Protesters yesterday blocked roads, set blazes and were met with volleys of police tear gas in Paris and elsewhere in France, seeking to heap pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron by attempting to give his new prime minister a baptism of fire.
French Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau announced nearly 200 arrests in the first hours of the planned day of nationwide protests.
Although falling short of its self-declared intention to “Block Everything,” the protest movement that started online and gathered steam over the summer caused widespread hot spots of disruption, defying an exceptional deployment of 80,000 police who broke up barricades and swiftly made arrests.
Photo: AFP
Retailleau said a bus was set on fire in the western city of Rennes and that damage to a power line blocked trains on a line in the southwest.
He said that protesters were attempting to create “a climate of insurrection.”
Two days after Francois Bayrou was ousted as prime minister in a parliamentary confidence vote and replaced on Tuesday by Sebastien Lecornu, thousands of protesters responded to online calls to disrupt the country.
Photo: AFP
The “Bloquons Tout” (Block Everything) movement’s call for a day of blockades, strikes, demonstrations and other acts of protest comes as Macron — one of the movement’s main targets — installed his fourth prime minister in 12 months.
The movement has a broad array of demands — many targeting contested belt-tightening budget plans that Bayrou championed before his demise — as well as broader complaints about inequality.
In Paris, firefighters removed burnt objects from a barricade set up by students to block traffic near a high school. Paris police said 132 people had been arrested in the demonstrations there so far.
Photo: AFP
“It’s the same shit, it’s the same, it’s Macron who’s the problem, not the ministers,” Fred, a representative for the RATP public transportation branch of the General Confederation of Labour union said at a protest in Paris.
Additional reporting by Reuters
REVENGE: Trump said he had the support of the Syrian government for the strikes, which took place in response to an Islamic State attack on US soldiers last week The US launched large-scale airstrikes on more than 70 targets across Syria, the Pentagon said on Friday, fulfilling US President Donald Trump’s vow to strike back after the killing of two US soldiers. “This is not the beginning of a war — it is a declaration of vengeance,” US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth wrote on social media. “Today, we hunted and we killed our enemies. Lots of them. And we will continue.” The US Central Command said that fighter jets, attack helicopters and artillery targeted ISIS infrastructure and weapon sites. “All terrorists who are evil enough to attack Americans are hereby warned
Seven wild Asiatic elephants were killed and a calf was injured when a high-speed passenger train collided with a herd crossing the tracks in India’s northeastern state of Assam early yesterday, local authorities said. The train driver spotted the herd of about 100 elephants and used the emergency brakes, but the train still hit some of the animals, Indian Railways spokesman Kapinjal Kishore Sharma told reporters. Five train coaches and the engine derailed following the impact, but there were no human casualties, Sharma said. Veterinarians carried out autopsies on the dead elephants, which were to be buried later in the day. The accident site
‘POLITICAL LOYALTY’: The move breaks with decades of precedent among US administrations, which have tended to leave career ambassadors in their posts US President Donald Trump’s administration has ordered dozens of US ambassadors to step down, people familiar with the matter said, a precedent-breaking recall that would leave embassies abroad without US Senate-confirmed leadership. The envoys, career diplomats who were almost all named to their jobs under former US president Joe Biden, were told over the phone in the past few days they needed to depart in the next few weeks, the people said. They would not be fired, but finding new roles would be a challenge given that many are far along in their careers and opportunities for senior diplomats can
RUSHED: The US pushed for the October deal to be ready for a ceremony with Trump, but sometimes it takes time to create an agreement that can hold, a Thai official said Defense officials from Thailand and Cambodia are to meet tomorrow to discuss the possibility of resuming a ceasefire between the two countries, Thailand’s top diplomat said yesterday, as border fighting entered a third week. A ceasefire agreement in October was rushed to ensure it could be witnessed by US President Donald Trump and lacked sufficient details to ensure the deal to end the armed conflict would hold, Thai Minister of Foreign Affairs Sihasak Phuangketkeow said after an ASEAN foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur. The two countries agreed to hold talks using their General Border Committee, an established bilateral mechanism, with Thailand
RSS