The U.N. says that among 8 million refugees who have fled the war in Ukraine, 90% are women and children. With martial law prohibiting most men from leaving the country, many of Ukraine’s women who go abroad have no choice but to take care of their families alone. As part of VOA World Refugee Day coverage, Warsaw reporter Lesia Bakalets heard from some of the women who have taken refuge in Poland. VOA footage by Daniil Batushchak.
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Albanian police on Tuesday raided a camp home to members of an Iranian opposition movement, with local media reporting that the group is suspected of orchestrating cyberattacks against foreign institutions. 

The Ashraf-3 camp northwest of Tirana has been home for a decade to thousands of members of the People’s Mujahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), exiled opponents of the government in Tehran. 

Police said in a statement they had acted on the orders of the Albanian judiciary due to the “violation of agreements and commitments” made by the group “when they settled in Albania solely for humanitarian purposes.” 

Local media reported that the police operation was part of an investigation into cybercrime and that officers seized computers. 

Media reports said that when police arrived at the camp, hundreds of PMOI members tried to repel the officers. The group accused the police of using pepper spray. 

The PMOI said one person died, but police denied this.  

“During the operation, the police caused no casualties and did not use weapons under any circumstances,” the police statement said, adding that it had launched a probe into the PMOI’s allegations. 

The group also said a dozen of its members were injured during clashes with police. 

Under a U.N. and U.S.-backed deal in 2013 that saw them leave Iraq, the PMOI settled in other countries, including their unlikely home in Albania, a poor Balkan state in southeast Europe.  

Their numbers have grown to around 2,800 people at Ashraf 3, the largest PMOI camp in the world. 

The arrival of the group had raised fears of attacks in Albania.  

In 2022, Tirana cut off diplomatic ties with Tehran, accusing it of carrying out massive cyberattacks against Albania. 

Tehran considers the People’s Mujahedin a terrorist group and has banned it since 1981. 
…

An unprecedented global canvassing of Catholics has called for the church to take concrete steps to promote women to decision-making roles, for a “radical inclusion” of the LGBTQ+ community and for new accountability measures to check how bishops exercise authority.

The Vatican on Tuesday released the synthesis of a two-year consultation process, publishing a working document that will form the basis of discussion for a big meeting of bishops and laypeople in October. The synod, as it is known, is a key priority of Pope Francis, reflecting his vision of a church that is more about the faithful rank-and-file than its priests.

Already Francis has made his mark on the synod, letting lay people and in particular women have a vote alongside bishops. That reform is a concrete step toward what he calls “synodality,” a new way of being a church that envisions more co-responsibility in governance and the key mission of spreading the Catholic faith.

The document highlights key concerns that emerged during the consultation process, which began at the local parish level and concluded with seven continent-wide assemblies. It flagged in particular the devastating impact that clergy sexual abuse crisis has had on the faithful, costing the hierarchy its credibility and sparking calls for structural changes to remove their near-absolute power.

The synthesis found a “unanimous” and “crucial” call for women to be allowed to access positions of responsibility and governance. Without raising the prospect of women’s ordination to the priesthood, it asked whether new ministries could be created, including the diaconate – a reflection of a years-long call by some women to be ordained deacons in the church.

The document noted that “most” of the continent-wide assemblies and “several” bishops conferences called for the diaconate question to be considered by the synod.

The document also asked what concrete steps the church can take to better welcome LGBTQ+ people and others who have felt marginalized and unrecognized by the church so that they don’t feel judged: the poor, migrants, the elderly and disabled, as well as those who by tribal or caste feel excluded.

Perhaps most significantly, the document used the terminology “LGBTQ+ persons” rather than the Vatican’s traditional “persons with homosexual tendencies,” suggesting a level of acceptance that Francis ushered in a decade ago with his famous “Who am I to judge” comment.

Even the seating arrangements for the synod are designed to be inclusive. Delegates are to be seated at round tables, with around a dozen laity and clergy mixed together in the Vatican’s big auditorium. Previously, synods took place in the Vatican’s theater-like synod hall, where cardinals and bishops would take the front rows and priests, nuns and finally lay people being seated in the back rows, far from the stage.

Unlike past working documents, the synthesis doesn’t stake out firm points, proposals or conclusions, but rather poses a series of questions for further discussion by the October assembly. The synod process continues in 2024 with the second phase, after which Francis is expected to issue a concluding document considering the proposals that have been put to him by the delegates.

The working document re-proposed a call for debate on whether married priests could be considered to relieve the clergy shortage in some parts of the world. Amazonian bishops had proposed allowing married priests to minister to their faithful who sometimes go months at a time without Mass, but Francis shot down the proposal after an Amazonian synod in 2019.

It called for more “meaningful and concrete steps” to offer justice to survivors of sexual abuse. It noted that the faithful have also been victims of other types of abuse: “spiritual, economic, power and conscience abuse” that have “eroded the credibility of the Church and compromised the effectiveness of its mission.”

It suggested that the church must reevaluate the way authority is exercised by the hierarchy, suggesting structural, canonical and institutional reforms to eradicate the “clericalism,” or privilege that is afforded to clergy.

It acknowledged the fear and opposition that the synodal process has sparked among some bishops who see it as undermining their authority and power, but said transparency and accountability were absolutely necessary and that bishops should even be evaluated as a way to rebuild trust.

“The synodal process asks them (bishops) to live a radical trust in the action of the spirit in the life of their communities, without fear that the participation of everyone need be a threat to their ministry of community leadership,” it says.

Even before the synod began, the document and the consultative process that preceded it were already having an effect.

Sister Nadia Coppa, who heads the umbrella group of women’s religious orders, said anyone who exercises governance in religious orders was being called to develop a new way of exercising authority.

“It will be important for us to propose a style of governance that develops structures and participatory procedures in which members can together discern a new vision for the church,” Coppa told a press conference.
…

Romanian prosecutors sent divisive internet personality Andrew Tate, his brother Tristan and two other suspects to trial on Tuesday on charges of human trafficking, rape and forming a criminal gang to sexually exploit women.

