Europe’s air quality keeps improving and the number of people dying early or suffering illness due to air pollution is in decline. However, according to European Environment Agency’s (EEA) analysis, published today, air pollution is still the largest environmental health risk in Europe, and more ambitious measures are needed to meet the health-based guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the EEA analysis, air pollution continues to pose significant risks to health in Europe, causing chronic illness and premature deaths. In 2020, 96% of the EU’s urban population was exposed to concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) above the WHO guideline level of 5 microgrammes per cubic metre (µg/m3) of air. Air pollution also harms biodiversity and damages agricultural crops and forests, causing major economic losses
At least 238,000 early deaths from fine particles in the EU
Poor air quality, especially in urban areas, continues to affect the health of European citizens. According to the EEA’s latest estimates, at least 238,000 people died prematurely in the EU in 2020 due to exposure to PM2.5 pollution above the WHO guideline level of 5 µg/m3. Nitrogen dioxide pollution led to 49,000, and exposure to ozone to 24,000 early deaths in the EU.
As well as premature death, air pollution causes ill health and adds significant costs on the health care sector. For example, in 2019, exposure to PM2.5 led to 175,702 years lived with disability (YLDs) due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease across 30 European countries.
Note: As with previous years, the health impacts of different air pollutants should not be added together to avoid double counting due to some overlaps in data. This is the case for both mortality and illness.
From 2005 to 2020, the number of early deaths from exposure to PM2.5 fell by 45% in the EU. If this trend continues, the EU is expected to deliver on the zero pollution action plan target of a 55% reduction in premature deaths by 2030.
Nevertheless, further efforts will be needed to meet the zero pollution vision for 2050 of reducing air pollution to levels no longer considered harmful to health.
Loss of biodiversity, damage on forests, crops
Air pollution also harms land and water ecosystems. In 2020, damaging levels of nitrogen deposition were seen in 75% of the total EU ecosystem area. This represents a 12% reduction since 2005 while the EU zero pollution action plan’s target is to reach a 25% reduction by 2030.
According to the EEA analysis, 59% of forested areas and in 6% agricultural land were exposed to damaging levels of ground-level ozone in Europe in 2020. Economic losses due to the impacts of ground-level ozone on wheat yields totalled about EUR 1.4 billion across 35 European countries in 2019, with the biggest losses seen in France, Germany, Poland, and Türkiye.
More than half of fine particle emissions from energy use in buildings
The main source of particulate matter pollution in Europe is from fuel combustion in the residential, commercial and institutional sector, the EEA analysis shows. These emissions are mainly linked to burning solid fuels for the heating of buildings. In 2020, the sector was responsible for 44% of PM10 and 58% PM2.5 emissions. Other significant sources of these pollutants include industry, road transport, and agriculture.
Agriculture was also responsible for the vast majority (94%) of ammonia emissions and more than half (56%) of methane emissions. For nitrogen oxides, the main sources were road transport (37%), agriculture (19%), and industry (15%).
Overall, emissions of all key air pollutants in the EU continued to decline in 2020. This trend has continued since 2005 despite the considerable increase in the EU gross domestic product (GDP) over the same period, the EEA analysis notes.
Policy background
The European Green Deal aims to improve air quality and to align EU air quality standards more closely with the updated WHO air quality guidelines. The EU zero pollution action plan sets a vision for 2050 to reduce air, water and soil pollution to levels no longer considered harmful to health and natural ecosystems.
In October 2022, the European Commission proposed a revision of the Ambient Air Quality Directive, which includes stricter thresholds for pollution, enhanced right to clean air – including potential provisions for citizens to claim compensation for health damage due to air pollution – strengthened rules for air quality monitoring, and better public information.
Note to editors
The EEA has been estimating mortality due to exposure to air pollution since 2014. Until 2021, the EEA used WHO’s 2013 report recommendations for the evidence of health risks of air pollution. In this year’s assessment, EEA applies for the first time new recommendations for health impacts set out in the 2021 WHO air quality guidelines.
Due to the change in methodology, the estimated number of deaths is lower than before and the EEA has updated its earlier estimates to monitor consistently progress and relative change toward the zero pollution action plan goals.
Some studies indicate that health impacts, including early deaths, can occur already at low levels of air pollution. The EEA has estimated those considerably higher health impacts in a specific ‘sensitivity analysis’, summarised in the health impacts briefing.
Today, the European Parliament recognized Russia to be a state sponsor of terrorism, in an attempt to pave the way for President Putin and his government to be held accountable for war crimes before an international tribunal.
Vladimir Putin’s regime is now considered by MEPs to be a state “sponsor of terrorism”, an accomplice to war crimes and must face the consequences. The MEPs finally voted by a majority in favor of this resolution, which was initially proposed by the European People’s Party, with 498 votes for, 58 against and 44 abstentions. The European Union is thus aligned with the United States and Canada.
In the text adopted on Wednesday, MEPs call on the EU and member states to put in place a “European legal framework” that would allow for “a battery of heavy restrictive measures” to be taken against countries labelled as supporters of terrorism and that would have the effect of significantly limiting the Union’s relations” with the countries in question.
FOLLOWING THE ATROCITIES CARRIED OUT BY VLADIMIR PUTIN’S REGIME AGAINST UKRAINIAN CIVILIANS, MEPS HAVE RECOGNISED RUSSIA AS A STATE SPONSOR OF TERRORISM. PRESS RELEASE: HTTPS://T.CO/YUBXBAU4GXPIC.TWITTER.COM/TF4QXSJLOB— European Parliament (@Europarl_EN) November 23, 2022
A decision that did not fail to react on the Ukrainian side. The chief of staff of the Ukrainian presidency, Andriy Yermark, expressed on Twitter “his gratitude” to the European Parliament, “for this crucial step that reinforces the international isolation of Russia and rightly confirms its status as a pariah.
