Dangers of AI, what specifically did Biden talk about with Microsoft, Google, and other CEOs?

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6 May 2023

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To anticipate the dangers of AI President Joe Biden held a meeting with CEOs of prominent artificial intelligence (AI) companies, including Microsoft and Google, emphasizing the importance of ensuring the safety of their products prior to deployment.

The rise of generative AI, exemplified by apps like ChatGPT, has generated significant interest, leading companies to rush in launching similar products that they believe will revolutionize work dynamics.

Millions of users around the world have started using these tools, which have the potential to make medical diagnoses, write screenplays, draft legal briefs, and debug software. However, concerns are growing about potential privacy violations, biased employment decisions, and the facilitation of scams and misinformation campaigns.

President Biden, who said he had personally used ChatGPT, urged officials to address the current and potential risks AI poses to individuals, society, and national security. He and the White House officials stressed the need for companies to be transparent with policymakers, evaluate the safety of their AI systems, and safeguard them against malicious attacks.

ChatGPT – illustrative rendering. Image credit: BoliviaInteligente via Unsplash, free license

Dangers of AI

During the two-hour meeting, which executives from Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Anthropic, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and key administration officials, the discussion focused on transparency, safety evaluation, and protection against cyber threats.

Vice President Harris expressed the potential benefits of AI technology while acknowledging concerns related to safety, privacy, and civil rights. She emphasized that the CEOs have a “legal responsibility” to ensure the safety of their AI products, and the administration is open to advancing regulations and legislation in the field.

Following the meeting, Sam Altman of OpenAI stated that the companies were in agreement on the necessary actions to be taken.

The administration also announced a $140 million investment from the National Science Foundation to establish seven new AI research institutes. Additionally, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget will release policy guidance on the use of AI by the federal government.

Leading AI developers, including Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face, NVIDIA, OpenAI, and Stability AI, will participate in a public evaluation of their AI systems.

The proliferation of AI technology is expected to lead to an increase in political ads created using AI imagery, and the U.S. regulators are working closely with the U.S.-EU Trade & Technology Council on tech regulation.

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Pentagon developing wearable technology to predict different diseases

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6 May 2023

The U.S. Department of Defense is making investments in wearable technology that has the potential to quickly predict the occurrence of different diseases.

Working in collaboration with the private sector, the Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has already created a wearable device that proved highly effective in identifying COVID-19 infections during the pandemic. But they did not stop at this point.

Jeff Schneider, the program manager for the Rapid Assessment of Threat Exposure (RATE) project, says the Defense Department intends to expand the device’s usage to detect other infectious diseases among military service members. If the existing version of the technology can detect just COVID-19, the upgraded version should be able to detect multiple pathogens.

The RATE algorithm is able to use the biometric data obtained from different sources, including commercially-available smartwatches. Image credit: Solan Feyissa via Unsplash, free license

Initially launched in 2020 by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the RATE project has been successful in its prototype phase during the COVID-19 crisis. This project uses a robust artificial intelligence algorithm with predictive capabilities which was trained using data collected from monitored cases of COVID-19 in hospitals.

The algorithm utilizes biometric data obtained from readily available commercial wearables. By employing the RATE algorithm, early detection of infectious diseases was made possible, with the ability to identify them up to 48 hours before symptoms became apparent.

Smartwatches that can predict infections are being tested with the U.S. military servicemen. Photo by Cynthia Griggs, U.S. Air Force

In certain instances, the algorithm accurately predicted infections up to six days before their onset, even including cases where individuals were asymptomatic.

The aim of the Department of Defense (DOD) is to maintain the preparedness of its personnel for crucial missions. However, infectious diseases like COVID-19 have always posed an unpredictable risk. Through the utilization of RATE, the DOD can employ commercial wearables to non-invasively monitor the health of service members and provide early alerts regarding potential infections, effectively containing their spread.

Philips is actively participating in the development of the algorithm and has expanded its global efforts to accelerate the commercialization and scaling process.

According to Philips, the algorithm is not limited to specific devices and can utilize biomarker data from any commercially available wearable. By analyzing these markers against their clinical datasets in the cloud, they generate a RATE wellness score that has demonstrated its effectiveness in indicating the onset of infections.

