Caffeine, like tobacco and alcohol, is a stimulant that makes you feel different than you really are. According to The Sun and an expert who spoke with the publication, there are eight signs that you can recognize caffeine addiction.
Coffee and tea are the most popular forms of caffeine. In addition, many soft drinks, energy drinks, chocolate, and medications also contain this compound.
Several times, studies have linked it to a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease, increased life expectancy, and better heart health. In general, health experts say that caffeine is probably safe for most healthy adults when limited to 400 mg per day, which is equal to about four cups of coffee.
But everyone has a different level of tolerance to caffeine, and this can cause a number of side effects, some of which are unfavorable. For example, Lenstore, a contact lens retailer, researched the warning signs of caffeine addiction, ranging from blurred vision to muscle tremors and insomnia. It said that mood can be worsened by too much caffeine or by avoiding it. And in case of any deviation, you should contact a specialist. Let’s list the signs of “caffeine addiction”.
First, it’s anxiety. Giving up your morning coffee can cause anxiety. At the same time, participants who used it noted that caffeine itself causes disturbing thoughts. This is because caffeine releases adrenaline, the “fight or flight” hormone. With increasing doses of caffeine, some people may feel jittery, anxious, and jittery.
Second, insomnia. Caffeine’s job is to keep you awake, so consuming it during hours too close to bedtime puts people in the danger zone. Third, i.e. 33 percent of people admit that caffeine prevents them from falling asleep at night, which is a symptom of insomnia. Caffeine can stay in the body for hours on end. Consider cutting back on your tea and coffee intake from lunch so you’ll be sleepy by the evening, experts suggest.
Thirdly, headaches. One in five people said that caffeine gives them a headache. Meanwhile, headaches are often a symptom that people experience from coffee withdrawal, so if you want to cut down on caffeinated beverages, the side effect is inevitable.
The compound constricts blood vessels in the brain. When you stop taking it, these vessels dilate again and can cause pain, the doctors explained. This can last for a couple of weeks, which is one of the reasons for reducing caffeine intake.
Fourth, dizziness. Too much coffee can cause mild dizziness. Caffeine is a stimulant, like tobacco or alcohol, that reduces blood flow to the brain. With excessive use, mild dizziness is often felt.
Fifth, muscle tremor. This may manifest as hand shaking or eye twitching. With excessive consumption of the substance, the muscles can be depleted of oxygen, causing them to spasm.
Sixth, high blood pressure. Each person’s blood pressure response to caffeine is different, but some may experience a sudden spike in just after a cup of coffee.
According to the World Health System, drinking more than four cups of coffee a day can increase blood pressure. And it’s thought to be more likely when combined with the nicotine found in tobacco and e-cigarettes.
High blood pressure, referred to as hypertension, has a number of causes, so caffeine alone is unlikely to control this condition. However, people with hypertension should stay away from this source of energy. Hypertension has a number of deadly complications, including heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, and dementia.
Seventh, eye problems. High blood pressure can put pressure on the eyes. The tiny blood vessels that supply blood to the eyes can be damaged when blood pressure is too high, which can cause a number of vision problems. This includes retinopathy and choroidopathy, which cause blurred vision, bleeding in the eye, and even complete loss of vision.
Recent studies have shown an association between high intake and risk of glaucoma. Glaucoma can have a range of symptoms including redness of the eyes, eye pain, seeing rings around lights, blurred vision, and blindness if left untreated.
And the last – confusion and hallucinations. Caffeine overdose is extremely rare, Healthline said. But the signs will include confusion and hallucinations. On a smaller scale, caffeine can make you irritated, especially if you’re going through withdrawal. Increased adrenaline can also cause hallucinations or brain fog. At this point, it may be best to cut back on your caffeine intake.
More than 1,000 wedding reservations have already been made in the resort of Ayia Napa
Wedding tourism on the Island of Aphrodite – Cyprus, is recovering after two failed years due to the coronavirus pandemic. It is also one of the options for alternative tourism, through which the Mediterranean country seeks to attract more guests, BNR reported.
The upcoming wedding season in Cyprus is expected to be successful, surpassing even the record pre-pandemic 2019 for tourism on the island, according to optimistic of the most preferred municipalities for wedding ceremonies.
Reservations for more than 1,000 weddings have already been made in the municipality of Ayia Napa, a famous resort on the east coast of the island.
