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Half-a-dozen European Union countries have told Brussels they want to continue deporting Afghan migrants whose asylum-applications are denied — despite the Taliban’s recent military successes, including overrunning eight of Afghanistan’s provincial capitals in the past week. EU officials told reporters during a briefing Tuesday that they found it inconceivable any EU member states would want to continue with deportations while conflict is raging in Afghanistan and as the Taliban is making major inroads in the wake of the U.S. and NATO withdrawal from the country. But the EU says it is up to the member states what they do, adding to confusion over who has final authority — member states or the European Commission.“Given the context, it is hard to imagine that we would conduct forced return operations for the moment,” an EU official in Brussels said, adding that the continent isn’t facing an imminent major influx of Afghan migrants.Six EU countries sent a joint letter August 5 to the European Commission warning against halting non-voluntary returns of Afghan migrants, arguing any suspension of deportations would act as a migration magnet and “motivate even more Afghan citizens to leave their home for the EU.”Germany, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, the Netherlands and Greece signed the letter. “We would like to highlight the urgent need to perform returns, both voluntary and non-voluntary, to Afghanistan,” the interior ministers of the six countries wrote in their collective letter to the Commission. “Stopping returns sends the wrong signal,” they added. FILE – Afghans who were deported from Germany arrive at Kabul International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 15, 2016. 
About 1,200 Afghans have been deported from the EU this year — 1,000 agreed to go voluntarily but 200 or had to be forced to go, according to EU officials. Last month, the Afghan government called on European nations to stop deportations, saying it could not cope while also trying to fight the Taliban.Earlier this month the European Court of Human Rights told Austria not to proceed with the expulsion of an Afghan national until at least later in August because of a “risk of irreparable harm” to the asylum-seeker. Austria announced this month it will deploy additional soldiers to its borders with Slovenia and Hungary, boosting the number of its border guards by 40%.European leaders are fearful of a new migration crisis impacting the continent and are negotiating another multi-year migration deal with Turkey to get Ankara to block Afghan and other asylum-seekers from heading their way.FILE – A Turkish-flagged passenger boat carrying migrants to be returned to Turkey leaves the port of Mytilene on the Greek island of Lesbos, April 8, 2016.It would be a renewal of a five-year deal struck in 2016 that saw the EU pay Ankara billions of dollars to curb irregular Europe-bound migration, improve the living conditions of refugees in Turkey, and foster legal migration through official resettlement schemes.Around 2,000 Afghans a day are entering Turkey, and migration experts expect the numbers to surge as the Taliban seizes control of more of Afghanistan.  FILE – German policemen register refugees at the rail station in Freilassing, southern Germany, Sept. 14, 2015, before they take them away in busses.Asked last month at a press conference whether Germany should welcome Afghan refugees, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the architect of the 2015 open-doors policy that saw around a million asylum-seekers settle in Europe, replied: “We cannot solve all of these problems by taking everyone in.” She called instead for political negotiations so “people can live as peacefully as possible in the country.”The head of the U.N.’s International Organization for Migration, Antonio Vitorino, issued a statement Tuesday saying he’s “extremely concerned by the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan — particularly the impact on mobile and displaced populations, including returnees.” He said around 5 million Afghans are already displaced internally. Internally displaced Afghan families, who fled from Kunduz and Takhar province due to battles between Taliban and Afghan security forces, sit in a field in Kabul, Aug. 9, 2021. 
Greek authorities say Afghans now make up the largest share of asylum-seekers who manage to navigate the Aegean from Turkey.Speaking later Tuesday, Adalbert Jahnz, a European Commission spokesman, said each member state would need “to make an individual assessment of whether the return is possible in a specific set of circumstances, that needs to take into account the principles, notably the principle of rule of law and other fundamental rights.”He stressed: “It’s not something that the EU specifically regulates.”Critics, though, are accusing Brussels of being inconsistent in what it claims authority over when it comes to migration. Last week, the Commission was accused of playing post-Brexit politics by sabotaging a bilateral deal being negotiated between London and Paris. The proposed agreement would see France take back migrants who had tried to enter Britain from France by crossing the English Channel on small boats and dinghies. FILE – Migrants who launched from the coast of northern France cross the English Channel in an inflatable boat near Dover, Britain, Aug. 4, 2021.Priti Patel, Britain’s interior minister, and French counterpart Gérald Darmanin inked an initial agreement supporting “the idea of a UK-EU readmission agreement to mutual advantage in terms of deterring illegal migration, protecting the vulnerable, and tackling the criminal gangs.” More than 10,000 asylum-seekers have crossed the Channel so far this year.But the EU has scotched the deal progressing saying any agreement governing migrants is not a matter for the governments of individual member states to decide but for the bloc as a whole.Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press.  
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President Jair Bolsonaro suffered a major defeat in Congress when Brazilian lawmakers did not adopt his proposal to require printed receipts from some electronic ballot boxes.  Bolsonaro has insisted printed receipts are needed to avoid fraud, without providing any evidence that Brazil’s electronic voting system is prone to cheating. His allies needed 308 votes to pass the proposed constitutional change, but got only 229 Tuesday night.  The opposition, however, also fell short of its goal of rebuffing the president with an overwhelming majority but got only 218 votes. Earlier in the day, dozens of military vehicles and hundreds of soldiers paraded past the presidential palace as Bolsonaro looked on, then continued past the congressional building and Defense Ministry. The military vehicles left the city at night. Brazilian Navy tanks pass next flags with the image of Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro at the Esplanade of Ministries after a military parade in Brasilia, Brazil, Aug. 10, 2021.The navy issued a statement saying the convoy had been planned long before the congressional vote. But it was announced only on Monday and critics said it looked like an attempt to intimidate opponents of a president who has often praised the country’s past military dictatorship. Military parades in the capital are usually limited to independence day events. Tuesday’s procession was described as a ceremonial invitation for Bolsonaro to attend annual navy exercises that are held in a town outside the capital. Critics contend Bolsonaro is trying to sow doubt among his passionate supporters about the 2022 election results, setting the stage for potential conflicts similar to those spawned by then U.S. President Donald Trump’s allegations of fraud in the United States. Bolsonaro has repeatedly insulted Luis Roberto Barroso, a Supreme Court justice who is president of Brazil’s electoral court, accusing him of working to benefit former leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who has been leading in the polls for next year’s election. The measure voted on Tuesday was a watered-down version of an initial proposal to adopt printouts at all of the nation’s voting ballot boxes. That measure was rejected last week by a congressional committee. Electoral authorities and even many of Bolsonaro’s political allies opposed the proposal, saying it would attack a nonexistent problem and could create opportunities for vote buying. Cláudio Couto, a political scientist at the Getulio Vargas Foundation, said Tuesday’s rejection marked the biggest legislative defeat for Bolsonaro. “The administration is getting more frail in every aspect. It suffers in polls, it is investigated in the Senate inquiry on the COVID-19 pandemic, and the chances that Bolsonaro is not reelected are getting bigger,” Couto said. “By insisting in today’s proposal to solve a problem that does not exist, Bolsonaro has made this defeat to be important.” The call for a vote appeared to be a bid by lower house Speaker Arthur Lira, a Bolsonaro ally, to settle the dispute for good and ease tensions. On Monday, Lira called the military exercise taking place the same day as the vote a “tragic coincidence.” “We hope that this subject is finally ended in the lower house,” Lira said after the vote. Juan Gonzalez, the U.S. National Security Council’s senior director for the Western Hemisphere, told reporters Monday that Biden administration officials were “very candid” speaking last week with Bolsonaro about elections, particularly in light of parallels with what has happened in the U.S. 
