WORLD BRIEFING: July 30, 2024
Security forces in Venezuela have fired tear gas and rubber bullets against people protesting over Sunday’s disputed election result. Thousands of people descended on central Caracas on Monday evening, some walking for miles from slums on the mountains surrounding the city, towards the presidential palace. Protests erupted in the Venezuelan capital the day after President Nicolás Maduro claimed he had won. The opposition has disputed Mr Maduro's declaration of victory as fraudulent, saying its candidate Edmundo González won convincingly with 73.2% of the vote. Opinion polls ahead of the election suggested a clear victory for the challenger. Opposition parties had united behind Mr González in an attempt to unseat President Maduro after 11 years in power, amid widespread discontent over the country's economic crisis. A number of Western and Latin American countries, as well as international bodies including the UN, have called on the Venezuelan authorities to release voting records from individual polling stations. Argentina is one country which has refused to recognise President Maduro's election victory, and in response Venezuela recalled diplomats from Buenos Aires. - BBC
In Nigeria's northern Katsina state, the number of acutely malnourished children under the age of five has more than doubled to 4.4 million in the past year, according to the World Food Programme. Many of those struggling are families that have lost their lands to bandits. - BBC
Paris Olympics organizers explained that the controversial opening ceremony performance resembling "The Last Supper" was, in fact, a scene depicting Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, based on 17th century painting The Feast of the Gods, CBS News reported. The act has sparked complaints from the highest levels of the Catholic Church hierarchy - as well as leaders from other faiths.
More Paris Olympics 2024 news below ⬇️
Embarrassment for Olympics organisers as the River Seine is still deemed to possess dangerous levels of bacteria. Hence, the swimming leg of the men's triathlon was originally scheduled to happen Tuesday morning local time, but World Triathlon announced early Tuesday that the event had been postponed until Wednesday.
First medal for Ukraine: sabre fencer Olha Kharlan takes the Bronze in a thrilling match with Choi-Sooyeon from South Korea 15:14. "I dedicate this medal to Ukraine, to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and to all the Ukrainian athletes who couldn't compete at the Olympics because they were killed by Russia."
Away from the playing field, Ukraine House highlights the struggles Ukrainian athletes faced in preparation for the Games, including building their own equipment to train under Russian occupation. The clubhouse, which features live concerts and art exhibitions, showcases Ukrainian culture and looks to draw attention to Russia's ongoing war on the country.
Astronauts have been getting into the Olympic spirit, staging a zero-gravity tribute to the Paris Games. In a video message wishing the athletes well, they showed off (weightless) weightlifting, some impressive gymnastic moves and a version of the discus that looked, frankly, hazardous for the interior of the International Space Station - BBC
NBCUniversal's coverage of the Paris Olympics is off to an exceptionally good start. Friday’s rain-soaked opening ceremony drew nearly 29 million viewers, making it the most-watched opening ceremony since 2012. On Saturday, the first full day of Olympic events, NBC drew more than 32 million viewers across all of its platforms. That was its best single-day Olympics audience since the latter portion of the 2016 Rio Games - Axios
The pool used for Olympic swimming events is about 3 feet shallower than usual, which might be slowing swimmers down, The Wall Street Journal reports. Every move swimmers make in the water — especially their initial dives and their flip turns — sends waves down to the bottom of the pool, which then bounce back toward the surface. The deeper the pool, the more those waves dissipate on the way back up. Paris' pool measures 2.2 meters deep, compared to the usual 3 meters — and the shallower water might be causing slightly more turbulence, preventing swimmers from going quite as fast as they could in a deeper pool.
