In his speech to MEPs, Portugal’s President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa identified the post-war recovery, enlargement, migration and energy as the main challenges for the EU.
Addressing MEPs during a formal sitting, President Rebelo de Sousa said he considers the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine to be a “shocking mistake of the Russian Federation” to which Europe responded with “firmness, unity, solidarity, and transatlantic and forward-thinking cooperation”. It is urgent, he said, to ensure that “a just and moral peace” will be the result of this war, preventing further wars.
On what comes after the war, which will result in a “new balance of powers”, the President said the EU should play “the biggest, the strongest role possible! If not, it will not end up being the smallest, the weakest possible”.
Mr Rebelo de Sousa also spoke in favour of EU enlargement and stressed the need to accelerate Europe’s economic recovery while taking into account social obligations and rights, as well as impact of inflation.
Speaking about the EU’s global connections, Portugal’s President called for openness and cooperation to collectively tackle challenges like migration and help increase Europe’s influence in the world. EU’s values should, he said, take precedence over national interests.
President Rebelo de Sousa also called on the EU to become a pioneer in climate, energy, and digital policy. If not, it will be “left behind,” he said.
He urged the EU to follow the example of other continents and act when it needs to, and to reinvigorate the EU’s political, economic and social systems. President Rebelo de Sousa warned that not doing so could alienate young people and lead to the emergence of populism and anti-system movements. If this happens, “it is our fault,” he said.
Amid claims and counter claims, the army has been reportedly attempting to cut the supply lines of the Rapid Support Forces and defend its bases from continued attack. The RSF claimed to have captured hundreds of soldiers, following an attack on an army base.
Airstrikes and heavy fighting have left hundreds of thousands of city residents still trapped in their homes, while infrastructure and civilian areas continue to be pounded, according to eyewitness reports.
The UN Spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, told correspondents at the regular briefing in New York that the World Health Organization (WHO) had managed to deliver 30 tons of medical supplies to Al-Jazirah state, southeast of the capital, while trauma supplies to treat 2,400 people were delivered yesterday to five hospitals there, and three hospitals in the capital, Khartoum.
“WHO also supports the delivery of critical items to its partners and has additional supplies in the pipeline. Those will be released as soon as the security situation and logistics situation allow”, he said.
Meanwhile, aid organizations have managed to resume operations in parts of Darfur, he confirmed.
“For example, in North Darfur, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has helped deliver some 235,000 liters of clean water to eight healthcare facilities and one nutrition centre. UNICEF is also distributing water, sanitation and health supplies for nearly 15,700 patients at more than a dozen healthcare facilities”, the Spokesperson said.
And in Eastern Darfur, UNICEF has provided clean water to some 40,000 people in the Elneem camp for internally displaced people.
Shock waves spread
Shedding more light on the impact of the month-long crisis on the seven States bordering Sudan, Mr. Dujarric highlight that the UN team in Chad were reporting some 80,000 arrivals, including 60,000 refugees and 20,000 returning home.
Chad was already home to over one million forcibly displaced persons, including about 600,000 refugees, mainly from Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR), Cameroon and Nigeria.
“So far, 3,000 refugee families have received non-food items from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and UNICEF. UNICEF has also installed water points and distributed water treatment material, ready-to-use therapeutic food, as well as essential medicines to health centres to ensure the treatment of children suffering from severe acute malnutrition.”
The UN emergency food aid agency, WFP, has distributed food and nutrition supplies to more than 20,000 new refugees in eight different locations along the eastern border, while the UN sexual and reproductive health agency UNFPA, is providing dignity kits and other supplies.
“Our team, led by Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator, Violet Kakyomya, is concerned about the imminent start of the rainy season, as thousands of people need transportation from border areas to other locations before roads become obstructed”, added Mr. Dujarric.
The UN emergency fund for education, Education Cannot Wait, has announced a $3 million grant for children seeking safety from the Sudanese conflict in Chad.
“It is imperative to provide immediate access to education for children crossing to neighbouring countries to flee the brutal conflict in Sudan,” Education Cannot Wait’s Executive Director Yasmine Sherif said on Tuesday. “This safety net is crucial to address their needs now, protect them and safeguard their futures. How can we empower new generation if we keep them away from learning.”
The funding injection brings the UN fund’s total investments to support children’s education in Chad to more than $41 million.
With children representing almost 70 per cent of refugees in Chad, “education, protection and security needs grow as people keep arriving,” said Olga Sarrado, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) spokesperson.
