Covid-19 Vaccine Health Pass Fuels French Protests - The Wall Street Journal

Opponents of a mandatory health pass protested in Paris Saturday.

Photo: christophe petit tesson/Shutterstock

French protesters took to the streets for the third consecutive Saturday to protest new restrictions on people unvaccinated against Covid-19, a growing movement that threatens to complicate the country’s coronavirus response.

More than 204,000 protesters—many decrying what they called a “health dictatorship” and carrying banners and French flags reading “Freedom!”— marched in cities across France, including Marseille and Lyon, according to estimates from France’s interior ministry.

In Paris, where 14,000 people were estimated to have participated in four separate marches, police mobilized 3,000 officers across the city. In late afternoon there were scattered scuffles near Place de la Bastille with police, who threw tear-gas canisters into the crowd.

The weekly protests are a new challenge for President Emmanuel Macron, who said in mid-July that a health pass would be necessary to enter places like restaurants, as a way to avoid a new shutdown in the face of fast-rising coronavirus cases. The health pass is a scannable code to prove that an individual has been completely vaccinated against Covid-19, has recovered from it within the prior six months or has recently tested negative for it.

Police encountered demonstrators in Paris Saturday.

Photo: alain jocard/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

It is coming into effect as the Delta variant has pushed the average number of new cases diagnosed per day in France up nearly fourfold to more than 21,000. Deaths in hospitals each day from Covid-19 have nearly doubled to an average of 33 in the last week.

The health pass has sparked millions of vaccinations in France. The most recent data show that on average, France is administering 355,000 first doses a day, compared with 161,000 in early July. The number of people at least partially vaccinated in France, 61%, now outpaces that in the U.S., at 58%, according to Our World in Data, an Oxford University project tracking the global vaccine rollout.

Covid-19’s Delta variant is proliferating world-wide threatening unvaccinated populations and economic recovery. WSJ breaks down events in key countries to explain why Delta spreads faster than previously detected strains. Composite: Sharon Shi The Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition

The weekly nature of the protests reprise a pattern from France’s yellow-vest movement that was born in 2018 out of rural opposition to a gas tax aimed at lowering carbon emissions but swelled into weekly antiestablishment protests that focused in large part against Mr. Macron and his policies.

Many of the protesters Saturday wore yellow vests, and some of the protests were organized by leaders of that movement. But many weren’t. One man near Paris’s Place de la Bastille carried a poster with the face of George Orwell. A woman wore a shirt that read “my body, my choice.”

A demonstrator clashed with police in Paris.

Photo: geoffroy van der hasselt/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

The health pass stoking the protests has for more than a week been obligatory in France to go to the movies or museums. A new law passed in an emergency session of France’s parliament last weekend will—pending a review by France’s constitutional council—extend the pass to both indoor and outdoor dining at restaurants, bars and cafes, as well as long-distance travel by train, bus or plane. Places necessary for everyday life, like grocery stores and small shops, don’t require a health pass under the new law.

Last Saturday, as parliament was debating the new law, some 161,000 people protested across France, according to the interior ministry, including 11,000 in Paris. There were some scattered skirmishes with police near the Arc de Triomphe, where police threw tear-gas canisters to disperse the crowd, and people chanted “freedom.”

“There’s no such thing as freedom where I owe nothing to anyone,” Mr. Macron said last weekend in response to the protests. “If tomorrow you infect your father, your mother or me, then I’m the victim of your freedom. That’s not freedom. It’s called selfishness.”

Write to Sam Schechner at sam.schechner@wsj.com

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Biden Promised to Restore the Iran Nuclear Deal. Now It Risks Derailment. - The New York Times

Both sides have much to lose if a delicate negotiation over limiting Iran’s activities in return for a lifting of sanctions falls short.

WASHINGTON — Days before a new hard-line president is set to be inaugurated in Iran, Biden administration officials have turned sharply pessimistic about their chances of quickly restoring the nuclear deal that President Donald J. Trump dismantled, fearing that the new government in Tehran is speeding ahead on nuclear research and production and preparing new demands for the United States.

The concerns are a reversal from just a month ago, when American negotiators, based in part on assurances from the departing Iranian government, believed they were on the cusp of reaching a deal before Ebrahim Raisi, 60, a deeply conservative former head of the judiciary, takes office on Thursday. In June, they were so confident that another round of talks was imminent that a leading American negotiator left his clothes in storage at a hotel in Vienna, where the talks took place through European intermediaries for the past four months.

That session never happened. International inspectors have been virtually blinded. At Iran’s major enrichment site at Natanz, centrifuges are spinning at supersonic speeds, beginning to enrich small amounts of nuclear fuel at near bomb-grade. Elsewhere, some uranium is being turned to metallic form — for medical purposes, the Iranians insist, though the technology is also useful for forming warheads.

It is unclear whether Mr. Raisi will retain the existing Iranian negotiating team or replace them with his own loyalists, who will presumably be determined to show they can drive a harder bargain, getting more sanctions relief in return for temporary limits on Iran’s nuclear activities.

“There’s a real risk here that they come back with unrealistic demands about what they can achieve in these talks,” Robert Malley, the lead American negotiator, said in an interview.

Both sides have much to lose if the diplomacy fails. For President Biden, getting the 2015 nuclear accord back on track is a top goal, in hopes of containing, once more, a nuclear program that has resumed with a vengeance three years after Mr. Trump withdrew from it. It is also critical to Mr. Biden’s effort to restore damaged relations with European allies, who negotiated the original deal, along with the United States, Russia and China.

Mr. Biden’s aides make no secret of their concerns that the Iranians are learning so much from the work now underway that in the near future, perhaps as early as this fall, it may be impossible to return to the old accord. “At that point, we will have to reassess the way forward,” Mr. Malley said. “We hope it doesn’t come to that.”

For years, Mr. Raisi was an advocate of what Iranians call the “resistance economy,” based on the argument that Iran does not need trade with the world and had no need to open up. But during the campaign, he seemed to endorse restoring the deal, perhaps because he was under pressure to show that, unlike his predecessors, he has the skill and toughness to get rid of the American-led sanctions that have ravaged his country’s economy.

Now the economic burdens, worsened by a fifth wave of the coronavirus and water shortages that are partly the result of government mismanagement, have set off violent protests.

The new president will not be the final word on whether the deal is restored. That judgment still belongs to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is believed to have lined up the support for Mr. Raisi’s election. And on Wednesday, the ayatollah echoed a key demand: that the United States provide a guarantee that it can never again walk away from the pact the way Mr. Trump did.

“They once violated the nuclear deal at no cost by exiting it,” Ayatollah Khamenei said. “Now they explicitly say that they cannot give guarantees that it would not happen again.”