There are more than the number of marriages in 2019, when they were 900. In the pandemic 2020 on the Cypriot coast of the Mediterranean, only 100 couples said their “yes”, and last year they were about 350.
Most of the wedding guests who will welcome Ayia Napa this year are from Lithuania, Estonia and Poland.
Paphos, on the west coast of the island, which is another popular wedding destination, is also preparing for many newlyweds, traditionally mostly from the UK. Due to the pandemic, a number of their wedding reservations from 2021 have been transferred to this year.
The island of Aphrodite is one of the leading European wedding destinations. The wedding industry is a significant business in Cyprus and an important source of income for municipalities.
The following letter has arrived in the editorial office of the Russian Orthodox magazine Foma (named after St. Thomas the Apostle):
Tell me why the Church forbids magic after it works? I recently heard a priest warn his parishioners about the dangers of healing with baths and special prayers. This has always amazed me. I don’t even understand what is wrong with God here, when it really helps people get rid of pain? Why does the Church define healers as servants of the devil, and how then do they differ from the Blessed Matron, from the elders, from the priests, whose prayers also often perform miracles? What is it, that church healers are in competition with their “non-systemic colleagues”?
And what is wrong with, for example, harmless divinations that can not cause any physical harm? It seems to me that one of the Fathers of the Church (perhaps following his pride) has simply said once that healing, healing, and all other magic are manifestations of the dark forces, and people have accepted this as true, blindly following the established rules ”of the Church.
Respectfully yours, Nikolai, Pskov Region.
How does the Church relate to magic and why, says psychologist Alexander Tkachenko
Conspiracy theory – who is behind the witches and folk healers?
The shortest answer to this, dear Nikolai, may be this:
The Church forbids magic, precisely because what is not mentioned in your question “this” really works.
And now it’s time to talk in more detail about what exactly “this” is.
For the uninitiated, magic is an analogue of the term “black box” used in cybernetics. There they call a device in a circuit whose principle of operation is unknown. All that is known is that the signal passing through it changes its characteristics at the output. And what exactly happens inside the “black box” does not matter. Let’s say that specialists have to test the work, for example, on a telephone exchange. For this purpose, they will not check in detail all the details and diagrams of a very complex device, but will simply ring all the lines. And if there is an output signal, then the device is working. And everything that is between the input and output signal is exactly this “black box”.
There are devils lurking in the black box…
We use the “black box” method every day and in our daily lives, as unexpected as it may sound. For example, a person has a headache. And what does he do? That’s right – take a pill, say Analgin (signal at the entrance to the system). After a while, the head stops hurting (signal at the exit). What happens in the body after the small pill gets into it, the person usually does not care at all. All that matters to him is that his headache is over.
But what if instead of taking an Analgin tablet, he injects himself with a potent drug, such as morphine? From the point of view of the “black box” principle, nothing will change: there is medicine at the entrance and a result at the exit in the form of relief from suffering. So “this” works. But after some time, the use of opium in humans will inevitably cause problems that are far more serious than ordinary headaches.
Therefore, morphine, like a number of other drugs, is kept on a strict record and is prescribed only with prescriptions, which are checked in the pharmacy three times. And doctors, long tired of such warnings, again and again categorically forbid self-medication, knowing what sad consequences the principle you have stated can lead to “but it works”. Yes, it works. However, if you do not know how and why, you are always at risk. Sometimes – at the risk of death.
Magic from this point of view is a classic “black box”. Someone’s cheek was swollen, the doctors were treating, treating, but something didn’t work out. He went to the “healer”. She ran her hands over his face, whispered incomprehensible words, sprayed her cheek with “charged” water. And the next morning the swelling was as if it was gone! And what happened? What is the principle of this treatment? What is at its core? This is not important to a person at all. He is overjoyed that his pain is over.
So, Nicholas, the Church strictly forbids such methods of treatment, precisely because these methods work, but the “healers” themselves vaguely explain the essence of their action, or do not explain it at all. As already mentioned – a typical “black box”.
And since this is not about electricity or pharmacology, but about “spiritual energies” and “ethereal biofields”, it may suddenly turn out that there is the most common rage in this “black box”. Yes, yes, this same fallen angel. An evil spirit, an enemy of God and a murderer of men.
