The notion of what the world would look like if humans were to vanish has been explored extensively by scientists, as well as many post-apocalyptic movies.

However, French photographer Romain Veillon is making it his mission to capture in pictures the potential result of a planet without people.

The 38-year-old has spent years photographing abandoned places around the world that have been overtaken by nature, with eerily beautiful results.

For his recent book “Green Urbex: The World Without Us,” released in 2021, he shot a series of deserted and/or forgotten spots, including a ghost town in Namibia, an abandoned cinema in Brussels, a dilapidated Tuscan villa and a disused railway track in Ukraine.

‘Post-apocalyptic vision’

Veillon, who is working on the second volume of the book, hopes the haunting images will serve as a reminder of the “necessity to live in harmony with our habitat,” as well as highlight the importance of working with rather than against nature.

“We are all fascinated by this post-apocalyptic vision,” he says. “Maybe we need to be the witness of that to enjoy what we have and the time in front of us.”

The book, which is only available in French at present, is divided into three different sections. The first showcases deserted places that remain relatively well preserved and the second focuses on dilapidated sites in a far worse state.

Finally, the third section is made of images of long-forgotten places that have been completely overrun by vegetation.

Enduring fascination

His fascination with abandoned places began at an early age, when he discovered a deserted truck factory near Paris.

Although the book, which contains over 200 images, provides some historical background to a number of the sites, the photographer says he tries to offer as little detail as possible so that people can “make up their own answers” to any questions they may have.

“Each story will be different from the other, and that’s what I love,” he adds.

However, capturing deserted spots in so many different, and often remote, corners of the world is far more complicated than just picking up a camera and hitting the road.

Veillon sometimes spends months researching lesser known sites and pinpointing their exact location, not to mention applying for authorization to photograph some of them.

“I spend hours searching for historical clues that can help me locate the location I want to photograph,” he explains.

Extraordinary sites

“There’s a huge amount of time [spent] on Google Maps trying to see if some buildings might be buried under vegetation. And just driving around when you’re in a new area can also bring some nice surprises.”

Having friends all over the world has also proved useful to the photographer, who often receives tips from other travelers, and sometimes his social media followers, on potential sites to include in his work.

One of the highlights from the book is an image of Buzludzha, an abandoned Soviet monument in Bulgaria, which Veillon says was one of his favorite places to photograph.

“Buzludzha is for sure the most extraordinary and unique place I have ever been to,” he says of the former Bulgarian Communist Party headquarters built atop a mountain.

“From the outside, it looks like a UFO, and inside, you find the most beautiful mosaics.”

Romania’s defunct Constanța Casino, which has been designated as a historic monument by the Romanian Ministry of Culture and National Patrimony, also left a lasting impression.

Nature reclaiming

“I was so surprised to see the remains of the old casino stage, the wonderful chandeliers or the ornaments of the grand staircase,” he admits.

Veillon’s haunting images of Japan’s Nara Dreamland, taken around a decade after the theme park closed in 2006, have garnered the most attention.

“This is a perfect example of what I want to show when we say ‘nature is taking over,” he says. “You can see ivy slowly covering the roller coaster like it is getting eaten by it. The park was destroyed [between 2016 and 2017] not long after my visit, so it makes the photograph even more iconic I think.”

While the travel restrictions brought about by the pandemic have meant that Veillon’s travels have been few and far between of late, he’s planning to visit Peru later this year and also hopes to visit ghost town Akarmara, a former coal mining village in Abkhazia, Georgia that’s been overtaken by trees, in the near future.

However, Abkhazia remains closed to international visitors.

“It [Akarmara] is the one journey I should have done a long time ago,” he says.

Traveling to the Maldives – the 1,000-island archipelago off the western coast of India that’s one of the world’s most glamorous beach destinations – is always a special occasion. Now, a new airline aims to make it even more so.

Beond – pronounced “beyond” – aims to create a “private jet” experience by using narrow-body aircraft (rather than the wide-body often used on routes to the Maldives), and offering an all-premium cabin with lie-flat seats which share components with Ferrari cars.

Based in Malé and set to start flying in fall 2023, Beond will initially operate a small fleet of Airbus A319 aircraft, before switching to the larger Airbus A321. Dubai and Delhi are the first two confirmed destinations.

Chasing the competition

About three dozen airlines currently offer service to Velana International Airport, the Maldives’ main airport near the capital island Malé. To compete against them, Beond plans to choose its destinations carefully and fly customers directly to the island, rather than going through a connection in a hub, as the likes of Emirates, Qatar Airways and Turkish Airlines do.

