Women's Tour de France, Amazon, Colombia, Bob Wilson's death: the night's news

Women's Tour de France: Frenchwoman Maeva Squiban wins stage 6. The 23-year-old Breton “put on an exceptional performance this Thursday by winning solo in Ambert,” in Puy-de-Dôme, “becoming the first Frenchwoman to win a stage in this 2025 edition,” comments the BBC . She is also the second Frenchwoman to win a stage of the Tour since the revival of the event in 2022, a year after a success by Cédrine Kerbaol, another Breton. As the riders prepare to fight for the yellow jersey in the Alps over the next three days, Mauritian Kim Le Court consolidated her position at the top of the general classification. By taking the bonuses (4 seconds) consecutive to her third place in Ambert, she extended her lead to 26 seconds over second-placed Frenchwoman Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.

Amazon's profits soar thanks to massive investments in AI. The e-commerce giant far exceeded market expectations on Thursday with sharply higher quarterly results, despite the uncertain macroeconomic climate linked to trade wars. Amazon announced that it generated $18.2 billion in net income in the second quarter, a 35% jump year-on-year, which the group attributed in particular to its AI tools for consumers and businesses. “Like its peers in Big Tech, Amazon has embarked on a frantic race to build data centers, the immense buildings filled with servers that power cloud computing and artificial intelligence,” reports the New York Times . But Amazon's forecast for its operating profit of $10.2 billion, a key indicator of profitability, for the current quarter disappointed Wall Street. Its stock fell more than 6% in electronic trading after the close. Analysts are concerned about the relative weakness of this growth compared to that of its main rivals, Google and Microsoft. The latter crossed the $4 trillion market capitalization mark for the first time on Thursday, driven by quarterly results that far exceeded expectations.

Colombia: Deforestation on the rise again. “The scourge of deforestation has increased again” in 2024 in the South American country, the Colombian daily El Tiempo reported Thursday . According to figures published by the meteorological agency IDEAM, “ the situation is particularly alarming in the Amazon, which accounted for 68% of national deforestation in 2024, or more than 77,000 hectares lost – a 74% increase compared to the previous year in this region alone,” the newspaper noted. This new data partially reverses the progress made the previous year, when the country reached a historically low level. Among the main causes identified: the expansion of cattle ranching pastures, illicit crops, illegal mining, and unregulated infrastructure.

Death of the great American director Bob Wilson. The artist known for his original creations in theater and opera, died Thursday in New York State, at the age of 83. “Peter Pan” , “Turandot” , “Einstein on the Beach” … His productions of original works as well as works from the traditional repertoire created events wherever they were shown, particularly in France. They “combined an extraordinarily wide range of artistic expressions” , recalls the specialist site Deadline . A pioneer in the use of mixed media in the theater, his works combined dance, movement, lighting, sculpture, text and, of course, music.” Wilson had notably collaborated with choreographer Andy de Groat, Tom Waits, Isabelle Huppert, ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov, and Lady Gaga for video portraits of her at the Louvre.