The Tate brothers and two Romanian female suspects are under house arrest pending a criminal investigation for abuses committed against seven women, accusations they have denied.

The four were held in police custody from Dec. 29 until March 31 before a Bucharest court put them under house arrest.

Andrew Tate has also been charged with raping one of the victims, while his brother Tristan has been charged with instigating others to violence.

The trial will not start immediately.

Under Romanian law, the case gets sent to the court’s preliminary chamber, where a judge has 60 days to inspect the case files to ensure legality.

The Tate brothers, former kickboxers who have U.S. and British nationality with millions of online followers, are the highest profile suspects to be sent to trial in Romania for human trafficking.

Prosecutors have said the Tate brothers recruited their victims by seducing them and falsely claiming to want a relationship or marriage.
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World Refugee Day, designated as such by the United Nations, is marked every year on June 20. The day is meant to highlight the plight of refugees around the globe who have been forced to flee their home countries due to conflict or persecution. The theme of World Refugee Day 2023 is “hope away from home,” according to the U.N. Refugee Agency. Here’s a look at some key facts about the current state of refugees in the world today.
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Turkey hosts more refugees than any other country in the world, including more than 3 million Syrians escaping the civil war. Newly reelected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is standing by his refugee policy of admitting millions of refugees, mainly Syrians, into Turkey and them allowing to stay despite growing public opposition. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Four temples from ancient Rome, dating back as far as the 3rd century B.C. stand smack in the middle of one of the modern city’s busiest crossroads.

But until Monday, practically the only ones getting a close-up view of the temples were the cats that prowl the so-called “Sacred Area,” on the edge of the site where Julius Caesar was assassinated.

Now, with the help of funding from Bulgari, the luxury jeweler, the group of temples can be visited by the public.

For decades, the curious had to gaze down from the bustling sidewalks rimming Largo Argentina (Argentina Square) to admire the temples below. That’s because, over the centuries, the city had been built up, layer by layer, to levels several meters above the area where Caesar masterminded his political strategies and was later fatally stabbed in 44 B.C.

Behind two of the temples is a foundation and part of a wall that archaeologists believe were part of Pompey’s Curia, a large rectangular-shaped hall that temporarily hosted the Roman Senate when Caesar was murdered.

What leads archaeologists to pinpoint the ruins as Pompey’s Curia? “We know it with certainty because latrines were found on the sides” of Pompey’s Curia, and ancient texts mentioned the latrines, said Claudio Parisi Presicce, an archaeologist and Rome’s top official for cultural heritage.

Ruins among ‘best preserved’

The temples emerged during the demolition of medieval-era buildings in the late 1920s, part of dictator Benito Mussolini’s campaign to remake the urban landscape. A tower at one edge of Largo Argentina once topped a medieval palace.

The temples are designated A, B, C and D, and are believed to have been dedicated to female deities. One of the temples, reached by an imposing staircase and featuring a circular form and with six surviving columns, is believed to have been erected in honor of Fortuna, a goddess of chance associated with fertility.

Taken together, the temples make for “one of the best-preserved remains of the Roman Republic,” Parisi Presicce said after the Mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri cut a ceremonial ribbon Monday afternoon. On display in a corridor near the temples is a black-and-white photograph showing Mussolini cutting the ribbon in 1929 after the excavated ruins were shown off.

Also visible are the travertine paving stones that Emperor Domitian had laid down after a fire in 80 A.D. ravaged a large swath of Rome, including the Sacred Area.

Artifacts on display

On display are some of the artifacts found during last century’s excavation. Among them is a colossal stone head of one of the deities honored in the temples, chinless and without its lower lip. Another is a stone fragment of a winged angel of victory.

Over the last decades, a cat colony flourished among the ruins. Felines lounged undisturbed, and cat lovers were allowed to feed them. On Monday, one black-and-white cat sprawled lazily on its back atop the stone stump of what was once a glorious column.

Bulgari helped pay for the construction of the walkways and nighttime illumination, a relief to tourists who step gingerly over the uneven ancient paving stones of the Roman Forum. The Sacred Area’s wooden walkways are wheelchair- and baby-stroller-friendly. For those who can’t handle the stairs down from the sidewalk, an elevator platform is available.

The attraction is open every day except for Mondays and some major holidays, with general admission tickets priced at 5 euros ($5.50).

Curiously, the square owes its name not to the South American country but to the Latin name of Strasbourg, France, which was the home seat of a 15th-century German cardinal who lived nearby and who served as master of ceremonies for pontiffs, including Alexander VI, the Borgia pope.
…

In her years running Catholic youth programs in France, Sister Nathalie Becquart often invoked her own experience as a seasoned sailor in urging young people to weather the storms of their lives.

“There’s nothing stronger than seeing the sunrise after a storm, the flat calm of the sea,” she said.

That lesson is especially applicable to Becquart herself as she charts the global church through an unprecedented — and at times, tempestuous — period of reform as one of the highest-ranking women at the Vatican.

Pope Francis named the 54-year-old nun as the first female undersecretary in the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops office in 2021. Since then, she has been crisscrossing the globe as the public face of his hallmark call to listen to rank-and-file Catholics and empower them to have a greater say in the life of the church.

That process, which comes to a head in October with a big assembly, reaches a crucial point Tuesday with the publication of the working document for the meeting. It is shaping up as a referendum on the role of women in the church of the third millennium.

Becquart, who has overseen a canvassing of ordinary Catholics about their needs from the church and hopes for the future, says the call for change is unambiguous and universal, with demands that women have greater decision-making roles taking center stage at the meeting, or synod.

“There is this unanimous call because women want to participate, to share their gifts and charism at the service of the church,” Becquart said in an interview with The Associated Press in her offices just off St. Peter’s Square.

For a 2,000-year-old institution that by its very doctrine bars women from its highest ranks, Francis’ synodal process has sparked unusual optimism among women who have long felt they were second-class citizens in the church. Predictably, the prospects of change have provoked a strong backlash from conservatives, who view the synod as undermining the all-male, clerical-based hierarchy and the ecclesiology behind it.

