Its annual conferences have attracted the who’s-who of right-wing and hawkish, conservative politicians from the West, including former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former United States National Security Adviser John Bolton and ex-Vice President Mike Pence.

But recent setbacks for the most powerful Iranian opposition group have some observers wondering whether its glory days are numbered.

A shadowy dissident group in exile, the Mujahadin-e Khalq (MeK) was once a US-designated terrorist group but today counts prominent anti-Iran Western politicians as key allies. Iran accuses it of terrorism, saying it carried out a series of attacks in the 1980s. The MeK denies those charges.

It is one of the best-organized opposition groups confronting the Islamic Republic, but it has little support among Iranians, largely due to its violent past and for having supported Iraqi President Saddam Hussein during his almost decade-long war with Iran.

However, analysts say that recent diplomatic activity between Iran and its foes however may not bode well for the group.

In the span of one week, the MeK last month witnessed a rare raid on its sprawling base in Albania, where it is headquartered, as well as a brief ban on a planned annual rally in France, where it has held such events for several years.

Albanian police said the June raid on the MeK’s Ashraf 3 camp near the capital Tirana was due to suspicions that the group was involved in political activity, according to local media. Political activity is banned under the agreement that allows them to stay in Albania. One person was killed in the raid, and police denied they were responsible for the death.

Iran welcomed the raid, and last week an Iranian official said that some of the seized hard drives arrived in his country, and that Iranian experts were working on data recovery to identify the group’s agents and sabotage cells, according Iranian state media.

The MeK called on Albania to clarify whether any of the hard drives were indeed sent to Iran.

‘Illegal and subversive activity’

In the same week, French authorities banned a planned MeK rally in Paris citing “attack threats.” The ban was later reversed by a judicial order, and the rally took place on Saturday coinciding with an annual MeK meeting on the outskirts of Paris that hosted some of the most prominent right-wing figures.

Gobadi said the MEK’s activities in Albania and elsewhere have “aligned with the laws of their host countries.”

Albania severed diplomatic ties with Iran as a result, but Tehran denied involvement.

The coordinator said it was “deeply insulting” to be accused of appeasement given that Albania “welcomed and provided humanitarian protection to the MeK, when no other country in the world would accept them.”

The setbacks for the MeK also follow a landmark deal between Iran and Saud Arabia in March, which saw diplomatic ties re-instated after almost eight years of tensions.

Iran has for years accused Saudi Arabia of supporting the MeK. Speculation about the kingdom’s alleged support for the group was further fueled by the appearance of Prince Turki al-Faisal, a prominent Saudi royal and former ambassador to the US and the UK, at an MeK summit in Paris. In his speech in 2016, al-Faisal declared: “I, too, want the downfall of the regime.”

But in a sign of changing winds, Al Faisal in March told the France24 news channel that he wasn’t aware of an imminent normalization pact between Tehran and Riyadh and that he was surprised by it.

The prince has insisted that he plays no official government role, but his public endorsement of the MeK has enraged Iran, which called the group the Saudis’ “adopted children.”

The brief French ban on the MeK rally also came just days after a 90-minute phone call between French President Emanuel Macron and Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on June 10.

It is unclear whether the recent diplomatic activity between Iran and its foes is directly responsible for the developments in France or Albania, but analysts say they’re unlikely to be coincidental, especially as Western states hope to restart nuclear talks with Iran.

‘Hardened neo-cons’

The MeK’s support overwhelmingly comes from the countries that have tensions with Iran, said Trita Parsi, vice-president of the Quincy Institute in Washington, DC.

Politicians who have attended its conferences also include former Donald Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, and former British Prime Minister Liz Truss.

At least one speaker at the event reportedly received tens of thousands of dollars from the dissident group.

Ali Ahmadi, an executive fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, says those who go to support the MeK are “usually a lot of hardened neo-cons” as well as “retired politicians who are happy to take a really big cheque.”

As the US and EU attempt to reach new agreements with Iran, they may be “throwing in the future of the MeK in the mix” to see if a broader comprise can be found, said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC., adding that removing the group from the picture could be a Western concession to Iran.

Analysts say however that the MeK is unlikely to disappear anytime soon, having survived over the past six decades despite shifting geopolitics.

“They are gradually becoming weaker I think,” Vatanka said. While the Saudi-Iran rapprochement will weaken them further, it will not spell their demise, he said.

