Belarusian forces will hold joint military exercises with Wagner fighters near its border with NATO-member Poland, Belarus’ Defence Ministry said.

Wagner fighters arrived in Belarus following a short-lived mutiny by the private military group last month. On Wednesday, its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin was apparently seen in a video greeting his fighters in the country.

“The Armed Forces of Belarus continue joint training with the fighters of PMC ‘Wagner,’” the defence ministry said in a statement.

“During the week, units of the special operations forces together with representatives of the company will work out training and combat tasks at the Brestsky training ground,” it added.

The ministry didn’t say when exactly the exercises would take place.

Poland said its borders were secure and that it was monitoring the situation, Reuters reported.

At the beginning of July, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko invited Wagner forces into Belarus to help train his country’s military. The invite came shortly after the failed armed insurrection by Wagner forces against Moscow, which Lukashenko was credited with helping diffuse.

“Welcome guys! I am happy to greet you all. Welcome to the Belarusian land! We fought with dignity! We have done a lot for Russia,” a man resembling and sounding like Prigozhin says in the video, which was posted on pro-Wagner Telegram channels on Wednesday and then shared on Prigozhin’s account.

Prigozhin’s whereabouts has been hotly debated following his short-lived rebellion.

The rebellion by his group posed one of the biggest threats yet to the rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Also this week, the head of the UK intelligence service MI6 said Putin had no choice but to reach an agreement with the Wagner leader in order to end the uprising, saying he “cut a deal to save his skin.”

Brian Harman won the 151st Open Championship on Sunday, sealing the first major of his career in dominant fashion.

Amid a sea of umbrellas at a rain-soaked Royal Liverpool, the American weathered a stormy start to lift the Claret Jug, finishing six shots ahead of Australia’s Jason Day, Austria’s Sepp Straka, South Korea’s Tom Kim and Spain’s Jon Rahm.

The 36-year-old had taken a commanding five-stroke lead into the final round. He rebounded from two early bogeys to card a closing one-under 70 to finish on 13-under par overall, securing him a $3 million winner’s cut of the $16.5 million prize purse.

Harman, ranked 26th in the world, had previously won twice on the PGA Tour since turning pro in 2009, but a runner-up finish at the 2017 US Open had marked the closest the Georgia-born golfer had come to winning one of the sport’s flagship events.

“I’m going to have me a few pints from this trophy, I believe,” Harman said during his winner’s interview.

“This golf course was a real test. It was set up so great, even with the weather … to all the fans, all the nice words and all the people that were back home rooting me on, I appreciate it – thank you so much.”

Victory in the fourth and final men’s major of the year marks the third straight win by an American after Brooks Koepka secured his third PGA Championship and Wyndham Clark won a first career major at the US Open.

McIlroy’s wait goes on

Masters champion Rahm and 21-year-old Kim will both be left to rue slow starts after the duo began the week with rounds of three-over 74.

Rory’s McIlroy’s wait for a fifth major title will tick over to a decade despite yet another strong showing on the biggest stage, as he finished tied-sixth at six-under overall with Argentina’s Emiliano Grillo.

The Northern Irishman won the last time the Open was hosted at Royal Liverpool nine years ago but never looked in serious contention to repeat the feat, as he closed with a 68.

Remarkably, it marks the 34-year-old’s 20th top-10 major finish since his last major triumph at the 2014 US Open, and his third of the year after finishing tied-seventh and second at the PGA Championship and US Open respectively.

“Every time I tee it up or most times I tee it up, I’m right there,” McIlroy told reporters. “I can’t sit here and be too frustrated. You think about my performances in the majors between like 2016 and 2019, it’s a lot better than that.

“I’m optimistic about the future, and just got to keep plugging away.”

Déjà vu

He said the target was 10 hours sleep, but it is difficult to imagine Harman nodded off quickly Saturday night.

To say he had nothing to gain and everything to lose may have been harsh – there are few bigger gains than a first career major – but for those who have performed brilliantly enough to build such a commanding lead heading into the final round, the cruel reality is that anything other than victory will inevitably go down as a catastrophe.

History was on Harman’s side, with nine of the last 11 players to take a minimum five-stroke lead into the final 18 holes of a major during the last four decades ultimately ending the weekend with silverware.

Yet, the two who didn’t are remembered as golf’s greatest capitulations.

