As free press withers in El Salvador, pro-government social media influencers grow in power




Douglas Guzman takes video with his smartphone at Liberty Plaza in San Salvador, El Salvador, Saturday, June 24, 2023. Guzmán is part of a network of social media personalities acting as a megaphone for, and cashing in on, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s message. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)


Douglas Guzman shows his press credentials for content creator before filming at Plaza Libertad in San Salvador, El Salvador, Saturday, June 24, 2023. Guzmán and other social media influencers said access to the legislative body was empowering to them, enabling them to grow their audiences with political content. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)


An avatar of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele is projected on a giant screen during the closing ceremony of a congress for cryptocurrency investors, in Santa Maria Mizata, El Salvador, Nov. 20, 2021. After working years in political advertising, social media was key to Bukele’s rise to power five years ago. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez, File)

People film with their mobile devices at Plaza Libertad in San Salvador, El Salvador, Saturday, June 24, 2023. In April, the President of El Salvador’s congress Ernesto Castro announced he would open the legislative body to YouTubers and social media content creators so they could “inform with objectivity”. (AP Photo/Salvador Melendez)

BY MEGAN JANETSKY
August 12, 2023Share

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — Douglas Guzmán’s TikTok feed was dotted with workout routines and videos showcasing his favorite parts of his country.

That changed about a year ago, as rights groups, civil society and even some officials criticized El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele for violating human rights in his crackdown on criminal gangs, and said that his unconstitutional bid for re-election would corrode the country’s democracy.

Within days of Bukele announcing his bid for a second five-year term, Guzmán’s feed was plastered with videos describing Bukele as the “future liberator of Latin America” and slick montages of the leader’s “mega-prison” for accused gangsters.

Views on the social media influencer’s videos skyrocketed. The 39-year-old member of Bukele’s party said he found a new mission: counteracting negative press from independent media about his populist president.

El Salvador plans mass trials for those imprisoned in gang crackdown

“(Journalists) don’t know anything. All they do is sit at their desks and watch as President Bukele … makes a massive effort to save thousands of lives. But they don’t see that because they’ve never cared about the lives of Salvadorans,” Guzmán said. “That’s why we’re here. To show the true reality.”

Guzmán is part of an expanding network of social media personalities acting as a megaphone for the millennial leader. At the same time Bukele has cracked down on the press, his government has embraced those influencers. As the president seeks to hold onto power, he has harnessed that flood of pro-Bukele content slowly turning his Central American nation into an informational echo chamber.

“A news organization doing an investigation can’t compare to the sounding board that these influencers have because they flood your social media with the government’s narrative,” said Roberto Dubon, a communications strategist and congressional candidate for Bukele’s former party, FMLN. “What you have is an apparatus to spread their propaganda.”

Bukele, a 42-year-old leader often donning a backwards baseball cap, worked years in political advertising before social media became a key to his rise to power five years ago. Since, his approval ratings have soared to 90%, according to a June CID Gallup poll. Bukele’s modern political messaging, charisma and brutal crackdown on the country’s gangs only continue to win him fans domestically and abroad even in the midst of controversy

By doing so, Bukele is using a playbook increasingly utilized by 21st century autocrats, said Seva Gunitsky, a political scientist at the University of Toronto.

Social media was once hailed as the ultimate democratic tool to organize protests, even revolutions, across the world. Now, governments from Russia to Uganda are now using it to control the narrative.

“They use this tool of liberation technology to actually prolong and strengthen their rule,” Gunitsky said. Such governments use influencers because their content “doesn’t look as much like propaganda and is more about shaping the narrative in more subtle ways.”

Under Bukele, El Salvador constructed a sophisticated communications machine. It locked down access to information out of line with official messaging and hired teams of former journalists to produce blockbuster-quality videos showcasing security forces taking on the nation’s gangs. The government also mimicked Russia, building an army of tech-savvy contractors – or “trolls” – to create fake social media accounts, spread falsities and harass critics.

At the same time his message of a strong-handed response to gang violence rippled across the region, gaining traction in other nations struggling with crime across Latin America and Caribbean.

With it, an “entire industry” has been born as influencers latch onto the president’s image, said Oscar Picardo, director of investigations at El Salvador’s Universidad Francisco Gavidia.

A study by Picardo’s university and local investigative outlet Factum examined 69 pro-Bukele YouTube accounts, which collectively have more followers than the population of El Salvador. They found many accounts – which make money through view and subscriber counts – can earn up to tens of thousands of dollars a month, far greater than El Salvador’s average salary. That content is devoured both within El Salvador, and by many of the 2.3 million Salvadorans living in the United States.

The cluster of accounts pumped out nearly 32 hours of pro-Bukele content in a single day in May, the study found. Almost always mirroring government language, 90% of the videos analyzed contained false or misleading information.

One account, Noticias Cuscatlecas, may earn much as $400,000 annually posting videos of violent attacks from alleged gang members layered over chilling music, UFG and Factum calculated.

The channel often concludes videos with the same message: “(Bukele) devised a plan to exterminate this cancer from society, and the incredible thing is that he is succeeding. Now the people no longer live in fear.”