The inveterate survivor of Dutch politics, nicknamed “Teflon Mark” because scandals surrounding his four consecutive governments did not stick to him, announced his surprise decision at a parliamentary debate in the Hague.

“I did well and I honestly think that it is the right time [to step down],” Rutte said Monday, adding that he was leaving “with a lot of emotion and with a lot of mixed feelings.”

Rutte, who has been in power since 2010 and is Europe’s second-longest serving leader, had said Friday that his government would tender its resignation to the Dutch king, triggering new elections to be held in the fall.

He said at a news conference that “differing opinions about immigration policy” within his four-party coalition government had become “insurmountable,” but did not give any indication that he would resign from politics and was expected to lead the VVD party into the new elections.

VVD had proposed limiting entrance for children of war refugees who are already in the Netherlands, forcing families to wait for at least two years before they can be reunited.

The more hardline approach to immigration policy came after the numbers of those seeking asylum in the Netherlands soared in recent years.

The Netherlands received 36,620 applications for asylum in 2021 and 47,991 last year, with most applicants coming from Syria, according to the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service.

As of May this year, the country had received 16,097 applications. The government estimates that applications could top 70,000 by the end of 2023.

Two of VVD’s coalition parties – the Christian Union and D66 – refused to support the new proposed restrictions, leading to the split that eventually caused the Dutch government to collapse.

Responding to Rutte’s surprise announcement, Jesse Klaver, leader of the green party GroenLinks, tweeted: “The Rutte era is now really over. The only right decision. I respect that.”

Lilian Marijnissen, leader of the Dutch Socialist Party also said that it was a “wise decision” for Rutte to leave, and it was “Good for the Netherlands.”

“Now is the time for honest politics,” Marijnissen said on Twitter.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi received a red-carpet welcome from Kenyan counterpart William Ruto on Wednesday as he began a three-country tour of Africa that Tehran has touted as a “new beginning” in relations with the continent.

Raisi’s trip to Africa, which will also take him to Uganda and Zimbabwe, is the first by an Iranian president in more than a decade and represents a bid to diversify economic ties in the face of crippling US sanctions.

Kenya’s President Ruto said Wednesday he held bilateral talks with President Ebrahim Raisi where “Iran agreed to boost Kenya’s pursuits in manufacturing, health and the blue economy through research and technology.”

Kenya is keen on boosting its trade volumes with Iran and that Ruto said his administration was “working closely with Tehran to facilitate the export of more tea, meat and other agricultural products to Iran, which will also act as a key entry point to Central Asian countries.”

Raisi was welcomed by an honor guard at Kenya’s presidential palace before joining Ruto for a meeting, video posted on social media by Kenya’s presidency showed.

Raisi is expected to next fly to Uganda to discuss trade and bilateral relations with President Yoweri Museveni, and then to Zimbabwe.

The last Iranian leader to visit Africa was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2013.

Shoring up allies support

Iran stepped up its diplomatic outreach to developing world countries after then-US President Donald Trump ditched a nuclear pact in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

In June, Raisi visited three Latin American countries to shore up support with allies also saddled with US sanctions.

Iran’s trade with African countries will increase to more than $2 billion this year, its foreign ministry said on Saturday, without providing a comparative figure for 2022.

His trip to Kenya, East Africa’s economic powerhouse, will provide the two countries an “opportunity to review and re-energize their bilateral relations for the mutual benefit of the people of the two countries,” Kenya’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.

An unprecedented discovery made by archaeologists working in Brazil is shaking up what we know about the first inhabitants of the Americas.

Three giant sloth bones found at Santa Elina rock shelter in central Brazil were likely perforated and polished by human hands in order to be used for personal adornment — probably as pendants, according to a new study.

The pendants — thought to be between 25,000 and 27,000 years old — are the oldest known personal ornaments unearthed in the Americas and the only ones known to have been made from giant sloth bone in the archaeological record, according to paleontologist Thais Pansani, lead author of a new study on the artifacts. She is a postdoctoral researcher in ecology and natural resources at the Federal University of São Carlos in Brazil.

The three sloth-bone pendants were among thousands of osteoderms — bony plates embedded in the sloth’s skin similar to an armadillo’s scales — found at the rock shelter that belonged to an extinct species of giant sloth known Glossotherium phoenesis. The site also features rock art of animal and humanlike forms, although the exact age of the panels is still unclear to scientists.

