U.S. leads with 12 medals, Harris campaign takes shape, Trump courts Christian vote: Weekend Rundown

Biles pushes through calf pain in qualifiers

Simone Biles battled through an apparent calf injury in Sunday’s gymnastics qualifying round to top the all-around standings, paving her way to qualify for the floor, vault and beam finals.

Biles’ prospects were suddenly in peril after she appeared to suffer a rough landing during floor warmups, having her ankle wrapped by medical staffers before she returned. Her coach, Cecile Landi, said after the competition that Biles “felt a little pain in her calf” from an apparent injury that was also bothering her in training a couple of weeks ago but that she never considered pulling out.

The drama came on a rough day for the U.S., with Olympic floor champion Jade Carey taking a tumble that crashed her out of contention to defend her title.

Léon Marchand wins gold, admiration of France

French swimmer Léon Marchand electrified a partisan crowd Sunday with a win in the 400-meter individual medley. His time of 4:02.95 broke the Olympic record of all-time great Michael Phelps and fell just short of the world record held by Marchand himself.

Before the race started, fans spontaneously broke out in song with “La Marseillaise” and chanted “Léon, Léon, Léon!” And once the race started, the deafening cheers got through to Marchand. As he pulled away from the field in the breaststroke, fans rhythmically cheered each time his head popped out of the water.

As for Team USA, Nic Fink tied for silver in the men’s 100-meter breaststroke, and Torri Huske won gold and Gretchen Walsh took home silver in the women’s 100-meter butterfly. Saturday, diving duo Kassidy Cook and Sarah Bacon — dubbed Cook N’ Bacon — secured America’s first medal of the Paris Games when they won silver in the women’s 3-meter synchronized springboard.

Team USA ended the weekend in the lead with 12 medals, three of them gold. Follow along here for our live coverage.

LeBron James and Kevin Durant lead U.S. men’s basketball team to a win over Serbia

The U.S. men’s basketball team’s gold medal defense tipped off in earnest Sunday, with a 110-84 win against Serbia to open group play.

Kevin Durant led the way for the U.S., scoring 23 points on 8-of-9 shooting. Durant, who missed all of exhibition play leading up to Paris, looked dominant coming off the bench. LeBron James, playing in the Olympics for the first time since 2012, recorded 21 points, 8 rebounds and 9 assists, picking up where he left off in London 12 years ago.

Other Olympic highlights:

• Not all hero wear capes. Some wear floral Speedos. A Speedo-clad mystery man saved the day when the one of the women’s 100-meter breaststroke swimming heats faced a hiccup.
• The French entertainer who portrayed a mostly nude, blue-tinged Greek god during the opening ceremony said he is feeling “super good” despite the criticism of the drag performance resembling the Last Supper.
• Céline Dion’s rendition of “Hymne à l’amour” at the opening ceremony Friday left audience members in tears. Many fans watching at home shared their emotional reactions online.
• Two American women squared up for a sword fight at dusk. Both emerged with Olympic medals. The USA’s Lee Kiefer has defended her title, taking gold in women’s individual foil. She was fencing against fellow American Lauren Scruggs, who took silver. 

The Harris campaign begins to take shape

One week on from Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race, Kamala Harris is powering ahead with setting up her campaign and vetting potential running mates.

He’s not an astronaut or a household name, but many Democrats think North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper is at or near the top of her vice presidential shortlist, as an “ultimate team player” who could deliver his state’s 16 electoral votes. Also in contention is Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a popular two-term Midwestern governor who allies believe could bring critical support in nearby “blue wall” states.

“I would do what is in the best interest of the country,” Walz said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” when he was asked whether he would serve as Harris’ running mate.

Donald Trump has branded Harris a “bum” and a “failed vice president” as his campaign searches for attacks that land on his new rival, while JD Vance’s references to her family have generated attention for her two adult stepchildren, Cole and Ella Emhoff.

Maduro declared winner in Venezuela’s election

President Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner in Venezuela’s presidential election Sunday, even as his opponents were preparing to dispute the results, setting up a high-stakes showdown that will determine whether the South American nation transitions away from one-party rule.

Elvis Amoroso, head of the National Electoral Council, said Maduro secured 51% of the vote, overcoming opposition candidate Edmundo González, who garnered 44%. He said the results were based on 80% of voting stations, marking an irreversible trend.