In fact, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Mr. Malley have said that in a democracy, there is no way to tie the hands of a future president and that the best way to preserve the deal is to show that it is working for both sides. “There is no such thing as a guarantee; that’s not in the nature of diplomacy,” Mr. Malley said. “But we don’t have any intent — the president doesn’t have any intent — of spending all these months negotiating a return to the deal in order to then withdraw.”

But the Iranians have found some sympathy, even among America’s European allies, for their argument, especially among those who fear that if Mr. Biden does not run for a second term, or a Trump-like figure gets elected, the accord could be blown up again.

“If it happened once, it could happen again,” one senior European diplomat involved in the negotiations said.

The new pessimism is a sharp change from a month ago. The departing government, led by President Hassan Rouhani and the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, knew their legacies were tied to the nuclear accord they negotiated for more than two years with President Barack Obama and the secretary of state at the time, John Kerry. In Vienna, the Iranians said they believed they had the authority to wrap up talks before Mr. Raisi was inaugurated, so that he could start afresh — and blame anything that went wrong in enforcing the accord on the incompetence of the old government.

They were wrong. The sixth round of negotiations, which ended with what one American official called “a near-complete agreement,” was followed by silence — and a refusal by the Iranians to return to Vienna. It is unclear when talks might resume.

Iran insisted that the nuclear talks be postponed until after Ebrahim Raisi, 60, a deeply conservative former head of the judiciary, is inaugurated as president.Mohsen Esmaeilzadeh/Agence France-Presse, via Isna News Agency/Afp Via Getty Images

Meanwhile, what has happened on the ground in Natanz, and in small research labs around the country, has the United States worried. The most visible problem, though in some ways the easiest to reverse, is that Iran has ratcheted up its production of nuclear fuel over the past two years, and now possesses far more fuel than it did before Mr. Trump pulled out of the agreement. At the time, he declared that Iran would return to the table, begging for a new deal.

It never did while Mr. Trump was in office, and by late last year, according to many reports, he was seeking options from the Pentagon to bomb the country’s nuclear facilities. The Pentagon resisted, and even the biggest Iran hawk in the administration, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, argued against military action.

If the deal is restored, most of that newly enriched uranium could be shipped out of the country, which is what happened when the first accord was put together. Far more worrying, officials said, is the scientific knowledge that Iran is steadily gaining by building more advanced centrifuges and experimenting with enriching uranium to 60 percent, just shy of what is needed for a weapon.

“The longer the nonimplementation goes on, the more knowledge we will get,” a senior Iranian official said. “If the U.S. is concerned, the earlier it comes back the better.”

In 2015, the Obama administration was able to claim that if Iran raced to produce nuclear fuel for a bomb — called a “nuclear breakout” — it would take at least a year. That time frame, officials now concede, is down to a few months.

The United States, for its part, has reportedly agreed that if Iran lives by the 2015 accord, more than 1,000 sanctions could be lifted — including on the country’s central bank. Ali Vaez, who directs the Iran project at the International Crisis Group, said the United States still had some space to offer even more sanctions relief, including on some of Ayatollah Khamenei’s close associates, and on some members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which the Trump administration declared a foreign terrorist organization in 2019.

Working out the sequenced timing of limiting the Iranian centrifuges and American sanctions remains a sticking point, officials said. So is Iran’s demand that the United States not resume sanctions for the duration of President Biden’s term — a guarantee that the Americans would not make.

The Grand Bazaar in Tehran. The United States has reportedly agreed that if Iran lives by the 2015 accord, more than 1,000 sanctions could be lifted.Morteza Nikoubazl/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Mr. Vaez said Iran’s insistence that the Biden administration promise to not reimpose sanctions was somewhat understandable. Without it, he said, foreign banks and other businesses will not risk investing in Iran — and thus Tehran would never receive the economic benefits it believes it was promised.

But the Biden administration knows that whatever deal it strikes will be a political problem in Washington. In 2015, all Republicans and a good number of influential Democrats criticized the original accord as insufficiently tough. So there is no way, officials say, they could abandon the threat of “snapping back” sanctions if Iran fails to comply with its part of the bargain.

“The problem is, in reality the U.S. cannot disarm itself of one of the most powerful tools it has in its toolbox of statecraft,” Mr. Vaez said.

And while the talks drag on, the administration is confronting another reality: For the first time in years, international inspectors have very little idea of what is happening in the underground Natanz plant.

The inspection teams have been barred from many facilities they once regularly visited, measuring enrichment levels and accounting for every gram of material produced. An agreement to keep cameras and sensors running lapsed in June.

The Iranians suggest access to the equipment will be restored when an accord is reached, but there is no guarantee that inspectors will have access to the back footage.

A month ago, Mr. Blinken said that the agreement’s lapse was a “serious concern” that “needs to be resolved.”

The Iranians ignored the warning.

David E. Sanger and Lara Jakes reported from Washington, and Farnaz Fassihi from New York.

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Former UFC champion thinks Simone Biles needs some 'tough love' - Fox News

The sun didn’t suddenly set in Tokyo. That’s just another world-class athlete throwing shade at Olympian Simone Biles. Former UFC bantamweight and flyweight champion Henry Cejudo is the latest to criticize the gymnast. Having previously won gold himself (2008 Olympics), Cejudo is of the opinion that Biles could use a "kick in the arse."

Cejudo’s of the opinion that "tough love" could benefit Biles after she withdrew from competition: "I believe Simone Biles pulling out of this thing is like, I think she really needs to check herself. I think there’s time for a little bit of tough love. ​​If she was my sister, this is exactly what I would do," said Cejudo. "So, I would never say something that I wouldn’t do to my personal family or anything like that. Or even for me, because I do believe sometimes we do need a nice kick in the arse."

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Having taken home a gold medal in freestyle wrestling at the Beijing Olympics, Cejudo knows about performing under pressure on the world’s biggest stage: "People say the media created her and you know they put upon this pressure. Not really. They only give you a platform, a limelight. It’s up to you to believe it and to accept it. If you start to think you’re the GOAT and the greatest of all time, then that’s on you," he said.

"There’s two things that pressure can do. Pressure could either break, or it could make diamonds. Pressure could either bust pipes or it can create and make diamonds. You choose what to do for it, or what to do with it, remember that," Cejudo added.

A photo of Henry Cejudo after winning gold at the 2008 Summer Games. (2008 Getty Images)

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A winner in 16 of 18 career MMA fights, Cejudo made clear that he’s rooting for a Biles comeback: "Remember that there’s a reason why you are an Olympic champion. There’s nothing new," he said. "It’s all in you, you’re going against you, and I hope you can come back from that."

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Katie Ledecky makes history with 6th individual gold, cements Olympic icon status, and she'll be back in 2024 - CBSSports.com

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One of the most preposterous streaks in sports remained active Saturday morning in Tokyo: Katie Ledecky is undefeated in every 800-meter freestyle race she's competed in for 11 years. 

