this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2024
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Fires on French railway tracks have delayed journeys for 800,000 travelers in what the transport minister described as “coordinated attacks of malicious intent.”

A co-ordinated arson attack on the French rail system is turning the first weekend of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris into a nightmare for hundreds of thousands of travelers. 

French rail company SNCF announced on Friday its high-speed train system had been hit by "deliberate arson attacks to damage [its] facilities" causing delays and cancellations which are expected to last all weekend.

The disruptions are affecting trains heading East, North and West of Paris, and travelers have been asked to postpone their plans.

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[–] greenshirtdenimjeans 63 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Maybe after this all the various Russian teams will finally be banned completely. Country is full of cheaters anyway.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_in_Russia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Individual_Neutral_Athletes_at_the_2024_Summer_Olympics

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Icarus is a great documentary about doping in general, but especially russia.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

Absolutely must watch TV!

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (3 children)

There's absolutely zero proof Russia is involved in this for now

[–] greenshirtdenimjeans 10 points 1 month ago

Correct but they are also the ones that have already gotten caught trying to recruit people to do this exact thing.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

If you have all the motive and a track record for doing shit exactly like this, of course you'll be the prime suspect.

Turns out Russia was responsible for amplifying the bed bug scare of Paris these past months, too.

[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 month ago

In another story, Belgium making arrests for terrorism related to France: https://apnews.com/article/terrorism-belgium-suspects-olympics-966191331732ea4d1e663a65d96a9e49

I wonder if these are related.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago (2 children)

I know this is terrible of me, but... I was originally not planning on watching the opening ceremonies. Now I'm going to scare-watch them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The timing snuck up on me and I haven't figured out how to get viewing access to them (whether broadcast, subscription, or 🏴‍☠️). Any suggestions?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

For the last Olympics, I connected my VPN to Canada because it was on the CBC for free. Hooray for public-funded media! And if I could send some money to the CBC's way and not have to do that, I would. Same with the UK TV license.

That said, none of my UK VPN addresses are working for UK TV anymore. I'm hoping the Canadian ones still work.

Edit: Seems to be working but it's not live streaming for another 1:45. Here's the link for the CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.6443205

I use Private Internet Access as my VPN if that helps.

[–] can 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

See? This is why it pisses me off so much when they talk about defunding CBC.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Conservatives talk about defunding the BBC in the UK too. I wish they'd just allow people from other countries to give them money instead.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Defunding public media is not about the money the government spends on it. It’s about eliminating journalism that is not accountable to corporate power and money. The control the wealthy already exert over publicly funded media is never enough, people with the kind of money where control of the media is a possibility want to be able to fire a reporter who pisses them off personally.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's crazy how it really is always projection, isn't it? Their primary argument against public media is invoking the boogeyman of government censorship and/or propaganda (but that doesn't really happen unless all the country's media is controlled by the government and that's not what's happening with PBS/BBC/etc.), when it's really that they're butthurt that their own censorship and propaganda is being resisted.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

PBS and NPR are not owned by the government, they are independent and the majority of their income comes from outside the federal government, only a minority comes from there.

Those who are owned by the government are USAGM, which owns several media outlets, but their target audiences are foreign.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 month ago

lol the right wing is talking about defunding YLE in Finland all the time, coincidence?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

RTS and SRF also free with swiss VPN

Or TF1 with french VPN

Or ORF with austrian vpn

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Thanks! For my case, I'm assuming none of them are in English and I'm a dumb 'murcan who barely made it through French in high school, so I'm going to have to stick with Canada. But hopefully that will help others.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

As a 'murcan who took Latin in high school (because SAT scores were a higher-priority goal than actually becoming bilingual, LOL) and is now learning French of my own volition, I think maybe the Olympics would be a relatively good candidate for watching in French. At least with the simpler/less-subjective sports (e.g. track and field, as opposed to e.g. gymnastics), it could be possible to follow along just with the infographics on the screen even if you struggle to understand the commentary.

(Also, thanks for the advice. I've got a PIA subscription that I really don't use enough, so this is a good push to finally figure out how to set it up properly.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I like to watch national TV from other countries its fun way to get to know the language and culture

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 month ago

I used to do that when I was younger, but these days it's usually for something like the Olympics where I want to understand what's going on.

I do get a huge dose of Canadian pride though, so that's fun.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Showing colour is nothing to be accused of. It should imply the start of a discussion.

What do you expect on the opening ceremonies?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 month ago (3 children)

How does this help their cause?

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

To weaken France's image, to sow chaos, to get security forces focused on other things while they try to get specific targets.

There have been reports about both Russia and Iran being potentially involved.
So far I've seen an article about a Russian getting arrested 2 days ago.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

French newspapers don't mention any of those for now, the only mention is that the methodology is similar to previous far-left activism (source: https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/live/2024/07/26/en-direct-attaque-massive-contre-la-sncf-reprise-progressive-du-trafic-un-tiers-des-trains-circuleront-vendredi-apres-midi_6258634_3224.html), which could be a disguise of course. As to why the far-left would do that, there are radical-ecologists that argue it is an unacceptable waste simply for entertainment, considering the climate crisis, for example. It could also be both, local activists helped by foreign influence, willingly or not.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

This is two days ago and not related to today's railway sabotage, for now.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

there are radical-ecologists that

...are way too small in number and connections and frankly energy to pull off a covert stunt like that. This isn't like getting a bunch of people to live in treetops to make it complicated for the forest to give way to a chemical plant.

Sure there's folks with ideas like that but as all other urban guerillas it's doomed to fail. Embarrassingly so. The type of people willing to do these kinds of things aren't the kind of people who'd agree with anyone on anything much less trust another affinity group to not be moles. The higher the stakes you insist on the more isolated you are the less you can coordinate.

If this was a chain of attacks over a longer time-span, sure, then one group could have inspired another, but everything coordinated? Forget it.

[–] Kecessa 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

What cause? We don't know who is responsible

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 month ago (3 children)
[–] gravitas_deficiency -2 points 1 month ago

Lmao you absolute muppet. This is just Paris doing Paris things. The Olympics generally bring a lot of annoying and negative side effects to a city and region, in addition to (and often, because of) the increased tourism. Parisians and the French in general are famously unapologetic about engaging in direct action when they think their government is being a bunch of dumbasses, or they wish to express staunch displeasure with a policy or event that they strongly disagree with. This is just that.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 month ago (2 children)

If you think a bunch of trains running late for a day causes terror, you don't know the French rail system.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago

I would be very happy if the trains in Germany were only running late for one day 😂

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

You mean one of the best railway in Europe ?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I don't know the other countries. I don't mean it happens everywhere every day, but a big storm can throw a few trees on the lines to the South and bench all trains on those lines for half a day easily. Anyway I also meant it's not terror, just irritation. Which is usual for French people. No one was harmed, people are just sour they can't go on vacation.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)