Or maybe not; or it may be as you write, Nicholas. It could be a strange phenomenon, the individual ability of individuals, the still unknown possibilities of our nature, etc., etc. Yes, anything can be. Theoretically. And then what to do? Should we play Russian roulette with our salvation?
Isn’t this the sapper’s textbook choice – whether to cut the red wire of the bomb or the blue one? If you knew, you are lucky. If you make a mistake, however, there will be nothing to bury.
But in a spiritual sense it is still simpler for the sapper. If he perishes saving people (that is, in the language of the gospel, he gave his life for his friends), he will be met by angels in the afterlife, and Christ will tell him, “All you have done for one of these little ones. you did it for me. Come, blessed by My Father, and inherit the Kingdom prepared for you! ”
The client of the magic receptions can live long in this world, thanks to the efforts of his “healers”. But after death, he will finally see face to face who is really behind these amazing and incomprehensible healings. And only then will he understand what true happiness is. But it’s too late. The demon from the “black box” does nothing for the people without bringing to his account the retribution for the “services” rendered. By giving him (even unconsciously) his body for healing, man has in fact made a deal with the evil spirit and submitted his soul to his will. His whole life from that moment on has passed under the sleepless “patronage” of a being whose sole purpose is the eternal destruction of his “ward”. This is who such an unfortunate person is waiting for. It’s scary to even imagine what that means – to be in the community of a murderous demon after your death. And it all started with some trifle, a swollen cheek.
The existence of God, demons, angels cannot be proved rationally; no doubt it is achieved by faith. However, as Pascal says, a thought experiment can be made: “If there is no God and I believe in Him, then I lose nothing. But if there is a God and I do not believe in Him, then I lose everything.
Karma and its adherents
It is from this loss of everything that the church protects its members, even in those cases where the “healers” are not just charlatans, but actually have an extensive and in some cases completely successful practice. But the Church does not do this for competition reasons.
Saint John Chrysostom wrote: “Let us be sick, it is better to stay sick than to fall into wickedness for the sake of liberation from disease. The demon, even if healed, would do more harm than good. It will benefit the body, which will soon die and rot, but will harm the immortal soul. Even if, by God’s permission, demons sometimes heal (with spells, etc.), such healing is a test for faithful Christians. And not because God does not know their faithfulness, but because they learn to accept nothing from demons, even healings. ” As you can see, Nikolai, this is not even about some “redistribution of the market.” “We’d better stay sick…” – that’s the whole competition.
Yes, there have always been people in the Church whom God has given the gift to heal from diseases. But we can distinguish them from the magicians on one of the most basic grounds – that they never attribute the performed healings to themselves, to their abilities, to their connections with the “etheric world”.
At all times they preach with a loud voice that the true healer of souls and bodies is only our Lord Jesus Christ, Who created man and is therefore able to heal every disease. And they always direct their prayers for healings to Him, to the Mother of God, to the holy favored ones of God.
Another important point: holy healers have always been church people. Either they were clergymen – bishops, priests and deacons, or pious lay people who regularly pray in the temple, do not miss worship, confess, partake of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Which is not the case with “sixth generation hereditary magicians-healers.” Magicians can also declare themselves Orthodox, adorn themselves with crosses from head to toe, make an iconostasis on each wall of their reception room, hang a chandeliers in front of the icons and smoke incense during their magic sessions. But do these people go to church? How often do they confess and receive communion? Who is their clergyman? Did he bless them for their “healings”? There will be no simple answers to these simple questions. While it is possible that they asked for a blessing, they certainly did not. Priest Daniil Sisoev (shot in 2009, having received repeated threats for his active missionary work and denunciations of paganism and Islam), describes a case from his practice when he was approached for such a blessing:
Yes, I have been blessed to practice so-called “folk medicine”. This often starts with a lie. First, “Bless me with herbal medicine!” Well, the Church doesn’t mind herbal medicine. And then there was a similar dialogue:
– How exactly will you treat?
– I will treat with herbs. And in order to act better, I will read prayers to them.
– And who told you to read such prayers? And what are these “prayers”?
– Well, some spiritual forces joined us, an angel (or a saint) came to us.
“Are you sure it came from God?”
– But how can you think that the one who came to me is not a saint ?!