At the same time, Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, led to massive power and water cuts, particularly in the capital Kiev, killing at least six people, causing three nuclear power plants to go offline.
According to the Ukrainian Air Force, Russia fired about 70 cruise missiles at the country, 51 of which were shot down, as well as five kamikaze drones. They targeted strategic infrastructure as winter temperatures set in for Ukraine. According to the head of the national police, Igor Klymenko, at least six people were killed and 36 injured in the bombings.
THE @EUROPARL_EN IS UNDER A SOPHISTICATED CYBERATTACK. A PRO-KREMLIN GROUP HAS CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY.
OUR IT EXPERTS ARE PUSHING BACK AGAINST IT & PROTECTING OUR SYSTEMS.
THIS, AFTER WE PROCLAIMED RUSSIA AS A STATE-SPONSOR OF TERRORISM.
A few hours after MEPs adopted this resolution the European Parliament’s website was the target of a cyberattack.
The denial of service attack (DDOS) disrupted access to the Strasbourg Parliament’s English-language website, said the spokesman, Jaume Duch, on Twitter.
The European Environment Agency’s (EEA) Scientific Committee has elected new Chair and Vice-Chairs. Professor Claire Dupont from Ghent University, Belgium, will chair the body of independent scientists advising EEA’s work.
The EEA Scientific Committee has elected new chairpersons amongst its members. The role of the Committee is to support the EEA Management Board and the Executive Director by providing scientific advice and delivering professional opinion on scientific matters related to the Agency’s work.
The new Chair of the EEA Scientific Committee is Professor Claire Dupont, Department of Public Governance, Ghent University, Belgium. Professor Dupont has been a member of the Committee since 2016.
The two new Vice-Chairs are Professor Theodoros Zachariadis, Energy, Environment and Water Research Centre, The Cyprus Institute (EEA Scientific Committee member since 2016), and Professor Louis Meuleman, Visiting Professor Public Governance, Leuven University, Belgium (member since 2020).
The three outgoing chairpersons have all served the EEA Scientific Committee for eight years, from 2014 to 2022. Outgoing Chair, ProfessorPer Mickwitz, is Pro Vice-Chancellor for Research, Sustainability and Campus development, Lund University, Sweden. Outgoing Vice-Chairs are Professor Mikael Skou Andersen, Department of Environmental Science and Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Denmark; and Professor Malgorzata Grodzińska-Jurczak, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Jagiellonian University, Poland.
During the past eight years, all three helped steer EEA knowledge development in support to EU policies, including the European Green Deal and the EU Horizon Europe research programme. They brought many insights to the Scientific Committee’s efforts, most notably in the fields of EU policy analysis and evaluation, sustainability transitions and science communication.
The EEA would like to sincerely thank Per, Mikael and Malgorzata for their work and dedicationinadvising the Agency to deliver on its mandate to support EU policy ambitions through sound, independent information on environment and climate.
Analysis of ancient DNA from more than 700 individuals reveals a complete genomic history of the so-called “Southern Arc,” a region spanning southeastern Europe and western Asia long considered the “cradle of Western civilization.”
This comprehensive genomic historical account of the Southern Arc is presented in the journal Science in three new studies by Iosif Lazaridis, David Reich, and colleagues.
Among the numerous international team, including researchers from all Balkan and almost all European countries, as well as the USA, South Africa, China, Russia.
The analysis, which examines newly sequenced ancient DNA from more than 700 individuals in the region, reveals the complex history of the population from the earliest agricultural cultures to the late Middle Ages. Until relatively recently, much of the ancient history of the Southern Arc—the stories of its people and population—was told through archaeological data and millennia of historical records and texts from the region. But innovations in ancient DNA sequencing have provided a new source of historical information.
Using ancient DNA from the remains of 727 people, Lazaridis and co-authors in three separate studies constructed a detailed genomic history of the Southern Arc from the Neolithic (~10,000 BC) to the Ottoman period (~1700 AD). The findings provide insight into the complex migrations and interactions between populations that shaped the region over thousands of years. Studies show that earlier reliance on modern population history and ancient written and artistic works provided an inaccurate picture of early Indo-European cultures.
The Indo-Europeans and the Yamnai pastoralists
The first study – “The Genetic History of the Southern Arc: A Bridge Between West Asia and Europe” – presents the new data set. It also offers an analysis that focuses on the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age (roughly 5000 to 1000 BC). This analysis reveals major genetic exchanges between the Eurasian steppe and the Southern Arc and provides new insight into the formation of Yamna culture steppe pastoralists.
Pit culture
The Yam culture is an archaeological culture from the period 3600 – 2300 BC, in the area between the Dniester and Bug rivers and the Ural Mountains. Kurgans from the Yam culture can also be seen on the territory of Bulgaria in Dobruja near the border with Romania.
Yam culture was mostly nomadic and agriculture was practiced only in some riverine areas. Several mound fortifications have been discovered. The breeding of domestic animals – horses, large and small horned cattle – has been established. The plow and the cart were familiar.
The name of the culture (yamna – from pit) comes from the specific pit-shaped tombs (kurgans) with which it is characterized. In them, the dead were buried on their backs, with their knees bent.
According to some scholars, the Yam culture is related to the ancient Indo-Europeans.
In the first paper, the international team also investigated the homeland and distribution of the Anatolian and Indo-European languages. Genetic results indicate that the homeland of the Indo-Anatolian language family is in West Asia, with only a secondary dispersal of non-Anatolian Indo-Europeans from the Eurasian steppe. In the first stage, about 7000-5000 years ago, people originating from the Caucasus moved west into Anatolia and north into the steppe. Some of these people may have spoken ancestral forms of Anatolian and Indo-European languages.