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Massive forest fires have gripped Greece for more than a week. The government has come under fierce criticism for failing to heed warnings of wildfires amid a protracted heat wave affecting not just Greece but the Balkans and southern Europe.Some of the nearly 600 wildfires that have sparked across Greece, have been brought under control. But fresh ones flared on the island of Evia and in the Peloponnese, adding to the 62 evacuation orders authorities issued over the past week across the country. Several mayors criticized a lack of aerial support in fighting the fires, despite the government’s assurances earlier this year that it had set aside ample resources. But even before the fires began, environmental experts had warned of the pending danger Those experts, including Costas Synolakis, a professor of natural hazards management, say the government in Athens has yet to grasp the extent of the threat of climate change.“I think politicians are simply not prepared for the scale of devastation. Politicians need to start understanding that if we do not act, this is the new normal and perhaps it is already too late,” Synolakis said. “What we need to do is stabilize the climate so that we do not see anything worse than what we see now.” The warning follows Monday’s nationally televised address by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “The destruction in Evia and elsewhere blackens everyone’s hearts.… And I first of all, apologize for any shortcomings shown by the state in its response,” Mitsotakis said.  Mitsotakis pledged more than 500 million dollars to fund rebuilding, reforesting and compensation and said special inquiries would be set up to determine what went wrong and who should be held accountable. Greece is not alone. It is suffering under the worst heat wave since 1987. The heat and drought, both linked to climate change, are fueling fires across Europe, from Turkey and Italy to Russia’s Siberia. Greece has struggled to contain the hundreds of wildfires that have turned pristine pine forests into ash and forced about 60,000 people to flee. The government has said its main priority has been to save and protect lives. More than 49,000 hectares have burned on Evia alone, according to European Union data. Hundreds of firefighters, among them soldiers, mountain rangers and volunteers from across Greece, Europe and the U.S. are fighting the blazes and watching for flare-ups. At least three people have been arrested on suspicion of arson, but no charges yet have been filed. 
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Firefighters in Greece continue to battle wildfires as officials defend their response amid unusually high temperatures and dry conditions. “We handled an operationally unique situation, with 586 fires in eight days during the worst weather conditions we’ve seen in 40 years,” Greece’s civil protection chief Nikos Hardalias said at a Tuesday news conference. “Never was there such a combination of adverse factors in the history of the fire service.” The government has pledged $586 million in aid to help those affected by the fires, including a massive blaze on Evia island that has been burning for more than a week. More than 900 firefighters have been working to bring the Evia fire under control. Wildfires in Greece are part of a wave of fires in many countries in Europe and across the Mediterranean in Algeria. The European Union has mobilized fire crews to help with blazes in Greece, Albania, Italy, Turkey and North Macedonia. The European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) has also mapped active fires in several other countries, including Spain, Slovenia, Romania, Ukraine and Germany. An EFFIS map showed 334,515 hectares had burned this year as of Tuesday. That figure has more than doubled since July 22. It is also twice the average at this point in the year compared with data from 2008 to 2020. In Algeria, officials said wildfires there have killed at least 42 people, including 25 soldiers. President Abdelmadjid Tebboune tweeted Tuesday that the soldiers who died were martyrs who saved the lives of 100 people. The government has blamed arsonists for igniting the fires. Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, AFP and Reuters. 
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Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the 11 year prison sentence handed down by a Chinese court to businessman Michael Spavor is “absolutely unacceptable and unjust.” A court in the northeastern city of Dandong convicted Spavor Wednesday on a charge of espionage. The verdict came nearly six months after Spavor’s one-day, closed-door trial that even Canadian diplomats were prevented from attending.   In his written statement, Trudeau condemned the “lack of transparency in the legal process, and a trial that did not satisfy even the minimum standards required by international law.” A statement on the court’s website said Spavor will be deported as part of his sentence, but did not say when that would happen. Spavor was arrested in December 2018, just days after Canadian authorities arrested Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, in Vancouver, British Columbia, on a U.S. warrant.   The arrest of Spavor and another Canadian, former diplomat Michael Kovrig, that same month triggered accusations from Ottawa that the two men were arrested in retaliation for Meng’s arrest.  Spavor’s verdict comes a day after a Chinese court upheld a death sentence for another Canadian, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, who was convicted in 2018 for trafficking methamphetamine. Schellenberg was arrested in 2014 and initially sentenced to 15 years in prison, but his sentence was changed during a one-day retrial in 2019, shortly after Meng’s arrest.   Meng remains under house arrest in Vancouver as she fights the extradition warrant from the U.S. As chief financial officer of Huawei — one of the world’s largest manufacturers of smartphones — Meng is accused of lying to U.S. officials about Huawei’s business in Iran, which is under U.S. sanctions.    The U.S. has also warned other countries against using Huawei-built products, suspecting the Chinese government of installing spyware in them.      Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, Reuters and AFP.  
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Virginia Giuffre, an alleged victim of late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, has filed a lawsuit against Britain’s Prince Andrew, alleging he raped and sexually abused her several times when she was 17 years old.Andrew, who is Queen Elizabeth II’s second son and ninth in line to the British throne, has consistently denied the accusations and has said he does not recall ever meeting Giuffre.In the civil lawsuit filed Monday at the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Virginia Giuffre, now 38, said the prince sexually abused her on multiple occasions during visits arranged by Epstein, who committed suicide in his jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019.FILE – Britain’s Prince Andrew leaves St. Mary the Virgin church in Hillington, near royal Sandringham estate, in Norfolk, Jan. 19, 2020.”I am holding Prince Andrew accountable for what he did to me,” Giuffre said in a statement. “The powerful and rich are not exempt from being held responsible for their actions. I hope that other victims will see that it is possible not to live in silence and fear, but to reclaim one’s life by speaking out and demanding justice.”She claims the abuse took place at Epstein’s New York mansion, at his property in the Caribbean, and at the London apartment belonging to Epstein’s associate, Ghislaine Maxwell.Giuffre’s lawyers filed the civil lawsuit under New York’s Child Victims Act. The timing is significant, said Richard Fitzwilliams, a London-based royal analyst and commentator.”Under that law, she was a minor at the time. There’s a statute of limitations that would apply to any charges if they were not brought very shortly this month,” Fitzwilliams told VOA.U.S. law enforcement is conducting separate investigations into Epstein’s crimes and his accomplices who allegedly helped to groom and traffic women and girls.”In international law, you have to take any criminal cases first before any civil case,” said Mark Stephens, a British attorney specializing in international law. “So, I think it’s almost a racing certainty that this case filed by Virginia Giuffre to preserve her rights will actually be stayed until the outcome of the law enforcement investigations in the United States, and only then will it have an opportunity to go forward. But the best form of defense that Prince Andrew’s lawyers have got is to delay, to obfuscate, to effectively argue over legal technicalities,” Stephens told The Associated Press.Andrew has consistently denied the claims. As a member of the royal family, he is entitled to immunity from prosecution, Stephens said.”But, of course, I think the case is calculated by Virginia Giuffre’s lawyers to ensure that maximum public pressure is put on him not to invoke his right to crown immunity.”Andrew stepped back from royal duties in 2019 following an interview with the BBC in which he strongly rejected the accusations made against him. The interview was widely seen as a public relations disaster. He has offered to help U.S. investigators, Fitzwilliams said.”There is some sort of standoff on this issue, whether or not he is prepared, as he said he would, to cooperate with the FBI in their attempts to know more about Epstein’s accomplices. The facts are, so far as has been reported, that the FBI would appear to want some form of face-to-face interview, and it may well be that Andrew has offered some form of written interview,” Fitzwilliams said.Maxwell is scheduled to stand trial in New York later this year, charged with procuring and trafficking underage girls. She has denied the charges.”She was a close friend of Andrew’s. If anything were to emerge then that we don’t know, that would bring further embarrassment,” Fitzwilliams told VOA.Meanwhile, it was announced Monday that a fund to compensate Epstein’s victims has paid out more than $121 million to 138 people.Some information for this report came from the Associated Press. 
