The Biden administration on Tuesday announced a new push to expand business ties between U.S. companies and Africa, with a focus on clean energy, health, agribusiness and transportation infrastructure on the continent. 

U.S. industry executives welcomed the interest but said dollar flows will lag until the administration wraps up its lengthy review of Trump administration trade measures and sets a clear policy on investments in liquefied natural gas. 

Dana Banks, senior director for Africa at the White House National Security Council, told a conference the administration planned to “re-imagine” and revive Prosper Africa, an initiative launched by former President Donald Trump in 2018, as the “centerpiece of U.S. economic and commercial engagement with Africa.” 

Travis Adkins, deputy assistant administrator for Africa at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), added: “We’re looking at the ways in which we [can] foster two-way trade, looking at mutually beneficial partnerships that work together to mobilize investment, create jobs, and … shared opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic.” 

President Joe Biden, who requested nearly $80 million for the initiative in his budget proposal in May, aims to focus it on women and equity, with an expanded role for small- and medium-sized businesses, Banks said. 

The administration’s goal was to “reinvigorate Prosper Africa as the centerpiece of U.S. economic and commercial engagement with Africa,” she said. 

“This is an area that is a priority both at home and abroad,” Banks told Reuters ahead of the conference, adding that African countries were eager to expand their cooperation with the United States. 

China and Europe

U.S. business executives warn the United States is in danger of being overtaken by China and Europe, which are already investing and signing trade agreements across the continent. 

“We can’t wait another year to devise an Africa policy; we need to be bold in our thinking,” said Scott Eisner, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s U.S.-Africa Business Center. 

He said many companies had started to eye investments in Kenya given the Trump administration’s talks with Nairobi on a bilateral free trade agreement, but that those plans were on ice until the policy review was completed. 

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office had no immediate comment on the status of the review. 

Liquefied natural gas

Another hurdle is uncertainty about the administration’s policy on LNG projects. 

Nigeria and other countries are eager to secure U.S. investment in such plans, but are waiting to see whether the administration will back LNG investments even as it seeks to halve U.S. fossil-fuel emissions. 

“We’ve committed as an institution to have over 50% of our investments focused on activities that combat climate change,” said Kyeh Kim, a senior official at Millennium Challenge Corporation, an independent U.S. foreign aid agency.  
 
…

Britain risks becoming a breeding ground for new variants of the coronavirus that could be resistant to vaccines, according to some scientists. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. 

Camera: Henry Ridgwell    

Produced by:  Barry Unger 
…

Somali boxer Ramla Ali was defeated at the Tokyo Games Monday, but she still made history as the country’s first Olympic boxer. VOA speaks to Somalia’s boxing federation and amateur boxers about the significance of Ali’s stepping into the ring.
Somali female boxer Ramla Ali lost to Romanian Claudia Nachita in the round of 16 at the Olympics Monday but her performance in the ring excited thousands of Somalis back home.

Abdirahman Ali Mire, chief of the Somali Boxing Federation, said upcoming boxers look to Ali as their role model.

He said Ramla’s representation of Somalia at the Olympics was historic and realized the dreams of boxers following years of hard work and training.  He added Ali’s experience will motivate upcoming Somali boxers who look up to her and believe in the spirit of flying the flag of Somalia in international boxing competitions.

Hundreds of Somalis posted messages on social media praising her courage for being the first female boxer representing a Horn of Africa country in the Olympics.  

Dahir Abdile was among hundreds of supporters that watched her fight on TV in Mogadishu.

He says they had high expectations of Ramla performance in the ring due to professional training and despite the defeat, they believe she will perform well in other upcoming events.

Boxing is not one of the most popular sports among Somalis.  But the few professionals like Omar Abdi Ali who train outside the country, as does Ramla, hope they will follow her footsteps.

 

He says he’s proud of Ramla representing Somalia in the ring in Tokyo Monday and hopes to join her in the upcoming boxing competitions while jointly representing their country.

Somalia is represented by one other athlete at the Tokyo games.  Sports officials say they are making plans to send more athletes to upcoming Olympics. 
…

…

German officials Tuesday asked residents in the west-central city of Leverkusen to stay in their homes and close their windows and doors after an explosion at a chemical plant.

