“After a long delay, the Tokyo Olympics' opening ceremony is here. Fans will not be in attendance, and organizers said the crowd on hand will be limited to about 950 people, including VIPs, government officials and foreign dignitaries. First lady Jill Biden will be there as the head of the U.S. delegation. About 230 U.S athletes will march during the ceremony, including two flag bearers for the first time in the country's history. About 50 protesters gathered in Tokyo ahead of the ceremony to demand the cancellation of the Olympics as worries grew of worsening COVID-19 infections during the Games, which are opposed by much of Japan. Broadcast of the ceremony will begin at 6:55 a.m. ET on NBC and will re-air at 7:30 p.m. ET.” Read more at USA Today
“The world's Olympic athletes weren't subjected to the usual rigorous anti-doping regime over the 16-month period before the Tokyo Games, which open tomorrow, Axios' Erin Doherty writes.
For three months early in the pandemic, virtually all drug-testing programs were suspended. That may have opened the door for athletes to use performance-enhancing drugs, AP notes.
There was a 45% reduction in testing globally in 2020 compared with 2019, according to the World Anti-Doping Agency.
‘Unless you’re a fool, you’d have to be concerned,’ said Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
Between the lines: Track and field has seen a slew of personal bests in addition to NCAA, national and even world records over the past year-plus.” Read more at Axios
An illustrated cross-section of Mars. A trio of papers revealed the red planet to be something like a colossal candy treat, its crust split into layers of volcanic chocolate, the mantle rigid and toffee-like and the planet’s core light and syrupy.DAVID DUCROS/IPGP/NYT
“The fate of almost everything on Earth’s surface is determined by infernal engines deep below. Mars is no different. Now, thanks to an intrepid robot parked on the Martian surface by NASA in November 2018, scientists have a map of our neighboring world’s geologic abysses, the first ever made of another planet.
NASA’s InSight lander has been listening to marsquakes and tracking their seismic waves as they journey through the planet. A trio of papers published Thursday in the journal Science, using data InSight has collected, reveals the red planet to be something like a colossal candy treat imagined by a ravenous deity. Its crust is split into two or three layers of volcanic chocolate. The mantle below has a surprisingly sizable and rigid toffeelike filling. And the planet’s core is surprisingly light — less nougaty center, more syrupy heart.
Paired with recent activities at the surface by new NASA and Chinese robotic rovers, these missions highlight stark differences between our blue world and the red one next door.
This survey of the Martian insides has been a long time coming. Earth’s solid-but-squishy mantle was first glimpsed in 1889, when seismic waves from a quake in Japan dove in and out of the layer before emerging in Germany. Earth’s liquid outer core was discovered in 1914, and the solid inner core was revealed in 1936. Similar measurements of the moon were made when the Apollo astronauts left seismometers on its surface.
Now the same basic and foundational measurements have been made on Mars. This work, conducted with one of the most technologically advanced seismometers ever built, represents ‘a major leap in planetary seismology,’ said Paula Koelemeijer, a seismologist at Royal Holloway, University of London who was not involved in the research but co-wrote a perspective article in Science.
Earlier missions to Mars have provided rough estimates of the dimensions and properties of its innards. But InSight’s seismological surveys provide precision. Models used to simulate the evolution of Mars can now be built on the foundations of these ground truths.” Read more at Boston Globe
“Mississippi's attorney general has urged the Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision legalizing abortion nationwide prior to viability, which can occur at around 24 weeks of pregnancy. Attorney General Lynn Fitch called the 1973 decision ‘egregiously wrong’ and asked the high court to allow a controversial Mississippi law that bans most abortions after 15 weeks to go into effect. The case reignites the debate surrounding abortion and comes as other states, emboldened by the conservative SCOTUS majority, are increasingly passing restrictive abortion-related regulations. Mississippi's Gestational Age Act was passed in 2018 but was blocked in federal court. Now that the state has asked the Supreme Court to overturn precedent, all eyes will be on conservative justices to see how far they’ll go.” Read more at CNN
“The FBI received more than 4,500 tips during its background investigation of Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, prompting new criticism from Senate Democrats.” Read more at USA Today
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Unfazed by Republican threats of a boycott, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared Thursday that a congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection will take on its ‘deadly serious’ work whether Republicans participate or not.
