Up First from NPR - Olympics Open, TikTok Battle Continues, Brand Name Goods

Episode Date: July 27, 2024

Paris pulls off its opening ceremonies despite security risks. The U.S. government responds to TikTok's efforts to stay operating under its current owner. Consumer companies notice shoppers shying away from high prices.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

The City of Light welcomes the best athletes in the world on boats. A procession down the Seine River opens the Summer Olympics in Paris. Just hours after attacks on the French train network. I'm Scott Simon. I'm Debbie Elliott. And this is Up First from NPR News. Paris takes the opening ceremonies out of the stadium and into the city, an Olympic first. Everything on the river, the horse.

The horse is floating through the water, but carrying the flame through the river too. We'll have more on the 33rd Olympiad coming up. Plus, the Justice Department responds to TikTok's efforts to stay in business under its current owner. And how consumer companies are feeling your pain from their prices. Stay with us. We have the news you need to start your weekend. Now, Our Change will honor 100 years of the Royal Canadian Air Force and their dedicated service to communities at home and abroad. From the skies to Our Change, this $2 commemorative circulation coin marks their

storied past and promising future. Find the limited edition Royal Canadian Air Force $2 coin today. Security risks were massive. A four-hour, four-mile-long open-air procession of athletes through the heart of Paris. But Paris did it. A spectacular opening ceremony and in rain. NPR's Eleanor Beardsley was there. Good morning, Eleanor. Great to be with you, Scott. Oh, what was it like to be there? Extraordinary, audacious, impertinent, full of surprises. You know, Paris became an open-air theater last night with performances along rooftops, the riverbanks, the monuments. Twelve amazing tableaus unfolded with scenes like liberty and darkness. Lady Gaga on Ile de la Cité performing with pink plumes on a piano.

A French Revolution scene with a hard rock band and Marie Antoinette's decapitated head speaking from a window in the castle where she was actually held prisoner before her guillotining. A hooded medieval character ran across the Paris rooftops with the Olympic flame. A glowing white horseman galloped down the middle of the river. Dancers hung beautifully from the scaffolding of Notre Dame. Any room for the, you know, the athletes? Of course. There were 85 boats carrying 6,800 waving athletes from 205 nations.

They sailed by in the river procession in the middle of it all. They looked excited with smiles on their faces, something we haven't seen in the last two Olympics because of COVID. Scott, did I mention the stunning light show at the Eiffel Tower? I think you just did. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, it all ended with the flame coming back down the river in a speedboat

driven by tennis stars Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, USA sprinter Carl Lewis, and Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci. Remember her? Yes.

To the Tuileries Gardens where it was lifted up into the dark Paris sky over the Louvre in a hot air balloon while Céline Dion, who hasn't sung in four years, belted out a classic from French icon Edith Piaf.

Oh, my word. I've got to tell you, the Marie Antoinette stuff shook me up a bit. Such a spectacular production. Any problems? Well, the rain. It came down almost the whole time, but it didn't bother everyone. We spoke to Daniela Rodriguez from New Jersey. Listen to her.

It was rainy, but it was worth it, definitely. I like Celine Dion. Everything on the river, the horse. The horse is floating through the water, but carrying the flame through the river, too. You know, and this morning, Scott, I spoke to my neighbor, 70-year-old Pierrette Picoc, who said she was glued to her TV for four hours last night.

Listen to her. This ceremony was simply magical. A great moment for France. She said it was pure magic, a huge moment for France. And she added that she was also relieved that everything went well. There were those attacks on the high-speed train network in the early hours of yesterday. How did that affect the ceremony? Yeah, that sabotage, coordinated sabotage, you know, briefly crippled train service. A huge investigation is underway. But, you know, it didn't affect the ceremony, but it made people a little jittery before the opening. The security's been massive.

They had to anticipate threats from the sky, the ground, the water, even under the water. They used sonar and anti-drones. There were 50,000 police officers and soldiers on the streets of the Capitol. Scott, they closed the Paris airspace for six hours. That's unprecedented. And now the games begin, don't they? Absolutely. We've got two weeks today.

