The New York Times - Friday Briefing: The Olympics begin

July 26, 2024

	By Daniel E. Slotnik

Good morning. We’re covering the opening of the Paris Olympics and a new Trump-Harris poll.

Plus, travel to ordinary places.

A rendering of boats on the Seine in Paris, with the Eiffel Tower in the distance.

A rendering of the opening ceremony of the Paris Games. Florian Hulleu/Paris 2024, Agence France-Presse, via Getty Images

Let the Games begin

The Paris Olympics are finally here. And unlike the Tokyo Games in 2021, the stands will be packed with fans.

The opening ceremony is at 7:30 p.m. Paris time (that’s 3:30 a.m. Saturday in Sydney, 1:30 a.m. in Hong Kong). Athletes will float in on boats in the Seine, dressed in their national costumes for the parade of nations.

Some competitions have already begun, but the Games get into full swing tomorrow, with women’s swimming, men’s basketball and tennis. More than 300 events, many sprinkled across Paris, will take place before the Olympics end on Aug. 11.

“Gymnastics, swimming and track remain the heartbeat of the Games,” said Andrew Das, our lead Olympics editor. “Good stories there will make any Olympics more memorable.”

Names to watch: Leon Marchand, a swimmer known as the “French Michael Phelps,” and Teddy Riner, a fashionable French judoka looking for his third heavyweight gold medal, are generating some excitement. There’s also Simone Biles, the American gymnast who pulled out of the Tokyo Olympics, and the American swimmer Katie Ledecky, who is looking to add to her seven gold medals.

“There are few bigger stars than Simone Biles,” Andrew said. “And Katie Ledecky has a chance to become the most decorated American woman in Olympic history — a fitting moment in a Games that may, for the first time, have as many women competitors as men.”

A new poll showed Harris closing in on Trump

Vice President Kamala Harris is beginning her sprint to the election right behind Donald Trump, according to the first New York Times/Siena College poll since President Biden dropped out of the 2024 race.

Trump leads Harris 48 percent to 47 percent nationally among likely voters in a head-to-head match, a substantial improvement for Democrats compared with a poll from earlier in July that showed Biden behind Trump by six percentage points.

In some ways, the poll shows a reset to where the race was before Biden’s poor debate performance. But in other ways, it signals how Harris’s candidacy has reshaped the election. My colleague Nate Cohn has more takeaways in The Tilt newsletter.

Biden: “Nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy,” the president said in his first address since dropping out of the race. “That includes personal ambition.”

Visitors evacuated Jasper National Park in Canada. Le Minh Khue/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Wildfires engulfed the Western U.S. and Canada

Tens of thousands of firefighters combated wildfires in the Western U.S. and Canada yesterday, leading to evacuations and air-quality warnings as smoke drifted across large parts of the two countries.

As much as half of Jasper, Alberta, a Canadian town inside one of the country’s most-visited national parks, has been destroyed by a pair of wildfires that roared in from two sides. The mayor called the disaster “almost beyond comprehension.” We have video from the scene.

In Northern California, officials arrested a 42-year-old man who they believe started what is now the largest fire there so far this year.

MORE TOP NEWS

The exterior of 135 Bonham Strand in Hong Kong. A person is in front of the building with a blue umbrella.

A building in Hong Kong that houses shell companies. Anthony Kwan for The New York Times

Russia: Nearly $4 billion in chips have been sent to Russia since the war began in Ukraine. Many were shipped through shell companies in Hong Kong.
Typhoon Gaemi: The storm reached southeastern China after killing at least five people in Taiwan and at least 15 in the Philippines.
Middle East: Israeli forces retrieved the bodies of five hostages from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, amid mounting international pressure for a cease-fire.
California: The governor ordered state officials to begin dismantling thousands of homeless encampments after a court ruling.
Military: Russia and China carried out their first joint patrol of strategic bombers near Alaska. They were intercepted by U.S. and Canadian jets.
Ukraine: A suspect was detained in the killing of a far-right politician in the western city of Lviv, a crime that shocked the nation.
Burkina Faso: The West African country is being torn apart by escalating violence between Islamist fighters and the military.
Royals: Prince Harry said in a TV interview that his legal battle against British tabloids was a “central piece” of the bitter rift between him and his family.
Health: A large study showed that a double mastectomy made no difference for women who received the procedure after cancer was detected in one breast.

Economy and Tech

China: The central bank cut a key interest rate, Beijing’s latest attempt to offset a weakening economy and a housing market crisis.
U.S.: The G.D.P. rose at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the second quarter, new evidence of the economy’s resilience despite high interest rates.
Tech: While the U.S. has had a head start on artificial intelligence development, China is catching up.
Solar energy: China’s lavish loans have produced a manufacturing overcapacity. At least seven large companies have warned that they will announce heavy losses.

Sports

Basketball: The popularity of the W.N.B.A. has boomed, but players’ salaries have not.
Formula 1: Max Verstappen’s frustrated radio messages at the Hungarian Grand Prix show potential fissures within Red Bull’s long-dominant team.

MORNING READ

Joshua Bright for The New York Times

The village of Congham, England, this month hosted an unusual group of athletes: 85 garden snails competing in the World Snail Racing Championships. Each of the heats began with a snail master saying, “Ready, steady, slow!” Here’s the winner.

Lives lived: Martin Indyk spent decades trying to solve the riddle of Middle East peace as the U.S. ambassador to Israel and later as a special envoy. He died at the age of 73.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

The shadowy side of the moon: A new NASA camera uses long exposures to peer into lunar craters that look like seas of black.
Underconsumption core: After years of being told what to buy, TikTok users are trying something new: buying and using only what they need.
Fake news couture: Rampant speculation and gossip about where famous designers will work is hurting the industry, our chief fashion critic writes.

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

In an illustration, a woman wearing a one piece bathing suit, a swim cap and goggles sits on the edge of a pool filled with people swimming and doing water exercises.

Michelle Perez

When everyday life is the destination

For some travelers, the big draw in a new place is not a hot new restaurant or a high-end hotel, but stores and amenities where they can dip into the stream of local life.

Jon Natchez, a band member of The War on Drugs, seeks out produce markets when he’s on tour. He especially loves finding fruit he’s never had before. “It’s amazing how much specificity can be found,” he said.

Others let the birds lead the way. Wherever Lisa Morehouse, a radio journalist, goes, she opens up eBird, the crowdsourced citizen science app, to find out what’s been spotted recently, and then she plans her day accordingly, often going to parks she would otherwise never see.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A white serving bowl is filled with browned vegetables including red peppers, eggplant, tomatoes, and onions.

Christopher Testani for The New York Times

Cook: Ratatouille combines eggplant, onions, peppers, tomatoes and zucchini into a harmonious stew.

Travel: Japan is a hotbed of activities for children.

Watch: A rarely seen David Bowie rom-com is getting a refresh.

Read: “The Secret Lives of Numbers” highlights overlooked contributions to mathematics.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today. Have a great weekend. Whet Moser will be here next week. — Dan

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