Power restored to thousands of Berlin households after attack on lines causes several-day outage

BERLIN (AP) — Power was being restored on Wednesday to thousands of households in Berlin that had been without electricity in freezing temperatures for four days following a suspected far-left attack on high-voltage lines, authorities said.

About 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses lost their supply on Saturday morning after a fire on a bridge that carries high-voltage cables over the Teltow Canal, in the southwest of the German capital, affecting an estimated 100,000 people.

Authorities were able gradually to reconnect many to the network, but several days of work were required to repair the damage. Some 25,500 households and 1,200 businesses were still without power on Tuesday, largely in the prosperous Zehlendorf district.

It was the longest blackout in the city since the end of World War II.

Berlin's power network operator said service was gradually being restored Wednesday to all remaining households, German news agency dpa reported.

Investigators have focused on a written claim of responsibility by a far-left group, headlined “Turning off the juice to the rulers,” which said a gas-fired power plant in Berlin's Lichterfelde district had been “successfully sabotaged.” It claimed that the aim of the action was to strike the fossil-fuel energy industry, not to cause power outages.

Germany's domestic intelligence agency said self-styled “Volcano Groups” have been carrying out attacks on infrastructure in Berlin and the surrounding state of Brandenburg since 2011. A 2024 attack on a pylon that supplies a Tesla factory near Berlin temporarily halted production.

On Tuesday, the German federal prosecutor's office said it was taking over the investigation, citing suspicions of anticonstitutional sabotage, membership in a terrorist organization and arson.

FILE - Steam leaves a cooling tower of the Lichterfelde gas-fired power plant near a cable bridge crossing the Teltow canal in Berlin, Germany, on March 30, 2022. (AP Photo/Michael Sohn, File)

Staff of the S-Bahn security stand in front of the closed public transport station 'Wannsee' in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2025, during a power cut in south-west Berlin after a fire on a cable bridge. (Michael Kappeler/dpa via AP)

Passers-by stand in the light of a fire department help point in Berlin, Germany, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2025, during a power cut in south-west Berlin after a fire on a cable bridge. (Christoph Gollnow/dpa via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the longest-serving Democrat in Congress and once a rival to become House speaker, will announce Thursday he is set to retire at the end of his term.

Hoyer, who served for years in party leadership and helped steer Democrats through some of their most significant legislative victories, is set to deliver a House floor speech about his decision.

“Tune in,” Hoyer, who confirmed his retirement plans in a Washington Post interview, said on social media.

At 86, Hoyer is the latest in a generation of senior-most leaders stepping aside, making way for a new era of lawmakers eager to take on governing. Retirements have been high in the two major political parties, Democrats and Republicans, ahead of the midterm elections in November that will determine control of Congress.

First arriving in the House in 1981 after a special election, Hoyer's reach extended beyond his Chesapeake Bay-area district, and he quickly climbed the leadership ranks to become the No. 2 Democrat. He served as majority leader after Democrats swept to power after the 2006 election and again in 2019 after they regained control during President Donald Trump's first term.

Through those years Hoyer worked as a partner and sometimes rival to then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi, part of a trio of top Democrats alongside Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina.

That was the era when Democrats, with President Barack Obama, ushered the Affordable Care Act and other signature legislation to law.

During the Trump era, as Democrats worked to win back House control, Hoyer campaigned to court blue-collar voters outside of party strongholds and positioned himself as a potential alternative to Pelosi. For years, Hoyer championed what he called his “Make it in America” agenda to boost industry, production and jobs.

But the leaders have often moved in tandem, and when Pelosi announced last fall she would end her own storied career after this term, Hoyer's next step was widely watched.

FILE -Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md., speaks at a news conference about the Protect Our Probationary Employees Act on Capitol Hill, March 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)