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U.S., British and European Union officials are planning to jointly press the United Arab Emirates this week to halt shipments of goods to Russia that could help Moscow in its war against Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing U.S. and European officials.

A UAE official, in response to Reuters’ request for comment, said the country “strictly abides by UN sanctions and has clear and robust processes in place to deal with sanctioned entities.”

The UAE “is continuously monitoring the export of dual-use products,” which have both civilian and military applications, under its export control legal framework, the official added.

Officials from Washington and European capitals were visiting the UAE from Monday as part of a collective global push to keep computer chips, electronic components and other so-called dual-use products out of Russian hands, the WSJ report said.

The UAE, a member of the OPEC+ oil alliance that includes Russia, has maintained good ties with Moscow despite Western pressure to help to isolate Russia over the invasion of Ukraine that began in February 2022. It has not matched global sanctions imposed on Moscow.

The U.S. State Department declined to comment when asked about the WSJ report.

The UAE official added the UAE remained in close dialogue with international partners including the U.S. and European Union about the conflict in Ukraine and its implications for the global economy.

“UAE banks, under the supervision of the Central Bank and other relevant authorities, monitor compliance with sanctions imposed on Russia to prevent violations of international law,” the UAE official said.
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A longtime aide to President Joe Biden who is a senior adviser in Vice President Kamala Harris’ office is Biden’s choice to represent the United States at the United Nations agency devoted to education, science and culture.

The U.S. recently rejoined the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization after a five-year hiatus initiated by Biden’s immediate predecessor in the White House, Donald Trump.

The Democratic president’s choice to become the U.S. permanent representative to the Paris-based UNESCO, with the rank of ambassador, is longtime aide Courtney O’Donnell, according to a White House official, who spoke Monday on the condition of anonymity to discuss the nomination before a formal announcement.

O’Donnell currently wears two hats: She’s a senior adviser in Harris’ office and acting chief of staff for Harris’ husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, and lends her expertise to a range of national and global issues, including gender equity and countering prejudice against Jews, a top issue for Emhoff, who is Jewish.

O’Donnell also was communications director for Jill Biden when she was second lady during Joe Biden’s vice presidency in the Obama administration. O’Donnell helped Jill Biden raise awareness and support for U.S. military families and promote community colleges.

She has extensive experience in developing global partnerships, public affairs and strategic communications, having held senior roles in two presidential administrations, nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, national political campaigns and the private sector, according to her official bio.

O’Donnell most recently oversaw global partnerships at Airbnb.

Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain said O’Donnell is trusted by colleagues worldwide.

“This is a fantastic pick, and she will do a fantastic job at UNESCO,” he said in a statement.

Cathy Russell worked with O’Donnell in the second lady’s office and said she is skilled at developing global partnerships, creating social impact campaigns and providing strategic counsel on a range of issues.

“Everyone who knows Courtney knows she is committed to the value of global engagement and strengthening American leadership around the world,” Russell said.

The Senate must vote on O’Donnell’s nomination.

The first lady attended a ceremony in late July at UNESCO headquarters in Paris, where the U.S. flag was raised to mark Washington’s official reentry into the U.N. agency after the absence initiated by Trump, a Republican. She spoke about the importance of American leadership in preserving cultural heritage and empowering education and science across the globe.

The United States announced its intention to rejoin UNESCO in June, and the organization’s 193 member states voted in July to approve the U.S. reentry. The ceremony formally signified the U.S. becoming the 194th member — and flag proprietor — at the agency.

The U.S. decision to return was based mainly on concerns that China has filled a leadership gap since Washington withdrew, underscoring the broader geopolitical dynamics at play, particularly the growing influence of China in international institutions.

The U.S. exit from UNESCO in 2017 cited an alleged anti-Israel bias within the organization. The decision followed a 2011 move by UNESCO to include Palestine as a member state, which led the U.S. and Israel to cease financing the agency. The U.S. withdrawal became official in 2018.
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Clashes erupted in an immigrant neighborhood in Sweden’s third largest city after an anti-Muslim protester set fire to a copy of the Quran, police said Monday.

