Global News Podcast: Fifa suspends Spanish FA president over kiss at women's World Cup

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

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On the podium from the BBC World Service. Find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts.

This is the Global News podcast from the BBC World Service.

I'm Gareth Barlow and in the early hours of Sunday the 27th of August these are our main

stories. Spain's Football Federation has deleted a statement accusing a top player of misrepresenting

after she accused the head of Spanish football of kissing her without consent.

One of Ukraine's best known fighter pilots has died in a mid-air collision.

Crowds in Washington have been marking the 60th anniversary of the pivotal civil rights march

when Martin Luther King made his I Have a Dream speech.

Also in this podcast. I'm Zoe and I'm Amber. Why are you here and what do you love so much about

Grand Prix? Mostly Max but I love the atmosphere. Here it's like a big party.

But why are cars not welcome at today's Dutch Grand Prix? Find out later.

We begin in Spain and the country's Football Federation has deleted a statement from its

official website accusing the World Cup winning player Jenny Amoso of misrepresenting reality.

She had accused the head of the Federation, Louis Rubialis, of kissing her on the lips

without consent after Spain's victory in the final last Sunday. The Federation

perhaps threatened her with legal action. Mr Rubialis has faced a wave of condemnation for

his actions but has refused to resign. On Saturday 11 members of the national team's coaching staff

quit in protest at his behaviour. Mr Rubialis has been suspended from participation in football

by the sports world governing body FIFA. From Madrid, here's Guy Hedgeko.

FIFA said it was suspending Luis Rubialis from all football-related activity,

pending disciplinary proceedings which had opened against him last week.

The controversial kiss Mr Rubialis gave Jenny Hermoso has triggered a massive social and

political backlash in Spain. Mr Rubialis said he would not resign and insisted that the kiss was

consensual. His Federation issued a document backing his claims by giving a detailed breakdown of

the kiss itself and he has said he will take legal action to defend his reputation.

Pedro Malabia Sánchez of the Spanish Women's Football League said Mr Rubialis' response was

not unexpected. This is part of the legal strategy. I think he knows that he is out but he will try

to defend himself. I think society has massively refused this attitude. We don't want this kind

of people in football and I believe it's very sad what has happened because he has stolen

the biggest sports moment in Spain for many years but maybe we can achieve something bigger

than a World Cup with these changes. The government has said it is taking action to remove

Mr Rubialis from his post, a process which is expected to begin next week although it's unclear

if it will be successful. The World Cup winning squad has rallied round Mr Hermoso and more than

80 professional female players are saying they will not represent their country until the Federation

boss is replaced and almost all of the coaching staff of the team have resigned in protest.

FIFA's involvement adds an international element to this case which has already

overshadowed the Spanish Women's Team's celebration of their first ever World Cup victory.

That was Guy Hetchco. Now to the United States, tens of thousands of people gathered in Washington

on Saturday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights March which culminated in Martin

Luther King Jr giving his famous I Have a Dream speech. The pivotal moment in US history was

remembered by members of his family along with dozens of campaigners who'd gathered in the city.

A North America correspondent Peter Bose listened to the speakers.

Led by the Civil Rights Leader, the Reverend Al Sharpton, the crowd gathered at the steps of

the Lincoln Memorial where 60 years ago Martin Luther King Jr delivered his impassioned I Have

a Dream speech. The Reverend Sharpton said the fight for civil rights was far from over.

The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom is etched in American history as a turning point.

It helped pave the way for federal civil rights and voting rights legislation

and is seen as a watershed moment for black Americans. But while the country has changed,

it's still wrestling with issues such as racial relations, equal voting rights,

employment and education opportunities. Dr. King's son Martin Luther King III addressed the crowd.

Dad would probably say now is the time. We must preserve, protect and expand democracy.

We must ensure that voting rights is protected for all people.

We must ensure that our women and children are treated fairly. We must end gun violence.

There have been dark moments since 1963 including recent cases of police brutality

that have led to protests on the streets. Some of those marching in Washington said

rather than being a mere commemoration of what happened six decades ago

before many of them were born, today's march was a continuation of the struggle.

That report by Peter Post. One of Ukraine's most celebrated fighter pilots has been killed in a

mid-air collision along with two other airmen. Andrey Pilschkikov won fame taking part in close

range aerial battles over Kiev during the early phase of Russia's invasion. Here's Paul Moss.

