A Ukrainian security official has claimed Kyiv’s responsibility for an attack on the bridge linking the annexed Crimean peninsula to the Russian mainland – a vital supply line for Russia’s war effort in Ukraine and a personal project for President Vladimir Putin.

The nearly 12-mile crossing, also known as the Kerch Bridge, is the longest in Europe and holds huge strategic and symbolic importance for Moscow. Monday’s attack on the bridge was the second since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, after a fuel tanker exploded while crossing it in October.

Ukraine’s minister for digital transformation later said that the bridge was struck by “naval drones.”

“Today the Crimean bridge was blown up by naval drones,” Mykhailo Fedorov said on Telegram on Monday “It is better to act, not to reveal photos of our own production facilities and to supply the defense forces,” Fedorov said.

Two people were killed and their daughter wounded in the attack, according to Russian-appointed officials.

Two strikes were reportedly carried out around 3 a.m. local time Monday (8 p.m. ET Sunday), damaging part of the bridge, according to Telegram channel Grey Zone, which supports the Wagner mercenary group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Russian President Putin called the Ukrainian strike a “terrorist attack” and vowed to retaliate. He also claimed there was no military significance to hitting the bridge.

“There will be a response from Russia to the terrorist attack on the Crimean bridge. The Ministry of Defense is preparing relevant proposals,” Putin said during a meeting with officials. “I would like to repeat that what happened is another terrorist act of the (Kyiv) regime.”

The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said a girl was injured and her parents were killed while traveling in the car that was damaged in the incident.

“There is damage to the roadway on spans of the Crimean Bridge,” Russia’s Transport Ministry said on Telegram. The spans on a bridge are the lengths between the support piers. Images showed a partial collapse of a section of the roadway portion of the bridge, which also carries railroad tracks.

Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said that the supports of the bridge were not damaged by the blast, according to preliminary assessments.

He later said traffic on the bridge will only resume in nearly two months time, adding that there “are ferries available for civilian and commercial transportation” and the railway bridge was still operational.

“Two-way traffic will be open for one lane only by September 15. Then two-way traffic in both lanes will open Nov 1,” he said in a remote meeting with officials, including Putin, televised on Monday. “One way on the railway bridge sustained insignificant damage that is not impacting the operation of trains.

Videos posted on Telegram by Baza, Grey Zone and other Crimean news outlets appeared to show part of the bridge collapsed and a vehicle damaged in the incident.

Emergency responders and law enforcement have been dispatched to the scene, said Sergey Aksenov, the Russia-appointed head of Crimea.

Aksenov urged residents and those traveling to and from Crimea to choose an alternative land route.

Critical artery

The bridge is a critical artery for supplying Crimea with both its daily needs and supplies for the military, in addition to fuel and goods for civilians.

A Russian-backed official of the peninsula, Elena Elekchyan, said Crimea is well supplied with fuel, food and industrial goods.

Denis Pushilin, the Russia-backed head of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, said on Telegram that he had spoken with his Crimean counterpart to introduce measures “to ensure the faster passage of checkpoints on the administrative border.” Pushilin said the nightly curfew was being suspended to allow “round-the-clock” travel to Crimea, and that he was working to ensure the availability of fuel at gas stations along the route.

Last year, another huge blast partially damaged the crossing, causing parts of it to collapse.

The bridge was severely damaged on October 8 when a fuel tanker exploded and destroyed a large section of the road. Responding to the attack – which took place the day after Putin turned 70 – Ukrainian officials posted a video of the bridge in flames alongside a video of Marilyn Monroe singing “Happy Birthday, Mister President.”

Russia built the 19-kilometer bridge at a cost of around $3.7 billion after Moscow illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014. It was the physical expression of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s objective to take over Ukraine and bind it to Russia forever.

After the October blast, Russia quickly set about repairs to the span. It was fully reopened to traffic in February.

Earlier this month, Ukraine’s Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar made what appeared to be the clearest admission yet that Ukrainian forces were responsible for the October attack.

A Ukraine official on Monday said damage to the bridge could hamper Russian logistics.

“Any logistical problems are additional complications for the occupiers, which create potential advantages for the Ukrainian defense forces,” Representative of the Defense Intelligence of Ukraine Andrii Yusov said to Ukraine’s public broadcaster, Suspilne.

Hours after the explosions on the bridge, Russia announced that it is allowing a deal struck to enable the export of Ukrainian grain to expire, sparking fears of global food insecurity.