Police in Malmo said they were pelted with rocks and dozens of cars were set on fire, including in an underground garage, and described the events that started Sunday and lasted overnight as “a violent riot.”

The clashes started after an anti-Islam activist, Salwan Momika, burned a copy of the Quran on Sunday and an angry mob tried to stop him, police said. At least three people were detained, they said.

Early Monday, a crowd of mainly young people set fire to tires and debris and some threw electric scooters, bicycles and barriers in Malmo’s Rosengard neighborhood, which has seen similar clashes in the past. Several banners condemned the Quran burning.

“I understand that a public gathering like this arouses strong emotions, but we cannot tolerate disturbances and violent expressions like those we saw on Sunday afternoon,” senior police officer Petra Stenkula said.

“It is extremely regrettable to once again see violence and vandalism at Rosengard,” she said.

“Regardless of the reason behind these riots, the car fires, the harassment, violence against police officers … regardless of the reason, I think that all Swedes find this completely unacceptable,” Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said at a news conference.

In the past months, Momika, a refugee from Iraq, has desecrated copies of the Quran in a series of anti-Islam protests mostly in Stockholm. Swedish police have allowed his actions, citing freedom of speech.

The Quran burnings have sparked angry protests in Muslim countries, attacks on Swedish diplomatic missions and threats from Islamic extremists. Muslim leaders in Sweden have called on the government to find ways to stop the Quran burnings.

Sweden dropped its last blasphemy laws in the 1970s and the government has said it has no intention to reintroduce them.

However, the government has announced an investigation into the possibility of enabling police to reject permits for demonstrations over national security concerns.
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A group of Afghan women are staging a hunger strike in Cologne to protest “gender apartheid” in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, one of them told AFP on Monday.

“Today the women of Afghanistan don’t have school, university, cars, restaurants, everything is banned,” Zarmina Paryani told AFP.

The activist is one of five sisters who fled to Germany in 2022 after being arrested by the Taliban for protesting in Afghanistan.

Another of the sisters, Tamana Paryani, is also taking part in the strike, which is due to last for 12 days.

Tamana Paryani posted a picture on X, formerly known as Twitter, showing a banner reading “Afghanistan should be recognized as a country where gender apartheid exists.”

The Taliban “arrest, torture and kill political and human rights activists every day … but the world is silent,” Zarmina Paryani said.

Sixteen women began the strike in the major city in western Germany four days ago, but there were only three remaining on Monday, she said.

Since returning to power in August 2021, Taliban authorities have imposed a strict interpretation of Islam, with women bearing the brunt of laws the United Nations has labeled “gender apartheid.”

Women and girls have been banned from attending high school and university as well as barred from visiting parks, fairs and gymnasiums.

They have also mostly been blocked from working for U.N. agencies or NGOs, with thousands fired from government jobs or paid to stay at home.
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French authorities were imposing a newly-announced ban Monday on the abaya Muslim dress for women in schools, with over 500 establishments under scrutiny as children across the country returned to class.  

The government announced last month it was banning the abaya in schools, saying it broke the rules on secularism in education that have already seen Muslim headscarves banned on the grounds they constitute a display of religious affiliation. 

The move gladdened the political right but the hard-left argued it represented an affront to civil liberties. 

“Things are going well this morning. There is no incident for the moment, we will continue all day to be vigilant so that the students understand the meaning of this rule,” said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne as she visited a school in northern France. 

But she added that there were a “certain number” of schools where girls had arrived wearing an abaya. 

“Some young girls agreed to remove it. For the others, we will have discussions with them, and use educational approaches to explain that there is a law that is being applied,” she added. 

The hard-left has accused the government of centrist President Emmanuel Macron of using the abaya ban to compete with Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally, and of shifting further to the right. 

Education Minister Gabriel Attal told RTL radio that authorities had identified 513 schools that could be affected by the ban at the start of the school year. 

There are around 45,000 schools in France, with 12 million pupils going back to school Monday. 