“We’re going for the airports with big catchment areas, with a certain wealth behind it, and then fly people directly,” says Feuerherd. So in Germany, for example, Beond wouldn’t target Frankfurt – a business hub with plenty of competition. Instead, they’d go for Munich, which has less competition and a higher incidence of leisure travelers.

In other markets, like Asia, Beond plans to enter into direct competition with other carriers and differentiate itself with a higher-quality service instead. “The Maldives is one of those markets that can fill an aircraft, even a mostly economy class cabin,” says Feuerherd. “But that is making the Maldives lose some high-end passengers, because if they don’t find adequate transportation, they’d rather go somewhere else. That’s where we really come into the game.”

Beond will offer a total of just 44 seats on its Airbus A319s, even though the plane can carry up to 156 passengers in an all-economy layout. On the larger A321s, which will enter service in 2024, they plan to have 68 seats on a plane that normally has room for up to 220 economy passengers.

This means there will be no dreaded middle seats – the two-abreast configuration aims to provide a sense of luxury and comfort. Designed by Italian manufacturer Optimares, which supplied similar interiors for a custom-designed Four Seasons A321 private jet, the seats share components with LaFerrari, a luxury sports car that was priced at about $1.5 million upon its release in 2013, and now sells for much more at auction.

“I’m about six feet tall and so is our CEO, and that was pretty much the size reference we worked with, to avoid getting the feeling that we were slipping out of the bed,” says Feuerherd. “We also very quickly decided that we wanted to have two abreast, because of the nature of our passengers, which is a lot of couples.”

Competing on price

Jointly owned by UAE-based firm Arabesque and Maldivian hospitality company SIMDI, Beond’s operating certificate is from the Maldives as a designated carrier. It has a 50-year agreement with the Maldivian government.

Although it plans to start flying as early as September, the airline is still coy on its launch destinations beyond Delhi and Dubai, but Feuerherd says that, once at capacity (by the end of 2024), roughly 60% of the airline’s traffic will come from Europe, with around 20 destinations.

Asian routes will include Japan, South Korea and China, and Beond will also offer direct connections to Australia, starting with Perth, and South Africa, initially to Cape Town.

By the end of 2024, the airline plans to operate about a dozen aircraft, all on lease, including some brand new A321LR airplanes – long-range versions of the popular A321.

Using narrowbody aircraft will be unusual on some of Beond’s longer routes, which are normally served by larger, wide-body planes such as the Airbus A350 or the Boeing 787.

However all-business class airlines have used narrow-bodies before. La Compagnie, a French boutique airline connecting Paris to New York, has two A321LRs in its fleet of four (the others are A321neos). The Four Seasons private jet is also an A321LR. British Airways, meanwhile, used an A318 – the smallest aircraft in the Airbus A320 family – for its erstwhile all-business class flight from London to New York.

And perhaps the small plane is the key. EOS, Maxjet and Silverjet, which all offered all-business class transatlantic flights before going bust in 2007 and 2008, all used wide-body aircraft.

According to Feuerherd, the smaller plane won’t be a problem for most passengers, because although the cabin will lack the “airiness” of larger aircraft, it’ll increase the private jet feel.

“I do believe the advantages and disadvantages are really equalizing each other there,” he says. “We wouldn’t be able to fill a wide-body with this concept – it would be slightly too big. But we have significant cost savings with a narrow-body, in terms of cost of ownership, fuel burn, staff involved, landing and handling charges, which is something that really gives us a competitive advantage over the big birds.”

As a result, Beond will be priced “attractively,” with fares from Europe starting at around $3,000 return, but increasing during peak season – which, for the Maldives, is December to April.

Meanwhile, Emirates is currently selling Dubai-Malé tickets from December to April next year from around $3100 in business class. There are no direct flights from Delhi, but carriers including Air India have business class seats from around $750 with a single connection.

“My personal target on the commercial side is that if we become too greedy, it’s not going to be helpful,” says Feuerherd. “We will not want to be the leader in terms of price.” He adds that most bookings are projected to come from tour operators rather than directly from customers.

A niche market

According to Rob Morris, global head of consultancy at Cirium, an aviation consultancy, the initial routes that Beond is targeting – Dubai and Delhi – have differing potential.

“Dubai is presently well served from Malé, with an average of seven daily rotations in August 2023 and more than 60,000 seats each way in the month,” he says, citing schedule data that Cirium has pulled.

“This includes around 12% of those seats in premium class. Competition on that route will be challenging.

“In contrast, Delhi-Malé is presently unserved, at least directly, hence there may be more opportunity.”

