United News of Bangladesh

Europeans, particularly in the south of the continent, are being subjected to more heat stress during the summer months as climate change causes longer periods of extreme weather, a study published Thursday shows. The European Commission's Copernicus Climate Change Service said comparisons of data going back over decades show record heat last year resulted in hazardous conditions for human health. "Southern Europe experienced a record number of days with 'very strong heat stress,'" defined as temperatures from 38 to 46 degrees Celsius (100 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit), it said. The number of summer days with "strong" (32 to 38 Celsius) or "very strong" heat stress is rising across the continent, while in southern Europe this is also the case for "extreme heat stress" days above 46 Celsius, Copernicus said. "There is also a decreasing trend in the number of days with 'no heat stress'," it added. Heat stress is increasingly viewed as a significant issue worldwide as the planet warms due to human-made climate change. Experts say it can cause a wide range of health problems, including rashes, dehydration and heat stroke. The warning was part of the annual Copernicus European State of the Climate report, which confirmed that the continent experienced its second warmest year on record in 2022. Last summer was the hottest on record across Europe at 1.4 Celsius (2.5 Fahrenheit) above the reference period of 1991-2020. The Svalbard region in the Arctic even saw summer temperatures that were 2.5 Celsius (4.5 Fahrenheit) higher than the average, it said. High temperatures and low rainfall also resulted in widespread drought, while summer wildfires caused the highest carbon emissions in 15 years, Copernicus said. This led to record melting of Alpine glaciers, with more than five cubic kilometers of ice disappearing, it said.  

In France, when presidents take strolls among the public, they're described as "taking a crowd bath." Emmanuel Macron took a very cold one on Wednesday. Braving hecklers who shouted for him to resign, the French leader threw himself into the uphill task of repairing damage done to his presidency by forcing through unpopular pension reforms, taking his first such "crowd bath" since he enacted the law last week. The visit to eastern France, close to the border with Germany, was part of a concerted new effort by Macron and his government to put the furor caused by the pension change behind him. Raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 has ignited a months-long firestorm of protest in France. The uproarious climate of discontent threatens Macron's ability to get some other planned policies through in the remaining four years of his second and last term. He got to see first-hand how unhappy people still are when he mingled among a crowd in the town of Selestat. One man who shook his hand didn't hold back and told Macron that his government is "corrupt" -- a claim that Macron immediately denied. "You'll soon fall! You'll see," the man said. Working his way along the crowd, which was kept back by a metal barrier, Macron argued for his pension reform but also acknowledged that it was "unpopular." "It doesn't make anyone happy to work more and for longer," he said. Still, he insisted that he wouldn't be cowed from mixing with people. "I've known worse," he said. In the background, some shouted "Macron, resign!," or intoned a song that has become an anthem of the retirement protests. Earlier Wednesday, during a visit to a company specializing in wooden buildings, Macron was met by a more silent protest. Lawmaker Emmanuel Fernandes of the far-left France Unbowed party appeared wearing a gag over his mouth bearing the number 49-3, in reference to the constitutional article that the government used to force the new pension age through parliament without a vote. The hard-left CGT union plans scattered protest actions Thursday, and all of France's main unions plan new nationwide protests on May 1 to coincide with International Workers' Day.  