Without access to safe and protective learning environments, uprooted girls and boys face a higher risk of child marriage, sexual violence, exploitation, hunger and recruitment by armed groups.
Mentioning this year’s theme in a statement to mark the day, Together Always: United in Diversity, the UN chief called on leaders ‘to speak with one voice” to eliminate stigma and discrimination, that result in sometimes deadly attacks targeting LGBTQI+ communities.
The Secretary-General showed his deep concern over the levels of violence directed towards LGBTQI+ people and how those communities are still vulnerable to multiple forms of attack.
“As we mark the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia, we face a stark fact. In every corner of the world, LGBTQI+ people continue to face violence, persecution, hate speech, injustice, and even outright murder,” said the UN chief.
He called on Member States to stop criminalization of LGBTQI+ people around the world and punishing them for “simply being who they are.”
He said each assault on a LGBTQI+ person was an assault on human rights:
“I renew my call to all Member States to uphold the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and end the criminalization of consensual same-sex relations and transgender people. Being yourself should never be a crime,” said Mr. Guterres.
Calling on States
In a statement on Tuesday, a group of independent human rights experts on Tuesday called on Member States to address racism and stigma against LGBTQI+ people in a joint statement. They called on States to adopt measures to end the various forms of violence and discrimination directed against the community.
“We call on States to uphold the inherent dignity of all persons, without any distinction, by adopting measures to eradicate racial discrimination, exclusion, intolerance, hatred, bigotry, violence, and stigmatisation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender diverse (LGBT) persons,” the human rights experts said.
Racial discrimination
The rights experts also recalled that to end structural violence against LGBTQI+ people, States must take an intersectional approach and consider how different social identities contribute to how communities are affected by different forms of discrimination.
“Racialization, ethnicity, age, colour, disability, national and residential and socio-economic status, expose LGBT persons to different forms of discrimination that affect their ability to enjoy their human rights and fundamental freedoms without distinction of any kind.
“To adequately analyse how structural inequalities lead to violence and exposure to risk, it is a must to adopt an intersectional approach. While some people are privileged, most face discrimination and violence, including arbitrary displacement, because of their multiple intersecting identities,” the experts said.
Independent human rights experts and other UN Human Rights Council-appointed rights experts, work on a voluntary and unpaid basis, are not UN staff, and work independently from any government or organisation.
With coastal winds recorded at up to 250 kilometers per hour making landfall off the Bay of Bengal, the storm tore through villages in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, leaving villagers to piece together their ruined homes while they wait for aid and support.
According to news reports, Mocha ripped off roofs, smashed fishing boats, uprooted trees and brought down power lines and telecommunications, terrifying the population, said the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.
“(Some) 5.4 million people are expected to have been in the path of the cyclone, said Ramanathan Balakrishnan, UN Resident Coordinator and Humanitarian Coordinator for Myanmar. “Of these, we consider 3.1 million people to be most vulnerable to cyclone impacts by taking together indicators of shelter quality, food insecurity and poor coping capacity.
“It really is a nightmare scenario for this cyclone to hit areas with such deep pre-existing needs.”
Torrential rains and devastating floods have also increased the risk of landslides ahead of the monsoon season, the OCHA official warned.
Concerns are high because the affected areas are home to hundreds of thousands people displaced by the protracted conflict in Myanmar – many of them the mostly-Muslim Rohingya of Rakhine – exacerbated by a military coup in February 2021.
Disease threat
The “many thousands” who took refuge in evacuation centres, now face a massive cleanup and huge reconstruction effort ahead.
Both the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) and UN World Health Organization (WHO) said that relief items, shelter, water, sanitation and hygiene support are urgently needed to tackle the high risk of waterborne diseases.
Health supplies have already been mobilized to treat 200,000 people, along with water purification tablets, WHO’s Dr. Edwin Salvador, Regional Emergency Director at the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia, told journalists in Geneva.
“As in any flood areas where access to safe drinking water and sanitation is a challenge, there is still a risk of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, hepatitis and those caused by mosquitoes such as dengue and malaria.”
Funding boost urgently required
Highlighting the urgency of the situation, OCHA appealed for international support, without delay. “We need a huge infusion of funds to respond to the massive needs,” said Mr. Balakrishnan. “Our Humanitarian Response Plan is less than 10 per cent funded as it stands now, and we simply will not be able to respond to the additional needs from Mocha.”
That appeal was echoed by the UNHCR in Bangladesh, where the 2023 funding ask for the Rohingya Refugee Response remains only 16 per cent funded.
