RIYADMEDIA

“The simple truth is that, as we speak, children, women and men, the young and the old, are living in terror,” International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said at the opening of the Ukraine Accountability Conference in The Hague on Thursday, with about 40 nations in attendance.

Khan said an “overarching strategy” is needed to bring those guilty of conducting war crimes in Ukraine to justice.

Ukraine has granted the ICC jurisdiction over the crimes committed within the country, opening the door to the court’s investigations, since neither Ukraine nor Russia is an ICC member.

Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles struck the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday, killing at least 23 people and wounding more than 100 others.

Police said three missiles hit an office building in the center of the city, located about 270 kilometers southwest of the capital, Kyiv. The strikes, coming from a Russian submarine in the Black Sea, damaged residential buildings in the area and engulfed 50 cars in a nearby parking lot.

“This is the act of Russian terror,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the ICC meeting in a video address.

The governor of the Vinnytsia region, Serhiy Borzov, said Ukrainian air defense systems shot down another four missiles over the area.

With a population of 370,000, Vinnytsia is one of Ukraine’s largest cities. Thousands of people from eastern Ukraine, where Russia has concentrated its offensive, have fled there since the start of the war in late February.

President Zelenskyy said the dead included a child.

“Every day Russia is destroying the civilian population, killing Ukrainian children, directing missiles at civilian objects where there is no military (target). What is it if not an open act of terrorism?” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Russia has denied targeting civilians in Ukraine.

Warfare continues to rage in eastern Ukraine, but the British Defense Ministry said Thursday that despite continued shelling, Russian forces have not made major territorial gains in recent days.

“The aging vehicles, weapons and Soviet-era tactics used by Russian forces do not lend themselves to quickly regaining or building momentum unless used in overwhelming mass — which Russia is currently unable to bring to bear,” the British ministry said.

Grain exports

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Wednesday there is “broad agreement” on a deal between Russia and Ukraine, with Turkey and the United Nations, to export millions of tons of Ukrainian grain stuck in silos since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24.

“Today is an important and substantive step,” Guterres told reporters of developments at talks in Istanbul among the four parties. “A step on the way to a comprehensive agreement.”

The U.N. chief broke his public silence on the negotiations, pointing to a statement from Turkey’s defense minister, who said there is agreement on major points, including the creation of a coordination center with Russia, Ukraine and the U.N.; agreement on controls for checking grain at ports; and ensuring the safety of cargo ships carrying the grain out of Odesa.

“Of course, this was a first meeting,” Guterres noted. “The progress was extremely encouraging. Now, the delegations are coming back to their capitals, and we hope the next steps will allow us to come to a formal agreement.”

While Guterres would not speculate about when the final agreement would be ready, he said he hoped the parties would reconvene next week and have a final agreement. Whenever it is, he said, he would be ready to go to Istanbul to sign it.

A U.N. official with knowledge of the talks said there was an important meeting of the Russians and the Ukrainians where they were able to make a lot of progress on sticking points.

More than 20 million tons of Ukrainian grain are being stored in silos at the Black Sea port of Odesa, and dozens of ships have been stranded because of Russia’s blockade. Turkey said it has 20 merchant ships waiting in the region that could be quickly loaded and dispatched to world markets.

The grain deal has been in the works for months, with U.N. officials raising the alarm nearly immediately after the war started about the consequences for global food security if Ukraine, which is one of the world’s top grain exporters, is unable to get its harvests out.

“Truly, failure to open those ports in Odesa region will be a declaration of war on global food security,” World Food Program chief David Beasley warned at a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on May 19. “And it will result in famine and destabilization and mass migration around the world.”

WFP says 276 million people worldwide were facing acute hunger at the start of this year. They project that number will rise by 47 million people if the conflict in Ukraine continues, with the steepest increases in sub-Saharan Africa.

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

A Russian arms dealer labeled the “Merchant of Death” who once inspired a Hollywood movie is back in the headlines with speculation around a return to Moscow in a prisoner exchange.

If Viktor Bout, 55, is indeed eventually freed in return for WNBA star Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, as some published reports suggest, it would add to the lore around a charismatic arms dealer the U.S. has imprisoned for more than a decade.

Depending on the source, Bout is a swashbuckling businessman unjustly imprisoned after an overly aggressive U.S. sting operation, or a peddler of weapons whose sales fueled some of the world’s worst conflicts.

The 2005 Nicolas Cage movie, “Lord of War” was loosely based on Bout, a former Soviet air force officer who gained fame supposedly by supplying weapons for civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa. His clients were said to include Liberia’s Charles Taylor, longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and both sides in Angola’s civil war.

Shira A. Scheindlin, the former New York City federal judge who sentenced Bout before returning to private law practice, can be counted among those who would not be disappointed by Bout’s freedom in a prisoner exchange.

“He’s done enough time for what he did in this case,” Scheindlin said in an interview, noting that Bout has served more than 11 years in U.S. prisons.

He was convicted in 2011 on terrorism charges. Prosecutors said he was ready to sell up to $20 million in weapons, including surface-to-air missiles to shoot down U.S. helicopters.

Bout has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence, saying he’s a legitimate businessman and didn’t sell weapons. He’s had plenty of support from high-level Russian officials since he was first arrested. A Russian parliament member testified when Bout was fighting extradition from Thailand to the U.S.

Last year, some of his paintings were displayed in Russia’s Civic Chamber, the body that oversees draft legislation and civil rights.

Bout’s case fits well into Moscow’s narrative that Washington is lying in wait to trap and oppress innocent Russians on flimsy grounds.

“From the resonant Bout case a real ‘hunt’ by Americans for Russian citizens around the world has unfolded,” the government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote last year.

Increasingly, Russia has cited his case as a human rights issue. His wife and lawyer claimed his health is deteriorating in the harsh prison environment where foreigners are not always eligible for the breaks that Americans might receive.

Last month, Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said: “We very much hope that our compatriot Viktor Bout will return to his homeland.”

Moskalkova said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Justice were working to see if Bout might qualify for transfer to Russia to serve the rest of his sentence.

Now held in a medium-security facility in Marion, Illinois, Bout is scheduled to be released in August 2029.

“If you asked me today: ‘Do you think 10 years would be a fair sentence,’ I would say ‘yes,'” Scheindlin said.

“He got a hard deal,” the retired judge said, noting the U.S. sting operatives “put words in his mouth” so he’d say he was aware Americans could die from weapons he sold in order to require a terrorism enhancement that would force a long prison sentence, if not a life term.

“The idea of trading him shouldn’t be unacceptable to our government. It wouldn’t be wrong to release him,” Scheindlin said.

Still, she said an even exchange of Griner for Bout would be “troubling.”

The WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist was arrested in February at a Moscow airport, where police said they found cannabis oil in a vape canister in her luggage. While the U.S. government has classified her as “wrongfully detained,” Griner pleaded guilty to drug possession charges on July 7 at her trial in a Russian court.

Scheindlin said Griner was arrested for something that “wouldn’t be five minutes in jail.”

That sentiment is shared by others. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said in a July 9 editorial that Bout illegally trafficked billions of dollars of weapons “to feed wars around the world” and has “the blood of thousands on his hands,” while Griner “made a stupid mistake with a tiny amount of cannabis. She harmed no one.”

Griner could face up to 10 years in prison. Her guilty plea was not unanticipated by those who understand that similar moves commonly precede prisoner swaps. Whelan was arrested three years ago on espionage charges that the U.S. has said were trumped up and false.

In April 2012, Scheindlin imposed the mandatory minimum 25-year sentence that Bout now serves, but she said she did so only because it was required.

He was taken into custody at a Bangkok luxury hotel after conversations with the Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation’s informants who posed as officials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC. The group had been classified by Washington as a narco-terrorist group.

He was brought to the U.S. in November 2010.

The “Merchant of Death” moniker was attached to Bout by a high-ranking minister of Britain’s Foreign Office. The nickname was included in the U.S. government’s indictment of Bout.
…

Stockholm’s District Court sentenced a former Iranian official to life in prison on Thursday for war crimes and the murder of political prisoners during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

At the time of the killings, Hamid Noury was a 27-year-old assistant to the deputy prosecutor at Gohardasht prison in Karaj, Iran. According to prosecutors, the killings were ordered by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s leader at the time. The executed prisoners were loyal to an Iranian opposition group, Mujahedeen-e-Khalq.

Noury, now 61, was arrested upon arrival at the Stockholm airport in 2019. He has denied the accusations.

The Swedish court said it believed the executions were a “serious violation against international humanitarian law” because of the international armed conflict.

A crowd of victims’ families gathered outside the courtroom cheered as the verdict was announced, said the Courthouse News Service. Many of relatives testified throughout the trial.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry believes the verdict is “politically motivated and it has no legal validity,” spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a statement.

Observers said the verdict heightens the already tense relationship between Iran and Sweden amid concerns about reprisals. Iran has been condemned for detaining foreign citizens to gain political leverage.

Noury can appeal the verdict. If he is released, he will be expelled from Sweden.

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

WNBA player Brittney Griner was back in a Russian court Thursday, a week after she pleaded guilty to drug charges.

Despite the session being closed to reporters, lawyers for Griner said the head of the Russian basketball club for which she plays, UMMC Yekaterinburg, vouched for her good character.

Club boss Maxim Ryabkov reportedly told the court about Griner’s “outstanding abilities as a player and personal contribution to strengthening team spirit.”

Team captain Yevgenya Belyakova also reportedly praised Griner during the proceedings.

Griner has been playing in Russia during WNBA offseasons since 2014. She is also a two-time Olympic gold medalist.

Griner was detained at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in February. Police said they found cannabis oil in her luggage. Griner said she didn’t mean to bring the oil with her.

Griner could face 10 years in prison and reportedly will be back in court on Friday.

Some have speculated that Moscow will eventually try to trade Griner for a Russian citizen jailed in the United States. Russian officials have called such speculation “hype.”

Some information in this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
…

An arson attack on a suburban Athens building that houses the offices of a Greek radio station and newspaper caused significant damage early Wednesday and drew condemnation from political leaders in Greece and elsewhere in the European Union. 

Explosions were heard before a fire broke out shortly after 3 a.m. at the building that houses radio station Real FM and the Real News newspaper in Maroussi, a northern Athens suburb. 

Firefighters extinguished the blaze. Fire Service investigators found the remnants of three gas canisters tied together on an external stairwell between the ground and first floors, as well as a can containing a flammable liquid. 

No one was injured, although a radio station sound engineer was evacuated and treated for smoke inhalation. The offices of a shipping company on the building’s top floor suffered the most damage. The newspaper in located on the first floor and the radio station on the second. 

Real Group owner Nikos Chatzinikolaou, a veteran journalist, posted a short clip from his car that showed the top of the building on fire and tweeted: “Explosions and fire at Real FM and Realnews! They are burning us! They are trying to shut us down!” 

Chatzinikolaou founded the media company in 2007. The group also includes news site enikos.gr. 

Real Group reported on its website that security cameras showed two people with their heads covered placing the canisters and can. 

Police said they suspect other people might have helped the arsonists escape, are examining security cameras from nearby buildings. 

The group’s news site said a serious malfunction in the radio station’s broadcast tower on Tuesday could be related to the fire. 

No one had claimed responsibility as of Wednesday afternoon. 

Greece has seen similar attacks on media outlets and other targets that most often turned out to be the work of far-left groups, but Tuesday’s fire caused more serious damage. 

“The freedom of the press is neither constrained nor muzzled by terrorist acts,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said during a Parliament session. 

Opposition leader Alexis Tsipras, several government ministers and politicians from all of the countries political parties made online and live statements strongly denouncing the attack. 

European Commission Vice President for Values and Transparency Vera Jourov joined the condemnation and said Greek authorities must do “much more … to guarantee the security of journalists and media, because this this attack is really shocking.” 

 
…

Turkish officials say there is a potential breakthrough in efforts to release Ukrainian grain to world markets as global food prices soar amid Russia’s war with Ukraine. Turkey’s defense minister, Hulusi Akar, said an agreement is likely to be announced soon following four-way talks Wednesday among Russian, Ukrainian, United Nations, and Turkish officials in Istanbul.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a statement after Wednesday’s talks that a deal to allow the release of millions of tons of Ukrainian grain could come as early as next week.

Akar said Turkey would play a pivotal role in checking shipments in harbors and guaranteeing the safety of Black Sea export routes. In addition, a coordination center with Ukraine, Russia, and the United Nations for exporting grain would be set up in Turkey, he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, while welcoming the process, also cautioned Wednesday that this is not yet a done deal.

“More technical work will now be needed to materialize today’s progress. But the momentum is clear,” he said.

Trust has been a key stumbling block in months of diplomatic efforts to reach a deal. Kyiv has said it fears that if it de-mines its ports to allow cargo ships to export grain, Russian forces will use that move to their advantage and attack. The grain has been stuck amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Aaron Stein of Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute said trust and international sanctions on Russia have been the main obstacles.

“This food corridor would require the Ukrainians to remove mines from seaports. They were put there for a reason to keep Russians from invading their country. And there is no appetite whatsoever to lift sanctions, and that is the Russian demand, and that is not going to happen,” said Stein.

The Reuters news agency quotes a U.N. official speaking anonymously as saying that most of the sticking points have been overcome, without giving details.

Moscow has so far not commented on the Istanbul talks.