Germany’s Federal Office for Civil Protection and Disaster Assistance issued a warning of “extreme danger” following the explosion early Tuesday at the Chempark industrial site in Leverkusen, just outside Cologne. Officials were concerned about air quality in the vicinity following the blast, which they say occurred in an area of the park where waste is incinerated.

Pictures posted to social media showed huge clouds of smoke billowing from the site and flames.  Police closed several nearby roads as a precaution.

In a statement, Currenta, operator of Chempark, said the explosion caused a fire in a tank farm adjacent to the incineration area. They said several workers were injured and five were missing. Rescue crews were on the scene. The company set up a hotline for residents to call for information about loved ones who may have been in the blast.

The company said the cause of the explosion is unknown. Officials said they would hold a news conference later in the day.

Chempark’s website says its Leverkusen location hosts more than 30 large companies including Covestro, Bayer, Lanxess and Arlanxeo.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and the Associated Press. 
…

Law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol will be the first to testify as hearings begin Tuesday for the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack.

The existence of the committee and its membership is widening the political split between Republicans and Democrats.

Democrats originally proposed an independent commission based on the success of the commission that delivered a widely accepted investigation into the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the U.S.

“The commission was going to be a body with much more clout,” said political scientist Norm Ornstein, a senior fellow emeritus at the American Enterprise Institute.

A group of Democrats and Republicans in the House of Representatives came up with a plan for an independent commission. There was agreement on many Republican requests. There would be an equal number of Democrats and Republicans on the commission and an end-of-year deadline for the final report. In mid-May, it passed the House 252-175, with 35 Republicans voting for the commission.

Commission vs. committee

Since a commission would have to be approved by both chambers of Congress and signed into law by the president, it would likely have more clout to conduct its investigation.

“(A commission) would have been able to get more muscle in terms of its ability to get witnesses and the important information out there. They might have been able, for example, to enlist the Justice Department as an independent commission. So that would have been preferable,” said Ornstein.

But by the end of May, Senate Republicans blocked a vote, killing the commission.

At the end of June, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, went to the floor of the House of Representatives to propose a select committee to investigate.

“It will operate basically like any other committee in the House,” explained Ornstein. “They’ll have subpoena authority … and that means they’ll have the ability at least in theory to require or compel witnesses to come in,” Ornstein said.

Republicans accused Democrats of wanting a predetermined outcome, but the House authorized the new select committee. Just two Republicans voted for it.

Selection showdown

Eight of the 13 committee members were to be appointed by Pelosi, who chose seven Democrats and Republican Liz Cheney, who was ousted from her party’s leadership post because of her open defiance of the false narrative touted by President Trump that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.

“Some of the other Republicans who have been outspoken on this are under enormous pressure from within their own party not to participate. It takes a great deal of courage, which Liz Cheney has shown, to go against your party and your party leader.”

As the minority party leader, Republican Kevin McCarthy was allowed five committee selections. Pelosi rejected two of them: Jim Jordan of Ohio and Jim Banks of Indiana. Jordan has been a vocal supporter of Trump’s false narrative. Banks said he would use his committee post to examine racial justice protests last summer. Both voted to overturn the election results in Congress.

“They had made statements and taken actions that I think would impact the integrity of the commission of the committee, the work of the committee,” Pelosi explained Thursday.

McCarthy shot back that “Pelosi has created a sham process. Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republicans, we will not participate.”

McCarthy could be a possible witness for the committee to find out more about his January 6 phone call to then-President Trump, purportedly imploring the president to call off his supporters attacking the Capitol.

“He does not want to testify, and he does not want others to show that he challenged Trump and got rebuffed,” Ornstein explained. “And then you have a question of whether (Congress) can hold their own members, including the leader of one party, in contempt,” Ornstein added.

Pelosi appointed a second Republican, Adam Kinzinger, to the panel on Monday. He and Cheney were only Republicans to vote with Democrats to create the committee to investigate the attack. McCarthy called them “Pelosi Republicans.”

 
…

The Tokyo Olympics got off to a busy start Tuesday at the Tokyo Aquatics Center with a trio of high-profile finals in the men’s and women’s swimming.   

