Fresh mass protests in France

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1:11Hello, this is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Ankur Desai and at 15GMT on Thursday the 5th of November, these are our main stories. There's been a heavy police presence across France in the latest day of demonstrations nationwide over the rising cost of living and state of public services. At least a dozen European passenger flights are disrupted by bomb threats, forcing many to make unplanned landings. And Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and three counts of sexual assault in the London courts. Also in this podcast, it's the end of a Portuguese era. To the Portuguese people, the day has come to return the number seven shirt to the national team which represents all of us. Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo says he's retiring

1:59from international football. First to France, where another wave of demonstrations is taking place across the country. Unions have organised protests over the rising cost of living and the state of public services. They say they're expecting 800,000 people to take the streets. In some cities, there have been clashes. Part of a school near Toulouse has been set on fire. And in Lyon. That's the sound of riot police firing tear gas towards protesters. Demonstrations began with students several weeks ago, but have since spread far beyond university campuses. This woman in Marseille explained why she's out protesting. This is the first time in 10 years that I've taken part in a protest. I had stopped going to demonstrations, but this is just too much. The truth is we can no longer provide for our

2:58children's needs. It's high time the government started to wake up and realise that the people are speaking and they need to be listened to. Some schools are closed and travel will be disrupted, with transport workers expected to join the protests. The demands for higher wages come as the government tries to pass a budget through a deeply divided parliament. The BBC's Mark Lowen and Hugh Schofield are in Paris. Yeah, we're here on Place de la République in Paris, which was the area that saw the worst of the violence back on October the 17th, when there was that widespread looting and shops were set on fire and all that violence with the police. This time, the French authorities are taking no chances. They're deploying 70,000 police officers across the country, as they have on

3:39previous Saturdays as well since then. And so far, the authorities are saying that about 270,000 people are on the streets outside Paris. Now, the organizers of the protests always tend to put that number higher. So we will see how the day develops. A lot of people here on the place and they've climbed up there onto the statue of Marianne, which was defaced in the middle of October. So they will set off from here to Place de la Nation in eastern Paris shortly. But the French authorities once again calling for calm and saying that they are trying to ensure that these scenes do not return to the kind of looting and violence that we saw last month. Let's bring in our Paris correspondent, Hugh Schofield. Hugh, when this all began as a

4:21student demonstration back in the middle of September, you were there reporting on that. Did you expect that it would grow into something so big now? Well, yes and no. I mean, no in the sense that obviously this is very different from the student protests back then, which were very much limited to the issues that concerned the students, the collapse of their buildings, the lack of teachers and so on. This is totally different. This is a trade union organised march for more money in workers' pockets at a time of inflation and so on. Yes, this is predictable, though, in the sense that all this is going on quite apart from the students. There is a budget going through Parliament, painfully going through Parliament,

5:02which the government can't possibly get through. In fact, a record the other day, it was unanimously rejected, the budget as it stands, by everyone, including the government's own supporters. So this is the backdrop, a budget which is struggling to get through Parliament and a vacuum of power in advance of an election. Macron is a lame duck. Parliament can't do anything. There are elections coming up, a vacuum into which, having sucked all the sort of forces that there are in France, among them the left. And the left is flexing its muscles ahead of those elections. And among them the students, whom these unions support largely. But the government has offered some concession so far to try to quell those student protests.

5:45Where does it go from here, do you think? Well, I mean, I think what you're seeing today is how this is metamorphosing into something much bigger, where our attention is shifting away from the students. They have been given concessions. I'm sure they will all tell you that it's not enough, but there have been government measures, you know, the end of this admission system, more money promised, you know, down the line. And given the rhythm of these movements, I think it's not unreasonable to expect that the lise student things begin to die down. People will be worried about exams, about losing studies. That is going to be kicking in. But meanwhile, they will be able to say, well, we did our bit,

6:26handed it over to the university students, handed it over to the Poste Sociale of France, which is what's happening today. So I think that's what's happening, and we can expect this to continue on and off, right up to the election and beyond. Mark Lowen and Hugh Schofield in Paris. Flights across Europe have been impacted by bomb threats for the second time this week. As we record this podcast, at least 12 planes have reportedly been affected. One flight from London to Sofia made an emergency landing in Plovdiv. Police in Prague say they received threats about bombs on four flights, but that after a sweep of the craft, no explosives were found. On Tuesday, at least seven flights were hit by similar threats.

