Boycott. the olympic committee reported 21 new covid cases. now they have 308 since beijing started the closed loop bubble. back here in the u.s. you re looking at a live picture now of the white house all lit up in red, white and blue to cheer team u.s.a. the state department thursday publicly defended the right of u.s. athletes to speak out against human rights abuses in china despite olympic committee rules prohibiting any protests. just a short time ago russian president vladimir putin and the chinese leader xi jinping meeting in person at a time of high tension with the west. cnn s ivan watson joins us live from hong kong this morning. ivan, this will be an olympics like no other. reporter: yeah. you know, i m down here in hong kong, but my colleagues up in beijing, some of whom have covered other olympiads, say the atmosphere is different. for example, in beijing those