Check the date at the top of the page, and you can find all the "morning headlines" stories here. You can also follow us on Facebook and get all the news in your feed.

This summary is provided by the STA: 

STA, 12 January 2022 - One out of ten primary school children and 16% of all secondary students are self-isolating with a total of 1,431 classes being taught remotely due to coronavirus infections as of Tuesday, Education Ministry data available on the tracker site covid-19.sledilnik.org shows.

STA, 12 January 2022 - A total of 7,420 coronavirus infections were recorded in Slovenia on Tuesday in what is by far the record daily number since the start of the epidemic. The positivity rate again exceeded 50%, data released by the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) on Wednesday shows. 13 Covid patients died, up 10 on the day before.

The notable daily rise of more than 2,200 cases comes a day after the number of confirmed infections exceeded 5,000 for the first time since March 2020.

The 7-day average of daily cases was up by 476 to 4,367 and the 14-day incidence per 100,000 people increased by 263 to 2,142.

According to the NIJZ, a total of 45,459 people are estimated to be actively infected, up by some 5,550 compared to yesterday's estimate.

Government data show that there are now 538 Covid patients in hospital, a daily drop of 15, of whom 154 are in intensive care, down six.

A total of 57% of Slovenia's population (or 1,197,788 people) have been fully vaccinated against Covid, with the share for adults (aged at least 18) at 67%. A booster shot has meanwhile been administered to 516,729 people.

Get the latest data on COVID and Slovenia, with lots of visualisations

STA, 11 January 2022 - Nataša Kovačević, a research project manager at Kolektor Group company, has become the Woman Engineer of the Year. The title has been awarded for the fourth year to encourage young women to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

The Woman Engineer of 2021, selected by Mediade company and IRT 3000 magazine, was declared at a hybrid event at the Presidential Palace on Tuesday.

Kovačević started her professional career as a young researcher at the Jožef Stefan Institute (IJS) and earned a PhD from the Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering in the field of corrosion and passivation processes on the surfaces of metal materials.

In 2013, she started working for Kolektor, a major Slovenian supplier for global car industry giants, and soon became a project manager.

On her own initiative, she also started researching basic and applicative corrosion processes in metal and composite materials, Mediade said in a written statement.

Kovačević is also a member of the supervisory board of and a partner in the international project MAMI Magnetics and Microhydrodynamics.

She shares her know-how and experiences at lectures and workshops for talented secondary school children, and mentors doctoral candidates at Kolektor and at the IJS's international post-graduate school.

The winner was selected from a total of ten nominees as four juries had scrutinised the nominations. Woman Engineer of the Year is part of We'll Be Women and Men Engineers, a project promoting STEM among secondary school kids.

Dnevnik: Govt Withdrawing Funds from of Independent Artists, Producers to Silence Critics

STA, 12 January 2022 - The Culture Ministry is trying to discipline independent artists and producers by denying them funds offered as part of a EUR 3.8 million call for applications for 2022-2025, the newspaper Dnevnik says in Wednesday's commentary headlined Unbearable Simplicity of Suppressing Critics.

Vasko Simoniti is not the first culture minister to say that Slovenia has too many artists, but he is the minister who has made the greatest effort to do something about it.

For him, "superfluous" are those who are active in the non-governmental sector, whom the current government finds stubborn and whom it does not get along with.

As a result, the idea that the number of NGOs and self-employed in culture is "financially unsustainable" found its way into a new draft national culture programme, even though funds for non-institutional culture represent but a few percent of the entire culture budget.

It is thus no surprise that the public call for applications for funding for the next four years, on which many NGOs depend, has caused uneasiness among the applicants.

This is partly because the number of programmes to be funded is limited and partly because, despite a record culture budget for the coming years, the ministry has hinted at a cut in funding of independent artists and producers.

The scarcity of funds for this group is nothing new because the country has a rigid culture model in which most of the funds go to public institutions. While the previous governments made efforts to cushion the situation, Simoniti seems to be using it to dismantle the culture sector to make it to the liking of "the second republic".

