Olympics
3 Mar
Senior Chinese officials asked their Russian counterparts not to invade Ukraine during the Olympics. Western intelligence picked up reports of the communications.
20 Feb
Olympics boss disturbed by Valieva's meltdown, rips her entourage. Thomas Bach slammed Russian teen Kamila Valieva's entourage for their "tremendous coldness" after her troubled final performance. The IOC is looking into the rules on minors competing.
4 Feb
Can Xi Jinping's China pull it off? Can happy pictures of a torch relay reduced to 72 hours and tightly cropped images of top-level competitions make the world forget about the empty seats, the Covid bubble, the artificial snow, the tight security and the pressure on sponsors over human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Hong Kong?
9 Dec 2021
China warned Western nations on Thursday they would "pay the price" for a diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
3 Dec 2021
A video distributed by the International Olympic Committee is not enough to reassure the tennis world. The Women's Tennis Association is suspending all tournaments in China until it is sure that doubles star Peng Shuai is safe and sound, following the 35-year-old Peng's quickly deleted post on Chinese social media last month denouncing sexual assault by a former vice premier. How far will the ripple effects go?
27 Aug 2021
Timelapse footage shows the conversion of Tokyo's Aomi Urban Sports Park, the venue for 3x3 basketball and sport climbing during the Olympic Games, into a football 5-a-side venue for the Paralympic Games. The work started on 6 August after the sport climbing competition ended, and was completed on 23 August.
14 Aug 2021
Hurling a javelin, leaping over hurdles and sprinting beyond rows of tents to win gold, displaced children in the northwest of war-torn Syria stage their very own Olympics.
7 Aug 2021
Baseball fan Masamitsu Takahashi opened his "izakaya" bar-restaurant in 2013, when Tokyo was chosen to host the 2020 Olympics. Never had he imagined that, eight years later, he would be watching Japan beating the USA in the quarter-final there all alone. Other bars have decided to stay open despite the state of emergency, but Takahashi says he prefers "to avoid the situation deteriorating to the point where there isn't even baseball".
5 Aug 2021
When Tokyo last hosted the Olympics, in 1964, Itsuo Masuda was deeply depressed, struggling with his sexuality. This year he watched openly gay and transgender athletes compete with pride, in the most LGBTQ-friendly games yet.
4 Aug 2021
Ten sports, 55 competitors, 36 events spread over 17 days, Guardian Nigeria's Sports Editor, Christian Okpara assesses team Nigeria at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
3 Aug 2021
With Japan riding high in the medals table, public disapproval towards the event may be softening -- but a small, loud band of anti-Olympics activists do not plan to stop speaking out -- even if their demonstrations tend to draw just a few dozen people.
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Former Lille and Nice boss will look to deliver Champions League success that proved elusive for Pochettino
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As the social affairs, youth, family, seniors and equality minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Aminata Toure has pledged to fight for more diversity in politics. She's the first Black member of a German state government.
1 day ago
Days after one of the bloodiest crackdowns on protests against Sudan's military coup, the head of the army has announced the dissolution of the governing sovereign council to make way for a civilian leadership. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan says the military will not participate in talks brokered by the UN and regional blocs, aimed at breaking the stalemate with the civilian opposition. However, Burhan has not specifed any dates, nor mentioned who would replace the army at the negotiating table.
1 day ago
Since the introduction of "marriage for all" in Germany, some 65,000 marriages have taken place between people of the same sex. The figures showed a rush to tie the knot once it became possible late in 2017.
1 day ago
Early morning searches have taken place in Lower Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia, Bremen and Baden-Württemberg. Police in Britain, Belgium, France and the Netherlands were also involved.