Suspected arson causes second major power outage in south of France
Police have not yet established a link between the blackout that affected parts of Nice as well as nearby cities of Cagnes-sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-du-Var on Sunday, and a power outage on Saturday that disrupted the city of Cannes during the closing day of its renowned film festival.
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The Nice blackout started around 2am and left some 45,000 households without electricity.
Employees stand outside a shop during an electricity outage in Cannes, southern France (Natacha Pisarenko/AP)
The city's trams stopped and power was briefly cut to the Nice Cote d'Azur airport during its overnight closure hours.
Power was fully restored by 5.30am, according to the energy provider company Enedis.
The Nice public prosecutor said a criminal investigation has been opened for 'organised arson'.
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On Saturday, two other installations in the Alpes Maritime department were damaged in what officials also suspected to be arson, temporarily cutting power to 160,000 homes, including events at the Cannes Film Festival.
Nice mayor Christian Estrosi condemned Sunday's attack and said the city had filed a complaint.
'I strongly denounce these malicious acts targeting our country,' he said on X.
He ordered all sensitive electrical infrastructure in the city to be placed under police protection.
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'These actions can have serious consequences, particularly on hospitals,' Mr Estrosi said at a press briefing on Sunday.
'As long as the perpetrators haven't been caught, we will remain on high alert.'
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Daily Mail
6 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Moment former Tory justice minister Chris Philp finds huge boat of illegal migrants crossing the Channel
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Last month Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer pledged migrants would be 'detained and returned to France in short order' under the agreement. But a determined Mr Philp explained he would spend the day trying to discover 'if the Government really has sorted out' the issue of illegal migrants arriving in the UK from across the English Channel. Within minutes, he is informed that French patrol vessel Minck had turned directly towards the shore of Calais in anticipation of a migrant boat getting ready to leave. He said: 'So you can see the migrant boat in the water absolutely rammed full of illegal immigrants crossing the Channel and we see right next to it a French warship shadowing it across, making no attempts to stop it at all. 'That French warship has been with it about three hours now. They could have stopped that illegal migrant boat near the French shore if they had chosen to, like the Belgians do, the Australians do. 'They could have stopped it, but instead they are shadowing it across, escorting it into British waters.' He added that within the next two hours the migrants would reach British waters. Within minutes, Mr Philp then spotted a second migrant boat, with around 80 people aboard. 'The Government's new deal they announced is obviously having no effect whatsoever. '[The migrants] are clearly not deterred by the government's deal. I can see the evidence in front of my eyes,' the politician added, before witnessing UK Border Force vessel Typhoon approaching the French warship to pick up the migrants. Mr Philp added: 'They should return all the people - if you return all the people then they won't attempt the crossing in the first place.' He witnessed the scenes on the first day of Labour's new migrant returns deal, which had already suffered a bumpy introduction after one minister appeared to contradict the terms of the treaty. Cabinet minister Lisa Nandy said on Wednesday that small boat migrants sent back under the deal would see their human rights claims heard after being sent back to France. However, it later emerged that some types of human rights cases would, in fact, block the Home Office from being able to remove migrants in the first place. Asked whether human rights challenges amounted to a loophole in the plan, Culture Secretary Ms Nandy said: 'That's not the case at all. 'The deal that we've struck will allow… us to send people back to France who have human rights claims. 'Those claims will be heard in France.' She told Sky News: 'I know that the Conservative Party has been saying that this is a loophole. It isn't and we're really confident about that.' However, the treaty clearly sets out how small boat migrants cannot be sent back to France if they have 'an outstanding human rights claim'. 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The Sun
6 hours ago
- The Sun
Big Brother star bought petrol for Molotov cocktail before it was hurled at reveller's head outside bar
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The Sun
6 hours ago
- The Sun
Keir Starmer's plan will send back just 0.2 per cent of illegal migrants – it's pathetic – but I've got tips hapless PM
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And the surrender over welfare benefits. Both obvious indicators of change of regime. And it has all happened because Sir Keir, with his majority of more than 170, has a spinal column the consistency of Butterscotch Angel Delight. What the hell were we thinking last summer? Why did we do it? Oh Lord, forgive us for our stupid mistakes. DANES WILL GO WILD FOR FEEDING TIME AT THE ZOO A ZOO in Denmark is asking for donations of 'unwanted pets'. This is so it can feed them to the big cats. They're a bit short of raw meat, apparently. The Danes will euthanise the pets first, which I think is a bit of a disappointment. I think feeding time could be a big draw. 'And now entering the lion enclosure is Fiver, a rabbit owned by six-year-old Inge Svenson. Let's see how long he lasts. The record is 8.5 seconds. Can Fiver beat that?' THE kinder, gentler, Left? I don't think so. Teacher Simon Pearson had more than 20 years' experience but was sacked after an internal investigation found his online posts could bring Preston College into disrepute after he said the jailing of Lucy Connolly was an example of two-tier justice. Connolly is the woman jailed for 31 months for saying horrible things about asylum seekers. Pearson made it clear he believed Connolly's comments were 'obviously wrong'. He just objected to the sentence – as many do. Sacked for holding an opinion which differed from that of the idiots who run the college. CAMDEN Council is considering banning meat and fish from its various canteens. In future, all meals and snacks will be entirely 'plant-based'. So what will happen is that the entire staff will soon be hobbling around with joint deficiencies, anaemia as well as stunning the locals with gusts of fabulously bad breath. But at least Camden is saving the polar bears and stopping the world from catching on fire. Never mind what the workers would prefer to eat – sod them! That's the left-wing way. REEVES IS SO TAXING THE worst Chancellor we have ever had is about to sting you for some more dosh. Rachel Reeves has been backed into a corner. She knows she needs to raise money. 4 But she has been stopped from cutting benefits by the idiots on the left. So now she's pondering a wealth tax. That means the flood of high-achieving people leaving the country will turn into a deluge. We'll all feel the pinch. You'll get stung for more if you try to sell a home, or buy one. Stung for more when paying for the nice things in life. She'll have you paying more for your children's education. Taxed if you save for a rainy day. Everything aspirational will be taxed. A YOUGOV poll out this week suggests that 45 per cent of us wish for immigration to reduce to zero. And for a substantial number of those who have come here recently to be sent back. Those are remarkable figures. After having been lied to about immigration for year after year, the public is at last waking up and letting its views be known.