It is hard to overlook comments that it is those who criticise the government's policies that have been left without funds, which is a kind of censorship of thought and creativity.

Dnevnik points to Glej, an independent theatre group, which has been left without funding, formally because other NGOs' programmes have scored more points than it had.

However, it indicates that the true reason could be the fact that Glej's head is also the head of an association that "regularly points to disputable and harmful decisions of the ministry".

In other words, depriving NGOs of funds is the only true tool the authorities have at their disposal for disciplining, Dnevnik says, adding that in NGOs, politics cannot simply replace heads that are not to its liking with servile staff without professional integrity, as is the case in public institutions.

Check the date at the top of the page, and you can find all the "morning headlines" stories here. You can also follow us on Facebook and get all the news in your feed.

This summary is provided by the STA: 

Record 5,164 coronavirus cases on Monday

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia reported a record 5,164 new cases of coronavirus for Monday, the highest daily figure since the start of the pandemic. This pushed the 14-day case notification rate stood to 1,879, and the seven-day case average to 3,891. Three Covid-19 patients died, while total hospitalisations fell to 553 as intensive care cases rose by three to 160, according to the government.

Slovenian politicians express condolences upon Sassoli's death

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's senior politicians and MEPs took to Twitter to express their condolences on the death of David Sassoli, the president of the European Parliament, lauding him as a great democrat, and a proud and sincere European. National Assembly Speaker Igor Zorčič said he was honoured to have been able to work with Sassoli during Slovenia's EU presidency in the second half of last year.

Recovery, resilience at the forefront of ECOFIN presidency

LJUBLJANA - Finance Minister Andrej Šircelj said fighting the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic had been at the forefront of Slovenia's EU presidency in the field of finance and noted that during this time, the EU had approved 22 national recovery and resilience plans and paid out EUR 54 billion in funds to 20 member states.

Vrtovec discusses logistics digitalisation at Expo

DUBAI, UAE - Infrastructure Minister Jernej Vrtovec visited the Slovenian Expo pavilion to address a business forum accompanying the visit by a delegation of Slovenian logistics companies. He discussed the need for digitalisation in logistics and Slovenia's ambition to become a green nexus of Europe. The forum discussed ways to shorten the maritime route to Europe, reduce the carbon footprint and promote Europe's tourist attractions.

Centre-left willing to talk cooperation with Golob

LJUBLJANA - The alliance of four centre-left opposition parties, the Marjan Šarec Party (LMŠ), Social Democrats (SD), the Left and the SAB discussed election campaigning and their joint efforts. They expressed willingness to discuss the potential cooperation with ex-GEN-I director Robert Golob, but will not decide on the matter until they get acquainted with the programme of his new potential party. Meanwhile, unaffiliated MP Janja Sluga is tipped to be forming a party with Golob.

Ljubljana Mayor Janković, sons acquitted in tax evasion case

LJUBLJANA - Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković and his two sons were acquitted of tax evasion concerning the sale of shares of the retailer Mercator in 2006 as the court handed down its ruling after a month-long trial. Janković, a former CEO of Mercator, was charged with tax evasion in the sale of 47,000 Mercator shares to the family company, and his sons, Jure and Damjan, were charged with abetting. Janković said he had expected an acquittal, accusing the prosecutor of bullying, while the latter announced an appeal.

Committee approves bill to regulate medical procurement prices

LJUBLJANA- The parliamentary Home Affairs Committee endorsed a coalition-sponsored proposal to regulate the prices of medical supplies and equipment under a system of reference prices comparable with those in other EU countries. Medical equipment could only be procured in agreement with suppliers when a specific item could not be procured at the reference price, not even with a legally permissible variation of up to 10%. The centre-left opposition argued the solution would increase corruption risks.

Covid-related spending up by 40% last year

LJUBLJANA - After tackling the Covid-19 epidemic cost the state EUR 2 billion in 2020, expenditure rose by a further EUR 800 million in 2021. The bulk of expenditure in 2020 was on job retention and liquidity measures, but last year most went for hazard bonuses in the public sector. The direct cost of the epidemic-related measures from the spring of 2020 to the end of 2021 amounted to EUR 4.8 billion, as another EUR 2.8 billion was added to the cost last year.