The ice age creature would have weighed around 600 kilograms (1,323 pounds) — bigger than most current-day brown bears. While G. phoenesis was thought to have been a relatively small species of giant sloth, some ancient sloth species were so big that their fossilized burrows are now caves in southern Brazil that humans can walk through.

Senior study author Mírian Pacheco, a professor and researcher at the Laboratory of Paleobiology and Astrobiology at the Federal University of São Carlos, said that the artifacts “present a very suggestive shape of pendants, mainly due to the polishing and the location of the hole.”

The team analyzed the three modified and unmodified osteoderms and performed experiments on some of the fossilized bones and their closest modern analog — armadillo osteoderms — to understand how the pendants were made, Pacheco explained. Microscopic marks revealed that they were polished by human hands before the bones were fossilized, she said.

Pacheco said she believed humans and giant sloths coexisted at the site. A herbivore with long clawed arms designed for digging, the creature would not have preyed on humans.

“Although they had a low metabolism, they were agile animals that walked predominantly on all fours, although they could stand up (mainly to get food from trees). We cannot say if humans saw these animals as threat,” Pansani said via email.

Analysis of sediment and bones

The pendants haven’t been directly dated because the researchers didn’t want to damage the extremely rare artifacts.

However, Pansani said the team dated other material — sediment, charcoal and other giant sloth bones — from the same layer as where the artifacts were recovered.

“All these dates agree with ages between 27,000 and 25,000 years ago, so we can infer that the age of the artifacts is in this range,” Pansani said.

North and South America were the last continents to be inhabited by modern humans, but exactly when that started is a topic that has divided archaeologists. Many experts are skeptical that humans occupied the Americas any earlier than 16,000 years ago, the study noted.

However, recent evidence, including the 2021 discovery of fossilized human footprints in New Mexico that date back 21,000 to 23,000 years, suggests that early humans reached South America earlier than thought.

“The confirmation of the age of these artifacts from Santa Elina strengthens the hypothesis of older human occupations in the Americas,” Pacheco said.

An international team of scientists recently unveiled a new way to extract ancient DNA from bone artifacts in a noninvasive manner. The researchers applied the pioneering technique to a pierced deer tooth found in a cave in Russia that was likely worn as a pendant. The analysis revealed the wearer’s sex and other intriguing details.

For the new study, Pacheco said the team hadn’t considered the possibility of trying to extract genetic material from the sloth-bone pendants.

“We are investigating some processes related to fossilization and weathering that may have caused some substitutions in bones.
If we conclude that the material has a good state of preservation, then this may be a good idea,” she said.

The research was published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Anti-discrimination organization Kick It Out said it received a record number of reports of discriminatory behavior during the 2022/23 soccer season.

The 1,007 reports represent a 65.1% increase compared to the previous year and include discriminatory incidents from the professional game, social media and grassroots soccer.

Meanwhile, discrimination reports in the professional game – including from the Premier League, English Football League, domestic cups, European and international competitions, Women’s Super League and Women’s Championship – rose by 27.4% to 484, the organization added.

Kick It Out was originally set up in 1993 as an anti-racism body in the sport, before expanding its remit to include all forms of discrimination in 1997. In the data released on Wednesday, Kick It Out revealed racism accounted for 49.3% of all reports in the period.

The reporting period saw a 400% increase in sexist and misogynist reports from 16 to 80, which the organization said was “amplified by a massive spike in online abuse towards female players and supporters.”

Islamophobic reporting increased by 300% – though on the whole, there was a slight decrease in reports of faith-based discrimination.

Social media abuse rose by 279% compared to the previous season and made up 28% or total reporting – a 15.9% increase compared to 2021/22.

At the grassroots level, 43.4% of reports came from games involving under-18s or younger – with racism representing over half of that reporting.

An English Football Association spokesperson called the rise in discrimination and misogyny cases “very disappointing.”

Kick It Out noted that the reports per discriminatory incident rate was higher for the fourth consecutive year – suggesting a growing propensity among fans to report instances of discrimination.

Tony Burnett, chief executive of Kick It Out, said: “The significant increase in reports across the game is alarming and strengthens our resolve to tackle discrimination in all areas of football. Behind each of these statistics is somebody who has sadly experienced discrimination and supporting the victims of abuse remains Kick It Out’s utmost priority.

