Trump to debate Harris and Covid summer wave: Morning Rundown

Donald Trump tries to take back the election spotlight. U.S. track star Noah Lyles reveals a Covid diagnosis moments after a bronze-winning sprint. And the number of migrants coming into U.S. cities is declining. 

Here’s what to know today.

Trump dares Harris on debates and interviews to reassert himself

Mark your calendars — a debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is set for Sept. 10.

And there might be more to come. During a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort, Trump said he would be open to three debates next month. 

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Trump’s eagerness to debate — and the Florida news conference itself — are signs that he’s looking to reassert himself in the 2024 race. With President Joe Biden out of the running, the entire tempo of the Democratic campaign has shifted. Instead of an 81-year-old president cocooned by his staff, Democrats now have 59-year-old Harris, who is crisscrossing the country and holding rallies at a rapid pace.

Trump tacitly acknowledged last evening that he has started to slip in the polls, but he indicated no plan to change how he’s campaigning. Instead, he’s attacking Harris, and his campaign is hammering her on the fact that she has yet to do any formal interviews with the press since Biden dropped out. They’re eager for Harris to start having to put herself in unscripted positions. “When people find out about her, I think she’ll be much less,” Trump said.

A Harris aide said she and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, would like to do a joint interview in a “few weeks.”

Read the full story here.

More 2024 election coverage:

• Today, Harris and Walz continue their swing state blitz in Arizona, and Trump rallies in Montana. Follow our live blog.
• At the Mar-a-Lago news conference, Trump also compared his Jan. 6 crowd to the audience for Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech and appeared to confuse former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown with former California Gov. Jerry Brown.
• Harris is forgoing President Joe Biden’s dark warnings about the future of democracy and pushing a more “joyful” message.
• Minnesota Latinos say Gov. Tim Walz “has not overlooked them.”
• RFK Jr.’s presidential campaign is disappearing, both on the trail and in the polls

Paris 2024: U.S. track star Noah Lyles reveals Covid diagnosis after taking bronze

Track and field events stole the show yesterday, with the revelation of a Covid diagnosis after the men’s 200-meter race and a new world record in the women’s 400-meter hurdles. 

A second gold medal eluded U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles, who won bronze in the 200-meter final. But the biggest news came moments afterward, when Lyles collapsed at the finish line, was carted off the track in a wheelchair and revealed that he was diagnosed with Covid two days prior.

Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo won gold in the race and American Kenny Bednarek earned silver. 

In an interview, Lyles said he intentionally didn’t disclose his diagnosis and was “more proud of myself than anything” for medaling while sick. USA Track & Field said that they “respect his decision” to compete in the race.

Read more about Lyles’ final race of the 2024 Olympics.

America’s Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone broke her own world record in the women’s 400-meter hurdles to win the gold with a time of 50.37 seconds. (See the sprint here.) When McLaughlin-Levrone set the previous record of 50.68 in 2022, no woman had ever before broken the 51-second barrier. In yesterday’s Olympic final, she easily beat her top rival, Femke Bol of the Netherlands, who placed third. American Anna Cockrell placed second.

And today, 16-year-old Quincy Wilson will run a leg on the U.S. 4×400-meter relay team and become the youngest U.S. male track Olympian. It’s a feat for Wilson, who lowered the under-18 400-meter world record to 44.20 and was selected to come to Paris — all before he starts his junior year of high school. 

Stream every moment and every medal of the 2024 Paris Olympics on Peacock.

Read more

• 🏅 Coming up today: Breaking, or break-dancing, makes its Olympic debut, France faces Spain for the men’s soccer gold medal, the US. men’s volleyball competes for bronze and much more. Follow live updates. 
• 🏀 Steph Curry and LeBron James lead Team USA to a come-from-behind victory over Serbia for a chance at a fifth straight basketball gold medal.
• ⁉️ Jamaica’s 4×100-meter relay team failed to make the finals of their event, yet another mystifying failure by the world’s sprinting powerhouse.
• 👟 Supershoes are revolutionizing marathons. Two main components of how they’re made are behind what makes them so popular. 

