Author: chicagoinquirer

By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON -U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s election campaign said on Sunday it has raised $200 million and signed up 170,000 new volunteers in the week since she became the Democratic Party’s presidential candidate. President Joe Biden ended his reelection bid on Sunday last week and endorsed Harris for the Nov. 5 vote against Republican former President Donald Trump. “In the week since we got started, @KamalaHarris has raised $200 million dollars. 66% of that is from new donors. We’ve signed up 170,000 new volunteers,” Harris’ deputy campaign manager, Rob Flaherty, posted on X. Polls over the past…

by Sheila Dang PARIS – The opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics drew 28.6 million U.S. viewers, according to preliminary data from Comcast’s NBCUniversal on Saturday, which the company said was the most-watched start to a summer Games since London in 2012. The celebration on Friday featured athlete delegations floating down the Seine past Paris landmarks and singer Celine Dion’s first public performance in years. It is a crucial broadcast event for NBCUniversal which paid $7.65 billion to extend its rights to air the Games in the U.S. through 2032. NBCUniversal’s Olympics media-rights deal is the largest in the world.…

by Angelica Medina and America Hernandez LILLE, France – Frenchman Victor Wembanyama’s brilliant performance led the hosts to a 78-66 win over Brazil, while Giannis Antetokounmpo’s Greece lost 86-79 to Canada on the opening day of the men’s Olympic basketball tournament on Saturday. NBA Rookie of the Year Wembanyama led France from a first-quarter deficit to finish with nine rebounds, four steals and two assists for 19 points in total after recovering from a series of early mistakes at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium. With the momentum back in their favour, France ran roughshod over the South Americans in the Group…

by Stephanie Kelly, Jeff Mason and Tim Reid WASHINGTON DC – Vice President Kamala Harris cast herself as the “underdog” in the presidential race and called her Republican opponent Donald Trump “just plain weird,” while Trump painted Harris as “evil,” “sick” and “unhinged” as the rivals exchanged barbs from afar on Saturday. The dueling appearances capped a whirlwind week that saw Harris ascend to the top of the Democratic ticket after President Joe Biden, 81, dropped his reelection bid under mounting pressure from his fellow Democrats. A series of polls indicate that Harris’ entry erased the lead Trump had enjoyed…

By Tim Reid WASHINGTON -Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump told Christians on Friday that if they vote for him this November, “in four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote.” It was not clear what the former president meant by his remarks, in an election campaign where his Democratic opponents accuse him of being a threat to democracy, and after his attempt to overturn his 2020 defeat to President Joe Biden, an effort that led to the deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump…

By Isaac Anyaogu LAGOS – Days before a nationwide protest over bad governance and a high cost of living, Nigeria is offering its young people jobs in the state-oil company and billions of naira worth of grants among other incentives to discourage the action. Nigerian activists have been looking to emulate youth-led protests elsewhere in Africa which have rocked the government in Kenya and prompted a tough security response in Uganda. Nigeria’s state oil firm, which seven years ago warned job seekers against falling prey to fraudulent messages about job placements in the company, published on Friday nationwide job vacancies…

By Rory Carroll PARIS – Simone Biles has submitted an original skill on uneven bars ahead of the Paris Olympics that will be the American’s sixth move named after her and first on bars if she can successfully complete it. The new skill is a clear hip circle forward with 1.5 turns to handstand, a variation of an element named for Canadian Wilhelm Weiler, which Biles has performed for much of her career, the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) said. FIG’s technical committee awarded it a difficulty value of E on a scale from A to J, meaning it is worth…

by Jarrett Renshaw CHICAGO- Former President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle endorsed Kamala Harris’ bid for president on Friday in a roughly one-minute long video that captured a private phone call between the couple and the current vice president. “We called to say Michelle and I couldn’t be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office,” Obama told Harris. “I am proud of you. This is going to be historic,” the former first lady told Harris. Talking into a cell phone and cracking a few smiles,…

by Dominique Vidalon and Elizabeth Pineau PARIS – Vandals targeted France’s high-speed train network with a series of coordinated actions that brought major disruption to some of the country’s busiest rail lines ahead of the Paris Olympics opening ceremony on Friday. The state-owned railway operator said arsonists had targeted installations along the lines connecting Paris with cities such as Lille in the north, Bordeaux in west and Strasbourg in the east. It urged all travellers to postpone their journeys. Repairs were underway but traffic would be severely disrupted until at least the end of the weekend. Trains were being sent…

WASHINGTON – Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said on Thursday that she would back the creation of a judicial panel to monitor justices’ compliance with the court’s new ethics code, multiple news outlets reported. Kagan told a judicial conference in Sacramento, California, she would be supportive if Chief Justice John Roberts formed “some sort of committee of highly respected judges with a great deal of experience and a reputation for fairness” to assess potential violations of the code, according to Bloomberg Law. The Supreme Court in November adopted its first code of conduct amid a swirl of ethics scrutiny. Critics…