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An Italian court has upheld an appeal by the Spanish rescue ship Open Arms, suspending the Italian Interior Ministry’s decision to ban the ship from entering Italian waters.The rescue ship with 147 migrants onboard has been stuck in the Mediterranean for nearly two weeks due to the ban imposed by Italy’s hardline Interior Minister Matteo Salvini, whose anti-immigration policies have put Rome on a collision course with its European Union partners.The Italian court ruled that the ban violates international laws in light of the “exceptionally grave and urgent situation due to the protracted stay of the migrants on our boat,” Open Arms said in a statement Wednesday.The group said its ship is now heading toward Italian waters and expects to reach them Thursday morning. Additionally, it has made new requests to both Italy and Malta for a port that will let them disembark the migrants on medical grounds.Shortly after the ruling, Salvini — who last week pulled the plug on Italy’s populist government, triggering a political crisis — reiterated his objection to humanitarian ships entering Italian ports. The Italian Interior Ministry said it will appeal Wednesday’s court ruling.“The minister is ready to sign off on a new measure banning entrance in Italian territorial waters,” the ministry said in a statement.The United Nations refugee agency on Tuesday urged European governments to immediately allow in about 500 people rescued from the Mediterranean who remain stranded at sea as countries bicker over who should take them.Another 356 migrants are onboard the Ocean Viking rescue ship, operated by Doctors Without Borders and SOS Mediterranee, which has already asked Maltese and Italian authorities to provide a safe port.The UNHCR says nearly 600 people have died or gone missing in waters between Libya and Italy this year.The European Commission is urging member countries to take action and is offering support, but has no power to intervene. 
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With the wind in her hair and TV cameras pointing at her, Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg began a trans-Atlantic crossing in a racing yacht on Wednesday to further her campaign for stronger action against climate change.The 16-year-old activist, who shot to global fame last year after she started missing school every Friday to demonstrate outside the Swedish parliament, is bound for New York, where she will take part in a United Nations climate summit.Standing on a pontoon in a marina in Plymouth, southwest England, Thunberg gave a news conference in front of a throng of TV crews and photographers just before setting sail under a typically English grey sky on the 60-foot yacht Malizia II.The vessel has been equipped with solar panels and underwater electricity turbines to ensure that it leaves no carbon footprint. Conditions on board are Spartan, with no shower or toilet, and meals will consist of freeze-dried food.Thunberg, who was wearing a black waterproof jacket emblazoned with the slogan “Unite Behind the Science”, was asked how she expected other people to travel across continents, given that not everyone could muster a racing yacht and crew.”I am not telling anyone what to do or what not to do,” she responded. “I am one of the very, very few people in the world who actually can do this and I think I should take that chance.”She said that her voice was not heard at all when she first started campaigning on climate change issues, and it was only after she started her school strikes and other teenagers began to emulate her that she made an impact. This had convinced her of the value of creative forms of campaigning.Having previously said it would be a waste of time for her to meet President Donald Trump, who has pulled the United States out of the Paris accord on limiting the effects of climate change, Thunberg was pressed on why she would not want to seize any chance to convince him or other sceptics.”I’m not that special. I can’t convince everyone. Instead of speaking to me and to the school-striking children and teenagers they should be talking to actual scientists and experts in this area,” she said. “There are climate delayers who want to do everything to shift the focus from the climate crisis to something else, or want to make people question the science. I’m not worried about that. I’m just going to do as I want to do and what I think will have most impact.”Thunberg is taking a year off school to travel around the Americas. She said she did not yet know how she would come home at the end of her travels.
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Russian scientists are raising the alarm about new Soviet-style restrictions on interactions with foreign colleagues.The science newspaper Troitsky Variant on Tuesday published a copy of a recent Russian Education Ministry decree that introduces a broad range of restrictions on meetings and communication between employees of state-owned think tanks and institutes and foreign nationals.
 
Russian scientists are now obliged to inform officials about any visit by a foreign scientist five days in advance and report on the meeting afterward, the published decree said. The newspaper called on the ministry to scrap the order, saying the Soviet-style restrictions would hurt the standing of Russian science in the world.
 
“Such ridiculous decrees that are impossible to comply with will do nothing to bolster our country’s security but will only increase its isolation from developed nations and discredit authorities,” scientist Alexander Fradkov said.
 
