The U.S. State Department is urging Americans not to travel to Britain because of the rising levels of new COVID-19 cases in the country. The State Department raised its travel advisory for Britain to its highest level on Monday, following a similar action taken by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier in the day. A Yeoman Warder, Barney Chandler gestures as he leads the first ‘Beefeater’ tour of the Tower of London in 16 months, at the Tower of London, July 19, 2021.Both agencies said if people must travel to Britain to make sure they are fully vaccinated before their journey. The revised advisories were issued as the British people celebrated “Freedom Day,” the official end of nearly all coronavirus lockdown restrictions, including mandatory mask wearing and social distancing. FILE – People drink shortly after the reopening at The Piano Works in Farringdon, in London, July 19, 20.But Prime Minister Boris Johnson likely cast a pall over the celebration when he announced that proof of vaccination will be required to enter nightclubs and other venues where large crowds gather beginning at the end of September. Johnson spent Freedom Day in quarantine after Britain’s health minister Sajid Javid tested positive for COVID-19. Cases in Britain topped 50,000 per day last week for the first time since January. The surge is largely driven by the delta variant of the virus, first identified in India. US-Canada borderOn the other side of the Atlantic, the Canadian government announced Monday that it would reopen its border to U.S. citizens and permanent residents living in the United States beginning August 9, as long as they show proof they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and tested negative for the virus within 72 hours of arrival. Officials also said it will allow fully vaccinated visitors from other countries beginning September 7. FILE – Two closed Canadian border checkpoints are seen at the US-Canada border crossing at the Thousand Islands Bridge in Lansdowne, Canada, March 19, 2020.Canada and the United States had agreed to ban all nonessential travel across their border in March 2020, with both nations extending the ban on a month-to-month basis. A growing number of U.S. lawmakers and business groups have been calling on Ottawa to lift the ban, which they say has hurt tourism and negatively impacted families with relatives living on either side of the border. Lockdown in AustraliaMeanwhile, more than half of Australia’s 25 million citizens are under coronavirus lockdown measures Tuesday after South Australia state Premier Steven Marshall announced an immediate seven-day lockdown after five new cases were detected there. South Australia joins the neighboring states of Victoria and New South Wales to impose extended lockdowns since late June, when an airport limousine driver in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, tested positive for the highly contagious delta variant after transporting international air crews. People wait outside a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination centre at Sydney Olympic Park in Sydney, Australia, July 14, 2021.The new lockdown in South Australia came as Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews extended a five-day lockdown imposed just last Thursday for at least another seven days after reporting 13 new local infections.New South Wales, which is in the fourth week of an extended lockdown, reported 78 new cases Tuesday, driving its total number of cases over 1,400 since the outbreak began. Australia has been largely successful in containing the spread of COVID-19 through aggressive lockdown efforts, posting just 32,120 total confirmed cases and 915 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center. But it has proved vulnerable to fresh outbreaks due to a slow rollout of its vaccination campaign and confusing requirements involving the two-shot AstraZeneca vaccine, which is the dominant vaccine in its stockpile. Overall, Australia has administered over 10 million doses of vaccine to its population of more than 25 million people, or just over 11%, according to Johns Hopkins. And a new study released Tuesday by the U.S.-based Center for Global Development says India’s total death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic could be as much as 10 times higher than its official tally of 414,482 fatalities, likely making it the worst humanitarian disaster for the South Asian nation since gaining its independence from Britain in 1947. The study says as many as 3 million to 4.7 million people were killed by the virus between January 2020 and June of this year. The world’s second-most populous nation, with an estimated 1.3 billion people, is emerging from a devastating surge between April and May that was partly fueled by the delta variant.
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Month: July 2021
Billionaire Bezos Back on Earth After Successful Suborbital Trip
Billionaire Jeff Bezos was back on earth safely Tuesday after a 10-minute suborbital flight aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft.“Best day ever,” Bezos said after the capsule touched down near Van Horn, Texas. The spacecraft is named after Alan Shepard, the first American launched into space.The world’s richest man blasted off Tuesday from a remote desert launch site in Texas, as he became the second billionaire to self-fund a trip to space this month. This photo provided by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon and space tourism company Blue Origin, exits the Blue Origin’s New Shepard capsule after it parachuted safely down near Van Horn, Texas, July 20, 2021.The fully automated rocket reached an altitude of about 106 kilometers after reaching Mach 3. Once at altitude, the booster separated from the capsule and returned to earth landing upright near the launch site. The crew was able to experience weightlessness for 3 to 4 minutes before a parachute landing back on earthThe altitude surpassed the 85-kilometer mark reached by British billionaire Richard Branson on July 11 when he and five crewmates flew aboard his Virgin Galactic rocket-powered space plane. The 57-year-old founder of e-commerce giant Amazon founded Blue Origin in 2000 with the goal of creating permanent space colonies where people will live and work. This undated family photo shows Oliver Daemen. Blue Origin announced July 15, 2021, that the Dutch teen would be traveling on its July 20 space launch in west Texas.Bezos was joined by his brother, Mark, plus 82-year-old aviation pioneer Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, making them the oldest and youngest persons to fly into space. Funk was one of the so-called Mercury 13, group of women who were part of a privately funded program to train women for space travel. None of them traveled to space.The Dutch-born Daemen was a last-minute addition to the crew after the anonymous winner of a $28 million auction for a seat on New Shepard dropped out, citing a scheduling conflict. Daemen’s father was a runner-up in the auction, which makes the young astronaut Blue Origin’s first paying customer. Bezos, a fervent space enthusiast since watching the Apollo lunar missions in his youth, made his trip on the 52nd anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing. During a television interview Monday, Bezos insisted that his goal was not about competition with Branson, but “about building a road to space so that future generations can do incredible things in space.” Blue Origin’s first manned mission comes after 15 test flights of the New Shepard vehicle. Bob Smith, the company’s chief executive officer, says two more manned missions aboard New Shepard are planned by the end of this year.The company is also building a larger rocket, New Glenn — named after John Glenn, the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth — that will send both manned and unmanned vehicles into space. Some information in this report comes from AP.