Becquart and Francis aren’t daunted and see the criticism, fear and alarm as a good sign that something big and important is underway.

“Of course, there is resistance,” Becquart said with a laugh. “If there is no resistance, that means nothing is happening or nothing is changing.”

But she also puts it in perspective: “If you look at all the history of the reform of the church, where you have the strongest resistance or debated points, it’s really usually a very important point.”

Francis, the 86-year-old Argentine Jesuit, has already done more than any modern pope to promote women by changing church law to allow them to read Scripture and serve on the altar as eucharistic ministers, even while reaffirming they cannot be ordained as priests.

He has changed the Vatican’s founding constitution to allow women to head Vatican offices and made several high-profile female appointments, none more symbolically significant than Becquart’s.

As undersecretary in the Synod of Bishops, Becquart was de facto granted the right to vote at the upcoming October synod — a right previously held by men only. After years of complaints by women, who had been allowed to participate in synods only as nonvoting experts, auditors or observers, Francis not only gave Becquart a voting role, but expanded the vote to laypeople in general.

In April, the Vatican announced that 70 non-bishops would be voting alongside the successors of the apostles in October, and that half of them were expected to be women. While these represent less than a quarter of the bishop votes, the reform was nevertheless historic and a reflection of Francis’ belief that church governance doesn’t come from priestly ordination but by specific jobs entrusted to the baptized faithful.

Becquart has long held leadership roles in the French church, where she ran the bishops’ youth evangelization program. A graduate of Paris’ top HEC business school, Becquart said she has drawn strength from the women who preceded her at the Vatican and in her own religious community, the Xaviere Sisters, a Jesuit-inspired, Vatican II-era missionary congregation that she joined at age 26.

From them and her grandmother, who was widowed while pregnant with her fourth child, Becquart said she learned that women “carry on this message that life is stronger than death, and that even in the greatest difficulties, crises and sufferings, there is a possible path, especially when you are not alone.”

It’s a lesson she applies when sailing and leading spiritual retreats at sea.

“There will be good weather and bad weather, quiet seas and then big waves.” she said. But eventually, the storm will end.

“That’s our life and that’s the life of the church,” she added.

Australia’s ambassador to the Holy See, Chiara Porro, has praised Becquart’s leadership style, recalling how she managed a room full of bishops during the Oceania phase of the synod consultation process. Becquart’s presence as a female Vatican envoy traveling to Fiji to brief Pacific bishops on the pope’s agenda signaled a paradigm shift, Porro said.

“She doesn’t have any preconceived objectives or outcomes. For her, no issues are off-limits, I think, and that’s very important because people feel that they can bring up what they want to discuss,” she said.

Veteran Vatican-watchers, however, caution that even with women taking on high-profile appointments and winning the right to vote at the October synod, the men still run the show.

“All the reforms that have been made to date on governing at the Vatican, in my opinion, are just appearances,” said Lucetta Scaraffia, a church historian who participated in a 2016 synod and wrote a scathing account of her marginalized role in From the Last Row. Her experiences — of being forced to go through a metal detector and check in each day while the bishops waltzed in unimpeded — were emblematic.

“I realized how the Catholic Church really was another world and what it means for women to be nonexistent. To actually not exist,” she said.

Jean-Marie Guenois, chief religious affairs correspondent for Le Figaro, who has known Becquart for years, said her role at the Vatican and in the synod process would be revolutionary “if it marked a paradigm shift in the Catholic Church where women would achieve parity of power in government.”

“We’re a long way from that,” he said, while nevertheless calling Becquart’s position “simply prophetic.”
…

Chinese Premier Li Qiang has started a visit to Germany and France that comes as Europe seeks to balance concerns over economic dependence on China and about its stance toward Ukraine and Taiwan, with a desire to engage Beijing on issues such as climate change.

Li, on his first trip abroad since taking office, was received by German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Monday. He and a large delegation of Chinese ministers will meet with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and their German counterparts on Tuesday, the seventh time the two countries have held such government consultations.

Top officials from both sides also will meet business representatives.

Li, a former Communist Party secretary for Shanghai, took office in March as China’s No. 2 official. It was part of a once-a-decade change of government that installed loyalists of Chinese leader Xi Jinping to enforce his vision of tighter political control over the economy and society.

The visit comes as Europe and Germany consider how best to handle an increasingly assertive China. Scholz has advocated a balanced approach, calling for “derisking” — seeking to avoid overreliance on Chinese trade and material by diversifying Berlin’s partners — but roundly rejecting the idea of “decoupling.”

The Group of Seven leading industrial powers echoed that position last month.

“The G-7 has no interest in impeding China’s economic rise, and at the same time, we are looking closely to avoid dangerous economic dependencies,” Scholz said Monday.

China has been Germany’s biggest single trading partner in recent years, though it was only just ahead of the United States in this year’s first quarter.

In Germany’s first national security strategy, presented last week, the government says it views China as “a partner, competitor and systemic rival.”

It says that “elements of rivalry and competition have increased in recent years; at the same time, China remains a partner without which many of the most pressing global challenges can’t be solved.”

German officials point to combating climate change as a particularly important point of potential cooperation. The official motto of Tuesday’s meeting is “Acting sustainably together.”

The German government is still drawing up a detailed separate strategy on China, though it isn’t clear when that will be ready.

Li’s arrival in Berlin coincided with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Beijing, aimed at reducing tensions with China. Scholz welcomed that visit as “a good sign for an urgently needed normalization of relations.”

The chancellor traveled to Beijing in November to meet Xi, who warned against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons. Scholz frequently portrays that as a success against the backdrop of China’s refusal to criticize the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Just before that trip, Scholz’s government resolved an internal disagreement over a Chinese shipping company’s investment in a German container terminal. The company, COSCO, was limited to a stake just below 25%, meaning it wouldn’t have the power to block the operator’s decisions.

On Monday, the Hamburg port authority announced that that the agreement for COSCO to take a stake in the Tollerort terminal had been signed “following the completion of the investment screening process.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wengbin said last week that the choice of Germany as Li’s first stop “fully reflects the high importance China attaches to China-Germany relations.” He said China looked forward to “sending positive signals to the world to strengthen dialogue and cooperation” and joining to address challenges “so as to promote the prosperity and development of the world economy.”

