Global News Podcast - French travel chaos hours before Olympics

Episode Date: July 26, 2024

Some 800,000 passengers affected after three high speed rail lines into Paris targeted by arson attacks. The French rail operator, SNCF, says disruption is expected to continue throughout the weekend. Also: In the US, former president Barack Obama backs Vice President Kamala Harris in her election campaign, Open AI launches its rival to the long dominant Google search engine, and two leaders of one of the world's most dangerous and powerful crime syndicates have been arrested in Texas.

Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service, with reports and analysis from across the world. The latest news seven days a week. BBC World Service podcasts are supported by advertising. If you're hearing this, you're probably already listening to BBC's award-winning news podcasts. But did you know that you can listen to them without ads? Get current affairs podcasts like Thank you. Amazon Music with a Prime membership. Spend less time on ads and more time with BBC Podcasts. This is a Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Janet Jalil and at 14 hours GMT on Friday the 26th of July, these are our main stories.

France's train network is hit by coordinated arson attacks hours before the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris. The former US President Barack Obama backs Vice President Kamala Harris in her bid for the White House. OpenAI launches its rival to the long-dominant Google search engine. Also in this podcast... The beautiful thing about going to the space station is that you're taking gravity out of the equation. It's a complete unknown what will happen when you do that. Meet Rosemary.

She's going to the International Space Station. We begin in Paris, where anticipation is mounting for what should be a spectacular start to the Olympic Games, the much-heralded open-air opening ceremony on the River Seine. But it's been overshadowed by what appears to be a coordinated campaign of sabotage. Just hours before a waterborne parade of athletes is due to set off in the French capital, there have been arson attacks on high-speed rail lines into Paris. The French rail operator SNCF says 800,000 people have been affected, with disruption expected to continue throughout the weekend.

Many of those caught up in the chaos were setting off on their summer holidays. Jean-Pierre Farandou is the CEO of SNCF. Today was supposed to be the big holiday getaway.'s also of course the opening of the olympic games many french people were going to come to paris going to have fun take one two three days to share in the joy of the olympic games but that's been spoiled of course we will act we will not give up we know we face difficulties it will take a couple of days to repair, we will act. We will not give up. We know we face difficulties. It will take a couple of days to repair, but we will get things back on track. Eurostar trains between Paris and London have also been affected.

Andrew Harding is at the Gare du Nord train station in the French capital. Big crowds and some confusion here at the Gare du Nord in central Paris. Some trains are operating, but the high-speed TGV lines have been disrupted by this coordinated attack across France overnight. And the security forces are here. I've seen a lot of police, a lot of soldiers too, on patrol. Lots of French people are trying to get out of Paris for their summer holidays, and of course a lot of tourists coming here for the Olympic Games

and for tonight's opening ceremony. No word yet on who might be responsible for these attacks. Big disruption, big concerns, but train officials here are saying, look, we are finding ways to put those high-speed trains onto normal lines, and it's going to take us hours, probably days, to sort this mess out, but they are working on it. Our security correspondent, Frank Gardner, told us more about the attacks and who might be behind them. They're being classed as acts of sabotage rather than terrorism and that's an important distinction because no humans were targeted in this. Obviously

it's immensely disruptive, it's an attack on the French state, on the French nation. It's hitting critical national infrastructure. And of course, a huge embarrassment on the opening day of the French, of the Paris-based Olympics. But it's not been seen as terrorism because there was nobody killed or injured in this. So the list of suspects include far right, far left activists, environmental activists, but also possibly links to the Kremlin, because let's not forget that just under two months ago, there were five coffins filled with substance that were covered in French tricolour national flags placed at the base of the Eiffel Tower with the inscription French troops of Ukraine. And that was in response to French President Emmanuel Macron suggesting that France might possibly deploy troops to Ukraine. And that was ultimately linked to by French investigators to Moscow, which took no responsibility for it at all. And indeed, there's no responsibility claimed so far for these arson attacks. But they were quite sophisticated.

Whoever did it knew exactly what junction boxes to hit, which lines to hit that would cause the most disruption. Three out of the four big TGV high-speed link rail lines were hit. The fourth one, they managed to foil the attack. But you've only got to look at the disruption. Quarter of a million passengers with their journeys disrupted today, up to 800,000 over the coming days. And you say this is because of sabotage, not terrorism. But there is unprecedented security because in the past, France has been hit by terror attacks.

