Winter Olympics disrupted by protests and 'sabotage'

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Global News Podcast 31 min 9 speakers 5 chapters transcribed 3 months ago
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Paul Moss 0:00
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Listen now wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Kun me oltiin menossa talvilomalle, niin siellä junassa me oltiin yötä makuvaunussa. Ja siellä oli myös sellainen ravintolovaunu, josta sai kaikkea ruokaa ja myös jälkkäriä. Sit me kävin seikkailemaan eri vaunuissa, ja siellä oli toinenkin lapsi. Se oli kans menossa talvilomalle, ja me mietin, että meissä tulee varmaan kaveri, kun me molemmat tykätään lumilautailusta. Se oli tosi kiva matka.
Paul Moss 1:01
Vapaus matkustaa raiteilla. VR. Yhteisellä matkalla. This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Paul Moss, and in the early hours of Sunday, the 8th of February, these are our main stories. The Italian authorities denounce what they call serious sabotage on the rail network, linking the incidents to the start of the Winter Olympics. The US has apparently insisted that a peace deal on Ukraine be reached by the end of June. And the Washington Post's chief executive is stepping down, days after the newspaper announced mass layoffs. Also in this podcast, the French government is sending 29-year-olds a letter urging them to have children and a medical milestone.
Dr. Juan Pérez Barrett 1:52
She offered to donate her face. This gave us a unique opportunity, which is having enough time in order to prepare the surgery.
Paul Moss 2:01
A woman offers to donate her face for a transplant before she undergoes euthanasia. On Friday, the Winter Olympics was all about sport and celebration. The opening ceremony in Milan saw music from Mariah Carey, and this being Italy, from Puccini and Verdi as well. And yet politics did intrude. The audience loudly booed the US Vice President J.D. Vance and the Israeli Olympics team. And A2 has seen all the talk of sport and universal brotherhood once again rudely interrupted. There were reports of sabotage on the Italian rail network linked to the Games. And then there was this. Demonstrators out on the streets of Milan blew whistles and chanted slogans against the Olympics presence. And what began peacefully then deteriorated into violent clashes with riot police.
Paul Moss 3:04
So what exactly is it that these protesters object to about the Winter Olympics? I asked our global affairs reporter, Ambarasan Ethirajan. Scores of people gathered in Milan on Saturday afternoon. Basically, they were all a part of this big group called Unsustainable Olympics Committee. This was an activist organisation. They had mobilised students, housing activists, many sports groups, all from the northern part of Italy, and they were against protest. what they call the environmental impact of these Olympic venues. When you build such a huge venue, it is causing damage to the surroundings. When they reached the Olympic Village, violent activities were happening. They were throwing fireworks, and then police used water cannon as well as tear gas to disperse the group.
Paul Moss 3:53
And then only one group was firing these fireworks as well as attacking police vans. The other group, they were protesting peacefully, and they wanted to highlight how unsustainable these games could be. Saturday also saw a suggestion that the railways in Italy have been sabotaged in several places. Do we know if there's any connection with the protests you're talking about? The authorities are talking about three incidents. One was about a box containing a switch was set on fire. This is near the city of Passero. And the second one was where they saw severed cables near the city of Bologna and a very rudimentary explosive device in another location. So that actually caused more than two and a half hours of delay in these high-speed trains.

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