Residents of small communities living around Guatemala’s Pacaya volcano wake each day wondering if the lava will reach their homes.A lava flow descending the volcano has advanced between El Patrocinio and San José el Rodeo. In the case of the latter, the lava has advanced to within two and a half blocks of the outermost homes.Emma Quezada, a 38-year-old homemaker in one of those houses, has lived there her entire life and said she’s used to the volcanic activity. Still, this time she’s afraid.”These last three days the lava stopped; we hope it stays there,” Quezada said.Local authorities had spoken to residents about moving the community to another location about 100 kilometers away, but without the space they have now, she said.”As if you’re going to go from here to a little piece of land!” she said. “Maybe we don’t have a great thing here, but we live in blessed peace. We don’t face any other danger, not even thieves. … The options they give you don’t compare with what we have here.”The Pacaya volcano rises about 2,552 meters between the departments of Guatemala and Escuintla south of the capital. It’s a popular tourist destination, and 21 communities surround it.In early February, a chasm opened in one of the volcano’s flanks, and lava began to flow. It now stretches at least 5 kilometers. Meanwhile, ash and gases spewed from its crater.Even if the lava doesn’t reach their homes, the ash has damaged their corn crops and the pastures where their cows graze.El Rodeo is home to 57 families, about 350 people, said Juventino Pineda, president of the Urban and Rural Development Community Council.Pineda, 67, can recall various eruptions during his lifetime. “One of the worst was 1962. I was a child, and lava also came out of a fissure in the volcano. That time it was 20 kilometers of lava,” he said.This time, Pineda said, “we believe that at least 50% of the homes in the community would be destroyed because of the lava’s path.” There is an evacuation plan if the situation worsens.”At night, when the volcano erupts, everything turns red, everything shines. It looks like day,” he said.Near the lava, the ambient temperature rises, and there’s a light sulfur smell. A crunching can be heard.”It’s important to know that we need help. Maybe someone can help us on the international level,” Pineda said.
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The United States is warning the Russian government that it is responsible for whatever happens to opposition leader Alexey Navalny, whose condition is reportedly deteriorating while in custody. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine has the story.
Camera: Natasha Mozgovaya and Ricardo Marquina Montañana 
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Catholic institutions including schools and universities closed Wednesday across Haiti in a three-day protest to demand the release of five priests, two nuns and two other people kidnapped more than a week ago amid a spike in violence that the government is struggling to control.Catholic officials also organized Masses to pray for those kidnapped — at least two of whom are French — as they tolled the bells at noon at St. Pierre church in Pétionville, where hundreds gathered to show their support.”No one is safe,” said 65-year-old Margaret Jean Louis. “I’m hoping the people kidnapped will make it out safely.”The April 11 kidnapping of the priests, nuns and three relatives of one of the priests in the capital of Port-au-Prince is one of the most shocking recent abductions in Haiti, which saw a 200% increase in kidnappings last year, according to the United Nations.Those kidnapped were identified as nuns Anne-Marie Dorcelus and Agnès Bordeau, priests Michel Briand, Evens Joseph, Jean-Nicaise Millien, Joël Thomas and Hugues Baptiste and three relatives of another priest. Briand was identified as French.One of the relatives was released because she was sick, according to a radio interview broadcast on Monday of a man who claimed to be the leader of the kidnap gang.The man, who identified himself as Lanmò San Jou of the 400 Mawozo gang, told Radio Mega that the French nationals are among the most important hostages: “If Haiti is like this, it’s because of the French.”Haiti won independence in 1804 from France, which demanded huge indemnity payments.The alleged gang leader said he wants restitution from France and that he would stop feeding the people he kidnapped. He declined to say how much ransom he was seeking.Church officials who organized the shutdown said Masses would be held on Wednesday and Thursday and that on Friday, church bells across Haiti would toll for the victims.”We, the Catholic bishops of Haiti, see with great sorrow that there has been no change in the situation of our brothers and sisters in the hands of the bandits,” the Conference of Catholic Bishops said in a Tuesday statement. “Ten days in the hands of kidnappers is too much.”One of the kidnapped priests had been working as a missionary in Haiti since 1985 and was assaulted and shot a couple of years ago, the Rev. Paul Dossous, superior general of the Society of Priests of Saint-Jacques, told Paris-based Franceinfo in an interview published last week.He said church authorities try to stay in touch with the kidnappers as much as possible, and that while he worries about those kidnapped because some of them are sick, he doesn’t foresee canceling any missions: “We are not men to run away from a situation, no, even if we are afraid anyway because we’re human.” 