Spain's prime minister warned lawmakers Wednesday that the acute drought afflicting the southern European country has become one of its leading long-term concerns. "The government of Spain and I are aware that the debate surrounding drought is going to be one of the central political and territorial debates of our country over the coming years," Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told the Madrid-based Parliament. The territorial tensions between regions over water that Sánchez referred to are already being seen in protests over the rerouting of water and disputes between farmers and ecologists. Three years of scant rainfall and high temperatures put Spain officially into long-term drought last month. The national weather service said 2022 was the hottest year ever recorded, when average daily temperatures rose above 15 degrees Celsius (59 degrees Fahrenheit) for the first time since records started in 1961. The country has warmed 1.3 degrees Celsius (34 F) since the 1960s, a warming that is noticeable all year round, but especially in summer when average temperatures have risen by 1.6 degrees. The Mediterranean region as a whole is warming faster than the global average because of climate change caused by the release of greenhouse gases, experts and authorities say. And there is no sign of the situation in Spain improving over the coming weeks. That has led to water restrictions in the driest areas. Regional authorities in northeast Catalonia said this week that Barcelona and a wide surrounding area that's home to around 6 million people could enter a drought "emergency" by September unless forecasts prove wrong. The reservoirs that provide northern Catalonia with water have shrunk to 27% of capacity. Only the reservoirs connected to the Guadalquivir river basin in southern Andalusia are worse off, at 26% of capacity. Andalusia and other agricultural areas are bearing the brunt of the drought as farmers lose crops. Spain's agriculture ministry met with farming associations and local authorities charged with irrigation management in Madrid on Wednesday. Agriculture Minister Luis Planas committed to asking the European Union to temporarily relax common agricultural regulations for Spanish farmers to help speed up financial help for the sector. Andrés Góngora, representative of the COAG farmers and breeders association, said that his group urged the ministry to take emergency measures. "(The government must) issue an emergency decree so it can adopt measures to address the catastrophic situation that many farmers and breeders are facing," he said. "This year, unfortunately, there won't be any green shoots, but instead a lot of red numbers." Spain's forests are also suffering as firefighters battle blazes that are normally not seen until the hottest summer months. Sánchez, a Socialist leader who faces a general election in December, said that a priority of his government is to invest heavily to "help recover our rivers, improve our water purification and cleaning systems and the reuse of water, and digitalize our water management." "This is clearly our responsibility, our duty, because the challenge we face from climate change and water stress is evident," Sánchez said.  

Ukraine's defense minister said Wednesday his country has received U.S-made Patriot surface-to-air guided missile systems it has long craved and which Kyiv hopes will help shield it from Russian strikes during the war. "Today, our beautiful Ukrainian sky becomes more secure because Patriot air defense systems have arrived in Ukraine," Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in a tweet. Ukrainian officials have previously said the arrival of Patriot systems, which Washington agreed to send last October, would be a major boost and a milestone in the war against Moscow's full-scale invasion. The Patriot can target aircraft, cruise missiles, and shorter-range ballistic missiles. Russia has used that weaponry to bombard Ukraine, including residential areas and civilian infrastructure, especially the power supply over the winter. Ukrainian air force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said late Tuesday that delivery of the system would be a landmark event, allowing Ukrainians to knock out Russian targets at a greater distance. Reznikov thanked the people of the United States, Germany and the Netherlands, without saying how many systems had been delivered nor when. Germany's federal government website on Tuesday listed a Patriot system as among the military items delivered within the past week to Ukraine, and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock confirmed that to lawmakers in Berlin on Wednesday. Reznikov said he had first asked for Patriot systems when he visited the U.S. in August 2021, five months before the full-scale invasion by the Kremlin's forces and seven years after Russia illegally annexed Ukraine's Crimea peninsula. He described possessing the system as "a dream" but said he was told in the U.S. at the time that it was "impossible." Ukrainian personnel have been trained on the Patriot battery, which can need as many as 90 troops to operate and maintain it. "Our air defenders have mastered (the Patriot systems) as far as they could. And our partners have kept their word," Reznikov wrote. Experts have cautioned that the system's effectiveness is limited, and it may not be a game changer in the war, even though it will add to Ukraine's arsenal against its bigger enemy. The Patriot was first deployed by the U.S. in the 1980s. The system costs approximately $4 million per round and the launchers cost about $10 million each, analysts say. At such a cost, it's not advantageous to use the Patriot to shoot down the far smaller and cheaper Iranian drones that Russia has been buying and using in Ukraine. Kyiv officials have reported daily civilian, but not military, casualties from Russian bombardment. At least four civilians were killed and 27 others were injured in Ukraine on Tuesday and overnight, the press office of Ukraine's defense ministry reported. A 50-year-old man and 44-year-old woman were killed in a Russian airstrike on a border town in the northeastern Kharkiv region, its Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said in televised remarks. Russian forces launched 12 rocket, artillery, mortar, tank and drone attacks on Ukraine's southern Kherson region, its Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said, killing one civilian at a market in the center of Kherson, the region's namesake capital, and a nearby school. A woman was killed and another was wounded in northern Ukraine after Russian forces shelled the border village of Richki from multiple rocket launchers, the local military administration said. Russian forces also fired nighttime exploding drones at Ukraine's southern Odesa region.  

