
'They took away my dream': Belarusian sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya on a life-changing week
CNN
Belarusian sprinter Kristina Timanovskaya was set to compete in the women's 200 meters at the Tokyo Olympics on Monday, with hopes that her hard work would catapult her onto the awards podium. Instead, she has been thrust into the global spotlight for her moves off the track.
According to Timanovskaya, representatives of the Belarus national team tried to forcibly send her back to her home country after she criticized sporting authorities in an Instagram post on Friday. The 24-year-old athlete, citing fear she might be jailed, refused to board the flight from Japan on Monday -- and was granted a humanitarian visa from Poland that same day. Her Instagram post was not explicitly political, but Belarusian athletes have faced retaliation, been detained, and excluded from national teams for criticizing the government following mass protests last year against strongman president Alexander Lukashenko.
The Pentagon has ordered the military command that oversees new recruits’ enlistment to hold off on initial training for people who are HIV-positive and recently enlisted in the military, CNN has learned, saying that a decision on reinstating a Defense Department ban on their joining the military was “expected in the next few weeks.”

The European Union and the Mercosur bloc of South American countries formally signed a long-sought landmark free trade agreement on Saturday, capping more than a quarter-century of torturous negotiations to strengthen commercial ties in the face of rising protectionism and trade tensions around the world.

Judge restricts federal response to Minnesota protests amid outrage over immigration agents’ tactics
Immigration agents carrying out a sweeping operation in Minnesota can’t deploy certain crowd-control measures against peaceful protesters or arrest them, a federal judge ruled Friday. The order follows widespread outrage over a fatal shooting, reports of US citizens getting detained and Minnesotans getting asked for documents for no clear reason.

The smell of wet grass from the recent atmospheric river rains, mud and gasoline wafts through the warm Southern California air as Alec Derpetrossian works the chainsaw with a foreman, Randy Magaña, who helps him guide where to put the blade. Derpetrossian is still learning how to adequately use the large tool.









