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Meanwhile, more than 20,000 Ukrainians have already taken advantage of an easing of visa requirements by 30 European countries that was granted as an incentive for Kiev to adhere to E.U. standards.

For the mentality of the country to change, to get rid of the Soviet legacy, you need to see other parts of the world, one owner of a small business said.

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The grim deaths of two brothers from the Senegalese village of Togo, above, match those of a growing number of young African men who are determined to reach Europe or die trying.

More than 2,100 migrants and refugees have drowned this year in the Mediterranean. But the sea is only one in a deadly series of obstacles. Its a suicide mission, one man said.

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In Washington, Senate Republicans released their version of the health care bill. It would shift resources from the poor to the wealthy.

Separately, President Trump said he did not record meetings with James Comey, the former F.B.I. director, largely confirming suspicions that he had been bluffing previously.

Canada, meanwhile, is bypassing confrontation with the White House by taking its business directly to American state and local governments.

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Amid the searing summer heat, spare a thought for Romes police officers, scrambling to control the hordes of tourists who descend upon the Eternal Citys historic sites.

Many of these tourists, whom some call the New Barbarians, brandish selfie sticks. Some climb on sculptures. And then there are the skinny dippers, the gawkers and those with dripping ice cream.

If you are seeking respite from the heat or want to avoid the crowds, consider exploring the treasures hidden in Italys historic libraries.

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Somewhat cooler temperatures are forecast for much of Europe, but a new analysis found that 35-degree Celsius days are expected to become much more frequent in the coming decades, hurting crop yields and straining electric grids.

Just how hot it will get depends on what action is taken to slow climate change. If no action is taken, large swaths of sub-Saharan Africa will experience those temperatures for most of the year.

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You can imagine the uproar among frites-stall operators in Brussels when E.U. officials proposed changes to an age-old (but probably carcinogenic) cooking process. Heres a look at the E.U.s politically charged food disputes.

BMW and Volkswagen are trying to build the computing capacity they will need as vehicles digitize and become driverless.

Uber announced that passengers would soon be able to tip through the app a move meant to mend fences with drivers. Thats just one of the changes to come.

As millennials enter the labor force, employers are contending with helicopter parents.

Heres a snapshot of global markets.

The British authorities said they had found at least 11 buildings that shared the same kind of cladding with the apartment tower that burned in London. [The New York Times]

Lawmakers in Germany voted to quash the convictions of tens of thousands of gay men persecuted under a law that was repealed in 1994. The estimated 5,000 victims who are still alive have been promised compensation. [The Guardian]

Senior officials in the Church of England, including a former archbishop of Canterbury, colluded with a bishop to help cover up his serial abuse of young men and boys, an independent review found. [The New York Times]

Germanys intelligence services are said to have carried out extensive espionage in the United States. [Der Spiegel]

Surveillance footage we analyzed suggests that Al Nuri Grand Mosque, in Mosul, was blown up from the inside and not hit by an airstrike. [The New York Times]

Who wants to be king? No one in his family, says Prince Harry, fifth in line to the British throne. [The New York Times]

Long-haul truck drivers offer practical advice about highway safety.

Here are tips to prepare for the challenges of college life and what comes after.

Recipe of the day: Ramadan is coming to an end. Whether youre Muslim or not, consider these Eid al-Fitr recipes for a family feast.

Astronomical salaries in soccer, driven by the cash-soaked Premier League, Europes superclubs and the lure of Chinas riches, demand the question: How much is a player really worth?

If you are headed to Russia for the Confederations Cup, or otherwise, consider taking the kids along. St. Petersburg, it turns out, is a great family travel destination. And heres the tournaments schedule.

Wim Wenders, the German film director, will make his debut staging an opera at the Staatsoper in Berlin tomorrow.

Lo-fi rap is thriving on SoundCloud, the streaming service. We stage-dived into hip-hops unruly new underground.

Finally, our movie critic says the new Transformers movie, The Last Knight, is surprisingly good, thanks largely to Anthony Hopkins.

Sightings of U.F.O.s have been reported around the world, but none are more famous than one 70 years ago.

In June of 1947, W. W. Brazel, a rancher in New Mexico, came across some odd debris. A few days later, he whispered kinda confidential-like to the local sheriff that it might be remnants of a flying disk.

A local military base, the Roswell Army Air Field, issued a release about the debris, prompting a newspaper article headlined RAAF Captures Flying Saucer.

Officials changed their story the next day, saying the debris came from a weather balloon, but Roswell has since been nearly synonymous with tales of alien visitations.

Almost exactly 20 years ago, the Air Force tried to end the speculation. In The Roswell Report: Case Closed, officials wrote that any aliens spotted in the desert were actually anthropomorphic test dummies carried aloft by Air Force high-altitude balloons.

As for Mr. Brazel, he didnt believe the debris was a weather balloon, but he regretted setting off the furor.

In the future, he said, if I find anything else besides a bomb, they are going to have a hard time getting me to say anything about it.

