World
Fencing at the historic Grand Palais in Paris is one of the most popular views at the 2024 Olympics
PARIS (AP) — When attendees entered the Grand Palais Monday for early afternoon Paris Olympics fencing bouts, they couldn’t help but stop and look around before going to their seats.
They gazed up at the sweeping glass roof, some placed their hands to their mouths in awe of its beauty, then marveled at the mint green columns that frame the nave of the historic building.
“It’s just incredible,” said Rhiannon Kinnear, a sabre competitor from Glasgow, Scotland, who was visiting Paris but not competing at the Olympics.
“I don’t think I’ve seen a fencing venue like it. The glass everywhere, the pillars. It’s an amazing contrast as well with the lighting. Nowhere better for fencing, I don’t think,” she said.
Built in 1900 for the Paris Universal Exhibition, the Grand Palais is a beloved site in the heart of Paris, right between the River Seine and Champs-Élysées. It’s known for hosting all kinds of prestigious events, from art exhibitions to concerts and fashion shows.
It is the stage for fencing and taekwondo at the 2024 Olympics thanks to a three-year renovation project. It has been closed to the public since 2021 for the upgrades and is becoming at must-see site at the 2024 Games.
The Grand Palais is not a typical sports venue, but rather a glass time capsule of French culture.
It was used as a military hospital during World War I. Cyclists in the Tour de France raced through the steel and glass structure in 2017. Catwalk shows for high fashion designers like Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Sonia Rykiel have taken place there. The late pop superstar Prince performed two concerts under the glass roof in October 2009.
The Olympic competitors dance back and forth right in the center of the nave.
“Paris just has made the Olympics so chic and so beautiful,” said Jackie Meinhardt, who came from San Francisco to watch her brother-in-law Gerek Meinhardt and his wife Lee Kiefer compete for the U.S. Kiefer won her second Olympic gold medal in foil fencing Sunday.
“It’s incredible to watch fencing in this venue because fencing is such a classic sport that doesn’t get the same attention back in America as it does here in Europe,” Jackie Meinhardt, said.
It was not her first time at the Grand Palais. She also saw Gerek Meinhardt, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist in men’s foil, compete there in the World Fencing Championships in 2010.
“You can tell that they spent a lot of time resurrecting these,” she said, looking up at the stands.
Ethan Llewellyn, another visitor from Glasgow, said the environment speaks to the innovation and creativity of the Paris Olympics, from the transformation of the prestigious Grand Palais into an exciting sports scene to the technology used in the fencing bouts themselves.
“It’s an old sport,” Llewellyn said. “Fencing is one of the ones that hasn’t changed in a really long time, and it’s been around the Olympics since it started. But to see it working with technology in such a modern way, that’s very exciting.”
According to its website, the Grand Palais has the largest glass roof in Europe with 6,000 tons of steel used in its construction. Few fencing venues compare, said Llewellyn, who competes in the men’s sabre but isn’t part of Britain’s Olympic team.
“Better than the one in London (at the 2012 Olympics), I’ve got to say that,” he added with a laugh. “For me this is the best one yet. The atmosphere is insane. And that’s partly the crowd but it’s also created by the area as well.”
The view was better than Flo Bourgier could have imagined. He moved to Paris three years ago from a quiet city in the middle of France to work with the 2024 Paris Olympics team in the technology division. The Grand Palais was high on his list of attractions, and he has been waiting for it to reopen.
“I don’t really care about fencing to be honest,” Bourgier said. “I just came here to enjoy the vibe, the view. You feel history here because it’s a building from 1900. I have goosebumps just talking about it and seeing (it) for the first time. I am fully free. I think it’s unbelievable to be here.”
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
World
Colin Jost Says ‘SNL’ Rejected Joke About Pete Hegseth Reading ‘Pulp Fiction’ Bible Verse Two Weeks Before It Happened in Real Life
Donald Trump’s defense secretary Pete Hegseth was widely mocked in April after he read a fake Bible verse from Quentin Tarantino’s 1994 classic “Pulp Fiction” during a Pentagon worship service. It turns out Colin Jost sort of saw it coming.
During a recent visit to “The Tonight Show,” Jost revealed that before Hegseth’s viral gaffe he told the “SNL” writers room: “Would it be funny if Hegseth just did that Bible verse that they have in ‘Pulp Fiction’ Remember, from Ezekiel, Samuel L. Jackson?”
The writers shot down Jost’s pitch, deeming it “too ridiculous” and claiming it “would take up all this time in the cold open. “And then he for real did it, like two weeks later and I was like, ‘Well, the good news is, I’m being surveilled, so that’s a relief.’” Jost has been playing Hegseth on “SNL” this season to much acclaim from critics and viewers.