All spoken Indo-European languages (e.g. Bulgarian, Armenian and Sanskrit) can be traced back to the steppe herders of the Yamna culture, descended from Caucasian hunter-gatherers and eastern hunter-gatherers who initiated a chain of migrations across Eurasia about 5000 years ago. Their southern expansions into the Balkans and Greece and east through the Caucasus into Armenia left their mark on the DNA of the Bronze Age people of the region.
As they expanded, the descendants of the Yamnai herders mixed differently with the local population. The emergence of the Greek, Paleo-Balkan, and Albanian (Indo-European) languages in southeastern Europe, and of the Armenian language in western Asia, was shaped by the interaction of Indo-European-speaking migrants from the steppes with local populations and can be traced through various forms of genetic evidence. In South-Eastern Europe the influence of the Yamnai was profound, and people of practically full Yamnai ancestry appeared immediately after the beginning of the Yamnai migrations.
Some of the most striking results have been found in the central Southern Arc region, Anatolia, where large-scale data paint a rich picture of change—and lack of change—over time.
The results reveal that, unlike the Balkans and the Caucasus, Anatolia was hardly affected by Yamnai migrations. A steppe connection cannot be established for speakers of Anatolian languages (e.g. Hittite, Luwian) due to the absence of an eastern hunter-gatherer origin in Anatolia distinct from all other regions where Indo-European languages were spoken.
In contrast to Anatolia’s surprising imperviousness to steppe migrations, the South Caucasus has been affected many times, including before the Yamnai migrations.
“I did not expect to find that the Chalcolithic individuals from Areni 1, which were discovered 15 years ago in the excavations I co-authored, would derive a gene flow lineage from the north to parts of the South Caucasus more than 1,000 years before the Yamna expansion, and that this northern influence would disappear in the region before reappearing several millennia later. This shows that there is much more to be discovered through new excavations and field studies in the eastern parts of West Asia,” states Ron Pinhasi (Ron Pinhasi) from the Department of Evolutionary Anthropology and Human Evolution and Archaeological Sciences (HEAS) at the University of Vienna.
“Anatolia was home to diverse populations, originating from both local hunter-gatherers and eastern populations from the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and the Levant,” explains Songül Alpaslan-Roodenberg. “People from the Sea of Marmara region and southeastern Anatolia, from the Black Sea and Aegean regions had varieties of the same ancestral species,” continued Alpaslan-Rodenberg of the University of Vienna and Harvard University.
The first agricultural societies and their interactions
“Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Ceramic Neolithic migrations into Anatolia” – the second study, presents the first ancient DNA from Mesopotamia from the epicenter of the Neolithic revolution in the region. The findings indicate that the transition between the Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic phases in Neolithic Anatolia was associated with two separate pulses of migration from the heart of the Fertile Crescent.
The second paper seeks to understand how the world’s earliest Neolithic populations formed around 12,000 years ago.
“The genetic results support the scenario of a network of regional-wide contacts between early agricultural communities. They also provide new evidence that the transition to the Neolithic was a complex process that did not occur only in one core region, but throughout Anatolia and the Middle East.” , says Ron Pinhasi.
It provides the first ancient DNA data for pre-Neolithic farmers from the Tigris region of northern Mesopotamia – both in eastern Turkey and northern Iraq – a major region of the emergence of agriculture. It also presents the first ancient DNA data from Pre-Pottery farmers from the island of Cyprus, which witnessed the earliest maritime expansion of farmers from the Eastern Mediterranean. It also presents new data on Early Neolithic farmers from the Northwestern Zagros, as well as the first data from Neolithic Armenia.
By filling in these gaps, the authors can explore the genetic history of these societies for which archaeological research documents complex economic and cultural interactions, but cannot trace marriage systems and interactions that leave no visible material traces.
The results reveal admixture from Pre-Neolithic sources associated with Anatolian, Caucasian and Levantine hunter-gatherers.
The study also shows that these early agricultural cultures form a continuum of origins reflecting the geography of West Asia. Furthermore, the results delineate at least two emigration streams from the heart of the Fertile Crescent to early farmers in Anatolia.
The historical period
The third study, “Genetic Probing in the Ancient and Medieval History of Southern Europe and Western Asia,” focuses on ancient DNA analysis in the period of recorded history in the Southern Arc. It also sheds light on the poorly understood demographic characteristics and geographic origins of groups such as the Mycenaeans, Urartians, and Romans.
The third paper shows how polises in the ancient Mediterranean world retain contrasts in their origins since the Bronze Age, but are linked by migration.
The results revealed that the ancestry of people living around Rome during the Imperial period was almost identical to that of Roman/Byzantine individuals from Anatolia in both mean and variation pattern, while pre-Imperial Italians had a completely different distribution.
This shows that the Roman Empire, both in its shorter-lived western part and in its longer-lived eastern part, centered in Anatolia, had a diverse but similar population.
“These results are really surprising because in the Science paper I co-authored in 2019 on the genetic ancestry of individuals from Ancient Rome, we found a cosmopolitan pattern that we thought was unique to Rome. Now we see that other regions of the Roman Empire were as cosmopolitan as Rome itself,” comments Ron Pinhasi.
Commenting on these studies, Benjamin Arbuckle and Zoe Schwandt write that “the studies of Lazaridis et al. represent an important milestone for ancient genomic research, providing a rich set of data and diverse observations that will form the basis of of subsequent interpretations of the human history of Western Eurasia”. According to Arbuckle and Schwandt Lazaridis et al. have produced “an astonishing body of data, unthinkable on its scale just ten years ago”, but highlight the challenges and limitations of interpretations, suggesting that many of the narratives explored in the three studies reflect a Eurocentric worldview.
