BORDEAUX: French authorities fearing an attack arrested a 26-year-old man ahead of the Olympic torch relay procession in Bordeaux on Thursday, officials said.
“An individual planning a violent act during the Olympic torch relay in Bordeaux has been questioned,” Interior Minister Gerald Darminin said on X, the former Twitter.
An investigation into the individual, identified as Alex G., opened after alerts to France’s online extremism watchdog detected posts referring to a 2014 mass killing in California.
The man, who was arrested on Tuesday, appeared before an investigating magistrate on Thursday. Prosecutors requested an investigation for “criminal conspiracy and justification of crime.”
The Olympic torch went through the southwestern city as part of a nationwide tour ahead of the Olympics that open on July 26. Bordeaux will host several football matches in the Olympic tournament. The whole relay is surrounded by strict security.
The prosecutor recommended Alex G. be remanded in custody after he admitted to considering carrying out an attack, sources said. “No reference was made to the Olympic torch,” Bordeaux prosecutor Frederique Porterie said in a press statement.
According to a police source, Alex G. shared a video clip featuring Elliot Rodger, who killed six people and himself in a 2014 rampage in California, writing, “we miss you, Elliot.”
Police seized “a revolver, a rubber bullet gun, several cell phones, and a computer” during a search of the suspect’s house in a Bordeaux suburb.
The prosecutor said people close to the suspect say he is “psychologically very fragile. However, the appointed psychiatrist has not revealed any particular disorder.”
Initial investigations showed an interest in the incel movement, an online group of women-hating men who describe themselves as “involuntarily celibate,” Porterie added.
Man arrested over threat to Olympic torch relay
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Man arrested over threat to Olympic torch relay
EU looks to soften energy bill pressures for industry, document shows
- Brussels is looking for quick fixes after companies warned they cannot compete with rivals in China and the US
- The paper said the Commission would look at network charges
BRUSSELS: The European Union is examining energy taxes, network charges and carbon costs as possible areas for short-term measures to ease pressure on industries hit by high energy prices, a document seen by Reuters showed.
Brussels is looking for quick fixes after companies warned they cannot compete with rivals in China and the US — even before this week’s surge in oil and gas prices sparked by the US-Israeli war on Iran. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has pledged to present options for EU leaders to consider at a summit on 19 March.
A Commission paper prepared for a meeting of EU Commissioners on Friday showed the bloc is exploring short-term measures to help the hardest-hit regions and sectors, without undermining longer-term climate laws meant to shift Europe to a cheaper, low-carbon energy system.
“Any proposal for legislative change will not deliver immediately and a bridge solution may be needed to reduce energy prices in the next 2-5 years until the clean transition eases pressure on power prices as already seen in some regions,” said the document, seen by Reuters.
The paper said the Commission would look at network charges — which make up about 18 percent of industrial power bills — and national taxes and levies, as well as carbon costs, which account for around 11 percent of bills.
It noted that governments are underusing existing tools to cut companies’ energy bills, including state aid to offset carbon costs and contracts for difference that guarantee industrial consumers a stable power price. The document said that if energy supplies are disrupted further, Brussels must be ready to introduce measures to encourage consumers to use less energy, as it did in 2022 when Russia slashed gas deliveries.
A Commission spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