The real Hegseth was at a Pentagon prayer service in April when he read the altered version of Ezekiel 25:17 that’s delivered by Samuel L. Jackson’s character in “Pulp Fiction” before he shoots a man. Hegseth said the prayer was recited by the “Sandy 1” Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) mission in Iran.
Calling on everyone to pray with him, Hegseth then read a prayer that was nearly word-for-word the line delivered by Jackson in Tarantino’s film: “The path of the downed aviator is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who in the name of camaraderie and duty shepherds the lost through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to capture and destroy my brother, and you will know my call sign is Sandy 1 when I lay my vengeance upon thee. Amen.”
Watch Jost’s full interview on “The Tonight Show” in the video below.
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A car reportedly drove into a crowd in the northern Italian city of Modena on Saturday, injuring several people.
The vehicle slammed into a store window, and its driver allegedly stabbed a passerby who attempted to intervene, Reuters reported, citing local Italian media.
Mayor Massimo Mezzetti told Italian TV no one was killed but eight people were injured, including four who were in critical condition, according to The Associated Press.
Blood is seen next to a destroyed car on a street of Modena, Italy, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (Lapresse via AP)
He said a woman pinned against a shop window may require the amputation of both legs.
Financial Police patrol a scene after a car incident in a street of Modena, Italy, Saturday, May 16, 2026. (Lapresse via AP)
The driver is a 31-year-old man born in Bergamo and raised in Modena with Maghreb origins, Mezzetti said.
The man was detained and was being questioned at police headquarters as authorities worked to determine whether he was under the influence of substances or acted deliberately, the mayor said.
Mezzetti said the vehicle entered one of the city’s main streets and “drove onto the sidewalk, sending several people flying,” before crashing into the shop window.
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This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Published on •Updated
A tragedy unfolded in the night between Friday and Saturday on the island of Lampedusa, where a newborn migrant baby girl just a few weeks old died of hypothermia immediately after disembarking and while being rushed to the island’s outpatient clinic.
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At 4.30 a.m., after being rescued by the V1307 patrol boat of the Guardia di Finanza, 55 people from Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria and Sierra Leone landed at Favarolo pier. Among them were seven women and six minors. The baby girl, whose condition immediately appeared critical, was taken together with her mother to the medical facility, where doctors could do nothing but declare her dead.
Investigation opened into the baby girl’s death
The Agrigento prosecutor’s office has opened an inquiry into the tragic case and ordered a post-mortem examination of the child’s body, a necessary step to confirm hypothermia as the actual cause of death.
The body is being transferred to the mortuary at the Cala Pisana cemetery, while in the coming hours the mother will be questioned by investigators to reconstruct the details of the crossing and establish exactly how and when the baby fell ill.
According to accounts from other migrants on board, the group had set off from Sfax-El Amra in Tunisia at around two o’clock yesterday morning, making the journey in a seven-metre metal boat that cost between 400 and 600 euros per person.
The baby girl’s mother, originally from Côte d’Ivoire, was later taken to the hotspot in the Imbriacola district together with her other daughter, aged around two. According to reports, the woman is currently in a severe state of shock over the loss of her child and is receiving continuous support from staff of the Italian Red Cross, which manages the island’s reception centre.
The centre’s director, Imad Dalil, confirmed to Italian media that psychosocial support measures had been activated. “The mother and the sister are here in the hotspot and are in good physical condition; for them and for the other people psychological support was activated immediately and in the coming hours the medical and psychosocial teams will continue their work,” he said.
NGOs’ reaction
The German NGO Sea-Watch voiced its outrage in a strongly worded post on X. “While the state attacks those who save lives at sea, investigating the captain of Sea-Watch, a one-month-old baby has arrived in LAMPEDUSA, dead in her mother’s arms, after a three-day crossing. Who will be held responsible for this injustice?” The outburst refers to the news, received by the NGO after arriving in Brindisi with 166 rescued people, that a criminal investigation has been opened against the captain of the Sea-Watch 5 on suspicion of aiding illegal entry.
The UN agency specialising in the protection and assistance of people forced to flee war, violence and persecution (UNHCR) also intervened to express deep condolences and grave concern over yet another victim claimed along the Mediterranean routes.
“A mother has lost her newborn daughter, who arrived dead this morning together with 54 other people in Lampedusa. Deep sorrow and concern for the many children and adults who should not be dying in the Mediterranean,” reads a post published on social media by UNHCR, which explains that the agency is on the ground providing assistance to the mother and all the other survivors of the landing.
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