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From a historic virus postponement and summer heat fears to unprecedented restrictions on fans, the path to staging the Tokyo Olympics has been far from smooth.

With one month until the opening ceremony on July 23, AFP chronicles Tokyo’s troubled journey to the Games.

– 2013: Tears and cheers –

News presenters shed tears and crowds erupt in delight as the International Olympic Committee names Tokyo host of the 2020 Games.

Thoughts turn to the victims of Japan’s devastating 2011 earthquake, tsunami and Fukushima nuclear disaster, with the Olympics seen as a chance to rebuild.

– 2015-16: Stadium and logo ditched –

Proposals for a new national stadium go back to the drawing board in July 2015 following public anger over the $2 billion price tag.

As the Games stumble from one problem to another, Kenjiro Sano’s original Olympic logo design has to be ditched over its resemblance to the emblem of a Belgian theatre. Sano denies plagiarism.

The following year a new “snake-eye” logo for the Games is unveiled.

– 2019: Payments probe, marathon switch –

French magistrates charge the head of Japan’s Olympic committee as they probe payments totalling $2.3 million made before and after Tokyo’s nomination.

Tsunekazu Takeda protests his innocence but later steps down from the role.

In October, the IOC shifts the Olympic marathon to northern Sapporo to avoid the capital’s sweltering summer heat — a surprise move that infuriates Tokyo officials.

– March 24, 2020: Historic postponement –

With the coronavirus spreading rapidly worldwide, Japan and the IOC make the historic decision to postpone the Olympics.

A new date is announced for the opening ceremony — July 23, 2021 — but the event will still be called Tokyo 2020.

Organisers later rule out the possibility of postponing the Games a second time.

– December 2020: Anti-virus rules – 

Vowing that the rescheduled Olympics will go ahead, organisers outline plans for holding the event safely.

Athletes will facing regular testing and restrictions on mingling, while spectators are banned from cheering.

The IOC says it will try to ensure as many participants as possible are vaccinated, but jabs will not be obligatory.

– January 2021: Virus surges, support drops –

Public support for the Olympics plunges in Japan as a virus state of emergency is declared in Tokyo and other regions to halt a winter spike in infections.

But organisers and the IOC insist the Games will be held, with Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga saying they will be “proof of mankind’s victory over the virus”.

– February 2021: Sexism rows –

Tokyo 2020 chief Yoshiro Mori resigns after his claims that women talk too much in meetings spark a firestorm of criticism.

He is replaced by Olympic Minister Seiko Hashimoto, a seven-time Olympian who is one of just two women in Japan’s cabinet.

Just weeks into her tenure, she accepts the resignation of the creative director for the Games’ opening and closing ceremonies after a report reveals he suggested a plus-size female comedian could appear as an “Olympig”.

– March 2021: No overseas fans, torch relay begins –

In an Olympic first, overseas fans are barred from the Games to limit infection risks.

On March 25, the cherry blossom-shaped Olympic torch is lit in Fukushima, with no spectators allowed at the launch.

As the flame traverses the country’s 47 prefectures, several public sections of the relay are scrapped in areas where virus cases are spiking.

– June 2021: First athletes arrive –

In April, North Korea says it will not attend the Tokyo Games to protect its athletes from Covid-19, dashing Seoul’s hopes of using the Games to restart talks with its nuclear-armed neighbour.

Through spring and into summer, debate rages about whether the Olympics should be held as planned, as the pandemic continues to wreak havoc and new variants emerge.

But several test events are held successfully, and in a major step forward for the troubled event, on June 1, the first foreign athletes arrive in Japan — Australia’s softball team, who are attending a pre-Games training camp.

– June 2021: Domestic fan cap set –

Organisers opt to limit fan numbers to half venue capacity per event, capped at 10,000, soothing fears of a Games in front of empty stands. But they warn that events could move behind closed doors if infections spike in Japan.

Media outlets in Hong Kong must not “subvert” the government, the city’s leader said Tuesday, rejecting US criticism of recent action against a pro-democracy newspaper under a powerful new security law.

