coverage seems a long way off. for workers, there are some hope, but they don't know how long it will last them here we can eat without worrying about the next day. before i knew about this place, i spent 2 days lying inside a pox bus. literally starving, many are left wandering the streets of the bandwidth as she capital, hoping charities like the can provide with often the only meal of the day. a little bit of the young al jazeera ah, recapping your top stories here on al jazeera to grind rebels in northern ethiopia, have taken control of the ancient town of labella. that's the unesco world heritage site. the conflict has widened into neighboring regions over recent weeks. malcolm web has more now from nairobi, o residence and others have told us that fighters from the degree region of entered

the historic town loudly better. there were rumors that they were close local residents over the last week, some of the residents that they've had gunfire at night, but they say it's normal to to have some gunfire at night there. but then just in the last few hours, resident said they could see the gray and people's liberation from fighters getting close. and then just to show, while ago they've taken control of the town neurons, new president has pushed a message of national unity and reconciliation during his inauguration speaking just after he was sworn in abraham. racy also said his country's nuclear program was peaceful and the pressure and sanctions wouldn't deter the iranian people. the iranian, this nuclear program is fees for these full pays for the nuclear weapon has nothing to do with the policy. the strategy of iran, the bread shows and sanctions will never let

down the iranian people we will defend our right in scientific development. sanctions on the iranian should come to an end a wildfire. the rich, the compound of a coal fuel power plant in the southwest of turkey has finally been contained after aging. for more than 11 hours, strong winds drove the fire towards the chemical power plant in which their problems, navy landing craft for deploy to help evacuate residents by c. more than a 100 wild fires raging across greece, the heat wave has been fueling the fires. there is the worse to hit the country in more than 30 years. afghan government forces are fighting defensive battles as the taliban pushes to capture regional capital, spices or dancing on her at kandahar and alaska go up. next is inside story. i'll have the news for you in 30 minutes. ah,

ah, ah, ah! ah, ah, it's an a limping games like never before. no crowds is supported in tokyo because it's coven 19. but plenty of politics. how's that affected? great sporting events. this is insightful. ah! hello, welcome to the program. i'm has him speaker as a tokyo olympics, come to an end this sunday, a year late because of the coven, 19 pandemic. some athletes and their nations are celebrating their metals while

others will be looking at where they can improve in 3 years time. in paris, what is arguably been the world's biggest sporting events has always been a chance for nations big and small to showcase themselves on the grandest of stages . historically, the prestige of the athletes, metal podium has been an opportunity for governments to promote a kind of soft power of culture and influence rather than the hard power of wealth and military might. but have some countries now cross that line and do the game still have the same impact for the metal winning nations. and the hosts will be asking those questions and more with our guests in a moment. but 1st, let's take a look at some of the major events involving the games and politics. in 1936 nazi germany hosted the olympics, but it only allowed what it referred to as the area and race to represent germany further marginalizing its jewish population. in the 1900 sixty's apartheid south africa was banned from competing in what was the tokyo olympics. but only after it

had already been allowed to use an all white team to compete during the same decade in 1968 in mexico, american athletes used their podium wins to raise awareness about racism. move that had them kicked out of those olympics. and in 1980 the united states led a boy called the games in moscow as a response to the soviet union's invasion of afghanistan. the army now being that the us invaded afghanistan 21 years later the while for more on this i'm joined by our guests in london, ontario, richard barker, adjunct fellow and olympic scholar and co director of the proposed olympic research network. in tokyo, we have barbara holt,

his deputy director of german institute for japanese studies and editor of japan to the lens of a tokyo olympics. and in doha, ross griffin, middle east, editor of into the international general of the history of sports. good to have your with us. so barbara, let me start with you, then since you are where it's all happening right now. i think it's fair to say this is not the, the olympics that japan had envisioned when they were warded the games in tokyo back in 2011 in the middle of a, of a pandemic. no spectators, lots of domestic opposition to this with, with protests. and so on, but you know, given all of those limitations, can it still be seen as a success and how is that success measured? well, that is a difficult question and that really depends on which stakeholder is being given

that question i. so for the i a see if they will, most definitely say this is going to be a success because their main income comes from tv. right. and it's a tv only around now. well, if you talk to the japanese population thing in a very, very different as they are being shut out from the games they're being held there, there were very cautious about the possibility of different buyers and bars, new mutations coming into the country, 200 countries coming into their city. when you look at the japanese government, the costs are tremendous. when you look at the sponsors, a lot of them have now declined tv ad. they kind of step back because they didn't want the negative fall out from that. so really pencil, you're talking to ross griffin,

