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The 3,100-mile Olympic torch relay is underway. Here’s what to know about the symbolic tradition.
The Olympic flame has been lit in Olympia, Greece, kicking off the torch relay for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Ahead of each Summer Olympics, the torch is lit in the ancient site where the games were founded, connecting the event back to its roots.
The torch is carried to the host city by runners and other modes of transportation. This year, the torch will be carried to Athens and then taken on a three-masted sailboat across the Mediterranean Sea to Marseille, France. It will travel around France and its islands with athletes until it lands in Paris on July 26 for the opening ceremony of the games.
Boats will carry the torch to islands like Martinique and French Polynesia. A complete list of stops is found on the Olympics website and the relay will be live-streamed. It will take 68 days to complete the 3,100-mile relay.
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A selection process to choose the whopping 10,000 athletes who will carry the flame began in June 2023.
The torch never goes out during the relay. A new torch is designed for each Olympics and it is specially made to withstand elements. The flame is typically fueled by gas and is capable of burning longer than the relay will take. It rests in a special cauldron overnight.
A special ceremony was held in Olympia on Tuesday, with an actress lighting the flame at the temple of the Greek goddess Hera.
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The ancient Olympic games were held in Olympia from 776 BC through 393 AD and the first modern Olympics began in Athens in 1896.
But the symbolic torch wasn’t used until the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and the inaugural relay took place in 1936 ahead of the Berlin Olympics.
The relay has been held for every Summer Olympics since and is even in the Olympic rule book, which states: “The Olympic flame is the flame which is kindled in Olympia under the authority of the IOC.”
Olympic swimmer Florent Manaudou was chosen as a leader for one of the relays.
“It’s incredible to be captain. When you are a kid discovering the Games, you see the sporting part but also the Olympic torch, which is highly symbolic,” Manaudou said. “I am very happy to showcase all the amazing landscapes we have in France.”
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Washington — A number of Republican senators have expressed concern about Pete Hegseth, President-elect Donald Trump’s choice to lead the Defense Department, potentially putting his intended nomination at risk.
Hegseth, who has been meeting with Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill this week to try to build support ahead of his confirmation hearings, has faced a round of negative stories involving allegations of sexual misconduct, financial mismanagement at veterans’ charities, repeated intoxication and infidelity.
“Some of these articles are very disturbing. He obviously has a chance to defend himself here, but some of this stuff is, it’s going to be difficult,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters Tuesday. “Time will tell.”
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana, who noted he has also read the reporting and is aware of the allegations, said Hegseth will have to address them.
“I want to know if they are true and I want to hear his side of the story and he is going to have to address them,” he said Tuesday, adding that he wasn’t sure if Hegseth’s nomination would face headwinds.
On Monday, the New Yorker reported that before he became a full-time Fox News host, Hegseth was forced to step down from two nonprofit advocacy groups — Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America — amid complaints about his alleged behavior that included repeatedly being intoxicated while on the job, leading a hostile work environment and mismanaging the charities’ funds. CBS News reported that Jessie Jane Duff, a Marine veteran who served as one of Trump’s 2024 campaign executive directors, was among those who pushed to have him ousted from Concerned Veterans for America in 2016.
A lawyer for Hegseth has denied the allegations.
Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Wyoming Republican, said Tuesday that the allegations “are a surprise to all of us” and that his ability to be confirmed by the Senate “depends on how he addresses the issues that have been raised.” Lummis said the allegations also came as a surprise to Trump.
“Some of the earlier issues that were raised about an incident in California, I think were satisfactorily addressed and would not have interfered with his nomination, but some new things that have come to light in the last 12 to 14 hours are things he needs to address,” she said.
Hegseth, an Army veteran turned Fox News star, was investigated for sexual assault in 2017 in Monterey, California. Authorities declined to file charges in the case, saying none were “supported by proof beyond a reasonable doubt.” Hegseth told investigators that the sexual encounter with the woman was consensual and he has denied any wrongdoing. He paid a confidential settlement to the woman out of concern that her accusation could result in his firing from Fox News, his lawyer said after the claims became public in mid-November.
Asked Monday whether he thought the Senate would confirm him to lead the Pentagon, Hegseth said he was “taking it meeting by meeting.”
Trump has already had one Cabinet pick withdraw from the process. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida pulled his name from consideration amid scrutiny over allegations of sex trafficking and illicit drug use, which he denies.
Donald Trump’s lawyers pointed to an unlikely person in demanding a judge dismiss the president-elect’s New York criminal case: Hunter Biden.
Trump’s attorneys said in a court filing made public Tuesday that President Biden’s controversial pardon of his son echoed Trump’s complaints about the prosecution.
“Yesterday, in issuing a 10-year pardon to Hunter Biden that covers any and all crimes whether charged or uncharged, President Biden asserted that his son was ‘selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted,’ and ‘treated differently,'” they wrote, before claiming Trump was treated similarly.
In the filing, which was submitted Monday night, they formally demanded a New York judge throw out the president-elect’s criminal case and nullify a unanimous jury’s conclusion that Trump committed dozens of felonies.
Their argument struck at the quality of the case against Trump, but focused largely on a wholly unique argument in the history of America’s legal system. Trump’s lawyers said his conviction in state court should not stand, citing as their sole reason the fact that he was elected president after his conviction.
Prosecutors for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg have vowed to oppose the dismissal motion, and have been given a one-week deadline to file their response. They pursued the case amid a torrent of public threats of retribution by Trump’s allies, and anonymous threats of violence by his supporters
Trump’s lawyers argued in their filing that the Constitution requires dismissal of the case, even though it’s already progressed though trial, because ongoing proceedings threaten to take Trump’s attention from the presidency.
This is a developing story and will be updated.