Weekly News Roundup - 8/2/24
The Paris Olympics dominate the summer // Crisis merchants try to glom on to the Olympics
Welcome to the 30th Weekly News Roundup of 2024. The archive for all weekly news roundups is here. If you notice stories or issues you’d like to see mentioned in these roundups, let me know. In 2024, the Border Stalkers Substack is featuring one news update a week, and one book a month, with weekly posts on each book. The book of the month schedule is here.
These weekly dispatches are designed for people who may not have time to do more than glance at the headlines, or who want to stay informed without becoming obsessed by politics and news. These roundups are a targeted way to get a sense of the shape of the past week on the national level. Without such a map, we can be disoriented, not knowing where we have been over the past several days, or where we may be going.
But by spending concentrated, limited time thinking about the big picture, we can devote more of our time to where “agency and justice begin and end,” as Karen Swallow Prior put it: “on the ground, bodily, in community and real relationships, in flesh and blood.”
Quotes of the Week
"While I was involved in charismatic Christianity, I was often confused. PRAY we were often told, with demand. Mostly I wandered graveyards and begged not to be hated by the God I prayed to. Eventually, mostly out of exhaustion, I started turning to the old forms I knew well. The rosary, the stations of the cross, some lectio divina. Those provided a container, and at least I could stop feeling like shit at the end of those mandatory times of devotion. I needed more containers, though, more forms. Ones that made space for language but also had the capacity to hold wild language. The collect presented itself."
- Padraig O Tuama, Being Here: Prayers for Curiosity, Justice and Love
Big Stories This Week
The first week of the Paris Olympics held much of the world transfixed, as athletes from over 200 nations competed in front of large and jubilant crowds for the first time in a summer Olympics in eight years. These games also mark the first time that a major TV network has adapted its broadcast of this major event to the way modern audiences consume information and content, with NBC using its online channel, Peacock, to broadcast nearly around the clock and to give viewers as much access to the games as possible, rather than hoarding the top stories for the evening prime time broadcast. But then they have told a more curated story each night of the day's action. And it's paid off with huge ratings jumps, up 79% from the 2021 games played in Tokyo. But because the games are dominating the world's attention, that also makes them a target for those whose incomes, fame and power depend on stoking conflict: the crisis merchants whose livelihood consists of perpetuating the culture wars. If everyone is paying attention to the Olympics, then these conflict entrepreneurs will look to latch on to them. That too is a sign of the way that the Olympics now take place in a different media and entertainment ecosystem.
Wall Street Reporter Evan Gershkovich is released along with 13 other hostages held by Russia and Belarus, in exchange for seven Russian prisoners held in the West, including an assassin who had carried out a killing in Berlin in 2019.
Israel was blamed by Iran for the assassination of Hamas' political leader in Tehran, and claimed credit for killing a top Hezbollah leader in Beiruit, raising fears about a regional war between Israel and Iran and other countries.
Vice President Kamala Harris continued to grow momentum for the Democratic party's presidential ticket, moving toward an announcement of her running mate and making it hard for Donald Trump to redirect attention toward himself.
Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro was declared winner of the nation's presidential election, but the U.S. government said this week that it believes Maduro lost, after opposition leaders showed evidence that Edmundo Gonzalez defeated Maduro decisively. By the end of the week opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was in hiding as Maduro threatened to arrest her and masked thugs ransacked the opposition party's headquarters.
Week in Review
Friday, July 26
Celine Dion, Lady Gaga and many other artists perform at a one-of-a-kind Olympics Opening Ceremony in Paris, as athletes from more than 200 countries proceed down a water parade route on the River Seine toward the Eiffel Tower. Persistent rain fails to dampen high spirits but some religious leaders and politicians are upset by some elements of the show, saying they mock religious iconography.
"The DOJ alleged in a court filing on Friday that the popular social media app TikTok had collected data from U.S. users—including their views on hot-button issues like abortion and gun control—and shared it with employees of its Beijing-headquartered parent company ByteDance," the Dispatch reports.
Saturday, July 27
A rocket from Lebanon kills 12 children and teens in Israel-controlled territory, the Golan Heights.
Sunday, July 28
Kamala Harris' campaign raised $200 million in its first week and signed up 170,000 new volunteers, it says.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro claims victory in the presidential election, yet so does the opposition candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez. The U.S. government says it has "serious concerns" about the integrity of the election.
Monday, July 29
President Biden proposes term limits for Supreme Court justices, along with an enforceable code of ethics.
Three young girls are killed and several others critically injured in a stabbing attack in Southport, a seaside town in northwest England. Violent protesters surround a local mosque in response to online rumors, much of it incorrect, about the 17-year old arrested in connection with the attack.