Similar restrictions were widely used in the Soviet Union but were largely scrapped by the end of the 1980s.
 
The Education Ministry on Wednesday insisted that the decree was not an order but merely a recommendation and denied suggestions that it aims to control the scientists.
 
It also added that Russian scientists are increasingly facing “certain restrictions” while visiting organizations abroad.
 
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters earlier on Wednesday that he thought that the restrictions were “too much.”
 
The reports of authorities trying to monitor scientists come amid an intensifying pressure on the scientific community.
 
Elderly rocket scientist Viktor Kudryavtsev has been in jail for over a year now, facing vague treason charges. His colleague was arrested last month on similar charges. Russian scientists have appealed to authorities to drop the charges against Kudryavtsev and his associate but to no avail.   
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Agents of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) have raided the offices of Russia Justice Initiative (RJI), a human rights group in Moscow.The group’s press secretary, Ksenia Babich, wrote on her Facebook page that officers said the August 14 searches were being conducted on the basis of a search warrant for the whole building, which also houses RJI’s partner organizations. However, she added, no search warrant was presented.Babich said the officers did not explain the reason for the search and “illegally” confiscated telephones from group members, took pictures of their identification documents, and tried to break into the office of the group’s director, Vanessa Kogan.After the organization’s employees demanded a warrant allowing police to break into the office without the director’s presence, the officers returned the confiscated phones and searched other rooms, she said.The RJI has existed since 2000. It is dedicated to the legal protection of victims of human rights violations connected to armed conflict and counterterrorism operations, torture, and gender-based violence in the post-Soviet region.The group has represented clients at the European Court of Human Rights and is mainly involved in cases involving people — often women — from Russia’s North Caucasus republics of Chechnya, Daghestan, Ingushetia, and Kabardino-Balkaria, as well as Crimean Tatar activists. 
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The United Nations refugee agency urgently appealed to European governments Tuesday to let two migrant rescue ships disembark more than 500 passengers who remain stranded at sea as countries bicker over who should take responsibility for them. 
 
The people rescued while attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea from North Africa are on ships chartered by humanitarian aid groups that the Italian government has banned from its territory. The archipelago nation of Malta also has refused to let the ships into that country’s ports.It’s unclear where they might find safe harbor, even though the Italian island of Lampedusa appears closest. About 150 of the rescued passengers have been on the Spanish-flagged charity ship the Open Arms since they were plucked from the Mediterranean 13 days ago. FILE – Migrants are seen aboard the Open Arms Spanish humanitarian boat as it cruises in the Mediterranean Sea, Aug. 9, 2019.”This is a race against time,” Vincent Cochetel, the International Red Cross special envoy for the central Mediterranean, said in a statement. “Storms are coming, and conditions are only going to get worse.” 
 
While the number of migrants reaching Europe by sea has dropped substantially so far this year, the Red Cross says nearly 600 people have died or gone missing in waters between Libya, Italy and Malta in 2019.  
 
The agency said many of the people on the ships “are reportedly survivors of appalling abuses in Libya.” Cochetel said the ships “must be immediately allowed to dock” and their passengers “allowed to receive much-needed humanitarian aid.” 
 
“To leave people who have fled war and violence in Libya on the high seas in this weather would be to inflict suffering upon suffering,” the envoy said.The captain of the Open Arms, Marc Reig, sent a letter Monday to the Spanish Embassy in Malta asking Madrid to grant asylum to 31 minors on his ship. A senior Spanish official said Tuesday that Reig’s request carries no legal weight because the captain doesn’t have authority to seek protection for the minors.A member of the Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) registers the details of a rescued migrant onboard the Ocean Viking rescue ship after 81 migrants were rescued from their dinghy in the Mediterranean Sea, Aug. 11, 2019.Two charity groups that are operating the Ocean Viking rescue ship — Doctors Without Borders and sea rescue group SOS Mediterranee — also formally asked Italy and Malta to allow the 356 migrants aboard that vessel to be allowed to disembark.The limbo of the Open Arms and Norwegian-flagged Ocean Viking is the latest in a string of standoffs that kept Europe-bound migrants at sea in miserable conditions. 
 
