An associate of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was convicted on extremism charges Monday as the Kremlin continues to crack down on political activists.

Vadim Ostanin, who previously headed Navalny’s office in the southern Siberian city of Barnaul, was sentenced to nine years in a penal colony after being found guilty of organizing an extremist community and belonging to a nonprofit that “infringes on citizens’ rights,” Navalny’s team wrote on social media.

Prosecutors had previously asked for the 46-year-old to be imprisoned for 11 years.

Ostanin was detained in November 2021, several months after Navalny’s Foundation for Fighting Corruption and his regional offices were labeled as “extremist organizations” by the Russian government.

Ostanin’s case is the latest in a string of recent convictions against regional activists linked to Navalny’s work.

Lilia Chanysheva, who headed Navalny’s headquarters in the central Russian city of Ufa, was sentenced to 7½ years in prison on similar charges on June 14. Chanysheva described her case as politically motivated.

Navalny himself is also facing a new trial on extremism charges that could keep him in prison for decades. It is due to begin next week at a maximum-security prison 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of Moscow where the 47-year-old politician is already serving time on two different convictions.

Navalny, who exposed official corruption and organized massive anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve-agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin. He initially received a 2½-year prison sentence for a parole violation. Last year, he was sentenced to a nine-year term on fraud and contempt of court charges.

The new charges relate to the activities of Navalny’s anti-corruption foundation and statements by his top associates. His allies said the charges retroactively criminalize all the foundation’s activities since its creation in 2011.

Navalny has rejected all the charges against him as politically motivated and has accused the Kremlin of seeking to keep him behind bars for life.
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High-profile British radical preacher Anjem Choudary appeared in a London court Monday, charged with leading a terrorist organization.

Choudary, 56, was charged Sunday with three counts under the Terrorism Act: directing a terrorist organization, membership in a banned organization and addressing meetings to encourage support for the organization between June 2022 and this month.

Prosecutors say the charges relate to the group al-Muhajiroun, which was outlawed by the British government in 2010. It has since operated “under many names and guises,” including the Islamic Thinkers Society, prosecutors say.

Choudary is alleged to have provided lectures to the Islamic Thinkers Society.

He was arrested at his home in London on July 17. He was charged alongside with Canadian national Khaled Hussein, 28, who was arrested at Heathrow Airport the same day after arriving on a flight.

Hussein, from Edmonton, Alberta, is charged with membership in a proscribed organization. Prosecutors say he worked with Choudary to provide “a platform” for the group’s views.

Neither man entered a plea during separate hearings at Westminster Magistrates’ Court. Both were ordered detained until their next hearing at the Central Criminal Court on Aug. 4.

Nick Price, from the Crown Prosecution Service Counter Terrorism Division, said that “criminal proceedings against Mr. Choudary and Mr. Hussein are now active and they each have the right to a fair trial.”
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Substitute Cristiana Girelli’s 87th-minute header gave Italy a 1-0 win over Argentina in their Women’s World Cup opener at Eden Park on Monday, denying the South Americans a first win at the global soccer showpiece.

Veteran striker Girelli, 33, replaced 16-year-old midfielder Giulia Dragoni in the 83rd minute and needed only four minutes to make an impact, beating goalkeeper Vanina Correa with a fine header to seal a hard-fought victory.

Italy plays Sweden in Wellington on Saturday. The two teams are level on points but Sweden holds a slender advantage in Group G, topping the group on number of goals scored thanks to their 2-1 win over South Africa on Sunday.

“When you have a player like Cristiana Girelli on the bench and you see that you can’t actually score … my choice was very simple,” Italy coach Milena Bertolini said.

“She’s a weapon for us. We had a lot of the ball but just couldn’t get it into the net. And so having a player like her on the bench, it’s natural that you ask her to take to the pitch.”

Italy’s Ariana Caruso and Valentina Giacinti both had goals ruled offside in a competitive first half after Argentina nearly made a sensational start to the game, when Mariana Larroquette’s bicycle kick went narrowly wide in the second minute.

After a slow start to the second half, Italy settled into their rhythm and looked more likely to score. Manuela Giuliano’s free kick drifted over the crossbar before Giadda Greggi drew a smart stop from Correa in the 82nd minute.

Goalkeeper Francesca Durante pushed away Argentine midfielder Florencia Bonsegundo’s attempt from a free kick in stoppage time, ensuring a winning start in the tournament for the 2019 quarter-finalists in front of a crowd of 30,889.

Bertolini was vindicated after putting her faith in Dragoni as the teenager impressed on her debut before making way for Girelli, the oldest member of Italy’s squad, who scored her 54th international goal on her 104th appearance.

“Giulia is a talent,” Bertolini said. “She was ready both technically and tactically. I think that she did very well considering her age and also playing in such a big stadium in such a big event.”

Argentina caused plenty of problems for Durante but could not manage a shot on target until Bonsegundo’s free kick in the 94th minute.

They next face South Africa on Friday in Dunedin, with both teams still searching for a first World Cup victory.

“It was a very even match,” Argentina coach German Portanova said. “At times we controlled it and they did not have many opportunities. The result was somewhat unfair. A draw would have been the right score.”
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Human Rights Watch said in a statement Monday that Mali’s armed forces and “apparently” the Wagner Group mercenaries “have summarily executed and forcibly disappeared several dozen civilians in Mali’s cental region since December 2022.”

