Southern Lebanon residents describe hardships under Israeli military occupation<\/a><\/p>\nThe war in Gaza began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. There are 48 hostages remaining in Gaza and Israel believes 20 are still alive.<\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s retaliatory offensive has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians according to Gaza\u2019s Health Ministry, which doesn\u2019t say how many were civilians or combatants. The offensive has displaced most of Gaza\u2019s 2 million people, caused widespread destruction and severe hunger.<\/p>\n
As the war has ground on, Israel has grown increasingly isolated, with Spain at the forefront of a growing list of European countries increasingly critical of Israel due to the heavy civilian toll. Countries including the U.K. and France have said they plan on recognizing a Palestinian state, and the European Commission president has called for scaling back Europe\u2019s trade ties with Israel.<\/p>\n
Europe remains divided on its stance toward Israel, and its limited sanctions and condemnations so far have had little effect.<\/p>\n
Madrid\u2019s conservative mayor, Jos\u00e9 Luis Mart\u00ednez-Almeida, also criticized S\u00e1nchez and described Sunday\u2019s events as a sad day for the Spanish capital.<\/p>\n
Danish rider Jonas Vingegaard, who was leading the overall classification going into the final stage, was declared the winner of the Vuelta but the customary podium ceremony was canceled.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a pity that such a moment of eternity was taken from us,\u201d Vingegaard said. \u201cEveryone has the right to protest, but not in a way that influences or endangers our race.\u201d<\/p>\n
The teams reportedly improvised a private podium ceremony so riders could celebrate.<\/p>\n
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen condemned the protesters for \u201cspoiling\u201d the race and criticized S\u00e1nchez for \u201cpraising\u201d the protests.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead I want to praise the athletes and everyone who doesn\u2019t spoil things for others,\u201d she wrote on Instagram.<\/p>\n
Vuelta race director Javier Guill\u00e9n defended letting the Israeli team stay in the race.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Vuelta\u2019s position was clear, we had to abide to the norms of the International Cycling Union. It\u2019s the UCI that regulates the right of admission to the race,\u201d Guill\u00e9n said at a news conference on Monday. \u201cWe never got into any other type of debate. All we wanted to do was to be able to finish the race with normalcy, and that wasn\u2019t possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The UCI on Monday expressed \u201cits total disapproval of and deep concern about the events that marked\u201d the Vuelta. It also said it \u201cstrongly condemns the exploitation of sport for political purposes in general, and especially coming from a government.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also regret the fact that the Spanish Prime Minister and his government have supported actions that could hinder the smooth running of a sporting competition and, in some cases, expressed their admiration for the demonstrators.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis position is contradictory to the Olympic values of unity, mutual respect, and peace. It also calls into question Spain\u2019s ability to host major international sporting events, ensuring that they take place in safe conditions and in accordance with the principles of the Olympic Charter.\u201d<\/p>\n
The central government\u2019s representative for the Madrid region said an estimated 100,000 people were on the streets on Sunday during the protests. The number could not be independently verified.<\/p>\n
Guill\u00e9n said the Vuelta protests would likely have implications for future sports events with Israeli participants.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter this Vuelta, the international entities will need to make decisions and cycling will need to have some internal discussions to find solutions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Next year\u2019s Tour de France begins with a stage in Barcelona.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully everything will be solved by then,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to speculate with any possibilities. I\u2019m sure Barcelona will have a great Tour de France.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n We’re not going anywhere.\n <\/p>\n
\n Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on!\n <\/p>\n
\n Donate now<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MADRID (AP) \u2014 Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez on Monday called for Israel to be banned from sports…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":146935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-146934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/146935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}