“The G20 worries me” -Pope Francis

In an interview with La Repubblica, Pope Francis has expressed concern about the alliance between the U.S. and Russia calling it, “very dangerous.” The pontiff mentioned that the leaders of both countries suffer from a distorted perception of the world on matters like immigration. He conflated the relationship between these two countries with similar alliances present between other countries like North Korea and China, and between Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashir al-Assad over the Syrian war.

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church came a few days after President Donald J. Trump of the United States and President Putin of Russia held their first official meeting on the shadow of the G-20 summit. During the Hamburg meet, Trump made the proposal to work with Russia on matters of enhancing cybersecurity. If everything falls into place, the two countries will go for a common “cyber security unit.”

Complicating the matter is the continuing controversy over the issue of alleged ties between Kremlin and the then presidential candidate Donald Trump during the 2016 election time. The U.S. Congress has started a probe on this issue.

This is sad. The Pope puts US under Trump in same human rights basket as Russia, China and North Koreahttps://t.co/O5XSICbJkL — Steve Cochran (@CochranShow) July 9, 2017

Pope Francis said, “The G20 worries me, it hits migrants in countries in half of the world and it hits them even more as time goes by.” The pontiff is also the first pope from outside Europe in 1,300 years of papal history. He is afraid the juxtaposition of poor and marginalized migrants with people who are afraid of migrants can cause complications. The leaders of the G20 group discussed the migration crisis in Europe. Thousands of refugees have died while trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea illegally from the North African coast. The pontiff has asked the European authorities to regard migrants as people in need and not criminals.

Italy, the country which has received the maximum number of refugees, has urged other countries in Europe to help it ease the pressure. It said that the administration is unable to cope with the huge number of refugees coming to its shores. The numbers say it all: over 85,000 people were rescued from the Mediterranean Sea. It was an increase of 19 percent from the identical period in 2016.

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