Mali’s forces and the Wagner Group have also “destroyed and looted civilian property and allegedly tortured detainees in an army camp,” according to HRW.

The rights group said it has interviewed 40 people who know about the incidents, including “20 witnesses of abuses, three family members of victims, two community leaders, five Malian civil society activists, eight representatives of international organizations, and two Sahel political analysts.

HRW said it has also “reviewed a video showing evidence of abuses by Malian soldiers and associated foreign forces.”

Malian Foreign Minister Aodoulaye Diop urged the U.N. Security Council to withdraw the U.N. peacekeeping force in Mali or MINUSMA “without delay” due to a confidence crisis between Malian officials and the 15,000 members of MINUSMA.

Malian Foreign Minister Aodoulaye Diop urged the U.N. Security Council to withdraw the U.N. peacekeeping force in Mali or MINUSMA “without delay” due to a confidence crisis between Malian officials and the 15,000 members of MINUSMA.

The Security Council has decided to end MINUSMA’s presence in Mali, but its personnel will remain there until December 31.

With the upcoming end to MINUSMA’s presence in Mali, Carine Kaneza Nantulya, HRW deputy Africa director, said, “The African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) should express their concerns about grave abuses by the Malian armed forces and allied apparent Wagner Group fighters and increase pressure on the Malian authorities to end these violations and hold those responsible to account.”
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Firefighters struggled through the night to contain 82 wildfires across Greece, 64 of which started Sunday, the hottest day of the summer so far.

Their efforts were without the help of firefighting planes and helicopters, which do not operate at night.

The most serious fire was on the island of Rhodes. Some 19,000 people had been evacuated from several locations on the island as wildfires burned for a sixth day, Greek authorities said. No further evacuations had been ordered as of Sunday night.

The Ministry of Climate Change and Civil Protection said it was “the largest evacuation from a wildfire in the country.”

Local police said 16,000 people were evacuated by land and 3,000 by sea from 12 villages and several hotels. Six people were briefly treated at a hospital for respiratory problems. A person who fell and broke a leg during a hotel evacuation and a pregnant woman remained hospitalized, the latter in good condition, authorities said.

A number of tourists were waiting to fly back home from Rhodes International Airport.

The package holiday companies TUI and Jet2 canceled flights to Rhodes. But the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport later announced that 14 TUI and Jet2 flights carrying 2,700 passengers would depart from Rhodes airport by 3 a.m. Monday (0000 GMT).

On Saturday and early Sunday, 70,000 passengers traveled through the airport, with some being arrivals, the ministry said. The announcement did not break down the figures by arrivals and departures.

British tourist Kevin Evans was evacuated twice Saturday with his wife and three young children — first from Kiotari to Gennadi, then as the fire approached the island’s capital in the northeast, he told Britain’s PA news agency.

“There were lots of people in Gennadi sent from the hotels — many in just swimsuits having been told to leave everything in the hotel,” he told PA. “As night fell, we could see the fire on the top of the hills in Kiotari. They said all the hotels were on fire.”

Rhodes travel agent Stelios Kotiadis confirmed to the Associated Press that the evacuation was hasty. “There was panic. … The authorities were overwhelmed,” he said.

But, he said, the abandoned hotels “are in much better condition than reported in social media. … They will be ready to reopen very soon if Civil Protection gives the go-ahead.”

Kotiadis said he and other travel agents sent buses to the island’s southeast to pick up evacuated tourists. They had to go the long way around, since the road running down Rhodes’ eastern side was blocked in places.

“There were 80-90 people cramming into 50-seater buses,” he said. He added that 90% of the evacuated tourists are from European countries.

The British ambassador to Greece, Matthew Lodge, said the U.K. government was sending a rapid deployment team to support British nationals on Rhodes.

The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that personnel had set up a help desk at Rhodes International Airport for visitors who have lost their travel documents.

There are substantial reinforcements from the European Union.

“Over 450 firefighters and seven airplanes from the EU have been operating in Greece as fires sprout across the country,” EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Janez Lenarcic tweeted early Sunday afternoon.

“I called (Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis) to express our full support for Greece, which is confronted with devastating forest fires and a heavy heat wave due to climate change. Greece is handling this difficult situation with professionalism, putting emphasis on safely evacuating thousands of tourists, and can always count on European solidarity,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Sunday evening.

The weather remained hot in the Mediterranean country on Sunday. A total of 180 locations experienced temperatures of 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) and above. The highest reading, 46.4 C, (115.5 F) was reached at the seaside town of Gytheio in southern Greece.

Of the 64 wildfires that broke out elsewhere in the country Sunday, the most serious was on Evia, Greece’s second-largest island, where authorities told residents of four southern villages to evacuate to the town of Karystos, west of where the fire was advancing.

Central Greece Vice Governor Giorgos Kelaiditis, who was near one of the villages, told state agency ANA-MPA that the situation is difficult:

“The fire may be 2 kilometers away, but the wind is strong, the growth is low, the smoke thick and the air is hard to breathe,” he said.

Northern Evia was devastated by wildfires in August 2021.

Other fires requiring evacuations broke out on the northeast side of the island of Corfu and in the northern Peloponnese, near the town of Aigio. Traffic on the old Athens-Patras national road, running across the coast, has been cut off.

Just before midnight, authorities called for more evacuations from Corfu and the northern Peloponnese. In the case of Corfu, they said the fire was “moving southeast on a broad front” and added that private vessels were on standby to pick up evacuees.

