Not shocked #Georgia Democrat Senate candidate Raphael Warnock said “You cannot serve God and the military” at the same time. These & even crazier things is what the radicals who control the Democratic party’s activist & small dollar donor base believepic.twitter.com/bQyBuKLwjb
“This sermon is based on a biblical verse that reads ‘No man can serve two masters … Ye cannot serve God and mammon,’ a biblical term for wealth,” Clark said. “Reverend Warnock was speaking about the need to commit to moral life before pursuing other priorities. As the video of the congregation’s response makes clear, this is another blatant effort by Kelly Loeffler to take Reverend Warnock’s words completely out of context. Given her own decision to spend her first days in the U.S. Senate profiting off the pandemic, perhaps she should watch the sermon more closely.”
Its meaning wasn’t particularly difficult to decipher. Several Twitter users were able to do so with little trouble. Journalist Wesley Lowery tweeted: “this is extremely standard Christian rhetoric about “serving two masters” [Matthew 6:24, since I know you like verses]”
x
He’s literally quoting Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other, Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Journalist Sam Stein asked: “Why are Raphael Warnock’s faith and sermons fair game for attack but Amy Coney Barrett’s religious views not?” The newly appointed Supreme Court justice has been associated with the religious group People of Praise, which isn’t in and of itself some crime of consciousness. But being a complete stranger to a judge’s responsibility to remain unbiased, Barrett apparently likes to spew her religious teachings to law students to teach them “how God can use them as judges, law professors and practicing attorneys to help keep the door open for the spread of the Gospel in America.”
But in following GOP logic, we should all overlook that and focus instead on what Warnock—who’s been quite upfront about being the pastor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s church home Ebenezer Baptist Church—says on the pulpit. Feel free to roll your eyes now.
Mushroom growing matter makes great compost but contains a lot of water, making it heavy and unprofitable to transport, so it currently goes to waste. Credit: needpix.com//licenced under CC0
Cultivating mushrooms produces a lot of waste. For every kilogram of mushrooms produced, about three kilograms of soil-like material containing straw, manure and peat is left behind. In the EU, this results in more than 3 billion kilograms of waste per year.
Managing this waste is a challenge. Although it is rich in organic matter, and therefore useful as compost, used mushroom substrate—the soil-like material—contains a lot of water, which makes it heavy and unprofitable to transport. Some of it is used as compost in agricultural land close by but the vast majority that remains ends up being stored temporarily then landfilled.
“Every year we have more and more waste,” said Pablo Martinez, project manager at the Mushroom Technological Research Center of La Rioja in Spain. “So, we need larger and larger areas just to manage this waste.”
More mushroom waste could soon be given a second life though thanks to new innovations. Dr. Bart van der Burg, Director of Innovation at BioDetection Systems in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and his team are interested in discarded mushroom parts, such as stems, and deformed mushrooms, which are part of the cultivation leftovers. They are aiming to extract components such as proteins, carbohydrates, fats and chitin—a fibrous substance—from them as part of the Funguschain project. Their goal is to incorporate these extracts into new products such as novel foods, cosmetics and bioplastics. “I think we will end up with at least three products coming out of this project,” said Dr. van der Burg.
The team has been experimenting with different extraction techniques. After milling and grinding the mushrooms, they found that a technique using microwave radiation was effective for removing antioxidants, antimicrobials and organic compounds called polyols, for example, which could be used in food and bioplastics. A pressurised hot water tea-like technique was suitable for extracting other components such as proteins and polysaccharides—a type of carbohydrate—for use in food products.
Food
At the same time, they have been developing new products with different companies. Extracted mushroom protein is being incorporated into food for older people with swallowing problems, for example, in the form of solid, edible gels. The protein is also of interest for vegetarian burgers where both the nutritional value and mushroom taste are desirable.
Mushroom powders could also be incorporated in functional foods, another avenue they are investigating. However, these products will take longer to develop since potential health benefits need to be evaluated.
In terms of cosmetics, the team is developing a natural line of creams that contain chitin, a preservative, extracted from mushrooms which acts as a natural preservative. Mushroom components tend to become brownish when they come into contact with oxygen, which would make creams an unappealing brown colour, but they’ve managed to prevent a colour change. ‘(Discolouration) depends on additional ingredients,” said Dr. van der Burg.
The team thinks mushroom waste could be reduced by up to 40% with the products they are creating. But they are also investigating other uses, such as composting and biogas production, which utilise all the soil-like leftovers from mushroom cultivation and could increase the amount of waste that is repurposed. These applications are more straightforward and would be easier to commercialise says Dr. van der Burg. “That’s one reason why we are still investing in that part.”