Reference:
1. “The genetic history of the Southern Arc: A bridge between West Asia and Europe” by Iosif Lazaridis, Songül Alpaslan-Roodenberg, Ayse Acar, Aysen Açikkol, Anagnostis Agelarakis, Levon Aghikyan, Ugur Akyüz, Desislava Andreeva, Gojko Andrijašević, Dragana Antonovic, Ian Armit, Alper Atmaca, Pavel Avetisyan, Ahmet Ihsan Aytek, Krum Bacvarov, Ruben Badalyan, Stefan Bakardzhiev, Jacqueline Balen, Lorenc Bejko, Rebecca Bernardos, Andreas Bertsatos, Hanifi Biber, Ahmet Bilir, Mario Bodružic, Michelle Bonogofsky, Clive Bonsall , Dušan Boric, Nikola Borovinic, Guillermo Bravo Morante, Katharina Buttinger, Kim Callan, Francesca Candilio, Mario Caric, Olivia Cheronet, Stefan Chohadzhiev, Maria-Eleni Chovalopoulou, Stella Chryssoulaki, Ion Ciobanu, Natalija Condic, Mihai Constantinescu, Emanuela Cristiani, Brendan J. Culleton, Elizabeth Curtis, Jack Davis, Tatiana I. Demcenco, Valentin Dergachev, Zafer Derin, Sylvia Deskaj, Seda Devejyan, Vojislav Djordjevic, Kellie Sara Duffett Carlson, Laurie R. Eccles, Nedko Elenski, Atilla Engin, Nihat Erdogan, Sabiha Erir-Pazarci, Daniel M. Fernandes, Matthew Ferry, Suzanne Freilich, Alin Frînculeasa, Michael L. Galaty, Beatriz Gamarra, Boris Gasparyan, Bisserka Gaydarska, Elif Genç, Timur Gültekin, Serkan Gündüz, Tamás Hajdu, Volker Heyd, Suren Hobosyan, Nelli Hovhannisyan, Iliya Iliev, Lora Iliev, Stanislav Iliev, Ilkay Ivgin, Ivor Jankovic, Lence Jovanova, Panagiotis Karkanas, Berna Kavaz-Kindigili, Esra Hilal Kaya, Denise Keating, Douglas J. Kennett, Seda Deniz Kesici, Anahit Khudaverdyan, Krisztián Kiss, Sinan Kiliç, Paul Klostermann, Sinem Kostak Boca Negra Valdes, Saša Kovacevic, Marta Krenz-Niedbala, Maja Krznaric Škrivanko, Rovena Kurti, Pasko Kuzman, Ann Marie Lawson, Catalin Lazar, Krassimir Leshtakov, Thomas E. Levy, Ioannis Liritzis, Kirsi O. Lorentz, Sylwia Lukasik, Matthew Mah, Swapan Mallick, Kirsten Mandl, Kristine Martirosyan-Olshansky, Roger Matthews, Wendy Matthews, Kathleen McSweeney, Varduhi Melikyan, Adam Micco, Me gan Michel, Lidija Milašinovic, Alissa Mittnik, Janet M. Monge, Georgi Nekhrizov, Rebecca Nicholls, Alexey G. Nikitin, Vassil Nikolov, Mario Novak, Iñigo Olalde, Jonas Oppenheimer, Anna Osterholtz, Celal Özdemir, Kadir Toykan Özdogan, Nurettin Öztürk, Nikos Papadimitriou, Niki Papakonstantinou, Anastasia Papathanasiou, Lujana Paraman, Evgeny G. Paskary, Nick Patterson, Ilian Petrakiev, Levon Petrosyan, Vanya Petrova, Anna Philippa-Touchais, Ashot Piliposyan, Nada Pocuca Kuzman, Hrvoje Potrebica, Bianca Preda-Balanica, Zrinka Premužic, T. Douglas Price, Lijun Qiu, Siniša Radovic, Kamal Raeuf Aziz, Petra Rajic Šikanjic, Kamal Rasheed Raheem, Sergei Razumov, Amy Richardson, Jacob Roodenberg, Rudenc Ruka, Victoria Russeva, Mustafa Sahin, Aysegül Sarbak, Emre Savas, Constanze Schattke, Lynne Schepartz, Tayfun Selçuk, Ayla Sevim-Erol, Michel Shamoon-Pour, Henry M. Shephard, Athanasios Sideris, Angela Simalcsik, Hakob Simonyan, Vitalij Sinika, Kendra Sirak, Ghenadie Sirbu, Mario Šlaus, Andrei Soficaru, Bilal Sögüt, Arkadiusz Soltysiak, Çilem Sönmez-Sözer, Maria Stathi, Martin Steskal, Kristin Stewardson, Sharon Stocker, Fadime Suata-Alpaslan, Alexander Suvorov, Anna Szécsényi-Nagy, Tamás Szeniczey, Nikolai Telnov, Strahil Temov, Nadezhda Todorova, Ulsi Tota, Gilles Touchais, Sevi Triantaphyllou, Atila Türker, Marina Ugarkovic, Todor Valchev, Fanica Veljanovska, Zlatko Videvski, Cristian Virag, Anna Wagner, Sam Walsh, Piotr Wlo darczak, J. Noah Workman, Aram Yardumian, Evgenii Yarovoy, Alper Yener Yavuz, Hakan Yilmaz, Fatma Zalzala, Anna Zettl, Zhao Zhang, Rafet Çavusoglu, Nadin Rohland, Ron Pinhasi and David Reich, 26 August 2022, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abm4247
2. “A genetic probe into the ancient and medieval history of Southern Europe and West Asia” by David Reich, et al., 25 August 2022, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abq0755
3. “Ancient DNA from Mesopotamia suggests distinct Pre-Pottery and Pottery Neolithic migrations into Anatolia” by David Reich, et al., 25 August 2022, Science.
DOI: 10.1126/science.abq0762
Source:
The Southern Arc: Vast Genetic Study Reveals Insights Into Migration Patterns and Language Development, University Of Vienna
The actress has been a member since 1986. We rarely focus on books lately. Streaming platforms, television and cinema have taken a huge part of everyday life and fixed our attention on the screens. Now more and more often we hear people say that they have seen the movie but not read the book it is based on. And in fact, literature is a world that should never be abandoned.