In the women’s 100-meter breaststroke, the highly anticipated race between Lilly King of the United States, who won the event in the 2016 Rio Olympics, and Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa ended in an upset when Lydia Jacoby, King’s 17-year-old teammate, edged both women to win the gold. Schoenmaker finished in second place to win the silver medal while King ended in third, taking home the bronze medal.  

Hundreds of people packed into a railroad terminal in Jacoby’s hometown of Seward, Alaska, launched into a wild celebration as they watched her come from behind in the last lap overtake Schoenmaker.

Jacoby is the first swimmer from the remote northwestern state to qualify for a Summer Olympics.   

In another surprise finish, Ryan Murphy of the United States finished third in the men’s 100-meter backstroke final, as teammates Evgeny Rylov and Kliment Kolesnikov of the Russian Olympic Committee, or the ROC, finished in first and second place respectively. Murphy had hoped to repeat his 2016 gold medal Rio performance, but took the bronze medal instead. His loss also ended a streak of six consecutive U.S. wins in the 100-meter backstroke dating back to 1996.   

Meanwhile, Australia’s Kaylee McKeown won the women’s 100-meter backstroke and set a new Olympic record of 57.47 seconds. Canada’s Kylie Masse won the silver medal while Regan Smith of the United States took the bronze medal.   

And British swimmers Tom Dean and Duncan Scott won the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the men’s 200-meter freestyle final. Brazil’s Fernando Scheffer won the bronze medal.   

Yet another upset occurred Tuesday in women’s tennis as Japan’s Naomi Osaka, the world’s second-ranked player, suffered a shocking 6-1 6-4 defeat to Marketa Vondrousova of the Czech Republic in the third round. Osaka, a four-time Grand Slam winner and a favorite to win gold for her native country, struggled during the match with 32 unforced errors. 

In other Olympic events Tuesday, Flora Duffy of Bermuda won the women’s triathlon in 1:55:36 (one hour, 55 minutes, 36 seconds), which included a 1,500-meter swim, 40-kilometer bike ride and 10-kilometer run. Duffy’s gold medal victory is the first for the Caribbean island nation, and the second-ever Olympic medal since boxer Clarence Hill won bronze in the 1976 Montreal Games. Georgia Taylor-Brown won the silver medal, while Katie Zaferes of the United States won bronze.   

Another historic gold medal victory occurred Monday in women’s weightlifting, when Hidilyn Diaz of the Philippines won the 55-kilogram division to win the first-ever gold medal for the Pacific archipelago. Diaz also set two Olympic records when she lifted 127 kilograms in the clean and jerk section as well as an overall total of 224 kilograms.   

And fencer Edgar Cheung won Hong Kong’s first Olympics gold medal in 25 years when he beat Italy’s Daniele Garozzo by a score of 15-11.   

Two gold medal events will take place later Tuesday in Tokyo when the U.S. takes on host country Japan in women’s softball in Yokohama Baseball Stadium. And gymnast Simone Biles will seek to burnish her already legendary career when she leads the U.S. women in the overall team finals.   

The United States and China are tied in the overall medal count with 19, while the Russian Olympic Committee has 15 and host country Japan has 13 medals. The U.S. and Japan are tied in the gold medal count with eight, followed by seven for China and 5 for the ROC.  

Some information for this report came from Reuters and AFP. 
…

The United States and several other countries have called for calm in Tunisia after violent protests broke out following the suspension of parliament Sunday. Tunisia’s president invoked purported emergency powers to sack the prime minister following months of demonstrations over a worsening economic crisis. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.

 Camera: Henry Ridgwell
 
…

The team’s outfits looked similar to the others in the room as the arena lights gleamed off crystals crisscrossing their chests and down their crimson and white sleeves. 

But the German gymnastics team’s new Olympic suits didn’t stop at their hips. 

For decades, female gymnasts have worn bikini-cut leotards. In qualifying on Sunday, however, the German team instead wore unitards that stretched to their ankles, intending to push back against sexualization of women in gymnastics. 