It has. And, you know, there is still that risk just because this has happened. It doesn't, of course, preclude the risk of an attack in Paris itself. But what it's meant is that a lot of the security forces that would otherwise be deployed to the countryside have been pulled into Paris. You've got 45,000 police and gendarmes in Paris drafted in extra. That's over and above what's normally, you know, the forces normally there. 10,000 soldiers, 2,000 private security guards, snipers on roofs, drones up in the air. The focus is very much on Paris and, of course, on the opening ceremony this evening with this parade down the River Seine, six kilometres.

So there are risks, but the French have taken great care to try and mitigate as many of those risks as possible. It's interesting that back in April, President Macron said he thought Russia would try and disrupt these games in some form. Frank Gardner. The former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle have joined other high-profile Democrats to endorse Kamala Harris. America's first black president gave his wholehearted support to the woman who is aiming to become the US's first black

and female and Asian president. The Obamas released a video in which they make a call to Vice President Harris in yet another boost for her campaign. Kamala. Hello. Hi. Hey there. Oh, hi, you're both together. Oh, it's good to hear you both.

I can't have this phone call without saying to my girl Kamala, I am proud of you. This is going to be historic. We call to say Michelle and I couldn't be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office. Oh my goodness. Michelle, Barack, this means so much to me. The words you have spoken and the friendship that you have given over all these years mean more than I can express. So thank you both. Well, Jared Hill is a correspondent at CBS News. While former President Obama didn't endorse Vice President Kamala Harris a couple of days ago,

we do know that a number of members of the Obama world have been pretty heavily involved in the early days of the campaign. His former attorney general is involved heavily with trying to vet various vice presidential picks and candidates for Vice President Harris. There had been some talk about him wanting to give a bit of space between the announcement that Joe Biden was stepping out of the race, that Kamala Harris was going to be running in his stead, and allowing this not to appear as a coronation. But here we are seeing this official endorsement from one of the most popular Democratic presidents in quite some time. We've also been seeing over the past just couple of days, this flurry of excitement and interest in grassroots efforts to galvanize

various demographics that are going to be important for Vice President Harris. This potentially could just be another stamp of approval from someone who a lot of Democrats like. Jared Hill. OpenAI is launching a test version of its long-awaited search engine in a challenge to Google's lucrative online search business. The company behind ChatGPT says it's relying on its relationships with publishers to provide timely and relevant answers. More from our North America business correspondent, Michelle Flurry. The company behind ChatGPT is testing a new search engine that uses generative artificial intelligence to produce results.

Now, OpenAI said that SearchGPT will launch with a small group of users and publishers before a potential wider rollout. The search engine starts with a large text box that asks the user, what are you looking for? After entering your query, rather than give you a plain list of links, SearchGPT tries to organise and make sense of them. The company's boss, Sam Altman, was full of fighting talk posting on social media, we think there's room to make search much better than it is today. Right now, it is just a prototype,

but it could mark the start of a threat to Google's dominant search engine. And it comes at a difficult time for Google, which is awaiting a federal judge's ruling this autumn on a landmark Justice Department antitrust lawsuit, which is targeting its alleged monopoly over the online search market. Michelle Flurry. After a decade of economic meltdown and political repression, could this weekend be the beginning of the end for the Maduro regime in Venezuela? Voters head to the polls on Sunday to choose between the long-ruling

authoritarian President Nicolas Maduro and Edmundo Gonzalez, a retired diplomat and relative unknown until just a few months ago. Tensions have risen as polls have shown Mr Maduro trailing by a considerable margin, but his supporters remain positive. I'm going to vote forás Maduro because he is the one that knows what the people want because he comes from where the people are. He also comes from being very poor. In the worst moments that these recent years have been going through, he has looked for a solution for that. He's not looking for troubles. He's not just giving up. Many Venezuelans fear that the polls will not be free or fair, as Mr Maduro has warned of a bloodbath if he loses. The BBC's Mimi Suebi has been speaking to Enrique Capriles,

the opposition's candidate in the 2012 and 2013 presidential elections. My expectations are for a massive participation of Venezuelans in the vote. We have overcome the issue of not being able to vote. Venezuelans have rediscovered now the desire to use our right to vote. The government has been using threats, so much intimidation and a lot of aggressive language. But we're going to go out and vote with our families this Sunday, the 28th of July. The will of Venezuelans will triumph. I think we're going to see a landslide in favour of change. And we hope that this change is cemented in peace without problems, that democracy triumphs. It's logical that a government that has done badly loses.

