The worst of the second wave of the coronavirus is over: Those were the words of French President Emmanuel Macon as he gave a televised address to the nation on Tuesday evening.
But he also warned, “We must do everything to avoid a third lockdown.” With that in mind, he said restaurants, cafes and bars would stay shut until Jan. 20 to avoid triggering a third wave.
This gradual easing of curbs means that from Saturday, November 28, shops will re-open following a month long lockdown imposed on Oct 30.
In mid-December, the lockdown will be lifted if the number of new cases has fallen to around 5,000 a day, and people will be free to travel across the country to see family and friends over the Christmas period. Theatres and cinemas will also be allowed to open their doors again.
France registered over 9,000 cases on Tuesday, and crossed the 50,000 deaths milestone.
Church response
However, not everyone is happy with the new arrangements. The French Bishops’ Conference said in a statement the announcement of a resumption of public ceremonies with a maximum of 30 people was both “disappointing and surprising.”
The statement went on to say that the matter was discussed in a phone call between the French President and the President of the Bishops’ Conference, Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort.
The Archbishop tweeted on Tuesday evening that Catholic voices were not heard and the Conference was asking that the measure be revised.
In an updated statement on Wednesday the Bishops said, “It appears that a realistic, yet strict, measure will be defined by Thursday morning for implementation in two stages: Saturday 28 November and then after the reassessment of 15 December.” “It is in this perspective that the EFC (French Episcopal Conference) continues its dialogue with the offices of the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Interior”.
Prime Minister Jean Castex is due to hold a press briefing Thursday morning to detail Emmanuel Macron‘s announcement concerning the gradual lifting of restrictions.
So, for the time being, while the resumption of public worship in France is now a certainty, the way it is implemented continues to be subject to adjustments.
Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs) are WHO-classified teams of health-care professionals who can be deployed to provide immediate assistance to countries and territories during natural disasters, outbreaks and emergencies. During the COVID-19 pandemic, demand for EMTs surged across different regions, and WHO facilitated the transfer of knowledge and practices in the spirit of solidarity.
In the WHO European Region, 8 EMTs have responded to requests for assistance from 6 different countries to help with the COVID-19 response in 2020. The Region has 50% of global EMT capacity, with 15 WHO-classified teams and more than 30 others under mentorship, ready to be deployed in the coming years.
Dr Oleg Storozhenko, Partnerships Officer at WHO/Europe, highlights a new twinning programme that encourages experienced EMTs to partner with interested Member States and nongovernmental organizations to help them strengthen national emergency response capacities.
“During COVID-19, we have seen how EMT response activities can inspire governments across the WHO European Region and beyond to provide a stronger national medical response to emergency situations through improving skill exchange with local health-care workers and establishing local EMT capacities,” he notes.
Georgia and Germany were the first to collaborate in this way. Georgia benefitted from German EMT expertise to train its own national team, which then became heavily involved in the country’s COVID-19 response. Azerbaijan and Turkey are now adopting the same formula. Demand for homegrown EMTs has increased during the pandemic, with support from national governments or nongovernmental organizations.
Dr Harald Veen, a mentor for the WHO EMT initiative, says the focus is on building national teams that can respond rapidly in a crisis. “The health professionals in these teams used to be focused on packing up to leave for another country, but with COVID-19 everything changed, and there was an immediate need for their expertise at a national level.”
Alongside the twinning programme, a mentorship scheme enables a greater number of teams to quickly reach the required standards for WHO classification and subsequent deployment. The WHO scheme encourages established EMTs to offer advice and support to newer, yet-to-be-classified teams. There are currently 65 teams under mentorship globally, and a further 28 teams have declared an interest in starting the process.
Mentorship: providing advice and hope
Team leader Dr Wojtek Wilk describes how mentors from Spain helped his EMT from Poland develop their skills related to issues of water supply, water treatment and sewerage. Teams must demonstrate competence outside their specialist areas and, he says, “mentorship is therefore a major part of the global classification process. A mentor provides advice and hope and is of immense help in overcoming obstacles.”
After deployments to Ethiopia, Italy, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, Dr Wilk’s team of professionals returned to Poland to help respond to a rise in COVID-19 cases on home soil. They also mentor other nascent EMTs to achieve WHO certification.
As a mentor and technical adviser to the WHO Secretariat, the body responsible for making sure that each EMT reaches an agreed minimum standard, Dr Veen oversees the progress of each team towards this goal. “We push them to write down their procedures so that these are clear and can be followed by any new team members,” he explains, adding that he is proud to be promoting WHO’s high standards. “Everything should be written out succinctly so that EMTs are able to prevent harm, work in the most efficient way for patients and be humanitarian role models.”
