France bids reluctant farewell to dazzling Paris Olympics

France bids reluctant farewell to dazzling Paris Olympics
Fireworks go off during the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the Stade de France, in Saint-Denis, in the outskirts of Paris, on August 11, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 12 August 2024
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France bids reluctant farewell to dazzling Paris Olympics

France bids reluctant farewell to dazzling Paris Olympics
  • Hollywood star Tom Cruise delivered stardust at the closing ceremony on Sunday evening — and a link with the next Games in Los Angeles — by abseiling into the national stadium
  • The ceremony followed 17 days of sporting action lit up by Biles, American sprinter Noah Lyles, Pakistan’s javelin king Arshad Nadeem and casual Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec

PARIS: France bid a reluctant farewell on Monday to an “enchanted” fortnight of Olympic sport as athletes headed home from Paris praising a dazzling edition of the Games that has breathed new life into the biggest show on earth.
Hollywood star Tom Cruise delivered stardust at the closing ceremony on Sunday evening — and a link with the next Games in Los Angeles — by abseiling into the national stadium.
The “Mission Impossible” star descended on a wire in front of 71,500 spectators, grabbed the Olympic flag and jumped onto a motorbike, to the delight of thousands of dancing athletes and awe-struck fans.
The final act of the Paris Olympics brought relief that an event foreshadowed by worries about terror attacks, strikes or protests had passed off with barely a hitch.
But there was also sadness that two weeks of high-spirited celebration had come to an end.
“Keep the flame alive,” urged the front-page headline of France’s biggest sports newspaper, L’Equipe, which featured new national swimming hero Leon Marchand and urged French people to maintain the spirit “of this enchanted fortnight.”
At the Athletes’ Village in northern Paris, bleary-eyed athletes were packing their bags after a late night, with the French capital’s two main airports braced for a huge influx of travelers and sports equipment.
Magda Skarbonkiewicz, a Team USA fencer, said she would return home filled with memories of competing inside the Grand Palais, one of the historic venues used around the French capital.
“It’s such an iconic venue and just nothing like I’ve ever seen before,” she told AFP. “It’s amazing to see so many people care about fencing the way the French people do.”
During Sunday night’s closing ceremony, which stressed the Olympics’ core message of peace and cooperation, International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach had praised the Paris Games for being “sport at its best.”
“These were sensational Olympic Games from start to finish,” Bach said. “Or dare I say: Seine-sational Games,” the IOC chief quipped in a pun about the river flowing through Paris which was a sometimes fickle star of the event.
Observers had seen Paris 2024 as essential for the Olympics brand as a whole, coming after a Covid-affected edition in Tokyo and a corruption-tainted version in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
Around 9,000 athletes flooded into the Stade de France on Sunday night for a show that featured music from French electro act Air, guitar band Phoenix, Belgian singer Angele and the Cambodian rapper VannDa.
“We knew you would be brilliant, but you were magic,” Paris 2024 organizing chief Tony Estanguet told the crowd during a triumphalist speech.
He said the Games had transformed “a nation of implacable complainers” into “unbridled supporters who don’t want to stop singing.”
Much of the media commentary has focused on the uplifting impact of the Games on the generally morose national mood.
Just weeks before the Olympics, snap elections called by President Emmanuel Macron delivered a hung parliament and a historic number of seats for the far-right National Rally party.
“The Paris Games offered the capital and the entire country more than two weeks of fervor and happiness that were so unexpected and appreciated given that they came after a political period dominated by the sad passions of decline and xenophobia,” said an editorial in Le Monde newspaper.
“For 17 days the stereotype of the indifferent, grumpy Frenchman went missing,” wrote sports writer Owen Slot in The Times newspaper, adding that Paris had “made the Olympic Games look more beautiful than ever before.”
The closing spectacle marked the beginning of the four-year countdown to the LA Games, and American gymnastics icon Simone Biles joined Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass as the Olympic flag was formally handed over.
The ceremony followed 17 days of drama-filled sporting action lit up by Biles, American sprinter Noah Lyles, Pakistan’s javelin king Arshad Nadeem and casual Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec, who has become an Internet sensation.
They also featured a damaging gender row about two female boxers, Imane Khelif of Algeria and Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who both went on to win gold.
The last day of sporting action saw the United States pip China for top spot in the battle for medals after the US women’s basketball team squeezed past France 67-66 to clinch the last gold of the Games.
The win — the eighth consecutive Olympic women’s basketball title won by the USA — ensured the Americans finished level with China on 40 golds each.
The USA however finished on top of the overall medal table with a total of 126 medals, with China in second place on 91.