Meanwhile, the U.N. warns that unless tens of millions of tons of grain stuck in Ukrainian ports are released, world food prices will continue to climb, threatening famine across the globe.

Ukraine is a leading wheat exporter, and nations in Africa are heavily dependent on Ukrainian grain. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is determined to reach a deal.

Zelenskyy said his government is putting significant effort into resuming the supply of food to the world market. He said he is grateful to the United Nations and Turkey for their efforts.

The progress at the Istanbul talks has underlined Turkey’s position as a critical facilitator in negotiations between the warring parties, said Sinan Ulgen of the Center for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies, a research organization in Istanbul.

“President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan has been careful to highlight that Turkey wants to maintain relations with both sides. So, as a result of this balanced policy, Turkey has been trying to carve out a space for diplomatic influence as a facilitator or potentially as a mediator,” said Ulgen.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has close ties with his Ukrainian and Russian counterparts. Ahead of the Istanbul talks, the Turkish leader spoke with Zelenskyy. Next week, the Turkish leader is scheduled to meet face-to face with President Vladimir Putin in Tehran for talks that could be key to finalizing any deal to get Ukrainian grain back on world markets. 
…

Thousands of firefighters battled more than 20 blazes that raged across Portugal and western Spain on Wednesday, menacing villages and disrupting tourists’ holidays amid a heat wave that pushed temperatures above 45 degrees Celsius in some parts of Europe.

In France, hundreds of firefighters, supported by six water-bomber aircraft, battled two wildfires in the southwest, which prompted the evacuation of thousands of campers, Gironde prefect Fabienne Buccio said.

In Santiago de Guarda in the central Portuguese district of Leiria, Albertina Francisco struggled to hold back tears as a cloud of black smoke billowed over the tiny village.

“It was very hard,” said Francisco, 42, who was helping her sick sister evacuate. “Nobody helped — the firefighters and the (water-bomber) aircraft only got here now. … The state must do more to help us.”

Some villagers rescued pets while others helped firefighters battle the flames.

In Leiria, where more than 3,000 hectares have burned so far, authorities blocked major motorways and side streets as strong winds made it harder for firefighters to douse the flames. Portugal’s most important highway, connecting its capital, Lisbon, to Porto, was also blocked by another fire farther north.

Nearly 900 firefighters were combating three active blazes in Leiria alone, while in the whole of mainland Portugal there were 2,841 firefighters on the ground and 860 vehicles.

In Portugal’s southern Algarve region, popular with tourists, a fire broke out in the city of Faro and spread to the Quinta do Lago luxury resort. Videos shared online showed flames edging close to villas, burning palm trees and parts of golf courses.

About half of drought-hit Portugal will remain on red alert for extreme heat conditions on Thursday, with the highest temperatures expected in the Santarem and Castelo Branco districts, the IPMA weather institute said.

Wednesday’s highest temperature was registered in the central town of Lousa at 46.3 degrees C, one degree below a 2003 record.

Retiree Antonio Ramalheiro blamed inadequate forest management in addition to the heat wave for the wildfires.

“It is scary when the fire comes,” the 62-year-old said. “If it reaches the house, it is a disgrace … you lose everything.”

At least 135 people have suffered mainly minor injuries since wildfires began in Portugal last week, and about 800 people have been evacuated from their homes, according to the Civil Protection Authority.

More than 2,700 hectares have burned so far in France’s Gironde region, prefect Buccio told BFM TV. The biggest of the two fires is around the town of Landiras, south of Bordeaux, where roads have been closed and 500 residents evacuated.

The other one is along the Atlantic Coast, close to the iconic Dune du Pilat — the tallest sand dune in Europe — in the Arcachon Bay area, above which heavy clouds of dark smoke were seen rising in the sky.

That fire led to the preventive evacuation of 6,000 people from five surrounding campsites. They were taken to a local exhibition center for shelter.

“Other campers woke us up at around 4:30 in the morning. We had to leave immediately and quickly choose what to take with us,” Christelle, one of the evacuated tourists, told BFM TV.

On the eve of Bastille Day, the Gironde prefecture has forbidden all fireworks until Monday in towns and villages near forests.

The World Meteorological Organization warned on Tuesday that the heat wave was spreading and intensifying in large parts of Europe.

With human-caused climate change triggering droughts, the number of extreme wildfires is expected to increase 30% within the next 28 years, according to a February 2022 U.N. report.

Searing temperatures also swept across China’s vast Yangtze River basin on Wednesday; firefighters tackled a forest fire near the tourist town of Datca in Turkey; and power demand in Texas hit an all-time high as consumers cranked up their air conditioners to escape the heat.

In Spain’s western region of Extremadura bordering Portugal, firefighters battled a blaze that swept into Salamanca province in the region of Castile and Leon, burning more than 4,000 hectares.

Parts of the Extremadura, Andalusia and Galicia regions were on red alert for extreme heat, Spain’s AEMET meteorology service said, adding the country’s highest temperature Wednesday stood at 45.6 C in Huelva province.
…

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has accused Russia of forcibly deporting hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians from areas it controls in the east and south of the country to Russia.

Blinken said an estimated 900,000 to 1.6 million Ukrainian citizens, including 260,000 children, have been interrogated, detained, and deported from their homes to Russia, including to isolated areas in the Far East, through filtration operations.

In a statement on July 13, Blinken called on Russia to stop these operations, which he said violate the Geneva Conventions.

“The unlawful transfer and deportation of protected persons is a grave breach of the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians and is a war crime,” Blinken said.

The filtration operations are separating families, confiscating Ukrainian passports, and issuing Russian passports “in an apparent effort to change the demographic makeup of parts of Ukraine,” Blinken said in the statement.

The people who are “filtered out” include Ukrainians deemed threatening because of their potential affiliation with the Ukrainian military, media, government, and civil society groups, Blinken said.

He also cited eyewitness reports from survivors who said that Russian authorities had transported tens of thousands of people to detention facilities in Donetsk controlled by Moscow-backed separatists, where many are reportedly tortured.

There are reports that some individuals targeted for filtration have been summarily executed, he said.

The filtration program appears to have been planned early and matches similar operations that Russia undertook in other wars, including in Chechnya, he said, adding that the Russians must be held accountable.

“This is why we are supporting Ukrainian and international authorities’ efforts to collect, document, and preserve evidence of atrocities,” he said.

The statement came a day before the Ukraine Accountability Conference in The Hague on alleged war crimes in Ukraine.

Some information for this report was provided by Agence France-Presse.
…

With thousands of sanctions already imposed on Russia to flatten its economy, the U.S. and its allies are working on new measures to starve the Russian war machine while also stopping the price of oil and gasoline from soaring to levels that could crush the global economy.

