The United States arrived at the Women’s World Cup as the favorite to win an unprecedented third consecutive title. But after an underwhelming draw against the Netherlands, there’s a real chance the Americans could be eliminated in group play for the first time in tournament history. 

The U.S. plays Portugal in the third and final match of Group E play, and if Portugal pulls off an upset Tuesday at Eden Park in Auckland, the Americans could be in big trouble. 

The United States needs to either win or draw against Portugal, one of eight teams playing in its first World Cup, to ensure the Americans continue to play in this tournament. 

“I think we feel like we have to win everything all the time,” said American star Megan Rapinoe. “That’s the expectation for ourselves. That’s the expectation playing for [the] U.S. national team. It’s just kind of like, ‘Why would you come into the World Cup if you don’t think that you should win it, and if you don’t think that you can win it?'” 

‘We have to stay focused’

The United States sits atop the group after a 3-0 victory over Vietnam in the tournament opener, and a 1-1 draw with the Netherlands last Thursday in Wellington. The Dutch are tied with the U.S. on points, but the Americans have the tiebreaker on goals scored. 

Portugal lost to the Dutch in its opener but then beat Vietnam 2-0. So, if the Portuguese beat the United States, they’ll move on, and the Americans would then need Vietnam to beat the Dutch in Dunedin — while keeping their advantage on goal differential — to advance. 

“One thing is for sure, that we have a job to do, and that’s first and foremost to take care of our game. So, our main focus right now is our performance, our team, and Portugal,” U.S. coach Vlatko Andonovski said. “What happens on the other side is something we can’t control. We have to stay focused on the things we can control.” 

Portugal could use a swarming defense to try to prevent the United States from scoring the way Vietnam — unsuccessfully — played the Americans in the opener. 

Portugal defender Ana Borges said her team will be prepared. 

“This is the stage where we want to be. It’s against these teams that we want to play because we’re going to learn and grow from them,” Borges said. “Not saying anything about the other team, but if we weren’t prepared for this challenge, we wouldn’t be playing football.” 

China-England  

England is in very good shape headed into its Group D finale against China, needing only a draw Tuesday night in Adelaide, Australia, to win the group and advance to the round of 16. 

Even a loss would be OK and push England through as group winners so long as Denmark doesn’t beat Haiti. If Denmark won and England lost, the group winner would be decided by FIFA tiebreakers. 

England edged out a 1-0 victory over Haiti to open the tournament, then beat Denmark by the same score. 

China lost 1-0 to Denmark in the opener but rebounded with a 1-0 win over Haiti and is now trying to keep its streak intact of advancing out of group play in all eight of its World Cup appearances. 

It will be a tough task: China can advance to the round of 16 if the Chinese beat England. But if Denmark beats Haiti, coupled with a China win, then FIFA tiebreakers would come into a play. A loss would mean China’s only chance at advancing would be if Haiti beat Denmark. 

England and China meet for just the fifth time, but first since a 2-1 China victory in 2015. 

England has scored in each of its last 15 matches at the Women’s World Cup for a tally of 25 goals since 2015. A goal against China would make England the first team to score in 16 consecutive matches in the tournament. 

China is looking to win consecutive World Cup games for the first time since 1999. 

Vietnam-Netherlands  

The Netherlands wants to win every match in the Women’s World Cup, but none more than Tuesday’s game against Vietnam. 

At stake: avoiding Sweden in the knockout round. 

The Dutch, the tournament runner-up in 2019, need only a win or a draw in the Group E match played in Dunedin, New Zealand. And even a loss would be OK so long as the United States beats Portugal in a game being played simultaneously. 

But the Netherlands has mapped out the tournament and wants no part of Sweden anytime soon. 

“The first aim is always to win and get to the last 16. And then after that, if we can score goals. We will, of course,” Dutch coach Andries Jonker said. “But looking at our colleagues from the U.S. and Portugal, we’ve noticed it’s not all that easy. We’ve never shown any kind of arrogance, but if we get chances to score goals, we will. We would prefer to play against the number two in this group and not Sweden.” 

The Netherlands are tied with the United States for the top spot in the group after playing to a 1-1 draw against the Americans and a 1-0 win over Portugal. 

Vietnam has already been eliminated from its first Women’s World Cup following losses to the United States and Portugal. Vietnam has lost its last five internationals by a combined score of 18-1. 

“The Netherlands tries to have as many goals as possible, and I have to say, we are at a low level,” Vietnam coach Mai Duc Chung said. “If we compare with Asia, we’re still at a low level. So, if we compare with the world, we are still quite behind. It is a success for us already. In the past two matches, we have tried our best. Great effort already.” 

Haiti-Denmark  

First-time Women’s World Cup participant Haiti would like to stick around a bit longer but needs a miracle in the Group D finale against Denmark to have any shot to advance. 

Haiti needs to beat Denmark in the Tuesday match played in Perth, Australia, and hope England beats China. If both those things happen, Haiti’s only chance would still come down to FIFA’s tiebreaker system. 

It’s very long odds for Haiti, which has played better in this tournament than its 0-2 record shows. Haiti held both England and China to one goal each in the first two matches. 

Haiti is on a six-game losing streak headed into what is probably its final game of this tournament. 

Denmark, meanwhile, is trying to advance to the group stage for the first time since 1995. Denmark was a 1-0 winner over China to start the tournament, then lost 1-0 to England and heads into the game tied for second in the group with China with three points each. 

A win over Haiti pushes Denmark through to the next round so long as England doesn’t lose to China. That scenario would put tiebreakers into play. 

The Danes, in the tournament for the first time since 2007, can also get through with a draw, but again, only if England beats China. 

Denmark has won five of its last seven international matches. 
…

Venice’s famed Rialto Bridge was jammed with tourists on Monday, the same day UNESCO recommended the watery city be put on its endangered list, citing overtourism and other concerns.

Taking selfies, licking gelato and wheeling suitcases, the hordes of visitors seemed happily oblivious to the possible downgrade UNESCO said was due to the risk of “irreversible” damage. 

New York tourist Ashley Park, 28, said she knew it would be crowded in Venice, but it wasn’t ruining her vacation.

“Obviously, if we lived here with all these tourists, it wouldn’t be fun,” she acknowledged.

Among the crowds on the historic bridge was city worker Diego Nechifrovo, 23, wearing an #EnjoyRespectVenezia T-shirt, who was busy keeping an eye out for misbehaving tourists.

