Paris Olympics Set to Begin Under Tight Security

Happy Friday! Nothing says “First Day of the Summer Olympics” like a cheating scandal! 

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

• President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met separately with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. Biden and Bibi spoke for around 90 minutes at the White House before they jointly met with the families of the U.S. hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. Though Biden did not address the media after the meeting, the president reportedly told hostage families he would do “all within my power” to push for a deal to secure the hostages’ release. Later in the afternoon, Harris and Netanyahu spoke at the White House, after which Harris was more forceful in her criticism of Israel and its handling of the humanitarian situation in Gaza than Biden has been. “Israel has a right to defend itself, and how it does so matters,” she said. “We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.” She called on Netanyahu to increase the flow of aid to Gaza and to do more to avoid civilian casualties in Israel’s prosecution of the war. Earlier in the day, Harris released a statement strongly criticizing the “despicable acts by unpatriotic protestors and dangerous hate-fueled rhetoric” on display in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday during and after Netanyahu’s address to Congress. She also condemned “any individuals associating with the brutal terrorist organization Hamas,” as well as the burning of the American flag, which she described as “a symbol of our highest ideals as a nation and represents the promise of America.”
• Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama formally endorsed Harris for president early Friday morning, writing that she’ll “make a fantastic President of the United States” and that they will “do everything [they] can to make sure she wins in November.” Obama had been arguably the last high-profile Democrat who had not yet endorsed the vice president following Biden’s decision to withdraw from the race earlier this week.
• The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated Thursday that U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP)—which accounts for inflation—increased at a 2.8 percent annualized rate in the second quarter of this year, beating economists’ expectations and growth in the first quarter. Meanwhile, the personal consumption expenditures price index, a measure of consumer activity, rose at a 2.6 percent annual clip in the second quarter, down from the 3.4 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year.
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on Thursday directing state officials to dismantle thousands of homeless encampments across the state. The decision follows the Supreme Court’s ruling last month that Grants Pass, Oregon, could ticket homeless people camping in public spaces. California has a homeless population of approximately 180,000 people, though Newsom’s order cannot force local authorities to take action on the encampments—only threaten to withhold state funding if they do not. The order does not require that the people in encampments be moved to shelters.
• U.S. authorities took two drug kingpins—Ismael Zambada García, a senior leader of the Sinaloa cartel, and Joaquin Guzmán López, the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán—into custody in Texas on Thursday after the two reportedly flew into the United States aboard a private plane and turned themselves in. U.S. authorities have sought Zambada for decades, but Mike Vigil, the former head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said the arrest was unlikely to stem the flow of drugs being trafficked into the U.S. “This is a great blow for the rule of law, but is it going to have an impact on the cartel? I don’t think so,” Vigil told the Associated Press. “It’s not going to have a dent on the drug trade because somebody from within the cartel is going to replace him.”
• Three Russian Shahed drones intended to strike targets in Ukraine crossed into Romanian airspace on Thursday, according to the Romanian foreign minister. Defense officials in Romania—a NATO ally—are investigating the incident, but suggested that any areas the drones may have struck were far from any civilian population centers. Meanwhile, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) detected, tracked, and intercepted four foreign military airplanes—two Russian bombers and two Chinese bombers—flying together off the coast of Alaska on Wednesday. Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska expressed concern about the joint operation, calling it an “unprecedented provocation by our adversaries.” While the bombers did not enter U.S. airspace, the planes entered an international zone that requires any aircraft that enters to readily identify itself. Though Russian military jets cross into this zone fairly frequently, Chinese participation is unprecedented. That said, the jets are “not seen as a threat,” NORAD said in a statement. “NORAD will continue to monitor competitor activity near North America and meet presence with presence.”