We have a big race, 400-meter freestyle women's. It's set to be the clash of three giants who've held the world record, Australian Ariane Titmuss, budding Canadian star Summer McIntosh, and Katie Ledecky, the best U.S. swimmer, who said this week she is ready. And Pierre's Eleanor Beardsley in Paris. You're going to have a great time. Good work, Eleanor. Thanks so much.

Thank you, Scott. The battle over TikTok continues. The app company filed a lawsuit in May over a new law that won't permit it to operate in the U.S. under its Chinese owner. The Justice Department responded in court filings late last night. NPR Justice Correspondent Ryan Lucas joins us. Ryan, thanks for being with us. Thanks for having me, Scott. And while it's fresh on your mind, remind us of the details of the lawsuit. Well, first off, I think it's important to remind people that the law was passed by Congress on an overwhelming bipartisan basis.

And it was signed by President Biden. This was back in April. Now, as for TikTok's lawsuit, TikTok says that this law is unconstitutional. And its main argument here is that it says the law violates the First Amendment because the company says it would effectively silence the 170 million Americans or so who use the app to share videos, express their opinions on all sorts of things, including, of course, politics. TikTok also says the choice that the law gives the company between divestment and a ban is really no choice at all. TikTok says

this just isn't possible commercially. It's not possible technologically or legally either. And what does the U.S. Justice Department say in response? When it's filing, the Justice Department defends this law, says it is necessary because of long running national security concerns about TikTok. And it rejects TikTok's claims that the statute is unconstitutional. The department says the law takes aim at national security concerns, not speech, and it says the company itself doesn't have First Amendment rights. As for any impact on the millions of Americans who create content on TikTok, department officials say that is just incidental. Those content creators are not being regulated. And they also don't have a First Amendment right

to use TikTok in particular, as opposed to any other social media platform. And how does the Justice Department address the national security concerns? Well, it's interesting. It frames this very much within the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China. The department says because of TikTok's incredible reach in the U.S., China's government could use the app to push Beijing's geopolitical agenda. And that, of course, for the U.S. is a massive national security threat. The department says there are two main concerns here, data collection and what it says is content manipulation. The department says TikTok collects a ton of sensitive data on U.S. users that includes precise locations, viewing habits,

private messages, all the contacts on your phone, even those that don't use TikTok, the department says. And under Chinese law, Chinese companies are required to turn over sensitive data to China's government when it asks for it and to do so in secret. And on the content manipulation side, the concern is that China could use TikTok to promote disinformation in the U.S. or to stoke social divisions. The department also filed sworn declarations from senior national security officials, and those say that TikTok and its parent company have manipulated content on their platforms in the past, including at the direction of China's government, and that TikTok collected data on U.S. users' views on sensitive topics, things like gun control, abortion, and then also religion. Ryan, didn't TikTok propose some measures to try and satisfy the national security concerns that wouldn't involve selling the company? They did.

They did. There were actually several years of talks between the U.S. government and TikTok to try to address these national security concerns. One proposal that TikTok put forward, in fact, was to separate its American operations from its Chinese parent company. But the department says TikTok's proposals ultimately fell short. It says TikTok's U.S. operations couldn't really be walled off from Chinese influence, from its Chinese parent company, and that U.S. user data would continue to flow to China so that even under these proposals, the national security risks remained. But look, this is a very big, very complex case there. As we've said, national security implications,

there are free speech interests. The stakes are incredibly high. Very thorny issues. And ultimately, of course, this is going to be up to the courts to settle. NPR Justice Correspondent Ryan Lucas, thanks so much. Thank you, Scott. American consumers are going generic. Quarterly earnings calls from big consumer brands suggest that inflation has turned many people into bargain hunters. And those brands may lower prices to get back some business. NPR's Alina Selyuk is here with an update.

