France, new protests against the pension reform

PARIS - Hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets in Paris, Nice, Marseille, Toulouse, Nantes and other cities in France, hoping to keep pressure on the government to backtrack on pension reform. The protests were marked by some rioting: a fire was lit in a central Paris avenue as police dispersed the crowd with tear gas.

Earlier this week, French lawmakers began a heated debate over the pensions bill, which provides for a controversial increase in the minimum retirement age from 62 to 64. It's the flagship law of Macron's second term that seems determined to carry through with his electoral promise to reform France's pension system. The reform, argues the president, is "vital" to ensure the sustainability of the pension system.