2026 Olympics

Milan: Italy are considering a push to host the 2026 Winter Olympics, two years after Rome’s major scuppered the city’s bid for the 2024 Summer Games. In 2016, major Virginia Raggi’s anti- establishment Five Star Movement killed off the Italian capital’s bid to host a first Summer Olympics since 1960. But M5S party founder Beppe Grillo, a former stand- up comedian, has since done a U- turn and believes “the Olympic Games are a great occasion for Turin and for the Movement”. “We will prove we can have zero debts and ( host) in a sustainable way,” said Grillo. Turin’s M5S mayor Chiara Appendino wants the northern Italian city to issue a “manifestation of interest” to the International Olympic Committee. Meanwhile, the president of the Veneto Region, Luca Zaia, of the right- wing Lega Nord party, has put forward the hypothesis of a candidacy of the Dolomites. — AFP