He was, the Ukrainian military said, a young officer with mega knowledge and mega talent,

and his death represented a painful and irreparable loss. The man who became known simply as juice was

flying a training aircraft over the north of Ukraine when it seems his plane collided with

another. An investigation is underway but the accident serves as a reminder of the challenges

involved in getting pilots ready for combat and quickly. It happened just as Ukraine's

Air Force prepares to start training for newly donated F-16 fighter planes. With aviation experts

warning that can take many months to complete. The voice of Paul Moss. Next to southern Syria and

anti-government protests have continued for a seventh day. The demonstrations were initially

sparked by an increase in fuel prices and worsening living conditions but have evolved

into anti-government protests with demonstrators reviving slogans from the so-called Arab Spring

protests of 12 years ago. I heard more about the background from our Arab Affairs analyst,

Mike Thompson. You mentioned the fuel price rises there which were caused by subsidy cuts the

government introduced but it's the whole cost of a living problem. It's getting really difficult there.

I mean many people find that they don't go to work they won't want to go to work anymore because

the transport is more expensive than what they get paid sometimes electricity maybe just three

hours a day and the constant inflation which never seems to reduce means that people are just

struggling to stay afloat and a bit like happened actually in 2011 before the war now you've got

this again and in some ways you could say it's worse. Syria is a mosaic of government control

government opposition it's it's a patchwork of support or lack of for Bashar al-Assad. Is there

any significance in where these demonstrations are taking place? Well coming to that point you

just made in a second I mean you can start with the fact that it's the range of places where the

protests are taking place up in the far northwest there's been many there near Idlib and Aleppo

but also down in the south and down there we've got Sueda province which is Druze it's the Druze

population minority population and they have been giving pretty much tacit support to President

Assad throughout the war and he's left them pretty much alone and yet now they're really

rebelling against him and of course in in the neighboring Dera province there we've got the

place where it all started in 2011 and as you mentioned in your introduction the same sort

of cries of down with President Assad ringing out and the same agitation and fury. Assad though

managed to bomb gas bludge and bully his way into remaining in power for the last 12 years

supported by the Russians how serious could this be to him or do you think he will just deploy the

same tactics if he feels required? Well we're now in the seventh day of protests and protests have

been quite rare in Syria in government controlled areas anyway but they seem to be carrying on

we had the biggest demonstration of the week the biggest number of people and we've even seen

the Alawite sect which is the president's own sect they've been rebelling as well and I think

when you mentioned their mighty resort to the same suppression tactics he used before the

brutality I think if he does then we could start to see the possibility of something much more

widespread and dangerous for him happening. We'll follow the developments closely that was Mike

Thompson. This week marks two years since the last American troops left Afghanistan yielding

complete control to the Taliban. They took over promising to govern differently from their harsh

rule of the 1990s the first time they were in power. Some people though think their latest

incarnation is even worse. Ahead of the anniversary one of the founders of the Taliban in Afghanistan

has told BBC News that the vast majority of its members don't actually agree with the decrees

preventing girls from attending secondary school and university. Well at Abadol Salamzayef said

many of them were also posed to a ban on women working in some workplaces and hoped this would

soon change. He was speaking to our Chief International Correspondent Lissou Set. It's rare for senior

Taliban to speak out in this way. Mullah Zayef no longer holds an official position but his remarks

echo the few Taliban who take issue in public and many more in private with some of the decrees

proclaimed by their supreme leader Haibatullah Akunzada. Mullah Zayef emphasized that Taliban

unity mattered that's why change could only come from the very top but he insisted the Taliban of

today are different from when they ruled harshly in the 1990s. I'm sure that 95 percent inside

the Taliban they are supporting they want education and they want politically to be

good for the future of Afghanistan. Mullah Zayef's advice to the Taliban

was to open girl schools as soon as possible. His advice to the international community

was to support Afghanistan to help it remain safe and stable but he was bitterly critical

of the 20-year-long US-led engagement saying it had left the country in a terrible state.

The Americans they destroy our economy of Afghanistan they have to to continue their

supporting of Afghanistan because they are responsible for the situation. Many Afghans

say Taliban rule is now worse than the first time they governed many insist they'll never change.

