2021年8月2日星期一

Monday Briefing: Belarus sprinter seeks asylum

Monday, August 2, 2021

by Robert MacMillan

Hello

Here's what you need to know.

Belarusian sprinter seeks asylum after refusing to return home, Square drops $29 billion on Afterpay, Fauci says the U.S. won’t lock down again

Today's biggest stories

Krystsina Tsimanouskaya is seen inside a police box at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo, August 1, 2021. Reuters/Issei Kato

World

Sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, walked into the Polish embassy in Tokyo to seek asylum, a day after refusing to board a flight home to Belarus. The Belarusian team took her to the airport against her wishes on Sunday following her complaints on Instagram about her coaches. Once there, she sought protection from Japanese police.

Madeira, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura… Drawn by sun, sea and speedy Wi-Fi, remote workers are converging on Europe's southernmost islands to try "workcationing" before employers order them back to the office.

Australia rolled out the army to make sure people in Sydney obey rules to stay at home as New South Wales and neighboring Queensland slog through an outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta variant.

The Biden administration will launch a new program to resettle certain Afghans as refugees in the United States, with an official announcement to come on Monday. Some Afghans risk Taliban retaliation because of their association with the United States during the 20-year U.S. war.

Dr. Anthony Fauci speaks during a Senate committee hearing in Washington, D.C., July 20, 2021. Stefani Reynolds/Pool via Reuters

U.S.

The United States will not enter another COVID-19 lockdown, but things will get worse because the Delta variant is fueling a rise in cases, mostly among the unvaccinated, Dr. Anthony Fauci says.

The largest public-works legislation in decades arrived after lengthy negotiations. Senators on Sunday introduced the $1 trillion plan to invest in roads, bridges, ports, high-speed internet and more, with some predicting the chamber could pass the bill this week.

A pandemic-related ban on residential evictions expired over the weekend, putting millions of American renters at risk of being forced from their homes.

A fundraising group run by former President Donald Trump raised $62 million in the first half of the year but only spent $3 million, with the biggest chunk of money going to a pro-Trump research center and more than $65,000 to Trump's own hotels, according to federal records.

The Afterpay app seen on a mobile phone. Illustration by Loren Elliott/Reuters

Business

Square Inc, the payments firm of Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, will purchase buy now, pay later company Afterpay Ltd for $29 billion. The takeover underscores the popularity of a business model that has upended consumer credit by charging merchants a fee to offer small point-of-sale loans which their shoppers repay in interest-free instalments, bypassing credit checks. AfterPay’s founders stand to become billionaires.

Zoom agreed to pay $85 million and bolster its security practices to settle a lawsuit claiming it violated users' privacy rights by sharing personal data with Facebook, Google and LinkedIn, and letting hackers disrupt Zoom meetings in a practice called Zoombombing.

Disney took off the cute mouse gloves and aimed a few punches at Scarlett Johansson after she sued them, saying she showed “callous disregard” for doing so during a pandemic. It's a sign that her lawsuit, alleging breach of contract over the streaming release of the film "Black Widow" caught Hollywood’s attention.

Heineken has a pretty good head to display atop its financial results for the first half of the year, but rising costs of commodities such barley, sugar and aluminum, along with the end of hedging contracts to mitigate those increases, could flatten things out for the brewer over the next year.

Olympics

See our full coverage of Tokyo 2020

Quote of the day

"In big factories - when you're making the same thing over and over, day after day, robots make total sense... but not for us."

Rich Gent

Runs the Gent machine shop with his brother

The robot apocalypse is hard to find in America's small and mid-sized factories

Video of the day

Japan says Belarusian athlete is 'safe' in Tokyo

And finally…

Pandas, of course

Huan Huan and her twin cubs are seen inside their enclosure at the Beauval zoo in Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher, France, August 2, 2021. ZooParc de Beauval via Reuters.

More from Reuters

COVID-19 Investigates Legal news The Great Reboot

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