The Kremlin’s main pillar of financial revenue — oil — has kept the Russian economy afloat despite export bans, sanctions and the freezing of central bank assets. America’s European allies plan to follow the Biden administration and take steps to stop their use of Russian oil by the end of this year, a move that some economists say could cause the supply of oil worldwide to drop and push prices as high as $200 a barrel.

Washington and its allies want to form a buyers’ cartel to force Russia to accept below-market prices for oil. Group of Seven leaders have tentatively agreed to back a cap on the price of Russian oil. Simply speaking, participating countries would agree to purchase the oil at lower-than-market price.

Russia has given no sign whether it might go along with this. The Kremlin also has the option of retaliating by taking its oil off the market, which would cause more turmoil.

High energy costs are straining economies and threatening fissures among the countries opposing Russian President Vladimir Putin for the invasion of Ukraine in February. President Joe Biden has seen his public approval slip to levels that hurt Democrats’ chances in the midterm elections, while leaders in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy are coping with the economic devastation caused by trying to move away from Russian natural gas and petroleum.

The idea behind the cap is to lower gas prices for consumers and help bring the war in Ukraine to a halt. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is currently touring Indo-Pacific countries to lobby for the proposal. In Japan on Tuesday, Yellen and Japanese Finance Minister Suzuki Shunichi said in a joint statement that the countries have agreed to explore “the feasibility of price caps where appropriate.”

However, China and India, two countries that have maintained business relationships with Russia during the war, will need to get on board. The administration is confident China and India, already buying from Russia at discounted prices, can be enticed to embrace the plan for price caps.

“We think that ultimately countries around the world that are currently purchasing Russian oil will be very interested in paying as little as possible for that Russian oil,” Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo told The Associated Press.

The Russian price cap plan has support among some leading economic thinkers. Harvard economist Jason Furman tweeted that if the plan works, it would be a “win-win: maximizing damage to the Russian war machine while minimizing damage to the rest of the world.” And David Wessel at the Brookings Institution said an “unpleasant alternative” is not attempting the price cap plan.

If a price cap is not implemented, oil prices will almost certainly spike because of a European Union decision to ban nearly all oil from Russia. The EU also plans to ban insuring and financing the maritime transport of Russian oil to third parties by the end of the year.

Without a price cap mechanism to reduce some Russian revenues, “there would be a greater risk that some Russian supply comes off the market. That could lead to higher prices, which would increase prices for Americans,” Adeyemo said.

A June Barclay’s report warns that with the EU oil embargo and other restrictions in place, Russian oil could rise to $150 per barrel or even $200 per barrel if most of its sea-borne exports are disrupted.

Brent crude on Tuesday was trading just under $100 per barrel.

James Hamilton, an economist at the University of California, San Diego, said garnering the participation of China and India will be important to enforcing any price cap plan.

“It’s an international diplomatic challenge on how you get people to agree. It’s one thing if you get the U.S. to stop buying oil, but if India and China continue to buy” at elevated prices, “there’s no impact on Russian revenues,” Hamilton told the AP.

“The less revenue Russia gets from selling oil, the less money they have to send these bombs on Ukraine,” he said.

One possibility is that Russia could retaliate and take its oil off the market completely.

In that case, “the main question is will countries have enough time to find alternatives” to prevent massive price increases, said Christiane Baumeister, an economist at the University of Notre Dame who studies the dynamics of energy markets.

With five months until the end of the year, when EU bans begin to take effect, a Russian price cap plan would likely need to be in place and operating effectively to avoid further spikes in gas prices that have frustrated U.S. drivers. Biden has warned that high gas prices this summer were the cost of stopping Putin, but prices could climb to new records and lead to economic and political pain for the president.

Without the price cap, “if the EU import ban goes into effect together with the insurance ban,” Baumeister said, the impacts “will be passed onto consumers through gasoline prices.”
…

British Conservative Party lawmakers cast ballots Wednesday in the first round of the election to replace Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Eight candidates have secured the necessary support of 20 of their colleagues to make the first ballot. If necessary, further rounds of voting will take place on Thursday and next week.

Once only two candidates remain, they will participate in a runoff vote by about 180,000 Conservative Party members across the country. The winner is scheduled to be announced September 5 and will immediately become the new prime minister.

Several high-profile candidates are in the first round, including former treasury chief Rishi Sunak, the bookies’ favorite, who has several declared supporters. Other candidates are Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt.

Treasury chief Nadhim Zahawi, lawmaker Tom Tugendhat, former equalities minister Kemi Badenoch, former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and Attorney General Suella Braverman are also on the ballot.

Johnson resigned as Conservative leader last week amid months of scandals. He said he would remain prime minister until his replacement is chosen.

Mordaunt said at her official campaign launch Wednesday that the party has “standards and trust to restore” after Johnson’s scandals.

The slate of candidates is diverse, with four candidates from ethnic minorities and four women. All the candidates have similar ideas in terms of tax-slashing policies, though Sunak expressed caution.

A spokeswoman for Johnson insisted he would remain neutral in the search for his replacement.

At the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQ) session at the House of Commons on Wednesday, Johnson told Labour leader Keir Starmer, “The next leader of my party may be elected by acclamation. So, it’s possible this will be our last confrontation.”

He added that it was “true that I leave not at a time of my choosing, but I will be leaving soon with my head held high.”
…

Like most of his predecessors as Conservative Party leader, Prime Minister Boris Johnson is wealthy, white and male. There’s a good chance his successor will be different.

The eight candidates running in a party election to succeed Johnson are four men and four women, with roots in Iraq, India, Pakistan and Nigeria as well as the U.K. The race could give the country its first Black or brown prime minister, its third female leader, or both.

With the first round of voting by Conservative lawmakers set for Wednesday, the bookies’ favorite is former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, son of Indian parents who came to Britain from East Africa. Other contenders include Kemi Badenoch, whose parents are Nigerian; Nadhim Zahawi, who was born in Baghdad and came to Britain as a child and Suella Braverman, whose Indian parents moved to Britain from Kenya and Mauritius.

With Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss also in the race, only two white men — Tom Tugendhat and Jeremy Hunt — are running.

Zahawi, who recalled coming to Britain at age 11 speaking no English, said “the Conservative Party has made me who I am today.”

But if the contenders reflect the face of modern Britain, the winner will be chosen by an electorate that does not. The next party leader, who will also become prime minister, will be chosen by about 180,000 Conservative members who tend to be affluent, older white men.

The slate of candidates reflects successful efforts to attract more diverse talent to the party and shake its “pale, male and stale” image, begun after former Prime Minister David Cameron became party leader in 2005. Cameron made a push to draft diverse candidate shortlists for solidly Conservative seats, an effort that has seen Black and brown Tory lawmakers elected in constituencies that are predominantly white.