The Tokyo Olympics are the first Summer Games since Larry Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics national team doctor, was sent to prison for 176 years for sexually abusing hundreds of gymnasts, including some of the sport’s greatest stars. At his sentencing, athletes — some of them Olympians — described how the sport’s culture allowed for abuse and objectification of young women and girls. 

Male gymnasts wear comparatively body-covering clothes: singlets, with loose shorts for their floor exercise and vault, and long pants on bar and pommel horse routines. 

The German team first wore unitards at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in April. 

Sarah Voss, a 21-year-old German, said they weren’t sure they would decide to wear them again during Olympic competition until they got together before the meet. 

“We sat together today and said, ‘OK, we want to have a big competition,'” Voss said. “We want to feel amazing, we want to show everyone that we look amazing.” 

Their wardrobe revolution, while widely championed, has not so far started a trend. Leotards that leave the legs bare were worn by every other female gymnast during qualifying at the Tokyo Games. 

At 4-foot-8, American superstar Simone Biles said in June that she prefers leotards because they lengthen the leg and make her appear taller. 

“But I stand with their decision to wear whatever they please and whatever makes them feel comfortable,” Biles said. “So if anyone out there wants to wear a unitard or leotard, it’s totally up to you.” 

Matt Cowan, the chief commercial officer for GK Elite, the U.S.’s premier leotard manufacturer, said most requests for unitards now come from countries the require modesty for cultural and religious reasons. They have otherwise seen no rush toward catsuits. 

“Would we do it? Absolutely. We have the capabilities of designing it and doing it, and we have done it,” Cowan said. “But from a consumer demand perspective, we are not there yet.” 

Gymnastics is often viewed as a sport best performed by very young women and girls. Biles, at 24, often jokes about being old; she recently called herself a grandma on social media. 

But other nations have defied that emphasis on youth, including the Germans: Elisabeth Seitz is 27, Kim Bui is 32, Pauline Schafer is 24, and Voss is 21. Their average age of 26. Voss said that gymnastics customs should leave room for female bodies as they age and change. 

Their outfits comply with the wardrobe rules of the International Gymnastics Federation. But that doesn’t mean female athletes are generally free to cover their bodies as they choose. 

Just days before the Games began, the Norwegian women’s beach handball team refused to play in bikini bottoms during European tournaments, opting instead for skin-tight shorts. For that, they received a fine for violating a wardrobe requirement. 

But at gymnastics qualifying Sunday, the announcer over the loudspeaker called the outfits “very nice indeed.” The German team did not qualify for finals, but the announcer pondered if their team debut on the Olympic stage might increase unitards’ popularity. 
 
…

On the Olympic podium stood three teenage girls — 13, 13 and 16 — with weighty gold, silver and bronze medals around their young necks, rewards for having landed tricks on their skateboards that most kids their age only get to see on Instagram.

After decades in the shadows of men’s skateboarding, the future for the sport’s daring, trailblazing women suddenly looked brighter than ever at the Tokyo Games on Monday.

It’s anyone’s guess how many young girls tuned in to watch Momiji Nishiya of Japan win the debut Olympic skateboarding event for women, giving the host nation a sweep of golds in the street event after Yuto Horigome won the men’s event.

But around the world, girls trying to convince their parents that they, too, should be allowed to skate can now point to the 13-year-old from Osaka as an Olympic-sized example of skateboarding’s possibilities.

A champion of few words — “Simply delighted,” is how she described herself — Nishiya let her board do the talking, riding it down rails taller than she is. She said she’d celebrate by asking her mother to treat her to a dinner of Japanese yakiniku barbecue.

The silver went to Rayssa Leal, also 13 — Brazil’s second silver in skateboarding after Kelvin Hoefler finished in second place on Sunday in the men’s event.

Both Nishiya and Leal became their countries’ youngest-ever medalists. The bronze went to 16-year-old Funa Nakayama of Japan.

“Now I can convince all my friends to skateboard everywhere with me,” Leal said.

She first caught the skateboarding world’s attention as a 7-year-old with a video on Instagram of her attempting, and landing, a jump with a flip down three stairs while wearing a dress with angel wings.

“Skateboarding is for everyone,” she said.