Climate activists said Tuesday that they will stage further protests in Berlin in an effort to force the German government into doing more to curb global warming. The announcement came as courts are taking a tougher stance against members of the group Last Generation who have repeatedly blocked roads across Germany in the past year. The group said at a news conference in Berlin that it would begin to stage open-ended protests Wednesday in the government district. From Monday onward, members will try to “peacefully bring the city to a standstill,” it said. Last Generation accuses the German government of breaching the country’s constitution, citing a supreme court verdict two years ago that found too much of the burden for climate change was being placed on younger generations. The government under then Chancellor Angela Merkel subsequently raised its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, but activists say the measures aren’t consistent with the Paris climate accord. “As long as there’s no plan we can trust to protect our lives and future, and that’s based on the constitution, we are obliged to demand such a plan with all peaceful means,” said Carla Hinrichs, a spokesperson for Last Generation. The group wants Germany to end the use of all fossil fuels by 2030, a step that would be extremely ambitious to achieve. The country switched off its last three nuclear plants over the weekend, increasing its reliance on coal and gas-fired power plants until sufficient renewable energy capacity is available. Last Generation’s protests have drawn sharp criticism from across much of the political spectrum, though there has also been support for their underlying aims. Three activists were sentenced to between three and five months imprisonment by a court in the southwestern city of Heilbronn on Monday. The judge noted that they had joined a blockade in March hours after being sentenced in a previous case. One of the protesters, Daniel Eckert, defended his actions after the verdict, saying: “As long as the true criminals aren’t brought before a court but instead continue to destroy the basis of our existence and profit from it, I can’t do anything other than stand in the way of this destruction.”

The United States, Japan, and Australia have welcomed the United Kingdom into joining the Steering Committee of the Blue Dot Network.  The Blue Dot Network certification will serve as a globally recognized symbol of quality infrastructure projects. Blue Dot Network member countries work to ensure infrastructure meets the fiscal, social, environmental, and governance standards that benefit all users and stakeholders in their respective societies.  Pilot projects using Blue Dot Network criteria have demonstrated the certification process is an effective means of ensuring the roads, bridges, information networks, and energy grids we use benefit local economic development and adhere to international standards, laws, and regulations. "After today’s announcement, we welcome more partners signing on to the future of sustainable and inclusive infrastructure development around the world by joining the Blue Dot Network," according to a statement released by the Governments of the United States of America, the Government of Japan, and the Government of Australia, on the occasion of the United Kingdom’s joining the Steering Committee of the Blue Dot Network on Monday.  