Hong Kong has long hosted a vibrant international and local media scene but press freedoms have slipped dramatically in recent years. 

Last week, authorities froze the assets of the city’s largest pro-democracy newspaper Apple Daily, using the national security law Beijing imposed on the city in 2020.

An ongoing campaign by China to root out dissent after huge and often violent democracy protests in 2019 has deepened unease over the business hub’s future.

Two executives were charged with “collusion”, a national security crime, over what police said were articles calling for international sanctions against China and Hong Kong’s leaders. 

“It’s not a problem to criticise the Hong Kong government, but if there is an intent to organise activities to incite the subversion of the government then that is, of course, a different thing,” Chief Executive Carrie Lam said when asked about the raid on Apple Daily and press freedom in the city. 

“Media friends should have the ability to distinguish between them,” she added during her weekly press conference.

Unlike mainland China, where the press is overwhelmingly state-owned and heavily censored, semi-autonomous Hong Kong has free speech protections baked into its mini-constitution.

But the new national security law has criminalised a host of political views and the action against Apple Daily has left the media wondering what views or reporting could trigger an investigation. 

Echoing other officials, Lam said the prosecution of Apple Daily was not an attack on “normal journalistic work” and that the paper was trying to undermine China’s national security with its coverage. 

When asked by a reporter what the government’s definition of normal journalistic work was, she replied: “I think you are in a better position to answer that question.”

The US was among multiple Western nations that criticised the police operation against Apple Daily, saying it undermined press freedoms as well as Hong Kong’s reputation as a safe place to do business.

Lam rejected those suggestions, specifically naming the US in her comments.

“Don’t try to accuse the Hong Kong authorities of using the national security law as a tool to suppress the media, or to stifle the freedom of expression,” she said. 

“All those accusations made by the US government, I’m afraid, are wrong.”

El Salvador’s Supreme Court on Monday ordered the attorney general’s office to investigate the forced disappearance of three people during the 12-year civil war (1980-1992) and to punish those responsible.

The decision by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court came after a writ of habeas corpus was filed in November 2017 by a plaintiff “against the actions of members” of the now-defunct National Police (PN) and the Armed Forces. 

The missing include the brother, father and mother of the plaintiff, who was not identified but who asked that the whereabouts of their relatives and what happened around them be investigated. 

“It is declared that the plaintiff’s relatives were victims of forced disappearance, committed by members of the (defunct) National Police and the Armed Forces,” the court said. 

It ordered the attorney general, Rodolfo Delgado, to “launch a criminal investigation of the forced disappearance” of the three and to “determine the material situation of the victims and to charge, judge and punish those who are responsible.” 

On May 15, 1982, men in civilian clothes detained the plaintiff’s brother in the southern part of the capital San Salvador. He was loaded into a truck and allegedly taken to the National Police headquarters, a witness told the family, according to the lawsuit. 

The witness “was also disappeared” a few days later. Two days after the disappearance of the brother, his father and mother were also disappeared as part of a police and military operation. 

The parents of the man who witnessed the first arrest were disappeared, as well. According to the court document, the plaintiff’s brother was involved in “revolutionary political activity” at the time of his disappearance, while his father and mother were part of “community organizations” and “church communities” that at the time were viewed as leftist by the right-wing authorities. 

After the end of the civil war on January 16, 1992, the National Guard, the Treasury Police and the National Police were disbanded. The civil war left more than 75,000 dead and an economy in tatters.

Australia said Tuesday it will strongly oppose a UNESCO plan to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” over deterioration caused by climate change.

The UN body released a draft report on Monday recommending the reef’s World Heritage status be downgraded because of its dramatic coral decline, after years of public threats to do so.

Environmental campaigners said the decision highlighted Australia’s lack of action to curb the carbon emissions which contribute to global warming.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley said Australia would challenge the move, accusing UN officials of backflipping on their assurances ahead of the World Heritage Committee’s 44th session in China next month, where the recommendation will be formally considered.