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The police killing of 46-year-old Black man George Floyd in Minneapolis last year triggered Black Lives Matter protests around the world. As Henry Ridgwell reports, the murder conviction reached Tuesday against former officer Derek Chauvin has been welcomed in many countries — but equality activists say there is still much work to be done. 
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Over a year ago, when much of the world shuttered as the pandemic swept the globe, Mohammed al-Awas, 46, a Syrian refugee, was stranded with his wife and five children at a gas station in Turkey. Not far from the Greek border, some families were sheltered nearby in an area usually reserved for fixing cars, their personal belongings in black garbage bags piled up along the walls. Dozens of men, women and children, mostly refugees from Syria, loitered outside the station, not sure where to go next. Like the others, al-Awas wanted to cross the river to Greece. Turkey had declared the border open, so he had sold his furniture to make the journey. But Greece never opened its side of the border and many families were pushed back into Turkey, or were not able to cross at all. Mohammed al-Awas, 46, says while Turkey is safer than Syria, he has no way to support his family in Istanbul, April 17, 2021. (Heather Murdock/VOA)Asked if they were afraid of getting the coronavirus, most refugees at the gas station that day were blasé. They had survived war, abject poverty and life on the streets. The virus couldn’t be worse, they said. Moments later, police officers arrived, saying everyone would be boarding buses to Istanbul, whether they liked it or not. After a few weeks passed, al-Awas found himself in a small apartment in Istanbul, paid for by a charity. It was Ramadan and, as is common during the Islamic holy month, donors were eager to provide food and shelter for the poor. Still, al-Awas was despondent. “I stay up all night, every night, worrying about how to keep my children off the streets,” he said. Ramadan 2021 A year later, it is once again Ramadan, but humanitarian aid for refugees is scarcer than ever. Some aid workers say collections are down as much as 90% and the piecemeal food aid they have to distribute is not nearly enough to go around. “Last year, businesspeople were sending extra support for refugees because of the pandemic,” explained Aya Sultan, an aid worker. “But this year, when we called the same people, they said they had a terrible year economically.” Turkey hosts 3.6 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world. These children are pictured in Istanbul, April 17, 2021. (Heather Murdock/VOA)In Istanbul, like in so many places, many businesses have failed, many shops have closed and people who once had more than enough face an uncertain future. Traveling to Europe to seek asylum has become more difficult and more dangerous, but al-Awas recently returned from another attempt, where after 14 days of walking through the forest, he injured his leg. When Greek authorities caught him, he got into their car without a word. He couldn’t go on. “We walked through the forests at night and drank water from rivers,” he said. “It was snowing and my feet were wet when I twisted my ankle and fell.” Weeks later, al-Awas still walks with a limp, but says he will keep going back until he either reaches Europe or finds a way to work and educate his children here in Turkey. At the moment, they cannot even enroll in online schooling, and he works sporadically, making barely enough for food. “I spent a lot of money to go but then I was forced to come back, broke,” he explained. “There is no work here, nothing to do. It is terrible.” Pushbacks In 2015, Greece was an entryway to Europe and refugees who reached Greek shores swiftly shuttled across the country en route to more prosperous countries, like Germany, which was publicly welcoming newcomers. In the same year, more than a million refugees made their way to Europe in a matter of months, and as their numbers swelled, borders closed. Now, Greece’s 50,000 refugees are likely to remain in the country, according to the International Rescue Committee. Many of the nearly 120,000 asylum-seekers in Greece are stuck in camps, sometimes for years, with applications pending. Meanwhile, many of Turkey’s nearly 4 million refugees are still trying to get into Greece, and they are often expelled shortly after their arrival. The expulsions are often violent and some families return beaten, without money, mobile phones and sometimes without even their shoes. The United Nations refugee agency, the UNHCR, has expressed alarm over the pushbacks, and European Union officials have called for investigations into Greek breaches of international human rights laws. Greece staunchly denies any such breaches and defends its rights to secure its own borders, and the borders of Europe. At a press conference in Greece late last month, Ylva Johansson, the EU Home Affairs commissioner, partially blamed the continent’s “lack of a Europeanized migration policy” for the alleged abuses. “That means that member states at our external border have been under huge pressure … in the absence of a European solution,” she said. Marwa al-Awas, Mohammed’s wife, fears travel to Europe but sees no other way to educate her children, April 17, 2021. (Heather Murdock/VOA)Al-Awas, however, doesn’t plan to wait for a solution as he prepares once again to attempt to walk into Greece and make his way to northern Europe. When asked if they want their father to try again, his children grimaced and his eldest son barked, “No!” But his wife, Marwa, smiled sadly, and said it is their only hope for a sustainable future. “I am afraid, very afraid,” she explained. “But he won’t give up. He will make another attempt.” VOA’s Shadi Turk contributed to this report.