Southern nations that have been the main arrival points since 2015 — notably Italy, but also Malta and Greece — have complained of feeling abandoned by their European Union partners to cope with the influx.Italy’s hard-line interior minister, Matteo Salvini, reiterated Tuesday his intent to ensure that the ships don’t enter Italian ports.Migrants rest on the desk of the Ocean Viking rescue ship, operated by French NGOs SOS Mediterranee and Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF), during an operation in the Mediterranean Sea, Aug. 13, 2019.Differences among EU member nations over how to manage mass migration have sparked a political crisis in Europe, while attempts to reform the bloc’s asylum system have failed. The issue has been a vote-winner for far-right and populist parties. 
 
The EU’s executive commission said it has urged member countries to take action to resolve the status of the recently rescued passengers and stands ready to offer national governments support but cannot act alone.”There’s nothing more we can do,” a European Commission spokeswoman said Tuesday.
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This story originated in VOA’s In this file photo taken on March 31, 2017, leading associate of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, Leonid Volkov smiles in a court room during a hearing in Moscow.Volkov is among the most prominent opposition figures in Moscow, and one of the only ones left to offer insights about prevailing turmoil on the ground in Russia, where his boss, Navalny, along with other opposition figures, have been jailed.Danila Galperovich: The sudden court-ordered freeze of FBK finances and searches of your offices and staff domiciles are especially harsh actions. To what degree did you anticipate this?Leonid Volkov: This is a completely predictable thing, and I had expected it. Our network of offices [created as part of Navalny’s attempt to participate in the presidential election in Russia in 2018] is very annoying to them, and FBK is annoying them, and it was very expected that they would try to break it all down.How? Despite the fact that we work as idealists there are nonetheless people, offices within the organization. I have approximately 150 employees throughout the entire structure, and so there are contracts, salaries, taxes, rental payments, etc… And any organization that employs 150 people—whether we’re conducting anti-corruption investigations or packaging yogurt—cannot work without active financial accounts, without contracts, without a legal entity and so on.We’ve long known that a documented organization is necessary risk, an inevitably vulnerable weak spot, and so we expected they would take a blow at it. We even prepared for it. Some of our preparations worked, so they weren’t able to break it all.But why did they choose to hit us now? I think that, previously, it hadn’t been sanctioned by the first person [a reference to President Vladimir Putin], but then the court orders and searches were ultimately sanctioned by him under the guise of “mass riots.”That is, some security officials came and sold Putin one the idea: “Listen, you’ve been soft with these activists, but these people are doing Maidan here. Let’s scare them already.” And they went ahead a deployed these court orders and search warrants that, apparently, they’d been sitting on since 2016.Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with two Russian businessmen in Sevastopol, Crimea, Aug. 13, 2019.DG: The Russian authorities decided to accuse the FBK of precisely what the Fund itself very often accuses Russian officials: of trying to launder money obtained illegally. Why do you think?LV: It’s actually very funny. It has already been noted that when someone needs to be accused of murder, the call always comes from MP Lugovoi, who is actually accused of murder in Britain. Everything is done according to this logic.For example, allegations we’ve “laundered a billion rubles” are being levied by the very officials whose homes we’ve proven are worth literally millions of dollars. Thieves make accusations of theft; murderers make accusations of murder; rapists make accusations of violence and rape. In psychology, I believe this is what’s called projection.DG: How much does the FBK crackdown correspond to the general trend of increasing repression? We have already seen ostentatious cruelty during the dispersal of rallies, bringing criminal charges and mass searches.LV: The authorities, of course, have decided to escalate repression in response to the rallies for free and fair elections, with which FBK works hand-in-glove.Just as the intensity of protests has increased, so has the response. Whereas once we saw demonstrators merely dispersed, we now seem them viciously beaten back with batons. Whereas only some had been restricted from running in elections, now no one is allowed.It’s the same with the legal bureaucracy: where once we they fought us with administrative cases, now they fight us with criminal cases. But there’s not much to be especially worried about. Judging by the reaction of colleagues with whom I have been in touch all day today, everyone was already mentally prepared. This situation has been unfolding gradually before our eyes for many years, so everyone is mentally prepared. No one is whimpering. Everyone is strong.DG: There is an opinion that now the situation with the crackdown on the protest is controlled not so much by Putin as by security officials around him, that the special services began to dominate in determining the actions of the authorities in relation to the protesters. How much do you agree with this?LV: Putin would not have been in power for 20 years if he hadn’t been talented enough in the art of maintaining political balance: here on the one hand he has siloviki [security forces, strongmen], and on the other hand are liberals; thieves here, patriots there; Orthodox here, entrepreneurs there.In general, he knows how to play this thing—how to prevent the reinforcement of some clans over others around him, so as not to become hostage to any one of them. Therefore, Putin has always played the role of a kind of inertial ballast: as soon as one party accelerates too much, he always holds it back.But here, in this story, we see that something skewed: people like [Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai] Patrushev or [Russian FSB chief Aleksandr] Bortnikov, they got paranoid; they’re both anti-Semites who support conspiracy theories, which is to say they really believe that the CIA gives millions in bitcoins to hasten Russia’s collapse.I don’t think Putin believes that, but even if he did, I don’t think that he would want Patrushev and Bortnikov to steer the country and determine the agenda.He holds his place, thanks to the balance between Patrushev and [Prime Minister Dmitry] Medvedev, [Putin confidante and Rosneft chief Igor] Sechin and [Rostec CEO Sergei] Chemezov, and so on. They all need him as an ultimate decision-maker.And yet, on this wave of protests, apparently, Putin has become really scared. And this pendulum, the balance, swayed toward these crazy old men, real Andropovism—not Stalinism, but Alexei Navalny, Russia’s most prominent opposition figure, who has been detained by police and charged with unlawfully organizing a public gathering, sits in a court room in Moscow, July 24, 2019.LV: I see a victory in “smart voting” [tactics proposed by Alexei Navalny, who called for voting for any popular candidate, except for candidates from United Russia]. It seems to me that now the Muscovites’ anger at the police force is such that we are really ready to just go and to defeat “United Russia” completely!And this will be an important political outcome— that is to say, in the end, there will be no feeling that it was all for nothing. This whole story will probably end with the victory of the forces of good.DG: But if they can ignore protesters’ demands in the streets, aren’t they just as likely to falsify ballots at the polls?LV: Well, in Moscow since 2011, votes were not falsified when counting, because Moscow has a very strong election observers movement. Because of that, past attempts to falsify ballot counts in Moscow resulted in you know what [Volkov is referring to street protests of 2011-2012].We will prepare very well. In addition to all the operational activities related to these searches, my main task now is to prepare election observations.DG: How much money has been frozen?LV: There are 28 million rubles [about $430,000] frozen in FBK accounts. For us it is a lot of money! This is almost half the annual budget. The accounts had accumulated because our last investigations about [Moscow Deputy Mayor Natalia] Sergunina and [Moscow City Duma deputy chairman Andrey] Metelsky became popular and we received record donations. And we have accumulated a really large amount.The fact that these finances have been frozen is a big problem for us. On the other hand, at some point this freeze will probably be lifted. In other accounts, in total, we probably lost about 3 million rubles [$46,200]. You can live with that.
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The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Tuesday that 70 years after countries adopted the Geneva Conventions to limit the barbarity of war, the terrible suffering in conflicts today shows they are not being respected.Peter Maurer told a U.N. Security Council meeting marking the anniversary that continued violations of the rules in the conventions doesn’t mean they are inadequate, “but rather that efforts to ensure respect are inadequate.””We can — and must — do more. You can do more,” he told the 15 council members.The four Geneva Conventions were adopted on Aug. 11, 1949, and have been universally ratified by the world’s countries. 
 
