, https://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/press-room/20201002IPR88446/
Communists Warn Citizens: ‘Christianity Does Not Belong in China’
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) continues its frantic campaign to erase crosses from even Party-controlled churches, the human rights magazine Bitter Winter reported on Tuesday, explaining to Christian residents the crosses must go because “Christianity does not belong in China.”
Christianity has arguably a much older presence in much of China than it does in Western Europe and arrived there over a millennium before it did in the Americas.
Communism is an ideology founded out of the writings of European agitators. Karl Marx, its intellectual father, was born about 5,000 miles from Beijing.
The Bitter Winter report this week focused on a town in Shandong province, northeast China, where locals say CCP officials began taking down the crosses from all legal “Three-Self Patriotic” churches. The “patriotic” church is the Party-approved version of Protestantism in the country; only four other religions — Chinese Catholicism, Taoism, Buddhism, and Islam — are legal in the country. The campaign to remove the crosses in the town, identified as Dazhongcun, reportedly began in July.
In Linyi, a city in the province, officials reportedly began erasing public signs of Christianity in 2019, arguing that the faith was growing too popular too quickly for the Party to control.
“On April 11, the municipal United Front Work Department convened an emergency meeting for the city’s Three-Self Church pastors, informing them,” Bitter Winter reported, “that because ‘there were too many Christians in Linyi,’ the provincial government had issued a red-headed document ordering to control the matter by cracking down [on] places of worship.”
Reports of similar moves targeting the few Chinese Christians who actually use CCP-approved churches have surfaced nationwide. In some parts of the country, the churches have now become nondescript buildings. In others, the Party has adorned churches with the communist red star and other Marxist imagery.
The Three-Self Church is highly unpopular among Chinese Christians, according to aid groups helping them continue to practice their faith in the country, because all sermons, Bibles, and other materials must be first approved by the Party, meaning that most has been diluted into communist propaganda incompatible with real Christian teachings. Instead, many Christians risk their lives by attending illegal “house” church services, in which the Christians of a given neighborhood gather secretly to worship without government supervision.
Christianity is believed to have arrived in China first through missionaries related to the Assyrian Church of the East, or more commonly known as the Nestorian Church. The history of its arrival is in part written on a stone tablet known as the Nestorian Stele, or the Xi’an Stele, found in the eponymous city. According to the tablet, Christians arrived in China in 635 AD. By the turn of the millennium, however, Chinese emperors had worked to curtail its influence.
While its status as a Christian movement has caused significant controversy, the single most significant movement caused in part by Christian missionaries is the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, founded in the mid-1800s by a man named Hong Xiuquan, who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus of Nazareth. Taiping followers attempted to secede from the Chinese empire, causing the war known as the Taiping Rebellion, which claimed about 20 million lives between 1851 and 1864.
Since Mao Zedong’s conquest of China over 70 years ago, communists have persecuted Christians and other faithful, forcing them to conform to Marxist atheism. That persecution has worsened under current dictator Xi Jinping following a period in which the “patriotic” church was allowed to appear at least nominally as a Christian organization in public. Xi has outlawed children attending church services, or any religious gathering, and targeted for closure Christian children’s camps and orphanages. Poorer Christians also face threats of losing government aid if found to be openly worshipping and reports have surfaced of Party members pressuring rural Christian to remove crosses displayed publicly and replace them with photos of Xi Jinping.
“The Chinese Communist Party is trying to rewrite the Bible itself to ‘sinicize’ the Christian doctrine,” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a speech last month. “That’s unacceptable. That will diminish the Chinese people. We want good things for them.”
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Intensive farming worldwide threatens Paris climate accord, report says
The spread of intensive farming is threatening to jeopardize the world’s chances of meeting the terms of the Paris agreement on the climate crisis, as the increasing use of artificial fertilizer and growing populations of livestock are raising the concentration of a key greenhouse gas to levels far beyond those seen naturally.