we talk there and talk about about this whole idea of soft power and how nations use the lympics as a stage to promote that sort of, of soft power with, with you know, the accomplishments of athletes. but in terms of the host nation, japan, what impact has has, has hosting the olympics in, under these conditions had on, on what they were hoping to get out of these games. i think the games have been successful from the metrics point of view for the japanese committee. there are higher in the table then they would historically be so it's giving them a chance to demonstrate that they are accomplished in other fields such as metix. there would be, it would be stereotypically, stereotypically, be conceived as technology and, or areas like that. it shows the shows that they can compete as opposed alongside

the other g 7 nations. if you look at the middle table and scott, the usual characters of china, america, britain, australia, and are known as the russian and the committee and japan is sitting very comfortably alongside them. i think are 4th or 5th. currently in the metals table, which is, as i said, historically much higher than they normally would be. yeah, great bring you mentioned, there is an interesting example that we can come back to in terms of their, their sporting achievements at the lympics over the last few years. but i want to get the view of richard now on this, what do you think should be the legacy of the tokyo olympics? i think they can be called the compromised lympics to the television olympics. i personally thought they should have been delayed another year to had the full effect with the fans there and spectators from overseas. but that didn't happen. so we have to live with it now. and so i think the legacy will be got to call it,

you hiccups along the way. we've only got 5 days to go. we'll see what happens with the paralympics, but as the compromised or television olympics that went ahead the ios, the pushed forward on that delay till the 2022 could have occurred. but that didn't . so they're gonna be back on track. and as you pointed out, there's only 3 years to pairs to next summer game, and less than 6 months till the beijing winter gains. but that might be another political hot potato between now and when they take place. barbara, so you nodding in agreement to, to some of that about this idea of the day, perhaps we should have been delayed another year to 2022 so you can get all the crowds in there. we're talk, talk a little bit more about what you think that yeah, well, i mean, the hopes that wishes that japan connected with these games where many falls on the one hand, or, or say one, it's 40000000 tourists from abroad getting into the country in 2020

and now the country has been completely knocked except 2 of them pick related people for a year and a half. right. so that is huge, but they can't showcase themselves. they can't get any financial benefits from selling the state. so there's a non weekly, it's really, really difficult, and it's difficult to thousands of people who have been over half a 1000000 people happens in their jobs. and of course, it's hard to tell people to and that's what the japanese government has been doing over and over and the many states of emergency please. you know, due south restraints, don't go out, don't drink alcohol, right. don't go to the restaurant, don't mean go. but yet then the world comes together in the city. and so that's why partially my receive this large increase. now and over ross griffin,

how important is, you know, the chief moment of metals at the olympics for 4 countries? and i suppose it does depend to, to an extent on which country you're talking about. i mean if he, if you look at the example of great britain and the, the decision that was made back in the late ninety's, they had a, they had a terrible olympics back in 1996. they won one gold medals finished. i think it was 37th in the podium and a decision was made right after that to, to, to pump a lot more money into, into cross route sports into sports that, that would help them win a limb. pick old metals. and since then, they've had a huge measure of success and, you know, you know, getting into the metals podium in, in, in sort of, around $56.00 in the, in the meadows table, pretty much every olympics in beijing. so it does show you that this kind of thing does matter for countries prestige and with britain, we're not, we're not talking about china or, or, you know,

authority on authoritarian nation. it is, it is a kind of projection of soft powers and inference. and so many of these countries, oh, it very much, it is. the middle table is always something that's very keenly watched by spectators. i imagine arbitrations as well. it's important to note though that every different, every country has a different agenda. when it comes to the metal, the traditional superpowers of sport, america, china and russia would always be looking to use a middle table to start their own spin on society that their own social model is better than others. but when it comes to nations, regularly britain coming out of the backdrop of what seems to be a very confused and bonded branch of process. what many experts deemed to be a very, very poor mishandling of the corporate demick. this is something that bars johnson and his peers in the conservative government can cling on to say, look,