On TikTok, one video declares “God chose Bukele as president of El Salvador.” On YouTube, personalities dressed as TV anchors attack human rights groups and journalists. They feature Bukele’s critics bursting into flames while claiming their channel “brings you the latest news”. Others sit down for an exclusive interview with the president.

In April, the president of El Salvador’s congress Ernesto Castro announced he was opening the assembly to YouTubers and social media influencers to “inform with objectivity.”

“The right to inform and be informed is a power not just in the hands of media companies,” Castro wrote on Twitter.

Requests by the AP for interviews with Bukele and his cabinet throughout his more than four years in office have been declined or ignored. Two people with knowledge of the inner workings of Bukele’s media machine declined to speak to the AP out of fear of the government.

For Guzmán and others, the access was empowering, enabling them to grow their audiences. Since, Guzmán has been offered access to other large events like the inauguration of Central American and Caribbean Games, something experts say Bukele used to show a friendly face to the world

Press credentials hung around the TikToker’s neck and he brimmed with pride in a government press box, standing among other selfie stick-wielding influencers.

“Us being here, accredited, I feel like I am a part of this,” Guzmán said, eyes crinkling with a broad smile.

Around him, others took turns interviewing each other and bragged about how many people were connected to their feeds. One man wearing a Hawaiian shirt leapt over rows of bleachers to get a better signal. When Bukele walked on stage to give a speech, Guzmán and others chanted “Re-election!”

El Salvador’s government is not the first to open its doors to social media personalities, but researchers and critics says the atmosphere created in El Salvador marks a particular risk as other leaders in the region seek to mimic Bukele.

Picardo, the UFG investigator, said such accounts post a deluge of content when the government is trying to publicize something, like the leader’s experiment with Bitcoin, its gang crackdown or the Games.

The researcher warned their increasingly hostile tone acts as a harbinger for further deteriorating press freedoms, echoing State Department alarms of a “villainization” of journalists by Bukele.

Oscar Martínez’s award-winning news organization El Faro is among those facing attacks and harassment for its intensive investigation of Bukele, including audio evidencing that Bukele’s administration negotiated with gangs in order to dip violence.

The government opened a case against El Faro for tax evasion, something the news site called “ completely baseless.” Phones of dozens of journalists were hacked with Pegasus spyware, regularly used by governments to spy on opponents.

In April, El Faro announced it would move its center of operations to Costa Rica due to escalating harassment.

He worries their investigations is being drowned out by the flood of disinformation, and said if Bukele stays in power in the upcoming elections, it will put reporters in El Salvador “much more at risk.”

“At that moment, Bukele is going to decide to get rid of any obstacle he has within the country, and the main obstacle he has right now is the free press,” Martínez said.

Myanmar junta struggles to repay $400 million Chinese bank loan due to jump in dollar price

Mizzima

The Ministry of Cooperative under the then PM Thein Sein-led government borrowed US$400 million with a high interest rate from the Export Import Bank of China. Today, the Military Council and the cooperative societies are reportedly having difficulty in repaying thi-

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The China Exim Bank lent US$400 million at a 5% interest rate per annum.

When PM Thein Sein was in power, Cooperative Minister Kyaw San borrowed US$100 million on 18 October 2013, another US$300 million in 2015 at the interest rate of 4.5% per annum. This US$400 million loan was disbursed to Central Cooperative Society under the Ministry, States/Regions Cooperative Societies and Township Cooperative Societies.

Of the US$300 million loan borrowed in 2015 the Cooperative Ministry used the US$30 million loan in buying farming machinery and equipment by installments, US$ 50 million for giving agricultural loans of 100,000-500,000 Kyat to the farmers, and US 220 million for giving loans to cooperative societies members who had never received such loans before. Most of the recipients of these loans were reportedly the people who had good rapport and connection with military, companies and cooperative societies.

RIP

Tom Jones, lyricist and creator of the longest-running musical ‘The Fantasticks,' dies at 95

By Mark Kennedy • 

AP Photo/Tina Fineberg, File
FILE – Lore Noto, the original producer of the off-Broadway musical “The Fantasticks,” is flanked by the plays authors Tom Jones, left, and Harvey Schmidt, Sunday in New York on Jan. 13, 2002.

Tom Jones, the lyricist, director and writer of “The Fantasticks,” the longest-running musical in history, has died. He was 95.

Jones died Friday at his home in Sharon, Connecticut, according to Dan Shaheen, a co-producer of “The Fantasticks,” who worked with Jones since the 1980s. The cause was cancer.

Jones, who teamed up with composer Harvey Schmidt on “The Fantasticks” and the Broadway shows “110 in the Shade” and “I Do! I Do!,” was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1998.

“The Fantasticks,” based on an obscure play by Edmond Rostand, doesn't necessarily have the makings of a hit. The set is just a platform with poles, a curtain and a wooden box.

The tale, a mock version of "Romeo and Juliet," concerns a young girl and boy, secretly brought together by their fathers, and an assortment of odd characters.

Scores of actors have appeared in the show, from the opening cast in 1960 that included Jerry Orbach and Rita Gardner, to stars such as Ricardo Montalban and Kristin Chenoweth, to “Frozen” star Santino Fontana. The show was awarded Tony Honors for Excellence in Theatre in 1991.

