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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Several thousand people protested Sunday evening in front of the Georgian parliament, demanding that the ex-Soviet nation’s prime minister resign over the death of a journalist who was attacked and beaten by anti-LGBT protesters.  Cameraman Alexander Lashkarava was found dead in his home by his mother earlier Sunday, according to the TV Pirveli channel he worked for. Lashkarava was one of several dozen journalists attacked last Monday by opponents of an LGBT march that had been scheduled to take place that day in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi.Organizers of the Tbilisi March for Dignity canceled the event, saying authorities had not provided adequate security guarantees. Opponents of the march blocked off the capital’s main avenue, denounced journalists covering the protest as pro-LGBT propagandists and threw sticks and bottles at them.  Lashkarava, according to his colleague Miranda Baghaturia, was beaten by a mob of 20 people. Local TV channels later showed him with bruises on his face and blood on the floor around him. Media reports say he sustained multiple injuries and had to undergo surgery but was discharged Thursday from a hospital.  The cause of his death was not immediately clear.  Police launched an investigation into Lashkarava’s death, which Georgia’s Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili and President Salome Zurabishvili both described as a tragedy.  Animosity against sexual minorities is strong in the conservative Black Sea nation of Georgia.  The Tbilisi Pride group said Monday that opponents of the planned march were supported by the government and by the Georgian Orthodox Church. The Open Caucasus Media group published a photo of a man it said was a local TV journalist being pulled away from the scene in a headlock by an Orthodox priest.Zurabishvili condemned the violence, but Garibashvili alleged the march was organized by “radical opposition” forces that he said were led by exiled former President Mikheil Saakashvili.  A large crowd of protesters that gathered in Tbilisi on Sunday demanded that authorities punish those responsible for the attack on journalists and urged Garibashvili to step down. Some protesters blamed the prime minister for enabling the violence by publicly denouncing the LGBT march. 
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Italian soccer’s redemption story is complete. England’s painful half-century wait for a major title goes on.And it just had to be because of a penalty shootout.Italy won the European Championship for the second time by beating England 3-2 on penalties on Sunday. The match finished 1-1 after extra time.Gianluigi Donnarumma dived to his left and saved the decisive spot kick by Bukayo Saka, England’s third straight failure from the penalty spot in the shootout in front of its own fans at Wembley Stadium.It was less than four years ago that the Italians plunged to the lowest moment of their soccer history by failing to qualify for the World Cup for the first time in six decades. Now, they are the best team in Europe and on a national-record 34-match unbeaten run under Roberto Mancini, their suave coach.England was playing in its first major final in 55 years. It’s the latest heartache in shootouts at major tournaments, after defeats in 1990, 1996, 1998, 2004, 2006 and 2012.  England went ahead in the second minute when Luke Shaw scored the fastest goal in a European Championship final. Leonardo Bonucci equalized in the 67th.Saka, a 19-year-old Londoner, was embraced by several England players after his miss. England coach Gareth Southgate hugged Jadon Sancho, who missed the previous England penalty, while Marcus Rashford — the other one to miss — walked off down the tunnel.Sancho and Rashford had been brought on in the final minute of extra time, seemingly as specialist penalty takers.Donnarumma was in tears as he was embraced by his teammates as they sprinted toward him from the halfway line, where they watched the second penalty shootout in a European Championship final.They then headed to the other end of the field and ran as one, diving to the ground in front of their own fans.It was Italy’s second continental title after 1968, to add to the country’s four World Cups.That the match went to extra time — like three of the six European finals before it — was not unexpected, given both semifinals also went the distance and the defensive solidity of both the teams.In fact, Italy’s famously robust defense was only really opened up once in the entire 90 minutes and that resulted in Shaw’s goal, a half-volley that went in off the near post from Kieran Trippier’s cross.It was Shaw’s first goal for England, and it prompted a fist-pump between David Beckham and Tom Cruise in the VIP box amid an explosion of joy around Wembley.The fact that it was set up by Trippier, a full back recalled to the team as part of a change of system to a 3-4-3 for the final, would have brought extra satisfaction to Southgate.England barely saw the ball for the rest of the game.Italy’s midfielders dominated possession, started playing their pretty passing routines, and England resorted to getting nine or even all 10 outfield players behind the ball. It was reminiscent of the 2018 World Cup semifinals, when England also scored early against Croatia then spent most of the game chasing its opponent’s midfield.Initially, the Italians could only muster long-range efforts, but the equalizer arrived from much closer in.A right-wing corner was flicked on at the near post, Marco Verratti had a stooping header tipped onto the post by Pickford, and Bonucci put the ball in from close range.Still, England managed to hold on for extra time and actually had the better of the final stages.Just not the shootout, again.
 
