御姐

A |     SANTIAGO, Chile -- U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles has dreamed about being a flagbearer at a major sports event since she saw her friend Simone Biles do it at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics closing ceremony. The 22-year-old managed to get her wish at the opening of the Pan American Games in Santiago on Friday.On Sunday, the silver medalist at the Tokyo Olympics made another dream come true; to lead the U.S. women's gymnastics team into a continental final and then to a gold medal. The U.S. topped the all-round women's competition with 165.196 points, with a big push from Chiles to give the Americans their sixth straight women’s team Pan American gold medal. “There's so many more dreams in this little body of mine,” Chiles told journalists after receiving her gold medal. “It was really cool to be the flagbearer, then coming out here to win gold with an amazing team.”The main rival for Chiles, Kayla DiCello, Zoe Miller, Kaliya Lincoln and Tiana Sumanasekera was Brazil's team led by Rebeca Andrade, an Olympic gold medalist and also a friend of Biles'.“Knowing I am the veteran, I trust these younger ones,” Chiles added. “They are not that much younger than me, so being able just to see their progress and do what they did ... I wouldn't change this team for anything.” The Brazilians scored 161.564 points. Andrade sat out the floor exercise to spare her knees, and her teammates made mistakes in the uneven bars that distanced them from the U.S. team. Canada finished with the bronze medal with a distant 154.230 points.Chiles topped the all-round chart with 54.666 points, 0.101 ahead of 2021 world all-around bronze medalist DiCello.The 22-year-old American is competing in Chile as she weighs competing in the Paris Olympics or returning for her junior year at the University of California.Possibly the biggest star competing in Chile, the 24-year-old Andrade is Brazil’s most decorated gymnast in history and is competing at the Pan American Games for the first time. She will be Chiles' rival again in individual finals. “Jordan is a complete gymnast, very experienced and talented,” Andrade said. “And this is a great scenario to do well. It is a bit like the Olympics although it isn't the Olympics. When you see all the flags out in the athletes' village you start thinking about it.”The U.S. and Brazil are expected to once again battle for medals in women's gymnastics in Paris.Earlier this month, Andrade defeated Biles to take the vault gold at the world championship in Antwerp. She won two medals at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago: gold in the vault competition and silver in the all-round individual. She has nine medals in world championships, including three golds. After beating Biles, the U.S. gymnastics federation published a picture of Andrade and Biles side by side in its social media channels. “Many more battles still to come,” the message said.This Sunday, Andrade's battle ended with Chiles as the winner. Her U.S. teammates said they will do whatever the veteran wants to celebrate the gold medal in Santiago. But she has a different idea.“I think it is time to go to sleep,” Chiles said. “This is not finished.”___AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports。    

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump cross south of the Military Demarcation Line, after Trump briefly stepped over to the northern side, in the Joint Security Area (JSA) of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized zone (DMZ) on June 30, 2019. Photo: VCG
Just hours before a military exercise between the US and South Korea due to get underway on Monday, US President Donald Trump announced that Washington would reduce military exercises with key regional ally Seoul, citing his positive relationship with the North Korean leader and South Korea's lack of assistance with Iran, CNN reported.
Chinese experts see Trump's sudden decision to scale back military drills with South Korea as a signal of his intention to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and possibly return to direct diplomacy with Pyongyang. However, they warned that a carrot-and-stick approach may not work with Pyongyang, which has already seen Washington renege on its commitments. If Trump sincerely seeks peace on the peninsula, returning to the negotiating table with a genuine willingness to engage should be the first step.
Writing on Truth Social on Sunday, Trump said "based on my very good relationship with Kim Jong Un, of North Korea, I am not happy with the fact that the United States has, long ago, agreed to participate in Joint Military Exercises with South Korea."
"These exercises are not only costly, with much of these costs paid for by the United States of America (as usual!), but send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile, to a Country that, as long as Donald J. Trump has been President, has been unthreatening and respectful," wrote the US president, noting that since it was too late to cancel the exercises entirely, he had asked Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to "substantially reduce" US participation.
The 11-day exercise, known as Ulchi Freedom Shield, was expected to involve about 18,000 South Korean troops. According to the US military, South Korean and US forces planned to conduct live-fire drills to test precision-strike and maneuver capabilities under complex operational scenarios, as well as river-crossing operations and the deployment of pre-positioned military supplies, South Korea's Chosun Ilbo reported.
Trump also reiterated his request for South Korea to help with the US war against Iran. "While somewhat unrelated, I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, 'No thanks!'" Trump wrote.
At a press conference of China's Foreign Ministry on Monday, a reporter also raised Trump's claim that he would scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, citing the high cost of the drills and his good relationship with North Korean leader, and asked how China would support the resumption of dialogue between the US and North Korea. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian responded, "we have noted the relevant reports. Maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and advancing the political settlement of the Korean Peninsula issue serve the common interests of all parties."
South Korean media Yonhap News Agency reported that Trump's instruction came as the situation on the Korean Peninsula remained tense again. The media noted that Trump's move can be seen as a conciliatory gesture toward the North Korea, after the White House repeatedly affirmed that Trump remains open to dialogue with Pyongyang "without any preconditions."
Trump has long sought to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula, but his first-term diplomatic efforts produced few substantive results. The decision to scale back military exercises with South Korea may therefore signal an intention to send goodwill and return to direct diplomacy with North Korea, an unfinished piece of business from his first term, Song Zhongping, another Chinese military affairs expert, told the Global Times.
Long-standing tensions between the US and North Korea are a major source of instability on the Korean Peninsula, Lü Chao, an expert on East Asian studies at the Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times, noting that the fundamental way to address these tensions is for the two sides to return to the negotiating table and resolve their differences through peaceful dialogue, rather than escalating tensions through displays of military force.
On August 13, a spokesperson for the Foreign Ministry of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea responded to the scheduled military drills between South Korea and the US. The spokesperson said that "it is our consistent principle of ensuring security to respond to a new level of a threat with a new level of a deterrent. DPRK remains steadfast in its will to frustrate outsiders' hostile acts with the most powerful and overwhelming force and absolutely defend the supreme interests of the state security," according to official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
On Saturday, Trump shared a photo of himself with Kim Jong Un, the top leader of the DPRK on Truth Social, and wrote that he and the North Korean leader "get along GREAT!"
During Trump's first presidential term, he and Kim first met in Singapore in June 2018, marking the first-ever US-DPRK summit. They met again in Hanoi, Vietnam in February 2019, and later that June in the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, according to Xinhua News Agency. 
North Korea's past dealings with the US, particularly the breakdown of bilateral negotiations without substantial progress, have eroded Pyongyang's trust in Washington, Lü said.
Therefore, if Trump genuinely wants to leverage his relationship with the North Korean leader to address tensions on the Korean Peninsula, emphasizing their personal ties alone will not be enough. Washington will need to demonstrate genuine sincerity and back its words with concrete action, according to the expert. 
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