The developer also plans to offer the capability to other firms through a licensing model. The current version of RATE is being tested with Garmin watches and Oura rings.

Midwives scramble to ensure safe deliveries amid violence in Sudan

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6 May 2023

Midwives scramble to ensure safe deliveries amid violence in Sudan

“Health facilities and hospitals should be safe havens in times of crisis,” the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said on Saturday, condemning an attack on a hospital in Khartoum.

Laila Baker, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) regional director, said pregnant women in capital city are facing perilous conditions.

“We are acutely concerned,” she said. “There is no way we can monitor them, there is no access to safe delivery services, no way to ensure even meagre communication.

In addition, women can go into premature delivery, and complications can arise from panic, she said, adding that “the circumstances are so tenuous.”

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Epicentre of violence

Two weeks of brutal fighting between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have turned Khartoum, the epicentre of the violence, into a warzone and thrown the country into turmoil.

More than 500 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands forced to leave their homes, either within the country or across borders to neighbouring Central African Republic, Chad, Egypt, Ethiopia, and South Sudan.

Many of those fleeing have already been displaced multiple times due to political instability, hunger and climate crises, with untold numbers taking refuge in unsafe, crowded and unsanitary makeshift camps.

Health sector collapsing

Only one in four health facilities in Khartoum are fully operational, with most damaged only partially functioning, leaving millions of people without access to critical care, UNFPA said.

Dozens of attacks on hospitals, healthcare staff and ambulances, alongside widespread looting of already scarce medical supplies, water, fuel and electricity, are pushing the health sector to the brink of collapse.

Severe supply shortages

“We have a severe lack of supplies in Khartoum, especially oxytocin and umbilical clips,” said Jamila, a midwife working in a UNFPA-supported health centre in Khartoum. “Although services continue for the time being, we are praying for more supplies to arrive soon.”

Blood, oxygen, and other medical necessities, such as fuel for ambulances, are also running dangerously low.

Despite the catastrophic circumstances, those hospitals and health centres still functioning – and standing – are proving to be a lifeline for pregnant women and new mothers.

Where access is jeopardized, community midwives and skilled birth attendants trained by UNFPA are supporting pregnant women to give birth in the safety of their homes.

Midwives play key role

For women and girls, including the estimated 219,000 who are currently pregnant in Khartoum alone, not receiving essential health services could prove life threatening.

Access to midwives is the single most important factor in stopping preventable maternal and newborn deaths.

Some 24,000 women are expected to give birth in the coming weeks, in the throes of chaos and bloodshed, making it extremely hazardous for them to seek essential antenatal care, safe delivery services, or postnatal support.

Refugees fleeing the conflict in Sudan seek shelter under a tree in the village of Koufroun, in neighbouring Chad.

Fighting threatens safe deliveries

Incessant fighting in the Jabal Awliya village in Khartoum State has severely affected reproductive health care.

“We have designated phone numbers to receive requests for home births, and a midwife goes to perform the delivery,” said Saadya, a midwife working in Jabal Awliya. “We are able to accept all requests for now.”

With continued strikes on infrastructure, there is a risk of electricity lines being cut and even these emergency hotlines being severed for people in dire need.

Some 90 UNFPA-trained community midwives are currently assisting pregnant women and girls to give birth safely, mainly at home, in the Kalakla, Jabal, Naser and Al Azhari areas of Khartoum.

Over the past two years, UNFPA has trained 460 midwives who are reaching even remote communities, including in humanitarian crises, building trust and delivering high-quality maternal health services.

Surge in gender-based violence

There are also alarming reports of surging forms of gender-based violence – sexual violence against women and girls fleeing the fighting, domestic abuse fuelled by movement restrictions and tension, and women and girls being targeted when they go out to get supplies.

In response to the rising risks for some 3.1 million women and girls who were already at risk of violence before the current crisis, efforts are underway to train service providers to provide remote psychosocial support.

Prior to the current crisis, UNFPA distributed supplies for more than 19,000 safe births and supplies to meet the reproductive health needs of more than 45,000 people, including for the clinical management of rape and treating sexually transmitted infections.

UNFPA partners are currently making sure these reach those health facilities and hospitals that are still functioning across Sudan.