“Sometimes I see someone throwing away his cigarette or walking around without a T-shirt,” he said, noticing a bag of potato chips discarded on the doorstep of a jewelry shop.

The worst? One time a family “sat down right in front of the Doge’s Palace and started to set up a picnic.”

A few weeks ago, a distracted tourist fell into the water, Nechifrovo said. “He was trying to get a good photo.”

Not far away, a seller of watercolors had a sign on his stand pointing to St. Mark’s Square.

“That’s all they want to know,” said the native Venetian, Claudio, who declined to give his last name. “They come to Venice because it’s Venice. That’s all.”

Go to the beach

The days of educated tourists visiting and enjoying the city’s many churches and museums were over, he said.

“Those who come now don’t even know what a museum is. It’s not cultural tourism,” he said.

“They need to go to the beach, or the mountains, but not here!” he lamented. “Please don’t come anymore!”

The list of Venice’s challenges are many, from environmental damage to its lagoon to its fleeing residents – with only about 50,000 left – leaving what many critics charge is now a city without a soul.

Two years ago, Venice narrowly avoided being placed on the same UNESCO list – which is intended to spur governments into action to preserve places deemed of “universal value to humanity” – after the city imposed a ban on massive cruise ships traveling past the center.

Environmental groups warned the ships, carrying thousands of day-trippers and sailing exceptionally close to shore, caused large waves eroding Venice’s foundations and harming the lagoon’s fragile ecosystem.

But the rerouting of the ships to the more distant industrial port of Marghera did not address the issue of overtourism itself.

Some 3.2 million tourists stayed overnight in Venice’s historic center last year, according to official data, a number that does not include the thousands of daily visitors who do not spend the night.

“It’s pretty beautiful – it’s a draw!” said U.S. tourist Mike McWilliams, 53, who had just arrived in the city for a two-day visit with his family.

UNESCO, the U.N.’s cultural wing, put Venice on its heritage list in 1987 as an “extraordinary architectural masterpiece,” but it has warned of the need for “more sustainable tourism management.”

On Monday, it said progress had been insufficient while citing “a lack of overall joint strategic vision” by authorities.

Critics say measures put in place to check tourism are ineffective and have come too late.

A long-discussed plan to introduce a paid booking scheme for day-trippers has been repeatedly postponed, now until 2024, over concerns it will seriously dent tourist revenue and compromise freedom of movement.

Back at St. Mark’s Square, city worker Lorenzo Seano, 21, was struggling to keep tourists from sitting on the steps of the surrounding arcades.

The problem of too many tourists invading cities went well beyond Venice, Seano said, but no one in government had tried to tackle the problem “on a structural level.”

“After all, there’s a ton of money coming in,” he said.   
…

The United States on Monday imposed sanctions against four top Bosnian Serb officials, including the Serb member of the country’s presidency, for undermining a U.S.-sponsored peace deal that ended the Balkan country’s war in the 1990s.

Bosnia’s presidency member Zeljka Cvijanovic, along with the prime minister, justice minister and parliament speaker of the Serb Republic, facilitated the passage of a law that undermines the Bosnian constitution, U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

The constitution is part of the Dayton peace accords that ended the 1992-1995 Bosnian war in which 100,000 were killed, dividing the country into two autonomous regions, the Serb Republic and the Bosniak-Croat Federation, linked via a weak central government.

Late in June, lawmakers in the Serb Republic voted to suspend rulings by Bosnia’s constitutional court, a vote initiated by the region’s separatist pro-Russian President Milorad Dodik, who is already under U.S. and U.K. sanctions.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury designated Cvijanovic, Prime Minister Radovan Viskovic, Justice Minister Milos Bukejlovic and parliament speaker Nenad Stevandic for obstructing and threatening the implementation of the Dayton accords by providing the passage of the law.

“This action threatens the stability, sovereignty, and territorial integrity of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the hard-won peace underpinned by the Dayton Peace Agreement,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian E. Nelson.

“This behavior further threatens the country’s future trajectory and successful integration into Euro-Atlantic institutions,” Nelson added.

Cvijanovic was put under U.K. sanctions last year along with Dodik for what were described as attempts to undermine the legitimacy and functionality of the Bosnian state.

In reaction to the sanctions, Stevandic said that he saw them as a “decoration for consistency, steadfastness and non-indulgence in the face of blackmail and threats from those considered powerful.”

A spokesman for Dodik’s ruling SNSD party said the U.S. decision was “shameless and hypocritical.” “No sanctions will prevent us from doing our job,” Radovan Kovacevic said.

The designations build on prior U.S. sanctions and visa restrictions designed to promote accountability of persons who undermine democratic processes or institutions, the U.S. Department of the Treasury said.

Dodik and his allies have long promoted the secession of the region from Bosnia and its unification with neighboring Serbia. They stepped up activities undermining state institutions in recent months, including suspension of decisions by an international peace envoy.
…

The West African regional bloc ECOWAS has given Niger’s coup leaders one week to return the country to normal or face possible military intervention. The deadline comes after Niger’s democratically elected president was toppled by members of his presidential guard last week. There are no easy options and the few that are available come with their own regional consequences. 

Meeting Sunday in an emergency session, members of ECOWAS led by Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu gave Niger’s junta leaders a week to release and reinstate President Mohamed Bazoum.   

The group says all measures including the use of force are on the table to restore constitutional order.  

Michael Shurkin is a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and also the director of global programs at 14 North strategies, an Africa-focused business advisory group. He says he applauds ECOWAS’ determination but wonders how effective a regional military intervention will be.   

“That kind of thing makes me cringe because even if it’s possible, it’s easy to imagine really bad things happening as a result and it’s hard to know how that would be a valuable thing,” Shurkin said.

ECOWAS also imposed sanctions, including the suspension of all commercial and financial transactions between Niger and other ECOWAS member states.  

Shurkin says sanctions in this case might not be effective, especially for a country as poor as Niger.   

“There were ECOWAS sanctions against Mali, which proved to be completely useless. In fact, they were counter-productive,” Shurkin said. “The Malian junta was able to use the so-called international campaign against Malian sovereignty to its advantage to try to rally people behind it and it helped a very illegitimate regime create for itself more legitimacy. And if anything, all the sanctions did was just hurt poor people.”

Last week, Bazoum’s supporters protested in the capital, Niamey, calling for his release.  

On Sunday, pro-coup residents attacked the French embassy as they held their own demonstration.