It was precisely because books took a backseat, quite undeservedly, that the world was about to miss out on a wonderful piece of news. The event takes place in London and brings together cinema and literature to create an unbreakable union that at the same time marks a historic achievement. A change that is quite possible to attract the younger generation to libraries and bookstores, making them immerse themselves in a whole new world of imagination and description.
A few days ago it became clear that Helena Bonham Carter has already taken the post of President of the National Library in London. She becomes the first female president in the library’s 181-year history. The actress, known to the younger generation from “Harry Potter” and “The Crown”, inherits the honor from English writer Tim Rice.
“The library is truly a place like no other, inspiring and supporting writers for more than 180 years, many of whom have in some way influenced my own career and that of actors around the world,” said Carter, who has been a board member since 1986. year. The library’s unique resources, history and members help connect the literary greats of the past with those of the future, she said. “I am proud to be able to support this amazing and vital institution.”
For its part, representatives of the London library say that Bonham Carter’s career connects her with former members of the institution. “With a passion for books and stories, as well as a long-standing love of the library, Helena is ideally placed to promote this vast resource to creative and curious people,” says Philip Marshall, director of the library.
The actress became famous in 1985 when she played the role of Lucy Honeychers in the film adaptation of the novel “A Room with a View”, written by the former vice-president of the library EM Forster. She later played Miss Havisham in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations and Eudoria Holmes in the Enola Holmes films, based on characters created by librarian Arthur Conan Doyle.
Other members of the library include writers Virginia Woolf, Angela Carter, Daphne du Maurier, Muriel Spark and Beryl Baindbridge, as well as actress Diana Rigg and artist Vanessa Bell.
Helena Bonham Carter has been appointed to the honorary position following Sir Tim’s five-year tenure. Her role will include work on emerging writers and the library’s school programs.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is working to compile an updated list of priority pathogens that can cause future outbreaks or pandemics, the UN agency announced on Monday.
WHO is convening over 300 scientists who will consider the evidence on over 25 virus families and bacteria, as well as “Disease X”, which indicates an unknown pathogen that could cause a serious international epidemic.
The process began on Friday and will guide global investment, and research and development (R&D), especially in vaccines, tests, and treatments.
The priority pathogens list was first published in 2017 and includes COVID-19, Ebola virus disease, Lassa fever, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Rift Valley fever, Zika, and “Disease X”.
“Targeting priority pathogens and virus families for research and development of countermeasures is essential for a fast and effective epidemic and pandemic response”, said Dr. Michael Ryan, Executive Director of WHO’s Health Emergencies Programme.
“Without significant R&D investments prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would not have been possible to have safe and effective vaccines developed in record time”, he added.
Roadmap for research
The experts will recommend a list of priority pathogens that need further research and investment.
The process will include both scientific and public health criteria, as well as criteria related to socioeconomic impact, access, and equity.
R&D roadmaps will be developed for those pathogens identified as priority, laying out knowledge gaps and areas for research.
Desired specifications for vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests will also be determined, where relevant.
Efforts will also be made to map, compile and facilitate clinical trials to develop these tools.
The revised list is expected to be published in early 2023.
TAJIKISTAN – Shamil Khakimov, a critically ill elderly Jehovah’s Witness unlawfully imprisoned for his faith in Tajikistan since February 2019, filed a formal petition for his release to the nation’s president on 8 November. The same petition was filed with the General Prosecutor’s Office, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ombudsman.
On 10 November, Supervisory filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, requesting that his case be re-opened and reversed, based on 2022 judgment by the UN Human Rights Committee (CCPR) that declared Tajikistan’s ban on Jehovah’s Witnesses unlawful and baseless.
On 11 November, a private complaint/appeal was filed against the trial court decision that refused to release Shamil based on his poor health.
US Senator Rubio and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) called for his release as well.
During the 1990s, Khakimov developed sciatic nerve pinching and chronic sciatica. Since 2007, he has suffered from severe circulatory problems in his lower limbs, which required surgery in 2007. His condition worsened in 2017, requiring additional surgery, which was performed that year. Owing to poor vascular circulation, his surgical wounds did not heal and he had an open leg ulcer when he was arrested on 26 February 2019, and subsequently placed in pre-trial detention.
Khakimov also suffers from heart disease (left ventricular hypertrophy) and atherosclerosis of the legs and varicose veins in his lower extremities. He is at a level four risk for hypertension (blood pressure). He has undergone two operations for venectomies (blood clots) in his left leg. Complications have included the post-thrombotic syndrome in both legs, with a trophic ulcer on his left foot, and early stages of gangrene. Khakimov no longer has any vision in his right eye, and he can barely see out of his left eye due to progressive glaucoma. On 31 October 2022, he received a certificate attesting to the fact that he is now identified as having a group two disability.
Jarrod Lopes, a spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses, states: “If Shamil isn’t released soon and given specialized medical treatment, there is a very real danger that his imprisonment might become, effectively, a death sentence. We hope the Tajik authorities take immediate action to have Shamil released before it’s too late. There is no legal reason, according to Tajik and international law, for a peaceful elderly man like him to be in prison. He should have never been imprisoned. Additionally, in December 2020, over a year after his conviction, Tajikistan decriminalized Shamil’s so-called offence. The authorities should have immediately released him then. Instead, prison authorities continue to pressure him to ‘repent’ and renounce his beliefs. Jehovah’s Witnesses around the world hope that the Tajik authorities will soon comply with the UN Human Rights Committee’s recent judgement, by lifting the unlawful ban and releasing Shamil from prison.”