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 Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic has won his record-tying 20th Grand Slam title, defeating Italy’s Matteo Berrettini 6-7,6-4,6-4,6-3 in the men’s Wimbledon final Sunday. With the win, the top-ranked Djokovic joins his rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal with 20 major championships.   Sunday’s win was Djovovic’s sixth Wimbledon title overall and his third straight championship on Centre Court. Djovovic was serving for the first set Sunday with a 5-2 lead before the 7th seeded Berrettini stormed back to win a tiebreaker.  After that, Djokovic was able to fend of his Italian opponent and his big serve and win the last three sets. In the women’s draw, Ashley Barty of Australia won the championship by defeating Karolina Pliskova in a three-set thriller on Saturday, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. 
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The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights is condemning pervasive arbitrary detention and torture by both government and Russian-backed separatists in the seven-year eastern Ukraine conflict.  The condemnation comes in a report submitted Friday to the U.N. Human Rights Council.The analysis by the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine finds around 4,000 of those detained have been subjected to torture or ill-treatment in both government and rebel-controlled territories over the past seven years.  The analysis is based on over 1,300 conflict-related cases since the war in the breakaway eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk began in 2014.   Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif says the prevalence of the torture and ill-treatment was highest at the initial stages of the conflict and has since decreased.   “In government-controlled territory, in the early stages of the conflict, cases of arbitrary detention included enforced disappearances, detentions without court warrants, and confinement in unofficial places of detention, often secret and incommunicado. … In armed group-controlled territory, detention during the initial stages of the conflict lacked any semblance of legal process and often amounted to enforced disappearance,” she said.     The report says cases of arbitrary detention in government-controlled territory continues to this day but have substantially decreased.  On the other hand, Al-Nashif notes these practices persist to a high degree in the eastern separatist areas. “We are gravely concerned that egregious violations of torture and ill-treatment documented in the ‘Izoliatsiia’ facility in Donetsk, as well as in other places of detention in territory controlled by the self-proclaimed republics, continue on a daily basis, and are carried out systematically.  These violations must stop,” she said.     Al-Nashif is calling for independent monitors to be allowed access to places of detention and for perpetrators of human rights violations on both sides of the contact line to be held accountable. 
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Pope Francis on Sunday made his first public appearance since major intestinal surgery last week, greeting well-wishers as he stood for 10 minutes on a hospital balcony, offering hearty thanks for all the prayers for his recovery and calling health care for all a “precious” good. Francis, 84, has been steadily on the mend, according to the Vatican, following his July 4 scheduled surgery to remove a portion of his colon which had narrowed due to inflammation. But it hasn’t said just when he might be discharged. On the morning after his surgery, a Holy See spokesperson said his hospital stay was expected to last seven days, “barring complications.”  At first the pontiff’s voice sounded on the weak side as he began his remarks after stepping onto a balcony outside his special suite at Gemelli Polyclinic at noon (1000 GMT; 6 a.m. EST).  That is the hour when traditionally he would have appeared from a window at the Vatican overlooking St. Peter’s Square. Exactly a week earlier, in his noon remarks he had given no hint that in a few hours he would have entered the hospital for surgery that same night. “I am happy to be able to keep the Sunday appointment,” this time at the hospital, the pope said. “I thank everyone. I very much felt your closeness and the support of your prayers,” Francis said. “Thank you from my heart!” exclaimed the pontiff.  Standing on the balcony with him were some children who are also hospitalized at the polyclinic, a major Catholic teaching hospital on the outskirts of Rome. The crowd below clapped often, in encouragement.  Reading from prepared remarks, he kept one or both hands on a lectern for support, including when he raised an arm in blessing. Francis described his hospitalization as an opportunity to understand “how important a good health service is, accessible to all, as it is in Italy and other countries.”  Although he stayed at a nonpublic hospital, Italy has a national public health service, and residents can often receive treatment at private hospitals, with the costs reimbursed by the government. “We mustn’t lose this precious thing,” the pope said, adding his appreciation and encouragement for all the health care workers and personnel at hospitals.  As he usually does on Sundays, Francis spoke of current events and of issues close to his heart. In his balcony remarks, he reiterated his closeness to Haiti’s people, as he recalled the assassination last week of its president and the wounding of the first lady. Francis prayed that the people of Haiti could “start going down a path of peace and of harmony.” The world’s environmental fragility has been a major theme of his papacy since it began in 2013. On Sunday, as countless people vacation at the shore, Francis urged them to look after “the health of seas and oceans.” “No plastic in the sea!” the pope pleaded. Without citing specific issues, he also voiced hope that “Europe may be united in its founding values,” a possible reference to tensions between the European Union leaders and member Hungary over LGBTQ rights crackdowns. Francis noted that Sunday marked the feast of St. Benedict, patron saint of the continent.  Francis ended with his usual invitation to faithful.  “Don’t forget to pray for me,” drawing rousing applause.  
