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From Vox
Hosting the Olympics comes at a massive cost -
Competitors race in the men’s 10,000 m final at the 2020 Olympic Games on July 30, 2021, in Tokyo. | Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
The Tokyo Olympics could cost four times as much as expected.
The Olympics are a bad deal for host cities. And they’re starting to take notice.
To be sure, Tokyo is a special case. The city had to postpone the Games for a year after Covid-19 made hosting the international event a nonstarter, and they won’t receive the local tourism boom that usually accompanies the Olympics. But what happened in Tokyo is part of a larger trend — a 2020 paper by Oxford economist Bent Flyvbjerg found that “every Olympics since 1960 has run over budget, at an average of 172 percent in real terms, the highest overrun on record for any type of megaproject.” In other words, he found there’s something specifically wrong with the Olympics bidding process, even compared to other boondoggles.
And it’s not just the costs; some of the supposed benefits of hosting the Olympics have come under scrutiny by locals and economists alike. Economists Victor Matheson and Robert Baade outlined the potential benefits as “the short-run benefits of tourist spending during the Games; the long-run benefits of the ‘Olympic legacy’ which might include improvements in infrastructure and increased trade, foreign investment or tourism after the Games; and intangible benefits such as the ‘feel-good effect’ or civic pride.”
Like any major infrastructure project, the Games can provide a brief employment benefit and stimulative effect. But nowhere near what you might expect: “Overwhelmingly, the studies show actual economic impacts that are either near-zero or a fraction of that predicted prior to the event,” Matheson and Baade write.
And when it comes to the long-run economic benefits from improved infrastructure, they often don’t pan out. Those are usually attributed to the sports and general infrastructure that hosting the Olympics requires.
“There are 35 sports, most of which are fairly obscure, and many of which require very, very specific sports infrastructure,” Matheson told Vox. “So the problem is that most cities don’t have this on hand in the first place, and most cities don’t have much use for it afterwards.”
Matheson and Baade write that “Many of the venues from the Athens Games in 2004 have fallen into disrepair. Beijing’s iconic “Bird’s Nest” Stadium has rarely been used since 2008 and has been partially converted into apartments …” They add that there are potentially greater returns for general infrastructure improvements like transportation networks or increased hotel capacity, but it’s a mixed bag.
The intangible benefits are hard to quantify. To be sure, watching the Games is already a delight; doing so in real life — plus the excitement of having international attention on your city — is only more so.
And yet, that alone is a tough sell. It’s become abundantly clear that the financial cost of hosting the Olympics cannot be justified in economic terms.
What could reform look like?
Cities are taking notice of exorbitant costs that accompany hosting the Olympics and fewer and fewer bids are being made for upcoming games. In 2015, four of six bidders pulled out as countries bid for the 2022 Winter Games. In 2018, during bidding for the 2026 Winter Games, again four countries pulled out during the process, many citing local concerns about the financial commitments required.
Los Angeles was the only bid for the 1984 Summer Olympics, and its experience highlights one of the few ways a city can actually profit from hosting the Games. According to the Council on Foreign Relations, that was partly because LA, as the only bidder, was able to “negotiate exceptionally favorable terms with the IOC.” But “most importantly, LA was able to rely almost entirely on existing stadiums and other infrastructure rather than promise lavish new facilities to entice the IOC [International Olympic Committee] selection committee … [LA finished] with a $215 million operating surplus,” they write.
Following this success, the number of cities bidding trended up — which allowed the IOC to continue a process that encourages expensive plans. The overarching problem is that without reform, the incentives of the IOC and the local host city committee are misaligned. The former makes its money off ad revenue, while the latter needs to care about the exorbitant cost of infrastructure, local governance issues, and ticket sales (the latter of which became increasingly important for Tokyo).