But that hasn’t always been true for young girls, even among the 20 female pioneers who rode the rails, ramps and ledges at the Ariake Urban Sports Park.

The field included Leticia Bufoni of Brazil, whose board was snapped in two by her dad when she was a kid to try to stop her from skating.

She was 10.

“I cried for hours,” she recalled. “He thought girls shouldn’t skate because he had never seen a woman skate before.”

Bufoni added, half-joking, that getting him to relent had been harder than qualifying for the Tokyo Games.

“So I want be that girl that the little girls can show their parents and be like, ‘She can skate. I want to be like her,'” Bufoni said.

Annie Guglia of Canada said she didn’t see any other girls skate during her first two years on her board. The first contest she entered, at the age of 13, had no women’s category, so organizers had to create one for her.

“And I won, because I was the only one,” the 30-year-old Guglia said. “We have come a long way.”

Skaters predicted that by time the next Olympics roll around, in Paris in 2024, the women’s field will have a greater depth of talent and tricks, built on the foundations they laid in Tokyo.

“It’s going to change the whole game,” U.S. skater Mariah Duran said. “This is like opening at least one door to, you know, many skaters who are having the conversations with their parents, who want to start skating.

“I’m not surprised if there’s probably already like 500 girls getting a board today.”
Nishiya is going places with hers. She said she aims to be at the Paris Games “and win.”

“I want to be famous,” she said.

But first — barbecue. Her delighted mom didn’t take much convincing.

“I’ll definitely take her,” she said.
…

In 1951, the United Nations set out to define who a refugee is, signing the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. At that time, it initially sought to protect millions of European refugees after World War Two. Later, it would amend the treaty to apply to refugees “without any geographic limitation.” Today, civil strife, ethnic conflicts, political repression, dire economic conditions, and climate change have pushed global refugee populations higher than ever previously recorded. VOA looks at where refugees come from, the challenges they face, and the paths they travel to seek asylum.
…

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, on Sunday named a second Republican, Congressman Adam Kinzinger, to the select committee to investigate the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by hundreds of supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
 
Kinzinger, an Illinois lawmaker, joins Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney, both of them vocal critics of Trump, on the panel, which is set to start hearing testimony on Tuesday. The panel is investigating the chaos that occurred as lawmakers were certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in last November’s election to become the country’s 46th president.
 
Pelosi named Cheney to the panel weeks ago, while Kinzinger’s selection comes after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy last week pulled all five of his Republican appointments to the committee when Pelosi rejected two of them as biased against an independent review of how and why the riot occurred.
 
“Speaker Pelosi’s rejection of the Republican nominees to serve on the committee and self-appointment of members who share her pre-conceived narrative will not yield a serious investigation,” McCarthy said in a statement Sunday.

About 800 people entered the restricted Capitol building, some rampaging past authorities, smashing windows and doors, and scuffling with police. More than 500 have been charged with an array of offenses, some as minor as trespassing, but others with assaulting police, 140 of whom were injured, and vandalizing the Capitol and congressional offices.
 
One Trump protester was shot dead by police, three other protesters died of medical emergencies and a police officer who helped defend the Capitol died the next day. Two other police officers committed suicide in the ensuing days.
 
Kinzinger’s appointment leaves seven Democrats and two Republicans on the panel, unless either Pelosi or McCarthy names more.
 
In a statement, Pelosi said Kinzinger “brings great patriotism to the committee’s mission: to find the facts and protect our democracy.”

In response, Kinzinger said, “Let me be clear, I’m a Republican dedicated to conservative values, but I swore an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution — and while this is not the position I expected to be in or sought out, when duty calls, I will always answer.”

Pelosi had rejected the appointment of two vocal critics of the investigation, Congressmen Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio, because both had sought to overturn the presidential election results. Pelosi said she was willing to accept McCarthy’s three other Republican nominees, Congressmen Rodney Davis of Illinois, Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota and Troy Nehls of Texas, but McCarthy withdrew their appointments.
 
Pelosi said on ABC’s “This Week” show, “I do believe that the work of this committee, in order to retain the confidence of the American people, must act in a way that has no partisanship, is all about patriotism, and I’m very proud of the members of the committee and I’m very certain they will accomplish that goal. We have to again ignore the antics of those who do not want to find the truth.”
 