The party’s attempt to attract aspiring politicians from immigrant backgrounds has succeeded despite a Brexit vote in which the winning “leave” side — championed by Boris Johnson — played on concerns about immigration.

“The Conservative Party is very diverse at the very, very top,” said Sunder Katwala, director of the equality think-tank British Future. “It’s a massive, rapid change, and it’s a level of ethnic diversity that has never been seen in any leadership field for any political party in any Western democracy.

“It’s clear that minority candidates have a sense that their voice, their story, is relevant to this moment. That might be the story of aspiration, it might be the story of inclusive patriotism after Brexit.”

Change has happened despite the Conservatives lagging behind the left-of-center Labour Party in terms of overall diversity. Labour, which passed Britain’s first race relations act in 1965, has long seen itself as the natural home for ethnic-minority voters, as well as a champion of women’s rights. Half of Labour’s lawmakers are women and 20% come from non-white backgrounds; among Tory legislators, 24% are women and 6% belong to ethnic minorities.

But minorities in the Tory party have risen higher, and faster. Sunak, Zahawi and Javid all served in Johnson’s Cabinet in senior posts. Both of Britain’s female prime ministers — Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May — have been Tories, while Labour has never had a female leader.

The only British prime minister from an ethnic minority background was 19th-century leader Benjamin Disraeli, who came from Sephardic Jewish stock. He was a Conservative, too.

“Labour continues to regard minorities as groups to be protected or talked about a lot — but for whatever reason it seems they can’t or won’t advance them on merit to the highest offices,” said Conservative commentator Alex Deane. “The conservative approach is to advance people on ability regardless of gender or color and — guess what?— it works.”

If the candidates’ backgrounds are diverse, their views are less so. Johnson’s drive for a “hard” Brexit from the European Union, regardless of the economic cost, drove many pro-European and centrist lawmakers out of the government. Those who remain, of all backgrounds, are small-state, free-marketeers inspired by “Iron Lady” Thatcher.

Contenders have fallen over one another to promise tax cuts, painting Sunak as a left-winger because he has suggested that slashing taxes might not immediately be possible amid war in Ukraine and a stuttering post-pandemic economy.

Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said the race was “a contest between different strains of Thatcherism.”

In part that’s because the candidates are wooing an electorate, members of the Conservative Party, that is significantly less diverse — racially, economically and ideologically — than Britain as a whole.

A study of political party membership by Queen Mary University of London and Sussex University, completed in 2020, found 95% of Conservative members identified as “White British,” compared to about 86% of the population as a whole. Some 63% of party members were men, 58% were aged 50 or older and 80% were middle class or above.

Still, Katwala, who studies British social attitudes, is confident the Conservative electorate “will see the leaders through their politics and through issues” rather than through gender or ethnicity.

“Britain has become a more tolerant, less racially prejudiced country, very significantly, over the last few generations,” he said.

“What makes ethnic diversity normal in politics is when you’ve got it on the right, on the left and in the middle.”
…

Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations are due to meet Wednesday in Istanbul in an effort to resume grain exports from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. 

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has hindered Ukrainian exports, helping push up global prices on grain, cooking oils, fuel and fertilizer. 

Turkey and the United Nations have been working to broker a deal to alleviate the crisis. 

Russia has expressed concerns about ships being used to bring weapons into Ukraine and called for ships to be searched. 

Ukraine has said an agreement cannot threaten the security of its territory along the Black Sea. 

Donbas fighting 

Britain’s defense ministry said Wednesday it expects Russian forces to focus on taking small towns near the cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk as it tries to take control of the eastern Donbas region. 

“The urban areas of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk likely remain the principal objectives for this phase of the operation,” the ministry said. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address late Tuesday that “Russian shelling does not stop for a single day.” 

“In the Donbas, offensive attempts do not stop, the situation there does not get easier, and the losses do not get smaller. We must remember this. We must see this, draw attention to this.” 

Ukraine said Tuesday 52 Russians were killed in a long-range missile attack on an ammunition dump in southern Ukraine. Moscow disputed the claim, saying seven civilians had been killed. 

Kyiv said the attack in the town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region came after the United States supplied Ukraine with advanced HIMARS mobile artillery systems, which Ukraine said its forces were using with greater accuracy. 

“Based on the results of our rocket and artillery units, the enemy lost 5️2 (people), a Msta-B howitzer, a mortar and seven armored and other vehicles, as well as an ammunition depot in Nova Kakhovka,” Ukraine’s southern military command said in a statement. 

The region Ukraine hit is one that Russia seized after launching its invasion on February 24. With access to the Black Sea, the area is of strategic importance. 

A Russian-installed official in Kherson gave a different version of events, saying at least seven people had been killed and that civilians and civilian infrastructure had been hit. 

Russia’s TASS news agency quoted Vladimir Leontyev, head of the Russia-installed, Kakhovka district military-civilian administration, as saying at least seven people had been killed in the attack and about 60 wounded. 

“There are still many people under the rubble. The injured are being taken to the hospital, but many people are blocked in their apartments and houses,” Leontyev said in the TASS account. He was also quoted as saying that warehouses, shops, a pharmacy, gas stations and a church had been hit. 

Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of indiscriminately killing civilians in the war. The United Nations human rights office said Tuesday that 5,024 civilians had been killed in Ukraine since the invasion began, while adding that the actual toll was likely much higher. 

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

France’s new foreign minister said on Tuesday there were only a few weeks before the window of opportunity to revive Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers would close. 

Speaking to lawmakers, Catherine Colonna said the situation was no longer tenable and accused Iran of using delaying tactics and going back on previously agreed positions during talks in Doha earlier this month, while forging ahead with its uranium enrichment program. 

“There is still a window of opportunity … for Iran to finally decide to accept an accord, which it worked to build. But time is passing,” Colonna said, warning that if Iran kept on its current trajectory, it would be a threshold nuclear-armed state. 

“Time is passing. Tehran must realize this,” she said, adding that the U.S. mid-term elections would make it even harder to seal a deal. 

“The window of opportunity will close in a few weeks. There will not be a better accord to the one which is on the table.” 

Last week, the U.S. envoy for the talks to reinstate the deal said Iran had added demands unrelated to discussions on its nuclear program during the latest talks and had made alarming progress on enriching uranium. 

Under the 2015 nuclear pact, Iran limited its uranium enrichment program, a potential pathway to nuclear weapons, though Tehran says it seeks only civilian atomic energy, in return for a lifting of international sanctions. 

In 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal, calling it too soft on Iran, and reimposed harsh U.S. sanctions, spurring Tehran to breach nuclear limits in the pact. 

Western officials have repeatedly said that the talks between world powers and Iran only had a few weeks to conclude a deal, with Colonna’s predecessor Jean-Yves Le Drian even saying in February it was just a question of days.
…

More than 1.8 billion people worldwide are at risk of severe floods, new research shows. Most reside in low- and middle-income countries in Asia, and four out of 10 live in poverty.