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Polling stations in Moldova opened Sunday morning with voters eager to choose the new parliament after the previous one was dissolved by new President Maia Sandu to shore up her position against pro-Russia forces.    Sandu, who wants to bring Moldova into the European Union, in November defeated Kremlin-backed incumbent Igor Dodon on a pledge to fight corruption in one of Europe’s poorest countries. Wedged between Ukraine and EU member Romania, Moldova has long been divided over closer ties with Brussels or maintaining Soviet-era relations with Moscow. With lawmakers loyal to Dodon blocking Sandu’s promises of reform, the former World Bank economist dissolved parliament in April and scheduled the snap vote.    Polls opened shortly after 7 a.m. and will close at 9 p.m. “We have a chance to get rid of thieves and choose a holistic and good government,” Sandu said in a video address Thursday, speaking in Moldova’s main language Romanian.   In another speech in Russian — the ex-Soviet country’s second language — she said: “The time for change is coming in Moldova.” The slogans resonate with many Moldovans, who in recent years have seen their country rocked by political crises, including a $1 billion bank fraud scheme equivalent to nearly 15 percent of the country’s GDP. “She really wants to change the country for the better,” Natalia Cadabnuic, a young Chisinau resident, told AFP.   Sandu, who also served briefly as prime minister, has for many Moldovans become “a symbol of change,” said Alexei Tulbure, a political analyst and the country’s ex-ambassador to the United Nations.   Adding that Moldovans are tired of corrupt politicians, he said Sandu is the first to make it to the top while “maintaining a reputation for being honest.” Twenty parties and two electoral blocs are running in Sunday’s elections.    They must cross the threshold set at 5% and 7% of the votes respectively to obtain seats in the unicameral assembly.  The 101 lawmakers will be elected for four-year terms.   Going into the vote, Sandu’s center-right Action and Solidarity (PAS) party was leading.   The latest polls showed PAS with 35-37% of the vote against 21-27% for the party’s rivals from the coalition of socialists and communists led by Dodon and former President Vladimir Voronin.  Those figures only account for voters living in the country of 2.6 million people.    Analysts say the diaspora, which is more than a third of Moldova’s eligible voters and already threw its support behind Sandu during the presidential polls, could hold the key to the outcome. According to estimates, the diaspora could bring Sandu’s party another 10-15 percentage points. Analysts say the election will likely be a blow to Russia, which wants Moldova to remain in its sphere of influence.   “The majority will be pro-European, and the influence of Russia will weaken,” Sergiy Gerasymchuk, a Kyiv-based expert on Moldovan politics, said. Sandu has already irritated the Kremlin by proposing to remove the Russian military garrison based in Transnistria, a pro-Russian breakaway state straddling the country’s eastern frontier with Ukraine.   Pro-Russia Dodon accused authorities Friday of preparing “provocations” and urged his supporters to be ready to protest to “defend” his bloc’s victory. 
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Bulgarians are voting in a snap poll on Sunday after a previous election in April produced a fragmented parliament that failed to form a viable coalition government.  Latest opinion polls suggest that the rerun could produce similar results but also a further drop in support for former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB party, after the current caretaker government made public allegations of widespread corruption during his rule.  NATO and EU member Bulgaria has been repeatedly criticized for not tackling corruption and for deficiencies in the rule of law and media freedom.  The anti-corruption campaign of Borissov’s opponents was additionally boosted by the sanctions the U.S. Treasury imposed last month against several Bulgarian public officials and business leaders for corruption.  Polls suggest a tight race between Borissov’s party, which came first in April with over 26% of the vote, and its main rival, the anti-elite There is Such a People, led by popular TV entertainer Slavi Trifonov.  The opposition Socialist Party is tipped to rank third, followed by the liberal anti-corruption group Democratic Bulgaria and the ethnic Turkish MRF party.  The new center-left alliance Stand Up! Mafia Out!, which emerged after last year’s anti-government protests, is projected to pass the 4% hurdle to enter parliament. According to political analyst Dimitar Ganev, there are little chances for Borissov to return to office for a fourth term regardless of whether the GERB finishes first in the election because most political groups have rejected the idea of cooperating with the ex-ruling party.  The 12,000 polling stations close at 8 p.m. There are 6.7 million eligible voters who are electing 240 lawmakers. Preliminary results are expected around midnight Sunday. 