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Wednesday Germany has fallen behind other European countries in its COVID-19 vaccination efforts, and with new infections on the rise, the government must take steps to speed up the program or run the risk of seeing its health care system overwhelmed.Merkel spoke to reporters Tuesday following a meeting with Germany’s 16 state governors. She said they are all in agreement that the federal, state and local governments must promote vaccinations and make them easy to obtain.German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks during a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin on Aug. 10, 2021.The German chancellor encouraged all who have been vaccinated to promote vaccination to their friends, families and social groups.Merkel also announced the government would stop paying for COVID-19 testing beginning October 11 as an incentive to get vaccinated. At the same time, Germany will begin requiring proof of vaccination, a negative test or proof of recovery to access venues such as restaurants, cinemas and gyms in areas where infection rates rise above a certain threshold.Merkel said the country has sufficient vaccines for its population — more than half is already fully immunized — and that studies have shown them to be effective in preventing severe cases of COVID-19 and highly infectious variants, such as the delta strain.The German leader said those who prefer testing rather than getting vaccinated will have to pay for it after October 11.”Those who were vaccinated no longer have to get a test, and those who are vaccinated surely will be treated differently to those who are not vaccinated should the infection rate rise further,” Merkel said. “But we can’t allow our health system to be overburdened. We simply can’t take responsibility for that.”Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse.  
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Recent weeks have seen a spate of police raids on independent media companies and the homes of journalists in Russia, as part of an intensifying crackdown. Kremlin-critical media face fines, arrests, and violence. Some journalists are relocating to other countries to avoid an increasingly hostile environment.
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Six-time Ballon d’Or winner Lionel Messi received a hero’s welcome after flying to France on Tuesday to join Paris Saint Germain (PSG) following his shock departure from Barcelona.The agreement to sign the 34-year-old Argentine is a major coup for wealthy PSG, who will add one of the best soccer players of all time to an already formidable front line that includes Brazil’s Neymar and young Frenchman Kylian Mbappe.Wearing a T-shirt that read “This is Paris,” Messi beamed and waved at scores of fans who had come to greet him at Le Bourget airport on the outskirts of the French capital after his flight from Barcelona.Chanting “Messi, Messi, Messi,” the fans cheered and let off firecrackers.”It’s going to be mad. After all, it’s a legend who is arriving,” said Florent Chauveau, a PSG fan who has been back and forth to the airport every day since Sunday in the hope of seeing Messi arrive.Messi gave no details of the deal, which was reached days after Barcelona said it could not afford to keep the midfielder because of Spain’s La Liga’s fair play rules.Emotional Messi Says He Wasn’t Prepared to Leave Barcelona Lionel Messi calls his unexpected departure from Catalan club ‘the most difficult’ moment of his careerBut his father, speaking to reporters at Barcelona’s airport, confirmed reports by French newspaper L’Equipe and Spanish newspaper Mundo Deportivo that Messi had reached an agreement with PSG, which is owned by Qatar Sports Investment.L’Equipe said the deal would be for two years. It also said Messi would have medical tests on Tuesday, and that a news conference to mark his arrival was likely on Wednesday.PSG did not comment on the reports but released a short video showing scenes of Paris, a plane landing and a close-up of someone putting pen to paper. In the background, upbeat music can heard and the words “new diamond in Paris” and “mercato update” appear.The video, seen on Twitter, does not show Messi but depicts an image of six Ballons d’Or – an annual award given to the player deemed the best in the world – by the Eiffel Tower.Many Barcelona fans were distraught at the end of Messi’s glittering, trophy-laden career at the club he joined as a schoolboy.But the arrival of Barcelona’s all-time record scorer with 682 goals will boost PSG’s ambitions to win the Champions League for the first time. Messi won four Champions League titles while at Barcelona, as well as 10 La Liga titles.PSG AmbitionsMessi is the latest big-name arrival at PSG on a free transfer this summer after coach Mauricio Pochettino’s side snapped up Spanish defender Sergio Ramos after he left Real Madrid. Dutch midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum also joined after running down his contract with Liverpool.Italy’s Euro 2020-winning goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma has also joined after his contract with AC Milan ran out, while Moroccan fullback Achraf Hakimi joined from Inter Milan for a reported 60 million euros ($70 million).The arrival of Messi, whose last contract with Barcelona was worth a total of 555 million euros and reported to be the most lucrative in world sport, is also set to provoke a renewed new debate about UEFA’s financial fair play rules.The rules were first introduced in 2009 to restrict some of the worst excesses of the game but have been criticized by some leading figures for being ineffective.The arrival of Messi, who has 245 million followers on Instagram and is Barcelona’s most decorated player of all time, is also welcome news for France’s Ligue 1, embroiled in a crisis over TV rights.
