Name: Challenges For The 2022 Winter Olympics | January 18, 2021
Uploaded: 2021-12-24T01:55:10.000Z
Duration: 10 min 1 s
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Hi, I'm Carl Azuz, back in action for CNN10.

The reason we were off the air Monday is explained in just a few minutes.

But first, as we like to say in news, we are 2.5 weeks from the start of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games; they're taking place in the Chinese capital of Beijing, and they'll make that city the first to have hosted both the Summer and Winter Games.

Almost 3,000 international athletes are expected; no fans from other countries are allowed and China announced Monday that tickets won't even be sold to the Chinese public.

Instead, the Beijing Organizing Committee says people who meet China's COVID requirements will be able to attend by invitation only.

The rule was made shortly after China confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.

It's highly contagious but less severe overall than other forms of the disease.

China has a zero tolerance approach to COIVD, though; the nation is quick to lock down cities and block travel if a single COVID case is identified.

So, this strict policy, in conjunction with the Olympics, bring some unique challenges to the nation.

Organizers say they're holding the games in a closed-loop system: Only people participating in the events will be allowed at hotels, competition sites, and official transportation vehicles; they can't have any contact with the general public.

They don't have to be vaccinated to be part of the Olympics, but those who aren't have to quarantine in Beijing for 21 days before they're allowed to move around, and anyone who tests positive for the disease will be put in isolation and prevented from participating in the games in any way.

Omicron breaching Beijing's borders; a single case putting the winter Olympics' host city on high alert, China's zero-COVID policy making no exceptions.

In the capital city, targeted lockdowns immediately activated, along with strict contact tracing.

Chinese health officials publicized the infected person's recent travel history, starting with their home.

We drove by the Beijing community where the woman diagnosed with Omicron lives.

Remember, health authorities say all of this, sparked by just one case ⏤ at least for now.

You can see here, this is one of the entrances and exits.

They put these big blue barriers to keep folks from going in and out.

The woman's neighbors? Allowed some fresh air, but confined to the complex.

Their trash piling up, waiting for specially designated disposal teams to truck it out.

The woman lives a 15-minute drive from the Olympic Park.

Not only where she lives that health authorities have it locked down, but also where the woman works, which happens to be in a bank inside this building.

So, out front, you can see they've got these blue tents set up, where a lot of times they'll do testing and processing before they can finally declare it safe enough to reopen.

But if you think it's just a bunch of empty offices, look closer.

COVID control staff carting in big boxes.

Inside them? Can you read that? Pillows. Bedding.

People have actually been locked down at work, and these supplies might make their stay a bit more comfortable for what could be days of testing.

Omicron not only in Beijing; cases also surfacing in several other Chinese cities, including Shanghai.

Social media showing snap lockdowns trapping shoppers at one store.

Sounds extreme, but most online voicing their support for the strict containment efforts.

Less than three weeks until the Olympics and recent outbreaks had 20 million people sealed in their homes, others bussed to centralized quarantine.

State media showing these makeshift encampments built within days; mass testing is a constant.

Back in Beijing, I hopped in line for my regularly scheduled COVID test.

But if you think that heavy measures have brought life here to a halt, most who are not traveling might say otherwise.

On Sunday, crowds flocking to this popular Beijing lake, frozen just in time for the Winter Games.

Since 1986, the third Monday in January has been observed as a federal holiday in America.

It had been signed into law three years earlier in remembrance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., although several states and cities had been holding holidays of their own for years before that.

The American baptist minister advocated for and participated in peaceful protests to achieve civil rights for African Americans.

The marches, parades, and events held on Monday honored his legacy.

The federal holiday is considered a day of service.

Though many Americans don't have to work on Martin Luther King Day, they're encouraged to volunteer in community improvement projects.

Last year, some members of the Harvard Diversity Project shared some memorable and influential passages of Dr King's speeches.

Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream.

It is a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream.

We cannot walk alone, and as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?"

And we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Somebody's asking, "How long will prejudice blind the vision of men?"

However difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth, crushed to earth, will rise again.

Not long, because mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

He has trampled out the vintage where the grapes of wrath is stored.

He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat.

He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat.

Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!

Somewhere, we must come to realize that human progress never rolls in on the wheel of inevitability.

It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God.

And without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation.

And, so, we must always help time and realize that the time is always right to do right.

We mean business now, and we're determined to gain our rightful place in God's world.

And that's all this whole thing is about.

We aren't engaged in any negative protest or in negative arguments with anybody.

We are saying, we are saying, "We are God's children", and that we are God's children; we don't have to live like we are forced to live.

Let us rise up tonight with a greater readiness.

Let us stand with a greater determination.

Let us move on in these powerful days, these days of challenge, to make America what it ought to be.

We have an opportunity to make America a better nation.

I have a dream, that one day, this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed.

We hold these truths to be self evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream, that one day, on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream, that one day, Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream, that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they are not judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet,

we will be able to speed up the day when all of God's Children,

- Jews and Gentiles,  - Protestants and Catholics,

will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,

From a distance, this might have looked like a piece of plastic floating in Australia's great barrier reef; it was that bright.

But when the marine biologist who was snorkeling in the area approached it, she realized the animal was a rare blanket octopus.

So rare it's believed this species has only been seen three times before.

It's about the size of a walnut and some of its eight arms are short and hidden in its blanket or cape.

To call this observance a first might be a bit of "cape" flattery.