U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on all warring parties to observe the traditional Olympic truce during the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic Games in Japan, and to pursue cease-fires and lasting peace after the competitions end.The U.N. chief said in a video message Thursday that athletes from around the world have had to overcome “enormous obstacles” to participate in the games in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.”We need to show the same strength and solidarity in our efforts to bring peace to our world,” he said.”Seeking peace and uniting around common goals is even more important this year,” Guterres said, “as we strive to end the pandemic and build a strong, sustainable and inclusive global recovery.”The Olympic truce began in ancient Greece to allow free passage of athletes and spectators from often-warring city-states to the original games every four years. But even that tradition was broken when the Greek city of Elis attacked the neighboring town of Pisa while it was hosting the Festival of Zeus and the Olympic Games.This summer’s Olympic Games will be held from July 23 to Aug. 8, followed by the Paralympic Games from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5.Guterres recalled “the traditional call to silence the guns while the games proceed,” and expressed hope that it can lead to an end to conflicts.
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A debate is brewing between former gold medalist Maya DiRado and some American swimmers over U.S. medal threat Michael Andrew’s decision not to be vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus as he prepares to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.DiRado sparked the discourse this week with a lengthy thread on Twitter in which she wrote that she’s “disappointed” in Andrew’s decision to compete unvaccinated and his reasoning behind it.
Andrew revealed earlier this month that he isn’t vaccinated after being asked about his status by a reporter.“My reason behind it is, for one, it was kind of a last moment, I didn’t want to put anything in my body that I didn’t know how I would potentially react to,” he said.“As an athlete on the elite level, everything we do is very calculated and understood. For me, in the training cycle, especially leading up to trials, I didn’t want to risk any days out. There were periods where you take a vaccine, you have to deal with some days off.”Andrew said he has no plans to be vaccinated in the future.“We feel very safe and protected knowing that we’re minimizing risk as much as possible,” he said, citing daily testing during the Olympics.Tokyo Olympic organizers and the International Olympic Committee didn’t make it mandatory for athletes to be vaccinated to compete. Just over 20% of the Japanese population is fully vaccinated. The IOC has reported 13 positive cases among all athletes in Japan.About 100 of the 613 U.S. athletes in Tokyo are unvaccinated, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s medical chief said Friday. Andrew is the only member of the U.S. swim team to publicly reveal that he is not vaccinated.“That Michael would make a decision that puts even a bit of risk on his teammates for his own perceived well-being frustrates me,” DiRado wrote. She is one of three athlete representatives on USA Swimming’s board of directors, having retired after the 2016 Rio Games, where she won four medals, including two golds.The top Americans — Caeleb Dressel, Katie Ledecky, Lilly King and Simone Manuel — have all said they are fully vaccinated.Former gold medalist Anthony Ervin tweeted to DiRado that Andrew had COVID-19 in December, “and thus has a natural immunity.”Andrew’s teammate, Tom Shields, criticized DiRado’s stance.“What part of that responsibility involves shaming one of our Olympian’s (sic) on the eve of competition?” Shields tweeted.Andrew dominated at the U.S. trials last month with impressive times in qualifying for the 100-meter breaststroke, 200 individual medley and 50 freestyle to earn his first Olympic berth.The 22-year-old swimmer who lives in Encinitas, California, first created waves in the sport when he turned pro at age 14. He is trained by his father, Peter, using a non-traditional method known as Ultra Short Race Pace Training. It involves only swimming at your goal race pace or faster in practice. It eliminates drills, kicking or any technique-based work. His mother, Tina, is his agent.“We chose a path. We’ve prided ourselves on that,” Andrew said. “It is cool to finally be at this point and for people to see that all those years of hard work and the fact that we can do it differently makes sense.”The online back-and-forth was surprising, as the American swimmers typically present a positive and united front at the Games while emphasizing team success over individual accomplishment.
“Michael is allowed to make his own decisions and I can guarantee you that none of us here are holding any decision like that against him,” teammate Patrick Callan tweeted. “He is still doing everything in the best interest of this team.”
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Many Olympic nations are expected to demonstrate their support for gender equality and racial justice on Friday night with their selections of athletes to carry flags at the opening ceremony.The International Olympic Committee changed it rules and asked each nation to select two flagbearers in an effort to increase gender equality at the Tokyo Games.Gold-medal rower Mohamed Sbihi will be the first Muslim to carry the British flag at the Games, alongside sailor Hannah Mills.”It is such an honor to be invited to be the flagbearer for Team GB,” Sbihi said. “It is an iconic moment within the Olympic movement – people remember those images.”Aussies Cate Campbell and Patty Mills are both attending their fourth Olympics. Mills, a basketballer who plays for the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA, will be the first indigenous Australian selected to carry the flag for the Opening Ceremony.”It’s identity, it’s being able to showcase who you are throughout the world,” Mills said. “It’s one of those things that makes you proud of who you are. We have definitely come a long way for Australian sport and it’s special.”Team USA will be represented by 40-year-old basketballer Sue Bird and Cuban-American baseballer Eddy Alvarez. Alvarez, who also won a silver medal for speedskating in the 2014 Winter Olympics, has expressed support for those in Cuba who have joined recent protests over the country’s economic crisis.”We feel for the people of Cuba right now. We’re so proud of them because they are going out there to protest with stones, forks and broomsticks,” he said.For the Netherlands, it will be 36-year-old Dutch sprinter and Black athlete Churandy Martina, from Curaçao, and skateboarder Keet Oldenbeuving, 16. They are the oldest and youngest members of the Dutch Olympic team.In Belgium’s case, the two will also represent the country’s linguistic divide – heptathlete Nafi Thiam, a French speaker, and hockey player Felix Denayer, a Dutch speaker.”What an honor!” posted Black sprinter Mujinga Kambundji with an emoji of the Swiss flag on Instagram after she was selected alongside Max Heinzer.”When I started athletics as a child, going to the Olympics never sounded really realistic. Today, I’m preparing for my third Olympic Games, and this honor makes the experience even more special.”