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Ukraine and NATO have conducted Black Sea drills involving dozens of warships in a two-week show of their defense ties and capabilities following a confrontation between Russia’s military forces and a British destroyer off Crimea last month.The Sea Breeze 2021 maneuvers that ended Saturday involved about 30 warships and 40 aircraft from NATO members and Ukraine. The captain of the USS Ross, a U.S. Navy destroyer that took part in the drills, said the exercise was designed to improve how the equipment and personnel of the participating nations operate together.”We’d like to demonstrate to everybody, the international community, that no one nation can claim the Black Sea or any international body of water,” Commander John D. John said aboard the guided missile destroyer previously deployed to the area for drills. “Those bodies of water belong to the international community, and we’re committed to ensure that all nations have access to international waterways.”The Russian Defense Ministry said it was closely monitoring Sea Breeze. The Russian military also conducted a series of parallel drills in the Black Sea and southwestern Russia, with warplanes practicing bombing runs and long-range air defense missiles being deployed to protect the coast.FILE – John D. John, commanding officer of guided-missile destroyer USS Ross, speaks to reporters during Sea Breeze 2021 maneuvers, in the Black Sea, July 7, 2021.Last month, Russia said one of its warships in the Black Sea fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of the HMS Defender, a British Royal Navy destroyer, to chase it away from an area near Crimea that Moscow claims as its territorial waters.Russia denounced the Defender’s maneuver as a provocation and warned that next time it might fire to hit intruding warships.Britain, which like most other nations didn’t recognize Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, denied parts of the Russian account. It insists the Defender wasn’t fired upon on June 23 and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters when Russia sent its planes into the air and shots were heard during the showdown.Friction increasingThe incident added to tensions between Russia and the NATO allies. Relations between Russia and the West have sunk to post-Cold War lows over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea, its support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, accusations of Russian hacking attacks, election interference and other irritants.Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that the incident with the Defender wouldn’t have triggered a global conflict even if Russia had sunk the British vessel because the West knows it can’t win such a war. The statement appeared to indicate Putin’s resolve to raise the stakes should a similar incident happen again.Aboard the Ross, John said the Sea Breeze participants were exercising their right to operate in international waters. He described the drills as “a tangible demonstration of our commitment to each other for a safe and stable Black Sea region.”
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Pope Francis is recovering from colon surgery in a Rome hospital and the Vatican has announced that he will deliver his weekly Sunday blessing from there. An exact date for his release has not been given, although the Vatican had said he would spend about seven days in the hospital, barring complications.Pope Francis has been recovering from a three-hour operation that removed half of his colon last Sunday evening. He was taken to Rome’s Gemelli hospital for the planned surgery after delivering his weekly Sunday blessing.This is the first time the pope has been hospitalized since he was elected head of the Catholic Church.The pope temporarily ran a mild fever Wednesday, but routine tests proved negative. The Vatican said he was in generally good condition, alert, eating normally, taking walks in the corridor, and even reading and working.FILE – A satellite dish of a TV truck is parked in front of the Agostino Gemelli hospital, where Pope Francis has been hospitalized, in Rome, July 9, 2021.The Vatican said, though, that Francis would be delivering this Sunday’s Angelus prayer and blessing from the 10th floor of the hospital, where he has a private suite, the same one where Pope John Paul II was also treated many times.It will be the first time since his election in 2013 that Francis has missed his Sunday appointment from the balcony of the apostolic palace with the crowd in St. Peter’s Square, except for when he has been on his travels. The pope is not yet in good enough condition to be able to return to the Vatican, and no further announcement about his release has yet been given.The 84-year-old pope’s most recent ailments include painful sciatica that causes him to walk with a pronounced limp.Francis is expected to resume all his activities after July. Starting in September, the Vatican has said, he plans trips to Hungary and Slovakia. In November, he has plans to visit Greece and Cyprus and may also attend an international meeting on climate change in Scotland later that month.
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Top-seeded Ashleigh Barty became the first Australian to win the Wimbledon women’s singles tennis title in 41 years on Saturday in London.Barty defeated the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3 to claim the title in the first three-setter in a Wimbledon final since 2012.It’s the second Grand Slam title for Barty, who won the French Open in 2019.”I didn’t sleep a lot last night. I was thinking of all the ‘what ifs,’ but when I came out on this court today I felt at home, in a way,” Barty said. “… And I think being able to share that with everyone here and share that with my team is incredible.”Barty, 25, became the first woman from Australia to win the Wimbledon final since seven-time major winner Evonne Goolagong Cawley did it in 1980. She’s also just the fourth player in the Open era to also have won the title as a junior (2011).It was also the 50th anniversary of Goolagong Cawley’s first Wimbledon title. “I hope I made Yvonne proud,” Barty said. Barty recorded seven aces and converted six of eight break opportunities in improving to 6-2 for her career against Pliskova, who is now 0-2 in Grand Slam finals (2016 U.S. Open).After splitting the first two sets, Barty opened up a 3-0 lead in the final set and then held on to serve out for the match in one hour, 55 minutes.”She played an incredible tournament and an incredible match today,” said an emotional Pliskova. “It wasn’t easy to close the second set. I was fighting very hard to make it difficult for her, but I think she played very well, so congrats to her and her team.”Hamburg European OpenElena Gabriela Ruse of Romania stunned top-seeded Dayana Yastremska of Ukraine 2-6, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the final in Germany.Ruse converted six of 15 break chances and was helped by Yastremska’s nine double faults.In the final, Ruse will face Germany’s Andrea Petkovic, who beat countrymate Jule Niemeier 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-5 in the other semifinal.
