Dark Age Ahead

Energy demand has been rising in Europe as winter nears

An overload in Germany's power network triggered outages leaving millions without electricity on Saturday night. Romano Prodi said there was a "contradiction" in having a unified power network but no central authority.

Power failed first in Cologne, Germany, before shutting down across parts of France, Italy, Spain and Austria. Belgium, the Netherlands and Croatia were also affected.

"My first impression is that there is a contradiction between having European networks but not having a central European authority. It is somewhat absurd," Mr Prodi said.

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Did Jane Jacobs know what kind of prediction she was making? Of course she did.