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and eiffel tower. the majesty of the olympics in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. stay right there, more news on the way. the wait is nearly over. the 2024 summer olympics kick offer off tonight with a first of its kind opening ceremony along the seine. the first lady already in paris to cheer on team usa. plus, we give you a behind the scenes look at the massive endeavor to bring you the games on our nbc networks, all from our nbc sports headquarters in connecticut. in d.c., the 2024 presidential race is still running full steam ahead. vice president and democratic frontrunner kamala harris saying she is ready to debate formea r president trump. what the candidate is saying this morning. donald trump also set for a meeti meeting with benjamin netanyahu.

we have a live report on the push for a cease-fire. and the piano man says g good-bye. billy joel at madison square garden. it's friday, july 26. "early today" starts right now. welcome to friday morning. i'm frances rivera. excitement is building for the official start of the paris olympics. for the first time ever, the start of the summer games won't be in a stadium. instead, right there on the river seine. athletes will float down four miles of the historic water way. security measures in paris are incredibly tight. the games are being protected by 45,000 police officers, alongside 10,000 soldiers and 22,000 private security contractors. first lady jill biden is there, cheering on team usa. yesterday she spoke with some of the family members of the athletes. >> you love some pretty incredible people.

thank you for sharing them all with us. >> while the games haven't officially kicked off, we've already seen some action. the women's soccer team scoring their first win with a 3-0 win over zambia. and, simone bielgsles seems to n perfect form, stunning everyone in training by nailing one of her most difficult vaults with very little warmup. we'll have ongoing coverage throughout the morning, and you can catch the opening ceremony tonight here on nbc. back here at home, it is a political competition that's heating up. vice president kamala harris says she is ready to debate former president donald trump. but she's accusing him of trying to back out of a potential showdown. here's nbc's peter alexander. >> reporter: vice president kamala harris welcoming an on-stage showdown with former president trump, accusing him of back-pedaling from his previous commitment to a september debate. >> i'm ready to debate donald trump. i think the voters deserve to

see the split screen that exists in this race on a debate stage. and so i'm ready. let's go. >> reporter: just their is week. trump said he'd be willing to do more than one debate with vice president harris. >> i want to debate her, and it will be no difference, because they have the same policies. >> reporter: their head to head is quickly heating up. new polling shows the vice president has narrowed mr. trump's advantage over president biden. the race effectively a tossup. on the economy, harris slamming the former president's proposals as tax breaks for billionaires. >> america has tried these failed economic policies before. but we are not going back. we are not going back! >> reporter: mr. trump attacking the vice president. >> she's the most radical person, probably, that we've had in office, let alone the office of the presidency. >> reporter: in charlotte, casting aside his promise from last week's republican convention that he'd strike a more unifying tone.

>> you can't be too nice, you really can't be. so, if you don't mind, i'm not going to be nice. is that okay? >> reporter: it comes as president biden detailed his decision to drop out of the race. >> i revere this office. i love my country more. >> reporter: discussing his desire to unite the county by passing the torch to a new generation. >> there's also a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices. yes, younger voices. and that time and place is now. >> reporter: the vice president soon to receive a major boost, the endorsement of former president obama, according to people familiar with their discussions, who say the two have been in close touch since she announced her plans to run. >> in this election, we each face a question. >> reporter: the harris team now running with its first campaign video. ♪ freedom, freedom, i can't move ♪ >> reporter: set to the beyonce song "freedom". meanwhile, mr. trump's running mate, jd vance is facing new backlash for past criticism of

democratic leaders for not having children. >> we're effectively run in this country via the democrats, via our corporate oligarchs by a bunch of childless cat ladies. >> reporter: jennifer aniston posting, all i can say, mr. vance, i hope your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children one day, and the second gentlemen's first wife saying i love our blended family and am grateful to have her in it. we are in the early days of the harris campaign, but they are already embracing a very different approach. stylistically, the vice president is a younger candidate embracing pop culture and embracing younger voters who have been less enthusiastic about president biden. and a different electoral map. the harris campaign hoping her candidacy will mobilize different demographics, including southern black voters in states like georgia where harris will head next week. >> peter, thank you.

