Actions towards a circular economy are of utmost importance to safeguard nature, reduce pollution and achieve climate neutrality in Europe by 2050. A briefing, published today by the European Environment Agency (EEA), emphasises that, in addition to ongoing efforts to prevent waste, specific circular economy practices in sourcing of raw materials hold significant potential to also protect and enhance biodiversity.
Several recent assessments have raised alarm about biodiversity loss and decline of ecosystems in Europe and globally due to unsustainable patterns of production and consumption. The new EEA briefing points out that circular economy practices can help safeguard biodiversity by reducing primary resource-use, preventing pollution and, notably, by sourcing materials through biodiversity-friendly practices.
According to the EEA briefing, biodiversity-friendly sourcing of, for example, food, construction materials and textiles, merits more focus as it can amplify the potential of circular economy to reduce or even reverse biodiversity loss. Such practices include using seaweed for animal feed or crop fertiliser, recirculating water from green roofs and using agroforestry production methods for textiles. This type of biodiversity-friendly sourcing needs to be added to the traditional hierarchy of ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ in circular economy actions, the EEA briefing states.
Policymakers, businesses and citizens can all play are role in making circular economy actions more beneficial for nature. Policymakers need to design policies that ensure a strong integration between circular economy actions and biodiversity aspects over the entire life cycle of goods and services. Businesses need to develop and upscale innovations, paying attention to product life-spans, pollution and sourcing of materials. Consumers can support these actions by reducing overall consumption and demanding more biodiversity-friendly choices. Dietary shifts alone can help free up land, reduce water use and cut greenhouse gas emissions, the EEA briefing notes.
Key insights of the briefing will be presented on 13 June, at 10:00-11:30 CET, at the EU Circular Talk “The circular economy in the context of a limited supply of biomass – ways forward to address biodiversity loss and climate change”.
European Parliament / Belarus // On 31 May, MEPs Bert-Jan Ruissen and Michaela Sojdrova organized an event at the European Parliament about religious freedom in Belarus titled “Help the Christians in Belarus.”
One of the speakers was Vyacheslav Barok, a Roman Catholic priest who had to leave the country in 2022 and is now living in Poland. Through his personal experience, he testified about the situation of human rights and religious freedom under Lukashenko’s rule.
Being a priest in Belarus: from the Soviet Union to the 2020s
Vyacheslav Barok has been a priest for 23 years. Most of the time he lived in Belarus. He built a church there, reconstructed and repaired several more religious buildings. He was actively engaged in evangelisation and for over 10 years, he organised trips to pilgrimage places such as Velegrad, Lourdes, Fatima or Santiago de Compostela.
Belarus Catholic priest Vyacheslav Barok testifying at the European Parliament. Photo credit: The European Times
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, there was a brief sunshine period when religious life could be revived but still, the Church remained an object of discrimination, the priest said.
Until today, Belarus is the only country in the post-Soviet space, where the Office of the Commissioner for Religious Affairs has survived. This state institution was created at the time of the USSR for controlling and limiting the rights of believers.
“Even today, the state still gives the Commissioner the authority over all religious organisations as in the Communist period. It is within his or her competence to decide who is allowed to build churches, to pray in them and how,” Barok added.
Back in 2018, the same state-authorised Commissioner pressed his bishop to censor him in his homelies and to forbid him from speaking and writing in social media about social injustice in the country. Such pressure took place despite the Constitution of the Republic of Belarus providing for the right to freedom of thought and expression in its Article 33.
“Still, everything that happened before the autumn of 2020 with the rigged presidential re-election of Lukashenko was only a prelude to the open and comprehensive persecution of any manifestation of freedom of thought and the suppression of opinions alternative to ‘ideologically ‘sound ones’,” Barok stressed. Consequently, there were dozens of imprisoned priests and thousands of political prisoners.
Lukashenko’s open persecution of priest Vyacheslav Barok
In January 2020, Barok started producing a YouTube channel on which he shared his views on Christian matters in the modern world and discussed the social teaching of the Church.
His activities on social media drew the attention of law enforcement agencies. From November 2020 to May 2021, they monitored the content of his YouTube videos looking for some of his statements that could be criminalized. They ordered a linguistic examination of ten of his videos but they failed to find any crime on the basis of which he could be prosecuted. However, as a preventive measure, he was sentenced to ten days of administrative arrest in December 2020.
