The race is named for James Gordon Bennett Jr., playboy and heir to The New York Herald, who started the race in 1906 while he ran the newspaper’s Paris edition.

The event can be perilous. In 2010, the U.S. team disappeared during a storm over the Adriatic Sea. In 1995, a U.S. balloon crossed into Belarus air space and was shot down by the military.

This year’s race is going well. Australia’s team — Dariusz Brzozowski and Christopher Saunders — has the lead as of this writing. They caught a wind that took them nearly due west for 640.48 kilometers (about 398 miles), landing near Nantes just after noon local time on Sunday.

Last year’s winner, a team from Poland, traveled almost twice that. The distance record is 2,100 miles, set in 2005.

That’s it for this briefing. See you next time. — Alisha

Thank you

To Mark Josephson and Eleanor Stanford for the break from the news. Victoria Shannon wrote today’s Back Story. You can reach the team at briefing@nytimes.com.

P.S.

•We’re listening to Episode 4 of “The 1619 Project” podcast, on how race shaped the U.S. health system, and “The Daily,” about the Democratic presidential candidates’ debate in Houston.

• Here’s our Mini Crossword, and a clue: Like snakes and crocodiles (5 letters). You can find all our puzzles here.

• Marc Lacey, the National editor at The New York Times, will be a moderator for the next Democratic debate (Oct. 15), along with the CNN anchors Anderson Cooper and Erin Burnett.