Pacific University professor Jules Boykoff pilloried the IOC for running itself like a “profit-gobbling cartel” in a 2017 Los Angeles Times column:
For too long, the IOC has claimed that the city doesn’t have to build new infrastructure, that it’s the city’s decision. Of course host cities have to build new venues if they actually want to host the Games. Whitewater kayak venues don’t grow on trees.
In truth, the IOC chips in for operating costs by essentially laundering money from its lucrative corporate sponsorships and television-rights deals. That’s all well and good, but it’s time the organization stepped up and contributed to infrastructure costs as well.
Cost-sharing could incentivize the IOC to reduce its pressure for bids to contain more and more elaborate items. In an attempt to win a bid, “these cities started to offer so much more than what really benefited them,” University of Colorado Boulder economist Stephen Billings said. “I saw in Tokyo they built a specific venue for 3-vs.-3 basketball. … It seems like couldn’t we just use the regular basketball venue?”
Some have suggested a permanent location for the Olympics. Smith College economist Andrew Zimbalist laid out his case for this weeks before the Rio Olympics were set to begin and after more than 77,000 favela residents had been evicted: “Why not build the required 35 sports venues, the Olympic village and the broadcasting and media center only once, instead of building them anew in a different city every four years?” He suggests Los Angeles for the Summer Olympics, which he argues has all the necessary infrastructure that would not go to waste in between Games.
To ensure the benefits of the Games actually accrue and avoid the risks of internal political and economic strife, putting them in a location where the infrastructure is sure to be used and reused could address some of the downsides of hosting. And holding the Olympics in a wealthier country ensures that if there is some unforeseen financial cost to bear, the nation is better positioned to pay it. That might have its downsides too; excluding developing countries from the hosting duties is antithetical to the Games’ global mission(though the IOC has never awarded hosting to a truly low-income nation in the global south).But it’s worth considering.
As the Tokyo Olympics plays out in empty stadiums, the IOC will continue raking in profits from TV ad revenue as the world watches from home. But it’s the Japanese people who will inevitably foot the bill.
These immigrants have one shot to come to the US. But Biden has to act. -
A candidate for US citizenship holds a US flag during a naturalization ceremony for new US citizens on February 16, 2017, in Newark, New Jersey. | Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
Diversity visa applicants were targeted by Trump, but have remained in limbo under Biden.
Three years ago, amid negotiations over immigration reform, then-President Donald Trump infamously questioned why the US was taking in immigrants from “shithole countries.”
He was referring to people from African nations who often have no legal pathway to come to the US except through a program known as the “diversity visa lottery.” Every year, roughly 55,000 people from countries with low levels of immigration to the US are chosen via a lottery to apply for a visa through the program. For many of them, it’s a golden ticket to a better life.
It wasn’t the first time the program had been targeted and misrepresented by Trump. He blamed a 2017 terrorist attack in New York on the program, vowing to end it. And he presented it as antithetical to his proposal for a “merit- based” immigration system, under which the US would select visa applicants based on desirable labor market attributes — defined so as to make the immigrant population whiter and richer.
Trump never actually managed to end the program, but his administration deprioritized the applicants relative to other immigrants. President Joe Biden’s election was supposed to bring diversity visa applicants relief. He had promised on the campaign trail that he would keep the program intact, and soon after his inauguration, he pledged to expand the program by 25,000 visas annually as part of his proposed comprehensive immigration reform package.
But well into the first year of his presidency, that hasn’t come to fruition. Rather, diversity visa lottery winners who applied for visas amid the Covid-19 pandemic now risk losing their opportunity to come to the US — in part because the State Department has continued the Trump-era policy of deprioritizing their applications.
“What the Biden administration has done to the diversity visa program in deprioritizing, it contravenes those campaign promises, and we’re worse off because of it,” said Rafael Urena, an American attorney representing diversity visa applicants affected by the policy. “We really draw from the strength of our diverse population.”
In response to a request for comment, a State Department official emailed me a statement on the condition of anonymity saying that the US government’s capacity to review these applications and schedule the required interviews depends on US embassies and consulates abroad, many of which are backlogged due to closures and capacity limits amid the pandemic.
