PARIS — The stands at Champs de Mars filled up quickly. One fan dressed in a white martial arts uniform waved a French flag back and forth. A woman next to him held up a poster with the face of one of the biggest sports stars in France. Crowds of people bounced up and down so excitedly it shook the floor of the arena, where judo is being played in the 2024 Paris Olympics.  

Many of them were there to see Teddy Riner, the hometown judo icon who delivered once again for France on Friday. He capped his incredible career by becoming the second three-time individual Olympic gold medalist in judo history in one of the most electrifying events of the Paris Games so far. The 35-year-old heavyweight defeated Korea’s Min-jong Kim for the gold in his fifth Olympics.  

An 11-time world champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist, Riner is one of the most popular and beloved figures in any sport from France.  

Riner was France’s flag bearer during the opening ceremony and joined retired French track and field sprinter Marie-José Pérec in lighting the cauldron at the end of the night.   

Riner is widely considered the greatest judoka the sport has ever seen. He had a 10-year unbeaten streak in which he dominated opponents with his imposing size and athleticism.  

Riner had the opportunity to match Olympic history with three gold medals three years ago in Tokyo but that chance evaporated with a surprising loss to Russian Tamerlan Bashaev in the quarterfinals. Riner rallied for a bronze medal and still took home gold in the mixed team event. He turned that moment of disappointment into hope for the future, with his next opportunity only three years away.  

With a first-round bye, Riner rolled through the second round and quarterfinals Friday afternoon, setting up a much-anticipated semifinal against Temur Rakhimov of Tajikistan.  

He drew the loudest cheers from the crowd at Champs de Mars, which roared when he walked onto the red-and-yellow tatami, and cheered even louder when he finished Rakhimov with an ippon that secured his spot in the final.  

Riner joins a trio of French stars at the home Olympics. Basketball phenom Victor Wembanyama is the leader of the country’s men’s basketball team that is hoping to challenge the defending champion United States for gold. Léon Marchand has dominated in the pool with three gold medals.  

France, one of the world’s top judo nations, still has the mixed team competition on Saturday, looking for its second straight gold in the event after defeating rival Japan to win its first mixed team tournament in Tokyo.  

The French judo team was already off to a hot start. Luka Mkheidze and Shirine Boukli won France’s first two medals of the Paris Olympics last weekend, with Mkheidze claiming silver and Boukli winning bronze.  

After another masterful ippon in the final, Riner shook his head in triumph. The crowd chanted his name. He fell to his knees with his arms stretched wide above him, ending the night where he’s been so many times before. On top.
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LONDON — Several suspects arrested in violent protests that erupted after the fatal stabbing of three children in northwest England were due in court Friday as officials braced for more clashes that Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned and blamed on “far-right hatred.”

Starmer vowed to end the mayhem and said police across the United Kingdom would be given more resources to stop “a breakdown in law and order on our streets.”

Demonstrations are being promoted online over the coming days in towns and cities that include Sunderland, Belfast, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester, using phrases such as “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats.”

John Woodcock, the British government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, said there was a “concerted and coordinated” attempt to spread the violence.

“Clearly, some of those far-right actors have got a taste for this and are trying to provoke similar in towns and cities across the U.K.,” he told the BBC.

The attack Monday on children at a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday dance class shocked a country where knife crime is a long-standing and vexing problem, although mass stabbings are rare.

Seventeen-year-old Axel Rudakubana was charged with murder over the attack that killed Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, in the seaside town of Southport in northwest England. He was also charged with 10 counts of attempted murder for the eight children and two adults wounded.

A violent demonstration in Southport on Tuesday was followed by others around the country — fueled in part by online misinformation that said the attacker was Muslim and an immigrant. Rudakubana was born in Britain to Rwandan parents and lived close to the scene of the attack.

Suspects who are under 18 are usually not named in the U.K., but judge Andrew Menary ordered that Rudakubana could be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation.

Far-right demonstrators have held several violent protests, ostensibly in response to the attack, clashing with police outside a mosque in Southport on Tuesday and hurling beer cans, bottles and flares near the prime minister’s office in London the next day.

Merseyside Police, which is responsible for Southport, said it had made seven arrests so far and had a team of specialists reviewing hundreds of hours of footage to identify anyone involved.

“If you took part in this disorder, you can expect to receive a knock on your door by our officers,” Detective Chief Inspector Tony Roberts said.

Police officers were pelted with bottles and eggs in the town of Hartlepool in northeast England, where a police car was set ablaze. Seven men ages 28 to 54 were charged with violent disorder and were due in court Friday, the local Cleveland Police force said.

At a news conference Thursday, the prime minister said the street violence was “clearly driven by far-right hatred” as he announced a program enabling police to better share intelligence across agencies and move quickly to make arrests.