“Politics have subverted a proper process and for the World Heritage Committee to not even foreshadow this listing is, I think, appalling,” she told reporters in Canberra.

The UN body did not consider the billions of dollars spent attempting to protect the world’s largest coral reef, she added.

The committee’s draft report did commend Australia’s efforts to improve reef quality and its financial commitment. 

But it noted “with the utmost concern and regret… that the long-term outlook for the ecosystem of the property has further deteriorated from poor to very poor,” referring to Australia’s move to downgrade the reef’s health status after back-to-back mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017.

Ley said she had spoken to UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay overnight Monday to express “very clearly our strong disappointment, even bewilderment”.

Placement on the UN body’s in-danger list is not considered a sanction. According to UNESCO, some nations have their sites added to gain international attention and help to save them but it is seen as a dishonour by others.

– ‘Shame’ –

Australia has resisted calls to commit to a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying the country hoped to reach carbon neutral “as soon as possible” without harming its commodity-dependent economy.

The downgrade recommendation for the Great Barrier Reef prompted environmental groups to take aim at the Australian government’s reluctance to take stronger climate action.

The Climate Council said it brought “shame on the federal government, which is standing by as the reef declines rather than fighting to protect it”.

“The recommendation from UNESCO is clear and unequivocal that the Australian government is not doing enough to protect our greatest natural asset, especially on climate change,” said WWF head of oceans Richard Leck.

Aside from its inestimable natural, scientific and environmental value, the 2,300-kilometre-long (1,400-mile-long) reef was worth an estimated US$4.8 billion a year in tourism revenue for the Australian economy before the coronavirus pandemic.

In December, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said climate change had pushed the reef into critical condition.

Australian Marine Conservation Society environmental consultant Imogen Zethoven said the UNESCO report made clear that limiting global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels was critical for the Great Barrier Reef.

“Australia’s climate record is more consistent with a 2.5-3.0 Celsius rise in global average temperature –- a level that would destroy the Great Barrier Reef and all the world’s coral reefs,” she said.

The Great Barrier Reef has now suffered three mass coral bleaching events in the past five years, losing half its corals since 1995 as ocean temperatures have climbed.

Bleaching occurs when changes in ocean temperatures stress healthy corals, causing them to expel algae living in their tissues, which drains them of their vibrant colours and can lead to their death.

It has also been battered by several cyclones as climate change drives more extreme weather and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish — which eat the coral — in recent decades.

His bald head glistening with sweat, Zhi Xiang peers into the eyes of a stray dog whose coat has become matted in heavy rain and says soothingly: “Let me cut your hair, cutie.”

The bedraggled pooch is among scores of dogs hauled off the streets of Shanghai by police and packed in metal cages in a foul-smelling holding area. 

More than 20 puppies are also crammed into a yellow plastic crate; one dog is dragged in while inside a tied bag.

But for Zhi’s intervention, they will all be put down in a matter of days.

But Zhi is no ordinary animal rescuer: he is a Buddhist monk and will give these dogs a new life either at his ancient monastery or at a shelter he runs in the Chinese city.

He already has nearly 8,000 dogs to feed and care for. A few hundred will eventually be resettled in Europe or North America.

“I have to rescue them because if I don’t, they will die for sure,” said the 51-year-old, who temporarily discards his monk’s robes for an orange workman’s suit as he gives vaccinations to dishevelled dogs fresh off the streets.

Driven by his faith, Zhi has been rescuing animals — mostly dogs but also cats and other strays — since 1994.

It started when he began treating cats hit by vehicles on the road. Back then, there were few stray animals, but that has changed markedly in the last four or five years, he said.

China’s growing wealth has seen a boom in the pet market but some people simply abandon them when they do not want to care for them anymore, said Zhi.

“This is not caused by people who dislike dogs, or by the government, but by so-called dog lovers who don’t have proper animal-caring knowledge,” said Zhi.