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Billionaire Bezos Ready to Realize Dream of Traveling to Space
American businessman Jeff Bezos is set to become the second billionaire to self-fund a trip to space this month when he blasts off Tuesday morning from a remote desert launch site in Texas. The 57-year-old founder of e-commerce giant Amazon and three companions will fly into space aboard the New Shepard rocket built by his company Blue Origin, which he founded in 2000 with the goal of creating permanent space colonies where people will live and work. FILE – This undated file illustration provided by Blue Origin shows the capsule that the company will use to take tourists into space. (Blue Origin via AP)New Shepard, named after Alan Shepard, America’s first astronaut, is scheduled to blast off shortly after sunrise (1300 GMT, 9 a.m. Washington time) and travel at three times the speed of sound before the capsule separates from the rocket and floats above the Earth for three to four minutes, allowing Bezos and his three crewmates to experience weightlessness. The capsule will then re-enter the atmosphere and make a parachute landing near the launch site, while the rocket will make an automated vertical landing several kilometers away. Bezos will be joined by his brother, Mark, plus 82-year-old aviation pioneer Mary Wallace “Wally” Funk and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen, making them the oldest and youngest persons to fly into space. This undated family photo shows Oliver Daemen. Blue Origin announced July 15, 2021, that the Dutch teen would be traveling on its July 20 space launch in west Texas.Funk was one of the so-called Mercury 13, the first group of women to train for the U.S. space program in the 1960s but were denied a chance to become astronauts because of the gender. The Dutch-born Daemen was a last-minute addition to the crew after the anonymous winner of a $28 million auction for a seat on New Shepard dropped out, citing a scheduling conflict. Daemen’s father was a runner-up in the auction, which makes the young astronaut Blue Origin’s first paying customer. Bezos hopes New Shepard will reach an altitude of 106 kilometers above the Earth, past the so-called Karman line (100 kilometers above Earth), which is recognized by international aviation and aerospace federations as the threshold of space. It will also surpass the 85 kilometer mark reached by British billionaire Richard Branson on July 11 when he and five crewmates flew aboard his Virgin Galactic rocket-powered space plane.Bezos, a fervent space enthusiast since watching the Apollo lunar missions in his youth, is heading into space on the 52nd anniversary of the historic Apollo 11 lunar landing. During a television interview Monday, Bezos insisted that his goal was not about competition with Branson, but “about building a road to space so that future generations can do incredible things in space.” Blue Origin’s first manned mission comes after 15 test flights of the New Shepard vehicle. Bob Smith, the company’s chief executive officer, says two more manned missions aboard New Shepard are planned by the end of this year if Tuesday’s flight is successful. The company is also building a larger rocket, New Glenn — named after John Glenn, the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth — that will send both manned and unmanned vehicles into space.
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Blinken Speaks with Iranian American Journalist Targeted in Kidnap Plot
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said an Iranian American journalist targeted in what the Justice Department called an Iranian kidnapping plot “has demonstrated tremendous courage.”
Blinken tweeted Monday that he had a “good conversation” with Masih Alinejad, a VOA Persian TV host and outspoken Iranian government critic.
“I affirmed that the U.S. will always support the indispensable work of independent journalists around the world,” Blinken posted. “We won’t tolerate efforts to intimidate them or silence their voices.”
Alinejad said she and Blinken spoke for 15 minutes, and that the top U.S. diplomat found that the idea Iran would abduct her from U.S. soil “particularly egregious.”
“Secretary Blinken said the Biden Administration takes Islamic Republic’s threats very, very seriously and was aware of how the Tehran regime targets dissidents in the U.S and in Europe,” Alinejad tweeted. “He reassured me that the U.S. would hold the regime accountable for this plot.”
Last week, the U.S. Justice Department said a New York federal court unsealed an indictment charging five Iranian nationals with involvement in the alleged plot to kidnap a “Brooklyn journalist, author and human rights activist for mobilizing public opinion in Iran and around the world to bring about changes to the [Iranian] regime’s laws and practices.” The Justice Department press release did not name the target of the scheme.
Alinejad, who lives in New York City’s Brooklyn borough, later confirmed on her social media accounts that she was the targeted person.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh dismissed the U.S. allegation, saying in comments published by Iranian state media it is a “baseless and ridiculous accusation unworthy of a response.”
Alinejad worked as a journalist in Iran in the 2000s, writing articles exposing government mismanagement and corruption until authorities revoked her press pass and threatened her with arrest. She fled her homeland in 2009, first to Britain, before settling in New York in 2014.
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Ethiopian Police Reject Claims of Arbitrary Tigrayan Arrests
Ethiopian police have confirmed the arrest of hundreds of ethnic Tigrayans in the capital Addis Ababa in recent weeks. The police said they were supporting the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which authorities banned after the Tigray conflict broke out in November. But rights group Amnesty International says dozens were detained because of their ethnicity.
Addis Ababa Police Commissioner Getu Argaw confirmed on Saturday that authorities had arrested over 300 Tigrayans.
But speaking on the state-run Ethiopian Broadcast Corporation, Getu denied the Tigrayans were arrested because of their ethnicity.
Getu said the arrests were made after thorough investigations found the suspects were supporting the TPLF, which authorities banned as a terrorist group in May over the conflict in Tigray region.
Getu said their arrests targeted only individuals who were supporting the ousted terrorist group. The arrests were not due to their ethnicity, said Getu, adding that suspects from other ethnic groups who were involved in supporting that terrorist group were also arrested.
Getu said illegal weapons and ammunition were seized from some of the suspects.
He was responding to a call Friday by rights group Amnesty International for Ethiopian authorities to end arbitrary detentions of Tigrayans without due process.
Amnesty said the sweeping arrests appeared to be ethnically motivated.
The rights group said while some of those arrested were released on bail, while hundreds of others were still being detained and their relatives kept in the dark.
Fisseha Tekle is Amnesty International’s human rights researcher for Ethiopia.
Tekle told VOA the families of those arrested do not know where they are being kept, they have not appeared in court, and this should stop. If they are involved in criminal activities they should appear before court, said Tekle, and their family should have the right to visit them, and they should also get an attorney.
The arrests come as the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region appears to be expanding.
A spokesman for neighboring Afar region on Monday said Tigrayan fighters attacked Afar forces on Saturday and that clashes continued over the weekend.
The TPLF has also vowed to regain territory seized by Amhara forces loyal to the federal government.
The conflict dates back to last November, when Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed deployed government forces to oust the TPLF from power in Tigray.
Ethiopian authorities announced a unilateral ceasefire in Tigray on June 28 as Tigrayan forces re-took the regional capital, Mekelle, from federal troops.