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Ukraine and NATO have conducted Black Sea drills involving dozens of warships in a two-week show of their strong defense ties and capability following a confrontation between Russia’s military forces and a British destroyer off Crimea last month.The Sea Breeze 2021 maneuvers set to wrap up Saturday involved about 30 warships and 40 aircraft from NATO members and Ukraine. The captain of the USS Ross, a U.S. Navy destroyer that took part in the drills, said the exercise was designed to improve how the equipment and personnel of the participating nations operate together. “We’d like to demonstrate to everybody, the international community, that no one nation can claim the Black Sea or any international body of water,” Commander John D. John said aboard the guided missile destroyer previously deployed to the area for drills. “Those bodies of water belong to the international community, and we’re committed to ensure that all nations have access to international waterways.”The Russian Defense Ministry said it was closely monitoring Sea Breeze. The Russian military also conducted a series of parallel drills in the Black Sea and southwestern Russia, with warplanes practicing bombing runs and long-range air defense missiles’ deploying to protect the coast.Last month, Russia said one of its warships in the Black Sea fired warning shots and a warplane dropped bombs in the path of the HMS Defender, a British Royal Navy destroyer, to chase it away from an area near Crimea that Moscow claims as its territorial waters. Russia denounced the Defender’s presence as a provocation and warned that next time it might fire to hit intruding warships.Britain, which like most other nations didn’t recognize Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, insisted the Defender wasn’t fired upon on June 23 and said it was sailing in Ukrainian waters when Russia sent its planes into the air and shots were heard during the showdown.  The incident added to the tensions between Russia and the NATO allies. Relations between Russia and the West have sunk to post-Cold War lows over Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, its support for a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine, accusations of Russian hacking attacks, election interference and other irritants.Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that the incident with the Defender wouldn’t have triggered a global conflict even if Russia had sunk the British vessel because the West knows it can’t win such a war. The statement appeared to indicate Putin’s resolve to raise the stakes should a similar incident happen again.Aboard the Ross, John said the Sea Breeze participants were exercising their right to operate in international waters. He described the drills as “a tangible demonstration of our commitment to each other for a safe and stable Black Sea region.”
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Voters will go to the polls in Bulgaria for the second time in three months this weekend after no party secured enough support in an April parliamentary election to form a government.Former three-time Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s GERB party performed best in the inconclusive election, but it received only 26% of the vote. Public discontent over widespread reduced the party’s popularity from four years earlier, when it had 33% of the vote.The latest opinion polls indicate that support for GERB has dropped further since an interim government Bulgaria’s president installed in May opened investigations into alleged corruption during Borissov’s time as prime minister.Polls suggest a neck-to-neck race between Borissov’s party and its main rival, the anti-elite There is Such a People, which is led by popular TV entertainer Slavi Trifonov.”There are two clear trends in the last couple of months: erosion in support for the GERB party, mainly due to the actions of the caretaker government, and a slight but clear growth of There is Such a People,” Dimitar Ganev, a political analyst with Bulgarian research firm Trend, told The Associated Press.He sees no chance for political maverick Borissov, 62, to return to office for a fourth term regardless of whether GERB finishes first in Sunday’s election.”I expect the next government to be formed by the so-called protest parties,” Ganev said.Borissov previously managed to draw backing at home and abroad by combining populist man-in-the street rhetoric with pro-Western slogans.But thousands took to the streets during month-long protests last year and accused Borissov and his government of protecting oligarchs, refusing to reform the judiciary and suppressing freedom of speech.The interim government’s investigations have shed additional light on some of those accusations.Caretaker ministers have alleged that dozens of opposition politicians were illegally wiretapped before the April election. They also have claimed that billions in public money was distributed to favored private companies without a bidding process and that businesspeople have become objects of intimidation and extortion.Bulgaria, a member of both the EU and NATO, also has come under scrutiny from its Western partners due to its long-standing problems with corruption, adhering to the rule of law and preserving freedom of the media.The U.S. government last month sanctioned several Bulgarian public officials and businessmen, including two powerful oligarchs, and their networks encompassing dozens of companies over their allegedly “extensive” roles in corruption. The U.S. Treasury said the move was its single biggest action targeting corruption to date anywhere in the world under the Magnitsky Act.Political analysts assume the U.S. sanctions, imposed just weeks before the election, could additionally boost the anti-corruption arguments of the protest parties.A key question in the upcoming vote is whether There Is Such a People and two other parties will win enough seats in parliament to form a viable coalition government. 