The electoral authority, which is controlled by Maduro loyalists, has yet to release the official voting tallies from each of the 30,000 polling centers, hampering the opposition’s ability to verify the results.

Israel retaliates for a strike that killed 12

A single black flag of mourning and growing numbers of wreaths and bouquets mark the site where a rocket struck Saturday night, killing at least 12 people, most of them children and teenagers, at a soccer field in Majdal Shams, an Israeli-controlled town in the Golan Heights.

The Israeli military said the attack was the deadliest strike on civilians in Israeli territory since Oct. 7. “Israel is approaching the moment of an all-out war against Hezbollah,” it said, blaming the attack on the Iran-backed militant group in Lebanon. Hezbollah has denied responsibility. By Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces said they had hit seven targets “deep inside Lebanese territory.”

The conflict between Israel and Hezbollah has so far been subdued compared with its assault on Gaza. But Hezbollah’s promises of continued support for Palestinians have meant sustained attacks against Israel. Hundreds have died, mostly from Israeli fire in Lebanon, and tens of thousands have been displaced from their homes on both sides of the border. The latest strikes have renewed fears of escalation.

A struggle to afford a home in a Nevada battleground county

In Washoe County — a swing county in swing state Nevada — financial pressure from the housing market could have wider implications for how voters feel about the economy and what that means for their votes in November.

Single-family home prices there have increased 46% since 2019 to $580,000, putting home ownership out of reach of even those with comfortable incomes.

Kashmir Martin, who with her husband takes home more than $200,000 a year, said that after about two years of searching for a suitable home in her price range, she has all but given up — with the property search putting their plans to have a baby on hold.

Politics in brief

• “Bitcoin superpower”: Trump promised to make America the world leader in bitcoin at a cryptocurrency conference Saturday, likening the crypto-verse to “the steel industry of 100 years ago.”
• Not running: The number of women jumping into congressional races is down this year after it hit record highs in 2020 and 2022, despite a surge in female voter registration following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade.
• FBI clarifies: The FBI has said “a bullet, whether whole or fragmented into smaller pieces,” is what struck Donald Trump’s ear during the attempt on his life, two days after FBI Director Christopher Wray said he wasn’t sure whether it was “a bullet or shrapnel.”
• Musk’s RT: Elon Musk, the owner of X, retweeted a parody Kamala Harris campaign ad Friday without labeling it as misleading, an apparent violation of his own platform’s rules.
• Courting the Christian vote: Trump tried over the weekend to rally religious voters to turn out in November, calling them “my beautiful Christians” and saying: “Get out and vote. Just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years. You know what? It’ll be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore.”

How airlines keep planes in the air during extreme heat

Airports and airlines are adjusting to “a new normal” of record high temperatures during an increasingly busy summer travel period, aviation experts say.

At Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas, takeoffs have been reconfigured as very hot weather reduces aircraft engines’ thrust, requiring a longer runway to achieve liftoff and gain altitude.

High temperatures across the U.S. sometimes require aircraft to reduce their weight before they get up in the air by shedding baggage, fuel or even people, which risks delays and angering passengers.

In case you missed it

• An 83-year-old man has been missing for a week after his flight out of Orlando, Florida, was canceled because of lingering issues from the CrowdStrike outage, Orlando police said.
• Tony Stark died a hero, but Robert Downey Jr. lived long enough to become a villain. On Saturday, Marvel announced Downey’s return to its cinematic universe as Doctor Doom — much to its fans‘ dismay. 
• “Deadpool & Wolverine” raked in a staggering $205 million domestically. The highly anticipated Marvel flick recorded the highest debut ever for an R-rated movie.
• New blood tests could help doctors diagnose Alzheimer’s disease faster and more accurately, researchers reported Sunday — but some appear to work far better than others.
• The number of measles cases recorded in the U.S. this year is more than triple the total from all of last year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — with five months still to go.
• The grandmother of three of Elon Musk’s children said Saturday that a planned trip for the children to visit her ailing mother had been canceled and pleaded for him to respond.
• The largest wildfire burning in California grew to more than 350,000 acres Saturday, but there was hope that progress in containing it, as well as a cool-down, will help defeat it.