• Six House Democrats joined their Republican colleagues on Thursday to pass a resolution condemning Vice President Kamala Harris for what they described as her and the Biden administration’s failure to secure the southern border. The measure—which is unlikely to be taken up in the Democratic-controlled Senate—carries only symbolic value and does not create any legal consequences for Harris. The House has now begun its six-week summer recess, with lawmakers not set to return to Washington until September 9, despite much work to be done to fund the government before the next shutdown deadline of September 30.
• A grand jury in Kansas City indicted a suspected North Korean intelligence operative Thursday on charges of engaging in a conspiracy to hack U.S. hospitals, NASA, and military bases. The hacks gave the North Korean state-sponsored Andariel group access to NASA’s computer system, Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, and Robins Air Force Base in Georgia. The hacks also extorted a Kansas hospital, threatening to release the facility’s files on the internet unless the hospital paid the hackers $100,000 dollars in bitcoin. This extortion scheme is part of a North Korean strategy to evade U.S. sanctions, according to FBI officials.
• NASA on Thursday again delayed the return of Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft—and its crew, astronauts Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita Williams—from the International Space Station (ISS) until August at the earliest. Starliner arrived at the ISS in mid-June—the spacecraft’s first crewed mission—and was expected to return to Earth the following week. However, the craft experienced helium leaks and thruster control issues while docking with the space station, prompting investigations to study and correct the technical problems. On Wednesday, NASA scheduled a safety review of Starliner that won’t commence until the first week of August and declined to propose a return date for the time being.

Fort Paris Preps for the Olympics

During a typical Parisian summer, at the height of tourist season, the maitre d’hotel at a café across the Seine from the famous Notre Dame Cathedral would be cramming visitors into sidewalk tables to sip something refreshing and take in the view. 

Now, that view is “a lot less sexy,” according to François Fichet, a cafe worker whose restaurant is surrounded by metal barricades in preparation for the Paris Olympics that are set to officially kick off today.

But it’s not as if Fichet—or other nearby restaurateurs—have many patrons to worry about. Since French authorities turned the Seine’s waterfront into a heavily policed and restricted security sector last Thursday, the usually crowded tourist magnet has become something resembling a fortified ghost town, deprived of visitors but brimming with checkpoints, armed law enforcement, and 3.7 miles of metal fences along the river. Potential customers, who must be screened, approved, and show QR codes to guards to enter the zone, have so far stayed away. In frustration, some of the area’s signature streetside cafés have temporarily closed their doors.

The City of Love’s newfound prison-yard chic has its purpose. As the French capital kicks off its third turn hosting the Summer Olympic Games tonight with an unorthodox opening ceremony upon the waters of the Seine, security threats on numerous fronts abound. In response, more than 45,000 police officers, 22,000 additional security personnel—including some American officers—and 10,000 soldiers will patrol Parisian streets in one of the city’s largest law enforcement mobilization efforts since the end of World War II. 

These forces will greet and protect an estimated 11 million tourists—including foreign dignitaries like first lady Jill Biden—who will trek to Paris over the next nearly two-and-a-half weeks to cheer on some 10,500 competing athletes.

Paris’ security clampdown reflects the increased risk associated with the current state of geopolitics and how French organizers have uniquely arranged the Games. As the competitions get underway, authorities are hoping their preparations will prove sufficient. 

Officials are monitoring potential attacks and disturbances from jihadist groups and political extremists. Additionally, there’s the potential risk of virtual strikes against the Games’ electronic infrastructure from France’s foreign adversaries, namely Russia. “This is, for the Ministry of the Interior, the biggest logistical and security challenge we’ve ever had to organize,” French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in March. 

French security services have focused primarily on thwarting possible jihadist attacks from ISIS-K, investigating the militant group’s presence within Muslim-majority migrant communities. ISIS-K, an offshoot of the Islamic State (ISIS) originating in Afghanistan and Pakistan, has gone global in its terrorist efforts this year, in January bombing an Iranian parade commemorating the killing of Qassem Suleimani and, in March, attacking a Russian concert hall, killing more than 200 in the two attacks. “In comparison to previous Olympic Games, the threat level [in Paris] is high,” said Colin Clarke, director of research for the Soufan Group, a security and intelligence consulting firm.

French security services foiled at least one Islamic State terror plot in late May, arresting an 18-year-old man from Chechnya planning to target an Olympic soccer match hosted in the city of Saint-Étienne. “This [was] the 50th attack foiled since 2017,” Darmanin claimed. However, the interior minister also assured Olympics attendees on Wednesday that there is no current or specific threat to the Games from radical Islamists. 

