Hot spots have mushroomed across the world in 2021, adding multiple international crises to President Biden's formidable domestic to-do list.

• Why it matters: Cracks in the global order, which had been presided over by unrivaled American influence since the end of the Cold War, are growing. The proliferation of great-power flashpoints, and failing or failed states, creates new threats to American leadership — and to the global economy, which has been recovering.

Here's a tour of world instability, narrated by Axios World editor Dave Lawler:

Biden has faced new versions of several familiar crises:

• Russia massed troops on Ukraine's borders this spring, and the skies over Gaza were lit in May with fire from Israel and Hamas. Both crises were paused, rather than ended.
• Tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir are decades in the making. But there's new cause for concern in the Himalayas after border skirmishes between India and China. All three are nuclear powers.
• The power struggle in Venezuela continues, Yemen's humanitarian crisis has deepened, and Syria and Libya remain hotbeds of unrest and foreign meddling.

Biden can expect escalation from the newest nuclear power, North Korea, at some point in his tenure. Iran is accelerating its nuclear program.

• And Taiwan is the flashpoint of all flashpoints. A Chinese invasion of the self-governing island seems increasingly likely, though not imminent, and could lead to a scale of warfare the world hasn’t seen in decades.
• Even short of that, flare-ups will continue over the South China Sea.

The world has also experienced a wave of protest and political instability, from the coup in Myanmar to the assassination of Haiti's president.

• Peru's presidential transition has been held hostage by electoral fraud claims, Colombia's security forces have cracked down on mass protests, and Cubans have come out into the streets on an unprecedented scale. Violence and instability in Central America continue to push migrants northward.
• Lebanon's political deadlock is fueling its economic collapse, with the West unsure whether to aid the country's hapless leaders or sanction them.
• Ethiopia is in the midst of a civil war. Even in comparatively stable South Africa, destructive riots swept through cities in recent days.

Afghanistan remains one of the world’s most unstable countries, as the American footprint is suddenly withdrawn.

• Biden has a decision to make about the remaining U.S. troops in Iraq, which are now engaged in a proxy war with Iran-backed militias. 

What we're watching: Inflation creates its own political risks around the world.

• If inflation proves more severe and persistent than forecast, central banks will be forced to raise rates — and risk stalling the current economic recovery and employment gains.

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At Nationals Park in Washington last night, shots echoed through the stadium in the sixth inning. Play suddenly stopped. Fans rushed into the visiting Padres' dugout (above). Patrons in the Diamond Club hid under tables. Players grabbed family members and bolted for the clubhouse.

• It turned out the shooting was outside the park — a gunfire exchange between people in two cars. Three people were injured, AP reports.
• One of the people who was shot was a woman attending the game, who was struck while she was outside the stadium, police said. Her injuries weren't considered life-threatening.

The game will pick up today where it left off.

Weather scientists say a "monumental failure of the system" in Germany is partly to blame for 180+ deaths and billions in devastation after a month's worth of rain fell in two days, The Sunday Times of London reports:

• "The first signs of catastrophe were detected nine days ago by a satellite orbiting 500 miles above the tranquil hills around the Rhine river."
• "Over the next few days a team of scientists sent the German authorities a series of forecasts so accurate that they now read like a macabre prophecy: the Rhineland was about to be hit by 'extreme' flooding."

"Instead," The Sunday Times writes, "the overwhelming majority of people in the path of the floods carried on with their everyday lives."

• "The German government is now facing questions about how many lives might have been saved had it evacuated the danger zones."
• "As Bild, the country’s bestselling newspaper, put it: 'Did our disaster protection agency fail?'"

Federal officials say too many ordinary Germans ignored warnings.

The Tokyo Olympics represent a gender milestone: For the first time, women represent almost half of athletes. But that doesn't mean the playing field is level, Axios' Ina Fried writes.

• Elite sports are all about setting rules and drawing boundaries. But often it's women, especially Black women, who are left on the outside.

What's happening: WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike has been left off Team USA and then blocked by international basketball authorities from joining her sisters on Nigeria's national team.

• American track sensation Sha’Carri Richardson won't compete in Tokyo because of a positive marijuana test. 
• Soul Cap, a swim cap designed for natural African hair, was told by the water sports governing body that it wasn’t suitable because “they don’t follow the natural form of the head.” That decision is under review, following blowback.

Keep reading.

• 🎧 Go deeper: Ina talked about this on our "Axios Today" podcast. Scroll to bottom of story to listen.

That unwelcome news came to:

• Three of the runaway Democrats from the Texas House (above), in D.C. to foil a GOP voting bill. All are fully vaccinated. (Texas Tribune)
• Two South African soccer players — the first athletes inside the Olympic Village to test positive. The Tokyo Games open Friday. (AP)
• U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who's suffering "very mild" symptoms. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is self-isolating for 10 days after contact with a confirmed case. (BBC)

The Sept. 14 recall election targeting California Gov. Gavin Newsom has no signs of the political earthquake that ushered Arnold Schwarzenegger into office in 2003, the L.A. Times reports.

• "Except for the 'Godfather' movies, the sequel is never as good as the original," said Dan Schnur, who teaches political communication at USC and UC Berkeley.

Good morning from Norfolk, Va., where I took this pic from Grain, a rooftop beer garden.

Spike Lee holds his head in his hands after accidentally revealing prematurely that "Titane" was the winner of the top prize, the Palme d'Or, during the awards ceremony at the Cannes film festival in France.

• Lee, who headed the jury, blurted out the grand finale when he was asked the winner of the "first" prize.
• "No excuses, I messed up," the director told a news conference. "I'm a big sports fan — it's like the guy at the end of the game at the foul line, he misses a free throw, or the guy misses a kick."

French director Julia Ducournau, 37, became the second woman to win the top award in the 74-year history of Cannes, for her wildly imaginative film about a serial killer. (Reuters)