Evan Gershkovich contributed reporting.

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This briefing was prepared for the European morning. We also have briefings timed for the Australian, Asian and American mornings. You can sign up for these and other Times newsletters here.

Your Morning Briefing is published weekday mornings and updated online.

What would you like to see here? Contact us at europebriefing@nytimes.com.

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'Brexit', Republican Party, Confederations Cup: Your Friday Briefing - New York Times

Heres the Washington Posts Eugene Robinsonwith an odd attack on Republicanhealth care plans:

The health-care bill that Republicans are trying to pass in the Senate, like the one approved by the GOP majority in the House, isnt really about health care at all. Its the first step in a massive redistribution of wealth from struggling wage-earners to the rich a theft of historic proportions.

Not to be too pedantic about this, but the government isnt redistributing wealth when it lets a citizen keep more of his money, and it isnt stealing from the poor when it cuts benefits they didnt actually own. Welfare programs like Medicaid represent a forcible transfer wealth. Welfare is the redistribution.And iftheres any actual argument for theft, its the theft of money from the private citizen by the government.

But that would be hyperbole. In civilized societies, people understand that a certain degree of taxation isnecessary for a nation to function.Safety nets are compassionate and prudent.But it is dangerous and wrong to get confused about who owns what. I own the money I earn. Americas less fortunate citizens dont ownMedicaid.Itsa privilege, not a right a privilege that is subject to the same budgetary and fiscal concerns inherent in any other government program, including national defense.

Entitlement culture plagues this nation, and it plagues Americas poorest communities. So lets speak accurately about ownershipand redistribution. Medicaid is a program, not property, and its not theft to attempt to moderate its enormous financial cost.

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Republican Health Care Plans Don't 'Steal' From the Poor - National Review

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

I'm a Republican and I depend on Medicaid Pittsburgh Post-Gazette I am a registered Republican living in Pittsburgh. I am a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh pursuing a Ph.D. in rehabilitation sciences. I acquired a spinal cord injury which left me paralyzed and requires me to use a wheelchair. In ... and more »

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I'm a Republican and I depend on Medicaid - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

It would be understandable if Republicans were doing this because its what most Americans want them to do. But its not. Only about 25 percent of Americans approved of a similar version of this bill, the one passed by the House. By a nearly 2 to 1 margin, people would prefer that the Affordable Care Act be kept in place and fixed, rather than junked for this cruel alternative.

The Senate bill is by far, the most harmful piece of legislation I have seen in my lifetime, said Senator Bernie Sanders. At age 75, hes seen a lot.

Remember when Republicans used to pretend to care about crafting the peoples business in sunlight? Its simply wrong for legislation that will affect 100 percent of the American people to be negotiated behind closed doors. That was Mike Pence in 2010.

Why are they doing it? Why would the peoples representatives choose to hurt their own people? The answer is further evidence of our failed democracy. About 75 million Americans depend on Medicaid. This bill will make their lives more miserable and perilous in order to give the top 2 percent of wealthiest Americans a tax cut.

And where are the 75 million now? They are nowhere. The sad fact is, the poor dont vote. Up to 80 percent of low earners do not show up at the polls, and its even worse in midterm congressional elections. The Republicans can screw the poor, whose population is disproportionately large in red states, because those citizens will not fight back.

So, little surprise that Republicans are also working to make it even harder for the poor to vote. They can seek to disenfranchise one class of Americans, and get away with it from the safety of gerrymandered seats.

The symptoms of democratic collapse from the opioid crises of people who long ago checked out of active citizenship to the stagnation of class mobility cry for immediate action.

It takes the median worker twice as many hours a month to pay rent in a big city today than it did in the early years of the baby boomer era, as Edward Luce notes in his new book, The Retreat of Western Liberalism. Add towering increases in health care and college costs to that and youve got an unclimbable wall between low-income limbo and a chance at the middle class. The United States, once known for our American Dream, now has the lowest class mobility of any Western democracy, according to Luce.

What is Congress doing? Nothing on wages. Nothing on college tuition. And the health care bill will most surely force many people to choose between buying groceries and being able to visit a doctor.

Our fake democracy reveals itself daily. Less than a third of Americans support President Trumps decision to withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement. In a truly representative government, you would see the other two-thirds, the common-sense majority, howling from the halls of Congress.

Most Americans are also against building a wall along the Mexican border. They would prefer putting taxpayers billions into roads, bridges, schools and airports. But the wall remains a key part of President Trumps agenda.

Trump is president, of course, despite losing the popular vote by nearly 3 million people. Almost 60 percent of the public is against him now. In a parliamentary system, hed be thrown out in a no-confidence vote. In our system, hes primed to change life for every citizen, against the wishes of a majority of Americans. Try calling that a democracy while keeping a straight face.