Bangladesh camps severely hit
As a result, food assistance for refugees had to be cut by 17 per cent earlier this year, said UNHCR spokesperson Olga Sarrado. Although the impact of the cyclone could have been much worse in Bangladesh, refugee camps there have been severely affected.
Cyclones are a regular and deadly menace on the coast of the northern Indian Ocean. Rising global temperatures contribute to their intensity.
“We are yet to get a full picture of the damage elsewhere in the cyclone’s path, of course, but we fear for the worst given that the majority of the shelters in this very impoverished part of the country are mostly made of bamboo, and they stood still little chance in the face of these winds,” said the UN’s Mr. Balakrishnan.
The Humanitarian Coordinator added that a community leader from one of the camps for internally displaced people in Rakhine’s shattered capital, Sittwe, reported that the storm had left a major trail of destruction and washed away shelters and latrines, leaving thousands lacking even the basics of survival.
“They said the immediate needs are shelter, clean water and sanitation” the UN official added.
The crazy consumption of computers, smartphones and all kinds of technological gadgets creates an excessive amount of e-waste
Three planets will not be enough for us to collect the new technological waste
Organic and municipal waste is no longer the biggest threat to the environment. Due to the crazy consumption of computers, smartphones and all kinds of other gadgets, technological waste is becoming a huge problem. It deepens with the introduction of electric cars and the impossibility of efficient recycling of the batteries in them. If we keep changing technology at today’s rate, soon 3 planets won’t be enough for us to pick up the garbage we leave behind.
Manufacturers of electronics, white goods and appliances around the world have been trying to solve the problem for years by putting more and more recycled materials into new appliances. The problem is that in many countries, including Bulgaria, there is still a lack of a culture of responsible treatment of end-of-use devices, and instead of handing them over to specialized points, they are thrown out indiscriminately next to the garbage cans or straight to illegal landfills. This makes the technological waste management process complex and difficult to control. There is still a lack of legislation to actually sanction offenders, as well as good practices to encourage those responsible.
Like everything else, this change clearly has to start within us, because the institutions are a pass on this issue as well.
End-of-life electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE – Non-Governmental & Nonprofit Organization Bruxelles, Belgiqueweee-forum.org) covers a wide range of products: from computers and mobile phones to household appliances and medical devices. It is one of the fastest growing waste streams. Its proper recycling is key not only because it contains hazardous materials and can have a negative impact on the environment and public health, but also because it is a source of scarce and valuable resources.
The growing volumes of e-waste are directly related to the rapid economic development
In 2019, almost 54 Mt of WEEE was generated globally and this number is increasing every year. In terms of e-waste generated per capita, the European Union is in first place with 16.2 kg, while Asia generates the largest amount of e-waste – a total of 24.9 Mt.
In 2019, 78 countries had policies, regulations or laws that regulate e-waste. These standards cover 71% of the world’s population. However, the global collection rate averages only 17%, with Europe collecting around 55% of WEEE.
Companies that recover e-waste joined the WEEE Forum in 2002.
– the only international group of producer responsibility organizations dedicated to the take-back and treatment of electrical and electronic waste. The WEEE Forum consists of forty-six non-profit members who are authorized by 46,000 manufacturers of electrical and electronic products. In 2021, WEEE organizations collected 3.1 million tons of e-waste, which is equivalent to 310 Eiffel Towers.
How to properly dispose of e-waste and what is the recycling process
They are not general waste, so when we throw them away, we have to take them to the designated place – a special recycling bin, a certified collection point or large electronics retailers. The mixed e-waste is then sent to specialist electronics recycling facilities. Best practice requires that they be separated by type, as some, such as batteries, can cause significant environmental damage if mixed with others.
The first step in e-waste processing involves manual sorting to extract specific items. They can be dismantled by hand to recover valuable materials or components for reuse. They are then crushed into small pieces to facilitate precise sorting of the materials.
They undergo magnetic separation to extract ferrous metals such as iron and steel, while non-ferrous metals are separated using eddy currents. These metals are then sent to specialized recycling facilities for smelting. Other materials, such as circuit boards and embedded metal plastic, are separated during this stage.
After magnetic separation, the remaining solid waste consists mainly of plastic and glass. Water is used for further purification and separation of different types of plastic. Obvious contaminants are manually sorted during this process.
Once separated, the materials are ready for reuse and sale. Some, like plastic or steel, go into separate recycling streams. However, others can be processed on site and sold directly together with usable components recovered during earlier stages of the recycling process.