A fire that broke out west of the important archaeological site of Epidaurus, including a famous ancient theater, has been partly contained, the Fire Service said.

A relative respite from the heat Monday, with highs of 38 C (100.4 F) forecast, will be followed by yet more high temperatures starting Tuesday. However, it should get significantly cooler on Thursday, with temperatures in the low- to mid-30s Celsius, the country’s Meteorological Service said Sunday evening.

 
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Latest developments

A previously announced meeting of a new NATO-Ukraine Council, expected to address Black Sea security, has been scheduled for Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.  





Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country is capable of replacing Ukrainian grain exports to Africa after Russia left a deal allowing for safe shipments from Ukraine through the Black Sea amid Russia’s invasion. 

 

Russia said Monday that Ukraine attacked Moscow with two drones that were destroyed by Russian air defenses. 

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said two non-residential buildings were damaged, but that there were no reports of casualties. 

Russian news agencies said fragments from a drone were found in the Komsomolsky area, near Russia’s defense ministry. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy used part of his nightly address Sunday to decry Russian attacks on the city of Odesa, and in particular its historic center, one of UNESCO’s world heritage sites. 

Zelenskyy vowed to retaliate, saying, “They [Russia] will definitely feel this.” 

“The target of all these missiles is not just cities, villages or people. Their target is humanity and the foundations of our entire European culture,” Zelenskyy said Sunday in his nightly video address. “Last night, a Russian missile — it was an X-22, an anti-ship missile — hit the altar of the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral in Odesa … One of the most valuable cathedrals in Ukraine.”  

Russian airstrikes damaged the historic Transfiguration Cathedral, as the site is also known, early Sunday. 

Father Myroslav, the assistant rector of the cathedral, said there was extensive damage inside.   

“There was a direct hit to the cathedral; it completely damaged three altars,” he said.    

Members of the clergy pulled icons from the rubble inside the cathedral. Mosaics were smashed. A security guard and clergymen were inside when the strike hit, but they survived.      

The destruction of the historic monument has caused outrage and Zelenskyy pledged to restore the historic church. 

UNESCO issued a statement “strongly” condemning the attack. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell condemned the strike as a “new war crime.”      

The first and foremost church in the city of Odesa was founded in 1794 during the Russian empire. It was demolished under Stalin in 1936. Its rebuilding commenced in 1999 after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and it was consecrated in 2003.   

Blue Shield sites damaged

Separately, “a preliminary assessment in Odesa has revealed damage to several museums inside the World Heritage property, including the Odesa Archaeological Museum, the Odesa Maritime Museum and the Odesa Literature Museum. They had all been marked by UNESCO and local authorities with the Blue Shield, the distinctive emblem of the 1954 Hague Convention,” the UNESCO statement said.   

Russia’s defense ministry claimed it struck areas that were suspected of being sites of terrorist acts but denied it had struck the cathedral and said the building had probably been hit by a Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile.   

The airstrikes killed two people and wounded at least 19 others, including children.    

 

 

Residents said the missiles hit only residential areas and small businesses.   

Russia has launched a series of attacks on Odesa since Moscow’s exit from a U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal that was securing the safe passage of cargo ships through the Black Sea corridor.   

Ukraine counteroffensive  

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN Sunday that while Ukraine’s counteroffensive is going more slowly than originally hoped for, Ukrainian forces had reconquered half the territory that Russia had initially occupied when it invaded.   

“It’s already taken back about 50% of what was initially seized,” Blinken said. “These are still relatively early days of the counteroffensive. It is tough.”  

“It will not play out over the next week or two. We’re still looking I think at several months,” he said, as Ukrainian troops struggled to breach heavily entrenched Russian positions in the country’s south and east.   

Blinken remarked that Russia has failed as far as what it was aiming to achieve when it invaded Ukraine.   

“The objective was to erase Ukraine from the map, to eliminate its independence, its sovereignty, to subsume it into Russia. That failed a long time ago. Now Ukraine is in a battle to get back more of the land that Russia seized from it,” Blinken said.    

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Ukraine’s counteroffensive “has failed.”     

While visiting St. Petersburg, Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, a key Putin ally, said Sunday, “There is no counteroffensive.”   

Putin replied: “It exists, but it has failed.”   

Some information was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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When Nouhaila Benzina steps onto the field for Morocco’s first match of the Women’s World Cup against Germany, she will make history — and not just as a player for the first Arab or North African nation ever in the tournament. 

The 25-year-old defender will be the first player to wear the Islamic headscarf at the senior-level Women’s World Cup. She and the Atlas Lionesses face two-time World Cup champions Germany in Melbourne, Australia, on Monday. 

“Girls will look at Benzina (and think) ‘That could be me,'” said Assmaah Helal, a co-founder of the Muslim Women in Sports Network said of the hijab. “Also the policymakers, the decision-makers, the administrators will say, ‘We need to do more in our country to create these accepting and open and inclusive spaces for women and girls to participate in the game.'” 

Benzina, who plays professional club soccer for the Association’s Sports of Forces Armed Royal — the eight-time defending champions in Morocco’s top women’s league — hasn’t yet been made available to speak to reporters here at the Women’s World Cup. In recent weeks, she has shared social media posts from others about the history-making nature of her World Cup appearance. 

“We are honored to be the first Arab country to take part in the Women’s World Cup,” Morocco captain Ghizlane Chebbak said on Sunday, “and we feel that we have to shoulder a big responsibility to give a good image, to show the achievements the Moroccan team has made.” 

