CAMMARATA, Italy — On a scorching July afternoon, a municipal water truck rolls up in a cloud of dust on Liborio Mangiapane’s farm in southern Sicily. Some of the precious liquid gets transferred to a smaller cistern on a tractor that Mangiapane’s son will use to fill troughs for 250 cattle and sheep, but by tomorrow, all 10,000 liters from the truck will be gone.

Crippling drought from a nearly rainless year, coupled with record-high temperatures, has burned out much of the region’s hay and is pushing farmers to the limit. For Mangiapane, every day is a struggle to find water, with frantic phone calls, long trips to faraway wells and long waits for municipal tankers.

If rain doesn’t come by the end of August, he’s afraid he’ll have to sell off his livestock.

“We are in a moment of extreme heat and therefore animals need a lot of water,” Mangiapane said. “It’s a constant anxiety to keep the animals from suffering, but also just to have a chance to wash ourselves.”

The worst year for rainfall in more than 20 years has sent fodder production down 70% across Sicily, according to Coldiretti, Italy’s primary farmers association. The main water basins are almost empty and authorities are strictly rationing water.

The region is one of Italy’s breadbaskets, producing 20% of the country’s durum wheat that goes into pasta. Coldiretti estimated that the drought could reduce production on the island by as much as 70%, leading to greater reliance on imports. In coming months, the dry year may hit olive oil and peach production. Hot weather has caused the grape harvest to start nearly four weeks early, though that crop is so far undamaged.

In May, the national government declared a state of emergency in Sicily and allocated 20 million euros ($21.7 million) to buy water tankers, dig new wells and fix leaky aqueducts. Coldiretti has donated 1.5 million tons of fodder and the regional government allocated subsidies for farmers forced to buy hay from third parties.

Parts of Sicily have had rainfall deficits of up to 60%, according to the meteorology department at Italy’s National Research Council. The regional meteorological service reported above-average temperatures throughout June, with highs frequently topping 40 degrees Celsius in many areas.

Farmers have seen basins, lakes and ponds that used to be reliable watering spots vanish.

Luca Cammarata watched as his sheep searched for water on his farm in the province of Caltanissetta, one of the hardest-hit parts of Sicily. The area has seen almost no rain for a year, reservoirs are all but empty, and wells and aquifers will have to be tapped at critical levels if it doesn’t rain soon.

“Here in this small basin, water has never been lacking,” Cammarata said, as his sheep’s bells tinkled as they searched for water in the place they used to find it. Soon, the animals would have to return to their barns to avoid the blazing sun.

Nearby Lake Pergusa used to be a haven for migratory birds — a natural basin with an area of 1.4 square kilometers and an average depth of about 2 meters. Now it looks like a puddle.

The story was the same on Mangiapane’s place, a little over an hour to the northwest near the municipality of Cammarata. He peered from his barn toward an area where rainwater usually collected in a large pond, providing water for his animals, but the pond was now “as dry as a football pitch.”

August typically brings the start of the winter rainy season, said Mangiapane, a longtime rancher who has gained a reputation as an outspoken supporter of natural grazing and small-scale cheese-making over industrial-scale agriculture.

“I wish it will be a bit better than the past season, because this year we had to make a huge effort, both economically and in terms of human resources, with zero profits,” he said. “We worked the whole year without profits. No wheat, nor fodder for the cows. And neither the regional government, nor the national one have taken strong measures.”

Local authorities have rushed to open new wells, fix desalination equipment and bring in water. In late July, the first Italian navy tanker ship docked in Licata to supply 12 million liters to the most affected areas.

The local water basin authority is tightly rationing water for almost a million residents, with water flowing as little as two to four hours a week in the most affected areas. While the taps are off, households and farms are being supplied by tankers since Sicily’s aqueducts lose up to 60% of the water they carry, according to local water company AICA.

As climate change has made rainfall more erratic and driven temperatures higher, there’s hope that aqueduct renovations, new reservoirs and deep wells will help Sicily adapt.

