, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20201024IPR90104/
Scientology Volunteer Ministers Reach Out to the Town of Csökmő as COVID-19 Surges in Hungary’s Second Wave
The bright yellow van of the Volunteer Ministers from the Church of Scientology Budapest was once more filled to the brim with supplies. This time, the Volunteer Ministers headed east to the town of Csökmő where the mayor and the president of the local Roma association worked with the volunteers to distribute food and cleaning supplies to those in need.
In September, with an increase in COVID-19 in the country, Hungary closed its borders to visitors, but the number of cases of the virus continues to surge. When a coronavirus case was diagnosed in the town of Csökmő, residents became frightened about its possible spread. Nearly a fifth of the town lives below the poverty line. They lack adequate food and the resources to procure basic hygiene products.
With donations from Scientologists and supplies from the Red Cross, Volunteer Ministers brought a ton of hand sanitizer, cleaning products and food for all 653 at-risk residents to ensure they get through this challenging time safe and well.
In addition to providing food and supplies, Volunteer Ministers ensure communities know how to protect themselves from the virus. As soon as the pandemic began, the most effective measures were researched for ensuring the safety of Scientology staff and parishioners, and these were implemented internationally as protocols under the direction of Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige.
To make this prevention information broadly available, the Church of Scientology created more than a dozen videos and three educational booklets: How to Keep Yourself & Others Well, How to Protect Yourself & Others with a Mask & Gloves and How to Prevent the Spread of Illness with Isolation. These are all available in Hungarian and 20 additional languages on the How to Stay Well Prevention Resource Center on the Scientology website.
The Scientology Volunteers of Hungary are headquartered at the Church of Scientology Budapest, whose new home was dedicated in 2016 by Mr. Miscavige. The Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers program is a religious social service created in the mid-1970s by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard.
Yemeni children suffer record rates of acute malnutrition, putting ‘entire generation’ at risk
New analysis from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the global standard for gauging food insecurity, revealed that in some areas more than one in four children were acutely malnourished.
“Acute malnutrition rates among children below five years old are the highest ever recorded in parts of southern Yemen, according to the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification”, said UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson, Marixie Mercado. “This new analysis released today puts the number of children suffering from acute malnutrition this year at 587,573, which is an increase of around 10% since January this year.”
Nationwide crisis
The IPC analysis looked at southern parts of Yemen, but a forthcoming analysis of northern areas is expected to show equally concerning trends.
Ms. Mercado said the most significant increase in southern areas was a 15.5% rise in children with severe acute malnutrition, a condition that leaves children around 10 times more likely to die of diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, malaria or acute respiratory infections, all of which are common in Yemen.
World Food Programme (WFP) spokeperson, Tomson Phiri, said the IPC forecast showed that by the end of 2020, 40% of the population in the analysed areas, or about 3.2 million people, would be severely food insecure.
“Those predictions, from what we are gathering on the ground, are likely to be an underestimate. It is highly likely that the situation is worse than initially projected as conditions continue to worsen beyond the forecast levels. Why is this so? The underlying assumptions of the projections have either been, or are close to being surpassed”, he said.
At the time the data was gathered, it was assumed that food prices would be stable, but that was no longer the case.
Devastating food price increases
“In fact, food prices have skyrocketed and are now on average 140% higher than pre-conflict averages. For the most vulnerable, even a small increase in food prices is absolutely devastating”, Mr. Phiri said.
“Our colleagues on the ground are also telling us that the situation is worse than in 2018 when WFP expanded assistance by over 50% and in the process averted a possible famine. Those gains in 2018-2019, I’m afraid we might be losing them as the conflict continues to intensify and economic decline continues unabated.”
Some families were being displaced for the third or even the fourth time, he said.
“And each time a family is displaced, their ability to cope, let alone to bounce back, is severely diminished.”
‘Entire generation’ at risk – Grande
Lise Grande, the Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen, said the UN had been warning since July that Yemen was on the brink of a catastrophic food security crisis.
“If the war doesn’t end now, we are nearing an irreversible situation and risk losing an entire generation of Yemen’s young children”, she said in a statement.
Jens Laerke, spokesman for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told the Geneva briefing that Yemen needed help.
“What can the world do right now? We have been warning for several months now that Yemen was heading towards a cliff. We are now seeing the first people falling off that cliff. Those are the children under five years of age. One hundred thousand of them are at risk of death, we are told. The world can help. The world can help by supporting the humanitarian response plan”, Mr. Laerke said.