“While we continue to work tirelessly to Kick It Out, we call upon fans, clubs, leagues and governing bodies to help us with this cause, and we are encouraged that the number of reports per incident continues to increase, suggesting that people are becoming less tolerant of discriminatory behaviour and more likely to report abuse when they see it.”

Burnett noted Kick It Out’s numbers only represent a “snapshot” of the full scale of discrimination, and reiterated soccer’s need for a centralized discrimination reporting mechanism in order to “tackle it with the full force of the sport.”

Lionel Messi’s move to Inter Miami has been one of the hottest topics throughout soccer’s summer transfer window and it appears he is one step closer to making his Miami debut.

The Argentine has swapped the streets of Paris for South Beach and has now finally arrived in his new footballing home ahead of the highly anticipated move.

Messi was spotted landing in South Florida on Tuesday, along with his family, as the deal looks closer to being officially confirmed.

The 2022 World Cup winner will also be greeted by a huge mural of himself as he makes his way through Miami – which was helped along by Inter Miami co-owner David Beckham.

In a series of Instagram stories, Victoria Beckham shared clips of the mural, including one of husband David helping to create the piece of art alongside Argentine artist Maximiliano Bagnasco.

“So, I think that David has done a really good job of painting Messi here in Miami. We’ve only been here a few days and he has got straight to it,” Victoria said on Instagram. “And look, it’s massive. Is there nothing that David Beckham can’t do? He is up there, painting away, I’m impressed.”

Beckham has not tried to hide his excitement around the signing of the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner and recently touched on the magnitude of the move.

“I have always said from the word go that if I had the opportunity to bring the best players in the game to Miami, at whatever time of their careers, I would do that. I have always made that commitment to our fans,” the soccer megastar told The Athletic.

“So, when I hear that one of the best players — if not the best player — who has won everything in the game, who is still a great player, still young and still doing what he’s doing, wants to play for my team, it’s a massive moment for us.”

It isn’t just Becks who is excited about Messi’s arrival with anticipation around the forward’s transfer reaching a fever pitch across the US.

Fans who have shelled out on a ticket to witness the 36-year-old make his debut on American soil will soon finally get their opportunity.

According to resale website TickPick, the cheapest ticket for Inter Miami’s Leagues Cup match against Cruz Azul on July 21 – potentially Messi’s first game with his new team – was just $29.

In the 24 hours after news of Messi’s pending move first broke, the cheapest ticket was $329, TickPick said – a surge of 1,034%.

The biggest increase, however, was for Miami’s game against the New York Red Bulls, with ticket prices soaring by 1,236% for Messi’s first trip to the Big Apple in August.

Daniel Ricciardo is making a surprising mid-season return to the Formula One grid, with the Australian driver replacing the struggling Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri.

Ricciardo, currently a Red Bull reserve driver, is being sent “on loan” to Red Bull’s feeder team for the remainder of the 2023 season, the team announced Tuesday.

The 34-year-old, who will race for AlphaTauri in the next grand prix in Hungary on July 23, said he was “stoked to be back on track with the Red Bull family,” according to the F1 website.

According to F1 correspondent Lawrence Barretto, Ricciardo’s best lap in Tuesday’s tyre test, his first time driving in Red Bull’s 2023 car, would have been fast enough to make the front row of the grid for Sunday’s British Grand Prix.

“It was great to see Daniel hasn’t lost any form while away from racing and that the strides he has been making in his SIM sessions translate on track,” Red Bull team principle Christian Horner said.

“His times during the tyre test were extremely competitive. It was a very impressive drive and we are excited to see what the rest of the season brings for Daniel on loan at Scuderia AlphaTauri.”

Ricciardo previously raced for AlphaTauri – then named Toro Rosso – in 2012 and 2013 before being promoted to a Red Bull seat in 2014, going on to win seven grands prix in five seasons with the team, including top spot on the podium at the 2018 Monaco GP.

Ricciardo opted to join Renault in 2019 – a decision that was played out in the hit Netflix series ‘Drive to Survive – and then McLaren two years later, but was dropped by the team at the end of his second season, a year before his contract was due to expire, after several disappointing performances.

He rejoined Red Bull as the team’s third driver for the 2023 season, and now the door has opened for a return to the grid after Dutch driver De Vries, a Formula E world champion, failed to perform in his first season in F1.

De Vries sits bottom of the driver standings as one of only two drivers not to score a single point this season and has managed a best finish of 12th place at the Monaco GP.