now to some breaking news. the son of el chapo and a cartel co-founder have been arrested in el paso, texas. attorney general merrick garland says both men face multiple charges, including for deadly fentanyl manufacturing. he is the son of the jailed kingpin. he was arrested alongside ismael garcia, who helped lead the drug operation for 30 years. el chapo is serving life in prison in the u.s. this is his second son to be indicted in this country. garland said in a statement that the doj will not rest until those responsible for poisoning our communities with fentanyl are held accountable. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu met with both president biden and vice president harris in d.c., one day after a polarizing speech before congress. on the agenda, the deadly war in gaza. later today, netanyahu travels to florida to meet with republican nominee donald trump at ar-a-lago.

for the latest, let's turn to claudio lavanga who is following the story for us. how did those meetings go? >> reporter: good morning, frances. well, let's start with kamala harris. she said she had a frank and constructive meeting with prime minister benjamin netanyahu in which she emphasized the need to finalize those cease-fire and h hostage deals that were put on the table by president biden. she said in the first part of the deal, the israel military will lead from leave from popul areas. but she also expressed concerns about the humanitarian situation in gaza, and she confirmed that she supports the two-state solution. take a listen. >> it is time for this war to

end. and end in a way where israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of palestinians in gaza ends and the palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity and self-determination. >> reporter: later today, netanyahu travels to mar-a-lago to meet with donald trump. now he's expected to arrive at about 11:00 in the morning amid high security. as law enforcement in south florida said they want to avoid scenes that we've seen in washington on wednesday where demonstrators took to the streets to protest against netanyahu ahead of his addressing congress. frances? >> claudio, thank you. new this morning, the democratic governor of california, gavin newsom, has ordered state agencies to remove homeless encampments from public property. the move follows last month's supreme court decision, allowing tent bans, homeless service providers condemn the executive

order saying it does nothing to address the state's ongoing housing crisis. newsom defended the action saying the encampments pose an urgent public health and safety hazard. >> much of the west coast and western canada is now a scene of glowing flames, and suffocating smoke. wildfires are raging, signaling the beginning of what could be a catastrophic wildfire season. california's park fire exploding in size since it began on wednesday. scorching more than 124,000 acres and forcing residents to evacuate in chico, north of sacramento. an emergency proclamation has been issued for butte county. authorities now calling the fire an act of arson, arresting a 42-year-old man from chico for pushing a flaming car into a ravine, which they say started the wildfire. and in oregon, the durkee fire is the nation's largest, charring nearly a quarter million acres since it was

ignited from a lightning strike last week. and in alberta, canada. the town of jasper facing apocalyptic scenes as flames close in. let's turn to michelle grossman, rain, not where it's needed the most. >> yeah, that's right. in that region we could see dry thunderstorms, where the rain evaporates and lightning hits dry vegetation. the wildfire season continues through october. peak season ends in october. we're talking about an unsettled south. this is where the rain is falling. we're looking at heavy rain, too, because we have a front that's the trigger for downpours. that's going to lead to the chance for flash flooding. there's that front. another day of storms developing in the southeast. the severe risk is low, that's good news, but flooding is possible in some spots, we could lead to flash flooding which is dangerous if you're out and about in your car. scattered showers along the gulf coast once again. starting out your weekend wet,

too. and areas of rain entering the midwest as well. 10 million peoe impactedpl above normal. and we do have heat alerts in portions of the northern plains, temperatures into the 90s, and in the south, unsettled with showers and storms. 81 in shreveport. all right, that's your friday forecast. >> appreciate that, michelle, thank you. coming up, the piano man strikes a chord in his last show strikes a chord in his last show at madison ♪♪ cool the pain with biofreeze. and keep on going. biofreeze. green means go. squardawn is flipping the wy e gardenerica does dishes. dawn platinum ez-squeeze it's an upside-down bottle with no cap. just grab, squeeze