He said work had been done ahead of the start of the school year to identify in which schools the ban could present a problem, adding that trained school inspectors would be placed in some schools. 

Attal, however, said he was against imposing a ban on parents wearing clothes that had religious significance when they accompanied their children on school outings. 

“There is a difference between what happens in school and what happens outside school. What matters to me is what happens in school,” he said. 

Some leading figures on the right have called on the government to make children wear school uniforms in state schools, and Attal said he would announce a uniform trial in the autumn. 

“I am not sure it’s a miracle solution that will solve all school problems. But I think it merits testing,” he added. 

A law introduced in March 2004 banned “the wearing of signs or outfits by which students ostensibly show a religious affiliation” in schools. 

This includes large crosses, Jewish kippas and Islamic headscarves. 

Unlike headscarves, abayas — a long, baggy garment worn to comply with Islamic beliefs on modest dress — occupied a grey area and had faced no outright ban until now. 
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A guitar expert and two journalists have launched a global hunt for a missing bass guitar owned by Paul McCartney, bidding to solve what they brand “the greatest mystery in rock and roll.”

The trio of lifelong Beatles fans are searching for McCartney’s original Höfner bass — last seen in London in 1969 — in order to reunite the instrument with the former Fab Four frontman.

McCartney played the instrument throughout the 1960s, including at Hamburg’s Top Ten Club, at the Cavern Club in Liverpool and on early Beatles recordings at London’s Abbey Road studios.

“This is the search for the most important bass in history — Paul McCartney’s original Höfner,” the search party says on a website (thelostbass.com) newly-created for the endeavor.

“This is the bass you hear on ‘Love Me Do’, ‘She Loves You’, and ‘Twist and Shout’. The bass that powered Beatlemania — and shaped the sound of the modern world.”

McCartney bought the left-handed Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass for around £30 — about £550 ($585) today — in Hamburg in 1961, during The Beatles’ four-month residency at the Top Ten Club.

It disappeared without a trace nearly eight years later in January 1969 when the band were recording the “Get Back/Let It Be” sessions in central London.

By then its appearance was unique — after being overhauled in 1964, including with a complete respray in a three-part dark sunburst polyurethane finish — and it had become McCartney’s back-up bass.

‘Give something back’

The team now hunting for the guitar say it has not been seen since, but that “numerous theories and false sightings have occurred over the years.”

Appealing for fresh tips on its whereabouts, they insist their mission is “a search, not an investigation”, noting all information will be treated confidentially.

“With a little help from our friends — from fans and musicians to collectors and music shops — we can get the bass back to where it once belonged,” the trio stated on the website.

“Paul McCartney has given us so much over the last 62 years. The Lost Bass project is our chance to give something back.”

Nick Wass, a semi-retired former marketing manager and electric guitar developer for Höfner who co-wrote the definitive book on the Höfner 500/1 Violin Bass, is spearheading the search.

“It was played in Hamburg, at The Cavern Club, at Abbey Road. Isn’t that enough alone to get this bass back?” he added.

“I know, because I talked with him about it, that Paul would be so happy — thrilled — if this bass could get back to him.”

Wass is joined by journalist husband and wife team Scott and Naomi Jones.

The trio said other previously lost guitars have been found.

John Lennon’s Gibson J-160E — which he used to write “I Want To Hold Your Hand” — disappeared during The Beatles’ Christmas Show in 1963.

It resurfaced half a century later, and then sold at auction for $2.4 million.
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The French government said Monday it was preparing a new decree against meaty terms like “steak” or “grill” being used to describe plant-based products.

Its latest decree is “an issue of transparency and honesty responding to the legitimate expectations of consumers and producers,” Agriculture Minister Marc Fesneau said in a statement.

Farmers and firms in France’s meat supply chain have long militated against terms like “plant-based burger” or “vegan sausage,” claiming that they confuse consumers.

But a 2022 decree protecting such words was suspended by the country’s top administrative court.