Martinez and his team are developing a system to remove water from mushroom waste and turn it into pellets of organic fertiliser as part of their SmartMushroom project. “Once it’s pelletised, we can deliver it anywhere for agricultural use,” said Martinez.
Their goal is to develop an environmentally friendly process that doesn’t use electricity or traditional sources of energy to power the drying. They are using some of the mushroom waste to produce biogas as a power source by optimising an existing production process that usually uses waste slurries from other agricultural processes.
Waste management
At the beginning of the project, a pilot plant was set up in an existing waste management facility. But their process can be set up wherever it’s needed. It uses four containers and doesn’t require building infrastructure. For the past year, the researchers have been perfecting the drying process by performing tests that experiment with different temperatures. If temperatures are too high, the waste can decompose, releasing nutrients that are important components of fertilisers.
The team is currently trying to increase the amount of biogas produced by combining mushroom byproducts with other types of agricultural waste. For example, several companies nearby produce marmalade so they are reusing the water used to clean machinery which contains sugar and fruit residue. “At this point, we are measuring the volume and quality of the gas produced by adding different co-substrates to our material,” said Martinez.
The project is also trying to produce fertilisers that are tailored to different crops. Before the dried waste is pelletised, extra nutrients can be added. Vineyards, for example, require balanced levels of potassium, phosphorus and manganese so the fertiliser can be supplemented to match the exact amount required.
Being able to produce organic pelletised fertiliser could have huge economic benefits for mushroom growers. At the moment, cultivators bear waste disposal costs which range from €10 to €50 per tonne of spent mushroom substrate in Europe. But in the future, they could make a profit by bringing their waste to a plant that will transform it into fertiliser and enable them to operate within a circular economy. “They will get paid depending on how much they bring to waste management facilities,” said Martinez.
Eventually, all the mushroom growing industry’s soil-like residue could be turned into pelletised fertiliser once the technology is commercialised, says Martinez. So far, there is high demand for the fertiliser from farmers in Spain and their pilot plant can’t produce enough to meet it. “If we can pelletise all our production, we will sell all our production,” said Martinez. “That means there will be no waste remaining from the mushroom cultivation sector.”
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Mushroom cultivation produces three times its weight in waste. It’s now being turned into burgers and fertiliser (2020, November 18)
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Retired General Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, who was Mexico’s Minister of Defense from 2012-2018, was arrested last month in Los Angeles International Airport, accused of drug trafficking and money laundering for an offshoot of the Beltran Levya drug cartel, which also involved him allegedly protecting them from law and order. He denies all the charges.
Zepeda was due to appear in a US Court today to answer those charges. However, in an extraordinary turn of events prosecutors from the eastern district of New York have announced: “The United States has determined that sensitive and important foreign policy considerations outweigh the Government`s interest in pursuing the prosecution of the defendant.” Under escort, the General will be returned to Mexico to face the accusations.
The arrangement was jointly agreed by US Attorney General William Barr and his opposite number in Mexico, Alejandro Gertz Manero. The Mexican Government was outraged that the United States’ Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), hadn’t shared any of the evidence leading up to the General’s arrest on US soil. Mexico lodged a formal complaint, and the incident threatened to have serious and long-lasting effects and consequences on bi-lateral cooperation.
On Thursday, the authors of two studies will present their work and discuss with MEPs in a joint Constitutional Affairs and Legal Affairs committee meeting.
Dr Christoph Demmke, Professor of Public Management, University of Vaasa, Finland, will present “Conflict of interest policies: effectiveness and best practice in Europe“. The study analyses the effectiveness of relevant rules, policies and practices within member states regarding conflict of interest for top political appointments.
Dr Markus Frischuut, Professor, Jean Monnet Chair “EU Values & DIGitalization for our CommuNITY (DIGNITY)”, at MCI / The Entrepreneurial School, Innsbruck, Austria will follow with “Strengthening transparency and integrity in the EU institutions by setting up an independent EU ethics body“. Based on a comparison covering France, Ireland and Canada, this study proposes an ‘Independent Ethics Body’ (IEB) via a new interinstitutional agreement.
Antimicrobial medicines, including antibiotics, have long been overused and misused, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which added that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is “spreading further and faster every day”.
Antibiotics are medicines used to prevent and treat bacterial infections, explained the World Health Organization (WHO), and are included in the more encompassing term of antimicrobials.
While bacteria, not humans or animals, become antimicrobial-resistant, they may infect humans and animals, and the infections they cause are harder to treat than those caused by non-resistant bacteria.