"So many people have come, and this thing stays the same — the platform, the wooden box, the cardboard moon," Jones told The Associated Press in 2013. "We just come and do our little thing and then we pass on."

U.S. & World

For nearly 42 years the show chugged along at the 153-seat Sullivan Street Playhouse in Greenwich Village, finally closing in 2002 after 17,162 performances — a victim both of a destroyed downtown after 9/11 and a new post-terrorism, edgy mood.

In 2006, "The Fantasticks" found a new home in The Snapple Theater Center — later The Theater Center — an off-Broadway complex in the heart of Times Square. In 2013, the show celebrated reaching 20,000 performances. It closed in 2017, ending as the longest-running production of any kind in the history of American theater with a total of an astonishing 21,552 performances.

"My mind doesn't grasp it, in a way," Jones said. "It's like life itself — you get used to it and you don't notice how extraordinary it is. I'm grateful for it and I'm astonished by it."

Its best known song, "Try To Remember," has been recorded by hundreds of artists over the decades, including Ed Ames, Harry Belafonte, Barbra Streisand and Placido Domingo. "Soon It's Gonna Rain" and "They Were You" are also among the musical's most recognized songs.

The lyrics for “Try to Remember” go: “Try to remember the kind of September/When life was slow and oh, so mellow./Try to remember the kind of September/When grass was green and grain was yellow.”

Its longevity came despite early reviews that were not too kind. The New York Herald Tribune critic only liked Act 2, and The New York Times’ critic sniffed that the show was "the sort of thing that loses magic the longer it endures."

In 1963, Jones and Schmidt wrote the Broadway show “110 in the Shade,” which earned the duo a Tony Award nomination for best composer and lyricist. “I Do! I Do!," their two-character Broadway musical, followed in 1967, also earning them a Tony nomination for best composer and lyricist.

Jones is survived by two sons, Michael and Sam.

“Such a good guy. I truly adored him,” wrote Broadway veteran Danny Burstein on Facebook

  

Desantis’ ‘War on Woke’ Looks a Lot Like Attempts by Other Countries To Deny and Rewrite History


A Florida law that took effect on July 1, 2023, restricts how educators in the state’s public colleges and universities can teach about the racial oppression that African Americans have faced in the United States.

August 13, 2023 by The Conversation US Leave a Comment


By Rochelle Anne Davis, Georgetown University and Eileen Kane, Connecticut College

A Florida law that took effect on July 1, 2023, restricts how educators in the state’s public colleges and universities can teach about the racial oppression that African Americans have faced in the United States.

Specifically, SB 266 forbids professors to teach that systemic racism is “inherent in the institutions of the United States.” Similarly, they cannot teach that it was designed “to maintain social, political and economic inequities.”

We are professors who teach the modern history of the Middle East and Eastern Europe, and we know that even democratically elected governments suppress histories of their own nations that don’t fit their ideology. The goal is often to smother a shameful past by casting those who speak of it as unpatriotic. Another goal is to stoke so much fear and anger that citizens welcome state censorship.

We see this playing out in Florida, with SB 266 being the most extreme example in a series of recent U.S. state bills that critics call “educational gag orders.” The tactics that Gov. Ron DeSantis is using to censor the teaching of American history in Florida look a lot like those seen in the illiberal democracies of Israel, Turkey, Russia and Poland.

Here are four ways SB 266 relates to attempts used by modern governments to censor history.

1. Invent a threat

One strategy that DeSantis shares with other world leaders is to invent a threat that taps into anxieties and then declare war against it.

In Russia, President Vladimir Putin has been waging a brutal war against Ukraine in the name of “denazifying” the country. This claim that Ukraine is a Nazi bastion is a fabrication. Nevertheless, it stokes real fear and hatred of Nazis, whose 1941 invasion of the USSR led to 27 million Soviet deaths.

In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan labels critics of state violence “terrorists.” More than 146 Turkish academics who signed a 2016 peace petition condemning Turkey’s violence against its Kurdish citizens faced trials for “spreading terrorist propaganda.” Ten were convicted and served jail terms before Turkey’s Constitutional Court, in a 9-8 decision in 2019, overturned their convictions because of the violation of their freedom of expression.

In Florida, the phantom threat is “wokeness,” a reference to a term that the Black Lives Matter movement made mainstream. To “stay woke” means to be self-aware and committed to racial justice. Republicans have co-opted the term and use it sarcastically to denigrate progressive ideas and drown out discussions about the reasons for America’s stark racial inequities.

2. Criminalize historical discussions

Once a fake threat has been ginned up, world leaders can use it to create new laws to criminalize speech and critical discussions of history.

In Russia, Putin uses so-called “memory laws” to, among other things, prevent knowledge about the scale of crimes committed by former Soviet leader Joseph Stalin against the Soviet people from the 1930s to the 1950s. And in 2018, Poland’s right-wing leadership added an amendment to one of its own memory laws to defend the “good name” of Poland and the Polish people against accusations of complicity in the Holocaust. Historians who defy this gag order have faced harassment and death threats.