we're doing something right here. no, i'm not exactly sure how they're translated. 15 or 16 gold medals and the political capital. but that's the job of the politicians to do. this trickles all the way down to states that wouldn't be as large or establish does the britons of the world are china's are the americans. you look at what it is, it's confusing when you look at the mom and lympics class work because their designated a chinese type in the olympic metal there. but taiwan, by any other name, it's important to know that there are 20 turn on that natural table in the d. use mega events sporting events, such as your intakes, to establish a sense of choosing a sense of identity outside of the umbrella of more dominant neighbors. that wish to bring them back in. and that's where middle tables they really are important for little and larger missions, to assert a sense of national identity for whatever agenda is deemed necessary at the time. a

barbara, when we talk about national identity, the did, the opening ceremony is always a big opportunity is, isn't it for, for, for, for that house nation to kind of set out their store. it's kind of, it's a huge p r spectacle in, in that sense, what did you, what did you make of, of what we saw in tokyo, almost a couple of weeks ago now. now i thought the symbolic power and many of these ideas and the opening, their money were really strong. and for example, you had asked earlier about, you know, the goals and hopes and desires on the other. one was to show how inclusive japan and now diverse japan is and inclusion you could really see in the opening ceremony in regards to having a lot of people with disabilities. people in wheelchairs participating in the

ceremony. you had now we also got lighting the cauldron, who is multi racial japanese and that has huge symbolic power as well as the japanese flag. there was a basketball player, hutchins and he's also multi racial. and, and so to choose these 2 and these very both positions really supported this desire of showing how diverse japan has become. rick, what do you make of this idea that's been put out that you know, the soft, the whole soft power thing doesn't matter so much that will have the same impact that he used to for countries and, and it's become more about the personalities when you, when you look at what happened with simone biles, that the american gymnast and her decision to not to compete in certain events

because she said she was looking out for her mental health. that, that is something that got a lot, a great deal of coverage in the media and had some asking whether this is this is really more of a platform for has become more of a platform for athletes than, than their nations. what, what do you make of that idea? of course the athletes commission has gotten more power phone. they've just voted some new members on as a change them around. so they definitely increase their profile, the athlete side in the whole and fix the issue with respect to politics has changed, of course, because we haven't seen a boycott since 84 when it was the tit for tat when the soviet lead nations didn't come to l. a and that was in the sort of punishment for the americans and their boy supporters not going to moscow. so boycotts having occurred. so we got 88

so they were boy 3 and everyone went wow, this is great. know boycotts, normal, lympics and i think you've identified has gone back to more of an athlete focus now i was noticed the other day there was a chinese competitor in one of the sports. and another aspect was treating that competitor, you know, just as if they were any other athlete around the world that could have been some, some adam off city there because issues are going on and in beijing with respect to the a winter games in 2022 but yeah, they just seen the athletes or at least and they don't really want to do too much in terms of the flaming the situation there to train when metals and they kind of stay out of the reform. there has only been, i think one settle will small protests that we didn't want to occur, but they put things in place to punish. ah, we might do that, but yeah, i think we've seen that old dominion boy thoughts and issues that happen that's gone more don't ask me focus barbara. people say that that sport,

that politics should, should have no business being involved in sport touring and vice versa. but do you think that's perhaps a naive view? because when, when we look through history, the to have never been far apart. and when you have a stage as large as the olympic games, that's always going to be an opportunity for certain people, whether they be countries or individual athletes to, to, to, to put forward their, their agenda, so to speak. what do you, what's your take on that? oh, i think that's, of course did you talk to each other? i don't think there could be such a mega event as the world's largest met event without a serious involvement apology because there's so much money involved and national prestige that is being pushed in certain agenda. and i think that's strong to those strong ties. i think they're not going to get any less over time.

ross griffin, what, what's your take on that in the way, in terms of the way in different different countries approach that narrative like politics, sports have always been intertwined. husband men as particularly angela to games, given the sheer prestige surrounding the event. this goes back to the early 19 hundreds, you had iris athletes at 1906 games, protesting british colonization. they brought their own flag and this resurfaced again and 972 and irish cyclists, an ultimate recycling team in the 72 games interact with the road race. and you've already mentioned the games of all of africa and already sixty's and jesse on. and the 70 or $36.00 unit games also. so it's always, it's always been a part of the olympic games. i know that the try to minimalize or diminishes the amount of products or any opportunity for protest in

