Elections

Ben ShpigelDaniel Berehulak and The gold medal that Torri Huske of the United States won on Sunday in the 100-meter butterfly barely eluded her three years ago at the Tokyo Olympics, a letdown that might not have annoyed her so much had she won silver then, or even bronze.Daniel Berehulak/The New York TimesIn third place at the turn on Sunday, Huske powered to gold, edging her teammate — and world-record holder — Gretchen Walsh at the end by touching just ahead of her. In a sport defined by infinitesimal slivers of time, that brief gap is either a flash or an eternity, and often it is both.James Hill for The New York TimesDaniel Berehulak/The New York TimesHuske missed out on an Olympic medal in Tokyo by one-hundredths of a second. On Sunday, she won gold by four-hundredths. And when she realized it, she said, “Oh my God,” and went to hug Walsh in the next lane.Daniel Berehulak/The New York TimesJames Hill for The New York TimesZhang Yufei, one of 23 top Chinese swimmers who tested positive for a performance-enhancing drug months before the Tokyo Games, won bronze. She won silver in Tokyo, nine-hundredths of a second ahead of Huske, who bested her — and everyone else — on Sunday night. More

The talks remain stuck over several key issues, including the extent to which Israeli troops should withdraw from Gaza during a truce.Senior officials from Israel, Qatar and the United States gathered in Rome on Sunday to continue negotiations over a cease-fire in Gaza, according to two officials involved in or briefed on the talks. The talks came as tensions mounted in the region amid growing violence along the border between Israel and Lebanon.The officials meeting in Rome are pushing to forge a truce in which Israeli hostages held captive by Hamas would be exchanged for hundreds of Palestinians jailed by Israel under a plan that has been discussed for months. Qatar hosts part of the Hamas leadership and, along with Egypt, plays a key role in mediating between the two sides.Despite progress in recent weeks, the monthslong negotiations remain stalled over several key issues, particularly the extent to which Israeli forces would remain in Gaza during a truce, according to seven officials involved in or briefed on the talks.Earlier in July, Israel hardened its position on maintaining checkpoints along a strategic highway south of Gaza City, weeks after suggesting that it could compromise. It was unclear on Sunday if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had allowed negotiators to show greater flexibility on the matter during the talks on Sunday. Mr. Netanyahu faces pressure from members of his right-wing government to stick to a tougher line.The length of the truce is also a source of dispute: Hamas wants a permanent truce, while Israel wants the option to resume fighting.Israel has also refused to guarantee that its troops will leave the Gaza-Egypt border during a cease-fire, fearing that Hamas would smuggle arms across the frontier in the absence of Israeli forces.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Some church leaders and politicians have condemned the performance from the opening ceremony for mocking Christianity. Art historians are divided.A performance during the Paris Olympics’ opening ceremony on Friday has drawn criticism from church leaders and conservative politicians for a perceived likeness to Leonardo da Vinci’s depiction of a biblical scene in “The Last Supper,” with some calling it a “mockery” of Christianity.The event’s planners and organizers have denied that the sequence was intended to mock or offend, and have remained largely vague about the references associated with the images.In the performance broadcast during the ceremony, a woman wearing a silver, halo-like headdress stood at the center of a long table, with drag queens posing on either side of her. Later, at the same table, a giant cloche lifted, revealing a man, nearly naked and painted blue, on a dinner plate surrounded by fruit. He broke into a song as, behind him, the drag queens danced.The tableaux drew condemnation among people who saw the images as a parody of “The Last Supper,” the New Testament scene depicted in da Vinci’s painting by the same name. The French Bishops’ Conference, which represents the country’s Catholic bishops, said in a statement that the opening ceremony included “scenes of mockery and derision of Christianity,” and Robert Barron, an influential bishop in Minnesota, called it a “gross mockery.”The performance at the opening ceremony, which took place on and along the Seine on Friday, also prompted a Mississippi-based telecommunications provider, C Spire, to announce that it would pull its advertisements from Olympics broadcasts. Speaker Mike Johnson described the scene as “shocking and insulting to Christian people.”The opening ceremony’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly, said at the Games’ daily news conference on Saturday that the event was not meant to “be subversive, or shock people, or mock people.” Speaking broadly about the ceremony, he said, “The idea was to send a message of love and of inclusion.” On Sunday, Anne Descamps, the Paris 2024 spokeswoman, said at the daily news conference, “If people have taken any offense, we are, of course, really, really sorry.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Grudges from the World Cup and rugby union have spilled over to the Games. But is this new sports feud even real?The Olympic Games have long been governed by a tacit code: If fans can’t say anything nice, they shouldn’t say anything at all. Jeering, whistling and catcalling at athletes who have spent years to make it to the pinnacle of their sports is “unacceptable,” as Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, once put it. To boo is, well, taboo.As far as the French are concerned, though, there appears to be one exception: anyone wearing the sky blue and white of Argentina.In the opening few days of the Paris Games, Argentina was booed before, during and after a men’s soccer game in Marseille. It was heartily booed for three days straight every time its men’s rugby sevens team appeared at a packed Stade de France. And it was booed again whenever one of those rugby players had the temerity to touch the ball.Its anthem was booed once more — although a little more gently — when Argentina’s team made its debut in the men’s volleyball tournament at the South Paris Arena on Saturday evening.The hostility has left some of the country’s opponents wondering what is going on. Nicholas Malouf, an Australian rugby sevens player, said he “did not know the background” behind the tension. Antony Mboya, representing Kenya in the same sport, assumed the local French crowd was just “backing an underdog.”In reality, the animosity is much more targeted. Both sides have come to understand that France, at this moment in time, does not much like Argentina. “It has become a real rivalry for us,” said Jules Briand, a French fan who traveled both to watch his team compete in rugby sevens and to indulge in a little jeering.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The two governments said the moves were a response to growing aggression by China, whose rapid military buildup has many leaders worried.The top diplomatic and defense officials from the United States and Japan announced on Sunday that their nations would take concrete steps to bolster their military alliance because of the growing threat from China in the region.Those steps include establishing joint forces that would answer to the American commander in the Indo-Pacific, according to a statement issued by the two governments’ top officials and the committee that they oversaw. They also call for increasing co-production of air-to-air missiles and air defense interceptor missiles.The statement framed these changes in the alliance relationship mainly as a response to aggressive moves by China in East Asia. The statement focused on China’s actions in the East China Sea, South China Sea and beyond while also mentioning hostile activity by Russia and North Korea.The governments reaffirmed the importance of the mutual-defense clause in their treaty because of the “increasingly severe security environment caused by recent moves of regional actors,” they said.One of the top issues cited was the East China Sea, which Japan and China both claim part of. The American and Japanese senior officials said their governments reiterated their strong opposition to China’s “intensifying attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force or coercion.”The U.S. secretary of state, Antony J. Blinken, and the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, were in Tokyo on Sunday to meet with their Japanese counterparts in what is commonly called a 2+2 dialogue.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The U.S. women’s gymnastics team qualified for Tuesday’s team final with a solid performance on Sunday, led by Simone Biles — competing on a taped leg — and Sunisa Lee.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesThe United States started off with some nerves on the balance beam, with wobbles from Lee, Jordan Chiles and Hezly Rivera. But Biles nailed her routine, positioning her to qualify for the beam final — potentially with Lee — after the rest of the field competes later on Sunday.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesChang W. Lee/The New York TimesAfter Biles warmed up on floor exercise, she had her leg examined and taped. But she gave her usual explosive performance — complete with two passes named for her, including a triple-twisting double back flip — and her coach said later that the injury wasn’t serious. Biles was poised to qualify for the floor final, possibly with Chiles.Gabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesBiles competed her namesake Yurchenko double pike, the most difficult vault in the world, and a second vault called a Cheng. She was well positioned to qualify for the final along with her teammate Jade Carey.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesGabriela Bhaskar for The New York TimesLee led the U.S. on the uneven bars, where she won a bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympics, and is likely to qualify for the final. Her routine also carried her narrowly past Chiles for a spot in the all-around final alongside Biles.Chang W. Lee/The New York Times More