A new role for EMTs
During the COVID-19 pandemic, EMTs have adapted to provide on-the-job COVID-19 training and support to ministries of health. They aim at strengthening triage and hospital referral procedures and improving infection prevention and control measures, including proper patient flow and treatment protocols for COVID-19 patients.
Dr Wilk explains that this reflects a shift in the way EMTs operate. For example, professionals with expertise in treating patients directly in field hospitals and intensive care units and dealing with trauma and surgical interventions have found themselves needing to employ a different range of skills during the pandemic. The training and capacity-building component of their work has come to the fore during this time.
“Strengthening preparedness for the COVID-19 response is a new and quite unexpected role for the EMTs,” he observes. “Not all doctors are skilled trainers or have the necessary interpersonal skills to be effective in this role. However, training and knowledge-sharing are both critical as EMTs are only present in any country for a finite period of time, while the COVID-19 pandemic is probably set to last.”
Assistance and solidarity
During final certification, an independent WHO team along with peers from other EMTs check that the required standards have been reached. Mentors undertake regular phone calls, video meetings, visits and protocol checks to keep teams motivated in difficult circumstances, interspersed with reminders to eat and rest well.
Dr Veen highlights the long-term benefits of providing peer support and training to EMTs. As well as being cost-effective, he says that swapping expertise gives EMTs “an immense opportunity to improve humanitarian assistance”, enabling governments to select the types of teams best suited to respond to a particular set of circumstances.
The message of solidarity is strong, agrees Dr Wilk, who also notes that EMTs are on the frontline of the global response to COVID-19. “I was asked recently if there is fear associated with working in a COVID-19 hospital,” he muses. “The only answer I could think of was, ‘there is fear, of course, but somebody has to do it’. The world needs teams that can deploy to wherever there is a need, if the situation in their home country permits. This is assistance, but also solidarity.”
At the General Audience on Wednesday, Pope Francis turned his gaze to the prayer life of the early Church, as he continued his catechesis on prayer.
“The Church’s first steps in the world were interspersed with prayer,” the Pope said. The writings of the New Testament, and especially the Acts of the Apostles, give us “the image of an active Church on the move, yet which gathered in prayer finds the basis and impulse for missionary action.”
The Holy Father pointed out four essential characteristics of ecclesial life, drawn from St Luke’s account in the book of Acts: “listening to the Apostle’s teaching” which involves preaching and catechesis; the continual quest for fraternal communion; the “breaking of the bread,” the Eucharist, which is the Sacrament of Jesus’ presence among us; and prayer, “which is the space of dialogue with the Father through Christ in the Holy Spirit.”
Anything that arises outside of those “coordinates,” the Pope warned, “is deprived of a foundation… deprived of ecclesiality.” When these four characteristics are present, however, it is a guarantee of the Holy Spirit.
Pope Francis said that reading the Acts of the Apostles, “we then discover what a powerful driving force of evangelization the prayer gatherings can be.” In prayer, he explained, we experience Christ’s presence among us “and are touched by the Spirit.”
Making Jesus present
The Pope quotes the Catechism: “The Holy Spirit … keeps the memory of Christ alive in his Church at prayer, also leads her toward the fullness of truth and inspires new formulations expressing the unfathomable mystery of Christ at work in his Church’s life, sacraments, and mission.” This, Pope Francis explained, “is the Spirit’s work in the Church: making us remember Jesus.”
He insisted, however, that this is not simply a question of recalling facts. Instead, “Christians, walking on the paths of mission, remember Jesus while they make Him present once more; and from Him, from His Spirit, they receive the ‘push’ to go, to proclaim, to serve.”
Love, the mystical root
Prayer, the Pope said, “immerses” Christians in God’s love for each and every person and provides the missionary impulse to preach the Gospel to every human person. “God is God for everyone,” the Pope said, “and in Jesus every wall of separation has definitively crumbled.”
The exchange of love – God’s love for us, and the love He asks in return – is “the mystical root of the believer’s entire life,” Pope Francis said. And, both for the early Christians and for Christians today, prayer enables us to live that experience. Through prayer, the Pope continued, every Christian can make his own the words of St Paul: “the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
Pope Francis said it is “only in the silence of adoration” that “we experience the full truth of these words… And this prayer is the living flame of the Spirit that gives strength to witness and mission.”