The first three were revised from earlier treaties to update rules on protecting the wounded and sick in the armed forces on land and sea and prisoners of war. The fourth was the first-ever treaty specifically dedicated to protecting civilians in times of war. A new provision is now included in all four conventions to provide protections in conflicts that aren’t between countries, such as civil wars and those involving armed groups not affiliated with governments.FILE – German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas attends the weekly cabinet meeting in Berlin, Germany, July 31, 2019.Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, told the council the Geneva Conventions are “the cornerstone of international humanitarian law, and their spirit is upheld by the brave men and women in humanitarian operations worldwide who dedicate their lives to saving the lives of others.”But Maas said respect for humanitarian law “is declining” and the complexity of modern warfare is adding deadly challenges. He pointed to extremist groups, conflicts without borders, and daily attacks on civilians, medical facilities and schools.”We are failing the most vulnerable,” Maas said. “We are not living up to our legal and ethical obligations. … It is a threat to peace and security when thousands of people die, when tens of thousands fear for their lives.”FILE – Polish Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz speaks to the media during the NATO Foreign Minister’s Meeting at the State Department in Washington, April 4, 2019.Polish Foreign Minster Jacek Czaputowicz, who presided as this month’s council president, said the greatest challenge to protecting lives in modern conflict is ensuring that armed forces and armed groups respect the rules of warfare.”These violations of humanitarian law occur for a number of circumstances: brutal conduct of warfare, willingness to intimidate opponents, feeling of impunity of perpetrators,” Czaputowicz said. “If existing rules were followed, much of the human suffering in contemporary armed conflicts would not occur.”  
 
Maurer said the challenge is to ensure not only that the conventions are part of military doctrine and rules but that they become an ethical standard of behavior and “that fighters facing a choice to act in violation of the law know and say, ‘This is wrong; this is not who I am.'”
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Opposing news reports fueled confusion Tuesday over the fate of an oil tanker seized near the British territory of Gibraltar last month. Jalil Eslami, deputy head of Iran’s maritime agency, said Tuesday that the tanker, Grace 1, would soon be released by Gibraltar authorities. “We believe that (the) Grace 1 oil tanker will resume operation under (the) Iranian flag in international waters in the very near future,” Eslami said, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.   Fars, quoting unidentified Gibraltar authorities, said the tanker would be freed by late Tuesday.But Western media reports said a senior official in Gibraltar called the report “untrue.” Although Grace 1 was seized by British forces, Britain said on Tuesday that investigations into the tanker were a matter for Gibraltar. The Gibraltar Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a hearing on the case on Thursday.Britain has accused the vessel of violating European sanctions by taking oil to Syria, a charge Tehran denies.In retaliation, Iran seized the British-flagged Stena Impero tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on July 19 for alleged maritime violations.Tensions in the Persian Gulf have been rising since the United States pulled out of the international 2015 nuclear treaty, under which Iran agreed to curb its nuclear work in return for lifting most international sanctions on Tehran.Britain and other European parties to the nuclear deal have been trying to salvage it by shielding Iran’s economy from reimposed tougher U.S. sanctions.
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White House enthusiasm for a trade deal with the United Kingdom is palpable. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told the visiting British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab on Aug. 7 that the U.S. will be ready, “pen in hand,” to sign “a new free trade agreement at the earliest possible time.”U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton, meanwhile, traveled this week to London to assure officials that the Trump administration will put Britain at the front of the queue in trade talks.But the prospects for a deal are much more complicated in Congress, which appears to be split between supporters of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government, however Brexit comes about, and supporters of Ireland, many of whom still identify with the “emerald isle” all these generations later.FILE – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, right, walks with Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab for a press availability at the State Department in Washington, Aug. 7, 2019.Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who leads the 435-member House of Representatives, recently reiterated a position she took in a speech to the Irish Parliament in April, saying the United States “must ensure that nothing happens in the Brexit discussions that imperils the Good Friday accord, including but not limited to the seamless border between the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland.” The success of that U.S.-mediated 1998 agreement, ending decades of strife between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, depended largely on the free movement of goods and people between the independent Republic of Ireland and British-ruled Northern Ireland while both were part of the European Union.”If the Brexit deal undermines the accord, there will be no chance of a U.S.-U.K. agreement,” Pelosi warned.Friends of IrelandThe British government insists it is committed to the Belfast Agreement and the seamless border, but Johnson and his supporters have rejected the so-called “backstop” negotiated by his predecessor to ensure there is no need for a hard border on the island. Irish authorities remain worried, and their concerns are shared by the Friends of Ireland caucus in the U.S. Congress, which is dedicated to promoting U.S.-Irish ties. FILE – House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Richard Neal, D-Mass., speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 14, 2019.A leader of that caucus is Richard Neal, a Democrat and an Irish-American who also happens to be chair of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee which oversees trade deals. Peter King, a Republican who also claims Irish heritage, has said he, too, would oppose Trump on a trade deal if the Northern Ireland issue is not satisfactorily resolved. Support for a deal is coming from the likes of Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, who has drafted a letter to Johnson and secured signatures from 44 of his Senate colleagues, all members of the Republican Party. The letter underscored longstanding political and security ties between the U.S. and Britain. “Our soldiers have fought together from the beaches of Normandy to the mountains of Afghanistan,” reads the letter. “Irrespective of how Brexit occurs, we recommit to the NATO security alliance and the Five Eyes’ intelligence partnership. We also will advocate for a new bilateral trade agreement, as early as your Brexit terms would allow.” Jacob F. Kirkegaard, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE), told VOA in a written response to questions that he doubts any deal will be completed quickly.”Forty-plus GOP senators cannot pass an FTA in Congress on their own,” he wrote, adding that negotiations will be complicated by next year’s U.S. presidential and Congressional election campaigns. “There is zero chance that any U.K.