"Nuclear power, no thanks!" What was once a slogan found on the bumper of many a German car became a reality Saturday, as the country shut down its three remaining nuclear power plants in line with a long-planned transition toward renewable energy. The shutdown of Emsland, Neckarwestheim II and Isar II shortly before midnight was cheered earlier in the day by anti-nuclear campaigners outside the three reactors and at rallies in Berlin and Munich. Inside the plants, staff held more somber ceremonies to mark the occasion. Decades of anti-nuclear protests in Germany, stoked by disasters at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima, had put pressure on successive governments to end the use of a technology that critics argue is unsafe and unsustainable. But with other industrialized countries, such as the United States, Japan, China, France and Britain, counting on nuclear energy to replace planet-warming fossil fuels, Germany's decision to stop using both has drawn skepticism at home and abroad, as well as unsuccessful last-minute calls to halt the decision. Defenders of atomic energy say fossil fuels should be phased out first as part of global efforts to curb climate change, arguing that nuclear power produces far fewer greenhouse gas emissions and is safe, if properly managed. As energy prices spiked last year due to the war in Ukraine, some members of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government got cold feet about closing the nuclear plants as planned on Dec. 31, 2022. In a compromise, Scholz agreed to a one-time extension of the deadline, but insisted that the final countdown would happen on April 15. Still, Bavaria's conservative governor, Markus Soeder, who backed the original deadline set in 2011 when Chancellor Angela Merkel was Germany's leader, this week called the shutdown "an absolute mistaken decision." "While many countries in the world are even expanding nuclear power, Germany is doing the opposite," Soeder said. "We need every possible form of energy. Otherwise, we risk higher electricity prices and businesses moving away." Advocates of nuclear power worldwide have slammed the German shutdown, aware that the move by Europe's biggest economy could deal a blow to a technology they tout as a clean and reliable alternative to fossil fuels. On Friday, dozens of scientists including James Hansen, a former NASA climate expert credited with drawing public attention to global warming in 1988, sent a letter to Scholz urging him to keep the nuclear plants running. The German government has acknowledged that, in the short term, the country will have to rely more heavily on polluting coal and natural gas to meet its energy needs, even as it takes steps to massively ramp up electricity production from solar and wind. Germany aims to be carbon neutral by 2045. But officials such as Environment Minister Steffi Lemke say the idea of a nuclear renaissance is a myth, citing data showing that atomic energy's share of global electricity production is shrinking. At a recent news conference in Berlin, Lemke noted that new nuclear plants in Europe, such as Hinkley Point C in Britain, have faced significant delays and cost overruns. Funds used to maintain ageing reactors or build new ones would be better spent on installing cheap renewables, she said. Energy experts such as Claudia Kemfert of the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin say the 5% share of Germany's electricity currently coming from nuclear can be easily replaced without risking blackouts. The northwestern town of Lingen, home to the Emsland plant, plans to become a hub for hydrogen production using electricity generated from North Sea wind farms, Mayor Dieter Krone told The Associated Press in an interview this week. The power plant's operator, RWE, made clear that it is committed to the shutdown. The company still runs some of Europe's dirtiest coal-fired power plants. It recently pushed through the destruction of a village for a mine expansion as part of a plan to increase short-term production before ending coal use by 2030. Many of Germany's nuclear power plants will still be undergoing costly dismantling by then. The question of what to do with highly radioactive material accumulated in the 62 years since the country's first reactor started operating remains unsolved. Efforts to find a final home for hundreds of containers of toxic waste have faced fierce resistance from local groups and officials, including Soeder, the Bavarian governor. "Nuclear power supplied electricity for three generations, but its legacy remains dangerous for 30,000 generations," said Lemke, who also pointed to previously unconsidered risks such as the targeting of civilian atomic facilities during conflicts. Finding a place to safely store spent nuclear fuel is a problem that other nations using the technology face, including the United States. Still, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has said that nuclear power will "play a critical role in America's clean energy future." This week, she welcomed Japan's decision to restart many of its reactors. With debate raging again in Germany about whether the shutdown is a good idea, the top official in charge of nuclear safety at the Environment Ministry, Gerrit Niehaus, was asked by a reporter to sum up in a single sentence what lessons should be learned from the country's brief atomic era. "You need to think things through to the end," Niehaus said.  