Dr. Edgar Githua, an international relations and diplomacy expert teaching at the U.S. International University in Nairobi, told VOA that ECOWAS — in conjunction with the United States, France and the European Union – has a strategic imperative for restoring Bazoum to power.  

“For the simple reason that geopolitically speaking, the U.S. doesn’t want Russia to come to that region,” Githua said. “If Bazoum is kicked out of power, the military junta that takes over will open wide arms. The Wagner group, don’t forget, is still in Chad, is still in Libya, // they are around there; they will sweep in so fast. The U.S. knows if there’s a power vacuum, Russia will move in to fill that power vacuum.”

France, the United States and other countries have troops in Niger and while some of these countries have the ability to do some targeted intervention, Shurkin doesn’t think any of these governments would have an appetite in doing so because…  

“It looks terrible. It seems to re-enforce everything that many people fear and say about the French’s role in the Sahel because here is France being a neo-colonial power, picking and choosing leaders and not letting Nigeriens sort things out; same thing if the U.S. did it. It’s very problematic,” Shurkin said. ”

Niger has been a key ally of the West in the fight against militant groups such as Islamic State and al-Qaida in the Sahel region, which has seen a number of coups in the past few years, including in neighboring Burkina Faso and Mali.
…

Greece’s prime minister said Monday that his government wants to take full advantage of a developing positive political climate with neighboring Turkey to improve bilateral relations despite a string of decades-old disputes.

But Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that doesn’t mean Turkey has “substantially changed” its stance on key differences between the two countries and needs to “decisively abandon its aggressive and unlawful conduct” against Greece’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Turkey and Greece remain at odds over maritime boundaries in the eastern Mediterranean, a dispute that affects irregular migration into the European Union, mineral rights and the projection of military power.

Mitsotakis said that he agreed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11-12 to initiate new “lines of communication” and to maintain “a period of calm.”

High-level talks between the two countries are expected to take place in the Greek city of Thessaloniki later this year.

However, the Greek prime minister said that Erdogan’s outreach to the EU can’t come at the expense of efforts to heal Cyprus’ nearly half-century ethnic division.

Speaking after talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, Mitsotakis said that he told Erdogan that improved European-Turkish ties can’t exclude a Cyprus peace accord and that the issue can’t be “left by the wayside.”

Turkey and the breakaway Turkish Cypriots have insisted on a two-state solution since July 2017 when the most recent round of U.N.-facilitated peace talks collapsed.

That position overturned a long-standing agreement sanctioned by the U.N. Security Council in numerous resolutions that any peace deal would aim for a reunified Cyprus as a federation made up of Greek and Turkish speaking zones.

Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of a union with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence in the island’s northern third, where more than 35,000 Turkish troops are stationed.

On Friday, Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar repeated that peace talks could resume only if Greek Cypriots recognize the Turkish Cypriots’ “sovereign equality.”

Christodoulides said Monday that any improvement in European-Turkish relations should be based on reciprocal action by Turkey, adding that the EU prioritizes a Cyprus peace deal in line with U.N. resolutions.
…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen warned on Monday that Europe won’t tolerate aggression in Ukraine or the Indo-Pacific as she reaffirmed the EU’s recognition of a 2016 arbitration decision that invalidated China’s expansive claims in the disputed South China Sea.

Von der Leyen spoke at a joint news conference with Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. after holding talks in Manila that aimed to bolster trade, economic and security relations. The leaders announced the 27-nation bloc would resume negotiations with the Philippines for a free-trade agreement that stalled in 2017 under Marcos’s predecessor, Rodrigo Duterte.

She stressed the need for security cooperation, citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which she said shows how authoritarian leaders “are willing to act on their threats.”

“Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine shakes the foundation of the international order. It is in violation of the U.N. charter and the fundamental principles of international law, such as territorial integrity and sovereignty,” she said.

“This is why Europe supports Ukraine’s brave fight against the aggressor because the illegal use of force cannot be tolerated, not in Ukraine, not in the Indo-Pacific,” von der Leyen said. “Security in Europe and security in the Indo-Pacific is indivisible. Challenges to the rules-based order in our interconnected world affect all of us.”

“This is why we are concerned about the rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific,” she said, adding that the EU backs a free and open Indo-Pacific “because an Indo-Pacific free of the threats of coercion is key to all our stability to our peace, and to the prosperity of our people.”

Her veiled rhetoric echoed that of U.S. leaders, who have raised alarms over China’s increasingly aggressive actions in the disputed South China Sea.

Without naming China, von der Leyen underscored the EU’s recognition of a decision by a U.N.-backed tribunal that invalidated China’s territorial claims in virtually the entire waterway on historical grounds. China has rejected the arbitration decision as a sham and continues to defy it.

The award “is legally binding” and provides the basis for a peaceful resolution of the disputes, she said.

The European Union is ready to boost cooperation with the Philippines to foster regional maritime security by sharing information, carrying out threat assessments and bolstering the Philippine coast guard, she said.

China has warned the United States and its allies from meddling in what it says is a purely Asian dispute. It has turned seven disputed reefs into missile-protected island bases in the last decade, further alarming Western governments and rival claimants, including the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan.

Von der Leyen’s visit to the Philippines is a sign of improving ties after a stormy period between the EU and Duterte over human rights. It’s the first such top-level visit in nearly six decades of relations with the Philippines.

The visit came at a time when the EU is assessing whether to extend special trade incentives, including slashed tariffs for a wide variety of products, to the Philippines.

The EU trade incentives under the so-called Generalized Scheme of Preferences for the Philippines and seven other developing countries are anchored on their adherence to more than two dozen international conventions on human and labor rights, environmental protection and good governance.

But the Philippines came under intense EU criticism during Duterte’s six-year term, mainly because of the bloody anti-drugs crackdown he oversaw that left more than 6,000 mostly petty suspects dead. Marcos succeeded Duterte in June last year.

The killings sparked an International Criminal Court investigation as a possible crime against humanity. Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC in 2018, but its prosecutor has proceeded to investigate the widespread deaths that occurred in the years when the country was still part of The Hague-based court.

Duterte then often lashed at the EU’s criticisms of his brutal anti-drugs crackdown with profanity-laced outbursts.

Marcos and von der Leyen said relations between the EU and the Philippines were entering a new era.