“This is coordinated; this is deliberate,” Starmer said. “This is not a protest that has got out of hand. It is a group of individuals who are absolutely bent on violence.”

Starmer said his so-called National Violent Disorder Program would enable police to move between communities — just as the “marauding mobs” do. Officers will harness facial recognition technology to identify culprits and use criminal behavior orders often imposed on soccer hooligans that prevent them from going to certain places or associating with one another.

Starmer put some of the blame on social media companies, although he didn’t announce any measures to address that and said there was a balance to be struck between the value they offer and the threat they can pose.

“Violent disorder, clearly whipped up online, that is also a crime. It’s happening on your premises,” he said.
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KYIV — A Russian drone hit a bus in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region early on Friday, injuring six construction workers, including one who was in a critical condition, the regional governor said.

Governor Oleh Syniehubov said the incident took place near the town of Derhachi, about 40 km (25 miles) from Hlyboke one of the border settlements where Russia opened a new front in the war in May.

Ukraine’s military halted the Russian offensive there, rushing in reinforcements after Russia pushed up to 10 km (six miles) into the border areas.

Thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine February 2022.

 
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s communications authority blocked access to the social media platform Instagram on Friday, the latest instance of a clampdown on websites in the country.

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority, which regulates the internet, announced the block early Friday but did not provide a reason. Sabah newspaper, which is close to the government, said access was blocked in response to Instagram removing posts by Turkish users that expressed condolences over the killing of Hama political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

It came days after Fahrettin Altun, the presidential communications director and aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, criticized the Meta-owned platform for preventing users in Turkey from posting messages of condolences for Haniyeh.

Unlike its Western allies, Turkey does not consider Hamas to be a terror organization. A strong critic of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, Erdogan has described the group as “liberation fighters.”

The country is observing a day of mourning for Haniyeh on Friday, during which flags will be flown at half-staff.

Turkey has a track record of censoring social media and websites. Hundreds of thousands of domains have been blocked since 2022, according to the Freedom of Expression Association, a nonprofit organization regrouping lawyers and human rights activists. The video-sharing platform YouTube was blocked from 2007 to 2010.
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Americans Paul Whelan, Alsu Kurmasheva, Evan Gershkovich, and others are freed from Russian prisons in a deal involving 16 political prisoners exchanged for eight individuals requested by the Kremlin. With Liam Scott and Cristina Caicedo Smit, Jessica Jerreat reports. Patsy Widakuswara contributed. Cameras: Martin Bubenik, Krystof Maixner, Hoshang Fahim.
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London — A British organization that focuses on bringing more transparency to ties between China and the United Kingdom says one of the country’s biggest China institutes at a top university, King’s College London, received almost all of its funds from one single donor — a wealthy Hong Kong businessman who has ties to the Chinese Communist Party.

In a report released Sunday, UK-China Transparency said 99.9% of funding for the Lau China Institute, or LCI, came from Lau Ming-wai, who has served as an adviser to the Hong Kong government working on Hong Kong “integration” with China. He was also given a formal role at a body overseen by the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, the report said.

The United Front Work Department coordinates domestic and foreign influence campaigns for the Chinese Communist Party and is part of a broader effort known as “United Front” work that aims to co-opt individuals and silence opposition to the party.

Lau received his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees from King’s College London and donated at least $14.1 million to support the institute, according to the report.

UK-China Transparency said it has sought information from King’s College under the Freedom of Information Act about the details of Lau’s collaboration with the Institute and any terms or restrictions on Lau’s donation. It also asked whether Lau has any requirements for the appointment of the institute’s director.

The university confirmed Lau’s donations but declined to provide the other information.

UK-China Transparency then complained to the U.K. Information Commissioner’s Office, which supported King’s College’s position. The organization has since appealed to a body known as the First-tier Tribunal to try to force the college to disclose more information.

A British government spokesperson told VOA that it is the responsibility of higher education providers to ensure “they have adequate governance and risk management procedures in place, including on the acceptance of donations.”

“We expect the sector to be alert to security risks when collaborating with international partners, conducting appropriate due diligence to comply with legislation and consider risks, including potential threats to freedom of speech and academic freedom,” the spokesperson said in an emailed statement Thursday.

The LCI was established in 2011 as part of the School of Global Affairs at King’s College London. The institute has 76 members, including 30 doctoral students and 11 core members. Its projects include several topics that are considered sensitive by the Chinese Communist Party.

Kerry Brown, director of the LCI, received an award from a Chinese government-owned think tank in 2020 for “telling Chinese stories and spreading Chinese voices.”

Brown is a former British diplomat who previously worked for the China Section of his country’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as first secretary of the U.K. Embassy in Beijing. He is a frequent contributor to Chinese state media.