The persecution and the sentencing of Shamil Khakimov to prison
Mr Shamil Khakimov is a 71-year-old widower and pensioner. He was born in the small village of Koktush, in the district of Rudaki, Tajikistan. In 1976, he married and moved to the capital city of Dushanbe, where for 38 years he worked for OJSC Tajiktelecom as a cable lines engineer. Mr Khakimov had two children, a son and a daughter. In 1989, when his son was 12 and daughter was 7, his wife Olya died from cancer and he never remarried. Khakimov became one of Jehovah’s Witnesses in 1994. In September 2021, while Khakimov was in prison, his son died from a heart attack. He was not allowed to attend his funeral.
Due to the ban on the movement of Jehovah’s Witnesses, their members have been subjected to numerous arrests, detentions, searches, beatings, as well as a deportation.
On 4 June 2009, sixteen Jehovah’s Witnesses had a peaceful gathering in a private apartment in Khujand to read and discuss the Bible. Eleven officials, including officers of the State Committee on National Security, forced their way into the apartment, searched it and the participants of the gathering and seized their Bibles, as well as other religious publications. Several participants were subsequently brought to the headquarters of the State Committee on National Security, where they were interrogated for six hours. On an unspecified date, a criminal case was initiated against the participants of that gathering. It was dismissed in October 2009 after the OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting. However, the prosecutor reopened the criminal case on other charges.
In September 2019, a court in the northern city of Khujand jailed Shamil Khakimov for seven years and six months for allegedly “inciting religious hatred”, though the sentence was subsequently twice shortened. No evidence was produced that Jehovah’s Witness Khakimov or his community had harmed anyone, and his real “crime” seems to be that the regime thinks he led Khujand’s Jehovah’s Witness community.
Registration and ban of Jehovah’s Witnesses
Jehovah’s Witnesses have been active in Tajikistan for more than 50 years. In 1994, their organization (RAJW) was granted registration by the then State Committee on Religious Affairs pursuant to the Law “On Religion and Religious Organizations” of 8 December 1990 (the “1990 Religion Law”). On 15 January 1997, the RAJW was re-registered with national status under the amendments to the 1990 Religion Law. On 11 September 2002, the State Committee on Religious Affairs suspended the activities of the RAJW for three months for door-to-door propaganda and propaganda in public places.
On 11 October 2007, the Ministry of Culture banned the RAJW, annulled its charter and determined that the RAJW’s registration of 15 January 1997 was unlawful. It concluded that the RAJW repeatedly violated the national legislation, including the Constitution of Tajikistan and the 1990 Religion Law, by distributing religious publications in public places and door-to-door, which caused discontent on the part of the population.
Neither new nor foreign (Ni Nueva, Ni Ajena) – Spanish Federation of Municipalities (FEMP) and the state Foundation Pluralismo y Convivencia, have launched an exhibition to promote tolerance, diversity and coexistence between religions.
On the International Day for Tolerance, Félix Bolaños, who is the Minister of Presidency of Spanish government (a ministry under the prime minister’s office) has called for it to become an “essential value in any local public policy”.
Madrid, 16 November 2022. – Diversity and coexistence between religions – Promoting local policies that reinforce tolerance and respect for religious diversity with a view to fostering coexistence was the aim of the First Forum of Municipalities for Tolerance, a meeting that was opened last week in Madrid at the headquarters of the Federacion Española de Municipios y Provincias (FEMP) (Spanish Federation of Towns and Cities) by: the Minister of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños – the Secretary General of the FEMP, Carlos Daniel Casares – and the Director of the Pluralism and Coexistence Foundation, Inés Mazarrasa.
On the International Day for Tolerance, they all called for local commitment to integration and encouraged towns and cities to join the Network of Municipalities for Tolerance (MxT), which already includes a large group of Local Governments that have been developing experiences in this field.
The Secretary General of the FEMP, Carlos Daniel Casares, stated that “however diverse beliefs may be, tolerance among all of them is a mutual enrichment” and it is this tolerance that “facilitates coexistence in our towns and cities”. Casares also highlighted the commitment of the FEMP and the municipalities participating in MxT in this area, and invited other local governments to join in and develop experiences and initiatives. He also recalled the collaboration that the Federation and the Pluralism and Coexistence Foundation have maintained for several years, and thanked the Ministry of the Presidency for its support, with which the FEMP also maintains other lines of collaboration.
Neither new nor foreign, says new exhibition launched at First Forum of Municipalities for Tolerance in Spain
For his part, the head of the Ministry of the Presidency, Félix Bolaños, pointed out the importance of “making cities more inclusive places”, and warned of voices that “make intolerance their hallmark, that demonise those who are different”, something that must be denounced because it represents a “threat to our democracy and coexistence”. “Those of us who believe in inclusion have to combat these ideas democratically and take the side of public authorities and administrations”, he added.
Bolaños referred to the FEMP as a “body for redistributing best practices and public policies” and described this work as “commendable and essential”, especially for municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants. “This is what Spain is all about, making life better for citizens,” he said. In his opinion, local initiatives in this framework generate spaces for sharing experiences, and connect “with those who do not want to take a step backwards in terms of coexistence and tolerance”. Finally, Bolaños praised the actions of local governments and their policies and said that “you are essential in the work for coexistence and tolerance”.
Also at the opening ceremony, Inés Mazarrasa, Director of the Pluralism and Coexistence Foundation, pointed out that the local councils involved in the MxT programme share the same common objective, “to be instruments for achieving an inclusive coexistence, in which all options of conscience, religious or otherwise, can live together in full equality and respect”.
Mazarrasa announced the creation of a new working tool designed to help local councils to specify in an action plan different measures based on the principles of the Charter for the municipal management of religious diversity. In this regard, and in line with the Sustainable Development Goals set out in the 2030 Agenda, he pointed out that “the aim is to contribute to progress in guaranteeing equal opportunities and in the commitment to leave no one behind”.
