• Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro ordered a 10-day block on access to X in his country after accusing Elon Musk of using the platform to sow political unrest following the country’s presidential election.
• The X ban comes after Maduro and Musk exchanged accusations over Venezuela’s disputed July 28 presidential election.
• Electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner but have yet to produce voting tallies, while the opposition claims to have records from more than 80% of electronic voting machines nationwide showing the winner was their candidate, Edmundo González.

President Nicolás Maduro said he has ordered a 10-day block on access to X in Venezuela, accusing owner Elon Musk of using the social network to promote hatred after the country’s disputed presidential election.

Associated Press journalists in Caracas found that by Thursday night posts had stopped loading on X on two private telephone services and state-owned Movilnet.

“Elon Musk is the owner of X and has violated all the rules of the social network itself,” said Maduro in a speech following a march by pro-government groups. Maduro alleged Musk “has incited hatred.”

TOP VENEZUELAN PROSECUTOR LAUNCHES CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION INTO MADURO OPPOSITION

Maduro also accused the social network of being used by his opponents to create political unrest.

Venezuela’s president said he had signed a resolution “with the proposal made by CONATEL, the National Telecommunications Commission, which has decided to remove the social network X, formerly known as Twitter, from circulation in Venezuela for 10 days so that they can present their documents.” Maduro did not provide more details about the process taken against X.

X’s press office did not immediately respond to an email from the AP requesting comment.

“X out for 10 days! Elon Musk out!” Maduro said.

The president’s announcement comes after Maduro and Musk exchanged accusations over Venezuela’s disputed July 28 presidential election. Electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner but have yet to produce voting tallies. Meanwhile, the opposition claims to have collected records from more than 80% of the 30,000 electronic voting machines nationwide showing the winner was their candidate, Edmundo González.

Musk used the social network to accuse the self-proclaimed socialist leader of a “great electoral fraud.”

“Shame on the dictator Maduro,” Musk said Monday in a post.

Since the election, Maduro has expressed the need to “regulate” social networks in Venezuela.

Maduro also denounced that the social platform was used by his adversaries to threaten the families of his followers and political allies, military personnel and police officers and to generate a state of anxiety in Venezuela.

The Paris Olympics are edging towards the conclusion with an exciting Saturday packed with finals in team sports.

Here is a recap of the main events:

• 1 pm CET – Men’s volleyball final: France vs Poland
• 5 pm – Women’s football final: Brazil vs US
• 9:30 pm – Men’s basketball final: France vs US

On Friday, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif claimed the 66kg women’s crown after beating China’s Yang Liu 5:0.

Khelif wrapped up the best series of fights of her boxing career with a victory at Roland Garros, where crowds chanted her name, waved Algerian flags and roared every time she landed a punch.

After her unanimous win, Khelif jumped into her coaches’ arms, one of them putting her on his shoulders and carrying her around the arena in a victory lap as she pumped her fists and grabbed an Algerian flag from someone in the crowd.

Those cheering fans have embraced Khelif throughout her run in Paris even as she faced an extraordinary amount of scrutiny from world leaders, major celebrities and others who have questioned her eligibility or falsely claimed she was a man.

Golden summer for Spanish football as men’s team win final

Sergio Camello struck twice in extra time as Spain took gold in the Olympic men’s football final after a 5-3 win against France.

The thrilling win at Parc des Princes completed a golden summer for Spanish football – following the senior team’s European Championship triumph last month.

The women’s team however didn’t manage to scoop a medal as they lost 1-0 to Germany in the bronze final. Germany’s goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger saved a penalty into the ninth minute of stoppage time from Spanish Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas, who broke down in tears after the final whistle.

Giulia Gwinn scored the winner in the 64th minute from the penalty spot after being fouled by Spain’s goalkeeper Cata Coll.

Rai Benjamin gets gold in the 400-meter hurdles

After three silver medals in the 400-meter hurdles at the Olympics and world championships, Benjamin convincingly beat Norway’s Warholm and Brazil’s Dos Santos.

“I got it done,” the 27-year-old said after the race. ”It has eluded me so long. … I don’t think I ever doubted it. It was more just staying patient and keep showing up every day and something has to shake. I told myself, ‘This has got to go my way at some point.’ And it went my way today.”

Sha’Carri Richardson rallies US women in Olympic 4×100

Richardson captured her first Olympic gold medal with a come-from-behind anchor leg for the United States in the Olympic 4×100, then stepped aside to watch the US men extend their streak to 20 years without a medal at the Games.

Bulgaria weightlifter wins gold 15 months since a hotel sink fell and severed an Achilles tendon

Bulgaria’s Karlos Nasar won weightlifting gold to break two world records, just over a year after a hotel sink fell on him and severed his left Achilles tendon.

Nasar was showering the night before an awards ceremony in May 2023 when he reached for shampoo and pressed down, causing the sink to fall out of the wall and onto him. After undergoing emergency surgery and missing six months, he returned in December and set the clean-and-jerk world record that he surpassed in this event.

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The 21-year-old Nasar, a Paris native, lifted 180kg in the snatch and a world record 224 in the clean and jerk to become champion in his Olympic debut with a score of 404 – also a world record.

China is 7 for 7 in diving gold at the Paris Olympics and seek an unprecedented sweep of all eight

China is 7 for 7 in diving golds at the Paris Olympics. Just one to go for an unprecedented sweep of all eight golds in the Games.

Any pressure? That was the question for Chen Yiwen, who won the women’s 3-metre springboard for China.

