It’s Time for the Olympics

A report from Nytimes says the Winter Olympics are underway in Italy and that politics are inescapable. ICE agents are present in an advisory security role for the U.S. delegation, and controversy over the agency led a U.S. hospitality space originally called Ice House to be renamed Winter House.

On Wednesday, the Italians said they had thwarted a major cyberattack targeting the ticketing system, the website and some hotels in one of the mountain regions hosting the Games. The report recalls a major cyberattack on the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea that British and American authorities traced to the Kremlin, and notes Russia is banned from these Games because of its invasion of Ukraine.

Kirsty Coventry, the new president of the International Olympic Committee, said, "we understand politics, and we know we don’t operate in a vacuum. But our game is sport." Officials at the Games said the I.O.C. seeks a neutral role and that Russia’s ban might not be in place at the next Olympics.

Italy