Greg Norman saw a six-shot final round lead disintegrate at the 1996 Masters, while pictures of France’s Jean van de Velde stood ankle deep in the waters at a damp Carnoustie in 1999 – smiling even as his dreams of a Claret Jug and a first career major washed away – are seared into the memories of many golf fans.

As the rain hammered Hoylake on Sunday, it was hard not to feel a sense of ominous déjà vu to the Open’s most notorious implosion.

Though if Harman felt any such anxiety, it was firmly buried at the first tee as the American striped his opening drive down the first fairway before putting for par.

But as he bogeyed the second, the chasing pack were bunching in Harman’s rearview mirror, albeit from a healthy distance. Rahm became the first to break clear and turn up the heat, rolling in his first birdie of the day at the fifth to cut the lead to four.

That temperature cranked even higher moments later when Harman, playing in the group behind the Spaniard, could only bogey the same hole.

Already, the lead was down to three, and the specter of Van de Velde crept a little closer.

Ghostbuster

Harman quickly found ghostbusting form, and in some style. After draining a brilliant birdie putt from almost 14 feet, the world No. 26 repeated the feat from 10 feet further at the seventh hole.

Just as soon as the door had opened, it had slammed shut, as Rahm’s first bogey of the day before the turn restored Harman’s advantage to six.

It flattened the atmosphere of a damp Hoylake crowd, which had crackled with the sense of potential drama during the opening stages. Harman was more than content to play party pooper, especially after admitting to taking some “unrepeatable” heckles when paired with local favorite Tommy Fleetwood on Saturday.

Read more: Brian Harman shrugs off ‘unrepeatable’ heckles

The chasing quartet did their best to inject more tension into proceedings, but Harman was unflappable. Even when a run of five straight pars was finally broken by a bogey at the 13th, the left-hander corrected course immediately with a birdie.

Breezing through the potentially scary par-three 17th hole with par, Harman carried an umbrella and a six-shot cushion to the final tee. Even as he found a bunker, it made for a comfortable walk down the fairway as he tipped his cap to a rousing reception from the Liverpool crowds.

Having been a picture of steely concentration all afternoon, a wide smile finally broke across Harman’s before he rolled home for par and the championship.

Jonas Vingegaard sealed his second consecutive Tour de France victory on the cobblestones of the Champs-Élysées in Paris on Sunday.

The Dane crossed the line arm in arm with his teammates with the Arc de Triomphe behind them, celebrating a dominant performance at the race.

Meanwhile, Belgium’s Jordi Meeus won the final, largely processional stage, on the Champs-Élysées, denying his compatriot Jasper Philipsen a fifth stage victory in this year’s race. Philipsen, however, did enough to seal the green jersey for the first time in his career.

Finely poised for two-and-a-half weeks, this year’s Tour de France was decided on two difficult days in the Alps – on Stage 16’s time trial when Tadej Pogačar lost 1:38 minutes to Vingegaard, a margin compounded on Stage 17 when the Slovenian cracked on the day’s final climb and lost another 5:45 minutes.

From that moment, Vingegaard seemed assured of his yellow jersey and he navigated the remaining three stages without much difficulty.

Ultimately, he finished 7:29 ahead of Pogačar in second, and 10:56 ahead of Britain’s Adam Yates in third.

Italy’s Giulio Ciccone won the King of the Mountains competition and rode through Paris resplendent in a polka-dot jersey and matching bike, while Pogačar won the white jersey, awarded to the best placed rider in the overall standings aged under 26.

As the men’s race finishes, the women’s race begins and Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky won the first stage of the Tour de France Femmes, held earlier in the day in Clermont-Ferrand. That race finishes on July 30.

As the Women’s World Cup reaches day five, fans are set to finally get a chance to see the great Marta feature for Brazil in what will be her sixth World Cup.

Brazil plays Panama in Group F, while Italy takes on Argentina and Germany plays debutant Morocco.

How to watch

In the US, games will be aired on FOX Sports, while Telemundo is providing Spanish-language coverage.

Seven Network and Optus Sport are broadcasting matches in Australia and the BBC and ITV have the rights in the United Kingdom.

A full breakdown of media rights holders in each country is available on the FIFA website.

Italy vs. Argentina starts at 2 a.m. ET, Germany vs. Morocco kicks off at 4:30 a.m. ET and Brazil takes on Panama at 7 a.m. ET.