Similarly, the Turkish government has a law against “denigrating the Turkish nation” that makes it a crime to acknowledge the early-20th-century Armenian genocide.

Turkey’s purge of its intellectuals resulted in the firing of more than 6,000 university instructors in an effort to silence critical teaching about the nation’s past and present.

SB 266, meanwhile, requires general education courses to “provide instruction on the historical background and philosophical foundation of Western civilization and this nation’s historical documents.” It also prohibits general education core courses from “teaching certain topics or presenting information in specified ways.”

The vagueness is deliberate. Teaching virtually anything related to America’s history of racism, particularly as it relates to racial inequalities in the present, could be seen as violating SB 266. Florida professors may refrain, for example, from teaching that Jim Crow laws were designed to deny African Americans equal rights. These are the same laws that Hitler used as a model for the Nuremberg Laws that stripped Jewish citizens of Germany of civil rights.

3. Punish transgressors

With laws in place that criminalize dissenting interpretations of history, governments can then punish those who violate them. Punishment can involve threatening arrest and imprisoning individuals, and stripping funding from institutions.

For example, in 2011 Israel enacted the Nakba Law, which authorizes the minister of finance to cut funding to institutions that commemorate or acknowledge what Palestinians refer to as the Nakba – or “catastrophe” in Arabic. The Nakba is the displacement of more than half of the Indigenous Palestinian population and destruction of their communities that resulted from the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.

Likewise, SB 266 defunds diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in public colleges and universities and empowers school administrators and boards to take action against those who defy the rules. It comes in the wake of Florida’s 2022 “Stop WOKE” law – which restricted discussions about race in K-12 schools and led teachers to purge their classrooms of books they worried could get them a five-year jail sentence.
4. Write new history

With actual historical events denied or suppressed, governments can then rewrite history to further monopolize truth and impose ideology. Russia offers the most egregious example of this.

In 2021, Putin published a 20-page article, “On the Historical Unity of the Russians and Ukrainians,” in which he argued that the Ukrainian and Russian people are one and the same. Alarmed critics rightly saw this as a preemptive justification for escalating his war against Ukraine, which he did with a full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

Like right-wing ideologues in other parts of the world, DeSantis claims to be defending U.S. history from falsehoods pushed by ideologues. In his attempts to rewrite history, calls for a reckoning with America’s history of anti-Blackness are ridiculed as indoctrination, and bigotry gets repackaged as patriotism.

If the way governments are rewriting history in other parts of the world is a guide, DeSantis’ and other states’ legislation could be the prelude to an even greater assault on accurate history and freedom of thought.

Rochelle Anne Davis, Professor of Cultural Anthropology, Georgetown University and Eileen Kane, Professor of History, Connecticut College

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Niger May be the Next US Proxy War

by Ted Galen Carpenter Posted onAugust 13, 2023

People who recall how the United States and its NATO partners (along with their propaganda mouthpieces in the news media) generated public support for a proxy war in Ukraine may be experiencing a sense of déjà vu.  A similar effort is now underway with respect to Niger and other countries in West Africa.  Washington is upset about a recent military coup in Niger, which was the latest ouster of a pro-Western government in that region.  U.S. leaders are concerned not only because the coups have underscored the fading influence of France, the former colonial master, but because the insurgents have adopted a friendly stance toward Russia.

The Biden administration is especially agitated because Niger has been the linchpin of the U.S. military presence in West Africa.  Washington has stationed more than 1,100 troops there, and maintains multiple drone bases, ostensibly to combat Islamist rebels affiliated with ISIS.  The United States also has provided more than $500 million in security aid to Niger in recent years.

An essential prerequisite for securing American public support for a proxy war – much less for a direct U.S. military intervention – is to exaggerate the relevance of developments to America’s own security and other important interests.  A related task is to generate a sense of urgency.  That effort already has begun, with the establishment news media playing their usual role as the handmaids of government policy.

Michele Kelemen, an NPR correspondent, launched an early salvo.  Her segment, titled “Here’s why Niger’s coup matters to the U.S.,” faithfully echoed the Biden administration’s position. “Niger is vital to U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Africa.  It’s one of the few countries in the region that has agreed to house U.S. drone bases and hundreds of American Special Forces and logistics experts, who are involved in counterterrorism operations against Boko Haram and ISIS affiliates.”  But there was an even greater danger lurking in the background. “The challenge now for the U.S. is to ensure that Niger continues to be a partner in counterterrorism efforts and does not turn to the Russian mercenary group, Wagner, for security assistance, as others in the region have.”

Two officials of Niger’s ousted government also were immediately given prominent platforms for the propaganda offensive.  Not surprisingly, the Washington Post, a reliable mouthpiece for the U.S. foreign policy bureaucracy, has played a leading role.  Just days after the coup, Niger’s ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, was able to publish a column in the Post.  His arguments seemed tailor-made to echo the allegations of interventionist Russophobes in the U.S. government. “In Africa’s troubled Sahel region, Niger stands as the last bastion of respect for human rights amid the authoritarian movements that have overtaken some of our neighbors.