Neither new nor foreign – Religious Diversity in Spain.
At the same time, the FEMP headquarters is hosting the exhibition, inaugurated the same day by the FEMP, the Foundation Pluralism and Coexistence and Mercedes Murillo, Director of Religious Freedom of the Spanish government, which gives an account of the road travelled on the path towards religious freedom as a constitutional right in our country. “Neither new nor alien” is the title of this exhibition by the Pluralism and Coexistence Foundation, which has installed fifteen panels in the FEMP spaces that include texts and images referring to the great diversity of religions found in the country, from Catholicism, Evangelical Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism, to other more recent but well-established religions such as Baha’i, Scientology, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Pagans, etc.
Neither new nor foreign, says new exhibition launched at First Forum of Municipalities for Tolerance in Spain 6
LeADS – In Europe, around 9 million people work as ICT specialists. The latest data shows that 55% of enterprises that recruited or tried to recruit ICT specialists reported difficulties filling such vacancies (DESI report 2022).
As digital technologies become an integral element that influences employment and engagement with society, a successful digital transformation of EU industries and society will depend on developing the next generation of skills, closing the gap between digital talent supply and demand.
LeADS at work to bridge the advanced digital skills gap between industry and education in Europe 10
The path to theDigital Decade proposal aims to increase the number of employed ICT specialists in the EU to at least 20 million by 2030 and without a significant change to business as usual, this will not be met.
To address this challenging situation, LeADS – The Leading European Advanced Digital Skills, the first ever Digital Europe Programme (DIGITAL) digital skills Coordination and Support Action (CSA), was launched today, November 18, 2022.
The DIGITAL programme is funding €580 million for developing Advanced Digital Skills over 7 years to support the design and delivery of specialised programmes for future experts in key capacity areas like data and Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, quantum and High-Performance Computing (HPC).
LeADS will support the productive deployment of the Advanced Digital Skills funds to ensure that upskilling and reskilling opportunities are provided to drive future European competitiveness and digital sovereignty.
LeADS aims to make Advanced Digital Skills part of a solution to the digital divide and unemployment that has been hindering the uptake and use of emerging key digital technologies. Bridging the digital skills gap of European industries with research and education is one example of how LeADS will guide Europeans to leverage cloud services, big data and AI, through the availability of digital experts.
The CSA will collaborate with a community of industry stakeholders and, education and training providers to develop specific skill profiles for technologies, demand forecasts based on tech adoption trends, the definition of the skills gap, and guidelines for industry and education bodies.
By incorporating its findings and insights into roadmaps and guidelines in line with the market’s gaps, LeADS hopes to retain and attract highly skilled individuals in line with the labour market’s demand by fine-tuning education programmes to attract students’ interest in the evolving technologies.
Is trying to ban Halal slaughtering a concern for Human Rights? This is the question our special contributor, PhD. Alessandro Amicarelli, a renowned human rights attorney and activist, who chairs the European Federation on Freedom of Belief, puts to Professor Vasco Fronzoni, from the Universitá Telemática Pegaso in Italy, expert in shari’a Law.
Find in blue his introduction, and then the questions and answers.
By Alessandro Amicarelli. Freedom of religion and belief protects the right of believers to live their lives in accordance with their beliefs, within limits, and this also includes some practices relating to social and food traditions, this being the case for instance of halal and kosher preparations.
There have been cases of proposals aimed at banning halal and kosher procedures arguing on the rights of animals that according to detractors of these traditions are exposed to excessive cruelty.
Prof. Vasco Fronzoniis Associate Professor at the Università telematica Pegaso in Italy, is a specialist in Shari’a Law and Islamic Markets, and he is also Lead Auditor of Quality management Systems, specialized for the Halal sector at the Halal Research Council of Lahore and is member of the Scientific Committee of the European Federation on Freedom of Belief.
Q: Prof. Fronzoni what are the main reasons put forward by those trying to ban halal preparations and in general the slaughter according to halal traditions?
A: The main reasons for the ban on ritual slaughter according to the kosher, shechita and halal rules relate to the idea of animal welfare and to alleviate as much as possible the psychological and physical suffering of animals in the killing procedures.
Alongside this main and declared reason, some Jews and Muslims also see the desire to boycott or discriminate against their communities, due to secularist attitudes or in some cases motivated by the desire to protect other majority religions.
Q: Is in your opinion a breach of the rights of Muslims, and in the case of the kosher, the rights of Jews, banning their slaughtering traditions? People of all faiths and no-faith access the kosher and halal food and this is not restricted to people of the Jewish and Islamic faiths. Shouldn’t people belonging to the Jewish and Islamic faiths be permitted to slaughter according to their religious laws and regulations that have existed for several centuries as this is guaranteed by their human rights? Banning these traditions wouldn’t also mean to infringe the rights of people from the wider community to access a food market of their choice?
In my opinion yes, prohibiting a type of religious slaughter is a violation of religious freedom, of citizens and even of residents only.
The right to food must be framed as a fundamental and multidimensional human right, and it is not only an essential component of citizenship, but also a precondition of democracy itself. It was crystallized already with the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and today it is recognized by numerous international soft law sources and is also guaranteed by various constitutional charters. Furthermore, in 1999 the UN Committee on Economic, Cultural and Social Rights issued a specific document on the right to adequate food.
Following this approach, the right to adequate food must be understood both in terms of food security and food safety and embraces a criterion that is not only quantitative, but above all qualitative, where nutrition does not represent only sustenance, but ensures the dignity of people and is such only if it corresponds to the religious dictates and cultural traditions of the community to which the subject belongs.
In this sense, it appears enlightening that in the European Union the Court of Strasbourg has recognized since 2010 (HUDOC – European Court Human Rights, Application n. 18429/06 Jakobski v. Poland) the direct link between the observance of particular dietary requirements and the expression of freedom of belief pursuant to art. 9 of the ECHR.
