International
Cuban women, finally, in boxing ring
| By AFP | Carlos Batista |
With a strong right jab to the face of her opponent, Elianni Garcia Polledo on Saturday won the first official women’s boxing match in sports-crazed Cuba.
“It is a historic result for Cuban boxing,” said one of the judges over the loudspeaker when announcing the “unanimous” decision for Garcia, from Havana province, over Reynabell Grant, from Guantanamo. Both are 27.
Dressed in red and shorter, Garcia tirelessly landed powerful blows with both hands that hit her opponent’s face, shoulders and abdomen several times.
That is, until the decisive blow, in the third round, left Grant down for the count and ultimately decided the fight.
It was the beginning of the first official women’s boxing program, something that many women and authorities of this sport expected in Cuba, an island that boasts 80 world boxing titles and 41 Olympic gold medals in boxing, including the legendary Teofilo Stevenson.
Finally, Cuban sports authorities gave a green light for women on December 5.
“This is a moment that we have been preparing for, for several years,” Alberto Puig de la Barca, president of the Cuban Boxing Federation, told AFP.
In the end, there will be 12 females — two for each division, which will be the preselection of the team for the Central American games in San Salvador, in August 2023 and other international events.
“She (García) just kept working on the offensive, looking to shorten the distance,” Raul Fernandez, 55, one of her trainers, told AFP at the end of the fight.
Garcia, who says she came to boxing from athletics, now looks optimistically at her future in boxing.
‘Bittersweet’
“I have a bittersweet feeling, because I cannot represent Cuba,” Namibia Flores told AFP. At 46, she is six years older than the age maximum in this sport.
But she can be there outside the ring: “Right now, I am the only trainer and I was one of the first girls who is training since 2006,” she says.
At 70 years old and already retired, Nardo Mestre could not miss this moment.
He was the trainer of Flores and many other girls for nearly 30 years, when, he remembers, Alcides Sagarra, the father of the Cuban Boxing School, arrived one afternoon suggesting the need to train women.
So “it was never approved. Now it was authorized and I am already retired, but proud because five of the girls that I trained are here today,” he told AFP.
Cuba has had female representation in all sports, including weightlifting and wrestling, since 2006, but the last bastion of “sports machismo” long was insurmountable: letting women box.
Women’s boxing is now practiced in 187 of the 202 member countries of the International Boxing Association (IBA).
Women made their debut at the London 2012 Olympic Games, with three divisions.
It has yet to be determined if Cuba could be represented by its women in the next Boxing World Cup in Tashkent, capital of Uzbekistan, next May.
International
Man arrested after deliberately driving into seven children in Osaka
Japanese police arrested a man on Thursday after he rammed his car into a group of seven schoolchildren in an apparent deliberate attack in the city of Osaka.
The children, who were on their way home from school, sustained injuries and were taken to the hospital. All seven remained conscious, according to local authorities.
An Osaka police officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the suspect is a 28-year-old man from Tokyo. The officer shared statements the man made after his arrest: “I was fed up with everything, so I decided to kill people by driving into several elementary school children,” the suspect reportedly said.
The man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
The injured children, aged between seven and eight, included a seven-year-old girl who suffered a fractured jaw. The six other children—all boys—suffered minor injuries such as bruises and scratches and were undergoing medical evaluation.
Witnesses described the car as “zigzagging” before hitting the children. One witness told Nippon TV that a girl was “covered in blood” and the others appeared to have scratches.
Another witness said the driver, who was wearing a face mask, looked to be in shock when school staff pulled him from the vehicle.
Violent crimes are rare in Japan, though serious incidents do occur from time to time. In 2008, Tomohiro Kato drove a two-ton truck into pedestrians in Tokyo’s Akihabara district, then fatally stabbed several victims. Seven people were killed in that attack.
Internacionales
Clashes erupt during may day protests across France amid calls for better wages
May Day protests in France were marked by a heavy police presence and clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement in several cities.
In Paris, Lyon, and Nantes, thousands took to the streets to demand better wages, fairer working conditions, and to voice their dissatisfaction with President Emmanuel Macron’s government.
While the majority of the demonstrations remained peaceful, isolated confrontations broke out in some areas. Protesters threw objects at the police, prompting the use of tear gas and resulting in several arrests.
Videos showing police crackdowns circulated widely on social media, drawing criticism from labor unions and human rights advocates, who denounced the authorities’ response to the protests.
International
Kristi Noem credits Trump for mass migrant deportations by mexican president
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem claimed that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has deported “more than half a million” migrants due to pressure from former President Donald Trump.
During a cabinet meeting highlighting the “achievements” of Trump’s administration in its first 100 days, Noem asserted that under the Republican leader’s influence, “Mexico has finally come to the table” to negotiate on migration and fentanyl trafficking.
“The president of Mexico told me she has returned just over half a million people before they reached our border,” Noem stated, criticizing media reports that suggest the Biden administration deported more migrants than Trump’s.
“I wish those deportations were counted,” Noem added, “because those people never made it to our border—she sent them back because you made her.” She went on to thank Trump: “They never made it here because they got the message—because you were so aggressive.”
Noem has made controversial claims about Sheinbaum in the past, prompting the Mexican leader to refute them.
On April 1, Sheinbaum responded to one such statement by declaring, “The president answers to only one authority, and that is the people of Mexico,” after Noem said on Fox News that she gave Sheinbaum “a list of things Trump would like to see” and that Mexico’s actions would determine whether Trump granted tariff relief.
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