Nitrous oxide is given off by the overuse of artificial fertilizers, and by organic sources such as animal manure, and has a heating effect 300 times that of carbon dioxide. Levels of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere are 20% higher than in pre-industrial times, with most of that increase coming from farming.
Emissions of nitrous oxide are growing at a rate of 1.4% a year, outstripping the forecasts of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and left untrammeled would put the world on track to exceed the 2C warming limit set under the Paris agreement, according to a paper published in the journal Nature.
Hanqin Tian, a professor at Auburn University in the US and lead author of the study, said: “The dominant driver of the increase comes from agriculture and the growing demand for food and feed for animals will further increase global nitrous oxide emissions. There is a conflict between the way we are feeding people, and stabilizing the climate.”
Current rates of nitrous oxide emissions were consistent with 3C of global heating above pre-industrial levels, the researchers found.
Artificial fertilizers make up about two-thirds of the emissions of nitrous oxide from farming. The gas is released when microbes in the soil break down the excess fertilizer, particularly in the boggy or over-wet ground where there is less oxygen.
Farmers can reduce the amount of nitrous oxide produced by simple measures such as targeting their fertilizer use more carefully, avoiding excess, and using fertilizer only in the right weather conditions.
“We have the tools to reduce this problem,” said Parvadha Suntharalingam of the University of East Anglia, the co-author of the paper. “This is not insurmountable. But these practices need to be adopted more widely. We don’t have to sacrifice production, just make sure it is managed more carefully.”
Brazil, China, and India are showing the highest growth in nitrous oxide emissions, owing to their rapid adoption of intensive livestock and grain farming, according to the Nature study. Emissions from the US have remained relatively stable, despite farm output growing.
Europe is the only region to have reduced nitrous oxide emissions, but most of these falls have come from requirements on industry, such as nylon factories. Emissions from farming have fallen more slowly, but measures to reduce the harm from fertilizers have now been adopted in some EU countries.
The gas also poses a threat to the ozone layer, which has been recovering in the last 30 years since the gases mainly responsible for its depletion – chlorofluorocarbons – were phased out under the 1987 Montreal protocol. Nitrous oxide breaks down in the stratosphere to react with ozone and is now the leading source of ozone depletion.
Nitrogen fertilizers have been a boon to farmers, as nitrogen in the soil is essential for plant growth. However, synthetic fertilisers are now cheap and are easily misused and overused, and there are few restrictions on their deployment around the world.
About a third of the nitrous oxide emissions from farming is from livestock manure. These can also be reduced by the management of slurry in large facilities and by changes to how manure is used as a fertilizer, such as injecting slurry into the soil instead of spraying it.
Nitrogen run-off from farming also harms rivers and lakes, and ammonia – from fertilizers and manure – is a leading cause of air pollution.
Although nitrous oxide is one of the six greenhouse gases covered by the 1997 Kyoto protocol, it has received less attention in recent years as the focus has been on carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels.
Nitrous oxide is better known as laughing gas, after its experimental use by Humphry Davy at the turn of the 19th century. It has therapeutic uses but is sometimes misused. It also has some industrial uses as a propellant and is a byproduct of nylon manufacture, but can be extracted from flue gases at the factory.
EU removes Cayman Islands from Non-Cooperative countries on taxes
Alternative Investment Management Association Welcomes The Decision Of The European Union To Remove The Cayman Islands From Its List Of Non-Cooperative Jurisdictions For Tax Purposes
AIMA welcomes the decision of the Council of the European Union to remove the Cayman Islands from the EU list of non-cooperative jurisdictions for tax purposes.
The full review process carried out by the Council’s Code of Conduct Group (CoCG) since 2018 determined that, by enacting economic substance legislation in line with OECD requirements, the Cayman Islands satisfied the Council’s criteria in line with international tax standards in all respects. However, in extending the concept of economic substance to the regulation of collective investment vehicles, the CoCG required further modifications to limited regulatory measures. Although these were in the course of being implemented, the Cayman Islands were included on the EU list on 18 February 2020. The removal of the Cayman Islands from the EU list has been made at the first subsequent opportunity.
