World in Photos: In France, no-confidence vote and fresh protests

Our regular curation of photos returns now to France — because fury and protest have returned to France as well. French President Emmanuel Macron has survived a no-confidence vote by the slimmest of margins, a vote that was called in response to his use of a special measure to force through legislation that would raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. While that proposal had already brought millions of people to the streets of French cities over the past several months, the anger now is directed as much at the way in which the policy was pushed through.

Macron and many economists have said that France simply cannot afford to continue paying for the retirement benefits and other elements of its generous social welfare programs as the population ages and the proportion of working-age citizens to retirement-age citizens drops precipitously. Life expectancy has risen to 82 in France, and projections suggest millions of people retiring today will earn those benefits for a quarter-century.

In these photos, inside the National Assembly — where the political opposition was visibly evident; garbage piled in the streets of Paris — because sanitation workers have joined the demonstrations; long lines at the gas pumps — because gas deliveries have been impacted as well; and several photos from the streets — because it’s the streets, again, where the fury is most evident.