 
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United Nations human rights experts said Wednesday that jailed Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny’s life is in “serious danger” and appealed to Moscow to allow Navalny to seek emergency medical treatment in another country.“We urge the Russian authorities to ensure Mr. Navalny has access to his own doctors and to allow him to be evacuated for urgent medical treatment abroad, as they did in August 2020,” the experts said in a statement.The 44-year-old Kremlin critic has been detained since January in a high security prison under conditions that may amount to torture, said the experts, who also contend he has been “denied access to adequate medical care.”The Kremlin did not immediately respond to the U.N. experts.Navalny began a hunger strike three weeks ago, about two months after his immediate January 17 arrest upon arrival in Moscow for alleged parole violations after returning from Germany, where he spent five months recovering from a nerve agent poisoning in Russia.Russia’s Federal Penitentiary Service said Navalny violated the probation terms of his suspended sentence from a 2014 money laundering conviction, which he denounced as politically motivated.Navalny has accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering Russia’s security services to poison him, a charge the Kremlin has repeatedly denied.  Several European laboratories have confirmed that Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a nerve agent developed by the former Soviet Union.A Russian court ruled earlier this year that Navalny must remain in jail, rejecting an appeal. The United States and other Western countries have strongly condemned Navalny’s arrest and demanded his unconditional release. Navalny’s jailing sparked very large protests across Russia shortly after his arrest, with tens of thousands of people demanding his release and chanting anti-Putin slogans.Police arrested scores of Navalny supporters who protested Wednesday across Russia, according to OVD-info, a Russian human rights monitoring group.The U.N. experts who issued the warning about Navalny’s health are Special Rapporteurs Irene Khan, Nils Melzer, Morris Tidball-Binz and Tlaleng Mofokeng. 
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Russian President Vladimir Putin is warning foreign rivals against provocation or testing the nation’s strength, insisting Russia’s response would be “asymmetric, fast, and tough.”The remarks came Wednesday during his annual state-of-the-nation speech, delivered to top officials and both houses of the Russian parliament, and Putin also said Russia is striving for good relations with other countries. He offered an invitation to nations to “discuss issues related to strategic weapons and ensuring global stability.”Putin went on to suggest that in some countries, however, it has become customary to “blame Russia for anything. Like it was some kind of sport.” He said Russia has been restrained and has not responded to this hostility or outright rudeness.He continued that if someone were to take Russia’s good intentions for indifference or weakness, though, “and is willing to burn or even blow up bridges, he should know that Russia’s response will be asymmetric, fast and tough.”Putin said, “I hope that no one will think of crossing the red line with Russia. And where this line will be, in every particular case, we will determine it ourselves.”The tough talk comes one week after the United States issued new economic and diplomatic sanctions against Russia for its efforts to interfere in the U.S. elections and its cyberattacks on U.S. companies and institutions.Much of the rest of Putin’s speech dealt with domestic issues, particularly its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and efforts to help its weak economy recover from the toll the virus has taken. 