But with each passing day, it looks less likely the cease-fire is going to hold.
Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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After the German Deluge, a Flood of Political Recriminations
Germany’s federal officials are being buffeted by accusations that they failed to heed a string of warnings from scientists ahead of last week’s devastating flash floods — the worst to strike the country since 1962, when a North Sea storm surge left 315 Germans dead.
The latest floods, which impacted Germany’s prosperous Rhineland region, caught many local authorities, residents and businesses by surprise, despite the first alarm about the likelihood of floods being raised on July 10 — three days before a deluge caused the swollen tributaries of the Rhine and Meuse to break their banks.
German authorities on Sunday had confirmed 155 deaths, but they expected the death toll to rise as rescuers continued their search in wrecked buildings for hundreds of missing residents.
Both the German and Belgian governments were warned of the likelihood of flooding, say scientists with the Copernicus Emergency Management Service and the European Flood Awareness System. Belgium has confirmed 27 casualties.
Hannah Cloke, hydrology professor at Britain’s Reading University told AFP: “For so many people to die in floods in Europe in 2021 represents a monumental failure of the system.”
She added: “The sight of people driving or wading through deep flood water fills me with horror, as this is about the most dangerous thing you can do in a flood. Forecasters could see this heavy rain coming and issued alerts early in the week, and yet the warnings were not taken seriously enough and preparations were inadequate. These kinds of high-energy, sudden summer torrents of rain are exactly what we expect in our rapidly heating climate.”
As a huge rescue operation continued Sunday in the worst affected the German regions of Rhineland-Palatinate and North Rhine-Westphalia, chancellor Angela Merkel visited stricken areas, pledging to build back better. She held the hand of one grieving local politician and later said: “I’ve come here today to symbolize that we’re standing together in solidarity. We will fix everything one step at a time in this beautiful area. We have to act fast.”
Questions
Nonetheless Germany’s media has begun to question whether the federal government should have acted faster ahead of the storms and are focusing on the possible political repercussions of the flooding, which has left homes and businesses wrecked. Thousands of people have been left without access to electricity or clean drinking water.
The Federal Office for Citizen Protection and Disaster Assistance did issue alerts on its app about coming floods, say officials. But critics say that a very small fraction of the German population has downloaded the app on their smartphones and that a much louder warning should have been sounded to allow local communities to better prepare for the deluge of midweek rain.
The influential tabloid newspaper Bild has accused the agency of a massive failure.
“The tidal waves came in the night — and surprised hundreds of thousands of people,” the paper editorialized. It said: “The force of the water trapped them in their cellars, tore them on the run or even with their houses. More than 100 dead and countless missing people are to be mourned. Forewarnings? Sirens? Loudspeaker announcements?”
The tabloid concluded warnings were “often not available or much too late.”
Other German media outlets have pointed out that hundreds of people sought refuge in their basements, the worst place to seek sanctuary.
Hundreds of towns and villages in the western regions of Germany have been destroyed. And the images of the destruction aired by the country’s broadcasters and posted on social media sites have startled Germans.
The flooding has come just two months before federal elections, which will determine Merkel’s successor. She is stepping down after 16 years in office.
An immediate $354 million aid package is being prepared by the federal government. Officials say the cost of rebuilding will be in the billions. Rebuilding costs in 2013 after floods on the Elbe and Danube amounted to more than $9 billion.
Ruling Christian Democrat lawmakers hope a quick federal response will limit any political damage from the mounting accusations of insufficient preparedness ahead of the flooding — and they will be scrutinizing post-flood opinion polls to see if their ratings are slipping ahead of September’s federal elections.
Caught laughing
Armin Laschet, the Christian Democrats’ electoral candidate to succeed Merkel, has added to the worries of the ruling party. His electoral campaign has not been gaffe-free and on Saturday he was forced to apologize for being seen laughing with aides in the background when accompanying President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on a tour of stricken towns.
Laschet is the state premier of North Rhine-Westphalia.
He tweeted later his regrets, saying, “This was inappropriate and I’m sorry. The fate of those affected is close to our hearts, and we have heard of it in many conversations,” he wrote. Photographs of him joking with aides in the background as Steinmeier delivered a somber statement have been carried in most of Germany’s main newspapers.
Laschet’s apology has failed to placate critics. “This is all apparently a big joke,” tweeted Maximilian Reimers of the far-left Die Linke opposition party. “How could he be a chancellor?” “I’m speechless,” tweeted Lars Klingbeil, secretary general of the center-left Social Democrats, who govern in a coalition with the Christian Democrats.
Laschet, like most of Germany’s mainstream politicians, have linked the floods to climate change, but the Green Party, which has been running strongly in opinion polls, albeit with slippage in recent weeks, has been critical of the Christian Democrats’ climate action plans, saying they don’t go far enough.
This report includes information from AFP.
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Deadly Australia Spider Venom Could Save Heart Attack Victims
Venom from an Australian spider that is one of the world’s deadliest could save the lives of heart attack victims.A potentially life-saving treatment for victims of heart attacks has been found in a most unlikely source — the venom of one of the world’s deadliest spiders. The World Health Organization says cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death globally, taking an estimated 17.9 million lives each year. Researchers from the University of Queensland have discovered that the poison from the Fraser Island funnel-web spider in eastern Australia contains what could be a life-saving molecule, or peptide. Known as Hi1a, it could block so-called death signals sent to cells after a cardiac arrest, when blood flow to the heart is reduced. This results in a lack of oxygen to the heart muscles, causing cells to become acidic, and a message is sent for heart cells to die. Despite decades of research, scientists have not been able to develop a drug that stops this death signal. Australian experts have said that is one of the reasons why heart disease continues to be the leading cause of death around the world. Dr. Sarah Scheuer is a researcher at the Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, which is part of the spider venom study. She says the discovery could also help transplant patients. “We are using this special little peptide from a small portion of the funnel web spider venom,” she said. “Well, what we found is this peptide is able to help protect the heart where there is a lack of blood supply or blood flow. And we found that this can be used both not only in heart transplantation, so when the donor heart [is] out of the body during the transplant process. But potentially could also be used in heart attack victims to help minimize the damage that occurs.” Australian researchers believe that the molecule from spider venom blocks the heart’s ability to sense acid after a cardiac arrest, disrupting the death message. They have said their vision for the future was for Hi1a to be administered by first responders in the ambulance.The discovery builds on earlier work that found a small protein in the venom of the Fraser Island funnel-web spider markedly improved patients’ recovery from a stroke. The protein has been tested in human heart cells, and the Australian team is aiming to start clinical trials for both stroke and heart disease within two to three years. The research was published in the journal Circulation.