Ukraine wants to deploy its first F-16 jets this summer, hoping to counter Russia’s dominance in the air. But stepped-up Russian bombing attacks on air bases complicate the effort.The surveillance drone appeared high above the Ukrainian air base without warning in early July. Minutes after it relayed targeting data back to a Russian base, a barrage of ballistic missiles struck the airfield, Ukrainian officials said, recounting the episode.“That first hit was so powerful that even our windows were trembling,” said Valeria Minenko, 21, who lives near the air base in Myrhorod, central Ukraine, one of many targeted in relentless attacks by Russia in recent months.“Now they’re hitting the air base with the rockets all the time,” Ms. Minenko said.Russia has been saturating the skies over Ukraine with surveillance drones, exploiting gaps in air-defense systems, to launch increasingly sophisticated attacks on Ukrainian positions. Its dominance in the air along parts of the front has allowed it to bombard Ukrainian positions with hundreds of powerful guided bombs every day, helping its ground forces to make slow and costly gains.Ukraine’s strategy was to counter Russia in the air war with the aid of long-coveted F-16 fighter jets from the West that it says it will deploy this summer.But the assaults on Ukrainian air bases underscore Russia’s determination to limit the impact of the planes even before they enter the fight. They also highlight the challenges Ukraine faces as it prepares to deploy the sophisticated aircraft for the first time.Ukraine is hoping the F-16s, which come with powerful electronic warfare systems and an array of other weapons, can be used in coordination with other Western weapons like Patriot air-defense systems to expand the area deemed too dangerous for Russian pilots to fly. They also hope the jets will add another layer of protection for Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure from relentless missile and drone attacks.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

How to help your body adjust to higher temperatures.It has been hot outside. Very, very hot.It’s the kind of hot that can make you miserable. It can make you sick. For older adults and outdoor workers, it can be deadly.As an editor on the Well desk at The Times, I work on stories about health issues like extreme heat every day. I’m always looking for practical advice that people can use to live healthier lives. For many health issues we report on, my thinking is: Well, that’s terrible. What are we supposed to do about it?I thought I knew the answer when it came to heat. Stay cool, stay hydrated, stay alert to the signs of heat illness. Those are all important. But I was surprised to learn there’s another approach that has largely been overlooked.It’s called heat acclimatization, and The Times published a story about it this morning. It’s about teaching your body to deal with the stress of heat. Right now, the people who try to do so are often outdoor laborers, athletes, soldiers and others who have to be outside all the time. But many other people might benefit from giving it a shot.How acclimatizing helpsHeat taxes the body. You sweat more, and your heart beats harder. Both help keep you cool. But in very high temperatures, your heart rate can jump too high. Your blood pressure can drop. You can sweat so much you can become dizzy or dehydrated.Pushing the body too hard in extreme heat without preparation can be deadly. Almost half of all heat-related deaths among workers occur on their first day on the job, and more than 70 percent occur within the first week, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. Once bodies are used to the heat, they start to adapt within days.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More