Some Republicans have assailed the creation of the panel as a pre-ordained partisan Democratic exercise to find another way to attack Trump for his role in the mayhem at the Capitol. He had urged supporters to “fight like hell” to block certification of Biden’s victory.
 
Even before Pelosi named Kinzinger, Banks told the “Fox News Sunday” show that the House speaker only wants people “who will stick to her talking points” on the investigative panel.
 
“That’s why she’s picked the group that she’s already picked, and anyone that she asked to be on this committee from this point moving forward will be stuck to her narrative,” Banks said.

 
…

The trouble started early. A step out of bounds on floor exercise here. An extra hop on vault there.

Over the course of two hours on Sunday, they kept piling up, chipping away at the aura USA Gymnastics has built over the past decade. Not even the greatest of all time was immune to the realities of a sport where perfection is unattainable.

For 11 years, the Americans flirted with it, at least from a competitive standpoint, flying all over the globe, then flying back home with their suitcases stuffed with gold.

It still might happen at the Tokyo Olympics. But for the first time in a long time, it appears it won’t happen without a fight.

Russia pulled off a stunner in qualifying, posting a top score of 171.629, more than a full point ahead of the U.S. total 170.562.

While reigning Olympic champion Simone Biles topped the all-around and teammate Sunisa Lee came in second, the Americans found themselves looking up at another name on the scoreboard in the team standings for the first time since the 2010 world championships.

“This was not the finals,” U.S. high-performance director Tom Forster said. “This was getting into the finals. So this might be a great awakening for us and we’ll take advantage of it.”

Forster raised eyebrows following Olympic Trials last month when he said taking the top four finishers in the all-around in rank over a squad that could potentially score a bit higher by taking a specialist or two didn’t matter. He reasoned sacrificing a tenth or two here or there wasn’t going to matter based on the history of blowout wins by the Americans at world championships since he took over in 2018.

“We thought it was a good order, and I still feel good about it,” Forster said, who later added, “it will all work out.”

It always has since the 2011 world championships. Everything will be reset for the finals, when the format changes to three-up/three-count. The pressure will be greater. And the Americans have found a way to thrive under it.

Inside a largely empty Ariake Gymnastics Center, they finally faltered. At least by the program’s remarkable standards.

Not even Biles was immune.

While the 24-year-old topped the all-around with a total of 57.731 and advanced to the event finals on multiple events, it didn’t come easy. She stepped all the way off the mat following a tumbling pass on her floor exercise, then basically did the same on vault. She responded with a solid set on uneven bars, but a spectacular beam routine ended with her taking three major steps backward following her dismount, something Forster said he’s never seen her do.

Biles, who came to Japan as the face of the U.S. Olympic movement and possibly the Games themselves, saluted the judges then walked off the podium with a smile that looked like a combination of relief, sarcasm and frustration.

There was plenty to go around.

Jordan Chiles’ remarkably consistent run that carried her to a spot on the team ended with a major mistake on bars and a fall on beam. Sunisa Lee had her scores on vault and floor dropped in the team competition, though her electric bar routine helped her surge into second in the all-around behind Biles.

The biggest bright spot for the Americans may have been the spectacular performance by Jade Carey. Competing as an individual after earning a nominative berth through the World Cup circuit, Carey earned a spot in the vault and floor exercise finals and only missed out on the all-around due to the rules that limit finals to two athletes per country.

Carey’s decision to pursue an individual berth is symbolic of the depth the Americans have enjoyed during their rise to supremacy. Yet they no longer appear to have the market cornered on excellence.

ROC’s performance’s offered proof that the former gymnastics superpower is in the midst of a resurgence led by 21-year-old Angelina Melnikova. Even better, the Russians survived the balance beam relatively unscathed.

The 4-inch piece of wood set 4 feet off the ground has been the place where the country’s gold-medal hopes have gone to die in recent years, yet there were no major issues during qualifying. The only major miscue came when Lilia Akhaimova fell off during the end of an acrobatic series.