The figures are substantially larger than previous estimates. They show that the risk is concentrated among those least able to withstand and recover from flooding.

“I thought it was a valuable paper, indeed. Because this link between poverty and flood risk is kind of overlooked,” said hydrologist Bruno Merz, of the German Research Center for Geosciences, who was not involved in the study.

Flood risk assessments typically consider risk in monetary terms, which is highest in rich countries where more wealth is at stake. The new study focused on how flood exposure and poverty overlap.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the study combined a global flood risk database with information on population density and poverty. The research focused on places where floods 15 centimeters deep or deeper happen at least once every 100 years on average.

The study found that nearly 90% of people at risk of severe flooding live in poor countries, not rich ones. More than 780 million flood-exposed people live on less than $5.50 per day.

The substantial overlap between high flood risk and poverty feeds into a vicious cycle that further concentrates flood protections in rich countries that have more resources to deal with floods in the first place, said flood risk researcher Jeroen Aerts of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Aerts was not involved in the study.

“It’s doing a cost-benefit analysis,” Aerts said. “Less money is going to poorer countries, because, of course, if the country is poorer, there are less dollars exposed.” Aerts said that this also happens within countries, which tend to invest in pricey flood protections for wealthy urban centers rather than for poorer rural areas.

The new estimate for global flood exposure is higher than some earlier ones. For instance, one previous study predicted that 1.3 billion people would be exposed to severe floods by 2050 — 500 million fewer than are exposed today, according to the new estimate. The authors attribute their higher number to their use of better data covering more regions at higher resolution and combining the risks from coastal, river and surface water floods.

The study did not consider protections, such as levees or dikes, in its assessment of flood exposure. This “distorts the picture,” Merz said, since some flood-prone populations are well-protected, such as those in the Netherlands.

Rather than undermining the study’s findings, Merz thought that this could mean that an even greater proportion of the people threatened by floods lives in poor regions.

“In many low-income countries, there is no flood protection, so people will be flooded by a small flood … that occurs on average every five years. On the other hand, in Europe, in North America, many of the areas are protected (from floods that happen once every) 100 years, 200 years or even higher. And so, this is not included,” he said.

Unprotected, poorer regions could thus shoulder an even greater share of the actual risks from flood exposure than the paper suggests.

The new result offers a snapshot of flood risk around the world as it is today, not a projection of how it will develop in the future. Climate change is projected to increase the frequency and intensity of floods in much of the world. And although early warning systems have decreased flood fatalities, including in resource-poor regions, population growth in flood-prone areas will also put more people at risk in the future, Aerts said.

“The exposure to natural hazards, exposure to flooding — it’s larger than previously investigated. And the majority of those exposed people live in a vulnerable, poor region,” Aerts said. “I think that’s the takeaway, I think, and maybe one sentence more: This means that investments in … flood adaptation should be targeted at those areas.”
…

Eight British Conservative Party lawmakers have made the cut to replace outgoing Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who resigned earlier this month amid scandals. 

Each of the eight needed support from at least 20 fellow Conservative Party lawmakers before the Tuesday deadline.  

Runoff voting among fellow Conservative lawmakers, to narrow the field to two, is scheduled to begin Wednesday. 

Among the eight are former Treasury chief Rishi Sunak, Foreign Secretary Liz Truss, Trade Minister Penny Mordaunt and backbench lawmaker Tom Tugendhat. Former health secretary Sajid Javid was not among the eight. 

Lawmakers aim to narrow the field to two by the summer break, which starts July 21. The two finalists will then campaign across the country, after which party members will vote on the winner. 

The new leader is due to be announced when the House of Commons returns on September 5. 

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press. 

 
…

Ukrainian and Russian officials gave differing accounts Tuesday of a Ukrainian attack in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine.

According to the Ukrainian side, a long-range rocket struck a Russian ammunition depot in Nova Kakhovka, killing 52 Russian troops.

Russia said the Ukrainian strike instead hit civilian infrastructure.

Also Tuesday, Britain’s defense ministry said Russian forces continued to make “incremental territorial gains” in Donetsk province, the area of eastern Ukraine where it has focused its efforts.

The British statement said Russia is likely maintaining pressure on Ukrainian forces while “regrouping and reconstituting for further offensives in the near future.

Officials in the Donetsk town of Chasiv Yar said the death toll from a Russian missile strike on an apartment building rose to 34, with nine people having been safely rescued from the rubble.

The five-story apartment building was demolished by a rocket attack Saturday.

Chasiv Yar is about 20 kilometers southeast of Kramatorsk, a city that is expected to be a major target of Russian forces as they push farther westward into Donetsk province after claiming victory a week ago in the adjoining Luhansk province.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…

Russian journalist Yury Dud was fined 120,000 rubles ($2,024) by a Moscow court Tuesday under a law that bans “propaganda” in support of gay relationships.

Lefortovo district court said the 35-year-old was fined for disseminating “propaganda for non-traditional sexual relationships among minors.”

Former sports reporter Dud is one of Russia’s top media stars, having risen to prominence via acerbic, politically tinged interviews and documentaries uploaded to YouTube, where he has more than 10 million subscribers.

In October last year, Dud was fined 100,000 rubles ($1,689) on charges of “drugs propaganda,” after a pro-Kremlin lobby group asked Russia’s internal affairs ministry to investigate him.

On April 15, Dud was designated a foreign agent by Russia’s justice ministry after publicly opposing Russia’s war in Ukraine, which he dubbed an “imperial frenzy.”

Human rights lawyer Pavel Chikov said the case against Dud was based on a 2021 YouTube interview he conducted with a gay performance artist, although Chikov said the interview was not about homosexuality.

Russia has since 2013 criminalized “propagandizing” non-traditional sexual orientations to children, as part of the Kremlin’s wider conservative agenda. Last week, parliamentary speaker Vyacheslav Volodin called for a complete ban on promoting “non-traditional values” in Russia.
…

Olympic champion Mo Farah revealed in an article published Monday that he was brought to Britain illegally under the name of another child to work as a domestic servant. 

Farah told the BBC that he was given the name Mohamed Farah by a woman who flew him to the UK from the East African country Djibouti when he was 9. 

The 39-year-old, whose father was killed in Somalia when he was 4, said his real name is Hussein Abdi Kahin and claimed he was made to look after another family’s children in Britain. 

“The truth is I’m not who you think I am,” he said as part of a documentary to be aired Wednesday. 

“Most people know me as Mo Farah, but it’s not my name, or it’s not the reality. 

“The real story is I was born in Somaliland, north of Somalia, as Hussein Abdi Kahin. Despite what I’ve said in the past, my parents never lived in the UK. 

“When I was 4 my dad was killed in the civil war, you know, as a family we were torn apart. 

