The Tour de France is unquestionably the world's biggest bike race. On paper it may not be any more gruelling or difficult than its equivalent three-week races the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a España, but the Tour has a stature that reaches beyond regular cycling audiences and attracts millions of spectators at the roadside and on television.

It is no wonder then that most of the sport's best riders build their entire year around the Tour. However, "even by the standards of the world’s biggest race" the 2024 edition looks like being one of the most "star-studded" in recent history, said Rouleur. The four best all-round riders in the world – Tadej Pogačar, Primož Roglič, Remco Evenepoel and defending champion Jonas Vingegaard – will all be vying to wear the prestigious yellow jersey when the race concludes in Nice on 21 July.

'Open and unpredictable'

Every year the Tour organisers change the route of the race, often tipping the scales in favour of one rider or another, and presenting opportunities for stage wins to riders of all types. 

This year's route – which begins in Florence, Italy on Saturday –  is "all about balance", said Escape Collective, with the combination of mountains, time-trials and flatter stages favouring an "all-around talent" rather than just a specialist, like a pure climber. That could be the platform for the four favourites, all of whom are remarkable all-round cyclists, to provide a spectacular edition of the race.

But all four also have "something holding them back", said Eurosport, heightening the narrative. Race favourite Pogačar may be battling fatigue from winning the Giro in Italy in May, while the other three all suffered injuries of differing severity after a huge crash at the Tour of the Basque Country in April. Roglič and Evenepoel have returned to racing since with "varying degrees of success", but Vingegaard will make his comeback at the Tour. It means the overall race (known as the "general classification", or "GC") will take place under a rare "set of circumstances" that have made the "modern-day Tour so open and unpredictable".

However, the beauty of the Tour also lies in its subplots to the overall race. This year's race could feature a particularly historic moment if Britain's Mark Cavendish can "claim the outright record" of stage wins and "go one clear" of the legendary Eddy Merckx by making it 35 victories, said the Daily Mail.

The race will also feature two other outstanding talents, Mathieu van der Poel and Wout van Aert, who too will look to increase their own stage win tally. A strong field is also bolstered by some of the strongest teams the race has ever seen, with many of those supporting riders capable of making a "challenge for a Grand Tour podium themselves", said Cycling Weekly.

'Different to 20 years ago'

Yet this assembly of generational talent will inevitably bring with it the "question of anti-doping and drug testing", given it is "nearly impossible" to talk about extraordinary performances at the Tour without it arising, said Bicycling. 

Highly publicised doping scandals in the 1990s and 2000s, culminating in the doping admission of the former seven-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong, mean that for many "professional cycling and doping will always be linked", said Cyclist, despite the sport having remained "relatively free from doping headlines over the past few years".

It has meant that recent spectacular performances, including those of Pogačar in 2020 and 2021 and Vingegaard in the past two years, have brought "scepticism surrounding their impressive form", said the Daily Mail. 

That has led to riders regularly being "quizzed" on allegations of doping during the race. Last year, eventual winner Vingegaard said he understood that it was "hard to trust in cycling" because of past scandals, but that he believed "everyone is different than 20 years ago". 

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Chioma Nnadi will become the next 'head' of British Vogue, Condé Nast has confirmed, following the departure of Edward Enninful as editor-in-chief.

The decision follows months of speculation over who would take the reins of the fashion magazine, after Enninful announced in June that the March 2024 edition would be his last. 

Her appointment – with the new title of head of editorial content rather than editor-in-chief – was the "industry's worst kept secret", said The Guardian, but it has now been officially confirmed she will take over on 9 October. 

The 44-year-old, who was born in London to a "Swiss-German nurse mother and a Nigerian father", will be the "first Black woman to edit the storied fashion magazine", the newspaper added.

Who is Chioma Nnadi?

Chioma Nnadi was interested in fashion from an early age. She wrote for Vogue in 2019 how aged four she was "running wild through John Lewis" in London's West End, but her father "knew exactly" where to find her: "not in the toy department on the fourth floor, but down on three with all the fashion". 

