What would happen if the Earth began to rotate in reverse?

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5 May 2023

USA: Slavery has left a deep and long-lasting legacy on the country, UN experts say

During the visit, the Mechanism visited Washington DC, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Chicago, Minneapolis, and New York City saying in a press release, that it had been pleased to learn about various promising initiatives that authorities have developed to combat racial discrimination affecting people of African descent.

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Urging accountability and support

Members of the UN Human Rights Council-appointed delegation said they “felt an urgency, and a moral responsibility, to echo the harrowing pain of victims” and their resounding calls for accountability and support

“We saw some promising initiatives centering the voices of victims and survivors, as well as law enforcement initiatives that could be replicated throughout the United States.

‘Reparation initiatives’ welcome

“We welcome the reparatory measures taken so far, including executive orders signed in 2021 and 2022, as well as individual reparation initiatives by way of civilian settlement for damages,” said Tracie Keesee, an expert member of the Mechanism.

“But we strongly believe that more robust action, including on part of federal authorities, is needed to result in strong accountability measures for past and future violations.”

“This includes boosting oversight mechanisms with compelling power”, providing sufficient resources and “robust and holistic” reparation, together with support and rehabilitation to victims, including “access to justice and health, including mental health services.”

The legacy of structural racism

Slavery has left a deep and long-lasting entrenched legacy on the country, which can be perceived through generational trauma, the independent experts noted.

Racial discrimination permeates all contacts with law enforcement, from the first contact – often during early school years – by means of racial profiling, arrest, detention, sentencing and disenfranchisement in some US states, the said.

“In each of those aspects, available data points to a clear disproportional impact upon people of African descent.”

Transition to human rights-centred response

The experts said it should be an “imperative priority” to address and unpack the issue of poverty as it impacts people of African descent, moving from a criminal justice response to a human rights-centred response to poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, and mental illness.

“While acknowledging that most of these efforts would need to take place at the state and local levels, we call upon Federal Government and Congress to continue demonstrating leadership, notably by allocating federal funding to state-level policy initiatives, adopting national standards on the use of force, and undertaking federal criminal investigations into cases of excessive use of force by law enforcement,” said Juan Méndez, another of the Mechanism’s experts.

The Mechanism has shared its preliminary findings with the White House and will draft a full report to be published in the coming months and presented to the Human Rights Council at its next full session.

Independent human rights experts are mandated to monitor and report on specific thematic issues or country situations. They are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.

Keep Sudan borders open UNHCR urges, amid alarming rise in child deaths

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5 May 2023

Keep Sudan borders open UNHCR urges, amid alarming rise in child deaths

Elizabeth Tan, UNHCR’s Director of International Protection said their first request was that countries allow civilians fleeing Sudan on “a non-discriminatory manner to access their territory”.

She said this applied to Sudanese nationals, foreign nationals, and refugees who are being hosted in Sudan, “stateless persons, as well as those who do not have a passport or any other form of identification.”

Since the military showdown began between the national army and main rival militia known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) began on 15 April, UNHCR and humanitarian partners have been reporting a shocking array of human rights violations, including indiscriminate attacks against civilians and sexual violence.

Widespread criminality and looting of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals and humanitarian premises, have forced many Sudanese to flee and seek safety outside Sudan.

“There are Sudanese who are outside of Sudan and who now require protection,” said Ms. Tan.

“They should not be sent back to Sudan if they have ongoing asylum claims. We are requesting that negative decisions be put on hold.”

Large numbers of civilians have been forced to flee the fighting, including people who were already internally displaced because of previous conflict in Sudan, and refugees from other countries.

“There were 1.1 million refugees hosted in Sudan, and those individuals require protection”, she stressed.

UNHCR remains particularly concerned about the situation of the newly displaced in Darfur.

“We have heard reports about IDP (internally displaced people) camps being burned to the ground, so we know that people are being displaced. The IDPs in Darfur are being displaced again,” said Ms. Tan.

“Our ability to provide assistance in Darfur is severely constrained.” She said in the east of the country, UNHCR was able to provide some assistance “because that part of the country is still relatively stable – In Darfur it’s a different situation and so the humanitarian situation is likely to deteriorate.”

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7 children an hour killed or injured

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) also released disturbing new numbers of children killed and injured in Sudan, particularly the conflict hotspots of Khartoum and the Darfurs.

“The reports we have received are 190 children killed and 1,700 injured,” said UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, referring to the time since the violent military clashes began. “That means that every single hour you have seven boys or girls have been killed or injured.”