7:09So far, we understand that they were all hoaxes. Our security correspondent, Frank Gardner, has been explaining the context of all this to my colleague, James Menendez. There are almost daily hoaxes in this industry, but these ones were taken far more seriously, partly because clearly they're coordinated. The fact that we've now had 18, at least 18, possibly more than 20 of these this week. And it comes, of course, at the same time as other suspicious activities like the remote raising of temperatures on freezers in European supermarkets and provocative acts on the Polish border, which inevitably points people towards Russia. But there is no evidence at the moment linking this to any state. And so far, the people I've spoken to say that these instances

7:58have all been, quote, resolved. But that doesn't remove the fact that somebody, if they know the right words to say, the right form of words to put in a warning in an anonymous email to an airport authority, it can get an entire flight diverted and a full-scale security alert triggered. Which is a huge problem for aviation companies and just generally for Europe, isn't it? I mean, regardless of whether they're all resolved satisfactorily. Yeah, it is. And of course, there are some people already drawing the conclusions that, look, Russia's airline industry or its airports in the west of the country, which is where much of the population is concentrated, of course, in St. Petersburg and Moscow,

8:50it's heavily disrupted by Ukrainian drone strikes. Who's helping Ukraine? Western countries, NATO countries in Europe. And all of these disruptions have been in Western European NATO countries. Now, it would be, I think, irresponsible to draw an automatic conclusion that that means Russia is behind it. But some people are postulating the theory that because Russia's airline industry is being severely disrupted by Ukraine's drones and Ukraine is being helped by the West, ergo Russia is using a proxy group to try and cause a bit of pain and a bit of cost to Europe. But as I say, there's no proof of this. Frank Gardner speaking to James Menendez. Russell Brand has been found guilty of rape and sexual assault in a London court. He was found

9:41guilty of raping a young fan after one of his shows in 2009, in addition to three counts of sexual assault. He was cleared by the jury of two other counts of rape and one count of attempted indecent assault. UK correspondent Adina Campbell spoke to us from outside Southwark Crown Court shortly after the verdict. We now know that Russell Brand, 51-year-old Russell Brand, the actor, comedian, broadcaster, has been found guilty of rape and sexual assault. We are expecting a lot more details. What we do know at the moment is that Russell Brand has been taken down into custody. He will be sentenced on Monday. His wife, Laura, was inside the courtroom as those verdicts were delivered. She has been

10:26with him most days while this court trial has been underway over the last four weeks. We have had a statement from the Metropolitan Police who has paid tribute to those women who came forward. We heard a lot of their evidence over the last four weeks. A lot of it very distressing, very harrowing, quite frankly, explicit to listen to at times. They gave their evidence behind a screen. They also gave video-recorded interviews to detectives. But, as I say, the prosecution early on when opening the case described Russell Brand as a sexual predator, as a womaniser, whose personality changed, who was ruthless and calculating, and used women as a disposable commodity. Those were some of the phrases, the terminology used to describe Russell Brand.

11:18Well, for more on the case, Seema Kitecha has this report. Russell Brand, comedian, podcaster, actor, media personality and now convicted rapist. After a trial lasting four weeks, the 51-year-old was found guilty by a jury of eight men and four women. Russell Brand! Controversy has never been far from him. Yeah, I take an awful lot of precautions. What I do is I make absolutely sure that it is a woman, then go for it. Brand has talked about his promiscuity, addiction to porn and drug use. The situation... In recent weeks, he'd been posting on social media about his experience in court with his wife, Laura. We'll be extremely cautious in any way that we refer to the events in the trial so that truth and justice are served for everyone involved

12:10and everyone involved deserves it. That's led critics to accuse him of disregarding the impact on the victim. There could be justice. On Piers Morgan's show in April, he said he'd face the consequences, no matter what they were. I am not afraid of the truth. show in April, he said he'd face the consequences, no matter what they were. I am not afraid of the truth. And if the truth is, I am going to prison, my job will be, do not be afraid of that truth. Seema Kotecha reporting. Still to come in this podcast. Nobody told me that if I wanted to date women in 2026, I would need to have a strong opinion on whether pineapple goes on pizza or not. One of the internet's long-standing debates finds its way to Australia's Fair Work Commission. What if you could get more from what you already do?