The most dominant female swimmer in history cemented her status and immortalized her legend in her final race of 2021 with her signature discipline. Ledecky touched the wall in 8:12.57, giving her the sixth individual gold and 10th Olympic medal of her career. 

Her six individual gold medals are now the most by any female U.S. Olympian ever and second-most in swimming to one person: Michael Phelps may forever hold an untouchable number with 13. 

But for as phenomenal as Phelps' five-Olympiad career was, it's Ledecky who commands a dominance in certain parts of swimming we've simply never seen before. Her supremacy specifically in the 800-meter freestyle might represent the most inevitable any athlete has been at anything ... ever? Sounds like hyperbole? It's not. It's not that she always wins, it's that she has defined the parameters of what success is in the women's 800-meter freestyle. Ledecky owns the 22 best times in the history of the event. 

This is obscene authority. Her latest gold also meant achieving a three-peat in the 800 free. It marks just the fourth time in history a swimmer has won gold in an individual discipline in three consecutive Olympics. (Phelps' four straight in the 200-meter individual medley has never been matched.)

Saturday's 8:12.57 pace was ho-hum by Ledecky standards; it was merely the 16th-fastest time she's logged. Ledecky, 24, beat out rival Ariarne Titmus, 20, who was not the same swimmer in the 800 as she was when Titmus beat Ledecky earlier in the week in the 200- and 400-meter freestyles. The Aussie hung close the entire race but never truly threatened Ledecky. Titmus touched in 8:13.83. 

Consider this: Titmus' silver-winning swim on Saturday was the fastest non-Ledecky time in the history of the women's 800-meter freestyle. It barely bested the 23rd-best time of Ledecky's career. Laughable!

And now these two will almost certainly get to meet again in three years, when the Games will head to Paris. With that, it's likely there will be no bigger storyline for the 2024 Summer Olympics than Ledecky vs. Titmus. That's right: Ledecky's Olympic career isn't over. While there wasn't too much speculation over this, it's nonetheless news that Ledecky went on record for the first time at these Games to state she is not retiring. 

"That was not my last swim -- I'm at least going to '24," Ledecky said on NBC. "Maybe '28, we'll see. But I knew [the 800] was going to be my last swim here. You never take anything for granted, you don't know if you're going to be back at the next Olympics, so just try to soak it all in." 

Ledecky and Titmus wound up splitting their four head-to-head meets in Tokyo, with Titmus taking gold in the 200 and 400 free, while Ledecky won in the 800 free and easily cruised in the first-ever Olympic 1,500-meter freestyle for women. (Titmus did not swim in that event.) In the 4x200 free relay, Ledecky swam the fastest leg (1:53.76) of any swimmer to lift the U.S. to a silver -- and edge Titmus and the Australians (bronze) in the process. 

"It's awesome," Ledecky said on NBC. "I just wanted to finish on a really good note, and I'm just so happy."

With Ledecky's Tokyo action now complete, a recap of what she went through in a six-day stretch. These are only the finals; we're not even accounting for the prelims and semifinal heats she had to swim in as well. No swimmer logged more laps in the pool in Tokyo than Ledecky.

• July 26: Wins silver in 400 free; first time ever Ledecky doesn't win gold in an individual Olympic event
• July 28: Finishes fifth in 200 free
• July 28: Less than 90 minutes after the 200 free, wins gold in 1,500 free
• July 29: Wins Team USA silver by swimming final leg -- and fastest split among all swimmers -- in 4x200 free relay 
  
• July 31: Wins third straight gold in 800 free

Four medals in a six-day span. Ledecky was the only swimmer to compete in a "sprint" race (the 200 free) and the 1,500. Think of it this way: You don't see track athletes compete in the 100- or 200-meter dash and also run the 1,500, or 5,000, or 10,000 meters.

She's different from any Olympian we've ever watched.

It's been Ledecky's successes, in addition to her not taking gold in two of the five events she competed in, that's helped remind us that Olympic greatness can be about transcendent dominance -- but also shortcomings that humanize these athletes. An important facet of the Olympics is that they allow for non-binary results (not just one winner and all losers, but three medals to hand out) and make sports fans -- American sports fans in particular -- reconsider what elite achievement is. Katie Ledecky is not undefeated in the pool; no one ever is. But she's special and unlike anyone we've seen before. She's beatable, but she's unique. And with this showing in Tokyo -- two more golds, two more silvers -- Ledecky has unequivocally elevated herself to her own tier of Olympic greatness. 

She didn't need to sweep and take five golds to get there. A lesson to be applied. 

The best part is it's not over. Ledecky wasn't the force of nature in Tokyo that she was in Rio in 2016, which was clearly her peak. But in the presence of a true foil in Titmus, and with a race regimen that was viciously grueling, Ledecky proved she has no analog.

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Biden ramps up pressure on Iran as it grapples with protests | TheHill - The Hill

The Biden administration wants to ramp up pressure on Iran amid stalled talks to rejoin the nuclear deal, but internal calculations in Tehran are difficult to predict as the nation faces rising unrest at home.

The options on the table for the U.S., which are said to include tighter restrictions on Iran's oil exports as well as new sanctions on its missile and drone programs, are likely to further strain tensions amid the months-long efforts to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the formal name for the Obama-era nuclear deal that the U.S. exited in 2018 under then-President TrumpDonald TrumpMeghan McCain: Democrats 'should give a little credit' to Trump for COVID-19 vaccine Trump testing czar warns lockdowns may be on table if people don't get vaccinated Overnight Health Care: CDC details Massachusetts outbreak that sparked mask update | White House says national vaccine mandate 'not under consideration at this time' MORE.

The U.S. has warned that negotiations cannot continue indefinitely and called out Iran for failing to agree to a seventh round of indirect talks in Vienna, more than two-months after the last round concluded.

Meanwhile, growing protests in Iran over water and electricity shortages are drawing scrutiny from the international community. At least nine people, including a teenager, have been killed during the protests, according to Human Rights Watch. Nearly 200 arrests have taken place.

Naysan Rafati, senior Iran analyst with the International Crisis Group, said Iranian leaders are likely engaged in a significant debate over whether to rejoin the JCPOA for immediate sanctions relief because of domestic turmoil, or continue nuclear provocations to attempt to exact concessions from the West.

Iran has in recent months ramped up its nuclear activity far beyond the constraints of the deal, increasing its stockpile of nuclear material and infrastructure key to building a bomb. Even if Iran disposed of excess materials that can be used to build a bomb, it has gained key operational knowledge that is irreversible.

“If you're sitting in Tehran you have a choice at this moment ... do you look at the circumstances right now and look at the negotiations in Vienna, and say, ‘we’ve made progress on these talks, the imperative of sanctions relief is very much there, and let’s get these negotiations over and done with?’ ” he asked.