A choice

Had Morocco qualified for the Women’s World Cup a decade ago, a player who wanted to wear the hijab during a game might have been forced to choose between that and representing her country. 

In 2007, a referee barred an 11-year-old Canadian girl from wearing a hijab during a club match. When the issue reached FIFA, the sport’s global governing body banned head coverings in competitions it sanctioned, except for coverings that exposed the neck. 

FIFA cited “health and safety” concerns, some related to possible choking, with regulations forbidding “equipment that is dangerous to himself or another player.” 

“That really sent a strong message to Muslim women, particularly those who wear hijabs, (that) we don’t belong,” said Helal, an Australia-based operations manager of Creating Chances and Football United. 

Helal was among the social activists, Muslim athletes, and government and soccer officials who worked to overturn the ban. 

In 2012, FIFA granted the Asian Football Confederation a two-year trial period during which players would be allowed to wear head coverings at international competitions. No senior-level World Cups, men’s or women’s, were scheduled during the trial period. 

In 2014, FIFA lifted its ban on head coverings. Two years later, the under-17 Women’s World Cup in Jordan marked the first time Muslim players wore headscarves during an international FIFA event. 

‘Part of our identities’

Maryan Hagi-Hashi, a Melbourne resident who attended Morocco’s public practice session last week, said she is supporting the Atlas Lionesses alongside tournament co-host Australia. She appreciates the representation that the Moroccan team and Benzina provide, she said. 

“There’s a mixture of (Muslim) women that wear hijab and don’t wear a hijab,” Hagi-Hashi said. “I think the world has realized there is diversity.” 

Helal said that since the ban was lifted, she has seen an increase in Muslim girls and women playing soccer, pursuing coaching pathways and leading their own football clubs. 

“I think it’s key to understand that the hijab is an essential part of a Muslim woman, should she choose to wear it,” Helal said. “It’s actually part of our identities.” 
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A previously announced meeting of a new NATO-Ukraine Council, expected to address Black Sea security, has been scheduled for Wednesday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address Sunday.

NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said Saturday that the meeting, requested by Zelenskyy in a telephone conversation with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, would discuss the situation following Russia’s withdrawal from a year-old deal overseeing grain exports from Ukrainian ports.

“In fact, the date was agreed upon immediately after our conversation yesterday,” Zelenskyy said. “The meeting will be held this Wednesday.”

He said the meeting was among events Ukraine was preparing for in the coming week that would strengthen the country’s defense. He said new support packages were being prepared including more air defense, artillery, and long-range weapons.

Lungescu said the meeting would address the operation of a corridor for grain exports and take place at the level of ambassadors. The council’s inaugural meeting, at NATO’s summit in Vilnius, was attended by heads of state or government.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin said Ukraine’s counteroffensive “has failed” as he hosted Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, his close ally, for talks in St. Petersburg on Sunday.

“There is no counteroffensive,” Russian news agencies quoted Lukashenko as saying.

Putin replied: “It exists, but it has failed.”

Ukraine began its long-anticipated counteroffensive last month but has so far made only small gains against well entrenched Russian forces who control more than a sixth of its territory after nearly 17 months of war.

U.S. General Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Tuesday the Ukrainian drive was “far from a failure” but would be long, hard and bloody.

A Telegram channel linked to Lukashenko quoted him as saying in a jocular tone that fighters of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group who are now training Belarus’s army were keen to push across the border into NATO member Poland.

“The Wagner guys have started to stress us — they want to go west. ‘Let’s go on a trip to Warsaw and Rzeszow,'” he was quoted as saying. There was no indication that Lukashenko was seriously entertaining that idea.

On Thursday, the Belarusian defense ministry said Wagner fighters had started to train Belarusian special forces at a military range just a few miles from the Polish border.

Poland is moving extra troops toward the border with Belarus in response to the arrival of the Wagner forces who relocated there after staging a short-lived mutiny in Russia last month.

Putin, in response, warned Poland Friday that any aggression against Belarus would be considered an attack on Russia. He said Moscow would use all means it has to react to any hostility towards Minsk.

Useful partner

Russia and Belarus are linked in a partnership called the “union state” in which Moscow is by far the dominant player. But Lukashenko has proved his usefulness to Putin since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, allowing Russia to use his country as a launch pad at the start of the war.

He has subsequently let Russian forces train at his military bases, conducted frequent joint exercises and taken delivery of tactical nuclear weapons which Putin has placed in Belarus in a move broadly condemned in the West.

The Kremlin also credited Lukashenko with brokering last month’s deal to end the Wagner mutiny, which Putin said had briefly threatened to tip Russia into civil war.

Putin said the two leaders would meet Sunday and Monday and would discuss security and other issues “in great detail and in depth.”

Lukashenko has not committed his small army to join Russia’s war, but the risk of a new attack from Belarusian soil compels Ukraine to protect its northern border, and stretches its forces as it tries to step up its counteroffensive in the east and south of the country. 
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British band The 1975 said on Sunday they have canceled shows in Taiwan and Muslim-majority Indonesia, a day after Malaysia banned them from performing there after their frontman kissed a bandmate on stage and criticized the country’s anti-LGBTQ laws.

“Unfortunately, due to current circumstances, it is impossible to proceed with the scheduled shows,” the pop rock group said in a statement, without elaborating.