Red Bull is notoriously brutal with its driver selection, dropping Pierre Gasly to Toro Rosso midseason in 2019 and replacing him with Alex Albon, before axing the British driver at the end of the following season, with the pressure facing Red Bull drivers becoming a key theme in ‘Drive to Survive.’

Sergio Perez is now feeling that same pressure after a string of poor performances. The Mexican driver has failed to make the third round of qualifying for five straight races and has fallen 99 points behind Max Verstappen at the top of the driver standings while racing in the same car.

After a fast start to the season, Perez has made the podium just once in the last five races.

Ukrainian Elina Svitolina says Russia’s invasion of her country has made her “mentally stronger” on the tennis court as she continues her stunning run at Wimbledon.

Svitolina, who returned to tennis this year following the birth of her daughter in October, reached a grand slam semifinal for the third time in her career on Tuesday, ousting world No. 1 Iga Świątek 7-5 6-7 (5) 6-2.

The former world No. 3 received a wildcard entry for Wimbledon but now has a chance to reach a first-ever major final when she faces the Czech Republic’s Markéta Vondroušová on Thursday.

That would cap off a whirlwind period in Svitolina’s career, during which she has been at the forefront of tennis’ humanitarian relief efforts for Ukraine. The 28-year-old says that the war, combined with the birth of her daughter, has changed her perspective on sport and life.

“I think war made me stronger and also made me mentally stronger,” Svitolina told reporters after her victory against Świątek.

“Mentally, I don’t take difficult situations as like a disaster,” said Svitolina. “There are worse things in life. I’m just more calm.

“I think also, because I’m just starting to play again, I have different pressures. Of course, I want to win. I have this huge motivation to come back to the top, but I think having a child, and war, made me a different person. I look at things a bit differently.”

Svitolina reached the quarterfinals of the French Open last month – her first major tournament since returning to tennis – and has now gone one better at Wimbledon.

As part of her remarkable run to the semifinals in southwest London, she has defeated four former grand slam champions: Venus Williams, Sofia Kenin, Victoria Azarenka and now Świątek.

“I think she’s incredible with everything,” Svitolina’s next opponent, the unseeded Vondroušová, told reporters on Tuesday. “She’s fighting so much for everything. Now she’s just playing amazing tennis also. She’s a super woman, I think.”

Amid Russia’s invasion of her country, Svitolina has served as an ambassador for UNITED24, an organization set up by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to raise funds for medical supplies, defense and rebuilding the country’s infrastructure.

She has previously donated prize money to relief efforts in Ukraine and in April was part of a charity pro-am event at the Charleston Open.

“I know that lots of people back in Ukraine are watching,” Svitolina said on Tuesday when asked about the support she has been receiving. “I got a really massive amount of messages the last round.

“I didn’t really check my phone yet today, but I think there will be a lot of messages, a lot of news. I’m happy I can bring a little happiness to their life.”

Svitolina has declined to shake hands with Russian and Belarusian opponents after matches while the war is ongoing and has lauded the move by Wimbledon organizers to cover accommodation costs for Ukrainian players competing in this year’s tournament.

Russian and Belarusian players were banned from Wimbledon last year but are able to compete as neutral athletes this time around. On Tuesday, Russian player Andrey Rublev said that he had felt “really great” support from the crowd during his return this year.

“To be from the country where I am, to have this support, it’s special,” he told reporters after his defeat against Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinals of the men’s draw. “I don’t know, I feel sometimes I don’t deserve it or something like that. I don’t know what you need to do to have this support. I’m really grateful for this.”

A giant panda at a South Korean zoo has given birth to the country’s first twin cubs.

The palm-sized female pandas were born at the Everland Resort theme park southeast of the capital Seoul on July 7, the zoo said in a statement Tuesday.

Video posted to YouTube showed their mother Ai Bao picking up the first cub, weighing 180 grams (6 ounces), with her mouth, then delivering the second cub, weighing 140 grams, an hour later.

The twins’ birth is considered rare – there’s less than a 50% chance of pandas giving birth to twins – and in the wild, they struggle to survive as mothers can often only care for one of their cubs.

Both the mother and her offspring are in good health, the zoo said in a statement, with staff providing postpartum care based on their experience helping the now 9-year-old deliver her first cub, Fu Bao, three years ago.