“The risk is also that Iranians will look at increasing brinkmanship right now ... that they still have room for their own form of leverage, which is further nuclear escalation, and that they can continue to spin up more nuclear provocations but there is only so much more the U.S. can do on the sanctions front,” he added.

Secretary of State Antony BlinkenAntony BlinkenMore than 180 local employees working at US embassy, consulates in Russia laid off Duterte restores pact allowing US war exercises Blinken urges Tunisian president to return country to 'democratic path as quickly as possible' MORE, in an interview with Sky News Arabia Thursday in Kuwait, put the blame squarely on Tehran for failing to come back to the table, saying the U.S. is monitoring the protests.

“We believe that it’s in our interest and Iran’s interest to come back into compliance with the nuclear agreement, the JCPOA. But that really depends on Iran making the decision to do so. It’s not yet made that decision,” he said.  

“Meanwhile, of course, we’ve seen protests in Iran that started outside of Tehran; they’ve now come to Tehran,” Blinken added, describing them as “people’s deep frustration with the failure of the government to meet their basic needs."

“And, of course, we stand with the people of Iran in the desire to have their voices heard, and we urge — strongly urge the government not to use violence and repression to silence those voices,” he said.

The protests began July 15 in Iran’s southwest Khuzestan province, with demonstrators taking to the streets blaming government mismanagement for water shortages. The demonstrations have evolved into mass frustration across the country and against Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Videos of the protesters posted on social media include chants of “Death to the dictator," “Shame on Khamenei, let go of the country” and slogans criticizing Iran’s support of proxy fighting forces across the region, according to reports by the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

It’s unclear if the protests are having an effect on calculations by the Iranian regime on potentially returning to the negotiations with the U.S. and other JCPOA participants, including France, Germany, the U.K., Russia, China and the European Union.

Dennis RossDennis Alan RossBiden's quiet diplomacy under pressure as Israel-Hamas fighting intensifies Biden needs to tear down bureaucratic walls and refocus Middle East programs Balancing act: Biden must redefine the US-Saudi relationship MORE, who served as special assistant to former President Obama and is a distinguished fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote on Twitter that he expects the protests will pressure the Iranian regime to return to the JCPOA later this year.

“Protestors chanting ‘I am thirsty’ is a basic sign of failure. Sanctions relief is an increasing need; expect Iran to return to the JCPOA by Fall,” he tweeted.

Demonstrations in Iran ranging from oil workers on strike to upheaval in Khuzestan are a reminder of how Iran is failing its citizens. Protestors chanting “I am thirsty” is a basic sign of failure. Sanctions relief is an increasing need; expect Iran to return to the JCPOA by Fall

— Dennis Ross (@AmbDennisRoss) July 26, 2021

The Biden administration has said it is prepared to lift sanctions that are inconsistent with the original terms of the nuclear deal, likely to give a key influx of cash to leaders in Tehran under pressure from the public.

But it has also called for Iran to commit to follow-up negotiations to address its ballistic weapons program and support for proxy-fighting forces across Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and in the Gaza Strip.

Washington appears to be preparing a parallel pressure campaign, with a senior official telling The Wall Street Journal that the administration is considering sanctions that impact Iran’s ability to build drones and precision-guided missiles.

This comes on top of the administration weighing sanctions targeting Chinese imports of Iranian crude oil, also reported by the Journal.

Robert Einhorn, a senior fellow in the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative with the Brookings Institution, said that it's likely the U.S. and Iran resume negotiations after the inauguration of President-elect Ibrahim Raisi, set for Aug. 5, but that they face significant differences.

“There will be a resumption of talks but it’s not at all clear that negotiations will go smoothly,” he said. “Raisi has made very clear, and most Iranians have made very clear, that even if the JCPOA is restored, they have no interest in follow-on negotiations.”

Khamenei, in reported remarks Wednesday, ramped up criticism against the “West,” calling them the “enemies” and condemning the U.S. demand for follow-up negotiations as a pretext to walk away from the JCPOA.

“By putting this sentence, they want to provide an excuse for their further interventions on the principle of [the deal] and missile program and regional issues," Khamenei said, according to The Associated Press. "If Iran refuses to discuss them, they will say that you have violated the agreement and the agreement is over.”

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Kevin Durant sparks Team USA to win over Czech Republic, second place in group play at Tokyo Olympics - USA TODAY

Tokyo Olympics: Georgian athletes have accreditation revoked for 'sightseeing' - ESPN

1:05 PM ET

Two Georgian athletes have had their accreditation revoked from the Tokyo Olympics after they were spotted leaving the athletes village to visit friends in Japan.

On Saturday, Olympic organisers said they had revoked accreditation of Games-related people for leaving the athletes village for sightseeing, which is a violation of measures imposed to hold the Olympics safely amid the pandemic. Later, the Georgian Olympic Committee confirmed that two of its athletes -- who had already completed their events -- had left the Olympic compound.

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The athletes have since returned home, in line with organisers' rules which state athletes must return to their home country within 48 hours of competing in their final event.

A Georgian official told AFP news agency that the two athletes are judo silver medallists Vazha Margvelashvili, 27, and Lasha Shavdatuashvili, 29.

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"No-one stopped them at the exit, so they thought that they could go outside. They wanted just to have a bit of open air, to relax after a tough day of competition, after a tough lockdown period," the official said.

Tokyo 2020 spokesperson Masa Takaya said: "We took away accreditation as we believe going out of the athletes village for sightseeing is something that should not happen."

Information from Reuters contributed to this report.

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Olympic Day 8 Update: Elaine Thompson-Herah defends her 100m crown | Tokyo Olympics | NBC Sports - NBC Sports

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Carson Wentz injury: Colts sign former Packers QB Brett Hundley to training camp roster, per report - CBS Sports

USATSI

Things have gone from promising to anything but at training camp for the Indianapolis Colts, who began July practices with a ton of optimism for the 2021 season after having traded earlier this year with the Philadelphia Eagles to acquire former second-overall pick Carson Wentz -- reuniting him with coach Frank Reich in the process. That positivity came to a screeching halt when Wentz felt a "twinge" in his foot on a rollout, subsequently missed the team's third practice, and now must see a specialist to determine the gravity of the injury and if surgery will be required, leading the team to give Brett Hundley a call.

Hundley has now signed with the Colts, the team announced Saturday, adding depth at what is now a position of need. It's expected that second-year talent Jacob Eason will continue to take the first-team reps in the absence of Wentz, with rookie quarterback Sam Ehlinger serving as QB2. Hundley will enter with the hopes of driving competition in a way that could make the Colts rethink who gets reps and when.

Having recently met with the Dallas Cowboys this offseason, Hundley left without a deal and his future in Indy will depend largely upon what he shows in camp and what the ultimate prognosis is on Wentz. 