While that court, the Council of State, has asked for guidance from the European Court of Justice (ECJ) before its final ruling, Paris’ agriculture ministry says it has already prepared a new language order taking the judges’ complaints into account.

The decree has been submitted to the European Commission for checking against its detailed food labeling rules.

But “the term ‘plant-based steak’ has been in use for more than 40 years,” said Guillaume Hannotin, lawyer for the Proteines France organization representing makers of vegan and vegetarian alternatives.

France’s new decree still contravenes EU regulation on labeling for products that, unlike milk, lack a strict legal definition and can be referred to by terms in popular use, Hannotin argued.

The government’s latest move “torpedoes the proceedings in progress before the ECJ,” which were triggered by a complaint from Proteines France, he added.
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Spain’s acting deputy prime minister went to Brussels on Monday to meet exiled Catalan politician Carles Puigdemont, seeking support from a separatist fugitive from Spanish justice to keep Pedro Sanchez’s left-leaning coalition in power.

An inconclusive election on July 23 resulted in a hung parliament, making Puigdemont, who has been living in self-imposed exile in Belgium since leading Catalonia’s failed push for secession from Spain in 2017, the unlikely kingmaker.

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, whose conservative People’s Party won the most votes in the election, will take the first stab at an investiture vote on Sept. 27, although his chances of winning are seen as slim, as he is still four votes short after receiving support from his few allies including far-right Vox. 

Meanwhile, Sanchez, the Socialist head of the caretaker leftist coalition government, is in talks to get the necessary support for his own candidacy in a hypothetical second vote, once the conservative leader’s attempt to form a government has failed.

The support or abstention by Puigdemont’s Junts party, and an array of other separatist or regionalist parties that have supported Sanchez in the past, will be crucial for winning the right to form a government.

Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz’s leftist party Sumar said in a statement her planned talks with Puigdemont were “another step in our firm bid to open a new era of solutions based on dialogue and democracy.”

Sanchez’s Socialist Party said the meeting was strictly Sumar’s agenda although they had been informed it would take place.

The parties on the right have condemned Sanchez’s reliance on separatist parties in the previous legislature, and the current attempts to sway Junts, as betrayal of Spain’s interests for the sake of preserving power.
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About 5,000 people gathered in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki Sunday to protest a new type of identity card to be introduced later this month, police said.

Carrying Greek flags and banners, the protesters rallied at the city’s iconic White Tower, a waterfront former fortification, chanting slogans and the national anthem. They played a speech by the late former head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens, who had warned of the enemies of the Greek people.

Later, they marched through the city center before dispersing without incident.

The machine-readable cards will replace the type of ID currently issued and will contain the same information, such as name, parents’ name, address and height. The only extra information, blood type, is optional.

But the cards have inspired conspiracy theories, and some people assert the new IDs contain chips that will allow authorities to pinpoint cardholders’ locations or even control their minds. The majority of the IDs’ opponents are deeply religious.

An exasperated Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a recent cabinet meeting that the IDs will not contain “any chips or cameras or listening devices.”

The protesters’ religious connections pose a problem for the Church of Greece, some of whose bishops encourage the protests. Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens, who has none of the fiery rhetoric of his predecessor, Christodoulos, has said the Church’s Holy Synod will issue a statement about the IDs in a few days and has counseled “judiciousness and prudence.”

Another protest rally is scheduled to take place in the capital Athens next weekend.

The new IDs, which conform to an EU-wide standard, will become obligatory by August 2026.
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Israel’s prime minister floated the idea Sunday of building infrastructure projects such as a fiber optic cable linking countries in Asia and the Arabian Peninsula with Europe through Israel and Cyprus.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he’s “quite confident” such an infrastructure “corridor” linking Asia to Europe through Israel and Cyprus is feasible.

He said such projects could happen if Israel normalizes relations with other countries in the region. The 2020 U.S.-brokered Abraham Accords normalized relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, and the Biden administration is trying to establish official ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“An example and the most obvious one is a fiber optic connection. That’s the shortest route. It’s the safest route. It’s the most economic route,” Netanyahu said after talks with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.