Peskov also told reporters that the decision to allow the deal to lapse was not related to Ukraine’s claimed strike on the bridge.

“These are absolutely unrelated events,” he said. “Even before this terrorist attack, the position was declared by President Putin. And I repeat again, as soon as the part of the Black Sea agreements concerning Russia is fulfilled, Russia will immediately return to the implementation of the deal.”

The European Union signed a major deal with Tunisia on Sunday, promising the North African country as much as €1 billion ($1.12 bn) in investment, financial aid and loans in exchange for curbs on migrants leaving its shores for Europe.

The deal is a major boost for Tunisia’s President Kais Saied, an increasingly authoritarian leader who has spent the past few years dismantling the country’s democracy – a decade after a revolution there toppled a longtime dictator and sparked a region-wide rebellion against autocracy.

Tunisia had previously been described as the only democracy to have emerged from the 2011 Arab Spring movement.

“Since 2011, the European Union has been supporting Tunisia’s journey of democracy,” said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen after signing the agreement. “It is a long, sometimes difficult road. But these difficulties can be overcome.”

Several European lawmakers and human rights organizations have warned that any agreement that doesn’t include human rights assurances would be seen as an endorsement of Saied’s anti-democratic policies.

“In short, we are doing a deal with a dictator who is cruel and unreliable,” Dutch Member of the European Parliament Sophie in ‘t Veld said at a meeting of the body’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on Tuesday. “This deal does not align with our values, it will not be effective, and it is not concluded in a transparent and democratic way.”

That the EU signed it anyway is a testament to how desperate some European leaders have become to curb migration, analysts say.

Saied rose to power in 2019 after the death of Tunisia’s first democratically elected president Beji Caid Essebsi.

Running as an independent, he won a landslide victory after positioning himself as a political newcomer standing up to a corrupt elite.

But democratic ideals were pushed aside in 2021, when the president embarked on a major power grab at the height of the Covid-19 crisis. He ousted the government, dissolved parliament, and began ruling by decree.

Since then, he has cracked down on freedom of the press and judicial independence, even appointing himself as attorney general. Last year, he forced through a new constitution that cemented his one-man rule and dissolved any last hopes for a democratic government. He has also been accused of being responsible for the wave of anti-Black racism in the country amid an influx of migrants.

But Tunisia’s descent into authoritarianism was not on the agenda during the high-profile European visit over the weekend and journalists were not allowed to ask questions during the event.

Instead, Saied was all smiles while posing for photos alongside von der Leyen, Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte after signing the agreement.

Rutte’s presence was particularly striking. Just days before the trip to Tunis, he announced that he would be leaving Dutch politics after his government collapsed over migration policy.

The EU has long championed democracy in the Arab world, describing itself as a “firm promoter and defender of human rights and democracy across the world.” But it has in the past decade witnessed a flood of irregular migration that has seen it prioritize reducing numbers, analysts say, sometimes at the expense of its goal to promote human rights.

Vague agreement

Around 100,000 people have crossed the Mediterranean Sea to get to Europe so far this year, most of them arriving in Italy, according to the UN Refugee Agency.

Many made the dangerous journey on small boats operated by people smugglers who have little regard for safety. Since 2015, more than 23,000 people have either died or gone missing while trying to reach Europe, according to the UN.

The issue has pitted EU member states against each other. On one side are receiving countries like Italy that have seen an influx of tens of thousands of people per year and have asked the EU for help to resettle them. On the other side are states like Hungary and Poland which refuse to cooperate and take their share of refugees. Both countries are governed by populist right-wing leaders who argue that they should have control over whom they admit to their territory

But whether the deal with Tunisia could actually lead to a meaningful result is another question.

For one, the pact remains vague. While von der Leyen promised last month the agreement would be worth as much €1 billion in financial aid and loans, the text doesn’t mention that figure.

To dispense a substantial amount of money to Tunisia, the European Commission would also need to get support from the European Parliament and the European Council, which is made up of representatives of all EU member states.

That could be tricky. The parliament has repeatedly criticized the Tunisian leader, even adopting a resolution in March to express concern about what it called “President Saied’s authoritarian drift” and his “racist discourse against sub-Saharan migrants.”

There are also questions about the Commission’s mandate. The agreement hints that the EU will make it easier for Tunisians to get visas to come to Europe legally.

“This is a prerogative of EU member states. So the Netherlands and the [European] Commission can go to Tunis and commit to this and say the EU is going to make Vague progress on this, but if France or Germany decides that they don’t feel like it, well, they just won’t do it,” Le Coz said.

