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X-Raid Mini driver Guillaume de ⁠Mevius took the Dakar Rally lead after Sunday’s first full stage, while Qatar's five-time winner Nasser al-Attiyah was in second place for the Dacia Sandriders team, 40 seconds ⁠behind the Belgian.Al-Attiyah had mixed feelings saying he "could have lost it all" on the challenging route and lamented that he had been ahead of the day's winner for most of the stage. "We had a good pace and could have pushed harder, but when we saw (Dacia teammate) Sebastien Loeb with two flat tyres, we decided to be cautious and avoid puncturing ourselves," said al-Attiyah.For De ⁠Mevius co-driver Mathieu Baumel it was "enormous triumph" as just a year after having his leg amputated he won the opening stage with his Belgian driver.Navigator Baumel was back at the race just 11 months after his right lower leg was amputated after being run over while helping someone who had broken down on the road in France.Last January it had looked as if life behind the wheel was in the past for the successful co-driver and navigator. "Just being here is an enormous triumph," said the 49-year-old, who got into his car Sunday carrying his prosthetic limb.Driving a mini the pair won the perilous 305km first stage at Yanbu, Saudi Arabia. Baumel had previously won the Dakar Rally four times as co-pilot to al-Attiyah, most recently back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023.De Mevius, sitting top of the heap at the finish line, admitted he was surprised. "It wasn't particularly the objective to win today, but we said to ourselves with Mathieu (Baumel) that we wanted to at least win one on the Dakar stages," he said after a stoney and dusty ride.Czech driver Martin Prokop was in third place for the Orlen Jipocar team, with Sweden's Mattias Ekstrom fourth in a Ford Raptor. French driver Sebastien Loeb came 10th in his Dacia losing three minutes with a puncture after also leading the field.Reigning Dakar champion Yazeed al-Rajhi was the big loser of the day as the Saudi was slapped with a 16-minute penalty due to a missed crossing point and ended up nearly 29 minutes off de Mevius with 12 more stages of the endurance event to come over the next two weeks in Saudi Arabia.In the motorcycle category, Spain's Edgar Canet, already winner of the prologue, benefited after Botswana's Ross Branch received a six-minute penalty for speeding in a restricted zone. Canet leads Australia's Daniel Sanders by just over a minute.Today, the competitors will tackle a first big day of racing, heading towards Al Ula after more than 500km, 400 of which are individually timed. 

Qatari rally legend Nasser Saleh al-Attiyah added another golden chapter to his illustrious career by securing a record-breaking 20th FIA Middle East Rally Championship (MERC) title, following a gripping second-place finish at the Rally of Lebanon. Despite missing out on a potential victory in one of the most thrilling finales the Lebanese rally has seen in recent years, the veteran’s runner-up finish behind local hero Roger Feghali was enough to mathematically seal the championship with one round remaining in Cyprus. It was Feghali, the undisputed king of Lebanese tarmac, who ultimately claimed his record 18th Rally of Lebanon win after a titanic two-day battle with al-Attiyah. Driving his Toyota Yaris GR, Feghali trailed al-Attiyah by 6.7 seconds overnight but clawed his way back to within 1.4 seconds heading into the final stage. Al-Attiyah, competing in his Skoda Fabia RS run by Autotek Motorsport, looked set to edge out his rival until a slow right-rear puncture on the final stage dashed his hopes of a maiden Lebanon win. Feghali capitalised, clocking the fastest time on the final test to clinch victory by 9.2 seconds. “This is always a fantastic rally and it was a tremendous battle between myself and Roger,” said al-Attiyah. “We pushed hard all the way. I was obviously disappointed to have the puncture on the last stage, but it’s a great feeling to have won the championship now for the 20th time.” Crucially, Feghali was not registered for MERC points, allowing Al-Attiyah and his Spanish co-driver Candido Carrera to collect maximum regional points for a fifth consecutive rally. Carrera had already sealed the Co-drivers' Championship before the start of the event. This landmark title also marks a personal triumph for Autotek Motorsport’s Ken Skidmore, who has engineered all 20 of Al-Attiyah’s MERC titles. Skidmore's record also includes championship wins with the late Misfer al-Marri and the shared 2023 crown between al-Attiyah and Oman’s Abdullah al-Rawahi. Elsewhere, Qatar’s presence was felt across multiple categories in Lebanon. Mohammed Al-Marri, a graduate of the Qatar Motor and Motorcycle Federation (QMMF) Academy, continued his impressive MERC4 campaign, finishing ahead of India’s Payyakkal Panikkaveettil. With teammate Rashid al-Mohannadi having already secured the MERC4 title in absentia, al-Marri is now poised to complete a Qatari 1-2 in the championship. Veteran Nasser Khalifa al-Atya sealed the FIA Master MERC Driver title, finishing 15th overall alongside Lebanese co-driver Ziad Chehab in a Ford Fiesta. The pair also scored valuable points toward al-Atya’s push for a top-three finish in the overall standings. Chehab remains in contention for second in the Co-drivers’ Championship, behind Carrera.

More than 10,000 people took part in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Copenhagen on Sunday, calling for an end to the war in Gaza and urging Denmark to recognise the state of Palestine.Some 100 organisations including Oxfam, Greenpeace and Amnesty took part in the march, as well as unions, political parties, artists' collectives and activists including Greta Thunberg.Police did not provide an estimate of the number of demonstrators.Gathering under sunny skies outside the Danish parliament, the demonstrators -- many of them families with young children -- waved flags and carried banners, chanting "Stop Arms Sales", "Free Free Palestine" and "Denmark Says No to Genocide".A traditional supporter of Israel, Denmark has said it wants to use its current presidency of the European Union to increase pressure on the Israeli government to end the war in Gaza, which Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen recently said had gone "too far".But Denmark has said it has no plans to recognise a Palestinian state in the near future."Those who are in power are not stopping the genocide, so it's even more important to go out and protest and show all the leaders that we do not agree with this," 43-year-old demonstrator Michelle Appelros told AFP.