Heading to a breaking point

Sudan was already one of the world’s most impoverished countries before the conflict broke out, with one third of the population in need of humanitarian assistance and facing acute hunger.

The recent violence and attacks on health centres are a violation of international law and the right to health, the agency said.

As the situation reaches breaking point, and despite mounting risks, UNFPA said it will continue to assist safe births, seek protection for vulnerable women and girls, and support midwives to save lives.

Learn more about what UNFPA here.

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

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6 May 2023

The Earth rotates to the east, so the Sun, Moon, and all the celestial bodies we can see always appear to rise in that direction and set in the west. But there is no reason why this should be the only possible case. Our planet could just as easily have rotated in the opposite direction, and while the world would be slightly different, life would still go on as usual.

For this thought experiment, let’s imagine a planet just like ours, but rotating westward.

We can’t stop the Earth and turn it around – if the world stops spinning, apocalyptic tsunamis will immediately begin, the oceans will flood the poles, the planet’s magnetic field will cease to exist, and a lot of other troubles. We won’t go into the whole process of reversing the Earth’s spin now, so let’s just imagine that we make a wish and tomorrow it spins the other way.

Sunrise and sunset

Well, the first thing we will notice right away is the sunrise in the west. So far so good, we’ve avoided catastrophic devastation since the morning.

The main thing that will change is the weather – the rotation of the planet affects the winds. This phenomenon is known as the Coriolis effect and is cited – often and wrongly – as the reason why toilet water flows one way or the other depending on whether you are north or south of the equator. The way a household facility, such as a toilet, is constructed can mimic the effect, so the experiment should not be taken as credible.

Trade winds

But in the atmosphere the effect is in full force and the events there will be mirrored: the trade winds at the Equator will no longer blow west, and the easterly winds in the middle latitudes, such as the USA and Europe, but also Argentina and parts of Australia, will no longer push in that direction.

The biological diversity of the planet depends on adaptations that have taken a long time to develop – and now suddenly everything is in the mirror world… Surely many species, including us, will be affected by this. A simple example is that the trade winds at the equator carry nutrients from the Sahara into the Amazon, supporting the region’s incredible biodiversity. Without these winds, this important process could not take place.

Ocean currents

Currents are also affected by eddies and, in coastal areas, by winds. The established flow of hot or cold water in the oceans will change completely, which will have particular effects on the entire planet. The immediate impact this would have is difficult to quantify.

With and without deserts

Let’s assume for a moment a scenario where the magical change in rotation happened a few thousand years ago (so we can ignore all the biodiversity loss). The world would look very different today.

A 2018 study actually models an Earth counterpart that rotates in the opposite direction. One clear difference would be the Sahara – the desert simply wouldn’t exist; Africa and the Middle East would be much greener than they are today. Instead, the southern United States, the Caribbean, Central America, southern Brazil, and Argentina would be deserts. So would Japan and the east coast of China.

A change in winds and currents will also affect temperatures and precipitation. Regions that are now deserts will be much hotter and drier, of course, but there will be changes in other areas as well. Europe will be much colder and wetter, as will the Maghreb and Middle East, parts of Australia and New Zealand.

The planets do not rotate equally

Almost all the planets in the Solar System orbit the Sun in the same direction. Thanks to the conservation of angular momentum of the gas cloud from which our star formed, we are all on this synchronized merry-go-round. But it is not impossible to make a planet rotate in the opposite direction. Uranus suffered a major shock that spun it sideways, so that during its 84-year journey around the Sun, its poles point directly toward it during their respective summers.

More interesting, however, is to look at Venus. Earth’s deadly hot twin has an extremely slow day (roughly 224 times longer than ours) and rotates in the opposite direction around the Sun – so on Venus it would set in the east. It’s a pity that there is constant cloud cover, and it will take more than 100 days!

But the reason for this is unclear: possibilities include that the planet has turned 180 degrees due to the Sun’s gravitational pull and the behavior of its interior; another possibility is that the effect already mentioned, plus the pull from other planets on Venus’s atmosphere, together slowed its rotation to a standstill and then reversed it.

It is still unclear what happened to her; but a counter-rotating Earth is clearly possible. Maybe in some parallel universe there is an Earth like ours with a green Sahara and sand dunes where they should be the Argentinian pampas.

Photo by NastyaSensei:

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

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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