Breeding among strays is causing their numbers to explode.

State media said in 2019 that there were 50 million stray animals in China and that number is roughly doubling each year.

– Dogs and Buddhas –

With help from volunteers and his small workforce, Zhi keeps several hundred dogs at his Bao’en Temple, where he is the head monk and golden Buddhas look on serenely against a backdrop of howling pooches.

The temple, which is still a place of worship, also hosts a room filled with 200 cats, along with a ragtag collection of chickens, geese and peacocks.

The air is an incongruous mix of animal smells and burning incense.

Zhi keeps mostly sick dogs there and the rest go to a bigger facility elsewhere. The lucky ones will find a new home with new owners.

The unlucky ones, about 30 percent of the dogs he rescues, die of disease or were already too sick to save.

Zhi is not a trained vet but his love of animals, in the way he strokes, soothes and kisses them, is obvious.

The continually growing number of unwanted animals is a huge financial strain.

Zhi, who gets up at 4:00 am each day, gets no money from the government. He has borrowed from his parents and other monks and receives handouts from donors.

He estimates that annual costs are about 12 million yuan ($2 million) and he needs 60 tonnes of dog food every month.

“The problem is that I can’t borrow any more money now,” he said.

– Tearful farewell – 

Since 2019, Zhi has been sending some of the strays abroad to be resettled overseas.

Volunteers who can speak English use social media to reach an international audience, and about 300 dogs have been placed in the United States, Canada and various European countries including Germany.

The memory of those lucky dogs — their journey from the streets and almost certain death to a new life — brings tears to his eyes.

“I think they’re very happy so I feel it’s worthwhile,” he said. “But of course I miss them.”

One recent Saturday morning, Zhi was at Shanghai’s international airport to drop off a dog to a passenger who volunteered to take it to a new home in the US city of Seattle.

Wearing his monks’ robes, Zhi holds the small dog in his arms until the last minute, muttering “goodbye, goodbye”.

He wipes away tears as the woman and dog disappear through the departure gate.

“I have a dream that one day, when I have some free time, I want to go abroad and visit them, take photos with every dog that I rescued,” he said. 

“So when I get old and can’t walk, I have these photos to look at.” 

With no priest to minister and no faithful to pray, an Armenian church in Bangladesh has one last parishioner: a Hindu caretaker doing his “sacred duty” to preserve a relic of the city’s former commercial elite.

Shankar Ghosh makes the sign of the cross before opening the entrance of the striking white and yellow edifice, built 240 years ago in the capital Dhaka. 

Back then the city was home to hundreds of Armenians, a diaspora that traced its roots in the Muslim-majority nation back to the 16th century and eventually rose to become prominent traders, lawyers and public officials.

The last known descendant of this community left Bangladesh several years ago — but not before entrusting the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Holy Resurrection to Ghosh, who had already lived within its grounds for half of his life.

“I love this work. I consider it a sacred duty bestowed upon me,” the 61-year-old told AFP.

“Whether it is a church, temple or mosque, I believe all are for one God.”

Four decades ago, Ghosh worked at a jute factory — an industry pioneered by Armenians in the region — where he struck up a friendship with the family running it.

Through them, he met church custodian Michael Joseph Martin, who invited Ghosh to be his assistant.

The young man moved into the church compound in 1985 and never left.

“It is a home of God and I thought no other work would better suit me,” Ghosh said.

His 30-year-old son was born in the compound and acts as its resident historian.

When Martin moved to Canada in 2014, he handed his protege the keys to the church.

Ghosh became full-time custodian after Martin died last year at the age of 89, and is now supported by overseas Armenians — led by Los Angeles-based businessman Armen Arslanian — who keep the church running.

“The Ghosh family has a special place in our church,” Arslanian told AFP.

– ‘This beautiful place’ –

Ghosh is drawn to tranquility of the grounds in the heart of the capital’s Armanitola neighbourhood, which was named for the city’s Armenian community.