“I am very happy that twin baby pandas were born for the first time in Korea,” said Kang Cheol-won, a zookeeper responsible for setting up the panda enclosure at the park. “I will continue to take good care of them so that they can become a panda family that will deliver hope and joy to the public.”

The mammals, known for their penchant for bamboo, are native to China and deemed a “national treasure.”

For decades, Beijing has been sent them abroad as ambassadors to show goodwill in what is known as “panda diplomacy.”

The twins’ parents, Ai Bao and father Le Bao, were loaned to South Korea in 2016 and went on to deliver Fu Bao, the first locally born panda in 2020. The new twins are yet to be named.

Jung Dong-hee, director of Everland Zoo, called the birth of the pandas “another important achievement from the cooperation between Korea and China on panda research.”

Giant pandas have one fertile period throughout the year, lasting just one to three days each time, and their preference to live alone in their natural habitats means they rarely mate.

Given the challenge, the zoo said it had analyzed hormonal changes among the pandas to search for the best mating window, and observed the behavioral changes of the mother after she became pregnant.

It is estimated that around 1,800 pandas remain in the wild, mostly in the mountains of Sichuan, western China.

Beijing currently loans its pandas to about 20 countries.

Underneath oceans, burrowed inside glaciers or dug deep into the Earth, tunnels have long been an enduring source of fascination for travelers. Whether speeding passage between major cities, hopping between islands or even acting as a final resting place, these are the world’s most amazing tunnels.

Head torches at the ready!

Gotthard Base Tunnel, Switzerland

At 57 kilometers (35.5 miles), the Gotthard Base Tunnel is the longest and deepest railway tunnel in the world.

Not to be confused with the shorter, 19th century Gotthard Tunnel or the Gotthard Road Tunnel, this epic feat of engineering first opened in 2016 to boost train freight traffic beneath the Alps.

Passenger services between major Swiss and continental cities also zip through, passing depths of some 2,450 meters.

Lærdal Tunnel, Norway

Tunnels are essential in Norway, a means of connecting its many coastal cities and islands. The Lærdal Tunnel – or Lærdalstunnelen – is the longest road tunnel in the world, covering 24.5 kilometers (15.23 miles), and since 2000 has created the fastest route between Oslo and Bergen.

Aware that the 20-minute drive could cause motorists to lose concentration, engineers carved out rock chambers every six kilometers, with special blue and yellow lighting designed to mimic a sunrise.

Channel Tunnel, UK/France

Plans for an undersea connection between the UK and France date back over 200 years, with intrepid 19th-century engineers even trying to burrow beneath the English Channel to prove its viability.

The 50-kilometer (31-mile) tunnel first opened in 1994 following six years of construction work and sits some 75 meters (246 feet) beneath the sea bed.

Today the Channel Tunnel speeds passengers between London and Paris in just over two hours, with a car service allowing motorists and trucks to drive onto a train near UK coastal port Folkestone before disembarking at Calais on the French side.

Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, Japan

Japan’s myriad islands and vast bays have long made it a mecca for tunnel makers. The Tokyo Bay Aqua-Line, also known as the Trans-Tokyo Bay Expressway, connects Kanagawa and Chiba prefectures, without the need to drive around the coast.

What makes it stand out, though, is the fact it starts out as a tunnel on the Kanagawa side, before rising out of the water at Umihotaru, an artificial island with a rest stop and viewing platforms for taking in sweeping views of the Tokyo skyline.

The final stretch to Chiba is covered on a bridge, which arrivals at Haneda airport will be able to spot as their plane comes in to land over the water.

Seikan Tunnel, Japan

The Gotthard Base Tunnel may have taken its crown as the longest railway tunnel in the world, but the Seikan Tunnel remains a remarkable feat of engineering, all 53.85 kilometers (33.46 miles) of it. It connects Honshu, the largest of Japan’s islands, with Hokkaido to the north.

First conceived in the 1950s in the wake of a series of ferry tragedies, today it’s used for passenger trains, including shinkansen bullet train services from Tokyo to Sapporo.

Even though domestic flights have cut the journey time dramatically, for incurable travel romantics, this remains the finest way to reach Japan’s magical far north.

Eisenhower Tunnel, Colorado

Taking cars, trucks and pickups from one side of the Great Divide to the other, the Eisenhower Tunnel is the highest vehicular tunnel in the United States. At 3,401 meters (11,158 feet) above sea level at its uppermost point, it’s not just the highest tunnel in the country, but also the highest on the entire Interstate system.