AIMA Cayman members, as part of the Cayman financial services industry, worked with the Cayman Islands government to address the requirements of the EU while protecting the interests of the Cayman Islands as a leading investment fund domicile.
The Cayman Islands fully support the work of the EU and the OECD under the BEPS Project and other initiatives to promote tax good governance. They have, for many years, participated actively in the Global Forum for Transparency and Exchange of Information, as well as international and regional task forces addressing corruption, money laundering, and terrorist financing. The Cayman Islands were among the first jurisdictions to conclude a FATCA intergovernmental agreement with the US and they operate the OECD Common Reporting Standard. The Cayman Islands maintains a registry of beneficial ownership information that is provided to the governmental agencies of participating jurisdictions on demand.
The Cayman Islands have developed their position as a leading international financial center by establishing an effective and appropriate regulatory regime, and AIMA supports the policy of the Cayman Islands to work with international bodies to address developing global initiatives.
Ronan Guilfoyle, AIMA Cayman Chairman, commented: “This action by the EU acknowledges that the regimes established by the Cayman Islands for fund regulation and the wider economic substance requirement, as well as those for the exchange of tax and financial information, anti-money laundering and related measures are fully in line with international standards.”
Jack Inglis, AIMA CEO commented: “The Cayman Islands have been at the forefront of tax transparency in the asset management industry and the EU’s decision is a recognition of the jurisdiction meeting the most stringent conditions. This is good news for the alternatives industry, given the importance of the Cayman Islands as a fund and services center globally.”
Prof. David Baulcombe: Putting science at the service of Church and society – Vatican News
By Fr. Benedict Mayaki, SJ
Professor David Baulcombe is one of the newest members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. As such, He hopes – in collaboration with other academicians – to learn, discuss, and help work for the benefit of people and the planet.
Brief biography
Born in Solihull, Great Britain, Professor David Baulcombe studied at the Universities of Leeds and Edinburgh, and was awarded a research doctorate. He has focused his research on gene regulation and gene expression during normal development and in disease resistance. He is the recipient of several awards including the Balzan Prize for Epigenetics (2012) and the Wolf Prize in Agriculture (2010). In 2009, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
Since 2017, Prof. Baulcombe has been Research Professor at the Royal Society and Professor of Botany in the Department of Plant Science at Cambridge University, UK. He is the author of numerous publications and has taught in several universities.
Field of scientific research
“I have always been interested in the ways that science influences perspectives on the natural world and the ways we can use science to improve the well-being of people,” says Prof. Baulcombe, in an interview with Vatican News.
He explains that his research over the years has been about genes, particularly how they get switched “on” and “off”.
Clarifying further, he says that during development everything starts as one cell which “differentiates” into other types of cells. During this process, some genes are switched on, and others off. In the same way, when organisms are infected with viruses, genes in the host are switched on or off in response to the infection.
Professor Balcombe’s contribution in this regard has been to reveal not just the major “on and off” switches, but also information about what he refers to as a “fine-tuning mechanism” of the regulation of genes at the right level and at the right time.
Discovering how living things work
Giving more details about his approach, he calls himself a “reductionist wholist.” Illustrating this, he says that if we need to understand how living things work, it helps to know the component parts of the system. Therefore, since he holds that the “genes of living systems are probably their most fundamental component part,” understanding how they are regulated would lead to a better understanding of cells, organisms, and populations.
Prof. Baulcombe’s research has also led him to the discovery of a new molecule while working on “gene silencing” (regulation of gene expression in cells by switching them on or off). He explains that genes are made of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and that there is a system molecule in living cells called ribonucleic acid (RNA). In his work on gene silencing, his laboratory discovered this new, smaller RNA molecule in plants.
