Latest news with #ChristianEstrosi
Euronews
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Unemployment in EU going down among all age groups except young people
Long-term unemployment across the EU is now 1.9%, according to the latest Eurostat data, the lowest level since data collection began. The Netherlands (0.5%), Malta (0.7%), the Czech Republic, Denmark and Poland (all at 0.8%) reported the lowest rates of people out of work for twelve months or more. The highest proportion was found in Greece, 5.4%, followed by Spain (3.8%) and Slovakia (3.5%). At the same time, these three countries all reported lower long-term unemployment rates compared to the previous year. Down 0.8% in Greece, 0.5% in Spain and 0.2% in Slovakia. General unemployment also declined to the lowest rate on record, now down to less than 5.9%: A drop of 0.2% from 2023. The data, however, paints a mixed picture. Unemployment is going down among all age groups, except for the youngest generation. Among people aged 15 to 24, it reached 14.9%, up 0.4% from 2023. Two anarchist groups in France have claimed responsibility for a power outage that left more than 160,000 homes without power in the south of the country. The blackout affected the city of Nice and the Cannes Film Festival as well as knocking out power to vital services like traffic lights and cash machines. Local officials said they suspected the outage was caused by an arson attack and two self-styled "bands of anarchists" said they were behind the attack. UK media said the groups had published an anonymous letter on Sunday in which they reportedly wrote: "The aim of the action was not only to disrupt the festival, but also to deprive all industrial establishments of electricity." But the groups didn't explain why they wanted to target the festival or industrial sites. According to the public prosecutor's office, a fire broke out at an electrical transformer in the Moulins district in the west of Nice. Mayor Christian Estrosi said the fire had been deliberately started and that he "strongly condemned these malicious acts that affect our country" in a post on X. He added that the city would be strengthening its security around electrical sites in the coming days and that a formal complaint would be filed following the incident. Power was restored around 6 am on Sunday. The neighbouring towns of Saint-Laurent-du-Var and Cagnes-sur-Mer were also affected by the blackout. The incident follows a blackout that struck Cannes and the surrounding region the previous day, affecting nearly 160,000 homes. A high-voltage substation was set on fire in the Var department, and a power pylon was sawn down in the Alpes-Maritimes. Despite the disruption, the Cannes Film Festival proceeded as planned on its final day, thanks to its independent power supply. Electricity was restored to the region by late afternoon.
Euronews
26-05-2025
- Euronews
Anarchist groups claim responsibility for Cannes and Nice blackouts
Two anarchist groups in France have claimed responsibility for a power outage that left more than 160,000 homes without power in the south of the country. The blackout affected the city of Nice and the Cannes Film Festival as well as knocking out power to vital services like traffic lights and cash machines. Local officials said they suspected the outage was caused by an arson attack and two self-styled "bands of anarchists" said they were behind the attack. UK media said the groups had published an anonymous letter on Sunday in which they reportedly wrote: "The aim of the action was not only to disrupt the festival, but also to deprive all industrial establishments of electricity." But the groups didn't explain why they wanted to target the festival or industrial sites. According to the public prosecutor's office, a fire broke out at an electrical transformer in the Moulins district in the west of Nice. Mayor Christian Estrosi said the fire had been deliberately started and that he "strongly condemned these malicious acts that affect our country" in a post on X. He added that the city would be strengthening its security around electrical sites in the coming days and that a formal complaint would be filed following the incident. Power was restored around 6 am on Sunday. The neighbouring towns of Saint-Laurent-du-Var and Cagnes-sur-Mer were also affected by the blackout. The incident follows a blackout that struck Cannes and the surrounding region the previous day, affecting nearly 160,000 homes. A high-voltage substation was set on fire in the Var department, and a power pylon was sawn down in the Alpes-Maritimes. Despite the disruption, the Cannes Film Festival proceeded as planned on its final day, thanks to its independent power supply. Electricity was restored to the region by late afternoon.