Malaysia’s government halted a music festival in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Saturday and barred The 1975 after what it called “disrespectful actions.”

Homosexuality is a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia. Rights groups have warned of growing intolerance against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The events on Friday in Malaysia caused an uproar, angering not only the government, but members of the LGBTQ community, who said frontman Matty Healy’s actions could expose LGBTQ people to more stigma and discrimination.

The 1975 were due to play on Sunday in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, where homosexuality is a taboo subject, though not illegal except in sharia-ruled Aceh province.

Other LGBTQ-related events have also been canceled in Indonesia due to objections from Islamic groups, including a planned visit last December by a U.S. LGBTQ special envoy, and the scrapping this month of a Southeast Asia LGBTQ event. Both came after pressure from religious conservatives.

It was not immediately clear why the band canceled their July 25 show in Taiwan, which has a proud reputation as a bastion of LGBTQ rights and liberalism, including allowing same-sex marriage in 2019. 
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Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni called Sunday for new, more equal relationships between Europe and migrants’ countries of origin and transit as she convened a summit of some 20 nations, EU officials and international organizations aimed at stanching flows of illegal migration.

The one-day conference is a Meloni initiative that aims to make Italy a leader in resolving issues impacting Mediterranean nations. Chief among them is migration, as Italy sustains hundreds of new arrivals daily on Europe’s southern border, but also energy as Europe looks to Africa and the Middle East to permanently replace Russian supplies.

Human rights groups see the meeting, which includes nations from both northern and sub-Saharan Africa as well as the Middle East, as creating a future roadmap, and worry it will amount to anti-migrant policies that put the onus on Africa to keep Africans out of Europe.

Meloni told the opening meeting that Western arrogance had likely stood in the way of solutions to the migrant issue. She proposed four main prongs for future cooperation: fighting criminal organizations trafficking migrants, better managing flows of migrants, supporting refugees and helping countries of origin.

“The West too often has given the impression of being more interested in giving lessons rather than lending a hand,” Meloni said. “It is probably this diffidence that has made it difficult to make progress on solutions.”

She said if flows were better managed there would be more room for legal migration.

“In an era where so much attention is given to the right to migrate, we are not paying sufficient attention to the right to not be forced to emigrate, to not be forced to flee their own homes, to not be forced to abandon their land and leave family members in search of a new life.”

The conference comes against the backdrop of migrants being pushed back from Tunisia into Libya, where they are stuck in the desert.

Pope Francis, in his traditional Sunday blessing, called on leaders in Europe and Africa to find a solution to the thousands of people who are blocked at borders in North Africa.

“Thousands of them have been experiencing indescribable suffering for weeks, and have been trapped and abandoned in deserts,” the pontiff said. “May the Mediterranean no longer be a theater of death and inhumanity,” the pope said, calling for a sense of “fraternity, solidarity and welcoming.”

The Rome summit comes a week after one of the key participants, Tunisian President Kais Saied, signed a memorandum of understanding for a “comprehensive strategic partnership” in a meeting that included Meloni and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Financial details weren’t released, but the EU has held out the promise of nearly 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) to help restart Tunisia’s hobbled economy, and 100 million euros ($111 million) for border control as well as search and rescue missions at sea and repatriating immigrants without residence permits.

Migrants pay traffickers thousands to make the perilous journey across Africa’s deserts. Many report suffering torture and other abuse along the way. And hundreds drown each year at sea trying to reach Italy in fragile boats.

More than 1,900 migrants have died or gone missing and are presumed missing in the Mediterranean so far this year, bringing the total of dead and missing since 2014 to 27,675, according to the International Organization for Migration. A further 483 are dead or missing in Africa this year.
…

The Netherlands kicked off their Group E campaign with a 1-0 win over Women’s World Cup debutants Portugal at Dunedin Stadium on Sunday, thanks to a first-half goal from Stefanie Van der Gragt that was awarded on a VAR review.

The Dutch edged Portugal 3-2 a year ago in the European Championship group stage, but this time the Iberian side were no match for the team in their trademark orange and did not have a shot on target until the 82nd minute.

The Dutch scored in the 13th minute from a corner when Van der Gragt rose above the defense at the far post to head home, but the flag went up for offside when the lineswoman deemed Jill Roord to be obstructing the goalkeeper.

However, the offside decision for interfering with play was overturned on a VAR review by the referee after she watched a replay on the monitor and the goal stood, sparking a second celebration from the Dutch team.

“We celebrated the goal and then we saw the assistant referee, so we had to wait for the final decision,” Van der Gragt told reporters after she was named the player of the match.

“It’s always difficult to celebrate a second time but it was good. I’m really happy that we won, that was the most important thing today.”

Roord nearly made it 2-0 minutes later when she had a free header in the six-yard box, but the unmarked midfielder headed over the bar to hand Portugal a lifeline.

Portugal, however, failed to muster a shot on goal in the first half while at the other end they thwarted waves of attacks from the Dutch.

The story was the same in the second half when Portuguese keeper Ines Pereira denied Danielle van De Donk with a fine reflex save after some clever passing to set up the midfielder.

“Portugal were really combative. There were moments where we were great and moments where there is room for improvement,” Dutch coach Andries Jonker said.

Portugal substitute Telma Encarnacao finally created their best opportunity in the 82nd minute when she charged down the right flank and cut in to shoot, but Dutch keeper Daphne van Domselaar was up to the task and parried her attempt.