Brazil vs. Panama

The build-up to this game has revolved around the magical Marta.

Only former Brazil legend Formiga, who has played in seven, has starred in more Women’s World Cups than Brazil’s talismanic No. 10.

Marta will also be looking to become the first player to score in six different World Cup tournaments. Alongside Marta, Cristiano Ronaldo and Christine Sinclair have also scored in five World Cups – Sinclair missing the opportunity to score in her sixth during Canada’s opener.

If Marta were to add to her record tally of World Cup goals, she would also become the oldest player to score in the competition.

“We want to win this trophy – particularly for Marta,” Brazil’s Kerolin told reporters. “She deserves it, because of everything she’s done in the game and because of the person she is. It’s hard to put into words the kind of person she is.”

Panama has won just one of its last five games coming into the World Cup. In a group with France, Brazil and Jamaica, first-timer Panama will have its work cut out to record a first World Cup victory.

Germany vs. Morocco

Germany, one of the tournament favorites, kicks off its campaign against Morocco.

Germany came agonizingly close to winning Euro 2022, losing to England in the final, and will be hoping to go one better in its latest efforts to win silverware.

Alexandra Popp, who missed the Euro 2022 final through injury, will once again be key to Germany’s fortunes.

The striker has scored 62 goals in her 128 games for the national side and will be looking to add to this tally against Panama.

As well as Popp, Germany will rely heavily on her Wolfsburg teammate Lena Oberdorf. The incredibly talented midfielder is a driving force in the middle of the park.

The Atlas Lionesses will be looking to channel the success of their male counterparts at the 2022 World Cup. The men’s team reached the semifinals in Qatar.

However, Morocco is winless and scoreless in five, a cause for concern when taking on a team like Germany.

Italy vs. Argentina

Argentina will be hoping for a first Women’s World Cup win. In nine previous World Cup games, Argentina has lost seven and drawn two.

Like Argentina, Italy has qualified for a fourth World Cup but has fared better than its opponents in previous editions.

Italy reached the quarterfinals in 2019 and will hope to use that experience to progress to the knockout stages this year.

It was a rare moment when the publicly visible Kremlin matched the reality behind closed doors.

That is according to the head of Britain’s MI6, who in a rare speech in Prague, gave the first confirmation from Western intelligence that private military group Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin did indeed strike a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his advance on Moscow during the failed rebellion of June 24. And he had, it seemed, been welcomed into the Kremlin to meet Putin days later.

The MI6 chief, known as C, also expressed some bafflement at the tremors around the Kremlin that weekend, and the speed in which loyalties were spurned and returned.

“If you look at Putin’s behaviors on that day,” Richard Moore said of June 24. “Prigozhin started off I think, as a traitor at breakfast. He had been pardoned by supper and then a few days later, he was invited for tea. So, there are some things and even the chief of MI6 finds that a little bit difficult to try and interpret, in terms of who’s in and who’s out.”

Western intelligence agencies have been reticent to comment on the failed rebellion, for fear of providing a false backbone to Russia’s familiar excuse for internal dissent – that it is arranged and fueled by Western spies. Yet the on-camera speech provided an opportunity for Moore’s expression to convey how shocking the weakness betrayed by Putin that weekend had been.

“He really didn’t fight back against Prigozhin,” Moore said. “He cut a deal to save his skin, using the good offices of the leader of Belarus,” he said, referring to the intervention of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko who struck the deal. “Even I can’t see inside Putin’s head,” he added. “He has to have realized, I am sure, that something is deeply rotten in the state of Denmark – to quote Hamlet – and he had to cut this deal.”

Moore added it was difficult to make “firm judgments” about the fate of Wagner itself, as a mercenary group, but they “do not appear to be engaged in Ukraine,” and that there “appears to be elements of them in Belarus.”

Moore chose the city of Prague, which he remarked as the last European capital to have Russian tanks roll into it before Ukraine, as a venue for a speech. He began with an unusually open appeal to Russians “silently appalled by the sight of their armed forces pulverizing Ukrainian cities, expelling innocent families from their homes, and kidnapping thousands of children” to spy for the United Kingdom.

“I invite them to do what others have already done this past 18 months and join hands with us. …Their secrets will always be safe with us, and together we will work to bring the bloodshed to an end.”