The Republicans’ House leader, Kevin McCarthy, called the committee a ‘sham process’ and suggested that GOP lawmakers who take part could face consequences. McCarthy said Pelosi’s rejection of two of the Republicans he had attempted to appoint was an ‘egregious abuse of power.’
The escalating tension between the two parties — before the investigation has even started — is emblematic of the raw partisan anger that has only worsened on Capitol Hill since former President Donald Trump’s supporters laid siege to the Capitol and interrupted the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. With most Republicans still loyal to Trump, and many downplaying the severity of the violent attack, there is little bipartisan unity to be found.
McCarthy said Wednesday that he would withdraw the names of all five Republicans he had appointed after Pelosi rejected two of them, Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio. Pelosi made clear on Thursday that she won’t relent, and Democrats mulled filling the empty seats themselves.” Read more at AP News
“The United Nations is warning that the threat from jihadi terror groups is expanding, suggesting they thrive where pressure against them is waning. In Afghanistan, where the US is wrapping up its military withdrawal, the UN warns of a potential ‘further deterioration’ in the security situation. In recent months, the US has made efforts to mitigate the potentially dangerous side effects of the withdrawal. The House just approved legislation to expand and streamline a visa program for Afghan translators and other personnel who worked with the US military and are now trying to leave Afghanistan. This week, the US military carried out two strikes against the Taliban in support of Afghan forces to target captured equipment.” Read more at CNN
“U.S. to house Afghans at bases in Kuwait and Qatar. The military is preparing to accommodate as many as 35,000 Afghan interpreters and family members at two bases before they resettle in the U.S., in an expanding effort to aid those who face Taliban retribution for helping American forces.” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“Biden administration officials are ramping up the urgency of their messaging on Covid-19 as the dangerous Delta variant continues to spread. The administration is also sending $100 million to rural health clinics to boost vaccine education and access, and it's using another $1.6 billion in the American Rescue Plan for testing and other resources in high-risk areas. Only 48.8% of the US population is fully vaccinated, and the seven-day average pace of full vaccinations is around 252,000 -- far below the 500,000 daily average seen at the beginning of July.” Read more at CNN
“Months of pandemic restrictions aimed at COVID-19 had the unintended but welcome effect of stopping flu, cold, and other viruses from spreading. But now that masks are off and social gatherings, hugs, and handshakes are back, the run-of-the-mill viruses that cause drippy noses, stuffy heads, coughs, and sneezes have also returned with a vengeance.” Read more at Boston Globe
“The NFL released its COVID-19 operating principles for the upcoming season, with a focus on the league’s remaining unvaccinated players whose teams could suffer severe consequences if they are the cause of an outbreak. The league reports that more than 75 percent of players are currently in the process of getting the vaccine.
The memo from league commissioner Roger Goodell, which was obtained by NFL Network, informs teams and staffers that if a game is unable to be rescheduled during the regular season due to an outbreak of unvaccinated players, it could potentially result in a forfeit for that team. The league is not requiring vaccination for its players, but unvaccinated players will still have to cope with stricter rules in addition to these changes. According to ESPN, unvaccinated players will also have to deal with restrictions on travel, daily testing, and wearing masks.” Read more at NY Mag
“New York, San Francisco and L.A. are coming back strong after the pandemic, solidifying their economic dominance for the future, Axios' Erica Pandey writes.
Why it matters: As the pandemic emptied downtowns and normalized telework, experts speculated that it would loosen superstar coastal cities' grip on the economy.
Actually, home sales are at their highest level in over a decade in Manhattan. San Francisco's market remains hot, with homes consistently selling above asking price.
Yes, Americans moved during the pandemic. But the vast majority of those moves were within metro areas, so the economic might of the big cities remains relatively unchanged.
‘The pandemic just stretched the bounds of metro areas,’ says Richard Florida, an urbanist at the University of Toronto.
Of the 1.4 million moves out of the New York metro area in 2020, just 37,000 of them were to the heartland or Mountain states, Brookings found in an analysis of Postal Service address change requests,
Of 1.1 million moves out of Los Angeles, just 72,000 were to the middle of the country. Of 500,000 out of the Bay Area, 27,000 were to the heartland.
️ Restaurant traffic is roaring back in the top cities:
Bay Area restaurant traffic has jumped by 192% since the start of 2021, leading major cities, according to data from the marketing software and analytics firm Zenreach.
