Gavin Grey: UK correspondent on French President Emmanuel Macron calling for calm following riots in France

Gavin Gray, our UK correspondent, is with us. Hello, Gavin. Hi there, Heather. Whoa, it's a bit of a mess in France, isn't it?

It is. And the president, Emmanuel Macron, has given a televised address in which he also really called for calm and order. He said he cannot believe the violence because the protests, originally peaceful and originally drawing attention to the cost of living crisis, the high cost of fuel costs, and also what they deemed to be cutbacks to the state in France, led suddenly to some really very unpleasant scenes, looting, including down the Champs-Élysées, the main street, of course, in Paris, but other cities as well. Police arrested 2,400 people. 550,000 demonstrators took to the streets across France. And the president saying, look, you know, anyone who tries to escalate this further is going to be brought to justice. He said, we all feel anger and shame. The French president said nothing justifies the unbridled violence seen here. And those involved will face justice. A lot of those who were rioters were dressed in black, wearing masks. Balaclava is very difficult to identify them. But the riot police used tear gas and stun grenades and fired at hundreds of people in Paris. with bottles and rocks hurled at them. And really, I'm afraid the situation still remains very tense, because although we saw this in Paris, Marseille, Lille as well, there were plenty of other towns and cities that also saw these protests. And with 1,000 police and riot officers injured on Saturday alone, seven of them seriously, there were some less violent protests on Sunday. And of course, let's not forget that there will be an election early next year in France, and many feel that President Macron is a dead duck president.

Do you think that is the end of the protests?

No, I don't think it is. Indeed, there are calls for more to take place. That said, I think lots of people who might have attended what was a peaceful gathering at the start will have been left shocked at what happened. And indeed, there is this bit of a theory going around because there have also been protests in Spain, Greece, Belgium. that perhaps there is some kind of a coordinated hardliner approach to this. Is it linked to foreign interference? But certainly there were said to be gangs trying to sort of stir up the pot and the hatred and the violence going around there. And that, I think, is where President Macron is addressing his fire.

Now, listen, despite Microsoft pulling out, are they still going ahead with this massive data centre?

Yes, but I think this whole problem with data centers requiring a lot of energy and a lot of water is a problem for the UK and other countries. So Microsoft has teamed up with a tech company called Nscale, and they're working together on projects in Norway, Portugal, and the United States. They were working together just east of London in Loughton, but Microsoft has pulled out. The problem the UK has is the grid. the electricity grid connecting the power generators to new build development areas. And it's suddenly been announced that this huge four and a half billion New Zealand dollar project to build this pioneering facility. As I said, the