Mr. Elder added that “these are only children getting to health facilities. I think this is underlining the enormity of how violent this is and how much it’s impacting children. This is before we look at the eight million plus who needed humanitarian assistance”, who are dealing with severely damaged health and water systems.

No safe haven

UNICEF stressed that particularly places where children must be safe such as homes, schools and hospitals have consistently come under attack.

While condemning the attacks on humanitarian workers and humanitarian facilities as well as the looting of vehicles and supplies, UNICEF stressed that such attacks undermine the capacity to reach children with critical aid.

Quoting the Sudanese Ministry of Health, Dr Margaret Harris, Spokesperson for the World Health Organization (WHO), said that “4,926 people were wounded and 551 people have been killed” but that real numbers are likely much higher.

Bleeding out

According to WHO’s Dr Harris, 25 per cent of people failed to survive because they could not get simple treatment to stem bleeding.

In the third week of brutal fighting in Sudan, healthcare services are rapidly falling apart in the nation’s capital, Khartoum. Very few hospitals are fully operating and over 60 per cent are no longer operating.

On Thursday, UNCHR and 134 partners, announced funding requirements of $445 million for the regional interagency refugee’s initial emergency response plan in five countries to assist an estimated 860,000 Sudanese, refugees of other nationalists and refugees’ returnees leaving the country.

DR Congo: Desperate situation facing millions displaced by armed violence

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5 May 2023

DR Congo: Desperate situation facing millions displaced by armed violence

The country has 6.2 million internally displaced people, while more than 1.3 million have become refugees.

UNHCR said that Goma, the capital of eastern DRC’s North Kivu province, hosts over 560,000 displaced people in and around the city. Many live in spontaneous sites on the side of the road, in dire conditions, despite the efforts of humanitarian actors.

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Constant fear of attack

Elizabeth Tan, UNHCR’s Director of International Protection, recently returned from North Kivu, and she told reporters about one woman she had met, with five children:

“She didn’t have any food even for that day and so she had sent her children out to collect firewood and to try and make a little bit of money. And her main concern was, would her girls come back, without having suffered an attack in the forest.”

UNHCR warned that the lack of adequate sanitation and overcrowding are fuelling risks of cholera and measles outbreaks, while people desperately try to survive.

Emergency shelters

She said in Buchagara, an official IDP site on the outskirts of Goma hosting more than 15,500 displaced people, vulnerable individuals and families were now being housed in 3,000 emergency shelters alongside recently installed community kitchens, with water and sanitation facilities up and running.

“Currently, the emergency shelter provided only covers three per cent of the estimated needs. Women and youth are particularly exposed to protection risks, including gender-based violence”, she warned.

Adequate shelter is key to restoring personal security and dignity – Elizabeth Tan, UNHCR

She said IDPs had appealed for more shelters, and ways of making some income, through agriculture or small business opportunities.

Safety and dignity

“Adequate shelter is key to restoring personal security and dignity”, said Ms. Tan.

More than 180,000 have recently arrived in Kalehe territory, tens of thousands of whom are sheltering in the town of Minova, she added, a two-hour drive south of Goma.

“Local hosting communities have generously shared their limited resources with the displaced populations so far, but they are under enormous strain.”

She said UNHCR had scaled up shelter, site management and protection responses, thanks to generous support from the international community.

“However, the needs are great. The DRC is one of the most underfunded humanitarian situations globally. UNHCR requires $233 million to respond to the needs of displaced people in DRC this year, but so far, has only received 15 per cent of that amount.”

Afghanistan: Women tell UN rights experts ‘we’re alive, but not living’

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5 May 2023

Afghanistan: Women tell UN rights experts ‘we’re alive, but not living’

“We are alarmed about widespread mental health issues and accounts of escalating suicides among women and girls,” they said in a joint statement. “This extreme situation of institutionalized gender-based discrimination in Afghanistan is unparalleled anywhere in the world.”

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‘Extreme’ discrimination

Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, de facto authorities have issued a cascade of restrictive orders that amounts to “extreme institutionalized gender-based discrimination” and a systematic chipping away of the rights of women and girls, they warned.

The ongoing “appalling” human rights violations have masked other underlying manifestations of gender-based discrimination that preceded the Taliban’s rule and are now “deeply engrained in society and even normalized”, they added.

Currently, females are prohibited from being in school above sixth grade, including universities, can only be provided care by women doctors, and are barred from working at the UN and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

‘Life under house arrest’

Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, and the Chair of the working group on discrimination against women and girls, Dorothy Estrada-Tanck, shared their preliminary observations, including meetings with Taliban leaders and grave accounts from the women and girls they met in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, in Balkh province, between 17 April and 4 May.