-U.S. deal will go before Congress and is approved before the election.” Irish rootsDaniel Mulhall, Ireland’s ambassador to Washington, appreciates the fact that when it comes to U.S. policy, his country stands to benefit from Irish-Americans’ affinity with the old country.FILE – Daniel Mulhall, Ireland’s ambassador of to the U.S., speaks during an event at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, June 6, 2018.”We’re fortunate that because of immigration in the 19th century, so many Americans identify with Ireland,” he told VOA earlier this year. “There are 33 million Americans that have Irish heritage, many of them are very proud of their Irish heritage, and it’s a big advantage for Ireland to have so many people in this country that have an affection for Ireland and are supportive of all things Irish. That’s a big, big plus for Ireland in the United States.”Mulhall added that wherever he travels in the United States, “I meet people of Irish descent who may be three or four generations, or more, removed from Ireland but still identify strongly with our country.”In fact, about 10% of the U.S. population claimed Irish heritage in a 2017 survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. That includes Vice President Mike Pence, who proudly shared his Irish roots in a July 4th tweet and is reportedly planning to visit Ireland with his family next month.
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Italian senators don’t often interrupt their summer vacations but thanks to the firebrand populist Matteo Salvini, the country’s deputy prime minister and head of the Lega party, they had to return to a scorching hot capital Tuesday to discuss when to hold a formal vote of no-confidence in Italy’s tempestuous 14-month-old coalition government. Italy’s politicians traditionally avoid serious politicking during the vacation weeks of high summer when much of the country decamps to the beaches for a long break. Salvini, a master of disruptive populism, chose last week, however, to announce he could no longer continue governing in coalition with the anti-establishment Five Star Movement. “Not all marriages work,” quipped Steve Bannon, the former adviser to Donald Trump, who has acted as an informal consigliere, or adviser, to Salvini. “I think that the marriage between Salvini and Di Maio was a noble experiment,” Bannon told the Corriere Della Sera newspaper, referring to Luigi Di Maio, the head of the Five Star Movement. The divorce has been on the cards since last May’s European parliamentary elections when the Lega doubled its support from 17%  to 34%, prompting not only Salvini’s glee, but predictions from most analysts that he’d likely collapse the squabbling coalition government and angle for a snap election to capitalize on his growing public backing. Italian Interior Minister and Deputy-Premier Matteo Salvini addresses the Senate in Rome, Aug. 13, 2019.Since May, Salvini, who’s generally credited with having consistently wrong-footed his partner and rival Di Maio since the coalition was formed, artfully using social media to do so, has been even more disruptive. Salvini has earned the disapproval of Italy’s prime minister Giuseppe Conte, a relatively unknown lawyer who was plucked from obscurity to head the government. Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte reacts to Italy’s ruling coalition breakdown, speaking to journalists at an impromptu, late evening news conference in Rome, Aug. 8, 2019.And while many other politicians wound down their activities this month, Salvini has been waging an unofficial election campaign on Italian beaches, skipping from one to another and criss-crossing the country. Last week, in Sabaudia, south of Rome, he realized he was standing next to a monument celebrating fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. “You’ll get me into trouble,” he told chuckling supporters. “I won’t say anymore. They’ll arrest me,” he added.”The balance of power in May was essentially reversed between the coalition partners, with the Lega winning a much larger share of the vote,” says Cecilia Sottilotta, a political scientist at the American University in Rome. “Salvini is extremely shrewd, is very well-prepared in terms of strategy and reading changes in public opinion. Salvini’s party is likely to get 35 to 36 percent of the vote in elections in virtually any scenario, which means he could get a comfortable majority by forming an alliance with other right-wing parties, such as the Brothers of Italy,” she says. Italy’s ill-fated coalition government took 88 days to form following inconclusive parliamentary elections in March 2018, which saw the traditional left vote collapse. Salvini took the role of deputy prime