In the same feature she recalled how "some of my early fashion choices did bother" her father. "When I came home one day wearing what I thought was an amazing ’40s crombie coat found at the second-hand store by my high school, he was mortified," she said. "Why on earth would you want to wear dead people's clothes?” was his response.

Currently the editor of US-based Vogue.com, and co-host of the publication's podcast "The Run Through", Nnadi began her career at the Evening Standard in London. She then moved to the United States to work for independent style magazine Trace, before joining Fader as style director.

Nnadi is a "Vogue veteran", said publisher Condé Nast, having joined the publication as a fashion writer in 2010 and been appointed editor of the US website in 2020.

With the change in leadership, many are curious about the stamp Nnadi will put on the magazine, and about her relationship with global editorial director Anna Wintour, who is said to be the inspiration for the 2006 film "The Devil Wears Prada".

But Nnadi "isn't the terrifying fashion editor of old", a Condé Nast insider told The Times' Harriet Walker. "She's quite shy one-on-one, and very calm." 

Wintour's power play

Nnadi's appointment comes at a time of a rumoured power struggle at the fashion magazine. 

Enninful was "the first male Black and gay editor in the magazine's 106 year history", said NPR. He held the post for six years, a markedly shorter stint than his predecessor, Alexandra Shulman, who edited the fashion bible for a quarter of a century.

While editing British Vogue is widely viewed as "one of the great jobs in journalism", said The Sunday Times earlier this year, longevity in the role can only be achieved with the backing of Wintour, "an editor whose approval or disapproval can make or break a designer's career".

According to the newspaper, it was an open secret within the fashion world that Enninful believed Wintour, now 73, would step down soon and that he would "be a shoo-in" for her role. But a friend told the paper that he had "shot for the moon and lost", resulting in his moving to the position of editorial adviser. 

Although Nnadi will be Enninful's successor at British Vogue, her title will not be editor, and instead she will be the head of editorial content in what is a significant change.

This means Wintour will "likely gain full control of both British and American Vogue", the Daily Mail reported, concluding the power struggle for now. The decision to "anoint" her "loyal ally" Nnadi has shown Wintour as "victorious in the battle for the soul of Vogue", the newspaper added. 

More trainers than heels

The appointment of Nnadi "represents a marked change" for Vogue, said the Evening Standard. While Enninful came "from a stylist background", the new editor is a "thoroughbred writer and editor". 

She has been widely welcomed by the fashion industry and outsiders alike, gaining a "glowing endorsement" from Wintour, The Telegraph reported. The editor-in-chief praised Nnadi, stating she is "an editor and writer with an impeccable reputation", while Enninful described her as a "brilliant and unique talent with real vision". 

One fashion insider told The Times that Nnadi is "the nicest person I've ever dealt with at Vogue". The new boss is "more often spotted in trainers than in the traditional fashion editor heels", and has received "the industry's highest compliment: 'normal'", the newspaper said. 

Nnadi herself acknowledged the significance of the role. "Is there pressure? Yeah, there's definitely pressure – it's Vogue," she told The Guardian. "It's more than being part of a magazine – it's part of the cultural conversation."

Singer Róisín Murphy released her sixth solo album earlier this month, but it has been overshadowed by her controversial posts on social media.

The Irish musician's latest album, "Hit Parade", has received many positive reviews. However, it "arrives under a cloud of controversy", said NME. 

In a post on her private Facebook account in August, which was later circulated on social media, Murphy voiced opposition to the use of puberty blockers by transgender children, saying the practice is "absolutely desolate" and had "big pharma laughing all the way to the bank". She added that "mixed-up kids are vulnerable and need to be protected". 

Anticipating a backlash, she wrote: "Please don't call me a terf, please don't keep using that word against women."

The comments "dismayed many within her vast LGBTQ+ fanbase", wrote Laura Snapes in The Guardian, and Murphy later apologised and tweeted she would "bow out" following a deluge of criticism.

The former Moloko lead singer is set to have her "first UK top 10 album" with "Hit Parade" if it "continues to strike a chord with fans", said The Independent.

Who is Róisín Murphy?