They have been prioritizing services to US citizens overseas and issuing visas in urgent or emergency situations, such as for people seeking to aid America’s response to the pandemic. Immediate family members of US citizens, international adoptions, and engaged couples are next on the priority list. Diversity visa applicants are at the very bottom.
“Because of the unpredictable nature of the pandemic, it is impossible to forecast how many [diversity visas] we will issue this year, but we want to set appropriate expectations and say that it is very likely we will not issue the full allotment allowed,” the official said.
“The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in profound reductions in the Department’s visa processing capacity,” the official added. “Additionally, a range of presidential proclamations restricting travel in response to the pandemic have resulted in further constraints on visa issuances worldwide.”
That means diversity visa applicants could miss a once-in-a-lifetime chance to come to the US. The government has to process their applications by a September 30 deadline; otherwise, they lose their spot. And they likely won’t win the lottery again — they have a less than 1 percent chance of being selected from among more than 23 million entrants.
“It’s once in a lifetime,” said Maxwell Goodluck, a diversity visa lottery winner from Ghana who applied every year for 12 years before he was eventually selected. “If we lose this opportunity, it would take the grace of God for it to come back again,” he told me, referring to himself and the other applicants in the same position. “We don’t know what to do.”
The administration’s failure to issue diversity visas has left thousands in limbo
Severallawsuits brought by roughly 25,000 diversity visa lottery winners from 141 countries altogether have argued that the federal government faces a legal obligation to review the applications of people who won the lottery and that the US’s vast resources can make that happen. But if that’s not possible, they say they should still have the opportunity to be issued a visa beyond the September 30 deadline.
For Lizbeth Rosales, a diversity visa lottery winner from Lima, Peru, that’s just what seems right. “We don’t have anything against the country or the citizens of America. We just want whatever is fair. That’s it,” she said. “We are not just case numbers. We are people. We have feelings, we have hopes, dreams. This is our only chance for a better future.”
The uncertainty as to whether diversity visa lottery winners will eventually be able to come to the US has left many putting their plans on hold and living with constant anxiety.
Rosales, who also applied for diversity visas on behalf of her husband and their two young children, was planning to move to New Orleans, where she previously spent a year working in the hospitality industry as an intern on a student visa.
She has friends there who encouraged her to apply for the visa lottery in the first place, and her husband, who works as a cook on a cruise ship, would also be able to find work. They were also hoping to pursue better educational opportunities for themselves and for their 4-year-old son and almost 1-year-old daughter.
Courtesy of Lizbeth Rosales
Lizbeth Rosales and her husband, Edmond Rodrigues, are hoping to start a new life in New Orleans with their two children if their diversity visa applications are approved.
Given that the pandemic has hit Peru particularly hard, leading to one of the highest per capita death rates in the world and a deep economic recession, Rosales said that moving to the US at this particular moment seems especially attractive. But the uncertainty has been tough to live with. She has commiserated with other diversity visa lottery winners in the region on WhatsApp groups.
“For some of them, this is their only way out. This really breaks my heart because I consider myself to be in a better position than others. It may be God making me experience all of this to better understand or value my life,” she said. “I feel affected not only for me but for the rest. You feel touched by other people’s suffering. So this definitely creates sadness and anxiety as well. I wish the reality was different.”
Goodluck, the lottery winner from Ghana, says he and others are experiencing this anxiety. “We hardly sleep these days,” he told me. “Sometimes, you can’t even concentrate. You’re thinking about it 24/7. To console ourselves, we end up crying.”
He has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and is working in the IT department for Ghana’s education department, but he says he has always wanted to pursue cybersecurity, which would require further education. He has a cousin in Colorado who has promised to support him in that goal if he moves to the US.
