The Eiffel Tower shut down, France’s vaunted high-speed trains stood still and teachers walked off the job as unions yesterday launched nationwide strikes and protests over the French government’s plan to overhaul the retirement system.
Paris authorities barricaded the presidential palace and deployed 6,000 police officers as activists — many in yellow vests representing France’s year-old movement for economic justice — gathered for a major march through the capital.
Organizers hope for a mass outpouring of anger at French President Emmanuel Macron for his centerpiece reform, seen as threatening the hard-fought French way of life.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Macron remained “calm and determined” to push it through, a top presidential official said.
The Louvre Museum warned of strike disruptions, while Paris hotels struggled to fill rooms. Many visitors — including the US secretary of energy — canceled plans to travel to one of the world’s most-visited nations amid the strike.
Unprepared tourists discovered historic railway stations standing empty, with about nine out of 10 of high-speed trains canceled.
Signs at Orly Airport in Paris showed “canceled” notices, as the civil aviation authority announced 20 percent of flights had been grounded.
Some travelers showed support for the striking workers, but others complained about being embroiled in someone else’s fight.
“I arrived at the airport this morning and I had no idea about the strike happening, and I was waiting for two hours in the airport for the train to arrive and it didn’t arrive,” Ian Crossen of New York said. “I feel a little bit frustrated and I’ve spent a lot of money. I’ve spent money I didn’t need to, apparently.”
Vladimir Madeira, a Chilean tourist who had traveled to Paris for vacation, said the strike had been “a nightmare.”
He had not heard about the protest until he arrived in Paris and transport disruptions had foiled his plans to travel directly to Zurich, Switzerland, yesterday.
Beneath the closed Eiffel Tower, tourists from Thailand, Canada and Spain echoed those sentiments.
The big question was how long the strike would last.
French Minister of Transport Elisabeth Borne said that she expects the travel troubles to be just as bad today, while the unions said that it is an open-ended movement and they hope to keep up the momentum at least for a week, in the hope of forcing the government to make concessions.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
RSS