His requests for the administrative process and the court proceedings to take place in Belarusian, one of the two official languages alongside Russian, were rejected. The Belarusian language is unacceptable in Belarusian courts today, Barok said.
During the year 2021, law enforcement agencies staff called him occasionally and asked him more than once if he was still in Belarus. They were hereby hinting that he should leave the country.
As he neither wanted to limit his freedom of thought and expression nor planned to leave Belarus, an administrative case was again opened against him on trumped-up charges in July 2022. The prosecutor’s office started to confiscate all his office equipment and phones, most probably to try to deprive him of his means of producing videos for YouTube. At the same time, he also received an official warning from the regional prosecutor’s office. He then had to leave Belarus. Otherwise, he would not have been able to continue his ministry. He left for Poland from where he went on preaching and speaking on YouTube and other social media.
However, Lukashenko‘s regime did not forget him. Four of his YouTube videos were added to its list of extremist materials.
Additionally, to put pressure on him, representatives of law enforcement agencies visited his father several times in November and December 2022 and questioned him as a witness in the criminal case.
“Long before 2020, I predicted the social and political crisis in the country to get deeper. I argued that without rethinking the atrocities committed under communist rule, state-sponsored terror would inevitably reoccur,” Barok stressed.
A call and a message to the EU
And Barok went on saying: “Today, being in the European Parliament, I want to thank you for your interest in the difficult situation in Belarus. Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2022, Aleś Bialacki, who is Catholic and a Belarusian pro-democracy activist, called the current situation a ‘civil war’. He used this phrase in his final speech at the court and called on the authorities to put an end to it.”
On 3 March 2023, Ales Bialacki was sentenced to 10 years in prison on fabricated charges. He is a founding member of Viasna, a human rights organization, and the Belarusian Popular Front, serving as leader of the latter from 1996 to 1999. He is also a member of the Coordination Council of the Belarusian opposition.
Barok added:
“The civil war waged by the criminal regime against its own people is taking place in the context of the increasingly pervasive Russian occupation. Of course, under such external conditions, there is very little hope for freedom of religion. Today, if religious organisations still have the right to exist openly, it is only because Lukashenko’s regime needs to instrumentalize the churches for his own political purposes.”
And Barok concluded:
“If the world ignores the Belarusian problem, or an attempt is made to base a dialogue on compromises with evil (bargaining, for example, the release of political prisoners for the lifting of sanctions), the opposition in Belarus will only grow. It inevitably will lead to a violent scenario.In order for peace to return to Belarus, it is necessary to create a situation in which all those who have committed crimes against Belarusian people will begin to answer for those crimes.And of course, the help of the whole of Europe is needed here. The responsibility for the fate of Belarus rests not only on the Belarusian people, but also on the whole of Europe.”
The ancient space satellite has been in the vicinity of our planet since 100 BC.
Astronomers have discovered a new quasi-moon Earth – a cosmic body that orbits it but is gravitationally bound to the Sun, the Daily Mail reported.
The space object, named 2023 FW13, was discovered by experts using the Pan-STARRS telescope atop the Haleakala volcano on the Hawaiian island of Maui and is one of the few known quasi-moons.
Experts believe that the ancient space satellite has been near Earth since 100 BC. and will continue to orbit our planet for at least another 1500 years, until 3700.
Neither 2023 FW13 nor a similar quasi-moon called 469219 Kamo’oaleva is believed to pose a danger to humans on Earth.
Several candidates for Earth’s second moon have been proposed, but none have been confirmed so far.
Quasimoons are a subcategory of near-Earth asteroids that orbit the Sun but stay close to our planet. They move in an elliptical orbit around the Sun, which is very similar to the Earth’s. They appear to be in orbit around the Earth, but are gravitationally bound to the Sun.
2023 FW13 was first observed on March 28 this year with the Pan-STARRS telescope, and then its existence was confirmed with other telescopes. It is listed by the Minor Planet Center of the International Astronomical Union. Although its size has not been confirmed, asteroid specialist Richard Binzel estimates it to be about 10 – 15 m in diameter.
This is nothing compared to the size of the Moon, which is 3,476 km in diameter, although the Moon is classified as such because of its orbital characteristics, not size. 2023 FW13 orbits the Sun in 365.42 days, the same time as Earth. Although its orbit is around the earth, it is so elongated that it reaches halfway to Mars and halfway to Venus.