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France will withdraw more than 2,000 troops from an anti-extremism force in Africa’s Sahel region by early next year and pivot its military presence to specialized regional forces instead, President Emmanuel Macron said Friday. Macron announced last month a future reduction of France’s military presence, arguing that it’s no longer adapted to the needs in the area. The French Barkhane force, operating in Mali, Chad, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mauritania, also had met opposition from some Africans. After discussions Friday with leaders of the African countries involved, Macron announced that France would reduce its force to 2,500 to 3,000 troops over the long term. The country currently has 5,000 troops in the region. The French leader insisted that his country was not abandoning African partners and would keep helping them fight groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. French President Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference at the Elysee Presidential Palace, in Paris, July 9, 2021.”France doesn’t have the vocation or the will to stay eternally in the Sahel,” Macron said. “We are there because we were asked to be.” French troops have been present in Mali since 2013, when they intervened to force Islamic extremist rebels from power in towns across the country’s north. Operation Serval was later replaced by Barkhane and was expanded to include other countries in an effort to help stabilize the broader Sahel region. Islamic militants, though, have continued to launch devastating attacks against the militaries fighting them as well as increasingly against civilians. Hundreds have died since January in a series of massacres targeting villages on the border of Niger and Mali. While governments in the Sahel have embraced France’s military help, some critics have likened the troops’ presence to a vestige of French colonial rule. France will focus over the next six months on dismantling the Barkhane operation and reorganizing the troops, Macron said. The French military will shut down Barkhane bases in Timbuktu, Tessalit and Kidal in northern Mali over the next six months, and start to reconfigure its presence in the coming weeks to focus particularly on the restive border area where Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger meet. Niger President Mohamed Bazoum, speaking at Macron’s side, welcomed the French military support and training, but on African terms. FILE – A French soldier stands inside a military helicopter in Gao, northern Mali, May 19, 2017.”The main thing is that France maintains the principle of its support, its cooperation and support for the armed forces of our different countries. We need France to give us what we don’t have. We don’t need France to give us what we already have,” he said, without elaborating. He acknowledged failings of local armed forces but also praised their courage in fighting extremists. France’s military presence in the future will focus on neutralizing extremist operations and strengthening and training local armies, Macron said. “There will also be a dimension of reassurance … to remain permanently ready to intervene rapidly in support of partner forces,” notably via military aviation from Niger and Chad. This new structure “seems to us to respond better to the evolution of the threat,” he said. Once the reorganization is complete, he said, “the Barkhane operation will close down.” Some experts say that France’s decision may be linked to growing political instability in Mali. Macron’s June announcement came days after Mali coup leader Colonel Assimi Goita was sworn in as president of a transitional government, solidifying his grip on power in the West African nation after carrying out his second coup in nine months. Late in June, the U.N. Security Council unanimously adopted a resolution extending the U.N. peacekeeping mission in crisis-racked Mali and said it’s “imperative” that the military government hold presidential and legislative elections on schedule next February.  The council maintained the ceilings in the U.N. force at 13,289 military troops and 1,920 international police, but it asked Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to make a recommendation on the force level given growing levels of insecurity and physical violence against the civilian populations in central Mali. 
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Belarusian authorities on Friday raided the offices of several media outlets outside Minsk and searched the homes of independent journalists, in the second straight day of the country’s latest crackdown on independent press critical of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko.The raids, most of which took place in the western city of Brest, came a day after the website of the country’s oldest newspaper, Nasha Niva, was blocked and its chief editor was detained and reportedly beaten while security forces searched the offices of several regional newspapers.Offices of news outlets were also raided in Baranovichi in the Brest region. Journalist Ruslan Ravyaka of the Baranovichi news portal Intex-Press was taken in for questioning by the KGB, the Belarusian state security agency, and was later released.Journalist Tatsiana Smotkina’s home was raided in the northern city of Hlybokaye, as was the apartment of the administrator of the Virtual Brest news portal, Andrey Kukharchyk. The Onliner Telegram channel reported that security forces also searched the home of its journalist, Anastasia Zenko.Search for ‘radicals’Konstantin Bychek, the chief of the KGB’s investigative department, told state television that a “large-scale operation” was under way to root out “radicals.”The Belarusian Association of Journalists reported that 32 media representatives