Environmental sustainability
Highlighting the applications of his research, Prof. Baulcome underscores its use in the field of agriculture: in disease and disease resistance in plants, as well as the development of agriculture which requires minimal application of pesticides. All of these, he explains, contribute to food security and environmental sustainability of agriculture.
His work on “gene silencing” also converged at the same time with the research of other people who were doing the same thing with animal cells (worms, mice and fungi).
This has thus also led to the creation of drugs and therapeutic compounds that can be applied to cure diseases in people based on the type of small RNA molecules that his research discovered.
Service to Church and society
He points out that there are many ways in which the Pontifical Academy of Sciences can help ensure that science is best used for the benefit of people.
With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, for example, he says that the Academy can help leaders of society, including the Church, to create frameworks that help identify and deal with “what we know and what we do not know” in complex systems like our societies.
Prof. Baulcombe also notes that there are other needs in society that could be, but have not yet been, addressed by science.
This, he explains, is often “because the priorities of scientific research are shaped by market forces and profit.”
He hopes that the Academy will use its “influence and its voice” to help tackle these problems through science.
Appointment to the Pontifical Academy
Pope Francis appointed him as an ordinary member of the Academy on 26 September 2020.
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences aims to promote the progress of the mathematical, physical, and natural sciences. It also seeks to stimulate an interdisciplinary approach to scientific knowledge and provide authoritative advice on scientific and technological matters, among other things. It is currently holding a Plenary meeting, from 7-9 October.
Estonia and WHO to work together on digital health and innovation
WHO and Estonia have agreed to collaborate on developing a digitally enhanced International Certificate of Vaccination, a “smart yellow card” to help strengthen the effectiveness of the COVAX initiative, which has been established to speed development and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
The agreement signed between His Excellency Jüri Ratas, Prime Minister of Estonia and Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General on 5 October 2020, covers working together across a range of digital health projects and innovations in addition to the vaccination card. These include a global framework for health data interoperability, and guidelines for national ePrescription and eDispensing systems, as well as the European Roadmap for the Digitalization of National Health Systems.
“The World Health Organization can play a huge role in global digital health governance. Our pilot project presents an extraordinary opportunity for the Estonian community to help the world in the fight against COVID-19 and to make our experience of building digital services global,” said Prime Minister Ratas.
Also speaking at the signing ceremony, Dr Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, recognized Estonia’s leading role in digital health. “Estonia has emerged as a regional and global front runner in digital health by creating digital public services that are freely accessible by all – and that traverse education, health and welfare sectors. They are Europe’s digital success story, and have much to offer the international community, through sharing of their knowledge and expertise for the creation of digital public health goods to improve the quality of life for millions,” he commented.
Prioritizing digital health in the WHO European Region
Empowerment through digital health is 1 of 4 flagship initiatives that were endorsed by European Region Member States in September 2020 as part of the European Programme of Work 2020–2025. This initiative seeks to provide technical and policy guidance and expertise on the safety and efficacy of digital health solutions across the Region, and ensure that they are used in a way that preserves equity and human rights.
One of its key objectives is to deliver the European Roadmap for the Digitalization of National Health Systems as a blueprint for the design of digital health and social care architectures; as a baseline for orienting and measuring digital health system investment and reform; and as a catalyst for funding, research and partner engagement for digital health. The agreement signed between WHO and the Government of Estonia will contribute to this work.
Referring to the agreement signed, Dr Tedros concluded, “My thanks again to the Government of Estonia, for sharing the knowledge they gained in their efforts to develop equitable and safe digital technologies, and especially to his Excellency, Prime Minister Ratas. Our strong commitment to work together brings us further down the road towards more equitable health and well-being for all”.
Pope urges science, technology to create inclusive society – Vatican News
By Robin Gomes
At a time when the pandemic has roiled the social, economic and spiritual fabric of society, Pope Francis hopes that advances in science and technology will help create a more equitable and inclusive society, where the neediest and most vulnerable are given preference.