Of course, I have not given any blessing to such people. I am not aware of any cases where priests have given such blessings. “
To all this we can add that for the magicians adorned with crosses and icons, healing is only one of the other services, along with “breaking spells and attracting magic for love, removing the crown of celibacy, diagnosing karma” and all other types magical events. Even just on the list of “services” offered, it is easy to see that behind the activities of such healers are the aforementioned “black boxes” with demons lurking inside.
Source: The article by Alexander Tkachenko was published in the magazine foma.ru
A whale with 15kg of plastic in its stomach was found dead on a beach on the Greek island of Rhodes last Monday. This was revealed by the results of the autopsy, quoted by local media on Wednesday.
The marine mammal is a beaked whale and has a body length of 5.3 meters. Fishing nets, ropes, plastic bags, plastic cups and packaging and many other debris were found in his stomach.
According to Anastasia Comnin, a professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Veterinary School who performed the autopsy, he explained that the large amount of plastic in the whale’s stomach did not allow him to eat properly, so he literally died of starvation and exhaustion.
This type of waste has long-term harmful effects not only on the health of these mammals, but also on all marine life.
Greek Deputy Environment and Energy Minister George Amiras said the problem of plastic waste in the Mediterranean is becoming more serious, so everyone needs to think and change their lifestyle and daily habits. Amiras urges his compatriots not to be indifferent to the Greek seas and the beautiful animal species that inhabit them.
For the first time since the start of the new coronavirus pandemic, North Korean media have published footage of President Kim Jong Un wearing a light blue medical mask, South Korea’s Yonhap news agency reported.
The North Korean official news agency KCNA announced today the first case of coronavirus in the country. On this occasion, a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the ruling Korean Labor Party was held, chaired by Kim Jong Un. All participants in the meeting wore masks, and the leader took off his during his speech. Footage from the beginning of the meeting was shown on national television.
“For the first time, state media have shown the chairman (of the DPRK State Council) wearing a mask during a public event. This shows how seriously the authorities take the coronavirus situation,” Yonhap said.
At the meeting, the North Korean leader ordered the blockade of all cities and counties. According to him, the task of the authorities is to eliminate the virus as soon as possible, prevent its spread and ensure prompt treatment of those infected.
The meeting criticized officials in the sector for combating epidemics of “irresponsibility and incompetence”, stressing the need to put the health system in a mode of “maximum emergency quarantine”.
On Sunday, authorities in the capital, Pyongyang, analyzed samples taken from patients with fever and concluded that the samples were identical to those of Omicron’s BA.2 sub-variant.
The CCTA did not specify the number of cases identified. However, according to Yonhap, there are many infected.
Kim Jong Un ordered a full lockdown in North Korea
Pyongyang has announced the first cases of coronavirus infection
North Korean authorities have reported the first cases of coronavirus infection in the country, the South Korean agency Yonhap reported, citing North Korean media.
Cases of Omicron variant infection have been identified in Pyongyang. Samples were taken from residents of the city with symptoms of COVID-19 on May 8.
Subsequently, a “maximum emergency” regime was introduced throughout the country and a lockdown was declared. Exactly how many people were infected has not been released, the BBC reported.
The leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Kim Jong Un, has promised to overcome the “unexpected crisis”, according to the Korean Central Telegraph Agency (CCTA). For this purpose, a strict quarantine system is introduced.
“In all districts and cities of the country, block your region and reliably close the way for the spread of the malicious virus. We will overcome the sudden crisis and we will definitely win, “Kim Jong Un said at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers’ Party.
Kim Jong Un has also ordered tighter controls on the country’s borders.
The Supreme Leader “assured us that thanks to the high political awareness of the population, we will certainly overcome the emergency situation and succeed with the emergency quarantine project,” the CCTA added.
So far, North Korean authorities have said no cases of coronavirus infection have been reported in the country during the pandemic. According to them, the complete closure of the borders has helped prevent the virus from entering the country. It is not known what measures were in place in the DPRK.
Pyongyang even refused to supply the vaccine under the international Covax mechanism, and the drugs were distributed to other countries.
Experts doubted that North Korea had managed to prevent the virus from entering the country.
Inflation in Turkey has reached an unprecedented level: everything is becoming more expensive
The Turkish lira collapsed, hitting a new low: its value fell to 15 lira per dollar after the Turkish inflation rate for April became known, which reached an unprecedented level of 69.97%, reaching the highest level in two decades. As a result, on Monday the Turkish currency traded for 15.0421 per dollar, the Ahval newspaper writes. At the same time, since mid-March, the Turkish currency has been estimated in the range between 14.5 and 14.9 dollars per dollar.
