News Mash-up: Political Trouble

Cuba sees biggest protests in decades Chanting “Freedom!” and calling for President Miguel Diaz-Canel to step down, thousands of Cubans joined street protests from Havana to Santiago on July 11 in the biggest anti-government demonstrations on the Communist-run island in decades. The protests erupted amid Cuba’s worst economic crisis since the fall of the Soviet Union, its old ally, and a record surge in coronavirus infections, with people voicing anger over shortages of basic goods, curbs on civil liberties and the authorities’ handling of the pandemic. (Reuters) Belarusian athlete granted visa by Poland A Belarusian athlete who took refuge in the Polish Embassy in Tokyo on Aug. 2, a day after refusing team orders to board a flight home from the Olympic Games, has been granted a humanitarian visa by government in Warsaw. Sprinter Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, 24, plans to leave for Poland in the coming days, a Polish deputy foreign minister said. The European Union welcomed Poland’s decision and said the repatriation attempt was further evidence of “brutal repression” by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. (Reuters) These articles were provided by The Japan Times Alpha.