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Our Fake Democracy - New York Times

President Donald Trump listens to a demonstration during the "American Leadership in Emerging Technology" event in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. on June 22, 2017.Jabin BotsfordThe Washington Post/Getty Images

In 1997, Fareed Zakaria wrote an important article for Foreign Affairs detailing the rise of illiberal democracy around the world. He contrasted the term with liberal democracy, which he described as marked not only by free and fair elections, but also by the rule of law, a separation of powers, and the protection of basic liberties of speech, assembly, religion, and property. In fact, this latter bundle of freedoms what might be termed constitutional liberalism is theoretically different and historically distinct from democracy. He then wrote a book on the subject.

Twenty years later, Council of Foreign Relations President Richard Haass tweeted out the following: years ago @FareedZakaria wrote the book re illiberal democracies. i never thought this would fit the US but we r getting too close 4 comfort. I am a big fan of Richard (and Fareed), but I disagree with Haass on this one. America remains a strong liberal democracy however messy and dysfunctional even in the age of Donald Trump. Heres why.

1. Free Press Endures

Since Donald Trump announced his candidacy, the press has been aggressive in fact-checking and challenging him at every turn. At times, a bit unfair; 80% of the coverage of Trumps first 100 days was negative, compared to just 41% for President Obama's. Many U.S. journalists have decided that professional responsibility demands a much more confrontational approach to this White House. The result has been coverage that is sometimes unfair and over-the-top. This drives Trump up the wall, because theres little he can do about it. In an illiberal democracy, the state uses all sorts of tools to dominate the press and shape public opinion. Trump has friendly news outlets that help maintain support from his base, but the rest of the media is in no danger of falling under Trumps sway.

2. Americans Love Going to Court

Americans go to court. A lot. And a lot of Americans become lawyers. As of 2009, for every 100,000 people, the U.S. has 380 lawyers. For comparison purposes, Japan has just 23 lawyers per 100,000 people; France has 70 (2010 and 2006 figures, respectively). More important than the number of lawyers is the continued faith Americans have in the legal system as of 2016, 61% of Americans say they have at least a fair amount of trust in the judicial branch of the federal government, as opposed to the 51% of people who are confident in the executive branch and 35% of people who trust the legislative branch. In a liberal democracy, individuals and organizations can slow and alter the crafting of law and regulations by tying things up in court. And Americans are game in the first two weeks of Trumps presidency, his Administration was sued 55 times (compared to five lawsuits over the same time against Obama and Clinton, and four against George W. Bush).

3. The Courts Remain Independent

And the courts continue to limit executive power. In an illiberal democracy (see Russia and Turkey) the fix is already in when the gavel falls. For example, to tighten his grip on power, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has purged the judicial system in Turkey after last summers failed coup attempt, banishing more than 4,000 judges and prosecutors (25% of the countrys total). Trump would probably settle for ditching the judges that have struck down his travel ban no fewer than eight times in various courts (and by both Democratic and Republican-appointed judges). Maybe add the federal judge that blocked the Administrations ability to withhold funds from sanctuary cities , jurisdictions which ban law enforcement agencies from investigating, interrogating, or arresting people for immigration enforcement.

4. There's No Deep State

To hear Trump and his surrogates tell it, any political defeat or unflattering news story about him should be attributed to a deep state hell-bent on trying to oust him. But there is no deep state in America, just a deep bureaucracy. Its made up of professional civil servants who have dedicated years of their lives (in 2015, a full-time permanent federal civilian employee had an average of 13.7 years of service ) to specific policy goals, whether from the left or right. Asking career officials at the Environmental Protection Agency to suddenly stop believing in climate change because the man elected in November doesnt much care for science was never going to get much traction. There are obviously people in the White House and throughout the executive branch that are sabotaging political and policy moves they believe harm the nations interests, as they define them. Vladimir Putin doesnt have this problem.

The bigger problem may be that the state isnt deep enough: As of this week, the Trump White House has only managed to confirm 44 of the 558 Senate-confirmable positions in the federal government. One hundred and five people have been formally nominated, five are awaiting nomination, and 404 jobs have no nominee whatsoever. Obama had confirmed at 170 by the same time into his own presidency; George W. Bush, 130.

5. Congress Has Its Own Agenda

Finally, Republicans in Congress have an agenda: Repeal Obamacare as they promised; roll back Obama-era regulations; and cut taxes. If Trump can help, great. If they can do it entirely without Trumps input, that might be even better. And if they start to believe that Trump will prevent them from passing their agenda and maybe cost them control of Congress? Theyll cross that bridge only if they feel they have to. But they are not a rubber stamp, as in an illiberal democracy. And the Senate voting 98-2 for more sanctions against Russia (and congressional oversight over them) last week against Trumps wishes offers more proof.

Any democracy can become illiberal. But its dangerous to argue that Trump has already created one. If illiberalism one day really does threaten Americas constitutional liberalism, it will be that much harder to raise the alarm if the charge has already been raised and dismissed.

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5 Reasons Why America Is Still a Strong (If Dysfunctional) Liberal Democracy - TIME