Those are the headlines connected to this year’s Olympic opening ceremony, normally an uplifting pageant of nations. A day before the Tokyo Summer Games formally begin, Kentaro Kobayashi, who was to oversee performances at the opening ceremony, was ousted because of a comedy skit he performed in the 1990s about the Holocaust. Earlier this week, the musical director of the opening ceremony resigned after a magazine interview resurfaced in which he admitted bullying classmates as a student. Already an exercise in crisis management because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Games faced another headache with just hours to go until the opening ceremony. The opening ceremony begins at 8 p.m. local time on Friday, or 7 a.m. Eastern time in the U.S.

Source: Mint July 22, 2021 11:26 UTC