“Financial institutions have sold tens of billions of dollars for lira since December, when the currency crisis reached its peak and threatened to undermine economic stability. I think we are seeing strong intervention again to defend level 15 – given the broader strength of the dollar. A waste of reserves that Turkey does not have,” Tim Ash, senior emerging markets strategist at BlueBay Asset Management in London, commented to the publication.
Experts also note that the lira lost 44 percent of its value in 2021, which helped push inflation to its fastest pace since the banking crisis in the early 2000s. Losses this year are more than 10%. Inflation in Turkey will remain at the level of 65 to 75% until December, they also say.
At the same time, representatives of the opposition publication say that almost three-quarters of the Turks do not believe in the accuracy of official inflation data. “Last year, the Turks massively bought dollars and euros. And now everything is going up in price. According to some independent price estimates in Turkey, annual changes exceed 100%,” they assure.
Indeed, in Turkey, everything is rapidly becoming more expensive. “Everything is growing in Turkey: the number of tourists, and inflation, and prices, and the percentage of people who want to leave here,” such an observation was published on the Russian woman’s channel in Yandex.Zen. Thus, relative to last year’s prices, the cost increased in all areas of life: housing (61.14%), catering and hotels (69.26%), household items (77.64%), food and non-alcoholic drinks (89.1%), transport (105.86%).
Moreover, according to experts, the current increase will not stop in the near future. It is expected to increase prices for “milk” by 33% and bread. The reason is the rise in prices for raw materials. The cost of mobile communication is increasing. “I can say according to my personal tariff with the Turkcell operator – a package for 12 GB of Internet (plus minutes and SMS) last month cost 55 liras (250 rubles), and tomorrow I will pay 70 liras (320 rubles) for it,” she specified author.
“In Turkey, they recalculated the hunger line and the poverty line for one month for a family of four: mom, dad and two children. The hunger level is set at 5.323 lira, i.e. 24 rubles (balanced healthy diet), and the poverty line is 17.340 liras, i.e. 78 rubles (the total amount of expenses for food and clothing, housing, transport, education, health care and other essentials), ”the Russian woman gave an example.
It is curious that while the Russians are emigrating en masse to Turkey, the Turks themselves are in a hurry to leave it. “Turkey is a wonderful country in terms of recreation, but its citizens tend to leave it,” the author said, based on statistical data.
According to official information, the percentage of young people in the republic who want to leave Turkey has increased from 28% to 48% over the past 12 years. The growth was 71.4%. “And if we take statistics on the population as a whole, then more than 35% would like to migrate abroad, if they had such an opportunity. Previously, the reason for this desire was given as the presence of a perspective offered by other countries. And now people want to get away from the hopelessness of life in Turkey,” the blogger said.
People with education and professionals are fleeing Turkey. “They run away from feelings of hopelessness, restrictions on freedoms. Many do not see themselves in the future of Turkey, they do not see an opportunity to realize their skills, needs and hopes,” the Russian woman clarified the reasons for tourprom.ru.
Today, the smartphone is an integral part of our lives – personal, professional and social. We work, we communicate, we stay connected, we share, we live literally through the smartphone in our pocket. Do you know who is the first smartphone in the world to set the stage for a new way of staying connected to each other and the world? The term “smartphone” and which is the first smartphone in the world to be marketed The word “smartphone” as a term was widely used only in 1995, but in reality the first smartphone is older than the introduction of the term. The world’s first smartphone was created 3 years before the term was used and 15 years before Apple introduced the iPhone to the world. In 1992, the world’s first smartphone appeared on the market – Simon Personal Communicator. The device was presented at an exhibition in Las Vegas, and its code name was Angler. Its price was impressive and it was not available to everyone – at current prices around EUR 1,500. According to its data, about 50,000 units have been sold. The world’s first smartphone failed to become accessible and widespread, but opened the door to smartphones on the market and laid the foundations for the future of smartphones and modern communications.
