WSJ:

ANNECY, France-Welcome to the magnificent race for second place.

If it was in question heading into this year’s Tour de France-and it probably shouldn’t have been, as much as we enjoyed whipping ourselves up-it is no longer really in doubt: Alberto Contador is Earth’s supreme rider. After Thursday’s dazzling performance winning the individual time trial in picturesque, lakeside Annecy, Mr. Contador continues to wear the Tour leader’s yellow jersey and, with a four-minute lead, appears all but certain to rock it into Paris on Sunday. Yes, surprises can always happen at the Tour-an untimely crash, a forgotten water bottle that provokes a leg-cramping “bonk,” a Ben Stiller sighting-but even a designed-to-be-epic penultimate stage on Mont Ventoux on Saturday shouldn’t threaten the Spanish climber’s position. After what we’ve witnessed at this 2009 Tour, is anyone really going to bet against Mr. Contador on a mountain? (Of course, his performance has also provoked the sadly predictable doping questions, which Mr. Contador brushed off at his post-race news conference Thursday).

Times:

LONDON – Speaking in Moscow on July 7, U.S. President Barack Obama was the very soul of reasonableness. The United States and Russia must cooperate to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons, he said, while keeping the goal of a world without nuclear weapons always in sight: “America is committed to stopping nuclear proliferation, and ultimately seeking a world without nuclear weapons.”

Unfortunately, that is the wrong way round. The deal that underpinned the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, signed way back in 1968, was that the five great powers who already had nuclear weapons would gradually get rid of them. In return, the rest of the world’s countries would not make them at all. But more than 40 years later, none of those five countries (U.S., Russia, Britain, France and China) has kept its side of the deal.

Weekly Standard:

The Obama administration’s attempts to get various European nations to take dozens of Guantanamo detainees continue to be met with uneven results. Austria has now joined several other European nations, including the Czech Republic, in declining to take any Guantanamo detainees at all. “If the detainees are no longer dangerous, why don’t they stay in the U.S.,” Interior Minister Maria Fekter said during a meeting of European nations today. “For Austria, I cannot accept Guantanamo inmates.”

On the other hand, France, Spain and Portugal are on the record as saying they will take Gitmo detainees. In a meeting with President Obama last week, French President Sarkozy said that his nation would be willing to take one Algerian detainee with ties to France. The specific detainee has not been named, but press reports indicate that Lakhdar Boumediene and Sabir Mahfouz Lahmar are the two Algerians being considered.