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France Cuts 6.4 GW Of Nuclear Power As Heatwave Grips The Country
By Michael Kern of OilPrice.com,
France’s nuclear power generation was slashed by 6.4 gigawatts (GW) on Monday amid a prolonged and intense heatwave that hiked river temperatures and limited the ability of the power plants to use the water to cool reactors.
As many as eight reactors in France, which is Europe’s leader in nuclear power generation, were forced to curtail power output, according to data from the plants’ operator EDF and grid operator RTE cited by Reuters.
The 6.4 GW of curtailed power output was equivalent to 14% of France’s overall power demand as of Monday morning.
The reactors where output has been limited include Saint Alban 1 and 2, reactors 3, 4, and 5 at Bugey, Golfech 2, and Blayais 1 and 3.
The Golfech 2 and Bugey 3 reactors were taken fully offline, while the other six were operating at reduced rates as of Monday morning.
This is not the first time France has had to curb output at reactors and limit the nuclear power production, due to high summer temperatures.
France’s nuclear power generation accounts for around 70% of its electricity mix, and when its reactors are fully operational, it is a net exporter of electricity to other European countries.
Despite the curbs of nuclear generation during the current heatwave, data from RTE suggests that France would remain a net exporter with over 10 GW of power exported to France’s neighboring countries on Monday.
The hydropower generation would also be a concern amid the heatwave that has lasted a least a week and is expected to continue at least until Wednesday this week.
With temperatures topping 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) for days, red alerts have been issued throughout France amid the heatwave, and thousands of people have died of heat-related conditions since late June, when the record-breaking extreme summer temperatures started to disrupt life. Even the most famous and prestigious cycling event, the Tour de France, held a shortened stage on Sunday for the first time ever, due to the extreme heat.
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German Parliament Moves To Criminalize Denying Israel's "Right To Exist"
Various European initiatives and policies which criminalize "holocaust denial" have for years dominated headlines and driven immense controversy over freedom of speech and public debate.
But Germany is now taking it a big step further, with the Bundesrat, Germany's upper house of parliament, having just approved a bill that would criminalize publicly denying Israel's "right to exist" or calling for its abolition.
via ReutersIf passed into law, a conviction would bring up to five years in prison, according to the proposed legal change. The legislation will now move to the lower house.
If ultimately approved, it would make Germany the first country in Europe to punish speech denying Israel's "right to exist".
Critics of such efforts to crack down on pro-Palestinian activism and protests have pointed out that the question of any nation's "right" to "exist" is a highly philosophical and theoretical one, which makes it strange that any government would codify the statement into law, elevating it to a kind of of dogma.
The legal proposal would greatly expand Germany's existing Section 130 of the criminal code - which is what authorities currently use to prosecute Holocaust denial.
However, dissenters within the German government have warned the proposed expansion would be a violation of the German constitution, as it would establish a "special right against a specific opinion" in breach of Article 5. Here's what the constitution's "freedom of expression" clause says:
Every person shall have the right freely to express and disseminate his opinions in speech, writing and pictures and to inform himself without hindrance from generally accessible sources. Freedom of the press and freedom of reporting by means of broadcasts and films shall be guaranteed. There shall be no censorship.
The Bundestag's research service has warned in a report on violation of individual rights: "Both the rejection of the right of the State of Israel to exist and the call for the elimination of the state are likely to constitute subjective value judgments."
Recently Tucker Carlson unpacked the difficulty inherent in the whole notion of a country having a "right to exist" in a testy exchange with a reporter. Carlson has also frequently pointed out that the phrase is a bizarre and uncommon formulation, given that not even Americans in all of history have spoken in terms of a nation-state or government 'existing' as a 'right'...
A reporter asks Tucker Carlson if Israel has a “right to exist.” When he presses her to define it, she can’t.
Tucker responds: “I believe in universally applicable standards, and if they’re not universally applicable, they’re not standards — they’re preferences.” pic.twitter.com/tUzmcDShSy
More recently, Amnesty International has publicly come out in opposition to the German measure, stating, "The protection of Jewish life is of particular importance – but this initiative massively endangers freedom of expression."