“We should have had a reaction after the goal, we had a well-balanced game and structure. But compared to other matches with the Netherlands, they had a lot more possession… This is where we suffered,” Portugal coach Francisco Neto said.

“The players showed great character to play the 2019 runners-up. We managed to break their rhythm, we just need to play more matches and get experience.”

The Netherlands move level with group leaders United States on three points but sit second on goal difference ahead of Thursday’s titanic clash – a repeat of the 2019 final where the Americans won their fourth World Cup crown.

“We’re not afraid of America, we respect them, we have no fear,” Jonker said, adding that their focus since June had been the opening game against Portugal.

“This was the most important game and now it’s time to focus on the United States.”

 
…

Pope Francis said on Sunday that recent heat waves across many parts of the world and flooding in countries such as South Korea showed that more urgent action was needed to tackle climate change.

“Please, I renew my appeal to world leaders to do something more concrete to limit polluting emissions,” the Pope said at the end of his Angelus message to crowds in St. Peter’s Square.

“It is an urgent challenge, it cannot be postponed, it concerns everyone. Let us protect our common home,” the pope added.

Francis has called on the world to rapidly ditch fossil fuels and made the protection of the environment a cornerstone of his pontificate. He noted in his landmark 2015 “Laudato Si” (Praised Be) encyclical that the planet was “beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth.”

On Sunday, the pope expressed solidarity with those who were suffering from the climate crisis and those helping them.

Parts of the southern United States have baked in a record-breaking heat wave, while extreme temperatures have also been recorded in China and southern Europe, including Italy and Greece.

A wildfire raging on the Greek island of Rhodes forced thousands of tourists and island residents to shelter in schools and indoor stadiums on Sunday after they were evacuated from coastal villages and resorts.
…

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko will meet Sunday, the Kremlin said, two days after Moscow warned that any aggression against its neighbor and staunchest ally would be considered an attack on Russia. 

After Poland decided earlier this week to move military units closer to its border with Belarus in response to the arrival in Belarus of forces from Russia’s Wagner Group, Putin said Moscow would use all means to react to any hostility toward Minsk. 

The Kremlin said Lukashenko is paying a working visit to Russia and will talk to Putin about further development of the countries’ “strategic partnership.”  

While not sending his own troops to Ukraine, Lukashenko allowed Moscow to use Belarusian territory to launch its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and has since met with Putin frequently. 

The two countries have since held multiple joint military training exercises. In June, Lukashenko allowed his country to be used as a base for Russian nuclear weapons, a move broadly condemned by the West. 

The perception that Lukashenko depends on Putin for his survival had fanned fears in Kyiv that Putin would pressure him to join a fresh ground offensive and open a new front in Russia’s faltering invasion of Ukraine. 

On Thursday, the Belarusian defense ministry said Wagner Group mercenaries have started to train Belarusian special forces at a military range just a few miles from the border with NATO-member Poland. 

Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video welcoming his fighters to Belarus on Wednesday, telling them they would take no further part for now in the war in Ukraine but ordering them to gather strength for Wagner’s operations in Africa while they trained the Belarusian army. 

 
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A Russian war reporter was killed and three colleagues were wounded in Ukraine on Saturday in what the defense ministry said was a Ukrainian attack using cluster munitions, prompting outrage from Moscow.

In a separate incident, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle said one of its journalists, Yevgeny Shilko, had been wounded elsewhere in Ukraine in a Russian attack with cluster munitions that killed a Ukrainian soldier. It said his life was not in danger.

Cluster bombs are in the spotlight after Ukraine received supplies of them from the United States this month. Many countries ban them because they rain shrapnel over a wide area and can pose a risk to civilians. Typically, some bomblets fail to explode immediately but can blow up years later.

Reuters could not independently verify the use of such weapons in either incident on Saturday. Both sides have used them in the course of Russia’s 17-month invasion of Ukraine.

The dead Russian journalist was named as Rostislav Zhuravlev, a war correspondent for state news agency RIA. His three colleagues were evacuated from the battlefield after coming under fire in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, the defense ministry said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova denounced what she called “criminal terror” by Ukraine and said, without providing evidence, that the attack appeared deliberate.

“Those responsible for the brutal reprisal against a Russian journalist will inevitably suffer well-deserved punishment. The entire measure of responsibility will be shared by those who supplied cluster munitions to their Kyiv protégés,” she said.

No comment was immediately available from Ukraine on the incident.

Ukraine has pledged to use cluster munitions only to dislodge concentrations of enemy soldiers. White House national security spokesperson John Kirby said this week that Ukrainian forces were using them appropriately and effectively against Russian formations.

Konstantin Kosachyov, deputy speaker of the Russian upper house of parliament, said the use of the weapons was inhuman and the responsibility lay both with Ukraine and the United States. Leonid Slutsky, a party leader in the lower house, called it a “monstrous crime.”

Their reactions ignored the fact that Russia’s own use of cluster bombs in the war has been documented by human rights groups and by the U.N.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said in May that Russian forces had used the weapons in attacks that had caused hundreds of civilian casualties and damaged homes, hospitals and schools. 
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BELGRADE, Serbia — Three people died in Serbia during another deadly storm that ripped through the Balkans this week, local media said Saturday.

The storm Friday first swept through Slovenia, moving on to Croatia and then Serbia and Bosnia, with gusts of wind and heavy rain. Authorities reported power distribution issues and extensive damage — including fallen trees — that destroyed cars and rooftops.