Mike Stengel, a principal at Aerodynamic Advisory, another aviation consultancy, says that in the history of aviation, the fortunes of all-business class airlines have not been great: “One reason is that their destiny is tied to these concentrated niche markets; they simply don’t offer the same type of connectivity options that network airlines do.”

By being tied to only premium class travelers, he adds, they’re susceptible to downturns or softening in business travel demand: “In the long term, I think they’re going to face some pretty stiff competition, especially from the large Middle East airlines. It’s hard for anyone to beat out first or business class from Emirates or Qatar or Etihad.”

However, he believes that the Maldives are certainly the right market for a new luxury option. “I think there are some legs to this, especially if they can channel demand from luxury travel agencies that are selling it as part of a package,” he says.

“There probably is a niche to carve out of premium travelers who want more of a private jet experience, but maybe don’t have the private jet budget.”

“She used to jump up and down like a butterfly. Now, she is psychologically broken.”

Samer Sharif, 51, is talking about his 15-year-old daughter Salma, who witnessed the death of her brother and mother in the February 6 earthquake, and who for several days believed was orphaned before unexpectedly being reunited with her father.

After the earthquake struck, Sharif was told that Salma, her 10-year-old brother Mohammed and his ex-wife had all died.

Standing before the building that collapsed on top of his family, in Antakya, southern Turkey, Sharif said that he “met with death at that moment.”

After sleeping on the streets for two days, Sharif left for Istanbul where he stayed with his sister and her husband.

While there he received some rare good news – his daughter was alive, and recovering in hospital.

The father and daughter were re-united, and while they were relieved, they will never be the same – especially Salma.

And Salma is not the only one.

Around 4.6 million children were living in the 10 Turkish provinces hit by the earthquake, according to UNICEF, and an additional 2.5 million children were affected in neighboring Syria.

UNICEF added that families with children are sleeping in the streets, malls, schools, mosques, bus stations and under bridges, all afraid to sleep indoors should more aftershocks bring buildings down.

“I saw a lot of traumatized kids in Antakya,” said 37-year-old Bilal Kazak, a Kazakhstan-born Turkish citizen who lost his mother and sister in the earthquake.

While food, tents and caravans with some heating have arrived in the days following the earthquake, says Kazak, there still isn’t enough mental health support, especially for children.

“What we are also seeing is that those children who have lost their education, their families, their hopes, they are now struggling to find a reason to keep themselves in this world,” said Coban.

“At the moment, the only thing that can keep them in their lives is hope for the future.”

Relived trauma in Syria

For victims in Syria, the earthquake is another crisis amid a devastating 12-year civil war.

“For people who have slowly begun to recover and regain a sense of normalcy and rebuilt their lives over the last decade, this has been terrifying and destabilizing for both children and adults,” said Chen. “Some are still in denial while others are experiencing hallucinations.”

The United Nations estimates over 30,000 lives have been lost in the Syrian civil war. People were already struggling to rebuild their lives, while thousands fled the country seeking refuge in nearby countries.

While a semblance of routine had been established before, Chen says the situation has now changed.

“Prior to the earthquake, therapy was not emergency-based, and we had the time and the space to process very difficult things, especially for those who have experienced torture and sexual violence,” she said, adding that “we’re back in emergency mode.”

Chen says that aid workers are also struggling. Between losing their own family members and homes, while rescuing people from the rubble, their mental health has deteriorated amid the ongoing rescue efforts, she said.

Aid workers say that the mental health struggles are clear and are happening amid needs for more food and shelter.

Repeated aftershocks

Making matters worse, the risks of further tremors have not gone away.

“Many people do not feel comfortable living inside (intact buildings),” said Arlan Fuller, director of Emergency Response & Preparedness at Project Hope, a US-based non-profit, non-governmental organization that supports healthcare workers in times of crisis. Fuller and Project Hope are currently on the ground in Gaziantep.

Many children are clinging to their parents and can’t let go, he added, noting that repeated aftershocks only act as triggers.

Aftershocks continue to be felt across Turkey. Just on Monday, a magnitude 6.3 aftershock struck Turkey’s southern Hatay province, near the Syrian border, killing at least six people and injuring hundreds.

The Turkish Red Crescent previously said it is providing “psychological first aid” to both adults and children impacted by the earthquake, reported the state news agency Anadolu. These include therapy sessions, as well as psychosocial support tents set up by the ministry of family and the ministry of health, added Anadolu.

Salma, 15, remains distraught. She spends most of her time on her phone and refuses to properly eat, her father Samer says.