“I think that pressure is pushing us to work harder, not to let people down,” Chen said.

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Table tennis player Ma Long makes history with sixth Olympic gold medal

Ma Long became the Chinese athlete with the most gold medals in the history of the Olympics when he helped China win the men’s table tennis team final.

China defeated Sweden for its fifth straight Olympic victory in the team event, and Ma secured his sixth gold to become the most decorated table tennis Olympian.

The 35-year-old won at least one gold medal in every Summer Games since London 2012.

Harrie Lavreysen defends Olympic sprint title, Italian women capture Madison gold in track cycling

Netherlands’ Lavreysen swept his best-of-three semifinal against Jack Carlin of Britain, then swept past Matthew Richardson of Australia in the finals, giving the brilliant track cyclist from the Netherlands his second gold medal of the Paris Games.

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“In the semifinals I was really keen on not making mistakes,” the 27-year-old said. “I was even more nervous than I was for the final, because I knew for the final, I could finally throw everything out that I’ve got.”

In the women’s Madison, the Italian team of Chiara Consonni and Vittoria Guazzini gained a lap on the field and then won enough points in intermediate sprints to capture gold.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — As Donald Trump adjusts to the reality of his new race against Kamala Harris, his campaign is counting on younger male voters to give him the edge in November in a presidential contest they insist is his to lose.

Trump and his Republican campaign now face a dramatically different race than the one just three weeks ago, before President Joe Biden abandoned his bid. While they acknowledge polls have tightened with Harris as the Democratic nominee, they maintain that the fundamentals of the race have not changed, with voters deeply sour over the direction of the country, and particularly the economy.

“What has happened is we are witnessing a kind of out-of-body experience where we have suspended reality for a couple of weeks,” Trump campaign pollster Tony Fabrizio told reporters during a briefing in West Palm Beach on Thursday of the current state of the race.

It was a message echoed by Trump during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago club.

“The honeymoon period’s gonna end,” he insisted while minimizing the size of the crowds Harris has been drawing and lashing out at his new opponent. “Let me tell you: We have the enthusiasm.”

Campaign officials acknowledge that Harris had energized the Democratic base and that her team has taken the lead on fundraising. But they insist they have more than enough to do what they need to win. Trump’s campaign and its affiliates reported raising $138.7 million in July — far less than the eye-popping $310 million sum reported by Harris. Her campaign began August with more cash on hand.

With less than three months to go, senior campaign officials are focused on a group of persuadable voters that they believe is key to victory. The targets, which they say comprise about 11% of the electorate in key battleground states, skew younger and are disproportionately male and moderate. While more than half are white, they include more nonwhites, especially Asians and Hispanics, than the broader electorate.

They are especially frustrated by the economy, including their personal finances, and are pessimistic things will improve.

“It’s a very narrow band of people that we are trying to move,” Fabrizio said of the efforts. Since these voters don’t engage with traditional news outlets and have traded cable for streaming services, the campaign has been working to reach them in novel ways.

“There is a reason why we’re doing podcasts. There is a reason why we’re doing Adin Ross,” Fabrizio said, referring to the controversial internet personality who ended his interview with the former president earlier this week by giving him a Tesla Cybertruck wrapped in images of Trump raising his fist after his assassination attempt.

“There is a reason why we are doing all of those things. You know what these people pay attention to? MMA, Adin Ross,” he said. “MMA” refers to mixed martial arts.

Trump campaign officials acknowledge the Democratic base is now motivated in a way it wasn’t when Biden was the nominee. Harris, they say, will likely do better than Biden would have with Black voters, especially women and older men.

But they argue Harris is doing little to appeal to swing voters. And they intend to spend the next 80-plus days painting her as a radical liberal and as the incumbent rather than a change, tying her to the most unpopular Biden administration policies.

“There’s way more information about her that they don’t know that they’re going to hear. And we’re going to make sure they’re going to get,” Fabrizio said.

By the end of the race, they believe, neither candidate will be liked, but voters will choose the candidate they feel will most improve their economic conditions.

They pointed to a line Harris has been using to refer to Trump’s presidency — “We are not going back” — as particularly ill conceived, given that some voters say things were better when Trump was in office than they are now.

Trump campaign aides said they now have staff on the ground in 18 states, ranging from critical battlegrounds to states like Virginia, where Democrats have been favored, that they hope they can put into play.

The campaign says it now has hundreds of paid staff and more than 300 Trump and GOP offices open across battleground states.

But much of their effort relies on volunteers and outside groups.

They are trying to replicate a model they used successfully during the GOP primary in Iowa this winter, where volunteer “caucus captains” were given a list of 10 neighbors they pledged to get out to the polls. The campaign has credited that model with boosting turnout on a brutally cold and icy caucus night.

The “Trump Force 47” program is focused on targeting low- and medium-propensity voters. Volunteers will be canvassing, writing postcards, phone banking and organizing their neighbors.

So far, 12,000 captains have been trained and given voter target lists, according to officials. An additional 30,000 have volunteered, with more than 2,000 expected to be trained per week between now and Election Day.

A large part of the campaign’s outreach will also rely on outside groups, which will be running paid canvassing and get-out-the-vote efforts thanks to new guidance from the Federal Election Commission that allow campaigns to coordinate with outside groups in ways that were previously not allowed.

The campaign said more than 1,000 paid canvassers are on the ground in battleground states, and they’re also working to register about 1.6 million targeted voters in those competitive places.