VOA contacted Brown for comment but did not receive a response at time of publication.

However, Brown said in an interview with VOA last year that while there were legitimate security reasons that made the U.K. have reservations about Chinese investment, the U.K.’s options would be greatly reduced if China was rejected altogether.

“You either accept that China poses problems and you try and deal with them, or you accept that you can’t deal with China and you don’t take any of the economic benefits that come from that,” he said. “It’s about the conversation. It’s about embracing how complex this could be.”

In a summary report released in 2020, the LCI thanked Lau for his continued support, noting that the institute works with several institutions around the world, including Transparency International, the World Bank, BHP Billiton and the G20. The LCI has become an important source of information for policymakers and the public to discuss China, the report said.

A spokesperson for King’s College London told VOA that as a matter of policy, all of its institutes operate independently from donors, who have no influence over the focus of any research undertaken by the institutes.

“We are proud of the work of our global institutes in bringing together leading academics to critically examine and deliver country-focused research and expertise that helps shape and inform global understanding,” the spokesperson said.

The close ties between U.K. universities and China have been under the spotlight in recent years, particularly in the economic and educational sectors.

A report by the U.K. Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee last year warned that “China has taken advantage of the policy of successive British governments to boost economic ties between the U.K. and China, which has enabled it to advance its commercial, science and technology, and industrial goals in order to gain a strategic advantage.”

In February, a British government spokesperson told VOA, “We continue to talk to the sector to ensure advice, and measures on tackling security risks in international collaboration remains relevant and proportionate.”

The spokesperson said China was added in May 2023 to a list of countries subject to export controls on certain items with potential military uses.

In April, Oliver Dowden, the U.K. deputy prime minister at the time, said the government would impose stricter oversight of higher education institutions, thereby strengthening protection for sensitive technology and reducing reliance on foreign funding. The move aims to prevent foreign interference in national security, especially from countries that “ignore the rules-based international order.”

Observers said the Higher Education (Freedom of Speech) Act is an important tool for that purpose. However, the Labour Party’s education secretary announced this week that the bill’s implementation would be halted to ensure the “financial stability” of the higher education sector.

Brown said last year that his colleagues at King’s College London were well aware of the problems that arose in their interactions with Chinese students and were not naive. He believes it is important to understand and listen to the voices of Chinese students in the U.K., as they are an important part of the academic community.

At the same time, he stressed that cooperation with China is still necessary, especially in areas such as life sciences and medical research, as these are common global issues.

VOA’s Adrianna Zhang, Yu-wen Cheng and Daniel Schearf contributed to this report.
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Solar panels, battery stations and generators have become allies for Ukrainian homeowners as they start getting ready for another winter of Russian attacks on their nation’s power grid. Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv. (Camera: Vladyslav Smilianets)
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Warsaw — The Polish and German presidents bowed their heads to the cadence of a military drum as they paid tribute Thursday to Poles slaughtered by Nazi Germany during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 on the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the ill-fated revolt.

As Poland marked the hallowed day, news broke that the oldest surviving insurgent in uprising, 106-year-old Barbara Sowa, died in the morning. With very few survivors left to take part in the ceremonies, it was a poignant reminder of the passing away of the generation shaped by the sacrifice of World War II.

Later, the city will stop and sirens will wail to pay tribute to the insurgents.

Polish President Andrzej Duda and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier stood together, heads bowed, to remember those days of August in 1944. They paid tribute to the Wola Massacre, the mass-murder of civilians of Warsaw’s Wola district carried out by the Germans from Aug. 5 to Aug. 12, 1944.

“They were led out of their homes, tenement houses, their homes were set on fire, and they themselves were shot in the streets, and their bodies were burned. Several tons of ashes were collected from the streets and squares of Wola, in order to place them in a common grave,” Duda said.

The German president’s bowed head and other symbolic gestures signaled remorse for the crimes of his nation. That Steinmeier “lays a wreath, bows his head, kneels before the commemorative cross,” calls for respect, said Duda, speaking for the nation under brutal occupation from 1939-1945, which suffered the extermination of millions of its citizens, Christian and Jewish, and the near-total destruction of its capital city.

Warsaw’s revolt began Aug. 1, 1944, by the clandestine Home Army, which acted on orders from Poland’s government-in-exile in London.

The aim was to free the capital from German occupiers and take control of the country ahead of the advancing Soviet army. Moscow, intending to rule postwar Poland, withheld help and kept its Red Army positioned on the other side of the Vistula River as the capital bled and burned.

The Nazis, with their professional army and superior weaponry, killed 200,000 Polish fighters and civilians and razed the city in revenge.

Today the uprising is remembered by Poles as one of the most important moments in a long history of independence struggles, often against Russia. The courage of the fighters remains a defining memory in the Polish image of itself as a nation willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.
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