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England Lifts COVID Restrictions
Monday is Freedom Day in England. The day has received the moniker because all social restrictions, like mask wearing and maintaining social distancing, that have been imposed to fight against COVID-19 have been lifted.
The reversal of the restrictions happens amid a rise in COVID cases and hospitalizations in England, largely driven by the delta variant of the virus.
Freedom Day is also happening as Sajid Javid, Britan’s health minister, is self-isolating because he tested positive for COVID. The National Health Service notified British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak, the finance minister that they had been exposed to someone who had tested positive for COVID.
People who have been notified by the NHS of an exposure are expected to self-isolate. Johnson and Sunak, however, were expecting to participate in a pilot program that would have allowed them to work at Downing Street but decided against it after a public uproar.
“Whilst the test and trace pilot is fairly restrictive, allowing only essential government business,” Sunak posted on Twitter, “I recognize that even the sense that the rules aren’t the same for everyone is wrong. To that end I’ll be self-isolating as normal and not taking part in the pilot.”
In Thailand, protesters demonstrating against the government’s handling of the COVID outbreak clashed with police Sunday in Bangkok, the capital. The protests in the capital and in other locations around the country were in defiance of a ban on public gatherings of more than five people that was recently announced by the government.
U.S. teenaged tennis sensation Coco Gauff has tested positive for COVID and will not be part of the Tokyo Olympics. The 17-year-old athlete posted on Twitter that “It has always been a dream of mine to represent the USA at the Olympics, and I hope there will be many more chances for me to make this come true in the future.” It was not immediately clear if Gauff had been vaccinated. The Olympic games were canceled last year, but the Olympic committee’s decision to continue with the games this year has received much criticism as the world continues to grapple with the handling of the COVID pandemic.
190.4 million global COVID cases and more than 4 million deaths from the virus were recorded worldwide early Monday, according to the coronavirus resource center of Johns Hopkins University. The center’s data shows that over 3.6 billion vaccines have been administered so far.
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Hajj in Mecca Pared Back Due to COVID for 2nd Year
Tens of thousands of vaccinated Muslim pilgrims circled Islam’s holiest site in Mecca on Sunday but remained socially distanced and wore masks as the coronavirus takes its toll on the hajj for a second year running.
The hajj pilgrimage, which once drew about 2.5 million Muslims from all walks of life around the globe, is now almost unrecognizable. It is being scaled back for the second year in a row because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The pared-down hajj prevents Muslims from outside Saudi Arabia from fulfilling an Islamic obligation and causes financial losses to Saudi Arabia, which in pre-pandemic years took in billions of dollars as the custodian of the holy sites.
The Islamic pilgrimage lasts about five days, but traditionally Muslims begin arriving in Mecca weeks ahead of time. The hajj concludes with the Eid al-Adha celebration, marked by the distribution of meat to the poor around the world.
This year, 60,000 vaccinated citizens or residents of Saudi Arabia have been allowed to perform the hajj because of continued concerns around the spread of the coronavirus. Last year’s largely symbolic hajj saw fewer than 1,000 people from within the kingdom taking part.
It’s unclear when Saudi Arabia will play host again to millions of Muslims. The kingdom has no clear standard for a vaccine passport, vaccination rates are uneven in different countries and new variants of the virus are threatening the progress made in some nations.
The kingdom’s Al Saud rulers have staked their legitimacy in large part on their custodianship of hajj sites, giving them a unique and powerful platform among Muslims around the world. The kingdom has gone to great lengths to ensure the annual hajj continues uninterrupted, despite changes caused by the pandemic.
Robots have been deployed to spray disinfectant around the cube-shaped Kaaba’s busiest walkways. The Kaaba is where the hajj pilgrimage begins and ends for most.
Saudi Arabia is also testing a smart bracelet this year in collaboration with the government’s artificial intelligence authority. The touchscreen bracelet resembles the Apple Watch and includes information on the hajj, a pilgrim’s oxygen levels and vaccine data and has an emergency feature to call for help.
International media outlets already present in the kingdom were permitted to cover the hajj from Mecca this year, but others were not granted permission to fly in as had been customary before the pandemic.
Cleaners are sanitizing the vast white marble spaces of the Grand Mosque that houses the Kaaba several times a day.
“We are sanitizing the floor and using disinfection liquids while cleaning it two or three times during (each) shift,” said Olis Gul, a cleaner who said he has been working in Mecca for 20 years.
The hajj is one of Islam’s most important requirements to be performed once in a lifetime. It follows a route the Prophet Muhammad walked nearly 1,400 years ago and is believed to ultimately trace the footsteps of the prophets Ibrahim and Ismail, or Abraham and Ishmael as they are named in the Bible.
The hajj is seen as a chance to wipe clean past sins and bring about greater unity among Muslims. The communal feeling of more than 2 million people from around the world — Shiite, Sunni and other Muslim sects — praying together, eating together and repenting together has long been part of what makes hajj both a challenging and a transformative experience.
There are questions around whether the hajj will be able to again draw such large numbers of faithful, with male pilgrims forming a sea of white in white terrycloth garments worn to symbolize the equality of mankind before God and women forgoing makeup and perfume to focus inwardly.
Like last year, pilgrims will be drinking water from the holy Zamzam well in plastic bottles. They were given umbrellas to shield them from the sun. They have to carry their own prayer rugs and follow a strict schedule via a mobile app that informs them when they can be in certain areas to avoid crowding.
“I hope this is a successful hajj season,” said Egyptian pilgrim Aly Aboulnaga, a university lecturer in Saudi Arabia. “We ask God to accept everyone’s hajj and for the area to be open to greater numbers of pilgrims and for a return to an even better situation than before.”
The kingdom, with a population of more than 30 million, has reported over half a million cases of the coronavirus, including more than 8,000 deaths. It has administered nearly 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccines, according to the World Health Organization.
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Hundreds of Jews Visit Contested Holy Site in Jerusalem
Hundreds of Jewish pilgrims visited a contested Jerusalem holy site under heavy police guard on Sunday, shortly after Muslim worshippers briefly clashed with Israeli security forces at the flashpoint shrine.
