Good morning, readers!

Happy Friday! Are you ready to kick off a long weekend (if you’re in the US)?

We certainly are. Since we spend most of our lives online, scouring the internet for juicy geopolitics news to dissect, we are thrilled to connect with our loved ones more this weekend.

Have a great weekend!

Today’s geopolitics hotspots:

Iranian lifter banned for life for shaking Israeli’s hand

This is Mostafa Rajaei, an Iranian weightlifter.

He broke the world record for the clean and jerk in his age group. But instead of being celebrated, he was banned for life from his sport.

Why? Because he shook hands with an Israeli competitor at a world championship event in Poland.

🖍️ The red line.

In 2021, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged athletes:

The Iran Weightlifting Federation accused Rajaei of crossing the “red lines of the Islamic Republic.”

🔥 Iran vs Israel.

Iran doesn’t recognize Israel and forbids any contact between its athletes and Israelis. So any contact between their athletes is a no-go.

Rajaei isn’t the first Iranian athlete to face consequences though, as others have been banned or left the country over similar issues.

Iranian athletes’ solution? Make up excuses or even sacrifice medals.

✍🏻 Alleged instances.

• 2019: Alireza Firouzja fled Iran after being banned from playing in the World Chess Chanpionship, due to fears he might face an Israeli opponent.

• 2019: Saeid Mollaei was ordered to withdraw from the World Judo championships.

🌟 Today’s gem

Quick updates

🇯🇵 Japan:

🐟 Japan’s PM bites back at China’s fishy ban.

Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Tokyo’s Toyosu fish market to show support for the seafood industry hit by China’s “unscientific” ban on Japanese seafood due to fears that it may contain radioactive elements.

The US ambassador to Japan also visited Fukushima on Thursday to take a bite of the seafood.

🇷🇺 Russia:

Wagner boss jokes about his death before fatal crash. 

The head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, was seen in a new video mocking rumors of his demise. He said he was “fine” in Africa in the “second half of August.”

Could he have faked his death?

🇷🇺 Russia:

Putin’s space chief mysteriously dies after eating toxic mushrooms.

Professor Vitaly Melnikov was behind Russia’s recent failed moon mission, which ended in a fiery crash and humiliation.

• He had been battling “sever poisoning” for two weeks.

• The Russian Lunar lander crashed on August 19th.

Coincidence or conspiracy?

🇳🇪 Niger:

France’s ambassador booted by Niger’s junta.

• First, the coup leaders gave Sylvain Itté 48 hours to leave the country.

• Then, France refused, stating that they don’t recognize the junta as legitimate authorities.

• Now, France’s ambassador has been stripped of his diplomatic immunity and Niger’s police have been ordered to expel him.

🇺🇸 US:

US gives $80M in its first-ever military aid to Taiwan.

You didn’t like the US funding a foreign war in Ukraine? Well, now it is funding Taiwan.

Biden’s move effectively recognized Taiwan as a sovereign nation, as the funding comes from the foreign military financing (FMF) program.

China says it will “take all necessary measures to resolutely counter this.