That was least he said. Still to come. Residents of Leukerbart are asking themselves who would

possibly do such a thing the collection box belongs to a local climbing club. So how did

the perpetrators conquer one of Switzerland's most challenging climbing routes at over 2000 meters

to get the money

from their battles on the world stage I gave everything for that race and I was able to come

away with something that like I've dreamed about since I was a kid to their battles behind closed

doors I had to reach some terrible bottoms in my addiction and suffer some really terrible consequences

and suffer a lot of loss due to my drinking to get to where I am today. On the podium is the

podcast where Olympians and Paralympians share their stories. On the podium from the BBC World

Service find it wherever you get your BBC podcasts. Now let's bring you back to the Global News

podcast. In India police are investigating an online video in which a primary school teacher

is seen telling her pupils to slap a Muslim classmate. The boys filmed crying while he's

being struck allegedly forgetting his timetables wrong. Here's Richard Howes. The incident happened

on Thursday at a private school in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. The teacher who's now

facing charges is seen saying to her class that all Muslim children should be beaten. Slaps are heard

as the pupils follow her order. The images have provoked outrage on social media. The opposition

leader Rahul Gandhi has accused the governing Hindu nationalist BJP of stoking up religious

intolerance across India. The boy's father has taken his son out of the school. The teacher

claims the video has been edited. Richard Howes there. Researchers in Britain are looking for

a group of South Asian women who were given radioactive material largely without their

knowledge back in the 1960s as part of a study looking at iron absorption. The women were told

to eat chapattis of type of flatbread common in South Asian cuisine that themselves then contained

a radioactive substance. Harry Bly is following the story. 1969 in the city of Coventry in Central

England. 21 women of Indian origin were given radioactive chapattis once a day by their doctors.

It was part of a study into iron deficiency among South Asian people which suspected their diets

were to blame. These flatbreads contained a radioactive isotope of iron called iron 59.

One of those women was Pritam Kaur who featured in a 1995 Channel 4 documentary.

He told her that this chapatti will help you to find out what you're really lacking. He said somebody

will come and see you at your house and give you this chapatti and you eat it for a few days

then we'll take you and check you out. That's Ms Kaur's son speaking to John Brownlow in his

documentary. After eating the bread these women were taken to a research facility and tested

to measure how much radiation they had absorbed from eating the chapattis. The problem here is that

several of the women involved including Pritam Kaur say they were not aware of the study that the

chapattis were radioactive nor did they consent to be part of it. It's believed many of these women

had recently immigrated to Britain and spoke limited English. If we knew like mother just told

me right now if she knew about it she would not eat in it. The study was funded by the Medical

Research Council part of the UK government's research and innovation body. Taiwo Oatemi

is a member of parliament representing Coventry and a qualified pharmacist. On Thursday she raised

concerns about the experiments in a post on social media saying the recommendation of an

earlier independent inquiry to identify the women affected was never followed up. She said she was

working with a researcher to identify the women. In a statement the MRC said it remained committed

to the highest standards including commitment to engagement, openness and transparency.

That report by Harry Bly. Kenya's transport minister has sacked the head of the airport's

authority after a power cut on Friday evening left passengers stranded in darkness for hours at

Nairobi's main airport. Passengers shared photographs on social media of people using

torches on their phones to get around. The majority state-owned power company has not

explained exactly what caused the country-wide power cut. Many homes and businesses across the

country were without electricity for more than 15 hours. This is what Kipchumma McCormann,

the transport minister told reporters on Saturday. At no time did we have an eye out of darkness

on the runway or the tower. Over the last few years Kenya airport's authority has faced a series of

mishaps occasioned by management challenges and political interference. Our Africa regional editor

Will Ross is in the King in capital Nairobi and described his experiences. I was at home,

suddenly the lights went off and the generator kicked in a large rumbling from outside then woke

up this morning to find out that it had been not a kind of run-of-the-mill power cut but in fact

many passengers had been stranded at the international airport here in Nairobi and

quite unusually the power cut was pretty much country-wide and then people I've spoken to

throughout the day here have really you know been pretty fed up at the fact it's gone on for so long

so we've got the generators back on again where I am now you might be able to hear in the background

a slight rumbling but of course for many people across the country there isn't the option of a

generator and it's a struggle so quite a lot of frustration and people asking questions and then

we've also had of course some explanations from the government. And so what have the government

been saying what is the cause of this? Well we haven't had much from the actual power company

which is majority owned by the state but we have had a press conference from the transport minister