Nicolas Maduro said that if he loses, it could mean a civil war and a bloodbath. What was your reaction to this comment? I'd agree with what the president of Brazil said, who's also been an ally of the Venezuelan government since the times of former President Hugo Chavez. I think these are messages of division for Maduro, with the intention to promote not

voting, generate fear and terror. And this obviously scares Venezuelans. You ran against Nicolas Maduro in 2013 and against former President Hugo Chavez in 2012. From your own experience as the opposition candidate, do you think elections in Venezuela are free and fair? And do you think elections in Venezuela are free and fair? And do you think these ones in particular can be? Elections in Venezuela have never been free or fair. Never. Including when the late President Chavez abused his power

with the use of public funds. This has been the sad story of Venezuela for all these years. You know, I was a political prisoner in 2004. This is a story of abuses. And it wasn't just for a these years. You know, I was a political prisoner in 2004. This is a story of abuses, and it wasn't just for a few years. For many years, we had to survive with abuses and casualties, with the government taking advantage of the people. The big difference is that now the great majority of Venezuelans are tired of this.

It's a country where poverty is soaring. The country has decided in its great majority to go out and vote and to overcome Maduro. The gap in support is so wide that the government can't hide it. The election will be a great challenge because of many conditions. But we're rising to this historic occasion to get rid of this undemocratic government through democratic means. Venezuelan opposition figure Enrique Cabriles. Two leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the most dangerous and powerful crime syndicates

in the world, have been arrested in Texas. One of them is Ismael Elmayo Zambada, who co-founded the Sinaloa cartel with Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, who's currently in a U.S. jail. The other man arrested is El Chapo's son, Joaquin Guzman Lopez. Reports say the two men were tricked into boarding a plane to El Paso by a senior member of the cartel in a U.S. sting operation. Our Mexico correspondent, Will Grant, says it's a hugely significant moment. El Mayo Zambada, probably, certainly, arguably,

the most important drug trafficker in the world. So the very fact that he's evaded arrest for this length of time to have him now detained in El Paso is a massive step for U.S. law enforcement. We don't know all of the details of the arrest yet, but it does look that he was arrested when they came in on a flight from Mexico, we believe, into El Paso and was arrested alongside El Chapo's son. We're beginning to hear that it looks like it might have involved some kind of deal, that this was a sting operation, but there may have been some kind of deal between US law enforcement and one of those two men giving up the other. We need to hold off a little bit from speculation at this stage. But certainly,

I mean, these things always sound incredibly dramatic. I think in this case, the drama is necessary. It was El Chapo who is the public face of the Sinaloa cartel. But in many ways, it was El Mayo Zambala who is the real power behind the throne. If you think about drug trafficking as an enterprise, in a way, what the Sinaloa cartel has done so well is be able to adapt and grow and become so powerful. And part of that is El Mayo Zambala and his leadership of it. So at one stage, it's been cocaine. At other times, it's been heroin. More recently, of course, fentanyl. And I think these will be the charges that are brought against him and El Chapo's son, specifically to do with money laundering, of course, drug-related violence,

and of course, drug trafficking itself. But yeah, I think that really lies and underpicks why this has been such a significant scalp, why the organization has been so powerful, so resilient for so long. And a lot of that comes down to the, frankly, innovation of a cartel like the Sinaloa cartel and his leadership of it. Will Grant. Coming up. 50 years after his debut album, the Cape Verdean singer Tito Parish speaks to the BBC. The Brazilian government has for the first time formally apologised for its persecution of Japanese immigrants during the Second World War. Thousands of people who were born in Japan but migrated to Brazil were mistreated during and after the war. Brazil is home to the largest Japanese population outside Japan.

