By Teele Rebane Covid-19 has thrown more than a few curve balls at Tokyo Olympic organizers — but this isn’t the first Games to battle a pandemic. A century ago, the 1920 Antwerp Olympics were held only a few months after the Spanish flu ravaged the world, killing at least 50 million people. In 2010, the Vancouver
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By Shawna Mizelle While the Texas Legislature remains embroiled in a battle over election laws, Republican senators have advanced a bill that would reshape how social studies teachers can discuss race and current events in their classrooms. SB3, which passed the Republican-led chamber in a 18-4 vote last week, now remains stalled in the state House
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By George Ramsay With no fans in attendance and a reduced number of athletes joining the parade, the Tokyo Olympics‘ Opening Ceremony officially kicked off the Summer Games on Friday as tennis star Naomi Osaka lit the cauldron. Earlier on Friday, a request from Tokyo 2020 organizers to push back Osaka’s opening match of the Olympics from Saturday to Sunday
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By Seamus Fagan and Sara Spary Over 150 athletes, sports organizations, human rights and social justice experts have signed an open letter calling on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow athletes the “fundamental human right” to protest, including at the podium. As the Tokyo Games open, the signatories — including US hammer thrower Gwen Berry as
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By Maegan Vazquez and Kevin Liptak President Joe Biden conceded during a CNN town hall on Wednesday that certain businesses will remain “in a bind for a little while” with labor shortages, part of a major set of problems that’s unfurling as his six-month-old presidency reaches a critical juncture. Covid cases are rising, a testament
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By Marianne Garvey Michaela Coel has joined the cast of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” The film will be the sequel to Marvel’s “Black Panther,” and Variety reports that Coel is currently filming at Atlanta’s Pinewood Studios, where production began last month. She joins an ensemble cast that includes Danai Gurira, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston
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 By Ella Donald When it comes to sports that attract fervent attention at the Olympics, gymnastics is always a top contender. Pulse-pounding and entertaining, the gravity-defying skills exhibited by athletes is unlike anything else seen at the Games. However, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic erasing a year of anticipation-building pre-Olympic competition, there is also an
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By Eric Levenson, Jacob Lev and Homero De la Fuente If a National Football League game cannot be rescheduled and is canceled due to a Covid-19 outbreak among unvaccinated players, that team will have to forfeit and will be credited with a loss, the NFL said in a leaguewide memo obtained by CNN. The new
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By Nicquel Terry Ellis For Texas State Rep. Jasmine Crockett, holding public office was not a goal she ever set. Neither was becoming a civil rights attorney. But after being the victim of racist hate mail while attending undergrad at Rhodes College and watching Black people face inequalities in the criminal justice system, both careers
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By Omar Jimenez Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot has been criticized as “racist” — even as a Black woman — and she’s been called “notoriously thin-skinned” but she remains determined to leave a legacy far beyond her time in office. Still navigating the Covid-19 pandemic and the record surge in violence that came with it, Lightfoot
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