Li is following his visit to Germany, which has the EU’s biggest economy, with a stop in France, the second biggest. While there, Li plans to attend a “Summit for a New Global Financing Pact” that is being held at French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative.
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The chateau of Versailles will reopen the private rooms of Queen Marie-Antoinette as part of its ongoing 400th anniversary celebrations.

The restored apartments will reopen to the public Tuesday, featuring 100 square meters (1,000 square feet) of luxurious living space where France’s last queen played with her children and received friends.

It is the final part of a restoration of the Queen’s Hamlet and Trianon, a series of cottages and getaways built away from the main palace.

It gives a “new understanding of history, with this paradox between public and private life, etiquette and intimacy, an extraordinary summary of history within a few square meters,” said Catherine Pegard, who runs the palace.

The palace, which welcomed nearly 7 million visitors last year, dates to late 1623 when King Louis XIII ordered the expansion of a small hunting lodge on the 800-hectare (1,976-acre) site.

“This anniversary is primarily aimed at expressing the continuity of history at Versailles for these past 400 years and to show that we will continue to open and restore [parts of the palace] and bring them to life,” Pegard said.

Marie-Antoinette’s apartments include a boudoir, library and billiard room. She accessed the refuge through a secret door hidden in her official bedroom.

The palace is also preparing a new gallery dedicated to its history, to open in September.

“At Versailles, the work never ends,” said Pegard, who has overseen a wide array of restorations since taking over in 2011.

These have included the Buffet d’eau Fountain, the apartments of Louis XV’s son, the Dauphin Louis-Ferdinand, as well as those of his favorite mistress, Jeanne Becu or Madame Du Barry.
…

France has banned an upcoming Iranian opposition rally over the risk of an attack, according to a letter sent to the organizers and seen by Reuters, after the release of an Iranian diplomat convicted of masterminding a plot to bomb the group in 2018. 

The ban comes as Western powers seek to defuse tensions with Iran and a few weeks after Tehran released several Europeans from prison, including two French nationals. French President Emmanuel Macron held a 90-minute call with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on June 10. 

The Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), political arm of the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran (PMOI), has held frequent rallies in the French capital over the years, often attended by high-profile former U.S., European and Arab officials critical of the Islamic Republic. 

In February, the NCRI attracted several thousand people to an event in central Paris, and plans its annual rally on July 1. 

However, given a recent spate of mass anti-government protests in Iran over the death of a 22-year-old woman while in morality police custody, a “tense context” had developed posing “very significant security risks” to NCRI gatherings, said the document, a letter from Paris police chief Laurent Nunez. 

Therefore, “this meeting, organized every year since 2008, cannot be held…” read the letter, sent to the NCRI rally’s organizing committee. 

In response to an inquiry, Paris police issued a statement to Reuters confirming that they had informed the committee of the decision to ban the rally as it could “generate disturbances to public order due to the geopolitical context.” 

“Moreover, given the terrorist risk cannot be neglected, the holding of such an event would make its security but also the security of sensitive guests extremely complex,” said the statement. 

A senior NCRI official condemned the decision when asked about it by Reuters, before the police confirmation. 

“If French authorities take such a stance, it will represent a brazen disregard for democratic principles, caving in to the ruling religious tyranny’s blackmail and hostage-taking,” said Shahin Gobadi, a member of the NCRI’s Foreign Affairs Committee.  

Foreign support for Iran unrest 

Mahsa Amini’s death in custody sparked months of nationwide protests, prompting Tehran to accuse the United States, its Western allies and Israel of exploiting the unrest to try to destabilize the Islamic Republic. 

Thousands of supportive rallies have been held around the world since her death in September, although the nationwide unrest has subsided after Iranian security police clamped down on it. 

To dampen rising tensions, the United States has been holding talks with Iran to sketch out steps that could limit the disputed Iranian nuclear program, release some detained U.S. citizens and unfreeze some Iranian assets abroad, according to Iranian and Western officials. 

Abortive plot 

Nunez’s letter put the July 1 NCRI rally in the context of the abortive plot led by Vienna-based Iranian diplomat Assadolah Assadi in October 2018 and three others. 

Assadi, who French officials said was running an Iranian state intelligence network and was acting on orders from Tehran, was sentenced in Belgium to a 20-year prison term in 2021. He was exchanged in May for four Europeans held in Iran. 

“This attempted attack, which underlines the operational capacities for attacking the PMOI, falls into a series of violent and lethal operations in France and Europe, in the form of assassinations and kidnappings of Iranian opposition figures,” the letter said, without providing details. 

“Partner countries have in this regard recently mentioned many planned violent attacks, potentially targeting Iranian opposition figures.” 

Nunez also said in his letter to the NCRI that given the group’s rally would attract several hundred important foreign dignitaries and PMOI members coming from overseas, “securing the event would be particularly complicated.” 

There have been three attacks on an NCRI building in a Paris suburb since the end of May, the letter said, and these were under investigation. Two sources close to the investigation said gunshots, petrol bombs and other incendiary devices had been used to target the building. It was unclear who was responsible. 

The letter said there was also an elevated risk of conflict between the NCRI and rival Iranian opposition groups at the rally, although there had been no incidents at past rallies. 

Tehran has long called for a crackdown on NCRI activities in Paris, Washington and the Saudi capital Riyadh. The group, whose sources of funding and support are unclear, is regularly lambasted by Iranian state media. 
…

Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny went on trial Monday on new charges of extremism that could keep him behind bars for decades.

The trial opened at a maximum security penal colony in Melekhovo, 250 kilometers (150 miles) east of Moscow, where Navalny, 47, is serving a nine-year sentence for fraud and contempt of court — charges he says are politically motivated.

Navalny, who exposed official corruption and organized major anti-Kremlin protests, was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Moscow after recuperating in Germany from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

Navalny, wearing his prison garb, looked gaunt at the session but spoke emphatically about the weakness of the state’s case and gestured energetically.

