French Emergency

An elite French institution was expected to rule on Friday on whether President Emmanuel Macron's contested plan to raise the retirement age is constitutional, a decision that could calm or further enrage opponents of the change. All eyes were on the heavily guarded Constitutional Council, which can nix all or parts of a complex pension reform plan that Macron pushed through without a vote by the lower house of parliament. Spontaneous demonstrations were likely around France ahead of the nine-member court's ruling. The president's drive to increase the retirement age from 62 to 64 has provoked months of labour strikes and protests. Violence by pockets of ultra-left radicals marked the 12 otherwise peaceful nationwide marches that unions organised since January. In addition to ruling on the pension reforms, the Constitutional Council also will decide on a request by lawmakers who oppose the plan to use a little-used and lengthy process that could ultimately lead to a referendum on a

The state of emergency has served to affirm the notion that Muslims indeed deserves suspicion