FAO maintains that if left unaddressed, AMR may force tens of millions more people into extreme poverty, hunger and malnutrition.
“Just like the COVID-19 pandemic, AMR is no longer a future threat”, said FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo. “It is happening here and now, and it is affecting us all”.
Ripple impacts
The World Health Organization (WHO) stressed that antimicrobial resistance makes common infections harder to treat and accelerating the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.
AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi or parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, posing a global health and development threat.
The overuse of medicines in humans, livestock and agriculture, as well as poor access to clean water, sanitation and hygiene are some of the factors that have accelerated the AMR threat worldwide, according to WHO.
FAO added that a lack of AMR regulation and oversight, the use of antibiotics as growth promoters in animals, and over-the-counter or internet sales that have sparked a boom in counterfeit or poor-quality antimicrobials are also reasons.
“Around the world people, animals and plants are already dying of infections that cannot be treated – even with our strongest antimicrobial treatments”, stated Ms. Semedo.
Threatening modern medicine
WHO has declared AMR as one of the top 10 global public health threats facing humanity.
DAMASCUS – The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) welcomes a donation of €2 million from the European Union (EU) for monthly food assistance for Syrian families facing unprecedented levels of hunger.
The donation will help Syrians across the country, but particularly those in the northwest hardest hit by conflict, displacement, soaring food prices and COVID-19. Families will get a monthly nutritious food basket at a time when parents are struggling to afford basic food items.
“After almost 10 years of relentless war and shelling, many Syrians have exhausted all their resources and need our support more than ever. The European Union is committed to continue providing humanitarian aid and food assistance for as long as the man-made crisis in Syria causes intolerable human suffering,” said European Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič.
A record 9.3 million Syrians are food insecure and an additional 2.2 million are at risk across the country. Families are facing multiple shocks compounded by COVID-19, including food prices that are now the highest ever recorded. Basic food items are 2.5 times more expensive than they were last year and highly vulnerable families are increasingly dependent on food from WFP to survive.
“Syrian families have nothing left and the needs have never been greater,” said WFP Representative and Country Director in Syria Corinne Fleischer. “WFP is grateful for the EU’s support, and this funding will help us reach some of the country’s most vulnerable people who risk slipping further into hunger and poverty after more than nine years of conflict.”
The EU is a close partner and a significant donor to WFP’s operations in Syria. Since 2012, it has contributed over €190 million to WFP’s lifesaving work in the country. Thanks to continuous funding from donors like the EU, WFP provides 4.8 million Syrians each month with food, nutrition support, school meals and snacks as well as assistance designed to help them rebuild their livelihoods.
Contact
For more information please contact (email address: [email protected]):
EU guarantees will enable Silk Road Bank AD Skopje to offer micro finance products under more favourable terms to micro companies
This agreement will support recovery of private sector, development of startups and employment in North Macedonia
After a successful and thorough due diligence by The European Investment Fund (EIF) and the European Investment bank (EIB), the twin Luxembourg based Multilateral Institutes have given a serious show of confidence to Silk Road Bank, its Management, its Business Model, Its Corporate Governance as well as the Bank’s Swiss Shareholder and their professionalism. The Bank is humbled by this show of support by these two institutions and shall endeavor to be the “best in breed”.
Thanks to the EaSI Guarantee, funded by the European Union and implemented on its behalf by the European Investment Fund (EIF), Silk Road Bank AD Skopje will be able to issue up to €5 million in microcredits to micro-companies in North Macedonia. Loans under this agreement will be available to companies with a maximum of 9 employees. The annual turnover of the company should not exceed €2 million.
The funds are allocated from the budget of the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation (“EaSI”), which aims to support the EU’s objective of high levels of employment and adequate social protection, while fighting against social exclusion and poverty and improving working conditions. The microfinance and social entrepreneurship axis of the EaSI programme provides support to financial intermediaries that offer microloans to entrepreneurs or finance to social enterprises. The objective is to increase access to microfinance, which includes microcredit i.e. loans of up to €25,000, in particular for vulnerable persons and micro-enterprises.
To this end, Silk Road Bank has created the Bizz UP package of products intended for financing of vulnerable categories of clients as well as start ups and companies in their development phase with an operating history of up to 36 months. Following the signing of the cooperation agreement with the European Investment Fund (EIF), Silk Road Bank as а financial intermediary will support financing of these categories of clients on the domestic market, through the funds from the Employment and Social Innovation Program (EaSI) financed directly by the European Union. The Bizz UP package consist several micro finance products, such as overdraft, loans for working capital needs and investment loans.