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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis apologized Monday for government failures in responding to wildfires that have hit the country. Citing what he called an unprecedented heat wave and prolonged drought, Mitsotakis said the fires have been difficult to put out. He said more than 500 fires in total had broken out in recent days. “I fully understand the pain of our fellow citizens who saw their homes or property burned,” Mitsotakis said in a televised address. “Any failures will be identified. And responsibility will be assigned wherever necessary.” One massive fire has been ravaging the Greek island of Evia, charring buildings and pine forests and forcing thousands of people to evacuate.The fire has burned for more than a week and resulted in the deaths of a volunteer firefighter and an Athens official. More than 600 firefighters are involved in the effort to control it. The United States and several European and Middle Eastern countries sent firefighters and firefighting planes and helicopters to Greece. The European Union sent nearly 1,000 firefighters and nine planes. It is also sending resources to other countries affected by wildfires, including Turkey and Italy.     “We are mobilizing one of Europe’s biggest ever common firefighting operations as multiple fires affect several countries simultaneously,” said the EU commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarčič, in a Sunday statement.     Aided by a record heat wave, the wildfires have also struck Turkey, Italy, Spain, North Macedonia, Albania, Russia, Algeria and Lebanon. In Greece, temperatures reached 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit). Mitsotakis conveyed his appreciation in a Sunday Twitter statement addressing the 22 countries that sent help to Greece.   “On behalf of the Greek people, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all the countries that have sent assistance and resources to help fight the wildfires. We thank you for standing by Greece during these trying times,” Mitsotakis said.   The ongoing fires in Greece come as the United Nations released a new climate report Monday that warned of worsening global warming in the coming years.   Average global temperature will rise by 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 d degrees Fahrenheit), compared with preindustrial temperatures, by the early 2030s, the report predicts.   Many scientists believe that if temperatures surpass the 1.5-degree threshold, many effects of climate change may irreversibly worsen, leading to more intense heat waves, higher sea levels and larger storms.      For example, the report predicted the frequency of extreme heat waves would increase from once every 50 years to once every decade.      Though some climate changes may be permanent, authors of the report called for increased action to address greenhouse gas emissions, which are considered a major factor in human-driven climate change.    Nearly 200 countries agreed to limit temperatures from reaching the 1.5-degree threshold in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, but individual progress on the goal has varied.   U.S. President Joe Biden recently pledged to cut emissions in half, compared with 2005 levels, by 2030. European Union leaders similarly released an aggressive emission reduction plan that they hope to make legally binding, a step the U.S. has not taken.   Some information for this report came from the Associated Press, AFP and Reuters. 
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A Chinese court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by a Canadian whose sentence in a drug case was increased to death while Beijing was trying to pressure Canada to release a detained executive of tech giant Huawei. Robert Schellenberg was sentenced to prison in November 2018 after being convicted of drug smuggling. He was abruptly resentenced to death in January 2019 following the arrest of the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies in Vancouver. Meng Wanzhou was detained on U.S. charges related to possible dealings with Iran. The Higher People’s Court of Liaoning Province rejected Schellenberg’s appeal and said court procedures were legal and the sentence appropriate. It sent the case to the Chinese supreme court for review, as is required by law before any death sentences can be carried out. The Chinese government also arrested a former Canadian diplomat, Michael Kovrig, and a Canadian entrepreneur, Michael Spavor, on unspecified spying charges in an apparent attempt to pressure Ottawa to release Meng. Two other Canadians, Fan Wei and Xu Weihong, also were sentenced to death on drug charges in 2019 as relations between Beijing and Ottawa deteriorated. The United States wants the Huawei executive, Meng, who is also the daughter of the company’s founder, extradited to face charges she lied to banks in Hong Kong in connection with dealings with Iran that might violate trade sanctions. A Canadian judge is to hear final arguments over whether Meng should be extradited. China also has reduced imports from Canada. 
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Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris spoke on Monday about migration, the battle against COVID-19, and the need to strengthen Central American economies, the White House said in a statement. In a brief statement on Twitter, Lopez Obrador said the conversation had been good and that he would provide more details Tuesday.Volvimos a conversar con Kamala Harris, vicepresidenta de Estados Unidos. En buenos términos, tratamos el asunto migratorio, la completa apertura de la frontera norte para reactivar nuestras economías y continuar con la mutua cooperación para enfrentar la pandemia de #COVID19. pic.twitter.com/7XeNVyJGRW— Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) August 9, 2021The White House said the two leaders discussed ongoing bilateral cooperation to address “irregular migration” to the shared U.S.-Mexican border and agreed to focus on bolstering Central American economies through investment in agriculture and climate resilience. Harris updated Lopez Obrador on U.S. efforts, including the July 29 release of the U.S. strategy for addressing the root causes of migration in Central America. The U.S. vice president also told Lopez Obrador that Washington was committed to sending additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Mexico, on top of the 4 million doses already delivered, the White House said. Speaking before the call, a senior U.S. official said the vaccines could come from multiple manufacturers, including Moderna and AstraZeneca. Earlier, Lopez Obrador said he and Harris would discuss reopening the U.S.-Mexico border, immigration and vaccines against COVID-19, new cases of which have jumped in Mexico. Speaking at a regular morning news conference, the Mexican president said vaccinations along Mexico’s border with the United States had led to fewer hospitalizations and deaths in the face of rising infections on both sides. “This is what I’m going to suggest today, that we can demonstrate that we’re not putting the population at risk,” Lopez Obrador said in the northern city of Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas. The United States has sent a few million vaccine doses to Mexico and would be sharing more with it than with any other country, reflecting the importance it attached to the bilateral relationship, the U.S. official said. The countries’ 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border has been closed to nonessential travel since early in the pandemic last year.  
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A justice official told The Associated Press on Monday that he has selected a judge to oversee the case of the slaying of President Jovenel Moïse amid concerns over death threats and demands for additional security. Mathieu Chanlatte will be in charge of proceedings involving the July 7 attack at Moïse’s private home, said Magistrate Bernard Saint-Vil, who is dean of the Court of First Instance in Port-au-Prince. “The judge is very competent,” Saint-Vil said. Chanlatte could not be immediately reached for comment. The choice was praised by some people, including Haitian attorney Steevens Rosemond, who is not involved in the case. “I ask that the Haitian state guarantee the safety of this magistrate so that he can do his work in accordance with the standards,” Rosemond said. Last week, Saint-Vil said he had requested extra security measures as he prepared to select a judge to oversee the case. Death threats are especially common in high-profile slayings in Haiti, and several court clerks probing Moïse’s death have already gone into hiding after being ordered to change some names and statements in their reports. Haitians reacted swiftly to the news on social media, with some saying they hope justice will be served. “You have a great responsibility for the history of this country,” one man tweeted. “You have the responsibility to make justice triumph.” More than 40 people have been detained in the case; among them are 18 former Colombian soldiers and 20 Haitian police officers. Authorities are still looking for several suspects including an ex-senator, a judicial official and a Haitian Supreme Court judge. Human rights activists, defense attorneys and Colombia’s government have said they are worried about those detained, given that they were recently transferred to an overcrowded prison whose conditions have been compared to torture. Haiti has long been criticized for lengthy pre-trial detentions, with thousands of inmates languishing in prison for years before they even get a court hearing, let alone a trial. In Colombia on Monday, more than 20 relatives of the ex-soldiers arrested in Haiti organized a protest to demand due process and attorneys for them. Julián Andrés Gómez, brother of the captured ex-military officer John Jairo Ramírez Gómez, said they need “strong evidence” to know if the Colombians are alive and out of danger. A request that Haiti’s government made to the United Nations for a special inquiry into the assassination is still pending. “We’re taking a look at the letter, and that letter will be answered,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Monday. He noted the U.N. could help in the investigation through its existing mandate in Haiti, which includes four police investigative advisers. He said that an international inquiry would have to go through the U.N.’s legislative bodies. 