Materials that can be extracted and reused include: precious metals such as gold, silver, copper, platinum, rhodium or ruthenium; raw materials such as cobalt, palladium, indium or antimony; metals such as aluminum and iron; plastics; glass.
Not all electronic and electrical waste parts can be recycled and reused. The glass screens of CRT televisions and monitors, for example, are heavily contaminated with lead, so much of it is stored indefinitely.
How to reduce our e-waste
There are a few rules to keep our e-waste to a minimum:
Don’t buy unnecessary electrical appliances.
Do not replace appliances before they are truly unusable.
Extend the life of appliances by taking care of them.
A special anti-drone police unit has appeared in St. Petersburg. It will be responsible for safety in the sky during mass events, reports the BBC Russian service.
“The employees perform various tasks. These are mobile patrols whose task is to apprehend operators of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Groups of shooters armed with snipers and carbines have been created. They use technical means to suppress and neutralize drones. First of all the new unit received police officers who were posted to the new territories (that’s how they call the occupied regions of Ukraine in Russia – note ed.),” RBC quoted a representative of the Ministry of the Interior.
Snipers with anti-drone electromagnetic rifles appeared for the first time on May 9, they guarded the airspace on the roofs of buildings and during the Victory Day parade.
In the Urals on Wednesday, the Regional Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced that it will create special departments in major cities that will monitor drone flights in areas where they are prohibited.
Last week on Wednesday, May 3, the Kremlin reported a downed drone over the dome of the Senate Palace, a corresponding video appeared on social networks. Vladimir Putin’s press office called this attack an “attempt to assassinate the president.”
Since late last year, at least 40 regions in Russia have restricted or banned drone flights.
This number of overweight is expected to continue to grow in the coming years
About 30 percent of primary school-age children in Europe are overweight or obese, as reported by the World Health Organization (WHO). The number of children who fall into either category is expected to continue to rise in the coming years.
The data were presented by the WHO Regional Office in Zagreb on the occasion of the announcement of a policy for the prevention of childhood obesity.
The WHO referred to the European Obesity Report 2022, which the organization published about a year ago. According to him, more than half of adults in Europe are overweight. Among boys between the ages of seven and nine, 29 per cent were overweight, for girls of the same age the percentage was 27.
People with a body mass index greater than 30 are defined as obese. Those with an index above 25 are defined as overweight.
The body mass index is determined based on height and kilograms.
On Wednesday, a declaration was adopted with recommendations to combat the increasing childhood obesity.
“Our children are growing up in an environment where it is extremely difficult to eat well and be active. This is at the root of the obesity epidemic,” said the Director of the WHO European Bureau, Hans Kluge. Governments and societies must act quickly to reverse the trends, he added. The Zagreb Declaration is an important first step towards combating the problem.
19-year-old Luunkiito attacked cattle and was speared by herders
A wild male lion, considered one of the oldest representatives of its species in the world, was killed by herders near Amboseli National Park in southern Kenya, the BBC reported.
Luunkiito, 19, was stabbed with spears after attacking cattle for food. Conservation group Lion Guardians said the slain lion was the oldest in the Kenyan ecosystem and possibly in all of Africa, as lions typically live around 13 years in the wild.
Kenya Wildlife Service spokesman Paul Jinaro told the BBC that Luunkiito was old and infirm and had probably left the national park to forage in the village.
Conservationists have called for stricter measures to protect Kenya’s wildlife and lion population.
“This is the tipping point for human-wildlife conflict and we must do more as a country to conserve lions that are facing extinction,” said Paula Kahumbu, conservationist and chief executive of WildlifeDirect.
The key takeaway from Google I/O 2023 is the fact that the internet search giant is rolling out a bunch of new AI-powered search functions – obviously, aiming to keep up with Microsoft.
Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, has just introduced more artificial intelligence (AI) functions adapted for its primary search engine. Similar move from its main competitor Microsoft Corp with its Bing search engine attracted a lot of positive emotions from the user base, so this major upgrade was inevitable in order to maintain unimpacted market share.
The company unveiled a new iteration of its search engine, dubbed the Search Generative Experience, at Wednesday’s annual I/O conference in Mountain View, California.
This upgraded version of Google has the ability to generate responses to open-ended queries, while still displaying its well-known list of web links, which is also known under the traditional name of “10 blue links”.
During the event, Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai announced that they are remaking their core products to use generative AI functions. This includes search, which will not have tools where users can interact with AI, Gmail, which can create draft messages according to user specifications, and Google Photos, which can edit images using some new advanced capabilities.