No injuries were reported, but the incident again raised tensions at the hilltop compound revered by Jews and Muslims. Heavy clashes at the site earlier this year helped spark an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Jews revere the site as the Temple Mount, where the biblical Temples once stood. It is the holiest site in Judaism. Today, it is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Tensions at the compound have frequently spilled over into violence over the years.
The Jews were visiting to mark Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning and repentance when Jews reflect on the destruction of the First and Second Temples, key events in Jewish history.
The Islamic Waqf, which administers the site, said that about 1,500 Jews entered the compound — a number much higher than on typical days. It accused Israeli police of using heavy-handed tactics and said some visitors violated a long-standing status quo agreement barring Jews from praying at the site.
Ahead of the visit, Israeli police said a small group of Muslim youths threw rocks at security forces who quickly secured the area. Amateur video showed police firing what appeared to be rubber bullets, a common crowd-control tactic, and Muslim worshippers were barred from entering the compound for several hours.
In a statement, the Wafq accused Israel of “violating the sanctity” of the mosque by allowing “Jewish extremists to storm the mosque, make provocative tours and perform public prayers and rituals.”
It said the area “is a purely Islamic mosque that will not accept division or partnership.”
The visit came days before Muslims celebrate the festival of Eid al-Àdha, or Feast of the Sacrifice.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of “dragging the region into a religious war.”
Jordan, which serves as the custodian over Muslim sites in Jerusalem, said it had sent a letter of protest to Israel and urged it to respect the status quo.
“The Israeli actions against the mosque are rejected and condemned,” said Daifallah al-Fayez, spokesman for Jordan’s Foreign Ministry.
Israel’s new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, praised police for their handling of the visit and vowed to protect “freedom of worship” for Jews and Muslims at the site.
His comments raised speculation that Israel might be trying to change the norms of the site to allow Jewish prayer.
But Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev told Channel 13 that Israel remains committed to the status quo and that Jewish prayer at the site is “against the law.”
Indonesian Doctors Dying of COVID-19 Amid Surge
COVID-19 is taking a devastating toll on medical professionals in Indonesia, where 114 doctors have died so far this month, more than double the number of doctors who died in June, according to a physicians’ network known as the Mitigation Team of the Indonesian Medical Association, or IDI.
The rising number of doctor deaths comes as the government notes that 95% of health workers have received COVID-19 vaccines.
On Sunday, the chief of the mitigation team, Mahesa Paranadipa Maikel, told the press in Jakarta that the doctor monthly death toll is the highest since the start of the pandemic in March of 2020. The record was last set in January 2021, when 65 doctors died.
A total of 545 doctors in Indonesia have died since the beginning of the pandemic. The highest death toll is in East Java with 110, followed by Jakarta with 83 and central Java with 81.Relatives attend funerals of family members who died from the coronavirus at a cemetery for COVID-19 victims in TPU Rorotan, north Jakarta, Indonesia, July 8, 2021. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)In all of June, 51 doctors died, but that toll has jumped 123% so far this month.
“These numbers might be higher since there are hospitals or clinics that have not reported to us,” said Mahesa.
Most of the doctors who died due to COVID-19 were general practitioners, obstetricians, internists and surgeons. COVID-19 is the illness caused by the coronavirus.
The team also noted that hundreds of others health workers have died as a result of the pandemic, including 445 nurses, 42 pharmacists, 223 midwives and 25 laboratory workers.
Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin says the government has started to use a batch of Moderna vaccines as booster shots to health workers who already received China’s Sinovac vaccine. Sinovac is one of seven coronavirus vaccines that have received emergency use approval by the World Health Organization. Studies on the vaccine’s efficacy rate are ongoing, but Sinovac appears to be less powerful against the coronavirus than other COVID-19 vaccines.Makeshift grave markers are seen at a cemetery for COVID-19 victims in TPU Rorotan, north Jakarta, Indonesia, July 8, 2021. The 8,000 square meter plot of land, which saw its first funerals in March, is now almost full. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)Meanwhile, in the past week the number of daily infections among Indonesians has increased to more than five thousand, with more than a thousand new deaths.
Indonesia currently has more than 2.8 million confirmed cases and 72,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University, which is tracking the global outbreak. Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country, with more than 275 million people.
Windhu Purnomo is an epidemiologist who serves on the faculty of public health at Airlangga University. He told VOA that the situation might worsen due to three factors: the slow pace of vaccinations, the failure to curb people’s mobility and the spread of the more virulent delta variant.
“We have just got many new vaccines like from the U.S., Japan, etc., so even if we increase the vaccinations program, it is still not optimal,” Purnomo said.COVID-19 patients line up for room placement to receive medical treatment, in front of RSUD Bekasi Hospital, in Bekasi City, West Java, Indonesia, June 30, 2021. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)The country can’t impose a lockdown as has happened in other nations, because it doesn’t have the money to pay people to stay home. And the delta variant, which is sweeping the world, is hitting Indonesia hard as well.
“Our burden is too heavy,” he added.
The government imposed strict curbs on movements on July 3 to slow the spread of COVID-19. They include a work-from-home order for non-essential workers and the closure of shopping malls, markets, and all public facilities on the islands of Java, Bali, and 15 other cities across the archipelago.
Luhut Pandjaitan, senior minister who coordinates pandemic restrictions, told VOA on Friday that the government will decide within days whether to extend the timeline for lifting the restrictions, which are set to end on July 20.
“It is not easy and there are several other options. But we will most likely extend it because it’s impossible to reduce or control the spread of the delta variant in two weeks, he said. “But we’ll see what happens first.”COVID-19 patients are seen in an emergency tent put up outside of RSUD Bekasi Hospital, in Bekasi City, West Java, June 30, 2021. The surge in new daily cases has overwhelmed the hospital itself. (Indra Yoga/VOA Indonesian)Health facilities may break down, the mitigation team warned, because there may be too many people needing care, limited medicine and medical equipment available and a lack of doctors, nurses and other medical staff available to provide care.
“We are worried about the potential of a functional collapse. We must create a mapping to see the capabilities of each local health facility,” said Adib Khumaidi, another leader on the team.
The government says it plans to speed up the opening of a number of field hospitals, as well as mobilize 2,000 doctors and 20,000 nurses to cope with the surge in cases.
Sasmito Madrim in Jakarta contributed to this report.
