Union sabotage
The week's news at a glance.
Paris
French trade union activists sabotaged power lines this week to protest government plans to privatize the utilities. The resulting power outages caused mayhem in Paris, as trains and subways ground to a halt and half a million passengers were stranded for hours. The communist-backed CGT, the main union for utility workers, threatened more outages, saying the government was trying to rush through laws that would change Electricité de France and Gaz de France from state agencies into private companies. But union spokesman Frédéric Imbrecht said the outages would be “targeted,” not general. “We aren’t desperadoes,” he said. “We aren’t going to plunge Paris into darkness.”
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
August 31 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include FEMA's new scheme, Gavin Newsom's antics, and a clue in the Epstein files
-
Disarming Hezbollah: Lebanon's risky mission
Talking Point Iran-backed militia has brought 'nothing but war, division and misery', but rooting them out for good is a daunting and dangerous task
-
Woof! Britain's love affair with dogs
The Explainer The UK's canine population is booming. What does that mean for man's best friend?