“How wonderful it would be if the growth of scientific and technological innovation could come along with more equality and social inclusion,” the Pope said. “How wonderful would it be, even as we discover faraway planets, to rediscover the needs of the brothers and sisters who orbit around us!” he said, citing from his latest encyclical, Fratelli tutti, on fraternity and social friendship, released on Sunday.
The Pope made the remark in a message to the plenary session of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences which began on Wednesday.
The 7-9 October virtual meeting is focusing on the notion of science at the service of people for the survival of humanity, in light of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic and other global issues.
Working together
In his message, the Pope noted that despite “all our hyper-connectivity”, the pandemic has laid bare not only “our false securities” but also the “inability of the world’s countries to work together” to resolve problems that affect us all.
The virus, he pointed out, is not only affecting peoples’ health but also the entire social, economic and spiritual fabric of society. It is paralyzing human relationships, work, manufacturing, trade and even many spiritual activities.
Starting with the least
The impact of the crisis on the world’s poor is great, the Pope said. “For many of them, the question is indeed one of survival itself.”
With great numbers of children unable to return to school, he said, there is the risk of an increase in child labour, exploitation, abuse and malnutrition.
“The needs of the poorer members of our human family,” the Holy Father said, “cry out for equitable solutions on the part of governments and all decision makers.”
Healthcare systems need to become much more inclusive and accessible to the disadvantaged and those living in low-income countries. “If anyone should be given preference,” the Pope said, “let it be the neediest and most vulnerable among us.” And when vaccines are available, there should be equitable access to them regardless of income, always starting with the least.
Ecology
In his message to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Pope Francis also addressed issues of global warming, the ecological crisis and the dramatic loss of biodiversity in the context of the pandemic.
He said this moment of crisis is a summons to the human family to repent and undertake an ecological conversion.
Weapons of mass destruction
Pope Francis also spoke about scenarios that could arise from experiments in the world’s advanced physics and biology laboratories. In this regard, he said, scientists, like politicians, also have a responsibility “to halt not only the manufacture, possession and use of nuclear weapons, but also the development of biological weapons, with their potential to devastate innocent civilians and indeed, entire peoples”.
Pope wants the new ‘normal’ to be a new ‘different’ – Vatican News
By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp
Msgr Kevin Irwin believes that Pope Francis’s new Encyclical Fratelli tutti is speaking out of a deep concern that humanity is becoming more and more isolated from each other. The Pope’s focus, therefore, on fraternity and social friendship, speak to the heart of this concern.
“We are together”
Fraternity and social friendship go hand in hand, Msgr Irwin explains. The isolation that Pope Francis is addressing is manifested “in terms of countries and borders, in terms of economy and equality, in terms of development.”
Pope Francis’s point is “we are together”, and social friendship is the way to break down the barriers creating the isolation.
“If we take each other seriously, then we should be brothers and sisters and friends, and not just anonymous beings.”
Good Samaritans to each other
The Encyclical, Msgr Irwin says, “overturns the perspective of we and they. The perspective is all of us together, and we are to be Good Samaritans to each other.” The question that then presents itself is “How can we live that together?”
This is what makes the Encyclical profound. To understand its message fully requires that each person slow down, read it, pray with it and reflect on it. Msgr Irwin also suggests that “people begin working in study groups”, discussing it together. People can begin, he says, “to look at inequality in their own countries”. He also suggests dialogue with local Bishops to learn how they plan to move forward on specific topics such as poverty and the death penalty.
New words for past teaching
Although the terminology “fraternity and social friendship” may be new with Pope Francis, Msgr Irwin assures us that Pope Francis refers substantially both to Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI in the Encyclical.
While “the phrase itself is his own, and it has always been a concern of his… overall, it is terminology for a number of things in the Document which his predecessors have already spoken about: economy, the death penalty, etc.”.
