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Peter R. de Vries, a renowned Dutch journalist who fearlessly reported on the violent underworld of the Netherlands and campaigned to breathe new life into cold cases, has died at age 64 after being shot in a brazen attack last week, his family said Thursday.

“Peter fought to the end, but was unable to win the battle,” the family said in a statement sent to Dutch media.

While the motive for de Vries’ shooting remains unknown, the July 6 attack on an Amsterdam street had the hallmarks of the gangland hits taking place with increasing regularity in the Dutch underworld the journalist covered.

Two suspects have been detained. Dutch police said the suspected shooter is a 21-year-old Dutchman, and a 35-year-old Polish man living in the Netherlands is accused of driving the getaway car. They were arrested not long after de Vries was wounded.

De Vries rose rapidly from a young cub reporter to become the Netherlands’ best-known journalist. He was a pillar of support for families of slain or missing children, a campaigner against injustice and a thorn in the side of gangsters.

“Peter has lived by his conviction: ‘On bended knee is no way to be free,’” the family statement said. “We are unbelievably proud of him and at the same time inconsolable.”

De Vries had been fighting for his life in an Amsterdam hospital since the attack. The statement said he died surrounded by loved ones and requested privacy for de Vries’ family and partner “to process his death in peace.” Funeral arrangements were not immediately announced.

The shooting happened after de Vries made one of his regular appearances on a current affairs television show. He had recently been an adviser and confidant for a witness in the trial of the alleged leader and other members of a crime gang that police described as an “oiled killing machine.”

The suspected gangland leader, Ridouan Taghi, was extradited to the Netherlands from Dubai in 2019. He remains jailed while standing trial along with 16 other suspects.

Caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte led the tributes to de Vries in the Netherlands.

“Peter R. de Vries was always dedicated, tenacious, afraid of nothing and no one. Always seeking the truth and standing up for justice,” Rutte said in a tweet. “And that makes it all the more dramatic that he himself has now become the victim of a great injustice.”

Dutch King Willem Alexander last week called the shooting of de Vries “an attack on journalism, the cornerstone of our constitutional state and therefore also an attack on the rule of law.”

The slaying also struck a chord elsewhere in Europe, where murders of reporters are rare. The killings of journalists in Slovakia and Malta in recent years have raised concerns about reporters’ safety in developed, democratic societies.

In a tweet, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she was “deeply saddened by the news of Peter R. de Vries’ passing. I want to express my condolences to his family and loved ones.”

She added: “Investigative journalists are vital to our democracies. We must do everything we can to protect them.”

De Vries won an International Emmy in 2008 for a television show he made about the disappearance of U.S. teenager Natalee Holloway while she was on holiday in the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba in 2005.

In 2018, while acting as a spokesman for the family of an 11-year-old boy who was abused and killed in 1998, de Vries appealed for tips about the whereabouts of a suspect identified in a DNA probe.

“I can’t live with the idea that he won’t be arrested,” de Vries said when appealing for help at a televised press conference. “I won’t rest until it happens.”

The suspect was arrested a few weeks later in Spain and convicted last year in the death of the boy, Nicky Verstappen.

De Vries’ comment about the suspect in Nicky’s slaying summed up the tenacity that was a cornerstone of a career that saw him report on some of the Netherlands’ most notorious crimes, including the 1983 kidnapping of beer magnate Freddy Heineken.

Acting on a tip, de Vries tracked down one of the kidnappers in Paraguay in 1994.

He befriended another of the kidnappers, Cor van Hout, who was later gunned down in Amsterdam. Another of the kidnappers, Willem Holleeder, who was van Hout’s brother-in-law, was convicted in 2019 of inciting the killings of van Hout and four other people. Holleeder was sentenced to life imprisonment.

De Vries also was known for tenaciously campaigning to find the truth behind the 1994 slaying of a 23-year-old woman, Christel Ambrosius. Two men from the town where she was killed were convicted in 1995 and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, but de Vries refused to believe they were guilty.

They were acquitted in 2002, and in 2008, another man was convicted of Ambrosius’ killing.

Justice Minister Ferd Grapperhaus issued a statement calling de Vries “a brave man who lived without compromise. He would not allow himself to be intimidated by criminals.”

Grapperhaus said he “tracked down injustice throughout his life. By doing so he made an enormous contribution to our democratic state. He was part of its foundation.”
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US President Joe Biden hosted German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House on Thursday. The two leaders highlighted a stronger transatlantic relationship and cooperation on a range of issues, but differences remain on the Nord Stream 2 Russian natural gas pipeline. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
Producer: Barry Unger
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Spain has experienced a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in the past month which have prompted authorities to impose fresh restrictions in many parts of the country.The 14-day coronavirus contagion rate was 469.50 per 100,000 of population, according to Spanish health ministry data released on Wednesday, making Spain’s one of the highest levels in Europe.Barcelona and the surrounding region of Catalonia plan to impose a curfew to curb the delta variant of the coronavirus, which is running rampant among younger, unvaccinated Spaniards.The Catalan regional authorities on Thursday were waiting for a judge to approve a nightly curfew after the two-week contagion level surpassed 1,000 cases per 100,000 people.Hospital staff treat a patient suffering from COVID-19 at Hospital del Mar, where an additional ward has been opened to deal with an increase in coronavirus patients in Barcelona, Spain, July 15, 2021.Possible paybackFor the Spanish state it also means a potential financial headache because 1.1 million fines imposed for breaking the state of emergency can now be appealed in court, meaning the government could be forced to refund the fines it imposed on some people. After the court ruling on Wednesday, Spain’s Justice Minister Pilar Llop told a press conference that said the original state of emergency “saved 450,000 lives.””The duty of the government was to take immediate, urgent measures when faced with the rapid propagation of the virus,” she added.Pablo Simón, a political analyst at the Carlos III University in Madrid, said the ruling had important implications for how Spain can control the pandemic. “All fines imposed can now be appealed which will cause financial implications for the government,” he told VOA.”According to the constitution, the state of exception can only be applied for 30 days. It was designed for public disturbances, not for pandemics.””Spain is left in a situation where it lacks a judicial instrument to impose limitations on personal liberties which are suited to a pandemic.” Delta variantRafael Bengoa, a former World Health Organization health systems director who is now the director of the Institute for Health and Strategy in Bilbao, said he believed Spain has been overwhelmed by the spread of the delta variant.“I said three weeks ago we would not control the delta variant. That variant is faster in everything; more transmissible, more virulent, when infected you reach higher viral loads sooner,” he told VOA.“Hospitals are beginning to fill up like they did in the UK with younger people. Vaccination is proving insufficient when there is community transmission and that can only be controlled with much tougher measures,” he said. “At present regional authorities must ask judges if they can bring in curfews, close bars etc but this is a sign of helplessness. Re-centralization of decisions would help to save the end of the summer,” Bengoa added. 
 