Narrow and congested roads, flanked by residential blocks and wholesale markets, lay just beyond the compound.

But within the grounds, the cacophony of traffic horns fade away and birdsong rises from a small garden.

Young couples and students gather under the garden’s trees, sharing private moments in the shade.

Each morning, Ghosh emerges from the compound where he lives with his wife and two children to open the church doors and light candles on the altar.

He utters a non-denominational prayer for 400 Armenians — once prominent members of Dhaka and now buried under neat rows of tombstones next to the building.

Several assistants help him maintain the church and feed the half a dozen stray dogs living in the grounds. 

Baptisms and weekly mass haven’t been held in the church for several decades.

But the church comes to life every Easter and Christmas, when a Catholic priest holds services attended by ambassadors stationed in Dhaka.

Ghosh often strolls around the tombstones — the earliest dating back to 1714, decades before the church was built.

Laying a flower on the grave of Martin’s late wife Veronica — the last Armenian to be buried in the compound, in 2005 — Ghosh hopes her husband’s remains are brought back to Dhaka.

“He belongs here in this beautiful place,” he said, adding that he too hoped to be buried in the grounds after his death.

“I only pray that I’ll get similar treatment to what I have been providing to these (graves).”  

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Monday told a journalist who questioned his frequent refusal to wear a mask to “shut up” and called Globo Group, the country’s largest media conglomerate, “shitty.” 

“Shut your mouth! You are creeps! You practice rogue journalism, which doesn’t help at all. You destroy the Brazilian family, destroy the Brazilian religion!” Bolsonaro lashed out at the reporter after a military ceremony in Guaratingueta, in the state of Sao Paulo. 

The journalist from TV Vanguarda, a station from the Globo network, had just reminded the far-right former army officer that he had been fined in several states for refusing to wear a mask in meetings with his supporters. 

When the reporter pointed out that Bolsonaro had arrived at the ceremony without a face covering, Bolsonaro snapped back: “I arrive as I want, when I want. I take care of my own life.” 

Immediately afterwards, he took off the black mask that he was wearing at the time, and declared: “Now you can put it on the Jornal Nacional (Globo’s popular nightly newscast): ‘I am not wearing a mask in Guaratingueta. Are you happy now?” 

Since coming to power in January 2019, Bolsonaro has repeatedly attacked journalists and the media. On Monday, he continued his harangue by declaring that “Globo is a shitty press. You are a crap press… if you watch Globo, you get misinformation. You should be ashamed of yourself for doing such a lousy job,” he said. 

The Globo Group was quick to react. “The president will not impede or inhibit the work of the press in Brazil by shouting or with intolerance,” it said in a statement. 

Bolsonaro also railed against CNN Brazil, accusing it of having “praised” demonstrations that last Sunday brought together tens of thousands of people to criticize the government’s policy against the coronavirus pandemic, which has already left more than 500,000 dead in the country. 

Bolsonaro has opposed any social distancing or isolation measures since the start of the pandemic, and has questioned the efficacy of vaccines and the usefulness of masks, while promoting drugs that have no proven efficacy in fighting the virus. 

“As long as I am president… we are going to fight so that citizens have weapons and are not obliged to wear masks,” he said last Thursday in his weekly live program.

In a rich neighborhood in the Colombian city of Cali, residents standing next to police fire their weapons at protesters.

They believe they are protecting their possessions from the mob.

After 50 days of social protests against the government of right-wing President Ivan Duque, Cali’s class divide seems to be getting wider.

The southeastern city, well-known for its social inequality and racism, has been the epicenter of violent unrest during the protests.

On May 28, a mob from some of the nearby slums turned up in the affluent Ciudad Jardin neighborhood and tried to burn down the police station.

Residents responded with gunfire.

“It was like a civil war with civilians worried for their homes and property, and the police on one side, and on the other side protesters… wanting to impose this anarchy and this chaos in our neighborhood,” publicist Andres Escobar, 30, told AFP.