Still, French officials—no strangers to responding to jihadist attacks—fear Islamist terrorists may specifically attempt to target Israel’s Olympic delegation as the Jewish state’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip continues. Over the weekend, Israeli athletes received threatening emails warning against their presence in Paris. While French and Israeli officials said the messages were empty threats created by bots, Israel’s Olympic delegation will receive around-the-clock protection. 

Unfortunately, security risks to Israeli athletes are an old story—even before Hamas’ October 7 deadly incursion into southern Israel that triggered the war. During the 1972 Summer Games in Munich, Germany, Palestinian terrorists entered the Olympic Village and launched a hostage-taking attack that left 11 Israeli athletes and coaches dead. Israeli Olympians have traveled with their own security detail ever since. “Given the legacy of Munich, the current geopolitical context with Gaza, and rising antisemitic attacks, the safety of the Israeli team is a major concern,” Clarke told TMD.

Protests against the Israeli team’s participation in the Games from pro-Palestinian groups seem likely in the coming weeks. Thomas Portes, a recently reelected French member of parliament who represents the leftist La France Insoumise (LFI) party, told pro-Palestinian protesters over the weekend that Israelis were “not welcome in Paris.” 

Munich was not the only Olympic Games marred by a terror attack. During the 1996 Atlanta Games, a lone-wolf anti-abortion extremist killed one and injured over 100 others in a pipe bomb attack on the city’s Centennial Olympic Park. 

The attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump on July 13 raised the specter of another lone wolf attack—a kind France has seen before, and recently. Last Monday, a man stabbed a soldier patrolling one of Paris’ eastern neighborhoods. Later that week, on Thursday, Paris police shot and killed another man after he knifed an officer. Neither the soldier nor the officer sustained life-threatening injuries. While neither attack is believed to be linked to Islamic terrorism, the incidents have put Paris’ security forces further on edge. 

The threat profile is not limited to jihadist threats or violent individuals. On Tuesday, police detained a Russian national for conspiring to pass “intelligence to a foreign power in order to arouse hostilities in France,” an act authorities described as meant to cause “destabilization” of the Games. In June, police arrested a 26-year-old Russian-Ukrainian dual citizen allegedly planning to blow up a hardware store as part of a similar plot. 

Russian cyberattacks on the Games’ virtual infrastructure—internet, transportation, communication, and operational systems—remain possible, potentially intended as revenge for Western military support for Ukraine, plus the International Olympic Committee’s 2023 decision to suspend Russia’s Olympic Committee, limiting Russian athletes’ ability to represent their country in Paris. 

In response to these threats, nearly 5,000 individuals, at least 1,000 of whom France’s interior ministry accuses of operating as foreign agents or political provocateurs, have been blocked from attending the Games. More than 150 individuals, whom French police regard as potential threats, are being forced to spend the Olympics under house arrest. 

Security forces are also utilizing thousands of cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) cameras to monitor and identify suspicious behavior. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International have criticized the widespread use of AI-powered cameras, claiming they violate privacy rights and bolster police powers. Those groups also fear law enforcement may use cameras to crack down on peaceful protests in the city. 

Even if Paris is big on emerging AI, it’s down on another kind of new tech: drones. Authorities claim to have intercepted six a day on average since instituting a flying ban for the duration of the Games.

Despite these measures, no amount of security may be sufficient to turn all of Paris into one giant hard target—a location defended by law enforcement and difficult for terrorists to attack. “If you are taking security services from one place and putting them somewhere else, you are leaving a hole at that one place,” said Clarke. “It’s not possible to lock down the entire Games. There’s always going to be a modicum of risk.” 

Part of that modicum of risk stems from how officials have organized the Games this year. In contrast to previous Olympiads—where most major venues are located in a specially built Olympic Village outside of the city’s center—organizers have spread events throughout Paris and beyond. Notable venues in central Paris include the Seine—the site of the aforementioned opening ceremony and outdoor swimming events—and the base of the Eiffel Tower for beach volleyball. Outside the city proper, the Palace of Versailles’ vast gardens will host equestrian events while the Olympic football—soccer for us américains—competition will unfold in multiple other major French cities, like Saint-Étienne. 

