Tour de France organizers ASO plan future routes three years ahead, with director Christian Prudhomme selecting the Grand Depart city and 21 stage towns from 300 candidates. Sporting considerations heavily influence decisions, often favoring France's southern regions for diverse terrain.
Buying habits | Trump’s messiah complex | Team Pope Leo XIV | Leaning towers | Mandelson vettingI sympathise with people mourning the demise of once‑loved stores and the pitiful state of their high streets (Wildings in Newport, Wales: the grand department store that became an illicit cannabis farm, 16 April). This is not the fault of the government, but rather a result of changing consumer habits. Perhaps we are all guilty. These shops are not charities, there to adorn the public realm. They are businesses and if people don’t shop there they will close. All that any government – national or local – can do is to help a well-designed shrinking of the retail estate by encouraging changes of use.Gillian WilliamsonLondon• The weirdest aspect of Donald Trump’s messiah complex cartoon (Trump deletes post with AI image of himself as Jesus-like figure after outcry, 13 April) is that the increasingly deranged, thin-skinned president appears to be trying to cure his long-time, eminently sane and extremely funny critic Jon Stewart.Jonathan WheelerBirstall, Leicester Continue reading...