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A well-known Dutch crime reporter who was shot last week in Amsterdam has died.A statement from the family of Peter R. de Vries said the journalist “fought to the end but was unable to win the battle.””Peter has lived by his conviction: ‘On bended knee is no way to be free,'” the statement said. “We are unbelievably proud of him, and at the same time, inconsolable.””Peter R. de Vries was always dedicated, tenacious, afraid of nothing and no one. Always seeking the truth and standing up for justice,” Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte said in a tweet. “And that makes it all the more dramatic that he himself has now become the victim of a great injustice.”De Vries, 64, was struck in the head by one of five rounds fired as he left a television studio on July 6. Police arrested two suspects in connection with the shooting — a 21-year-old Dutchman suspected of being the shooter, and a 35-year-old Polish man accused of driving the getaway car.De Vries is a household name in the Netherlands, known for confronting gangsters and drug kingpins, and helping police disentangle high-profile homicides and solving cold cases like that of 11-year-old Nicky Verstappen, whose 1998 murder went unsolved for over 20 years. De Vries is also famed for his coverage of the abduction of brewing magnate Freddy Heineken in the 1980s. The reporter has long lived with death threats. Earlier this year, he told a magazine he wasn’t afraid, saying, “That’s part of the job.”  Local media say De Vries recently had been counseling a gangster-turned-witness identified as Nabil B., in the murder and racketeering trial of suspected drug kingpin Ridouan Taghi. One of Nabil B.’s lawyers was killed 18 months ago, and some Dutch media questioned whether the murder is linked to Taghi’s trial.The attack on De Vries came just months after TV crime reporter Giorgos Karaivaz was fatally shot outside his home in Athens. He was struck by at least half-a-dozen shots in April fired by a passenger on a motorbike.In February 2018, Slovak investigative reporter Ján Kuciak and his fiancée, Martina Kušnírová, were found shot to death in their home in Veľká Mača, western Slovakia. The 27-year-old reporter had been probing economic crimes involving high-profile Slovak businessmen with ties to politicians.  
 
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U.S. President Joe Biden meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House Thursday in what will probably be her last official visit.
 
After 16 years as chancellor, Merkel plans to leave the government following national elections in September.
 
“This visit will affirm the deep and enduring bilateral ties between the United States and Germany,” the White House said Wednesday.
 
Biden and Merkel will discuss a variety of issues that include “countering the threat of climate change, ending the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing security and regional challenges, and shoring up democracy around the world,” according to the White House.
 
The two leaders are also expected to discuss a Russian gas pipeline that Washington opposes. The Nord Stream 2 project transports natural gas from Russia to Germany.
 
The U.S. has argued that the project will put European energy security at risk by increasing Europe’s reliance on Russian gas and allowing the Kremlin to pressure vulnerable countries in Eastern and Central Europe.
 
Merkel’s spokesperson, Steffen Seibert, told reporters the leaders will also discuss China, which has strong trade relations with Germany. Some political observers say Merkel, who has criticized China’s human rights record, hopes to avoid having to choose between the U.S. and China.
 
Merkel’s agenda Thursday also includes dinner at the White House with President Biden, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Douglass Emhoff.  
 