While this coup attempt is a tragedy for Nigeriens, its success would have devastating consequences far beyond our borders. With an open invitation from the coup plotters and their regional allies, the entire central Sahel region could fall to Russian influence via the Wagner Group, whose brutal terrorism has been on full display in Ukraine.”  The next day, Kiari Liman-Tinguiri, Niger’s ambassador to the United States, reinforced those arguments during an interview with the Washington Post.  The ambassador asserted that if the recent military coup in his country was allowed to stand, the “whole world will be destabilized.”

Washington shows unmistakable signs of flirting with the option of a proxy war. Secretary of State Tony Blinken expressed support for Niger’s neighbors in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) when they stated that the bloc might forcibly intervene to restore the elected government.  ECOWAS already had imposed economic sanctions and travel restrictions on Niger, much to the approval of Paris and Washington.

There is a concerted, seemingly coordinated, campaign to emphasize Niger’s alleged wider importance – including its connection to important U.S. interests.  Writing in the National Interest, François Baird, founder of The FairPlay trade movement and co-chairman of the international consultancy firm Baird’s CMC, presents a litany of potential horrors.  Indeed, he manages to assemble all of Washington’s favorite bogeymen.  “At present, it is likely that America and France will lose their investments and counterterrorism bases in Niger.  Russians will fight in return for mining and other assets. Muslim extremist insurgents will gain ground.  And China will make money and increase its influence, all thanks to declining stability in Niger and West Africa.”

 Washington Post columnist Ishaan Tharoor warns that “Niger is slipping away from the West.”  He adds that “the ongoing crisis has invariably turned into a geopolitical conflagration.”  An especially worrisome sign was that “especially on social media, backers of the coup have taken on a strikingly anti-Western line, casting both Bazoum’s government and its regional defenders as puppets of imperialist powers.”

For U.S. officials, Russia is the principal designated villain – continuing to play the role it has served in Ukraine and the rest of Eastern Europe to justify a new cold war.  Both Blinken and Acting Deputy Secretary of State Victoria Nuland have stated that one of their main concerns is the possibility of Russia’s Wagner forces moving into Niger.  There also was a clear desire to keep the country’s uranium mines (mostly French owned) out of the hands of Moscow or Beijing.

Washington has not hesitated to orchestrate proxy wars before—sometimes on a very large scale.  It did so in Afghanistan during the 1980s, and the current effort in Ukraine is another prominent example.  Indeed, the practice has had a long, dishonorable history going back to the early Cold War, when Washington used the technique to overthrow Guatemala’s left-leaning government and tried to do the same with a CIA-trained exile army to oust Fidel Castro.

A similar process may be taking place in West Africa.  On August 10, ECOWAS announced the activation of a “standby force” for possible intervention in Niger.  There is little doubt that the move has Washington’s backing.

The American people need to resist efforts to initiate another U.S.-sponsored proxy war.  There is nothing in West Africa to justify an entanglement with unpredictable consequences.  In particular, it is profoundly unwise to use Niger or other countries in the region as pawns for an ugly power struggle between the United States and Russia.

Author: Ted Galen Carpenter

Ted Galen Carpenter, Senior Fellow at the Randolph Bourne Institute, is the author of 13 books and more than 1,100 articles on international affairs. Dr. Carpenter held various senior policy positions during a 37-year career at the Cato institute. His latest book is Unreliable Watchdog: The News Media and U.S. Foreign Policy (2022). View all posts by Ted Galen Carpenter

Hundreds continue to stage anti-government protest in Serbia after mass shootings

Protesters demand end to promotion of violence in media, resignation of ministers, dismissal of state television management

Mustafa Talha Ozturk |13.08.2023 -


BELGRADE, Serbia

Hundreds of Serbians gathered Saturday in cities across the country in anti-government protests, and demonstrations against the president and to denounce violence.


Crowds gathered for the 15th "Serbia Against Violence" demonstration in the national capital of Belgrade, also in Novi Sad and Nis, to denounce two recent mass shootings after a demand by opposition parties.

The crowd marched to the government building and gave a message that they would continue with the protests.

Protesters demanded an end to the perceived promotion of violence in the media.

They also demanded the resignation of government ministers involved in security.

The gatherings began shortly after two mass shootings in less than 48 hours that left at least 17 dead May 7.

The crowd in front of the parliament building in Belgrade marched through the city, causing traffic disruptions.

Protesters in Novi Sad held posters that read: "Everything must stop" and said they would not give up on their demands.

The crowd in Nis expressed dissatisfaction with the government.

Protesters also demanded the dismissal of the management of Serbian State TV (RTS) and its Supervisory Board, which determines which channels will broadcast.

As part of new measures taken by the government, 1,800 schools have been each assigned two police officers.

The process of the voluntary surrender of weapons also began Monday at the direction of President Aleksander Vucic.

Serbians are in shock in the aftermath of the double shootings that saw at least eight killed and 14 injured when a 21-year-old suspected shooter, Uros Blazic, opened fire in the town of Mladenovac, located 42 kilometers (26 miles) south of Belgrade.

And a teen boy opened fire on a school in Belgrade, killing eight students and a security guard.