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An American woman who has long accused the late businessman Jeffrey Epstein of sexual abuse sued Prince Andrew on Monday over alleged sexual assault. Virginia Giuffre filed the lawsuit in federal court Monday in Manhattan under the Child Victims Act. Giuffre, who now lives in Australia, said she was 17 when the assault by the member of the British royal family took place. In a statement, Giuffre said, “I am holding Prince Andrew accountable for what he did to me.” She said she hopes other victims will see from her lawsuit “that it is possible not to live in silence and fear but to reclaim one’s life by speaking out and demanding justice.” Giuffre’s lawsuit claims that the prince sexually abused her on multiple occasions in 2001, including in Epstein’s New York mansion and at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been linked to Epstein and charged with sex trafficking. FILE – Virginia Giuffre, center, who says she was trafficked by sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, holds a news conference outside a Manhattan court in New York, Aug. 27, 2019.Andrew, the second son of Queen Elizabeth II, has repeatedly denied having sexual contact with Giuffre and told BBC Newsnight in 2019 that he had “no recollection” of ever meeting her. Epstein died two years ago from apparent suicide in a federal prison in Manhattan, where he was awaiting trial on federal child sex trafficking charges.  Maxwell faces trial in November on sex trafficking charges. She has pleaded not guilty. ABC News reported Monday that Giuffre’s lawsuit comes just days before the expiration of a New York state law that allows alleged victims of childhood sexual abuse to file civil claims when criminal charges might otherwise be barred by statutes of limitations.  Giuffre’s lawyer, David Boies, told the news network, “If she doesn’t do it now, she would be allowing (Andrew) to escape any accountability for his actions.”  A spokesman for Andrew told ABC news there would be no comment on the lawsuit.  After Giuffre first accused the prince of sexual abuse in public court filings in 2014, a palace statement at that time said, “the allegations made are false and without any foundation.”  Some information in this report came from The Associated Press. 
 
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More than 600 firefighters continue to battle a massive wildfire ravaging the Greek island of Evia that has charred buildings and pine forests and forced thousands to evacuate.The fire covering the country’s second-largest island has been blazing, uncontrolled, for seven consecutive days, resulting in the deaths of a volunteer firefighter and an Athens official.The United States and several European and Middle Eastern countries sent firefighters and firefighting planes and helicopters to Greece. Over the weekend, the U.S. Navy provided a reconnaissance plane from an airbase in Sicily, according to the Navy Times.An helicopter fills with water as people watch from the beach during a wildfire at Pefki village on Evia island.The European Union sent nearly 1,000 firefighters and nine planes. It is also sending resources to other countries affected by the fires, including Turkey and Italy.”We are mobilising one of Europe’s biggest ever common firefighting operations as multiple fires affect several countries simultaneously,” said the EU commissioner for crisis management, Janez Lenarčič, in a Sunday statement.The result of a record heat wave that baked countries, the wildfires have also struck Turkey, Italy, Spain, North Macedonia, Albania and Lebanon.Arsonists Behind More than Half of Italy’s Wildfires, Officials SayAbout 800 wildfires have struck Italy this year, tripling normal annual average and causing millions of dollars in damageIn Greece, temperatures reached 45 C (113 F) in what Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called the worst heat wave in three decades.Mitsotakis conveyed his appreciation in a Sunday Twitter statement addressing the 22 countries that had sent help to Greece.”On behalf of the Greek people, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to all the countries that have sent assistance and resources to help fight the wildfires. We thank you for standing by Greece during these trying times,” Mitsotakis said.The ongoing fires in Greece come as the United Nations released a new climate report Monday that warned of worsening global warming in the coming years.Average global temperature will rise by 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F), compared with preindustrial temperatures, by the early 2030s, the report predicts.Many scientists believe that if temperatures surpass the 1.5-degree threshold, many effects of climate change may irreversibly worsen, leading to more intense heat waves, higher sea levels and larger storms.For example, the report predicted the frequency of extreme heat waves would increase from once every 50 years to once every decade.Though some climate changes may be permanent, authors of the report called for increased action to address greenhouse gas emissions, which are considered a major factor in human-driven climate change.Nearly 200 countries agreed to limit temperatures from reaching the 1.5-degree threshold in the 2015 Paris climate agreement, but individual progress on the goal has varied.U.S. President Joe Biden recently pledged to cut emissions in half, compared with 2005 levels, by 2030. European Union leaders similarly released an aggressive emission reduction plan that they hope to make legally binding, a step the U.S. has not taken.Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.   
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The United States, in coordination with Britain and Canada, rolled out new sanctions on Belarus on Monday, the one-year anniversary of the start of protests in the eastern European country against elections that were widely seen as fraudulent. Since that time, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has taken harsh action against peaceful demonstrators and political opponents. “Rather than respect the clear will of the Belarusian people, the Lukashenko regime perpetrated election fraud, followed by a brutal campaign of repression to stifle dissent,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement. “From detaining thousands of peaceful protesters, to imprisoning more than 500 activists, civil society leaders and journalists as political prisoners, to forcing the diversion of an international flight in an affront to global norms, the actions of the Lukashenko regime are an illegitimate effort to hold on to power at any price.”FILE – Women wearing carnival masks march down the streets under umbrellas with the colors of the former white-red-white flag of Belarus to protest against the Belarus presidential election results in Minsk, on Jan. 26, 2021.Actions by Washington, as well as Ottawa and London, are targeting the construction, energy, potash and tobacco industries of Minsk, which the U.S. Treasury Department described as the “wallets” of the Lukashenko government.  “Together with our Canadian and British partners, today we are demonstrating continued international condemnation of the Lukashenko regime’s undemocratic actions,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement.Among the entities being blacklisted is the state-owned potash producer Belaruskali OAO, a primary source of the country’s foreign currency earnings. In response to the British sanctions, which were announced earlier in the day, Lukashenko told reporters on Monday that Britain could “choke on” them.”You are America’s lapdogs,” Lukashenko stated at an hourlong news conference during which he denied being a dictator and said his actions against demonstrators and political opponents defended Belarus against a coup.Britain and the United States previously targeted Belarusian individuals by freezing assets and imposing travel bans, but those actions have failed to moderate the behavior of Lukashenko, who has run the former Soviet republic since 1994.“The United States once again calls on the Belarusian authorities to end the crackdown on members of civil society, the media, athletes, students, legal professionals and other citizens, immediately release all political prisoners, engage in a genuine dialogue with the democratic opposition and civil society, as called for in the OSCE Expert Mission report, and hold free and fair elections under international observation,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement. “We will continue working with the international community to hold to account those responsible for human rights violations and abuses in Belarus.”
 
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Canada Monday reopened its land border with the United States to vaccinated citizens for non-essential travel, the first time U.S. citizens could do so since March of 2020.Under the plan, along with filling out an application, visitors must provide proof of full vaccination with a Canada health department-approved vaccine and a negative COVID-19 test taken within the previous 72 hours. The application is available via a downloadable smartphone app.The Associated Press reports while the Canada Border Services Agency won’t say how many people it’s expecting, a U.S. company that offers same-day COVID-19 testing says it has seen the number of procedures it performs more than triple in recent weeks.Video from various border crossings in New York and Washington states showed cars lining up to cross into Canada Monday. Businesses on both sides of the border believe increased traffic will boost commerce.The move follows Canada’s decision last month to drop a two-week quarantine requirement for its citizens when they return home from the U.S.