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Country Hits USA
Biden Administration Struggles to Boost Vaccination Rates as COVID-19 Surges
With COVID-19 cases rising in the United States, some cities and counties are telling residents to wear masks indoors, even if they are vaccinated, while the Biden administration points to the prevalence of misinformation about vaccinations, especially on social media, as one of the drivers keeping people from getting shots. Michelle Quinn reports.
Video editor: Marcus Harton
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US Surgeon General: ‘Pandemic Isn’t Over’
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said Sunday he is worried about the increasing number of new coronavirus cases in the country and laid part of the blame on social media companies for not doing enough to remove misinformation about the need to get vaccinated. “I’m concerned about what we’re seeing,” Murthy told “Fox News Sunday,” as about 29,000 new cases are being diagnosed every day in the United States, roughly the same level as in April 2020, when the pandemic first swept through the country. The highly contagious delta variant has been particularly problematic. “This pandemic isn’t over,” he said. “The good news is that the vaccinated are still highly protected,” he said. But he noted that 95% of the deaths occurring now in the U.S., more than 250 a day, are of people who have not been vaccinated. FILE – Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 15, 2021. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)Echoing recent remarks by President Joe Biden, Murthy said people are being “inundated with misinformation,” about the available vaccines being unsafe or unnecessary. President Biden last week said misinformation posted to social media sites was “killing people,” and that, “The only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated.” The Facebook site used by millions of Americans says it has removed 18 million pieces of wrong vaccination information. Murthy said, “Despite what they’ve done, it’s not enough. The intention is good, but I’m asking them to step up” and do more. In a separate interview on ABC’s “This Week” show, Murthy urged people using social media sites to “verify their sources before posting” comments about the efficacy of the shots. Analyses have shown that the vaccination rate in the U.S. is markedly lower in states that voted in last November’s election for then-President Donald Trump, who at times downplayed the severity of the pandemic, and now often the number of new cases is higher in the Trump states. Biden set a goal several months ago of having at least 70% of adults in the U.S. getting at least one vaccine shot by the annual July 4th Independence Day holiday. The U.S., however, fell short of that objective and the number now stands at 68.1%, according to government statistics. Facebook on Saturday pushed back against claims that it is to blame for people not getting vaccinated. In a blog post, Facebook said Biden and his aides should stop “finger-pointing” and detailed what it had done to encourage inoculations. “The Biden administration has chosen to blame a handful of American social media companies,” said Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity. “The fact is that vaccine acceptance among Facebook users in the U.S. has increased.” Rosen said the company’s data showed that 85% of its U.S. users had been or wanted to be vaccinated against the coronavirus. “Facebook is not the reason (the 70% goal) was missed,” Rosen said. Over a period of months, Facebook has acted against misinformation on its site, banning anti-vaccination ads and later removing posts with false claims about vaccines, such as that they cause autism or that it is safer for people to contract the coronavirus than to be inoculated.
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Syria Regime Fire Kills 7 in Rebel Bastion, Monitor Says
Syrian regime artillery fire killed seven civilians including three children in the country’s last major rebel bastion of Idlib, a Britain-based war monitor said Sunday.
The shelling hit in the village of Ehsim late Saturday, in the south of the Idlib region, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
A family member told AFP that visitors had gathered to congratulate a male relative on getting married when the shelling struck their home.
Earlier in the day, rockets fired by pro-government forces killed six civilians in the village of Sarja, including three children and a rescue worker, meaning at least 13 were killed in total in Idlib on Saturday.
The shelling in Ehsim came hours after President Bashar al-Assad took the oath of office for a fourth term, pledging to “liberate” areas still beyond government control.
The deaths are the latest violations of a ceasefire deal agreed by rebel backer Turkey and government ally Russia in March 2020 to stem a regime offensive on the jihadist-dominated stronghold.
An AFP photographer in Ehsim saw rescue workers under floodlights cut through a collapsed ceiling to retrieve the body of a woman.
Bundling her body up in a blanket, they then gently lowered it down a ladder and carried it into an ambulance.
The Observatory said she was among four women and three girls killed in the bombardment.
Bordering Turkey, the northwestern Idlib region is home to around three million people, more than half displaced by fighting in other parts of war-torn Syria. Many rely on humanitarian aid to survive.
The region is dominated by Syria’s former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, but other rebel groups are also present.
Syria’s war has killed around half a million people and forced millions more to flee their homes since starting in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government protests.
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Britain’s Prime Minister, Finance Minister Exposed to COVID-19
Britain’s National Health Service has contacted Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his finance minister, Rishi Sunak, to let them know that they have been close to someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
Downing Street said Sunday in a statement the men will participate in a daily contact testing pilot that will allow them to continue to work from Downing Street but self-isolate when not in their offices.
The announcement came after U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid, who leads the country’s coronavirus response said Saturday he has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating.
COVID-19 cases are rising in the U.S. and around the world, largely driven by the delta variant of the coronavirus. Regions are beginning to return to measures such as mask-wearing to reduce the number of victims.
Los Angeles County, in the U.S. state of California, reimposed a mask-wearing mandate that went into effect Saturday, but a county sheriff said the Public Health Department’s move was “not backed by science” and his department will not enforce the measure.
“Forcing the vaccinated and those who already contracted COVID-19 to wear masks indoors is not backed by science and contradicts the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines,” Sheriff Alex Villanueva wrote in a statement on the department’s website.
“The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (DPH) has authority to enforce the order, but the underfunded/defunded Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department will not expend our limited resources and instead ask for voluntary compliance. We encourage the DPH to work collaboratively with the Board of Supervisors and law enforcement to establish mandates that are both achievable and supported by science.”
It was not immediately clear what, if any repercussions, the sheriff’s office will face for the statement and its refusal to enforce the mandate.
Meanwhile, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, an advocacy group based in Washington and London, has produced a report that identifies a dozen pandemic profiteers “who have enriched themselves by spreading misinformation” about the COVID vaccines.
The group said the 12 entities operate “in plain sight, publicly undermining our collective confidence in doctors, governments and medical science. Their confidence in openly promoting lies and false cures comes from years of impunity in which they were hosted on popular social media platforms, driving traffic and advertising dollars to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube, while benefiting from the enormous reach those platforms gladly afforded them.”
Last week, U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy decried the COVID misinformation that has spread across social media.
More stringent COVID-19 containment measures were imposed in Sydney, Australia, Saturday, as cases of infections continued to rise in the third week of a citywide lockdown.
New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters Saturday the new restrictions would remain in effect until the end of July.
