A sea bath to wash away the excesses, 1000 party-goers in Larzac, Marvejols on an Olympic-sized floor… the essential news in the region

Tous les soirs à 20 h 30, retrouvez l’essentiel de l’actualité en région sur midilibre.fr. Midi Libre

Every evening at 8:30 p.m., find the 5 regional news items of the day that you shouldn't have missed.

Hackers have drawn a blank at the town hall

#MONTPELLIER – On Tuesday, the cyberattack carried out by a group of pro-Russian hackers had no consequences on the website of the city of Montpellier, according to Manu Reynaud, deputy for digital issues. Several communities were targeted by the hackers. “All data concerning the town hall and the metropolis are hosted on other servers”, he says, adding that the “cybersecurity is taken into consideration in the same way as a civil security disaster”. In Nîmes, no attack was reportedly detected by the IT services.

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

The “guru” suspected of rape before the criminal court

#HAUTE-GARONNE – Nine years after the dissolution of his spiritual community in Comminges, Olivier Freyre, considered a guru, will be tried for rape and sexual assault on two victims as well as for abuse of weakness, according to La Dépêche du Midi. His trial opens on January 17 before the criminal court of Haute-Garonne. This 44-year-old man, born in Switzerland, disputes the accusations brought by two of his former followers. After becoming a pastor, Olivier Freyre founded L’Espoir in Ganties in 2009, a strictly-run community. Between 2009 and 2016, L’Espoir collected nearly €1 million, which was reinvested in housing in the village where followers and visitors live. The public prosecutor opened a judicial investigation in 2017 following complaints of rape at the Saint-Gaudens gendarmerie. Apprehended in May 2018, the suspect was charged and briefly imprisoned, then placed under judicial supervision in 2019. Since then, he has settled in Drôme, where he works.

A sea bath to erase the excesses of New Year's Eve

#PYRÉNÉES-ORIENTALES/AUDE – There are the Christmas baths. And then there are the New Year baths, such as those in Gruissan or Argelès-sur-Mer, in the Aude and the Pyrénées-Orientales, which attracted many fans of an invigorating dip, after the New Year's Eve party. In Argelès, more than a thousand bathers, sometimes in disguise, threw themselves into the water, as in Canet-en-Roussillon, Saint-Cyprien and Le Barcarès. In Gruissan, there were 700 who set off for the first bath of the year from the Chalets beach, under the aegis of the festival committee and accompanied by the mayor of the town, Didier Codorniou, also vice-president of the Occitanie Region. The opportunity for a good time to start the year.

Marvejols gymnasts on an Olympic floor

#LOZÈRE – The young gymnasts of Marvejols now benefit from a Paris 2024-stamped floor, installed in the municipal gymnasium. It is one of eighteen floors manufactured exclusively for this summer's artistic and rhythmic gymnastics events. Installed at the Accor Arena in Paris-Bercy, it was used for warm-up sessions before the competition, notably by the American athlete Simone Biles. “An extraordinary opportunity”, for the mayor, Patricia Bremond, who quickly positioned herself upon learning of the sale of this high-quality equipment.

Result: an acquisition for €62,500, below the budget planned for replacing the old platform.

Today's figure: 1,000

#AVEYRON – Nearly 1,000 party-goers set up on the Larzac on December 31 to celebrate the New Year, between Aveyron and Hérault, near the A75. 1,500 ravers were expected. A surveillance system was set up by the Aveyron gendarmerie. If the night was festive on the old quarry where all these fine people met, “all around the area, there was nothing special, it was rather calm”, confirmed the gendarmerie on Wednesday.

I subscribe to read the rest