Power nearly fully restored across Spain, Portugal after major outage
Power has been almost fully restored across Spain following a major outage, with about 99.16% of electricity supply back online as of 6 am (0400 GMT), grid operator Red Eléctrica said on Tuesday.
In neighbouring Portugal, electricity had also been restored to most households, broadcaster RTP reported early Tuesday. Around 95% of the country's 6.5 million customers were back on the grid, RTP reported, citing grid operator E-Redes.
Millions of people in Spain and Portugal were left in the dark on Monday as the power went out, communication networks were disrupted, traffic lights stopped working and lifts became stranded.
The outage also disrupted underground and train services in both countries, which were resumed on Tuesday.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in a televised address on Monday evening, promised that power would be back to normal by Tuesday. He did not mention the cause of the blackout but stated that no possibilities were being ruled out.
Eduardo Prieto, director of network operations at Red Eléctrica, told the media that the disconnection of the European power grid in France was responsible for the collapse on the Iberian Peninsula. However, it remains unclear what led to this disconnection.
Despite the slow return to normal, the governments of both Spain and Portugal announced crisis meetings on Tuesday to assess the situation.
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Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Seized Gaza aid boat Madleen carrying Greta Thunberg taken to Israeli port
A Gaza-bound aid boat illegally seized in international waters by Israeli forces has been towed into Ashdod Port, with the dozen international activists who were on board now facing detention and deportation. The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which launched the ship to draw international attention to the looming famine in besieged Gaza, said it was captured at about 4:02am (01:02 GMT) on Monday, about 200km (120 miles) from Gaza, arriving at Ashdod as night fell. Earlier, the coalition released a video from the vessel, which left Sicily on June 1, showing the activists – among whom are climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and French member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan – with their hands up as Israeli forces boarded the vessel and 'kidnapped' them. Adalah, a Palestinian legal centre representing the activists, said they were expected to be held at a detention facility before being deported. It said that Israel had 'no legal authority' to take over the ship, which was in international waters, heading not to Israel but to the 'territorial waters of the State of Palestine'. The arrests of the 12 'unarmed activists' amounted to 'a serious breach of international law', it said in a statement. Huwaida Arraf, an FFC organiser, told Al Jazeera there had been no contact with the activists since they had been detained in the early hours of Monday. 'We have lawyers on standby who are going to demand they have access to them tonight – as soon as possible,' she said. The Madleen, she noted, was sailing under a United Kingdom flag when it was forcibly seized by Israeli commandos. 'So Israel went into international waters and attacked sovereign UK territory, which is blatantly unlawful. And we expect strong condemnation, which we have not yet heard from the United Kingdom,' she UK government urged Israel to handle its detention of the activists 'safely with restraint, in line with international humanitarian law'. 'We have made clear our position in relation to the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The PM has called it appalling and intolerable,' said a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, said: 'Israel has absolutely no authority to intercept and stop a boat like this, which carries humanitarian aid, and more than everything else, humanity, to the people of Gaza.' Al Jazeera's Nour Odeh, reporting from Jordan's capital Amman, said the activists would be accused of entering Israel illegally. 'These activists had no intention to enter Israel. They wanted to reach the shores of Gaza, which are not part of Israel,' she said. 'But that is how they will be processed, and they will be deported because of that.'Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs portrayed the voyage as a public relations stunt, saying in a post on X that 'the 'selfie yacht' of the 'celebrities' is safely making its way to the shores of Israel'. It said the passengers were 'undergoing medical examinations to ensure they are in good health', adding that all passengers were expected to return to their home countries. Government spokesperson David Mencer reserved special scorn for 22-year-old Thunberg. 'Greta was not bringing aid, she was bringing herself. And she's not here for Gaza, let's be blunt about it. She's here for Greta,' he said. In a prerecorded video message that was shared by the FFC, Thunberg said: 'I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.' The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs said it was in contact with Israeli authorities. 'Should the need for consular support arise, the Embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will assess how we can best help the Swedish citizen/Greta Thunberg resolve her situation,' said a spokesperson in a written statement to the Reuters news agency. United States President Donald Trump, who targeted Thunberg in 2019, dismissed her statement. 'I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg,' he said. French President Emmanuel Macron's office said the president had asked Israeli authorities to release the six French nationals on board as soon as possible, calling the humanitarian blockade of Gaza 'a scandal' and a 'disgrace'. Turkey condemned the interception as a 'heinous attack', while Iran denounced it as 'a form of piracy' in international waters. Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz said the activists would be shown videos of atrocities committed during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. 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CNBC
30 minutes ago
- CNBC
Apollo eyes $100 billion Germany investment as private capital swerves U.S. turmoil for Europe
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USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Los Angeles, a city of immigrants, fertile ground for anti-ICE protests