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Closely followed in Britain, especially among the nation’s black population. And many are celebrating now that the former police offer Derek Chauvin has been found guilty of killing George Floyd.Amy Jordon is a London high school teacher who says she feels relieved by the verdict. She was one of the tens of thousands of people who took part in the British Black Lives Matter protests last summer.Jordon hopes this verdict will make the world see black people as equal.”The children that I teach, it shows them that their lives do matter and the police can’t just do whatever they want to them, with no consequences. I think it really will change the world and it will change how we see the police and what they can and can’t get away with it,” she said.Several British television news stations were offering live coverage of the verdict, while newspapers are headlining the verdict on their websites or front pages.The killing of George Floyd not only highlighted the issue of racism in the United States, but also in Britain where images of the toppling of a slave trader statue in the British city of Bristol went viral during a Black Lives Matter protest last June.Sofia Akel is a race equity specialist at the London Metropolitan University. She said that while the murder of George Floyd happened in the United States, it turned the lens of racial inequality on Britain.”In the UK, since 1990, over 100 black people have died during or following police contact. But zero police officers have been prosecuted for murder or manslaughter. And that’s despite several rulings of unlawful killing. And these are stats and real life stories of people that are known very well to the black communities in the UK,” she said.A general view of the exhibition ‘Never Forget Stephen Lawrence’, comprised of 29 flags installed in Brixton Village ahead of National Stephen Lawrence Day, in London, April 21, 2021.The British government set up a Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities after the Black Lives Matter protests. The Commission published its controversial report last month, concluding there is no institutional racism problem in the country.The report was rebuffed this week by a United Nations working group of human right experts, saying the document attempts to “normalize white supremacy.” Community activist Darrel Blake organizes black history tours in London. He said the Chauvin verdict alone doesn’t change the racism and discrimination black people experience.“I feel like true justice will come when black people are not seen as villains from the maternity ward, all the way down to the deathbed. That’s when we will get true justice,” he said.Britain just commemorated the 40th anniversary of the 1981 Brixton uprisings – long known to some as the Brixton riots – when people, most of them black, protested the racial inequality they faced at the time.Today, British black women are four times more likely to die in pregnancy and childbirth than their non-black counterparts, according to recent studies in Britain. Black people are fifty percent more likely to be imprisoned than non-blacks, and the pandemic has left young black people in Britain unemployed in disproportionate numbers. 
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The European Union announced Wednesday a provisional agreement to cut greenhouse gas emissions in the 27-member bloc by 55% by 2030. The 2030 target is part of a larger goal of getting the EU to be carbon-neutral by 2050. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the agreement puts the EU “on a green path for a generation.” “It is our binding pledge to our children and grandchildren,” she added. EU member states must approve the deal before it becomes official. Wednesday’s agreement comes ahead of the start of a two-day virtual summit hosted by U.S. President Joe Biden for world leaders to discuss ways to combat climate change. 
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The Czech Republic is urging European and NATO allies to take joint retaliatory action against Russia following accusations that Russian spies were behind a huge explosion at a Czech arms depot in 2014. They claim the spies were also part of a special unit that tried to assassinate a double agent in Britain.The central European country evicted 18 Russian embassy staffers over the weekend, saying they were identified as intelligence officers. “We succeeded in breaking up both of the big Russian (spy) operation cells, and for the Russian side, it will be very complicated to put them together again,” Acting Foreign Minister Jan Hamacek said Monday.Moscow has denied involvement in the 2014 explosion, which killed two workers at the site. The Kremlin expelled 20 Czech diplomats and other staff in retaliation for this week’s action.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 10 MB480p | 14 MB540p | 17 MB720p | 34 MB1080p | 74 MBOriginal | 255 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioSpeaking at a televised press conference Tuesday, Hamacek said, “We will call for collective action by European Union and NATO countries that will be aimed at a solidarity expulsion of identified members of Russian intelligence service from EU and NATO member states.”The explosion at the arms depot was initially thought to be an accident. Czech investigators, however, recently revealed they had discovered an email that had been sent to “Imex Group,” the company that operated the depot, prior to the blast. The message asked that two men be allowed to visit the site. The email was sent from an address, purporting to be from the National Guard of Tajikistan, which was later shown to be fake.
Subsequent investigations found the two men were traveling under false documents. They have since been identified as the suspects in the 2018 nerve-agent poisoning in Britain of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, who barely survived. A local woman died after being exposed to the nerve agent.Suspects identified 
The investigative website Bellingcat identified them as Anatoly Chepiga and Alexander Mishkin, both officers in Russia’s GRU military intelligence. Their unit, 29155, is believed to focus on sabotage and subversion, says Russia analyst Ian Bond of the London-based Center for European Reform.
“They seem to be extremely active in a number of parts of Europe, and of course apart from them, we have seen the assassination of the Chechen-Georgian exile (Zelimkhan) Khangoshvili in Berlin, for which a Russian is on trial in Germany, and we’ve still got the MH17 trial going ahead in The Hague, and we’ve had other Russian citizens assassinated elsewhere in the EU,” Bond told VOA.