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About 800 wildfires have struck Italy this year, tripling the normal annual average and causing millions of dollars in damage. But more than half of them were likely started by arsonists or farmers breaching fire rules, authorities say.A 50-year-old sheep and goat farmer was arrested last week after a surveillance camera captured him setting undergrowth afire Thursday near the town of Montesarchio, 48 kilometers from Naples in southern Italy, near to where another wildfire raged last year.Local officials say the farmer likely wanted to renew his pasture by burning it off in defiance of strict rules regulating such burns. They say he tried to get rid of his lighter when he spotted Carabinieri officers later heading toward him.For law enforcement authorities, even more troubling are the arsonists.Last week, Roberto Cingolani, minister for ecological transition, told parliament that 57.4% of Italy’s recent wildfires were caused by arson, and 13.7% the result of unintentional human action.“More than 70% of the fires in Italy are our responsibility,” he said. “Less than 2% are caused naturally, for example, by a lightning strike. For 4.4%, the cause is undetermined, and 22% are unclassifiable situations in which it is difficult to know what triggered the fire,” he added.With the earth being parched, the fires quickly take hold, Italian officials say, noting that climate change has brought unprecedented high temperatures to the country, drying out the land and making it even more combustible.Most of the wildfires have been in the southern regions of Lazio, Campania, Puglia, Calabria, Basilicata and Sicily. Blazes have also occurred in the central provinces of Tuscany, Umbria and Abruzzo, where on Sunday vacationers were evacuated after a wildfire tore through a pine wood near the coastal city of Pescara.Wildfires on the island of Sardinia have been described by the local media as “apocalyptic,” and by the end of the month will likely have caused more economic damage than the costs from blazes in 1983 and 1994. Sardinia has declared an official “state of calamity” and called for more central government assistance.General view of a burnt area in the aftermath of a wildfire in Cuglieri, Sardinia, Italy, July 25, 2021, in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. (Credit: Cronache Nuoresi)According to Coldiretti, the country’s main agricultural association, the extreme heat and a lack of rainfall are causing a “worrying drought that is decimating crops but also favors the spread of fires and the action of arsonists.”The association said in a statement that the economic cost was incalculable from the fires, which have “destroyed tens of thousands of hectares of woods and Mediterranean scrub with charred trees, olive groves, destroyed pastures and led to a real slaughter of animals.”Coldiretti also said it believes that 60% of the fires are lit by arsonists, some with mafia ties, in disputes over land or in a bid to force farmers to sell to make way for industrial development.“Arsonists are devastating the Apulian countryside,” Coldiretti President Savino Muraglia said.A pair of arsonists were arrested last week in Troina in central Sicily, where solar power plants are being built.“We must pay close attention to the hypothesis that solar interests want to undermine farmers,” Troina Mayor Fabio Venezia told La Repubblica newspaper. Arson investigations have also begun in Lazio, Calabria and Sicily, where Claudio Fava, head of the regional anti-mafia commission, said at a recent hearing, “We must take note that in Sicily, it is not barbecues and brushwood causing these fires.”Fava said 98% of the island’s fires are being caused by “willful misconduct.” Other fires are thought to be started because of personal disputes and grudges. In Puglia, a young farmer near Lecce appeared to have fallen afoul of some of his neighbors in June. A fire burned much of his land, tools and irrigation system. 
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Zuleydis Elledias has gotten up each morning for the past two months hoping for a phone call, a message — any news on the fate of her husband and nephew, who disappeared at sea after the boat they were in capsized as they tried to reach Florida. Another half dozen families in the small town of Orlando Nodarse, 35 miles (55 kilometers) west of Havana and near the port of Mariel, are living with the same uncertainty. “Due to the pandemic my husband lost his job. Many places closed and he had been home for more than a year. Every time he went to his workplace, they told him to wait. And that made him desperate because we have a 2-year-old son,” Elledias, a 38-year-old homemaker, told The Associated Press through tears. Cuba is seeing a surge in unauthorized migration to the United States, fueled by an economic crisis exacerbated by the pandemic, increased U.S. sanctions and cutbacks in aid from its also-crisis-wracked Venezuelan ally. That has led to shortages in many goods and a series of protests that shook the island on July 11. FILE – Cubans are seen outside Havana’s Capitol during a demonstration against the government of Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Havana, July 11, 2021.And legal ways to leave have been strained by the Trump administration’s near-closure of the U.S. Consulate in 2017 following a series of mysterious illnesses among diplomatic personnel that some claimed could result from an attack — allegations Cuba bitterly denies. Most Cubans who want to try for a U.S. visa now have to go to embassies in other countries — and getting there is almost impossible due to sharp cuts in air traffic during the pandemic. Most can’t afford tickets anyway unless relatives abroad can front them the money. That has pushed many Cubans to launch themselves into the sea on small boats or rafts to attempt the dangerous crossing of the Florida Straits to the United States. The U.S. Coast Guard said recently it has intercepted 595 Cubans at sea since the current fiscal year started on Oct. 1. That’s larger than any any full fiscal year since 2017 — during which the U.S. announced that even Cubans reaching U.S. shores were likely to be expelled, ending a longstanding policy of granting asylum to those who reached dry land. FILE – Cuban deportees wait to be quarantined at a COVID control center, after disembarking from Coast Guard cutter Charles Sexton to be handed over to the Cuban authorities at Orozco Bay in Artemisa, Cuba, June 29, 2021.It’s still small in comparison with the nearly 5,400 halted at sea in 2016 or the dramatic crises of 1994-1995 and 1980, when Cuba’s government temporarily stopped trying to block departures and tens of thousands set out en masse. Thousands died in the ocean. It’s also still far smaller than the current flow of those who have somehow made their way to the continent and worked their way north. The U.S. Border Patrol had recorded 26,196 Cubans trying to enter the U.S. without documents between Oct. 1 and June 30, most by land. As well as her husband — 45-year-old driver Fernando Quiñones — Elledias is also awaiting word on her nephew, Ismel Reyes, 22, who worked on a farm. They were among a group of 18 men and two women who left Cuba for Florida on May 25. The boat sank the following night and survivors were rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard about 18 miles (29 kilometers) southwest of Key West. The search by sea, land and air lasted for days. “Something happened, I don’t know, the currents, the boat flipped. The United States Coast Guard rescued eight people alive, found two bodies and there are 10 people missing,” Elledias said. Among the survivors were four cousins of Elledias, some of whom have already been repatriated to Cuba. Elledias, her sister Sudenis — Reyes’ mother — and other Orlando Nodarse residents who spoke with the AP all agreed that the risky decision to head for the United States was triggered by the economic crisis and the difficulties in obtaining a visa. Cuban historian Alina Bárbara López noted that two earlier mass exoduses by sea were spawned by crises and Cuban authorities opened the borders as a kind of release valve in the face of social pressure. In 1980, with unhappy Cubans pouring into foreign embassy compounds seeking visas, Fidel Castro opened the port at Mariel for people who wanted to leave and 125,000 Cubans rushed north, setting off a political crisis for the government of U.S. President Jimmy Carter. The dire economic tailspin of the early 1990s following the collapse of Cuba’s aid from the Soviet Union led tens of thousands to put to sea in innertubes, makeshift rafts and highjacked boats. Then too, many died. But now Havana is “trapped” because it cannot open its borders due to migration agreements signed with the Washington in that wake of that crisis, she said. Meanwhile, Cuba’s economic reforms have only been superficial, López said. The economy remains stagnant. “All this makes the underlying political foundation of this crisis much stronger than in the previous” crises, she said. Cuban authorities acknowledge there are “symptoms” of a possible migratory crisis but say it could be deactivated if President Joe Biden fulfills a campaign promise to jettison Trump’s tighter sanctions, which were aimed at trying to drive the Communist Party from power, and resumes the dialogue launched by former U.S. President Barack Obama. “The situation we have now is the result of a number of negative factors,” said Jesús Perz Calderón of the United States department at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry. “In the first place, the deterioration of the economy as a result of COVID-19 … but at the same time the resurgence of an economic war of blockade against Cuba by the United States.” José Ramón Cabañas, a former Cuban ambassador to the U.S. and current director of the Center for International Policy Research, said both nations have instruments in place to prevent an exodus to Florida, “There are agreements in force but they are not being fully applied,” Cabañas said. The United States had been providing 22,000 visas a year to Cuba for two decades until 2017, when Trump froze relations. The consulate shutdown made applying for a visa almost moot for most Cubans. FILE – Cubans drive past the U.S. Embassy during a rally calling for the end of the U.S. blockade against Cuba, in Havana, March 28, 2021In addition, at the beginning of 2017, Obama eliminated the policy known as “wet foot-dry foot” that let Cubans who reached U.S. shores remain, usually as refugees, while those caught at sea were sent back. Back in Orlando Nodarse, Elledias hopes a miracle will bring home her loved ones. “I would tell people who are thinking about this option [of crossing the Florida Straits] not to do it, that it is not a safe route. There is no money in the world that can pay for this suffering we are going through,” she said. 