Also dominant are Los Angeles (161% increase), New York (132%), Chicago (131%) and Boston (123%).
⚠️ Two metrics tell a different story:
Unemployment is high in superstar cities. About 13% of America's unemployed people are concentrated in New York, L.A. and Chicago, three cities that together only account for 4.6% of the nation's population. That's mostly due to the huge hit retail and food service jobs took in the big metros.
Office vacancy rates are also high. Vacancy rates in previously busy business districts in New York and San Francisco have hit all-time highs of over 20% and are well above national averages.” Read more at Axios
“The Biden administration has sanctioned a key Cuban official and a government special forces unit known as the Boinas Negras for human rights abuses, marking the administration's first significant response to historic protests that have gripped the island nation. The Boinas Negras is an elite Cuban special forces unit that the government has deployed to crack down on protesters. Some Cuban-American groups and lawmakers have called on the administration to provide a strong response to the unrest, and Biden says this week’s sanctions are just the start. Protests broke out in Cuba this month amid economic turmoil and a worsening pandemic crisis.” Read more at CNN
“BEIJING (AP) — Chinese leader Xi Jinping has made a rare visit to Tibet as authorities tighten controls over the Himalayan region’s traditional Buddhist culture, accompanied by an accelerated drive for economic development and modernized infrastructure.
State media reported Friday that Xi visited sites in the capital Lhasa, including the Drepung Monastery, Barkhor Street and the public square at the base of the Potala Palace that was home to the Dalai Lamas, Tibet’s traditional spiritual and temporal leaders.
Xi’s visit was previously unannounced publicly and it wasn’t clear whether he had already returned to Beijing.
China has in recent years stepped up controls over Buddhist monasteries and expanded education in the Chinese rather than Tibetan language. Critics of such policies are routinely detained and can receive long prison terms, especially if they have been convicted of association with the 86-year-old Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile in India since fleeing Tibet during an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.” Read more at AP News
“As rescue and recovery efforts continue following heavy flooding, residents of Henan Province in central China are bracing for even more rain as a historic crisis worsens for one of the country’s poorest provinces.
Since Sunday, record rainfall has led to mass flooding across a region that is home to nearly 100 million people. On Tuesday, the provincial capital of Zhengzhou received the equivalent of one-third of its average annual rainfall in the space of one hour.
The impact has been devastating. At least 33 people have died so far—a toll that will undoubtedly rise—and more than 250,000 people have been displaced. Entire neighborhoods have been submerged. Powerful floods have caused landslides. And while Zhengzhou is the worst-hit area, smaller cities and villages have been deeply affected.
Henan is home to large numbers of factories, and as Foreign Policy’s James Palmer noted in this week’s China Brief, consumers can expect several disruptions to global supply chains already rattled by the coronavirus pandemic. Apple and Nissan factories are among those wrecked by the flooding.
Climate change. Regional officials have described the amount of rainfall as a ‘once in a thousand years’ event. And although there’s no way to measure such a claim, there is widespread consensus that extreme climate events are taking place with increased frequency all over the world.
Recent news makes for grim reading. In southwestern Iran, hundreds of people have been demonstrating in often violent protests this week because of severe water shortages. Meanwhile, Germany has been left reeling by floods that killed at least 188 people. Turkey, Japan, and Northern Ireland have set records for high temperatures in recent days. And there have been deadly wildfires in North America and Russia.
Perfect storm. It’s not just the weather and environment that’s wreaking havoc. As FP’s Elise Labott writes, from ‘Cuba to South Africa to Colombia to Haiti, often violent protests are sweeping every corner of the globe ‘as a perfect storm of preexisting conditions gets exacerbated by new and deadlier waves of the coronavirus—even as much of the developing world remains unvaccinated and completely exposed.