Wednesday, 25 November, marks the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, which seeks to raise awareness of what the UN calls a “shadow pandemic”.
The Spanish NGO Manos Unidas (“Hands United”) joined its voice to those of many others to decry the situation in which countless women find themselves.
“Societies cannot remain indifferent to abuse and violence,” according to Ricardo Loy, the Secretary General of the Catholic organization. “We cannot abide that 30% of the world’s women and girls live in fear of violence, of speaking out, or of the reactions of those around them… And all this in the face of widespread apathy from most of society.”
According to the World Health Organization, around one third of all women in a relationship have been subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by their partner.
UN Women adds that domestic violence shot up by 30% in many countries during widespread lockdowns earlier this year put in place due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, a recent study says data from 30 countries indicates that only 1% of abused women have ever sought professional help.
Back in 2013, the WHO called violence against women “a global health problem of epidemic proportions.”
Listen to our report
Excluded and invisible
Mr. Loy said Manos Unidas finds itself working on various fronts in developing nations because violence is not limited to the physical kind nor only to the household.
Education carried out by the NGO, he pointed out, “aims to deal with those religious or cultural customs that physically harm women, or make them invisible and exclude them.”
Raising awareness
One Manos Unidas partner offered an example from a project in Sierra Leone, where women and girls are subdued into silence and economic privation, since violence is widespread.
Fr. Peter Konteh, director of Caritas Freetown, said they are so often subjected to rape that the Prime Minister declared the situation a national emergency in 2018. “He even set up a police unit to deal with rape cases, especially against children.”
Killing a culture of silence
Thanks to the help of Manos Unidas, Fr. Konteh said the local Caritas outfit was able to make inroads in combatting the culture of silence, which kept victims from going to the authorities.
Now, he noted, “women, girls, and families are willing to talk openly about abuse, and the guilty parties are brought to justice.”
Fr. Konteh said the projects biggest success was making many people in Sierra Leone aware of the horrors of violence against women.
“One great victory,” he said, “is knowing that the project is warning ‘potential abusers’ and thus protecting women and girls from further abuse.”
The Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China is bearing fruit. A new bishop, the third since the Agreement was signed in September 2018, was appointed in communion with the Successor of Peter and ordained. The news was confirmed by the Director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni.
“I can confirm that the Reverend Thomas Chen Tianhao is the third bishop appointed and ordained within the framework of the Provisional Agreement between the Holy See and the People’s Republic of China on the appointment of bishops,” he said, in response to questions by journalists.
Bruni also added that “certainly other episcopal consecrations are expected in the future because various processes for new episcopal appointments are underway.”
Upon its expiration date at the end of September, the Provisional Agreement was extended for two more years. It does not directly concern diplomatic relations between the Holy See and China, nor the legal status of the Chinese Catholic Church or relations between the clergy and the authorities of the country. The Provisional Agreement concerns exclusively the process of nomination of bishops: an essential issue for the life of the Church and for the communion of the pastors of the Chinese Catholic Church with the Bishop of Rome and the bishops of the world.
The objective of the Provisional Agreement has always been genuinely pastoral: its purpose is to allow the Catholic faithful to have bishops who are in full communion with the Successor of Peter and at the same time are recognized by the authorities of the People’s Republic of China.
Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades and Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke on the phone on Tuesday evening in a bid to coordinate action in view of the European Council meeting in December and UN special envoy Jane Hall Lute’s visit to the divided island on November 30.
An official statement on Wednesday said Anastasiades and Mitsotakis spoke about the Cyprus problem and efforts for the resumption of the UN-brokered talks and the possibility of a five plus one conference as well as the ongoing Turkish provocations in the region.
The Council meeting is scheduled for December 10-11 and Turkey-EU relations will be assessed by the EU leaders.
Lute, UNSG`s envoy for the Cyprus problem on Tuesday will hold separate meetings in Nicosia with the President Anastasiades and newly-elected Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar.
After her meetings in Cyprus, Lute is expected to visit Athens to hold meetings with the Greek government.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third.
The latest UN backed round of talks took place in the Swiss resort of Crans Montana but failed to yield any results.
NEW DELHI: Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) Ryszard Czarnecki and Fulvio Martusciello, have pulled up Pakistan for not yet having brought to justice those who orchestrated the 2008 Mumbai terrorists’ attacks.