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Hundreds of people, among them many Belarusians living in exile in Poland, marched Sunday in Warsaw to protest political repression in neighboring Belarus — a demonstration held on the eve of the one-year anniversary of the Belarus presidential election that they consider rigged.Many carried the Belarusian opposition’s red-and-white flag, which is banned in Belarus, and chanted “Long live Belarus!”The protest focused on the Aug. 9, 2020, presidential election in Belarus in which President Alexander Lukashenko was awarded a sixth term in a vote that the opposition and many in the West view as fraudulent.A belief that the vote was stolen triggered mass protests in Belarus that led to increased repressions by Lukashenko’s regime on protesters, dissidents and independent media. More than 35,000 people were arrested and thousands were beaten and jailed.The protesters began in central Warsaw and marched past the U.S. and Russian embassies, aiming for the Belarusian embassy in a southern Warsaw district.Frantz Aslauski, a 56-years-old Belarusian who traveled from his new home in Wroclaw, Poland, said he believed Belarusians abroad must protest “because in Belarus people cannot go to the streets because they will be thrown into prison.””We have the opportunity (to demonstrate), therefore this responsibility rests on us, we must shout at the whole world, so that the whole world supports us in our pursuit of freedom and democracy,” Aslauski said.In front of the Russian embassy, speakers accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of being responsible for the repressions in Belarus. One banner showed an image of Lukashenko depicted as a vampire, with blood dripping from his mouth.Lukashenko has earned the nickname of “Europe’s last dictator” in the West for his relentless repression of dissent since taking the helm in 1994. In one shocking case, the regime this year arrested a dissident journalist after forcing his flight to divert to Belarus.The organizers of the Warsaw march said the event was held as a sign that Belarusians in Poland will not give up their fight to bring change to Belarus. Among their demands was the release of political prisoners back home.  Poland, along with Lithuania and Ukraine, has become a center of life in exile for Belarusians who have fled their homeland. Many people in Poland, an ex-communist country now in the European Union that shares a border with Belarus, support the efforts of Belarusians seeking democratic change.One of the most recent Belarusians to arrive is Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, an Olympic sprinter who, fearing reprisals at home, fled last week from the Tokyo Olympics to Poland.Thousands of Belarusians have also fled to neighboring Ukraine, fearing persecution back home. In Ukraine’s capital of Kyiv on Sunday, some 500 Belarusians also took to the streets to protest repression in Belarus and to mark the anniversary of the presidential election that triggered the largest and the most sustained wave of protests in Belarus’ history.The demonstrators carried red-and-white flags and banners saying “Belarus under Lukashenko has become a concentration camp,” “North Korea in the center of Europe. Stop.” They demanded that international authorities create a tribunal to investigate what they called Lukashenko’s crimes.  “Every day Lukashenko is in power, there are more victims of political repressions, even in Ukraine,” 21-year-old Bazhena Zholudz said at the rally.Zholudz was the girlfriend of Vitaly Shishov, a Belarusian activist who ran a group in Ukraine helping Belarusians fleeing persecution. Shishov was found hanged in Kyiv last week, and Ukrainian police are investigating whether it was a murder made to look like a suicide.  Following Shishov’s death, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyi told the country’s police and security forces to study security risks for all Belarusians who have arrived in Ukraine over the past year.  “Every Belarusian who can be a target for criminals in connection with his public political position should receive special and reliable protection,” Zelenskiy’s office quoted him as saying.
 
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Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., Anatoly Antonov, said the United States has asked 24 Russian diplomats to leave the country when their visas expire in September. The move comes shortly after the U.S. embassy in Moscow was forced to lay off dozens of Russian nationals working at the mission. Daria Dieguts has the story.
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Thousands of people have fled their homes on the Greek island of Evia as wildfires burned uncontrolled for a sixth day on Sunday, and ferries were on standby for more evacuations after taking many to safety by sea.Fires that had threatened northern suburbs of Athens in recent days died back. But the blaze on Evia, a large island east of the capital, quickly burgeoned into several fronts, ripping through thousands of hectares (acres) of pristine forest across its northern part, and forcing the evacuation of dozens of villages.”I feel angry. I lost my home … nothing will be the same the next day,” said one resident who gave her name as Vasilikia after boarding a rescue ferry at the village of Psaropouli.”It’s a disaster. It’s huge. Our villages are destroyed, there is nothing left from our homes, our properties, nothing, nothing,” she said.Wildfires have erupted in many parts of the country during a week-long heatwave, Greece’s worst in three decades, with searing temperatures and hot winds creating tinder-box conditions. Across the country, forest land has burned and dozens of homes and businesses have been destroyed.”Fiery destruction,” newspaper To Vima said on its front page on Sunday.The coastguard has evacuated more than 2,000 people, including many elderly residents, from different parts of the island since Tuesday, in dramatic sea rescues as the night sky turned an apocalyptic red.People are evacuated on a ferry as a wildfire burns in the village of Psaropouli, on Evia island, Greece, Aug. 8, 2021.Others fled their villages on foot overnight, walking along roads dotted with trees in flames.”A house is burning over here,” one woman told emergency crews on the ground in the settlement of Vasilika, pointing to a searing fire in the distance. “Everywhere, everywhere, everywhere, everywhere,” one of the firefighters replied.The governor for central Greece, Fanis Spanos, said the situation in the north of the island had been “very difficult” for nearly a week.”The fronts are huge, the area of burned land is huge,” he told Skai TV. More than 2,500 people have been accommodated in hotels and other shelters, he said.Greece has deployed the army to help battle the fires and several countries including France, Egypt, Switzerland and Spain have also sent help including firefighting aircraft.A wildfire burns in the village of Vasilika, on Evia island, Greece, Aug. 7, 2021.More than 570 firefighters are battling the blaze in Evia, where two active fronts were burning in the north and south of the island.Greece’s deputy civil protection minister, Nikos Hardalias, said water-bombing aircraft in the region faced several hurdles including low visibility caused by the thick plumes of smoke rising over the mountains and turbulence. “We have ahead of us another difficult evening, another difficult night,” Hardalias told an emergency briefing. “The battle continues.”A fire in the foothills of Mount Parnitha north of Athens has been contained but weather conditions meant there was still a high threat it could flare up again.On Friday night, strong winds pushed the fire into the town of Thrakomakedones, where residents had been ordered to evacuate. The blaze left burnt and blackened houses and cars among scorched pine trees.  
