LAUSANNE, Switzerland  Russia announced on Saturday that ten of its wrestlers, who were awarded neutral slots at the Paris Olympics, will refuse to compete.

The Russian Wrestling Federation said that its executives, coaches, and athletes met and “came to a unanimous decision — to refuse to participate in the Olympic Games.”

The wrestlers would have been the greatest number of Russians in any single discipline competing in Paris under the International Olympic Committee’s Individual Neutral Athlete policy, which allowed some athletes from Russia and its partner Belarus to compete during the conflict in Ukraine.

Russia Says It Won’t Send Wrestlers To The Paris Olympics As Neutrals

The IOC earlier stated that it invited ten Russian wrestlers to the Paris Olympics, and their website lists nine of them as having consented to compete, with one declining.

The IOC waited to respond to a request for comment on Saturday’s announcement by the Russian wrestling federation, whether it believed the wrestlers were under any pressure to decline and whether it would support any wrestler who wanted to compete despite the federation’s desires.

The federation opposed the IOC’s selection of wrestlers to invite. It stated that Russians had qualified for up to 16 slots at the Paris Olympics rather than 10 and that six of those invited were “far from the status of Russian team leaders.” The organization revealed the names of elite Russian wrestlers who did not receive invitations and stated that the Olympic event would be devalued.

“Any sane person understands that the status of the Olympic Games as the most significant sporting event is being questioned, and wrestling competitions without Russian athletes will be incomplete, and the champions will not receive the satisfaction of winning the Olympic tournament,” according to the statement.

The IOC earlier stated that it would only invite Russian and Belarusian athletes who had no ties to the security services or military and had not publicly supported the war. They would compete in neutral clothing, not under their country flag.

Some Russian sportsmen and authorities have welcomed competing in the Paris Olympics under such conditions, while others have called for boycotts. Unlike other Russian sports bodies, the wrestling federation sent athletes to compete in qualifying contests.

Russia Says It Won’t Send Wrestlers To The Paris Olympics As Neutrals

Last Monday, the Russian Judo Federation announced that its board had not sent any participants to Paris. Its statement did not explain what its athletes believed. In an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press on Tuesday, the IOC said it was awaiting a “individual reply” from the judo athletes. The IOC website displays one Russian judo competitor as having accepted an invitation.

As of Sunday, the IOC website identified 23 Russian competitors from seven sports who have accepted invitations to the Paris Olympics, including the wrestlers. Daniil Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, is one of six tennis players who the IOC claims have accepted.

SOURCE – (AP)

Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) party led the first round of France’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, according to preliminary forecasts, while President Emmanuel Macron’s party fell to third place.

According to first IPSOS estimates, the far-right alliance led by the National Rally (RN) received 34% of the vote, followed by the left-wing alliance with 28.1%, while Macron’s party came in third with 20.3%.

Macron On Course To Lose Big As Far Right Surges In French Parliamentary Elections First Round

After the second round of voting next Sunday, projections indicate that the RN will win between 230 and 280 members in the 577-seat National Assembly, falling short of the 289 required for an absolute majority.

The recently created left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front (NFP), would have between 125 and 165 seats, while Macron’s Ensemble and allies would have 70 to 100.

Macron On Course To Lose Big As Far Right Surges In French Parliamentary Elections First Round

The forecast indicates that the RN, from which Le Pen has worked to eradicate the racism and antisemitism that flourished under her father’s decades-long leadership, is closer to power than it has ever been, with the second round of voting scheduled for next Sunday.

The RN election party in the northern town of Henin Beaumont erupted in celebration when the results were announced.

SOURCE – (CNN)

After Canada’s Liberal Party lost a terrible by-election, a Liberal MP became the first current member of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s caucus to call for him to step down.

Liberal MP Wayne Long said they needed new leadership “for the future of our party and the good the country.” “The voters have spoken loud and clear, and they want a change,” Mr. Long said from his seat in the New Brunswick legislature.