‘Destruction of democracy’

Gallien said that the lack of exact commitments in the text of the agreement means the deal is mostly symbolic.

“It is designed to show progress, to signal that they’re working together on these issues, because both sides have domestic audiences that have an interest in this, but I think it is very doubtful or very unclear at this point how much will come out of it,” he said.

But signals matter, critics say. The EU is cooperating with Tunisia on migration despite serious allegations of human rights abuses against migrants on Tunisia’s part. Tunisian forces have been accused of arbitrary detentions and inhuman treatment of migrants. And Saied himself has stoked tensions by describing migration into Tunisia from other parts of Africa as “criminal enterprise hatched at the beginning of this century to change the demographic composition of Tunisia.”

This isn’t the first time the EU has struck a deal with a North Afrian regime that has been accused of human rights abuses in order to stem migration. It brokered a similar agreement with Libya in 2017 despite documented human rights violations there. It announced additional support for Libya last year.

Gallien said Europe’s position on Tunisia’s descent into autocracy is worrying.

“We should not fall into the trap of just looking at other countries in the region and going ‘well, you know, there’s a lot of authoritarianism and consequently, Tunisia’s authoritarianism is less concerning’,” he said.

Tunisia’s democracy was not perfect, Gallien said, but “it did have a genuine attempt at developing democratic institutions.”

“This is a genuine destruction of something that has been built and consequently a narrowing of the options of a country of over 10 million people,” he added. “So, I think that is that is one reason we should be very concerned.”

Russia said Monday it was suspending its participation in a crucial deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain, once again raising fears over global food supplies and scuppering a rare diplomatic breakthrough to emerge from Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

The agreement, brokered by Turkey and the United Nations in July 2022, was officially set to expire at 5 p.m. ET on Monday (midnight local time in Istanbul, Kyiv, and Moscow).

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Russia would not renew the pact right now, saying it “has been terminated.”

Russia has for some time complained that it is being prevented from adequately exporting its own foodstuffs, and Peskov cited that objection as the reason for pulling out of the deal. “As soon as the Russian part is completed, the Russian side will return to the implementation of this deal immediately,” he told reporters.

Over the weekend, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the main objective of the deal – supplying grain to countries in need – “has not been realized,” again complaining that Russia faced obstacles exporting its own food.

Peskov left the door open to reviving the deal in the future, saying that Russia will comply “as soon as the Russian part (of the deal) is completed.”

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week accused Russia of using the grain deal “as a weapon.” And Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told CBS on Monday that “Russia has been slowly killing the grain initiative, from one extension to another.”

“Prices for grain all across the world will go up, and people in the most vulnerable regions of Asia, Africa, will feel it,” he said.

A vital deal for global food security

The deal allowed Ukraine to export grain by sea, with ships bypassing a Russian blockade of the country’s Black Sea ports and navigating safe passage through the waterway to Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait in order to reach global markets.

Vessels were inspected before they arrived in Ukraine by Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish officials, to ensure weapons were not being smuggled into Ukraine.

It proved vital for stabilizing global food prices and bringing relief to the developing countries which rely on Ukrainian exports. The impact of the war on global food markets was immediate and extremely painful, especially because Ukraine is a major supplier of grain to the World Food Programme (WFP).

According to the European Commission, Ukraine accounts for 10% of the world wheat market, 15% of the corn market, and 13% of the barley market. It is also a key global player in the market of sunflower oil. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), an UN body, warned at the time that as many as 47 million people could be pushed into “acute food insecurity” because of the war.

Since its implementation, the Black Sea Grain Initiative has allowed for the export of nearly 33 million metric tons of foodstuffs from Ukraine. The World Food Programme has shipped more than 725,000 tons to support humanitarian operations – helping to relieve hunger in some of the hardest hit corners of the world, including Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.

The rate of exports made under the deal had started to tail off in recent months; UN figures show that May and June were the two months with the fewest metric tons exported since August 2022.

In withdrawing from the pact, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Monday that its government was removing guarantees for safe navigation in the Black Sea.

There are alternative routes for Ukrainian grain and oilseed exports by rail through eastern Europe, but they can’t readily cope with the volume that Ukraine wants to export.

The UN official said that their main concern the inevitable human suffering that will result from the deal’s termination: “There is simply too much at stake in a hungry and hurting world.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday spoke with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres after Russia pulled out of the grain deal. “This is another attempt by Russia to weaponize hunger and destabilize the global food market,” Zelensky said in a post on his Telegram page.