We “are like-minded partners through our shared values of democracy, sustainable and inclusive prosperity, the rule of law, peace and stability, and human rights,” Marcos said, comments that reflected a stark departure from Duterte’s hostile rhetoric against the EU.
…

Japan scored three times from lightning breaks in the first half, once in the second and defended resolutely to trounce Spain 4-0 on Monday and top Group C at the Women’s World Cup.

Hinata Miyazawa scored twice, Riko Ueki scored once and both were instrumental in each other’s goals as Japan switched swiftly from defense to counter-attack and scored from its only three attempts on goal before halftime.

Mina Tanaka came off the bench to score the last in the 82nd minute as Japan, with only 22% of possession, turned on a counter-attacking master class in front of 21,000 fans.

Both teams had already clinched places in the round of 16, Japan for the fourth World Cup in succession, Spain for the second. Both had beaten Zambia 5-0 and Spain had the better goal differential after a 3-0 win over Costa Rica. A draw would have been enough to see Spain finish atop a group for the first time in its history.

But Spain has struggled against Asian teams in World Cup matches, losing to South Korea in 2015 and drawing with China in 2019.

Japan played with a strong and cold wind at its back in the first half and that added carry to long balls forward which helped catch the Spain defense in retreat.

Spain had an overwhelming majority of possession in the half; by the 25-minute mark it had enjoyed 68% and had more than 230 completed passes to Japan’s 43. But it was timid, reluctant to go forward and played mostly around the middle of the field, keeping the ball on the ground in the face of the wind.

Japan was content to defend in depth and to counter-attack. It sprang the trap for the first time in the 12th. From just inside the Spain half and wide on the left Jun Endo sent a long, curling ball forward which fell for Miyakawa, who neatly slipped her shot past Misa Rodriguez.

In the 23rd Moeka Minami cleared from the edge of the Japan area. Ueki nodded the ball back for Nagano to send Miyazawa away on the right. She passed across the goal to Ueki, who took the ball on her left foot, propped to her right and unleashed a shot which deflected off Irene Paredes and ballooned over Rodriguez.

Ueki celebrated the goal a day after her 24th birthday.

In the 40th it was Ueki’s turn to deliver for Miyazawa. She broke incisively on the left, passed across to the right as the Spain defense, backpedaling, tried to regroup and Miyazawa finished clinically with her left foot.

Each goal fell into the same pattern and each was executed with the same precision. Spain had few chances before halftime, perhaps its best was Jennifer Hermoso’s header from Ona Batlle’s cross.

Tanaka’s goal was a magnificent solo effort. She beat Rocio Galvez near halfway, eluded Batlle and Paredes and then drove the ball powerfully into the top left corner. Japan’s four goals came from only five attempts.

Among the fans at Sky Stadium were some from Palmerston North, the provincial town 160 kilometers north of Wellington which was Spain’s base until they quit it suddenly last week.

Japan was a surprise winner of the World Cup in 2011 and runners-up to the United States in 2015. With 12 goals from three group matches this time, they again loom as a title contender.

Japan now will play Group A runner-up Norway on Saturday in the round of 16 and Spain will play Group A winner Switzerland. 

 
…

The European Union and the United States have called for the military junta that seized power in Niger last week to halt their coup and return President Mohamed Bazoum to office. 

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday expressed support for actions by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which Sunday imposed sanctions on the coup leaders and gave them a one-week deadline to cede power or face measures including “the use of force.” 

Borrell said in a statement that Bazoum must be returned to power without delay. He also said the EU rejects accusations of foreign interference and that it will hold the junta responsible for any attacks on civilians or against diplomatic personnel or facilities. 

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also welcomed what he called the strong leadership of ECOWAS to “defend constitutional order in Niger” and said the United States joins calls for the immediate release of Bazoum and restoration of Niger’s democratically elected government. 

Leaders of the coup have said they acted last week in response to what they described as a worsening security situation in Niger and the government’s lack of action against jihadists. 

In a statement on state television Monday, the military junta accused former colonial ruler France of wanting to use military action to free Bazoum. 

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

Latest developments:

Pope Francis appealed Sunday to Russia to revive the U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal allowing Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports. The deal expired July 17. Addressing crowds in St. Peter's Square, the pope urged the faithful to continue praying "for martyred Ukraine, where war is destroying everything, even grain," calling this "a grave insult to God."





Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday he expects Russia to resume its attacks on Ukraine's power grid next winter and pledged to do everything possible to protect his nation's power infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia will soon host a summit to discuss implementation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s peace plan to end the war Russia launched last year.

The head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office, Andriy Yermak, said the summit would bring together national security advisers for talks that follow an initial round held in Copenhagen in June. Yermak said Ukraine is “working hard to involve as many partners as possible from both the West and the Global South.”

Yermak did not confirm a date for the summit, but The Wall Street Journal reported it would take place August 5-6 and involve 30 countries. The Associated Press cited officials saying the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa would participate.

“The Ukrainian Peace Formula contains 10 fundamental points, the implementation of which will not only ensure peace for Ukraine, but also create mechanisms to counter future conflicts in the world,” Yermak said in a statement. “We are deeply convinced that the Ukrainian peace plan should be taken as a basis, because the war is taking place on our land.”

African leaders to get grain

African leaders left Russia after a two-day Russia-Africa summit with no resolution on the resumption of the deal that allowed for the safe export of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea corridor.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that higher grain prices, which have risen since Moscow’s exit from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, will benefit Russian companies as well as the world’s poorest countries.

In his effort to woo African leaders, Putin said during a news conference Saturday in St. Petersburg that Russia will share its profits from rising grain prices with African nations and poor countries. Russia, like Ukraine, is a major grain exporter.

That commitment, with no details, follows Putin’s promise to start shipping 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain for free to each of six African nations in the next three to four months — an amount dwarfed by the 725,000 tons shipped by the United Nations World Food Program to several hungry countries, African and otherwise, under the grain deal. Russia plans to send the free grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and the Central African Republic.

Fewer than 20 of Africa’s 54 heads of state or government attended the Russia summit compared to 43 who attended the previous gathering in 2019.

Russian attacks

A Russian missile attack killed at least one person and injured five in the Ukrainian city of Sumy, National Police said Sunday.

The strike by Russian forces hit “an educational facility,” spokesperson Maryna Polosina said.

A video released by Ukrainian police showed injured people being carried away from the scene as smoke rose from a damaged building nearby.

Moscow said Sunday that Russian forces thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to attack Crimea with 25 drones overnight.

“Sixteen Ukrainian UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] were destroyed by air defense fire,” the Russian defense ministry said. “There were no victims.”

Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow early Sunday, but there were no casualties, the Tass news agency reported, citing city Mayor Sergei Sobyanin.

“Tonight, there was a Ukrainian drone attack. The facades of two office buildings in Moscow City (business district) were slightly damaged. There are no casualties,” Sobyanin said on his Telegram channel.

The Russian defense ministry said it downed three drones targeting the city and described the incident as an “attempted terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime.”

A security guard was injured, Tass reported, citing emergency officials.

The Vnukovo airport on the outskirts of the city suspended flights for about an hour, according to Tass, and the airspace over and around Moscow was temporarily closed.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
…

Denmark’s foreign minister said Sunday the government will seek to make it illegal to desecrate the Quran or other religious holy books in front of foreign embassies in the Nordic country.

Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said in an interview with the Danish public broadcaster DR that the burning of holy scriptures “only serves the purpose of creating division in a world that actually needs unity.”

“That is why we have decided in the government that we will look at how, in very special situations, we can put an end to mockery of other countries, which is in direct conflict with Danish interests and the safety of the Danes,” he said.

A recent string of public Quran desecrations by a handful of anti-Islam activists in Denmark and neighboring Sweden have sparked angry demonstrations in Muslim countries.

Lokke Rasmussen said the Cabinet of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen is determined to find “a legal tool” to prohibit such acts without compromising freedom of expression, but he acknowledged that would not be easy.

“There must be room for religious criticism, and we have no thoughts of reintroducing a blasphemy clause,” he told DR. “But when you stand up in front of a foreign embassy and burn a Quran or burn the Torah scroll in front of the Israeli embassy, it serves no other purpose than to mock.”

His comments followed a statement issued late Sunday by the Danish government saying freedom of expression is one of the most important values in Danish society.

But, it added, the desecration of the Muslim holy book in Denmark has resulted in the nation being viewed in many places around the world “as a country that facilitates insult and denigration of the cultures, religions, and traditions of other countries.”

The government repeated its condemnation of such desecrations, say they are “deeply offensive and reckless acts committed by few individuals” and “do not represent the values the Danish society is built on.”

In Sweden, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sunday on Instagram that his government is analyzing the legal situation regarding desecration of the Quran and other holy books, given the animosity such acts are stirring up against Sweden.

“We are in the most serious security policy situation since the Second World War,” Kristersson said.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation has called an emergency remote meeting Monday to discuss the Quran burnings in Sweden and Denmark.
…

Wildlife enthusiasts across Britain are being encouraged to log sightings of butterflies and some moths, as the world’s largest annual survey of the increasingly endangered pollinating insects returns.

The U.K.-wide “Big Butterfly Count” — which this year runs from July 14 to August 6 — helps conservationists assess the health of the country’s natural environment, amid mounting evidence it is increasingly imperiled. 

Volunteers download a chart helping them to identify different butterfly species and then record their sightings in gardens, parks and elsewhere using a smartphone app and other online tools.

It comes as experts warn the often brightly colored winged insects are in rapid decline in Britain as they fail to cope with unprecedented environmental change. 

“It’s a pretty worrying picture,” Richard Fox, head of science at the Butterfly Conservation charity, which runs the nationwide citizen-led survey, told AFP at Orley Common, a vast park in Devon, southwest England.

“The major causes of the decline are what we humans have done to the landscape in the U.K. over the past 50, 60, 70 years,” he added from the site, which is seeing fewer butterflies despite offering an ideal habitat for them. 

A report published this year that Fox co-authored, based on 23 million items of data, revealed that four in every five U.K. butterfly species have decreased since the 1970s. 

Half of the country’s 58 species are listed as threatened, according to a conservation “red list.” 

‘Citizen scientists’

The UK, one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries, has lost almost half of its biodiversity over recent decades, according to a 2021 U.K. parliament report.

Agriculture, and its use of fertilizers and pesticides, alongside changes to landscapes including the removal of hedge rows to maximize space for growing crops, is partly blamed.

Counting butterflies, which are among the most monitored insects globally, has helped track the grim trend. 

Volunteers have been contributing to the effort since the 1970s, but recording is more popular than ever, in part thanks to evolving technology.

The Big Butterfly Count launched in 2010 and claims to have become the world’s biggest such survey. 

Over 64,000 “citizen scientists” participated last year, submitting 96,257 counts of butterflies and day-flying moths from across Britain.

Butterfly Conservation and the U.K. Centre for Ecology and Hydrology have developed an iRecord Butterflies app to help identify and geo-locate different butterfly species sightings.

It has logged nearly 1 million submissions since launching in 2014.

Butterflies help identify the health of an ecosystem because they react quickly to environmental changes and are seen as an early warning system for other wildlife losses, conservationists note.

“One of the great things about butterflies and of this fantastic data that we have about butterflies is that they act as indicators about all the other groups,” Fox explained. 

“So we know a bit about how our bees are doing, we know a little about how bugs, and beetles, and flies, and wasps, and other important insects are doing.”

‘We’ll starve’

Amy Walkden, Butterfly Conservation’s branch secretary in Devon, is one of many enthusiasts monitoring the insects year-round with the help of her 8-year-old daughter, Robin.

“Having a yearly record of what is around and what is not around I think is really good scientific data to indicate changes such as global warming, habitat destruction,” she said. 

Her daughter Robin appears equally aware of their value.

“If we don’t have any butterflies and all the buzzy things, then the things that eat butterflies won’t have any food,” she noted.

“The food chain is basically what we eat and if there is none of them, we’ll starve and we won’t really be able to survive, will we?”

Fox hopes that the latest annual count will help prompt policy makers to take more action, although he concedes the scale of the task is “enormous.”

The U.K. government has said it wants to reverse biodiversity loss and climate change, partly by planting tens of millions of trees in the next three years.

Fox called the plan “fantastic” but said other areas such as low intensity agri-environment schemes are also needed, “so that the public money paid to farmers will benefit the environment and support biodiversity.”

“There’s a lot more we can do there to make sure that the margins around fields are being managed in a way to turn around the fortunes of our more common and widespread butterflies,” he added.
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African leaders are leaving two days of meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin with little to show for their requests to resume a deal that kept grain flowing from Ukraine and to find a path to end the war there.

Putin in a press conference late Saturday following the Russia-Africa summit said Russia’s termination of the grain deal earlier this month caused a rise in grain prices that benefits Russian companies. He added that Moscow would share some of those revenues with the “poorest nations.”