It was an abnormally public appeal that fit the upended global geopolitics forged by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

While Moore maintained that China is “absolutely complicit in the invasion” because of its continued support of the Kremlin head, he added that Iran’s support for Russia has caused division in its most senior officials. “Iran is clearly keen to make as much cash as it can out of this situation,” he said. And while Iran is notably selling drones that usually hit civilian targets, he added: “It will sell anything it can spare and it thinks it can get away with.”

After six months of street protests, parliamentary maneuvering, compromise talks and increasingly urgent pleas from Washington DC, Israeli lawmakers Sunday morning began debating the first judicial reform bill to come up for a final vote.

The move comes with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in hospital, having been fitted with a pacemaker.

Netanyahu has been pressing on with his plans for the judicial system after pausing them earlier this year in the face of widespread protests and international pressure.

He and his allies call the measures “reforms” and say they are required to rebalance powers between the courts, lawmakers and the government.

Opponents of the plan call it a coup and say it threatens to turn Israel into a dictatorship by removing the most significant check on government actions.

So many lawmakers have requested time to speak about the so-called reasonableness bill that the debate is scheduled to last for 26 hours, starting at 10am local time Sunday morning and lasting until noon the following day (3aET on Sunday until 5aET on Monday).

It’s the first part of the multi-pronged judicial overhaul plan to get to a final vote in the Knesset, and could be voted into law in on Monday evening.

The reasonableness bill, backed by Netanyahyu’s coalition government, would strip the Supreme Court of the power to declare government decisions unreasonable.

Other elements of the judicial overhaul would give the coalition government more control of the appointment of judges, and would remove independent legal advisors from government ministries. Those bills have not advanced as far in the legislative process at the reasonableness bill.

The Israel Bar Association is already preparing a legal challenge to the bill, the lawyers’ group said Sunday.

Its executive, the Bar Council, is holding an emergency meeting to approve the decision to petition the Supreme Court to cancel the reasonableness law if it passes on Monday, the Bar said.

The Bar is also warning it will shut down “as an act of protest against the anti-democratic legislative process,” the statement said. That means the Bar Association would not provide professional services to its members, not that lawyers would go on strike.

Netanyahu ‘doing great’

The final vote comes with Netanyahu facing health issues. The Israeli leader was fitted with a pacemaker early Sunday morning, according to a statement from his office.

The procedure happened at Tel Hashomer Hospital, says the statement. The prime minister was sedated during the surgery.

Netanyahu released a short video statement later Sunday, saying he was “doing great” after the operation. “I would like to thank the many of you who have asked how I am doing. I am doing great. Tomorrow morning I will join my colleagues in the Knesset,” Netanyahu said in the 25-second video.

Thousands of people again took to the streets of Israel on Saturday to protest the overhaul.

In Jerusalem protesters waved flags, blew horns, chanted “Democracy” and took selfies, the culmination of a protest march that began in Tel Aviv on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, the chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday took a stand against the growing number of Israelis vowing to stop volunteering for duty if the government’s controversial judicial overhaul plan becomes law.

“No service members have the right to say that they will no longer serve,” he said in an open letter to the military on Sunday.

“I call on all reservists, even in these complex days, to separate civil protests from reporting for duty to the security services. The calls to not report for duty harm the IDF and its readiness,” said Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, Israel’s top military officer.

Halevi’s letter comes after more than 1,000 Israel Air Force reserve officers vowed to stop volunteering if the judicial overhaul bill passes.

The party of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen declared a landslide victory in a general election on Sunday, a vote that critics widely dismissed as a sham aimed at cementing the party’s rule before an expected transfer of power to his eldest son.

The contest was effectively a one-horse race, with Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP), a political behemoth with a vast war chest, facing no viable opponent after a ruthless, years-long crackdown on its rivals.

Polls closed with a turnout of 84% according to the election committee, with 8.1 million people voting in a much-criticized contest between CPP and 17 mostly obscure parties, none of which won seats in the last election in 2018.

The only opponent with any real clout was disqualified from running.

“We’ve won in a landslide … but we can’t calculate the number of seats yet,” said CPP spokesperson Sok Eysan.

Self-styled strongman Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for 38 years, had brushed off all Western concern about the election’s credibility, determined to prevent any obstacle in his carefully calibrated transition to his anointed successor and eldest son, Hun Manet.