He said Russia, by taking such a critical decision, “has endangered the lives of 400 million people in many countries that depend on Ukrainian food exports. The most critical situation is in such countries of Africa and Asia.”

Russia’s objections to the deal centered around claims that obstacles to their ability to export foods and fertilizers had still not been eased.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last Thursday, during an on-camera interview, that “not a single point related to the fact that there are interests of the Russian Federation have not been fulfilled. Despite this, we voluntarily extended this deal many times. Well, listen, that’s enough in the end.”

When asked, Peskov denied that Russia’s decision to allow the deal to lapse was related to Ukraine’s claimed strike on the bridge connecting mainland Russia to occupied Crimea on Monday. “These are absolutely unrelated events,” he said.

Moscow had threatened to pull out of the deal on previous occasions. The pact was on the brink of breaking down in late October and early November 2022 when Russia suspended its participation over drone attacks on the city of Sevastopol. However, Moscow decided to reverse course following mediation in those instances.

The head of the Ukrainian Grain Association refuted claims from Putin that Ukraine has not fulfilled a vital part of the grain deal in ensuring grain is exported to poorer countries, calling it “manipulation.”

He said the international community needed to “find the leverage” to move grain from Ukraine to the global market, adding that he was “sure that Ukraine can export grain without Russia” if it is provided “international support.”

“The international community, developed countries have to find the leverage how to move grain from Ukraine to the world market,” the president said.

According to Gorbachov, this support could come from the Turkish fleet or insurance guarantees from companies such as Lloyds.

Western condemnation

Western officials were quick to condemn Russia’s decision to lapse the deal.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday condemned Russia’s decision “despite the efforts” by Turkey and the United Nations.

“Russia’s illegal war against #Ukraine continues to harm millions of vulnerable people around the world,” he added in a tweet.

UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also condemned the Kremlin’s move. “Putin is using food as a weapon,” Cleverly tweeted, stressing that this decision “hurts the world’s poorest.”

Poland’s Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau in a tweet described it as “nothing less than an act of economic aggression against the states of the Global South, which are most dependent on the Ukranian grain.”

Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said that Russia’s decision is “further proof on who is a friend and who is the enemy of the poorest countries.”

“Using the raw material that feeds the world as a weapon is another offense against humanity,” Meloni said in a statement.

“It is utterly immoral that Russia continues to weaponise food,” Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said on Twitter. “It is disappointing that #Russia obstructs the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative. Extending the deal is important to prevent food prices from rising and to avoid market destabilisation.”

Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Union Commission, said that she “strongly” condemned Russia’s withdrawal, calling it a “cynical move to terminate the Black Sea Grain Initiative, despite UN & Türkiye’s efforts.”

And Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a pivotal player in broking the deal, said on Monday that he may have a phone call with Putin about the decision, without waiting for their planned visit in August, according to Turkish state media Anadolu and Reuters.

The deal had caused some tensions in Europe, after the European Union moved to lift all duties on grain from Ukraine via land, to facilitate exports.

To quell the unrest, the EU subsequently adopted a temporary measure that bans wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seed originating in Ukraine from being exported to Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia – a move that was opposed by Zelensky.

“Everything now is a struggle,” Mike Okoli says, in the world-weary tone he slumps into the moment a customer shuffles out of his store.

“When I started this business, my hair was all black,” insists Okoli, an affable 64-year-old who left Nigeria in the 1990s to set up an Afro-Caribbean food store on the western edge of London. But prices have soared, money has disappeared, and Okoli’s head is hairless, save for a patch of gray hiding his chin.

On the surface, there is little connecting Okoli with Boris Johnson – the most dominant and divisive presence in British politics in a generation, who took the United Kingdom out of the European Union and once told his family he wanted to be “World King.”

Okoli says he still “loves” the disgraced ex-leader’s charisma. “But…” he adds, trailing off. With Johnson, now, there is always a “but.”

Johnson represented Uxbridge and South Ruislip for eight colorful years until last month, when he stormed out of Parliament in a cloud of fury and hubris when fellow lawmakers concluded he had lied about parties held under his watch during Covid-19 lockdowns.

Now, the voters he once courted may be primed to make the most definitive statement yet that Britain is ready to move on.

A mid-term by-election to replace Johnson is taking place on Thursday, alongside two other by-elections to replace MPs elsewhere in the country. And a resurgent Labour Party – less than four years removed from an electoral wipeout at the hands of Johnson – is looking for a headline-grabbing victory that would confirm it is on the path to power.