Doctors' union demands own wage system for healthcare

LJUBLJANA - The annual conference of FIDES, the trade union of doctors and dentists, gave the union's leadership the mandate to apply all forms of industrial pressure to implement the rise in the wage ceiling for doctors enacted in the latest Covid law and extract healthcare from the single public sector wage system. The union sees the step as the only way to prevent doctors from leaving for better paid jobs in the private sector and abroad. They also call for a sweeping health reform.

Primorska university awarded UNESCO chair

KOPER - The Faculty of Humanities at the University of Primorska has been awarded the UNESCO chair in partnership with the Škocjan Cave Park, joining another three UNESCO chairs in Slovenia. The Škocjan Cave has been on UNESCO's world heritage list since 1986. The main goal of the Chair for Interpretation and Education is to develop heritage interpretation and education for professionals and the general public through a comprehensive approach to heritage.

Online grade book target of phishing attack

LJUBLJANA - A popular online grade book used by hundreds of Slovenian schools and an estimated 35,000 teachers has been compromised in an apparent phishing attack that has affected an as yet unknown number of grades. The developers said the system, called eAsistent, had been compromised via a fake website with the help of which teachers' login credentials were stolen and then used to log into the genuine system. The phishing site has already been taken down.

Nataša Kovačević becomes Woman Engineer of the Year

LJUBLJANA - Nataša Kovačević, a research project manager at Kolektor Group company, was named the Woman Engineer of the Year. The title was declared for the fourth year to encourage young women to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics at a hybrid event at the Presidential Palace. She has done research on corrosion and passivation processes on the surfaces of metal materials.

Zdenka Badovinac to head Zagreb Museum of Contemporary Art

ZAGREB, Croatia - The Croatian newspaper Jutarnji List reported that Zdenka Badovinac, the former long-serving director of Moderna Galerija, the Ljubljana Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, won the open call to head the Museum of Contemporary Art (MSU) in Zagreb. The vetting commission's pick now needs to be endorsed by Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomašević. Badovinac served as director of Moderna Galerija from 1993 to 2021.

Novel about National Hall arson shortlisted for Italian literary prize

TRIESTE, Italy - Fiamme Nere, the Italian translation of the Slovenian novel Črni obroč (Black Ring) by Trieste-based writer and poet Marijo Čuk, has been nominated among the 11 finalists for the Italian national literary prize named after Russian writer Vladimir Nabokov. Črni obroč gives an account of the arson of the Slovenian National Hall in Trieste by Italian fascists. The winner of the Nabokov Prize will be announced on 5 February.

Czechia helps Slovenia reach renewables goal

LJUBLJANA - Slovenia met its EU-committed target for renewables to account for 25% of its gross final energy consumption in 2020 after statistical transfer with the Czech Republic, the Statistics Office said. In 2020, 24.14% of gross final energy consumption actually came from renewables, with the remaining part transferred with the Czech Republic for almost EUR 5 million.

Triglav Glacier campaign to plant 13,000 trees in Slovenia

LJUBLJANA - The Triglav Glacier to Beijing campaign, which is bringing a small piece of ice from the glacier on Mt Triglav to the Winter Olympics venue in Beijing, will plant a tree in Slovenia for every kilometre travelled. At least 13.000 new trees will be planted, the Slovenian Olympic Committee (OKS) said. The Triglav Glacier to Beijing campaign raises awareness about the need to preserve glaciers.

STA, 11 January 2022 - Ljubljana Mayor Zoran Janković and his two sons have been acquitted of tax evasion concerning the sale of shares of the retailer Mercator in 2006 as the court handed down its ruling after a month-long trial on Tuesday. Janković said the acquittal was expected.

Janković, CEO of Mercator until 2007, was charged with tax evasion in the sale of 47,000 Mercator shares to the family company, and his sons, Jure and Damjan, were charged with abetting.