Earth has several known satellites, many of which are quasi-satellites, although, as 2023 FW13 indicates, there are likely many more yet to be discovered.
Quasi-satellites typically follow a “stable” path around Earth for more than a few decades before eventually leaving the planet’s orbit.
Kamo’oaleva (or 2016 HO3) was discovered by the Pan-STARRS telescope in Hawaii in 2016. Its diameter is about 100 m. It will be in this orbit for about 300 years, according to Renu Malhotra, an expert at the University of Arizona.
Photo by Patrik Felker: https://www.pexels.com/photo/desk-globe-against-black-background-6220559/
Every day, UN human rights officers are on the frontlines to support them.
They are part of the UN’s field work, talking to those most affected by conflict and monitoring how human rights principles and international humanitarian law obligations are being respected in situations of conflict and insecurity; like in Garowe, Somalia, where nearly 75,000 men, women, and children have fled to safety from nearby armed clashes amid a conflict that has already displaced as many as 200,000.
Read about a day in the life of a UN human rights team here.
Amina Abdirahman shares a room with three of her six children in Garowe, Somalia, after fleeing an outbreak of fighting in Laascaanood, 127-km away.
A team of Egyptian lawyers and archaeologists is demanding that the streaming company “Netflix” pay compensation in the amount of two billion dollars for the distortion of the image of Queen Cleopatra and Ancient Egypt in the feature-documentary series “Cleopatra”, the online publication “Egypt Independent” reported. The request was made in a letter to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Experts point out that Egypt has the right to take legal action to protect and preserve its tangible and intangible heritage, whether ancient or modern.
A few days ago, the Ministry of Culture of the North African country filed a complaint with the Egyptian Prosecutor’s Office against the American company, demanding that the film be removed from the platform and not be shown in any form.
This is the first legal action by an official institution in relation to the series. Earlier, lawyer Mahmoud Al-Semar announced that he was taking steps to block Netflix in the country.
The documentary series caused a wave of discontent and criticism in Egypt against the casting of the black actress Adele James for the role of Cleopatra Seven. After its premiere, the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Cultural Monuments released an official statement that the legendary queen, who was the last monarch of the Ptolemaic dynasty, was fair-skinned.
A frightened Ukrainian child on the Lviv Railway in 2022 - Photo by Anastasia Levko
Strassler Center hosts ‘The War in Ukraine Through a Camera Lens’
By Clark News and Media Relations
A Russian genocide scholar, on leave in the United States, has spearheaded a Clark University exhibition of photos documenting the war in Ukraine in defiance of Putin’s authoritarian policies prohibiting anti-war speech.
“The War in Ukraine Through a Camera Lens” is on display until fall in the Siff Gallery at the Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Ten Ukrainian photographers contributed powerful images that document the daily suffering and resilience of civilians living under siege. According to Tatiana Kazakova, a Ukrainian art manager and activist based in Lviv who curated the exhibition, “Our goal is to record the events that are currently taking place in Ukraine and the price that Ukrainians pay. Our pictures are untitled, because we all became Bucha, we all became Kyiv. We have one thing in common — the war — and we must end it with common efforts.”
A 2023 protest in Madrid against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. (Photo by Tatiana Kazakova)
The Russian academic who initiated the exhibition sought to document the impact of the invasion for an American audience. The scholar has necessarily chosen to remain anonymous because of the prospect of serious personal danger. Opposition to the war is routinely punished in Russia with fines, criminal prosecution, and blacklisting that imperils livelihoods. In April, the dissident Vladimir Kara-Murza received a 25-year prison sentence for anti-war activities, a sentence widely viewed as a move to intimidate other protesters, among them ethnic minorities, religious activists, and anarchists. On the opposite side of the protesters are far-right nationalists who support the aggressive prosecution of the war and who have expressed a preference for more direct conflict with NATO and the West.
According to Mary Jane Rein, executive director of the Strassler Center, the exhibition invites viewers to consider whether the crimes committed in Ukraine constitute genocide, given reports of widespread atrocities including sexual violence, extrajudicial killings, civilian massacres, and kidnapping of Ukrainian children. Since February 2022, these crimes have unfolded against a backdrop of Russian rhetoric denying the sovereignty, history, and cultural independence of Ukraine, she notes.
