An Olympics Full of Political Peril - Bloomberg

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It’s no one’s idea of an Olympic dream.

As the hours tick down to the Tokyo opening ceremony, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga might be forgiven for wishing he could wake up from what feels more like a nightmare.

Faced with an impossible dilemma, Suga forged ahead with plans for the global sports spectacle, already delayed by a year amid the worst pandemic in a century.

The result is that corporate sponsors are distancing themselves, most foreign leaders are staying away and now even the opening ceremony is in jeopardy after its director was fired at the last minute over a decades-old video of him joking about the Holocaust.

With tens of thousands of athletes and officials from around the world already in the country and the International Olympic Committee determined to secure the broadcasting fees that keep sporting federations ticking over, officials aren’t talking about a cancellation.

And yet, however inspiring their performances, the athletes are unlikely to distract voters in Japan from their problems ahead of a general election due within about four months.

Covid-19 is spreading across Japan at its fastest rate in months and the capital is bracing for what experts say may be the biggest surge in cases since the pandemic began. With less than a quarter of the population fully vaccinated, that could put hospitals under fresh strain.

Even as he cheers on Team Japan, for Suga — the 72-year-old son of a strawberry farmer — the most important race of the coming weeks is likely to be the one between the contagious delta variant and Japan’s delayed immunization program. — Isabel Reynolds

A closed ticket office during an opening round women’s football match between the U.S. and Sweden yesterday.

Photographer: Noriko Hayashi/Bloomberg

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Global Headlines

Building momentum | Joe Biden is due to host business and labor leaders at the White House today as he tries to build support for his massive infrastructure program. The U.S. president expressed confidence late yesterday that the $579 billion bill will pass, even as Senate Republicans blocked debate on the still-unfinished plan.

• Millions of Americans face eviction despite billions in unspent aid passed by Congress and distributed to programs nationwide during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Managing tensions | An agreement by the U.S. and China for the first face-to-face talks between senior diplomats in months represents the latest effort by both sides to keep their disputes from spiraling out of control. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi next week in the northern port city of Tianjin as part of her current swing through Asia.

• Chinese regulators are considering serious penalties for ride-hailing service Didi Global after its controversial initial public offering last month, sources say.

Surging Surplus

Booming Chinese exports have overpowered imports hitting a record

Source: China’s General Administration of Customs

China and the U.S. are shipping goods to each other at the fastest pace in years, making the world’s largest bilateral trade relationship look as if the protracted trade war and pandemic never happened. The bustling commerce has  defied expectations that tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars worth of merchandise would force a decoupling of supply chains. Instead, both sides have learned to live with the taxes.

“Wild West” | The need for quick tests for Covid-19 for travel and work has burgeoned into a cottage industry in the U.K., born out of the government’s at-times chaotic response to the virus. But health experts say the proliferation of more questionable firms poses a risk to Britain’s ability to contain the next stage of the pandemic, as it opens up the economy and allows more travel without quarantine.

Best of Bloomberg Opinion

Tepid pledges | Group of 20 ministers are likely to end talks in Italy without an ambitious deal on climate change, another setback in the fight against rising temperatures ahead of key negotiations later this year. Alberto Nardelli, Jessica Shankleman and Alessandro Speciale report from their sources that climate ministers are stuck on a number of issues and will kick a final decision to a meeting of leaders in October.

Chip push | Congress must act quickly to bolster semiconductor manufacturing in the U.S., according to a letter from trade groups and unions delivered to House and Senate leaders. The missive urges lawmakers to finance the Chips Act, which became law this year and provides grants and incentives for companies to build fabrication facilities in the U.S., but was never funded.

• As chipmakers from Taiwan to the U.S. crank up output to address global shortages, there are now concerns the industry will overshoot and add too much capacity.

•  In her traditional summer press conference, German Chancellor Angela Merkel made a pitch for much more money to be invested in semiconductors to bolster the European Union’s position in areas such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

What to Watch

• Multiple studies show India’s virus toll is vastly underestimated and could be as high as five million deaths, drawing repeated denials from the government.
• The Taliban has “strategic momentum” in its fight with the Afghan government as U.S. forces complete their withdrawal, and controls half the country’s districts, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mike Milley said yesterday.

• China pushed back against a World Health Organization call for another probe into the coronavirus’s origins that includes examining whether it leaked from a lab, saying there’s no evidence for the theory.

• Germany and the U.S. reached a deal allowing completion of the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. 

And finally ... Indonesian President Joko Widodo’s business-friendly approach is starting to look like a liability as the Covid-19 death toll rises. After he bowed to pressure from powerful corporate interests and avoided a full-scale lockdown proposed by health officials, the country is now Asia's virus epicenter, Arys Aditya and Philip Heijmans report.

A burial for a suspected Covid-19 victim in Central Java on July 2.

Photographer: Ulet Ifansasti/Getty Images

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— With assistance by Ruth Pollard, and Gordon Bell

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