Giulio Boccaletti, scientific director of the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change, said Sicily is experiencing “the new normal” of climate change, and the region will have to examine whether its scarce water is used for the right things — including what farmers produce.
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Ukrainian tennis player Alex Dolgopolov was once ranked 13th in the world. But shortly after Russia invaded his homeland in 2022, he volunteered to fight on the front lines. Anna Kosstutschenko met with the tennis star turned drone operator. Camera: Pavel Suhodolskiy.
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KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine’s military said on Saturday it had attacked Russia’s Morozovsk airfield and several oil depots and fuel storage facilities in three Russian regions overnight.

The attack on the airfield hit an ammunition depot where Russian forces stored guided aerial bombs among other equipment, the military said.

“Russian combat aviation must be destroyed wherever it is, by all effective means. It is also quite fair to strike at Russian airfields. And we need this joint solution with our partners — a security solution,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

Zelenskyy said on Saturday that Russian forces used over 600 guided aerial bombs to attack Ukraine in the past week. The attack on oil depots and fuel and lubricant storage facilities in Belgorod, Kursk and Rostov regions set fire to at least two oil tanks, according to the Ukrainian military report.

The Ukrainian president has repeatedly called on his Western allies for permission to use their weapons for long-range attacks on Russia, in addition to striking military targets close to the border.

In Russia, local officials reported that tanks at a fuel storage depot in the Kamensky district of Rostov region caught fire as a result of a drone attack.

The regional governor of Belgorod also said Ukraine-launched drones caused a fire at an oil storage depot there, adding that the fire was extinguished and no one was injured.

Ukraine has dramatically stepped up its use of long-range drones this year to attack Russian oil facilities, attempting to damage sites fueling Russian forces and the country’s economy in Moscow’s 29-month-old invasion.
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RABAT, Morocco — France has thrown its support behind Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara, shifting a decades-old position and adding itself to a growing list of countries to align with Morocco as a United Nations-mediated peace process remains stalled.

In a letter to King Mohammed VI, France’s President Emmanuel Macron called the plan that Morocco proposed in 2007 to offer the region limited autonomy under its sovereignty the “only basis” to solve the conflict. The shift deals a blow to the pro-independence Polisario Front, which has for decades claimed to be the legitimate representative of the indigenous Sahrawi people.

“The present and future of Western Sahara fall within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty,” Macron wrote in a letter made public on Tuesday. “France intends to act consistently with this position at both national and international level.”

Macron’s move is unlikely to change the key tenets of the territorial dispute but could deepen France ties with Morocco, which has long blamed it for drawing the colonial borders it sees as the root of the conflict. France signaled earlier this year that it was open to investing in Moroccan projects in the disputed territory.

The move could strain diplomatic relations in North Africa, further alienating both France and Morocco from Algeria, which supports the Polisario Front’s claims and allows it to operate as a self-declared government in exile from refugee camps within its borders.

It follows similar shifts from the United States, Israel, Spain and a growing list of African nations that have established consulates in the territory.

In a statement, Moroccan King Mohammed VI’s Royal Cabinet called France’s shift “a significant development.” A high-ranking Moroccan official who spoke on the condition of anonymity noted France’s role as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and called it “a game-changer” amid an international shift toward Morocco’s position.

The move was preemptively rebuked by both Algeria and the Polisario Front in the days leading up to the publication of letter, which Algeria said it was made aware of by France in the days prior.

The Polisario’s Mohamed Sidati accused France of acting at odds with international law and backing Moroccan expansionism as its influence wanes throughout Africa.

“Whatever hardships Morocco tries to impose on us with the support of France, the Sahrawi people will continue to stubbornly defend their rights until they obtain the definitive departure of the Moroccan aggressor from their territory and general recognition of the legitimacy of their struggle for self-determination and independence,” Sidati, the Foreign Minister of the self-declared Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, said in a statement on Monday.

Algeria called Morocco and France “colonial powers, new and old” and announced it would withdraw its ambassador from Paris.

“The French decision is clearly the result of a dubious political calculation, a morally questionable judgement and legal interpretations that are neither supported nor justified,” Algeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement last week.