MH17 refers to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH-17. The aircraft was shot down July 17, 2014, by a Russian-made Buk missile fired from territory in eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-Russian separatists. The Russian military has said the missile that downed the aircraft, killing all 298 people on board, came from the arsenals of the Ukrainian army, not from Russia.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, expressed support Monday for the Czech Republic’s expulsion of Russian diplomats. “These diplomats have been identified by the Czech intelligence to be Russian military service agents, and the European Union stands united and in solidarity with the Czech Republic.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the Czech accusations “groundless” and accused the West of “a massive anti-Russian psychosis.”
Tensions between Moscow and the West have deepened in recent weeks, as Russia has deployed military hardware and tens of thousands of troops along the Ukrainian border. The European Union has called for de-escalation.Escalation risk in Ukraine”The Russian military buildup at the Ukrainian border is very concerning. It is more than 150,000 Russian troops massing on the Ukrainian borders and in Crimea. The risk of further escalation is evident. We have to commend Ukraine for its restrained response, and we urge Russia to de-escalate and to defuse tensions,” the EU’s Borrell told reporters Monday.
Russia also has jailed the main opposition leader, Alexey Navalny. Doctors say he is in critical condition in a prison hospital after going on a hunger strike when he was denied urgent medical treatment. Navalny survived a near-fatal poisoning last year and was arrested when he returned to Moscow in January following lifesaving treatment in Germany.The Russian president is trying to whip up support at home, says analyst Bond.”Putin hasn’t had a particularly good 12 months. Russia has one of the highest excess death rates from COVID-19 in the world. The economy is pretty stagnant, and the IMF is forecasting that it will stay pretty stagnant for a while. And the protests about the arrest of Navalny in January were the largest Russia had seen in quite a long time.”The United States imposed new sanctions on Russia this month over alleged cyberattacks and other “malign” acts. U.S. President Joe Biden has proposed a summit with his Russian counterpart.Europe must act fast in imposing its own measures, Bond said. “It’s hard to know what would jog Europe to impose further sanctions if it weren’t an example of state-sponsored terrorism of this kind. I can’t describe it in any other way — arranging the explosion of an ammunition dump which killed two people — it’s hard to see that as anything other than state terrorism.”That also sends a signal to Putin that there isn’t unity yet, even within the EU, about the need to take really firm measures to deter the sorts of activities that he has been authorizing in Europe over the last several years. And I think that will only embolden him unfortunately.”Russia has repeatedly denied involvement in the attacks on European soil and says its troop buildup on the Ukrainian border is in response to what it claims is increased military activity by the United States and NATO forces.   
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The prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines appealed for international help Tuesday as the Caribbean island nation begins to tackle the daunting cleanup from a series of volcanic eruptions that have not stopped. ”The lives and livelihoods of our people have been terribly affected,” Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves told reporters in a video press conference. ”We are in a dire situation, frankly.” About 20,000 people were evacuated from the area nearest to La Soufrière volcano on the north side of St. Vincent after it began erupting on April 9 for the first time in 42 years. The island nation has a population of about 110,000. In some areas, ash is a meter deep, and it has given the normally green and lush island an apocalyptic appearance. No one was killed in the eruptions, which the prime minister said have spewed more than 100 million cubic meters of ash on the island and into the sea, and has been carried as far away as India. But damage has been extensive to agriculture, homes and the island’s tourism industry.”The humanitarian relief for the prolonged period is going to be huge,” Gonsalves said. “The cost is massive, no question about that, before we reach reconstruction.”He estimates that rebuilding will run to the hundreds of millions of dollars.The United Nations launched a humanitarian appeal for $29.2 million on Tuesday to assist the most vulnerable with basic needs, including clean water, food and shelter, as well as to help initiate recovery. Last Thursday, the United Nations released $1 million from its emergency fund to help with urgent needs.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
download this video to view it offline.Download File360p | 18 MB480p | 25 MB540p | 33 MB720p | 72 MB1080p | 134 MBOriginal | 778 MB Embed” />Copy Download AudioUnited Nations Barbados and Eastern Caribbean visit the volcano Red Zone in St. Vincent. (Video courtesy of United Nations)The world body is also deploying a team of a dozen experts this week to work with the government to assess what is needed to clean up and safely dispose of the massive amounts of ash, as well as to evaluate the ecological impact, Didier Trebucq, U.N. resident coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, said.Trebucq added that there is still a lot of uncertainty as eruptions continue.”We felt a tremor this morning,” he told reporters. “Two days ago, we could see another eruption.”Gonsalves said when La Soufrière last erupted in 1979, it did so over a period of about seven months. Prior to that, in 1902, it went on even longer.But should the volcano cease erupting sooner, the island nation will not be entirely at ease. Hurricane season starts in six weeks, and this year, it is forecast to be very active.