Kit Chumbamir Common who basically apologized to all those air passengers who were stranded

at Jomo Kenyatta airport for several hours in the darkness and then he announced that several

senior civil aviation authority officials had either been sacked or been moved to smaller airports

and some of his speech was was pretty extraordinary really he started blaming political interference

for what he called a demoralized and disorganized workforce at the airport and in the civil aviation

authority and that sort of points to the fact that this isn't just the usual power cut he's

suggesting there's more to it than that and of course Kenyans here are pretty quick to

wonder whether there is corruption involved in all of this and the transport minister made

another rather strange comment in his speech where he said that two generators were procured

for the airport more than two years ago and he said as a result of this pretty serious power

outage those generators are now going to be commissioned which of course leaves you wondering

what on earth they were doing where they were for the last more than two years after being procured

why they weren't in place the minister did point out that the airport runway and the control tower

were not affected by any of this so he was kind of playing down any safety fears but once again you

know it does make you wonder just what the unanswered questions are will Ross there in Nairobi now let's

take you to switzerland because there's shock in the country over a theft in the alps at an altitude

of about two thousand three hundred and fifty metres the perpetrators conquered one of the

country's most challenging protected climbing routes to break into a collection box on Geneva

correspondent image and folks reports residents of leukerbart are asking themselves who would

possibly do such a thing the collection box belongs to a local climbing club which maintains

free of charge the high altitude route reaching the box is possible only for very experienced

climbers there are vertical rock faces to ascend and gorges to be crossed using narrow steel cables

it's believed the thieves planned the robbery in advance they took tools with them to smash open the

box and then apparently continued their climb with the stolen money to the two thousand nine

hundred meter high summit so how much money has disappeared over five hundred dollars says the

local climbing club but today there was some consolation on hearing of the robbery a well

wischer sent in the same amount to replace what was stolen image and folks for the third time

in a row formula one's two-time world champion max verstappen has taken pole position head of today's

dutch grand prix a huge home crowd have arrived to support him in the seaside town of zandvoort

which has banned formula one fans from arriving by car the event is aiming to be that great oxymoron

the most sustainable race on the f1 calendar almost all cars other the racing cars will be

prevented from traveling to the circuit with spectators expected to arrive by public transport

bicycle or taxi and a holigan reports fans have been flocking to the dutch f1 by bicycle this

is a petrolhead event without the usual levels of petrol and that's because the town of zandvoort

is mostly shut down to vehicles with just a few exceptions so the orange army is here propelled

by pedal power and a desire to see the homegrown hero max verstappen in action i'm zoey and i'm

why are you here and what you love so much about grand prix mostly max but i love the atmosphere

here it's like a big party we call it the festival in the netherlands and it's like we all are one

and the speed so same and the sound of it i think that's really amazing what does it sound like

ours your ears are it's more like you know your ears are always you're partly deaf after it but

it's all worth it well you know one of the other things that's kind of changing here is that

they're encouraging people to come by foot or by bicycle to try to make an event that is notoriously

bad for the environment a little bit greener are you conscious of that because it's an issue

i'm conscious um i go by um train myself um and it's like you go by bike there's a lot of

opportunities to go from everywhere in the netherlands to go here with bike and they try to

make car of driving by car to here less um i don't know you say that interesting because

attractive and less attractive yes the three of us came together and they also like it's impossible

to come here with the car so we mostly pick the train because we're not like from here so it takes

us about an hour to come here having these green um production she says it's like it's making people

aware like we are trying to make things better almost a third of supporters are expected to arrive

by public transport about a third by bicycle or moped and the rest by coaches tabs and alternative

modes of transport more trains have been put on a train is running between amsterdam central and

zandvoort every five minutes there's a whole fleet of electric buses and bike parking is everywhere

of course one part of zandvoort isn't going green and that is the race itself f1 globally is under

enormous pressure to try to improve its green credentials there is a goal to achieve climate

neutrality by 2030 efforts promoted by the dutch demonstrates how tracks can do more to preserve

the environment without sacrificing pleasure or profits these examples though many of them will

be hard to replicate in countries that haven't yet developed a cycling culture and infrastructure to

support green travel ambitions that was ana holigun with that report and that's all from us for now

but there will be a new edition of the global news podcast a little later on if you want to comment

on this one or any of the topics do send us an email the address is globalpodcasts at bbc.co.uk

you can also find us on x of course for me known as twitter it's at global news pod this edition was

mixed by christa blanco the producer was lia mcchefry the editor caro martin i'm gareth barlow

until next time goodbye

Machine-generated transcript that may contain inaccuracies.