Naomi Osaka Quits The French Open, 215 Indigenous Children's Remains Found In Canada And More

You are reading the Almost newsletter, a weekly email to help you stay updated on all the important things that are going on around the world.

Here’s what you can expect:

• 🌏 This Week’s Big Stories
• 👩 Women To Know
• 🙌 Good News To End Your Week On

Tennis star Naomi Osaka has withdrawn from the French Open, a day after she was fined $15,000 for choosing not to speak to the press due to the effects of reporters’ questions on players’ mental health.

• The 23-year-old announced that she would not be speaking to press because “[Players] are often sat there and ... asked questions that bring doubt into our minds and I’m just not going to subject myself to people that doubt me. I believe the whole situation is kicking a person while they’re down.”
• After being fined and with Roland Garros officials warning she could face harsher penalties such as being expelled and future suspensions, Osaka announced on Sunday May 30 after her opening match win that she was withdrawing. “This isn’t a situation that I ever imagined or intended when I posted days ago. I think now the best thing for the tournament, the other players and my well-being is that I withdraw so that everyone can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in Paris,” she said on social media.
• Osaka also revealed she has experienced long bouts of depression since the US Open in 2018, adding that she was an introverted person who gets “huge waves of anxiety” before speaking to the press.

Also happening around the world

• 🇨🇦 The remains of 215 indigenous children have been discovered at a former residential school aimed at assimilating them in Canada.
• 🇱🇰 A cargo ship containing chemicals caught fire off the coast of Sri Lanka, burning for more than 10 days and causing a massive environmental disaster.
• 🇧🇾 A Belarus activist stabbed himself in the neck in court with a pen after saying he was tortured and prosecutors had threatened to hurt his family if he didn’t plead guilty

In Basra, Iraq, 14 women are defying rigid gender norms as they become the first all-women demining team in the city.

• The women received 40 days of intensive training to learn the tools and knowledge required to safely find and clear different types of mines.
• “I liked the idea of learning more, because I can be faced with this in my regular life, not because I am looking for them, but in my regular life, I should know how to deal with it,” Huda Khalid, a woman on the team, said.

More badass women you should know about

• 🇵🇰 Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai graced the cover of British Vogue’s latest issue, saying “I hope that every girl who sees this cover will know that she can change the world.
• 🇹🇿 Women MPs in Tanzania are showing their support for Condester Sichwale, a woman MP, who was ordered to leave the parliament for wearing “tight” trousers.

A giant tortoise thought be extinct for more than 100 years has been discovered in the Galápagos Islands.

• The last previous sighting of the Chelonoidis phantasticus, also known as Fernandina Island giant tortoise, was in 1906.
• In 2019, scientists discovered a single female giant tortoise on Fernandina Island and took samples, which were confirmed to match the extinct species last week.
• Nicknamed Fernanda, the female tortoise is believed to be 100 years old.

More Good News For Your Weekend

• 🇧🇷 A deaf Brazilian teen who had all her limbs amputated is training to swim at the Paralympics

✨ We’d love to hear from you ✨

If you like what you’re reading, you can subscribe below to get weekly updates:

You can also

• Follow Almost on Instagram
• Subscribe to Almost on YouTube
• Follow Almost Chinese on Instagram
• Forward this email to a friend

What do you think of the newsletter? Let us know by replying to this email.