“Numerous women shared their feelings of fear and extreme anxiety, describing their situation as a life under house arrest,” they reported.

“We are also particularly concerned by the fact that women who peacefully protest against these oppressive measures encounter threats, harassment, arbitrary detentions and torture,” they said.

Extreme misogyny

For two years, the de facto authorities have dismantled the legal and institutional framework and have been “ruling through the most extreme forms of misogyny”, destroying the relative progress towards gender equality achieved in the past two decades, they said.

In meetings with the Taliban, the experts said de facto authorities had told them that women were working in the health, education, and business sectors, and that they were ensuring that women can work according to Sharia, separated from men.

The de facto authorities reiterated their message that they were working on the reopening of schools, without providing a clear timeline, and indicated that the international community should not interfere in the country’s internal affairs, the experts added.

However, they noted that the Taliban impose certain interpretations of religion “that appear not to be shared by the vast majority of Afghans”.

‘Alive, but not living’

The experts said that one of the women they spoke with told them, “we are alive, but not living”.

The consequences of the restrictive measures have led to detention for alleged “moral crimes” under extreme “modesty rules”, they said. New laws have also decimated the system of protection and support for those fleeing domestic violence, leaving women and girls with absolutely no recourse.

The impact is alarming, the experts said, noting that new Taliban-imposed measures have reportedly contributed to a surge in the rates of child and forced marriage, as well as the proliferation of gender-based violence perpetrated with impunity.

“These acts do not occur in isolation,” they cautioned. “If we are to eliminate discrimination and break cycles of violence, gender justice requires a holistic understanding as to why such violations are committed.”

‘Gender apartheid’

The world “cannot turn a blind eye,” they warned.

They recommended that the international community develop further normative standards and tools to address “the broader phenomenon of gender apartheid” as an institutionalized system of discrimination, segregation, humiliation, and exclusion of women and girls.

At the same time, the UN should take a human rights-based approach which requires a deep understanding and analysis of its principles, they said.

Technical and financial partners should considerably increase their support to activists and grassroots organizations present in Afghanistan and to the unwavering efforts of a “still vibrant civil society” to avoid the complete breakdown of civic space which could have irreversible consequences, they recommended.

They urged the de facto authorities to honour commitments towards the protection and promotion of all women’s and girls’ rights and comply with obligations under instruments to which Afghanistan is a State party, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Special Rapporteurs

The experts expect to present to the Human Rights Council in June a joint report thoroughly analysing the situation of women and girls’ rights in Afghanistan, followed by an interactive dialogue with Afghan women.

Special Rapporteurs and other rights experts are appointed by the UN Human Rights Council, are mandated to monitor and report on specific thematic issues or country situations, are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work.

Religious terrorism, the Kenyan sect and the West

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Gabriel Carrion Lopez

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5 May 2023

a group of skeletons sitting on top of a pile of sand

More than 100 bodies were found this past April in the Shakahola Forest in southern Kenya, another form of religious terrorism. Police investigations determined that they had died from fasting to death “in order to see Jesus Christ”.

The arrest of Paul Mackenzie Nthenge has uncovered a heinous manipulation of an alleged religious leader in the heart of Africa.

Japhet Koome, Kenya’s Inspector General of Police, who realised the scale of the incident and travelled to the scene, told reporters, among other things:

We strongly condemn any form of religious organisation that promotes extremist beliefs and operates outside the confines of the law, endangering the safety and well-being of Kenyans.

And while the police say they will not rest until all those responsible are brought to justice, almost always, if the top leader has been arrested, as in this case, with his punishment, such an act is likely to make the headlines, even if the charges are terrorism and genocide.

Paul Mackenzihe, the leader of the sect, whose verbosity has led to the mass death of his followers, told the authorities when he was arrested that if they continue the excavations in the forest they will find more than 1,000 people who went to… “meet Jesus”.

It is possibly the largest sectarian massacre in history and one of the terrorist acts of unorthodox beliefs that we know of to date. However, one of the biggest concerns underlying the event is undoubtedly the lack of international coverage of the news.

There have been no images opening the news or debates on the extreme religious manipulation to which millions of people could be subjected.

The West, protected by its infallible democracies, seems to be neglecting all these people who live in atrociously manipulated, almost forgotten regions of the world.

The human rights of those induced into religious suicide seem to have no place in our daily lives, and only when recognisable elements of our society are attacked do we revolt with appeals to universal human justice and punishment.

In September 1997, a Hamas terrorist with explosives attached to his body blew himself up in the Ben Yehuda shopping centre in Jerusalem. This act was covered by news reports around the world and one of the most striking images was undoubtedly a McDonald’s restaurant whose door was blown off in the explosion.