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Struggling to control his emotions, Lionel Messi said Sunday in his farewell to Barcelona that he wasn’t prepared to leave the club.Messi began crying even before he started speaking at his farewell ceremony at the Camp Nou Stadium.”This is very hard for me after so many years, after being here my entire life,” he said. “I wasn’t prepared.”Messi called his unexpected departure from the club “the most difficult” moment of his career.Messi’s family and some of his teammates were at the Camp Nou for the player’s farewell.Messi avoided speaking specifically about his future, saying he received offers from several clubs after the announcement that he would leave the Catalan club.Barcelona announced Thursday it could not keep its greatest player because it wasn’t able to fit a new contract within the Spanish league’s financial fair-play regulations. The club’s salary cap has been significantly slashed because of its huge debt. President Joan Laporta blamed the club’s struggles on the coronavirus pandemic and particularly on the previous administration led by Josep Bartomeu.Messi asked to leave at the end of the 2019-20 season but had his request denied by Bartomeu. The Argentina star had agreed to stay and had reached agreement with Barcelona on a new contract, but the club wasn’t able to make it work because of its dire financial situation.Messi spent nearly two decades with the Catalan club after arriving from Argentina as a teenager to play in its youth squads. He made his first-team debut as a 17-year-old in 2004, then played 17 seasons with the main squad. He helped the club win the Champions League four times, the Spanish league 10 times, the Copa del Rey seven times and the Spanish Super Cup eight times.Messi leaves as Barcelona’s all-time leading scorer with 672 goals. He played in 778 matches with the club, also a record. He is also the overall top scorer in the Spanish league with 474 goals from 520 matches.He led the Spanish league in scoring in eight seasons, and was the top scorer in the Champions League six times. His 26 goals against Real Madrid are a record for the “clasico” matches against Barcelona’s fiercest rival. 
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Hungary’s growing list of European Union worries includes controversial LGBT legislation and potentially hacking the phones of journalists, rights activists and political opponents.Poland has rebuffed a ruling by the bloc’s highest court, claiming its own constitution has precedence over the EU laws it vowed to follow when it joined the club in 2004, although it now appears to have backed down.Farther north and politically opposite, Denmark’s leftist government is also feeling legal heat over its recent decision to return hundreds of Syrian immigrants to Damascus, a move critics say violates basic human rights and could set a dangerous precedent for other deportations.Along with a year of battling COVID-19 and its economic fallout, the EU is also grappling with a more existential threat, as its founding principles of democracy, rule of law and human rights face multiple challenges from within, in ways, some observers say, the 27-member bloc is unprepared to meet.Referring to Hungary and Poland, among others, French President Emmanuel Macron recently warned of a creeping “anti-liberal conservatism” undermining EU values “and what has built the core of our Western liberal democracy for centuries.”“The EU has been all about democracy from the start,” said Sebastien Maillard, director of the Paris-based Jacques Delors Institute think tank.“The fact member states are challenging this is a major threat, because the EU is a legal construction. It has no army. Its only power is a legal power,” he said.As questions mount about the bloc’s ability to save itself — “The EU Watches as Hungary Kills Democracy,” The Atlantic magazine wrote last year, echoing other analyses — it is now sharpening its defenses.European leaders are speaking out against dissident members, some observers say, in ways they rarely did before. The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, is mulling new financial penalties against key offenders.Not enoughYet for many, these steps are insufficient.”For me, Hungary has no place in the EU anymore,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in June, while Luxembourg’s Foreign and European Affairs Minister Jean Asselborn suggested a referendum over its EU membership.A less dramatic rebuttal, this time targeting Poland, may come later this month.  The commission has given Warsaw until Aug. 16 to comply with a European Court of Justice ruling against its system for disciplining judges it claims undermines judicial independence, or face fines — a dollars-and-cents reprisal it may increasingly use against other rule-of-law violators, reports suggest.Poland initially pushed back strongly. Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro warned in an interview his country should not remain within the EU “at any price,” accusing the bloc of “blackmail.”  But in a turnabout hours later on Friday, deputy prime minister and ruling party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski said Warsaw would drop the disciplinary system in its current form.Last month, Brussels also launched legal proceedings against both Poland and Hungary for measures it claims violate the rights of LGBTQ people. A key target is new Hungarian legislation banning the presentation of LQBTQ issues to minors. In a first step, Hungary began restricting children’s books promoting gay and gender-change content.Brussels still has plenty of champions. In June, 17 European leaders signed an open letter calling on the bloc to fight LGBT discrimination.“I’ve never seen this kind of letter before by heads of state or government, analyst Maillard said, “They don’t like doing this. But this time they did.”The commission is also probing allegations Israeli spyware was used against EU media. Hungary is the only member state named in a broad media investigation into potential users of the Pegasus software.“I really hope things will happen here, but it’s unclear how much,” said Scott Marcus, senior fellow at Brussels-based economic policy institute Bruegel. “In the case of Hungary, this probably just gets added to a long litany of complaints, so I don’t think it changes the underlying situation very much.”Financial penaltiesThe commission’s July rule-of-law report, an annual member state assessment launched last year, found a raft of concerns about Hungary and Poland in areas such as press freedom, judicial independence and corruption. It also faulted other states, including Western members such as Austria and Italy, although on a lesser scale.Separately, rights lawyers are threatening Denmark’s leftist government with legal action over its efforts to return Syrian asylum seekers to Damascus on grounds it is safe — a move rights groups such as Amnesty International denounce and reject.The EU Commission is expected to further flex its financial muscles, conditioning some funding on countries’ democratic performance. Yet some believe such measures are insufficient, and European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova appeared to rule out such a quid-pro-quo in releasing billions of dollars in coronavirus recovery funds.“I don’t think this money should be used as blackmail,” she told France’s Le Monde newspaper.“The EU should … end its naiveté,” Le Monde wrote in a separate editorial, endorsing conditionality measures but urging stronger action against rule-of-law offenses, including sanctions against individuals wrongfully enriching themselves with EU funds.Yet the most drastic options appear unlikely, if not impossible. There is no mechanism for ousting errant member states, and efforts to suspend their voting rights risk being difficult. Moreover, after Brexit, there is little EU appetite to further diminish its ranks, analysts say. Sanctioning an entire population, rather than its government, is also unfair.“Viktor Orban will not be there forever, so I don’t think that kind of threat is helpful,” said analyst Maillard of Hungary’s hardline prime minister. “We have to have unity with all our diversity and differences.”  
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