That commitment, with no details, follows Putin’s promise to start shipping 25,000 to 50,000 tons of grain for free to each of six African nations in the next three to four months — an amount dwarfed by the 725,000 tons shipped by the U.N. World Food Program to several hungry countries, African and otherwise, under the grain deal. Russia plans to send the free grain to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, Eritrea and Central African Republic.

Fewer than 20 of Africa’s 54 heads of state or government attended the Russia summit, while 43 attended the previous gathering in 2019, reflecting concerns over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine even as Moscow seeks more allies on the African continent of 1.3 billion people. Putin praised Africa as a rising center of power in the world, while the Kremlin blamed “outrageous” Western pressure for discouraging some African countries from showing up.

The presidents of Egypt and South Africa were among the most outspoken on the need to resume the grain deal.

“We would like the Black Sea initiative to be implemented and that the Black Sea should be open,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said. “We are not here to plead for donations for the African continent.”

Putin also said Russia would analyze African leaders’ peace proposal for Ukraine, whose details have not been publicly shared. But the Russian leader asked: “Why do you ask us to pause fire? We can’t pause fire while we’re being attacked.”

The next significant step in peace efforts instead appears to be a Ukrainian-organized peace summit hosted by Saudi Arabia in August. Russia is not invited.

Africa’s nations make up the largest voting bloc at the United Nations and have been more divided than any other region on General Assembly resolutions criticizing Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Delegations at the summit in St. Petersburg roamed exhibits of weapons, a reminder of Russia’s role as the top arms supplier to the African continent.

Putin in his remarks on Saturday also downplayed his absence from the BRICS economic summit in South Africa next month amid a controversy over an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court. His presence there, Putin said, is not “more important than my presence here, in Russia.”
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Ten people — including three children — died after high winds tore through central Russia, emergency services and a local official reported Sunday.

Eight of the dead were part of a group of tourists camping close to Lake Yalchik in the Mari-El region when the storm hit Saturday, Russia’s emergencies ministry said.

The strong winds caused a large number of trees to fall in the area, including where the group’s tents had been pitched on a stretch of wild beach inside the Mariy Chodra National Park, regional leader Yuri Zaitsev wrote on social media. He said that three children were among the dead. Russia’s investigative committee has opened a criminal case to determine whether unsafe or sub-standard services provided by the park’s management company contributed to the deaths.

Across the wider Volga Federal District, 76 people were injured in the storm, with thousands of households losing power, emergency services said.
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Manuela Vanegas scored in the seventh minute of stoppage time as Colombia upset Germany 2-1 at the Women’s World Cup on Sunday.

The defender headed in to settle a thrilling game and put her country on the brink of advancing to the knockout stage.

Alexandra Popp had scored an 89th-minute penalty and seemed to have earned two-time champion Germany a 1-1 draw after 18-year-old Linda Caicedo had struck a stunning opener for Colombia.

But Vanegas came up with a late twist to huge celebrations from Colombia fans who dominated the Sydney Football Stadium crowd.

The Germans thought they’d secured a point after Colombia goalkeeper Catalina Perez was penalized for bringing down Lena Oberdorf in the box.

Popp, who scored twice in her country’s 6-0 rout of Morocco in its opening game of the tournament, fired straight down the middle to level the game.

That had disappointed the crowd, which passionately cheered Colombia on throughout and erupted after Caicedo’s goal in the 52nd.

The Real Madrid teenager had suffered a health scare earlier in the week but produced a moment of magic to score her second of the tournament.

It was all the more special coming after she’d dropped to the ground holding her chest in training during the week.

Caicedo scored from distance in the 2-0 win against South Korea on Tuesday. But while that goal involved an error from goalkeeper Yoon Young-geul, on this occasion it was all about individual brilliance.

Collecting the ball from just inside the area after a corner, she worked her way into space by bewildering two German defenders in a fast-stepping move before lashing a shot into the top corner.

Caicedo, followed by her teammates, charged toward the corner to get closer to the crowd as it went wild.

Germany has never failed to advance from the group stage of the World Cup. It is still expected to beat South Korea in its last game of Group H, but will likely have to settle for second place.

The runners up at last year’s Euros should have been ahead in the first half when Popp was guilty of missing the target with a volley from close range —shortly before the break.

Earlier Lina Magull had the chance to test Perez from close range, but mis-kicked and the opportunity was wasted.

What’s next

In the last games in Group H, Germany faces South Korea and Colombia plays Morocco, with three teams still able to advance to the knockout stage.
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The arrest and disappearance of dissidents and anti-war activists has become a common occurrence in Russia. But the detention in July of former Federal Security Service officer Igor Girkin has marked a turning point in how the government of President Vladimir Putin treats even those who support its military goals.

Known by the nickname Strelkov, meaning “shooter,” Girkin’s journey from key operative to political threat sheds light on the Kremlin’s complex history with ideological extremists.

Long before he became a wanted war criminal in the West, Girkin was a student at the Moscow State Institute for History and Archives, where he began his hobby of reenacting military history, especially that of the czarist White Army.

An avowed monarchist, Girkin fell in with far-right circles that were arising amid the Soviet collapse, writing for the newspaper Zavtra, which combined the idolization of Soviet militarism with antisemitic Russian nationalism and opposition to Western democracy.

However, his interest in war went beyond historical costume. He would fight in Russia’s brutal campaign against Chechen independence, as well as the 1992 intervention in Moldova that left the region of Transnistria as Russian-occupied territory.

Girkin also volunteered alongside ethnic Serb forces in the Bosnian War and was present at the massacre of thousands of Bosnian Muslim civilians in Visegrad. Afterward, he is believed to have served in the FSB, where he reportedly rose to the rank of colonel before retiring in 2013.

But this would not be the end of Girkin’s military career.

Following the 2014 Euromaidan protests that toppled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Girkin appeared in Crimea among the so-called Russian volunteers — later revealed to be active-duty soldiers — who brought the peninsula under Russian control.

Next, he would surface in Ukraine’s Donbas region as the head of militants who seized government offices in Sloviansk to establish the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic.

Despite claiming to be a local uprising with no Kremlin involvement, much of the militants’ leadership was composed of Russian citizens with close ties to the security services, such as Girkin’s old newspaper colleague Alexander Borodai. Girkin himself would later admit that the war in the Donbas would not have occurred without direct Russian support.