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The pandemic has boosted audiences for Europe’s public service media, with Europeans turning to fact-based news, according to the broadcasters’ trade association and academic studies.  Television, radio and digital channels all have shown upswings, especially in western Europe. But while the public has appeared to have been appreciative, the continent’s public broadcasters are facing a twin threat. Central Europe’s populist governments have been or are seeking to reduce their editorial independence, transforming them into official mouthpieces, warn rights campaigners and journalists.  And in western Europe, center-right governments are coming under mounting pressure from conservative lawmakers and populists to defund public broadcasters. FILE – Czech Republic’s Prime Minister Andrej Babis makes a statement during a media videoconference at an EU summit in Brussels, Belgium, July 20, 2020.Attention in recent weeks has focused on Czech Television, and what critics of the populist government of Prime Minister Andrej Babis say are efforts to politicize its governing board and undermine the broadcaster’s senior management team ahead of October’s parliamentary elections.  Last week, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), a trade association, urged Czech lawmakers to protect the independence of the country’s public broadcaster, saying Ceska Televize is “the most used news brand in the Czech Republic, with 60 percent of everyone in the country using the service at least weekly.”  The EBU’s president, Delphine Ernotte Cunci, and the association’s director general, Noel Curran, noted it also was “trusted by more Czechs than any other news brand.” They based their assertions on data and surveys compiled by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford.  “In recent months, it has become alarmingly clear that the Czech Republic’s government is trying to exert pressure on that very independence, directly and indirectly,” they said.  FILE – An operator works in the master room of the European Broadcast Union (EBU) in Geneva, Nov. 13, 2007.Last November, the broadcaster’s supervisory council — which oversees operations, appoints the broadcaster’s director-general and approves the budget — was abruptly removed. The country’s parliament voted last week on a slate of new council members, all affiliated with the ruling ANO party.   The broadcaster’s current, and embattled, director-general, Petr Dvořák, told local media, “The aim is not to change one person in a leading position, but to change the whole Czech Television, its behavior and functioning.”  He warns the populist plan is to keep the broadcaster formally looking like an independent one, but it will be made to reflect the views of the ruling party. “The same has happened in Poland,” he added. Dvořák expects to be ousted soon.  Krzysztof Bobinski of the Society of Journalists in Poland worries that public broadcasters in 11 European Union member states are at high risk of coming under control of ruling parties.  Bobinski is urging the European Commission, the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe to work more closely together to highlight how “too many EU governments are using public media to skew public debate in their favor and thus threaten the quality of the democratic processes and the rule of law.”  Babis’s moves to change public broadcasting in the Czech Republic are mirroring actions elsewhere in the young democracies of Central Europe. After it won power, Poland’s Law and Justice Party clipped the wings of the country’s public network, TVP. The OSCE’s observation mission of Poland’s 2019 parliamentary elections noted in its report of “a lack of impartiality in the media,” especially of TVP’s coverage. FILE – Polish Television (TVP) studios and headquarters are seen in in Warsaw, Poland, May 17, 2015.Reporters Without Borders says Poland’s public media outlets “have been transformed into government propaganda mouthpieces.” The group has raised similar concerns about public media in Hungary. During the country’s 2019 elections, leaked audio recordings emerged of editors instructing reporters to favor Viktor Orban’s ruling Fidesz party in their coverage. Populist leaders say the criticism is unfair and that public broadcasters have been the mouthpieces of liberals and the left for years. Slovenia Prime Minister Janez Jansa accuses his country’s public service media of regularly dishing out “fake news.”  FILE – Slovenia’s Prime Minister Janez Jansa attends a news conference in Vienna, Austria, March 16, 2021.He has dubbed the Slovenian Press Agency a “national disgrace” and says reporters working for public broadcaster Radiotelevizija Slovenija are paid too highly and spread “lies.” His government wants to amend the country’s media laws so they can increase state influence over public-service media. The criticism in Central Europe by populists of public broadcasters is echoed by counterparts in western Europe, who identify public media as liberal and accuse it of being hostile towards them and of being dominated by a metropolitan mindset out of step with the lives and thinking of millions of ordinary Europeans, especially those living in rural and de-industrialized areas. Germany’s populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been locked in a war of words for years with the country’s public broadcasters. In 2017, it went to the courts to try to get more airtime for its representatives, accusing the broadcasters of routinely shunning them.  Executives of German public-service television broadcaster ZDF have admitted they often have been too focused on covering issues and events in the country’s large metropolitan areas and have not been providing enough coverage of the rural east. They say that’s something they are seeking to rectify.  