Features and appearance of the world’s first smartphone IBM Simon Personal Communicator. Apart from differing from the modern smartphone in its appearance, the first smartphone in the world was naturally much poorer in features. Simon Personal Communicator is the first of its kind that allows not only for conversations and communication, but also for correspondence by email and fax. As features, the first smartphone in the world offered the ability to schedule appointments, notebook, clock, calendar, address book. A technological and modern advantage of this first smartphone was the ability to work with third-party applications with an additional memory card. In those years, however, the only such application was DispatchIt. This application is from the American company PDA Dimensions. The successor to this application are modern applications that allow remote control of the computer from the phone. The price of DispatchIt was impressive – over $ 3,000.
The color of the world’s first smartphone was black, it boasted a touchscreen, had a small antenna and a charger-type stand. The smartphone was offered complete with accessories, two nickel-cadmium batteries and a case made of genuine leather. The device looked rough, heavy and far from the fine and elegant modern smartphones.
The size of 200 x 64 x 38 mm and the weight of almost half a kilogram made the world’s first smartphone rough and heavy. The lack of an attractive appearance was far from a problem for the world’s first smartphone. It allowed written communication by e-mail and fax, something unseen in its day, which made it a valuable aid and its size did not matter to consumers.
Pictured: Prototype of IBM’s SweetSpot smartphone, demonstrated at Comdex 1992, to iPhone5 for comparison.
A large space rock, 1.1 km in diameter, flies towards the Earth at a speed of 13 km/s.
An asteroid called 7335 (1989 JA) is considered potentially hazardous to our planet due to its size and speed. Its diameter is approximately 1.1 km, which is comparable to the size of 10 football fields. It flies towards the Earth at a speed of 47,232 km/h or 13.12 km/s. On May 27, 2022, an asteroid will fly to our planet at the closest distance since its discovery in 1989. At this distance, it will not be from the Earth for at least another 200 years, according to EarthSky.
The large asteroid 7335 (1989 JA) is more commonly referred to simply as 7335. The numbers in brackets indicate that it was discovered in 1989. This asteroid was discovered by American astronomer Eleanor Helin on May 1, 1989.
It makes a complete revolution around the Sun in 2.35 years. This space rock belongs to a group of near-Earth asteroids called Apollos. It was to this group of asteroids that the space rock belonged, from which the meteorite that fell in Chelyabinsk, Russia, in 2013 was left.
Although this asteroid is considered dangerous, it should not harm our planet. Nevertheless, on May 27, it will fly to the closest distance to Earth since the discovery. During its closest approach to the planet, the asteroid will be at a distance of 4 million km from Earth. This is almost 10.5 times farther than the distance from the Earth to the Moon.
It will not be visible to the naked eye, but amateur astronomers with small telescopes will be able to see it, because the asteroid will be close enough in space terms. It is best to start observing its flight 2 nights before the expected approach to the Earth. It is on May 25 that asteroid 7335 will be much brighter than on other days.
The asteroid will be very bright against the background of stars. It will look like a slowly flying “star”. Although the word slow is not very appropriate here, because the speed of the space rock is 47,232 km / h or 13.12 km / s.
Photo: Location of asteroid 7335 on the evening of May 25, 2022 – map of the starry sky, which show exactly where asteroid 7335 will be located during its approach to Earth.
The New Zealand government has imposed new sanctions against Russia for its aggression against Ukraine.
New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaya Mahuta announced new anti-Russian sanctions against disinformation and cyber attacks on Ukraine.
This is stated on the New Zealand government website.
“President Putin’s propaganda machine is in full swing, spreading false information to justify Russia’s illegal invasion. Today’s announcement reflects our total rejection of Putin’s narrative and his attempts to mislead the international community,” Makhuta said.
The sanctions will affect eight people and organizations involved in Putin’s disinformation campaign, as well as cyber attacks on Ukraine. They build on New Zealand’s previous sanctions against propagandists and expand the list to include the so-called
“troll farm”, a representative of the Russian Ministry of Defense and others.
Nanaya Makhuta stressed that along with Russia’s military intervention, Putin is using the digital space as a weapon in his war against Ukraine.
Recall that earlier New Zealand has already imposed sanctions against Russia. The sanctions list includes 18 financial institutions of the Russian Federation, in particular, the Central Bank of Russia and the National Welfare Fund.
“Our recent efforts to evacuate civilians in the east has shown us that there is good will and common ground for us to build on between the parties,” she told ambassadors.
