On August 28, the XVII Paralympic Summer Games 2024 will start. These Games will be the first time Paris will host the Paralympic Games and the second time France will host the Paralympic Games (the cities of Tignes and Albertville co-hosted the 1992 Winter Paralympic Games).
In total, 140 athletes from Ukraine will compete in 17 out of 22 sports, which is a record. Ukraine will be most represented in swimming (37 athletes) and athletics (28).
The Paralympics 2024 will be broadcast live on Suspilne.Sport. The opening ceremony will start at 20:30.
Later, live broadcasts of the competition will be available on the Suspilne.Sport website, as well as on Suspilne’s regional TV channels, which are available on cable operators’ networks, Megogo media service, Diia app and T2 digital broadcast. Also, the 2024 Paralympics will be shown on Pervyi TV channel.
As reported by OBOZ.UA, 143 athletes in 15 sports represented Ukraine at the last Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Most of our compatriots performed in swimming (40) and athletics (32). Our team finished in sixth place with 98 medals (24 gold, 47 silver and 27 bronze).
At the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Ukraine was in the top 3 in the medal standings, behind only China and Great Britain.
A “gender scandal” erupted at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris because the organizers allowed athletes with XY chromosomes (male) to compete in the women’s competition, The Guardian reported. As it became known, in the 1/8 finals, Italian boxer Angela Carini refused to fight Iman Khelif. The fight was stopped 46 seconds after it started.
Carini cried and said that the blows that Khelif had dealt her were too strong.
“After the second punch, after many years of experience, I felt a strong pain in my nose. I said enough is enough because I didn’t want to. I couldn’t continue the fight after a blow to the nose. So it was better to end it,” The Guardian quoted the athlete as saying.
Earlier, in 2023, the International Boxing Association (IBA) disqualified Iman Helif and Lin Yu-ting from Taiwan because, according to IBA President Umar Kremlin, DNA tests proved that both athletes have XY chromosomes.
At the same time, the International Olympic Committee insists that both Khelif and Lin are “women with passports” and, like all the participants in the tournament, meet all the necessary criteria for participation.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni commented on the situation: “I believe that athletes with male genetic characteristics should not be allowed to participate in women’s competitions. And not because you want to discriminate against anyone, but to protect the right of female athletes to compete on equal terms,” she said.
The Algerian Olympic Committee, meanwhile, stated that it “strongly condemns the unethical actions and slander of our respected athlete Iman Khelif through baseless propaganda by some foreign media.”
Sotheby’s will hold the largest ever auction of luxury champagne next week, the Financial Times reports.
The auction house will put up for auction in Paris about 1.5 thousand bottles of vintage champagne from the collection of Taiwanese billionaire Pierre Chen.
Among the rarities will be a lot of five bottles of Salon Le Mesnil, Blanc de Blancs 1971, estimated at 18 thousand euros. Bidders will also be able to compete for champagne from leading brands, including Krug, Dom Perignon, Salon and Roederer, including those from the 1950s.
This is the second of five international auctions to sell 25 thousand bottles of Chen’s wines. The first one took place last November in Hong Kong and brought in $16.8 million.
Ukraine will take part in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France, the Ministry of Youth and Sports said.
“These games have a special meaning for Ukraine, because it is an opportunity to show the world our will and strength of spirit. Ukraine’s slogan at the Olympic Games is “The Will to Win” This time for Ukraine, the Olympics is, first of all, a big screen to the world. We have to remind that Ukraine is, fights and is able to win. The very fact that in Paris perform under the Ukrainian flag is a great demonstration of willpower,” – stated in the press service of the Ministry of sports.
As reported, the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine (NOC) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine have developed recommendations for Ukrainian athletes regarding contacts with Russian and Belarusian athletes at the Olympic Games 2024 in Paris (France).
Raphaël Glucksmann, a member of the European parliament and the lead socialist candidate in France in the upcoming EU elections, has urged Emmanuel Macron to be “firm” against China and “not to remain silent in the face of the crimes” against the Uyghurs.
In an interview with France Inter radio on Monday morning he said it was wrong to roll out the red carpet in the way Macron has for the Chinese president.
“You can receive him, you can talk to anyone, but not like this. Not by taking him to the vacation village of his childhood, to his grandfather’s house, not, as the Élysée puts it, by giving this visit a friendly setting because Xi Jinping is not our friend. In addition to deporting the Uyghur people, repressing the Tibetans and Hong Kongers, suppressing opponents and threatening the Taiwanese.”
Glucksmann also claimed that China is killing French green tech putting solar panel companies out of business with its cut-price alternatives.
“We used to have solar panel champions in France and Europe. Today, how many companies produce solar panels in France? There’s only one left.
He added: “What I want for us is to no longer be the gall guys,” he said noting that when Canada sees distortions in trade with the Chinese it imposed tariffs of over 200%. “In Europe they charge 15%. That’s not a deterrent.”
Starting September 1, it will be impossible to rent electric scooters in Paris, RTBF TV channel reported on Sunday.
According to the channel, the city hall does not intend to renew contracts with three private operators who have deployed a fleet of these vehicles in Paris, which will become the first European capital to ban the service of providing electric scooters to the public.
Providers of this service must remove the scooters from the streets of Paris by the end of August.
This decision is based on the results of a city referendum on the use of electric scooters. More than 100 thousand Parisians took part in the vote. The ban was supported by 89% of those who took part in the referendum on April 2.
The reason for this vote was the problems caused by scooters scattered randomly throughout the city, but especially the concern for the safety of their users.
The RTBF notes the criticism of this referendum by the companies concerned, who primarily point to the low turnout of 7.46%. “The turnout could have been more active and representative if the voting methods had been different: more polling stations, electronic voting, municipal information,” the three private operators wrote in a joint communiqué.
In 2022, about 400 thousand trips on electric scooters were recorded in Paris, the TV channel reported.
