Two fatal boating accidents in Venice this weekend shocked city residents and prompted calls for a crackdown on speeders in the tourist hotspot’s increasingly congested canals and waterways.

Renzo Rossi, 59, and Natalino Gavagnin, 63, two lifelong friends and neighbors in Venice’s Castello quarter, were killed when their small fishing boat was struck Friday night by a jet boat carrying four passengers in their twenties. 

The pensioners had gone out to catch sea bass near the lagoon opening at the Lido – an 11km-long sandbar between the lagoon and the Adriatic sea. 

They were slowly motoring home around 11.30 pm when they were hit by the 150-horsepower speedboat piloted by a 27-year-old gondolier out with three friends. 

Nearby fishermen reported hearing a speedboat planing across the water before impact, followed by cries for help from the young passengers, who were later treated for minor injuries. 

Mr Gavagnin was thrown out and found dead hours later. Mr Rossi fought for his life waiting for medics, but died after being finally transported to Venice’s hospital. 

Venice | In numbers

Alcohol tests came back negative, but prosecutors are also investigating speed, lighting of both vessels, as well as water ambulance response time. 

Less than 24 hours later, 76-year-old Giovanni Rampazzo drowned in the southern lagoon after the boat he was in with four friends overturned in the wake of a passing vessel.

Boat wakes are dangerous for lagoon navigation, but also for the city’s fragile foundations, which are sinking and deteriorating due in part to damage from waves, wakes and rising tides.

The Italian government was urged to manage the increasingly congested canals and waterways of the iconic lagoon after three died in the world heritage city.

In a statement released on Sunday, Luigi Brugnaro, the mayor of Venice, urged Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte to sign a special legislative decree requesting creation of a single regulatory body to oversee, sanction and coordinate the various local, regional and national entities operating in the city built on the sea.

“The recent tragic news events have brought out, once again, the urgent need to regulate, in a united and functional way, the management of lagoon waters. Its time to act,” said Mr Brugnaro, adding that passing the decree would improve accident response efficiency but also help protect the World Heritage city from further deterioration.

Since 1995, dozens have been injured and five have died in lagoon boating accidents, despite navigation rules enforced with cameras and boat patrols. 

Venice has been gradually losing residents, but tourism is on the rise. 

Cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers now stop in Venice, fueling the need for taxis, water buses, gondolas and other service boats. Locals have been identified as contributing to the problem, too. 

Just weeks ago, Lido residents petitioned city, police and port officials complaining that young boaters were speeding, blaring music and putting navigation at risk.

Up to 300 bridges, viaducts and tunnels in Italy are at risk of structural failure, experts warned, as the death toll from the collapse of a bridge in Genoa rose to 39, including three children.

There were fears that the number of fatalities could rise further.

Matteo Salvini, Italy’s interior minister, said it was hard to tell how many people were still unaccounted for simply because they were on holiday or “under the rubble”.

He said the tragedy demonstrated the importance of increasing investments and hinted that EU spending limits could put lives at risk.

"If external constraints prevent us from spending to have safe roads and schools, then it really calls into question whether it makes sense to follow these rules," Mr Salvini, who leads the eurosceptic League party, said. "There can be no trade-off between fiscal rules and the safety of Italians."

The European Union pushed back against suggestions EU budget rules might be to blame.  "We will not engage in any political finger pointing," the European Commission, the EU’s executive in Brussels, said.

The commission in Brussels said Italy was receiving billions of euros under the bloc’s multi-annual budget for infrastructure investment and was "one of the main beneficiaries of the flexibility" under the 28-nation bloc’s fiscal rules.

British couple Genoa bridge collapse

Around 70 per cent of Italy’s 15,000 motorway bridges and tunnels are more than 40 years old, many of them built during the post-war boom but now carrying far more traffic than they were designed for.

Lack of investment, poor maintenance and, in some cases, the involvement of mafia-run building companies that use poor quality concrete to increase profits, could all contribute to disasters like the one in Genoa.

“They have problems that, if not addressed in time, could potentially lead to structural failures,” a leading structural engineer told La Repubblica newspaper.

“The problem is not so much knowing which structures are at risk, but having the money to finance repairs and maintenance,” said the expert, who asked for anonymity because he works for a company that assesses public infrastructure.