As defense minister of the small, breakaway state, Girkin imposed harsh discipline on enemies and allies alike, torturing and executing supporters of Ukraine, as well as petty criminals and even fellow separatist fighters, for infractions such as looting or abandoning their post.

His biggest war crime was yet to come.

On July 17, 2014, a Malaysia Airlines jet carrying 298 people was shot down over the Donetsk region, killing everyone on board. Evidence showed that the plane had been hit by a Russian-made BUK surface-to-air missile fired from rebel-controlled territory.

Deleted social media posts suggested Girkin had knowledge of the deliberate attack. He was found guilty in November 2022 by a Dutch court in absentia and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Publicly, Girkin denied any responsibility for the shooting and claimed it had been a false flag operation — a military action meant to blame an opponent or rival — mirroring Russian media’s own shifting explanations and conspiracy theories about the crash.

But this high-profile international attention made him a liability for Russia, which still denied involvement in the conflict. To make their denial more plausible, Girkin and other Russian citizens were removed from power and replaced with local separatist leaders.

Upon his return to Russia in late 2014, Girkin criticized Russian leadership. As a true believer, he viewed the Donbas as historic Russian land and had expected the Kremlin to fully commit to annexing the region, as they had with Crimea.

But for Putin, an ongoing stalemate in the Donbas provided a low-cost way to impede Ukraine’s integration into Western institutions while maintaining enough plausible deniability to avoid the full weight of international sanctions.

Dismayed by what he viewed as a betrayal of the cause, Girkin became an increasingly vocal critic of Putin. His media statements and interviews often undercut the official Kremlin line by revealing the extent of Russia’s involvement in the conflict.

With Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Girkin gained renewed prominence as one of the country’s top military bloggers.

While ordinary citizens and liberal activists were jailed for even referring to the “special military operation” as a war, Girkin and other far-right nationalists openly offered frank condemnation of the military strategy, as well as the top leadership, accusing them of incompetence and insufficient preparation.

The bloggers’ criticisms, which did not oppose the invasion but called for a more aggressive campaign, allowed for the venting of discontent without disrupting Kremlin narratives, while also positioning Putin as a relative moderate.

That calculus appears to have changed, however, with Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s aborted mutiny in late June. In the face of such a public challenge to his authority, experts believe Putin can no longer afford to tolerate criticism, even from so-called patriots.

Jailed liberal opposition figure Alexei Navalny has also weighed in, noting that despite his other crimes, Girkin should nevertheless be considered a political prisoner.

It remains to be seen what will become of other ultranationalist Putin critics, some of whom have already rushed to distance themselves from Girkin. His arrest, coming on the heels of the Wagner mutiny, underscores the Kremlin’s struggle to control the very forces it has unleashed.
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PARIS – Arsenal defender Oleksandr Zinchenko says he only had to look into the eyes of Ukrainian children who lived under Russian occupation in a village to find the motivation to raise money to rebuild their school.

“You realize the mental injuries they will carry for the rest of their lives,” he told AFP.

The 26-year-old Ukraine international went home in May for his first trip since Russia invaded in February 2022 — “even the air smelt different,” he said — and visited the village and the school, the Mykhailo-Kotsiubynsky Lyceum in Chernihiv oblast, northern Ukraine.

It was heavily damaged in a rocket attack on March 4 last year killing a 62-year-old female cleaner — the death toll could have been a lot worse as there were around 100 civilians, the youngest aged 2 months, living in the basement.

“I was really upset, it was very hard for me morally to understand it,” the school’s headmaster Mykola Shpak told AFP.

“When I saw the level of destruction, I understood how much work will be needed to renovate it and restart education.”

The estimated cost of the rebuilding work is $1.7 million (1.54 million euros).

Zinchenko and Ukrainian football great Andriy Shevchenko, who accompanied him on the visit, played with some of the 412 pupils and chatted to them about their experiences when the Russians occupied the village from Feb. 28-March 31 last year.

As a result of the visit, the star pair decided with the charity United24 to organize an all-star match, Game4Ukraine, at the Stamford Bridge home of one of Shevchenko’s former clubs, Chelsea, on Aug. 5 to raise funds for the school.

The charity was launched by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to collect donations to cover Ukraine’s most pressing needs, among them rebuilding the country which has been devastated since Vladimir Putin launched the invasion.

“Around 800 schools have been damaged by the Russians, more than 200 of them we are not able to rebuild,” Zinchenko told AFP earlier this month.

“This school was important because 10 villages are using it.”

It was, though, not just that which left such a mark on Zinchenko but listening to the children and their accounts of life under Russian occupation.

“A few were telling us about the Russian army in their houses, you look in their eyes and you realize the mental injuries they will suffer from for the rest of their lives.

“That is a scary thing.”

‘Never understand’

Neither Zinchenko nor Shevchenko have a personal connection with the school — “I changed schools three times” explains Zinchenko with a wry smile — which makes it even more touching for Shpak, the headmaster.

“I feel what a person can feel when he receives hope,” he said.

“And of course this hope is great when it is initiated by such people as those two.

“I was filled with even more hope when they played football with our boys and girls on the field which was destroyed by missiles.”

Shpak speaks with the emotion of someone with deep ties to the school — his parents were both teachers there and after studying he returned as a geography teacher in 1993 and became head in 2015.

Although he would go home at night, he ensured the 100 or so people housed in the basement were fed — visits from the Russians were for him mercifully few.

“They only entered the school after the shelling of our district, I cannot say why they came to the school. I think they wanted to see the results of what they did,” he said.

“We had prepared food for our children, about 30 pieces of bread. But after their visit we could not find it as they had taken it.”

Shpak — who has two grown-up sons — feels enormous loss at the former pupils who have died in the war.

“There are a lot of children who graduated from this school who I will never see again and that is terrible,” he said.

Zinchenko has not lost any close friends but says he “will never understand” the invasion.

“When one has been born and raised on land where you know every single stone and tree and then one day someone comes from another place and they can do what they want, they can kill women, men and children and destroy everything around, in the 2020s, it is absolutely incredible.”

Zinchenko — whose wife, Vlada, is expecting their second child — is pleased he did not take up arms but is doing his bit for his country in a field he knows better.

“I hope if my children ask me ‘Daddy what did you do in that time, how did you help?’ I will be able to look them in their eyes and reply I was doing my best.”
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Russian authorities say three Ukrainian drones attacked Moscow in the early hours on Sunday, injuring one person and prompting a temporary closure for traffic of one of four airports around the Russian capital.