“I was separated from my mother, and I was brought into the UK illegally under the name of another child called Mohamed Farah.” 

Farah, who became the first British track and field athlete to win four Olympic gold medals, said his children have motivated him to be truthful about his past. 

“I’ve been keeping it for so long, it’s been difficult because you don’t want to face it, and often my kids ask questions, ‘Dad, how come this?’ And you’ve always got an answer for everything, but you haven’t got an answer for that,” he said. 

“That’s the main reason in telling my story because I want to feel normal and don’t feel like you’re holding on to something.” 

‘Just being honest’ 

Farah’s wife, Tania, said in the year leading up to their 2010 wedding she realized “there was lots of missing pieces to his story” but she eventually “wore him down with the questioning” and he told the truth. 

During the television program, Farah said he thought he was going to Europe to live with relatives and recalled going through a UK passport check under the guise of Mohamed at the age of 9. 

“I had all the contact details for my relative and once we got to her house, the lady took it off me and right in front of me ripped them up and put it in the bin and at that moment I knew I was in trouble,” he said. 

Farah eventually told his physical education teacher Alan Watkinson the truth and moved to live with his friend’s mother, Kinsi, who “really took great care” of him, and stayed seven years. 

It was Watkinson who applied for Farah’s British citizenship, which he described as a “long process” and on July 25, 2000, Farah was recognized as a British citizen. 

Farah, who named his son Hussein after his real name, said: “I often think about the other Mohamed Farah, the boy whose place I took on that plane, and I really hope he’s OK. 

“Wherever he is, I carry his name and that could cause problems now for me and my family. 

“The important thing is for me to just be able to look, this is what’s happened and just being honest, really.”
…

Spain and Portugal were sweltering in their second heat wave in a month Monday, with scorching temperatures also expected in France and Britain in the coming days.

People in Spain baked with the temperature in the central town of Candeleda hitting a stifling 43.3 degrees Celsius (110 degrees Fahrenheit) shortly after 6 p.m. (1600 GMT), according to Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET.

The mercury meanwhile hit 42.4C in the southern city of Seville.

The southwestern cities of Badajoz and Merida also saw temperatures of 42C.

AEMET forecast 46C in Badajoz on Thursday and Friday with Seville predicted to swelter in 45C on Wednesday and Thursday.

“This heat wave really has the potential to be exceptional,” said AEMET representative Ruben del Campo.

The current temperature surge began Sunday and could “last nine or 10 days, which would make it one of the three longest heat waves Spain has seen since 1975,” he told AFP.

Heat waves have become more frequent due to climate change, scientists say. As global temperatures rise over time, heat waves are expected to become more intense.

June had already seen Spain grapple with temperatures above 40C in swathes of the country.

The previous month was Spain’s hottest May since the beginning of the century.

In August 2021, Spain recorded its highest ever temperature when the mercury reached 47.4C (117 degrees Fahrenheit) in the small southern town of Montoro.

Meteorologists did not rule out the prospect of that record being broken in the coming days.

The heightened temperatures have been accompanied by a lack of rainfall.

Reservoirs in Spain stood at 45.3% of capacity Monday, well below the average of 65.7% recorded during the same period over the past decade.

In neighboring Portugal temperatures topped 44C over the weekend, fueling wildfires and vast smoke clouds which were visible in the capital Lisbon.

Firefighters brought the largest blaze under control Monday after it had burned through swathes of the central municipality of Ourem, local officials said.

‘Maximum risk’

While temperatures eased somewhat in Portugal on Monday, they were expected to soar again in the coming days with 44C forecast for the southeastern city of Evora.

“In the coming days we will experience conditions of maximum risk,” Prime Minister Antonio Costa said.

“The slightest lapse in vigilance could result in a fire of significant proportions.”

A front of hot air began pushing into France Monday, with the mercury rising above 30C across much of the country, according to national weather forecaster Meteo-France.

Temperatures could hit 39C in some parts of France Tuesday, Meteo-France added. The heat wave should reach its peak between Saturday and next Tuesday, said Sebastien Leas of Meteo-France.

Britain on Monday issued an extreme heat warning, with temperatures predicted to hit more than 30C across large parts of England and Wales.

The extreme heat warning was classified as “amber,” the second-highest alert level, indicating a “high impact” on daily life and people.

Met Office deputy chief meteorologist Rebekah Sherwin said the U.K. highs would continue into early next week.

“From Sunday and into Monday, temperatures are likely to be in excess of 35C in the southeast (of England), although the details still remain uncertain,” she said.
…

The United Nations said Monday that thousands of children in war zones suffered grave abuses including rape, maiming and death last year, and that concerns are growing for children in new regions of conflict, including Ukraine.

“The fact remains that hundreds, if not thousands, of children are victims of violence in armed conflict every day of every week of every month of every year in conflict-affected states and regions,” Virginia Gamba, the special representative of the secretary-general for children and armed conflict, told reporters at the launch of the annual report.

The most dangerous places to be a child last year were Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia and Yemen.

Gamba’s office, working with U.N. teams on the ground, verified nearly 24,000 grave violations against children. More than 8,000 were killed or maimed due to conflict, 6,310 were recruited and used in combat; and nearly 3,500 children were abducted.

Among worrying trends the report uncovered is the significant increase in abductions and sexual violence against children. Both were up 20% from 2020.

Gamba said many of the girls abducted are then trafficked, and that armed groups such as Boko Haram and West Africa’s branch of the Islamic State group target girls specifically for this purpose; it is not a random act of violence in a conflict. Ninety-eight percent of sexual violence documented in the report targeted girls.

While the vast majority of monitored violations were against boys — some 70% — overall the number of abuses against them has decreased, while girls suffered an increase in killing and maiming, abduction and rape.

“By 2020, one out of four children victims of grave violations were girls, but by 2021, one out of three are girls,” Gamba said. “The Lake Chad Basin region, which was included in children and armed conflict agenda last year, showed the most significant increase of girls affected by grave violations among all situations on the agenda.”

Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Libya, Niger and Nigeria are all part of the Lake Chad Basin region and have suffered variations of instability, intercommunal violence, terrorism and conflict.

Naming and shaming

The annual report is known for “naming and shaming” governments that mistreat children. But the 2021 report had no surprise listings.

Fifty-seven parties to conflict, seven of which are government-related actors, are mentioned, while the rest are nonstate groups.

Among the state offenders are Myanmar’s military, the Tatmadaw, which was listed for maiming, killing and raping children. Congo’s army, the FARDC, for raping children. Syria’s government forces and pro-government militias for recruiting, killing and maiming, raping and attacking schools and/or hospitals.

A lengthy list of nonstate groups, including terrorists and rebel groups such as Islamic State, al-Qaida, Boko Haram and al-Shabab were also cited for multiple violations.