Alain Godard, EIF Chief Executive, stated: “We are happy to be able to provide this kind of support for the private sector in the Western Balkans, especially to micro-enterprises and startups that often face significant difficulty in accessing finance and have been hardest hit by the pandemic. The EU-supported guarantees will enable Silk Road Bank to offer loans on more favourable terms and conditions for their working capital and investment needs. In this way, we help companies maintain liquidity, support existing jobs and create inclusive employment opportunities in the longer-term.
“Silk Road Bank, in the middle of the COVID pandemic crises introduces the Bizz UP Package of products especially designed to support vulnerable categories of clients, as well as Micro-Enterprises, either in startup or development phase with financial support in amount of up to €25.000, with privileged interest rates in comparison to the regular interest rates and favorable payment terms. These products are supported by the European Investment Fund through the Employment and Social Innovation Program through taking over a part of the credit risk of these exposures” said Mr. Igor Dimitrov, President of the Bank’s Management Board.
Background information:
European Union Programme for Employment and Social Innovation
Under this programme, the European Commission supports microfinance and social entrepreneurship finance with an overall envelope of €193 million for the 2014-2020 period. The aim is to increase access to microfinance i.e. loans of up to €25.000, in particular for vulnerable people and microenterprises. In Addition, for the first time, the European Commission is also supporting social enterprises with investment of up to €500.000. The microfinance and social entrepreneurship support is first implemented through the EaSI Guarantee, which will enable microcredit providers and social enterprise investors to reach out to entrepreneurs they would not have been able to finance otherwise for risk consideration. The European Commission has selected the EIF to implement the EaSI Guarantee. https://www.eif.org/what_we_do/microfinance/easi/easi-funded-instrument/index.htm.
About the European Investment Fund (EIF)
The European Investment Fund (EIF) is part of the European Investment Bank Group. Its central mission is to support Europe‘s micro, small and medium-sized businesses by helping them to access finance. EIF designs and develops both venture and growth capital, guarantees and microfinance instruments which specifically target this market segment. In this role, EIF fosters EU objectives in support of innovation, research and development, entrepreneurship, growth and employment. https://www.eif.org
About Silk Road Bank AD Skopje
Silk Road Bank is the former Greek owned Alpha Bank AD Skopje which was taken over by Swiss Holding Company, Silk Road Capital, in May 2016. The bank was founded in 1993 under the name of Kreditna Banka AD Skopje and was one of the first privately funded banks in Macedonia. The turn around at Silk Road Bank that started in May 2016 has been very challenging. Since then Silk Road Bank AD Skopje is focused on growth and shall continue its proven business strategy by embedding bank’s products and services to the needs of the clients and oriented towards the current aspects of the banking business, improved products and innovations, thus confirming the image of a dynamic and state-of-the-art European Bank which follows market trends and demands and meets the needs of its clients.
Archbishop José Gomez said Tuesday evening that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is setting up a team to deal with policies the future president may put in place which diverge from Church teaching.
He announced the move at the conclusion of the public portion of the USCCB Fall plenary assembly, which was held online on 16-17 November.
Archbishop Allen Vigneron of Detroit, USCCB vice president, will lead the special working group.
The team will be composed of the chairmen of various committees, including those covering doctrine and communications.
Joe Biden is set to become the second president who professes the Catholic faith in America’s history. The first was John F. Kennedy.
Speaking to US Bishops, Archbishop Gomez said the Church in the country is facing a “unique moment”, which “presents certain opportunities but also certain challenges.”
He added that President-elect Biden “has given us reason to believe his faith commitments will move him to support some good policies.” Archbishop Gomez counted immigration reform, aid to refugees and the poor, racial justice, capital punishment, and climate change among the list.
President-elect Biden has “also given us reason to believe that he will support policies that are against some fundamental values we hold dear as Catholics.”
Archbishop Gomez said these include the repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal funds to pay for most abortions, and the preservation of Roe vs. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision which legalized abortion. “Both of these policies undermine our preeminent priority for the elimination of abortion,” said Archbishop Gomez.
Other potential issues include “unequal treatment of Catholic schools” and the Equality Act.
‘Confusion among the faithful’
“These policies pose a serious threat to the common good whenever any politician supports them,” said Archbishop Gomez. “We have long opposed these polices strongly and we will continue to do so.”
“When politicians who profess the Catholic faith support them there are additional problems,” he added. “And one of the things it creates confusion among the faithful about what the Church actually teaches on these questions.”