▶️ Watch top highlights

• Olympics recap: What you missed in basketball, volleyball and more
• Cyclist Kristen Faulkner tells Lester Holt about her remarkable journey to gold
• Nonbinary runner Nikki Hiltz secures a spot in 1500m final
• A look back at extraordinary moments of sportsmanship in Paris

What to know about Covid’s enormous summer wave

The U.S. may be in its biggest summer wave of Covid ever, and experts say there might be no clear end in sight. The CDC’s tracker, which uses wastewater to estimate Covid’s spread in the U.S., lists levels of the virus as “high” in states, including Texas, California and North Carolina. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization said that the proportion of tests coming back positive for Covid in Europe is above 20%, and wastewater data suggests case numbers may be two to 20 times higher than what’s reported.

Factors influencing this summer’s spread likely have to do with more variants in circulation and time spent indoors because of hot weather. While this wave started earlier than in previous years, hospitalizations are the lowest they have ever been. A large summer uptick may have an upside when it comes to considering a potential winter wave, one doctor said.

New bodycam footage from Trump rally shooting shows officer saying he warned Secret Service

New body camera footage from the day of the assassination attempt on Trump shows an officer in Butler Township, Pennsylvania, saying he warned the Secret Service about the building from which the gunman shot the former president. In the video, the unidentified Butler Township officer said about 10 minutes after the shooting that he told the Secret Service about the building’s vulnerability four days before the rally. The officer is heard saying that he “told them they needed to post the guys over here. I told them that,” referring to the Secret Service. 

A separate video also shows the moment police encountered the shooter before he opened fire. And later, the officer jumps back onto the rooftop, and the shooter’s bloodied body can be seen after Secret Service snipers shot and killed him.  

The Secret Service has been criticized for its handling of the incident, from its preparedness before the rally to how long it took to get Trump off the stage. Read the full story here. 

Number of migrants in U.S. cities is declining

Shelters on the southern U.S. border say they are seeing a decrease in migrants who have sought refuge, including in some major cities that were inundated a year ago. In July, the White House said that the number of migrants apprehended at the southwest border had dropped 50% in the month since Biden’s executive action limiting asylum claims went into effect. And at the Rescue Mission of El Paso, there were about 80 to 90 people using beds this week, compared to about 200 the same week a year ago, CEO Blake Barrow said. 

Cities outside Texas have also seen migrant populations drop off. Last year in Denver, the number of migrants receiving city services surged to more than 3,700, but as of this week, it has dropped to about 230. And Casa Alitas Welcome Center in Tucson, Arizona, has seen a 60% drop in residents.

The Texas border with Mexico was one of the busiest for migrant crossings, but that trend seems to be shifting. A combination of factors, including Biden’s executive action, as well as stricter actions in Mexico to stem the flow of migrants to the border, have contributed to the declining numbers.

Politics in Brief

Trump investigations: Special counsel Jack Smith asked for a delay in the next steps for Trump’s federal election interference case, narrowing the potential for a trial to start before Election Day.

GOP-versus-GOP clash: Rep. Dan Newhouse, one of just two House Republicans left who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 riot, survived a party primary this week in Washington state. But his path to victory in November isn’t a given yet.

Want more politics news? Sign up for From the Politics Desk to get exclusive reporting and analysis delivered to your inbox every weekday evening. Subscribe here.

Staff Pick: An attempted poisoning at a chess tournament

Hearing about scandals in contact sports can seem run-of-the-mill. But an alleged poisoning at a chess competition stopped me in my tracks. Russian authorities say chess player Amina Abakarova smeared mercury on a board ahead of a match, potentially causing her opponent to fall ill during the tournament. Now, Abakarova may face criminal proceedings and a lifetime ban. It’s not only shocking to read about, but also even more surprising to watch the surveillance video. (You’ll have to click the link in the sixth paragraph to see it.) — Kaylah Jackson, platforms editor

NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified

Eye creams can help with dryness, fine lines, discoloration and puffiness, but they’re not a one-size-fits-all product. Here are the best eye creams for each concern. And for those looking to treat acne scars and hyperpigmentation, start with these treatments.

Sign up to The Selection newsletter for hands-on product reviews, expert shopping tips and a look at the best deals and sales each week.

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