#agence-france

#agence-france

Organizers of the Tour de Suisse cycling race said they would resume the multistage competition on Saturday, one day after a rider died from the injuries that he sustained in a crash during a high-speed mountain descent.The rider, Gino Mader, was a member of the Bahrain-Victorious team, which announced on Saturday morning that it was withdrawing from the race.

Lewis Hamilton drove aggressively and overtook rivals, sometimes with apparent ease.George Russell gained several places by zipping up the pit lane at the start and held off a late challenge from Sergio Perez.It was a great day for Mercedes.And they finished 2-3.Once again, Max Verstappen of Red Bull raced away from the Formula One field in the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona on Sunday, winning the pole, and then on race day never holding any position but first.

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia wrapped up what was for him an extraordinary and sometimes rambling week of upbeat commentary on the Ukraine war by asserting on Friday that Russia was so assured of prevailing against the Ukrainian counteroffensive that he had ruled out using nuclear weapons.Dropping what had been a strict avoidance of discussing the war in any detail, Mr. Putin told an audience of Russia's business elite, gathered for the annual St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, that Ukraine had no chance against Russian forces and indicated that its Western backers would tire of the conflict and stop supplying weapons, ending Kyiv's war effort.

Though peace seems distant, the United States and Europe are debating how to guarantee Ukraine's security once the fighting with Russia stops, even without a total victory by either side.West Germany may provide a model, a precedent for admitting a divided country into NATO.Despite its division and unhappy role as the border between nuclear armed rivals during the Cold War, West Germany became a NATO member in 1955, benefiting from the alliance's protection, without ever giving up its commitment to unification, finally realized in 1989.

This week, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog, Rafael Mariano Grossi, was so concerned about a new risk at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant that he flew to Ukraine and crossed the front line in the country's war with Russia to see the situation for himself.Mr. Grossi had been to the plant before and had also expressed grave concerns about the potential for nuclear catastrophe, but this threat was different: the recent destruction of a dam on the Dnipro River deprived the plant of the main source of water used for the critical task of cooling its six reactors and spent fuel rods.

The grim search by Greek authorities for migrants after the country's deadliest shipwreck in years moved into a second day on Thursday, though the prospects of finding survivors was slim and hundreds were feared to be missing after their fishing ship capsized about 50 miles off the coast.Scores of bodies were recovered from the sea and 104 people were rescued on Wednesday, after their vessel foundered in the Aegean Sea, off the southern coast of Greece, five days after setting sail from Libya bound for Italy.