Los Angeles, a city of immigrants, fertile ground for anti-ICE protests More than 35% of Los Angeles' population is foreign-born, shaping its reaction to Trump's immigration crackdown. Show Caption Hide Caption National Guard and protesters clash over ICE raids Hundreds of demonstrators fought back with the National Guard and local authorities as ICE protests escalated. Why has Los Angeles of all U.S. cities, erupted in mass protests against immigration raids? The answer may lie in this region's racial, ethnic and demographic makeup. Los Angeles: A city whose population is more than 1/3 foreign-born Los Angeles County sprawls over more than 4,000 square miles of Southern California, and includes the City of Los Angeles, as well as Beverly Hill, Burbank, Compton, Glendale, Hollywood, Long Beach, Malibu, Pasadena, Santa Monica, Torrance and several other communities. It's home to nearly 10 million people and accounts for about 27% of California's population. A third of L.A. County's 10 million residents are foreign-born, according to the U.S. Census, The City of Los Angeles, in the heart of L.A. County, is home to nearly 3.9 million people, according to the 2020 U.S. Census. More than 35% of them were born outside the United States. Just over half of L.A.'s foreign-born residents are naturalized citizens, and more than 56% of Los Angeles residents speak a language other than English at home ‒ predominantly Spanish. More than 1.8 million of Los Angeles residents identify as Hispanic or Latino, and close to half a million are Asian, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander. More than 1.15 million people say they are "some other race," and just over half a million identify with two or more races. The demographics of the Los Angeles area "play a big role" in how the region functions, said Dr. Manuel Pastor, a professor of sociology and American studies & ethnicity at the University of Southern California, and director of the university's Equity Research Institute. Nearly half of L.A. County's workforce is foreign-born, he said, and about 60% of children have at least one immigrant parent, with nearly out of five county residents either being undocumented or living with an undocumented family member, "so about 1/5th of the people here are experiencing this, whether directly or indirectly," Pastor said. Los Angelenos' average age is just over 37 years old, with the biggest portion of its "population pyramid" (a visual representation comparing the numbers of people in certain age cohorts) falling in the 25-29, 30-34 and 35-39 ranges. According to a 2020 study by University of Southern California Dornsife, there are about 900,000 undocumented immigrants in the City of Los Angeles, most of whom had been in the U.S. for 10 years or more. "So these people are deeply settled here," Pastor said. "They're part of the communities here, working in businesses, belonging to faith institutions." Many Angeleno families live in "mixed status" households, the study added, in which some members are citizens and some are not. The study also noted that, in 2020, "120,000 youth in L.A. County will become eligible to vote for the first time. Of that group, 60% have at least one immigrant parent." 'Fertile ground' for the Trump administration's immigration crackdown Many of the U.S.'s more recent immigrants, especially those who arrived between 2020 and 2023, went to places with lower costs of living than Southern California, like Florida and Texas, Pastor noted. "This matters because we are basically fertile ground for the Trump Administration to launch its spectacle of enforcement," Pastor said. The administration has said it's targeting criminals, but Los Angelenos are skeptical, he added: "It's more likely in L.A. to be removing a father who showed up to work or a mother who picked up her kids at school. Hard-core criminals are hard to find; pulling people from a day labor site is much easier." "To the extent that residents with documentation (i.e., naturalized citizens and lawful residents) feel sympathy with undocumented persons who may be targeted by ICE, that could play a role in the current protests," said Tim Bruckner a professor of public health and co-director at the University of California Irvine's Center for Population, Inequality, and Policy. Bruckner noted that past research has shown there is "a 'chilling' effect that targeted enforcement (such as ICE raids) has on persons who were not themselves targeted, but who felt a connection to the populations targeted," an effect that "extends beyond simply family or friends who know the persons targeted." Other factors might also be at play, he added, including education and income levels, not just in terms of where immigration enforcement is targeted but also the reaction to it. Undocumented people are less likely to have a bachelor's degree, and thus are more likely to be employed in low-wage jobs, and the district where the raids have taken place is believed to be home to a large share of the city's immigrants, "which might have led to further enforcement of areas in Downtown (Los Angeles)." How does political affiliation come into play? In the 2024 election, Los Angeles County voters went overwhelmingly for Democratic nominee Kamala Harris (California's former attorney general) over Trump, with Harris winning nearly 65% of the vote to Trump's almost 32%. In addition, Democrat Adam Schiff, an incumbent, defeated Republican Steve Garvey (a former Los Angeles Dodger) for one of the state's U.S. Senate seats. There are nearly 6 million registered voters in Los Angeles County. Of those, registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans by a 3 to 1 margin: just over 3 million to slightly under 1 million (there are 148,078 registered Independents and 22,483 Green Party voters). Both California's governor, Gavin Newsom, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass are Democrats. Those political demographics also play a role, Pastor said. "Aside from immigrant-bashing, California-bashing has also become a GOP sport," he said. "And it's pretty widespread here that people do not like ICE." Los Angelenos have also become accustomed to, and supportive of, their immigrant neighbors, whose ties to the community run deep and wide, he said. "Even people who aren't too far left value having a Korean taco truck, getting their lawns mowed and houses built," Pastor said. "There are a number of people who worry about their kids going to school to find their friends are suddenly gone, or have family members who are gone." Ultimately, he said, the ramifications for Los Angeles and its surrounding communities, still reeling from devastating wildfires earlier this year, could be dire. "One-third of our residential construction labor is undocumented immigrants," Pastor said. "If we're going to rebuild from the fires, (deporting immigrants) is not a strategy for relief."