Among the structures at risk was the Magliana Bridge in Rome, between the city centre and the capital’s busiest airport, Fiumicino, he said.

Italy’s CNR civil engineering society said that many structures dating from the 1960s, when the Morandi Bridge was built, had surpassed their lifespan.

It called for a “Marshall Plan" to repair or replace tens of thousands of Italian bridges and viaducts built in the post-war period.

As investigators began to study what may have caused a 260ft-long portion of the raised motorway in Genoa to collapse, sending around 35 cars and several trucks plummeting to the ground, Italy’s populist government blamed the private company that managed it.

Luigi Di Maio, deputy prime minister and the leader of the Five Star Movement, accused Autostrade per l’Italia of chasing profits at the expense of public safety.

“Instead of investing money for maintenance, they divide the profits and that is why the bridge falls," he said.

Autostrade, which operates nearly 2,000 miles of Italian motorways, is controlled by the Benetton group through its holding company, Atlantia.

Mr Di Maio accused previous Italian governments of turning a blind eye to the upkeep of the country’s motorways because of political contributions.

“For the first time there is a government that does not take money from Benetton. Autostrade was protected by previous governments,” he said.

“If the bridge was dangerous, then they should have closed it.”

The government said it wanted to revoke the contract awarded to Autostrade and hit the company with a massive fine of 150 million euros.

"The first thing that should happen is that the heads of Autostrade per l’Italia should step down. And given that there have been breaches (of contract), I announce that we have begun the process for the eventual revocation of their contract and a fine of 150 million euros,” transport minister Danilo Toninelli said on Facebook.

Autostrade insisted the bridge had been “constantly monitored” and refuted accusations that it had not invested enough in maintenance.

"In the last five years the company’s investment in the security, maintenance and strengthening of the network has been over one billion euros a year," it said.

As the coalition, which consists of Five Star and the hard-Right League party, called for heads to roll, it emerged that in 2013 the founder of Five Star had opposed plans to build a new motorway that would have alleviated pressure on the Morandi bridge.

Beppe Grillo, the founder of Five Star, dismissed warnings that the bridge could collapse as “a fairy tale” on his widely-read blog.

When the plans for the new motorway were blocked, one leading industrialist predicted that the Genoa bridge would fail.

“When, in 10 years’ time, the Morandi bridge collapses, and everyone is stuck in traffic jams for hours, we’ll need to remember the names of those who said no (to the project),” said Giovanni Calvini, who was then regional president of Confindustria, an employers’ association.

Arcangelo Merella, a former member of Genoa city council with responsibility for transport, said: “I was saying that the bridge was at risk, that it was no longer adequate and that there was the need to find an alternative because the traffic was becoming heavier all the time.”

As Genoa’s mayor declared two days of mourning, there was anger among locals over the fact that repeated warnings about the safety of the bridge went unheeded.

Several locals told The Telegraph that the structure shook noticeably when trucks rolled across it and many residents worried about crossing over and under it.

The bridge had to withstand more than 25 million vehicle crossings a year, with traffic volumes quadrupling in the last 30 years.

The number of vehicles using the bridge was expected to grow by 30 per cent over the next 30 years.

An engineering report released in 2009 studied the possibility of the bridge being demolished because of concerns over its structural integrity.

“The city is sad and of course the mourning comes first, but the city is also angry, because for years we have talked about substituting this bridge and it was never done,” said Paolo Maggio, a 46-year-old taxi driver.

“This will be a huge hit for the economy – it will impact cargo traffic to and from the airport, the ports, to France. For months, Genoa will be cut in half.”

Andrea Rescin, one of the first local residents to call the emergency services after the bridge crashed to the ground, said: “It sounded like a bomb had gone off, the first thing I thought was that it was an explosion.”

Giuseppe Conte, the prime minister, declared a state of emergency for Genoa, one of the country’s busiest ports, whose main land corridor with France has now effectively been severed. He also announced five million euros of funds going into recovery work.

Donald Trump on Tuesday slammed the powerful Koch-led political donor network as "globalist" and "a total joke," rejecting the conservative group amid reports that it was shifting away from him over trade and immigration issues.

The US President’s comments follow news media reports that some officials with the Koch donor network sought to distance itself from Mr Trump and the Republican Party at a weekend gathering in Colorado where concerns were also raised that the president’s trade policies could fuel a recession.