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The Kennedy Center Honors will return in December with a class that includes Motown Records creator Berry Gordy, “Saturday Night Live” mastermind Lorne Michaels and actress-singer Bette Midler.Organizers expect to operate at full capacity, after last year’s ceremony was delayed for months and later conducted under COVID-19 restrictions.This 44th class of honorees for lifetime achievement in the creative arts is heavy on musical performers. The honorees also include opera singer Justino Diaz and folk music legend Joni Mitchell.All will be honored on December 5 with a trademark program that includes personalized tributes and performances that are kept secret from the honorees.Deborah Rutter, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, said the current plan is to pack the center’s opera house to full capacity and require all attendees to wear masks. But the plans remain fluid and Rutter said they’re ready to adapt to changing circumstances depending on the country’s COVID-19 situation.Time to party”We don’t know for sure what it’s going to be like,” Rutter said in an interview. “But don’t you think we all deserve to have a party?”The 43rd Kennedy Center Honors class was delayed from December 2020 as the center largely shut down its indoor programming. A slimmed-down ceremony was finally held in May of this year, with a series of small socially distanced gatherings and pre-taped video performances replacing the normal gala event.”We know how to do it now. We will make whatever adjustments we need,” Rutter said. “We’re going to be wearing masks right up until we don’t have to.”Midler, 75, has won four Grammy Awards, three Emmys and two Tony Awards, along with two Oscar nominations. Her albums have sold over 30 million copies. In a statement, Midler said she was “stunned and grateful beyond words. For many years I have watched this broadcast celebrating the best talent in the performing arts that America has to offer, and I truly never imagined that I would find myself among these swans.”FILE – Joni Mitchell arrives at the Hammer Museum’s “Gala In The Garden,” in Los Angeles, Oct. 11, 2014.Mitchell, 77, emerged from the Canadian coffee shop circuit to become one of the standard-bearers for multiple generations of singer-songwriters. In 2020, Rolling Stone magazine declared her 1971 album “Blue” to be the third-best album of all time. In a brief statement, Mitchell, said, “I wish my mother and father were alive to see this. It’s a long way from Saskatoon.”The December 5 ceremony will be the centerpiece of the Kennedy Center’s 50th anniversary of cultural programing. The center opened in 1971 and a young Diaz, now 81, actually performed at the grand opening of the opera house.”It’s a very special thing,” said Diaz, a bass-baritone from San Juan, Puerto Rico. “It’s such a great privilege to be able to say I shared this space with all these geniuses.”Gordy, 91, founded Motown Records — the Detroit-based hit factory that spawned what became known as the Motown Sound and launched the careers of a huge list of artists, including Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, Lionel Ritchie, Marvin Gaye and Martha and the Vandellas.FILE – Berry Gordy attends the the 48th Annual Songwriters Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Gala at the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York, June 15, 2017.Gordy said in an interview that he always held President John Kennedy as one of the greatest leaders in American history.”So to be honored in his name just means the world to me,” he said.Michaels, 76, is a comedy institution unto himself — creating and producing “Saturday Night Live” since 1975 and producing dozens of movies and television shows, including “Wayne’s World,” “Kids in the Hall” and “Mean Girls.” He received the Kennedy Center’s Mark Twain Award for lifetime achievement in comedy in 2004.Not normally an on-stage performer, Michaels recalls the Mark Twain evening as “mostly nerve-racking” because he spent the evening dreading the traditional end-of-night speech he had to deliver.FILE – Producer Lorne Michaels attends the American Museum of Natural History’s 2019 Museum Gala in New York, Nov. 21, 2019.But the Kennedy Center Honors bring no such pressures, and Michaels said he intends to sit back in the special honorees box at the opera house and see what surprises the organizers have in store.”You don’t have to give a speech at the end, which is huge,” he said. “You’re just there with your friends.”
