Social affairs

FILE - A man and a boy walk past the National Stadium, also known as the Bird's Nest, which will again be a venue for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, in Beijing on Feb. 2, 2021. Ai is one of China's most famous artists, and many regard him as one of the world's greatest living artists. Working with the Swiss architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron, he helped design the Bird's Nest stadium, the centerpiece of Beijing's 2008 Summer Olympics. The stadium will also host the opening ceremony for Beijing's Winter Olympics on Feb. 4, 2022. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

The AP Interview: Exiled artist Ai Weiwei on Beijing Games

By Stephen Wade 20 minutes ago

Natalie Geisenberger of Germany speeds down the track during her first run of the Luge World Cup women race in Sigulda, Latvia, Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Roman Koksarov)

German luge star Geisenberger says she's going to Olympics

By Tim Reynolds 10 hrs ago

United States' Jake Sanderson (8), Tanner Dickinson (71) and Chaz Lucius (28) celebrate a goal against Finland during the first period of an exhibition game in Edmonton, Alberta, Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021, before the IIHF World Junior Hockey Championship tournament. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)

Sanderson to play for US; college stars eye Olympic chance

By Stephen Whyno Jan. 11, 2022 12:33 PM EST

Germany to drop investigation into Olympic horse cruelty

Jan. 11, 2022 09:33 AM EST
POTSDAM, Germany (AP) — German prosecutors will drop an animal cruelty investigation into an athlete and a coach who were shown striking a horse during the Olympic...

Hairdressers wearing protected suits cut residents' hair at a residential block which has become under lockdown in Xi'an in northwest China's Shaanxi province on Sunday, Jan. 9, 2022. A major Chinese city near Beijing has placed its 14 million residents on partial lockdown after a number of children and adults tested positive for COVID-19, including at least two with the omicron variant. Elsewhere, millions of people are being confined to their homes in Xi'an and Yuzhou, two cities that are farther away but have larger outbreaks traced to the delta variant. (Chinatopix Via AP)

China locks down 3rd city, raising affected to 20 million

By Ken Moritsugu Jan. 11, 2022 02:09 AM EST

FILE - Staff members rehearse a victory ceremony at the Beijing Medals Plaza of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China on Jan. 3, 2022. The Beijing Winter Olympics are fraught with potential hazards for major sponsors, who are trying to remain quiet about China's human rights record while protecting at least $1 billion they've paid to the IOC. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, File)

IOC major sponsors mostly muted in runup to Beijing Olympics

By Stephen Wade Jan. 11, 2022 12:11 AM EST

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno speaks at a news conference in Tokyo, Friday, Dec. 24, 2021. Japan announced Friday it won't send a delegation of ministers to represent the government at the Beijing Games but three Olympic officials will attend, a mixed response to a U.S.-led move to boycott the games to protest China's human rights conditions. (Sadayuki Goto/Kyodo News via AP)

Japan won't send government delegation to Beijing Olympics

By Mari Yamaguchi Dec. 23, 2021 11:39 PM EST

FILE - Fireworks illuminate over National Stadium during the closing ceremony of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Aug. 8, 2021, in Tokyo. Tokyo Olympic organizers on Wednesday, Dec. 22 say the cost of the Games is estimated to be $1.8 billion less than anticipated. Official estimates over the last year said the costs would be $15.4 billion, and organizers now say that number is estimated to be $13.6 billion. Officials said the reduction in costs was because there were no fans and therefore no labor costs. (AP Photo/Kiichiro Sato, file)

Organizers say Tokyo Olympics cost $1.8B less than expected

By Stephen Wade Dec. 22, 2021 09:05 AM EST

FILE - Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics, listens to a reporter's question during a press conference as Coe visited an athletics test event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Games at National Stadium in Tokyo, Sunday, May 9, 2021. With track and field adding another Diamond League event in China, World Athletics president Sebastian Coe addressed the human rights issues in the country during his state-of-the-sport talk Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File)

Coe discusses adding meet in China in state-of-track talk

By Pat Graham Dec. 21, 2021 03:40 PM EST

FILE - Kai Owens, left, and Olivia Giaccio compete during qualifying in the World Cup women's dual moguls skiing competition, Friday, Feb. 5, 2021, in Deer Valley, Utah. As an infant, she was abandoned at a town square in a province of China. Taken to an orphanage, she was adopted by a couple from Colorado at 16 months. Now 17, U.S. freestyle skier Kai Owens is on the verge of earning a spot in moguls for the Winter Games in Beijing. It's a return to China she's long thought about. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Adopted US moguls skier eyes return to China as Olympian

By Pat Graham Dec. 20, 2021 01:47 PM EST

Austrian leader: won't go to Beijing games, but no protest

Dec. 14, 2021 02:53 AM EST
BERLIN (AP) — Austria's leader says no high-ranking politicians from his country will attend the Beijing Winter Olympics, but he says that is entirely because of...

FILE - Protesters rally against the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games on International Human Rights Day outside the TCL Chinese Theatre in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles on Dec. 10, 2021. The location of the Winter Olympics in Beijing is certain to draw global attention to acts of genocide against the Uyghur people committed by the Chinese government. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

As Olympics open, Uyghurs set to take rights case to court

By Stephen Wade Dec. 13, 2021 11:38 PM EST

CORRECTS CADDIE'S SURNAME - A boy helps a girl into a proper golf stance on the grounds of the Nusacquilombo cultural center where children are learning the basics from caddie Marcelo Modesto, in Cidade de Deus or City of God favela, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021. Modesto from one of Rio's poorest neighborhoods works at one of the seaside city's most exclusive golf courses, earning a comfortable living guiding wealthy patrons around the fairways and greens of the course. Now he is sharing his golf skills with kids from his favela. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Rio favela seeks to improve kids' lives through golf

By Diarlei Rodrigues And Mauricio Savarese Dec. 13, 2021 07:39 PM EST

FILE - Dario Cologna of Switzerland, left, chases after Andrey Melnichenko of Russia during the men's 15 km free style race at the Davos Nordic FIS Cross Country World Cup in Davos, Switzerland, on Dec. 16, 2018. The 2022 Olympics is just weeks away with China a more problematic host than expected for a Winter Games that had once seemed destined for Europe. The past weekend of World Cup ski events in two upscale Swiss towns that wanted to stage these Olympics showed what might have been. Games in snow-covered resorts with decades of winter sports tradition and without diplomatic boycotts or talk of human rights records. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP, File)

Swiss ski resorts show what 2022 Olympics could have been

By Graham Dunbar Dec. 13, 2021 07:10 AM EST

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock speaks with the media as she arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Brussels on Monday, Dec. 13, 2021. European Union foreign ministers met Monday to discuss how to thwart the threat of a possible new Russian invasion of Ukraine and what measures to take should Moscow decide to send its troops across the border. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

EU has little appetite to join US diplomatic Games boycott

By Raf Casert Dec. 13, 2021 07:08 AM EST

A visitor to the Shougang Park walks past the a sculpture for the Beijing Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, Tuesday, Nov. 9, 2021. China on Monday, Dec. 6, 2021, threatened to take "firm countermeasures" if the U.S. proceeds with a diplomatic boycott of February's Beijing Winter Olympic Games. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

China dismisses UK, Canada Olympic boycott as 'farce'

Dec. 09, 2021 06:05 AM EST

Canada joins US and allies in Beijing Olympics boycott

By Rob Gillies Dec. 08, 2021 01:01 PM EST
TORONTO (AP) — Canada will join the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia in a diplomatic boycott of the Beijing Winter Olympics over human rights concerns...