Navalny has said the new extremism charges, which he rejected as “absurd,” could keep him in prison for another 30 years. He said an investigator told him that he would also face a separate military trial on terrorism charges that could potentially carry a life sentence.

Monday’s trial came amid a sweeping Russian crackdown on dissent amid the fighting in Ukraine, which Navalny has harshly criticized.

The Moscow City Court, which opened the hearing at Penal Colony No. 6, didn’t allow reporters in the courtroom and they watched the proceedings via video feed from a separate building. Navalny’s parents also were denied access to the court and followed the hearing remotely.

Navalny and his lawyers urged the judge to hold an open trial, arguing that authorities are eager to suppress details of the proceedings to cover up the weakness of the case.

“The investigators, the prosecutors and the authorities in general don’t want the public to know about the trial,” Navalny said.

Prosecutor Nadezhda Tikhonova asked the judge to conduct the trial behind closed doors, citing security concerns.

The feed from the session to media room was then cut, but it wasn’t immediately clear if it was because the judge decided to close the trial or if it was for another reason.

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

One of Navalny’s associates, Daniel Kholodny, was relocated from a different prison to face trial alongside him.

Navalny has spent months in a tiny one-person cell, also called a “punishment cell,” for purported disciplinary violations such as an alleged failure to properly button his prison clothes, properly introduce himself to a guard or to wash his face at a specified time.

Navalny’s associates and supporters have accused prison authorities of failing to provide him with proper medical assistance and voiced concern about his health.

The German government criticized the trial and reiterated its call for Navalny’s immediate release.

“In case of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny, the Russian authorities keep looking for new excuses to extend his imprisonment,” government spokesman Wolfgang Buechner told reporters in Berlin.

“The German government continues to demand of the Russian authorities that they release Navalny without delay,” he added. “Navalny’s imprisonment is based on a politically motivated verdict, as the European Court of Human Rights concluded back in 2017.”

Asked whether Germany could provide any assistance to Navalny or observe the trial, Foreign Ministry spokesman Christian Wagner said German officials were doing what they could “on the few channels that we have,” but acknowledged it was “very difficult at the moment” given the current state of relations with Russia.

 
…

Military and civilian aircraft streaked across the sky as the Paris Air Show returned Monday after a four-year COVID-induced hiatus, with a big crowd including Ukrainian military officials and the French president.

Organizers have billed the biennial event as the “recovery airshow” after the coronavirus ravaged the sector and the event was cancelled in 2021.

This year’s airshow has a new focus on defense following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, along with the industry’s efforts to reduce its carbon footprint, with French President Emmanuel Macron arriving in a helicopter partly using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).

Huge traffic jams around Le Bourget airport outside Paris were testament to the interest in this year’s show, as aircraft makers field hundreds of orders and airlines brace for a near-record number of passengers this year.

The Ukraine conflict has also prompted countries to step up military spending, which could benefit aerospace defense firms.

While Russia has been excluded from the event, Ukrainian military officials toured the huge exhibition space at Paris-Le Bourget airport, some taking photos of missiles on display.

Le Bourget offers a forum to announce deals with some 2,500 firms lining up to show off their latest planes, drones, helicopters and prototypes such as flying taxis.

Airbus chief executive Guillaume Faury, who heads France’s aerospace industry association GIFAS, called it “the return of the good old times of the excitement of the show.”

Macron was welcomed as he opened the event with an aerial display including Airbus’ latest A321 XLR airliner, civilian and military helicopters and a jet fighter.

Businesspeople and uniformed military visitors from around the world watched the action or headed into the guarded private spaces of the major firms’ stands.

With 125,000 square meters of exhibition space — the equivalent of nearly 18 soccer pitches — around 320,000 visitors are expected during the week-long event.

Big deals

Along with the Farnborough airshow in England, which takes place in even numbered years, Le Bourget is a key sales event for the civil and defense industries.

Airbus and rival Boeing compete fiercely in announcing orders for aircraft running into the billions of dollars.

Both industry heavyweights are also battling to solidify supply chains as they increase production to meet growing demand.

At least 158 planes, helicopters and drones are on display, from the latest long-haul commercial jets to the F-35, a U.S. stealth fighter.

The United States has a strong presence with 425 exhibitors, bolstered by renewed interest in military equipment in the aftermath of the Ukraine war.

Firms from 46 other nations are present.

China, which lifted COVID restrictions only at the beginning of this year, is also represented.

However, Beijing is not displaying its first homegrown medium-haul passenger jet, the C919, built to compete with the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX.

Flying taxis

The airshow also hopes to open a window into the future as projects for flying taxis and other vertical takeoff aircraft abound.

Several prototypes will be on display as part of a “Paris Air Mobility” exhibition to showcase the latest innovations that developers hope will change how people travel.

Engine maker Safran announced early Monday that it would open four production lines in France and Britain making electric motors for small planes.

For his part, Macron arrived aboard Airbus’ latest helicopter, the H160, in a flight fueled with 30% SAF before visiting the European group’s stand laying out its net-zero-by-2050 plan.

Macron had on Friday announced $2.2 billion to help develop technologies to reduce aircraft emissions.

Air travel accounts for nearly 3% percent of global CO2 emissions but serves only a small minority of the world population.

With the industry targeting net zero emissions by mid-century, firms are turbocharging efforts to achieve it.

The initial focus is on SAF, made from sources such as municipal waste, leftovers from the agricultural and forestry industry, crops and plants, and even hydrogen.

But companies are also working to develop battery- and hydrogen-powered aircraft.
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Multinational companies — including Amazon, Marriott and Hilton — pledged Monday to hire more than 13,000 refugees, including Ukrainian women who have fled the war with Russia, over the next three years in Europe.

Just ahead of World Refugee Day on Tuesday, more than 40 corporations say they will hire, connect to work, or train 250,000 refugees, with 13,680 of them getting jobs directly in those companies.

“Every number is a story of an individual family who left everything, seeking safety, seeking protection and wanting to be able to rebuild as quickly as possible,” said Kelly Clements, United Nations deputy high commissioner for refugees. “So the commitments that businesses are going to make on Monday are absolutely essential.”