Polish MEP Czarnecki and Italian MEP Martusciello, in a letter to Pak Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday, stated, “On 26 November 2008, an extremist terrorist organisation, Lashkar-e-Taiba, based in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the Mumbai bombings in which 166 innocent people were murdered, nine attackers killed, and more than 300 individuals sustained injuries. Subsequent documented evidence from United States intelligence reports, from India’s intelligence services including DNA, photographs and identification of the origins of the attackers; and an admission by Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s of the country’s involvement in the crimes; highlight the engagement of accomplishes in Pakistan. However, to date, the senior coordinators and promoters who orchestrated the attacks remain at large.”
The MEPs demanded it was “essential that justice is served on those who have carried out, instructed or supported such terrorist activities. It is equally important that leaders of countries publicly condemn these acts of violence and proceed to ensure justice is done for the victims, by apprehending and sentencing the perpetrators”.
The MEPs further stated in their letter, “Terrorism is the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, often in pursuit of political or ideological aims. European politicians, we are committed to fighting against terrorism and extremist violence. We all have a responsibility to condemn terrorism and bring to justice those who perpetrate such actions.”
Czarnecki and Martusciello also asked Imran to inform “action taken against Lashkar-e-Taiba, the extremist Islamist terrorist organisation, based in Pakistan, known to have carried out the multiple shooting and bombing attacks that happened in Mumbai in 2008?”. They further asked, “what action has, and is, Pakistan taking against terrorist groups operating within the country in general?”
Meanwhile French Member of the European Parliament Thierry Mariani, and Gianna Gancia, Italian Member of the European Parliament, wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday to express their support for India’s respect for democratic constitutional responsibility and to reinforce their backing for a common goal to address extremism and terrorism.
“As the Republic of India, the largest democracy in the world, celebrates Samvidhan Divas on the 26 November 2020, we send our congratulations to the country for maintaining peace, democratic values and freedoms and for upholding the Constitution of India established in 1949,” the letter read.
The Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) wrote India’s Republic was “steeped in history and culture. With its diversity of states, cultures and religions, India is a beacon for the democratic and free world.”
Further praising India, they highlighted that India “must be recognised for her dedication towards advocating and encouraging the principles of freedoms and rights under its constitution, one which treats all citizens equally.” India was also honoured for its principles of non-violence, when it was acknowledged that it had always maintained peace, in the country and the region, and had retained its independence through principles of non-alignment.
.“We send our condolences on this somber occasion and recognise the families and the individuals of the army and emergency services who were forced to witness the horrors resulting from these attacks. Europe mourns with you as we are also facing increased attacks from fundamentalists and extremists at this time.”
“Whilst Pakistan has tried to deny its links with terrorist organisations the evidence, including United States intelligence reports, the origin of the attackers and Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s admission of the country’s involvement, all demonstrate, without doubt, that the Islamic Republic of Pakistan remains a global threat”, stated Mariani and Gancia.
The MEPs stated that “as parliamentarians we have called for the European Union to impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and on individuals; terrorists, and those supporting and promoting terrorist activities; and to condemn state sponsored terrorism. Addressing visa and passport fraud, as well as illegal migration are challenges that both India and the European countries face in preventing terrorism emanating from third countries.”
PRAYAGRAJ: The Allahabad high court has held that “right to choose a partner, irrespective of religion, is intrinsic to right to life and personal liberty” and quashed an FIR of kidnapping, forcible conversion and under POSCO Act against a man accused of forcefully converting and marrying a Hindu girl. The court also observed that judgments into two previous cases of interfaith marriages, where it observed that “conversion for the purpose of marriage is unacceptable” were not “good laws”. “We hold judgments in Noor Jahan and Priyanshi cases as not laying good law. None of these judgments dealt with the issue of life and liberty of two mature individuals in choosing a partner or their right to freedom of choice,” the bench said.