On Wednesday, another storm killed six people in the region, four in Croatia, one in Slovenia and another in Bosnia.

Meteorologists said the storms were of such powerful magnitude because they followed a string of extremely hot days. Experts say extreme weather conditions are likely fueled by climate change.

In the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad, a 12-year-old was found dead in the street during the storm, but it remains unclear whether he was struck by lightning or was electrocuted, said the official RTS television.

Local media say Novi Sad was hit the hardest, with the storm damaging the roof of the city’s exhibition hall. Some 30 people have sought medical help, and many streets remained blocked Saturday morning.

In the village of Kovacica, in northeastern Serbia, a woman died from smoke inhalation after a fire erupted when lightning hit a tree by her house, the RTS said.

Serbian police said Saturday that a man died in the northwestern town of Backa Palanka after he tried to remove power cables that fell on his house gate.

In Croatia, the storm wreaked havoc in various parts of the country, as authorities were already scrambling to control the damage left by Wednesday’s storm.

“We work night and day, no stopping,” Nermin Brezovcanin, a construction worker in the capital, Zagreb, told the official HRT TV.

Several people were injured in a tourist campsite in the northern Istria peninsula packed with visitors from abroad during the summer. Croatia’s Adriatic Sea coastline and islands attract millions of tourists each summer.

Slovenia reported that storms hugely damaged forests in the Alpine nation and warned of potential flash floods.

Elsewhere in Europe, a continuing heat wave caused wildfires and public health warnings.
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BAGHDAD — Hundreds of protesters attempted to storm Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses foreign embassies and the seat of Iraq’s government, early Saturday following reports that an ultranationalist group burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Security forces pushed back protesters, who blocked the Jumhuriya bridge leading to the Green Zone, preventing them from reaching the Danish Embassy.

The protest came two days after people angered by the planned burning of the Islamic holy book in Sweden stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad. Protesters occupied the diplomatic post for several hours, waving flags and signs showing the influential Iraqi Shiite cleric and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr, and setting a small fire. The embassy staff had been evacuated a day earlier.

Hours later, Iraq’s prime minister cut diplomatic ties with Sweden in protest over the desecration of the Quran.

An Iraqi asylum-seeker who burned a copy of the Quran during a demonstration last month in Stockholm had threatened to do the same thing again Thursday but ultimately stopped short of setting fire to the book. He did, however, kick and step on it, and did the same with an Iraqi flag and a photo of Sadr and of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

On Friday afternoon, thousands protested peacefully in Iraq and other Muslim-majority countries.

Also on Friday, according to Danish media reports, members of the ultranationalist group Danske Patrioter burned a copy of the Quran and an Iraqi flag in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Copenhagen, livestreaming the action on Facebook.

Copenhagen police spokeswoman Trine Fisker told The Associated Press that “a very small demonstration” with less than 10 people took place Friday afternoon across the street from the Iraqi embassy and that a book was burned.

“We do not know what book it was,” she said. “Apparently they tried to burn the Iraqi flag and after that, somebody stepped on it.”

Fisker said the “political angle is not for the police to comment” on, but the “event was peaceful … from a police perspective.”

The incident prompted the protests in Baghdad overnight. Chanting in support of Sadr and carrying images of the prominent leader and the flag associated with his movement, along with the Iraqi flag, hundreds of protesters attempted to enter the Green Zone and clashed with security forces before dispersing.

In a statement on Saturday, the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned “in strong and repeated terms, the incident of abuse against the Holy Quran and the flag of the Republic of Iraq in front of the Iraqi Embassy in Denmark.”

It called the international community “to stand urgently and responsibly towards these atrocities that violate social peace and coexistence around the world.” the statement read.

Another protest is scheduled to take place in Baghdad at 6 p.m.
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A music festival in Malaysia’s capital was canceled Saturday after two male band members of a British band kissed on stage in defiance of the country’s anti-LGBT laws.

During a performance at the Good Vibes Festival on Friday in Kuala Lumpur, Matty Healy, the frontman of The 1975, delivered a profanity laden speech before the kiss.

“I made a mistake. When we were booking shows, I wasn’t looking into it,” he said. “I don’t see the (expletive) point … of inviting The 1975 to a country and then telling us who we can have sex with.”

Healy then kissed bassist Ross McDonald.

Not long after that, Healy stopped the band’s performance short and announced, “All right, we’ve got to go. We just got banned from Kuala Lumpur. I’ll see you later.”

In a Tweet on Saturday, Malaysia’s Communication Minister Fahmi Fadzil announced the “Immediate Cancellation” of the festival, which was originally set to last until Sunday.

The minister criticized the “very rude actions and statements” of the band, adding that there would be “no compromise for any party that challenges, violates or disparages Malaysian law.” He also urged festival organizers to find a way to compensate those who bought tickets to the festival.

Homosexuality is a crime in Malaysia. 

In 2019, Healy did something similar in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, where homosexuality is also a crime, when he kissed a male fan on stage.

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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BATAGAI, RUSSIA – Stunning drone footage has revealed details of the Batagaika crater, a 1-kilometer-long gash in Russia’s Far East that forms the world’s biggest permafrost crater.

In the video, two explorers clamber across uneven terrain at the base of the depression, marked by irregular surfaces and small hummocks, which began to form after the surrounding forest was cleared in the 1960s and the permafrost underground began to melt, causing the land to sink.