Western Sahara is roughly the size of Colorado, encompassing a stretch of desert rich in phosphates and sitting along an Atlantic coastline rich in fish. Morocco annexed the former Spanish colony in 1975, sparking a regional conflict and putting it at odds with the pro-independence Polisario Front over the region that the United Nations considers a “non-self-governing territory.”

Morocco quickly moved to occupy the majority of the land, fighting off guerilla warfare from the Polisario until the U.N. brokered a 1991 cease-fire and established a peacekeeping mission to monitor the truce and help prepare a referendum on the territory’s future. Disagreements over who is eligible to vote prevented the referendum from taking place.

Morocco has long sought political recognition of its claim from its other nations, while the Polisario has prioritized fighting legal battles to assert the people of the region’s right to self-determination.

Sporadic violence has ensued since the Polisario renewed armed conflict in 2020, ending a 29-year truce. Morocco has since embarked on expansive economic development efforts, constructing ports, highways and hotels.
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washington — American permanent resident Vladimir Kara-Murza told reporters on Friday he had expected to die in a Russian prison.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, who had been serving a 25-year prison sentence following a 2022 arrest, was freed Thursday in a historic prisoner swap negotiated by the U.S. and its allies with Russia.

Kara-Murza spoke to the media in Bonn, Germany, with two of the seven Russians — Ilya Yashin and Andrei Pivovarov — also freed in the deal.

At the briefing, he detailed the harsh conditions he was subjected to, including 10 months in solitary confinement, and restricted contact with family. He said Russia allowed him only one call to his wife and two with his children in the entire time of his nearly two years in detention.

Kara-Murza said Germany’s decision to release a high-profile assassin — Vadim Krasikov — as part of the exchange “wasn’t an easy decision.”

Pivovarov, who headed the opposition group Open Russia, said the historic deal saved the lives of some of those detained. And he drew a sharp distinction between everyday Russians and the authoritarian regime.

“It is wrong to associate Russian people with the government’s policies,” said Pivovarov, adding that their task was to work to make Russia “free and democratic.”

Yashin, a Russian activist jailed for supporting the war in Ukraine, said he had not wanted to be deported in any swap. He said he feared the action could encourage Russian President Vladimir Putin to take more “political prisoners.”

“I did not give my consent to being sent outside of Russia,” he told reporters in Bonn. “What happened on August 1 is not an exchange. This is my expulsion from Russia against my will. My first wish in Ankara was to buy a ticket and go back to Russia.”

Yashin said a Federal Security Service agent told him that if he returned “your days will end like Navalny’s.” Alexey Navalny died in a remote prison colony before any deal to secure his release could be made.

Yashin on Friday said Putin bears the responsibility for that death.

Kara-Murza was convicted of treason for his speeches against Russia’s war in Ukraine, including one made to the Arizona House of Representatives. In 2018 he was a pallbearer at Senator John McCain’s funeral alongside U.S. President Joe Biden.

In total, seven Russian political prisoners were freed and removed from Russia in the deal, along with five Germans, three American citizens and green card holder Kara-Murza.

‘They stepped up’

President Biden greeted the Americans — journalists Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva and former Marine Paul Wheelan — as they arrived at Joint Base Andrews late Thursday.

Speaking with the gathered media, Biden praised the partnership with U.S. allies, saying, “They stepped up, they took a chance for us, and it mattered a lot.”

Those allies — Germany, Poland, Norway and Slovenia  helped the U.S. with the never-before-seen multi-country negotiations that played out over months to secure the largest swap with Russia since the Cold War.

“The toughest call in this one was for other countries,” Biden acknowledged late Thursday as the hostages and their families hugged in the background. “I asked them to do some things that were against their immediate self-interest and really very difficult for them to do, particularly Germany and Slovenia.”

Germany’s part in the deal involved handing over to Russia convicted killer Krasikov.

And Slovenia in the last part of a multipart deal had on Wednesday pardoned and expelled two Russian spies.

Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar on social media praised her country’s part in the deal.

“Slovenia and its intelligence agencies worked tirelessly and with great sensitivity with our allies and partners in prisoner exchange which successfully concluded yesterday,” she said Friday on X. “I would like to pay respect and compliment everyone involved in this difficult action that saved lives.”

‘Many had feared for their health’

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday said he had spoken at length with those freed from Russian prisons who traveled to Germany.

“Many did not expect this to happen now and are still very full of the feelings associated with suddenly being able to be free after all,” he told reporters. “Many had feared for their health and even their lives.”

Germany held the primary person the Kremlin wanted in the deal.

That convicted killer, Krasikov, and six other Russians were welcomed back by Putin in a scene that mirrored that at Andrews air base.

But while the West welcomed home political prisoners — journalists, opposition voices and activists — taken by Russia, Putin greeted convicted killers and spies.

Some information in this report came from Reuters.
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PARIS — The stands at Champs de Mars filled up quickly. One fan dressed in a white martial arts uniform waved a French flag back and forth. A woman next to him held up a poster with the face of one of the biggest sports stars in France. Crowds of people bounced up and down so excitedly it shook the floor of the arena, where judo is being played in the 2024 Paris Olympics.  

Many of them were there to see Teddy Riner, the hometown judo icon who delivered once again for France on Friday. He capped his incredible career by becoming the second three-time individual Olympic gold medalist in judo history in one of the most electrifying events of the Paris Games so far. The 35-year-old heavyweight defeated Korea’s Min-jong Kim for the gold in his fifth Olympics.  

An 11-time world champion and four-time Olympic gold medalist, Riner is one of the most popular and beloved figures in any sport from France.  

Riner was France’s flag bearer during the opening ceremony and joined retired French track and field sprinter Marie-José Pérec in lighting the cauldron at the end of the night.   

Riner is widely considered the greatest judoka the sport has ever seen. He had a 10-year unbeaten streak in which he dominated opponents with his imposing size and athleticism.  

Riner had the opportunity to match Olympic history with three gold medals three years ago in Tokyo but that chance evaporated with a surprising loss to Russian Tamerlan Bashaev in the quarterfinals. Riner rallied for a bronze medal and still took home gold in the mixed team event. He turned that moment of disappointment into hope for the future, with his next opportunity only three years away.  

With a first-round bye, Riner rolled through the second round and quarterfinals Friday afternoon, setting up a much-anticipated semifinal against Temur Rakhimov of Tajikistan.  

He drew the loudest cheers from the crowd at Champs de Mars, which roared when he walked onto the red-and-yellow tatami, and cheered even louder when he finished Rakhimov with an ippon that secured his spot in the final.  

Riner joins a trio of French stars at the home Olympics. Basketball phenom Victor Wembanyama is the leader of the country’s men’s basketball team that is hoping to challenge the defending champion United States for gold. Léon Marchand has dominated in the pool with three gold medals.  

France, one of the world’s top judo nations, still has the mixed team competition on Saturday, looking for its second straight gold in the event after defeating rival Japan to win its first mixed team tournament in Tokyo.  

The French judo team was already off to a hot start. Luka Mkheidze and Shirine Boukli won France’s first two medals of the Paris Olympics last weekend, with Mkheidze claiming silver and Boukli winning bronze.  

After another masterful ippon in the final, Riner shook his head in triumph. The crowd chanted his name. He fell to his knees with his arms stretched wide above him, ending the night where he’s been so many times before. On top.
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LONDON — Several suspects arrested in violent protests that erupted after the fatal stabbing of three children in northwest England were due in court Friday as officials braced for more clashes that Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned and blamed on “far-right hatred.”

Starmer vowed to end the mayhem and said police across the United Kingdom would be given more resources to stop “a breakdown in law and order on our streets.”

Demonstrations are being promoted online over the coming days in towns and cities that include Sunderland, Belfast, Cardiff, Liverpool and Manchester, using phrases such as “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats.”

