Global News Podcast BBC

Move covers 31 of the country's 34 provinces to help protect urban areas from Taliban advance. Also: Landmark fuel deal between Iraq and Lebanon, Olympic host nation Japan picks up its first medals and the search for new Aussie rhyming slang.

The long delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics are finally underway - in a near deserted stadium; Haiti's assassinated president Jovenel Moïse is laid to rest...
and why sales of foam clogs are soaring -- and dividing opinion among fashionistas.

Due to Coronavirus, a subdued ceremony launches the much-postponed Olympics. Fewer than 1000 invited guests and no spectators are inside the huge main stadium. Also, President Xi Jinping makes first official visit to Tibet by a Chinese leader in 30 years, and one of India's most flamboyant businessmen is arrested for allegedly making porn films.

President Biden has been under pressure to respond to anti-regime protests. Also: the Senate in the Czech Republic has approved a plan to compensate Roma women who were forcibly sterilised, and beset by scandals and Covid-19 concerns, Tokyo prepares to hold the opening ceremony for the Olympics.

The decision to remove Kentaro Kobayashi comes just a day before the opening show is due to be held. It’s the latest scandal to hit the Tokyo Games. Also: Famine stalks Angola as the worst drought in forty years ravages the south of the country; and Norway pauses to recall the mass murder committed by a far-right extremist ten years ago today.

Life expectancy in the US has suffered its sharpest fall since the second world war; Chinese scientists say global warming has made China's annual flood season much more dangerous; and a gold toilet is discovered at the home of a Russian policeman, arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes.