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U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will make his first official visit to Ukraine next week after accompanying President Donald Trump at the G-20 summit, the State Department said in a statement Wednesday.

Tillerson will meet with Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko and “young reformers” from both the government and civil society on July 9.

“The Secretary will reaffirm America’s commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, while encouraging the government of Ukraine to continue implementing reforms that will strengthen Ukraine’s economic, political, and military resilience,” the statement said.

President Trump hosted his Ukrainian counterpart at the White House last month, after which the U.S. Department of Treasury announced additional sanctions against Russia, pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine, and individuals and companies associated with them.

The increased sanctions were in response to continued Russian support for pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine.
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Rifts are widening in Theresa May’s Cabinet over Brexit with two rival schools of thoughts emerging, one favoring a sharp break with the European Union and the other, led by the ruling Conservatives’ increasingly influential Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond, wanting closer ties with the European bloc.

The mounting tensions are emerging as surveys suggest British voters are becoming more skittish over Brexit, possibly a reflection of increasingly bad news about the British economy, which is the worst performing major economy.

According to a YouGov poll, 60 percent of Britons believe trade with Europe should take priority in the departure negotiations with the bloc, rather than immigration issues, thought to be a key driver of the Brexit vote a year ago.

Rising public concern about post-Brexit economic prospects comes amid signs that Britain will need to improve the skills of its own workers rapidly or make better use of robots in manufacturing and assembly plants, as it could be faced with a crippling skills shortage.

The consultancy firm Deloitte found in a survey last week that 47 percent of highly skilled workers from other European countries are thinking of leaving. It warned that if they do, there will be a serious implications for employers.

“Overseas workers, especially those from the EU, tell us they are more likely to leave the UK than before,” said David Sproul of Deloitte.

The split within the upper echelons of the ruling Conservatives over Brexit has gotten sharper since last month’s inconclusive elections that left May weakened and her party remaining in government thanks to a voting deal she made with 10 Northern Ireland lawmakers to give her a slight working majority in the House of Commons.

Few analysts believe May will see out the year before she has to step down and is replaced. The battle is playing out in public with key ministers taking swipes at each other over how Britain should leave the European Union, adding to the sense of a government in disarray.

Hammond has warned that “petty politics” must not be allowed to “interfere with economic logic”, while the minister charged with overseeing Brexit negotiations with Brussels, David Davis, has remained firm that Britain should leave by March 2019 both the single market and customs union. It could remain in both, if London agreed to pay into the EU budget and accept the principle of free movement of labor.

The stark division within the party was illustrated Tuesday when a 2010 video surfaced of Conservative lawmaker Steve Baker speaking to a Libertarian Alliance gathering. Baker, a junior minister and a member of Davis’s Brexit negotiating team, branded the European Union as an “obstacle” to world peace and “incompatible” with a free society. He argued it should be “wholly torn down.”

That is not the position of most Conservative lawmakers, but reflective of a hard-core minority who are propping up May, fearful that if she goes Hammond would probably be the most likely to replace her.

Moderate backbench Conservative lawmakers have been reaching out to opposite numbers in the Labour and Liberal Democrat ranks to try to plot a parliamentary way forward to block a so-called hard Brexit and to fashion one that would allow Britain to retain membership of the Single Market and Customs Union. They are not being helped by Labour’s hard-left leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is presiding over a party almost as divided as the Conservatives over Brexit.

Labour’s position isn’t clear, it campaigned last month as a Brexit party that wants to withdraw Britain from the Single Market, doing so because it feared desertion by working-class voters angry over the large number of immigrants working in the country. Corbyn has talked since about wanting a jobs-focused Brexit, but has punished 49 Labour lawmakers who ignored him last week and supported a rebel amendment calling for Britain to stay in the single market and customs union.

European officials say with the incoherence underlining British politics they are becoming increasingly fearful that Brexit negotiations will collapse, leaving Britain exiting Europe with no trade deal.

They aren’t the only ones worried. This week the director of the Leave campaign during last year’s referendum, expressed grave doubts about Brexit. In a Twitter exchange Dominic Cummings said he feared a debacle in the EU negotiations and admitted the referendum had been a “dumb idea.” Leaving the European Union could be an error, he said.
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The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party has pledged to continue his campaign for justice in the face of government accusations of supporting terrorism.  

The head of Turkey’s main opposition Republican Peoples Party, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, is leading thousands of people on a 450-kilometer justice march, from the capital, Ankara, to the country’s largest city, Istanbul.

The march is in response to a year-long crackdown following last July’s failed coup attempt.  The crackdown has resulted in more than 100,000 people losing their jobs and more than 60,000 jailed.  

Kilicdaroglu, who is leading a 25-day justice march from Ankara to Istanbul, told VOA the protest was triggered by the jailing of fellow parliamentary deputy and close ally Enis Berberoglu for 25 years on charges of releasing state secrets.

He says the introduction of the State of Emergency decree was a civil coup.  All the negative outcomes of this civilian coup came one after the other, he said.  Adding MPs (members of parliament) and journalist were arrested and academics were dismissed from their positions.

He says Berberoglu’s arrest became the moment when the water over spilled the glass and his party made the decision to march.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his government have repeatedly condemned the march, saying it supports terrorism and coup plotters.  

Despite the criticism, the numbers joining the march continue to grow, with around 10,000 marching with Kilicdarolgu.  He expects those numbers will grow by the time the march concludes Sunday in Istanbul.  But Kilicdaroglu promised the march is only the beginning and civil protest will not end.

He says the struggle will continue with all possible effort and within democracy and using all the force the party has in parliament and outside parliament.

Amid rising political tensions over the march, a heavy police presence has been deployed to protect demonstrators, particularly Kilicdarolgu.

Police say they have detained six people linked to Islamic State who were planning to carry out an attack on the march.  Kilicdaroglu said he and marchers have faced threats and provocations.  

The march is due to end Sunday at the prison where Berberoglu is serving his prison sentence.
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The U.S. government has long warned that Russian organized crime posed a threat to democratic institutions, including “criminally linked oligarchs” who might collude with the Russian government to undermine business competition.

Those concerns, ever present if not necessarily always top priorities, are front and center once more.

A special counsel investigation is drawing attention to Russian efforts to meddle in democratic processes, the type of skulduggery that in the past has relied on hired hackers and outside criminals. It’s not clear how much the probe by former FBI Director Robert Mueller will center on the criminal underbelly of Moscow, but he’s already picked some lawyers with experience fighting organized crime. And as the team looks for any financial entanglements of Trump associates and relationships with Russian officials, its focus could land again on the intertwining of Russia’s criminal operatives and its intelligence services.

Russian organized crime has manifested itself over the decades in more conventional forms of money laundering, credit card fraud and black market sales. Justice Department prosecutors have repeatedly racked up convictions for those offenses.

Espionage plus greed

In recent years, though, the bond between Russian intelligence agencies and criminal networks has been especially alarming to American law enforcement officials, blending motives of espionage with more old-fashioned greed. In March, for instance, two hired hackers were charged along with two officers of Russia’s Federal Security Service in a cyberattack on Yahoo Inc. in 2013.

It’s too early to know how Russian criminal networks might fit into the election meddling investigation, but central to the probe are devastating breaches of Democratic email accounts, including those of the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman. U.S. authorities have blamed those hacks on Russian intelligence services working to discredit Clinton and help Trump — but have said the overall effort involved third-party intermediaries and paid internet trolls.

Former law enforcement officials say Russian organized crime has been a concern for at least a couple of decades, though not necessarily the most pressing demand given finite resources and budget constraints. The threat is diffuse and complex, and Russia’s historic lack of cooperation has complicated efforts to apprehend suspects. And the responsibility for combating the problem often falls across different divisions of the FBI and the Justice Department, depending on whether it’s a criminal or national security offense — a sometimes blurry boundary.

‘Very dangerous’

“It’s not an easy thing to kind of grasp or understand, but it’s very dangerous to our country because they have so many different aspects, unlike a traditional cartel,” said Robert Anderson, a retired FBI executive assistant director who worked counterintelligence cases and oversaw the criminal and cyber branch.

“You have to know where to look, which makes it more complicated,” he added. “And you have to understand what you’re looking for.”

Federal prosecutors continue to bring traditional organized crime cases, such as one last month in New York charging 33 members and associates of a Russian crime syndicate in a racketeering and extortion scheme that officials say involved cargo shipment thefts and efforts to defraud casinos. But there’s a heightened awareness about more sophisticated cyberthreats that commingle the interests of the government and of criminals.

“An organized criminal group matures in what they do,” said retired FBI Assistant Director Ron Hosko. “What they once did here through extortion, some of these groups are now doing through cyberattack vectors.”

Within the Justice Department, it’s been apparent since the collapse of the Soviet Union that crime from that territory could affect national security in Europe and the U.S.

A 2001 report from the Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice, a research arm, called America “the land of opportunity for unloading criminal goods and laundering dirty money.” It said crime groups in the region were establishing ties to drug trafficking networks, and that “criminally linked oligarchs” might work with the government to undermine competition in gas, oil and other strategic networks.

Three months later came the September 11 attacks, and the FBI, then under Mueller’s leadership, and other agencies left no doubt that terrorism was the most important priority.

“I recall talking to the racketeering guys after that and them saying, ‘Forget any focus now on organized crime,’ ” said James Finckenauer, an author of the report.

Besides cyberthreats, Justice Department officials in recent years have worried about the effect of unchecked international corruption, creating a kleptocracy initiative to recover money plundered by government leaders for their own purposes.

Yanukovych regime

In 2014, then-Attorney General Eric Holder pledged the Justice Department’s commitment to recouping large sums believed to have been stolen during the regime of the Russia-backed government of Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president chased from power that year.

That effort led to an FBI focus on Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman who did political consulting work on behalf of Yanukovych’s political party and who remains under scrutiny now.

But those same foreign links have also made cases hard to prove in court.

In many instances, foreign criminal hackers or those sponsored by foreign governments — including China, Iran and Russia — have remained out of reach of American authorities. In some cases, judges have chastised U.S. authorities for prosecutorial overreach in going after international targets.

A San Francisco federal judge, for instance, in 2015 dismissed an indictment involving two Ukrainian nationals who’d been accused of trying to bribe an official at a U.N. agency responsible for creating standards for machine-readable international passports.

The judge said he couldn’t understand how the government could apply a foreign bribery law to conduct that had no direct connection to the U.S.
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As police step up patrols and protesters set up camp in Hamburg, Germany, no one is expecting an easy weekend when U.S. President Donald Trump joins other heads of the world’s 20 leading economies.

Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are on a collision course on issues of climate and trade, but counterterrorism efforts, recent North Korean missile tests and Chinese steel dumping could bring them together.

Merkel pledges to work toward consensus on wider issues, but foresees no miracles in her relations with the U.S. administration.

“I do not think we will have unified positions on all issues at the end, but it is sensible and honest to talk to each other on all issues of international diplomacy,” Merkel told reporters ahead of the summit.

WATCH: Preview of G-20 meeting

President Trump said he has “bold” plans to impose steep tariffs or quotas on steel imports, the latest and perhaps most serious of threats to protect U.S. industry, and part of his America First strategy, one that has G-20 partners feeling nervous.

“What he is doing is he is throwing all kinds of cards up in the air — NAFTA, critique of climate change — because he actually wants a bit of a zero base policy,” said Tim Evans, a political economist at Middlesex University. “I think at the end of the day he probably, of course, wants free trade in the win-win sense, but what he is trying to expose is perhaps some of the hypocrisy of countries like China who talk the talk of openness but do not always deliver. So there is going to be a real clash of the titans at this summit.”

Shock talk brings results

After threatening to not stand by NATO allies unless they pay their share of defense, members pledged to boost their contributions. Trump said he would rip up the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, and now he has a deal with Mexico on sugar exports.

The U.S. leader’s target now is China and its cheap steel exports that are blamed for killing jobs not only in the United States, but in Britain and other G-20 states, including Germany.

Chinese officials are closely watching the direction of U.S. policy and have called on Washington to exercise caution.

Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord has stoked the anger of demonstrators in Hamburg as well as concern among Merkel and some other G-20 leaders, but analysts say the threat of cheap Chinese steel imports could be a common cause, and take precedence.

“Many of the G-20 members are experiencing exactly the same kinds of economic forces and constraints the U.S. is facing,” Shanker Singham, director of economic policy and prosperity studies at the Legatum Institute in London, told VOA. “So for example, in the U.K., the steel mills in Port Talbot and Redcar were closed because of, really, overcapacity of supply by the China steel sector. That is not very much different from what has been going on in Ohio and Pennsylvania. So I think this actually has the opportunity or a chance to get a lot of support.”

Wait-and-see approach

G-20 leaders, while nervous, are waiting to see what Trump actually does before taking any action, and all indications are that they are not rushing to adopt protectionist measures.

Global Trade Alert, a group that monitors protectionism, this week reported a drop in the number of such measures adopted by G-20 members in the last several months compared with the same period last year.

“The Trump administration has said a lot about ‘America First’ and fair trade and so forth, but they haven’t actually done that much so far,” said Singham. “G-20 members will be looking at ‘What do you really mean by this policy?’ in order to determine what their response to that policy will be.”

None of the major issues is likely to be resolved, but analysts say more clarity may emerge, given who the players are.

“The landscape that we see looming in Hamburg is one of showmanship,” said Evans. ”We have a lot of unpredictability because we have a lot of very charismatic, very outspoken leaders — people like [President Recep Tayyip] Erdogan from Turkey, [Prime Minister Narendra] Modi from India, Vladimir Putin from Russia and of course President Trump. These people know how to play to global audiences.”
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A Washington lawyer’s simultaneous representation of President Donald Trump and a jailed American pastor in Turkey doesn’t pose an ethical issue as long as his work for one doesn’t undermine the other, legal experts say.

Jay Sekulow, founder and chief counsel for the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), had been representing Andrew Brunson for months when he went to the White House to lobby Trump to press Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan about the case. He began representing Trump soon afterward.

Brunson, a native of North Carolina who has lived in Turkey with wife, Norine, for 23 years, were arrested for alleged immigration violations in early October. She was released 13 days later, while his charges have been upgraded to supporting terrorism.

Gene Kapp, media director for ACLJ, which focuses on conservative issues, told VOA that Sekulow is representing Trump in his personal capacity and has been representing Brunson in his ACLJ role.

“His work as a member of the president’s legal team is not connected to his work at the ACLJ and the ongoing efforts to get Pastor Brunson released,” Kapp said, adding that Sekulow does not charge Brunson.

On his radio show on May 19, Sekulow said he met with the president and others at the White House “for over an hour” the day before, his second visit in two weeks.

“I anticipate there will be a release soon,” Sekulow said, adding that his group was working with Congress, the State Department and White House.

Gulen connection alleged

A column four days later in Takvim, a pro-government Turkish newspaper, suggested that Brunson was an American spy who had been working with Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic preacher who Ankara claims masterminded a coup attempt last July 15, and supporting the PKK, a banned Kurdish militant group. Kapp called the allegations bogus.

U.S. relations with Turkey have soured recently over a number of issues, including Turkey’s unsuccessful efforts to get the U.S. to hand over Gulen, who lives in Pennsylvania, and Erdogan’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

There has been no obvious recent movement in Brunson’s case. Turkish media have suggested that he is being held as leverage for Gulen’s extradition.

“Andrew is extremely discouraged and really really needs your prayers!” Norine said in a May 27 post on the couple’s Facebook page.

Kapp said the ACLJ is continuing to do everything it can, in the U.S. and Turkey, to obtain the pastor’s release.

“We are very concerned about his health,” Kapp said. “He is being held in a cell built for eight people but houses 22.”

Brunson’s case has drawn attention in Congress, too. In February, a bipartisan letter from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee, signed by 78 lawmakers, called for Brunson’s unconditional release.

William Hodes, a legal ethics expert and professor of law emeritus at Indiana University, said he didn’t see Sekulow’s representation of Trump and Brunson as an ethical problem.

“This lawyer’s two clients are not adverse to each other, and it is hard to see how one client would fear that his confidences would be leaked to the other to the first client’s detriment,” Hodes said.

Communication advised

But Hodes added it’s possible that Brunson could become irked if he felt Trump wasn’t doing enough or working quickly enough, while Trump might have diplomatic reasons to go slowly.

“Lawyers have a lot of different clients with lots of different interests, but lawyers do have to avoid a conflict of interest between the clients,” said Richard Painter, who served as former President George W. Bush’s White House ethics czar.

In this instance, Sekulow needs to talk to both clients and make sure they don’t object to his dual representation, and ensure that the work he’s doing for one doesn’t undermine his representation of the other, said Painter, who teaches law at the University of Minnesota.

A June 7 article in The Washington Post said Sekulow has built a powerful charity empire leading a team of ACLJ attorneys who jump into high-profile court cases over such issues as religious liberty and abortion rights. It said Sekulow’s family or their companies received nearly $230 million in charitable donations in 2011-15.
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In the southwestern part of Germany, the mountain ranges are crisscrossed with subterranean rivers that have left the area honeycombed with ancient limestone caves. This area is rich in human history and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or UNESCO, is considering declaring the caves a World Heritage Site. VOA’s Kevin Enochs reports.
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French President Emmanuel Macron says the European Union has lost its way amid bureaucracy and needs a new generation of leaders to put it back on track. In a major speech at Versailles Monday, Macron also called for a radical overhaul of the country’s government, which he wants reduced by one third. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports his message received mixed reactions.
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Italy says the number of migrants arriving on its shores during the first half of this year rose nearly 20 percent above the levels reached by the same date in 2016.

Interior ministry officials in Rome said that, as of Monday, 85,183 migrants have landed from the Mediterranean Sea, nearly 14,000 more people than at the same time in 2016.

Many of the arriving migrants were rescued by coast guard patrol boats and other vessels after their flimsy crafts began taking on water. Another 2,000 migrants have died this year attempting to make the trip from North Africa.

Before the final migration totals were disclosed, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said that unless the European Union does more to help alleviate the surge of migrants to Italy, the influx will feed “hostile reactions in our society.”

Italy appeals to all of Europe

Speaking in Rome, he said: “The whole of Italy has mobilized to deal with the flows of migrants in the central Mediterranean and asks the EU for engagement, which is necessary if Europe wants to stay faithful to its own principles, own history, own civilization.”

Italy threatened last week to close its ports to migrant rescue boats in order to force the vessels to go to other Mediterranean countries, and pleaded with other countries to take in the refugees. On Monday, however, refugees were still landing freely.

France, Germany and the EU’s migration commissioner pledged they would give more support to Italy in handling the influx of migrants, but made no direct reference to the Italian government’s appeal to other European countries to allow rescue boats to dock at their ports.

The French and German interior ministers and the EU’s migration chief agreed to bolster training and funding for the coast guard in Libya, where migrants pay people-smugglers to carry them across the sea, and also to relocate asylum seekers more quickly.

Do aid groups make problem worse?

The bigger European states also said they would draw up a “code of conduct” for aid groups working in the Mediterranean, who supply boats that pick up many of the refugees unable to reach Italy unaided. Many people in Italy contend the nongovernmental aid groups are, in effect, aiding the human smugglers and allowing the trade to continue.

The U.N. refugee agency said Italy cannot continue absorbing tens of thousands of migrants, and called on European countries to show more solidarity with Rome.

“It is unrealistic to think that Italy should have the responsibility to disembark everyone,” said UNHCR special envoy for the central Mediterranean Vincent Cochetel. “This is not sustainable; this is not tenable. So we need to have other countries joining Italy and sharing that responsibility.”

The flood of migrants who see Italy as their main gateway to Europe and a recent stretch of good weather and calm seas has pushed the number of arriving migrants to more than 10,000 in a week. The travelers’ sea voyages begin in Libya, but they originate from many places: across sub-Saharan Africa, from the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Syria and Bangladesh.

Migrants must declare their nationality when they arrive in Italy. Around 15 percent of all migrants this year have been from Nigeria; 12 percent are from Bangladesh, 10 percent from Guinea and 9 percent from Ivory Coast.

 
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Negotiators in Cyprus peace talks are gearing up for a tough second week at a Swiss resort, with the rival sides submitting their positions in writing. 

Officials are trying to crack the most difficult issues blocking an accord, including agreeing on post-agreement security arrangements.

Other key issues include executive power-sharing in an aimed-for federated Cyprus that was divided in 1974 when Turkey invaded after a coup mounted by supporters of union with Greece. 

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said Monday that responsibility weighs heavy on all sides to strike a deal that allows Cyprus to become what U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a “normal state.”

Mustafa Akinci, leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots, said earlier that this week of talks will be decisive for the island’s future. 
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French President Emmanuel Macron has announced military and financial support to a group of countries fighting terrorism in Africa’s Sahel region. Macron was in Mali on Sunday to consolidate western backing for a five-nation regional force against the militants. During his visit, an al-Qaida-affiliated group based in Mali released a video of six foreign hostages it is holding for ransom. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.
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Two gunmen opened fire outside a mosque in the southern French city of Avignon Sunday, wounding eight people. Police said they are “not at all treating it as terrorist-related,” the regional newspaper La Provence reported.

Reports from witnesses said two men got out of a car near the mosque and opened fire with a shotgun and another weapon, local authorities said.

Two of the eight people wounded were hospitalized, but their injuries reportedly were not serious. La Provence said four people were wounded outside the mosque and four members of a family were hit by shrapnel in their apartment about 50 meters away.

The newspaper said worshippers leaving the mosque were not the target of the late-evening attack. It quoted a judicial source as saying that police suspect a dispute among youth groups sparked the gunplay.
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With an eye on anti-globalization protests brewing in Hamburg before this week’s G20 summit, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday leaders will have to focus on sustainable and inclusive economic growth rather than their own prosperity.

In her weekly podcast, the German chancellor said this year’s G-20 summit will delve into issues championed by protesters such as distribution of wealth and consumption of resources — alongside related issues like climate change, free markets, consumer protection and upholding social standards.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators marched against the meeting in the rain in Hamburg on Sunday in a prelude to the July 7-8 gathering, where 21,000 police from across Germany will protect the meetings of the world’s 20 largest economies.

“It’s not only going to be about [economic] growth but rather sustainable growth,” Merkel said. “We’ve got to have a ‘win-win’ situation for everyone. The issues obviously revolve around: how do we achieve inclusive or sustainable growth?”

Merkel, seeking a fourth term in a Sept. 24 election, outlined the issues as: “What are we doing with our resources? What are the rules for distribution of wealth? How many people are taking part? And how many countries are able to profit from that?”

Without mentioning the protests that have German security officials worried about possible acts of sabotage this week in the country’s second-largest city, Merkel noted that these non-traditional issues were forced onto the G-20 agenda.

“If we simply try to carry on as we have in the past, the worldwide developments will definitely not be sustainable and inclusive,” she said. “We need the climate protection agreement, open markets and improved trade agreements in which consumer protection, social and environmental standards are upheld.”

In a speech to parliament last week, Merkel promised to fight for free trade and press on with multilateral efforts to combat climate change at the summit, challenging the “America First” policies of U.S. President Donald Trump.

The G-20 meeting follows a G-7 summit in Sicily a month ago that exposed deep divisions between other Western countries and Trump on climate change, trade and migration. Trump later announced he was pulling the United States out of a landmark agreement to combat climate change reached in 2015 in Paris.

German authorities are bracing for trouble in Hamburg, worried that the protests could turn violent as they did outside a G8 summit in Genoa, Italy in 2001 when one person was shot dead and hundreds injured.

The German Federal Crime Office warned that violent G-20 opponents could carry out arson and sabotage at infrastructure targets such as the Hamburg harbor and airport, newspaper Welt am Sonntag said on Sunday.

“New and creative forms of attack have to be watched out for,” the report said. It added Hamburg police are bracing for attempts by activists to disrupt electrical power in Hamburg.

Sunday’s demonstration was organized by a group called “Protest Wave G20”, with 50,000 to 100,000 protesters expected on an afternoon march through the city center. Other

demonstrations this week are called “Welcome to Hell” and “G-20 Not Welcome”.

 
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The chief executive of Russia’s Kaspersky Lab says he’s ready to have his company’s source code examined by U.S. government officials to help dispel long-lingering suspicions about his company’s ties to the Kremlin.

In an interview with The Associated Press at his Moscow headquarters, Eugene Kaspersky said Saturday there’s never been any truth to rumors of his work with Russian intelligence. But he acknowledges it’s unusual for a successful company to operate independently of the government in Russia, saying, “I do understand why we look strange.”

But he says the firm never cooperates with cyberespionage, saying he shuts down the conversation when he occasionally sensed that unidentified governments were pushing him to.

He says “we stay on the bright side and never, never go to the dark side.”
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Pope Francis is calling for an end to the violent anti-government protests in Venezuela and expressing solidarity with families of those killed.

Francis led thousands of people in prayer for Venezuela on Sunday as he noted the country is to mark its independence on Wednesday.

He said, “I assure this dear nation of my prayers and express my closeness to the families who have lost their children in the protests. I appeal for an end to the violence and for a peaceful and democratic solution to the crisis.”

At least 80 people have been killed since anti-government protests erupted three months ago.

The Vatican sponsored a dialogue last year that failed. Recently, Venezuelan bishops have travelled to the Vatican and briefed Francis on their criticism of President Nicolas Maduro’s authoritarian bent.
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Amid tight security, hundreds of thousands of people took part in a global gay rights demonstration in Madrid on Saturday.

“For all the people in countries who are suffering persecution, we have to celebrate and make visible our pride,” Jesus Generelo, the head of the Spanish federation of LGBT people, told revelers.

The rally had been expected to draw between 1 million and 2 million people to march for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights, organizers and authorities said. Madrid city officials said later that “hundreds of thousands of people” were in the streets, dancing, cheering or watching the parade. Officials had released no official count by late Saturday.

The gathering, led by Spain’s major political parties, was the highlight of a 10-day World Pride 2017 festival, which ends Sunday.

The parade included 52 floats, and festivities lasted several hours. Groups from several countries, including the United States and Britain, took part.

The event will be held in New York in 2019.

While police did not identify a specific terror threat regarding the pride parade, Europe is on edge after several high-profile attacks, such as recently in Britain and France.

‘Generalized threat’

“There is no specific terrorist threat but a generalized threat,” German Castineira, operations chief for Madrid police, told the French news agency AFP earlier this week.

Thousands of security officials were on hand for the parade.

Forty years after members of the nation’s gay community began marching for their rights, Spain has become one of the most progressive countries for gay rights. In 2005, it became the third country — after the Netherlands and Belgium — to legalize same-sex marriage.

Parades and events were held elsewhere around the globe Saturday.

In Singapore, thousands of people dressed in pink for the Pink Dot rally, which began in 2009. The government banned foreign participants from the rally.

In Northern Ireland, thousands marched in Belfast to demand the legalization of same-sex marriages, a day after Germany’s parliament voted to do so.

However, a march for transgender rights that was scheduled for Sunday in Turkey has been canceled. The Istanbul governor’s office cited public order and the safety of participants and tourists in canceling the eighth Trans Pride March.

Gay rights and the LGBT community are under assault in many countries.

ILGA, an international LGBT association, released its State-sponsored Homophobia report last month, which listed that 72 countries still consider intercourse between same-sex couples to be illegal. Same-sex couples also face the death penalty in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, and in parts of Nigeria and Somalia.
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France inaugurated two new high-speed rail lines Saturday linking the capital to the western cities of Bordeaux and Rennes in what is likely to be the last launches of their kind for years as public cash becomes increasingly scarce.

The state-owned SNCF railway operator expects 35,000 passengers to use the new route to Bordeaux daily and 30,000 to use the line to Rennes.

Nearly 8 billion euros ($9.1 billion) was invested in the stretch to Bordeaux, while 3.4 billion euros ($3.9 billion) went into the Rennes line, both under public-private partnerships, SNCF said.

While local politicians often fight hard to bring high-speed lines to their regions to boost jobs and activity, such projects have fallen out of favor with the central government because of the costs.

A 60-kilometer (37-mile) high-speed stretch is due to open at the end of the year in the south of France, but after that, nothing major is in the works, with the government preferring to support high-use commuter lines instead.

The SNCF capacity to finance major new projects is now severely constrained by its nearly 45 billion euros in debt and by a rule taking effect this year that limits how much new debt it can take on as a function of its operating margin.

Spending cuts coming

Budgetary pressure is also adding up for France’s new government, which is due to announce a wave of spending cuts in the coming days after an audit found this week that the 2017 finances were overshooting targets.

The line to Bordeaux, which links up with existing high-speed rail lines in the central city of Tours, was financed under a unique public-private partnership that will see a consortium led by construction group Vinci operate it under concession for 50 years.

However, the price of usage has left the SNCF concerned, and its president, Guillaume Pepy, told Le Monde newspaper it would lose 90 million euros on the line this year.

Despite the huge costs of high-speed lines, a study from the INSEE statistics agency found this year that they do bring significant economic activity, boosting companies’ profitability and productivity.
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Reigning champion Chris Froome wasted no time flexing his muscles at the Tour de France as he powered to sixth place Saturday in a treacherous opening time trial won superbly by Team Sky colleague Geraint Thomas.

Heavy rain turned what, on paper, had looked like a regulation 14-kilometer circuit alongside the Rhine river into an incident-packed Grand Depart that could have major consequences in the three-week battle for the yellow jersey.

While it was a great start for Team Sky, with Thomas, three-time champion Froome and Vasil Kiryienka all in the top six of the 198 riders to start, a sickening crash ended the Tour for Movistar’s Alejandro Valverde.

Several riders continued after crashing on the greasy roads, but there was no getting up for Valverde, third overall in 2015, after he skidded off the route and careered into crowd barriers. He was taken to a hospital with leg injuries.

It was heartbreaking for Valverde and also a huge blow for teammate Nairo Quintana, who was counting on Valverde’s experience in the mountain stages to come.

Welshman Thomas, riding his eighth Tour, looked completely at home in the puddles as he became the eighth Briton to wear the yellow jersey — making up for the disappointment of crashing out of the Giro d’Italia as team leader.

Five seconds up

He displayed brilliant handling to cross the finish line at the huge Messe Duesseldorf exhibition complex in 16 minutes, 4 seconds. He was five seconds ahead of BMC’s Swiss rider Stefan Kueng, who was two seconds ahead of Kiryienka in third.

Froome, the last rider out, was 12 seconds slower than Thomas, but significantly quicker than all his main General Classification (GC) rivals.

Quintana was 48 seconds slower than Thomas, with Australian Richie Porte one second quicker than the Colombian. French GC hopefuls Thibaut Pinot and Romain Bardet were 50 and 51 seconds off the pace, with Spain’s Alberto Contador 54 down.

Thomas said it had been a great day for Welsh sport, after Sam Warburton captained the British and Irish Lions to victory over the New Zealand All Blacks in rugby.

“That inspired me, to be honest,” he said. “I didn’t believe I would hang on, felt sure Tony [Martin] or someone would beat my time. This is amazing for me after what happened at the Giro, and massive for the team. The jersey is a huge bonus.”

Hopes that Martin would mark the first German Grand Depart since Berlin in 1987 with a home win were washed away as he could only manage fourth quickest.

While Porte will be concerned to be trailing Froome before the Tour starts for real, he said at least he had not suffered the same fate as Valverde.

“It wasn’t a day to take risks,” Froome’s former teammate said. ” … I was petrified, to be honest. It was such a slippery course.”
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President Emmanuel Macron heads to Mali on Sunday to throw France’s weight behind a new West African military force he hopes will lay the basis for an exit strategy for its own troops; but its prospects for success look slim.

Mali is hosting a heads of state summit with Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mauritania – known as the G5 Sahel – who could ultimately deploy thousands of troops into the vast, arid Sahel region that remains a breeding ground for militants and traffickers that Paris considers a threat to Europe.

Four years after intervening in its former colony to ward off a jihadist offensive, there is no sign of France withdrawing its 4,000-strong regional Barkhane contingent as they, alongside 10,000 U.N. peacekeepers, struggle to stabilize Mali and implement peace accords.

“It’s not wrong to say that it’s part of an exit plan because the Barkhane mission is not intended to be there for ever, but it’s hard to see how we could draw down soon,” said a senior French diplomat. “We need a long-term multilateral strategy so that we’re less exposed. The time of doing everything alone in West Africa is over.”

The force endorsed by the U.N. aims to initially establish specially-trained units by the end of the year, which would work with French forces where jihadist groups are known to operate.

But it faces headwinds before it even becomes operational, with questions over financing, manpower and equipment.

“France had an exit strategy in mind when it spearheaded the new force and wanted as much multilateral funding as possible,” said Vincent Rouget, West Africa analyst at Control Risks.

“They don’t have the option that they had in CAR [Central African Republic] to just leave. The fact that Macron is in Bamako twice in a month really shows he is pushing his whole weight behind it.”

Experts and officials question the merits of a mission that could muddy the picture in an area where there are already a plethora of military operations and there is a risk of diverting money away from local governance.

“By putting the emphasis on setting up a new autonomous force with ‘mostly’ external financing the risk is that it might distract from the absolute necessity of consolidating the states in all their dimensions,” said Yabi Gilles, founder of WATHI, a citizen think tank of West Africa.

French officials insist that their efforts will not just focus on security aspects. Macron pledged in May to ensure unfulfilled development promises from Paris and the wider international community would materialize.

Reaching the Limit

But the real concern is that there will not be enough appetite to finance another regional military operation and that it could be hampered because interests and objectives are not aligned.

The neighboring multi-national joint task force (MNJTF) to fight Boko Haram, for example, has been complicated by divisions and a lack of cooperation. With the world’s wealthy nations focused on the fight against Islamist militants in the Middle East, financial support for the MNJTF, has fallen short.

“Chad and Niger are already members of the MNJTF so a solid foundation has been laid; let us build on it instead of creating another layer and going begging for resources from the same donors,” said an African security source. The G5 Sahel gives them [France] leverage over the heads of states who virtually depend on it for their security.”

Those concerns were echoed by the United States when it watered down the French-backed Security Council resolution fearing that U.N. funding – as much as $800 million could be required – would be wasted and that bilateral financing would be more fruitful.

In response, France is lobbying for more European involvement beyond an initial 50 million euros and at some point might push for a donor conference. It will also have to dig into its own pocket despite its own budget constraints.

“We have always said that the security of the region should be done by Africans themselves,” Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told Le Monde newspaper on June 29. “Barkhane will accompany them for as long as it takes… until the situation is pacified.”

But where those thousands of efficient troops to replace Barkhane will come from is a mystery.

The G5 Sahel nations are already heavily committed, leading to speculation that Chad, Burkina Faso and Niger may simply re-hat some or all of their 4,100 soldiers now serving in the U.N. MINUSMA force in Mali, potentially undermining a mission that is already struggling.

“We have reached our limit. We can’t continue to be everywhere,” Chadian President Idriss Deby, whose troops are considered the most battle-hardened in the region, said in an interview to French media on Sunday. “Even if we had financing, Chad would be either in the G5 or MINUSMA. Choices will have to be made.”
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The United States and Britain urged Russia on Friday to bring to justice all those responsible for the slaying of opposition politician Boris Nemtsov.

A Russian court on Thursday convicted five men of murdering Nemtsov, but allies of the politician have said the investigation was a cover-up and that the people who had ordered his killing remained at large.

“We call once more on the Russian government to ensure that all involved in the killing of Boris Nemtsov, including anyone involved in organizing or ordering the crime, are brought to justice,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement, calling Nemtsov a “champion of democracy and human rights.”

Britain said it wanted Russia to further investigate Nemtsov’s death.

“The Foreign and Commonwealth Office supports Boris Nemtsov’s family in their call for a fuller investigation into who ordered his murder,” a spokesman for Britain’s Foreign Ministry said. “Responsibility for his murder goes further than those already convicted, and we call on the Russian government to bring the perpetrators to account.”

Litvinenko slaying

Russia and Britain have repeatedly clashed publicly over Syria, Ukraine and the 2006 London slaying of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko.

Trump had frequently called during the 2016 U.S. presidential election campaign for warmer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, despite criticism from lawmakers in his own Republican Party.

Allegations that Russia interfered in the U.S. presidential election last year and colluded with Trump’s campaign have overshadowed the businessman’s unexpected victory and dogged his first five months in office.

Russia and the United States are also at odds over Ukraine, NATO expansion and the civil war in Syria, where Moscow supports President Bashar al-Assad.

Trump and Putin are due to meet next week in Hamburg at the summit of leaders from the Group of 20 major world economies.
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French far-right leader Marine Le Pen was charged Friday with allegedly misusing European Parliament funds to pay two parliamentary aides who also work at her National Front headquarters. Her lawyer said she denies the charges and will fight to get the investigation suspended.

Investigators suspect some National Front lawmakers used legislative aides for the party’s political activities while they were on the European Parliament payroll. Le Pen is president of the far-right National Front party.

 The prosecutor’s office said Le Pen was summoned and handed preliminary charges of breach of trust and complicity in breach of trust concerning two parliamentary aides when she served at the European Parliament.

Misuse of EU funds

 Le Pen is suspected of using parliamentary funds to pay Catherine Griset from 2009 to 2016 and bodyguard Thierry Legier from 2014 to 2016 for allegedly working as aides in Strasbourg, seat of the European Parliament, even though they also have roles in her far-right National Front party.  Griset was charged in February for allegedly receiving money through a breach of trust.

 Le Pen is also charged with complicity in breach of trust in connection with her role as president of the National Front from 2014-2016. That charge could not immediately be clarified.

Le Pen denies the charges.

“It makes no sense,” National Front vice president Florian Philippot, Le Pen’s top lieutenant, said on the BFM-TV station. “She is obviously 24 hours out of 24 both the president of the National Front and a European deputy.”

Le Pen plans to file an urgent demand Monday at the Appeals Court asking that the preliminary charges be annulled due to “the violation of the principle of separation of powers,” her lawyer, Rodolphe Bosselut, said in a statement. She will also seek a suspension of the investigation.

His reference to “separation of powers” may relate to a contention that the French justice system should not interfere in the affairs of political parties. Bosselut could not immediately be reached for comment.

Faces prison time, fine

The preliminary charges are thrown out if investigators fail to come up with convincing evidence. The case goes to trial if they do. A conviction for breach of trust charge carries a potential penalty of up to three years in prison and a fine of 375,000 euros ($428,000).

Le Pen had twice refused summonses from authorities while campaigning, first for the French presidential election which she lost May 7 to Emmanuel Macron, then for a lawmaker’s seat in the French National Assembly which she won on June 18. Due to that win, Le Pen gave up her seat in the European Parliament.

Other European parliamentarians, including Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie Le Pen and her companion Louis Aliot, have also been investigated for allegedly misusing parliamentary aides’ wages. Aliot last week refused to respond to a summons by investigators, French media reported.

Cloud of suspicion

Some leading politicians are now living under a cloud of suspicion as to whether they misused funds meant to pay aides’ salaries.

The one-time front-runner in France’s presidential race this year, conservative Francois Fillon, was charged over allegations that he paid his wife, who served as his parliamentary aide, and two children for work they did not perform. Fillon suffered a big loss in the first round of the presidential vote.

Macron himself is determined to avoid any possible connection to the lax or corrupt political practices of the past. Three of his ministers bowed out of their jobs shortly after being appointed — the justice, defense and European affairs ministers — over concerns they could be caught in the investigations into the political use of salaries to parliamentary aides.

 
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An investigation by the international chemical weapons watchdog confirmed Friday that sarin nerve gas was used in a deadly April 4 attack on a Syrian town, the latest confirmation of chemical weapons use in Syria’s civil war.

The attack on Khan Sheikhoun in Syria’s Idlib province left more than 90 people dead, including women and children, and sparked outrage around the world as photos and video of the aftermath, including quivering children dying on camera, were widely broadcast.

“I strongly condemn this atrocity, which wholly contradicts the norms enshrined in the Chemical Weapons Convention,” Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said in a statement. “The perpetrators of this horrific attack must be held accountable for their crimes.”

The investigation did not apportion blame. Its findings will be used by a joint United Nations-OPCW investigation team to assess who was responsible.

The U.S. State Department said in a statement issued Thursday night after the report was circulated to OPCW member states that “The facts reflect a despicable and highly dangerous record of chemical weapons use by the Assad regime.”

President Donald Trump cited images of the aftermath of the Khan Sheikhoun attack when he launched a punitive strike days later, firing cruise missiles on a Syrian government-controlled air base from where U.S. officials said the Syrian military had launched the chemical attack.

It was the first direct American assault on the Syrian government and Trump’s most dramatic military order since becoming president months before.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has denied using chemical weapons. His staunch ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, said earlier this month that he believed the attack was “a provocation” staged “by people who wanted to blame him (Assad) for that.”

Both the U.S. and the OPCW were at pains to defend the probe’s methodology. Investigators did not visit the scene of the attack, deeming it too dangerous, but analyzed samples from victims and survivors as well as interviewing witnesses.

The Syrian government joined the OPCW in 2013 after it was blamed for a deadly poison gas attack in a Damascus suburb. As it joined, Assad’s government declared about 1,300 tons of chemical weapons and precursor chemicals, which were subsequently destroyed in an unprecedented international operation.

However, the organization has unanswered questions about the completeness of Syria’s initial declaration, meaning that it has never conclusively been able to confirm that the country has no more chemical weapons.
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German lawmakers voted to legalize same-sex marriage in their last session before the September election.

Lawmakers voted 393 for legalizing “marriage for everybody,” and 226 against with four abstentions. 

The measure brought to a vote in Friday’s session was fast-tracked after Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday lawmakers could take up the issue as a “question of conscience,” freeing members of her conservative coalition, which has been against same-sex marriage, to individually vote for the measure.

Merkel said she voted against same-sex marriage because she believes the country’s law sees it as between a man and a woman, but that the opposite view must be respected. 

She said “for me marriage as defined by the law is the marriage of a man and a woman” but she continues to see the interpretation as a “decision of conscience.” 

The measure, which is expected to see legal challenges, also opens the door for gay couples to adopt, which Merkel says she supports.

Germany has allowed same-sex couples to enter civil partnerships since 2001, but same-sex marriages remained illegal.

All of Merkel’s potential coalition partners after the Sept. 4 election, including the center-left Social Democrats of her challenger, Martin Schulz, have been calling for same-sex marriage to be legalized. 
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The European Union has pledged to support Italy as it continues to admit thousands of migrants who are crossing the Mediterranean every day from North Africa. 

So far this year nearly 80,000 people have made the journey, and more than 2,000 have died

Poor health

Most of the tens of thousands of people plucked from the Mediterranean this week have been taken to ports on the Italian coast. They are severely dehydrated, usually malnourished and suffering from infections and skin diseases. But there are other troubling signs.

Marcella Kraay of Doctors Without Borders spoke to VOA via Skype from the group’s rescue ship, Aquarius, as it disembarked more than a thousand migrants at the Italian port of Corigliano Calabro.

“We also see the results of people actually being physically assaulted, sexually assaulted, tortured,” Kraay said.

Help from EU

Italy’s representative to the European Union has warned the situation is “unsustainable,” and threatened to stop vessels of other countries from bringing migrants to its ports. 

Kraay sympathizes with Italy’s position.

“We have not in any way formally been informed of this by the Italian government. But my first impression of this is that the main thing here is that it is actually a cry for help coming from the Italian government. And it would be actually good for other EU member states to take a bit more responsibility.”

EU Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos offered Italy his support.

“Italy is under huge pressure and we are not going to leave this country alone.”

Italy legally bound

But Italy is obliged to take in the migrants, says refugee law expert Professor Geoff Gilbert of the University of Essex, also via Skype.

“The law of the sea, international refugee law, and international human rights law are all coming into play together. While I have a lot of sympathy for the Italian situation, I do not believe Italy can send back boats, even boats that are seaworthy, into the Mediterranean.”

Gilbert says Rome is likely trying to force the implementation of the 2015 EU agreement to share refugees across the bloc, which has so far made little progress.

This week more than 400 migrants in Italy clashed with police at the French border, demanding to be allowed through.
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Police and aid groups say more than 60 percent of illegal prostitutes in Belgium are trafficked from Nigeria. Many are only teenagers and almost all come from Benin City, a city in the south of Nigeria.

Rosa was sexually exploited by Nigerian traffickers and had to prostitute herself on the streets of Spain, Norway, France and Belgium. But Belgian police saved her after two years.

“The police took me and asked me question if I want to talk. If I talk they are going to make a better way for me. They will give me document, I say yes because the stress is too much,” she said.

Rosa – not her real name – was struggling in Nigeria, making ends meet for herself and her daughter. She was told she could marry a man in Europe. After crossing Morocco and reaching Spain by boat, she was told to repay a $55,000 debt and forced into prostitution.

Europol said last year that Nigerian human trafficking rings are one of the biggest challenges for European police forces.

Police now see those who were trafficked as victims, whether they have documents or not.

After speaking to the Belgium police, Rosa ended up in Payoke, a shelter for victims of sexual exploitation. There are three similar shelters in Belgium. Payoke has helped at least 4,000 women and witnessed a rise in Nigerian women from the early 1990s.

Payoke founder Patsy Sorenson says the shelter only helps victims who agree to file charges against the traffickers.

“The reason also that we ask their cooperation, is that we like to fight also against the traffickers,” she explained. ” It is a win-win situation also for them. When they cooperate we are able to offer them a lot of things. So that they are able to start a new life.”

Citizenship offered

A court case usually takes about two to three years. In that time, the shelter helps the girl get her life organized and after five years the victims can apply for Belgian citizenship.

Police commissioner Franz Vandelook says another big challenge is that most Nigerian illegal prostitutes end up trafficking and exploiting other girls once they have paid of their debt, meaning they will no longer be seen as a victim.

“They know very well what they have suffered in the past, and of course at a certain moment they decide to transform themselves to a madam too, because of the money of course,” he said. “And they need money to feed the family who is still in Nigeria. So I can understand the situation, but in our society, in our European society, we can not accept the situation.”

Sorensen of Payoke says the women still face many challenges once they have decided to start a new life. Their family in Nigeria still needs money, their health is often a concern, many are still scared of the traffickers, and they often feel lonely while dealing with their traumatic experiences.

Rosa says when she started the court procedures, friends of the traffickers in Nigeria would beat her mother so badly she needed hospital treatment.

Despite the challenges, Rosa feels it was worth it.

“I can say now I am very happy because I am getting a good life now. Because before I was having a lot of stress, but now my stress is gone down. I can really say that I am very OK,” she said.

The International Organization for Migration says last year about 37,000 Nigerians arrived by boat in Europe, about one-third of them women. It is estimated more than 8,000 of them will end up in prostitution.

 
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European leaders stressed their commitment to the Paris climate accord Thursday, despite the American decision to pull out of the deal, ahead of a G-20 summit.

Following a meeting in Berlin hosted by Angela Merkel, Germany’s chancellor told reporters that European G-20 participants are committed to the Paris climate deal and will discuss it at the summit next month.

“We deplore, at least I say that for Germany, that the United States of America has decided to leave this agreement,” Merkel told reporters. “But we will obviously also address issues of climate change during the summit meeting.”

French president Emmanuel Macron echoed Merkel’s statements, saying that European leaders had “reaffirmed their very strong commitment to the Paris accord”.

Macron added, however, that “it is no use isolating a state.” Merkel also spoke about the importance of the U.S. being in the group of 20 nations.

President Donald Trump announced last month that the U.S. would pull out of the Paris Climate Accord, which seeks to limit carbon emissions and reduce the rising global temperatures.

Trump calls the pact unfair to the U.S., saying it would hurt the economy while doing next to nothing to prevent global warming. He has proposed renegotiating the Paris accord. But other world leaders say that would be impossible.

Angela Merkel will host the Group of 20 economic powers in Hamburg on July 7 and July 8, where the world leaders are expected to discuss a number of issues in addition to climate change.
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A Moscow court has convicted five people for the murder of the Russian opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov.

Nemtsov was an opponent of the Russian government, and was especially critical of Moscow’s support for Ukrainian separatists. He was shot dead late at night in 2015 as he walked across a bridge near the Kremlin.

The official TASS news agency reported that the jury found Zaur Dadayev, a former officer in the Chechen security forces, guilty for shooting Nemtsov. Four others were found guilty of involvement in the murder.

The five men – all Chechens – were allegedly promised cash for carrying out the assassination. Nemtsov’s allies have questioned the investigation and asked why officials have failed to probe the role Chechen officials may have played in bankrolling the murder.

 
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Italian officials say their government has told the European Commission in Brussels it is considering stopping ships that are not Italian-registered from disembarking at its ports migrants who were rescued while trying to cross the Mediterranean from Libya.

The dramatic move comes after nearly 11,000 asylum-seekers and economic migrants, mainly from African nations, arrived on Italian shores in a four-day period from war-wracked Libya. In a letter to the commission, Italy’s ambassador to the EU, Maurizio Massari, said the situation has become “unsustainable.”

In a meeting Wednesday, Massari informed Dimitris Avramopoulos, the EU’s commissioner for migration, that his government is now considering denying landing rights to any ships that aren’t flying the Italian flag or are not part of the EU interdiction and rescue mission in the Mediterranean.

Libya as migrants’ gateway to Europe

Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni has accused fellow EU nations of “looking the other way,” and not doing enough to assist Italy with the surge in migrants crossing the Mediterranean. Libya has become the main gateway to Europe for migrants and refugees from across sub-Saharan Africa, and also from the Arabian Peninsula, Egypt, Syria and Bangladesh.

Many are fleeing war and persecution, but most who are using Libya are seeking to escape poverty. Italy has become the main point of arrival for all of those rescued off the coast of Libya. Stranded refugees often are picked up by boats operated or funded by private charities and non-government organizations.

An intense debate has erupted in Italy about whether ships operated by mainly international NGOs have effectively been in league with the people-smugglers, and thus inadvertently enabling the trade to continue

Nearly 11,000 arrivals in four days

There has been a dramatic rise, partly thanks to good weather, in the number of migrants attempting the short but perilous Mediterranean crossing. In the four-day period through Tuesday (June 24-27), 8,863 migrants landed in Italy, including more than 5,000 on Monday alone, according to the International Office for Migration. Another 2,000 landed on Tuesday.

In the first five months of this year, 60,228 migrants arrived in Italy by boat. The IOM reported that 1,562 died at sea. At the current rate, and with months of good sailing weather ahead, the number of migrants is on track to exceed the 200,000 who landed in Italy in 2016.

Around 15 percent of those arriving this year are Nigerian. Twelve percent are Bangladeshi; Guineans account for 10 percent and nine percent are Ivorians.

Other EU nations have closed their borders to migrants, hoping to block them from moving north. Poland and Hungary have refused to host some asylum seekers to help ease the burden on Italy and Greece, another front line country. Greece has seen a huge decline in asylum-seeking numbers since the EU concluded a deal with Turkey to curb refugees and migrants using Turkish territory to head to Europe.

The surge in migrants this week prompted Italy’s interior minister, Marco Minniti, to cancel a trip to Washington to address the growing humanitarian crisis, which is quickly morphing into a political one for the country’s left-leaning coalition government. In municipal elections this month the coalition lost ground to center-right parties such as Matteo Salvini’s Northern League, which has called for a “stop to the invasion.”

Domestic opposition growing

Italy’s right-wing Forza Italia party has campaigned for the denial of landing rights to ships carrying migrants. And even the maverick radical Five Star Movement is moving to a more anti-immigrant position, calling for a halt to any new migrants being lodged in Rome.

Italy is now asking for the European Commission to change EU asylum procedures and allow Italy to stop new migrant landings or reduce them dramatically. But it is not clear whether a denial of landing rights would comply with international seafaring law or commitments Italy made when it signed the 1951 Refugee Convention.

After meeting Ambassador Massari on Wednesday, EU migration commissioner Avramopoulos praised Italy’s exemplary behavior to date and agreed: “Italy is right that the situation is untenable.” 

Other EU member states must “step up” and contribute financial support to Italy, Avramopoulos said, along with aid to African nations like Libya to try to reduce the numbers of people leaving for Europe.

“Now is the moment to deliver, and we will hold them to this,” the commissioner said.

Avramopoulos made almost exactly the same remarks in February, and similar promises have been made by other EU officials. The bloc’s 28 national leaders also agreed last week that “front line” countries Italy and Greece should receive more help with the arrivals.

Last month, the interior ministers of Germany and Italy urged the European Union to set up a border mission along Libya’s frontier with Niger in a bid to stop mainly African migrants from reaching Europe. In the past, the EU has tried to curb the migrant flow by working with various authorities in Libya, which is divided between rival governments and their militia backers, but to little avail.

In a sign of the deepening chaos in the north African country, a five-vehicle United Nations convoy was ambushed Wednesday 30 kilometers from the Libyan capital Tripoli. Several U.N. employees were held for a while, then released. Local media reported the ambush was staged in an attempt to gain the release of three drug-runners arrested by a vigilante force in Tripoli.
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