Anyone could therefore be in danger if these emblematic establishments were attacked. Security was tightened around the world, including in the United States and Europe. The racial shootings in California and Illinois in 1999 also made Americans realise that religious terror was closer than they thought.

Religious totalitarianism itself, which, on the other hand, causes bombs to be thrown all over the world against clinics promoting the termination of pregnancy, the bombing of the Olympic Games in Atlanta or the destruction of military housing for American soldiers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in 1996, the destruction of a federal building in Oklahoma City, the explosion of the Twin Towers, the attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in Paris, or the Madrid underground bombings, are some of the news stories that have made their way into the world’s media, perhaps because despite the infinitely smaller number of deaths, except in the case of the Twin Towers, these attacks were located in the West or were carried out against Western military structures in the rest of the world.

The link between terror and god was already in place, supported by unscrupulous media, as the end of the 20th century approached.

The end times were exploited to the hilt for the sole purpose of obtaining news revenue, which would translate into better audiences or readership and thus gain access to the biggest possible advertising pie.

Perhaps the most terrifying question was already asked by Mark Juergensmeyer, Professor of Sociology at a Californian university, in 2001 in his book Religious Terrorism when he wrote:

“In the history of religious traditions (from biblical wars to crusades to great acts of martyrdom) violence has kept its presence in the shadows. It has coloured the darkest and most mysterious religious symbols. One of the recurring questions asked by some of the great scholars of religion (including Émile Durkheim, Marcel Mauss and Sigmund Freud) is why this situation arises: why does religion seem to necessitate violence and religious violence, and why is a divine mandate for destruction accepted with such conviction by some believers?”

The phenomenon of violence is certainly not inherent to religion, but it is clearly an element to be used in sectarian discourse, as has happened in Kenya, where the prize was to be with Jesus, but first they had to fast without remission until they died.

Religious terrorism and violence against citizens in Kenya deserves our strongest condemnation, regardless of the colour of their skin or their beliefs. I encourage the media to create spaces for debate with good professionals on an issue that continues every day to threaten the human rights of millions of people around the world.

ATMs of the Romanian UniCredit turned out to be full of fake Euros from Turkey and Bulgaria

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5 May 2023

The Romanian bank has experienced significant losses because its ATMs have received counterfeit banknotes of 500 Euro for a total value of around 240,000 Euro. The bank’s ATMs only rejected six of the fake banknotes – or about 1% of them. According to publications in various media, the bank that was the object of the crime is the domestic division of UniCredit Bank.

The damaged financial institution claims that it has taken the necessary measures and no customers have been affected.

“UniCredit Bank is the one responsible for the authorities. The bank has taken steps to eliminate the damage and not a single client has been harmed,” writes the Observer News.

The authorities say that there are no vulnerabilities in the financial network and that all the banknotes with problems have been withdrawn.

The Romanian Department for the Monitoring of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DÍSOT) is currently investigating the case of counterfeit banknotes. Four rummages of houses were carried out on Thursday (May 3) in Budapest.

“On May 3, members of the Department for Combating Organized Crime, together with members of the Police Department, committed 4 rummages at homes now in Budapest, in a case of organized crime, acceptance of fake banknotes and fraud, said in the official press release published by the Romanian Insider. During this action, two people were arrested.

The bank in Romania suffered losses of around 240,000 Euro after 486 banknotes of 500 Euro each were loaded from its ATMs in the three-day period, the bank said.

The type of counterfeit banknotes used is known throughout Europe for its high quality and the fact that they cannot be detected with the naked eye.

According to the German media, the leaders of the country received money from Turkey and Bulgaria and paid between 10 and 20 percent of the total or between 50 and 100 Euros for each banknote.

As of 2019, the 500-Euro banknote is no longer printed and is accepted in ATMs only in Romania and Moldova. According to the estimates of the European Bank, in 2019 there were about 52 million Euro 500 banknotes in circulation, which represents 20% of the total value of the euro. click to that moment. The 500 Euro banknote is named “Bin Laden”, a reference to the former leader of the terrorist group Al Qaeda, as it would allow illegal transfer of huge amounts.

Photo by cottonbro studio:

Secular States Struggling with Religious Freedom, conference at ETF of Leuven

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5 May 2023

The right to religious freedom is recognised and implemented by the vast majority of countries that value the UDHR. But the extent to which a liberal society should support religious diversity remains a subject of debate: some secular states guarantee neutrality through a “wall of separation” between religion and state, others actively seek to support philosophical diversity on a basis of equality.