Merkel will also make remarks after receiving an honorary degree at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
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Five years ago this week, tanks rolled into the streets of Ankara and Istanbul, and soldiers ordered a news anchor at Turkey’s state broadcaster, TRT, to read a statement announcing the military had seized power.  The coup attempt was shut down quickly. But for the country’s media and voices of opposition, July 15, 2016, spurred an era of accusations and arrests, including the arrests of journalists who had covered events that night.One of those was Ilhan Tanir, then Washington correspondent for Turkey’s oldest newspaper, Cumhuriyet. Tanir recalls watching the coup unfold from the U.S., with TV stations interrupting regular programming to show military vehicles on Istanbul’s iconic Bosporus Bridge.Ilhan Tanir, pictured in July, is a Turkish journalist based in Washington, D.C. In 2016, he reported on the failed attempted July 15 coup for Turkey’s oldest newspaper, Cumhuriyet.”At the time, there were a lot of ISIS attacks in Turkey,” the journalist told VOA, referring to the Islamic State terror group. “The rumors and the tweets were talking about how it could be some kind of ISIS attack.”  But, Tanir said quickly, “we understood there was a coup.”  In the hours that followed, Tanir used Twitter to convey information from Turkish sources to his English-speaking audience.  Months later, Turkish prosecutors claimed his earlier social media posts and news reporting were evidence that Tanir belonged to the Gulen movement, the group accused of orchestrating the coup.  It was an accusation leveled at other journalists too. In the past five years, record numbers were arrested, often on accusations of supporting or producing propaganda for a terrorist organization. Authorities tightened control over digital and social media and forced some news outlets to close or come under new ownership.  At Tanir’s outlet alone, at least a dozen journalists, including former Editor-in-Chief Can Dundar, were accused of being part of the Gulen movement, a grassroots religious organization led by Fethullah Gulen.The 80-year-old cleric, who lives in self-imposed exile in the U.S., denies any involvement. Addressing his party’s provincial heads on July 8 of this year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the failed coup as “one of the most treacherous attempts in our history.”  The attempt to thwart democracy left around 250 people dead and more than 2,000 injured. Erdogan said that it had been carried out by Gulenists but had “a much wider network behind it.” FILE – The names of civilians and police killed while resisting a failed coup attempt are displayed on a banner in Taksim Square, Istanbul, Turkey, July 20, 2016. The slogan reads: ‘Sovereignty belongs to the nation.’Turkey has also dismissed international criticism of the arrests of critics and reporters. In a 2017 BBC interview, FILE – Banners and flags are waved at a solidarity rally nearly two weeks after a failed attempted coup in Ankara, Turkey, July 27, 2016.”It wasn’t just members of the Gulen movement that were targeted at the stage,” said Merve Tahiroglu, the Turkey program coordinator at Project on Middle East Democracy, or POMED, a Washington-based research and advocacy group.  “It was also people who had nothing to do with this movement. Many Kurdish outlets were among the first media outlets that were shut down by decree in the state of emergency,” she said. “And we saw a lot of journalists, particularly Kurdish journalists but also liberal voices, progressive voices, get detained or sacked from their jobs.” For some, the accusations appeared to stem from being in the wrong place at the wrong time.  On the day of the coup, Henri Barkey, a Middle East expert and professor of international relations at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania,  was on Istanbul’s Buyukada Island, speaking at a workshop on Iran’s relations with its neighbors.  But Ankara saw the American analyst’s presence in Istanbul differently. It issued an arrest warrant for Barkey, and pro-government newspapers described him as a CIA operative working inside the country to topple Erdogan. “It has been very costly to me, this Turkish accusation,” said Barkey, who denies the allegations. “I can’t go to Turkey, obviously, to do my research there. People avoid me. Friends of mine have stopped talking to me because they are afraid, because any association with me is problematic and can be used against them,” he told VOA.  FILE – An unidentified solider accused of attempting to assassinate Turkey’s president during the failed attempted coup is escorted to a court hearing, Oct. 4, 2017.Analysts say those numbers are higher today and include prominent politicians such as Selahattin Demirtas, the co-leader of the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party, or HDP, who has been behind bars since November 2016.  Last month, the Turkish Constitutional Court ordered HDP to go on trial for alleged links to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. If connections are proven, the HDP will shut down like all the other pro-Kurdish parties preceding it.  Ankara’s actions have resulted in media watchdogs labeling Turkey as the worst jailer of journalists. By the end of 2016, at least 86 journalists were jailed in Turkey, according to the New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which tracks arrests linked directly to working as a journalist.  CPJ’s annual prison census, which reflects the number of detained journalists, continued to show high figures in the years following the coup: 74 in 2017, 68 in 2018 and 37 at the last count, in late 2020. Alongside its snapshot of arrests, the press freedom organization flagged Turkey’s “revolving door” approach of detentions, releases, and rearrests.The European Union has also warned Turkey that its aspirations for membership hang on the country ending its authoritarian practices.  “Human rights, the rule of law, democracy, fundamental freedoms — including media freedom — are all basic imperative requirements for any progress towards the European Union,” Johannes Hahn, the EU’s membership commissioner, said after talks with Turkey in 2017.’Abusing Interpol’ Journalist Tanir says he considered himself lucky to be outside of Turkey in 2016 and therefore able to avoid arrest.  Court documents accused him and his colleagues of additional crimes: undermining the Turkish state and supporting the PKK. The armed Kurdish group, which is seeking autonomy, has been designated a terrorist organization by both Ankara and Washington.  Tanir denies any association with either the PKK or the Gulen movement. But he is still wanted internationally because of a “red notice” arrest warrant that a Turkish court issued to Interpol in 2018.”This has made my international travel impossible,” he said. Experts, including analyst and former lawmaker Aykan Erdemir, have said Veysel Ok, vice president of Turkey’s Media and Law Studies Association, works in Istanbul in July. The media rights lawyer estimates that over 400 journalists have been detained in Turkey since 2016.”These were always the Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of journalists, intellectuals, and writers,” he told VOA, adding that before 2016, “in general, this pressure mainly was on Kurdish journalists, Armenian journalists, or journalists and media outlets with left or liberal views.”  But after July 15, 2016, “this pressure has begun to be applied to everyone,” Ok said.  “From the mainstream media to the (Gulen-affiliated) media, from the left media to the right media, everyone who thinks differently from the government, writes differently, and expresses an opinion other than the official view of the government has become a victim of the government,” he said.Reporting equipment lies on the ground outside the offices of Ankara’s government, and protesters hold a banner that reads “We can’t breathe. Journalism cannot be drowned” during a rally for journalists to be protected from police, June 29, 2021.Effect on Turkey’s media The arrests and harassment have had far-reaching impact on Turkey’s media scene.Media lawyer Ok said that prominent media outlets, including pro-Kurdish or those deemed close to the Gulen movement, had been closed and mainstream media put under new ownership.  Journalists looked to new avenues for independent reporting, including social media platforms. But changes to regulations regarding digital news and social media have led to further obstacles.  Ankara enacted social media regulations requiring that Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have offices in Turkey and respond to takedown requests quickly or risk fines.Erdogan Seeks to Tame Social Media, Again New Turkish legislation seeks to tighten controls on social media with novel approach that analysts say could succeed this time The Radio and Television Supreme Council, which provides licenses and serves as a watchdog for the country’s broadcasters, has been accused by Human Rights Watch of imposing “punitive and disproportionate sanctions against independent television and radio channels that broadcast commentary and news coverage critical of the Turkish government.”  Turkey more recently issued a directive banning police from being photographed at protests, a measure it said was to protect the officers’ privacy. Lawyer Ok described the ban as “unconstitutional.” Changes in the application process for the press cards that give journalists access to official briefings have also proved challenging, with several journalism organizations saying the Directorate of Communications no longer issues accreditation for those at independent or critical outlets. “When the process is not treating journalists equally, this hurts people’s right to be informed. Because if you separate certain journalists, critical journalists, critical outlets from others and make the fieldwork harder for them, this is censorship from whichever angle you look at it,” said Ozgur Ogret, the Turkish representative for CPJ.  With Cumhuriyet under different leadership, former Editor-in-Chief Dundar has started a new website from Germany, where he lives in exile.  The website, called Ozguruz, which means “we are free” in Turkish, covers events in Turkey and Germany, but access to the site is blocked in Dundar’s home country.  Last year, the veteran journalist was sentenced in absentia to more than 27 years in prison for espionage and aiding a terrorist organization.  Turkish Court Convicts Journalist Dundar on Terror Charges Dundar, the former editor-in-chief of opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, was on trial for a 2015 story accusing Turkey’s intelligence service of illegally sending weapons to SyriaTanir also no longer works for Cumhuriyet.  But even his employer — Ahval, a news website that covers Turkish politics and economics — has faced accusations of Gulen links. Something that Tanir and the media outlet deny.Tanir said that while covering the U.S. State Department, he had been one of the first journalists to question the so-called Gulenists’ alleged involvement in human rights abuses and pressure on the media in the early 2000s.  “Anyone can go and look at the archives of the State Department and see who asked most questions about the human rights and press issues (in Turkey) when the Gulenists were powerful and ruling the country indirectly with their allies in the government,” he said. “The record is out there, but once the Turkish government wants to punish a critical journalist, they always find a way.” Umut Colak contributed to this report from Istanbul.  
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At least seven people have died and several people are missing in Germany after heavy flooding turned streams and streets into raging torrents, sweeping away cars and causing some buildings to collapse.Police in the western city of Koblenz said Thursday that four people had died in Ahrweiler county, and about 50 were trapped on the roofs of their houses awaiting rescue.Six houses had collapsed overnight in the village of Schuld. “Many people have been reported missing to us,” police said.Schuld is located in the Eifel, a volcanic region of rolling hills and small valleys southwest of Cologne.The full extent of the damage in the region was still unclear after many villages were cut off by floodwater and landslides that made roads impassable. Videos posted on social media showed cars floating down streets and houses partly collapsed in some places.Authorities have declared an emergency in the region after days of heavy rainfall that also affected large parts of western and central Germany, as well as neighboring countries, causing widespread damage.Police said an 82-year-old man died after a fall in his flooded basement in the western city of Wuppertal, which was among the hardest-hit.A fireman drowned Wednesday during rescue work in the western German town of Altena and another collapsed during rescue operations at a power plant in Werdohl-Elverlingsen. One man was missing in the eastern town of Joehstadt after disappearing while trying to secure his property from rising waters, authorities said.Rail connections were suspended in large parts of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state. Governor Armin Laschet, who is running to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in this fall’s German election, was expected to visit the flood-hit city of Hagen later Thursday.A photo taken with a drone shows the devastation caused by the flooding of the Ahr River in the Eifel village of Schuld, western Germany, July 15, 2021.German weather service DWD predicted the rainfall would ease Thursday.Relentless rains through the night worsened the flooding conditions in eastern Belgium, where one person was reported drowned and at least another was missing.Some towns saw water levels rise to unprecedented levels and had their centers turned into gushing rivers.Major highways were inundated and in the south and east of the nation, the railway service said all traffic was stopped, adding that “alternative transport is highly unlikely.”In eastern Eupen, on the German border, one man was reported dead after he was swept away by a torrent, a local governor told RTBf network.In Liege, the main city in eastern Belgium, the Meuse River could break its banks by early afternoon and spill into the heart of the city. Police warned the citizens to take precautionary measures.Authorities in the southern Dutch town of Valkenburg, close to the German and Belgian borders, evacuated a care home and a hospice overnight amid flooding that turned the tourist town’s main street into a river, Dutch media reported.The Dutch government sent some 70 troops to the southern province of Limburg late Wednesday to help with tasks including transporting evacuees and filling sandbags as rivers burst their banks. There were no reports of injuries linked to flooding in the Netherlands.Unusually intense rains have also inundated a swath of northeast France this week, downing trees and forcing the closure of dozens of roads. A train route to Luxembourg was disrupted, and firefighters evacuated dozens of people from homes near the Luxembourg and German border and in the Marne region, according to local broadcaster France Bleu.The equivalent of two months of rain has fallen on some areas in the last one or two days, according to the French national weather service. With the ground already saturated, the service forecast more downpours Thursday and issued flood warnings for 10 regions. 
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European Union leaders on Wednesday introduced the bloc’s most comprehensive plans yet to combat climate change, with a new goal of reducing carbon emissions to 55% below 1990 levels by 2030.Unveiled by the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, the legislation would make the bloc’s goal of reaching climate neutrality by 2050 legally binding and completely overhaul its energy system.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a press conference that the “Fit for 55” plan would act as a road map of concrete actions necessary to achieve the bloc’s climate goals.“Our package aims to combine the reduction of emissions with measures to preserve nature, and to put jobs and social balance at the heart of this transformation,” von der Leyen said.The sweeping proposal would involve every sector of the EU’s economy in its Emissions Trading System, which incentivizes companies to lower their emissions by taxing the carbon they produce.New taxes on previously exempt sectors are proposed for aviation and shipping fuels. The plan also calls for increasing existing carbon taxes to the transportation, manufacturing and power sectors.FILE – Cars sit at a standstill during morning rush hour on a main artery in the European Quarter of Brussels, Dec. 12, 2019. The European Union on July 14, 2021, unveiled new legislation to help meet its pledge to cut climate-changing emissions.Border taxOne of the package’s most noteworthy aspects is a first-of-its-kind tax on the carbon produced by foreign imports, which in turn likely would raise prices for consumers.This border tax — known officially as the carbon border adjustment mechanism — would ensure the EU is reducing emissions across the board, and it would protect domestic companies against price competition from foreign companies without the same environmental restrictions.In April, environmental leaders from China, India, South Africa and Brazil spoke out against such a tax, asserting that a carbon border adjustment would be discriminatory against developing countries that lack the resources to focus on cutting emissions.The commission also is planning to completely phase out the sale of combustion-engine cars by 2035, effectively bringing new car emissions to zero.Other proposals include shifting millions of buildings in the EU toward renewable energy by 2030 via renovation and implementation of a carbon tax on road transport.“Emission of CO2 must have a price, and we know that carbon pricing works,” von der Leyen said. “Our existing emission trading system has already helped significantly to reduce emissions in industry and in power generation.”European Commissioner for the European Green Deal Frans Timmermans speaks during a media conference at EU headquarters in Brussels, July 14, 2021.Fairness, accessibilityThe commission emphasized a focus on making the transition to renewable energy fair and accessible to everyone, particularly low-income individuals and member states whose economies are more reliant on polluting industries.Environmental taxes that target the individual have caused controversy in the past, as seen with the massive yellow vest movement in opposition to the French government’s raising fuel taxes.Since energy prices are expected to rise, the commission proposed creating a $85.2 billion fund that citizens of member states could access to help mitigate the costs of switching to energy-efficient housing and transportation.The commission’s plan comes six years after the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement signaled a worldwide commitment to mitigating the impact of climate change and keeping global temperatures from increasing significantly.Additionally, since the EU produces only 8% of the world’s carbon emissions, the plan is intended to push other world powers to follow suit and produce more concrete plans for reaching climate neutrality.In coming years, the commission’s plan will be the subject of scrutiny and negotiation as the leaders from the 27 member states convene in the European Parliament and Council to implement the laws across the EU.
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed Wednesday to enact measures to protect British professional soccer players from online abuse. Punishment for someone found guilty of such abuse could include banishment from games. The move comes after online abuse, some of it racist, was directed at three Black players for the English national team who missed their penalty shots in the Euro 2020 final shootout on Sunday, leading to an Italian win. According to the Guardian newspaper, an analysis of 585,000 social media posts directed at the English team during the entire Euro 2020 tournament found that 44 messages were explicitly racist. More than 2,000 were “abusive.” “I do think that racism is a problem in the United Kingdom, and I believe it needs to be tackled. And it needs to be stamped out with some of the means that I’ve described this morning,” Johnson told Parliament as he announced his plan. “I repeat that I utterly condemn and abhor the racist outpourings that we saw on Sunday night. And so, what we’re doing today is taking practical steps to ensure that the football banning order regime is changed, so that if you are guilty of racist abuse online of footballers, then you will not be going to the match — no ifs, no buts, no exemptions and no excuses,” he added. But it’s unclear how much of the online abuse actually comes from the U.K. The Daily Mail reported that the Premier League, the top division of professional soccer in England, found that roughly 70% of online abuse directed at British professional soccer players comes from outside the U.K. According to Yahoo News, the Greater Manchester Police said they had arrested a man Wednesday for social media posts directed at players for England’s national team. Johnson added that in addition to going after internet trolls, his government would potentially fine social media companies if they failed to quickly remove offensive content. “Last night, I met representatives of Facebook, of Twitter, of TikTok, of Snapchat, of Instagram, and I made it absolutely clear to them that we will legislate to address this problem in the Online Harms Bill. And unless they get hate and racism off their platforms, they will face fines amounting to 10% of their global revenues,” Johnson said. Some information in this report comes from Reuters. 
 