The political spat comes less than four months before the midterm congressional elections that have Mr Trump’s fellow Republicans seeking to maintain control of both chambers of Congress when U.S. voters cast ballots in November.

Mr Trump wrote on Twitter: 

Charles and David Koch have been a force in American politics for decades, channeling billions of dollars into conservative causes. But the billionaire industrialist pair distanced themselves from Mr Trump during the 2016 presidential election, in part over his divisive rhetoric toward Muslims and others.

Charles Koch has taken the lead after his younger brother, David, stepped down from their political group and their company Koch Industries earlier in June due to poor health.

While the two have backed Mr Trump over taxes and judicial appointments, Bloomberg News reported that Charles Koch told reporters at the weekend gathering that Mr Trump’s trade policies, including tariffs, could trigger severe economic fallout.

The Kochs’ influence has been powered by their fortunes from Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held U.S. company with operations in a range of sectors from refining and chemicals to ranching and forest products.

The pair have championed free trade and have launched a multimillion-dollar campaign to oppose Mr Trump’s tariffs, which have targeted China, Canada, Mexico and the European Union, among others. Republicans have traditionally also backed free trade, and some lawmakers have grumbled about Mr Trump’s moves but have stopped short of taking any major action.

Mr Trump has defended his trade policies, saying he backs free but "fair" trade to support U.S. workers.

In another twist, the Koch-backed network over the weekend also touted its support of Democratic U.S. Senator Heidi Heitkamp, according to the Washington Post and Bloomberg.

Heitkamp is one of a handful of vulnerable Senate Democrats facing tough re-election races in conservative states that overwhelmingly backed Mr Trump in 2016.

Her Senate seat, along with those in West Virginia, Indiana, Montana and Missouri, are critical given the Republicans’ narrowly 51-49 hold on the chamber. She faces Republican U.S. Representative Kevin Cramer, who Mr Trump endorsed on Friday.

Billionaires basking on their mega-yachts off St Tropez this summer beware: if your luxury vessel catches fire or founders, don’t expect the local lifeboat to come to the rescue.

That is the message from French Riviera port’s marine rescue officials after their plea for financial help for a rescue craft went unanswered from the captains of luxury yachts that ply the waters off the famously glitzy town.

The St Tropez branch of the Société Nationale de Sauvetage en Mer (SNSM), the national lifeboat association, wrote this year to wealthy individuals and companies owning such yachts, asking them to help out.

They urged them to help stump up the remaining €200,000 needed to pay for a new €1.4 million (£1.25m) lifeboat.

However, they said their SOS appeal for funds sunk almost without trace, causing delays and meaning they cannot afford crucial electronic devices on board.

With the new lifeboat only due to be delivered next spring from the shipyard in Brittany, their old craft, the Bailli de Suffren II, is currently out of action for two weeks, awaiting a spare part from Italy.

As a result, rescue calls risk going unanswered. The broken lifeboat is the only one in the area able to weather all conditions to pull in bigger vessels.

Pierre-Yves Barasc, the president of the Saint-Tropez lifeboat station, said that while the highest donation of €10,000 came from the owner of a relatively small boat, penny-pinching tycoons failed to hand over a centime.

“If 30 people had done the same we could have had our new lifeboat quicker. They said it wasn’t their problem,” he told the local edition of the news outlet Var-Martin.

“That’s not true. On the larger boats last year we saved an eight-month-old baby. We also saved three youngsters caught on rocks – not a word of thanks, even from their father. Nothing! It’s almost as if it’s their right. It’s great to shower the young ladies with a bottle of €50,000 Cristal champagne, but they could be a little more restrained and help us a little more." 

He said he hoped that his angry outburst would spur the super rich yacht owners to finally cough up.

“We have wasted two years to change the lifeboat because we didn’t have the money and the result is our old boat broke down and is out of action for seven weeks. It’s distressing,” he said.

Last year, the port’s lifeboat went out 87 times, and 78 of the rescues occurred between 15 June and 15 September, high season for the French Riviera.

Luxury yacht owners aside, Mr Barasc said he hoped that the French would learn to be more generous with their lifeboat services. While in the UK around 85 per cent of boat owners donated something, only three per cent did so in France, he said. 

