WORLD BRIEFING: July 29, 2024
For todays’s news from the Paris Olympics, scroll below ⬇️
Venezuela’s opposition claimed victory in Sunday’s presidential election, setting up a showdown with the government, which earlier declared President Nicolás Maduro the winner. “The Venezuelans and the entire world know what happened,” opposition candidate Edmundo González said. The National Electoral Council, which is controlled by Maduro loyalists, earlier said Maduro had secured 51% of the vote to 44% for González. But it didn’t release the tallies from each of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide, promising only to do so in the “coming hours,” hampering the ability to verify the results. - AP
Israel has vowed that Hezbollah will “pay the price” after holding the Lebanese militant group responsible for a rocket attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that killed 12 children. This incident has reignited fears of a potential full-scale war in the region. Hezbollah has “firmly denied” any involvement in the strike, which is the deadliest attack on Israel since the October 7 assaults. In response, Israeli warplanes launched airstrikes on Hezbollah targets both deep inside Lebanese territory and along the border overnight Sunday. It remains unclear if there were any casualties from these strikes. During a visit to Majdal Shams, the town near the Syrian and Lebanese borders where the rocket attack occurred, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant promised a severe retaliation. “Hezbollah is responsible for this and they will pay the price,” Gallant stated. He also emphasized in a previous statement, “We will hit the enemy hard.” - Lebanon Star
Traffic outside Beirut International Airport has been heavy after some flights were cancelled overnight, Al Jazeera’s correspondent tweeted. Some airlines have stopped flying to the Lebanon capital for the next few days due to escalating tensions between Hezbollah and Israel. Security sources say Israeli drones were flying overhead most of the night
President Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that Turkey might enter Israel as it had done in the past in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, though he did not spell out what sort of intervention he was suggesting. Erdogan, who has been a fierce critic of Israel's offensive in Gaza, started discussing that war during a speech praising his country's defence industry. “We must be very strong so that Israel can't do these ridiculous things to Palestine. Just like we entered Karabakh, just like we entered Libya, we might do similar to them," Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AK Party in his hometown of Rize. - Reuters
Italy and China signed a three-year action plan on Sunday to implement past agreements and experiment with new forms of cooperation, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on an official visit to the Chinese capital. Meloni is trying to reset relations with China as fears of a trade war with the European Union are interwoven with continued interest in attracting Chinese investment in auto manufacturing and other sectors. “We certainly have a lot of work to do and I am convinced that this work can be useful in such a complex phase in a global level, and also important at a multilateral level,” she said at the start of a meeting with Premier Li Qiang - Euronews
Georgia’s largest opposition party, the United National Movement, will submit a lawsuit against the controversial “foreign agent” law to the Constitutional Court on July 29, the party has told RFE/RL’s Georgian Service. Thirty-two opposition lawmakers signed the lawsuit on July 22. Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili, a fierce critic of the law, filed a challenge against the legislation with the Constitutional Court on July 16. Zurabishvili vetoed the law in May, but the country's parliament, which is dominated by the ruling Georgian Dream party, overrode her veto. Signed into law on June 4, it has jeopardized the country's aspirations to join the European Union.
News from the Paris Olympics…
Japan has pulled ahead of Australia to lead the medal count with a total of seven - including four gold. Australia has six and also four gold. Third place Team USA has 12 but just three gold.
The fibre optic networks of several telecommunications operators have been "sabotaged" in six areas of France but Paris is not affected, police said on Monday. The incident occurred three days after coordinated acts of sabotage paralysed high-speed train services hours before the Olympics opening ceremony, disrupting travel for hundreds of thousands of people - AFP
Paris 2024 organisers canceled Monday's swimming training session due to inadequate water quality in the Seine, following a similar cancellation on Sunday. Despite recent heavy rains impacting the river's pollution levels, they remain optimistic that conditions will improve in time for the men's triathlon on Tuesday. As a last resort, they have said they will cancel the swimming leg of the triathlon and move the marathon swimming to Vaires-sur-Marne, on the Marne river east of Paris. French authorities have invested 1.4 billion euros ($1.5 billion) over the last decade to clean up the Seine. - France 24
DW News has poured cold water on rumours that Paris Olympics organizers are trying to discourage sex in the Olympic Village by installing cardboard beds and limiting the functions of dating apps. The beds are meant to promote sustainability while dating app Grindr says it’s limited location functions to protect athletes, DW reported
Paris Olympics organizers consoled religious groups on Sunday after an Opening Ceremony segment featured a group of drag queens in a scene evoking Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper,” which sparked outrage among Christians. The French Catholic Church’s bishops conference blasted the performance as “scenes of derision,” while the Anglican Communion in Egypt said the moment risked causing the International Olympic Committee to “lose its distinctive sporting identity and its humanitarian message.” An IOC spokesperson brushed aside those concerns, saying the performance was meant to reflect international diversity and Paris’ dedication to inclusivity - Daily Beast
The 48 athletes selected for the surfing events at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games are preparing to take on one of the world's most fearsome waves: Teahupo'o, nicknamed 'the wall of skulls.' This powerful wave in Tahiti draws its strength from the depths of the ocean - Le Monde
The official Olympics broadcaster has urged camera operators to film men and women athletes in the same way to avoid "stereotypes and sexism" creeping into the coverage, its CEO said Sunday. "Unfortunately, in some events they (women) are still being filmed in a way that you can identify that stereotypes and sexism remains, even from the way in which some camera operators are framing differently men and women athletes," chief executive Yiannis Exarchos told reporters in Paris - France 24