Officials ordered the shutdown of building sites and nonessential retail businesses, restrictions that also apply to Sydney’s surrounding communities in New South Wales.
Residents in the Sydney suburbs of Fairfield, Canterbury-Bankstown and Liverpool are prohibited from traveling outside their communities unless they are health care workers or emergency responders.
Vietnam also is reportedly imposing new restrictions as it grapples with its worst COVID-19 outbreak to date.
The government announced Saturday that it would impose two-week travel restrictions in 16 southern provinces beginning Monday, according to Reuters.
“The curbs are to protect people’s health,” the government reportedly said in a statement.
In the United Kingdom, every adult has been offered a first shot of a COVID-19 vaccine ahead of the country’s reopening Monday. So far 87.8% of adults have received at least one shot.
Johnson said the reopening will go forward even though new infections are at their highest level since January, driven by the delta variant.
One U.K. COVID-19 restriction that will not be lifted Monday is on travelers from France, because of concerns about the beta variant first identified in South Africa.
Travelers from France must isolate for up to 10 days on entering Britain, even if they are fully vaccinated. However, fully vaccinated travelers from most of the rest of Europe can forgo quarantining as of Monday as planned.
In the United States, three Texas state lawmakers have tested positive for the coronavirus, even though they had been vaccinated, the Texas State House Democratic Caucus said on Saturday.
The lawmakers left their state and flew to Washington to block passage of new, restrictive voting legislation in their state.
Two of the lawmakers met Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris. In a statement Saturday, Harris spokesperson Symone Sanders said Harris and her staff are fully vaccinated and “were not at risk of exposure because they were not in close contact with those who tested positive.”
“We are taking these positive confirmations very seriously,” Texas state Representative Ron Reynolds, told MSNBC. “We’re following all CDC guidelines and … we are going to make sure that we don’t expose anyone.”
Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center said Sunday that there have been more than 4 million global COVID-19 deaths and over 190 million infections have been confirmed.
Some information for this report came from Associated Press and Reuters.
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Science Edition: Alzheimer’s Disease/Dementia
Alzheimer’s disease slowly destroys a person’s memory and ability to think. On the Science Edition of Press Conference USA, Dr. Constantine Lyketsos M.D., Professor of Alzheimer’s Research at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Christina Irving, Clinical Services Director and Family Consultant at the Family Caregiver Alliance join host Rick Pantaleo to discuss the impact of Alzheimer’s on the patient and their loved ones.
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Leader Backs Order in South Africa, Vows to Catch Plotters
Standing before a looted mall and surrounded by soldiers, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa vowed Friday to restore order to the country after a week of violence set off by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.
Visiting the port city of Durban in hard-hit KwaZulu-Natal province, Zuma’s home area, Ramaphosa said the chaos and violence in which more than 200 people died had been “planned and coordinated” and that the instigators will be prosecuted.
“We have identified a good number of them, and we will not allow anarchy and mayhem to just unfold in our country,” he said. One person has been arrested for instigating the violence and 11 others are under surveillance, officials said.
As army tanks rolled by the trashed Bridge City mall, Ramaphosa said the deployment of 25,000 troops would end the violence and rampant theft that have hit KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces.
South Africa’s unrest erupted after Zuma began serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court for refusing to comply with a court order to testify at a state-backed inquiry investigating allegations of corruption while he was president from 2009-18.
Protests quickly escalated into theft in township areas. In Durban, rioters attacked retail areas and industrial centers where they emptied warehouses and set them alight. The burned-out shells still smoldered Friday.
More than 2,500 people have been arrested for theft and vandalism and 212 people have died, Ramaphosa told the nation later Friday. Many who died were trampled to death when shops were looted, said police.
“The events of the past week were nothing less than a deliberate, coordinated and well-planned attack on our democracy,” said a solemn Ramaphosa. “These actions are intended to cripple the economy, cause social instability and severely weaken – or even dislodge – the democratic state. Using the pretext of a political grievance, those behind these acts have sought to provoke a popular insurrection.”
Ramaphosa reiterated that those who instigated the unrest will be arrested and prosecuted.
“Those responsible for organizing this campaign of violence and destruction have not yet been apprehended and their networks have not yet been dismantled,” said Ramaphosa. “(But) we know who they are and they will be brought to justice.”
He assured South Africans that the country has adequate food and it will be distributed to areas where supplies have been disrupted. He said disruptions to the COVID-19 vaccination drive will be quickly addressed.
Ramaphosa said that the cost of the rioting to South Africa’s economy will be “billions and billions of rands (dollars).” Extensive damage has been caused to 161 malls and shopping centers, 11 warehouses, 8 factories and 161 liquor stores and distributors, he said.
The army rollout in KwaZulu-Natal is expected to restore order in the coastal province within a few days. An uneasy calm has been secured in Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, South Africa’s largest city and industrial hub.
Two strategic highways linking Durban port to Johannesburg and Cape Town reopened Friday after being closed for a week. The military will patrol the highways, but drivers were warned to use the roads with care.
“It is vitally important to proceed with extreme caution and to stay alert at all times,” the highway authority said in a tweet Friday.
The highways are vital transport routes carrying fuel, food and other goods. Authorities were working to reopen the rail line to the strategic Indian Ocean ports of Durban and Richard’s Bay.
One of the country’s biggest food manufacturers, Tiger Brands, said it has stopped food production operations at its most affected sites in KwaZulu-Natal. The company said it had lost stock worth close to 150 million rand (about $10 million) in the violence.
With order restored in Gauteng, authorities have begun holding residents accountable. Police in Johannesburg have started recovering stolen property and arresting suspects.
There has been an increase in people trying to spend cash stained with green dye, evidence that the money was stolen from the hundreds of ATMs broken into during the riots, according to the South African Banking Risk Information Center, which warned that the notes won’t be honored.
To restore respect for law, the South African Council of Churches has proposed that the government declare a limited amnesty of two weeks when people can return stolen property to the police and will not be charged.
“We need leaders of all faiths everywhere, civic and community leaders, traditional leaders in rural communities, and business and trade unions in the workplace, all of us to pull together and chart a path of restoration,” Bishop Malusi Mpumlwana, general secretary of the ecumenical group, wrote in an open letter.
Swift action must be taken against those who plotted the strategic attacks, said Ronnie Kasrils, veteran anti-apartheid leader and former Cabinet intelligence minister.