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The International Organization for Migration said Wednesday that deaths among maritime migration routes to Europe have more than doubled in the first half of this year compared to the same period in 2020.The organization said Wednesday that at least 1,146 people died attempting to reach Europe in the first six months of 2021. Most of those who died were attempting to cross the Mediterranean.The total number of attempted crossings is also on the rise. More than 31,500 people were intercepted or rescued by North African authorities in the first half of 2021, compared to just over 23,000 in the same period last year.  FILE – Migrants queue to embark on a ferry to the mainland, in the Sicilian island of Lampedusa, Italy, June 23, 2021.Many of the migrants departed from Tunisia, headed for Italy. Italy’s interior minister, Luciana Lamorgese, said on Italian national television that arrivals from Tunisia multiplied in July due to that country’s deep economic crisis. Because they are economic migrants, she added, they cannot stay in Italy and will be repatriated, likely in early August.Lamorgese added that areas have been identified where the migrants can be tested for COVID-19 and placed in quarantine, including on a large ship.The IOM data shows that the migrant deaths occurred because of insufficient search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean and on the Atlantic Route to the Canary Islands, even though interceptions off the North African coast have increased for the second consecutive year. IOM Director General Antonio Vitorino called on countries to take urgent measures to prevent loss of life, such as increasing search and rescue efforts and ensuring access to safe and legal migration pathways.The IOM also said over 15,300 people were returned to Libya in the first six months of 2021, almost three times higher than the same period last year. However, the organization said, migrants who are returned to Libya are subjected to arbitrary detention, extortion, disappearance and torture. 
 
