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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.

Read more here:
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 »

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

The chairman of Iowas GOP slammed Republican Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) on Wednesday, calling the senator an arrogant academic.

We had Senator Ben Sasse from Nebraska, he crosses the Missouri River, and in that sanctimonious tone talks about what he doesnt like about Donald TrumpDonald TrumpTrump: I didnt record Comey conversations Trump-Modi talks can aid breakup of burdensome barriers to India trade Trump doesn't have Comey tapes: report MORE,GOP state chairman Jeff Kaufmann said during President Trumps campaign-style rally in Cedar Rapids.

Sasse, who is a vocal critic of President Trump, is set to speak at a local Republican Party dinner in two weeks.

Kauffman went on to say Sasse only holds sway in Congresss upper chamber because the Republicans are in the majority.

Hes an arrogant academic, Kauffman said in an interview after Trumps event.

Hes sanctimonious. His statements are geared toward what can helphim. Hes arrogant. And hes not a team player, when in reality the only reason hes got any clout at all in the Senate is because the Republican Party has the majority, he continued.

The Hill has reached out to Sasse for comment.

Excerpt from:
Iowa GOP chairman calls Republican senator 'an arrogant academic' - The Hill

Senate Republicans released their long-awaited bill Thursday to dismantle much of Barack Obama's health care law, proposing to cut Medicaid for low-income Americans and erase tax boosts that Obama imposed on high-earners and medical companies to finance his expansion of coverage.

The bill would provide less-generous tax credits to help people buy insurance and let states get waivers to ignore some coverage standards that "Obamacare" requires of insurers. And it would end the tax penalties under Obama's law on people who don't buy insurance the so-called individual mandate and on larger companies that don't offer coverage to their employees.

The measure represents the Senate GOP's effort to achieve a top tier priority for President Donald Trump and virtually all Republican members of Congress. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., hopes to push it through his chamber next week, but solid Democratic opposition and complaints from at least a half-dozen Republicans have left its fate unclear.

"We have to act," McConnell said on the Senate floor. "Because Obamacare is a direct attack on the middle class, and American families deserve better than its failing status quo."

But some Republican senators, as well as all the Senate's Democrats, have complained about McConnell's proposal, the secrecy with which he drafted it and the speed with which he'd like to whisk it to passage. McConnell has only a thin margin of error: The bill would fail if just three of the Senate's 52 GOP senators oppose it.

Democrats gathered on the Senate floor and defended Obama's 2010 overhaul. They said GOP characterizations of the law as failing are wrong and said the Republican plan would boot millions off coverage and leave others facing higher out-of-pocket costs.

"We live in the wealthiest country on earth. Surely we can do better than what the Republican health care bill promises," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Some conservative and moderate GOP senators have their doubts, too.

Senate Republican health care bill (PDF) Senate Republican health care bill (Text)

Senate Republican health care bill (PDF) Senate Republican health care bill (Text)

Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., facing a tough re-election fight next year, said he had "serious concerns' about the bill's Medicaid reductions.

"If the bill is good for Nevada, I'll vote for it and if it's not, I won't," said Heller, whose state added 200,000 additional people under Obama's law.

The House approved its version of the bill last month. Though he lauded its passage in a Rose Garden ceremony, Trump last week privately called the House measure "mean" and called on senators to make their version more "generous."

At the White House on Thursday, Trump expressed hope for quick action.

"We'll hopefully get something done, and it will be something with heart and very meaningful," he said

The bill would phase out the extra money Obama's law provides to states that have expanded coverage under the federal-state Medicaid program for low-income people. The additional funds would continue through 2020, and be gradually reduced until they are entirely eliminated in 2024.

Ending Obama's expansion has been a major problem for some GOP senators. Some from states that have expanded the program have battled to prolong the phase-out, while conservative Republicans have sought to halt the funds quickly.

Beginning in 2020, the Senate measure would also limit the federal funds states get each year for Medicaid. The program currently gives states all the money needed to cover eligible recipients and procedures.

The Senate bill would also reduce subsidies now provided to help people without workplace coverage get private health insurance, said Caroline Pearson, a senior vice president of the health care consulting firm Avalare Health.

Unlike the House bill, which bases its subsidies for private insurance on age, the Senate bill uses age and income. That focuses financial assistance on people with lower incomes.

Pearson said those subsidies will be smaller than under current law. That's because they're keyed to the cost of a bare-bones plan, and because additional help now provided for deductibles and copayments would be discontinued.

Under Obama's law, "many of those people would have gotten much more generous plans," she said.

The bill would let states get waivers to ignore some coverage requirements under Obama's law, such as specific health services insurers must now cover. States could not get exemptions to Obama's prohibition against charging higher premiums for some people with pre-existing medical conditions, but the subsidies would be lower, Pearson said, making coverage less unaffordable.

Like the House bill, the Senate measure would block federal payments to Planned Parenthood. Many Republicans have long fought that organization because it provides abortions.

It would also bar the use of the bill's health care tax credits to buy coverage that includes abortions, a major demand for conservatives. That language could be forced out of the bill for procedural reasons, which would threaten support from conservatives, but Republicans would seek other ways to retain the restriction.

The Senate would provide $50 billion over the next four years that states could use in an effort to shore up insurance markets around the country.

For the next two years, it would also provide money that insurers use to help lower out-of-pocket costs for millions of lower income people. Trump has been threatening to discontinue those payments, and some insurance companies have cited uncertainty over those funds as reasons why they are abandoning some markets and boosting premiums.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the House bill would cause 23 million people to lose coverage by 2026. The budget office's analysis of the Senate measure is expected in the next few days.

Read more:
Senate Republicans unveil secretive health care bill to dismantle Obamacare - Chicago Tribune