The third international conference of the Institute for the Study of Freedom of Religion or Belief (ISFORB) will focus on secular states’ struggles with freedom of religion and belief. this conference is in English.

ETF Leuven’s Institute for the Study of Freedom of Religion or Belief (ISFORB) focuses its research on the interplay of societal developments, human rights discourses and religion/faith on local and global levels, with attention for religious persecution. As a multidisciplinary research group, ISFORB gives attention to religious freedom and the broader field of religion-state relations from a variety of angles.

ISFORB is a vibrant research community in which doctoral students, faculty members and visiting researchers sharpen and enrich each other. By combining our expertise, we are well equipped to engage in contemporary academic discussions on the place of religion in secular society. Research and publishing are at the heart of our activities. ISFORB purposefully seeks interaction with other research centers on related topics in Europe and beyond. Both at ETF Leuven and in other academic contexts, ISFORB organizes and participates in research projects, conferences, symposia, expert meetings, etc.

Scientists have discovered how plastic penetrates the brain

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5 May 2023

Thanks to its flexibility, durability and affordability, plastic has entered almost every aspect of our lives.

When plastic breaks down, it produces micro- and nanoplastic particles (MNPs) that can harm wildlife, the environment and ourselves. MNPs have been found in the blood, lungs and placenta, and we know that they can enter our bodies through the food and liquids we consume.

A new study by a team of researchers from Austria, the US, Hungary and the Netherlands found that MNPs can reach the brain several hours after they are eaten, possibly thanks to the way other chemicals stick to their surface.

Not only is the speed worrisome, but the very possibility of tiny polymers slipping into our nervous system raises some serious concerns.

“In the brain, plastic particles can increase the risk of inflammation, neurological disorders or even neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s,” says study co-author, pathologist Lucas Köner of the Medical University of Vienna in Austria.

In the study, small fragments of MNPs administered orally to mice were found in their brains in just two hours. But how do MNPs cross the blood-brain barrier that is supposed to keep the brain safe?

As a system of blood vessels and tightly packed surface tissues, the blood-brain barrier helps protect our brains from potential threats by blocking the passage of toxins and other unwanted substances while allowing more beneficial substances to pass through. It stands to reason that plastic particles would be considered a material that should be kept well and truly away from sensitive brain tissue.

“Using computer models, we discovered that a certain surface structure (a biomolecular corona) is crucial for the passage of plastic particles into the brain,” explains Oldamur Holochki, a nanoplastics chemist at the University of Debrecen in Hungary.

To test whether the particles could indeed enter the brain, polystyrene MNPs (a common plastic used in food packaging) in three sizes (9.5, 1.14 and 0.293 micrometers) were labeled with fluorescent markers and pretreated in a mixture similar to digestive fluid before being fed to mice.

“To our surprise, we found specific nanometer-sized green fluorescence signals in the brain tissue of mice exposed to MNPs after only two hours,” the researchers wrote in their published paper.

“Only particles with a size of 0.293 micrometers were able to be taken up by the gastrointestinal tract and penetrate the blood-brain barrier.”

The way in which these small, coated plastics cross the cellular barriers in the body is complex and depends on factors such as particle size, charge and cell type, writes vesti.bg.

Smaller plastic particles have a higher surface area to volume ratio, making them more reactive and potentially more dangerous than larger microplastics. This reactivity is thought to allow the tiny pieces of plastic to gather other molecules around them, hugging them tightly with molecular forces to form a permanent cloak called a corona.

The researchers created a computer model of the blood-brain barrier from a double lipid membrane, made up of a phospholipid found in the human body, to study how particles can pass through such an important neurological barrier.

Four different plastic models were used to investigate the role of the plastic particle corona. The simulations showed that particles with a protein corona cannot enter the barrier. However, those with cholesterol corona can pass, even if they cannot pass deeper into the brain tissue.

The results raise the possibility that the plastic is transported across the membrane and into brain tissue using the right molecular cocktail. Knowing the underlying mechanisms is an important first step in managing their harmful effects.

It’s important to note that the results are based on mice and computer simulations, so it’s unclear whether the same behavior occurs in humans. It’s also unclear how many plastic particles are needed to cause damage. Still, the knowledge that it is possible for coated plastic particles to breach the blood-brain barrier in such a short period advances research in the field, according to the authors.

“To minimize the potential harm of micro- and nanoplastic particles to humans and the environment, it is crucial to limit exposure and limit their use while further research on the effects of MNPs is carried out,” says Kenner.

Photo by Polina Tankilevitch:

An ancient Balkan lake is threatened with extinction

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5 May 2023