Afghanistan’s Taliban was listed for recruiting, maiming, killing and abducting children, as well as attacking schools and hospitals. Gamba said monitoring in Afghanistan in 2021 ended on Aug. 15, when the Taliban seized power after the government collapsed and the U.N. switched its focus to the humanitarian emergency. But in those first 7 1/2 months, there were nearly 3,000 verified violations against children.

“It still is one of the low points in my life to look at what is happening in Afghanistan,” Gamba said.

She said monitors have resumed their work there “however we can.”

New conflicts

The special representative’s office has now been mandated by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to immediately begin monitoring four new situations of concern: Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ukraine and the Central Sahel.

On Ukraine, she is most concerned about attacks on schools and hospitals and the killing and maiming of children. Her Ukraine mandate starts immediately and includes both the protection of children and the prevention of abuses against them.

Good news

There were some positive developments in the report. Some countries that have been listed have seen improvement after signing action plans with Gamba’s office and engaging with them.

She pointed to South Sudan, which in 2018 was the second-highest offender with more than 4,000 violations against children each year.

“Today there is less than 300 a year,” Gamba said. “Why? The action plans put in place, measures put in place, laws, training, capacity that has been put in place.”
…

Hundreds of people marched in Spain’s capital Madrid Sunday to demand “human rights for Cubans” during a demonstration marking the first anniversary of the protests in Cuba.

Police reported that some 250 people participated in the march. They also asked for freedom for political prisoners.

“The tentacles of the Cuban regime are very wide,” said Cuban émigré Yadira Dobarganes, who criticized what she called the “false and lying leftists.” Among her demands was that Cubans have the right to return to the island, alluding to the complaints about the restrictions imposed by Havana on some people who are prevented from returning to the country for political reasons.

VOA found emigrants from Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua among the protesters who chanted slogans. “No more dictatorship,” “Democracy for Cuba now,” and “SOS Cuba,” read some of the posters.

Some politicians also attended, such as Rocío Monasterio, a VOX party member of the Assembly of Madrid.

The demonstration took place almost a year after July 11, 2021, when thousands of Cubans took to the streets, from Havana to Santiago de Cuba, frustrated by months of crisis, restrictions, a lack of medicine, and other resources to put a stop to the COVID-19 pandemic. Their demands called for vaccines and “freedom.”

It was the first massive demonstration in decades on the island with a one-party political system and communist government, where dissenters are usually sentenced to long prison sentences. To date, human rights organizations inside and outside the country have reported that more than 1,000 protesters have been arrested or imprisoned. The government reported that it had criminally prosecuted 380 people for crimes of sedition, sabotage, robbery with force, violence and others.

Those who echoed the protests on social networks were threatened and ordered to delete the publications that showed the discontent and the magnitude of the protests.

Many were arrested, including teenagers, who have been brought to trial and sentenced to prison terms.

The government of Miguel Díaz-Canel then asked his followers to take to the streets to respond to the protesters, claiming that many were “confused” and pointed to the United States government to encourage the protests that shook the island. The island government also said that the goal was to “destabilize” the socialist system that had been in place for decades.

“The combat order is given,” Díaz-Canel said in an intervention on state television a year ago.

Havana blames the U.S. embargo for the economic crisis it has faced for decades and which has worsened in recent years. Some of those who dissent say mismanagement and the Cuban political system has the Caribbean island in crisis.

Law to criminalize protest

In August 2021, the government approved Decree-Law 35, aimed at content or messages that Havana considers to be false, offensive news or that may incite acts “that disturb public order.” Under the law, anyone who tries to “subvert the constitutional order” will be considered a cyberterrorist.

In Madrid, Cuban singer and activist Yotuel Romero led the march that ended in the popular Plaza Cibeles.

“It has been incredible, few people expected because today is Sunday, yesterday was the day of gay pride. … We have to continue ‘positions and connected,'” said Romero, one of the authors of the song “Patria y Vida,” which served as inspiration and motto for the demands for democratic changes in Cuba.

“I have come to protest and ask for the freedom that the Cuban people deserve,” Armando López, who was wearing a hat decorated with a Cuban flag , told VOA.

Other demonstrations are expected to take place on Monday in Spanish cities such as Barcelona, Seville and Saragoza.
…

All Ukrainians can now apply for fast-track Russian citizenship, according to a decree signed Monday by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Previously, this option had been open only to residents of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as residents of the southern Zaporizhzhia and the Kherson regions, which are largely under Russian control.

It was unclear how many would apply for Russian citizenship, but between 2019 — when the offer was made available to residents of Donetsk and Luhansk — and 2022, about 18% of the population in rebel-held areas of Ukraine received Russian passports.

In May, the program was expanded to residents of the Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.

Ukrainian officials have yet to comment on Putin’s decree.

Some information in this report comes from Reuters and The Associated Press.
…

Thousands of people from Bosnia-Herzegovina and around the world have descended on Srebrenica for the 27th anniversary of Serbian massacre 

Serbian forces summarily executed more than 8,000 Bosnian men and boys. About 100,000 people, including women and children died during Bosnia’s 1992-1995 war.

Families of 50 recently identified victims will rebury their loved ones after almost three decades of searching through the mass graves scattered around the eastern Bosnian town.

The Srebrenica massacre is Europe’s only acknowledged genocide since the Holocaust and is the only one legally defined as such by many countries and two United Nations courts.

A special U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague found Bosnian Serb wartime president Radovan Karadzic and his military commander, Ratko Mladic, guilty of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide in Srebrenica and eventually extended their initial long-term prison sentences to life imprisonment. 

The tribunal and courts in the Balkan countries have sentenced about 50 Bosnian Serb wartime officials to more than 700 years in prison for the Srebrenica killings.

Leaders of Serb Republic of Bosnia, or Republika Srpska, however, continue to downplay or even deny the 1995 Srebrenica massacre and hail Karadzic and Mladic as national heroes.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
…

Russia is shutting down the Nord Stream One pipeline for annual maintenance beginning Monday morning.

The pipeline from Russia, which under the Baltic Sea, is Germany’s main source of gas, and is scheduled to be offline until July 21.

German officials have expressed doubts about Russia’s intentions, especially given the fact that Nord Stream operator Gazprom reduced the gas flow by 60% last month.

Gazprom has said the maintenance includes “testing of mechanical elements and automation systems.”

Gazprom also reported technical problems with parts of a turbine that its partner Siemens Energy sent to Canada for repair, but which could not be returned because of western sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

Canada, however, said over the weekend that it would allow the parts to be returned to Germany, citing the “very significant hardship” the insufficient gas supply will cause to German economy.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck has said he suspected that Russia may cite “some little technical detail” as a reason not to resume gas deliveries to Germany after the maintenance is completed.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
…