A woman investigated over the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has told Sky News she was shocked by the police interest in her.

Portuguese and British police investigated the German woman seven years ago while their focus was on a theory Madeleine woke up, got out of her family’s Praia da Luz holiday apartment through an unlocked patio door and was killed in a hit-and-run accident.

This was just before Christian B emerged as the prime suspect over the three-year-old British girl’s disappearance in 2007. He is expected to be released from a German jail next week at the end of a sentence for raping an elderly woman in Praia da Luz in 2005.

The hit-and-run theory was leaked to Portugal‘s Correio da Manha newspaper in June. It didn’t identify the woman, but the report suggested the investigation fizzled out because German authorities refused to get involved and deploy an undercover detective to befriend the suspect.

We tracked down the German woman, and she said she was not aware she had been under suspicion.

She told us she’d been working in a restaurant near the beach in Praia da Luz and got home after the time Madeleine was discovered missing from her bed. Her British partner was a chef at the Ocean Club who had served dinner to the McCanns and their friends.

“I don’t even know if there was a car accident, because I was working,” she said. “I came home at half ten, and my boyfriend was home already.”

Their flat, like the homes of many residents, was searched by Portuguese police in the days after Madeleine vanished.

‘Do you think I’ve cut her up?’

The German woman said she got angry during a second search when she was asked to empty her freezer and asked a police officer: “Do you think I’ve cut her up in little pieces and I’m going to have her for dinner?”

The woman said that more than 10 years later, German police contacted her, but only to ask her if she knew Christian B and had seen him near the McCanns’ apartment.

She said: “They wanted to know if I ever saw this German bloke around this area where I was living for a long time. Other people obviously saw his van, but I never saw it.”

The woman told us a German police commissar – equivalent to an inspector – called her several times over more than a year.

He asked for the SIM card from a phone she used when she was living in Portugal. That might suggest the officer was fishing for more than information about Christian B.

Local reports alleged the woman may have borrowed a car, but she said: “Do you think I ran her over? I didn’t even have a car at the time.”

She was unaware of the Portuguese newspaper report in June until we told her.

“Why didn’t my friends tell me and call me about this?” she said.

The family of the woman’s British partner, who has since died, told us they had been questioned by detectives from Scotland Yard’s Operation Grange, which is supporting the German and Portuguese police investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance.

When asked about the investigation into the German woman, a Met Police spokesperson said: “We continue to support Madeleine’s family to understand what happened on the evening of 3 May 2007 in Praia da Luz. This includes working with our colleagues in Germany and Portugal.

“Our thoughts remain with the family and it would be inappropriate to comment further while enquiries continue.”

Christian B warned not to return to Portugal

The night before Madeleine’s disappearance, her parents said she had woken up crying, and the next day she had asked where they had been. Part of the hit-and-run theory is that she might have gone looking for them.

But Madeleine’s mother, Kate, has long dismissed the suggestion that her daughter managed to get out of the apartment alone.

In her book entitled Madeleine, she wrote: “To give any credence whatsoever to the idea Madeleine could have walked out on her own you would have to accept that she had gone out the back way, pulling aside the sitting room curtains and drawing them again, then opening the patio door, the child safety gate at the top of the stairs on the veranda and the little gate to the road – and carefully closing all three behind her.

“What three-year-old do you know who would do that?”

It appears police played down the hit-and-run theory when their case against Christian B began to look more promising.

Christian B remains under investigation and has been warned not to return to Portugal when he is freed from jail.

Ex-pat Ken Ralphs, who knew the German drifter at the time Madeleine vanished, told us: “I think he’s a danger to society.

“It’s going to make a lot of children and women feel vulnerable again. He’s an injurious monster as far as I’m concerned.”

Mr Ralphs, a former community campaigner from Stockport, told Sky News last year about a mutual friend, a fellow Briton, who claimed to have got involved in a plot with Christian B, a convicted child sex offender.

The alleged plan, a week before Madeleine vanished, was to steal a child to sell to a childless couple.

All three men were part of an off-grid community living in camper vans near Praia da Luz when Madeleine vanished.

Mr Ralphs, who lives outside Luz, said: “Christian wouldn’t be welcomed back by many people here. I’m not worried about him personally, but there are others who are concerned. If he turns up here, I’ll be watching him 24/7.”

Christian B, 48, who cannot be fully identified under German privacy laws, is thought by investigators to have kidnapped and murdered Madeleine, but he hasn’t been charged and denies any involvement.

Christian B ‘will be forever connected with Madeleine case’

Mr Ralphs’ damning view of the suspect echoes that of the German prosecutor investigating the Madeleine case.

Hans Christian Wolters said a psychiatrist had assessed Christian B as dangerous and “similar crimes, especially sexual offences, are to be expected from him again”.

“We do consider him very dangerous and assume there is a risk of reoffending,” he said.

He added: “For us, he is still the only suspect in the case. We continue to assume that he is responsible for her [Madeleine] disappearance and ultimately also for her death.”

Ahead of Christian B’s release, the German authorities are to try to persuade a judge to impose restrictions on him: an electronic tag, a curfew, a fixed address or even a travel ban.

The Portuguese lawyer who represented Christian B when he was convicted of diesel theft in the Algarve in 2006 believes he will never shake off the suspicion over Madeleine.