“We locals call it ‘the cave-in,'” local resident and crater explorer Erel Struchkov told Reuters as he stood on the crater’s rim. “It developed in the 1970s, first as a ravine. Then by thawing in the heat of sunny days, it started to expand.”

Scientists say Russia is warming at least 2.5 times faster than the rest of the world, melting the long-frozen tundra that covers about 65% of the country’s landmass and releasing greenhouse gases stored in the thawed soil.

The “gateway to the underworld,” as some locals in Russia’s Sakha Republic also call it, has a scientific name: a mega-slump.

And while it may attract tourists, the slump’s expansion is “a sign of danger,” said Nikita Tananayev, lead researcher at the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk.

“In future, with increasing temperatures and with higher anthropogenic pressure, we will see more and more of those mega-slumps forming, until all the permafrost is gone,” Tananayev told Reuters.

Thawing permafrost has already threatened cities and towns across northern and northeastern Russia, buckling roadways, splitting apart houses, and disrupting pipelines. Vast wildfires, which have become more intense in recent seasons, exacerbate the problem.

Locals in Sakha have taken note of the crater’s rapid growth.

“(Two years ago the edge) was about 20-30 meters away from this path. And now, apparently, it is much closer,” Struchkov said.

Scientists aren’t sure of the exact rate at which the Batagaika crater is expanding. But Tananayev says the soil beneath the slump, which is about 100 meters deep in some areas, contains an “enormous quantity” of organic carbon that will release into the atmosphere as the permafrost thaws, further fueling the planet’s warming.

“With an increasing air temperature, we can expect (the crater) will be expanding at a higher rate,” he said. “This will lead to more and more climate warming in the following years.”
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MADRID — Voters in Spain go to the polls Sunday in an election that could make the country the latest European Union member to swing to the populist right, a shift that would represent a major upheaval after five years under a left-wing government.

Here’s what you need to know about the vote.

What is at stake?

Opinion polls indicate the political right has the edge going into the election, and that raises the possibility a neo-fascist party will be part of Spain’s next government. The extreme right has not been in power in Spain since the transition to democracy following the death of former dictator Francisco Franco in 1975.

With no party expected to win an absolute majority, the choice for voters is basically between another leftist governing coalition or one between the right and the far right.

The right-of-center Popular Party, the front-runner in the polls, and the extreme right Vox party are on one side. They portray the vote as a chance to end “Sanchismo” — a term the PP uses to sum up what it contends are the dictatorial ways of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, the left’s radical ideology and numerous lies by the government.

In the other corner are the Socialists and a new movement called Sumar that brings together 15 small leftist parties for the first time. They warn that putting the right in power will threaten Spain’s post-Franco changes.

Why were early elections called?

Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez called the early election a day after his Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party and its small far-left coalition partner, Unidas Podemos (United We Can), took a hammering in local and regional elections May 28.

Prior to that, Sánchez had insisted he would ride out his four-year term, indicating that an election would be held in December. But after the May defeat, he said it was only fair for Spaniards to decide the country’s political future without delay.

What happened since May 28?

The Popular Party emerged from the local and regional elections as the most-voted party by far, giving it the right to take office in all but a handful of towns and one or two regions.

Since then, the PP and Vox have agreed to govern together in some 140 cities and towns as well as to add two more regions to the one where they already co-governed.

The Socialists and other leftist parties lost political clout across the country, but after weathering the initial shock, they have regrouped and recovered some ground, leaving the vote outcome Sunday still an unknown.

What does it mean for Europe?

A PP-Vox government would mean another EU member has moved firmly to the right, a trend seen recently in Sweden, Finland and Italy. Countries such as Germany and France are concerned by what such a shift would portend for EU immigration and climate policies.

Spain’s two main leftist parties are pro-EU participation. On the right, the PP is also in favor of the EU, but Vox is not.

The election comes as Spain holds the EU’s rotating presidency. Sánchez had hoped to use the six-month term to showcase the advances his government had made. An election defeat for Sánchez could see the PP taking over the EU presidency reins.

What are the campaign themes?

The campaign has been dominated by mudslinging from all sides, with both the left and right accusing each other of lying about their policies and past records.

The PP has managed to put Sánchez’s honorability in question by highlighting the many U-turns he has made and his alliances with small regional secessionist parties, something that alienates even some left-wing voters.

The left has sought to convince voters that there is little difference between the two right-wing parties and that a victory for them would set Spain back decades in terms of social progress.

Nearly every poll has put the PP firmly ahead of the Socialists and Vox ahead of Sumar for third place. But 30% of the electorate is said to be undecided.

With the election taking place at the height of summer, millions of citizens are likely to be vacationing away from their regular polling places. But postal voting requests have soared, and officials are estimating a 70% election turnout.

Is there any chance for a surprise?

A surprise factor that could upset poll predictions is Sumar: the brand new, broad-based movement of 15 small left-wing parties, including Podemos and prominent social figures.

Sumar is headed by highly popular Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz, who is also the second deputy vice president and the only woman among the leaders of the four main parties.

This is the first time small left parties have ever come together on a joint ticket in Spain. Their earlier fragmentation was blamed for many of the town and regional losses in the May election, and they hope that joined together they can make a bigger showing.

Sumar’s big goal is to beat out Vox for the potential king-making third place finish. That would allow Sumar to give valuable support for another leftist coalition government. Surveys consistently suggested during the campaign that an absolute majority for Popular Party and Vox is very possible.
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