Ukraine: 14 dead in a strike near Odessa, Kiev takes over a strategic island
Fourteen people were killed in a missile attack on a building in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine, fired by a “strategic plane” from the Black Sea, according to Kiev, just as the Ukrainian army has just taken over a strategic island from the Russians for the control of maritime routes. Now “14 people are dead and 30 injured, including three children”, the Ukrainian Emergency Services said in a statement, adding that rescue operations, complicated by a fire, are continuing.
“A missile hit a nine-storey residential building in the Bilgorod-Dniester region”, about 80 km south of Odessa, the spokesman for the Odessa region administration Sergiy Brachuk had earlier announced. The strike came as NATO pledged its unwavering support for Ukraine when it closed its summit in Madrid on Thursday.

Airports: new strikes at the start of high season
Several French airports, including Charles-de-Gaulle and Orly near Paris, will be affected this weekend by new wage strikes, with cancellations and possible delays one week before the summer school vacation. These social movements, against a background of high inflation and a clear resumption of traffic after the Covid-19 pandemic, will result in the cancellation of some 17% of flights departing from or arriving in Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle (CDG) between 07:00 and 14:00, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation ( DGAC). The preventive cancellations, which will represent 10% of aircraft movements at CDG throughout the day, were requested by the administration as a safety measure because firefighters have been on strike since Thursday, forcing to close part of runways at the first French airport.

Tour de France: Happy, Copenhagen opens the hunt for the yellow jersey
The Tour de France starts on Friday from Copenhagen, stunned by the fervor of the yellow jersey race, of which two-time defending champion Tadej Pogacar will be the biggest favorite, starting with a 13.2 km time trial in the streets of the Danish capital. In the city that prides itself on being the most bike-friendly in the world, and where the race had never come, Wednesday's team presentations set the tone for the Grand Départ: enormous enthusiasm accompanied the 176 riders in the peloton.
However, this year he is deprived of a few big names, from the French world champion Julian Alaphilippe, who has not recovered sufficiently from his fall in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, to Mark Cavendish, who with Eddy Merckx co-holds the record for stage wins (34), to the Vé Italian stars Vincenzo Nibali, 37, winner of the Tour in 2014, and Spain Alejandro Valverde, 42, world champion 2018, or the young Belgian prodigy Remco Evenepoel (22).

IN SHORT
French President Emmanuel Macron and the new Australian Labour Prime Minister Anthony Albanese are meeting in Paris on Friday to repair bilateral relations seriously damaged by Canberra's cancellation of a gigantic contract to purchase 12 French submarines.
Chinese President Xi Jinping assured on Friday that there was “no reason” to change the “one country, two systems” principle, which grants Hong Kong a certain degree of autonomy, during a speech celebrating the 25th anniversary of the city's return to China.
The big favorite Iga Swiatek revealed some flaws but managed to qualify for the 3rd round of Wimbledon, like Rafael Nadal, who believes he must still “improve” to go as far as possible.