Taxi drivers use firecrackers, flares against cops

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 13 - Italian taxi drivers who have been protesting for days against deregulation and more recently the Uber Files on Wednesday threw firecrackers and flares towards police guarding the office of Premier Mario Draghi in central Rome.
    Police have cordoned off Palazzo Chigi, the Renaissance building that houses the Italian premier's office, while taxi drivers demonstrated in the nearby Via del Corso, shouting slogans against Draghi and the government.
    Drivers spontaneously stopped their vehicles across the country Tuesday in a wildcat protest against the widespread allegedly dishonest practices uncovered in the Uber Files probe.
    The drivers have been protesting for weeks against article 10 of the government's competition bill, whose deregulation they say will open them up to unfair competition from web-based ride-sharing services like Uber.
    Last week the drivers staged a two-day strike that threatened to turn nasty with bottle-throwing at the premier's office in Rome.
    The Uber Files allegedly show how the ride-hailing start-up begun by Travis Kalanick in San Francisco in 2010 became a global behemoth by harnessing technology, working around laws, and using aggressive lobbying tactics to curry favour with governments during the period of its dramatic expansion. (ANSA).