Belarus athlete who refused to fly home is granted Polish visa
The Belarus Olympic athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya has received a humanitarian visa from Poland upon seeking asylum after she was threatened with being bundled back to Minsk over her criticism of Olympic team officials.
Poland’s deputy foreign minister, Marcin Przydacz, wrote on Twitter on Monday that the Belarusian sprinter was in direct contact with Polish diplomats and had been granted a humanitarian visa to the country, where she is expected to fly later this week. “Poland will do whatever is necessary to help her to continue her sporting career,” wrote Przydacz.
On Monday, Tsimanouskaya’s husband, Arseniy Zdanevich, confirmed to Sky News that he had fled the country and was currently in Kyiv. “I didn’t think it would get this serious. I made the decision to leave without thinking twice,” he told the TV station.
COVID-19: France makes life difficult for unvaccinated
With France facing a fourth COVID wave, the government is making it harder for unvaccinated people to access certain public places. Over the weekend, protesters once again came out in force to show their opposition.
Business has been difficult for restaurateur Sylvain Belaud ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, with turnover plummeting by 60% last year.
And now the director of the Cafe Francoeur in the Montmartre area in northern Paris will have to face what feels like yet another obstacle on the way back to business as usual.
Beirut blast propels activist from street protests to political action
Lebanon’s economic woes and political mismanagement drove lawyer Hussein El Achi to take to the streets in October 2019. The devastation of the August 4, 2020, Beirut blast and the political interference in the investigation convinced him to join the fight for change from the inside. The question now is whether idealism, backed by political organisation, can challenge Lebanon’s sectarian kleptocracy.
On the evening of August 4, 2020, Hussein El Achi was in his office in Beirut’s Jnah district, around 8 kilometres (5 miles) southwest of the port, when he was shaken by the explosions that would shatter his city, rock his world and launch him on a path he never imagined he would take.
The 33-year-old activist and lawyer by profession immediately thought it was a bomb – as did many in a city that has endured wars, political assassinations and military strikes. He quickly checked on his loved ones and then headed down to the Gemmayzeh neighbourhood, which was badly hit by the blast.
Japan expands COVID state of emergency to 3 areas near Tokyo and Osaka
Japan expanded Monday a COVID-19 state of emergency covering the capital and Okinawa to include Osaka and three prefectures near Tokyo due to a recent spike in coronavirus cases amid fears of a medical system collapse during the Olympics.
The government of Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has added Chiba, Kanagawa, Saitama and Osaka prefectures to areas under the emergency through Aug 31. The emergency period in Tokyo and Okinawa was also extended to the end of the month from the initially planned Aug 22.
Establishments serving alcohol or offering karaoke in the six prefectures under the emergency are asked to close during the period, with the government providing money for compliance. Those not serving alcohol are requested to close at 8 p.m.
Why seven people died in clash between two northeast India states
Bullets, tear gas canisters and grenades were fired on July 26 at a contentious border point between the states of Assam and Mizoram in India’s northeast.
Six police officers and a civilian from Assam were killed and more than 60 people wounded in the rare incident at the village of Vairengte in Mizoram’s Kolasib district.
Pegasus spyware found on journalists’ phones, French intelligence confirms
French intelligence investigators have confirmed that Pegasus spyware has been found on the phones of three journalists, including a senior member of staff at the country’s international television station France 24.
It is the first time an independent and official authority has corroborated the findings of an international investigation by the Pegasus project – a consortium of 17 media outlets, including the Guardian. Forbidden Stories, a Paris-based nonprofit media organisation, and Amnesty International initially had access to a leaked list of 50,000 numbers that, it is believed, have been identified as those of people of interest by clients of Israeli firm NSO Group since 2016, and shared access with their media partners.
France’s national agency for information systems security (Anssi) identified digital traces of NSO Group’s hacking spyware on the television journalist’s phone and relayed its findings to the Paris public prosecutor’s office, which is overseeing the investigation into possible hacking.
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