What to know about Eris, the new COVID-19 subvariant sweeping the US

The EG.5 "Eris" variant is now the dominant COVID-19 strain in the U.S. Here's what to know about transmission and symptoms

By Caroline Kee | TODAY • Published August 10, 2023




Amid a summer uptick in COVID-19 cases, a new COVID subvariant, EG.5, also referred to as Eris, has emerged and become the dominant strain in the United States. Many are wondering if this new COVID variant is causing different symptoms.

EG.5 now accounts for the largest proportion of COVID-19 infections in the country compared to any other variant, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

On Wednesday, Aug. 9, the World Health Organization classified EG.5 as a variant of interest as cases increase globally.

The EG.5 variant quickly overtook the prevailing omicron XBB strains in the U.S. last month.

Over a two-week period ending on Aug. 5, EG.5 made up an estimated 17.3% of new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S., up from 12% two weeks prior, according to the latest CDC estimates.
What is EG.5 , aka Eris?

EG.5 is a descendant of the omicron XBB sublineage of the virus (specifically, XBB.1.9.2). It has an extra mutation in its spike protein, according to a WHO risk evaluation report.

"When we look at its sequence, EG.5 is really similar to the other XBB variants that are circulating right now, with a couple of small changes," Dr. Andrew Pekosz, a virologist at Johns Hopkins University, tells TODAY.com.

The WHO added EG. 5 to its list of variants under monitoring on July 19, 2023, but the variant was first detected in February 2023. "Scientists have known about this variant, and it’s been present in other countries, as well," says Pekosz.

So far, EG.5 has been detected in 51 countries and there has been a steady increase in prevalence globally — the majority of sequences are from China, followed by the U.S., South Korea, Japan and Canada, per WHO.

XBB.1.16, also called the “Arcturus” variant, remains the most prevalent strain of COVID-19 worldwide.

WHO considers the public health risk posed by EG.5 to be "low" and similar to that of XBB.1.16 and other variants of interest.
Is EG. 5 more transmissible?

The EG.5 variant is very similar to other omicron variants, which means it's highly transmissible, Dr. Albert Ko, an infectious disease physician and professor at Yale School of Public Health, tells TODAY.com.

However, EG.5 is likely more transmissible than other XBB variants, Dr. Sharon Nachman, chief of the division of pediatric infectious diseases at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, tells TODAY.com.

"If it was equally transmissible, then we wouldn't see it gaining strength number-wise compared to some of the other variants," says Nachman, adding that EG.5 quickly pushed out other XBB variants in the U.S., which were dominant over the summer.

Why exactly EG.5 is more transmissible is not yet known, Ko says.

“Whether it's escaping population immunity or it has some intrinsic factor that makes it better able to transmit from one person to another ... it’s hard to separate,” he adds.

According to WHO, EG.5 has increased immune escape properties compared to other variants. "EG.5 may cause a rise in case incidence and become dominant in some countries or even globally," WHO said in a report.

However, Pekosz notes that the EG.5 variant may not be the sole reason for the U.S. summer uptick. “When you have a new variants, and cases creeping up, there’s always concern about whether that variant could be driving the increase,” says Pekosz.

“Right now, it doesn’t look like that variant alone is driving the case increases (in the U.S.) ... there’s still a lot of other variants co-circulating," he adds.

According to CDC estimates, EG.5 accounted for about 17% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. during the two-week period ending on Aug. 3. — after EG.5, the next most common variants were XBB.1.16, XBB.2.3, and XBB.1.5, which accounted for 15%, 11% and 10% of cases, respectively.

"We're keeping an eye on (EG.5) because of the uptick in cases, but it doesn't look like there's anything particularly concerning about this variant," says Pekosz.

More data is needed to understand how EG.5's transmissibility compares to other strains. However, decreased levels of testing and genomic sequencing are making it harder to accurately track new COVID-19 cases and which variants are driving them, Pekosz notes.

"Right now, there's an awful lot of guesswork," he says.
Is EG.5 more severe?

The data available do not indicate that EG.5 causes a more severe infection compared to other variants, the experts note.

In its risk assessment of EG.5, WHO said, "There have been no reported changes in disease severity to date."

Although the U.S. recently saw the first increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations of the year, there isn't evidence that EG.5 is causing this uptick or that it's more likely to cause hospitalizations in general, Nachman notes.

"The people that are getting hospitalized often have lots of co-morbidities, and they're at-risk no matter what COVID strain they get," says Nachman.

However, it’s possible that hospitalizations could increase even more because of more people getting infected with EG.5, says Ko. “There’s no clear evidence of that at this point, but we have to keep on evaluating,” Ko adds

Population immunity from vaccination and prior infection should protect people from severe illness as EG.5 continues to circulate.
What are the symptoms?

There isn't enough clinical data about the most common symptoms of EG.5 yet, NBC News previously reported.

"There's no change in EG.5 symptoms right now," says Pekosz. So far, the symptoms of EG.5 look very similar to the standard omicron symptoms, says Ko. These include:

Cough
Sore throat
Runny nose
Sneezing
Fatigue
Headache
Muscle aches
Altered sense of smell

"It may progress to some more significant feelings of difficulty in breathing as the infection spreads into your lungs," says Pekosz.

