Millions without power as outages hit Spain, Portugal and parts of France, Spanish officials say
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(LONDON) — Millions of people in Spain, Portugal and parts of France lost power on Monday due to an unknown grid issue, the Spanish government confirmed to ABC News.
The Spanish government said it called an emergency crisis meeting to fix the situation as soon as possible.
Authorities, meanwhile, asked people to stay at home and to avoid circulating, while emergency generators were also being put in place.
Red Eléctrica, the corporation that operates the national electricity grid in Spain, confirmed power outages across the country.
“Plans to restore the electricity supply have been activated in collaboration with companies in the sector following the zero that occurred in the peninsular system,” it wrote in a post to X. “The causes are being analyzed and all resources are being dedicated to solving it.”
A later post said power was recovered in some areas.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
This photo shows a Maxar satellite image of Engels Air Base in Saratov Oblast, Russia, taken on Dec. 3, 2022./Maxar/DigitalGlobe/Getty Images
(LONDON) — Russian authorities reported a “massive” Ukrainian drone attack on the Engels airbase in Saratov Oblast overnight, with Russia’s Defense Ministry claiming to have downed 54 drones over the area.
“Saratov and Engels today suffered the most massive UAV attack of all time,” Roman Busargin, the governor of Saratov region, wrote on Telegram. He reported a fire burning at the airfield and damage to around 30 houses in the area.
Windows were also blown out at a nearby hospital — where one woman was injured — as well as two kindergartens and a school, Busargin wrote.
The Ukrainian military’s General Staff claimed responsibility for the attack in a social media post, saying the operation was a collaboration with the Security Service of Ukraine and the country’s Special Operations Forces. “Fire, explosions and secondary detonation of ammunition were recorded in the area of the airport,” it said.
“This military facility is used by occupiers’ aviation, in particular, to launch missile strikes on the territory of Ukraine and terrorist attacks against civilians,” the statement said. “To be continued,” it added.
Engels — situated more than 465 miles from the Ukrainian border — is a major strategic bomber base, from which Russian aircraft have launched long-range missile strikes through the 3-year-old war. It has been attacked several times by Ukraine, most recently in January.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, posted a purported video of the attack to Telegram, showing what appeared to be a burning fire in the dark of night. “Russian Engels,” Kovalenko wrote.
Video footage shot from a high-rise apartment in Engels circulating online also showed a large plume of smoke rising from the direction of the airbase.
Kovalenko said the strike destroyed missile stocks, including those of the Kh-101 cruise missile “The number will be known later,” he wrote. “This airfield stores the largest number of missiles used by strategic aviation for strikes on Ukraine.”
In total, Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed to have downed 132 Ukrainian drones over seven Russian or Russian-controlled regions on Wednesday night into Thursday morning.
Ukrainian authorities, meanwhile, reported a major Russian overnight bombardment of the central city of Kropyvnytskyi, with more than 30 explosions reported.
The regional governor also said Russia launched a “massive” attack on the eastern city of Kupyansk, close to the front line. At least 20 bombs were dropped on the city in a matter of hours, they said, with at least one person killed and another wounded.
Ukraine’s air force said Russian launched 171 drones in the country overnight, 75 of which were shot down and 63 lost in flight without causing damage. “Kirovohrad, Sumy, and Donetsk regions were affected by the Russian attack, ” the air force said.
“Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, despite its propaganda statements, do not stop,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “With each such launch, the Russians show the world their true attitude to peace. “
The latest exchange of attacks came just after President Donald Trump spoke with Zelenskyy, the latter agreeing to a proposed 30-day ceasefire on attacks against energy and infrastructure targets, which was also approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
The partial ceasefire is intended as a springboard for a broader pause in fighting and eventual peace deal, American officials have said.
Trump described the call as “very good” in a post to Truth Social. “Much of the discussion was based on the call made yesterday with President Putin in order to align both Russia and Ukraine in terms of their requests and needs,” he said.
“We are very much on track,” Trump added.
But long-range attacks by both sides have continued throughout the most recent round of negotiations.
“This is what Putin’s ceasefire looks like,” Andriy Yermak — the head of Zelenskyy’s office — wrote on Telegram alongside a photo of the aftermath of Russia’s overnight attack on Kropyvnytskyi.
“Russia takes great pleasure in attacking civilians,” he added.
ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova, Will Gretsky, Kelsey Walsh, Max Uzol and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.
(SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR) — The government of El Salvador on Monday rejected a request from four Democratic lawmakers to visit wrongly deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The lawmakers were trying to arrange a meeting four days after a visit from Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, where Abrego Garcia and his family live.
In an interview with MSNBC from El Salvador, Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost said Monday that he and the others were told that their visit was rejected because they are not in El Salvador “in an official capacity.”
“We’re not giving up,” Frost said. “We have more meetings scheduled.”
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who has been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
The Trump administration, while acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in error, has said that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States. His wife and attorney have denied that he is an MS-13 member.
An official with the U.S. Department of State said Monday in a status report that Abrego Garcia is in “good conditions and in an excellent state of health.”
“The Salvadoran government responded on April 21 that Mr. Abrego Garcia is being held at the Centro Industrial penitentiary facility in Santa Ana,” Michael Kozak, a senior bureau official for the State Department, reported.
Sen. Van Hollen said that Abrego Garcia told him at their meeting that he had been transferred out of CECOT “about eight days” prior.
(LONDON) — The death toll from last week’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake in Myanmar rose to 3,085 people as of Thursday morning, according to an update released by the country’s military government.
Another 4,715 people have been injured and 341 others remain missing, the junta said.
The epicenter of Friday’s magnitude earthquake was near the northern city of Mandalay — Myanmar’s second-largest city. But severe damage has been reported across the country, with thousands of buildings razed, roads destroyed and bridges collapsed.
The earthquake also rocked Thailand, where at least 22 people have been confirmed killed and 35 others injured in the capital Bangkok, according to the city’s Metropolitan Administration.
Most of the casualties there were related to the collapse of a high-rise building that was under construction when the powerful quake struck the region.
Search and rescue teams have been working around the clock to find the 72 people who were reported as missing from the incident, Bangkok officials said, with hopes that some may still be alive beneath the heavy, thick layers of debris seven days later.
City officials expressed concern that it could rain Thursday, which might hinder ongoing search and rescue efforts.
“We hope that a miracle will happen,” the administration said in a situation update posted to Facebook.
“For those trapped beneath the debris, if they are still alive, the heat may not be a big issue because there are vents and it is not as hot as above,” it said. “The main problem is dehydration.”
