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President Biden is set to announce new COVID-19 vaccination and testing rules for federal employees Thursday afternoon. The administration is hoping to increase vaccinations as the highly transmissible delta variant takes hold. But beyond urging Americans to get the shot and trying to expand access to the vaccines, the president has limited ability to force action. Except when it comes to the federal workforce. Here, Biden has the ability to go beyond urging. He is expected to announce that federal employees will need to confirm they are vaccinated — or face regular testing and be required to ..read more

TOKYO — At today's Summer Olympics, the women's all-around gymnastics winner was.... not Simone Biles. The title and gold medal went to USA's Sunisa Lee . Biles' absence hung over one of the most anticipated events at the Games, an event she won at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016. Biles withdrew after first dropping out of the women's team finals, while it was underway, earlier this week, citing mental health challenges. She hasn't detailed much about what those challenges are. But she has acknowledged suffering from a phenomenon known as "the twisties." Lost in air In her one, and perhaps ..read more

Germany's Olympic federation is firing Patrick Moster as the sports director of its cycling program, after he was recorded using a racial slur during the men's time trial Wednesday. Moster is being sent home early from the Tokyo Olympics, German officials said. TV cameras picked up Moster yelling a racial slur while cheering on German cyclist Nikias Arndt. At the time, Arndt was trying to catch rival riders from Algeria and Eritrea. Looking on, Moster shouted, "Get the camel drivers" several times, according to Deutsche Welle . Moster apologized shortly after the incident, which was broadcast ..read more

Now might be the time to wipe the dust off that pair of binoculars and extract the family telescope from the back of the closet: Saturn is about to put on its best and brightest show, looking spiffier than at any time during the year – a performance that will be followed a few weeks later by Jupiter. The ringed planet will be at opposition on Sunday, for people in North America. What exactly does that mean? Imagine Earth and Saturn are hands on a clock face, says Phil Plait, an astronomer and longtime science educator. "So very roughly once a year, Saturn, Earth and the sun line up," he tells ..read more

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Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org ..read more

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org ..read more

Updated July 29, 2021 at 7:18 AM ET TOKYO — The competition to determine the top individual women's gymnast has kicked off at the Tokyo Games. With three of the four events completed, U.S. gymnast Sunisa Lee is leading, followed by Vladislava Urazova from Russia and Rebeca Andrade from Brazil. They're within a quarter of a point of each other. This competition has been defined by who isn't competing. U.S. star Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast of all time and the heavy favorite to win, pulled out to take care of her mental health. After Biles withdrew, Lee, an 18-year-old from Minnesota, beca ..read more

Fida started working with U.S. Special Forces in 2006. In the following decade, the Afghan interpreter worked for USAID, U.S. Marines and finally the U.S. State Department. When he spoke to NPR back in 2018 , Fida asked to only be identified by his first name for security reasons. "I am proud to have worked with such wonderful people," he said of the Americans he met over the years, "And they stand by me." But that did not seem to translate into Fida receiving the U.S. visa he'd been promised in exchange for risking his life alongside American forces. His application for a Special Immigrant Vi ..read more