this games and bar. the american shop puts us was mentioned earlier. i don't think i haven't seen any sign or seen of it in these game so far. i don't think you can eliminate a completely, once you have people in these games, human beings are always going to her some risk of protest. but it's just a part and parcel of dealing against speaking a protest and politics. richard, i know this was mentioned earlier about the, the, the winter games that are coming up in, in beijing, in early 2022. and the real possibility of, of some sort of international boy called there because of the chinese government treatments of the week or people back in 2008 when when china hosted the summer elim picks there again, there were concerns raised about human rights record. but of course nothing happened there. the games were seen as a huge success for china,

a thing different this time around them. yes they are. i come from australia and curly and canada, and they've got 2 issues with shy at the moment the. the australians had so many tariffs, but on their trade with china, china bullying, australia, small nation with lots of lar, raw resources that they need in kansas had the to michael was to katie and diplomats are being held there in the been over a year. and so they've got that issue and will that be resolved before the beijing games, both of those aspects of the sterling situation and the kn situation. and there's talk a boycotts moving the games, delaying another year. the national epic trinity is don't want that. they just want to compete, they don't want politics to enter into it, but we can't help and avoid that. that might occur because of the strong political problems that are at the moment. china won't want to give up the game saying that

all this money is 1st time games will be in a same city for winter and summer. that's the 1st and they've got the infrastructure done, and they'll, they'll run technically a very good gains. so they don't want that to occur and if they move against china might be willing to a lot of the olympic movement. it's a shame their current 1st on the metal tele. so the world doesn't want to see that neither does the i o c, and i don't want to see that. so we're in a situation an interesting 6 months to see if or be a lobby to have some changes occur for the beijing games. an interesting 6 months. barbara, what, what do you think is likely to happen with those winter games in the 2022. what i wanted to mention because you earlier said that, you know, the post on me was only by one. and i think maybe richard said that, but that ideally would have been better to postpone it for 2 years. but it was decided against and you know, there were many reasons why, but one probably is also that japan really wanted to all of them. because there's

always been that rivalry between japan and china and to be the 1st nation to hold lots not anymore. and emily and demick games was really important for japan and not to give that to china. but you know, i don't know what's going to happen to the next 6 months. it's, there's everyday things change so much. i would not dare to give any assumptions what we're going to be seeing in the next 6 months. fair enough. ross griffin, if, if, if some sort of a boy car does happen and i'm not saying it will for china and in 20 for beijing in 2022. what, what will be the ramifications of that? you think i thought it's hard to say my own

personal opinion. i think money talks in these things, so i don't see any boy. i don't see any boy happening. i don't see any delay in the game happening. if contracts are signed by television, companies, and sponsors, i think the games are going to go ahead if you want some hint as to how things could panel i think looking at the russian olympic committee team as it's called these games might give you some clue in all of these because it's incredibly unfair to punish the needs, i think, who have spent their entire lives, not just for years segments, training for each of these individual games. so it was a boy called would be largely symbolic, with the athletes still being allowed to compete or abuse under the mish mash of different color track suits and songs instead of items that we currently see the rational in the committee, which is still a russian team. it has all the markers of nationalism down to the red, white and blue tracks. it's that they were on the 40 and, but it's just not called a russia team on the middle. yeah. what,

what do you make that richard the fact that the russian athletes are still essentially allowed to compete, they just can't compete under the russian flag. does that seem like a sort of can't compromise that the didn't really address the issue? it's a definitely was a small slap on the wrist. so for all some purposes there, they've got a team there. can't play their anthem, but you know, they can count on the metal tally, although it's under r o c instead of russia. it's really a small slap on the risk. some of the things american swimmer said, i wonder what, what happened. i that rushed nasty wasn't here hinting at some drug issue still there. but the athletes, the ones that are punish, so it's a small slap and the rest, i think, very shortly we'll see russia back in full swing and very well in beijing. which those games will be interesting is we got the 6 months to see. and the only thing

they talked about some countries is some minor changes to how they might support the games. for example, politicians and keep people from countries might not go to beijing, they might stay home. so they wouldn't have this. china wouldn't bail use the, you know, the, or of all the top officials in the world, politicians and others coming. so there could be some things that occur with respect to that athletes may be doing some type of protests or the others despite the regulation. so yeah, money talk to ross said, so it's rob said, so it's, it's going to be interesting. i don't want to see them cancel and so i think, but go ahead. will be interesting 6 months between now and then. all right, we'll have to leave. leave it there. thanks very much. sure. all 3 of you, richard barker, barbara holt is, and ross griffin. thanks so much to be on inside story and thank you. as always for watching, remember, you can see this program again. any time by visiting our website as

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