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Barring another postponement, Friday’s opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics will launch competitions overshadowed by a pandemic that has already forced a major delay, has interfered with the pageantry ahead of the Games, and will keep spectators from the stands and prevent some athletes from competing at all.For casual observers in the United States, excitement and anticipation are hard to find as the Olympic Games vie for attention with dire domestic and international headlines.”We’ve hardly heard much about it,” Kevin Watson of Alexandria, Virginia, told VOA. “It’s already been a letdown, with few interviews with the athletes or TV commercials to promote the sports.”Even before the pandemic, primetime ratings for the Summer Olympics had been declining.Surfer Carissa Moore of the United States heads into the water for a practice run at Tsurigasaki beach at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, in Ichinomiya, Japan, July 21, 2021.Data compiled by Zeta Global in New York indicated that 60% of Americans were not interested or excited about the Tokyo Games. And at least 45% were not even looking forward to them.No spectatorsAccording to the Zeta Global website, the reasons included last year’s postponement of the Games, less desire to sit in front of the TV after a year of lockdown, and the barring of spectators at the events.”Since there won’t be spectators to watch, cheer, jeer and shout in the stands behind the competitors, that makes the coverage boring,” Alex Willman in Carlsbad, California, said in a VOA interview. “The best part of any sporting event with a large audience is to watch their reaction to the scores.”Eliot Greenwald said he hadn’t paid much attention to the run-up to the Olympics. The avid sailor from Bethesda, Maryland, said he’d probably get more interested in the events once they began, especially watersports like sailing and diving.FILE – Katie Ledecky participates in the women’s 800-meter freestyle during wave 2 of the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials, June 19, 2021, in Omaha, Neb.With some of the athletes testing positive for the coronavirus in Tokyo, some people think the Games should be postponed again.”I love the Olympic Games, but I don’t think they should be happening now,” Barry Hunter, a boxing trainer at Headbangers Gym in Washington, told VOA by phone. He added that because of the pandemic, “the average person in the U.S. is not as excited about them as they normally would be.””They seem less important when there’s a pandemic going on around the world,” said Louise Korver, who lives in Huntersville, North Carolina.However, Jeff Shell, the chief executive of NBCUniversal, the major U.S. television network that is broadcasting most of the Olympics, thinks the time is right for the Games to begin.NBC is airing 7,000 hours of coverage across its multiple television networks. Shell told a virtual conference this week that the Tokyo Games could be the most profitable Olympics in NBC’s history.Some fans are eagerThe lack of enthusiasm is far from universal. Some Americans can’t wait to watch their favorite sports.Luisa Handem Piette in Londonderry, New Hampshire, said she would be among those glued to the TV watching the Olympics. “The U.S. audience will be much larger than anticipated,” she said in a phone interview with VOA.FILE – Signs from the Belgian and Austrian teams hang on the apartment building hosting Olympics participants at the Athletes Village, in Tokyo, July 18, 2021.Bob Mandau, in Chesterland, Ohio, said he “welcomes the Olympics as a much-needed break from the negative politics on TV.”Meanwhile, Rick Kinney from Wellesley, Massachusetts, said Americans like him would watch the Olympics because “people like a feel-good story about how hard the athletes worked to get to the Games.”Sam Doering is on the swim team at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas. She will be following American Katie Ledecky, one of the world’s top swimmers and a favorite for top medals at the Games.”I think it’s going to be fantastic watching Ledecky, and hopefully other U.S. swimmers, do well in the swimming competitions,” she said. “And hearing the national anthem being played after they’ve won the medals is really cool.”Of all the events, women’s gymnastics is projected to be the most popular with American viewers. Zeta Global predicted 33% of the people interested in the Olympics would be focusing on that competition.Ashley Umberger, owner and head coach at North Stars Gymnastics Academy in Boonton, New Jersey, said she thought the U.S. women’s team “is going to be the one to watch” as Americans tune in to watch Simone Biles, the top-ranked female gymnast, “who is really breaking barriers.”
 
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Brisbane was picked Wednesday to host the 2032 Olympics, the inevitable winner of a one-city race steered by the IOC to avoid rival bids.The Games will go back to Australia 32 years after the popular 2000 Sydney Olympics. Melbourne hosted in 1956.“We know what it takes to deliver a successful Games in Australia,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison told International Olympic Committee voters in an 11-minute live video link from his office.When the award was later confirmed, winning the vote 72-5, Morrison raised both arms in the air and gave two thumbs up.The victory led to a fireworks display in Brisbane that was broadcast to IOC members in their five-star hotel in Tokyo.Brisbane follows 2028 host Los Angeles in getting 11 years to prepare for hosting the Games. Paris will host in 2024.The 2032 deal looked done months before the formal decision at the IOC meeting, which was held ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony of the Tokyo Games.The IOC gave Brisbane exclusive negotiating rights in February. That decision left Olympic officials in Qatar, Hungary and Germany looking blindsided with their own stalled bidding plans.Though the result was expected, a high-level Australian delegation went to Tokyo amid the COVID-19 pandemic to present speeches, films and promises on stage.The city of Brisbane sent Mayor Adrian Schrinner, the state of Queensland sent Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Australia’s federal government sent sports minister Richard Colbeck to woo Olympic voters.They were joined by long-time Australian Olympic official John Coates, now an IOC vice president who shaped the fast-track selection process two years ago.The first-time format, designed to cut campaign costs, gives the IOC more control and removes the risk of vote-buying.The project will see events staged across Queensland, including in Gold Coast, which hosted the 2018 Commonwealth Games.Brisbane’s renowned cricket stadium, known as the Gabba, will be upgraded and may host the sport at the Games. Cricket was played once at the Olympics, at the 1900 Paris Games.The next three Summer Games hosts — starting with Paris in 2024 — are now secured in wealthy and traditional Olympic host nations without any of the trio facing a contested vote.The IOC and its hands-on president, Thomas Bach, have torn up the template of traditional bidding campaigns and hosting votes to lock down preferred cities with the minimum risk.The future hosts offer stability for the IOC, which was stung by the two previous Summer Games contests being tainted by allegations of vote-buying when multiple cities were on the ballot.The 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the postponed 2020 Tokyo Olympics are still under investigation by French prosecutors. They have implicated officials who then lost their place in the IOC family as active or honorary members.A low-risk future beckons for the IOC following the often-troubled Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 Beijing Winter Games in February, which will throw scrutiny on China’s human rights record. Key partners have also been secured through 2032. The IOC’s signature broadcasting deal with NBC and top-tier sponsors Coca-Cola, Visa and Omega are tied down for the decade ahead.