His backup plan is to pursue a master’s degree in computer science in Ghana. In order to study cybersecurity, he would have to take an online course. But the fees are high, and he doesn’t want to start the program without knowing whether he will stay in the country.
“It’s a nightmare,” he said.
Democrats in Congress have proposed legislation to help — but it might not go far enough
House Democrats have been trying to remedy the plight of diversity visa lottery winners from 2020 and 2021, but it’s not clear they will succeed.
Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) has put forth an amendment to a Homeland Security appropriations bill that would allow unused diversity visas from 2020 and 2021 to remain available after the fiscal year ends on September 30. That means that a portion of the 55,000 or so diversity visas allocated for next year would go to people who had applied in previous years.
Though the amendment has passed in the relevant House committee, the entire bill still has to survive a full floor vote in the House. And it has yet to be considered by the Senate, where it is likely to face opposition from GOP members.
In May, Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) also introduced legislation that would aid the almost 21,000 people who were either granted diversity visas or had applied for them but were prevented from entering the country under Trump-era bans. However, it hasn’t gained any traction in the months since.
But neither of those bills addresses the lengthy wait times that diversity visa applicants are likely to face, even if they remain eligible beyond the September deadline. And diversity visa applicants from years past would take away spots from future applicants under Meng’s amendment.
“It would solve the issue of loss of eligibility,” Urena, the attorney representing diversity visa applicants, said. “But actually getting them into the country — the Biden administration would have to refocus its efforts on adjudicating diversity visas. We’re looking at long wait times and basically losing eligibility every year for [new] diversity visa applicants.”
Urena said the cost of waiting can be high. He had one client who had won the diversity visa lottery in 2020 but died while he was waiting for his visa to be issued. His older children had been hoping to come to the US on diversity visas and start a new life, but that won’t be possible now because they are no longer eligible through their father.
It’s a frustrating reality for families that are just trying to find a legal pathway to come to the US. “We didn’t do anything against the law. We just follow what is supposed to be followed,” Rosales said. “If we really are treated with fairness, we can be a good asset to the country.”
Trump’s aggressive efforts to overturn election results come to light -
A new hand-written document released by the DOJ on Friday shows the lengths that former President Trump tried to go to in order to overturn election results. | Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
A hand-written document released by the DOJ has the former president’s actions catching up with him.
Former President Trump’s efforts to overturn election results late last year by pressuring Justice Department officials may be worse than initially thought according to newly available documents and a report from the New York Times.
In a phone conversation with then-acting Deputy Attorney General Richard P. Donoghue and former acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, Trump suggested that the election should be declared corrupt despite there being no proof of rampant fraud. This newinformation was made public on Friday when the Committee on Oversight and Reform released Deputy Attorney General Donoghue’s handwritten notes documenting the conversation and helpingtofill in the blanks concerningTrump’s efforts to overturn the election results.
The phone conversation in question took place on December 27, 2020 and largely consisted of Donoghue and Rosen advising Trump that they were unable to change the outcome of the election in his favor. According to Donoghue’s notes,Trump reportedly responded by saying, “just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the [Republican] Congressmen.”
Although Trump and other Republican politicians spent weeks claiming election fraud and cultivating general mistrust, there is ultimately no backing to their claims.
“The November 3rd election was the most secure in American history. Right now, across the country, election officials are reviewing and double-checking the entire election process prior to finalizing the result,” the coordinating bodies on election infrastructure and security said in a joint statement issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
The statement directly contradicts President Donald Trump, who has made unfounded allegations of widespread voting irregularities and fraud. The president is using these claims to challenge the vote counts in several key states that delivered President-elect Joe Biden his apparent Electoral College victory.
Nevertheless, Trump’s attacks on the election results came quickly, even before results had been tabulated,claiming that poll workers were hiding suitcases stuffed with ballots and that election officials manipulated a signature-verification machine used in ballot counting.