Long’s comment comes after the Liberals lost a seat in Toronto they had held since 1993 in a terrible by-election on Monday. Mr. Long has been an MP since 2015 and has said in the past that he will not be running for office again.

The National Post says that Ken McDonald, an MP from Newfoundland, responded to all of Mr. Long’s emails with “well said!”

In the past few days, other former Liberal leaders have also asked Mr. Trudeau to step down. Kate McKenna was one of them. From 2015 to 2019, she was Mr. Trudeau’s environment minister.

This party isn’t just about one person. “It’s about the values it stands for and making Canadians’ lives better,” Ms. McKenna said in a statement that she gave to the Associated Press.

It’s time for new ideas, new energy, and a new boss. The prime minister has a lot to be proud of. Christy Clark, who used to be the Liberal Premier of British Columbia, said something similar to the Toronto Star on Thursday.

“He doesn’t have the pull with voters he once had,” Ms. Clark said of the prime minister. “More importantly, he isn’t even able to motivate some of the people in the country who are most likely to vote for his party.”

Support for Trudeau Diminishing

There are a lot of reasons why Mr. Trudeau’s support has dropped a lot, including the rising cost of living. According to a new study by Ipsos for Global News, as many as 68% of Canadians want Mr. Trudeau to step down.

Also, there are more calls for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to step down, but a new poll shows that the Liberal Party is already too far gone for his exit to save it. The Angus Reid Institute released a poll on Monday that showed most people were already disappointed with the Liberal Party, no matter who was in charge.

An poll found that getting rid of the unpopular prime minister might not help the party’s chances in the elections.

There are a lot of polls that show that most Canadians are already planning to vote against the Liberals. An earlier this month study by Abacus Data found that support for the Liberal Democrats was so low that the party could end up in an unheard-of fourth place in the House of Commons.

During the same time period, an Ipsos study found that 68% of people wanted Trudeau to step down as prime minister.

But Angus Reid interviewers focused on the 37% of Canadians who were still “thinking about” voting Liberal in the next election. If you asked people what was most likely to keep them from voting Liberal, only 31% said it was because they didn’t like Trudeau.

48% of those who weren’t sure were Liberal because the party “hasn’t made progress on issues I find important.”

The poll also found that the Liberal Party’s luck would probably get even worse if it was given to one of Trudeau’s likely replacements.

Freeland and Mark Carney?

According to the poll, 12 people could take over as Liberal leader. The least likely was Carolyn Mulroney, who was a cabinet member under Ontario Premier Doug Ford. The most likely was Deputy Prime member Chrystia Freeland.

Only two names were slightly more appealing than Trudeau, even among people leaning Liberal: Freeland and Mark Carney, who used to be governor of the Bank of Canada according to the National Post.

The people who were not Dominic LeBlanc, Mark Miller, or Mélanie Joly were more likely to scare away Liberal voters who knew what they were doing.

“Overall, it looks like even a new leader would not be able to win over swing voters in the near future,” the institute wrote.

Trudeau’s personal popularity helped the Liberals win the election in 2015, but for more than a year now, he’s been bad for the party’s electoral prospects.

Trudeau’s personal approval rate is at an all-time low. The Angus Reid Institute’s Trudeau Tracker last showed that only 28% of people approved of him, while 66% did not. He’s also constantly losing popularity polls to Pierre Poilievre, which didn’t happen with Andrew Scheer and Erin O’Toole when they were Conservative leaders before.

According to the Angus Reid Institute study, the Liberals have reached the point where they can no longer avoid losing the next election by calling for a new leader.

It’s important to note that the study was done before the shocking results of the byelection in Toronto–St. Paul’s were known. On Monday, a Conservative candidate who wasn’t well known won a Toronto riding that had been one of the Liberals’ strongest seats for 31 years.

One person who watched said that the results showed that the Liberals could lose every single riding in the country in the next general election.

Source: AP, National Post