have been detained since July 8.Nasha Niva’s editor in chief, Yahor Martsinovich, was beaten and suffered head injuries while being detained in a raid, the publication reported Friday.It said that the raids on the outlet were carried out as part of a probe into actions that grossly violated public order.The latest crackdown came after authorities in May hit top independent news portal Tut.by, whose website was blocked. Twelve of its journalists were arrested. Also in May, authorities intercepted a Ryanair flight from Athens to Vilnius and forced it to land in Minsk where they detained dissident blogger Raman Pratasevich and his girlfriend, who were on board.Both Nasha Niva and Tut.by extensively covered months of protests against Lukashenko, which were triggered by his reelection to a sixth term on August 9 in a vote that was widely seen as rigged.Since the election, security forces have cracked down hard on journalists, rights defenders and pro-democracy demonstrators, arresting more than 35,000 people and pushing many activists and most of the top opposition figures out of the country.Killings, possible tortureSeveral protesters have been killed in the violence, and some rights organizations say there is credible evidence of torture being used by security officials against some of those detained.Leading opposition figures have been either jailed or forced to leave the country.Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, the main opposition candidate in the election, who says she actually won the poll, condemned the latest raids.”Our independent journalists suffer violence, torture in prison because they do their work,” she wrote Friday on Twitter.Western nations have imposed a wide range of sanctions on Lukashenko and his regime over the crackdown, but they appear to have had limited effect as he retains support from key ally and financial backer Russia.Some information for this report came from AFP.
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The World Health Organization said health care is under siege in Afghanistan as the United States accelerates its troop withdrawal from the country.Afghanistan is one of the largest and longest-standing humanitarian emergencies in the world. The country is subject to almost every type of hazard — an escalating conflict, a rapidly spreading pandemic and most recently a severe drought.The WHO said 18.4 million Afghans need humanitarian assistance — a situation that has serious health consequences. It said increasing violence has led to more civilian trauma cases.Rick Brennan, regional director for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, speaks during a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 30, 2016.The regional director for the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office, Rick Brennan, said there has been a 29% increase in civilian casualties in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period last year. He said the arrival of people with complex war-related injuries is putting an enormous strain on health workers and facilities.“Moreover, this year there have been 30 attacks on health care across the country, including the total destruction of an immunization center late last month and a reported artillery attack on a health center in Kunar province just two days ago,” Brennan said. “Such attacks are a violation of the right to health. They limit people’s access to health care at a time of increased need and they contravene international humanitarian law.”Increasing instability has coincided with the quicker than expected pullout of American troops from the country. Brennan described the current situation as fluid, fast-moving and terribly concerning. He said many health care workers have left their posts because of security concerns, though some reportedly were starting to return.“I think it is a mixed picture right now. But we are clearly concerned of declining access to health care. … We are concerned about our lack of access to be able to provide essential medicines and supplies and we are concerned about attacks on health care,” Brennan said.Brennan said the WHO is not in direct communication with the Taliban. However, he said the WHO has received indirect requests to continue to provide health services in districts taken over by the Taliban.He said he believes the WHO has a good reputation, particularly in areas where it has run polio vaccination campaigns. That, he added, is likely to be instrumental in the WHO’s ability to maintain a field presence in those areas.
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Turkey is claiming success in its COVID immunization campaign, but the majority Kurdish region lags far behind the rest of the country. Some blame it on the health ministry’s refusal to use the Kurdish language in literature that encourages people to get vaccinated.  For VOA, Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Police in Sweden say a small plane carrying skydivers crashed outside the south-central city of Orebro late Thursday, killing all nine people on board.
Regional police told reporters they were notified of the crash around 7:30 p.m. local time. Aviation officials say the plane, a single-engine DHC-2 Beaver, crashed shortly after takeoff.  
Officials confirmed the dead include the pilot and eight passengers, members of a local skydiving club.
Police and fire officials held a news conference Friday in at the Orebro airfield, about 200 kilometers west of Stockholm. They said the airfield rescue team was first on the crash scene and extinguished the burning wreckage. But officials said it was clear there would be no survivors.  
The cause of the crash is being investigated.
On Twitter Friday, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven wrote, “My thoughts are with the victims, their families and loved ones in this very difficult time.”
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KABUL / MOSCOW – Taliban officials said on Friday the Sunni Muslim insurgent group had taken control of 85% of territory in Afghanistan, and  its fighters were tightening their grip on strategic areas. 
 
