French police counter protest violence; garbage strike ends

By NICOLAS GARRIGA and JOHN LEICESTER
Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — French police forces have clashed with demonstrators in numerous cities as hundred of thousands of marchers protested President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular retirement age increase. Police ramped up security amid government warnings that some demonstrators intended “to destroy, to injure and to kill.” In Paris, striking workers invaded and blocked train tracks serving one of the French capital’s main railway stations. Yet there was a sign that protests may be losing steam, with sanitation workers in Paris saying they would suspend their-week-long strike Wednesday because few strikers were left. Fears that violence could mar the demonstrations prompted the government to order deployment of 13,000 officers, the most so far.