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Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Noah Lyles of the US won the men’s 100-metre final at the Paris Olympics in a razor-thin photo finish over Jamaican Kishane Thompson, becoming the first American to claim the title in 20 years.

Inside a packed Stade de France on Sunday night, Lyles crossed the finish in a personal best 9.784 seconds to Thompson’s 9.789. Fred Kerley, also of the US and the silver medallist at the Tokyo Olympics, finished third in 9.81. Marcell Jacobs, defending champion, finished fifth. It was the first time in history that eight men broke 10 seconds in a wind-legal race.

Long considered one of the marquee events of the entire Olympic Games, the 100-metre final has catapulted winners to instant global fame. From 2008 through 2016, the event was dominated by reigning world record holder Usain Bolt of Jamaica, and while no sprinter has run within a tenth of a second of his fastest time of 9.58, Lyles has been positioning himself for years to inherit the position as the face of global sprinting.

As a recent star of the Netflix series Sprint, Lyles, 27, developed elaborate narratives around himself through each season, including one in the early part of this year by bringing a secretive metal briefcase to each meet, promising to reveal its contents at the US Olympic trials in June. The briefcase contained his running kit.

Technically superior at the 200 metres, in which his personal best of 19.31 is the third-best of all-time, Lyles joked in the series that the 200 metres is his “wife”, while the 100 metres is his “mistress”. He will also contest the longer event in Paris, where the first heats begin on Monday.

As the favourite in the 200 metres, Lyles could become the first man since Bolt in 2016 to complete the 100 and 200 double at the games. 

Thompson, 23, became a late favourite for a medal in Paris after running 9.77 seconds at the Jamaican championships in June, the fastest time in the world this year. He was the top-ranked runner after Sunday evening’s semi-finals, in which he qualified with 9.80.

Speaking after the final, Lyles said he was convinced Thompson had won until the official times flashed on the stadium big screen. “I was like, I think you got that one, big dog”. But he held up his bronze medal from the 200 metres at the Tokyo Games, saying it had fuelled his three-year journey to get to the top of the podium. “It feels good to back it up”, he said. 

In recent months, a bevy of new investors including hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian have pledged money towards new professional track meets aimed at capitalising on the apex of interest in the sport at the Olympics. Lyles said he wanted people involved in the sport “to make this as available as possible for people to come and watch. Not [fans] having to go in through back alley websites . . . this needs to be accessible, because this is a world sport”.

Sunday night’s podium reshuffles the ongoing sprint rivalry between the Jamaicans and Americans after Jacobs, 29, became the shock winner in Tokyo. Since then, the Italian has struggled with injury and inconsistency, failing to make the 100-metre final in the 2022 and 2023 world championships.

Lyles’ victory came a night after the US had to settle for silver in the women’s 100-metre final, with St Lucia’s Julien Alfred winning gold — her country’s first Olympic medal.

The last American to win the men’s Olympic 100 metres was Justin Gatlin at the 2004 Games in Athens.

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

Western governments stepped up calls for their citizens to leave Lebanon while ​​commercial flights were still available, as an anxious region braced for the possibility of a full-blown regional war after twin assassinations in Beirut and Tehran. 

France urged its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible due to the “very volatile ​​security context”, following similar calls by the UK, US and Jordan on Saturday, which cited the escalating tensions between Israel, Iran and the Hizbollah militant group.

“We encourage those wishing to leave Lebanon to book any available ticket, even if that flight does not depart immediately or does not follow the itinerary of their choice,” the US embassy in Lebanon said in an email to its citizens.

“Leave now,” UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy told Britons in Lebanon. “Tensions are high, and the situation could deteriorate rapidly . . . my message to British nationals there is clear.”

Sweden on Saturday shut its embassy in Beirut, calling on all Swedes to leave the country as soon as possible.

Several airlines have suspended, rescheduled or cancelled flights to and from Beirut this week, including Air France-KLM Group, Kuwait Airlines, Lufthansa Group, Aegean, Emirates and Qatar Airways. Some airlines suspended services to Israel.

Israel has publicly claimed responsibility for the assassination of senior Hizbollah commander Fuad Shukr in a densely packed neighbourhood in the militant group’s stronghold in Beirut, but it has neither confirmed nor denied carrying out the killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on Wednesday. 

Iran said Haniyeh was killed by a short-range projectile that was fired into the official residence where he was staying in Tehran, and vowed to punish Israel.

The country’s Revolutionary Guards said on Saturday that the assassination was “orchestrated and executed” by Israel and accused the “criminal” US of complicity in the strike by providing support for the Jewish state.

Hassan Nasrallah, leader of Lebanon-based Hizbollah, has also vowed revenge against the Israel. 

Israel and the Lebanese militant group have traded cross-border fire with increasing intensity since Hamas’s October 7 attack. But the simmering conflict has not spilled over into a full-blown conflagration, thanks partly to US-led diplomatic efforts to contain the violence, and partly to a hesitation by both arch-foes to trigger a conflict that could devastate both countries.

Diplomacy has intensified over the past week to try to avert a regional war, while the US has deployed additional forces to the region to help defend Israel.

But Hizbollah affiliates have lashed out at the US envoy who has been working for months to broker a deal between Hizbollah and Israel to end their clashes, accusing Washington of bearing responsibility for Shukr’s assassination. It underlines the challenges the US faces in easing tensions.

The Lebanese militant group was not in a “listening mood”, according to two people familiar with the talks, saying it would respond however and whenever it wanted.  

Many Lebanese who have the option have left the capital for areas deemed safer. Those that stayed filled concert venues, restaurants and bars this weekend, confused about what they should be doing while waiting for imminent war. 

“I fought with myself for hours about whether to go out or stay home but I decided a glass of wine or three would help calm my nerves,” said 42-year-old Selim Georges, sitting in a popular Beirut restaurant on Sunday. 

The calls by western governments to leave Lebanon this weekend added to fears in the country as thousands of Lebanese expats who are home for the summer debated whether to stay or go. 

France estimates that some 23,000 citizens live in Lebanon, with thousands more visiting the country this summer, while the UK estimates some 16,000 of its citizens currently live in Lebanon.

The United States is telling its citizens to leave Lebanon and is deploying more military might in the Middle East as preventative and defensive measures, Jonathan Finer, White House National Security Council deputy adviser, said on Sunday.