Train issues are not a problem for the basketball teams making the trip from Lille and Villeneuve-D'Ascq near the Belgium border to the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Games.
Buses work just fine.

In Vice President Kamala Harris' first 2024 presidential campaign video, a familiar rhythm rings out. The clip, which touches on issues of gun violence, health care and abortion, is soundtracked by Beyoncé's "Freedom," a cut from her 2016 landmark album, "Lemonade."
"We choose freedom," Harris says in the clip, as Beyoncé's powerful chorus kicks in: "Freedom! Freedom! I can't move / Freedom, cut me loose! Yeah."

On a typical summer day, tourists flock to the historic Marais district of Paris, wandering its charming medieval streets dotted with ultra-chic boutiques, gazing at stunning private mansions, strolling through the elegant 17th-century square Place des Vosges, and filling humming restaurants and bars.
But this summer has hardly been typical, and those streets, shops and cafes have been markedly emptier in the days leading up to the Paris Olympics — leaving businesses like Stolly's Stone Bar, a pub popular with English speakers, pining for summers past.

In consecutive days this week, China brokered a deal between rival Palestinian factions and hosted Ukraine's foreign minister at a moment when pressure is mounting on the country to negotiate an end to the grinding war there.
While it's unclear if the agreement between Hamas and Fatah will succeed where others have failed and there is little concrete progress towards peace in Ukraine, China emerged a winner, further cementing its role as a diplomatic force on the global stage, not just an economic powerhouse.

Finance ministers from leading rich and developing nations have gathered in Rio de Janeiro for a two-day meeting to discuss a global tax on the super-rich, a top priority for Brazil, which holds the presidency.
According to the proposal before the Group of 20, individuals with over $1 billion in total assets would be required to pay the equivalent of 2% of their wealth in income tax.

Israel on Friday slammed a U.N. rights expert for "anti-Semitism" after she endorsed a social media post comparing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Adolf Hitler.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Palestinian territories, has faced harsh criticism from Israel previously, especially after she in March accused the country of committing genocide in the war in Gaza.

Venezuela's government and opposition closed the official presidential campaign season Thursday with demonstrations that drew thousands of people to the streets of the capital.
The events three days before the highly anticipated election on Sunday encapsulated the massive disparities between the top contenders, including their resources.

Former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama have endorsed Kamala Harris in her White House bid, giving the vice president the expected but still crucial backing of the nation's two most popular Democrats.
The endorsement, announced Friday morning in a video showing Harris accepting a joint phone call from the former first couple, comes as Harris continues to build momentum as the party's likely nominee after President Joe Biden's decision to end his reelection bid and endorse his second-in-command against Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump.

The Paris Olympics were getting off to a rougher than hoped-for start Friday, with suspected acts of sabotage targeting France's flagship high-speed rail network and cloudy skies with light drizzle over the French capital ahead of its sprawling, ambitious opening ceremony.
On a day of utmost importance for France and its capital, with dozens of heads of state and government in town for the Olympic opening and a global audience of over 1 billion expected to tune in, authorities were scrambling to deal with widespread rail disruptions caused by what they described as coordinated overnight sabotage of high-speed train lines.

A key question is looming for Vice President Kamala Harris as she edges closer to gaining the Democratic presidential nomination: Can she turn the Biden-Harris economic record into a political advantage in a way that President Joe Biden failed to do?
In some ways, her task would seem straightforward: The administration oversaw a vigorous rebound from the pandemic recession, one that shrank the U.S. unemployment rate to a half-century low of 3.4% in early 2023 — far below the painful 6.4% rate when Biden and Harris took office in 2021. The rate stayed below 4% for more than two years, the longest such stretch since the 1960s.
