| Euro 2016 |
|---|
| Host: France Dates: 10 June to 10 July |
| Coverage: Live commentary on BBC TV, BBC Radio, the BBC Sport website and app. Live text commentary on every game on BBC Sport website. |
Showing posts with label world. Show all posts
Showing posts with label world. Show all posts
Euro 2016: France kick off tournament amid security, strike and weather fears
Euro 2016 kicks off on Friday when hosts France face Group A opponents Romania at the Stade de France amid an unprecedented security operation.
France remains under a state of emergency after last November's attacks on Paris, when 130 people were killed.
More than 90,000 police, soldiers and private guards will be deployed at the tournament, with seven million fans expected to visit the 10 host venues.
The US and British governments have both warned fans they could be at risk.
But organisers Uefa and French authorities insist they have done everything possible to keep the 2.5 million spectators expected at the 51 matches safe.
- Beleaguered France needs a successful Euros
- Euro 2016: All you need to know
- Predict the result of every match
- Fear, faith and football - can the beautiful game unite France?
- Groups and tournament schedule
Paris alone will have a security force of at least 13,000 to patrol two zones and two stadiums, with the country's state of emergency allowing police extra powers to conduct searches and put people under house arrest.
France coach Didier Deschamps, whose side were playing Germany in an international friendly when the Stade de France was targeted by suicide bombers, says November's attacks evoked "very strong emotions".
"We lived through some tragic moments," he said. "So it will remain with us, even if with time we can think about it a little less.
"Today to have zero risk doesn't exist, sadly, but we have to go forward and these Euros have to be a festival of football and the festival has to be as beautiful as possible."
Richard Walton, the Metropolitan Police's former head of counter-terrorism, said the threat to Euro 2016 is "more acute than for any other international sporting event in history".
With a reported 500,000 British fans among the seven million supporters in France, the British Foreign Office has warned that stadiums, fan zones and transport hubs are possible targets for attack.
Two English football fans were arrested after police used tear gas to disperse a brawl outside a pub in Marseille shortly before midnight on Thursday.
Police said one of the fans was arrested for assaulting a barman and the other for violent disorder, with one England supporter suffering a head injury after being hit across the face with a wooden chair.
England manager Roy Hodgson said: "My message to the fans is simple. We really appreciate your support. It has been fantastic during my time. We hope they will come and support us as they always do, enjoy the tournament, enjoy watching us and avoid any troubles that might be lurking around the corner."
England goalkeeper Joe Hart says players will adhere to the advice of security officials at the 24-team championship.
"We're a team of footballers, but we're a group," he said. "We work together with the security and press officers. Everyone's got their various jobs and I'm very confident on everyone completing them."
France's junior minister for sports, Thierry Braillard, said official fan zones are the only outdoor public spaces where screens will be installed, with bar and restaurant owners told not to host large outdoor TV broadcasts.
He added: "We can't accept unorganised gatherings because police forces don't have the means to secure them."
Paris is one of 10 host venues, with games also taking place in Bordeaux, Lens, Lille, Lyon, Marseille, Nice, Saint-Denis, Saint-Etienne and Toulouse.
Jean-Christophe Bouvier, defence secretary for the Lille region, says 200 security staff will be inside the city's fan zone, with 3,400 police and military forces working each day and hundreds extra on call if needed.
President of the Lille region, Damien Castelain, said: "It's a very secure place in the fan zone.
"It's easier to secure one place like this one than have people going to several places where it would have been impossible to make people safe."
Mat Bastard, Lille's Euro 2016 ambassador, added: "If France win, it'll be so, so good, but my first victory is everything is well and everyone has fun."
| The Euro 2016 draw | ||
|---|---|---|
| Group A | Group B | Group C |
| France | England | Germany |
| Romania | Russia | Ukraine |
| Albania | Wales | Poland |
| Switzerland | Slovakia | Northern Ireland |
| Group D | Group E | Group F |
| Spain | Belgium | Portugal |
| Czech Republic | Italy | Iceland |
| Turkey | Republic of Ireland | Austria |
| Croatia | Sweden | Hungary |
Alongside the terror threat, French authorities have also been forced to deal with extreme weather conditions and protests over labour law reforms.
Strikes in Paris could cause problems for supporters heading to the 80,000-capacity national stadium on Friday.
The national SNCF rail company said that one of the two main overland train lines linking the Stade de France in the capital's northern suburbs to the city centre had two-thirds of its services wiped out because of strikes on Thursday, while six out of 10 were not running on the other.
The company is working on a fallback plan, while an underground Metro line to the stadium will have extra trains running.
President Francois Hollande said he would take "all necessary measures" to make sure transport strikes, due to roll into a 10th day on Friday, would not disrupt the tournament.
"Rest assured that public services will be provided and that the state will assume its full responsibilities," he said.