Massive underfunding
“I’m sorry to keep repeating that over and over again. It is massively underfunded. It is only 42% funded. It asked for $3.2 billion. We are 10 months into the year. That is way below the funding levels we’ve seen in the past few years. So there is something the world can do. Money can help, and I think, of course, that now is the time to provide that money.”
A staggering 80 per cent of Yemen’s population – over 24 million people – require some form of humanitarian assistance and protection, including about 12.2 million children. A total of 230 out of Yemen’s 333 districts (69 per cent) are at risk of famine.
Despite a difficult operating environment, humanitarians continue to work across Yemen, responding to the most acute needs. However, funding remains a challenge: as of mid-October, only $1.4 billion of the $3.2 billion needed in 2020 has been received.
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Churches-EU Dialogue: Ecumenical delegation meets online with German EU Presidency
Churches-EU Dialogue: Ecumenical delegation meets online with German EU Presidency
An ecumenical delegation of the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE), the Conference of European Churches (CEC) and the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) had an online meeting on Tuesday 27 October 2020 with Michael Roth, Minister of State for Europe at the German Federal Foreign Office, to exchange on the priorities of the German Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
During the meeting, the delegation presented reflections, proposals and policy recommendations, addressing pressing priorities for the EU Presidency such as the COVID-19 recovery, climate issues, migration and asylum and the forthcoming Conference on the Future of Europe.
In the current context, dramatically marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, the delegation of EU Churches highlighted the need for the European Union to assert and express solidarity by supporting each Member State in recovering, through ecological, social and contributive justice, thereby transforming this dramatic and painful crisis into an opportunity.
Churches encouraged the EU Presidency to facilitate effective dialogue among the Member States in order to proceed speedily towards an agreement on the Recovery Plan. “A delay – highlighted the delegation – would severely damage sectors relying on EU funds to mitigate the impact deriving from the COVID-19 crisis and negatively affect the most vulnerable members of our societies”.
While welcoming the European Green Deal as an ambitious strategy, the delegation underlined “the crucial importance of achieving a socially just transition, reconciling competitiveness and economic growth with a sustainable economy and society”.
In light of the recently adopted new EU Pact on Migration and Asylum proposed by the European Commission in September 2020, Churches welcomed the idea of setting out a new comprehensive framework, aimed at creating a fair and predictable migration management mechanism. The ecumenical delegation also called on the EU and its Member States to act in concrete solidarity and responsibility towards migrants and refugees, stressing that rescuing people in distress at sea is a moral and legal obligation that should be respected by all States and non-State actors.
The meeting was also an opportunity to exchange on the Conference on the Future of Europe. EU Churches expressed their availability in “actively and constructively contributing to and participating in the Conference” in line with Article 17(3) TFEU and alongside other stakeholders, providing inputs for an institutional structure that better serves the Common Good, promoting dialogue and person-centered policies.
The event followed a first preparatory meeting held in July 2020, during which EU Churches presented their joint contribution on the programme of the German EU Presidency to Michael Clauss, Ambassador at the Permanent Representation of Germany to the EU.
Meetings with rotating EU Council Presidencies are part of a long-standing tradition supported by Article 17 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU), which foresees an open, transparent and regular dialogue between the EU institutions and Churches.
The meeting was held by video conference. The EU Churches’ delegation was composed of:
- H. E. Mgr. Franz-Josef Overbeck, Bishop of Essen and Vice President of COMECE;
- Bishop Frank Otfried July, Director of the EKD Commission of European Affairs;
- Manuel Barrios Prieto, General Secretary of COMECE;
- Jørgen Skov Sørensen, General Secretary of CEC;
- Lena Kumlin, CEC Senior EU Policy Advisor;
- Katrin Hatzinger, Director of the EKD Brussels office;
- Gabriela Schneider, Policy Advisor of theCommissariat of the German Bishops, Catholic Office;
- Oliver Thomas Rau, Advisor of the German Bishops’ Conference;
- Friederike Ladenburger, COMECE Legal Adviser for Ethics, Research and Health;
- Stephan Iro, Deputy Representative of EKD Council.
WHO delivers emergency medical supplies in response to conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh
In response to the continued escalation of conflict in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, WHO is delivering shipments of medical supplies, consisting of trauma and surgical kits, to Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Hundreds of civilians have been injured during the recent escalation of hostilities. Those affected by the conflict require immediate access to health services and medicines. Emergency supplies arrived in Yerevan on 23 October 2020 and those destined for Baku are in transit.