China’s BYD, Tsingshan scrap plans for Chile lithium plants as prices plunge

China’s BYD, Tsingshan scrap plans for Chile lithium plants as prices plunge
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China’s BYD, Tsingshan scrap plans for Chile lithium plants as prices plunge

China’s BYD, Tsingshan scrap plans for Chile lithium plants as prices plunge
  • Retreat a blow to Chile’s aim to develop more domestic processing of lithium
  • Chile is the world’s no. 2 producer of the key metal for electric vehicle batteries

SANTIAGO: Chinese automaker BYD and metals group Tsingshan are backing out of multi-million dollar plans to build lithium cathode plants in Chile, the country’s economic development agency said on Wednesday.
The retreat by the two huge Chinese companies is a blow to Chile’s aim to develop more domestic processing of lithium, a key metal for electric vehicle batteries. Chile is the world’s no. 2 lithium producer.
Both projects were hit by plunging lithium prices, said government economic development agency Corfo, which in 2023 had tapped BYD and Tsingshan for a preferential lithium price deal as part of its efforts to spur investment in Chile.
“The companies selected by Corfo have been affected in their investment decisions by the global market conditions, which have shown a sharp drop in prices,” Corfo said in a statement.
Tsingshan told Reuters it has withdrawn plans for a $233 million project to produce 120,000 metric tons of lithium iron phosphate (LFP). Chile’s national assets ministry told Reuters that BYD filed an intent to withdraw its plans in January.
BYD, the world’s biggest maker of electric cars, declined to comment. BYD last year flagged delays to a planned $290 million plant, which was expected to produce 50,000 metric tons per year of LFP for cathodes.
Chilean newspaper Diario Financiero first reported the scrapped investments.
Chile’s effort in 2018 to encourage lithium-related investments via a pricing deal also fell apart. Chilean chemical company Molymet, China’s Sichuan Fulin Transportation Group Co. , and a joint venture between Korean firms Posco and Samsung for various reasons withdrew their plans.
Tsingshan and BYD would have had access to preferential prices of lithium produced by Chilean miner SQM through 2030, a timeframe that Corfo said also may have influenced the withdrawal of the projects.
In addition, Corfo said Tsingshan had wanted to assign the project development to a unit of the company that had not participated in the bidding process, which Corfo said was not possible.
Corfo last week opened a second bidding process for a similar scheme, this time to provide a purchasing deal with US lithium producer Albemarle through 2043 for companies that commit to lithium-related projects.
Albemarle and the selected investors will be able to use an “alternative form” to determine a price agreement, Corfo said.


Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters occupy Columbia University library

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters occupy Columbia University library
Updated 08 May 2025
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Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters occupy Columbia University library

Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters occupy Columbia University library
  • Student protesters at Columbia, Jewish organizers among them, say the government is unfairly conflating pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitism

NEW YORK: Dozens of protesters stood on tables, beat drums and unfurled pro-Palestinian banners in the main reading room of a Columbia University library on Wednesday in one of the biggest demonstrations at the school since its New York City campus was roiled by a student protest movement last year.
Videos and photographs on social media showed the protesters, most wearing masks, with banners saying “Strike For Gaza” and “Liberated Zone” beneath the Lawrence A. Wein Reading Room’s chandeliers in the Butler Library. Columbia’s public affairs office said in a statement that its public safety staff were asking protesters to show identification, and that if protesters do not comply with orders to disperse, they will be disciplined for breaking school rules and face “possible arrest.”
At one point, more people were seen trying to enter the library, according to a Reuters witness. Public safety staff locked a door and shoving and pushing ensued.
The protest comes as Columbia’s board of trustees continues its negotiations with US President Donald Trump’s administration, which announced in March it had canceled hundreds of millions of dollars of grants to the university for scientific research.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams said in an interview with the NBC 4 news channel that Columbia officials had asked for help and that the New York Police Department was sending officers to the campus.
Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a collection of student groups, recirculated on social media on Wednesday their long-standing demand that the university end investments of its $14.8 billion endowment in weapons makers and other companies that support Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territories.
Trump, a Republican, has called the pro-Palestinian student protests across college campuses last year antisemitic and anti-American. Student protesters at Columbia, Jewish organizers among them, say the government is unfairly conflating pro-Palestinian protests and antisemitism.
Trump is also trying to deport some pro-Palestinian international students at US schools, saying their presence could harm US foreign policy interests.
The protesters in the library also demanded the release of Mahmoud Khalil, a Palestinian activist and Columbia graduate student who remains in a Louisiana immigrants jail after he was among the first to be arrested.