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Pope Francis returned to the Vatican Wednesday, after more than 11 days in the hospital where he underwent intestinal surgery.
 
The Pope Francis arrived at the Vatican via automobile and stepped out slowly but unassisted. He shook hands and chatted with military personnel and police officers before entering the Vatican gates.
 
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni, in a statement, said Francis stopped to pray at the Rome Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore before returning to the Vatican. Francis normally does this at the end of each foreign trip to give thanks to the Madonna.
 
From his Twitter account Wednesday, Pope Francis wrote to thank “all those who have been close to me with prayer and affection during my hospital stay. Let us not forget to pray for the sick and for those who assist them.”
 I thank all those who have been close to me with prayer and affection during my hospital stay. Let us not forget to pray for the sick and for those who assist them.— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) July 14, 2021Francis underwent three hours of planned surgery July 4 to treat “severe diverticular stenosis with signs of sclerosing diverticulitis,” or a hardening of the sacs that can sometimes form in the lining of the intestine. The surgery required the removal of a large section of the pope’s colon.  
 
Francis had been considered healthy overall, and this is the first time he has been admitted to the hospital since he became pope in 2013, though he lost the upper part of one lung in his youth because of an infection. He also suffers from sciatica, or nerve pain, that makes him walk with a pronounced limp.
 