The supplies include trauma kits, with each containing medicines and supplies necessary to ensure the post-traumatic care of 100 injured people. Provided to the ministries of health in Armenia and Azerbaijan, they are used across the public health systems to provide care to those in need.
WHO/Europe’s health emergency team and country offices have been working with both ministries of health and local health authorities to rapidly identify and address the health needs of affected populations and those who have been displaced.
An immediate cessation of hostilities is vital to preserve access to health services, keep health care workers safe and prevent the continued spread of COVID-19.
Buddhist Times News – His Holiness the Dalai Lama commends United Nations and 50 member states on nuclear ban treaty
His Holiness the Dalai Lama commends United Nations and 50 member states on nuclear ban treaty
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His Holiness the Dalai Lama/file image/Tenzin Choejor
Fifty countries have ratified an international treaty to ban nuclear weapons allowing the historic text to enter into force in 90 days.
Nobel peace laureate and lifelong advocate for nuclear disarmament, His Holiness the Dalai Lama welcomed the news, hailing the treaty “a step in the right direction to finding more enlightened and civilized arrangements for resolving conflicts”.
He commended the United Nations and the 50 member states for making possible “an act of universal responsibility that recognises the fundamental oneness of humanity”.
The treaty which remains the highest disarmament priority of the United Nations towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons would come into force on 22 January 2021.
Read His Holiness’ full statement here:
As an avowed campaigner for the elimination of all nuclear weapons, I welcome the fact that the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons has now been ratified by fifty countries and will come into force from January next year. This is indeed historic and augurs well for the future of humanity. It is a step in the right direction to finding more enlightened and civilized arrangements for resolving conflicts.
I have no doubt that this treaty’s coming into force will contribute to even more concerted efforts to do away with these dreadful weapons and secure genuine and lasting peace in our world. It is my belief that our generation has arrived at the threshold of a new era in human history. Because we are all interdependent, our vast and diverse human family must learn to live together in peace. I commend the United Nations and the concerned member states that have made this treaty possible. It is an act of universal responsibility that recognises the fundamental oneness of humanity.
The world has now taken the first positive step towards a more peaceful future, but our ultimate goal should be the demilitarization of the entire planet. I believe this is feasible if proper plans are made and people are educated to their advantages. Since the first step, the intention to eliminate nuclear weapons has been taken; ultimately total demilitarization can be achieved.
A nuclear-free world is in everyone’s interest. The reality today is we need to rely on mutual understanding and dialogue to resolve conflicts. Therefore, I take the opportunity to urge all governments to work to implement this treaty, so that the world becomes a safer place for us all.
Dalai Lama
26 October 2020
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Buddhist Times News – Xi Jinping’s Chinese Communist Party is executing plans to control Buddhist culture in Tibet while the People’s Liberation Army builds a military wall on the border with India.
In his August speech, Chinese President Xi Jinping had called party leaders to build an “impregnable fortress” to maintain peace and stability in Tibet (REUTERS)
China has been massively ramping up its military infrastructure, not just around the stand-off locations but along other stretches of the Line of Actual Control under the People’s Liberation Army’s Western Theatre Command. The deployment and the renewed focus on infrastructure upgrade has prompted Indian officials to suspect that the rapid militarisation of the border may be also linked to continuing efforts by President Xi Jinping to drive sinicization of Tibet with Han domination over Buddhist Lhasa.
“We would ordinarily have expected the mobilisation and the focus of the infra upgrade to be limited to the stand-off points, mostly aimed at warding off any armed threat from India to occupied Aksai Chin. But this is not the case,” a top national security planner said. “There has been a clear effort to militarise the autonomous region through infrastructure upgrade”.
The official cited recent satellite imagery of the Tibet region that shows shelters to house fighter jets in an excavated hill at Gonggar airbase in Lhasa, massive storage facility at Golmud in Qinghai province, a new road between Xinjiang region’s Kanxiwar, used as forward deployment base during 1962 war, to the Hotan airbase and border upgrade at Nyangulu and Nyingchi across Arunachal Pradesh. Nyangulu, 60 kilometres from the Arunachal border, was again used as a forward PLA camp in the 1962 war.
