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Paris Olympics: The best (and the worst) of the first medal day

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Paris Olympics: The best (and the worst) of the first medal day

Australia lead medal table as France end Fiji’s dominance in rugby sevens. But a wave of rows on the opening ceremony is partially overshadowing the competitions.

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Medals have started to be handed out at the Paris Olympics, on the fourth day of the event following Friday’s massive opening ceremony on the Seine River.

Australia are currently leading the medal table (5) with the US, followed by France (4), and China (3), who scooped the very first gold medal of Paris 2024 on Saturday.

But a wave of controversies, on and off the competition grounds are somehow overshadowing the sport-side of the event.

Let’s take a look at the latest from Paris.

Canada football coach banned, team deducted six points after spying scandal

FIFA deducted six points from Canada in the Paris Olympics women’s football tournament and banned three coaches for one year each after two assistant coaches were caught using drones to spy on opponent New Zealand’s training before their Wednesday clash.

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The punishments include a nearly €208,000 fine for the Canadian football federation in a case that has spiralled at the Summer Games.

France win rugby sevens gold medal ending Fiji’s ruling

Antoine Dupont scored two tries and created another to deliver a coveted gold medal for France on Saturday and end two-time champion Fiji’s Olympic dominance in rugby sevens.

The world’s best rugby player was saved for the second half in a tactical ploy that worked to perfection when he swung momentum with his first touch of the ball and then guided France to an emphatic 28-7 victory.

China scoop first Paris gold, aim for diving clean sweep

China’s Chang Yani and Chen Yiwen ranked first in Saturday’s women’s synchronized 3-meter springboard, a discipline ruled by Beijing for decades.

The team are aiming to scoop eight diving medals out of eight in Paris, after missing the historic achievement in Tokyo 2020 by one only.

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Australia win women’s 400-meter freestyle and lead medal table

It was billed as one of the most anticipated races of the Paris Olympics, and Ariarne Titmus turned it into a blowout. The Aussie swimmer led from start to finish, living up to her ‘Terminator’ nickname to win gold in the women’s 400-meter freestyle.

Georgian shooter becomes first 10-time female Olympian

Georgian shooter Nino Salukvadze has become the first woman to compete at 10 Olympic Games in a career that began representing the Soviet Union.

Salukvadze has competed at every Summer Olympics since 1988 – when she won gold. She set her latest record when she stepped into the shooting range for qualification in the women’s 10-meter air pistol on Saturday, where however she placed 38th.

But she gets another shot at a medal Friday in qualification for the 25-meter pistol event.

Latest tests show Seine water quality was substandard when Paris mayor took dip

Tests by monitoring group Eau de Paris show that E. coli levels were then above the safe limit of 900 colony-forming units per 100 millilitres determined by European rules on July 17, when Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo took a swim.

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Heavy rain during the opening ceremony revived concerns over whether the long-polluted waterway will be clean enough to host swimming competitions.

French bishops turn against Olympics over ‘mockery of Christianity’

Saturday’s opening ceremony depicted an alleged reinterpretation of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ featuring drag queens as well as a nearly naked Dionisus.

It didn’t go down well with the French Catholic Church’s conference of bishops, as they called it a “derision and mockery of Christianity” and sent “thoughts” to “the Christians from all continents who were hurt by the outrage and provocation of certain scenes.”

But the show’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, said his wish was to “be subversive, nor to mock or to shock”.

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“Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”

South Korea fuming as athletes get introduced as North Koreans in opening ceremony

Olympic Games organizers said they “deeply apologise” for introducing South Korea’s athletes as North Korean during the opening ceremony in Paris on Friday.

Seoul’s authorities requested a meeting with IOC President Thomas Bach over the incident and are also planning to file “a strong government-level complaint” with the French government.

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Bach called South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Saturday and apologized over the incident.

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Polish journalist suspended for calling ‘Imagine’ a ‘vision of communism’

Poland’s state broadcaster suspended a journalist who during the Olympic Games opening ceremony reacted to a performance of John Lennon’s “Imagine” saying it was a “vision of communism.”

Przemyslaw Babiarz won’t be allowed to comment on anything else Paris Olympics-related

Lennon’s song asks to imagine no heaven or hell, no countries, and no possessions.

“This is a vision of communism, unfortunately,” Babiarz said during the event.

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Paris roadblocks partially easing up

Street-blocking metal barricades and closed metro stations have been making life complicated for Parisians in the run-up to Saturday’s massive opening ceremony.

But now that it’s all over many hope parts of the city center will open back up. The Pont Des Invalides, a bridge spanning the Seine near the Eiffel Tower, was already opening up Saturday, and some police barricades were being taken down.

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“I’m hoping things will be a bit more flexible” in the coming days, said Antonio, who’s Portuguese and has lived in Paris for 42 years. “We have to do a ton of laps.”

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Video: She Moved to New Delhi for a Fresh Start, but the Air Made Her Sick

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Video: She Moved to New Delhi for a Fresh Start, but the Air Made Her Sick

new video loaded: She Moved to New Delhi for a Fresh Start, but the Air Made Her Sick

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She Moved to New Delhi for a Fresh Start, but the Air Made Her Sick

Since moving to New Delhi, which had the world’s worst air quality on Monday, Ameesha Munjal hasn’t been able to exercise or see friends. She has been on several medications to battle sickness caused by the pollution.