World-wide dialogue
It was Pope John XXIII who first addressed an Encyclical to “all people of goodwill” with Pacem in terris. Msgr Irwin says it was a “breakthrough…because he [Pope John XXIII] knew that it would be an important document and he opened it up to the world for the first time”.
Pope Francis has done the same thing with Laudato si’, and now with Fratelli tutti. Therefore, these documents are not “in-house” but are meant “for the whole world to dialogue and discuss and hopefully begin to implement.”
New ‘difference’
Pope Francis’s hope and invitation with Laudato si’ was that it would spark dialogue across the religious and national spectrum. This dialogue is “just beginning to work”, Msgr Irwin acknowledges.
The purpose of Fratelli tutti is to create a new “normal”. With Fratelli tutti, “at this particular moment, in terms of Covid, I think he’s trying to say, ‘We can’t just keep doing this.’ There will be a new ‘normal’. But I think the Pope is asking for a new ‘difference’. It’s got to be different. We can’t keep doing this, and oppressing, and 1 out of 9 people going to bed at night hungry. This is not the way to live.”
Msgr Kevin Irwin is Ordinary Research Professor in the School of Theology and Religious Studies at The Catholic University of America, in Washington, D.C.
Belarus: ‘There is no sustainable development without human rights’ – a UN Resident Coordinator blog
For the UN, as for all international partners of Belarus, the scale of protests and the level of repressions were a big surprise. This is the first time that the country, which has been very stable and where people are generally quite reserved in terms of expressing their political views, is seeing an election contested to this degree.
What is also unprecedented is the intensity of repressions against demonstrators and journalists. About 13,000 people were arrested over the last eight weeks, most of the detentions taking place in the first week after elections. This will go down in the history books as something that never happened before in Belarus.
Another unexpected phenomenon was the social mobilization and the use of technology that allows people to communicate and coordinate their protests in real time. Social media and mobile internet are changing the way political activism happens. More and more people are expressing themselves and organizing online.
Promoting human rights
The role of the UN is to promote international norms and standards, and advocate for the respect of universal human rights. The UN reacted immediately, to remind the state authorities of their international obligations: torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment are absolutely prohibited and can never be justified.
From the beginning of the crisis, the UN Secretary General, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and myself as the UN representative in the country, have issued a number of official statements and urged the authorities of Belarus to respect the right to peaceful assembly and expression.
Facing the mass detentions of over 7,000 people in the week following elections, and allegations of torture in prisons, the UN urged the authorities to release everyone who had been detained for exercising their human rights, to stop torture and other forms of ill-treatment of detainees, investigate all cases of human rights violations, and clarify the fate and whereabouts of any individuals reported as missing.
With time, we have been receiving troubling reports and of torture and other ill-treatment. It is important to ensure that these are well documented, also to allow investigation of and future accountability for such acts. Timely medical examinations are crucial in this regard, alongside the important work of human rights organizations gathering information on these cases.
In my capacity as the UN Resident Coordinator and together with the Senior Human rights advisor in my office, Omer Fisher, we conveyed these messages directly to our national counterparts, first and foremost through the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Belarus and to the Ministry of Interior and other state institutions responding to the crisis. We have also raised these issues in writing, especially the question of missing persons. I am encouraged by the fact that the MoI has responded to our letter and that we are gradually receiving more information from the state authorities.
In addition to dialogue with the State, we continue to discuss the current situation with civil society partners. Both human rights NGOs and the leaders of SDG Partnership Group have expressed concern about the violence of the security forces, the lack of action, and delays in the investigation of alleged violations, including torture and other ill-treatment)..
At the UN, we are also receiving complaints directly from the victims and their lawyers: the majority of them do not feel confident that submitting complaints to the authorities will result in proper investigation.