David Lewis is following the story. Barbarities, atrocities, cruelties, tortures, prejudice, ignorance, xenophobia and racism. Those are the damning words of Eneia Almeida, president of the Brazilian Amnesty Commission, an advisory board of the country's Ministry of Human Rights, on the treatment of Japanese people in Brazil during World War II. Ms Almeida also said, in Japanese, that Brazil seeks forgiveness for the persecution of Japanese Brazilians' ancestors. There was rejoicing and singing in the hall in Brasilia after the announcement was made. Men in traditional Japanese dress played music. And it's an apology many decades in the making. The Brazilians joined the Allied side in 1942

and cut off diplomatic relations with Tokyo soon after. Then began a government-sanctioned confiscation of Japanese-owned properties. Immigrants were not allowed to gather or speak Japanese publicly. More than 6,000 Japanese immigrants living in the southeastern port city of Santos were forced from their homes over suspected espionage linked to the sinking of commercial ships. But abuses continued after hostility ceased in 1945. The government cracked down on those who argued that Japan, which had surrendered to the Allied forces, had won the war. This led to 172 Japanese immigrants being

shipped to a concentration camp off the coast of Sao Paulo, where they were interrogated and tortured for three years. Mario Janokohora has documented the persecution and insisted his ancestors were imprisoned, abused and accused of being spies. We can't erase the atrocities committed against our parents and grandparents, he said, but we can learn from these sad episodes and prevent them from happening again to anyone, regardless of their origin or ethnicity. David Lewis. The town of Jasper in the Canadian Rockies is a tourist hotspot known as a stopping off point for people to admire the area's crystal clear lakes and dazzling glaciers. Right now, much of it is a smoking wasteland after a huge wildfire ripped

through the town. It's one of a number of fires affecting large areas of the province of Alberta. This report from Stephanie Prentice. All right, I'm on my way. Yeah, there's another water truck parked there, I think. In a video uploaded online, a man is driving slowly through Jasper, passing burned out cars and scorched plots of land where family homes once stood. Where's mom and dad's house? The house in question, now just a few rows of bricks on the ground. In another video,

a man is driving through the remains of his old neighborhood. That side of the street, they had sprinklers. Everywhere else, nothing but chimneys standing. It's been a hot and dry summer in Alberta, and the fire was sparked during a lightning storm and soon spread out of control, with winds pushing what first responders called a wall of flames into the town of Jasper in under 30 minutes. The Premier of the province, Danielle Smith, fought back tears during a press conference.

The town of Jasper and the parks surrounding it have been a source of pride. With some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. It's a feeling being expressed by many. Karen Decor was the owner of Malign Lodge, one of the oldest hotels in Jasper. Her employees managed to get all of the guests out in time. Karen later saw the outline of her hotel on the news completely engulfed in flames. She says her former community

is now unrecognizable. I can't even, I don't even know what streets those buildings are on. I mean, I've been going to Jasper since I was born and I can't even recognize the buildings. That's how it looks like a bomb, major bombs went off. It's horrifying. There are more than 170 wildfires currently active across Alberta, triggering evacuations and air quality alerts. And while the fires aren't unusual, experts say their ferocity is being exacerbated by climate change. Three hours drive south of Jasper is another of the jewels in Alberta's crown, the Banff National Park. Now residents there, like Abby Evans, are being told to be ready to evacuate too.

We have an evacuations plan in place. I know that Golden, the town near us, has got an evacuation plan too, just in case the fire spread to us as well. This time last week I was in Jasper. I went camping and I woke up to deer and elk outside my tent. And I learned yesterday that the campsite that I was staying at was completely burnt down. It's heartbreaking.

Back in Jasper, firefighters are working to save parts of the town. Around 400 firefighters from around the world are flying in to help, including 100 from Mexico, 200 from South Africa and 100 from Australia and New Zealand. Stephanie Prentice. The American space agency NASA has said it cannot give a date for when two astronauts stranded on the International Space Station, the ISS, might be able to return to Earth. The two went up nearly 50 days ago as part of a test of Boeing's Starliner capsule. But the spacecraft has been plagued by problems and engineers have delayed the return of the astronauts

until they can figure out what went wrong. But this hasn't stopped other astronauts getting ready for their own space mission, like Rosemary Coogan, who's with the European Space Agency and is hoping to go up to the station soon to study the human body in space. She spoke to Andrew Peach. They are always in fantastically good spirits. They're keeping extremely busy on the space station doing fantastic science and helping maintain the station. And I'm sure they'll be back in no time whatsoever and it doesn't put you off wanting to go no of course these things are challenging it's a very

exciting test flight and I'm very much looking forward to my own mission which should be six months for the ISS in the next few years tell me about the research you're hoping to do once you're there so there's a huge amount of research that goes on on board the space station. As you said, a lot of it centres around the human body. There's an awful lot about the human body that we learn in terms of the immune system, cancer research, the process of ageing. But there's also a lot of things like materials and fluid science. Fluids and foams and metal alloys behave very differently in space. So I'm hoping to get involved in as many different things as possible. I mean, it's one of those areas where rather than, you know, doing scientific research that's been done before,

or, you know, it's quite similar, quite nuanced from stuff that's been done before, you're starting with a much more blank canvas, aren't you? Yeah, yeah, it is very much a blank canvas. The beautiful thing about going to the space station is that you're taking gravity out of the equation. It's a complete unknown what will happen when you do that. Has this been a lifelong ambition for you? Absolutely, yeah.