He called it a “difficult and complex situation.”
Enhance collaboration
Concluding his remarks, Archbishop Gomez said the USCCB responded similarly four years ago when President Donald Trump was elected, establishing a committee to address “critical issues”.
“Then as now,” he said, “committees already existed to address those issues and the goal was to emphasize our priorities and enhance collaboration.”
“This great achievement shows that together we can overcome any health challenge”, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO Director General, wrote in a tweet.
The outbreak in DRC’s northwestern Equateur Province emerged in early June and caused 130 Ebola cases and 55 deaths.
A key part of the response – with potential lessons for the global fight against COVID-19 – was the vaccination of more than 40,000 people at high risk of falling sick from the frequently fatal haemorrhagic disease, the WHO said in a statement. Like one of the COVID-19 candidate vaccines, the Ebola vaccine needs to be kept at super-cold temperatures to keep it from spoiling.
#Ebola outbreak in Equateur Province, ?? is over. This followed the end of the most complex Ebola outbreak in North Kivu in June. I invite you to read these powerful stories of those working to end the latest outbreak, including #healthworkers & survivors. https://t.co/WnvLG5ysFq
“Overcoming one of the world’s most dangerous pathogens in remote and hard to access communities demonstrates what is possible when science and solidarity come together,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
‘Transferrable’ to COVID
“The technology used to keep the Ebola vaccine at super-cold temperatures will be helpful when bringing a COVID-19 vaccine to Africa. Tackling Ebola in parallel with COVID-19 hasn’t been easy, but much of the expertise we’ve built in one disease is transferrable to another and underlines the importance of investing in emergency preparedness and building local capacity.”
The response to both diseases involves finding, isolating, testing, and caring for every case and relentless contact tracing. The innovative Ebola response includes special ARKTEK freezers that can store vaccines in the field for up to a week, enabling responders to vaccinate people in areas without electricity.
The Ebola outbreak was the 11th on record in DRC and its spread raised fears that it could reach the capital Kinshasa before being brought under control. The challenge of containing the disease was complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic and exacerbated by the spread of Ebola cases in remote areas in dense rain forests.
Many affected areas were accessible only by boat or helicopter and had limited telecommunications capacity, and the response was also slowed by a strike among health service providers over pay.
Funding shortage
There was also a shortage of international funding for Ebola, forcing the WHO to turn to emergency funds to support epidemiological and public health interventions.
The outbreak began just as the country was winning a nearly two-year battle with Ebola in the restive eastern part of the country, the world’s second-deadliest outbreak in which 2,280 people died.
David McLachlan-Karr, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in DRC, congratulated the government and health partners on ending the outbreak and said the engagement of communities had made it possible to stop the outbreak quickly. He also hailed the close cooperation between DRC and neighbouring Republic of Congo, which he said had prevented the disease crossing the river.
Learn the lessons
Mr. McLachlan-Karr said DRC’s Government should try to foresee the kind of pitfalls that had hampered the response effort and prevent them from recurring in future response efforts. He said that there was still much to do to, including taking care of orphans and supporting survivors, and there needed to be an efficient and effective system for surveillance and issuing alerts.
The virus was first discovered in 1976 and the worst outbreak on record hit west Africa in 2014-2016. Although that outbreak killed more than 10,000 people, it also gave rise to the development of a highly effective vaccine and several treatments for Ebola virus disease.
A plastic sheet separates a mother from her son at an Ebola treatment centre in Beni, North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Children will need special attention – UNICEF
“Though the outbreak is over, children affected by the Ebola epidemic will still require special attention and care, as communities affected begin to return to normal life,” said Edouard Beigbeder, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) Representative in the DRC.
The agency has provided care and psychosocial support to hundreds of children whose parents or caregivers have fallen ill or died due to Ebola. Such support is critical for children who are especially vulnerable to isolation, stigma, malnutrition or poverty.
“Throughout the latest epidemic to hit DRC, we have worked with our partners to meet children’s unique physical, psychological and social needs. This includes caring for the wellbeing of surviving parents and family members so that they can better look after their children,” he added.
The agency said that it would continue to reinforce the national health care system to make it more effective in responding to future epidemics. It is also working on programs for Ebola survivors in the DRC.
In addition, UNICEF plans to work with the local health authorities in Equateur to ensure that mothers and children in the areas previously affected by Ebola continue to receive quality essential health care. This includes improving water and sanitation in health centres, promoting hygiene practices in affected communities, provide psychosocial support to Ebola survivors, as well as children affected by the epidemic.