John Woodcock, the British government’s adviser on political violence and disruption, said there was a “concerted and coordinated” attempt to spread the violence.

“Clearly, some of those far-right actors have got a taste for this and are trying to provoke similar in towns and cities across the U.K.,” he told the BBC.

The attack Monday on children at a Taylor Swift-themed summer holiday dance class shocked a country where knife crime is a long-standing and vexing problem, although mass stabbings are rare.

Seventeen-year-old Axel Rudakubana was charged with murder over the attack that killed Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6, in the seaside town of Southport in northwest England. He was also charged with 10 counts of attempted murder for the eight children and two adults wounded.

A violent demonstration in Southport on Tuesday was followed by others around the country — fueled in part by online misinformation that said the attacker was Muslim and an immigrant. Rudakubana was born in Britain to Rwandan parents and lived close to the scene of the attack.

Suspects who are under 18 are usually not named in the U.K., but judge Andrew Menary ordered that Rudakubana could be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation.

Far-right demonstrators have held several violent protests, ostensibly in response to the attack, clashing with police outside a mosque in Southport on Tuesday and hurling beer cans, bottles and flares near the prime minister’s office in London the next day.

Merseyside Police, which is responsible for Southport, said it had made seven arrests so far and had a team of specialists reviewing hundreds of hours of footage to identify anyone involved.

“If you took part in this disorder, you can expect to receive a knock on your door by our officers,” Detective Chief Inspector Tony Roberts said.

Police officers were pelted with bottles and eggs in the town of Hartlepool in northeast England, where a police car was set ablaze. Seven men ages 28 to 54 were charged with violent disorder and were due in court Friday, the local Cleveland Police force said.

At a news conference Thursday, the prime minister said the street violence was “clearly driven by far-right hatred” as he announced a program enabling police to better share intelligence across agencies and move quickly to make arrests.

“This is coordinated; this is deliberate,” Starmer said. “This is not a protest that has got out of hand. It is a group of individuals who are absolutely bent on violence.”

Starmer said his so-called National Violent Disorder Program would enable police to move between communities — just as the “marauding mobs” do. Officers will harness facial recognition technology to identify culprits and use criminal behavior orders often imposed on soccer hooligans that prevent them from going to certain places or associating with one another.

Starmer put some of the blame on social media companies, although he didn’t announce any measures to address that and said there was a balance to be struck between the value they offer and the threat they can pose.

“Violent disorder, clearly whipped up online, that is also a crime. It’s happening on your premises,” he said.
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KYIV — A Russian drone hit a bus in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region early on Friday, injuring six construction workers, including one who was in a critical condition, the regional governor said.

Governor Oleh Syniehubov said the incident took place near the town of Derhachi, about 40 km (25 miles) from Hlyboke one of the border settlements where Russia opened a new front in the war in May.

Ukraine’s military halted the Russian offensive there, rushing in reinforcements after Russia pushed up to 10 km (six miles) into the border areas.

Thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine February 2022.

 
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ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey’s communications authority blocked access to the social media platform Instagram on Friday, the latest instance of a clampdown on websites in the country.

The Information and Communication Technologies Authority, which regulates the internet, announced the block early Friday but did not provide a reason. Sabah newspaper, which is close to the government, said access was blocked in response to Instagram removing posts by Turkish users that expressed condolences over the killing of Hama political leader Ismail Haniyeh.

It came days after Fahrettin Altun, the presidential communications director and aide to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, criticized the Meta-owned platform for preventing users in Turkey from posting messages of condolences for Haniyeh.

Unlike its Western allies, Turkey does not consider Hamas to be a terror organization. A strong critic of Israel’s military actions in Gaza, Erdogan has described the group as “liberation fighters.”

The country is observing a day of mourning for Haniyeh on Friday, during which flags will be flown at half-staff.

Turkey has a track record of censoring social media and websites. Hundreds of thousands of domains have been blocked since 2022, according to the Freedom of Expression Association, a nonprofit organization regrouping lawyers and human rights activists. The video-sharing platform YouTube was blocked from 2007 to 2010.
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