“I thought (Johnson) was a guy who would get things done,” says Manoj Supeda, 47, who runs a dry cleaners a short walk from Okoli’s store in Uxbridge. “But I’ve lost total respect for him.

“He still hasn’t said ‘I was wrong, sorry.’ He’s tried to wriggle his way out of it, deny it,” Supeda added, expressing his disgust with the “Partygate” scandal that tanked Johnson’s once-beguiling pull with parts of the public.

“The public used to respect politicians,” he says. “(But) they all seem to be lying, the Tories.”

Supeda, who voted for Johnson in 2019, is the archetypal wavering voter in the archetypal region that the opposition party is desperate to reach. And after 13 years of political instability and upheaval, there is an inescapable sense that the government’s time has come.

“It’s just time for a change,” he says. “Give Labour a go. It can’t be any worse.”

‘We need fresh blood’

Uxbridge, like Britain, is in a rut.

The town is where the capital’s westward sprawl ends. Two Tube lines serving central London finish their journeys here, as picturesque shades of green mingle with the gray and brown hues of suburban developments. But its high streets are shrinking and the local hospital is one of the worst in Britain – rated “inadequate” by the sector’s watchdog.

And nationwide, soaring inflation, public sector strikes and the aftermath of Brexit have left families poorer and services creaking to the point of collapse. Renewing a passport, taking a train, buying groceries, seeing a doctor – virtually everything is more difficult in Britain than it once was.

Optimism, the currency Johnson once so bullishly traded in, is in short supply.

Okoli still has the energy to issue customers – many of whom he knows well – with a sing-song greeting as they step through his door. But he’s spending more and selling less, and he’s not alone. “When a customer comes in last week and buys something, and this week it’s a different price, do you think he wants to come again?” Okoli asks.

Like a number of Uxbridge residents, he has some lingering affection for Johnson and still yearns for the escapist boosterism he once provided the town. Okoli and others recalled Johnson’s Brexit campaign in 2016, an effort defined by bold promises that seem a lifetime away now.

But Johnson, suddenly, is the past, and residents in Uxbridge and South Ruislip are more concerned about the future.

“I’ve got nothing against Boris whatsoever, but we need fresh blood that actually cares about the area,” says Sonia Caetano, the owner of a Portuguese cafe on a ramshackle high street in Yiewsley, in the constituency’s more deprived southern end.

“At the moment, I’m trying to go day-by-day,” she says of her business, which has been “destroyed” as energy bills soar. “I’ve got people in their 80s that come here everyday, because there’s always a conversation … if we disappear, there’s no place for them to go.”

Caetano says she thinks “every day” about returning to Portugal, from where she migrated in 2004.

She knows Labour’s candidate for the seat vacated by Johnson, Danny Beales, who was born in the nearby hospital and lived in the constituency until he was 15, when he and his mother lost their home. She calls him “the only candidate who actually shows his face around this area.”

If Caetano’s neighbors join her in voting for Beales, Labour could claim one of the highest profile wins in recent British political history.

A tense race

Change is in the air, and Labour is set to benefit. Opinion polls confidently predict the party, led by Keir Starmer, a former senior prosecutor, will win power in a general election expected next year.

And the controversial expansion of ULEZ, a world-first low-emissions zone implemented by London’s Labour mayor, from the end of August has given the Tories a lifeline among drivers.

There is little else to talk about on the campaign trail. Steve Tuckwell, the Conservative candidate, has omitted virtually any mention of his party from his posters, instead calling himself “The anti-ULEZ” choice – a reference to the plan to extend the zone in which high-emissions vehicles would be charged to drive.

‘Labour is winning by accident’

For Labour, winning power nationally may be the easy part. In a country strangled by economic crises, the party is struggling to excite voters with a vision of what change will look like.

Reed describes its pitch as “an adult-to-adult relationship, where you level with people about what’s possible and what isn’t.” Labour is insisting it will not overspend, keen to shed a reputation gained in its last stint in power. But critics have called for an infusion of cash to fix the state’s crumbling services.

“People are not stupid. People understand the challenges facing the country,” Reed says.

Some voters are more blunt. “They’re basically saying we’ll carry on business as normal,” says Mick, 61, who runs a food stall near Uxbridge station and has voted Labour his entire life. “So why are we voting?”