Certain groups are at higher risk of developing severe illness or complications, including people over 65 and those who are immunocompromised or have underlying medical conditions.
Can COVID-19 tests detect EG.5?

All COVID-19 tests — including PCR tests performed by a medical provider and rapid at-home antigen tests sold over-the-counter — should be detecting EG.5, says Pekosz.

The experts emphasize the importance of getting tested as COVID-19 cases increase, and especially during the fall when viruses that cause similar symptoms (such as flu and RSV) are circulating.

"If you’re in one of the high-risk groups for getting severe COVID, you really shouldn't hesitate to get a test," says Pekosz, adding that early detection and treatment is key. COVID-19 antivirals such as Paxlovid are effective against EG.5 and other variants, but they work best when taken early, he adds.

Whether your insurance covers COVID-19 testing may have changed since the end of the U.S. federal public health emergency in May, TODAY.com previously reported, so check with your insurer if you have questions about testing costs.

It’s also important to check the expiration date of at-home tests. The shelf life of rapid tests ranges from four to 24 months, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, but the expiration dates of some tests have been extended.
Will I need a COVID-19 booster this fall?

The experts encourage everyone to stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccines, which may include a new booster dose in the coming months. In June 2023, the FDA advised vaccine manufacturers to update their boosters to target omicron XBB.1.5, which was the dominant strain at the time.

These shots haven't been approved yet, but the FDA could authorize Pfizer's booster shot by the end of August, NBC News reported.

Although the new boosters will not include the EG.5 strain, they may still provide protection, the experts note. “If I vaccinate you with the vaccine that contains XBB, you will make antibodies that are specific to XBB and pretty close to EG.5,” says Nachman.

"Right now, EG.5 looks like it's very closely matched to the vaccine that's going to be available this fall," says Pekosz.

However, the CDC has not yet released any firm guidance or recommendations around booster doses for the fall.

"The message is to pay attention to the COVID vaccine program that's going to come out in the fall. ... It's a vaccine that many people (especially high-risk individuals) should consider taking," says Pekosz.
How to protect yourself from EG.5:

In addition to staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccinations, the experts emphasize taking precautions to protect yourself and curb transmission of COVID-19, including:Washing your hands with soap and water frequently
Staying home when sick
Avoiding contact with sick people
Improving ventilation
Wearing a mask in crowded, indoor spaces
Covering coughs and sneezes

MOON RACE

India's Chandrayaan-3 Mission different from Russia's Luna-25, says ISRO scientist

Indian Chandrayaan-3 and Russian Luna-25 moon-landing missions racing to reach lunar south pole. Chandrayaan-3 to land on August 23, Luna-25 on August 21.

Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 travels after it was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on July 14, 2023. (AP)


An Indian space scientist has said that Mission Chandrayaan-3 is vastly different from Russia's Luna-25 in terms of methodology, route, and experiments.

The Indian moon-landing spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 was launched on 14 July whereas Luna-25 took off on 11 August. Chandrayaan-3 is expected to land on the lunar surface around August 23 after completing a 40-day journey. On the other hand, Luna-25 is expected to land on the moon around August 21, two days ahead of Chandrayaan-3. However, both missions will attempt to land on the lunar south pole.

'GAP IN JOURNEY'

The Russian lunar mission is racing against India, which launched its Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander last month.

Chandrayaan-3 may land after 40 days on Moon's south pole due to the spacecraft's reliability on the gravitational forces of the Earth and moon, a scientist at the Indian Space Research Organisation explained. Luna-25, on the other hand, is a high-powered rocket with a higher fuel load, capable of powering the spacecraft through the mission, without having to rely on external help.

LUNA-25

With Luna-25, Russia has launched its first moon-landing spacecraft in 47 years in a bid to be the first nation to make a soft landing on the lunar south pole. A Soyuz 2.1 rocket carried Luna-25 craft on 10 August from the Vostochny cosmodrome, 3,450 miles (5,550 km) east of Moscow. Luna-25, roughly the size of a small car, whose lander is expected to touch down on the moon on 21 August.

No country has made a soft landing on the south pole. India's Chandrayaan-2 failed in 2019.

Chandrayaan-3

India's ambitious third Moon mission 'Chandrayaan-3' will safely touch down near the Moon's little-explored south pole between August 23 and 24.

Developed by ISRO, Chandrayaan-3 includes a lander module named Vikram, which means "valour" in Sanskrit, and a rover named Pragyan, the Sanskrit word for wisdom.


If the landing is successful the rover will roll off Vikram and explore the nearby lunar area, gathering images to be sent back to Earth for analysis.

The rover has a mission life of one lunar day or 14 Earth days.

 

UK

Government to hire more migrant barges despite growing backlash against Legionella-hit Bibby Stockholm

12 August 2023, 22:41 | Updated: 12 August 2023

There are plans to hire out more migrant barges. Picture: Getty/Alamy

 By Kieran Kelly

\The Government plans to hire more floating barges to house asylum seekers despite a growing backlash against the Bibby Stockholm.

