TOKYO — The competition to determine the top individual women's gymnast has kicked off at the Tokyo Games.

This event 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.

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."

They're the ones who are always keeping a close eye on all the art exhibits. But now, a team of museum guards have a chance to become guest curators.

A new exhibit at the Baltimore Museum of Art, which is scheduled to open in March 2022, will be curated entirely by security officers who work in the museum.

The new "Guarding the Art" exhibition will be fully curated by 17 members of the museum's security team and will draw from current works of art in the BMA's collection, with each work selected by one of the participating officers.

Come, young ones: Gather around the glow of the smartphone's screen for a tale of a distant time when we watched TV on big boxy machines, and switched channels when we were bored.

There were commercials — several of them — between the segments of TV shows. What's more, in the distant era before streaming, you had to watch them all — or, if you had time, run to the kitchen or the bathroom. You couldn't pause, or fast forward, or take the screen with you.

The White House is unveiling a strategy to address root causes of migration, a long-term effort that includes increased cooperation with the private sector and with other foreign governments to try to accelerate change in Central America.

The proposal comes as thousands of migrants arrived at the U.S. southern border every day last month.

Senior Biden administration officials on Wednesday described the plan as "the first of its kind," but much of the proposal is expanding on previous efforts that have done little to curb migration from the region.

The U.S. economy likely grew at a blistering pace as the country emerged from the darkest days of the coronavirus pandemic. The question now is what happens next, especially as the delta variant continues to spread.

On Thursday morning, the Commerce Department is expected to report that gross domestic product grew around 8% in the period between April and June from a year earlier as the rollout of vaccines spurred a surge in economic activity.

When award-winning poet Adrian Matejka was working on his latest book last year, he thought we'd be out of the pandemic by the time it would be published.

The book, Somebody Else Sold The World, was released this month — and we're notably not out of the period that's been so difficult for so many of us.