Joint operations by the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) resulted in more than 600 people being evacuated from the Azovstal steel plant and other areas of Mariupol, as well as nearby towns.
This was “a truly monumental feat amid the shelling and destruction ongoing in the east”, she said, and “a glimmer of hope”.
Meanwhile, UN relief chief Martin Griffiths continues to explore ways to bring the parties together to discuss humanitarian issues, including safe passage for both civilians and aid convoys.
Mr. Griffiths was in Turkey this week for talks focused on the country’s support of UN efforts, towards providing more humanitarian relief.
“We must explore all options to reach more people where needs are the greatest,” she said.
“We remain firmly committed to leaving no stone unturned. To find measures – from local pauses to wider ceasefires – to save lives. The world expects this of us. The people of Ukraine deserve this.”
More aid needed
Despite the hope represented by the evacuations, intense fighting continues to cause immense suffering in Ukraine. The conflict has uprooted nearly 14 million people, eight million of whom are internally displaced, according to latest figures.
Ms. Msuya also spoke of the “unprecedented” humanitarian scale-up in the crisis. Some 227 partners, mostly national non-governmental organizations (NGOs), have provided assistance to more than 5.4 million people, many in the east.
In addition to the evacuations, five inter-agency convoys have provided a lifeline to people encircled by fighting, transporting essential medical supplies, food rations, water repair systems and other items. However, she said this is by no means enough.
Ms. Msuya reported that the parties have been notified of the convoys, adding “I urge them to continue their facilitation efforts so we can reach many more civilians.”
‘Living hell’ for children
The Council also heard from Omar Abdi, Deputy Executive Director at the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), who reported on the war’s impact on young lives in Ukraine and beyond.
He said in the past month, the UN verified that nearly 100 children were killed in the conflict “and we believe the actual figures to be considerably higher.”
Although the evacuations from Mariupol and other frontline areas represented “small moments of relief”, the situation continues to be grim for children and families in conflict-affected areas without access to aid.
“Children and parents tell us of their ‘living hell’ where they were forced to go hungry, drink from muddy puddles, and shelter from constant shelling and bombardments, dodging bombs, bullets, and landmines as they fled,” he said.
Education in the crosshairs
Education in Ukraine is also under fire, with the horrifying attack on a school in Luhansk this week – in which at least 60 civilians were reported to have died – serving as “a stark reminder”. Since the start of the war on 24 February, 15 out of 89 UNICEF-supported schools in eastern Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed.
“Hundreds of schools across the country are reported to have been hit by heavy artillery, airstrikes and other explosive weapons in populated areas, whilst other schools are being used as information centres, shelters, supply hubs, or for military purposes – with long term impact on children’s return to education,” he said.
Mr. Abdi appealed for an end to attacks on schools, which he said are a lifeline for children, especially in conflict because they provide a safe space, routines, and a semblance of normalcy.
Schools also serve as a “connector” to essential health and psychosocial services, and he called for support to teachers, principals and others in the education workforce.
Ukrainian children must also continue to access education, he added, underscoring the need to ensure creative and flexible learning solutions. UNICEF and partners are supporting the authorities to reach students, including through online education.
Learning at home and abroad
Neighbouring countries that have taken in Ukrainian refugees are also helping children to keep on learning, whether in the classroom or through alternative education pathways.
“It is estimated that 3.7 million children in Ukraine and abroad are using online and distance learning options. But enormous obstacles remain, including capacity and resource constraints, language barriers, and unpredictable movements of children and their families,” he said.
Furthermore, greater action is needed to reach children who are most at-risk or who could be left behind, including young learners and children with disabilities.
Ripples across the globe
The war is having repercussions beyond Ukraine, as world food and fuel prices reach all-time highs. Mr. Abdi said children also are feeling the impacts.
“Children already affected by conflict and climate crises across the world – from Afghanistan to Yemen and the Horn of Africa – are now paying a deadly price for another war far from their doorsteps. The repercussions of the war in Ukraine will continue to ripple across the globe.”
Although humanitarians will do all they can for the children in Ukraine, he said, ultimately what they need is for the war to end.
“Ukrainian children tell us that they want to reunite with their families, to return to their communities, to go to school and play in their neighborhoods. Children are resilient but they shouldn’t have to be.
“They have already paid an unconscionably high price in this war. We must do everything possible to help ensure it doesn’t also cost them their futures.”