Murphy was born in Arklow, southeast Ireland, in 1973. Her family moved to Manchester when she was 12 and returned four years later, leaving Murphy "at her insistence, to live alone in England" at the age of 16, said Caroline Sullivan in The Guardian in 2005. Murphy survived on "housing benefit" and had her "own flat in an old woman's house", she told the paper.

Her "journey to pop stardom" began in Sheffield when she met music producer Mark Brydon, eventually forming the electro-pop band Moloko in the mid-1990s, said the Irish Independent. They wrote "one of the stand-out songs" of the decade in 'Sing it Back' in 1999, which "could be heard everywhere from Inchicore to Ibiza" and "made Murphy a star".

Murphy and Brydon, who had become a couple, split up but the "band lived on until 2003". She released her debut solo album "Ruby Blue" in 2005, which featured a "supremely weird concoction of crank-jazz and flatulent beats", the NME said. Her latest album, her sixth as a solo artist, contains "accessible alt-pop that drifts from gorgeous, featherweight soul to intoxicating dancefloor euphoria and crackly electro balladry".

Murphy lives "in the hills" of Ibiza with her partner Sebastiano Properzi, where the "hedonistic party scene feels far away", wrote Philip Sherburne in Pitchfork. Her new album is her "most wide-ranging" yet, he added, "letting loose both sides of her personality", including a "dead-pan sense of humour" and "zero inhibitions".

Why is she making headlines?

After leaving Moloko, Murphy was "championed by a motley crew of fashionistas and drag queens", said the Irish Independent, and she was "fitting in" once she was "embraced by gay culture". But her recent comments on puberty blockers have left "swathes" of the "sizeable LGTBQ+ quotient" of her fanbase "dismayed", wrote Ben Beaumont-Thomas in The Guardian.

In the aftermath, and the release of the new album, the controversy has continued to make headlines. The Guardian was heavily criticised by some outlets for its review of the album, which gave it five stars and said it was a "masterful album with an ugly stain", while the BBC was accused of using the issue as "the reason the singer has been removed" from a scheduled programme featuring Murphy's music on 6Music, said The Independent. 

The BBC denied it was the reason behind the programme's removal, but was accused of "bowing to mindless groupthink" by The Spectator, which also lambasted The Guardian review as "one of the worst" and "shameful".

Murphy spoke out about the use of puberty blockers, which stop children's sex organs developing fully. They can be prescribed to young people with gender dysphoria in an effort to arrest the onset of puberty.

"Physical and psychological side effects of the treatment, including depression and weaker bones, have caused concerns," reported The Telegraph. And the NHS has said they will no longer be routinely prescribed following concerns about their use at the Tavistock gender clinic in London.

Murphy has not commented on the row since her initial apology, when she said making the remarks on Facebook was "deeply unsuitable" and that she would now focus on her work, saying her "true calling is music and music will never exclude any of us".

Ever since Coco Gauff first burst onto the scene as a 15-year-old qualifier at Wimbledon in 2019, it seemed inevitable she would one day win a grand slam title, said Stuart Fraser in The Times. And last Saturday, inside the world's biggest tennis stadium, that moment "finally came to pass". On a "thrilling evening of drama", the American battled back from a set down to beat second seed Aryna Sabalenka. It was a match that will perhaps be remembered less for its quality than "for the way in which Gauff was willed to victory by a feverish capacity crowd of 24,000 people". Nervous and error-prone throughout the first set, she claimed a crucial break early in the second set, and rarely looked back after that, running out a 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 winner. The 19-year-old becomes the third American female teenager to have won the US Open, after Serena Williams and Tracy Austin. 

Gauff, who lived for most of her childhood in Delray Beach, Florida (with regular trips to the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in France), has always been a precocious talent, said Molly McElwee in The Daily Telegraph. But her rise to the top hasn't always been smooth, and she has admitted to having struggled with the weight of expectation – a burden only intensified by the "constant" comparisons with Serena Williams. "I remember I lost [a match] when I was 17 and there was a stat, they were like, 'Oh, she's not going to win a slam before Serena's age,'" Gauff said on Saturday. "I felt like I had a time limit on when I should win one." Her latest dip came this summer, when she crashed out of Wimbledon in the first round – a "humbling" defeat that forced a restructure of her coaching team, said Jonathan Jurejko on BBC Sport. Her father, Corey Gauff – her main coach since childhood – stepped back from his front-line role; Spaniard Pere Riba now "heads up" the team, with the "vastly experienced" Brad Gilbert – once coach to Andy Murray – as consultant. 