Justice Pankaj Naqvi and Justice Vivek Agarwal made these observations, while allowing a petition filed by Salamat Ansari and Priyanka Kharwar alias Alia of Kushinagar on November 11. The petitioners sought quashing of FIR lodged on August 25, 2019, at Vishnupura police station of Kushinagar. The petitioners’ contention was the couple were adults and competent to marry as per their choice. Counsel for the woman’s father opposed the petition on grounds that conversion for sake of marriage was prohibited and such a marriage had no legal sanctity. The court after hearing both parties observed, “To disregard the choice of a person who is an adult would not only be antithetic to freedom of choice of a grown-up individual, but would also be a threat to concept of unity in diversity. An individual on attaining majority is statutorily conferred with the right to choose a partner, which if denied would not only affect his/her human right, but also his/her right to life and personal liberty, guaranteed under Article 21 of Constitution,” the bench observed. It added, “We do not see Priyanka Kharwar and Salamat as Hindu and Muslim, rather as two grown-up individuals who out of their own free will and choice are living together peacefully and happily over a year. The courts and constitutional courts in particular are enjoined to uphold life and liberty of an individual guaranteed under Article 21 of Constitution.” “Right to live with a person of his/her choice irrespective of religion professed by them, is intrinsic to right to life and personal liberty. Interference in a personal relationship would constitute a serious encroachment on the right to freedom of the two individuals. The decision of an individual who is of age of majority, to live with an individual of his/her choice is strictly a right of an individual and when this right is infringed upon, it would constitute breach of his/her fundamental right to life and personal liberty as it includes right to freedom of choice, to choose a partner and right to live with dignity as enshrined in Article 21 of Constitution,” the bench observed. “We fail to understand if the law permits two persons even of same sex to live together peacefully then neither any individual nor a family nor even State can have objection to relationship of two major individuals who out of free will are living together,” the judges observed. The judges also cited Supreme Court’s judgment in K S Puttaswamy vs Union of India case on the right to privacy, which said, “The autonomy of the individual is the ability to make decisions on vital matters of concern to life.”
US President-elect Joe Biden spoke with the heads of the European Union institutions and Nato on Monday in a round of calls seen as part of his efforts to repair tattered transatlantic ties.
Biden “underscored his commitment to deepen and revitalize the US-EU relationship,” a statement from his office said after a call with Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission.
In a marked difference in tone from US President Donald Trump, who branded the EU a “foe” and accused it of ripping off the US in trade, Biden expressed his hope that the two sides would “cooperate on common challenges.”
“Great to speak with President-elect JoeBiden,” von der Leyen tweeted. “It is a new beginning for the EU-US global partnership … working together can shape the global agenda based on cooperation, multilateralism, solidarity and shared values,” she added.
Biden has already spoken to a host of European leaders bilaterally, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Both Biden, and his nominated secretary of state, Antony Blinken, have both criticised Brexit, a key concern of EU, and have expressed concern about the impact on peace on the divided island of Ireland.
Biden also spoke to the head of the transatlantic Nato defence alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, telling him of the “United States’ enduring commitment to Nato – including its bedrock principle of collective defence under Article 5.” Article 5 is a mutual defence clause which holds that an attack on one Nato member is an attack on the whole alliance .
With 2020 upsetting so many people’s lives, many are seeking new directions to reach their personal targets and goals in life.
It is not Man’s dreams that fail him. It is the lack of know-how required to bring those dreams into actuality.”
— L. Ron Hubbard
WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, UNITED STATES, November 24, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ — Life as we know it has changed in many ways due to the events of 2020. Statistics and indicators show that it might continue to change for some months to come.
How does one navigate so many changes in life, particularly those greatly impacted by the economic challenges of 2020? How can one stay on top of the changes and be the driver of their life and not the passenger?
With a lot of change can come confusions that toss one into apathy, anxiety and frustration. Many now have unrealized goals or incomplete plans or face tasks that appear overwhelming—even impossible to achieve. This is true not only of individuals, but of companies and even countries. History is filled with incomplete or failed projects.
Availing oneself of the free online course “Targets and Goals” can put one in the driver’s seat and more in control.
Based on the works of bestselling author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard (lronhubbard.org), the “Targets and Goals” course is offered by the Church of Scientology on its Volunteer Ministers website.
The course addresses what steps to take and how to apply them to anything—a personal ambition, a family, a group, a business and more.
“Targets and Goals” guides one step by step through the reading material and the practical exercises to use each new skill learned. The course is self-paced and generally takes about five hours to complete.
“So you may ask yourself: Did COVID-19 throw my 2020 plans and dreams out the window and give me unexpected hurdles and challenges? If the answer is yes, this course will give you the practical tools to achieve the new goals you set,” said Rev. Susan Taylor of the Church of Scientology National Affairs Office in Washington, DC.
“Mr. Hubbard states, ‘It is not Man’s dreams that fail him. It is the lack of know-how required to bring those dreams into actuality.’ Having and applying the tools to reach your goals is the first step,” concluded Rev. Taylor.
Offering the free online courses is just one of many activities Volunteer Ministers around the country have been engaged in during much of 2020. Another is the distribution of millions of hygiene protocol education booklets to residences, shops, community centers, government agencies, medical centers and hospitals. In the Washington, DC, metro area over 100,000 booklets have been personally distributed. The important material is also available online at their “How to Stay Well Prevention Resource Center” site.