An NGO rescue ship carrying 87 migrants docked in the Spanish port of Algeciras on Thursday amid protest from the city’s mayor that it did not have the resources to cope with the new arrivals.

José Ignacio Landaluce, the conservative mayor of the Andalusian city, said Madrid had neither consulted or even informed him of the arrival of the Open Arms, which had been turned away by Italy after rescue operations in the central Mediterranean. 

Demanding that Pedro Sanchez, the prime minister, visit Algeciras to “see the reality” of the migration crisis, Mr Landaluce, of the opposition Popular Party,  told radio station Onda Cero that local authorities had not received “even a dime” from the central government.

"The Spanish have big hearts, yes, but on this issue we have to use our heads because there is not enough money," said the mayor, who last month warned Algeciras could become "a new Lampedusa".

In July, Spain overtook Italy to become the largest European gateway for migrants crossing the Mediterranean Sea, with 23,741 arriving on its shores so far this year – almost triple the same period in 2017 – according to the International Organisation for Migration. 

Officials and analysts attribute the surge primarily to the crackdown on the Central Mediterranean crossing from Libya to Italy, which has pushed migrants towards the alternative Western Mediterranean route from Morocco to Spain.

In the face of a ban on NGO rescue ships by Italy’s new populist, anti-immigration interior minister, Matteo Salvini, Spain has now also repeatedly stepped into the breach since it first offered safe harbour to the Aquarius and its 630 migrants in June.

However previous offers were made in agreement with city governments in Valencia and Barcelona, where the Open Arms is based. 

Authorities in Andalusia, meanwhile, are already struggling to cope with a dramatic uptick in migrant rafts crossing from Morocco, with reception centres overflowing and new arrivals forced to sleep on police station patios or even on the decks of boats. NGOs say Spain’s asylum system is completely collapsed – a claim the central government has denied – while local governments have been emitting increasingly desperate calls for assistance.

Mr Landaluce said Algeciras did not have the money to cope with "an Aquarius every day", noting the area’s high levels of unemployment and the needs of those arriving. 

"I don’t want a social imbalance to be created, here we live in peace and harmony and there are no tensions," he said.

The mayor demanded to know Madrid’s plans for dealing with the crisis, and that the government press harder in Europe for a common migration policy. 

On Tuesday, Spain’s foreign minister, Josep Borrell, accused Mr Salvini of "playing politics at the cost of not only Spain but the whole of Europe".

Mr Salvini hit back, claiming Spain favoured "out of control immigration". 

Donald Trump has revoked the security clearance of former CIA director John Brennan – one of his most vocal critics on national security issues.

Announcing the decision Sarah Sanders, the press secretary, accused the former intelligence chief of  "erratic conduct and behaviour", adding he had "leveraged" his security status to make "unfounded, outrageous" allegations about the administration.

"Mr Brennan has a history that calls into question his objectivity and credibility," she added.

The former intelligence chief reacted by saying he would not back down.

"This action is part of a broader effort by Mr. Trump to suppress freedom of speech & punish critics. It should gravely worry all Americans, including intelligence professionals, about the cost of speaking out. My principles are worth far more than clearances. I will not relent," he said. 

Mr Brennan, who served as head of the CIA from 2013 to 2017, has been deeply critical of Mr Trump’s conduct. 

Last month he called the US president’s performance at a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Finland "nothing short of treasonous."

This week Mr Brennan levelled a blistering attack against Mr Trump for the president’s tweeted criticism of former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, who wrote a book critical of Trump.

"It’s astounding how often you fail to live up to minimum standards of decency, civility, & probity. Seems like you will never understand what it means to be president, nor what it takes to be a good, decent, & honest person. So disheartening, so dangerous for our Nation," Mr Brennan wrote.

Ms Sanders said the security clearance of other former intelligence officials, including James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, and ex-FBI director James Comey were also "under review".

Former intelligence officials usually keep their security clearance but rarely use it, sometimes providing advice to successors.

The other officials whose clearances are being reviewed are former CIA director Michael Hayden, former national security adviser Susan Rice, and Andrew McCabe, who served as Trump’s deputy FBI director until he was fired in March.

Peter Strzok, a fired FBI agent, FBI lawyer Lisa Page and senior Justice Department official Bruce Ohr were also named as under consideration.