It was the fourth such attempt at a strike on the capital region this month and the third this week, fueling concerns about Moscow’s vulnerability to attacks as Russia’s war in Ukraine drags into its 18th month.

The Russian Defense Ministry referred to the incident as an “attempted terrorist attack by the Kyiv regime” and said three drones targeted the city. One was shot down in the surrounding Moscow region by air defense systems and two others were jammed. Those two crashed into the Moscow City business district in the capital.

Photos from the site of the crash showed the facade of a skyscraper damaged on one floor. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the attack “insignificantly damaged” the outsides of two buildings in the Moscow City district. A security guard was injured, Russia’s state news agency Tass reported, citing emergency officials.

No flights went into or out of the Vnukovo airport on the southern outskirts of the city for about an hour, according to Tass, and the air space over Moscow and the outlying regions was temporarily closed for any aircraft. Those restrictions have since been lifted.

Moscow authorities have also closed a street for traffic near the site of the crash in the Moscow City area.

There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian officials, who rarely if ever take responsibility for attacks on Russian soil.

Russia’s Defense Ministry reported shooting down a Ukrainian drone outside Moscow on Friday. Two more drones struck the Russian capital on Monday, one of them falling in the center of the city near the Defense Ministry’s headquarters along the Moscow River about 3 kilometers  from the Kremlin. The other drone hit an office building in southern Moscow, gutting several upper floors.

In another attack on July 4, the Russian military said four drones were downed by air defenses on the outskirts of Moscow and a fifth was jammed by electronic warfare means and forced down. 
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WARSAW – About 100 soldiers from the Russian Wagner group have moved closer to the Belarusian city of Grodno near the Polish border, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Saturday.

Poland, a former Warsaw Pact member that has been a full member of the U.S.-led NATO military alliance since 1999, has been concerned about the possibility that the war could spill over onto its territory since Russian invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Earlier this month, Poland began moving more than 1,000 troops to the east of the country amid rising concerns that the presence of Wagner fighters in Belarus could lead to increased tension on its border.

“The situation is getting increasingly dangerous. … Most likely they (the Wagner personnel) will be disguised as the Belarusian border guard and help illegal migrants get to the Polish territory (and) destabilize Poland,” Morawiecki said at a press conference in Gliwice, western Poland.

“They will most likely try to enter Poland pretending to be illegal migrants and this poses additional threats,” Morawiecki said.

However, he did not disclose the source of his information on the Wagner movements, and Anton Motolko, founder of the Belarusian opposition Hajun project, which monitors military activity in the country, told Reuters his group had not seen any evidence of the Wagner group moving closer to Grodno.

The city has a potentially significant position because it is near the Suwalki Gap, a strategic strip of land along the Polish-Lithuanian border that divides Belarus, Russia’s ally, from the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.

Earlier in July, Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin was shown in a video welcoming his fighters to Belarus, telling them they would take no further part in the Ukraine war for now but ordering them to gather their strength for Africa, where they are involved in a number of conflicts, while they train the Belarusian army.

The following day, some Wagner fighters arrived at the training ground of the 38th airborne assault brigade outside the city of Brest, just a few miles from the Polish border.

Wagner’s move to Belarus was part of a deal that ended the group’s mutiny attempt in June, when they took control of a Russian military headquarters, marched on Moscow and threatened to tip Russia into civil war, President Vladimir Putin has said. 
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After leaving it to the last minute against South Africa, Sweden left nothing to chance Saturday in a 5-0 win over Italy which sealed its place in the knockout rounds of the Women’s World Cup. 

Sweden relied on Amanda Ilestedt’s 90th-minute winner to salvage a 2-1 win from a sub-par performance in its opener against South Africa. 

Ilestedt was Sweden’s first scorer Saturday, this time in the 39th, and her glancing header from a corner sparked a flood of four Swedish goals in 11 minutes on either side of halftime. Her second goal came in the 50th and was a mirror image of the first. 

Rebecka Blomqvist finished it off in stoppage time with Sweden’s fifth goal. 

The Swedish attack again looked hesitant in the first 20 minutes. Italy appeared more composed over the ball in that period and more threatening with Sofia Cantore particularly dangerous on the right.  

But as the first half progressed, Sweden began to look more composed, more organized and then more ruthless. The crowd of just over 29,000 appeared to sense the change. 

Joanna Andersson curled the ball in from the right in the 39th, and Ilestedt rose highest at the near post to glance the ball on a narrow angle into the net. 

Fridolina Rolfo looked certain to score in the 43rd, one-on-one with Francesca Durante, but the goalkeeper threw herself toward Rolfo’s feet and snuffed out the threat. 

Rolfo had to wait only moments for her second goal of the tournament. Another corner and this time the delivery eluded Durante and found Rolfo on the far post who headed home. 

Rolfo turned deliverer in the first minute of stoppage time. Sent clear by a neat back-heel she passed low and beyond Durante, finding Stina Blackstenius, who tapped in; her goal was her 29th for the national team. 

Sweden led 3-0 at halftime, and the scoring continued after the break. On a corner in the 50th, Ilestedt was on station at the near post to head home. 

The clinical nature of Sweden’s attack was highlighted by the fact possession was almost evenly shared. But Sweden had 14 shots on target, Italy four and the Italians will be haunted by Sweden’s seven corners, all of which represented an immediate danger. 

Ilestedt was player of the match and in every sense a towering figure in attack. Blackstenius, Rolfo and Asllani also were back in form and there was every sign Saturday the third-ranked Swedes are peaking at the right time. 

Italy heads back to the drawing board with the first order of business to address its defense from set pieces. 
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Saturday urged Denmark to take urgent action to prevent burnings of the Quran, a Turkish foreign ministry source said.

In a phone call with his Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Fidan condemned the “continuous vile attacks against the Quran.” He told Rasmussen it was unacceptable to allow such actions under the guise of freedom of expression, the source said.

Rasmussen on Saturday wrote on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter: “Turkey and Denmark are close allies. Important to not let these acts succeed in creating division.”

He also reiterated Denmark’s “strong condemnation of these provocative acts by few individuals.”

The comments came after a small group of anti-Islam activists set fire to Qurans in front of the Egyptian and Turkish embassies in Copenhagen on Tuesday, after similar protests in Denmark and Sweden over recent weeks.

Denmark and Sweden have deplored the burning of Islam’s holy book but say they cannot prevent it under rules protecting free speech.
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