She said 110 million people have been displaced worldwide, with an estimated 12 million from Ukraine, nearly half of whom are living in Europe after the continent’s largest movement of refugees since World War II.

The hiring push in Europe was organized by the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a nonprofit founded by Chobani CEO Hamdi Ulukaya that connects businesses and refugees, and is being unveiled at a gathering in Paris. The group’s first summit in the U.S. last year led to commitments to hire 22,725 refugees.

In the new round, Amazon leads the pack, vowing to hire at least 5,000 refugees over the next three years in Europe, followed by Marriott and Hilton with 1,500 each, Starbucks and ISS with 1,000 each, and smaller commitments from brands such as Adidas, Starbucks, L’Oreal, PepsiCo and Hyatt.

“This is good for us as a company because the opportunity to add diversity to our workforce will continue to make us a stronger company,” said Ofori Agboka, Amazon vice president overseeing human resources. “With diversity brings innovation, creativity, different insights.”

He said the vast majority of jobs will be hourly roles at fulfillment and storage centers and in transport and delivery.

Amazon announced 27,000 job cuts earlier this year, part of a wave of layoffs after tech companies ramped up hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic. Those layoffs primarily affected salaried office jobs, Agboka said.

Daria Sedihi-Volchenko fled Kyiv last year and now works in Warsaw, Poland, as a senior program manager for an Amazon Web Services program providing free tech training for Ukrainians. She says about 40% of those in the program have no tech background.

“I went through the same way as many of our learners … are going through,” she said. “I had to learn, and I took a commitment on my interview. I said that ‘OK, if we can agree and I can start working for you, I promise to learn Polish and I promise to learn technical skills.'”

A year ago, Sedihi-Volchenko woke up to explosions from Russia’s invasion.

“I was terrified. I was so scared for Ukraine, for the nation, for the future, for my own life,” she said. “But also that was a shocking moment when I understood that everything in my life is changing.”

She began living in basements but left as Russian forces approached Kyiv. She drove 40 hours to reach Moldova, thankful that she “didn’t drive on a single land mine and nobody shot into my car.”

She went to Poland to find work, embarking on an IT path after working as a project manager for government ministries and as an economist in Ukraine.

Companies are hoping refugees can fill staffing needs after the economy bounced back from the pandemic. In Europe, unemployment is at its lowest since the euro currency was introduced in 1999.

“We’re seeing record levels of demand for our properties across many markets here in Europe,” Marriott International CEO Anthony Capuano said. “And so we are hiring aggressively to make sure we can accommodate our guests as demand ramps up.”

Marriott’s jobs will largely be hourly positions such as housekeepers, kitchen staff and front desk attendants.

European nations have welcomed Ukrainians, and while Clements applauded opening schools, workplaces and other opportunities to them, she said the same should be offered to others fleeing conflict and crises in places like Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan.

Sedihi-Volchenko knows the challenges ahead for refugees, even as some companies offer help with language skills, counseling and training. Job listings can be difficult to decipher, and like her, they may have difficulty securing a stable internet connection or work clothes.

“It’s important to give a refugee just time to learn the language, but the person can start working because if you bring experience with IT systems or finance or project management or any other area, naturally, you understand, it’s not so much about the language. You understand the flow of work,” she said.

She said 110 million people have been displaced worldwide, with an estimated 12 million from Ukraine, nearly half of whom are living in Europe after the continent’s largest movement of refugees since World War II.

A year ago, Sedihi-Volchenko woke up to explosions from Russia’s invasion.
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Latest developments:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Russia "will lose the occupied territories."
The European Union is stepping up efforts to deliver arms and ammunition to Ukraine, EU industry chief Thierry Breton said Sunday in an interview with French daily Le Parisien. "We are preparing for the war to last several more months, or even longer," he said.

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar said Monday that Ukraine’s forces have retaken eight settlements during the past two weeks, including Piatykhatky in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Since the start of Ukraine’s counteroffensive aimed at reclaiming control of areas seized by Russian forces, Maliar said Ukraine had freed 113 square kilometers of territory.

Russian officials said Monday that shelling in Russia’s Belgorod region, located next to the border with Ukraine, injured seven civilians.

Belgorod Region Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov posted on Telegram that the strikes hit several residential buildings.

Another Russian official said Ukrainian shelling hit two villages in the Kursk region.

Britain’s defense ministry said in its latest assessment Monday that Russia has “highly likely” redeployed thousands of troops from the eastern banks of the Dnipro River to serve as reinforcements to Russian forces in the Bakhmut and Zaporizhzhia areas. The British defense ministry said the move “likely reflects Russia’s perception that a major Ukrainian attack across the Dnipro is now less likely following the collapse of the Kakhovka Dam and the resulting flooding.”

Kakhovka dam

The United Nations said Sunday that Moscow has declined its requests to help residents of Russian-controlled areas of southern Ukraine affected by the Kakhovka dam collapse and pledged to continue engaging to seek the necessary access.

“We urge the Russian authorities to act in accordance with their obligations under international humanitarian law,” U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Ukraine Denise Brown said Sunday in statement.

“Aid cannot be denied to people who need it. The U.N. will continue to do all it can to reach all people — including those suffering as a result of the recent dam destruction — who urgently need life-saving assistance, no matter where they are,” she noted.

So far, more than a dozen people have died while 31 are still missing after the floods caused by the dam’s destruction, Ukraine’s interior ministry said. Almost 900 homes remain under water and more than 3,600 people have been evacuated. The collapse of the dam on a hydroelectric station has flooded vast areas and created difficult conditions for thousands made homeless or without vital services.

“The most likely cause of the collapse” of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam, according to a New York Times report, was the placement of an explosive in the structure’s passageway or gallery, that the publication said, “runs through the concrete heart of the structure.”

The Times’ assessment was based on the expertise of “two American engineers, an expert in explosives and a Ukrainian engineer with extensive experience with the dam’s operations.”

