go up or down, there is proportional impact because they are worth more. It’s market-driven.” The S&P also produces an “equal weight” index, where each […]
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Stuck in a highly charged standoff, France was bracing on Tuesday for another round of disruptive strikes, huge street demonstrations and potentially violent protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension overhaul. A surge of violence on the fringes of last week’s largely peaceful marches was an ominous sign, ratcheting up the already high tension between Mr. […]
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The postponement of a state visit to France by King Charles III had become almost inevitable: The optics of President Emmanuel Macron dining with the British monarch at the Château de Versailles as Paris burned were not just bad, they would have looked like a brazen provocation to the blue-collar workers leading a wave of […]
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As an enormous march against an unpopular pension overhaul was winding down in Paris, small groups of young protesters began planning their next move as night fell. “Let’s go to the Bastille,” a man in his 20s told his friends. Another, checking social media on his phone, said, “It looks like Châtelet is the meeting […]
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The state visit by King Charles III of Britain to France that was scheduled for next week has been postponed because of strikes and protests against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension overhaul, the French presidency announced on Friday. “This decision was taken by the French and British governments, after a telephone exchange between the President of […]
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FOS-SUR-MER, France — “This government just does not listen to us,” said Renald, a 50-year-old electrical mechanic at the Port of Marseille, as his co-workers assembled a barricade this week on the route leading to a fuel depot. “There’s a deep anger here.” That anger is unlikely to have been assuaged by President Emmanuel Macron’s […]
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Workers went on strike and demonstrators marched around France on Thursday for the first big day of protests since President Emmanuel Macron shoved an increase of the retirement age to 64 from 62 through Parliament without a full vote, a test of the unions’ ability to maintain their pressure and the president’s ability to weather […]
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PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron, addressing the French people for the first time since the tumultuous passing of a law that raises the retirement age to 64 from 62, denounced violent protests and said he would not tolerate their threat to the republic. Speaking in a televised interview with two journalists, Mr. Macron said he […]
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PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron’s re-election program last year was short on detail. His mind seemed elsewhere, chiefly on the war in Ukraine. But on one thing he was clear: He would raise the retirement age in France to 65 from 62. “You will have to work progressively more,” he said during a debate in […]
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France was waiting for President Emmanuel Macron’s next steps on Tuesday after his government barely survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament, ensuring that his unpopular pension overhaul became law but doing little to quell the swirling political uncertainty about the future of his second term. Despite months of massive street protests and strikes, Mr. Macron […]
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PARIS — The French National Assembly rejected a no-confidence motion against the government of President Emmanuel Macron on Monday, ensuring that a fiercely contested bill raising the retirement age to 64 from 62 becomes the law of the land. The first of two motions received 278 votes, nine short of the 287 needed to pass. […]
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President Emmanuel Macron’s government was facing a crucial no-confidence vote in France’s lower house of Parliament on Monday after his government forced a pension overhaul through without a vote, incensing labor unions, sparking violent protests and setting off the most intense political turmoil of his second term. In choosing to bypass Parliament, Mr. Macron opened […]
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PARIS — “We have a president who makes use of a permanent coup d’état.” That was the verdict of Olivier Faure, the leader of the French Socialist Party, after President Emmanuel Macron rammed through a bill raising the retirement age in France to 64 from 62 without a full parliamentary vote this past week. In […]
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Protesters in France blocked roads on Friday and labor unions vowed more strikes after President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to push a widely unpopular pension bill through Parliament without a vote, sending opposition parties rushing to file no-confidence motions against his cabinet. Mr. Macron’s decision, announced by his prime minister on Thursday during a raucous session […]
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PARIS — Lawmakers filled the grand chamber of the National Assembly, climbing into the red felt seats that curl in a semicircle around a room that has been the crucible of democratic debate in France since the French Revolution. The tension was palpable. A bill that would extend the legal age of retirement to 64 […]
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President Emmanuel Macron, worried that France’s Parliament would not approve a fiercely contested bill raising the retirement age to 64 from 62, opted to ram the legislation through on Thursday without a full parliamentary vote, a decision certain to inflame an already tense confrontation over the measure. After three meetings on Thursday with Mr. Macron […]
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Angry protesters lit small fires and clashed with police clad in riot gear at the Place de la Concorde in central Paris on Thursday after President Emmanuel Macron pushed his pension reform bill through Parliament without a vote. Several thousand people had spontaneously gathered there earlier in the day, after the government’s decision was announced, […]
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Roger Cohen contributed reporting. The Daily is made by Lisa Tobin, Rachel Quester, Lynsea Garrison, Clare Toeniskoetter, Paige Cowett, Michael Simon Johnson, Brad Fisher, Chris Wood, Jessica Cheung, Stella Tan, Alexandra Leigh Young, Lisa Chow, Eric Krupke, Marc Georges, Luke Vander Ploeg, M.J. Davis Lin, Dan Powell, Dave Shaw, Sydney Harper, Robert Jimison, Mike Benoist, […]
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After waves of protests and rolling strikes that disrupted public transportation and left garbage piling up, all eyes were on the French Parliament on Thursday as it prepared to vote on a measure to increase the retirement age by two years. President Emmanuel Macron’s widely unpopular plans to raise the retirement age reached a critical […]
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PARIS — Hundreds of thousands of French protesters on Wednesday swarmed cities across the country, and striking workers disrupted rail lines and closed schools to protest the government’s plan to raise the legal retirement age, in a final show of force before the contested bill comes to a vote on Thursday. The march — the […]
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Mounds of food waste piled in view of the Eiffel Tower. Small cobblestone streets lined with overflowing garbage bins. The bank of the Seine skirted by heaps of trash. For more than a week now, garbage workers in parts of Paris and other cities across France have been on strike, protesting President Emmanuel Macron’s plan […]
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