Hundley is a former fifth-round pick of the Green Bay Packers (2015) who spent three seasons with the team and failed to impress when given the chance at starter -- due to a collarbone injury to Aaron Rodgers at the time. He was later traded to the Seattle Seahawks in 2018, in exchange for a 2019 sixth-round pick, but that stay was short-lived. Hundley would go on to join the Arizona Cardinals in 2019 on a one-year deal, backing up Kyler Murray one year after trying to do the same for Russell Wilson after having not been able to stick as Rodgers' backup, and was serviceable enough to land another one-year deal in the desert for 2020.

The 28-year-old joins the Colts with a career record of 3-6 as a starter, having thrown for 1,902 yards and nine touchdowns to 13 interceptions. With the potential on Eason and Ehlinger, Hundley faces an uphill climb unless Wentz misses significant time.

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French police clash with anti-virus pass protesters in Paris - Associated Press

PARIS (AP) — Thousands of people protested France’s special virus pass with marches through Paris and other French cities on Saturday. Most demonstrations were peaceful, but sporadic clashes with riot police marked protests in the French capital.

Some 3,000 security forces deployed around Paris for a third weekend of protests against the pass that will be needed soon to enter restaurants and other places. Police took up posts along the Champs-Elysees to guard against an invasion of the famed avenue.

With virus infections spiking and hospitalizations rising, French lawmakers have passed a bill requiring the pass in most places as of Aug. 9. Polls show a majority of French support the pass, but some are adamantly opposed. The pass requires a vaccination or a quick negative test or proof of a recent recovery from COVID-19 and mandates vaccine shots for all health care workers by mid-September.

Across the Alps, thousands of anti-vaccine pass demonstrators marched in Italian cities including Rome, Milan and Naples for the second consecutive week. Milan demonstrators stopped outside the city’s courthouse chanting “Truth! “Shame!” and “Liberty!” while in Rome they marched behind a banner reading “Resistance.” Those demonstrations were noisy but peaceful.

For anti-vaccine pass demonstrators in France, “Iiberty” was the slogan of the day. The marches drew some 204,000 people around the country. Some 14,250 people hostile to the pass protested in Paris, several thousand more than a week ago.

Hager Ameur, a 37-year-old nurse, said she resigned from her job, accusing the government of using a form of “blackmail.”

“I think that we mustn’t be told what to do,” she told The Associated Press, adding that French medical workers during the first wave of COVID-19 were quite mistreated. “And now, suddenly we are told that if we don’t get vaccinated it is our fault that people are contaminated. I think it is sickening.”

Tensions flared in front of the famed Moulin Rouge nightclub in northern Paris during what appeared to be the largest demonstration. Lines of police faced down protesters in up-close confrontations during the march. Police used their fists on several occasions.

As marchers headed eastward and some pelted police with objects, police fired tear gas into the crowds, plumes of smoke filling the sky. A male protester was seen with a bleeding head and a police officer was carried away by colleagues. Three officers were injured, the French press quoted police as saying. Police, again responding to rowdy crowds, also turned a water cannon on protesters as the march ended at the Bastille.

A calmer march was led by the former top lieutenant of far-right leader Marine Le Pen who left to form his own small anti-EU party. But Florian Philippot’s new cause, against the virus pass, seems far more popular. His contingent of hundreds marched Saturday to the Health Ministry.

Among those not present this week was Francois Asselineau, leader of another tiny anti-EU party, the Popular Republican Union, and an ardent campaigner against the health pass, who came down with COVID-19. In a video on his party’s website, Asselineau, who was not hospitalized, called on people to denounce the “absurd, unjust and totally liberty-killing” health pass.

French authorities are implementing the health pass because the highly contagious delta variant is making strong inroads. More than 24,000 new daily cases were confirmed Friday night — compared to just a few thousand cases a day at the start of the month.

The government announcement that the health pass would take effect on Aug. 9 has driven many unvaccinated French to sign up for inoculations so their social lives won’t get shut down during the summer holiday season. Vaccinations are now available at a wide variety of places, including some beaches. More than 52% of the French population has been vaccinated.

About 112,000 people have died of the virus in France since the start of the pandemic.

___

Patrick Hermansen and Michel Euler in Paris contributed.

___

Follow all AP stories on the global pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic.

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'The animals are on fire,' say devastated farmers as wildfires sweep Turkey - CNN

"The animals are on fire," 56-year-old resident, Muzeyyan Kacar, told CNN. "Everything is going to burn. Our land, our animals and our house. What else do we have anyway?"

At least six people have died in dozens of blazes that started earlier this week, amid scorching summer temperatures and fires that experts say have been worsened by climate change.

Among the victims are two firefighters who were killed battling the flames on Saturday, according to the Turkish Agriculture and Forestry Ministry.

Since Wednesday, 88 fires have broken out across the country, said the ministry. Ten fires were still burning on Saturday, it added.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared parts of five provinces on Turkey's Mediterranean coast "disaster zones," following a helicopter visit to the devastated areas.

"We will continue to take all steps to heal the wounds of our people, to compensate for losses and to improve opportunities to better than before," the president added in a tweet Saturday.

The largest fire, in Manavgat, Antalya Province, killed at least three people, according to the Turkish Natural Disaster and Emergency Directorate (AFAD).

In the nearby village of Kacarlar, residents are grappling with seeing homes they built by hand burn to the ground.

"My father's house burned down," said 48-year-old Gulay Kacar. "Gone, gone, it's gone," Kacar said, before adding that she was "running to let the animals loose."

Namet Atik, a 37-year-old farmer from a neighboring village, said that he came to Kacarlar to help. "Whatever this village needs ... we are here for them," he told CNN

"We get them water, our cars, tractors, saws," he added. "We are forest villagers. Our livelihood is the forest. If this fire runs, there is no return."

Holidaymakers were also evacuated by sea from a resort in Bodrum, on the Mediterranean coast, on Thursday. The evacuation was a precaution, and the area was closed to traffic to allow easy access for fire trucks, TRT reported.

Around 4,000 personnel, along with hundreds of emergency vehicles, have been deployed by the government to help fight the flames this week.

At least 77 houses have been damaged in the province of Antalya, and more than 2,000 farm animals have died, Turkey's Agriculture and Forestry Minister, Bekir Pakdemirli, told journalists on Thursday.

Scorching temperatures

Hot and dry weather conditions had exacerbated the fires, said Pakdemirli Thursday. He added that temperatures of 37 Celsius (98.6 Fahrenheit), less than 14% humidity and winds around 50 kilometers per hour (31 m.p.h.) had helped spread the flames.

Hikmet Ozturk, a forestry expert with the Turkish Foundation for Combating Soil Erosion, a nongovernmental organization that works to protect forests, told CNN that while 95% of fires in Turkey are caused by people, the spread of the fires is worsened by climate change.