The shake-up clearly worked, said Tumaini Carayol in The Guardian. Since her "painful" exit at Wimbledon, Gauff has enjoyed an "astonishing" hard court swing, claiming titles in Washington and Cincinnati. Her game has become more aggressive, though in the final it was mostly her defensive skills that enabled her to get the better of Sabalenka. Wowing the crowd with her "incredible movement and anticipation", she consistently deflected the hard-hitting Belarusian's "blows into difficult spots", forcing her to "haemorrhage errors". At 5-2 in the final set, she served out the game to love, before "collapsing to the ground in shock". She then climbed into the crowd and embraced her family. One of the warmest hugs was for her father: she noted afterwards it was the "first time she had ever seen him cry".

Deadly red fire ants may "invade" Britain, researchers have warned after the first official sighting of colonies in Europe.

Entomologists have found 88 red fire ant nests spread over five hectares near the city of Syracuse on the Italian island of Sicily, said The Telegraph's science editor Sarah Knapton. And according to a new study, London is a "prime candidate for colonisation", she added. 

Causing death and destruction

Considered to be one of the world's most invasive species, fire red ants can deliver a bite or sting that causes a burning sensation and, in some cases, chest pains, nausea and dizziness. 

Their sting can also cause "nasty pustules and allergic reactions, possibly leading to anaphylactic shock", said the Daily Mail. 

The ants have been responsible for more than 80 deaths in the US, where an estimated 14 million people are stung each year.

Not only humans are at risk. The species can rapidly form "super colonies" that "prey on invertebrates, larger vertebrates and plants, destroying native plants and out-competing native ants, insects and herbivores for food", said author and natural history writer Patrick Barkham in The Guardian.

The ants can also "infest electrical equipment including cars and computers", he added, as well as houses and crops.

Estimated to be the fifth most costly invasive species on the planet, the ants have spread through human trade from their native South America into Mexico, the Caribbean, Australia, China, Taiwan and the US, where they cause an estimated damage of $6 billion (£4.8 billion) each year.

‘Knew this day would come’

"Finding this species in Italy was a big surprise," said Mattia Menchetti from the Institute of Evolutionary Biology in Spain, "but we knew this day would come."

 Genetic analyses by Menchetti and fellow researchers suggests that the invasive colonies could have come from China or the US. And an analysis of suitable habitats suggests that the ants could invade 7% of the European continent, the team said in a study published in Current Biology. 

The species prefers farms and cities, and could possibly infest half of Europe's urban areas, according to the experts.

 The scientists are now planning an “eradication campaign” in Sicily, said Science magazine's Erik Stokstad, and will "destroy the known nests" and search for more. 

The area will also be monitored for several years to make sure no ants escape, and volunteers will be recruited from across Europe to keep an eye out for further infestations. "Citizens can play a very important role in this," said Menchetti.

 Study co-author Roger Vila agreed that "coordinated efforts for early detection" and "rapid response" are essential to "successfully manage this new threat, before it spreads uncontrollably".

‘Don’t worry too much’ 

The "urgent alert" about the ants invasion comes as the "lethal and aggressive insect" is "creeping closer to Britain", said The Sun.

Amid mounting speculation about the potential threat, The Guardian's Jonathan Watts recalled his "painful" encounters with the ants while living in its native Latin America. During one attack, during a barbecue in his garden, he was stung "multiple times in rapid succession".

 "As more and more joined the attack, the build-up of alkaloid poison turned my skin blotchy and the sensation felt less and less like a pinprick and more and more like a burn," he wrote.

All the same, Watts added, "I would not worry too much" about this potential invader.  "Despite headlines about killer insects", the risks are "manageable for most people" provided "you are not allergic".