Both of these claims have been disproven but this did not stop the Trump campaign and many supporters from bringing their concerns to court in six states and promptly losing over 60 cases including at the Supreme Court. In response to the complaints purporting illicit activity, Attorney General William P. Barr said in early December, “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
Trump’s claims of election fraud were inaccurate and unlawful
Trump was quick to allege during that December 27 phone conversation thatresults from the states of Georgia, Michigan, Nevada and Arizona, constituted “corrupted elections.”
“We are doing our job. Much of the info you’re getting is false,” Donoghue said, stating that the DOJ had carried out “dozens of investigations, hundreds of interviews,” and found that the election was sound. Trump retaliated by asking about ballot fraud in Fulton County and other areas, and when reassured that there was no proof of illicit activity, he asked Donoghue to verify signatures on ballots in Fulton County in person. Trump also claimed that the error rate of ballot counting was 68 percent in the state of Michigan while the department found that it was only 0.0063 percent. “We have an obligation to tell people that this was an illegal corrupt election,” Trump said, according to Donoghue’s transcription.
Rosen eventually stepped in to explain the reality of the situation as well as the DOJ’s limitations, asking Trump to “understand that the DOJ can’t + won’t snap its fingers + change the outcome of the election, doesn’t work that way.”
But this was not what Trump wanted to hear. “People tell me Jeff Clark is great, I should put him in,” said Trump, mentioning Republican then-chief of the Justice Department’s civil division. “People want me to replace DOJ leadership,” aless-than-subtle threat to Donoghue’s and Rosen’s jobs in favor of Clark who had also pushed Justice Department officials to intervene in election results. “You should have the leadership you want,” Donoghue responded.
Although it was common knowledge that Trump was calling the election results fraudulent everywhere from press conferences to Twitter, Donoghue’s notes documenting the phone call are important because of the severity of Trump’s requests.
Upon releasing the documents yesterday, Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, issued a statement: “These handwritten notes show that President Trump directly instructed our nation’s top law enforcement agency to take steps to overturn a free and fair election in the final days of his presidency.” Also in the statement Chairwoman Maloney wrote that the committee intends to interview witnesses as part of a larger investigation of the president’s “corruption.”
DOJ decisions could topple Trump’s hope of avoiding accountability
This action is among several recent efforts by the DOJ to investigate Trump’s actions at the end of his term. This week, as Maloney mentioned in her statement, the Justice Department authorized former officials who had worked under the Trump administration to be interviewed, including Donoghue and Rosen. Jeffrey Clark will also be interviewed specifically about his involvement in plotting to replace Rosen in order to further his investigation of voter fraud.
DOJ officials have been given permission by the department to give “unrestricted testimony, … so long as the testimony is confined to the scope of the interviews set forth by the committees.” This is notable because along with issues relating to voter fraud and overturning the election, the committees to which the officials will be giving testimony are also investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol.
This is not good news for Trump especially considering a second DOJ decision regarding Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) who is being sued for allegedlyhelping to incite the Capitol riots in a speech he made to supporters the morning of the riot. Brooks has countered that he is entitled to immunity because he was acting as a federal employee when making the speech. However, Attorney General Merrick Garland refused to corroborate this, leaving Brooks vulnerable. This may impactTrump as he is facing similar charges of incitement and Garland’s decision undermines Trump’s anticipated defense of “executive privilege.”
Adding to the former president’s woes, the Justice Department released a memo on Friday requiring the Treasury Department to turn over Trump’s tax returns to the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee.
“The Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has invoked sufficient reasons for requesting the former President’s tax information. Treasury must furnish the information to the Committee,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Dawn Johnsen.
Trump’s refusalto release his fulltax returns has been viewed as a strategyto keep his business affairs, namely those involving his family company, the Trump Organization, private. Under this order he is now required to release this information to the committee, the primary stated reason being to ensure that he has not taken advantage of US tax laws.
From The Hindu: Sports
Tokyo Olympics: Lahiri signs off at T-42, American Schauffele takes gold - Indian golfer Anirban Lahiri ended his second Olympic campaign at Tied 42nd after carding a one-over 72 in the fourth and final round here on Sunday.