“This unrest is coming to be seen by government and intelligence services and the president as an actual plot by a group in support of Jacob Zuma … to unleash civil disorder and really to bring the country to its knees,” said Kasrils. “There is the need to root out the plotters and bring forward the allegations, the evidence.”
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First Athletes Positive for COVID-19 in Tokyo Olympic Village
Two athletes have become the first to test positive for the coronavirus in the Tokyo Olympic Village, officials said on Sunday, just days before the pandemic-delayed Games open.The cases will heighten concerns over the Olympics, which are facing opposition in Japan over fears they will bring new cases to a country already battling a surge in infections.A daily tally of new cases revealed two athletes tested positive in the Village and one elsewhere. They come a day after an unidentified person, who was not a competitor, became the first case in the Village.The Olympic Village, a complex of apartments and dining areas, will house 6,700 athletes and officials at its peak when the 2020 Games, delayed last year over the pandemic, finally get under way.The Tokyo Olympics, which will be held largely behind closed doors to prevent infections, are unpopular in Japan where opinion polls have consistently demonstrated a lack of support.On Saturday, International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach appealed for Japanese fans to get behind the Games, saying he was “very well aware of the skepticism” surrounding the event.
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Slovenia’s Media Faced With Hostile Rhetoric, Threats, Attacks, Analysts Say
For the next six months Slovenia will preside over the European Union, a body dedicated to the highest democratic values. But critics say that when it comes to upholding press freedom ideals, Slovenia is not up to scratch.
Two separate organizations, including the Council of Europe, released findings on what they say is a deteriorating situation for journalism.
In a memorandum on freedom of expression and media freedom in Slovenia, the COE’s commissioner for human rights, Dunja Mijatovic, said she was concerned about steps by authorities “that risk undermining the ability of critical voices to speak freely.”
The COE platform that documents threats and harassment of media registered 13 violations in the past year, compared with one the year before, the report said. The memo also cited physical attacks on journalists; a rise in hate speech, both online and from political representatives; polarization of public debate; and stigmatization of independent voices.
The Media Freedom Rapid Response group, a Europe-wide coalition that monitors violations, reported similar issues based on findings from conversations with journalists, academics and government officials.
“Over the last 14 months, independent journalism has come under sustained pressure on multiple fronts from the coalition government led by the Slovenian Democratic Party,” the MFRR said.
Slovenia’s center-right government dismissed the criticisms as “fake news.”
Prime Minister Janez Jansa responded to the COE report on Twitter, saying Mijatovic is “part of fake news network” and “spreading lies.”
Many journalists and academics who spoke with VOA believe that a hostile environment and uneven access to government officials and information is hurting audiences and presenting a threat to journalists.
Although most agree that conditions are better in Slovenia than in fellow EU member states Poland and Hungary – where media are under a significant clampdown – they say the country is declining along a similar path.
Renate Schroeder, director at the European Federation of Journalists, which contributed to the MFRR report, told VOA: “Is Slovenia becoming another Poland or Hungary? … No, not yet.”
There appears to be a drive to follow the same pattern as Hungary, “slowly but surely, and that I find very, very frightening,” added Schroeder, whose organization was involved in the MFRR research.
Findings that Schroeder said surprised her included the government’s decision to stop financing the national news agency STA, which receives about half its income from the state budget; polarization among journalists; and smear campaigns against critical journalists, which she says in some cases are led by the prime minister.
“This attack on the press agency is unprecedented, we do not have that in other countries,” said Schroeder. She added that Jansa is the first prime minister in Europe who “is doing smear campaigns … in such a way by using Twitter.”
Some journalists have said Slovenia’s media are laboring under the harshest conditions since independence in 1991.
“The media situation has worsened very much under this government. I have been a journalist for 27 years, and we have never seen something like that,” Evgenija Carl, a prominent journalist with the state broadcaster RTV Slovenia, told VOA.
“We can see that many journalists are scared. They do reporting but are afraid to voice their own opinions. They have stopped participating in the social media for fear that as soon as they write something critical about the government they will be attacked,” Carl added.
Online attacks can be prompted by coverage of politics and alleged corruption, or even the amount of space given to specific articles. Jansa in October described STA as a “national shame” on Twitter after it gave more space to an article on a rapper’s album than Jansa’s meeting with his Hungarian counterpart, Viktor Orban.
Carl is one of two female journalists whom Jansa called “prostitutes” on Twitter in 2016, while leader of the opposition. The journalists filed a defamation suit against him.
Since 2018, Carl said, she has received three envelopes containing white powder and threatening letters mentioning the lawsuit.
Commissioner Mijatovic said in her memorandum that anonymous threats online and via phone, email and in letters, as well as in graffiti sprayed on media buildings, leave some journalists fearful for their safety.
Mijatovic’s office told VOA the commissioner could not comment on relations between the EU and the Slovenian presidency, but that she stood fully by her assessments and was “hopeful the government will use it in order to improve the situation related to media freedom and freedom of expression.”
In a response to the Council of Europe’s memorandum, the Ministries of Justice, Interior and Culture said that the current climate “cannot in any way be considered as an attack on the freedom and independence of journalistic work but represents a normal democratic process.”
Their response stressed that journalists should “not be exempt from criticism, particularly when they [sic] reports are untrue and they deliberately spread lies.”
The statement cited a potential “erosion of journalistic freedoms exclusively in private media,” and said owners of large media companies have an influence on journalists’ reporting.
Government officials have stated previously they believe large media companies are overly critical of the government.
The Ministry of Culture told VOA in a written statement that it explained to MFRR why the group’s findings were “a result of incorrect information,” but did not elaborate.
Some experts in Slovenia also believe that the COE and MFRR reports are not credible.
Matevz Tomsic, a professor of sociology and the president of the Association of Journalists and Publicists – one of three large journalist groups in the country – told VOA he was interviewed for both reports but that his views were not represented.
MFRR lists Tomsic’s name among those interviewed. The Council of Europe did not immediately confirm whether it had interviewed the academic.
“The media freedom has not worsened under the current government. The situation is similar to what it was under previous governments,” Tomsic said.
“It is possible that media which are favorable to the government get more advertising of state firms, but that has also been happening under the previous governments and is not unique to this one,” he added.
Schroeder, of the European Federation of Journalists, believes the EU should do more to prevent attacks on media freedom in its member states. But, she added, “legally speaking that is very difficult as they do not have the means, the tools.”
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