No timeframe had been given for the handover until Thursday, when Hun Sen signalled his son “could be” prime minister next month, depending on “whether Hun Manet will be able to do it or not”. He needed to win a National Assembly seat to become prime minister, which was likely.

Hun Sen said the turnout – the second highest in three decades – proved calls by his mostly overseas-based rivals to undermine the election with protest ballots had failed.

At least 31 people have been killed in devastating flash floods that hit parts of Afghanistan over the weekend, authorities said Sunday.

In a press conference from Kabul, Shafiullah Rahimi, spokesman for Taliban’s Ministry of Disaster Management, added that 74 people are injured and at least 41 remain missing.

Flash floods caused by heavy seasonal rain in seven of Afghanistan’s provinces have partially or completely damaged 606 residential houses, as well as hundreds of acres of agriculture lands, Rahimi said.

“Teams of the ministry along with teams from the ministry of defense, ministry of public welfare, Red Crescent, provinces officials and other officials reached at the scenes of the floods and administered the rescue operations,” he said.

The Taliban’s Ministry of State for Disaster Management also said in a statement on Sunday that since the start of 2023, nearly 100,000 families who have been affected by natural disasters in different provinces have received food and cash aid.

Natural disasters over the past four months have killed at least 214, including the latest known flash flood deaths, it said.

Russian missiles badly damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, sparking outrage and prompting President Zelensky to vow retaliation.

The strikes killed at least one person and injured several others, Ukrainian officials said, the latest in a wave of attacks on Odesa. The attacks also destroyed other historic buildings, Ukraine’s culture ministry said.

The Transfiguration Cathedral is Odesa’s largest church building. It was consecrated in 1809, destroyed during the Soviet era in 1936 before being rebuilt when Ukraine became an independent nation.

The cathedral lies in Odesa’s city center, which UNESCO named a World Heritage Site amid the threat of Russia’s invasion.

Video showed the inside of the cathedral strewn with debris. Ukrainian officials said the icon of the patroness of the city had been retrieved from under the rubble.

Odesa is a key cultural center, and has long links with Russia. It was founded under Catherine the Great and was once Russia’s second most important port.

Ukraine’s Operational Command said on Telegram “dozens of cars were damaged, facades and roofs of many buildings in the city were damaged and windows were blown out” in the strikes.

“Several craters have been formed in the city. There are power outages, which may hamper traffic and the route of public transport may be changed.”

Julia Gorodetska, a Ukrainian journalist who was caught up in the overnight attacks, wrote on her Facebook account that her house was left “shaking and bouncing.”

“It’s loud. Powerful. I’ve jumped up like a mountain goat and ran into the corridor. Nothing hurts anymore, there’s no depression. I desperately want to live,” she said, describing the moment the explosions hit.

The Russian Ministry of Defense denied targeting the cathedral and said it carried out attacks on where “terrorist acts” were being prepared. “All targets scheduled for attack were destroyed,” a statement added.

Ukraine has been struggling in the past week to repel a wave of Russian strikes against Odesa – its air defenses unable to cope with the types of missiles that Moscow has used to pummel the region.

In a statement on Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Moscow latest attack.

“Missiles against peaceful cities, against residential buildings, a cathedral… There can be no excuse for Russian evil,” Zelensky said. “As always, this evil will lose and there will definitely be a retaliation to Russian terrorists for Odesa. They will feel this retaliation,” he said.

“I am grateful to everyone who is helping people and to everyone who is with Odesa in their thoughts and emotions. We will get through this. We will restore peace. And for this, we must defeat the Russian evil.”

The EU”s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell tweeted that “Russia has already damaged hundreds of cultural sites, trying to destroy Ukraine.”

Elsewhere local military commanders reported at least two deaths following Russian overnight strikes in the Kharkhiv region, among them a 57-year-old woman and 45-year-old man killed in the Dvorichna district by shelling.

“Over the past day, the enemy has been massively shelling settlements in Kharkiv, Chuhuiv, Kupyansk and Izium districts with artillery, mortars and aircraft,” Oleh Syniehubov, head of the Kharkiv region military administration, said on Telegram.

Civilian industry buildings including at least three houses and outbuildings were also damaged as a result of the attacks on Kupyansk with rocket launchers, cannon artillery and mortars.

“Our defenders are holding their positions in the Kupyansk sector. The enemy has made no progress,” Syniehubov said.