It’s actually made up of two tunnels, one named after President Eisenhower and the other after US Senator Edwin C. Johnson. The challenge of building across the continental divide meant fault lines were discovered during excavation.

Large Hadron Collider, France/Switzerland

Lying an average 100 meters beneath the border between France and Switzerland, the 27-kilometer (16.7-mile) long Large Hadron Collider forms a donut-shaped tunnel built expressly for particle acceleration. Particles are fired around the tunnel in two beams, which are then made to collide at four separate points.

Physicists have used this cutting-edge tunnel to learn more about the origin of mass, as well as puzzling out difficult questions about dark matter and dark energy.

You need special permission to enter as a visitor but can go above ground to CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, which has a fascinating permanent exhibition about the collider’s work.

Jungfrau Railway, Switzerland

One of the great marvels of early 20th-century engineering, the Jungfrau Railway winds its way through a tunnel hewn into some of the most iconic mountains in the Swiss Alps.

It was first conceived by Adolf Guyer-Zeller in 1893 and completed in 1912. Setting out from Kleine Scheidegg, at 2,061 meters (6,762 feet) it climbs through a hand-cut tunnel into the depths of the Eiger, where two stations, Eigerwand and Eismeer, offer views from the north and east faces of the mountain.

Passengers can no longer disembark at Eigerwand, although climbers have long been known to use the infamous Stollenloch window, built to dispose of debris, to access the tunnel and pull themselves to safety.

Today, hardy souls can join guided tours through this terrifying opening out onto the most famous North Face of them all. The tunnel emerges at Jungfraujoch, between the summits of Jungfrau and Mönch, at 3,454 meters. That makes it the highest railway in Europe.

Bund Sightseeing Tunnel, China

There are cheaper ways to get between Shanghai’s historic Bund and the futuristic towers of Pudong. But this short jaunt beneath the Huangpu River on a Maglev train provides a uniquely trippy experience.

Strobe lighting and sound effects are meant to create the feeling of gliding through space. Whether that’s the actual response of travelers is down to personal preference, although there’s no denying it’s a truly out-there way of getting around China’s biggest city.

Natural Tunnel, Virginia

Most railway tunnels are the result of years of painstaking engineering and the endurance of brutal working conditions. Natural Tunnel, though, is the result of a far slower process.

Formed over a million years as a result of the limestone and bedrock being dissolved by groundwater, it’s 61 meters at its widest point and 24 meters at its highest.

That meant it was a prime spot for the South Atlantic and Ohio Railroad to build a train track through it in 1893. Today, the tunnel is the key attraction in the State Park that bears its name, with amazing camping grounds, hiking trails and superb canoeing all at hand for active travelers.

Glow Worm Tunnel, Australia

A remote, former railway tunnel in New South Wales’ Wollemi National Park, Glow Worm Tunnel takes its name from the gnat larvae that live on its roof and walls.

Trains haven’t passed this way since the 1940s, leaving the glow worms in peace to light up and draw in their prey.

The fact the tunnel curves almost 180 degrees makes for perfect, dark conditions for these fascinating creatures – visitors are advised to bring a torch to light the way. Today, hikers can walk into the tunnel after driving north from Lithgow.

Cu Chi Tunnels, Vietnam

This renowned network of tunnels on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City has long been a source of fascination for tourists looking to learn more about the war that ravaged Vietnam during the 1960s and 1970s.

Used as a base for Viet Cong attacks on US and South Vietnamese positions, the tunnels also served as living quarters and weapons stores.

Despite repeated attempts by American forces to destroy the vast network of 75 miles of tunnels, they survived and are now maintained as memorials by the Vietnamese government.

Visitors can get a taste of the claustrophobic spaces and even see where the 1968 Tet Offensive was planned.

SMART, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Malaysian engineers struck upon a clever solution when weighing up how to divert stormwater away from the center of Kuala Lumpur as well as ease congestion on the city’s clogged roads: the stormwater management and road tunnel, aka SMART.

Consisting of a bypass tunnel for rainwater and a double-deck motorway, SMART became the world’s first dual-function tunnel when it opened in 2007.

If rain becomes so intense that the water tunnel is at capacity, then the road tunnel is also used to ease the flow of floodwater into the Taman Desa reservoir. In December 2021, SMART diverted a massive five million cubic meters of floodwater in the wake of a series of downpours in the Malaysian capital.