The prosecution claimed he avoided paying roughly EUR 103,000 in capital gains tax via a series of transactions involving two companies owned by his family, Electa Holding and Electa Inženiring, and a bank loan.

The prosecution claimed that Janković had control over Electa Inženiring all along and was still the owner of the shares that were only parked with the company until the sale.

Janković has maintained his innocence. The linchpin of his defence was that the Financial Administration had revoked its decision that he owes tax after conducting a second round of tax inspection, because no irregularities had been found.

During the trial, he accused the prosecutor, Blanka Žgajnar, of "bullying" him and abusing the court.

The court ended up determining that Janković had sold the shares in 2004, before the capital gains tax entered into effect, whereas in 2006 the shares were sold on by Electa Inženiring.

It therefore ruled that these were not fictitious transactions between family members and companies since everything was clear in accounting terms. "It is impossible to say that this was a fictitious transaction for tax purposes," judge Mojca Kocjančič said.

Janković said he had expected an acquittal but described the procedure as "an encroachment of representatives of the authorities in the rights of my family."

He described as "unfathomable" the prosecutor's decision to proceed with the case despite the Financial Administration's decision, saying it was "sad and ridiculous" that the prosecutor today read from the Financial Administration's decision that had been revoked.

Žgajnar, the prosecutor, insisted that she had proved wrongdoing in the course of the trial and announced she would appeal the ruling.

STA, 11 January 2022 - Slovenia's senior politicians and the country's members of the European Parliament (MEPs) took to Tweeter to express condolences upon the death of David Sassoli, the president of the European Parliament, who died this morning, labelling him as a great democrat, and a proud and sincere European.

National Assembly Speaker Igor Zorčič said he was honoured to have been able to work with Sassoli during Slovenia's EU presidency in the second half of last year.

Prime Minister Janez Janša said, "We are sorry at the death of President Sassoli. At this difficult moment, our thoughts are with his family and friends."

President Borut Pahor labelled Sassoli as a great democrat and a sincere European. "Upon the death of European Parliament President and my dear friend David Sassoli, I express condolences to the family and the European Parliament on my own behalf and on behalf of the Republic of Slovenia."

The Foreign Ministry said that it was deeply saddened by Sassoli's death, and labelled the late official a man who strongly believed in Europe and "our common future".

"Sassoli's death is a big loss for our European family. Our thoughts and compassion are with his family and those closest to him," the ministry said on Tweeter.

Defence Minister Matej Tonin, the leader of New Slovenia (NSi), said that "we have lost a proud European who epitomised the true values of united Europe".

Some of Slovenia's MEPs have also already expressed their condolences, with Sassoli's S&D colleague Tanja Fajon saying her heart was broken. "The European Parliament has lost a true leader, democracy and the rule of law have lost a champion, and I have lost a dear friend ...".

"Grazie, Presidente, for your unrelenting faith in united Europe and for everything good you have done for Europe and all of us," tweeted MEP Milan Brglez (S&D).

MEP Ljudmila Novak from the EPP wrote that Sassoli "strongly believed in unified Europe where democracy is the key value. As an ex-journalist, he was a strong fighter for the freedom of expression."

Condolences were also expressed by Klemen Grošelj and Irena Joveva (Renew). "A sad day for the European Parliament and the EU at the much too premature death of a dedicated and resolute fighter for a better Europe at these demanding times for all of us and for our institution," wrote Grošelj.

Sassoli died in hospital in Aviano in Italy last night at the age of 65, after he was admitted on 26 December due to a serious complication with his immune system, while he also had health problems before. His term of European Parliament president was to expire next week.

STA, 10 January 2022 - The European Research Council (ERC) has granted EUR 2.2 million in funding to the project PHAGECONTROL - Development of Host Manipulation by Bacteriophage, led by Anna Dragoš from the Biotechnical Faculty at the University of Ljubljana, a prominent researcher in the field of virus-bacteria interaction.

Out of the total funding awarded, around EUR 700,000 will be allocated for a precision microscope, which will be used to study viruses that enter bacteria and change their properties by inserting viral DNA into bacterial DNA.