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U.S. first lady Jill Biden heads to Alaska Wednesday on the first stop of a trip that will see her lead the official U.S. delegation at the Olympics in Tokyo. In Alaska, Biden is scheduled to tour a medical center and call attention to the need for access to health care in rural areas. The White House said Biden will also encourage people to get vaccinated against COVID-19. At the Games in Tokyo, Biden is scheduled to attend Friday’s opening ceremony. Joining her in the U.S. delegation is Raymond Greene, the chargé d’affaires and interim at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo. “Our team will be following very strict safety and health protocols, limiting engagement with the public, keeping our footprint as small as possible,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Tuesday. “Our COVID team at the White House, as well as health officials at the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and the government of Japan, all agree that the stringent protocols and health measures in place will help keep our delegation safe.” 
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The Japanese women’s softball team posted an 8-1 rout of Australia Wednesday to usher in the Tokyo Olympic Games. The Games, delayed for a year by the pandemic, got off to a quiet start when Japanese pitcher Yukiko Ueno tossed the first pitch to Australian leadoff hitter Michelle Cox at a near-empty stadium in the northwest city of Fukushima, the site of the 2011 nuclear disaster. Australia took a 1-0 lead in the first inning after Ueno walked a batter and hit the next two, allowing Cox to score. But the host country quickly rebounded, tying the game in the same inning, then scoring two runs in the third and three more in the fourth. The game ended after Yu Yamamoto hit a two-run homer in the fifth inning that prompted the umpires to invoke the mercy rule. The Japan-Australia contest was the first of three games scheduled for Wednesday. The United States beat Italy 2-0 in the second game, with 38-year-old Cat Osterman, who won gold with the U.S. team in 2004 and silver in 2008, striking out nine batters while giving up just one hit over six innings.   Mexico and Canada were slated for the third game at Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium.   The first women’s soccer matches are scheduled to be held Wednesday in Tokyo.   The Tokyo Olympics are being staged under a coronavirus state of emergency prompted by rising rates of new COVID-19 infections and low rates of vaccinations. So far, at least 70 people connected to the Games have tested positive for COVID-19 since athletes began arriving at the Olympic Village in Tokyo. Olympic organizers have banned fans from attending any of the events because of the current surge of new infections.   Mexico’s national baseball team has been placed in quarantine in Mexico City after two players tested positive for COVID-19 before they were scheduled to travel to Japan.   Meanwhile, an administrative error has caused six members of the Polish swim team to leave Tokyo and return home. A delegation of 23 swimmers arrived in Tokyo to take part in the Games, but the Polish Swimming Federation (PZP) recalled six of them home Sunday because of an administrative error.   All six swimmers issued a statement calling on the entire organization’s board to resign immediately.   PZP director Pawel Slominski issued a statement Monday expressing his “great regret, sadness and bitterness about the situation.”   Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
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Muslims around the world were observing Tuesday yet another major Islamic holiday in the shadow of the pandemic and amid growing concerns about the highly infectious delta variant of the coronavirus.Eid al-Adha, or the “Feast of Sacrifice,” is typically marked by communal prayers, large social gatherings, slaughtering of livestock and giving meat to the needy. This year, the holiday comes as many countries battle the delta variant first identified in India, prompting some to impose new restrictions or appeal for people to avoid congregating and follow safety protocols.The pandemic has already taken a toll for the second year on a sacred mainstay of Islam, the hajj, whose last days coincide with Eid al-Adha. Once drawing some 2.5 million Muslims from across the globe to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia, the pilgrimage has been dramatically scaled back due to the virus.This year’s hajj has been limited to 60,000 vaccinated Saudi citizens or residents of Saudi Arabia. On Tuesday, pilgrims wearing masks and maintaining social distancing, performed the symbolic stoning of the devil in the valley area of Mina — using sterilized pebbles they received ahead of time.”This is (a) very, very, very big moment for us, for me especially,” said pilgrim Arya Widyawan Yanto, an Indonesian living in Saudi Arabia. He added that he was happy he had the chance to perform the pilgrimage. “Everything was conducted under very strict precautions.”Yanto said he hoped for the pandemic to end and for all Muslims to be able to perform the pilgrimage in a safe way.Indonesia marked a grim Eid al-Adha amid a devastating new wave of coronavirus cases in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. Vice President Ma’ruf Amin, also an influential Islamic cleric, appealed to people to perform holiday prayers at home with their families.”Don’t do crowds,” Amin said in televised remarks ahead of the start of the holiday. “Protecting oneself from the COVID-19 pandemic is obligatory.”The surge is believed to have been fueled by travel during another holiday — the Eid al-Fitr festival in May — and by the rapid spread of the delta variant.In Malaysia, measures have been tightened after a sharp spike in infections despite a national lockdown since June 1 — people are banned from traveling back to their hometowns or crossing districts to celebrate. House visits and customary trips to graveyards are also banned.Healthy worshippers are allowed to gather for prayers in mosques, with strict social distancing and no physical contact. Ritual animal sacrifice is limited to mosques and other approved areas.Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah has urged Malaysians not to “repeat irresponsible behavior,” adding that travel and celebrations during Eid al-Fitr and another festival on the island of Borneo led to new clusters of cases.”Let us not in the excitement of celebrating the Feast of Sacrifice cause us all to perish because of COVID-19,” he said in a statement.Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin urged Muslims to stay home. “I appeal to you all to be patient and abide by the rules because your sacrifice is a great jihad in Allah’s sight and in our effort to save lives,” he said in a televised speech on the eve of the festival.The World Health Organization has reported that globally, COVID-19 deaths had climbed after a period of decline. The reversal has been attributed to low vaccination rates, relaxed mask rules and other precautions, and the delta variant.Lockdowns will severely curtail Eid al-Adha festivities in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia’s two largest cities.Sydney resident Jihad Dib, a New South Wales state government lawmaker, said the city’s Muslims were sad but understood why they would be confined to their homes with no visitors allowed.