The Israeli leader’s pitch is itself an extension of proposed energy links with Cyprus and Greece as part of growing collaboration on energy in the wake of discoveries of significant natural gas deposits in the economic zones of both Israel and Cyprus.

Netanyahu repeated that he and Christodoulides are looking to follow through on plans for a 2,000-megawatt undersea electricity cable known as the EurAsia Interconnector connecting Israel with Cyprus and Greece that aims to act as an energy supply back-up for both Israel and Cyprus.

“You want to be connected to other sources of power that can allow a more optimal use of power or give you power when there is a failure in your own country,” Netanyahu said. “That is something that we’re discussing seriously, and we hope to achieve.”

Another energy link involves a Cypriot proposal to build a pipeline that would convey offshore natural gas from both Israel and Cyprus to the east Mediterranean island nation where it would be fuel for electricity generators or potentially be liquefied for export by ship.

Christodoulides said given Europe’s need for energy diversification considering Russia’s war in Ukraine, Cyprus and Israel are looking to developing “a reliable energy corridor” linking the East Mediterranean basin to Europe through projects including gas pipelines and liquefied natural gas (LNG) processing plants.

Netanyahu said his government fully backs a European decision to create a regional firefighting hub in Cyprus from which aircraft and other technology could be dispatched to help put out fires in neighboring countries.

“The climate isn’t going to get cooler. It’s going to get hotter. And with, you know, with the heating up of our region and the globe, firefighting becomes a really important thing. We can — I think we can — do it better together,” the Israeli leader said.

Talks between Christodoulides and Netanyahu precede a trilateral meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday.

Since 2016 such meetings between the leaders of the three countries have become a staple of what they said are burgeoning ties that Netanyahu described as “a deep friendship, both personal, but also between our nations” that is “real” and “long overdue.”
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The first production co-directed by Iranian and Israeli filmmakers had to be shot in secret to prevent possible interference by Tehran, directors Zar Amir Ebrahimi and Guy Nattiv told Reuters Sunday.

“Tatami,” a tense thriller centered on a world judo championship, got its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival at the weekend, receiving a standing ovation.

The film takes place over the course of the single day of competition as an Iranian judoka champion, played by Farsi-speaking U.S. actress Arienne Mandi, is ordered to fake an injury to avoid a possible match-up with an Israeli competitor.

Amir Ebrahimi and Nattiv shot the movie in Georgia, a country Iranians can easily visit. They stayed in separate hotels, spoke English and did not let on that they were making such a politically charged film.

“I knew there are many Iranians there, so we were trying to keep it calm and secret,” said Amir Ebrahimi, who is an award-winning actress and stars in the film, playing the judoka’s increasingly terrified trainer.

“We were undercover. We knew it was a dangerous thing,” said Nattiv, whose previous movie “Golda” premiered at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

Iran does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and has banned its athletes from competing against Israelis.

In an incident that inspired “Tatami,” the International Judo Federation in 2021 gave Iran a four-year ban for pressuring one of its fighters not to face an Israeli.

Claustrophobic

Amir Ebrahimi, who won the best actress award in Cannes in 2022 for “Holy Spider,” fled Iran in 2008 for fear of imprisonment and lashings after a private video of her was leaked.

She said she had to take time to think through the possible consequences before accepting Nattiv’s offer to make the film.

“What I have learnt about the Iranian government is that as long as you are afraid, they can arrest you, they can kill you, they can make trouble around you. But as long as you are not afraid … it is going to be fine,” she said.

The film was shot in black and white, using a tight, 4:3 format, like for old television programs.

“These women are living in a black and white world. There are no colors. The box is the claustrophobic world they live in. That is the one thing they want to break. They want their freedom,” Nattiv said.

Children growing up in Iran were made to fear Israel as an implacable enemy, Amir Ebrahimi said – something Nattiv said was also happening in his own homeland, with Iran portrayed as an existential threat.

Nattiv revealed he had helped Amir Ebrahimi pay a clandestine visit to Israel, something that Tehran absolutely forbids for its citizens.