As a result, Alphabet’s shares were trading 4% higher on Wednesday, and have increased by 26% to this date.
When can we expect to see the newly upgraded Google Search?
U.S. consumers will soon have access to the Search Generative Experience, but via a wait list for the time being.
During this initial roll-out phase, Google will closely monitor the results, assessing the quality of the system’s responses, overall speed, and operational costs.
Google’s response to competition
Google has been exploring generative AI for some time now. In a certain sense, it was forced to rush these developments into the market, after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. This project sparked a new chapter of competition among potential rivals. Naturally, the market experts were anticipating this major search engine revamp.
Generative AI differs a lot from the ways we have been processing information utill now. It has the ability to create entirely new content, including text, images, and even software code, using user-provided queries.
OpenAI’s ChatGPT is now integrated into Bing search. This platform remains the standard for commercial generative AI. Meanwhile, Google’s aim is to maintain its $286 billion-worth online advertising market segment.
OCHA said that communities there had spent the day cleaning up, and counting the cost of the storm, categorized as Extremely Severe, when it smashed into Myanmar’s western states and regions on Sunday, with guests as strong as 250km per hour – continuing to lash some areas the day after, with heavy rain.
Authorities and humanitarian aid agencies had launched a massive evacuation plan before the storm crashed ashore north of Sittwe.
Humanitarian needs in Rakhine state and northwest Myanmar were already dire before the cyclone hit, with approximately six million people already in need of relief aid, according to OCHA, as a result of years of conflict and displacement.
Today, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya are living in temporary shelters where their movements are restricted by the military regime, which declared the whole of Rakhine a disaster area in the wake of Mocha.
First reports indicated that the worst of the cyclone spared the major Rohingya refugee camp complex of Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, which is home to nearly one million mostly Rohingya refugees, the majority of whom fled persecution and violence in Rakhine, beginning in the summer of 2017.
Much of Sittwe destroyed
But news reports indicated that although not as dire as predicted, there were still several killed in Myanmar, and hundreds of thousands of Rohingya left homeless.
OCHA said there was widespread destruction across Sittwe, with few houses left standing. Many of the flimsy bamboo longhouses in displacement camps were wrecked.
“Communications with teams on the ground are still limited but early reports suggest the damage is significant, particularly in Rakhine, and that needs across all communities will be high”, said the OCHA situation report on Monday.
“Extremely strong winds brought down power lines, uprooted trees, and damaged and destroyed houses. Storm surge knocked out bridges and inundated homes.”
Health, relief items, shelter, and water, sanitation, and hygiene needs are already being reported, with the added deadly threat of landmines in the conflict-affected rural areas, having shifted during flooding.
Cyclone Mocha brought heavy rain and winds while crossing a Rohingya refugee camp in Teknaf, Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh on May 14, 2023.
Cell towers damaged
Communications with partners on the ground was partially restored during the day but still remains limited after extensive damage to telecommunications towers, OCHA continued.
Water and power services have been badly interrupted all day with generators now the primary source of electricity for most people due to downed lines.
Humanitarian partners are working to start rapid needs assessments in the field on Tuesday, to confirm the magnitude of impact from the cyclone and the immediate assistance that is required.
Early reports have also started coming in of widespread flooding and needs in the northwest – an area that is also heavily conflict-affected.
A Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar prepares for Cyclone Mocha.
Funding desperately needed
OCHA said an urgent injection of funds to assist recovery was “desperately needed to facilitate a full-scale response to the impact of the cyclone and subsequent flooding.” To date, the $764M Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP) is only 10 per cent funded.
Some IDPs are still staying in cyclone shelters near displacement camps, with some reports of injuries and needs for medical treatment. Those staying in temporary shelters, such as schools, require assistance.
Movement is challenging and debris clearance is ongoing. Heavy traffic was reported during the day due to large numbers of people returning to their Sittwe homes from inland areas, combined with debris on the roads.
Rohingya shelters damaged
News reports suggest that around 3,000 Rohingya shelters were damaged during the passage of Mocha, with some completely destroyed. The country’s refugee commissioner’s reported damage to 32 learning centres, and 29 mosques.
In the refugee camps where there were 120 landslides reported, at least 5,300 refugees were reportedly relocated to more secure locations, while the Bangladeshi Government said around 250,000 were in need of food and shelter across the region overall by Sunday night.
Authorities in Bangladesh had evacuated some 750,000 people ahead of the storm.
