WORLD BRIEFING: July 27, 2024
The 2024 Paris Olympics opening ceremony got underway yesterday after a rough start to the Summer Games, with suspected acts of sabotage targeting France’s flagship high-speed rail network and rainy skies over the Seine river, where athletes are parading. The boats with athletes were not the only ones on the Seine River during the opening ceremony. Fans who could afford hefty prices could watch the parade from party and restaurant boats docked along the river. The “front-row” locations were the closest that fans could get to the parade. Fans in the sitting sections down the route of the opening ceremony had to watch the parade on large screens until the boats carrying the athletes arrived at their location. The fans reacted to what they were seeing with claps and cheers. It rained during moments of the parade, prompting fans to take out their umbrellas and rain coats. The ok Refugee team — 37 athletes from 11 countries of origin, representing the world’s displaced population of over 100 million people — was the second team in the procession of athletes. More than 10,500 athletes will compete across 32 sports at the Games, which will close on 11 August. - BBC and news wires
More Olympic Games 2024 new below ⬇️
The Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris will turn out to be a much better candidate than Republicans think, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox News. “As District Attorney and Attorney General of California, she was an effective litigator. In the Senate, she was an aggressive interrogator, especially with U.S. Supreme Court nominees. She reminds me of some athletes who are great at game time but mediocre in practice. The vice presidency was practice, and she loafed through it, letting her laugh be a primary symbol. Now she will be in the real game. She may be shockingly better than Washington Republicans expect.”
The presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is essentially tied, according to a new Wall Street Journal poll that shows heightened support for her among nonwhite voters and dramatically increased enthusiasm about the campaign among Democrats. The former president leads the current vice president 49% to 47% in a two-person matchup, but that is within the margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. Trump held a six-point leadearlier this month over President Biden before he exited the race and backed Harris.
Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s long-ruling authoritarian president, issued a stark warning to the opposition ahead of Sunday’s election, labelling them fascists, cowards and US puppets and telling them not to question what he claimed would be his overwhelming victory. Tensions have risen sharply in recent weeks as opinion polls have forecast the main opposition candidate, 74-year-old retired diplomat Edmundo González, could beat Maduro by a margin of 20 to 30 percentage points, an outcome that would spell the end of Venezuela’s Cuban-backed revolutionary socialist government after a quarter of a century in power. In a fiery final campaign speech lasting more than an hour and addressed to an audience of tens of thousands of flag-waving workers bussed in to Caracas, the capital, Maduro hailed his success in defeating US sanctions on the economy, spoke of his devotion to Jesus Christ and revolutionary socialism and vowed not to tolerate opposition accusations of foul play. “They are already crying fraud, we won’t allow them to keep causing damage,” Maduro roared to the crowd. “Their time is up. If they jump a red light [by questioning the results], they will regret it for 200 years. It will be the last mistake they make in their political lives. There will be an iron fist and justice for the violent fascist protesters and the racists.” - FT
A recent law passed by the Kremlin penalises "discrediting" the Russian army, and it has been applied to a broad variety of actions interpreted either as support for Ukraine or criticism of the war. These include:
Wearing clothes in the blue-and-yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag
Writing anti-war slogans on cakes, as did pastry chef Anastasia Chernysheva
Dyeing one's hair blue-and-yellow or listening to Ukrainian music
Displaying anti-war posters with messages ranging from "No War" to eight asterisks - the number of Russian letters that spell "No War" - or even just a blank sheet of paper.