“It’s going to be the first Eid in my life I don’t hug and kiss my mum and dad,” Dib told Australian Broadcasting Corp.Iran on Monday imposed a week-long lockdown on the capital, Tehran, and the surrounding region as the country struggles with another surge in the coronavirus pandemic, state media reported. The lockdown begins on Tuesday.Not everyone is imposing new restrictions. In Bangladesh, authorities have allowed an eight-day pause in the country’s strict lockdown for the holiday that health experts say could be dangerous.In Egypt, Essam Shaban travelled to the southern province of Sohag to spend Eid al-Adha with his family. He said ahead of the start of the holiday that he planned to pray at a mosque there on Tuesday while taking precautions such as bringing his own prayer rug and wearing a mask.”We want this Eid to pass by peacefully without any infections,” he said. “We must follow instructions.”Shaban had been looking forward to pitching in with his brothers to buy a buffalo for slaughtering, going door-to-door to give some of the meat to the poor and to the traditional festive meal later in the day with his extended family.”It’s usually boisterous with laughter and bickering with the kids,” he said. “It’s great.”
But others will be without loved ones.In India, where Eid al-Adha starts Wednesday, Tahir Qureshi would always go with his father for prayers and then to visit family and friends. His father died in June after contracting the virus during a surge that devastated the country, and the thought of having to spend the holiday without him is heartbreaking.”It will be difficult without him,” he said.India’s Muslim scholars have been urging people to exercise restraint and adhere to health protocols. Some states have restricted large gatherings and are asking people to observe the holiday at home.Meanwhile the pandemic’s economic fallout, which threw millions of Indians into financial hardship, has many saying they cannot afford to buy sacrificial livestock.In Indian-controlled Kashmir, a disputed, Muslim-majority region, businessman Ghulam Hassan Wani is among those cutting back.”I used to sacrifice three or four sheep, but this year we can hardly afford one,” Wani said.
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Bushra Shah, a 35-year-old Pakistani, says she is realizing a childhood dream by making the great pilgrimage to Mecca, and under new rules she’s doing it without a male guardian.The hajj ministry has officially allowed women of all ages to make the pilgrimage without a male relative, known as a “mehrem,” on the condition that they go in a group.
The decision is part of social reforms rolled out by de facto leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is trying to shake off the kingdom’s austere image and open its oi reliant economy.Since his rise to power, women have been allowed to drive and to travel abroad without a male guardian, even against a backdrop of a relentless crackdown against critics of his rule, including women’s rights activists.”It’s like a dream come true. My childhood dream was to make the hajj,” Shah told AFP, before setting off from her home in Jeddah, the major port city in western Saudi Arabia.The hajj, one of the five pillars of Islam, is a must for able-bodied Muslims with the means to do so at least once in their lifetime.For the young mother, making the pilgrimage with her husband and child would have been a distraction that would have prevented her from “concentrating completely on the rites.”Shah is one of 60,000 pilgrims chosen to take part in this year’s hajj, which has been dramatically scaled down for the second year because of the coronavirus pandemic.Only citizens and residents of Saudi Arabia, chosen in a lottery, are taking part. Officials have said that 40% of this year’s pilgrims are women.”Many women will also come with me. I am very proud that we are now independent and do not need a guardian,” Shah said.Her husband, Ali Murtada, said he “strongly encouraged” his wife to make the trip alone, after the government’s decision to ban children from participating in the hajj this year.
He will stay in Jeddah to look after their child.”We decided that one of us should go. Maybe she will be pregnant next year or maybe the children will still not be allowed to participate,” the 38-year-old said.It was unclear when the hajj ministry lifted the restriction, and some women have reported that travel agencies are still reluctant to accept women travelling without a male companion for the hajj.Some even posted advertisements ruling out groups of unaccompanied women, in a sign of how the dizzying social changes are meeting some resistance in the deeply conservative kingdom.Authorities previously required the presence of a male guardian for any woman pilgrim younger than 45, preventing many Muslim women around the world from making the hajj.That was the case for Marwa Shaker, an Egyptian woman living in the Saudi capital, Riyadh.”Hajj without a guardian is a miracle,” the 42-year-old, who works for a civil society organization, told AFP.Now travelling to Mecca with three of her friends, the mother of three had tried several times to make the pilgrimage before the pandemic. But she was unable to because her husband had already been and was not permitted to go again so soon.”I feel enormously joyful. God has called me despite all the obstacles,” she said.For Sadaf Ghafoor, a British-Pakistani doctor, travelling without a male guardian was the “only option.””We couldn’t leave the children alone,” the 40-year-old said of her three youngsters.  Her husband decided to stay behind, and Ghafoor headed to Mecca with a neighbor.”It was not easy to take the decision to go alone … but we took this opportunity as a blessing,” she said.