Matt Andrews, a sports history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told TMD that Paris’ use of temporary venues at identifiable landmarks meets the IOC’s Agenda 2020, intended to avert excess spending and environmental waste. While the scattered events may satisfy new IOC requirements, the situation intensifies the burden on security services to make sure the Games are safe. “The more dispersed and decentralized, the more area there is to cover,” Clarke said.

Some Americans traveling to Paris to view the Games are expressing slight uneasiness. Luke Busby, a father from the Cleveland area in Ohio traveling to the Olympics with family members, told TMD he is “slightly concerned” about potential incidents. “We will be extra cautious and not go off the beaten path,” he said. “If we do that, we should be fine.” 

Clarke said that, while there are risks, there is also opportunity in these Olympics: “If the French pull this off without any incident,” he told TMD, “then these Games may become a really good example of best practices for other cities hosting major events.” 

Worth Your Time

• Friend of The Dispatch (The Fair) Jessica Gavora reflected on the wrongheaded notion at the heart of vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance’s “graveyard” nationalism—and why it misunderstands the America her father, an immigrant from Czechoslovakia who fled the pro-Soviet government there, sought. “‘America is not just an idea,’ Vance said in his introductory speech to the American people at the Republican National Convention,” Gavora wrote for The Atlantic. “Shared history, he assured us, is what we care about. And shared dirt. He used the morbid image of a cemetery plot in Kentucky coal country, where generations of his family have been laid to rest. He expressed his desire for his children to one day bury him there and—carrying his morbidity to the extreme—for them to eventually follow him. … Dad was born and grew up in a small town in Czechoslovakia. Like Vance, he lived near a cemetery. It is full of Gavoras going back generations. But Dad is buried 4,700 miles away on a hillside overlooking Fairbanks, Alaska. He had no past there. No native culture. No native language. But he left his homeland behind for a successful, chosen life—a life made possible by the idea that is America.”
• After cozying up to Kenyan President William Ruto, who cracked down on recent anti-government protests, the Biden administration has a choice to make, Michelle Gavin wrote for Foreign Affairs. “This uprising—and the Kenyan government’s doomed, start-and-stop authoritarian response—should jolt U.S. officials into a different gear,” she argued. “The protests against a leader supported so prominently by Washington have now resulted in over 50 deaths and hundreds of injuries, and clearly pose a dilemma for the United States. Washington now has two options: it can pull back, confirming the view of critics who have called the recent U.S. efforts to build a partnership with Ruto shallow and ill-informed. Or it can double down on helping the Kenyan government succeed in meeting the demands of its citizens. It must do the latter. The U.S.-Kenyan relationship has a long and deep history, and as the Horn of Africa grows increasingly unstable and international institutions grow increasingly dysfunctional, Kenya could prove to be a vital American partner in avoiding worst-case scenarios and helping reform the region’s institutional architecture.”

Presented Without Comment

The Hill: Trump Calls for Jail Sentence for Desecrating Flag: ‘Stupid People’ Will Say It’s Unconstitutional

Also Presented Without Comment

Associated Press: Chicken Wings Advertised as ‘Boneless’ Can Have Bones, Ohio Supreme Court Decides

In the Zeitgeist

The NBA announced new TV and streaming deals this week with broadcasters ESPN, Amazon Prime, and NBC starting in 2025, rejecting TNT’s renewal offer. While your Morning Dispatchers are mourning the upcoming loss of TNT’s Inside the NBA team, we are excited to learn NBC is permanently bringing back this masterful blast from the past. (Maybe we’ll get another Saturday Night Live version, too.)

Toeing the Company Line

• In the newsletters: Will detailed how political scientist James C. Scott’s lessons on government can be applied to big tech platforms and Nick panned the callousness of J.D. Vance’s critique of childless Americans.
• On the podcasts: Mary joined Steve, Jonah, and Mike on The Dispatch Podcast roundtable to talk about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington and anti-Israel protests before the guys discussed Democrats’ quick wagon circling around Kamala Harris and the short tail of the assassination attempt on Donald Trump.
• On the site: Kevin offers Kamala Harris some advice, John takes us back to Harris’ 2020 presidential run and record as attorney general, and Jeryl Bier dives into the recent debate over whether Harris was ever the Biden administration’s “border czar.”

Let Us Know

Are you excited to watch the Olympics this year? What are your can’t-miss events?