Macron sworn in for second time as French president

Emmanuel Macron was sworn in for his second term as France's president yesterday at a ceremony at the Elysee Palace, followed by the firing of canons at the Invalides gardens. In a country where presidents rarely get re-elected, Macron won 58.5 percent of the votes in the second round against the far-right's Marine Le Pen, despite strong opposition to his pro-business policies and a proposal to raise the retirement age. In a short speech, he spoke of the need to innovate at a time of unprecedented challenges for the world and for France, and said his second term would be "new" and not merely a continuation of the first. Macron, 44, is the first president who does not belong to a coalition government to be re-elected since the formation of the Fifth Republic in 1958.