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is well under way there in the city of light. and back lear ahere at home, ma santia takes us inside the operations at nbc sports. >> reporter: 3,600 miles west of paris france is nbc's international broadcast center here in stamford, connecticut. >> how long does the cut need to be? >> reporter: where one of the largest team sports is set to begin. the game, bringing you the olympic games. >> we've never tried something so comprehensively large. >> reporter: with nearly 2,000 team members here. nbc is getting ready to make olympic broadcast history, starting with the opening ceremony. >> this is physically moving. six kilometers, up the seine, passing some of the world's most memorable landmarks. there are about 140 cameras covering the length of, of the parade. >> reporter: daryl jefferson is the senior vp quarterbacking the engineering plan that includes 488 million minutes of live

coverage. >> it's a dream come true for us. >> >> reporter: around the sprawling complex you'll find? >> this is the highlight factory. we create a lot of highlights every day. a couple days we're going to have 50 events going on at one time. and the people around here capture them all. >> reporter: and these highlights have gone high tech. >> work with our engineering team to kind of build a great work flow, you have captions, human- human-edited captions. >> reporter: welcome to the off-tube factory, it's here where some of the announcers in stamford call some of the games in paris. and this is the research room where all information is given to all nbc staff and production. >> the room really is the brain trust of the entire operation. >> reporter: meet some of the team. >> annie, fencing, diving, basketball. >> tennis, golf, cycling and surfing. >> we're sort of the point guard

of the team. we're like dishing out the info that people need to get. >> gigi spear, beach volleyball, break dancing, canoe. >> wendy, swimming. >> my name is maria, this is my 19th olympics, and i track medals. >> reporter: going for gold, including an anchor you've seep on news 4 new york. >> it's amazing. it feels like the epicenter of it all because there are so many people here in connecticut. everybody around here is so excited to have it in paris and to have it here at home, too. >> always so fascinating. our thanks to marc santia for that report. still to come, going for the gold and the greater good. gold and the greater good. the long road to paris fro (♪♪) (♪♪) [giggling] (♪♪)

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of more than 212 miles per hour. "early today" will be right back. e start of the paris olymp, and, among we are just hours away from the start of the paris olympics, and, among the elite athletes, several from ukraine have made the hard journey to compete for something even bigger than the summer games. here's richard engel. >> reporter: when russia invaded ukraine in february 2022, bogdan, a 66-kilogram, european judo champion was training for paris. >> >> 5:00 in the morning, my best friend called my and said war started. >> reporter: so was yaroslavl, the world's number one ranked high jumper. with training facilities torn apart by russian bombs. brief

believe it or not, there was a nice gymnasium here. and constant air raid sirens interrupting almost every practice. >> if start attack, we have bomb shelter in our sport hall. >> reporter: suddenly, the two athletes faced an impossible choice. should they go abroad where it's safer or remain in ukraine? bogdan close to stay. he couldn't bear to leave his wife and son. >> sometimes it's really hard to fight. but i want to won for my country and make our people a little bit happy. >> reporter: yaroslavl made the painful decision to go abroad, training across western europe. she worries about her parents and sister who live in dnipro, that's often attacked by russia. >> wmy father said you should show the whole world what happened in our country.

>> reporter: despite the strain, she's gone from success to success, and this month broke a 37-year-old world record. >> my jumps, my competition for my county, for the soldiers. >> i fight for my country. i'm always proud to be ukrainian. >> reporter: bogdan and yaroslavl both say the war is motivating them to show the world ukraine is still standing strong. richard engel, nbc news, kiev, ukraine. >> and we will be cheering them on. coming up on "today", the long wait is over. savannah and hoda are live in paris to kick off the summer olympics. we'll have a behind the scenes look at the team usa experience center, and you can catch the opening ceremony. yeah, finally, it's here. tonight at 7:30 eastern right here on nbc. thanks (vo) with wells fargo premier, a team can help you plan for your dreams. so your dream car, and vacation home, may be closer than you think.

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