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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California photographer Jason Perry has been volunteering for Ukraine since the start of Russia’s invasion, collecting donations and clothes for civilians and medications for combat teams. During one trip, he brought more than $200,000 in humanitarian aid. Anna Kosstutschenko spoke with Perry. Camera – Pavel Suhodolskiy.
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A Belgium regional official for Brussels, Pascal Smet, resigned on Sunday after sparking a furor by hosting an Iranian delegation led by the mayor of Tehran.  

Smet’s exit came three days after Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib accused him of “sullying the image” of the capital by allowing the Iranians and a Russian delegation to attend the Brussels Urban Summit, a congress of mayors from major cities around the world.  

Smet, Brussels’ state secretary for urbanism, announced in a news conference that he was stepping down.  

He said he felt obliged to do so after an email from his office came to light stating that the city’s regional government was paying the accommodation costs during the conference of Tehran mayor Alireza Zakani, and that of two Russian officials.  

Smet insisted he “didn’t commit a personal error”, saying one of his staff members made the accommodation commitment without him knowing.  

Relations between Belgium and Iran are fraught.  

Belgium last month freed an Iranian diplomat imprisoned on terrorism charges for plotting to blow up an Iranian opposition rally outside Paris in 2018, in exchange for Tehran releasing a Belgian aid worker and three other Europeans it had taken prisoner.

Zakani is aligned with the theocratic national rulers of Iran and closely linked with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, having previously headed its Basij militia unit.

Lahbib said Smet had insisted on visas for Zakani and the 13 other members of the Iranian delegation despite objections from her foreign ministry.

The two Russians also given visas to attend the urbanism gathering were the deputy mayor of the western Russian city of Kazan and an official in a Russian organization federating big cities.
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A Swedish parliament defense committee report said a Russian military attack against Sweden cannot be ruled out, Swedish public service broadcaster SVT said on Sunday, citing sources.

Sweden has been scrambling to bolster its defenses and applied to join NATO last year following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sweden was invited to apply but Turkey and Hungary are yet to ratify the application.

The parliamentary report, due to be published on Monday, said that although Russian ground forces were tied up in Ukraine, other types of military attacks against Sweden could not be ruled out, SVT said, citing sources who worked on the report.

“Russia has also further lowered its threshold for the use of military force and exhibits a high political and military risk appetite. Russia’s ability to carry out operations with air forces, naval forces, long-range weapons or nuclear weapons against Sweden remains intact,” SVT said, citing the report.

The chairman of the parliament defense committee did not immediately reply to a request for comment. SVT said the report outlined a new defense doctrine for Sweden, based on membership in NATO rather than the previous doctrine that relied on cooperation with fellow Nordic states and the European Union.

Like most Western states, Sweden scaled down its defense following the end of the Cold War but has ramped up defense spending and is due to meet NATO’s threshold of 2% GDP in 2026.
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Two days after being discharged from the hospital, Pope Francis resumed his cherished Sunday custom of greeting the public in St. Peter’s Square, expressing thanks for the comfort he received after surgery and thanking the crowd shouting “Long live the pope!”

Before launching into prepared remarks, Francis expressed gratitude for “affection, attention and friendship” and the assurance of “the support of prayer” during his hospitalization for June 7 abdominal surgery at a Rome hospital to repair a hernia and remove increasingly painful scarring around his intestines.

“This human and spiritual closeness for me was a great help and comfort,” Francis told some 15,000 people in the square. “Thanks to all, thanks to you, thanks from the heart.”

The 86-year-old pontiff sounded a bit breathless and hoarse at times, but he gestured frequently with his hands for emphasis, adlibbed at times from the prepared speech, and clearly looked delighted to be back to his routine.

While the thousands of Romans, tourists and pilgrims who regularly turn out for the weekly noon appearance of the pope at a window of the Apostolic Palace usually applaud when they catch sight of the pope at the window, this time the public’s applause seemed louder than usual. The three-hour surgery under general anesthesia had forced Francis to skip the Sunday appearance on June 11.

While his mood seemed uplifted to see the crowd below, including flag-waving nuns and tourists in sun hats on the hot, humid day, Francis turned somber as he noted that Tuesday marks World Refugee Day, an occasion promoted by the United Nations.

“With great sadness and so much sorrow I think of the victims of the very grave shipwreck that happened in recent days off the coast of Greece,” Francis said. He was referring to the smugglers’ overcrowded fishing boat, filled with hundreds of migrants, that sank in the Mediterranean Sea last week.

“It seems that the sea was calm,” Francis said, seemingly expressing perplexity that such a grave tragedy could happen in those conditions.

“I renew my prayer for all those who lost their life, and I implore that, always, everything possible is done to prevent similar tragedies,” the pontiff said.

Some of the 104 survivors said as many as 750 were aboard, leaving the possibility that hundreds perished. Greek rescuers recovered 78 bodies. Questions persist whether the Greek coast guard could have intervened in time to prevent the capsizing.

He also prayed for the young students “victims of the brutal attack” on a school in western Uganda. The attack by suspected rebels on a school in Uganda killed 42 people, including 38 students in their dormitories. Several were abducted near the border with Congo.

Francis lamented “this struggle, this war all over the place. Let us pray for peace.”

He also urged people to remember the “martyred people in Ukraine,” following Russia’s invasion last year.

As he wrapped up his remarks and was about to leave the window, cries of “Long live the pope” in Italian rose from the crowd, and the pope quickly responded, “Thanks.”

The pope’s doctors have urged him to take it easy as much as possible even as he resumes his Vatican workload. Francis will receive Brazil’s president on Wednesday afternoon, the Vatican has announced. But to ensure his convalescence can proceed well, Francis won’t conduct the Wednesday general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

In early August, Francis will make a pilgrimage to Portugal for a youth jamboree. At the end of that month, he flies to Mongolia for a visit that will see him be the first pontiff to go to that Asian country.
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The British defense ministry said Sunday in its daily intelligence report about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that both sides are experiencing “high casualties” in the south, “with Russian losses likely the highest since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Saturday there seems to be “no chance” of extending the United Nations-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative that allows Ukraine to export grain safely through Russian-controlled waters.
The European Union is stepping up efforts to deliver arms and ammunition to Ukraine EU industry chief Thierry Breton said Sunday in an interview with French daily Le Parisien. “We are preparing for the war to last several more months, or even longer,” he said.

