Belarus sprinter arrives in Vienna amid safety fears
A plane carrying a Belarusian Olympic sprinter seeking refuge landed in Austria on Wednesday after she resisted an attempt by her Olympic team’s officials to send her home, where she feared reprisals from the authoritarian government.
Krystsina Tsimanouskaya boarded a plane at Tokyo’s Narita International Airport that left for Vienna, but she was expected to travel on to Poland, which has offered her a humanitarian visa. Before leaving Japan, the 24-year-old Tsimanouskaya said she hoped she could continue her running career but that safety was her immediate priority.
Her husband fled the country quickly this week when he realized that his wife would not return to Belarus.
Vienna Airport said the direct flight that Tsimanouskaya boarded landed Wednesday evening. Vadim Krivosheyev, an activist with the Belarusian Sport Solidarity Foundation, said Tsimanouskaya took the flight to Austria instead of Warsaw on the advice of Polish authorities.
“The decision to change the route and fly to Vienna was made by the Polish side for security reasons,” Krivosheyev said.
Tsimanouskaya was expected to head to Warsaw later Wednesday, according to Krivosheyev.
Tsimanouskaya’s experience at the Tokyo Games became an international issue after she accused Belarusian team officials of hustling her to the airport several days ago and trying to put her on a plane to Belarus because she had criticized the team’s management on social media. The team officials said she would face reprisals back home, she said.
The officials “made it clear that, upon return home, I would definitely face some form of punishment,” Tsimanouskaya told the AP in a videocall from Tokyo on Tuesday. “There were also thinly disguised hints that more would await me.”
Greek island residents flee wildfire by sea; EU sends help
Coast guard vessels helped with evacuations Wednesday on the Greek island of Evia, where residents escaping wildfires fled to a beach for safety. Fire crews across the country struggled amid a record heat wave to contain new blazes, including one near the birthplace of the ancient Olympic Games.
The European Union sent assistance to Greece and other countries in southeast Europe that are grappling with huge wildfires after a blaze Tuesday burned more than 100 homes and businesses near the Greek capital of Athens.
Evacuations were also taking place in Greece’s southern Peloponnese region, which was facing a major fire near ancient Olympia — where the Olympics were held every four years from 776 B.C. for more than a millennium.
Defense secretary weighs recommending vaccine mandate
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will decide in the next few days whether to recommend that President Joe Biden make coronavirus vaccinations mandatory for the country’s 1.3 million active-duty troops, military officials said, signaling a major move by the administration to harden the country’s defenses against the highly contagious delta variant.
Biden announced last week that all federal employees and on-site contractors must be vaccinated against the coronavirus or be required to submit to regular testing and other measures. The requirement extended to the 766,372 civilians working for the Defense Department but not active-duty servicemembers.
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