Today’s Headlines: Japan’s COVID cases rise as Olympics near

The large Olympic rings are displayed in the Odaiba section of Tokyo ahead of the 2020 Summer Olympics. Here are the stories you shouldn’t miss today: TOP STORIES Japan’s COVID cases rise as Olympics near In a week, the now anachronistically named Tokyo 2020 Olympics will finally get underway. It’s a moment Japan has long been preparing for — since March of last year when the Games were pushed back because of the pandemic; since 2016, when Japan’s then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took the baton from Rio de Janeiro in a Super Mario get-up; since 2013, when the country first clinched its hard-fought bid. July 15, 1918: Los Angeles County officials and employees gather on the steps of the county courthouse for a minute of prayer followed by songs in support of American troops in Europe during World War I. CALIFORNIA — The Bureau of Land Management plans to remove vandalized buildings and fill excavation pits at a site in the central Mojave Desert, signaling the end of a chapter in North American archaeology. The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted to support a pilot project that tests “blind removal,” aimed at evaluating whether race, ethnicity or neighborhood can influence social workers’ decisions.