France’s Constitutional Council on Friday approved an unpopular plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 in a victory for President Emmanuel Macron after months of mass protests that have damaged his leadership. The decision dismayed or enraged critics of the pension plan. Hundreds of union activists and others gathered peacefully in Paris Friday evening before some groups broke off in marches toward the historic Bastille plaza and beyond, setting fires to garbage bins and scooters as police fired tear gas or pushed them back. Unions and Macron’s political opponents vowed to maintain pressure on the government to withdraw the bill, and activists threatened scattered new protests Saturday. Macron’s office said he would enact the law in coming days, and he has said he wants it implemented by the end of the year. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Friday’s decision “marks the end of the institutional and democratic path of this reform,” adding that there was “no victor” in what has turned into a nationwide standoff and France’s worst social unrest in years. The council rejected some measures in the pension bill, but the higher age was central to Macron’s plan and the target of protesters’ anger. The government argued that the reform is needed to keep the pension system afloat as the population ages; opponents proposed raising taxes on the wealthy or employers instead, and said the changes threaten a hard-won social safety net. In a separate but related decision, the council rejected a request by left-wing lawmakers to allow for a possible referendum on enshrining 62 as the maximum official retirement age. The council will rule on a second, similar request, next month. Carl Pfeiffer, a 62-year-old retiree protesting outside City Hall, warned that the Constitutional Council’s decision won’t spell the end of tensions. The council members “are irresponsible, because the anger that will come right after in the country, it’s their fault,″ he said. Bartender Lena Cayo, 22, said she was disappointed but not surprised by the decision. “We are protesting for so many weeks and the government didn’t hear us,” she said. “Workers who have gone on strike or protested the legislation since January are fighting “for their rights, but nothing changes.” As tensions mounted hours before the decision, Macron invited labor unions to meet with him on Tuesday no matter what the Constitutional Council decision was, his office said. The unions rejected Macron’s invitation, noting that he had refused their previous offers of a meeting, and called for mass new protests on May 1, international workers’ rights day. Unions have been the organizers of 12 nationwide protests since January and have a critical role in trying to tamp down excessive reactions by protesters. Violence by pockets of ultra-left radicals have marked the otherwise peaceful nationwide marches. The plan to increase the retirement age was meant to be Macron’s showcase measure in his second term. The council decision caps months of tumultuous debates in parliament and fervor in the streets. Spontaneous demonstrations were held around France ahead of the nine-member council’s ruling. Opponents of the pension reform blockaded entry points into some cities, including Rouen in the west and Marseille in the south, slowing or stopping traffic. The prime minister was interrupted while visiting a supermarket outside Paris by a group of people chanting, “We don’t want it,” referring to the way she skirted the vote by lawmakers to advance the pension reform. The government’s decision to get around a parliamentary vote in March by using special constitutional powers heightened the fury of the measure’s opponents, as well as their determination. Another group awaited Borne in the parking lot. Union leaders have said the Constitutional Council’s decisions would be respected, but have vowed to continue protests in an attempt to get Macron to withdraw the measure. The leader of the moderate CFDT, Laurent Berger, warned that “there will be repercussions.” Holding out hope to upend the decision, unions and some protesters recalled parallels with a contested 2006 measure about work contracts for youth that sent students, joined by unions, into the streets. That legislation had been pushed through parliament without a vote and given the green light by the Constitutional Council — only to be later scrapped to bring calm to the country. Far-right lawmaker Marine Le Pen denounced the pension reform as “brutal and unjust.” In a statement, she said that once the reform is put into practice it “will mark the definitive rupture between the French people and Emmanuel Macron.” Polls have consistently shown that the majority of French citizens are opposed to working two more years before being able to reap pension benefits. The legislation also requires people to work 43 years to receive a full pension, among other changes to the system.