The area of the fires are within the Mediterranean Basin which is one of the most susceptible to climate change risks, Ozturk said. "Typical weather conditions in the summer for the area is hot and dry, which means the risk of fires is already high, and climate change raises that risk," he said

The wildfires come as parts of western Europe have battle severe flooding in recent weeks. Scientists have for decades warned that climate change will make extreme weather events, including heavy rain and deadly flooding, more likely.

CNN's Gul Tuysuz and Arwa Damon reported from Turkey. Sheena McKenzie wrote in London.

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Carrie and Boris Johnson are expecting a second baby after miscarriage heartbreak - CNN

Carrie revealed she was pregnant and that she suffered a miscarriage earlier this year in an Instagram post on Saturday.

"Hoping for our rainbow baby this Christmas," she wrote, referring to a child which is born after a miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death.

"At the beginning of the year, I had a miscarriage which left me heartbroken. I feel incredibly blessed to be pregnant again but I've also felt like a bag of nerves," she wrote.

"Fertility issues can be really hard for many people, particularly when on platforms like Instagram it can look like everything is only ever going well," Johnson added. "I found it a real comfort to hear from people who had also experienced loss so I hope that in some very small way sharing this might help others too."

The couple already have a son, Wilfred Lawrie Nicholas Johnson, who was born in April last year.

The baby was given the middle name Nicholas in honor of two doctors who treated Boris Johnson while he hospitalized by Covid-19.

"Wilfred after Boris' grandfather, Lawrie after my grandfather, Nicholas after Dr Nick Price and Dr Nick Hart -- the two doctors that saved Boris' life last month," Carrie said on her Instagram account at the time.

The couple were married in a wedding carried out in secrecy at Westminster Cathedral in London, in May.

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Caeleb Dressel wins gold for Team USA with new world record; Katie Ledecky earns three-peat in 800M freestyle - Fox News

Team USA has topped the leaderboards in swimming events at Tokyo this year after Americans Caeleb Dressel and Katie Ledecky took home two more gold medals on Day 8 of the Olympics. 

Ledecky, 24, lit up the Tokyo Aquatics Centre on Saturday morning after capturing her second gold medal of the Games in the women’s 800-meter freestyle. Ledecky continued her domination of the event which she won for the third consecutive time. 

TOKYO OLYMPICS 2020: AMERICANS WHO HAVE WON GOLD MEDALS AT THE GAMES

With a time of 8:12.57, Ledecky beat Australian star, Ariarne Titmus, by just 1.26 seconds. After losing to her in both individual matchups, Ledecky wasn’t going to fold under the pressure. 

"I could see her the whole way," Ledecky said. "I was trying to keep tabs on her and trying to inch my way out a little bit each 50. I knew she was just going to be lurking there the whole time."

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On the men’s side, Caeleb Dressel solidified himself as one of the world’s greatest swimmers after breaking the world record in the 100-meter butterfly, a record he set two years ago at the 2019 World Championships. 

Dessel claimed his third gold medal after beating Hungary’s Kristof Milak, the winner of the men’s 200-meter fly. 

"He’s going to put me out of a job one day, so I’m just trying to hang on as long as I can," Dressel said. "Kristof executed perfectly. We both swam exactly the race we needed to."

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While the Americans took control of their individual events, the mixed medley was a mess from the start for Team USA.

"Fifth place is unacceptable for USA Swimming," Dressel said. "It stings."

The U.S. tops the swimming events with 26 medals, eight of which are gold

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Kevin Durant powers Team USA's rout of Czech Republic on record night at Tokyo Olympics - ESPN

9:46 AM ET

SAITAMA, Japan -- The best thing Team USA had going for it this summer was Kevin Durant committing to play at the Tokyo Olympics. On Saturday, he reminded everyone why.

On a night when he became the all-time leading American scorer in the Olympics, Durant added another tremendous performance to his Team USA résumé in a 119-84 victory over the Czech Republic.

The win put the team into the quarterfinals Tuesday. After their disappointing opening loss to France, getting back-to-back blowouts put them in a favorable position for Sunday's draw for their next opponent. The Americans will have the No. 4 seed and are likely to play either Italy or the loser of Sunday's game between Spain and Luka Doncic-led Slovenia.

• 

Durant finished with 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting, which of course was important for the cause, but his playmaking and defense were just as helpful, as he put up eight rebounds and six assists. In the third quarter, he was masterful, scoring 10 points with four of his assists as it went from a tight game to a comfortable blowout.

"Looked easy, didn't it? Looked easy," Jrue Holiday said of his new teammate's showing. "It's fun to watch; fun to be a part of."

Durant defended the Czechs big men, blocked 3-point attempts on the perimeter, battled inside for rebounds to start fast breaks and acted for stretches as a point forward. Add a handful of smooth jumpers and it was everything the team could've asked from it's captain.

"I've had a lot asked of me every team I've been on since I was eight years old. It's no different here," Durant said. "But I feel I have to available to do every single thing out on the court...I've worked to be at that point and it's fun."

He'd had a pedestrian start in Tokyo, scoring just 20 points total in the first two games and shooting just 40%. Even in the run-up games in Vegas, Durant wasn't moving at full speed as he admitted everything seemed like practice, and he shot just 43%. Then he fouled out of the opening loss to France, a key factor in the Americans' offensive struggles.

With Doncic, who scored 48 points in his first Olympic game, off to an impressive start and Australia's Patty Mills putting up great performances, Durant had faded into the background in the tournament's first week.

All that lethargy was gone Saturday as he looked for his shot early. The Czechs had gotten off to a strong start, making eight of their first 11 shots and building a 10-point lead. But Durant led a charge to overtake them, his 3-pointer in the second quarter giving the U.S. the lead for good.

It was a relevant basket, not just because it put the team in front but also because it pushed Durant (354 points) past Carmelo Anthony (336) for the all-time scoring lead. Durant's international career is impeccable, including the 2010 World Cup in Turkey, where he established himself as a centerpiece of the national team for the next decade.

It was also a slump-breaker evening for Jayson Tatum, who had his best game of the summer with 27 points and five 3-pointers. Tatum, who was bothered by a minor knee injury in Vegas, had lost his starting spot. Coach Gregg Popovich had positioned him to be an impact scorer off the bench, but he was shooting just 40% in the first two games.

"It felt good to just see some shots go in," Tatum said. "We're playing better each and every game, and that's what we expected, to be better than we were last game throughout this tournament."

Holiday, who was again terrific defensively as he pressured the ball relentlessly and picked off three steals, had 11 points.

The Czechs were led by Blake Schilb, who played at Loyola Chicago, with 17 points.

