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Kevin Durant powered the U.S. men’s basketball team in Olympic opener against Serbia

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Kevin Durant powered the U.S. men’s basketball team in Olympic opener against Serbia

Kevin Durant of Team United States looks to pass against Serbia’s Vasilije Micic (left) during the second half of Olympic group play at Stade Pierre Mauroy on Sunday in Lille, France.

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NPR is in Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics. For more of our coverage from the games head to our latest updates.

PARIS – The U.S. men’s national basketball team started its march toward what the players hope is a fifth consecutive Olympic gold medal, with a 110-84 victory over Serbia on Sunday.

Three-time gold medalist Kevin Durant made his return to the court, scoring 23 points (21 in the first half), and making his first eight shots in the game. LeBron James added 21 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.

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“Everybody played their role pretty well,” Durant said. “My role was to come in and provide spacing and shot-making for the team, and I’m glad I was able to knock them down.”

Durant missed all five exhibition games that the U.S. played ahead of Paris, due to a calf strain. He’s hoping to make his own history in Paris – seeking a record fourth Olympic gold medal in men’s basketball.

U.S. coach Steve Kerr, who spent three seasons with Durant at the Golden State Warriors, brought Durant off the bench, rather than using him in the starting lineup.

“More than any player I’ve ever been around, when he comes back from a long absence, you don’t notice it,” Kerr said. “He’s so skilled and he just looked like he was in mid-season form after not playing in a real basketball game for a couple of months.”

The game against Nikola Jokic and Serbia was expected to be the most significant test of the men’s team’s opening round. Jokich, a three-time NBA MVP, scored 20 points with five rebounds and eight assists. Bogdan Bogdanovic scored 14.

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“The whole approach was that the strength of our team is depth,” Kerr said of Jokic. “And we’ve got three guys who can guard him. And that was the approach, rotate guys onto him and cross your fingers because he’s a brilliant player.”

Stephen Curry reacts at the end of the USA game against Serbia. It's his first Olympics and he says he's trying to savor every minute of it.

Stephen Curry reacts at the end of the USA game against Serbia. It’s his first Olympics and he says he’s trying to savor every minute of it.

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The game also marked a return to the Olympics for LeBron James after a 12-year gap.

“It was phenomenal,” James said. “Listening to our national anthem, listening to the fans cheer, definitely got a little nervous, my stomach, the butterflies came out.”

James said the game was the best the team has played so far.

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“I thought they tested us early. The second group came in, gave us a big lift,” he said.

To win its fifth straight gold medal, the men’s team has to advance out of its four-team group in the opening round of the tournament, and then win three consecutive games in the knockout round.

“Very, very important to get off to a good start in this tournament because every game is so big,” said Stephen Curry, who scored 11 points in his first game as an Olympian. “You want to get the gold. Serbia’s a great team, they run a very intricate offense and a very physical defense. KD was unbelievable in the first half and gave us a huge boost, and our defense in the second half opened the game up.”

The men’s national team will next face South Sudan on Wednesday, which is playing in the Olympics for the first time. During exhibition play this summer, the U.S. team narrowly avoided a loss to South Sudan, 101-100, to remain unbeaten.

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Donald Trump has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday in different ways. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees were notified of their terminations via email from ​the White House presidential personnel office.

“On ‌behalf of President ‌Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position ‌as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email, seen by Reuters, said.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a “national clearinghouse of information on election ‌administration”, accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website. The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials’ advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

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“It is ⁠irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on ​causing chaos for ​our election officials across this ​country,” Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes said in a ​Thursday statement. “This ‌move undermines the integrity ​of nonpartisan ​election administration.”

The 2002 law that established the commission, the Help America Vote Act, states the president can appoint replacements to the commission.

It is unclear how Trump will move ahead with the commission.

Reuters contributed reporting

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn (left) walks with his attorney Norman Eisen to speak to reporters and protesters gathered after his arraignment at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

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Former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning.

Federal prosecutors charged Hearn with a single count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn has previously claimed, which his attorneys repeated during a short press conference outside the court, that he simply touched the water in the pool out of curiosity.

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The Trump administration had just completed a $14 million renovation of the pool.

But shortly after the work finished, peeling paint and algae gathered in the water. The remodel has been largely criticized as a massive failure and waste of taxpayer dollars.

Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean released Hearn on his own recognizance. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, spoke to reporters outside of court following the hearing. He said the administration is using Hearn as a “scapegoat … for their own failures.”

“It is not a crime to touch the reflecting pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” he said.

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Prosecutors say there is a host of evidence against Hearn.

This is a developing story.

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

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Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

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The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

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