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At his office in Portimao, Serafim Vieira said: “His life is not going to be easy, not just because of the crimes he’s committed, but he’ll be forever connected with the Madeleine case, to the murder of Madeleine.

“When anyone sees him on the street, or sees his picture, they will connect him with Madeleine.”

Once upon a time if folks wanted to pinpoint the most economically-vulnerable country in Europe – the one most likely to face a crisis – they would invariably point to Greece or to Italy.

They were the nations with the eye-waveringly high bond yields, signalling how reluctant financiers were to lend them money.

Today, however, all of that has changed. The country invariably highlighted as Europe’s problem child is France.

Indeed, look at the interest rates investors charge European nations and France faces even higher interest rates than Greece.

And these economic travails are central to understanding the political difficulties France is facing right now, with one prime minister after another resigning in the face of a parliamentary setback.

Read more:
French PM looks set to lose confidence vote

It mostly comes back to the state of the public finances. France’s deficit is among the highest in the developed world right now.

Everyone spent enormous sums during the pandemic. But France has struggled, more than nearly everyone else, to bring its spending back down and, hence, to reduce its deficit. Successive budget plans have been announced and then shelved in the face of political resistance.

France’s government spends more, as a percentage of gross domestic product, than any other developed economy.

The government’s most recent budget plans called for what most people would see as relatively minor spending cuts – barely more than a couple of percentage points off spending, after which France would still be the third biggest spender in the world.

But even these cuts were too controversial for the French people, or rather their politicians.

Yet another prime minister looks likely to fall victim to an unsuccessful bill. Deja vu all over again, you might say.

A deeper issue is that the latest worsening in France’s public finances isn’t just a sign of political resistance, or indeed of a nation that can’t bear to take the unpalatable fiscal medicine others (for instance Greece or the UK) have long been ingesting.

For years, France could rely on a phenomenon many other developed economies couldn’t: strong productivity growth.

The country’s people might not work as many hours as everyone else, but they sure created a lot of economic output when they were at their desks.

However, in recent years, French productivity has disappointed. Indeed, output per hour growth in France has dropped well below other nations, which in turn means less tax revenue and, lo and behold, the deficit gets bigger and bigger.

All of which is why so many people, including Prime Minister Francois Bayrou himself, have warned that France is at risk of a market meltdown.

In a recent speech, he pointed to the example of Liz Truss and her 2022 mini-Budget. Beware the market, he said. You never know how close you are to a crisis.

The US solar industry put nearly 18 gigawatts (GW) of new capacity on the grid in the first half of 2025. Even as the Trump administration rolled out anti-clean energy policies, solar and storage still made up 82% of all new power added to the grid in the first six months of the year. But the growth picture isn’t as sunny as it looks, according to the SEIA.

Trump’s big bill (HR1) and new administration actions targeting solar have dragged down deployment forecasts. The latest US Solar Market Insight Q3 2025 report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie warns that these policies could cut 44 GW of US solar growth by 2030 – an 18% decline. Compared with pre-HR1 forecasts, that’s a total loss of 55 GW, or 21% fewer solar projects by 2030.

“Solar and storage are the backbone of America’s energy future, delivering the majority of new power to the grid at the lowest cost to families and businesses,” said SEIA president and CEO Abigail Ross Hopper. She added that the administration is “deliberately stifling investment, which is raising energy costs for families and businesses, and jeopardizing the reliability of our electric grid.” Still, Hopper stressed that demand will keep the industry growing because “the market is demanding what we’re delivering: reliable, affordable, American-made energy.”

Ironically, the report found that this year, 77% of new solar capacity has been built in states Trump won. Eight of the top 10 states for new installations — Texas, Indiana, Arizona, Florida, Ohio, Missouri, Kentucky, and Arkansas — all went red in 2024.

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On the manufacturing side, the US added 13 GW of new solar module capacity in the first half of the year, with factories ramping up in Texas, Indiana, and Minnesota. That brings total domestic capacity to 55 GW. But momentum stalled in Q2, with no new upstream manufacturing investment as federal policy uncertainty spooked private capital.

Looking ahead, SEIA and Wood Mackenzie expect solar deployment to land 4% lower than pre-HR1 projections by 2030. Near-term solar growth is buoyed by projects already underway, developers racing against tax credit deadlines, and surging electricity demand as new gas generation becomes pricier and less reliable.

The report also highlights the risk of federal permitting changes. A Department of the Interior order throws up obstructions for solar permits, threatening about 44 GW of planned projects. Arizona, California, and Nevada are expected to be hit hardest.

“There is considerable downside risk for the solar industry if the federal permitting environment creates more constraints for solar projects,” said Michelle Davis, head of solar research at Wood Mackenzie. “The solar industry is already navigating dramatic policy changes as a result of HR1. Further uncertainty from federal policy actions is making the business environment incredibly challenging.”

SEIA has urged Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to reverse course, warning that the administration’s approach could mean lost jobs, higher power bills, and a weaker US economy.

The stakes stretch beyond energy: SEIA notes that if solar growth stalls as projected, the Trump administration will blow its chances at winning the global AI race – something it’s keen to do. Last week, the trade group rolled out a grid reliability policy agenda calling on leaders at all levels of government to shore up the grid with solar and storage to meet surging demand.

Read more: FERC: Solar + wind made up 91% of new US power generating capacity in H1 2025

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