Also Read: Dalai Lama and Tibet card hold key in future India-China border escalation | Analysis
The development of Shiquanhe a mere 82 kilometres from the Demchok Line of Actual Control and construction of shelters near Mabdo La camp in occupied Aksai Chin means that while the focus of the global community will be on India-China stand-off, the Chinese communist leadership will continue to put its indelible stamp on Tibet.
A second official pointed to paramount leader Xi Jinping’s call on 20 August 2020 to build an “impregnable fortress” to maintain peace and stability in Tibet and spoke of an ironclad shield to ensure stability in the region. Speaking at Communist Party Symposium on Tibet Work, Xi directed the party leaders to solidify border defences, ensure frontier security in Tibet and plant “the seeds of loving China in the depths of the heart of every (Tibetan) youth.”
The Chinese concern over Tibet has heightened with the US appointing Robert A Destro, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor as the new special coordinator for Tibet issue on October 14 after a hiatus of four years. Tasked with a mandate of promoting dialogue between the People’s Republic of China and the 14th Dalai Lama to protect the unique religious, cultural and linguistic identity of Tibetans, Destro met Lobsang Sangay, head of Tibetan government-in-exile, a day later in Washington. This was the first time that a US State Department official met the leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile in six decades.
Also Read: Xi’s call for bolstering defences in Tibet ‘misguided’ and ‘unrealistic’: Lobsang Sangay
While China has fiercely opposed the appointment of a US coordinator on Tibetan affairs, intelligence reports confirm that for Tibetan Buddhist the 14th Dalai Lama is still considered a living god with his pictures being displayed prominently in houses in the outskirts of Lhasa. Beijing calls the Dalai Lama, who is treated by India as an “honoured guest” and a spiritual leader, a splittist and a terrorist.
China is already preparing for the succession of the temporal leader of Tibetans so that the communist party can control Buddhist culture while the PLA builds a military wall on the border with India.
Qatar condemns systematic hate speech based on belief, rase, religion
The Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday condemned the escalation of populist rhetoric inciting against religions and affirmed its absolute rejection of all forms of hate speech based on belief, race or religion including the deliberate offending of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
“This inflammatory speech has witnessed a dangerous turn with the increasing institutional and systematic calls for the repeated targeting of nearly two billion Muslims around the world through the deliberate offending of the noble Prophet Mohammed, peace be upon him,” the ministry said in a statement.
It warned against deliberately offending the noble prophet, which resulted in “an increase in the waves of hostility toward Muslims, who constitute a key component of society in different countries of the world”.
Qatar called on the international community to stand up to its responsibilities by rejecting hate speech and incitement, stressing that it will continue to support the values of tolerance and co-existence and work toward the establishment of the principles of international peace and security.
READ: France demands Arab countries prevent boycott of French business over insults of Prophet
Last week, French President Emmanuel Macron publicly defended blasphemous cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).
Macron made the remarks during a tribute to high school teacher Samuel Paty who was beheaded earlier this month for showing insulting cartoons of the prophet during a civics class.
Macron said France would not “give up” the caricatures and pledged to tackle “Islamic separatism” in the country.
The president’s speech, which has led to an increase in Islamophobic attacks in France, has also increased calls for Muslims to boycott French goods.
Mass for Europe cancelled due to new Covid-19 measures in Brussels
Mass for Europe cancelled due to new Covid-19 measures in Brussels
In consideration of the sanitary measures recently adopted by the authorities of the Brussels Region to prevent the further spread of Covid-19, we regret to inform you that the Mass for Europe is cancelled.
The Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Union (COMECE) cancels the Mass for Europe scheduled for Wednesday 28 October 2020 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary since its establishment.
The decision follows the suspension of all religious services in the region of Brussels as part of a broader set of reinforced measures announced on Saturday 24 October 2020 by the Brussels regional government aimed at slowing or reversing the rise of cases of Covid-19 in the capital of Belgium.
The Mass for Europe was supposed to be celebrated by of H. Em. Pietro Parolin, Cardinal Secretary of State of His Holiness Pope Francis. Despite this change of plans, His Eminence will remotely address the Autumn Assembly of the EU Bishops on Wednesday 28 October 2020.
COMECE thanks all of those who registered to participate in the Mass for Europe. We will keep you informed on the organisation of a future Mass for Europe and we invite you to already visit SanctuaryStreaming.eu, the online platform offering religious services via streaming from sanctuaries from all over Europe.