Mick describes Starmer, the pragmatic face of the party since 2020, as “a bit of a wet weekend.” Urfah, a mother-of-six who voted for former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair, was unable to even name the current Labour leader. “We’re struggling to put food on the table, we’re not interested,” she said.

Just three-and-a-half years after one of the party’s worst-ever electoral defeats, the outcome of Thursday’s vote in Uxbridge will indicate how far Labour has come.

Lionel Messi made his long-awaited debut with Major League Soccer side Inter Miami with a flourish only the world’s top player could produce.

Playing in the Leagues Cup match against Mexican side Cruz Azul, Messi scored the game-winning goal in the final moments of the second half, curling in a magnificent free-kick strike from outside the box to seal the 2-1 Inter Miami victory at sold-out DRV PNK Stadium in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

“What I saw was the goal. I saw the goal, I knew that I had to score,” Messi told the Apple TV broadcast after the game. “It was the last play of the game and I wanted to score so we didn’t go to penalties. So it was very important for us to get this win, because it’s a new tournament this is going to give us confidence moving forward.”

Leagues Cup, an annual tournament between MLS and Liga MX, was expanded this year to include all teams in each league.

Months after winning the World Cup with Argentina, Messi entered the game in the 54th minute, with Inter Miami holding a 1-0 lead.

Cruz Azul equalized in the 65th minute, opening the door for Messi’s game-winning heroics.

After several close encounters, Messi finally broke through in the 94th minute to put a fairytale ending to his debut.

“As soon I saw the free kick given, I thought this is the way it’s meant to win, especially when you have players like Leo and Sergio (Busquets) on the pitch,” Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham told the Apple TV broadcast after the game.

“This is such a special night for us, for our family, for everyone that’s in this stadium, for you guys. It is such a moment for this country, It’s such a moment for this league and it’s a very proud moment for us.”

The stars were out to watch the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner with the likes of Beckham, NBA superstar LeBron James, tennis champion Serena Williams and Kim Kardashian in the stands.

Inter Miami next play on Tuesday at home against MLS side Atlanta United in a Leagues Cup group stage match.

The US Women’s National Team (USWNT) kicked off their Women’s World Cup campaign with a comfortable 3-0 victory against Vietnam.

A brace from US soccer’s newest superstar Sophia Smith and a late goal from Lindsey Horan was enough to give the defending champion a dream start as it begins a historic World Cup campaign.

The USWNT are chasing a third World Cup in a row and could not have asked for a better start,dominating proceedings from the outset before Smith opened the scoring just 14 minutes into her World Cup debut.

Horan found Alex Morgan with a pass through the Vietnam midfield before Morgan’s clever flick put Smith through, and the 22-year-old’s drilled left-footed finish found the back of the net with ease.

In the midst of the early US dominance, there was a brief highlight for the underdog.

After a VAR check, the USWNT were awarded a penalty after a foul on Trinity Rodman. Morgan stepped up, but Vietnam goalkeeper Trần Thị Kim Thanh made a great save to deny the striker, sparking jubilant celebrations among the Vietnamese side.

In first-half stoppage time, Smith scored again to double the USWNT’s advantage. The Portland Thorns forward squeezed the ball into the net – albeit with a much scrappier effort than her opener.

As chances came and went for the USWNT, it took more brilliant work from Smith to extend the lead. The standout performer latched onto a ball over the top of the Vietnam defense before squaring a pass to Horan who simply had to strike the ball into an open net.

“It’s so exciting. Every minute of that game was fun, and the crowd was amazing, and I think it was a good place to start in this tournament, but I know we have so much more to get to,” Smith told reporters postgame.

“We’re going to celebrate this for a second but then put our focus into the next game,” the player of the match concluded.

For head coach Vlatko Andonovski, the USWNT played even better than the score line suggests.

“I wouldn’t say that I expected more goals but with the way that we played and the opportunities that we created I sure wanted to see more goals and I thought that we deserved to score more goals,” he said.

Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon smashed the women’s mile world record by almost five seconds at the Monaco Diamond League on Friday.

The 29-year-old completed the race in 4:07.64, beating the previous record of 4:12.33 set by Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan in 2019.

“I have done good training so far and I just came for it. The time – yes, it was really good because the race was well planned. It just went smoothly and to accomplish the world record – that is amazing,” said Kipyegon per Reuters.

It comes after Kipyegon broke the 1,500m and 5,000m in June, adding to her already impressive athletics resume.

“I do not know how I am doing this because it just keeps going really in a good way,” the Kenyan said.