“I loved it. We could be from the same nation, the same family, we are the same,” said Amir Ebrahimi.
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Swedish police on Sunday arrested two people and detained around 10 people after a violent riot broke out at a protest involving a burning of the Quran, police said.

The protest was organized by Iraqi refugee Salwan Momika, whose protests — which have included public desecrations of the Muslim holy book — have sparked outrage across the Middle East.

Sunday’s protest was held in a square in the southern city of Malmo, which has a large immigrant population, and according to public broadcaster SVT around 200 people had showed up to watch.

“Some onlookers have shown upset feelings, after the organizer burned writings,” police said in a statement.

“The mood was at times heated,” the statement said, adding that a “violent riot” occurred at 1:45 pm (1145 GMT).

According to police, the event had ended after the organizer left but a group of people remained at the scene.

About 10 people were detained for disturbing the public order and another two were arrested, suspected of violent rioting.

Local media reported that some onlookers threw rocks at Momika, and video from the scene showed some trying to break through the cordon before being stopped by police.

In another video a man could be scene trying to stop the police car that transported Momika from the location by getting in front of it.

Through a series of demonstrations, Momika has sparked anger directed at Sweden and diplomatic tensions between Sweden and several Middle Eastern countries.

The Swedish government has condemned the desecrations of the Quran while noting the country’s constitutionally protected freedom of speech and assembly laws.

Iraqi protesters stormed the Swedish embassy in Baghdad twice in July, starting fires within the compound on the second occasion.

Swedish envoys have also been summoned in a slew of Middle Eastern nations. 

In mid-August, Sweden’s intelligence agency heightened its terror alert level to four on a scale of five, noting that Sweden had “gone from being considered a legitimate target for terrorist attacks to being considered a prioritized target.”

Sweden also decided to beef up border controls in early August.

In late August, neighboring Denmark — which has also seen a string of public desecrations of the Quran — said it plans to ban Quran burnings.

Sweden has meanwhile vowed to explore legal means of stopping protests involving the burning of texts in certain circumstances.
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The changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace may draw tourists from far and wide, but Sunday visitors to the landmark were treated to a different sort of spectacle: a parade of corgis dressed up in crowns, tiaras and royal outfits.

Around 20 royal fans and their pet corgis gathered to walk their dogs outside the palace in central London to remember Queen Elizabeth II a year since her death.

Corgis were the late queen’s constant companions since she was a child, and Elizabeth owned around 30 throughout her life. Generations of the dogs descended from Susan, a corgi that was given to the queen on her 18th birthday.

Agatha Crerer-Gilbert, who organized Sunday’s event, said she would like the corgi march to take place every year in Elizabeth’s memory.

“I can’t see a better way to remember her than through her corgis, through the breed that she loved and cherished through her life,” she said.

“You know, I can’t still get used to the fact that she’s not physically around us, but she’s looking at us. Look, the sun is shining, I thought it would shine on us today,” she added.

Aleksandr Barmin, who owns a corgi named Cinnamon and has taken the pet to attend past royal-related events, said the parade was a poignant reminder that Elizabeth is no longer around.

“It’s a really hard feeling, to be honest … it’s really sad that we don’t have (the queen) among us anymore,” he said. “But still, Her Majesty the Queen is still in our hearts.”

Sept. 8 will be the first anniversary of the death of the 96-year-old queen at her Balmoral castle estate in Scotland. She was queen for 70 years and was Britain’s longest-reigning sovereign. 
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In October 1943, after the Nazis began a brutal occupation of their former ally, German troops hanged six Italian civilians on a hillside in southern Italy as collective punishment for the killing of a soldier, who had been foraging for food.

Eighty years later, some of the relatives of the men put to death in Fornelli are finally set to receive a share of 12 million euros ($13 million) awarded by an Italian court as compensation for their families’ trauma.

“We still mark the event every year. It hasn’t been forgotten,” said Mauro Petrarca, the great-grandson of one of those killed, Domenico Lancellotta, a 52-year-old Roman Catholic father of five daughters and a son.