Some of the altered properties of bacteria may be beneficial for humans, while others may change from harmless bacteria to pathogens. The project will establish new methods and create new molecular tools to study virus transmission, which could also improve predictions of the spread of epidemics in the future.

"We will study how viruses can change the behaviour of bacteria in the first phase, the second phase will cover the molecular mechanisms responsible for these changes, and in the third phase, we will test whether viruses change the behaviour of bacteria because they are cooperating or because they are manipulators," Dragoš explained.

"There is great potential in this project to discover a significant part of the genetic 'black box' of viruses, as well as new antimicrobial compounds carried by viruses. These could eventually find medical applications, for example as alternatives to antibiotics," she added.

Dragoš is the third University of Ljubljana researcher that managed to secure an ERC grant for her project. The first one was awarded in 2011 to Nedjeljka Žagar, a researcher in the field of meteorology, and the second one went to Marta Verginella from the Faculty of Arts in 2016.

STA, 11 January 2022 - While the cost for the state for tackling the Covid-19 epidemic in 2020 amounted to EUR 2 billion, expenditure only grew in 2021 by a further EUR 800 million. In 2020, the state spent the most money on preserving jobs and providing liquidity to companies, and last year expenditure was dominated by bonuses for public sector employees.

The direct cost of the epidemic-related measures from the spring of 2020 to the end of 2021 amounted to EUR 4.8 billion, as another EUR 2.8 billion was added to the cost last year.

The first package of measures was adopted by the National Assembly at the end of March 2020, followed by eight anti-coronavirus laws and an emergency law to assist the tourism sector and related industries in July last year.

Just before the start of 2022, another emergency law was passed in parliament, introducing some new bonuses and compensations in the event of complications related to vaccination against Covid-19.

In order to prevent lay-offs in companies in the face of declining revenue and restrictions of business, the government started taking a number of measures to preserve jobs immediately after the epidemic was declared almost two years ago.

EUR 1.1 billion in such measures was paid to companies in 2020, which is more than half of the total expenditure in the first year of the epidemic, and an additional EUR 633 million was paid last year.

The best received by employees was the measure of subsidised furlough, which expired at the end of last June, while employers also had the measure of subsidised part-time work at their disposal until the end of last September.

The state will also cover for the costs of wages related to quarantine or force majeure related to the epidemic until the end of February this year, if the measure is not extended.

The state also financed the universal monthly basic income for the self-employed and other eligible groups in the first wave of the epidemic and again in the second wave until the end of last June, with EUR 238 million paid last out year for this purpose.

A total of EUR 630 million was spent in 2021 for job-preserving measures, which is almost 50% less than in 2020. This is due to business being restricted for a longer period in 2020 than last year, and partly due to the quicker economic recovery.

Measures for maintaining liquidity were also available to companies, including deferral of taxes or payment of taxes in instalments, a loan guarantee scheme and reimbursement of fixed costs.

The latter measure was implemented at the beginning of last year retroactively for as of September 2020 and has so far cost the state EUR 309 million.

The amount of paid bonuses to employees under the anti-coronavirus legislation adopted so far increased sharply last year in comparison to 2020 - from EUR 204 million to EUR 822 million.

The largest amount, EUR 745 million, was earmarked for bonuses for work in hazardous conditions under the collective agreement for the public sector, which amount to 65% of the hourly rate of the basic salary of public sector employee.

The largest amount of such bonuses was paid to employees in public institutions owned by municipalities, followed by healthcare employees.

The state also spent more money last year for other costs related to the management of the epidemic, including costs of protective equipment, tests and research. These costs amounted to EUR 385 million or almost three times more than in 2020.

Also included in the anti-coronavirus legislation were bonuses for various social groups aimed at maintaining consumption and improving their social situation. EUR 287 million was provided for these measures last year, which is on a par with 2020.

Another EUR 630 million has been secured in the 2022 budget for anti-coronavirus measures. This is not the final figure, as the amount could be increased depending on the pace of vaccination and the spread of the Omicron variant of coronavirus.