Hi, thanks for being on Up First. Thank you. So you've been listening in on all these earnings calls. Give us the scoop. Well, so the companies I listen to are some of the giants like Coca-Cola, Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, Colgate-Palmolive. And one big takeaway is that companies are definitely aware that you hate their higher prices, and they are starting to feel it. They are seeing people like Arian Navarro from Houston picking the store brands over the big names she used to buy.

We used to buy Bounty and Charmin, but now it's like it doesn't matter. We're sticking a lot to the Kirkland brand, which is a Costco brand, and the Amazon Basics. And so these giant brand conglomerates are now saying maybe we got to cool it on the pricing thing. I don't want to say there's big talk about lowering prices for good, but definitely more talk about slowing down price increases and doing a bit more promotions. So maybe like discounts or deals, you know, everyone loves buy one, get one free sort of thing. Right, right. So what's motivating them now to curb prices? Is it purely because of changes in consumer behavior? Well, that's definitely the biggest power shoppers have, voting with their wallet. And for years now, consumer brands have been raising prices, blaming their own higher costs of ingredients and wages.

And it took a while for them to start noticing people meaningfully pushing back on those prices. In fact, shoppers this year are actually buying more groceries than last year. You still have, for example, Colgate-Palmolive saying its advertising is keeping shoppers reaching for that brand name stuff despite higher prices. But some of the companies are seeing big cracks, people buying fewer of their items and switching to cheaper brands like Nestle, which also owns Nescafe and Gerber Baby Food, Kimberly-Clark selling less toilet paper and tissue, Pepsi selling less chips and soda. So let's shift to the big

picture now. Does this shopping behavior tell us anything about the broader economy? As always, it's quite complicated. There are many contradictory signals. It is clear that people are still out shopping. This week, federal data showed that consumer spending in the last quarter rose more than expected. And earlier this month, people spent a record amount on Prime Day sales, estimated $14 billion on appliances, electronics, back-to-school supplies. It is also clear that all this varies by income. It's much trickier for folks with lower and middle incomes, folks putting stuff on credit cards with high interest rates. Here's how Coca-Cola CEO James Quincy summed it up. Definitely, there's a piece of the lower income consumers which are either going out slightly less or when they do go somewhere looking for greater value through combo meals.

Having said that, there are just as much consumers spending on more premium categories or more premium price points. Many people are going out to eat and drink a lot less. Everyone is hunting for deals. But some people are putting those extra going-out dollars toward their favorite premium brand at the grocery store. And all that adds up to a resilient economy, if you want to use that jargon. So, Alina, what are you tracking next? Next week is a big week. We'll get more clues about the American consumer from McDonald's, Kraft Heinz, Procter & Gamble, and Amazon. There's also the meeting of Federal Reserve officials, where they will once again

discuss lowering interest rates later this year. And all this is connected, obviously, because few of us are watching prices with as much interest as the Fed. Its quest is to cool down inflation by slowing the economy, but not too much, which of course means spending would slow down also. And so far, inflation has been cooling. The economy has been slowing. But how much further will it go? That's unclear. NPR business correspondent Alina Selyuk, thanks so much. Thank you. And that's up first for Saturday, July 27th, 2024. I'm Scott Simon.

And I'm Debbie Elliott. Danny Hensel produced today's episode with help from Fernando Nero, Gabe O'Connor, and Michael Radcliffe. Andrew Craig is our director. Our editors have been Russell Lewis, Miguel Macias, Emily Kopp, Shannon Rhodes, and Matthew Sherman. Hannah Glovna is our technical director with engineering support from Stacey Abbott, Arthur Laurent, and Andy Huther. Evie Stone is our senior supervising editor. Sarah Lucy Oliver is our executive producer.

And Jim Kane is back as our deputy managing editor. Jim, much happened while you were gone? Tomorrow on this Sunday Story podcast, a story about a transgender woman in Uganda prosecuted under the Anti-Homosexuality Act there. She found an unexpected ally in her deeply traditional mother. And you can listen to more news, more interviews, sports, including news about and from the Olympics all weekend long on your NPR station.

You can find it by going to stations.npr.org.