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Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard, whose image of the Prophet Muhammad wearing a bomb as a turban was at the center of widespread anti-Danish anger in the Muslim world in the mid-2000s, has died. He was 86. Westergaard’s family announced his death to Danish media late Sunday and told the newspaper Berlingske that Westergaard died in his sleep after a long period of illness. Danish media reported that he died July 14, a day after his birthday. From the early 1980s, Westergaard worked as a cartoonist for Jyllands-Posten, one of Denmark’s leading newspapers, and was associated with the daily until he turned 75.  Westergaard became known worldwide in 2005 for his controversial depiction of the Prophet Muhammad in Jyllands-Posten, which published 12 editorial cartoons of the principal figure of Islam. Muslims consider images of the prophet to be sacrilegious and encouraging idolatry. The images, particularly Westergaard’s, sparked a huge wave of anger in the Muslim world and escalated into violent anti-Denmark protests by Muslims worldwide in 2006.  Several newspapers in neighboring Norway also published the controversial cartoons. Danish and Norwegian embassies in Syria were burned down by angry crowds during the demonstrations.  Political observers in the Nordic countries have described the cartoon incident as one of the most severe foreign policy crises for both Denmark and Norway in their recent histories. In the aftermath of the uproar, Westergaard received several death threats and was forced to have police protection. In 2008, three people were arrested for planning to kill him, and in 2010, a 28-year-old Somali man broke into his home with an ax and knife. The man was later sentenced to 10 years in prison. “I would like to be remembered as the one who struck a blow for the freedom of expression. But there’s no doubt that there are some who will instead remember me as a Satan who insulted the religion of over 1 billion people,” Westergaard said, according to Berlingske. Jyllands-Posten said in an editorial published Monday that with the death of Westergaard “it is more important than ever to emphasize that the struggle for freedom of expression, which became his destiny, is the struggle of all of us for freedom.” Westergaard is survived by his wife and five children, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Funeral arrangements were not immediately known. 
 
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Pastry chef Shimi Aaron fell in love with babkas — a dessert that originated in Eastern Europe in the 19th century. Aaron started making his own, and today he is teaching others how to make this unusual pastry. Genia Dulot met with the chef to hear his story.Camera: Genia Dulot
 
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More than half of the Kenyan capital’s nearly five million people live in slums, where many young people are lured by drugs and crime. In one neighborhood, a group is using the game of chess to help transform the lives of young people.  
We are in Mukuru Kwa Njenga an informal settlement that is about thirteen kilometers from Kenya’s capital Nairobi. Among the youth here practicing chess, who number about twenty, is Sarah Momanyi.  At 15, she’s a teen sensation in the sport, but her start wasn’t easy.  “When I first started playing chess, it was hard because I was like the only girl, and my grandmother, she never supported me, because of playing with boys. It was really hard,” she said. It’s been five years since a sports outreach ministry introduced chess to this informal settlement to help keep young people away from drugs and crime.  Every Saturday, the students here practice the game for five hours. The sport has provided a safe avenue for Momanyi and other young residents to hone and perfect their skills.  
The chess initiative has drawn about 800 students from various schools within Mukuru Kwa Njenga, which has a population of about half a million people.  Josephat Owila is a national chess instructor and head coach with the Sports Outreach Ministry.  
 
“Socially they are good because they can be able to coexist with others in the society also in their schools, their respective schools. They are performing well, which means that they are critical thinkers and are creative also,” he said.     John Mukabi, the head of Chess Kenya, the national body that manages the sport, told VOA the sport faces challenges in the country.  “For these informal settlement areas, like here in Mukuru Kwa Njenga, they don’t have internet connection, they need laptops and things like that and also chessboards,” he said.  Still, the young residents play the game despite obstacles. As for Momanyi, she continues to practice every day and hopes to one day become a grand master.   
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An alternate on the United States women’s gymnastics team has tested positive for COVID-19 in an Olympic training camp in Japan.Olympic champion Simone Biles was not affected, nor were any of the other favorites to win the team gold, but another alternate was placed into isolation because of contact tracing, USA Gymnastics said Monday.”One of the replacement athletes for the women’s artistic gymnastics team received a positive COVID test on Sunday, July 18. After reviewing the implemented COVID protocols with members of the delegation, the local government determined that the affected replacement athlete and one other replacement athlete would be subject to additional quarantine restrictions,” the USAG statement said. “Accordingly, on Monday, the Olympic athletes moved to separate lodging accommodations and a separate training facility, as originally planned, and will continue their preparation for the Games. The entire delegation continues to be vigilant and will maintain strict protocols while they are in Tokyo.”The ‘No Fun’ Olympics May Struggle to Attract Viewers Organizers hope new tech can spur online fan interaction The positive test was the latest in a growing line of daily reports of athletes and others testing positive at the pandemic-delayed Olympics. The unnamed gymnast was the first American.”The health and safety of our athletes, coaches and staff is our top priority. We can confirm that an alternate on the women’s artistic gymnastics team tested positive for COVID-19,” the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee said in a statement. “In alignment with local rules and protocols, the athlete has been transferred to a hotel to quarantine. Out of respect for the individual’s privacy, we cannot provide more information at this time.”The four alternates — Leanne Wong, Kayla DiCello, Emma Malabuyo and Kara Eaker — traveled to Japan with the six-woman U.S. delegation of Biles, Jordan Chiles, Grace McCallum, Sunisa Lee, MyKayla Skinner and Jade Carey.The alternates are rooming and training together. While they have been traveling to training along with the actual team, they have been split into groups, with the team working on one apparatus while the alternates work on another.The U.S. women’s team dealt with what USA Gymnastics called a “false positive” over the weekend for an unidentified athlete but the ensuing test results for the athlete were negative, according to the organization.Biles, who is also the world champion, and the rest of the regular team have been vaccinated.