Strikes are planned from Saturday on the national air carrier, Air France, while piles of rubbish have also gone uncollected.
France captain Hugo Lloris said: "I hope it won't spoil the party because we have to show a great image of our country."
France's opener against Romania should avoid the bad weather that saw the River Seine burst its banks and rise to its highest level in more than 30 years.
England and Wales begin their campaigns further south on Saturday are also expected to avoid the worst of the thunderstorms.
Uefa says all 24 teams are in France, with Portugal - travelling in a plane bearing the name of legendary striker Eusebio - the last to arrive on Thursday.
Spain are hoping for a third successive title, but Germany are world champions and France were winners when they hosted the tournament in 1984.
Current national coach Deschamps captained Les Bleus to World Cup glory on home soil in 1998.
England are eyeing a first success at the ninth attempt, while Wales, Northern Ireland, Albania, Iceland and Slovakia all make their championship debut.
Muhammad Ali funeral: Thousands line route for farewell
Thousands are attending a farewell procession for boxing legend Muhammad Ali in his home city of Louisville, in the US state of Kentucky.
Onlookers lining the roadside waved, took photos and chanted "Ali, Ali" as a cortege led by the hearse carrying his coffin drove through the downtown area.
The heavyweight champion and rights activist died last Friday aged 74.
The cortege is taking Ali's body past key sites in his life, ahead of an interfaith memorial service.
Actor Will Smith and ex-boxer Lennox Lewis will be among the pallbearers, while former President Bill Clinton will deliver one of the eulogies.
Thousands of free tickets for the memorial service, taking place at a major sports centre, were snapped up within half an hour.
REUTERS
REUTERS
AP
AP
The motorcade procession began at about 10:35 local time (14:35 GMT), more than an hour behind schedule, and took the coffin past his childhood home, the Ali Center, the Center for African American Heritage and then down Muhammad Ali Boulevard.
Fans threw flowers at the hearse and rose petals were scattered along the route.
In one neighbourhood, several young men ran alongside the vehicle carrying a placard which read: "Ali is the greatest, thanks 4 all the memories."
The procession will end at the Cave Hill Cemetery where Ali will be laid to rest in a private ceremony.
The funeral service at the KFC Yum! Centre is due to begin at 14:00 local time.
Muhammad Ali: 1942-2016
AP
Comedian Billy Crystal will also deliver a eulogy, while sports journalist Bryant Gumbel, the daughter of civil rights activist Malcolm X, Attallah Shabazz, and Ali's wife, Lonnie, and daughters, Maryum and Rasheda, are also expected to speak.
Among those expected to attend the service is King Abdullah of Jordan.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended Thursday's prayer ceremony and had been due at the service, but reports say he has cut short his visit to the US.
The reasons for his departure are not clear, though there are reports of differences with the funeral's organisers.
President Barack Obama will not be there, as he is to attend his eldest daughter Malia's graduation.
But in a video message, he said: "This week we lost an icon. A person who for African Americans, I think, liberated their minds in recognising that they could be proud of who they were."
Muhammad Ali
Born Cassius Marcellus Clay, 17 January 1942
61 fights
over a professional career lasting 21 years
56 wins
including 37 knockouts
- 3 times crowned World Heavyweight Champion
- 1 Light-heavyweight Olympic gold medal
- 31 straight wins before being beaten by Joe Frazier
Getty
White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett - who knew Ali - will represent the president.
Lennox Lewis, a former world heavyweight boxing champion himself, said it was an honour to be a pallbearer and that Ali's memory would never fade.
"The term 'float like a butterfly, sting like a bee' will always be remembered. He is an icon and a legend of boxing," he said.
The other pallbearers are family and friends, along with Will Smith, who portrayed Ali in the 2001 film about the boxer's life.
Udta Punjab, Nihalani, Nehru and the case for less censorship in a democracy
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What has escaped attention during the boiling outrage over Udta Punjab is the bizarre state of film censorship in India.
To take recent examples, Quentin Tarantino's mystery thriller The Hateful Eight (2015) which featured Samuel L Jackson and Kurt Russell, was randomly hacked by Pahlaj Nihalani-led CBFC ostensibly because of its "gory scenes and violence against women."
Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt at a publicity appearance for the film 'Udta Punjab'. Image by Sachin Gokhale/Firstpost
Curiously, while some cuss words like "bitch" and "whore" were beeped out, the character Daisy (played by Jennifer Jason Leigh) getting punched in the face a dozen times was allowed to pass. Perhaps those weren't violent enough. 'Penis' made it through but allusions like 'pecker' and 'johnson' didn't. Details of the censor certificate are here.
If that isn't bizarre enough, consider that in the same day thatThe Hateful Eight was released, Oscar contender The Danish Girl came out with zero cuts or blurs even though it depicted a minute-long scene with full frontal nudity.