A village priest in Kostroma region was fined for discrediting Russia's armed forces after praying for peace and mentioning the sixth commandment, "Thou shalt not kill". - BBC
Alyaksandr Lukashenka is continuing his campaign of domestic repression, targeting Belarusians in exile, and weaponizing allegations that neighboring countries are setting up camps to train militants intent on overthrowing his regime. On July 19, for example, the Minsk regional court sentencedGerman national Rico Krieger to death in Belarus on charges including an “act of terrorism” and the “creation of an extremist formation.” The regime is using Krieger as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Germany, showcasing its manipulative tactics. According to the human rights organization Viasna, at least thirty foreigners remain imprisoned in Belarus, and a Lithuanian citizen died in a Belarusian prison in March after being arrested at the border - Atlantic Council
The Pentagon has found $2 billion worth of additional errors in its calculations for ammunition, missiles and other equipment sent to Ukraine, increasing the improperly valued material to a total of $8.2 billion, a U.S. government report revealed. The U.S. Department of Defense has faced challenges in accurately valuing defense articles sent to Ukraine due to unclear accounting definitions, a new Government Accountability Office report showed. In 2023, the Pentagon said staff used "replacement value" instead of "depreciated value" to tabulate the billions in materials sent to Ukraine. The $6.2 billion error created a path for billions more to be sent to Kyiv. The Pentagon told the GAO that since then, $2 billion more in overstatements have been found. As a result, an additional $2 billion worth of arms can be sent to Ukraine to cover the amount of aid approved by the Biden administration. - Reuters
And in other news from the Paris Olympics…
Christian leaders have slammed what one Catholic bishop termed as a “gross, flippant mockery of the Last Supper” in a scene at the Opening Ceremony. In it, drag queens dressed as women play the role of disciples while a plus size woman appears in the middle symbolising Jesus wearing a giant crown (see image below). It has gone viral over social media and been panned by many observers. The Independent’s TikTok channel went a step further and, with a split screen video, contrasted the Paris opening with the arguably much classier one in London. European Parliament member Marion Maréchal said on X, “To all the Christians of the world who are watching the #Paris2024 ceremony and felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper, know that it is not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation. For his part, Opening Ceremony artistic director Thomas Jolly said he wanted “everyone to feel represented.”
Olympic organisers have issued a "deep apology" after South Korea's athletes were mistakenly introduced as North Korea at the opening ceremony in Paris. As the excited, flag-waving team floated down the River Seine, both French and English announcers introduced them as the "Democratic People's Republic of Korea" - the official name of North Korea. The same name was then used - correctly - when North Korea's delegation sailed past. The South Korean sports ministry said it planned to lodge a "strong complaint with France on a government level" over the embarrassing gaffe. - BBC
Meanwhile, pro-Beijing fans took to social media to complain that China’s team had to share a cramped boat with other athletes during the Opening Ceremony
A contender for the biggest cheer of the evening - it's for the Palestine Olympic Committee. No doubt a reference to the ongoing fighting in Gaza, which was sparked by the 7 October attacks on southern Israel by Hamas. - BBC
Argentine football legend Javier Mascherano says thieves broke into the Argentinian team’s locker room during training, stealing the players’ watches and jewelry
By 2050, a majority of the world will be too hot to safely host the summer Olympics, according to an Axios analysis of data from CarbonPlan, a nonprofit climate research organization. Athletes have raised concerns about scorching temperatures in Paris, which could affect their health as well as their performance. Those problems will only get worse. If the Summer Olympics continues to be held in July and August, suitable locations will be narrowed to cities in Canada, northern Europe and Russia, or to the southern hemisphere, where it's winter in July and August. During the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, endurance events were rescheduled to the morning to avoid the hottest times of the day. But even so, 60% of heat-related illnesses occurred during these morning events - Axios
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon jetted off to Paris this week ahead of the Olympic Games — just three months after effectively banning his own employees from flying to the sporting festivities on the company dime, The New York Post reported. Open source flight records show that the company’s private luxury jet — a Gulfstream G650ER, which carries a $66 million price tag bought new — took off from New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport late Wednesday. “Air Force Sol,” which can seat up to 16 passengers touched down at Paris Le Bourget airport just over seven hours later on Thursday morning, according to the flight records.
Ukraine will be represented by the smallest number of athletes in its history of participation in the Summer Games, with 140 competitors in 26 sports due to the ongoing war with Russia. Among them is fencer Olga Kharlan, who was granted a spot in Paris despite being disqualified after she refused to shake hands with Russian fencer Anna Smirnova at last year’s world championships - France 24
Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had this to say Friday about the Paris Olympics: “The IOC let a group of Russian athletes compete in the Olympics. Ten of them support Russia’s war against Ukraine via propaganda events, links to military agencies or pro-war actions. Even without a Russian flag, they still represent the country responsible for killing Ukrainians.”
The dating app, Grindr, is reportedly being blocked in the Paris Olympic Village. It’s caused problems in previous games
Many previous Games have left host cities such as Montreal in financial ruin and with expensive facilities that have turned into white elephants. But the Games in Paris cost half as much as the average - almost six times less than those in Beijing, and half of those in Athens.
There is a stark difference in how Paris’s many brasseries and bistros were faring last night, reports the New York Times. Those with televisions are uniformly packed, with diners and drinkers craning their necks to get a better view of the screen. The ones without TVs…well, there’s a lot of chefs idling on the street, watching the screens in other people’s restaurants.