For several years now, the UN in Belarus has been supporting organizations which offer psychological and legal support to victims of violence. The demand for this kind of assistance has increased dramatically and we will continue to provide capacity support to the national partners and non-governmental organizations involved in addressing these problems.
Coping with COVID
Like everywhere in Europe, new cases of COVID-19 in Belarus are on the rise. And of course, mass protests and especially detention of demonstrators in overcrowded institutions without proper physical distancing and other prevention measures can lead to further spread of infection.
In the first half of 2020 we adjusted our priorities and the actual content of our work has changed. All together, we provided some $7.5 million to the national response, including supporting the health system, and addressing the socioeconomic impact, namely, helping SMEs to strengthen their entrepreneurial skills.
The UN never closed offices, although many of our staff have been working from home. While the focus has been and remains on COVID-19 response, we continue working on long-term development issues. For example, we provided policy advice and concrete suggestions on what should be included in Belarus’ long-term development strategy up until 2035, which is being developed this year.
‘The only path forward is one of dialogue’
From the UN’s perspective, Belarus should set more ambitious development plans, by prioritizing the needs of young people and the ageing population; strengthening the position of women in the economy; and embracing new technologies and opportunities that will support sustainable economic growth that benefits the poorer and most marginalized segments of the society. This is the vision of cooperation in the next five years of our presence in Belarus.
Amid COVID-19, climate change and political upheaval, Belarus finds itself in an extremely competitive global and regional environment. The only path forward for the country is one of dialogue, ambitious reform and an innovative development agenda, underpinned by true respect for human rights.
There is no sustainable development without human rights. The UN in Belarus will continue to work on addressing these needs even though it is a challenging and stressful time, especially for the Belarusian members of our team.
We are often asked “could the UN do more?”. I would say that we are trying to do our utmost in this complex situation for Belarus, with the tools that are at our disposal. With good will, new energy, a willingness to engage in dialogue, and professional effort on all sides, I am sure Belarus will continue to grow and develop.
True Religion’s bankruptcy plan OK’d by court
True Religion Receives Court Approval to Exit Bankruptcy, Shifting Ownership to Lenders True Religion is on the verge of emerging from bankruptcy after receiving court approval for its Chapter11 reorganization plan, a significant step for the retailer that has faced financial turmoil amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This week, a spokesperson for the law firm Cole Schotz, which is representing True Religion in its Chapter11 case, announced that the plan will enable the apparel seller to transfer most of its new equity to existing lenders as part of a $65.8 million settlement.Having originally filed for bankruptcy in April2020, True Religion’s troubles were exacerbated by the pandemic, which forced the company to temporarily close its stores. According to court documents, the retailer currently operates50 stores, a significant reduction from the87 locations it had at the time of filing.
True Religion was one of the initial retailers forced to seek bankruptcy protection as the COVID-19 crisis wreaked havoc on the retail landscape. During the pandemic, the company’s revenue plunged by approximately80%, which prompted its Chief Financial Officer (CFO) to highlight the dire circumstances at the time of filing. The retailer sought a break on rent payments, a request that echoed across the industry as many retailers attempted to navigate the financial fallout from widespread store closures.
Founded in2002 by Jeff Lubell, True Religion previously filed for Chapter11 in2017. This first bankruptcy allowed the company to reduce its debt, but it failed to resolve ongoing issues. Problems persisted, with profits and sales declining in2019 due to “product designs which were not attractive to True Religion’s traditional customer base,” as noted by the CFO. Furthermore, heavy discounting in e-commerce channels to clear slow-moving inventory contributed to the retailer’s financial struggles.
For the year ending February1—prior to the pandemic—True Religion reported a net loss of 50million∗∗againstrevenuesof∗∗50million∗∗againstrevenuesof∗∗259 million. In an effort to regain stability, the company undertook various measures, including management changes, cost-cutting initiatives, and attempts to renegotiate with lenders. However, these out-of-court negotiations did not yield the desired results.