Tom Hooper's 2015 British-American romantic drama got Alicia Vikander an Oscar for 'best performance by an actress in a supporting role' and it featured copious scenes of nudity, transsexuality and kissing which were allowed to pass with just an 'A' certificate. Why? Apparently because Nihalani thought the filmmakers "didn't go overboard with nudity."
Remember, he is the same man who clipped James Bond's kiss by "20 seconds" in Spectre because, to quote him, it was akin to "doing sex in your house with door open. And show to people the way you are doing sex."
But it will be unfair to pick on Nihalani even though the CBFC chairman has shown a repeated penchant for making himself a butt of ridicule.
The issue, as multiple national award-winning filmmaker Shyam Benegal had pointed out in an interview to Firstpost: "the tragedy of censorship in our country is that often, personal biases and prejudices come in the way of evaluating films for the Indian audience… The gulf between the urban and non-urban, the metropolitan and non-metropolitan audience…the guidelines of the censor board are too rigid to be applied to this diverse audience."
Benegal, who heads the government-appointed revamp panel of CBFC, watched Abhishek Chaubey-directed Udta Punjab on Wednesday and found it to be a “laudable effort”.
“It’s a well-made film. It brings to attention a very serious problem, that of drug use among young people, which can, if we are not careful, become a rampant problem. It’s a laudable effort... But people are misreading the film,” he said. “They are under the impression that it is anti-Punjab. I don’t think the film is anti-Punjab at all,” he was quoted, as saying by news agency IANS.
This raises a bigger debate over the need, at all, for having censorship in films and Union Information and Broadcasting minister seemed to be hinting at a more liberalised norm and radical changes soon.
Speaking at the CNN News18 Indian of the Year Award show on Thursday, Arun Jaitley said: "You will probably have a system where you will have to have a certificate. The correct word is certification and not censorship. Certification norms will have to be liberal.
The Benegal committee, he said, has suggested some changes. "There is a well documented report by Shyam Benegal, the first part of which has come to me which is under consideration. Over the next few days, we are going to announce some very radical changes in that," he said.
The idea of censorship in film, books or works or art stems from an inherent hypocrisy in a democracy based on a Constitution that promises liberty of thought and expression.
The problem, of course, started with India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, whose government in its first 14 years amended the Constitution 17 times. The First Amendment — carried out within 18 months — added restrictions on freedom of expression, guaranteed under Article 19(1)(a), to suppress extremist publications for public order.
A Time magazine report of 28 May 1951, reproduced by R Vaidyanathan in Firstpost here, said “Part of the Indian press, said (Nehru), is dirty, indulges in ‘vulgarity, indecency and falsehood.’ To teach it manners, Nehru proposed an amendment to India’s constitution that would impose severe restrictions on freedom of speech and expression."
Once that Rubicon was crossed, there was no stopping anyone from misusing the law or to use censorship as a political tool as it has been in Udta Punjab's case.
If it is spurious, the government can and should ban a packet of mustard oil, else consuming it may make us sick. But a movie isn't a packet of oil or a bar of soap. It is an idea. And it is decidedly stupid to ban ideas because they cannot be banned in the first place.
It is preposterous to think — as the CBFC has done repeatedly in the past — that by muting or beeping out expletives anyone can be prevented from being exposed to it. Apart from the fact that there is no empirical data to show a correlation between a violent movie and a murder or a sexually explicit movie and a rape, the fact is that Internet has made it absolutely impossible for any idea to be censored.
But there is a larger debate still. Why should we let anyone, including the government, decide what is good or bad for us? This is a personal choice, a guaranteed right (albeit qualified). Why should we let any agency usurp that right?
Apart from the fact that artistic freedom and creative expression are as precious as audience's right to make informed choices, censorship in a democracy impacts the very basis of a free society — the principle that each and every individual has the right to decide what art or entertainment he or she wants — or does not want — to receive or create.
When a government censors a movie or bans a book or work of art, it sends out a message that if the contents were to be exposed to public, that would either be morally corrupting or result in some grave physical damage. This is an exceedingly problematic position.
There is zero evidence to show that a movie or a work of art induces someone to carry out a murder, rape or other crimes. On morality, if we suppress material based on the actions of unstable people, no films, work of fiction, or art would be safe from censorship. Psychopaths, for instance, justify their acts of violence while citing the Bible.
Studies on the relationship between violence in media (used in its wider sense) and in real life have proved inconclusive. In fact, there is no statistical correlation between the two phenomena. Many human behaviouralists believe, for instance, that violence and sexually explicit art and entertainment have a useful and constructive societal role, serving as a vicarious outlet for individual aggression.
Also, where does one draw the line the sand? What one may find offensive may not be so to me. What gives one the right, then, to prevent me from consuming it? However, while I may not be stopped, one may very well choose not to consume it. So an absence of censorship actually makes for a freer society where we are guided by choice, not compulsion.