Even the Belgian Constitutional Court, recently, while stressing that the prohibition of slaughter without stunning responds to a social need and is proportionate to the legitimate aim of promoting animal welfare, he recognized that prohibiting this type of slaughter involves a restriction on the religious freedom of Jews and Muslims, whose religious norms prohibit the consumption of meat from stunned animals.
Therefore, allowing targeted access to food and the right food choices is an effective tool for protecting the right to religious freedom, as it helps believers to orient themselves in the food market and to choose food products consistent with their religious needs.
Furthermore, it should be noted that the quality standards imposed by the Halal and Kosher accreditation rules are particularly stringent and ensure a high quality product, with more stringent requirements than the normal standards prescribed for example for BIO certification. It is for this reason that many consumers, neither Muslim nor Jewish, buy these products because they give priority to public health and they consider it an essential step to achieving food security, guaranteed by the existing Food quality control in the Jewish and Muslim sphere.
Q: Administrative bodies, as well as the courts of law had to deal with cases pertaining to the halal and kosher food, as well as with the claims of vegetarians and vegans. Could you mention what the main legal issues are in relation to the halal slaughtering?
A: What happens in Europe is paradigmatic to answer this question.
Regulation 1099/2009 / EC introduced preliminary stunning methods and procedures, which require the killing of animals only after loss of consciousness, a condition that must be maintained until death. However, these norms are in contrast both with the Jewish religious tradition and with the opinion of the majority of muslim scholars, which require a vigilant and conscious state of the animal which must be intact at the time of slaughter, as well as a complete bleeding of meat. However, in respect of freedom of religion, the 2009 regulation grants each Member State a certain degree of subsidiarity in the procedures, providing with article 4 of the regulation a derogation to allow the Jewish and Muslim communities to perform ritual slaughter.
A balance is struck between the need for the forms of ritual slaughter typical of Judaism and Islam with that of the main rules oriented towards an idea of protection and welfare of animals during killing. Therefore, from time to time the state legislations, guided by the political direction of the moment and solicited by local public opinion, allow or prohibit religious communities from accessing food in a manner consistent with their belief. It thus happens that in Europe there are states such as Sweden, Norway, Greece, Denmark, Slovenia, in practice in Finland and partially Belgium that have applied a ban on ritual slaughter, while other countries allow it.
In my view, and I say this as a jurist and as an animal lover, the parameter must not revolve only around the concept of animal welfare during killing, which may at first seem a contradictory and even hypocritical concept and which does not consider that even the confessional rites are oriented in this sense. Conversely, the parameter must also be oriented towards the health of consumers and in the interest of the markets. It makes no sense to prohibit ritual slaughter in a territory but then allow the import of ritually slaughtered meat, it is only a short circuit that damages the consumer and the internal market. In fact, it does not seem to me a coincidence that in other countries, where religious communities are more numerous and above all where the halal and kosher supply chain is more widespread (producers, slaughterhouses, processing and supply industries), the concept of animal welfare is thought differently. In fact, in these realities where consumer demand is more significant, where there are many workers in the sector and where there is a rooted and structured market also for exports, ritual slaughter is allowed.
Let’s look at the UK. Here the Muslim population represents less than 5% but consumes over 20% of the meat that is slaughtered on the national territory, and the halal-slaughtered meat represents 71% of all animals slaughtered in England. Therefore, less than 5% of the population consumes more than 70% of the animals slaughtered. These numbers constitute a significant and not negligible element for the domestic economy, and the liberality shown by the English legislator in allowing ritual slaughter must be inscribed in respect for religious freedom, but certainly in terms of markets economy and consumer protection.
Q: Prof. Fronzoni you’re an Academic who advises national institutions and who deeply knows the existing religious communities in Europe and in particular in Italy. Eating halal has become the norm for many people, not necessarily Muslims, but when hearing about “shari’a” many people in the West are still dubious and suspsicious, even though shari’a is a Muslim equivalent of the Christian canon laws. Do people and the State institutions need to learn more about the halal and shari’a in general? Do schools and academia in the West need to do more in this regard as well? Is what is done in terms of educating the general public and advising governments enough?
A: Of course, in general it is necessary to know more, since knowledge of the other leads to awareness and understanding, the step preceding inclusion, while ignorance leads to distrust, which constitutes the step immediately before fear, which can lead to disordered and irrational reactions (radicalization on the one hand and Islamophobia and xenophobia on the other).
Religious associations, especially Muslim, do very little to make their traditions and needs known to the public and governments, and this is certainly a critical element and their fault. Of course, to be heard you need ears willing to do so, but it is also true that many Muslims living in the diaspora must strive to participate more in national life and to behave as citizens, not as foreigners.
Being attached to one’s origins is commendable and useful, but we must take note of the fact that differences in language, habits and religion are not an obstacle to inclusion and that there is no antinomy between living in the West and being Muslim. It is possible and also appropriate to encourage the process of inclusion, and this can be done with sharing in the sense of identity, with education and with respect for the rules. Those who are educated understand that one must accept others, despite their differences.
I also think that National institutions and politicians should seek more technical advice from those who know both worlds.
Q: Do you have any suggestions and advice for those trying to ban halal productions in the West?
A: My suggestion always goes in the sense of knowledge.
On the one hand, the fundamentalist prejudices of certain ideas of animal activism should be compared with the attitudes on animal welfare existing in the Jewish and Muslim traditions, which are regularly ignored but which exist.
On the other hand, making a balancing of interests that is not always easy, it should be noted that a new meaning of the principle of religious freedom has emerged, as the right to access adequate food in a confessional way. Therefore, it must be implemented a new configuration of the principle of freedom of belief is therefore emerging as the right to access adequate food in line with the confessional dictates of ritual slaughter, according to a particular declination aimed at the economic sustainability of producers and consumers, and also in terms of food safety.