As new grievances emerge while old wounds fester, this is fast becoming one of the most unpredictable summers of discontent in recent memory.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Haiti mourns Moïse. The funeral of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moïse takes place today in the city of Cap-Haïtien after his assassination earlier this month. Public demonstrations are expected alongside the private event, with authorities hoping to avoid the violent protests which took place in nearby Quartier-Morin on Wednesday. On Thursday, the U.S. State Department announced the appointment of Amb. Daniel Foote, a career foreign service officer, as the new U.S. Special Envoy for Haiti.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“A fight that started over a book of modernized fairy tales has morphed into a defining test for the European Union.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban is intensifying an assault against Hungary’s LGBTQ community. As Veronika Gulyas, Flavia Krause-Jackson and Zoltan Simon report, that could prompt the bloc to shut the taps on financial aid that has fueled the country’s economic transformation for almost two decades.
The European Commission is threatening legal action over a Hungarian law banning minors from being exposed to content portraying homosexuality or sex reassignment that originated with a dispute over a children’s book depicting gay and transgender characters.
The issue cuts to the quick of a dilemma that has plagued the bloc for more than a decade: Why should its 27 countries continue to financially prop up members whose leaders flout EU values on inclusion, democracy and the rule of law?
For Orban, the ringleader of Europe’s populist movement since he returned to power in 2010, it’s political.
Last decade, he scored election victories by demonizing Muslim immigrants and he whipped up sentiment against the Roma minority before the pandemic broke out. As he tightened his grip over Hungary, he teased out a net $29 billion of EU money in the last seven years alone, a model that Poland’s right-wing, anti-LGBTQ government is also pursuing.
Now facing a tough challenge in next year’s elections, Orban is portraying the gay community as the enemy and will hold a referendum on LGBTQ questions to push back against the EU.
But after years of shirking from a fight as it wrangled with problems from the Greek crisis to Brexit, the EU has finally come to the realization it has an antagonist who must be confronted.” — Michael Winfrey Read more at Bloomberg
“Brazil’s election. Brazil’s political leaders have been forced to deny reports that the 2022 presidential election must meet new conditions before a vote could be held. Defense Minister Walter Braga Netto is reported to have told House Speaker Arthur Lira that the election would not take place unless paper ballots were universally used. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has claimed electronic voting systems in the country are vulnerable to fraud, a claim Brazil’s electoral court denies. Bolsonaro has yet to provide evidence to back up his claim as he trails his likely challenger, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in polls.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Pegasus fallout. French President Emmanuel Macron has switched to a new phone following revelations from the Pegasus Project that his device may have been targeted as part of a widespread government-led hacking program using spyware licensed from an Israeli company. Prosecutors in Hungary and Algeria have ordered investigations into the use of the program, while Israel has formed a commission to review the approval of spyware licenses.” Read more at Foreign Policy
“Sierra Leone will soon decide whether to abolish the death penalty. It would be the 23rd African country to do so.” Read more at New York Times
“Argentina became the first Latin American country to officially recognize gender nonbinary people.” Read more at New York Times
Rising prices are prompting more homeowners to list their houses for sale.
PHOTO: KAREN DUCEY/REUTERSThe median U.S. home price has never been higher.
“In June, the most recent data available, the median existing-home price rose to $363,300, up 23.4% from a year earlier, a record high that reflects continued strong demand. While the housing-market boom is easing slightly, 5.86 million existing homes were sold in June, up 23% from the year prior. The rising prices are prompting homeowners to list their homes with many selling above their asking price, and quickly. The typical home sold in June was on the market for 17 days, holding at a record low. Dana Laboy and John Niehaus of Columbus, Ohio, said they missed out on houses for eight weekends in a row after being outbid, even after offering as much as $40,000 over the listing price. Real-estate experts say they don't expect the run-up in prices to continue over the next year, however. ‘I don’t believe you’ll see the kinds of [price] increases you’ve seen in the last 12 months,’ said Sheryl Palmer, chief executive of home builder Taylor Morrison Home Corp. ‘That’s not sustainable.’” Read more at Wall Street Journal
“$20 billion — The cost for California utility company PG&E to bury 10,000 miles of power lines that are at risk of sparking wildfires. Equipment from the company has ignited more than 20 fires in recent years that have collectively killed more than 100 people and burned thousands of homes. The fires typically started when trees or branches touched the company’s wires.
$81 billion — The amount that insurers across the globe paid out for damages related to natural catastrophes in 2020, up 50% from the year prior and comfortably topping the $74 billion 10-year average for such losses. The prospect of more frequent extreme weather events such as Germany's recent flooding has insurers updating their risk-assessment models and recalculating the price of insurance.” Read more at Wall Street Journal