Escobar admits he fired his automatic pistol a few times “in the air” that day. It turned out to be the deadliest day of protests in the city, with 13 people killed.

That day was the most blatant example of “a conflict… marked by differences in class, differences in race and differences in ethnicity” that have been exacerbated by the pandemic, said Luis Castillo, a sociologist at the University of Valle in Cali.

With its luxury boutiques, mansions with swimming pools and palm tree-lined avenues, Ciudad Jardin resembles a mini Beverly Hills.

Almost none of the residents took to the streets to protest against Duque.

They also haven’t protested against the widely condemned police brutality unleashed on demonstrators.

– Racial segregation –

Those who first protested — initially against a now-withdrawn tax reform proposal — on April 28 were mostly unions and students demanding a change of government.

But for the first time, young black and mixed-race people from poor neighborhoods joined in.

In Cali, where the poverty rate of 67 percent is much higher than the rest of the country, there is a clear “racial segregation,” said Castillo.

That helps explain why poor, black neighborhoods rose up after the pandemic hit the informal sector hard.

Inequality was worsening even before the pandemic struck, with 375,000 people falling into poverty between 2019 and 2020 out of the city’s 2.2 million population.

With nothing to lose, these youths hunkered down behind roadblocks in urban camps, much to the chagrin of wealthier citizens as well as authorities.

“We’re talking about a (national) strike so… we have to make sure that nothing works,” said the masked Cero, leader of the well-known Puerto Madera roadblock in the city.

The protesters AFP spoke to were aged between 15 and 35, and either work in the informal sector, are unemployed or are students.

They are demanding jobs, education and health services.

Some cook and others draw outlines of dead companions on the floor, as they all listen to reggaeton and smoke to while away the hours.

They claim to have weapons but can only show homemade shields, sticks and stones.

These people are tired of “seeing families in misery,” said Plein, the coordinator of the “front line” at Puerto Madera, who was shot during clashes with police.

“We want the rights that those with a bit of money have to be the same as the poor,” said Plein. 

– Paramilitary activity –

At first, protesters saw the government as the enemy. But from May 9 onwards, armed civilians dressed in white got involved in Ciudad Jardin.

At that time, “it was already clear that there were murders and disappearances of demonstrators committed by the public forces,” said Edwin Guetio, the human rights coordinator for indigenous people in the Cauca region, whose capital is Cali.

However, the roadblocks that caused shortages of food, medicines and fuel proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for some residents.

That led to many people “not being able to go to work or buy food even if they had the money to do so, because there was none,” said Jose, a Ciudad Jardin resident who spoke on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisals.

Civilian use of force convinced demonstrators that they had misjudged their enemies.

They tried to respond on May 28, but walked into a hail of bullets.

Police announced they had carried out operations against “permissive” elements.

It brought back painful memories “because our country… had a history of paramilitary activity, of self-defense by civilians who arm themselves” and commit atrocities against those of a different political bent, said Cali mayor Jorge Ivan Ospina.

For some, there is no end in sight to the class war.

The conflict “will continue as long as order cannot be restored,” said Cali resident Escobar.

Australia will strongly oppose a UNESCO plan to list the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” over its deterioration caused by climate change, the government said Tuesday.

The UN body released a draft report on Monday recommending the reef’s World Heritage status be downgraded because of its dramatic coral decline.

Environmental campaigners said the decision highlighted Australia’s lack of action to curb emissions and brought “shame” on the government.

Environment Minister Sussan Ley said Australia would mount a challenge after the “back-flip on previous assurances from UN officials”, ahead of the World Heritage Committee’s 44th session hosted by China next month.

Ley said the decision did not consider the billions of dollars spent attempting to protect the world’s largest coral reef.

“This sends a poor signal to those nations who are not making the investments in reef protection that we are making,” she said in a statement.

Australia has resisted calls to commit to a target of net-zero emissions by 2050, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying the country hoped to reach carbon neutral “as soon as possible” without harming its commodity-dependent economy.