The Vatican has continued normal operations in his absence, though July is traditionally a month when the pope cancels public and private audiences.
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Pope Francis was seen leaving the hospital Wednesday, 10 days after undergoing planned surgery to remove half of his colon. Witnesses said a car carrying Francis, 84, was seen leaving Rome’s Gemelli Polytechnic hospital Wednesday morning. Doctors removed half of the pontiff’s colon on July 4 because of a severe narrowing of his large intestine, his first major surgery since he became pope in 2013. It was a planned procedure, scheduled for early July when the pope’s audiences are suspended anyway and Francis would normally take some time off. Francis will have several more weeks to recover before beginning to travel again in September. There are plans for him to visit Hungary and Slovakia in a September 12-15 trip, and then make a quick stop in Glasgow, Scotland, in November to participate in the COP26 climate conference. Other possible trips are also under review. The Vatican had originally said Francis could be discharged last weekend, but later said he would stay a few more days for further recovery and rehabilitation therapy. The pope appeared Sunday for the first time in public since the surgery, looking in good form as he delivered his weekly prayer from the 10th floor hospital balcony, surrounded by young cancer patients. He used the occasion to call for free health care for all.  On Tuesday afternoon, the eve of his release, he visited the pediatric cancer ward, which is on the same floor as the papal hospital suite. The Argentine pope had part of one lung removed when he was a young man but has otherwise enjoyed relatively robust health. 
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China’s bid to expand its influence in Eastern Europe could hit a snag if Hungary’s controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orban is defeated in what is shaping up to be an unexpectedly close election next year.Hungary under Orban has fostered ever-closer ties with China, which sees the country as a linchpin of its efforts to reach deep into Europe with elements of its global Belt and Road initiative involving infrastructure and cultural projects on several continents.Among those projects is a new railroad running from the Hungarian capital, Budapest, to Belgrade, Serbia. Hungary is also the proposed site of the first overseas campus of Fudan University, one of China’s top educational institutions.FILE – Demonstrators protest against the planned Chinese Fudan University campus in Budapest, Hungary, June 5, 2021.In a letter to Chinese President Xi Jinping late last month which has since been made public, the mayor of Budapest and several other prominent Hungarian politicians pledged to terminate both projects if a new opposition coalition comes to power in next year’s parliamentary election.Until recently, that prospect would have seemed remote, given that Orban has retained power in three successive landslide elections and has steadily increased his control over the nation’s media.FILE – On June 11, 2021, leaders of six opposition parties in Hungary — DK, Jobbik, LMP, Momentum, MSZP, and Dialogue — announce the coalition has established common ground and will lay out a governing program in the fall.(Photo courtesy Dialogue for Hungary)But six opposition parties joined forces in an anti-Orban coalition late last year and have been running neck and neck with the prime minister’s Fidesz party FILE – Budapest’s mayor candidate of the center left opposition party Gergely Karacsony addresses the audience after his victory on Oct. 13, 2019.Gergely Karacsony, who defeated a Fidesz-backed candidate to become mayor of Budapest in 2019, was already an outspoken critic of Orban’s outreach to China, which has included a move to block the European Union from criticizing Beijing’s crackdown on individual rights in Hong Kong.”EU cohesion on foreign policy is key to protecting our values and sustaining the EU as a global player. Time and again Viktor Orban sabotages that unity and protects in our Union the interest of autocracies,” Karacsony said in a statement. Hungary’s “next government will break with all that!”Karacsony has already named streets in Budapest after the democracy movement in Hong Kong and in solidarity with victims of the Chinese Communist Party’s oppression in Tibet and Xinjiang.The Budapest mayor has also taken aim at plans for a Fudan University campus in his city, saying it “would put in doubt many of the values that Hungary committed itself to 30 years ago” after the fall of communism in Central and Eastern Europe.Since Orban took office in 2010, Hungary has been widely accused of moving away from democratic principles. Even so, its membership in Western alliances, including the European Union and NATO, and the efforts of opposition parties have kept the Beijing-backed railroad and university project from advancing unchallenged.During a conversation with Orban in April, Xi described the Budapest-Belgrade railroad as the “leading force” for closer ties between the two countries. But critics say the project, first proposed in 2013, is nowhere near completion.The plan for a Fudan campus has also sparked public protests in Budapest, prompting the Orban government to suggest there could be a referendum on the project in the future. Mareike Ohlberg, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States and an expert on China’s effort to influence foreign governments, told VOA that an opposition victory in Hungary next year would present a setback for Beijing at the EU.”The Hungarian government has been the Chinese government’s most reliable country to draw on repeatedly to prevent statements at the EU level, most recently a criticism of the National Security Law in Hong Kong,” she said in a written interview.Ohlberg added: “Even if the opposition does not do a 180-degree turn on China policy, it will probably be a less ready ally of Beijing’s in Brussels.”
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The Taliban warned Tuesday that if Turkey extends its military presence in Afghanistan the Islamist group will view Turkish troops as “occupiers” and wage “jihad” against them.The warning came amid fresh battlefield moves that critics say show the Taliban are planning a military takeover of Afghanistan in defiance of their peace pledges, raising the prospects of a full-blown civil war.The United States has asked Turkey to secure Kabul’s airport after all American and NATO allied troops withdraw from the country by the end of next month.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday without elaborating that he had agreed with Washington on the “scope” of how to secure and manage the airport.The Taliban condemned the deal as “reprehensible” and demanded Turkey review its decision.“We consider stay of foreign forces in our homeland by any country under whatever pretext as occupation,” the group said in a media release. “The extension of occupation will arouse emotions of resentment and hostility inside our country towards Turkish officials and will damage bilateral ties.”The security and smooth running of the Hamid Karzai international airport in the Afghan capital is crucial for preserving diplomatic missions and foreign organizations operating out of Kabul, where a bomb explosion Tuesday killed at least four people. Hostilities elsewhere in Afghanistan also have escalated to record levels.A blood-stained man rests after he helped people who were injured in a deadly bomb explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan, July 13, 2021.Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told reporters after a cabinet meeting on Monday evening that Turkey agreed to some points with U.S. counterparts on running the airport.  He said work towards a deal continues.“If the airport does not operate, the countries will have to withdraw their diplomatic missions there,” Akar said.Hundreds of American troops are expected to stay in the Afghan capital, guarding the sprawling U.S. embassy compound there.Taliban forces have dramatically extended their territorial control across Afghanistan by overrunning scores of districts without any resistance since U.S. troops formally started withdrawing from the country in early May.In most cases, government forces either retreated to safety or surrendered to the advancing insurgents.A convoy of Afghan Special Forces is seen during the rescue mission of a police officer besieged at a check post surrounded by Taliban, in Kandahar province, July 13, 2021.The battlefield gains have enabled the Taliban to effectively encircle major Afghan cities, including provincial capitals.In Washington, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby on Monday also voiced concern that the Taliban are planning to militarily take control of the country.“It is clear from what they are doing that they have governance designs certainly of a national scale. It is clear from what they are doing that they believe there is a military solution to the end of this conflict,” Kirby told reporters.“We continue to believe that the most sustainable and the most responsible end and solution to this war is a political one, one through negotiated diplomacy,” Kirby stressed.Afghan authorities have vowed to defend and keep the Taliban from major cities, saying security forces have killed hundreds of insurgents in recent days.Kabul has also protested and criticized regional countries for stepping up their diplomatic engagements with the Taliban in pursuit of a peaceful settlement to the war.“The Taliban delegation is traveling to the regional countries at a time when its brutal attacks have killed more than 3,500 people, displaced more than 200,000 of our compatriots, disrupted public order and life, and economic activities in tens of districts,” ministry said.The Taliban took control of Afghanistan after emerging victorious in the civil war of the 1990s and introduced harsh Islamic laws to govern the conflict-torn country before they were ousted by the U.S.-led foreign invasion in late 2001.The Islamist movement has since been waging a violent insurgency against the U.S.-backed government in Kabul.Washington negotiated and signed a troop withdrawal deal with the Taliban in February 2020 in return for security assurances and pledges the insurgents would negotiate a peace arrangement with Afghan rivals for a sustainable peace in the country.However, the slow-moving U.S.-brokered intra-Afghan negotiations, which started in Qatar last September, have failed to produce a peace deal and remain deadlocked. Some information in this report was provided by Reuters.  
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Pope Francis has been steadily recovering from the scheduled intestinal surgery he underwent on July 4. The Vatican has not yet provided a date for his release from the Rome hospital where his surgery was performed. His stay has now been extended for a few more days.The Vatican said Tuesday that Pope Francis would leave the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, where he is recovering, “as soon as possible.”
 
In its daily medical update, the Vatican did not provide a date for the pope’s discharge. The statement said that the pope is continuing his planned course of treatment and rehabilitation.
 
The Vatican had originally said Pope Francis would likely be kept in the hospital for a week but has since said he would stay in the hospital for a few more days, thus extending his treatment there.
 
In its statement Tuesday, the Vatican said that among the many patients that Pope Francis has met during these days, he offered special thoughts to those who are bedridden and cannot go home. “May they live this time as an opportunity, even if experienced in pain, to open themselves with tenderness to their sick brother or sister in the next bed, with whom they share the same human frailty,” the statement said.
 
The 84-year-old pontiff was admitted to the hospital on July 4 for what the Vatican said was a planned surgery on his colon needed to treat a form of diverticulitis. The operation is said to have removed half of the pope’s colon.
 
Following the surgery, the Vatican said the pope was recovering well, had gotten out of bed, was walking, greeting other patients and hospital staff and was working. Although he briefly ran a brief fever last week, the Vatican said all scans and tests were normal.
 
On Sunday Pope Francis appeared in good form when he appeared to the public for the first time since his surgery to deliver his weekly address from the balcony of the 10th floor of the hospital.
 
The pontiff said that during his days at the hospital he experienced the importance of having a good health system that is accessible to everyone, such as the one that exists in Italy and in other countries. The pope made a call for free health care for all.
 