For Holocaust historian Thomas Kühne, Strassler Colin Flug Professor and director of the Strassler Center, the Russian invasion is “an attempt to erase Ukrainian history and culture.” The intent to destroy a national group is key to the definition of genocide, and many scholars feel that Russian atrocities in Ukraine have reached the genocidal threshold, he said, adding that the labelling of Ukrainians as Nazis, as Putin has done, demands a response from historians challenging the perversion of history for political ends.
A memorial of flowers and photos of Ukrainian war victims in Lviv. (Photo by Tatiana Kazakova)
The Strassler exhibit features the work of photographers Andriy Chekanovsky, Anatolii Dzhygyr, Sergey Karas, Vasyl Katiman, Tatiana Kazakova, Anastasia Levko, Kateryna Mostova, Viacheslav Onyshchenko, Nelli Spirina, and Yury Tumanov. Anya Cunningham ’24, Robyn Conroy, and Alissa Duke installed the exhibition.
With no end in sight, the conflict points to the need for a deeper understanding of the region and its complex history, Rein said. To that end, the Strassler Center has invited the Ukrainian Holocaust historian Marta Havryshko to hold a three-year appointment beginning in the fall as the Dr. Thomas Zand Visiting Professor. Formerly a director of the Babyn Yar Interdisciplinary Studies Institute at the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, Havryshko is completing a book project, “War, Power and Gender: Sexual Violence during the Holocaust in Ukraine,” that focuses on sexual violence against Jews of both genders during the Nazi occupation of Ukraine. She frequently writes and speaks about the current conflict in Ukraine. “Her presence on campus will continue to remind the Clark community of the horrors of the Russian invasion long after the photo exhibition concludes,” Rein said.
Tomatoes are present in the diet of many people. But unfortunately, they are not a one-size-fits-all food.
The disease in which tomatoes aggravate the symptoms
In people with painful joints, eating tomatoes can exacerbate painful symptoms. This is shared by Russian nutritionist Dr. Irina Mansurova. She adds that with joint diseases such as arthrosis or arthritis, tomatoes should be consumed very carefully. “Two substances that negatively affect the state of bones and joints, solanine and oxalic acid, are present in tomatoes,” explains the nutritionist.
Irina Mansurova informs that tomatoes saturated with solanine aggravate the unpleasant and painful manifestations of existing joint pathologies. All this is possible thanks to the effect of solanine on the body, in which the immune system’s reactions cause inflammation. This, in turn, causes swelling and pain in the joints. In addition to aggravating arthritis and arthrosis, the consumption of tomatoes can lead to the appearance of allergic symptoms and problems with the digestive tract. Another ingredient in tomatoes, oxalic acid, can damage cartilage tissue. It prevents the absorption of the necessary fats that ensure the elasticity of cartilage and joints. The nutritionist suggests that tomatoes of the small-fruited varieties contain the least amount of oxalic acid.
In addition, Irina Mansurova recommends that people with joint diseases avoid foods such as onions, beets, potatoes, rhubarb, spinach, as well as control the amount of tea and coffee they drink – their consumption (especially in high doses) can exacerbate the negative symptoms of joint pathologies.
Photo by Pixabay: https://www.pexels.com/photo/abundance-agriculture-fresh-healthy-533280/
Parliament and Council agreed on rules for intelligent transport systems that require more traffic data, such as on speed limits, to be available digitally.
The provisional agreement reached on Thursday on intelligent transport systems (ITS) rules will help digitalise the transport sector and ensure that data between mobility apps will be shared more widely in order to make mobility safer, more efficient and sustainable.
Data sharing
During the negotiations, MEPs supported covering more services, such as multimodal information, booking and ticketing services, communication between cars and infrastructure, and automated mobility.
They managed to include more crucial road and traffic data for online sharing. In addition to speed limits, road closures or roadworks, data on one-way streets in cities, traffic weight, length, width and height restrictions as well as conditions for circulation in regulated traffic zones will be included in a national database to be shared between EU countries, businesses and consumers.
Depending on the type of data, the deadline to make new information available digitally ranges from between the end of 2025 and the end of 2028. This will launch a process to deploy ITS more swiftly.
Basic principles
The deployment of ITS services will have to be technologically neutral, to foster interoperability, not discriminate against vulnerable road users and must ensure transparency of ranking, including on environmental effects, when proposing mobility options to customers.
In order to organise cross-border transport smoothly, EU member states will have to cooperate better when deploying ITS services, in particular on cross-border projects.