The plan to add the reef to the World Heritage “in danger” list prompted environmental groups to highlight Canberra’s reluctance to take stronger climate action.

The Climate Council said it “brings shame on the federal government, which is standing by as the reef declines rather than fighting to protect it”.

Aside from its inestimable natural, scientific and environmental value, the 2,300-kilometre-long (1,400-mile-long) reef was worth an estimated US$4.8 billion a year in tourism revenue for the Australian economy before the coronavirus pandemic. 

“The recommendation from UNESCO is clear and unequivocal that the Australian government is not doing enough to protect our greatest natural asset, especially on climate change,” said WWF head of oceans Richard Leck.

In December, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said climate change had become the biggest threat to UN-listed natural world heritage sites and pushed the reef into “critical” condition.

Australia’s own government had already downgraded the reef’s long-term outlook to “very poor” after back-to-back mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017.

Bleaching occurs when changes in ocean temperatures stress healthy corals, causing them to expel algae living in their tissues — draining them of their vibrant colours.

“I agree that global climate change is the single biggest threat to the world’s reefs but it is wrong, in our view, to single out the best managed reef in the world for an ‘in danger’ listing,” Ley said.

The Great Barrier Reef has now suffered three mass coral bleaching events in the past five years, losing half its corals since 1995 as ocean temperatures have climbed.

The reef has also been battered by several cyclones as climate change drives more extreme weather and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish — which eat the coral — in recent decades.

As the Covid pandemic recedes dramatically in the West, Europe is opening its doors to Americans — but the reverse is not holding true, with the United States not budging on restrictions imposed 15 months ago.

President Joe Biden has hailed progress on vaccination, with a goal of reaching 70 percent of Americans with at least one dose by July 4, and health authorities have eased recommendations on masks, but the language on travel restrictions has remained constant.

“We look forward to the resumption of transatlantic travel as soon as the science permits,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said Monday.

“I’m not able to put a specific timeframe on it, only because it will depend in large part on the course of the epidemiology, on the response to the virus around the world, and developments, including the impact and the presence of variants,” he said.

Biden has vowed to restore alliances after Donald Trump’s turbulent presidency, last week courting European allies on his first foreign trip. But he has made clear he is not in a hurry on travel, with his administration again renewing through July 21 the closing of the land borders with Canada and Mexico.

The United States during the pandemic has also banned travel on most visitors coming from the European Union as well as Britain, along with Brazil, China, India, Iran and South Africa.

Biden, however, has allowed a growing number of exemptions, with journalists, students and others able to travel despite the restrictions on ordinary tourists.

By contrast, the European Union has decided to reopen its borders to Americans on condition they are vaccinated or present test results that show they are negative.

“Hope we will find a similar solution in the spirit of reciprocity for travel from Germany and the EU to the US!” tweeted the German ambassador to the United States, Emily Haber.

– Driven by tourism –

But the European Union opened up not after negotiating reciprocity with the United States, but under pressure from member states reliant on tourism such as Greece, Italy and Spain that are eager to revive an industry devastated by the pandemic.

In the United States, there is no force of similar magnitude clamoring to let in foreign tourists, even if airlines and others in the travel industry have voiced support for relaxing rules and The Wall Street Journal in a recent editorial said there was no reason not to reciprocate the European decision.

The Biden administration in early June announced the formation of working groups with the European Union, Britain, Canada and Mexico on next steps.

Caught in the middle are thousands of expatriates who generally pay US taxes and may have families in the United States but cannot leave without concern over whether they can return.

Some have visas that expired during the pandemic, meaning they can have long waits if they head overseas in hopes of renewals at overloaded US consulates.

Celia Belin, a French scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, noted that Biden was elected on promises to address Covid better than Trump and “wants to take zero risk” faced with worries about the Delta variant.

She noted that the Europeans had clear epidemiological thresholds on when they would open up to US travelers, but that there was no similar transparency from the US side.

Biden “prioritizes the health issue before everything else without taking into consideration the social and human consequences,” she said.