minister, as well as interior minister, vowing to crack down on undocumented migrants and see-off attempts by Brussels to control public spending in Italy. Di Maio also was appointed deputy prime minister and labor minister. Italian Deputy Prime Minister and Labor Minister Luigi di Maio arrives for a meeting at parliament, as Italian Senate is due to set a date to hold a no-confidence vote in Rome, Aug. 12, 2019.Problems appeared almost immediately with the partners clashing over the Five Star Movement’s plan for an income scheme to address poverty. The leaders also battled over a Lega plan to introduce a flat tax rate. And over immigration and Salvini’s banning of humanitarian rescue ships form docking at Italian ports to unload migrants picked up off the coast of Libya.The last big dispute came just days before Salvini announced last Thursday his intention to withdraw from the coalition. Five Star Movement ministers objected to plans for a high-speed alpine rail link between the Italian city of Turin and the French city of Lyon. But many commentators say Salvini has used the disagreement as an excuse to collapse the coalition.The Lega said in a statement it was “useless to go ahead with daily quarrels,” and last week Salvini told a boisterous crowd of supporters at a rally in the coastal city of Pescara, “Italy can no longer put up with the nos, we need yeses, we need to unblock, to build, to work — enough is enough, we must go to elections.”Once a vote of no confidence is passed, elections will have to be held within 70 days, making October the most likely month for a new nationwide poll. Italians traditionally hold elections in spring months, and the last time a poll took place in an Italian autumn was in 1919. That election triggered three years of violent political and social conflict, advancing the rise of Benito Mussolini. The significance of the 1919 election isn’t lost on Salvini foes, who portray the 46-year-old as Mussolini reborn. The party with which he’s likely to form a coalition government, if everything goes according to his plans, is the Brothers of Italy. Critics note that party traces its history back to Mussolini’s fascist party. The comparisons with Mussolini are dismissed by Salvini, although he thrives on vexing his opponents by slyly invoking the spirt of the country’s 20th century dictator.He has tweeted regularly the phrase, “So many enemies, so much honor,” a paraphrase of Mussolini’s slogan. Even so, few neutral commentators believe Salvini is intent on dismantling Italian democracy.  Meanwhile, Salvini, has been shrugging off allegations that his populist party sought secret Russian funding and is doubling down on his defense of “Christian culture” and the issue that has rewarded him the most in the voting booths — immigration.While prosecutors in the Milan probe claim the far-right Lega party solicited covert Russian funding, he has been stepping up the tempo and fervor of his anti-migrant broadsides in rallies and on his social media sites, linking migration to crime and to joblessness and warning of threats to Italy’s traditional culture.In Pescara, Salvini announced to cheers from supporters, “This country needs rules, order and discipline.” And he labeled a Roma who had criticized him a “bad gypo.” “If you want to break our balls. Go back your country.” Salvini critics say he’s purposely trying to distract attention away from the Russia allegations, and away from the country’s ailing economy, which remains stubbornly mired in recession. Former Italian Premier Enrico Letta gives a speech during an economic conference in Athens, May 14, 2015.His erstwhile coalition partner, Di Maio, has said triggering a government crisis now is “foolish and dangerous.” A former Italian prime minister, the centrist Enrico Letta, dubbed Salvini an “opportunist” who has “no principles,” and he warned that the Lega boss could be leading the country out of the European Union — saying an Italian Brexit “was not impossible.” But Salvini — who has toned down his Euro-skepticism in recent months — dismisses Letta’s EU warning as “fantasy.” “The idea of leaving Europe, leaving the euro has never been in the pipeline,” Salvini told reporters during a rally near Matera, in southern Italy.Salvini faces a possible snare in his path to fresh elections. The Five Star Movement could join opposition parties to try to form a new coalition government — encouraged to do so by the country’s president, Sergio Mattarella, who has the sole power to dissolve parliament and even the power to appoint a government of technocrats. He has said he doesn’t want elections before next year.
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New missile technologies – including so-called hypersonic systems capable of travelling at more than 25 times the speed of sound – are fueling a new global arms race, according to a new report. The research warns that the collapse of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty between the United States and Russia last month is just the latest example of the growing pressure on the global security architecture – and new treaties are urgently needed to counter the threat of emerging technologies. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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