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EP rapporteur Rovana Plumb (S&D, RO) said: “The deal will contribute to citizens’ safety on the road, will improve transport networks’ performance and services, whilst fostering connectivity and facilitating cooperation. Parliament secured an ambitious geographical scope and timeline for the data and services provided. By having deadlines for most types of data, we initiate a process that will speed up the deployment of intelligent transport systems and ensure that authorities at all levels start preparing for the new digital environment.”
Next steps
The informal deal still needs to be approved by Parliament’s Transport and Tourism Committee and the Council’s Committee of Permanent Representatives, and then the Parliament and Council as a whole.
The UN on Friday announced that following serious allegations of sexual exploitation and abuse, an entire unit of 60 peacekeepers from Tanzania formerly based in the western part of the Central African Republic (CAR), is to be repatriated.
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told correspondents that the decision to send the unit home had been made by the Secretariat in New York, following consultations with the peacekeeping mission in CAR, MINUSCA.
‘Credible evidence’
“The decision comes after a preliminary investigation which found credible evidence that 11 members of the unit had allegedly engaged in sexual exploitation and abuse of four victims”, Mr. Dujarric said.
In a statement, MINUSCA said that a rapid response team had been “immediately deployed” to assess the allegations.
Responding on Twitter to the news, UN Peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix, said that the scourge has no place in any part of his department, adding that the upcoming repatriation “is a robust measure taken to protect victims and demonstrate our resolve to swiftly address these wrongs with the troop-contributing country.”
“The identified victims are being provided with care and support by the Mission’s humanitarian partners. The Mission has also deployed a team to further engage with the community”, he added.
The Spokesperson said the Tanzanian Government had already been formally notified of the decision, and have themselves deployed a national investigation team to CAR.
Tanzania pledges action
“In reaffirming their commitment to zero tolerance for sexual exploitation and abuse, the Tanzanian authorities noted the seriousness of the allegations and have committed to taking the necessary action to address these matters.”
Mr. Dujarric added that the unit had been relocated away from the area where the alleged abuse took place are are now confined to barracks “in order to protect victims as well of course, as the integrity of the investigation. The unit will be repatriated once their presence is no longer required in theatre by the investigators.”
Zero tolerance
He noted that the Secretariat’s decision was in accordance with Security Council resolution 2272, which provides clear support for decisions made by the UN Secretary-General to repatriate peacekeeping personnel, of “a particular military unit or formed police unit of a contingent, when there is credible evidence of widespread or systemic sexual exploitation and abuse by that unit.”
The UN chief António Guterres announced a firm and robust policy early in his tenure of ‘zero tolerance’ towards sexual abuse by UN personnel, calling on Member States to sign a voluntary compact on preventing and addressing the scourge, in 2017.
Mr. Dujarric stressed that the UN remains committed to “robustly implementing” the zero tolerance policy at all levels.
OHCHR said that on 25 May, security forces stormed a peaceful meeting of Baha’is in Sana’a. Seventeen people, including five women, were taken to an unknown location, and all but one, are still being held incommunicado.
The UN rights office urged the de facto Houthi authorities in Sana’a, to immediately release the detainees.
On 2 June, according to OHCHR, Shamseddin Sharafeddin, the Mufti appointed by leaders of the Houthi rebel movement accused the detained Baha’is of being traitors, and said that if they did not repent, they “should be killed”.
Baha’i is a faith that emphasizes the worth of all religions since its establishment in the 19th century, according to the international community’s website, including “divine educators” such as Abraham, Moses, Krishna, Jesus and the prophet Muhammad.
Around one per cent of Yemen’s non-Muslim population are estimated to subscribe to the faith.
Houthi rebels, who are Shia Muslims, have controlled Sana’a since 2014, as part of the long-running conflict with officially-recognized Government forces and their allies, for full control of the country.
Sermon incited ‘discrimination and violence’
OHCHR Spokesperson briefing in Geneva, Jeremy Laurence, condemned the use of “any language that incites discrimination and violence, particularly against minorities, and often leads to forced exile and displacement”, in addition to contravening international law.
“We remind the de facto authorities in Sana’a, that they must respect the human rights of people living under their control”, added Mr. Laurence.
“Human rights guarantees minorities, among other things, the right to profess and practice their own religion and the right to a fair trial before an independent and impartial tribunal”, he continued.
He said pre-trial detention “should be the exception and should be used only if reasonable and necessary, based on an individual assessment of each case.”