Tokyo Olympics | Zverev follows up win over Djokovic with singles gold - The fifth-ranked German overwhelmed Russian opponent Karan Khachanov 6-3, 6-1 at the Tokyo Games on Sunday for the biggest title of his career
Russian athletes have proved they can win without doping insists ROC chief - Russian athletes have won 39 medals in Tokyo to date, including 11 golds
ISL 2021-22: Chennaiyin FC signs Mirlan Murzaev of Kyrgyzstan on a one-year deal - Two-time Indian Super League (ISL) champion Chennaiyin FC (CFC) has signed Mirlan Murzaev of Kyrgyzstan on a one-year deal. The forward will become t
Tokyo games: Paralympian shooter moves SC against HC order posting his plea for hearing on Aug 6 - Five-time Paralympian shooter Naresh Kumar Sharma has moved the Supreme Court challenging an order of the Delhi High Court which had posted his plea r
From The Hindu: National News
Second MLA from Congress joins BJP in Assam - Sushanta Borgohain was elected twice from eastern Assam’s Thowra Assembly constituency
Schools in Chattisgarh to reopen for Classes 10, 12 from August 2 - This decision has not gone down well with parents in the State
Teachers’ federation urge for the reopening of primary schools - The Tamil Nadu Primary School Teachers’ Federation has appealed to the State government to reopen classes for primary schools at the earliest, as the
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Rainfall 7% below normal in July: IMD - After its vigorous revival in the first week of July that saw floods, cloudburst and landslides in several parts of the country, the Southwest Monsoo
From BBC: Europe
Turkey: Foreign tourists evacuated as wildfires threaten resorts - Coastguard vessels and private boats have brought holidaymakers to safety, as the death toll rises.
Belarus Olympics: Krystsina Tsimanouskaya refusing to fly home - Krystsina Tsimanouskaya tells Reuters she will not go to Belarus after she is taken to Tokyo airport.
French boxer stages ring sit protest after loss - Frenchman Mourad Aliev refuses to live the ring in the aftermath of his controversial loss to Great Britain’s Frazer Clarke.
Amazon hit with $886m fine for alleged data law breach - The tech giant rejects claims it has broken European Union data protection laws.
Tokyo Olympics: Georgia athletes removed from Games after sightseeing trip - Two Georgian silver medallists are told to leave the Olympic Games for taking a sightseeing trip in Tokyo.
From Ars Technica
What is LMDh and why are we so excited about sports car racing in 2023? - Acura, Audi, BMW, Ferrari, Peugeot, and Toyota can all race together in 2023—here’s how. - link
Review: The Green Knight weaves a compelling coming-of-age fantasy quest - David Lowery’s atmospheric film is as richly textured and layered as the original poem. - link
With help from Google, impersonated Brave.com website pushes malware - With a valid TLS certificate, faux Bravė.com could fool even security-savvy people. - link
The privacy battle Apple isn’t fighting - Browser-level privacy setting mandated by California is absent from Safari, iOS. - link
H.G. Wells’ “World Brain” is now here—what have we learned since? - H.G. Wells presented a vision of society that events quickly eclipsed. - link
From Jokes Subreddit
A farmer has dozens of cows and two bulls, but both bulls are too old to mate anymore. -
One day the famer brings a third bull into the field. The new bull is much younger than the other two, and immediately starts mating with cow after cow.
When the old bulls see this, one of them starts huffing, snorting, and scraping the ground with his hoof.
“Don’t bother competing with that guy,” says the other old bull. “You’re too old. He’d laugh at you.”
“I’m not trying to compete with him,” replies the first old bull. “I just want him to know I’m not a cow.”
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cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22749454/678155bb_a1f4_4e87_9d8f_62b8948aa185.JPG)
Courtesy of Lizbeth Rosales