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16:38and rising unemployment. On the campaign trail in Hawke's Bay, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the race is going to be tight and close. Due to the issues at home, a rising number of Kiwis have been moving abroad to neighbouring Australia in search of better prospects. Katie Watson spoke to some of them and has this report from Sydney. How many Texas? No new Texas! How many Texas? No new taxes! How many taxes? No new taxes! Out on the campaign trail with Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, New Zealand's current centre-right leader, hoping for another term. Three years ago, we inherited inflation at 7.3%, soaring debt, rising crime and an education system in decline. And now, three years later, our economy is growing faster than Australia and the

17:25UK. Christopher Luxen, though, is having to fight hard to convince many Kiwis that his national party should have another go at forming a government. Undoubtedly, there is an ongoing cost of living crisis here in New Zealand. I think that's similar to other parts of the liberal world. Dr Luke Oldfield is a political scientist at Victoria University in Wellington. A big problem for this government has been that it campaigned on cost of living at the last election, blaming the previous government for pandemic-era inflation and the like, which makes things kind of tricky now as it's attempted to shift blame to things like the war in the Middle East for the current state of affairs. You watch the leaders debate. I'm very impressed.

18:06It's undoubtedly been a tough few years and many Kiwis are feeling pretty down. Maine opposition leader and former Prime Minister Chris Hipkins is hoping to form a Labour-led government that he says will ease cost of living pressures and improve unemployment. As your Prime Minister, I'll fight every day to get your costs down. Free doctor's visits, a $20 a week public transport fare cap, a three-year freeze on fuel taxes. I'll take on the supermarket giants to bring your grocery prices down and I'll create more opportunities for people to get ahead and build their future here in New Zealand. We are here because people are really sick and tired of this way in New Zealand. We are here because people are

18:45really sick and tired of this way of doing things. It doesn't have transparency at its heart where we end up with coalition agreements that nobody campaigns on. That's Kiu-Lei Wong, the leader of the Opportunity Party. It's a small party but one that could emerge as a bit of a power broker in these elections. There's no clear front runner this year, and New Zealand has what's known as a mixed member proportional system, where coalition deals are often needed to form governments. Dr Luke Oldfield again. One thing we can be confident of is that there will be another coalition required. Both major parties are polling around or just short of 30%. Neither major party leader is especially popular. So it's highly likely that

19:27the next coalition is going to be made up of at least two, but probably three or even four parties. The sluggish economy in New Zealand has played to Australia's advantage in recent years, with a rise in the number of Kiwis moving across the Tasman Sea. Last year, nearly 50,000 New Zealanders moved to Australia, the highest number in more than a decade. The most high-profile move, of course, was former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who now lives in Sydney. With so many New Zealanders living here in Australia, I thought I'd find them at a rugby match where the Wallabies and the All Blacks are playing. In New Zealand it's a very small country, there's not a lot of opportunities, that's why I came here originally.

20:12I'm a physio and I think compared to New Zealand, I mean New Zealand healthcare has improved a lot over the last few years but I think it's just not quite where Australia is right now. Cost of living is really high over there at the moment. I know a lot of people, that's pretty much what they've said, why a lot of our family has moved over too in recent years. There's a lot more jobs here as well. You know, Australia's big, so you don't necessarily have to be here in Sydney or New South Wales. There's lots of places to go. Who's better at rugby? New Zealand! There won't be a final result on the night, and the key thing to watch will be how those smaller parties fare. They could tip the balance of power.