All but one of the family members alive at the time of the killings are now dead, but under Italian law, damages owed to them can still be passed on to their heirs. This means Petrarca is set to receive around 130,000 euros ($142,000) under the terms of a 2020 court ruling.

In an ironic twist, it will be Italy rather than Germany that pays up, after it lost a battle in the International Court of Justice over whether Berlin could still be liable for damages tied to World War Two crimes and atrocities.

Jewish organizations in Italy believe Berlin should be paying to acknowledge their historical responsibility. But victims’ groups also fear Rome is dragging its feet in dealing with a deluge of claims that could weigh on state accounts.

“This is a very tormented issue, both from a political and a legal perspective,” said Giulio Disegni, the vice president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI), which has been following the issue on behalf of Jewish victims of Nazi horrors.

A study funded by the German government and published in 2016 estimated that 22,000 Italians were victims of Nazi war crimes, including up to 8,000 Jews deported to death camps. Thousands more Italians were forced to work as enslaved laborers in Germany, making them eligible for reparations.

The first people likely to benefit from the new government fund set up to deal with claims are descendants of the six Catholic Fornelli men, who were hanged as German soldiers played music on a gramophone stolen from a nearby house.

Their killing came a month after Italy had signed an armistice with the Allied forces, ending its participation in World War Two and abandoning the Nazis, who immediately started their occupation of the country.

‘Cupboard of shame’

In 1962, Germany signed a deal with Italy whereby it paid Rome 40 million Deutsche mark, worth just over 1 billion euros in today’s money, which the two nations agreed covered damages inflicted by Nazi forces on the Italian state and its citizens.

Italy gave pensions to those who had been politically or racially persecuted during the conflict, and to their surviving relatives. However, it did not offer reparations for war crimes.

“They didn’t look at war crimes and this was a mistake. Maybe at the time they thought everyone had committed war crimes, not just Germany, and didn’t want to go down that path,” said Lucio Olivieri, the lawyer who led the Fornelli litigation.

In 1994, a cupboard was found in the offices of Rome’s military prosecutors packed with files documenting hundreds of war crimes that had never been prosecuted.

Spurred on by the so-called “Cupboard of Shame”, Italy looked to bring Nazis to trial for their role in multiple massacres, while courts started to award victims reparations.

Germany refused to pay, arguing the 1962 accord prevented further claims. In 2012, the International Court of Justice backed Berlin, but Italian courts continued to hear compensation cases, saying no limit could be imposed on war crimes.

‘Question of pride’

The Fornelli suit, which opened in 2015, was levelled against both Germany and Italy, which tried, but failed, to shut down proceedings.

“I found it amazing that Italy took the side of Germany in the case against us. It was like they were (wartime) allies again,” said Petrarca, who is a workman in Fornelli.

With ever more cases hitting the courts, the then-prime minister Mario Draghi created a fund in April 2022 to cover the growing compensation costs, hoping to close a dark chapter in Italy’s history.

A deadline for presenting new legal claims expired on June 28 and the Italian Treasury, which is handling payouts, told Reuters that it had so far received notification of 1,228 legal suits, but said others might not yet have been forwarded to it.

Each suit is likely to involve multiple plaintiffs, meaning the 61 million euros earmarked for the reparations might not be nearly enough to cover all the expected payouts, lawyers say.

The fund has already been topped up from an original 55 million, but the Treasury said it was too soon to say if this would be sufficient.

The government also has given itself the right to review any court verdict before deciding whether to pay out – adding an additional bureaucratic hurdle to claimants, although the government denies creating obstacles for families.

“It is a mockery,” UCEI vice president Disegni said.

For Fornelli, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Under the terms of a government decree issued in July, the first disbursement should be made to locals by January, even though the town insists their case was about much more than cash.

“This wasn’t about the money. It was about seeking justice for a war crime, a question of pride,” said Fornelli mayor Giovanni Tedeschi.

 
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