LeMonde
26-05-2025
- LeMonde
French authorities blame sabotage for second power blackout on the Riviera
French authorities on Sunday, May 25, blamed sabotage and ordered heightened security after a fire at an electricity sub-station in Nice caused the second major power blackout in two days along the Riviera. The latest fire cut power to about 45,000 homes in western Nice for several hours, authorities said. Nice airport was briefly without electricity, the city's Deputy Mayor Gaël Nofri told Agence France-Presse (AFP). A similar arson attack on a power substation on Saturday partially disrupted the final day of the Cannes Film Festival, forcing organizers to use backup generators to keep the event going. Prosecutors said they had opened an investigation and were looking into a claim Sunday by two anarchist groups of "responsibility for the attack on electrical installations on the Côte d'Azur." The claim was posted on an alternative website. "I vigorously condemn these criminal acts hitting our country," Nice Mayor Christian Estrosi wrote on X, adding, "We are making images from our monitoring center available to investigators and will strengthen the city's network at strategic electrical sites in the coming days." "Until the perpetrators of these acts have been arrested, we will not ease up our attention anywhere," Estrosi told reporters. Nice's chief prosecutor Damien Martinelli said studies had been carried out "to clarify the damage and the methods used to carry out the act" and that police were investigating "arson by an organized group." Police said that tyre marks had been found near the Nice transformer and someone had broken into a room in the building. An arson attack at a power substation and a bid to cut the legs of an electricity pylon near Cannes cut power to 160,000 homes in the region for five hours on Saturday. The cut knocked out traffic lights and bank machines in Cannes, as well as threatening the finale to the film festival. The festival "switched to an alternative electricity power supply" to keep the closing ceremony and award events going. Firefighters battled for five hours to put out the flames at the sub-station, officials said. In the attack on the high-voltage pylon, three of its four legs had been damaged, said prosecutors.
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
French anarchists claim responsibility for blackouts which have left 160,000 people in darkness in south of nation overnight
Two French anarchist groups have claimed responsibility for a massive power cut that left more than 160,000 in Nice and the Cannes Film Festival in darkness over the weekend. For five hours on Saturday, power was cut across the south of France, leaving vital services like ATMs and traffic lights in a completely unusable state. A day after the outage, which local officials said was caused by a suspected arson attack on a nearby substation and the vandalism of an electricity pylon, two self-proclaimed 'bands of anarchists' said they were behind the attacks In an anonymous letter published on Sunday, the groups reportedly wrote: 'The aim of the action was not only to disrupt the festival, but also to deprive all industrial establishments of electricity. 'We're not on a film set, but 'cut!' seemed to sum up our desire to turn off this deadly system', they added. Damien Savarzeix, the public prosecutor in Grasse, said over the weekend that three of the four pillars of a pylon carrying a power line in Villeneuve-Loubet 'were sawn off' in a 'malicious act'. Electrical engineers were forced to cut power for the region for several hours, leaving 160,000 without electricity. A day later, a fire hit a nearby transformer in Nice, knocking out power for 45,000 homes. Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, wrote on X: 'I vigorously condemn these criminal acts hitting our country. In the coming days, we are reinforcing the [security camera] network around the city's strategic electric sites.' Laurent Hottiaux, prefect of Alpes-Maritimes, added that he condemned 'these serious acts of damage' in 'the strongest terms,' the statement said. Europe's power infrastructure appears to have had its flaws exposed in recent weeks. Over the weekend, it was suggested that Spanish authorities were experimenting with how far they could push their reliance on renewable energy before the Iberian Peninsula was hit with a massive power outage last month. As people wait for more answers on what caused the power cut that disrupted tens of millions of lives across Spain and Portugal, several have questioned Spain's heavy reliance on renewable energy sources as it plans to phase out nuclear reactors. Spain's socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has rejected such criticism, asking for patience while the government investigates the causes of the historic blackout. Spain's electric grid operator Red Eléctrica de España pinned it on a significant and unprecedented drop in power generation. Now, it has been suggested that the Spanish government was carrying out an experiment before the country's grid system crashed, The Telegraph reports. Under said test, authorities had been trialling how far they could push their reliance on renewables as they prepared for Spain's phase-out of nuclear reactors from 2027. The Spanish Association of Electrical Energy Companies (Aelec), which has criticised the inquiry into the blackout's cause, has now said it was not the country's generators that failed to deliver power to the grid, but rather it was the grid that failed to manage it and then shut down automatically. The head of Spain's photovoltaic association, Jose Donoso, had made a similar suggestion earlier this month, telling newsoutlet 20Minutos: 'It's a matter of logic; the fact that the entire system goes down because of a photovoltaic plant makes no sense. 'We suffered the consequences of a grid disruption, but we didn't cause it.' Aelec said the authorities had essentially confined the trial to a 20-second span on April 28, and ignored a series of oscillations in tension that began days earlier and transcended 'emergency' levels across the peninsula for two hours leading up to the blackout. The association added that the authorities did not substantiate their claim that it all began with a sudden drop of 2.2 gigawatts in power supplied to the grid. It comes after the sweeping power outage last month raised questions about the electricity grid in a region not normally known for blackouts. Spain's top criminal court, the Audiencia Nacional, said it was investigating whether the blackout was 'an act of computer sabotage on critical infrastructure' that could be classified as 'a terrorism offence'. The government set up a commission to investigate what triggered the incident, and refused to rule out any hypothesis.
North Wales Chronicle
26-05-2025
- North Wales Chronicle
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. The Nice blackout started around 2am and left some 45,000 households without electricity. 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'. 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. '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.'