In other action, Mills scored 24 points, Jock Landale added 18 and Australia pulled away for an 89-76 victory over Germany and an undefeated finish to group play. Nic Kay helped the Australians finally break free in a close game and finished with 16 points.

The Australians went 3-0 to win Group B, a balanced pool where they, Italy and Germany all played competitive games against each other.

Italy is headed back to the Olympic quarterfinals, ousting Nigeria to clinch that spot. Nicolo Melli scored 15 points, Nico Mannion had 14 and Italy used a 14-0 run in the fourth quarter to win 80-71 in the Group B men's basketball finale for both teams on Saturday.

Chimezie Metu scored 22 points and Jordan Nwora added 20 for Nigeria. The Nigerians opened the summer with exhibition wins over the U.S. and Argentina in Las Vegas, but went no further in their first Olympic appearance under coach Mike Brown.

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Elaine Thompson-Herah defends Olympic 100m title in all-Jamaican podium - CNN

A month-and-a-half ago, Elaine Thompson-Herah thought she wouldn't be able to compete at the Tokyo Olympics as she struggled to overcome a nagging Achilles injury. Now, she's not only a gold medalist, but an Olympic record holder, too.

Her time of 10.61 seconds on Saturday broke Florence Griffith Joyner's 33-year-old record set in Seoul, spearheading a Jamaican clean sweep of the podium with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in second and Shericka Jackson taking bronze.

Was Griffith Joyner's world record of 10.49 a possibility? "Most definitely if I wasn't celebrating," Thompson-Herah told reporters. Asked again about the world record, she added: "I'm still working, it's a work in progress ... Anything is possible."

The victory was the 29-year-old's third Olympic gold medal, adding to her 100m and 200m titles from Rio five years ago.

Another Jamaican, Usain Bolt, famously won three consecutive Olympic 100m gold medals between 2008 and 2016, and Thompson-Herah now has a chance to do the same in Paris.

"Behind this 10.6 was a lot of nerves, and I said: 'You can do this, you've been here before, just execute,'" she told reporters.

"I have more years. I'm just 29; I'm not 30, I'm not 40. I'm still working."

With fans barred from attending Olympic events in Tokyo amid the pandemic, the final was held in the near-empty surroundings of the 68,000-seat Olympic Stadium.

However, an impressive light show ensured the minutes before the race weren't devoid of energy or excitement.

The stadium lighting was dimmed and the track illuminated with the names of each competitor as they were announced to the few spectators dotted around the arena -- a dazzling precursor befitting of an event that promised great drama after six athletes had run under 11 seconds in the heats on Friday.

And those present on a hot, humid evening in Tokyo weren't disappointed, as Thompson-Herah went neck-and-neck with Fraser-Pryce at the halfway point before pulling away in the final stages.

Defending world champion Fraser-Pryce -- who clocked 10.74 -- now has two golds, a silver, and a bronze in the 100m across four Olympic Games, while Jackson -- third in 10.76 -- adds to her 4x400m silver and 400m bronze from Rio.

It was a repeat of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing when three Jamaican athletes -- Fraser-Pryce, Sherone Simpson, and Kerron Stewart -- also topped the podium.

Asked about the celebrations that will likely ensue back home in Jamaica, Fraser-Pryce said: "I'm hoping they're not defying the curfew orders, but I'm sure it's going to be remarkable to have three of our ladies stand on the podium like we did in 2008, it's incredible.

"I'm hoping that they're celebrating with a lot of positive energy and they're celebrating each and every one of the athletes and just continue to support us. There's a long way to go, we have the 200m and 4x100m."

The heats for the 200m get underway on Monday with the final taking place the following day.

Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce and Jackson, who has stepped down in distance from the 400m to sprinting events, will face stiff competition from the USA's Gabby Thomas and the Bahamas' Shaunae Miller-Uibo.

But based on Friday's race, another Jamaican one-two-three isn't entirely out of the question; nor, for that matter, are more blisteringly fast times.

Outside the top three, Ivory Coast's Marie-Josee Ta Lou finished fourth for the second consecutive Olympics with a time of 10.91, while Great Britain's Dina Asher-Smith was a surprise absentee from the final having failed to qualify earlier on Friday.

She later said she would be unable to compete in the 200m because of an injury.

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China reports 55 new COVID-19 cases as Delta variant spreads from Nanjing - Yahoo News

BEIJING (Reuters) -China on Saturday reported 55 new coronavirus cases on the mainland for July 30, compared with 64 cases a day earlier, as the Delta variant spreads across the country during the summer holiday.

Thirty of the new infections were local cases, compared with 21 the previous day, the National Health Commission said in a statement. There were no new deaths.

The other 25 cases originated overseas.

A majority of the local cases were reported in Jiangsu province where Nanjing, its provincial capital, is facing an outbreak of the COVID-19 Delta variant this month traced to airport workers who cleaned a plane which arrived from Russia.

Nanjing has reported 190 locally transmitted cases since July 20, while there has been a total of 262 cases across the country, figures released on Saturday showed.

The Nanjing outbreak has spread to other cities in Jiangsu, to the country's capital Beijing, and to other provinces including Anhui, Sichuan, Liaoning, Guangdong and Hunan.

Suzhou, a major city in Jiangsu, announced on Saturday it is shutting all games parlours for chess, cards and mahjong, after several people in another Jiangsu city caught the virus while playing in one such parlour.

To curb the outbreak in Beijing, some schools in the city have asked students on summer vacation to return to Beijing at least 14 days before the autumn semester starts on August 15, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

Zhengzhou, a provincial city in Henan province hit by heavy floods this month, announced on Saturday that people must test negative for COVID-19 before leaving the city. It also reported one asymptomatic case, its first in months.

Some who contracted the Delta variant in Nanjing had been vaccinated, official data showed.

"On the whole, the various variants can be controlled with current vaccines," Shao Yiming, researcher at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention told a media briefing on Saturday, adding that no vaccine can prevent infections 100%.

China had administered over 1.6 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines as of July 30.

The vaccinated included 150 million people above the age of 60 and 12 million youth 12-17 years old, a health authority official said.

As of July 30, mainland China had a total of 92,930 confirmed coronavirus cases and its death toll stood at 4,636.

(Reporting by Yew Lun Tian and Roxanne Liu; editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Jason Neely)

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Behind the Rise of U.S. Solar Power, a Mountain of Chinese Coal - The Wall Street Journal

Solar panel installations are surging in the U.S. and Europe as Western countries seek to cut their reliance on fossil fuels.

But the West faces a conundrum as it installs panels on small rooftops and in sprawling desert arrays: Most of them are produced with energy from carbon-dioxide-belching, coal-burning plants in China.