Democratic members of Congress said it smacked of an "enemies list" among fellow Americans and the behaviour of leaders in "dictatorships, not democracies." 

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi slammed the move as a "stunning abuse of power."

Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee, warned that a "dangerous precedent" was being set by "politicising the way we guard our national secrets just to punish the president’s critics."

Several Republicans also weighed in, with Sen. Bob Corker saying: "Unless there’s something tangible that I’m unaware of, it just, as I’ve said before, feels like a banana republic kind of thing."

In a phone interview with MSNBC, Mr Brennan called the move an "abuse of power by Mr. Trump."

"I do believe that Mr. Trump decided to take this action, as he’s done with others, to try to intimidate and suppress any criticism of him or his administration," he said, adding that he would not be deterred from speaking out.

Trump’s action, critics and nonpartisan experts said, marked an unprecedented politicization of the federal government’s security clearance process. It also was a clear escalation in Trump’s battle with members of the U.S. intelligence community as the investigation into Russia election meddling and possible collusion and obstruction of justice continues.

At least two of the former officials, Mr Comey and Mr McCabe, have said they do not currently hold security clearances.

Mr Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI, was not on the list.

It is understood that Mr Trump’s current director of national intelligence, Dan Coats, was not consulted on the decision to revoke Mr Brennan’s clearance.

Mr Trump first floated the idea of revoking the clearances of Obama era security officials who have been publicly critical of him in July.

At the time, the White House accused them of "politicising and in some cases monetising their public service and security clearances" to make "baseless accusations" against the president.

In response Mr Clapper described it as a "a very, very petty thing to do". 

"The president has that prerogative, but if he chooses to do it for political reasons I think that’s a terrible precedent. It’s petty retribution for speaking out against the president."

Zimbabwe’s opposition leader Nelson Chamisa on Friday dismissed the results of the country’s landmark presidential elections as "fraudulent" and "illegitimate" but signalled he would take the path of law to contest the outcome.

"We won this election and we are ready to form the next government," Mr Chamisa told a press conference, after President Emmerson Mnangagwa of the ruling Zanu-PF was declared victor with 50.8 percent of the vote.

Mr Chamisa, leading the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), won 44.3 percent in the historic first election following the ousting of autocrat Robert Mugabe, according to the Zimbabwe Election Commission (ZEC).

Mr Chamisa charged that there had been flagrant rigging under ZEC, a body which under Mugabe was notorious for fraud.

"Mr Mugabe was at least sophisticated," he complained.

Africa's tarnished jewel: how four decades of Robert Mugabe left Zimbabwe's economy reeling

ZEC officials have robustly denied allegations of bias or rigging.

Mr Mnangagwa was named Zanu-PF leader after the brief military intervention which toppled Mugabe in November after 37 years of iron-fisted rule.

Mr Chamisa called the electoral commission "opaque, partisan, arrogant".

"We are not accepting fake results," he said.

"We are not accepting this fiction. We want a proper result to be announced. We will pursue all means necessary, legal, constitutional, to make sure we protect the people’s vote."

Mr Chamisa said the MDC would dispute the results through the courts, though a legal challenge appears to offer little hope of overturning the outcome.

He urged supporters to refrain from violence after troops opened fire on demonstrators in Harare on Wednesday, killing six people.

Chamisa’s press conference at a hotel in Harare was delayed after riot police armed with tear gas broke it up, clearing journalists out of the building and prompting tense exchanges.

But it went ahead after acting information minister and Zanu-PF spokesman Simon Moyo told the police to stand down.

Nonetheless, the move threatened to undermine Mr Mnangagwa’s promise of a new era of political freedom and democracy.

Several dozen riot officers walked into Harare’s Bronte Garden Hotel and ordered journalists to leave just before Mr Chamisa’s press conference was due to start at 2pm local time.

Police banged their batons on their riot shields and shouted "leave, leave", but when challenged by journalists they appeared unwilling to use force and then left the building. 

The police commander was left holding talks with Mr Chamisa’s lawyer outside the hotel. The commander refused to answer journalists’ questions about who had ordered the operation and why the police had arrived.

The incident raised questions about Mr Mnangagwa’s control of the police force and about divisions within the Zimbabwean government.