For 35 years, the Emsland nuclear power plant in northwestern Germany has reliably provided millions of homes with electricity and many with well-paid jobs in what was once an agricultural backwater. Now, it and the country’s two other remaining nuclear plants are being shut down. Germany long ago decided to phase out both fossil fuels and nuclear power over concerns that neither is a sustainable source of energy. The final countdown Saturday -- delayed for several months over feared energy shortages because of the Ukraine war -- is seen with relief by Germans who have campaigned against nuclear power. Yet with energy prices stubbornly high and climate change a growing concern, some in the country and abroad are branding the move reckless. As Germany closes nuclear stations, other governments in Europe have announced plans to build new ones or have backtracked on commitments to shut down existing plants. “The Emsland nuclear power plant has indeed contributed significantly to the economic development of this region,” says Albert Stegemann, a dairy farmer and lawmaker for the opposition Christian Democrats who represents the nearby town of Lingen and surrounding areas in the federal parliament. Unlike some of his conservative colleagues, Stegemann isn’t worried the lights will go out in Germany when the three reactors — Emsland, Neckarwestheim II and Isar II — are switched off for good. The closure of three other plants in late 2021 reduced nuclear’s share of electricity produced in Germany to about 5% but didn’t result in any blackouts. The 47-year-old is also realistic about the lack of support the technology has among German voters, though he insists the vast majority of people in Lingen supported the plant. “In the long term, nuclear power is certainly not the technology of the future. But at this time it would have been good to be able to rely on it,” he said. Against the backdrop of the Russian attack on Ukraine and the challenges of climate change “it would have been wise to think about (delaying the shutdown) another one, two or three years,” Stegemann said. “Politicians need to adjust to changed circumstances,” he added. “And I accuse the government of not doing that at all.” Similar concerns have been raised in other quarters. “Right now, existing nuclear plants are a critical source of carbon-free baseload energy,” said Peter Fox-Penner, previously a senior official at the U.S. Department of Energy and now with the Boston University Institute for Sustainable Energy. “Energy efficiency, wind, and solar energy will soon become dominant sources, but in the meantime, it is wisest to continue to run existing nuclear,” as long as safety is the priority, he said. The government of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has made clear, however, that a further extension isn’t in the cards. “Nuclear power remains a risky technology, and in the end, the risks can’t be controlled even in a high-tech country like Germany,” Environment Minister Steffi Lemke said at a news conference ahead of the shutdown. She cited the disaster at Japan’s Fukushima atomic power plant in 2011, when a tsunami knocked out the power supply leading to a catastrophic meltdown, evoking memories of the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl that remains a pivotal event for Germany’s anti-nuclear movement. While Lemke’s environmentalist Green party is most closely linked to that movement, it was former Chancellor Angela Merkel — then leader of Stegemann’s Christian Democrats — who pulled the plug on atomic energy in Germany following Fukushima. The decision led to a greater reliance on fossil fuels that has kept Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions stubbornly high compared to neighbors such as atom-friendly France. At Lingen’s modern town hall, Mayor Dieter Krone said there are mixed feelings about the imminent nuclear shutdown, which will be marked with a small, closed-doors ceremony inside the plant. “For the staff, it will be a moment of sadness” he said, noting that Emsland has safely produced electricity for Germany and its neighbors for decades. “On the other hand, it’s the start of a new era because we want to get into hydrogen.” For the past 12 years, Krone and others have worked to convince public and private partners to invest in what they hope will be a key green fuel of the future. The region already produces more renewable energy than it consumes and aims to become a hub for hydrogen production using wind and solar power in the coming years. “We have the big advantage that all the infrastructure, the networks, are there,” he said. One of the world’s biggest clean hydrogen production facilities is due to begin operating in Lingen this fall. Some of it will be used to make “green steel,” a vital step if Europe’s biggest economy wants to become carbon neutral by 2045. “I believe we are going to become the biggest and most significant location in Germany for hydrogen,” Krone said. “As such, I do think we can say this is a kind of blueprint for development.” Critics have warned that without nuclear power, Germany will have to rely on dirty coal and gas plants for energy during periods of overcast but calm weather — a condition for which Germans have even coined a new term, Dunkelflaute. The government has dismissed such concerns, arguing that thanks to Europe’s integrated electricity network, Germany can import energy when needed while remaining a net exporter. Lemke has brushed aside suggestions that Germany’s no-nuclear policy will hamper efforts to cut the country’s emissions. “The expansion of renewables remains the cheaper and in particular faster path if we want to achieve the climate goals,” she told reporters in Berlin earlier this month, pointing to significant delays and cost overruns in the construction of nuclear power plants elsewhere in Europe. Meanwhile, the price of installing solar and wind energy has dropped significantly in recent years, a trend that is expected to continue. Back in Lingen, activist Alexander Vent of the anti-nuclear group AgIEL says the shutdown isn’t the end of the road for their efforts. “We want to stop and commemorate this day. Of course it’s a reason to celebrate,” he said. “But for us it’s basically a milestone that’s been reached. We now need to look forward because we see there’s still a lot left to do.” Campaigners like Vent have now shifted their focus to nearby facilities that process nuclear fuel for reactors elsewhere in Europe. “We need to stop enriching uranium,” he said. “We need to stop producing fuel rods for all the nuclear plants outside Germany.”