FILE – German television network ZDF crew members dismantle their setup in Marseille, July 18, 2007.In Britain, the ruling Conservatives have long had a strained and ambivalent relationship with the BBC, which they accuse of liberal bias. Libertarians object in principle to public funds being used. The BBC is funded largely by an annual television license fee charged to all British households, businesses and organizations using any type of equipment to receive or record live television broadcasts and iPlayer catch-up.  The Conservatives pledged in 2019 to reform the BBC and review its funding. There has been a growing movement in recent years to abolish license fees, and a growing number of Britons have been refusing to pay it.  FILE – Pedestrians walk past a BBC logo at Broadcasting House in London, Britain, Jan. 29, 2020.”There’s no need for the BBC,” according to Alex Deane, a PR consultant and former Conservative government adviser. He says resentment toward the BBC is not based on right or left politics but instead is rooted in “cultural issues and topics like Brexit and patriotism.” And he says in the digital age, there are plenty of commercial news and entertainment sources. But the BBC’s defenders say it is respected both in Britain and around the world for its reliability, the strength of its journalism and its impartiality, and they highlight how in times of crisis, it is the preferred source of news for Britons over commercial rivals.  Ninety-three percent of the British population tuned in to BBC television or radio during the first two weeks of the 2003 war in Iraq, according to surveys. At the start of the pandemic in March 2020, when British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the start of strict new coronavirus restrictions, more than 15 million viewers watched the BBC’s coverage, double the number who turned to commercial rivals.  
 
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Europe’s drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said Tuesday it found a possible link between the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and rare forms of blood clots, but that the drug’s benefits outweigh its risks.
In its statement Tuesday, the EMA said that its drug safety group, the Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC), after reviewing all available evidence, concluded that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine’s product information should include a warning about unusual blood clots with low blood platelets.
The committee concluded that the events should be listed as very rare side effects of the vaccine.
The EMA gave a similar assessment of the AstraZeneca vaccine which also was found to have a possible link to rare blood clots.
The EMA reviewed the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following a small number of reports from the United States of serious cases of unusual blood clots associated with low levels of blood platelets among people who had received the vaccine – one of which had a fatal outcome. As of April 13, more than 7 million people in the U.S. had received Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine.
All cases occurred in people under 60 years of age within three weeks of vaccination, the majority in women.
The reports prompted the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration to recommend a “pause” in the use of the vaccine in the United States while further evaluations were carried out.  
On Monday, top U.S. immunologist and Chief Presidential Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci told reporters the pause on the use of the vaccine could be lifted as early as this week.
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The U.N. World Food Program says it has reached a deal with the Venezuelan government to provide daily school meals to 185,000 of the country’s most vulnerable children by the end of the year.The deal was sealed with a handshake by WFP Director David Beasley and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Monday in the capital, Caracas. The school feeding program initially will take place in areas where food shortages are most severe.But, WFP spokesman Tomson Phiri says his agency aims to expand the operation over the coming two years to reach 1.5 million students, who often miss out on meals during the day. He says the operation will be conducted without state interference.“Our school meals program will be independent and separate from the national social protection programs,” said Phiri. “In Venezuela and across the world, WFP’s operations follow the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and operational independence.”Past efforts by WFP to provide food assistance to Venezuela’s hungry have been rebuffed. Opposition critics have accused the government of wanting to control aid distribution and using it as a political tool, a claim denied by Maduro.In finalizing the agreement, WFP Director Beasley thanked Maduro for allowing his agency to be independent and free of politicization.Venezuela has been in economic free-fall for years. The United Nations reports 5.6 million people have fled the country because of political repression and economic hardship.A World Food Program assessment of conditions in the country finds one in three Venezuelans are food insecure and in need of assistance. This includes 2.3 million people who are severely food insecure and do not know from where their next meal is coming.
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Party leaders with Germany’s Christan Democratic Union (CDU) party voted late Monday to make North Rhine-Westphalia State Governor Armin Laschet their candidate to succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor in elections later this year.  