The Games are set to open on Friday with a state of emergency in force in Tokyo, which means almost all venues will be without any fans as new cases rise in the capital. The women’s gymnastic team begins competing on Sunday.The U.S. officials said the test took place when the team was training just outside Tokyo in Inzai City. Team members arrived last week for the camp to great fanfare at Narita airport.The Tokyo Metropolitan Government on Monday reported 727 new cases in the capital. It is the 30th straight day that cases were higher than the previous week. The cases last Monday were 502.
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Cavernous, empty stadiums. Do-it-yourself medal presentations. A prohibition on athlete high-fives and hugs. Those are just a few of the ways the Summer Olympics will look different this year, as the pandemic forces organizers to forgo many Olympic traditions. The Tokyo Games, which start Friday, will instead rely on technological innovations, including fan selfies and other ways to digitally “cheer” for athletes, to help spur fan engagement.  The big question: how much will anyone care?  Amid a pandemic that is still raging in most parts of the world, there are signs global interest is lacking for what some media have already labeled the “no fun Olympics.” According to an Olympic organizers will allow fans to post five-second video selfies, which will appear on giant screens in the stands. Photo/Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS)But those tools have already been tried in sports leagues across the world — and have often failed, says Tarrant.  “It hasn’t really worked. You can’t replicate what it’s like in a full stadium with people,” he said. “It’s nowhere near the same.”  The Olympics may find it even harder to generate fan interest, since many events feature relatively unknown athletes who do not have hardcore fans. “Lots of people who watch the Olympics are viewing it very casually and are therefore probably going to be less than impressed watching it in empty venues where it’s going to appear a little bit flat,” Tarrant said. Bits and bytes However, some are excited about other technology to be unveiled during Olympic broadcasts, including 360-degree cameras, which will provide three-dimensional replays for basketball games, and the use of biometric data, which will allow viewers to see athletes’ heartbeat variations or adrenaline rushes for certain events.  “I think this time more than ever the Olympics will be experienced in a hybrid space, comprised of atoms and molecules as well as bits and bytes,” says Scott Campbell, professor of communication and media at the University of Michigan. Major telecom providers around the world have long promised that 5G technology will enable more immersive fan experiences through virtual and artificial realities, says Campbell.  “I’m not sure we’re quite there yet, but I imagine there will be some exciting attempts and glimpses into new things to come,” he says.  Hang your own medals But other traditional aspects will be notably absent. Tokyo has scrapped the Olympic torch relay, replacing it with private flame-lighting ceremonies streamed online. Perhaps most awkward of all: victorious athletes will not have their medals placed around the neck. Instead, the medals will be presented on a tray, from which athletes will take them and then hang around their own necks.  The most normal part of the Olympics could be the opening ceremony, which will likely include familiar elements such as the Parade of Nations, high-profile musical performances, and pyrotechnics.  But even that event will look different. Only 1,000 VIPs are expected to attend the ceremony, according to Japan’s Kyodo news agency. That means the vast majority of the 68,000 seats will lie empty in the $1.4 billion Olympic Stadium, which was built with this very event in mind. “It’s a shame,” says Libri. “The Japanese are obviously very well organized. But to recreate this missing Olympic spirit, which is the essence of every game, is going to be very difficult.”  
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Titane, a wildly imaginative film about a serial killer by French director Julia Ducournau, won the top Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival, jury head Spike Lee told a ceremony Saturday before the award was slated to be revealed.In a moment of confusion when asked in French to reveal what one of the prizes was, the U.S. film director read off a card and prematurely announced the best movie winner.Ducournau, 37, became only the second woman to win the top award at Cannes. Her violent film, in which the heroine has sex with a car, split critics, with some praising its originality but others put off by its frantic and messy approach.Described as a “body horror” movie and based around a character with a titanium plate in her head, the film impressed some critics with its energy.Ducournau had previously found critical success with Raw in 2016. The only previous female winner of Cannes’ top award was Jane Campion who shared the prize in 1993 for The Piano.The world’s biggest film festival returned to the French Riviera after a 2020 hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic.Stars happy to be backThe event drew stars such as Matt Damon and Sharon Stone to the red carpet, with moviemakers and actors delighted to be back, though attendance was down from figures of previous years.Other big winners revealed when results were officially announced included Leos Carax, picked as best director for Annette, a musical about two artists caught in a twisted love affair.Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Takamusa Oe of Japan won best screenplay for their tale of heartbreak and loss, Drive My Car. Renate Reinsve won best actress for her role in The Worst Person in the World by Joachim Trier, a modern-day romantic comedy that was a big hit with critics.Compartment no6 by Juho Kuosmanen, about a woman who embarks on a train journey across Russia, tied with A Hero by Iran’s Asghar Farhadi, which features a prisoner faced with a moral quandary, for the Grand Prix distinction.Caleb Landry Jones, who starred in Australian film Nitram, won best actor.The Jury Prize, another runner-up award for best movie, went to two films: Ahead’s Knee by Israel’s Nadav Lapid and Memoria by Thailand’s Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
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Suzanne Firstenberg is a self-described social issues artist who finds inspiration in America —  economic inequality, racism and climate change, among other issues. She doesn’t limit herself to any particular medium but instead uses whatever she thinks works best to draw attention to the most pressing issues of our time. Maxim Moskalkov talked to the artist about her works and inspiration.