Protesters opposing President Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plan to raise the retirement age to 64 marched again Thursday in cities and towns around France, in a final show of anger before a crucial decision on whether the measure meets constitutional standards. Demonstrators targeted the Central Bank offices in Paris and briefly invaded the headquarters of luxury conglomerate LVMH — but their attention increasingly centered on the Constitutional Council, which is to decide Friday whether to nix any or all parts of the legislation. Activists dumped bags of garbage outside the council's columned façade in the morning. Later, another crowd holding flares faced off with a large contingent of riot police that rushed to protect the building.Paris police banned all gatherings outside the council from Thursday evening through Saturday morning, in an attempt to reduce pressure on the council members as they make their decision. Police said some 380,000 people took part in the protests across France Thursday. The number was down from recent weeks, but unions still managed to mobilize sizable crowds. The demonstrations were largely peaceful, though dozens of injuries were reported among police and protesters. Unions had been hoping for a strong turnout Thursday to pressure both the government and the members of the Constitutional Council tasked with studying the text of the pension reform plan. Critics challenged the government’s choice to include the pension plan in a budget bill, which significantly accelerated the legislative process. The government’s decision to skirt a parliamentary vote by using special constitutional powers transformed opponents’ anger into fury. The trash piles signaled the start of a new strike by garbage collectors, timed to begin with the nationwide protest marches. A previous strike last month left the streets of the French capital filled for days with mounds of reeking refuse. Polls consistently show a majority of French people are opposed to the pension reform, which Macron says is needed to keep the retirement system afloat as the population ages. Protesters are also angry at Macron himself and a presidency they see as threatening France's worker protections and favoring big business. Fabien Villedieu of the Sud-Rail Union said LVMH “could reduce all the holes" in France's social security system. ”So one of the solutions to finance the pension system is a better redistribution of wealth, and the best way to do that is to tax the billionaires.” Bernard Arnault, head of LVMH, "is the richest man in the world so he could contribute,” Villedieu said.Security forces intervened to stop vandals along the Paris march route, with 36 people detained, police said. Like in past protests, several hundred “radical elements” had mixed inside the march, police said. Thousands also marched in Toulouse, Marseille and elsewhere. Tensions mounted at protests in Brittany, notably in Nantes and Rennes, where a car was burned. “The mobilization is far from over,” the leader of the leftist CGT union, Sophie Binet, said at a trash incineration site south of Paris where several hundred protesters blocked garbage trucks. “As long as this reform isn’t withdrawn, the mobilization will continue in one form or another.”CGT has been a backbone of the protest and strike movement challenging Macron's plan to increase France's retirement age from 62 to 64. Eight unions have organized protests since January in a rare voice of unity. Student unions have joined in. Macron had initially refused a demand to meet with unions, but during a state visit on Wednesday to the Netherlands proposed “an exchange” to discuss the follow-up to the Constitutional Council decision. There was no formal response to his offer. “The contention is strong, anchored in the people," said Laurent Berger, head of the moderate CFDT union. If the measure is promulgated, “there will be repercussions,” he warned, noting the “silent anger” among the union rank and file. Protests and labor strikes often hobble public transportation in Paris, but Metro trains were mostly running smoothly Thursday. The civil aviation authority asked airports in Toulouse, Bordeaux and Nantes to reduce air traffic by 20%.