“When I started this season, my goal was to just break the 1500m world record. It was still in my head and in my mind. Thank God I did also the one mile and the 5000m. So many. I want to defend my world title at 1500m in Hungary but I am going to double also with 5000m in Budapest,” Kipyegon added.

Second-placed Ireland’s Ciara Mageean also broke Sonia O’Sullivan’s 29-year-old national record with 4:14.58. Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu took bronze, and was the only competitor that failed to record a personal best time in the race.

Laura Muir went on to shatter Zola Budd’s 38-year-old British women’s mile record, finishing fourth. Australia’s Jessica Hull set a national record in fifth, and Nikki Hiltz of the United States ran a North American best in sixth ahead of a second Brit recording a personal best, Melissa Courtney-Bryant, who finished in 4:16.38.

On paper it was a mismatch; the European champion and one of the World Cup favorites England facing tournament debutant Haiti.

But World Cup matches aren’t won on paper, as the Caribbean nation matched the Lionesses almost every step of the way in the sides’ opening match, eventually succumbing 1-0 only after Georgia Stanway scored from a retaken penalty.

Several impressive saves from Haiti goalkeeper Kerly Theus held the scoreline to just one goal difference, despite England mustering 19 shots on goal, 10 of them on target.

Late on, Haiti even had a chance to equalize but two brilliant saves in quick succession from England goalkeeper Mary Earps kept her side ahead, as the Lionesses ultimately ground out a scrappy victory.

More to follow…

Our planet’s rising temperatures are making it harder for planes to take off at certain airports, presenting yet another challenge to civil aviation. And as heatwaves become more frequent, the problem could extend to more flights, forcing airlines to leave passengers on the ground.

“The basic challenge facing any aircraft as it takes off is that planes are just very heavy, and gravity wants to keep them on the ground,” says Paul Williams, a professor of atmospheric science at the University of Reading in the UK. “In order to overcome gravity, they need to generate lift, which is the atmosphere pushing the plane up.

“Lift depends on several factors, but one of the most important is the temperature of the air – and as the air warms up it expands, so the number of molecules available to push the plane up is reduced.

Planes get 1% less lift with every 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit (3 degrees Celsius) of temperature rise, Williams said.

“That’s why extreme heat makes it harder for planes to take off – and in some really extreme conditions that can become impossible altogether,” he said.

The problem particularly affects airports at high altitude, where the air is already naturally thinner, and with short runways, which leave the plane with less room to accelerate. According to Williams, if a plane requires 6,500 feet of runway at 68 degrees Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius), it’s going to require 8,200 feet at 104 degrees (40 Celsius).

‘Global stilling’

Williams and his team researched historical data from 10 Greece airports, all of which were characterized by high summer temperatures and short runways. They found a warming of 1.35 degrees Fahrenheit (0.75 Celsius) per decade since the 1970s.

“We also found a decrease in headwind along the runway, by 2.3 knots per decade,” Williams said. “Headwind is beneficial for takeoffs, and there’s some evidence that climate change is causing what’s called ‘global stilling,’ which is why the winds seem to be slowing down.”

The team then put those temperatures and headwinds into an aircraft takeoff performance calculator for a variety of different aircraft types, including the Airbus A320 – one of the most popular planes in the world.

“What we found was that the maximum takeoff weight has been reduced by 280 pounds (127 kilograms) each year – that’s roughly equivalent to the weight of one passenger plus their suitcase, meaning one less passenger each year that can be carried,” Williams says.

From its introduction in 1988 up until 2017, the A320 would have seen its maximum takeoff weight reduced by over 8,000 pounds at Chios Island National airport, the main airport in the study, which has a runway length of just under 5,000 feet (1,500 meters).

London’s City Airport, in the UK capital’s financial district, also has a runway that’s just under 5,000 feet in length. During a heatwave in 2018, more than a dozen flights were forced to leave passengers on the ground in order to take off safely. One flight saw as many as 20 people bumped.

In 2017, dozens of flights were canceled entirely over a few days at Phoenix’s Sky Harbor International airport, as temperatures reached 120 degrees Fahrenheit (48.8 Celsius), which is above the maximum operating temperature for many passenger planes.

A study from Columbia University predicts that by 2050, a typical narrowbody aircraft like the Boeing 737 will incur increased weight restrictions by anything from 50% to 200% during the summer months at four major US airports: La Guardia, Reagan National Airport, Denver International and Sky Harbor.

Possible solutions

Luckily, airlines are not powerless against the issue.

