Emmanuel Macron

Emmanuel Macron has come under fire after he said Europe should not become a "vassal" and should avoid being drawn into a conflict between the US and China over Taiwan, the Guardian reported.

"Europe must reduce its dependence on the United States and avoid being drawn into a confrontation between China and the United States over Taiwan", French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with several media outlets on his way back from a three-day state visit to China.

Protesters started a fire at one of French President Emmanuel Macron's favorite restaurants in Paris on Thursday during clashes with riot police at the upmarket left-bank brasserie.

Staff at La Rotonde in the Montparnasse area of the city were forced to put out flames on the awning of the restaurant where Macron held a victory party during his successful 2017 election bid.

Clashes broke out in Paris next to a Left Bank pub favored by French President Emmanuel Macron, Reuters reported.
The awning of the Caf de la Rotonde was briefly set on fire.

In recent weeks France has been shaken by constant and violent demonstrations. The reason is the increase in the retirement age from 62 to 64. The reform is highly unpopular but is key to Emmanuel Macron's program, and what he was elected upon as president. It was not voted through in parliament, but Macron pushed it through by decree, as the Constitution allows.

French President Emmanuel Macron and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen began a series of meetings with Chinese leaders in Beijing on Thursday, talks that could set a new course for the bloc's relations with China after years of strained ties.

When Athens' Syntagma Square was the center of violent mass protests at the height of Greece's debt crisis, many European journalists, officials and analysts were visiting the city. We had become, literally and figuratively, the "hottest" spot in Europe.

"The law on the reform of the pension system was adopted in the French parliament and, if it passes the control of the constitutional council, then sooner or later it will have to be the topic for negotiating table, because regardless of the fact that the law has been adopted, it needs to be implemented, and that will not work easily because the unions in France are very influential," Duan Guja

Criticism from human rights watchdogs mounted on Friday over the alleged brutality of French police in handling protests opposed to President Emmanuel Macron's pension reform.

French authorities arrested more than 450 people on Thursday in the most violent day of demonstrations since the start of the year against the bill to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64.

More than 1 million people demonstrated across France on Thursday against unpopular pension reforms, and violence erupted in some places as unions called for new nationwide strikes and protests next week, coinciding with King Charles III's planned visit to France.