Russia and Ukraine are reporting heavy fighting and high numbers of military casualties, according to reports from British intelligence Sunday.

Ukrainian fighters are trying to repel Russian forces from occupied areas British officials said Sunday. Russian attrition is probably at its highest levels since the peak of the battle for Bakhmut in March, U.K. military officials said in their regular assessment.

According to British intelligence, the fiercest battles are centered on the southeastern Zaporizhzhia province, around Bakhmut and farther west in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk province. According to the update, Ukraine had “made small advances,” but Russian forces were conducting “relatively effective defensive operations” in Ukraine’s south.

The Ukrainian military said in a regular update Sunday morning that during the last 24 hours Russia had carried out 43 airstrikes, four missile strikes and 51 attacks from multiple rocket launchers.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said Sunday that Ukrainian forces hit the Russian ammunition depot in the village of Partyzany in southern Kherson Oblast. Partyzany lies close to the administrative border with neighboring Zaporizhzhia Oblast, 45 kilometers (28 miles) west of Russian-occupied Melitopol.

Peace initiative

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that any peace talks between Ukraine and Russia must be “just,” to be sustainable. “Peace cannot mean freezing the conflict and accepting a deal dictated by Russia,” Stoltenberg told German newspaper Welt am Sontag Sunday. The NATO chief made these comments after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in Kyiv, “Peace has to be achieved through diplomacy as soon as possible.”

Stoltenberg also said, “Only Ukraine alone can define the acceptable conditions” for peace. “We need to make sure that when this war ends, there are credible agreements for Ukraine’s security so that Russia cannot rearm and attack again and the cycle of Russian aggression is broken,” Stoltenberg said.

Leaders from seven African countries visited Ukraine and Russia last week to propose a peace initiative. However, they left empty-handed. Both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin rejected the peace plan.

Putin refused a plan based on the acceptance of Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders while Zelenskyy said any peace talks would presuppose the withdrawal of Moscow’s forces from occupied Ukrainian territory.

After their visit in Kyiv Friday, the African delegation met with Putin and told him that the war is harming the entire world. The African delegation included representatives from the Comoros, the Republic of Congo, Egypt, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.

Russia has recently indicated it would not renew the Black See Grain Initiative brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July. He said the West had gone back on its promises to ease Russia’s ability to export its agricultural products.

Kakhovka dam

The death toll from flooding after the collapse of the Kakhovka dam has risen to 16 in Ukrainian-held territory, Ukraine’s interior ministry said late Saturday, while Russian officials said 29 people died in flooded territories controlled by Moscow.

Thousands of people lost their homes and vital farmland was flooded as a result of the dam’s collapse.

“The most likely cause of the collapse” of Ukraine’s Kakhovka dam, according to a New York Times report, was the placement of an explosive in the structure’s passageway or gallery, that the publication said, “runs through the concrete heart of the structure.”

The Times’ assessment was based on the expertise of “two American engineers, an expert in explosives and a Ukrainian engineer with extensive experience with the dam’s operations.”

In his nightly video address Saturday, Zelenskyy thanked everyone who helped Ukraine overcome “the consequences of the Russian terrorist attack on the Kakhovka HPP.” And he thanked Ukraine’s Western allies for the military and humanitarian support they are providing in its fight against Russia.

Zelenskyy also thanked Luxemburg for officially recognizing the Holodomor famine of the 1930s as a genocide against the Ukrainian people. Luxemburg is the 26th country to officially do so.

Additionally, the Ukrainian president thanked Poland for supporting Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO.

Ukraine – NATO membership

U.S. President Joe Biden said Saturday his administration would not “make it easy” for Ukraine to join NATO. Last week he had indicated he was open to waiving the requirement that Ukraine make the same military and democratic reforms all candidates must meet before being considered for NATO membership.

But when asked Saturday whether Ukraine’s path to joining the transatlantic alliance would be eased, Biden said no. “Because they’ve got to meet the same standards. So, we’re not going to make it easy,” he said.

Putin warned Friday that there is a “serious danger” the NATO military alliance could be pulled further into Russia’s war on Ukraine. He made the comment at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, where he promoted Russia’s economy despite heavy international sanctions imposed because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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Swiss voters voted on Sunday to introduce a global minimum tax on businesses and a climate law that aims to cut fossil fuel use and reach zero emissions by 2050, public broadcaster SRF reported.

The results showed 79% of those who voted in Sunday’s national referendum backed raising the country’s business tax to the 15% global minimum rate from the current average minimum of 11%, while 59% supported the climate law.

In 2021, Switzerland joined almost 140 countries that signed up to an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) deal to set a minimum tax rate for big companies, a move aimed at limiting the practice of shifting profits to low tax countries.

Even with the increase, Switzerland will still have one of the lowest corporate tax levels in the world, and the proposal, estimated to bring 2.5 billion Swiss francs ($2.80 billion) per year in additional revenue, has been backed by business groups, most political parties, and the general public.

The climate law, brought back in a modified form after it was rejected in 2021 as too costly, has stirred up more debate with those campaigning against it gaining traction in recent weeks.

Proponents say the law is the minimum the wealthy country needs to do to prove its commitment to fighting climate change while opponents from the right wing People’s Party say it will jeopardise energy security.

In Sunday’s referendum, voters also approved to extend some provisions of the country’s emergency COVID-19 law, required under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, where legislation is put to the public vote.

Switzerland is home to the offices and headquarters of around 2,000 foreign companies, including Google GOOGL.O as well as 200 Swiss multinationals, such as Nestle NESN.S. While all would be affected, business groups have welcomed the greater degree of certainty that the new tax would bring, even if Switzerland lost some of its low-tax allure.

“No other country is going to have lower taxes either. We want the additional tax revenue to stay in the country, and be used to improve its attractiveness for businesses,” said Christian Frey, from Economiesuisse, a lobby group.

 
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