Olympic flame for Milan Cortina Winter Games arrives in Italy following handover in Greece

ROME (AP) — The Olympic flame for the Milan Cortina Winter Games landed in Rome on Thursday following a handover in Greece.

The flame was carried in a small lantern aboard an ITA Airways flight between the Greek and Italian capitals.

Tennis player Jasmine Paolini — an Olympic gold medalist — and local organizing committee president Giovanni Malagò carried the flame off the plane.

“I feel honored. It’s an incredible emotion,” Paolini said in brief remarks before the lantern was driven away toward the presidential palace.

A 63-day torch relay covering 12,000 kilometers (nearly 7,500 miles) will start in Rome on Saturday and wind its way through all 110 Italian provinces before reaching Milan’s San Siro Stadium for the opening ceremony on Feb. 6.

It’s the first time in nearly 20 years — since the 2006 Turin Games — that Italy has hosted the flame.

On Friday, the flame will be used to light a cauldron at the Quirinale Palace where Italy President Sergio Mattarella resides, with International Olympic Committee president Kirsty Coventry expected to be in attendance.

Then the torch relay — featuring 10,001 torch bearers — will start a day later from the statue-lined Stadio dei Marmi.

The flame was formally handed to Italian organizers earlier Thursday in the all-marble stadium in central Athens where the first modern Olympics were held nearly 130 years ago.

“To stand here in this historic stadium provides an inspiring reminder of the honor we have been granted and the precious treasure we will carry home with us,” Malagò said before receiving the flame.

After spending the night burning in a cauldron outside the 5th century B.C. Parthenon temple atop the Acropolis, Greece’s most famous landmark, the flame was carried into the Panathenaic stadium by Greek water polo player Elena Xenaki, who lit another cauldron in the stadium along with Greece’s women’s national water polo team.

The flame was lit on Nov. 26 in Ancient Olympia, the site of the ancient games that inspired the modern Olympic movement, using a concave mirror to focus the sun’s rays on a torch in a highly ceremonial performance.

The torch relay, which includes 60 city celebrations, will be in Naples for Christmas and in Bari for New Year’s Eve. It will reach 2006 host Turin on Jan 11.

The torch will arrive in Verona on Jan. 18 and pass through Cortina d’Ampezzo on Jan. 26 — on the 70th anniversary of the opening ceremony of the 1956 Winter Olympics held at the resort in the Dolomites.

There will also be a cauldron lit in Cortina on the night of the opening ceremony.

These games will be held across a large swath of northern Italy and the ceremony will be observed in four different locations, including Livigno (where snowboarding and freestyle skiing will be contested) and Predazzo (ski jumping).

Skating sports will be held in Milan; men’s Alpine skiing and ski mountaineering in Bormio; and women’s Alpine skiing, sliding sports and curling in Cortina.

The idea of the Olympic flame and torch relay was the result of Greek-German cooperation and began ahead of the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany. The tradition has been followed ever since.

A separate flame for the March 6–15 Winter Paralympics will be lit on Feb. 24 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in England, the birthplace of the Paralympic movement.

Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece. AP Sports Writer Andrew Dampf contributed.

AP Winter Olympics at https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

President of the Milano Cortina Organising Committee Giovanni Malago, right, and Italian Olympic medalist tennis player Jasmine Paolini hold a lantern with the Olympic flame as they arrive at Rome's International airport Leonardo da Vinci from Athens, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

President of the Milano Cortina Organising Committee Giovanni Malago, right, and Italian Olympic medalist tennis player Jasmine Paolini hold a lantern with the Olympic flame as they arrive at Rome's International airport Leonardo da Vinci from Athens, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Italian Olympic medalists tennis player Jasmine Paolini holds a torch during the Olympic flame handover ceremony for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at Panathenaic stadium, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of High Priestess, lights a torch from the cauldron during the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Greek actress Mary Mina, playing the role of High Priestess, lights a torch from the cauldron during the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics flame handover ceremony at Panathenaic stadium, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

The Milan Cortina 2026 Olympic flame on a flight to Rome Fiumicino departing from Athens, Greece, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP)

President of the Milano Cortina Organising Committee Giovanni Malago, right, and Italian Olympic medalist tennis player Jasmine Paolini hold a lantern with the Olympic flame as they arrive at Rome's International airport Leonardo da Vinci from Athens, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)

Italian Olympic medalists tennis player Jasmine Paolini, right, lights a torch from World Wrestling Champion Giorgos Kougioumtsidis, left, during the Olympic flame handover ceremony for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at Panathenaic stadium, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025.(AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Greek Women's National Water polo player Elena Xenaki, left, lights the cauldron during the Olympic flame handover ceremony for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at Panathenaic stadium, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Greece, Olympic and Italy flags, from left, wave during the Olympic flame handover ceremony for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at Panathenaic stadium, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

Olympic Gold Medalist rower Stefanos Ntouskos lights a cauldron with the Olympic flame in front of the ancient Parthenon temple atop of Acropolis hill during the Olympic torch relay for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, in Athens, Greece, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

Greek Women's National Water polo player Elena Xenaki lights the cauldron during the Olympic flame handover ceremony for the Milan Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at Panathenaic stadium, in Athens, Greece, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis)

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Here’s a snapshot of prominent economic data and news that occurred over the past week and what it potentially means for you.

The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate climbed this week to its highest level in nearly nine months, driving up borrowing costs for homebuyers during what’s traditionally the housing market’s busiest time of the year.

The benchmark 30-year fixed rate mortgage rate rose to 6.51% from 6.36% last week, mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday. Despite the sharp increase, the average rate remains below 6.86%, where it was a year ago.

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Expectations of higher oil prices and worries about big and growing debts for the U.S. government and others have pushed up long-term bond yields, causing mortgage rates to head higher.

U.S. retailers have spent months navigating an uncertain economic environment, from President Donald Trump’s tariffs to the impact of soaring gasoline prices due to the Iran war. The average price for a gallon of regular gasoline rose again this week, ending at about $4.55 per gallon on Friday, according to AAA. Gasoline prices are about 45% above where they were at this time last year.

Based on quarterly financial reports from Walmart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s and TJX, shoppers are cautious but still spending, helped by more generous tax refunds. Yet there is a widespread belief among economists that once those refunds dry up, shoppers will pull back on spending. Consumer spending is the dominant economic engine for the U.S., and retreat would have broad implications for the U.S.

Walmart issued a forecast for the current quarter on Thursday that was weaker than what Wall Street had been expecting. Target raised its annual revenue outlook on Wednesday, saying it expected momentum to continue the rest of the year. Yet the upgraded sales expectations were still below the pace of the first quarter.

Fewer Americans filed for jobless aid last week as layoffs remain low despite a number of uncertainties that continue to cloud the economy.

U.S. applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending May 16 fell by 3,000 to 209,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s fewer than the 213,000 new applications analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.

Weekly filings for unemployment benefits are considered a proxy for U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

Despite historically low layoffs, the labor market appears to be stuck in what economists call a “low-hire, low-fire” state. That’s kept the unemployment rate low at 4.3%, but left many of those out of work struggling to find new employment.

The split between Wall Street and most U.S. households grew even wider Friday, as U.S. stocks rose toward the finish of an eighth straight winning week, their longest such streak since 2023. That’s even though a survey showed on the same day that U.S. consumers are feeling worse about the economy.

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A hiring sign is displayed at a restaurant in Niles, Ill., Thursday, May 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)

Drones operated by Zipline leave base to make deliveries from a Walmart store in Pea Ridge, Ark., Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

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