The pollution was so bad that I went to the doctor, and he just said that, ‘you should move out of the city. You won’t be able to survive in this air.’ There’s a steroid nasal spray, allergy medicines, fever medicines. I can’t go for a walk downstairs. I can’t even go to the balcony to do yoga. I have not been able to meet friends because the doctor just advised me not to go out, which is obviously very heartbreaking. Like, I have to leave the city that I’ve grown up in just because of the air.

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Iran told Biden administration it won't try to assassinate President-elect Trump: report

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Iran told Biden administration it won't try to assassinate President-elect Trump: report

In an unusual assurance to the Biden administration last month, Iran promised it would not assassinate Donald Trump in a secret exchange intended to ease tensions, U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal, according to a Friday report. 

The assurances reportedly came in a written message to the administration on Oct. 14, after the White House in September said it would take any attempt on Trump’s life as a serious national security that would reportedly “be treated as an act of war.”

IRAN DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN TRUMP ASSASSINATION PLOT OUTLINED IN DOJ REPORT: ‘MALICIOUS CONSPIRACY’

President Joe Biden meets with President-elect Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024, in Washington.  (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The Department of Justice last week outlined allegations levied at Tehran that detailed a plot by an Iranian agent to assassinate the former president from the campaign trail.

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The allegations came after a Pakistani man involved in an Iranian murder-for-hire scheme was charged by federal prosecutors in August with plotting to kill Trump.

Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the White House for comment on how it will act following the department’s charges last week.

Iran has long said it would seek revenge for the 2020 killing of its top military commander and chief of Iran’s Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated after then President Trump directed the U.S. military to kill him in Iraq.

Iranian General Qasem Soleimani

Iranian Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani (C) attends Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s (not seen) meeting with the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) in Tehran, Iran on September 18, 2016. (Press Office of Iranian Supreme Leader/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

IRAN DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN TRUMP ASSASSINATION PLOT OUTLINED IN DOJ REPORT: ‘MALICIOUS CONSPIRACY’

Soleimani has since been dubbed a hero and a martyr. 

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In response to the news that Iran has since pledged not to assassinate the now president-elect, the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations told Fox News Digital, “We do not issue public statements on the details of official messages exchanged between the two countries.”

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has long declared its commitment to pursuing Martyr Soleimani’s assassination through legal and judicial avenues, while adhering to the recognized principles of international law,” the Mission added. 

Trump points at supporters while standing in front of a row of US flags

Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump arrives to speak during an election night event at the Palm Beach Convention Center on November 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Florida.  (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The White House has not publicly commented on the report, and Fox News Digital could not immediately reach Trump’s transition team for the president-elect’s reaction to it. 

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, appeared to dismiss the Department of Justice’s allegations, calling the claims “third-rate comedy” earlier this week.

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Bangladesh ex-ministers face ‘massacre’ charges, Hasina probe deadline set

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Bangladesh ex-ministers face ‘massacre’ charges, Hasina probe deadline set

International Crimes Tribunal asks to complete probe against ex-PM Sheikh Hasina and submit a report by December 17.

More than a dozen Bangladeshi former top government officials arrested after a mass uprising in August have been charged with “enabling massacres” before a special tribunal which also told investigators they have one month to complete their work on former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

Dozens of Hasina’s allies were taken into custody since her regime collapsed, accused of involvement in a police crackdown that killed more than 1,000 people during the unrest that led to her removal and exile to India.

Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam on Monday said the 13 defendants, who included 11 former ministers, a judge and an ex-government secretary, were accused of command responsibility for the deadly crackdown on the student-led protest that toppled the regime.

“We have produced 13 defendants today, including 11 former ministers, a bureaucrat, and a judge,” Islam, the chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, told reporters. “They are complicit in enabling massacres by participating in planning, inciting violence, ordering law enforcement officers to shoot on sight, and obstructing efforts to prevent a genocide.”

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Hasina, who fled to New Delhi by helicopter on August 5, was also due in court in Dhaka on Monday to face charges of “massacres, killings, and crimes against humanity”, but she remained a fugitive in exile, with prosecutors repeating extradition demands for her.

Golam Mortuza Majumdar, the head judge of the three-member International Crimes Tribunal, set December 17 for investigators to finish their work. The deadline came after prosecutors sought more time for the investigation.

Hasina’s nearly 16-year tenure saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.

“The crimes that led to mass murders and genocide have occurred over the past 16 years across the country,” said Islam.

The tribunal’s chief prosecutor has already sought help from Interpol through the country’s police chief to arrest Hasina. India is a member of Interpol, but this does not mean New Delhi must hand Hasina over as each country applies their own laws on whether an arrest should be made.

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On Sunday, interim leader and Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus said his administration will seek her extradition from India – a request that could strain relations with a key regional ally, which maintained close ties with the removed leader throughout her time in power.

Yunus said as many as 3,500 people may have been abducted during Hasina’s “autocratic” rule.

Protests broke out across Bangladesh this summer after college students demanded the abolition of a controversial quota system in government jobs that they said favoured supporters of the governing party. Though Bangladesh’s top court scrapped the quota, the protests soon morphed into a wider call for Hasina’s removal from power.

The government’s response was one of the bloodiest chapters in Bangladesh’s history as security forces beat and fired tear gas and live ammunition on peaceful demonstrators, killing more than 1,000 people in three weeks and arresting thousands.

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