Tuesday, July 30
The U.S. women's gymnastics team wins gold in the team competition, as 27-year old Simone Biles leads her squad in a redemption of her troubled withdrawal from the 2021 games in Tokyo.
Wednesday, July 31
Ismail Haniyeh, a top Hamas leader and one of the negotiators of a proposed ceasefire, is killed in a targeted missile attack in Tehran. Iran blames Israel.
The Olympics Triathlon (.93 mile swim, 24.8-mile bike, 6.2-mile run) takes place after a day's delay due to high levels of E coli bacteria in the River Seine through the heart of Paris. Paris organizers are delighted that their $1.5 billion investment to clean up the river in four years has paid off. Britain's Alex Yee wins in a dramatic come back in the final leg. Cassandre Beaugrand of France wins the women's competition.
Donald Trump accuses Kamala Harris of emphasizing different elements of her ethnic background during different moments, during an interview at a gathering of black journalists. Harris, the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, calls it "the same old show" and says "the American people deserve better."
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says a rate cut in September is possible. "We’re getting closer to the point at which it’ll be appropriate to reduce our policy rate, but we’re not quite at that point," Powell says.
Thursday, August 1
The U.S. and other Western countries complete the largest prisoner swap with Russia (and its ally Belarus) since the Cold War. Russia and Belarus release 14 prisoners, including Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. The U.S. and Western countries release seven prisoners, including Vadim Krasikov, a Russian assassin who shot and killed a Georgian citizen in Berlin in 2019. The Wall Street Journal has an in depth report on the efforts to free Gershkovich and the other hostages here.
Simone Biles cements her place as the greatest U.S. gymnast in history, winning the gold medal in the individual all-around competition. It is her sixth gold medal and her ninth medal overall, the most of any American gymnast. Suni Lee, who won gold in the individual all-around in 2021 in Tokyo, wins the bronze. Brazil's Rebecca Andrade wins silver.
Italian female boxer Angela Carini withdraws from a match at the Olympics after 46 seconds. Critics accuse her opponent, Algeria's Imane Khelif, of being a man. Khelif was disqualified from an event last year, apparently for having high levels of testosterone. All available evidence indicates Khelif was born a girl and has a Disorder of Sexual Development (DSD), also known as a Differentiation or Difference, a term encompassing "60 different conditions." Amy Broadhurst, the Irish amateur boxer who defeated Khelif in the 2022 world championship match, says: "Personally I don’t think she has done anything to ‘cheat.' I (think) it’s the way she was born & that’s out of her control. The fact that she has been (beaten) by 9 females before says it all.”
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken says: “Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election."
Friday, August 2
Stocks fall around the world as the U.S. jobs report for July shows sharp declines in hiring, and the unemployment rate rising to 4.3%, highest since October 2021.
Masked assailants raid and ransack the offices of Venezuela's opposition party.
Interesting Reads
What Makes Katie Ledecky Great, by Louisa Thomas for The New Yorker
Meet Nic Fink, the Olympic swimming medalist engineer, by D'Arcy Maine for ESPN
Who is Imane Khelif? Algerian boxer facing gender outcry had modest success before Olympics, by Greg Beacham for The Associated Press
The class divide on smartphones in schools, by @bonniekristian
Venezuela’s Election Was Deeply Flawed. Here’s How, by Genevieve Glatsky for The New York Times
Putin Wanted His Hit Man Back. A Mother Wanted Her Journalist Son to Come Home, by Joe Parkinson, Drew Hinshaw, Bojan Pancevski and Aruna Viswanatha for The Wall Street Journal
It’s Silicon Valley vs. Silicon Valley as Political Fights Escalate, by Ryan MacErin Griffith and Mike Isaac for The New York Times
America’s New Political War Pits Young Men Against Young Women, by Aaron Zitner and Andrew Restuccia for The Wall Street Journal
Radly Balko on Trump's promise to withhold federal funding from schools that have vaccine mandates
Barcelona wants to get rid of short-term rental units. Will other tourist destinations do the same? by Joseph Wilson for The Associated Press
Blood tests for Alzheimer’s may be coming to your doctor’s office. Here’s what to know, by Lauren Neergaard for The Associated Press
‘Maybe I’ve Gotten Worse’: Trump Makes Clear That Unity Is Over, by Michael Gold for The New York Times
Traffic Enforcement Dwindled in the Pandemic. In Many Places, It Hasn’t Come Back, by Emily Badger and Ben Blatt for The New York Times
Washington Prepares for the ‘Super Bowl of Tax’, by Andrew Duehren for The New York Times
How everyday people are impacted by Google's cookie-shambles, by Ricky Sutton and Omar De Silva for Future Media