Government officials dismissed the assertion by a Taliban delegation visiting Moscow as part of a propaganda campaign launched as foreign forces, including the United States, withdraw after almost 20 years of fighting. 
 
But local Afghan officials said Taliban fighters, emboldened by the withdrawal, had captured an important district in Heart province, home to tens of thousands of minority Shiite Hazaras. 
 
Torghundi, a northern town on the border with Turkmenistan, had also been captured by the Taliban overnight, Afghan and Taliban officials said. Taliban insurgents were now in complete control of the police headquarters, intelligence services, customs operations and the municipal center, they said. 
 
Hundreds of Afghan security personnel and refugees continued to flee across the border into neighboring Iran and Tajikistan, causing concern in Moscow and other foreign capitals that radical Islamists could infiltrate Central Asia. 
 
Three visiting Taliban officials sought to address those concerns during their visit to Moscow. 
 
“We will take all measures so that Islamic State will not operate on Afghan territory… and our territory will never be used against our neighbors,” one of the Taliban officials, Shahabuddin Delawar, told a news conference. 
 
He said “you and the entire world community have probably recently learned that 85% of the territory of Afghanistan has come under the control” of the Taliban. 
 
The same delegation said a day earlier that the group would not attack the Tajik-Afghan border, the fate of which is in focus in Russia and Central Asia. ‘Lion of Herat’ appeals to civilians
 
A prominent anti-Taliban commander of a private militia rejected the assurances made in Moscow, and said he would support efforts by Afghan forces to claw back control of parts of western Afghanistan, including a border crossing with Iran. 
 
Mohammad Ismail Khan, a former minister and a survivor of a Taliban attack in 2009, was a leading member of the Northern Alliance whose militia helped U.S. forces topple the Taliban in 2001. 
 
A veteran Tajik commander widely known as the Lion of Herat, Ismail Khan urged civilians to join the fight to protect their basic human rights. 
 
He said hundreds of armed civilians from Ghor, Badghis, Nimroz, Farah, Helmand and Kandahar provinces had come to his house and were ready to fill the security void created by foreign force withdrawal. 
 
U.S. President Joe Biden on Thursday defended his decision to pull military forces out of Afghanistan despite large parts of country being overrun by the insurgent group. 
 
He said the Afghan people must decide their own future and that he would not consign another generation of Americans to the two-decade-old war. 
 
Biden set a target date of Aug. 31 for the final withdrawal of U.S. forces, minus about 650 troops to provide security for the U.S. embassy in Kabul. 
 
A long-time skeptic of the U.S. and NATO military presence in Afghanistan, Biden said the United States had long ago achieved its original rationale for invading the country in 2001: to root out al-Qaeda militants and prevent another attack on the United States like the one launched on September. 11, 2001. 
 
The mastermind of that attack, Osama bin Laden, was killed by a U.S. military team in neighboring Pakistan in 2011. 
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