In the United States, the Israel-Gaza conflict has increasingly split the Democratic Party, amid growing midterm related turmoil. But there's been an increasing debate raging on the Right as well, as younger generations of conservatives show much more willingness to criticize Israel and push against taxpayer funding for the Israeli government and military to the tune of billions.
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10,000 Excess Deaths During June European Heatwave, Official Data Show
Authored by Guy Birchall via The Epoch Times,
More than 10,000 excess deaths were reported across Europe during the recent heatwave that baked the west of the continent in late June, official data showed on June 13.
A man cools himself during a heatwave in Chamonix, France, on June 25, 2026. Reuters/Pierre AlbouyMore than 9,000 of those who passed away were aged 65 and above, according to European Monitoring of Excess Mortality for Public Health Action (EuroMOMO), a continent-wide mortality monitoring network backed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
The data, pooled from national mortality statistics in 27 European countries, included excess deaths from all causes, not just heat-related ones, during the week of June 22 to 28, when the heatwave peaked in France, Spain, the UK, and other countries.
Though the deaths cannot be attributed exclusively to the soaring temperatures, scientists have said there were no other known major factors, such as disease outbreaks, that would likely have contributed to the mortality spike during that week.
Extreme heat can kill by causing heat stroke or aggravating cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, with older people among the most vulnerable, according to the WHO.
"To have this kind of excess at this time of year is unusual. It's really high," Lasse Vestergaard, chief physician at Denmark's Statens Serum Institut, which hosts EuroMOMO, said. "It is difficult to explain this high excess mortality by anything but the extreme heat."
The combined mortality for the same 27 nations over the previous eight weeks averaged around 500 deaths per week below typical levels; however, EuroMOMO data is subject to revision, either up or down, as more data flow in over the coming weeks.
EuroMOMO does not publish excess deaths per individual country, but it noted that France and Belgium both logged "very high excess" mortality in the last week of June. Spain, Switzerland, and the Netherlands noted "moderate excess," England, Wales, Italy, and Germany registered a "low excess" of deaths, and the remaining 17 showed normal levels.
The heatwave at the end of June disrupted power supplies, shut schools, and smashed temperature records in France, Spain, and the UK.
Belgium's excess mortality was the highest during any heatwave in records going back to 2000, according to the country's public health institute Sciensano.
"Our latest analysis shows that 1,747 more people died than expected during this heatwave, corresponding to an excess mortality of 48 percent," Sciensano said in a July 10 LinkedIn post. "The deadliest days, 27 and 28 June, recorded mortality levels comparable to those observed during the peak of the first COVID-19 wave in April 2020."
During the heatwave, France experienced its hottest ever national average days on June 24 and June 25, with both days recording an average temperature of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) over 24 hours, surpassing the previous record set on June 23 of 29.8 degrees Celcisus (85.6 degrees Fahrenheit), according to French weather agency Meteo-France.
That average is calculated using figures from 30 weather stations evenly distributed across the country.
According to Meteo-France, the highest temperature recorded in France was 46 degrees Celsius (about 114.8 degrees Fahrenheit) at Verargues on June 19, 2019.
In another scientific study from the UK - by Imperial College London, the UK Met Office, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine - it was estimated that some 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales alone, amid the May and June heatwaves.
A 2007 study by the French Academy of Sciences on the 2003 European heatwave found that more than 70,000 excess deaths occurred across 16 countries that year.
American political scientist Roger Pielke Jr. has said that the increase in deaths in Europe in previous years is attributable to the lack of air conditioning across the continent.
"The math is simple," Pielke Jr., who has previously worked at the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado, Boulder, wrote in a June 25 post on Substack, discussing the deaths in the European heatwave of 2022.
"Today's heat deaths reflect today's level of AC coverage. Raise the coverage, and a share of those deaths are eliminated - in proportion to how protective AC is and how many more households gain it."
Pilke stated that if Europe had American levels of air conditioning penetration during that period, deaths would have been reduced by as much as 26,000.
A Dash Q400-MR Fireguard aircraft of the civil security drops retardant mixed with water during a demonstration of firefighting capacity by the Gironde's Fire and Rescue Departmental Service in Saint-Aubin-de-Medoc, France, on July 3, 2026. Christophe Archambault/AFP via Getty Images Tyler Durden Tue, 07/14/2026 - 02:00