“There are lots of solutions on the table,” says Williams. “One would be to schedule departures away from the hottest part of the day, with more early morning and late evening departures, which is a tactic already used in hot areas like the Middle East.”

Lighter aircraft are also less affected by the problem, so this could accelerate the adoption of composite materials such as carbon fiber for airframes, Williams says.

In the meantime, manufacturers like Boeing are already offering a “hot and high” option on some of their aircraft, for airlines planning to use them extensively in high altitude, high temperature airports. The option provides extra thrust and larger aerodynamic surfaces to make up for the loss of lift, with no change to range or passenger capacity.

Of course, a more drastic approach would be to lengthen runways, although this might not be possible at all airports.

In some cases, where none of these solutions are applicable, passengers will simply have to give up their seats. But, says Williams, this will remain a niche problem for the near future, at least: “People being bumped off aircraft because it’s too hot is rare and will remain rare. Most planes are never at their maximum takeoff weight, so this will happen in marginal cases – mostly airports with short runways, at high altitude, and in the summer,” he says.

However, the longer-term future may be more difficult, he adds: “I don’t think it’s going to be a major headache for the industry, but I do think the evidence is strong that it will get worse.”

(Top image: High temperatures and heat waves distort the image of a passenger jet as it taxis for takeoff at Washington, DC’s Ronald Reagan National Airport in August 2002. Credit: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP via Getty Images)

In travel news this week: Wild weather around the world and “unacceptable delays” for American plane passengers. Plus we hear from a woman who broke up with her boyfriend on vacation and moved in with a man she’d known for three weeks.

Extreme weather

Heat waves, wildfires, floods and storms have been hitting regions across North America, Europe and Asia. Thrill-seeking tourists headed to China’s “Flaming Mountains” to experience land-surface temperatures of up to 80 C (176 F), while tennis-ball-sized hailstones injured more than 100 people in northern Italy.

As Southern Europe struggles with a heat dome that’s turned it into “a giant pizza oven,” tourism operators are seeing a “surge in popularity” for more temperate or less crowded destinations, such as Ireland, Denmark, Bulgaria and Czech Republic.

If you find yourself traveling in a heat wave zone this summer, here’s what you need to know.

Air travel woes

US passenger airline employment is now at its highest level in over two decades, says a new statement from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) as carriers build up their workforces to meet the huge demand for post-pandemic travel.

There were more woes as medical teams were called to a passenger plane on the tarmac in Las Vegas to treat “heat-related discomfort,” and an emergency evacuation slide from a United flight fell into a Chicago neighborhood.

If all this has got you wistful for a bygone “golden age of air travel,” however, you’d be very wrong. When it comes to safety, accessibility and affordability, we’ve never had it so good.

Time for a stiff drink

A bar in Hong Kong has just been named the Best Bar in Asia for the third year in a row. Coa, helmed by Jay Khan, focuses on the mezcal and agave spirits that are so hot right now.

Other stimulating properties have been attributed to the wild mushrooms that were enjoyed by US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s visit to a Beijing restaurant earlier this month. The jian shou qing mushroom is a popular delicacy in Yunnan, and Yellen was said to have ordered four portions of them – although the fungi is listed as poisonous because of its hallucinogenic potential.

And a love story or two

Belgian traveler Liesbet Collaert was driving across North America in a camper van with her long-term boyfriend when she met a stranger from California. Within three weeks, she’d fallen in love, broken up with her boyfriend and moved into her new love’s apartment. That was 2004. Here’s how the next 20 years worked out.

A few years earlier, in Egypt in 1996, Englishwoman Christina Ward was working as a tour guide on the Nile River. She met a local man, Wahid Kandil, working on the same tour boat. His marriage proposal came within six months.

Best beauty products for travel

It’s one of life’s saddest ironies that when you’re frizzy-haired and greasy-skinned from a day of nonstop sightseeing, you end up appearing in a full year’s quota of photographs because you’re on your big vacation.

One of the world’s most unusual runways

Scotland’s windswept island of Barra has the only airport in the world where scheduled flights land on a beach. Here’s how pilots touch down on this unique runway.

In case you missed it

She got a job on a superyacht, cooking up dishes for the international elite. 

Here’s what happened next.

What it’s like to be an American living in Paris. 

Dreams can come true, but how does the reality compare with the fantasy?

Our guide to weird and wonderful trains that break the rules. 

Railway technology is more versatile than you think.

A sea otter has become a notorious surfboard thief. 

The spree may be down to “hormonal surges.” Watch here.