The policy to house illegal migrants on the Bibby Stockholm barge in Portland, Dorset, has come under fresh scrutiny after Legionnella bacteria was found in the water supply.

Conservative backbenchers have accused the Home Office of "incompetence" after the 39 people who had boarded the vessel were transferred to alternative accommodation on Friday evening.

But there remains plans to expand the Government's fleet of floating migrant barges, as well as office and student accommodation blocks, The Telegraph reports.

Legionella bacteria can cause Legionnaires' disease, a lung infection that causes flu-like symptoms, coughs, chest pain and shortness of breath.

In extreme cases, it can lead to people coughing up blood.

None of the people on board have shown any symptoms yet, but they have used the water supply.

Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge at Portland Port in Dorset, where asylum seekers are being removed due to the discovery of Legionella bacteria in the water supply. Picture: Alamy

Home Secretary Suella Braverman. Picture: Getty

It comes after six migrants died while crossing the English Channel in the early hours of Saturday morning.

All six migrants were Afghan men, French authorities said.

More than 50 people were rescued from the ship that was crossing the channel, including children.

A patrol boat told authorities that a migrant boat was sinking off the French town of Sangatte at around 4am on Saturday, France's Maritime Prefecture of the Channel and the North Sea said.

Local mayor Franck Dhersin said dozens of boats were trying to make the crossing at the same time.

Read More: Asylum seeker torture survivor says legionella-hit Bibby Stockholm reminds him of unsanitary ‘refugee camp’

Read More: Migrants moved off Bibby Stockholm just days after boarding as Legionella bacteria found in the water

It comes amid a growing backlash against the Government's floating barge policy as it tries to fulfil Rishi Sunak's pledge to 'Stop the Boats' - on both sides of the house.

Shadow immigration minister Stephen Kinnock wrote to his opposite number on Saturday asking what the Home Office knew about the risk of the bacteria being present before moving migrants onto the barge.

The department said all 39 of those on board had been disembarked as a "precautionary measure" after samples from the water system showed levels of Legionella requiring further investigation.

The Home Office said no migrants have fallen sick or developed Legionnaires' disease, which is a serious type of pneumonia, and that they are all being provided with "appropriate advice and support".

Department officials are understood to have been told by Dorset Council on Wednesday evening about the discovery of initial results indicating that the bacteria was present, but the transfer of a further six migrants on to the barge still went ahead on Thursday.

Bibby Stockholm accommodation barge at Portland Port in Dorset. Picture: Alamy

Government sources said the UK Health Security Agency then told ministers on Thursday that Legionella had been found in the vessel's water system and advised them that they needed to remove those six migrants.

With a capacity of more than 500, the Government hopes that the use of the Bibby Stockholm will help cut the £6 million a day currently being spent on hotel bills for asylum seekers awaiting the outcome of their applications.

Former Brexit secretary David Davis said the barge would not serve as a "solution" to the backlog even without the presence of the bacteria.

He told Radio 4's Today programme: "The primary thing that's been revealed has been the startling incompetence of the Home Office itself... It's really, really hard to understand how, at all layers, this could not be caught early".

The senior Conservative MP suggested the problems could be related to "management" of the department rather than "ministerial" issues specifically, but added: "Even working properly, the Bibby barge would only take effectively one day's arrivals.

"So it's not a solution to the problem and all of this is going to go on until the Home Office is able to process these arrivals more quickly."

Tim Loughton said the evacuation was an "embarrassment" and smacked of "incompetence," coming at the end of a week in which the Government had planned a series of announcements aimed at promoting its immigration approach.

The Tory MP told the Telegraph: "This is deeply troubling and rapidly turning into a farce that the Home Office can ill afford."

 

Operation Lone Star: Girl, 3, dies on Texas migrant bus

Published

IMAGE SOURCE,EPA

Image caption,

A three-year-old girl has died while travelling from Texas to Chicago.

By Charlene Anne Rodrigues

BBC News

US health officials are investigating the death of a three-year-old Venezuelan girl travelling with her parents on a bus carrying asylum seekers from Texas to Chicago.

Thousands of migrants have been sent from Texas to Democratic Party-run US cities under a controversial scheme.

The girl was taken to a hospital in southern Illinois and pronounced dead on Thursday.

Texas officials confirmed her death on Friday, but did not share more details.

The bus set off from the city of Brownsville, on the border with Mexico. Before it left the state, passengers had their temperature assessed and were asked if they had any medical conditions, Texas officials said.

Officials said when it was noticed that the girl's health appeared to be deteriorating, the bus "pulled over and security personnel on board called 911".

Officials from the Texas Division of Emergency Management said that "every loss of life is a tragedy".

Republican governor Greg Abbott of Texas has sent more than 30,000 migrants to cities controlled by the Democrats since last year under his "Operation Lone Star" policies.

Last month, the US department of Justice sued Mr Abbott for his refusal to remove a floating barrier placed on the Rio Grande river aimed at stopping migrants from entering the US from Mexico.

The latest tragedy comes weeks after an eight-year-old girl died at a US border patrol site in Texas.

Venezuela's refugee crisis is the world's second largest. More than seven million Venezuelans have left since 2015 due to the country's political and economic troubles.