 
CDU party senior leaders selected Laschet over Bavarian Governor Markus Soeder after six hours of debate. Soeder is the leader of Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), and the two parties make up the Conservative Union bloc, which has supported Merkel for the past 16 years.  
 
The vote puts Laschet a step closer to being formally named as the candidate for the conservative alliance.
 
Monday’s CDU vote came after Laschet and Soeder each expressed interest in succeeding Merkel. Soeder has much better overall poll ratings, but Laschet was elected in January to lead the CDU, by far the bigger of the sister parties. It was primarily a conflict of personality and style rather than policy.
 
Soeder said the bigger party of the coalition should decide the matter and that he would respect a “clear decision.” He did just that Tuesday, telling reporters, “The die is cast; Armin Laschet will be the chancellor candidate of the Union.” Soeder said he and his party would support him “without grudge” and with all its strength.
 
Laschet called Tuesday for unity and said he and the CDU were grateful for the CSU’s fair dealings in the decision. He said the two parties must work as a team going into the election campaign.  
 
Laschet is widely seen as a candidate who would continue Merkel’s legacy, although he has clashed with her over coronavirus restrictions.
 
While the conservatives’ popularity has been sagging in recent months, due to perceptions it has mishandled the pandemic and allegations of corruption among some Union members, recent polls show they hold a slight lead over main rival, the Green party.
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Greece has lifted quarantine restrictions for travelers from the United States and a number of other countries as it prepares to reopen tourism services next month. But with the COVID pandemic still raging across the country and cases once again rising in parts of the United States, critics worry the Greek government may be acting too quickly.Greece’s new measures were effective immediately after they were announced Monday.  It is the first time U.S., British and EU travelers are allowed to visit this sun-kissed nation and its white-washed islands without quarantine requirements since March 2020 when the global pandemic brought international travel to a grinding halt.Travelers from Israel, Britain, the United Arab Emirates, as well as all European Union member states nationals will be allowed to vacation here, bypassing strict seven-day quarantine rules on the condition that they have either been vaccinated against COVID-19 or tested negative 72 hours before their arrival here.The move makes Greece one of the first major European destinations to reopen to tourists ahead of the summer season — a crucial head start the country wants in its bid to secure a sizeable slice of the travel market, to boost its battered tourism industry.But with intensive care facilities still close to capacity, just over 10 percent of the country’s 11 million people inoculated, and the pandemic still raging here, pundits and political opponents are already accusing the government of ignoring warnings by the nation’s health commission to proceed with caution.Government spokeswoman Aristotelia Peloni denies accusations that officials are acting recklessly.Any such suggestion she said is insulting. But speaking to reporters at a daily government press briefing, Peloni said it was the administration that was responsible for instituting the COVID rules, not the health commission overseeing the pandemic in the country. She said Greece’s decision to allow U.S. travelers and others to visit the country from this week would be closely monitored.Peloni described the exercise as a trial run and said qualifying visitors will be able to check into hotels to enjoy Greece’s sun, sea, and fun but they will also be subject to the same restrictions and lockdowns as locals, meaning restaurants and bars will remain off limits, except for takeaways.Nearly 200 Dutch tourists are already here as part of an experiment.They are part of an ambitious exercise in which they traded lockdown in their country, in exchange for eight days of voluntary confinement at a hotel resort on the island of Rhodes.Dutch tourists, who will spend a week long holiday in isolation in their tourist resort as part of an experiment, arrive at the Rhodes International Airport on the island of Rhodes, Greece, amid the COVID-19 outbreak, April 12, 2021.The setup allows participants to access the pool, restaurants, and other facilities at the resort only, but many, like this young man, are ecstatic. He said he does not have a pool at home and cannot go to his local pub for a beer, so this deal is great.But for a country growing increasingly frustrated from months of on-again, off-again lockdowns and restrictions, many Greeks are watching such experiments and defying local lockdowns, taking to the streets and staging so-called “corona-parties.”Many of those who are staying away from the block parties and observing restrictions say they find it unfair the government is allowing foreigners to come and visit, while keeping Greeks confined and unable to travel even beyond the counties they live in, even briefly for the upcoming Greek Orthodox Easter break.Health officials warn a nationwide easing of restrictions could spark a fresh spike in covid infections.To appease the growing resentment and lockdown fatigue, Greek government officials are now suggesting they may move to lift local restrictions by mid May – around the same time they hope the first big waves of tourists will start to arrive. 
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