Guoliang Tunnel, China

Some tunnels burrow deep inside mountains to help get people from A to B. But in China’s Henan province, the Guoliang Tunnel takes an altogether more scenic route.

Cut just inside the vertiginous cliff faces of the Taihang Mountains, it has 30 windows that face out into the valley below, used for dumping rubble during construction. Just 13 locals from Guoliang built this scenic tunnel in a bid to make their village more accessible to the outside world.

Today it’s become one of China’s hottest tourist destinations, although those who drive it need a strong dose of gumption. Being carved by hand means it curves, dips and drops unexpectedly. And that’s before meeting cars coming in the opposite direction.

Langjokull Glacier Tunnel, Iceland

Billed as the largest manmade ice structure in the world, the Langjokull Glacier Tunnel winds its way deep into Iceland’s second-largest glacier, a two-hour drive from the capital Reykjavik.

The deeper visitors walk into the slippery depths, the more blue the ice becomes, its hue changing because of its age.

Guides are on hand to explain how the ice formed, what the future holds for these natural phenomena and to ensure no one takes a tumble (crampons are provided for strapping onto hiking boots)

Paris Catacombs, France

This vast network of limestone mines beneath Paris’s Left Bank dates back to the 12th century, when rocks were excavated for buildings across the French capital.

It wasn’t until the late 18th century, though, that they became an ossuary for the deposit of human remains from Paris’s overflowing cemeteries. Today, some six million bodies can be found in the catacombs, with bones stacked neatly throughout.

Partially opened to the public in 1874 and used by both the French Resistance and occupying Nazis in the 1940s, tourists can still officially visit a small section, where a sign warns visitors about entering “the Empire of Death.”

However, most of the network remains off-limits. Intrepid explorers are still known to travel underground for days at a time, accessing lesser-known sections via Metro tunnels and Left Bank basements.

Drammen Spiral Tunnel, Norway

First opened in 1961 and renovated in 2020, Drammen’s Spiral Tunnel isn’t your average point-to-point underground road.

As its name suggests, it winds its way up from its entrance some 50 meters above sea level through six loops in the shape of a helix, emerging at 180 meters, where visitors can take in views of the surrounding mountains and woodland.

Be sure to pick up a specially made Spiral Troll, made with coiled rope to mimic the tunnel itself.

Leake St Tunnel, UK

Running beneath Waterloo Station, just south of the Thames, Leake St is home to the largest legal graffiti wall in London.

Urban artists flock here to create one-off works that are soon sprayed over by the next wave of street art talent. The space has become so popular that it’s now home to an event space, a board game cafe and a series of pop-up restaurants.

Greenwich Foot Tunnel, London

When it first opened in 1902, the Greenwich Foot Tunnel served as a quick and safe way to get workers from south London to the busy docks that once lined the Isle of Dogs on the other side of the River Thames.

While many of those were destroyed during World War II, and the tunnel itself sustained damage from German bombs, it remains an easy way to cross the Thames in this part of London.

Access is via glass-domed buildings on either side of the water, both of which are showcases for the city’s superb, early 20th-century architecture.

Road of 52 tunnels, Italy

The Strada delle 52 Gallerie, or Road of 52 Tunnels, is one of the great military achievements of the 20th century. Built by Italian military personnel and local workers in just 10 months in 1917, it carves its way through Monte Pasubio and was designed to allow the passage of mules and men out of the range of Austrian artillery.

Today, each of the 52 tunnels can be passed through during a day-long hike. Take a guide to get the full lowdown on just how this amazing set of tunnels was completed in such short order.

Burro Schmidt Tunnel, California

Most tunnels have a purpose, whether it’s getting cars beneath treacherous bodies of water or offering trains a route through vast mountain ranges. But the Burro Schmidt Tunnel in the Mojave Desert, named after a local miner, is something of an enigma.

Dug by hand, with the help of the occasional stick of dynamite, Schmidt’s tunnel began in 1902 as a way of taking ore between the owner’s claimed land and a nearby smelter.

Yet when a road opened up in 1920 to ease such passage, he dug on anyway.

Finishing in 1938, Schmidt’s tunnel cut all the way through Copper Mountain before emerging on a remote and vertiginous ledge. Visitors can head to the cabin where the tunnel begins to try and puzzle out why this tunnel became such a singular obsession.