“She wants to buy those little hot wheels car toys that Hammoudeh (her brother Mohammed’s nickname) loved to put them on her shelf to look at them and remember him,” said Sharif.

“I keep trying to make her laugh, but it’s not like before.”

Ukraine war anniversary

The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly voted to condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine. While the resolution isn’t binding, it sheds light on where nations stand in this conflict one year since it started.

Among Middle East and Arab nations, only Syria rejected the resolution while Algeria, Iran and Sudan abstained. The rest supported it.

Last year, less than a week after Russia’s invasion, the same UN body passed a resolution demanding that Russia withdraw all military forces from Ukraine. During that vote, all Arab and Middle Eastern states voted the same way they did on Thursday except for Iraq, which abstained.

The region has largely made clear that it supports Ukraine’s position in this conflict – publicly at least.

The behind-the-scenes diplomacy over the past year, however, tells a different story. Middle East nations have found themselves in a difficult position, juggling between their obligations to their Western allies and their own interests.

The United Arab Emirates, for example, abstained from a symbolic a UN Security Council resolution condemning the war on February 27 of last year (Russia vetoed that resolution). Less than a week later, it voted in favor of a similar resolution at the General Assembly. UAE officials have said the war demonstrates that the world order is no longer unipolar with the US at its helm. The UAE has also become a safe haven for many Russian citizens and businesses since the war.

Abu Dhabi, along with Saudi Arabia, also counts Russia as an ally in the OPEC+ oil cartel. That alliance allows member states to control the supply of oil, which in turn determines prices. The US warned Saudi Arabia last year that restricting the supply of oil would be tantamount to supporting Russia in the war. That warning fell on deaf ears.

Iran, like Syria, is globally isolated and counts Russia as its main international ally. But the Islamic Republic, whose leaders regularly launch tirades against foreign intervention and imperialism, has abstained from such votes instead of vetoing them as Syria has. This is despite Tehran’s role as a player in the war through its supply of killer drones to Russia.

Israel, too, finds itself in a complicated situation. While it has publicly opposed the war, it has economic, cultural, political and security considerations in its dealings with Russia. What it cares most about with Russia is its influence on Iran and its presence in Syria. Israel regularly carries out airstrikes on Iranian targets in Syria, which it regards as critical to prevent the transfer of missile technology to Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group. It usually communicates with the Russians ahead of those strikes for deconfliction purposes.

By Abbas Al Lawati

The digest

Turkey says may experience more aftershocks greater than magnitude 5

Orhan Tatar, Turkey’s general director of Earthquake and Risk Reduction (AFAD) said on Thursday at a press conference that the country may experience more large aftershocks in the coming days, calling on citizens to stay away from damaged buildings. Following the conference, a magnitude 5 aftershock struck the southern Hatay province.

Tunisian president denies racism but repeats view that migration is a plot

Tunisian President Kais Saied has repeated his assertion that an increase of migrants from sub-Saharan Africa was part of a conspiracy to change Tunisia’s demographics and denied criticism by rights groups that his views were racist, Reuters reported.

Oman opens airspace to Israeli airlines in landmark move

The Gulf state of Oman has opened its airspace to Israeli airlines in a landmark move that will cut the carriers’ flights from Israel to Asia by up to two hours. The nation’s civil aviation authority said on Twitter that its “airspace is open for all carriers that meet the requirements of the authority for overflying.” Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen tweeted that it was “another great step toward regional integration” and “a day of celebration for Israel.”

Around the region

The US has repatriated 77 looted artifacts to Yemen, including dozens of ancient funerary stones linked to a disgraced New York art dealer and 11 folios from early Qurans.

But as part of a landmark agreement the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC will care for and store the items for at least two years as Yemen remains engulfed in a bitter civil war.

Among the artifacts being returned are 65 funerary stones, known as “stelae,” that date back to the second half of the first millennium BC. Featuring engraved faces, some of the objects contain traces of pigment or inscriptions revealing the names of the deceased.

The partnership between the Smithsonian and Yemen’s government was announced at a repatriation ceremony hosted by the country’s embassy in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. As part of the agreement, some of the items could be publicly exhibited at the museum, including in its current show “Ancient Yemen: Incense, Art, and Trade.” Yemen’s government will have the option to extend the partnership after two years, depending on the state of unrest in the country.

The country’s ambassador to the United States, Mohammed Al-Hadhrami, said in a statement that “on behalf of the people and Government of Yemen, we are thrilled to see Yemen retaking ownership of its cultural heritage.”

Read more about the artifacts here.

Photo of the day

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.