Putin’s order for three-day truce with Ukraine enters force

Putin’s order for three-day truce with Ukraine enters force
Updated 08 May 2025
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Putin’s order for three-day truce with Ukraine enters force

Putin’s order for three-day truce with Ukraine enters force
  • Putin announced the truce last month as a “humanitarian” gesture, following pressure from Trump
  • Ukraine never agreed to the truce and has dismissed it as theatrics, calling instead for a 30-day ceasefire

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s order for a three-day truce with Ukraine to coincide with Moscow’s World War II Victory Day commemorations has taken effect, Russian state media reported.
Ukraine never agreed to the truce and has dismissed it as theatrics, calling instead for a 30-day ceasefire.
The three-day order began at midnight Thursday (2100 GMT on Wednesday) and is scheduled to last until the end of Saturday, according to the Kremlin.
“The ceasefire ... on the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory has begun,” Russia’s state RIA news agency reported.
Hours before Putin’s order was scheduled to enter force, Moscow and Kyiv traded a slew of aerial attacks, prompting airport closures in Russia and leaving at least two dead in Ukraine.
The Kremlin has said Russian forces will honor Putin’s order to cease fire, but will respond “immediately” if Ukraine launches any attacks.
Putin announced the truce last month as a “humanitarian” gesture, following pressure from the United States to halt his three-year assault on Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump has been trying to broker a lasting ceasefire between Moscow and Kyiv since his inauguration, but has failed to extract any major concessions from the Kremlin.
Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional ceasefire in March, and has since offered only slim contributions to Trump’s peace efforts.
Ukraine has said it does not believe Russia will adhere to this truce and accused Moscow of hundreds of violations during a previous, 30-hour ceasefire ordered by Putin over Easter.


Polish police say one killed in axe attack at Warsaw University

Polish police say one killed in axe attack at Warsaw University
Updated 07 May 2025
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Polish police say one killed in axe attack at Warsaw University

Polish police say one killed in axe attack at Warsaw University
  • "Police have detained a man who entered the University of Warsaw campus," Warsaw Police said
  • Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that the attacker was a third-year law student

WARSAW: Police said on Wednesday they had detained a 22-year-old Polish man after he killed one person with an axe at Warsaw University, in an attack the institution described as a "huge tragedy".
"Police have detained a man who entered the University of Warsaw campus. One person died, another was taken to hospital with injuries," Warsaw Police said in a statement on X.
They said the incident occurred at around 6:40 p.m. (1640 GMT), when the man attacked people on the campus with an axe, adding that the detainee was a 22-year-old Polish citizen.
Gazeta Wyborcza daily reported that the attacker was a third-year law student.
Private broadcaster Polsat News reported that a woman's severed head and an axe had been found at the university.
A spokesperson for the district prosecutor's office declined to comment on whether a severed head had been found.
The spokesperson said that a female administrative employee of the university had been killed at the scene and a security guard was injured and was taken to hospital in critical condition.
He said that the attacker had entered an auditorium at the university.
Reuters reporters at the scene saw police vans and a cordon around the auditorium where the attack took place.
The Rector of the University of Warsaw said in a statement that May 8 would be a day of mourning at the institution, calling the attack a "huge tragedy".
"We express our great sorrow and sympathy to the family and loved ones," the statement read.


Belgian teens found with 5,000 ants in Kenya given option of fine or sentence

Belgian teens found with 5,000 ants in Kenya given option of fine or sentence
Updated 07 May 2025
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Belgian teens found with 5,000 ants in Kenya given option of fine or sentence

Belgian teens found with 5,000 ants in Kenya given option of fine or sentence
  • Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species

NAIROBI: Two Belgian teenagers found with 5,000 ants in Kenya were given a choice of paying a fine of $7,700 or serving 12 months in prison — the maximum penalty for the offense — for violating wildlife conservation laws.

Authorities said the ants were destined for European and Asian markets in an emerging trend of trafficking lesser-known wildlife species.

Belgian nationals Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, both 19 years old, were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house in Nakuru county, which is home to various national parks. They were charged on April 15.

Magistrate Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya’s main airport on Wednesday, said in her ruling that despite the teenagers telling the court they were naïve and collecting the ants as a hobby, the particular species of ants they collected is valuable and they had thousands of them — not just a few.

The Kenya Wildlife Service had said the teenagers were involved in trafficking the ants to markets in Europe and Asia, and that the species included messor cephalotes, a distinctive, large and red-colored harvester ant native to East Africa.

“This is beyond a hobby. Indeed, there is a biting shortage of messor cepholates online,” Thuku said in her ruling.

The illegal export of the ants “not only undermines Kenya’s sovereign rights over its biodiversity but also deprives local communities and research institutions of potential ecological and economic benefits,” KWS said in a statement.

Duh Hung Nguyen, a Vietnamese national, told the court that he was sent to pick up the ants and arrived at Kenya’s main airport where he met his contact person, Dennis Ng’ang’a, and together they traveled to meet the locals who sell the ants.

Ng’ang’a, who is from Kenya, had said he didn’t know it was illegal because ants are sold and eaten locally.