20:53The Electoral Commission is due to declare the winner on 27th November, but it could be even longer than that until Kiwis know for sure who's running the country for the next three years. Katie Watson, reporting from Sydney. Now to the only living footballer with an airport named after him. Ronaldo to hit it. Oh, brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. Rafael Pereira with the cross. Ronaldo! His tenth goal of the European Championship. Cristiano. Cristiano. His tenth goal in the European Championship. Cristiano, one goal, two goals, Cristiano! Goal! Few leave a legacy quite like Cristiano Ronaldo, who's announced he's retiring from international football. Announcing the news on Instagram, the 41-year-old said,

21:40Portugal will always be in me. So, why now? Could the timing have anything to do with him recently falling out with the coach of the Portuguese national team? I put it to our sports reporter, Jane Dougal. Yes, that's right. He did say, though, that the World Cup in the summer would be his last major tournament for Portugal. Of course, at the age of 41, he was being realistic. But then Cristiano Ronaldo walked out of the national camp in September after he fell out with head coach Georges Jesus. That's because he was started against Wales. He was then benched against Norway. And then on the eve of their third match against Denmark, Ronaldo walked out claiming that Jesus had told him that he would play 30 minutes against Norway, only to go back on his word. He was given a 30-day

22:26ban and a £215 fine. So some might say not the best end to such a glittering career, and critics have described it as not being terribly dignified as an exit. However, the Portuguese public probably wouldn't say that. As you can imagine, he's adored by the Portuguese fans. He's helped deliver silverware in a major tournament that they never experienced previously. He was instrumental in helping them win the 2016 Euros. He announced his retirement from international football in a five minute video and he addressed the Portuguese people directly saying that the day had come for him to hand back the number seven shirt of our national team. He said it wasn't an easy decision because some decisions are not made with the mind alone.

23:07They are also made with the heart. And Jane, how will he be remembered in that goat debate of the greatest of all time? Because his numbers are mind-boggling when it comes to the goals he's scored. He's won a Euros, he's won a Nations League, but what the others achieved, I'm talking about the likes of Pelé, Messi, Maradona, Zidane, they managed to finish their careers with the World Cup. He won't be able to do that. Well, I don't think anyone, including Cristiano Ronaldo, would have expected Portugal to win the World Cup. It's not realistic, certainly within his time of playing for his country from 2003 to 2026. But yes, Ronaldo's statistics are incredible. He scored 146 goals and 234 caps

23:48for his country. And both of those are world records. The main thing driving him now, though, is that he's hoping to reach an unprecedented 1000 career goals. So that includes club and country. He's currently on 985, which is unbelievable. The next closest is Lionel Messi, who's on 931. That is realistic because he's still playing club football. He's still with Al Nasser in Saudi Arabia. The Portuguese Football Federation have said that they refuse to let this farewell take place without due tribute, so they will be organising something so that fans and the country can applaud and celebrate Cristiano Ronaldo. To hear more about Cristiano Ronaldo's journey from childhood poverty to football's first billionaire,

24:33search for Good Bad Billionaire or wherever you get your BBC podcasts from. Now, does pineapple belong on pizza? It's long been a debate that seems to fire up different corners of the internet, often listed as a deal breaker on dating apps. Nobody told me that if I wanted to date women in 2026, I would need to have a strong opinion on whether pineapple goes on pizza or not. Now, an Italian chef who repeatedly refused to add the fruit to an order while he was at work, calling it an insult to his culture, has lost his case for unfair dismissal. Stefani Prentice has been looking into this. We need to work always with passion. In the lunch, in the dinner, yes. Breakfast? Breakfast sometimes. For many Italians, pizza is about much more than a tasty flatbread

25:26with sauce and cheese and a selection of toppings. And this year, the United Nations cultural body UNESCO gave Italy's entire cooking tradition special status. At the time, the BBC spoke to people in Naples where pizza is an important part of the city's identity and heritage and asked locals what they thought of pineapple on pizza. No. Not good. And he said pineapple on pizza is a crime. One Italian living in Australia, David Tamburella, seemed to share these sentiments, flat out refusing to add pineapple to a pizza on multiple occasions at work and eventually losing his job as head chef at La Costa Pizzeria. According to his former boss, when challenged, he asked him to check and do some research on how important the matter was.