No biggie. The Russians were allowed to drop her score. Things will be different in the finals, when the meet goes to a “three up/three count” format in which there is no margin for error. While Melnikova stressed that she was not going to forecast what might happen on Tuesday, she does believe what once was a walkover for the Americans will turn into something far more compelling.

“We hope that (we win),” Melnikova said. “We’re also going to struggle and fight. We have to. That’s the expectation for us.”

And for the first time since the 2010 world championships, it suddenly looks doable.

 
…

With the coronavirus pandemic easing in the U.S., experts say an unprecedented number of people are choosing to quit their jobs. Deana Mitchell reports from Austin, Texas.
…

Two days before the start of the Tokyo Olympics, Native athletes gathered in Fairbanks, Alaska, to compete in the 60th World Eskimo-Indian Olympics. Natasha Mozgovaya has more.
…

An already weird Olympics may soon get weirder.

Forecasters say Tropical Storm Nepartak has formed off Japan’s east coast and could hit Tokyo late Monday or Tuesday.

It’s still too early to determine the exact path of the storm, but even an indirect hit could affect the Tokyo Games, especially water sports.

Accuweather says early indications suggest Nepartak will make landfall as a tropical storm, though “the system reaching typhoon strength upon its arrival onshore has not yet been ruled out.”

The storm has forced Olympics organizers to reschedule rowing events from Monday to Sunday.

“Outdoor events will bear the greatest risk, as heavy rain and gusty winds could cause postponement,” said Accuweather meteorologist Jake Sojda in a statement.

“The greatest impact to the Games would obviously come from a direct hit on Tokyo, where the majority of venues and events are located,” Sojda said. “However, even if the storm tracks farther north or south of Tokyo, there are some venues located farther away from the greater Tokyo metroplex that could still be impacted.”

The weather has already been a factor, with athletes competing in sweltering summer heat. Daytime highs have reached 33 degrees Celsius with intense humidity. Some analysts have said this may be among the hottest Summer Games on record.

A Russian archer fainted Friday in the Tokyo heat. Athletes and coaches have used cooling vests, fans and umbrellas to protect themselves.

The storm is just the latest challenge for what many have called the weirdest Olympics ever.

The Games were delayed a year because of the coronavirus pandemic. A recent surge in cases in Tokyo forced nearly all events to be held without fans.

Athletes, officials and journalists at the Games are all required to stay inside tightly regulated protective bubbles and are restricted from wandering around the city.

So far, 132 Olympics-related individuals have tested positive for the virus. 
…

The commander of Iraq’s self-styled pro-Iranian “resistance” forces has threatened to mount more attacks on U.S. forces inside the country if they don’t withdraw.

The threat by the commander, Khais al Khazali, coincided with a drone attack overnight that targeted U.S. forces in Kurdistan.

A U.S. coalition spokesman in Iraq confirmed in a statement Saturday that there had been a drone attack on U.S. forces at the Qiyyara base and said there had been no casualties.

In addition to promising more attacks on U.S. forces, Khazali said opposition forces would retaliate if the U.S. attacked them.

Arab media reported that Iran’s intelligence chief visited Baghdad several times during the past 10 days. VOA could not independently confirm the report.

Paul Sullivan, a Washington-based Middle East analyst, told VOA that statements like the one by Khazali were mostly declarations of victory, which mirror triumphal calls from the Taliban in Afghanistan amid the U.S. withdrawal there.

“Each extremist group wants to claim a win from the U.S. leaving, and they puff their chests out in a show of ‘masculinity.’ What they don’t mention is how they themselves have added to the suffering of their people. Real leaders take care of their people,” Sullivan said.

US-Iraq ties

On Friday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Fouad Hussein and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken detailed the close cooperation between the two countries.

Hussein, visiting Washington, told journalists during a press conference with Blinken that his country needed the U.S.-backed coalition to continue to fight terrorism.

However, Iraqi media reported that the country’s national security adviser, Qassim al Araji, told journalists on the sidelines of the meeting that Baghdad “does not need U.S. forces in the country any longer.”

