France on strike: Power cuts, schools shut, no Eiffel Tower

(AP) PARIS – Teachers, doctors and Eiffel Tower workers have walked off their jobs in France to join striking train drivers in resisting President Emmanuel Macron’s overhaul of the pension system. Thousands of angry workers on Tuesday protested government plans to raise the retirement age and marched to preserve their country’s welfare system, considered among the best retirement systems in the world. Commuters are facing a 13th straight day of traffic headaches and schools are shuttered. Some French activists even cut power to homes to protest the retirement changes. Police in Paris barricaded the presidential Elysee Palace, bracing for potential violence.