I've always been completely fascinated by space and kind of space as an entity, but really reaching my 20s or so when I started to realise that not only is space itself fascinating, but actually what you can do in space is incredibly useful for humanity, for our pursuit of knowledge. I thought, wow, if you can put those two things together, then that's definitely what I want to do. Astronaut Rosemary Coogan. Cape Verdean singer Tito Parish recorded his first album when he was only a teenager. 50 years on as a songwriter and

performer he's become emblematic of the music of the West African islands. The BBC's Danielle Jouwiewska spoke to him recently at Festival Med in Portugal. I'm here with Tito Parish and we are backstage as you can probably hear. Cape Verde is famous for its pristine beaches, beautiful seas, but perhaps more for its musicians and its musical style, morna, a slow, almost melancholic style. So for those who don't know about morna, Tito, can you tell us what it means to you. Morna is like the American blues for Cape Verdeans. It's a sentimental music.

It's like Portuguese fado in a sense. So it speaks of nostalgia, of love, of separation and distance. And every Cape Verdean, when they sing a morna, they sing of this. So morna is love, it's the ocean, it's the mountains. Morna is a beautiful woman. It's like a smile. So can we talk about that? You come from a musical family in Cape Verde. Tell us about what the islands mean to you. How have they shaped your music?

Cape Verde has one of the oldest musics in the world, which is the sea crashing onto the rocks and onto the mountains. That's music. And all the husbands before getting married, they had to learn a serenade to be able to win over their girlfriends. So in the mornings, they all wanted to learn to play an instrument, to be able to sing that serenade. We have music in our blood. We're a musical people.

Even if a Cape Verdean doesn't play an instrument, they love to listen to music. When I was little, I saw so much music being played. And, you know, a Cape Verdean, even when they're just speaking, they're almost singing. Oh, beautiful. Cape Verdean, even when they're just speaking, they're almost singing. Beautiful. So then, what's it like to leave the islands? You've come here, you've lived in Lisbon now for 40-something years. How do you feel leaving Cape Verde? How do you feel going back? How does it influence your music being in Portugal?

Practically every day I'm listening to Cape Verdean music. Because when I lived there, I heard all these singers on vinyl. And I was utterly entranced. And I said to myself, one day that's going to be me recording a disc. And that dream was realised. But, you know, I have many, many singers who still inspire me, like Banna or Cesaria Evora. And I actually produced Cesaria's first disc. And it gives me great pride to have worked with them when I was younger. My energy comes from this. So that musical powerhouse of coming from Cape Verde, where you have such brilliant musicians and

your families are so linked with inherent musicality. Does that pass on then through the generations? Yes, as it happens, it's true. The great musicians all passed music down to their children. My father had a group. He was a sailor, and when he got back on holiday, he'd get together with that group and perform in the local area. But actually, it was my oldest sister who taught me to play. I was seven years old, and she taught me my first guitar chords. And from then on, she was always like,

no, not like that, let me show you. And I started to work in it that way. Eventually, she left the islands and it was my brother who became my bassist. And we formed a group just from members of my family. Tito Parish talking about his music to Daniel Jaujecka. And that's all from us for now. But there will be a new edition of the Global News Podcast later. If you want to comment on this podcast or topics covered, you can send us an email. The address is globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. This edition was produced by Harry Bly.

It was mixed by Chris Hansen. The editor is Karen Martin. I'm Janet Jalil. Until next time. Goodbye. and Martin. I'm Janet Jalil. Until next time, goodbye. Get current affairs podcasts like Global News, Americast and The Global Story, plus other great BBC podcasts from history to comedy to true crime, all ad-free. Simply subscribe to BBC Podcast Premium on Apple Podcasts or listen to Amazon Music with a Prime membership.

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