Camera: Sergey Sokolov
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Biz Markie, a hip-hop staple known for his beatboxing prowess, turntable mastery and the 1989 classic Just a Friend, has died. He was 57.Markie’s representative, Jenni Izumi, said the rapper-DJ died peacefully Friday evening with his wife by his side. The cause of death has not been released.”We are grateful for the many calls and prayers of support that we have received during this difficult time,” Izumi said in a statement. “Biz created a legacy of artistry that will forever be celebrated by his industry peers and his beloved fans whose lives he was able to touch through music, spanning over 35 years. He leaves behind a wife, many family members and close friends who will miss his vibrant personality, constant jokes and frequent banter.”Markie, who birth name was Marcel Theo Hall, became known within the rap genre realm as the self-proclaimed “Clown Prince of Hip-Hop” for lighthearted lyrics and a humorous nature. He made music with the Beastie Boys, opened for Chris Rock’s comedy tour and was a sought-after DJ for countless star-studded events.The New York-native’s music career began in 1985 as a beat boxer of the Juice Crew, a rap collective he helped Big Daddy Kane join. Three years later, he released his debut album Goin’ Off, which featured underground hits Vapors and Pickin’ Boogers.  Markie broke into mainstream music with his platinum-selling song Just a Friend, the lead single on his sophomore album The Biz Never Sleeps. The friend-zone anthem cracked Rolling Stone’s top 100 pop songs and made VH1’s list of 100 greatest hip-hop songs of all time.Markie, who released five total studio albums, consistently booked more than 175 shows a year, according to the rapper’s website. He’s appeared on television shows including In Living Color and the 2002 movie Men in Black II, which had him playing an alien parody of himself in the film starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. Markie also taught the method of beatboxing in an episode of the children’s show Yo Gabba Gabba!  
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Over a century after its big sister made its way from France to New York City, a miniature version of the Statue of Liberty has made the same journey, but this time to Washington, D.C. Karina Bafradzhian has the story.Camera: David Gogokhia       
 
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Somalia is sending two athletes to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, and they include the country’s first non-runner — female boxer Ramla Ali. The Somali Olympic team officially departed for the Tokyo Games on Friday, after President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo bid them farewell. The head of state and senior sport officials urged the team to compete successfully while proudly flying the Somali flag. Middle-distance runner Ali Idow will compete in the 800-meter race following two years of intense training with professional athletes such as Mo Farah of Britain and Ayanle Suleiman of Djibouti in the Ethiopian highlands. Idow will join the first Somali Olympic boxer, Ramla Ali, who has trained in London and is already in Tokyo. Mohamed Abdow Hajji, the head of the Somali Olympics committee, says he is happy to see Ali qualify. He says the committee is attempting to train other athletes outside long-distance running, which is so popular in Horn of Africa nations.  He says sending a middle-distance runner and boxer to the 2020 Tokyo Games is a first step toward sending more athletes in various categories to future Olympic Games. Sports minister Hamza Saed Hamza says the government is working to upgrade Somalia’s athletic facilities, such as stadiums for training, to help improve athletes’ results. Somalia has never won an Olympic medal in any sport. Idow and Ali hope to make the country proud in the Games that kick off July 23. 
 
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World Emoji Day, celebrating technology users’ favorite emoticons, is Saturday.Jeremy Burge, the founder of the icon reference site Emojipedia, created the holiday in 2014. The day is intended to celebrate the beloved icons that are increasingly used in online messaging.World Emoji Day organizers are asking the public to vote in the World Emoji Awards. The categories for this competition include most popular new emoji, most anticipated new emoji, most 2021 Emoji, and lifetime achievement. Twitter users can vote for their favorite emojis through polls posted by @EmojiAwards. The voting is now open for the most 2021 Emoji, and the competition has narrowed down to two icons: Syringe, and Microbe.Keith Brioni, the deputy emoji officer of Emojipedia, said he is rooting for the Syringe, but added “we will have to see if the wider emoji public is in agreement come World Emoji Day.” The winners of the 2020 World Emoji Awards included the White Heart as the most popular new emoji, the Smiling Face with Tear as the most anticipated new emoji, and the Raised Fist: Dark Skin Tone as the most 2020 emoji.New emojis are approved by the Unicode Consortium, a nonprofit group that regulates all digital scripts. In 2010 emojis were accepted into the Unicode Standard, which creates consistency for all programmed letters and symbols.   According to Brioni, “adding these designs to this cross-platform standard allowed emojis to be exchanged in-line with words across different devices and social platforms on a global scale, beyond anything that had been experienced before.” There are already more than 3,500 emojis. Placing emojis under the supervision of the Unicode Consortium allows designers and activists to submit their proposed icons with ease. This promotes greater diversity and cultural representation that was “initially lacking or entrenched in stereotypes during emojis earlier days,” said Brioni.Organizations such as Emojination are dedicated to adding inclusivity to the emoji approval process. As reported by the group, the proposal of the Hijab emoji was accepted by the Unicode Standard in 2017 and entered the permanent collection of Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York last year. The desire for diversity is a shared sentiment according to Adobe’s Global Emoji Diversity & Inclusion report: 83% of global users want more inclusive emojis.   These icons will continue to evolve as their popularity accelerates, and World Emoji Day is a celebration of these changes. As an additional challenge, the World Emoji Day developers ask all texters to only communicate through emojis on Saturday. So, in honor of the holiday: ? ? ? ? (Happy World Emoji Day) 
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Global inequality in the distribution of vaccines continues to hamper efforts to end the pandemic worldwide. But for those able to travel to wealthier countries with an abundance of vaccines, they are now willing to travel the distance and bear the high cost of “vaccine tourism”. VOA’s Virginia Gunawan explains.

Camera: VIDEOGRAPHER: Rendy Wicaksana, Ahadian Utama, Virginia Gunawan
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