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday urged all German residents to get vaccinated if they want to enjoy more freedom.
Merkel made the comments following a visit to Germany’s Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases (RKI) along with RKI President Lothar Wieler and Health Minister Jens Spahn.  
The visit comes as the country has seen an uptick in its COVID-19 infection rate in the past week, from 4.9 people per 100,000 to 6.4. Germany also reported 646 new cases Tuesday, up from 440 a week ago.
At the same time, as of Tuesday, officials say 42.6 percent of German adults have been fully vaccinated and nearly 59 percent have received at least one shot.  However, the vaccination rate has slowed over the past two weeks.  
Merkel said she wants more people to get vaccinated in order to lift remaining COVID-19- related restrictions and avoid the possibility of future lockdowns. She said the more people are vaccinated, “the more freely we will be able to live again.”
She said, “We are at the beginning of the phase in which we are still promoting (vaccination), where we have more vaccines than we have people who want to be vaccinated.”
Germany has relaxed many restrictions on social gatherings in recent months, but people are still required to show negative test results or vaccine certificates to dine indoors and attend indoor events where capacity is limited. Masks are still required in stores.
With the highly contagious delta variant of the virus now the dominant strain in Germany, RKI official say the country will need at least 85 percent of the adult population fully vaccinated.  
Unlike France, which announced Monday plans to make vaccinations mandatory for health care workers and others, Merkel said Germany will not go that route to reach its goals. Recent polls show about 90 percent of the population say they are willing to get vaccinated and the chancellor said encouraging voluntary vaccinations builds more confidence in the process.
Merkel stressed it is also important to maintain social distancing and other measures to prevent infections from spreading, even as more people are vaccinated, and to prevent further restrictions to be imposed.
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Last year, the COVID pandemic saw Turkey canceling one of the world’s oldest sporting events: the centuries-old Kirkpinar oil wrestling tournament. For Turkish and international fans, the festival’s return offers hope that pandemic restrictions are finally ending. Dorian Jones reports from Edirne in northwestern Turkey. 
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England’s defeat on penalty kicks in the final of the European soccer cup caused a barrage of online racist attacks against Black players who missed goals in the shootout. The Euro 2020 soccer final between Italy and England played at Wembley stadium Sunday night was nerve-racking for fans of both teams. Italians were very concerned when England scored their goal just two minutes into the game. England fans started worrying when Italy drew even in the second half.And on both sides, all fans were anxious about who would win when no team managed to score in extra time and the penalty shootout became inevitable.English supporters react while watching the game during extra time at a fan zone in Manchester, England, July, 11, 2021 during the Euro 2020 soccer championship final match between England and Italy at Wembley Stadium in London.England was the favorite at the start of the game, as it was playing at home in front of tens of thousands of fans, and fans were convinced the team would manage to bring the cup home for the first time. Italians were hoping the cup would return to Rome after 53 years.In the end, Italy won the shootout 3-2 when three of England’s Black players missed their spot-kicks. A barrage of racist attacks on social media followed, which led England’s Football Association to release a statement Monday morning condemning the racist abuse of its players.Italy’s players celebrate with trophy after winning the Euro 2020 soccer championship final match between England and Italy at Wembley Stadium in London, July 11, 2021.The statement said, “the FA strongly condemns all forms of discrimination and is appalled by the online racism that has been aimed at some of our England players on social media.”It added that “anyone behind such disgusting behavior is not welcome in following the team.”The FA said it would do everything “to support the players affected, while urging the toughest punishments possible for anyone responsible.”England manager Gareth Southgate, who shouldered the responsibility for the team’s loss, praised his players and condemned the online slurs.“They should be, and I think they are incredibly proud, of what they’ve done. For some of them to be abused is unforgivable, really,” said Southgate.England’s manager Gareth Southgate, left, embraces Bukayo Saka after he failed to score a penalty during a penalty shootout during of the Euro 2020 soccer championship final match between England and Italy at Wembley stadium in London, July 11, 2021.The England team has been praised for the high-profile, anti-racist stance it has maintained during this Euro championship and before.Prime Minister Boris Johnson posted his comment on Twitter, saying, “this England team deserves to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media.” He added that “those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.”London police have opened an investigation. Twitter, for its part, said it has taken down more than 1,000 tweets and suspended several accounts used to post racist abuse directed at the England players. 
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British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned racist social media attacks against Black players on Britain’s soccer team following its 3-2 loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 championship Sunday.
After the Italy and Britain remained 1-1 following regulation and extra time play, the teams were forced into a penalty shoot-out to decide the game. Black players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka missed kicks, giving Italy the victory.  
While most comments on social media were positive towards the British team, the three players started receiving racist comments immediately following the game.  
On his Twitter account, Johnson said the team deserves “to be lauded as heroes, not racially abused on social media. Those responsible for this appalling abuse should be ashamed of themselves.”  Likewise, London Mayor Sadiq Kahn, from his Twitter account, said there was no place for racism in soccer or anywhere else. He said those responsible must be held accountable.
The Football Assocation, British soccer’s governing organization, also issued a statement condemning all forms of racism and standing by its players.
London’s police department tweeted it was aware of the comments, called them unacceptable and said they would be investigated.  
England’s players have made a strong stand against racism during tournament, taking a knee before their games including Sunday’s final. Not all fans supported the gesture, with some booing in reaction.  
While Prime Minister Johnson urged fans not to boo the players, some critics felt his response was not strong enough, and that only encouraged racists. In an interview with SKY News Monday, former British soccer player Gary Neville put the blame for the response on Johnson.
Neville said, “The prime minister said that it was OK for the population of this country to boo those players who were trying to promote equality and defend against racism. It starts at the very top. And so for me, I wasn’t surprised in the slightest that I woke up this morning to those headlines.”
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European vacationers had hoped this year’s northern hemisphere summer would see unhindered movement and be largely free of travel restrictions, but countries across southern Europe are now scrambling to re-impose pandemic curbs amid alarm at rising cases of the delta variant, a highly contagious coronavirus strain first detected in India. 
  
Spain, Portugal, Greece, Cyprus and Malta were among the first countries to start reopening earlier this year but now they are tightening entry restrictions on vacationers who have not received both jabs of the most used vaccines — Pfizer and AstraZeneca.  
 
France and Germany are cautioning citizens against vacationing in Spain and Portugal. And Germany has added Cyprus to its list of “countries of concern” — unvaccinated Germans who do visit the island will have to self-isolate on their return home. 
  
The piecemeal moves by national governments mirrors what unfolded last year when national governments shunned pleas from Brussels to act collectively and tested the Schengen arrangement of freedom of movement.  
 
Abruptly announced restrictions are also adding to the woes to the continent’s airline, tourist and hospitality industries. They had been harboring hopes of a strong business rebound the next couple of months, enough to start repairing the severe economic damage the pandemic has inflicted on them.  People walk at Carcavelos beach in Cascais, Portugal, July 8, 2021.They fear a patchwork of constantly changing restrictions, dampening demand, spelling doom for many tour operators and hotels that have managed to hang on and stay in business. But the national governments’ re-imposing entry rules are unrepentant about the tightening not long after deciding to relax measures and encourage travel. 
  