Blinken told journalists at the meeting with Hussein that the U.S. and Iraq “are of course the closest of partners in the fight against [the Islamic State group] and we can take tremendous pride in what we’ve done together to defeat ISIS and to make sure that it stays defeated … but the partnership between the U.S. and Iraq is much broader and deeper than even the common fight against ISIS.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Khadhimi is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden at the White House on Monday to announce a number of agreements between their nations.

Arab media reported that the U.S. is planning to give $155 million in aid to Baghdad and discuss a number of projects involving archaeology, education and the battle against COVID-19.

Iraqi analyst Nejm Khusab told state TV that he anticipated a period of calm after Khadhimi and Biden sign the agreements.

He said the Biden administration differed from its predecessor in that it didn’t want to remain inside Iraqi cities, but just to hold two airbases, Ain al Assad in Anbar province and Qiyyara in Kurdistan. He argued that that indicated a de-escalation was coming soon.

Much of the current political rhetoric in Iraqi politics appears to be aimed at the parliamentary elections in October.
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On the eve of the funeral for slain Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, host Carol Castiel and assistant producer at the Current Affairs Desk, Sydney Sherry, speak with Haiti expert Georges Fauriol, senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and fellow at the Caribbean Policy Consortium, about the chaos following Moïse’s assassination, the breakdown of democratic institutions in Haiti, and the power struggle that ensued over who would become Haiti’s next leader. What does this crisis reveal about the state of affairs in Haiti, and is the international community, Washington in particular, playing a constructive role in Haiti’s political rehabilitation?
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U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will make clear to China in upcoming talks that Washington welcomes competition with Beijing, but there needs to be a level playing field and guardrails to prevent that spilling over into conflict, senior U.S. officials said Saturday.

 
The officials, briefing ahead of Sherman’s talks in Tianjin with Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, said the world’s two largest economies needed responsible ways to manage competition.
 
“She’s going to underscore that we do not want that fierce and sustained competition to veer into conflict,” one senior U.S. administration official said ahead of what will be the first high-ranking, face-to-face contact between Washington and Beijing in months as the two sides gauge whether they can salve festering ties.
 
“This is why the U.S. wants to ensure that there are guardrails and parameters in place to responsibly manage the relationship,” he said. “She’s going to make clear that while we welcome stiff and sustained competition with the PRC, everyone needs to play by the same rules and on a level playing field.”
 
Sherman is due to land in Tianjin, a city southeast of Beijing, on Sunday and will stay until Monday.
 
On the heels of Sherman’s trip, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin will next week travel to Singapore, Vietnam and the Philippines, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit India, signs of U.S. efforts to intensify engagement as China challenges Washington’s influence in Asia.
 
The talks between Sherman, the State Department’s second-ranked official, and Wang will follow several combative months since the countries’ first senior diplomatic meeting under President Joe Biden’s administration in March.
 
Chinese officials publicly lambasted the United States at that meeting in Alaska, accusing it of hegemonic policies, while U.S. officials accused China of grandstanding.
 
The official briefing Saturday said the Tianjin meeting would be a continuation of the Alaskan talks and “all dimensions of the relationship will be on the table.”
 
“We’re going into these meetings with our eyes wide open,” he said, adding: “We believe it’s important to maintain open lines of communication between high-level officials, frank and open discussion, even perhaps especially, where we disagree is critical to reducing the potential for misunderstandings between our countries.”
 
Since Alaska the two countries have traded diplomatic barbs on an almost constant basis. The latest exchanges came on Friday when Beijing sanctioned former U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and other individuals and groups in response to U.S. sanctions over China’s crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong.
 
A second U.S. administration official said those sanctions were an example of how China punishes those who speak out and said Washington would not be afraid of taking further steps against Beijing when its interests were threatened.
 
Bilateral ties have soured to such a degree that the prospect of significant outcomes from Tianjin talks seems almost unthinkable in foreign policy circles.
 
If the discussions go reasonably well, however, they could help set the stage for an eventual meeting between Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping later this year, possibly on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Italy in late October.
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Carol Bastien draws artistic inspiration from the discarded items she collects on the streets of New York City. Nina Vishneva has more from the Manhattan-based artist in this report narrated by Anna Rice.

Camera: Alexander Barash, Natalia Latukhina
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