Concerns are mounting in the U.S. and Europe that the solar industry’s reliance on Chinese coal will create a big increase in emissions in the coming years as manufacturers rapidly scale up production of solar panels to meet demand. That would make the solar industry one of the world’s most prolific polluters, analysts say, undermining some of the emissions reductions achieved from widespread adoption.

The coal-fired Urumqi Thermal Power Plant in western China.

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For years, China’s low-cost, coal-fired electricity has given the country’s solar-panel manufacturers a competitive advantage, allowing them to dominate global markets.

Chinese factories supply more than three-quarters of the world’s polysilicon, an essential component in most solar panels, according to industry analyst Johannes Bernreuter. Polysilicon factories refine silicon metal using a process that consumes large amounts of electricity, making access to cheap power a cost advantage. Chinese authorities have built an array of coal-burning power plants in sparsely populated areas such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia to support polysilicon manufacturers and other energy-hungry industries.

“ “If China didn’t have access to coal, then solar power wouldn’t be cheap now.” ”

— Climate researcher Robbie Andrew

Producing a solar panel in China creates around twice as much carbon dioxide as making it in Europe, said Fengqi You, professor of energy systems engineering at Cornell University. In some countries or regions that don’t rely heavily on fossil fuels for electricity generation, such as Norway and France, installing a high-carbon, Chinese-made solar panel might not reduce emissions at all, Mr. You said.

“Yes, we are clean” in the West, said Mr. You. “But then the process of getting these panels from another country—China now, maybe somewhere else later—produces a lot of emissions.”

Scientists say, however, that installing Chinese-made panels almost always results in a net reduction in carbon dioxide emissions over time, because the panels are usually replacing electricity generated from fossil fuels. The emissions avoided after the first few years of a solar panel’s 30-year lifespan can offset the emissions required to produce it.

Workers install solar panels in Laudun L'Ardoise, France, a country that doesn’t rely heavily on fossil fuels for electricity generation.

Photo: Jeremy Suyker/Bloomberg News

Some Western governments and corporations are attempting to shift the solar industry away from coal. Companies that buy renewable energy are laying the groundwork to favor low-carbon solar panels when financing solar projects. The U.S. federal government is drafting a policy to do the same when it buys solar panels, said a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Agency. And the European Union is considering whether to regulate the carbon content of panels sold throughout the 27-nation bloc, EU officials say.

These policies would also help rebuild the West’s solar industry, which has withered under competition from higher-polluting Chinese producers, Western executives say.

U.S. solar power capacity in the last two years has jumped 48%, according to consulting firm Wood Mackenzie. In Europe, it is up 34%. Those installations amount to tens of thousands of solar panels shipped each year.

“Large energy buyers can influence supply chains,” said Jen Snook of the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance, which represents Amazon.com Inc., Salesforce.com Inc. and more than 200 other corporations. “Solar hopefully will continue on a very strong growth rate, and we want to ensure that growth is sustainable.”

The dilemma is becoming more apparent as world leaders prepare to meet in Glasgow, Scotland, in November to make a new push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Part of that effort involves coaxing China, the world’s largest emitter, to shift away from coal-burning electricity to slash emissions even as the West gorges on Chinese gear from solar panels to lightweight aluminum for electric vehicles. At a July meeting of environment ministers from the Group of 20 leading economies, China and India blocked an agreement to phase out coal-fired electricity.

Finding alternatives won’t be easy. China’s surging and cheaper polysilicon production has harmed U.S. producers, forcing the shutdown of several factories that use power sources with lower carbon emissions than Chinese producers. Wacker Chemie AG , the West’s largest producer of solar-grade polysilicon, pays up to four times as much for power at its factories in Germany compared with Chinese producers in Xinjiang, said company spokesman Christof Bachmair.

China has pushed down the price of panels so sharply that solar power is now less expensive than electricity generated from fossil fuels in many markets around the world. Imports of the solar cells that make up the panels are also flooding into the U.S. and Europe.

Those shipments are either coming directly from China or contain key components made in China.

“If China didn’t have access to coal, then solar power wouldn’t be cheap now,” said Robbie Andrew, a senior researcher at the Center for International Climate Research in Oslo. “Is it OK that we’ve had this huge bulge of carbon emissions from China because it allowed them to develop all these technologies really cheaply? We might not know that for another 30 to 40 years.”

Some Chinese polysilicon producers are well-placed to respond to Western demand for low-carbon panels. Tongwei, the world’s largest producer, has some factories that run on hydropower. However, Daqo New Energy and GCL Poly, Tongwei’s main Chinese competitors, rely overwhelmingly on coal, according to the companies.

Daqo New Energy Corp., which runs this facility in Xinjiang province, is among Chinese polysilicon producers that rely on coal.

Photo: Colum Murphy/Bloomberg News

France is one of the few countries that regulate the carbon content of solar panels, requiring low-carbon panels for large solar projects. That has encouraged some Chinese panel manufacturers to use renewable energy in some processes, allowing them to sell into the French market. South Korea this year adopted rules inspired by the French system, and other European countries have expressed interest, officials from the region say.

China’s dominance of the solar supply chain also makes it harder on the handful of companies that are trying to rebuild solar-panel capacity in the West. China is home to most of the companies that slice polysilicon into wafers, package the wafers into cells and assemble the cells into panels. U.S. tariffs on Chinese solar panels and cells have pushed Chinese companies to set up factories for these parts in other countries.

JinkoSolar, a Chinese firm, built a panel assembly plant in Florida to supply NextEra Energy, one of the largest U.S. renewable-energy companies. But the wafer and polysilicon are from China, analysts say.

Italian energy company Enel SpA is planning to expand its solar-panel factory in Sicily, one of the few left in Europe, but the factory will still rely on silicon wafers coming from China.

“We would be happy if the other part of the value chain would be established in Europe,” said Antonello Irace, director of the factory in Sicily. “Think about sustainability, think about labor conditions, think about logistics costs and proximity.”

Beijing has further hobbled Western efforts by placing tariffs on U.S. polysilicon as part of a long-running trade dispute over solar panels. That blocked U.S. producers from selling raw material to Chinese wafering factories—which have more than 95% of global capacity—leaving them with almost no buyers for their product.

The tariffs led REC Silicon AS A in 2019 to idle a plant in Moses Lake, Wash., that runs on carbon-free hydropower. The company hoped negotiations between the Trump administration and Beijing would result in the tariffs being dropped. Instead, Beijing last year extended the tariffs for five years.

“We have a lot of polysilicon capacity,” said David Feldman, a researcher at the U.S. government’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, “and it would be good for them to have customers.”

A solar farm near Bakersfield, Texas, on Saturday, April 10, 2021.

Photo: Bill Clark/Zuma Press

Write to Matthew Dalton at Matthew.Dalton@wsj.com

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Behind the Rise of U.S. Solar Power, a Mountain of Chinese Coal - The Wall Street Journal
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