26:19The state of Queensland where the restaurant is located is considered Australia's pineapple heartland. But in the past, its Premier, David Crisofulli, who has Italian heritage, expressed his view. People ask me, what's the perfect location to put the pineapple on the pizza? Pineapple does not belong on pizza, ever. David Tamburella challenged the decision to fire him with Australia's Fair Work Commission. So was the polarising debate about to get an official verdict? Sort of. He lost the case, but apparently also didn't file it in time and additional misconduct allegations came to light. Pineapple does not belong on a pizza. So for now, people around the world can continue to fight. Oh my God, we really won't get on you and me.

27:10You don't like pineapple on pizza? Why? It's an abomination. Do you think if I ask for pineapple on the pizza that they'd give it to me? I don't know, but if you do something so, I can continue to live here. And as for David, he recently posted a letter online about respecting ingredients and seems to have found another job at a pizzeria in Brisbane, where BBC research suggests that pineapple is not on the menu. Stephanie Prentice reporting. Utterly ridiculous. That's how the actor Keira Knightley describes Black Doves, her hit Netflix series in which she plays a spy who just happens to be married to the British Prime Minister. Series two is now out. Keira's Helen Webb teams up with an assassin, played by

27:57Ben Whishaw, who you may know from playing Q in the Bond films, or maybe the voice of Paddington Bear. They both sat down with our entertainment correspondent Colin Paterson to talk about the next round of mayhem and Keira Knightley's newfound joy in learning how to kick down a door. Stay good at lying, that's my advice, for both our sakes. Keira Knightley, Ben Whishaw, there is a lot of spying about at the moment. What is different about Black Doves? It's utterly ridiculous and yet it has a depth to it, a lot of humour and a lot of fun but also a seriousness. I like the fact you're saying it's ridiculous. Well, you know, you got blown out of the window twice in the first season. It's not strictly realistic. Yes.

28:45It's a little absurd. But in a fun way. Yeah, it's meant to be a romp. You kind of care about the characters still somehow. Yeah. How much do you like your characters playing a spy and an assassin? I like my character a lot. I really like my character. But I like people, at least in drama, who aren't very good. I did a job last week. He was a black dove. Well, that really is a pickle. Ben, your grandfather was actually a spy. Yeah, I can't really tell you much more because we don't know very much. He kept it a secret, as you have to, but when he died we found out that he had been a spy working for the British but in Germany. I think you know the reason why. Two black dove agents have been killed in the last month.

29:36A lot of stunts in this. I have seen you kicking a door down. Which I did love. I didn't realise how much it was missing in my life, the ability to kick in a door, until I did it. And I was like, oh. I'm thinking the door, is it low, follow through? No, well, it was shut and I did actually eventually, by the end of the day, get it off its hinges for real. It looked fantastic. But there was an explosive bit of balsa wood that they put on it, which just gave it a really satisfying, like... I think it was you're underselling yourself. Do you think? I'm actually pretty good. I think it was really you. Yeah, I did go up to you, I remember, and I was just so gleeful about having kicked in this job.

30:15You were giddy, yeah. You have, of course, been in the last three James Bond films. What would you like to see them do this time? I don't know. I don't know. No, I think that's a fair answer. I'm like, surprise me. Do you know what I'd like to see them do? What? What was the Sean Connery one where he's so serious, but he's in this amazing velour, like it's a tiny little velour. You want velour? I basically want the tiny little velour swimsuit back. We want short, short velour. Short, short velour, littleour swimsuit back. We want short shorts, velour, serious expression. Very serious. And not wearing much else. But that would be exciting. So I'm offering it up to the next James Bond. Put him in velour, tiny shorts and baby blue.

30:57Whoever he is, he will look great. That's what we want. Yeah. Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw. And that's all from us for now. If you want to get in touch, you can email us at globalpodcast at bbc.co.uk. You can also now watch our episodes in full. Just search for the Global News Podcast on YouTube. This edition was mixed by Abby Wiltshire, and the producers were Stephanie Prentice and Ruby Gleason. The editor is Karen Martin, and I'm Ankur Desai. Until next time, goodbye. At Vrbo, we understand that even the best of plans sometimes need a little support. So we plan for the plot twists. Every booking is automatically backed by our Vrbo Care Guarantee, giving you confidence from the very start.

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