Hello from France,

One task for Kamala Harris is to prove she is far more energetic than her current boss. Admittedly, that’s a low bar. The more lively the 59-year-old proves to be, the more that voters should see the contrast to her opponent, Donald Trump. If Mr Trump starts to be perceived as an elderly man, prone to senior moments and unable to work relentlessly long days, his pugnacious appeal might dim. Perhaps that explains why our poll trackershows Ms Harris closing the gap with him.

Ms Harris has indeed moved fast in the past week. After the Obamas endorsed her to be the Democrats’ presidential nominee on Friday there is zero possibility that any rival could emerge. The only serious question remaining about Ms Harris’s nomination is over her choice of running-mate—that will come within days. In my view, the choice of running-mate is most unlikely to influence the result by much, but it will still say something about Ms Harris. We’ve weighed the merits of a small number of front-runners.

We’ve published a great deal more since last Sunday on the big events in American politics, including this new story on the politics of immigration and how that might affect support for Ms Harris. One of my favourite developments concerns social-media memes, the “brat” phenomenon and Ms Harris. If, like me, you needed a guide to brat, then I’d strongly recommend this piece.

Elsewhere, after a missile strike killed 12 young people in the Golan Heights fears are growing once again of an escalation in the (so far) low-level conflict between Israel and Hizbullah. Binyamin Netanyahu is under pressure to retaliate, but is keen to avoid all-out war.

In happier news, the Olympics are under way. I’m in France, but avoiding the great whirl of activity (and jammed-up train lines) in Paris. We published a great article assessing the future of sports fandom, which makes a complementary read as you enjoy the games.

For a game of a different sort, our latest version of Dateline, our history quiz, is now live. You may spot a theme this week.

We’re also paying close attention to the election (of sorts) in Venezuela today. Look out for our analysis of that tomorrow. And we’re fascinated to know which businesses are spending what on AI. Our latest analysis has just been published.

Finally, thanks for the many entries for our first week of our new caption competition (related to the image, below, of Joe Biden from 2021). You brought us many chuckles. Numerous fans of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” offered “So long, and thanks for all the fish”. Several of you went with versions of puns on the president’s name, such as “Bye bye den”. Golf enthusiasts suggested variations of “hole in one”. We’ve made a shortlist of our three favourites:

1. “Yes, Lord. I hear you now.” – John A. Kithas
2. “Drowning, not waving” – Julian J. Towsey (and several others)
3. “That’s all folks” – Carla Flores, in Paris (and many, many others)

For the second week, what would you suggest for Donald Trump? We used the image (below) on the cover, in July 2023, referring to his plans for a second term. It has been an eventful 12 months since then. What caption would you suggest for this image now? Keep your suggestion to a few words—we’ll again pick the best, ideally the funniest. Again, write to us at economisttoday@economist.com with your suggestion.