“We all want to go on holidays but health protection is fundamental,” French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told a news conference in Madrid Friday.FILE – People swim and enjoy a sunny day at ‘Les Cigales’ beach in Port-Grimaud, with Saint-Tropez in the background, southern France on July 10, 2021.French officials, like their counterparts in neighboring countries, fear a delta wave even though coronavirus numbers currently across much of the continent are low, dreading a massive jump in numbers much as Britain has experienced the past few weeks. Rising infection rates “This variant is dangerous and quick and wherever it is present, it can ruin the summer,” Gabriel Attal, a French government spokesman, told reporters Friday. Infections in Paris have almost doubled in a week.   FILE – People sit after they received a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine as the country extends vaccination to curb surge among population under 30, in Madrid, Spain, July 12, 2021.The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control has issued a string of warnings, saying the Delta variant is 60% more transmissible than other variants.  “Based on available scientific evidence, the Delta variant is more transmissible than other circulating variants, and we estimate that by the end of August, it will represent 90% of all SARS-CoV-2 viruses circulating in the European Union,” ECDC’s Director Andrea Ammon said in a statement recently. 
  Restaurant staff checks a digital vaccination certificate at the entrance, on the day that Portugal’s government imposed stricter rules in an attempt to bring under control a surge of COVID-19 cases, in Porto, Portugal, July 10, 2021.The fear is that the delta variant could quickly spread among the unvaccinated. According to ECDC around 40% of adult populations in EU countries have not been fully immunized.  According to national health authorities, the delta variant already accounts for more than half of new cases in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. 
  
Italian health authorities have reported a slight increase in new confirmed cases. Italy’s health ministry reckons the delta variant accounts for around a third of the new cases. “After 15 consecutive weeks of descent, there is an increase of 5% in new cases compared to the previous week,” according to Dr. Nino Cartabellotta of the Fondazione GIMBE, an independent medical think tank.  
 
Writing in a monitoring report issued Friday, Cartabellotta stressed, though, that the amount of testing being conducted is “too low,” leading, he suspects, to an “underestimation of new cases”. The health ministry reported 1,390 new coronavirus cases Friday.  
 
Brussels and the ECDC are urging national governments to spend up their vaccination programs.On Saturday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the EU had delivered enough coronavirus vaccines to cover 70% of the bloc’s adult population. But she said that with Delta now accounting for over 40% of new cases in France, 70% in Portugal, and more than 30% in Spain, there is no room for complacency.  
 
“COVID-19 is not yet defeated. But we are prepared to continue supplying vaccines,” Von der Leyen said in a video statement. 
  
Last week, Lithuania announced the reintroduction of restrictions for arrivals from overseas. Arrivals from countries deemed “high risk,” EU or otherwise, will now have to follow stringent testing and quarantine procedures. Slovakia is also tightening entry rules, not based on the coronavirus risk of countries but on whether travelers have been vaccinated or not. 
  
Belgium plans this week to announce new measures for arrivals from Portugal, involving testing ten-day quarantines for the unvaccinated.  
 
Aside from Portugal, north European alarm is increasingly focused on Spain, among the first countries in Europe to reopen to tourists earlier this year. The country’s 14-day case rate has soared to 215 cases per 100,000 people. In response, authorities in the north-east region of Catalonia ordered nightclubs and discos to close again, weeks after allowing them to resume business. 
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Italians celebrated the European Championship soccer title as a new beginning not only for their youthful national team but for a country that’s been yearning to return to normalcy after being hit hard and long by the coronavirus pandemic. A cacophony of honking cars, fireworks and singing fans filled the night in Rome as thousands of people took to the streets after Italy beat England in a penalty shootout Sunday to win its first major soccer trophy since the 2006 World Cup. “We are coming out of a difficult year and a half which has left us exhausted, like other countries in the world,” said Fabrizio Galliano, a 29-year-old from Naples who watched the match on a big screen in downtown Rome. “This means so much. Sports is one of the things that unites us, among all the things that separate us. But to finally be able to feel that joy that we’ve been missing, it goes beyond sports.” Many Italians saw the European Championship as a relaunch for a country that spent much of the past 16 months in various stages of lockdown. Italy was the first country outside Asia to get hit by the COVID-19 pandemic and suffered immensely, particularly in the spring of 2020 when hospitals in northern Italy were overwhelmed with patients and the death toll soared. Italy has recorded more than 127,000 COVID deaths, the highest in the 27-nation European Union.Italian fans celebrate in central London, in the early hours of July 12, 2021, after Italy won the Euro 2020 soccer championship final match between England and Italy played at Wembley Stadium.“It’s been a complicated year for everyone but especially for us who were one of the first countries hit. This is a signal of a new beginning,” said Michela Solfanelli, a 30-year-old event producer based in Milan. Most virus restrictions have been lifted since the spring and those that remain were largely ignored by the mass of Italy fans who danced in the streets of the capital chanting “we are champions of Europe.” David Bellomo, a 23-year-old from the southern city of Bari, pointed out that this was Italy’s second big victory this year, after Italian band Maneskin won the Eurovision Song Contest in May. “Thanks to Eurovision and thanks to this game and soccer we’ve managed to come back this year,” he said. “We almost got a triple,” he added, referring to Matteo Berrettini, the Italian tennis player who lost the Wimbledon final to Novak Djokovic earlier in the day. Shoulder to shoulder, fans nervously watched the penalty shootout on two big screens set up on Piazza del Popolo, an elliptical cobblestone square at the edge of Rome’s historic center. A deafening roar rose to the sky as Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma saved England’s last penalty. Among the sea of blue Italy shirts was an immigrant family from Senegal, who came from the town of Zagarolo, an hour outside Rome, to experience the final with the crowd in the piazza. “I am not Italian, but I can feel the emotions. I feel it, as if I were Italian,” said Falilou Ndao, 42. “We really love this country.” His 13-year-old son Yankho, an Italy fan and soccer player, was impressed by the team. “They showed courage. They never gave up, even when they were down by a goal,” he said. “It is so well-deserved. They have been playing great the entire tournament. Go Italy!” Though people are still required to wear masks in crowded situations, police made no attempts to intervene as throngs of barefaced fans poured of out the piazza, singing the national anthem and lighting flares. Fireworks cracked overhead as fans cruised through the city waving Italian flags from their cars. Dr. Annamaria Altomare, a 39-year-old gastroenterologist, watched the spectacle with a friend from a safe distance. They were among the few wearing masks. “We want to avoid the delta variant in this mess,” she said, laughing. 
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