London
CNN
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A man has escaped from a prison in France by hiding in a bag belonging to his cellmate who was being released after finishing his sentence, an official told local media.

Sébastien Cauwel, director of France’s prison administration, told CNN affiliate BFMTV Sunday that the man “took advantage” of the release of his fellow inmate to escape from the Corbas prison near Lyon, a city in the country’s southeast.

Cauwel told the broadcaster that prison officials had noticed on Saturday morning that the man had escaped. He acknowledged an “accumulation of errors,” noting that an investigation into the incident had been opened.

“This is an extremely rare event that we have never seen in this administration and which clearly shows a whole series of serious failures,” Cauwel said, noting that the Corbas prison is overcrowded.

The prison has an occupancy rate of around 170%, he told the broadcaster. “That makes the working conditions of our officers more complicated.”

The inmate who escaped was serving several sentences, France’s prison service said in a statement cited by European news agency AFP. He was also under investigation in a case connected to organized crime, AFP reported, citing an unnamed source close to the matter.

Last year, another prisoner in France escaped after gunmen ambushed a prison convoy transporting him to a jail in the northern region of Normandy. The fugitive, Mohamed Amra – also known as “The Fly” – was rearrested in Romania in February this year, according to Reuters.

Reuters
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Violent clashes erupted between far-right groups, local residents and North African migrants in a town in southeastern Spain late on Saturday following an attack on an elderly man by unknown assailants earlier in the week.

Five people were hurt and one was arrested during the unrest in Torre-Pacheco, local officials told Reuters, in one of the worst such episodes in the country in recent decades. The town was quieter on Sunday, but government sources said more arrests were expected.

Videos posted on social media showed men dressed in clothes bearing far-right symbols and migrants carrying Moroccan flags hurling objects at each other in Saturday night’s violence, which followed several days of lower intensity unrest.

Tensions flared up between local residents and migrants after the elderly man was attacked in the street on Wednesday, causing injuries from which he is recovering at home. The reasons behind the assault are unclear and no one has been arrested.

The central government’s representative in the area, Mariola Guevara, told Spanish public TV the attack was being investigated.

She also denounced “hate speech” and “incitement to violence,” as far-right groups moved into the town, and said additional Guardia Civil officers would be deployed to deal with the violence.

Nearly a third of Torre-Pacheco’s population is of foreign origin, according to local government data.

The area surrounding the town, which is located in the Murcia region, also hosts large numbers of migrants who work as day laborers in agriculture, one of the pillars of the regional economy.

Less than two weeks ago, Murcia’s government had to backtrack on a proposal to buy housing to accommodate unaccompanied migrant minors as the ruling conservative People’s Party (PP) was threatened by far-right Vox, whose support the PP needs to pass laws.

In 2000, violent anti-immigration protests broke out in the Almeria town of El Ejido in southern Spain after three Spanish citizens were killed by Moroccan migrants.

CNN
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The European Union will delay the implementation of its trade countermeasures against the United States from Monday until early August to allow more time to negotiate a deal.

At a news conference on Sunday, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, referenced the letter the United States sent to the bloc Saturday, which threatened to impose a 30% tariff on European goods exports on August 1 absent a trade agreement.

“We will therefore also extend the suspension of our countermeasures till early August,” she said at the briefing in Brussels. “At the same time, we will continue to prepare further countermeasures so we are fully prepared.”

“We have always been very clear that we prefer a negotiated solution. This remains the case, and we will use the time that we have now till the 1st of August (to negotiate),” von der Leyen added.

In mid-April, the EU said it was suspending until July 14 its planned countermeasures on €21 billion ($25 billion) worth of US exports, unveiled earlier in retaliation for the 25% tariff Washington slapped on all steel and aluminum imports.

The bloc has also been preparing additional countermeasures in response to further tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump. On Sunday, von der Leyen said the 27-nation bloc had “developed a second potential list of countermeasures” and has sought to diversify its trade relationships, citing a “big and important” free trade deal with Indonesia.

According to the US Trade Representative’s office, EU member countries are together America’s largest trading partner at nearly $976 billion in two-way goods traded in 2024.

Von der Leyen noted that the EU prefers to negotiate a trade solution with the United States.

“Few economies in the world match the European Union’s level of openness and adherence to fair trading practices,” she said on Saturday.