Vice President Harris stops by US Olympic basketball practice. Her message: 'Bring back the gold'

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris was a surprise guest at the U.S. Olympic men's basketball team's practice Tuesday, and her message was clear.

“Bring back the gold,” Harris said.

Harris — who flew to Las Vegas on Tuesday for campaign appearances — addressed the team briefly at the end of its fourth and final training camp practice session. She has long said that she's a Golden State Warriors fan; the U.S. team is coached by the Warriors' Steve Kerr and includes Warriors guard Stephen Curry.

“It's a great reminder of the fact that we're playing for our country,” said Kerr, who has met Harris on multiple occasions because of her Warriors fandom. “Vice President Harris told the guys how much she admired them, how much they really embody excellence and that we are going over there to try to win a gold medal for our country.”

Harris shook hands with the players, chatted briefly with LeBron James and a few others, and posed for a group photo with the team.

“Truly, you all represent the best of the best,” Harris told them. “And being Team USA, it is about representing our nation. You are, as you are every day on and off the court, ambassadors for who we are as a country. You represent leaders in every walk of life. And for you to go to Paris and bring back that gold is just another example of your excellence, your teamwork, your compassion and your commitment.”

U.S. assistant coach Erik Spoelstra said he didn't know the vice president was coming to practice.

“It was a pretty special moment for the entire group,” Spoelstra said. “She just mentioned that we represent our country and everybody's going to be watching and rooting for us and it's a big responsibility. But she knows that we all are putting in the work to represent everybody here and do it with class.”

Harris is planning to meet with voters in both Las Vegas and Dallas this week. She’s facing extra attention among Democrats considering her prospects as a possible replacement for President Joe Biden, who is resisting calls to step aside.

The U.S. men's team plays its first of five pre-Olympic exhibition games Wednesday against Canada in Las Vegas. Even though that game won't have any bearing on the Olympics — the first U.S. game in France is against Serbia on July 28 — Harris encouraged the team to go ahead and start winning now.

“Our nation is cheering you on and we are so proud of you,” Harris said. “Beat Canada and bring back that gold.”

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

FILE - Vice President Kamala Harris takes a photo with Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, left, and others, in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, May 17, 2022, during a reception to celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign is launching its formal outreach campaign to Asian-American voters, putting Vice President Kamala Harris at the forefront of the effort with events in Nevada and Pennsylvania this week. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Dozens of members of Tunisia’s largest opposition party were arrested this week ahead of this weekend's formal start of the campaign season for the country’s presidential election, officials of the Islamist party said Friday.

Ennahda, the party that rose to power in the aftermath of the country’s Arab Spring, said Friday that tallies collected by its local branches suggested at least 80 men and women from the party had been apprehended as part of a countywide sweep.

In a statement, Ennahda called the arrests “an unprecedented campaign of raids and violations of the most basic rights guaranteed by law.”

Former Minister of Youth and Sports Ahmed Gaaloul, a member of the party’s executive committee and advisor to its imprisoned leader Rached Ghannouchi, said the party had counted at least 80 arrests and was in the process of checking at least 108 total. The arrests included high-ranking party officials and had continued through Friday afternoon. Among them were Mohamed Guelwi, a member of the party’s executive committee, and Mohamed Ali Boukhatim, a regional party leader from Ben Arous, a suburb of Tunis.

The mass arrests are the latest to mar an already turbulent election season in Tunisia.

With political apathy rampant and the country’s most prominent opposition figures in prison, President Kais Saied has long been expected to win a second term without significant challenge. But the past few months have seen major upheaval. Saied has sacked the majority of his cabinet and authorities have arrested more of his potential opponents. The country’s election authority made up of members he appointed has defied court orders to keep certain challengers off of the October 6 ballot.

Those moves came after months of cascading arrests of journalists, lawyers and leading civil society figures, including many critics of the president charged under a controversial anti-fake news law that human rights groups say has been increasingly used to quash criticism.

FILE - Tunisia's President Kais Saied speaks during a media conference at an EU Africa summit in Brussels, Friday, Feb. 18, 2022. (Johanna Geron, Pool Photo via AP, File)