Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Bahais gathered in the heights of Rome, for a week of intense dialogue in the spirit of the spirituality of the Focolare movement, from May 30 to June 4. In a “time of divisions, dialogue counts”, this has been the maxim of these days
The common thread of this meeting was peace between us and with creation. How to design a peace policy? How to engage in an economy of peace? And, how to live peace with creation. The group of 450 people from 40 countries and all continents also had an audience with Pope Francis and went to Assisi to listen to the wisdom of another Francis, the “ Poverello ” of Assisi.
Finding new paths through dialogue
“Dialogue means deep listening, sharing, mutual trust, to bring hope and build bridges ,” explains Rita Moussalem , head of the Focolare Center for Interreligious Dialogue. For Antonio Salimbeni , co-responsible, “these days were a laboratory of fraternity”.
During this conference, I discovered the fruitfulness of the spirituality of the Focolare, also experienced, to varying degrees, by people from very diverse backgrounds. The new – and surprising – thing is that people of other religions have started to join it.
Margaret Karram, the current president of Focolare, expresses her gratitude to Chiara Lubich, the founder of this movement: “She taught us how to dialogue and enter into relationships with others with the greatest respect, with passion and determination. At each encounter, she came back strengthened in her own faith and edified by that of others .”
A Christian Arab, citizen of Israel, M. Karram herself lived this experience intensely. She is convinced that it is possible to find new paths through dialogue. It is even an urgent duty to which God calls us. “We are here together to live a unique human family, in its great diversity. May this congress give us the opportunity to share our experiences and deepen our friendship !
Meeting with Pope Francis
The purpose of the visit to Pope Francis on June 3, in the Clementine Room, was to present to him the experience we had just had. He expressed gratitude for the journey started by C. Lubich with people of other religions who share the spirituality of unity, “a revolutionary journey that did much good for the Church “, and ” an experience animated by the Holy Spirit, rooted, we can say, in the heart of Christ, in his thirst for love, communion and fraternity”.
He recognizes that it is the Spirit which opens “paths of dialogue and encounter, sometimes surprising”, as in Algeria, where an entirely Muslim community adhering to the Movement was born.
The Pope sees the basis of this experience in “the love of God which is expressed through reciprocal love, listening, trust, hospitality and mutual knowledge, with respect for the identity of each person.“
With non-Christians who share and live certain traits of Focolare spirituality, “we go beyond dialogue, we feel brothers and sisters, sharing the dream of a more united world, in the harmony of diversity ,” he said. This testimony is a source of joy and consolation, especially in these times of conflict, where religion is often misused to fuel division. (See the full speech here: https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/speeches/2024/june/documents/20240603-interreligioso-focolari.html )
After his speech, the Pope generously gave his time to personally greet each participant. I was able to tell him that I’m pastor in the Reformed Church and a volunteer in the Focolare movement, active in ecumenical and interreligious dialogues. When I also told him that I’m collaborating on the JC2033 initiative, he gave me a big smile and said “ Avanti!” “.
“The Gate of the Spoliation”
The Focolare movement wants to combine dialogue announce of the Gospel. After the audience, a visit to significant places in Rome made it possible to discover the Christian witness of the city, in particular Saint Peter’s Basilica and the Colosseum, site of the martyrdom of the first Christians.
This same process was experienced the next day in Assisi. After a round table in the morning on the theme of peace and creation, the afternoon began with a visit to the “Gate of the Spoliation” with Mgr. Domenico Sorrentino, bishop of Assisi. This is the place where Saint-Francis stripped himself of his clothes in front of his father and the notables of the city and where he he has been stripped of his inheritance by his father.
The bishop explains to us that renunciation is an important concept for Christians. It makes us understand what love is, which does not put itself first. “To welcome the other, I must renounce myself; it is also the condition for a real dialogue,” he says.
He then suggests a little silent pilgrimage where everyone asks themselves what renunciation God is calling them to make so that they can be even more in the service of God and their brothers and sisters. I experienced this moment intensely, and this prayer continued to haunt me throughout the rest of that day.
In the “Garden of François”.
After visiting the Basilica of Saint Francis, the group goes to the “Garden of Francis”, at the foot of an “interreligious” bell tower, with the symbols of the various religions: the cross, the star of David, the crescent, the wheel of Dharma.
The “Canticle of Creatures” by Francis of Assisi – “Praise be to you, Lord ” – is then read in three stages: Praise for inanimate beings, for animate beings and for human beings. After this prayer, a “pact of fraternity” is proposed, and we are invited to turn to the person next to us. To a Jewish friend, I then said the words of Psalm 133: “ Hine mah tov or mah nahim ” …and he answers me ” shevet achim gam yachad ” (“ Behold, it is good and pleasant… for brothers to dwell together ”)!
During these days, seeds were sown! May they grow within us and between us and may the brotherhood that we have experienced extend to many others!
19:25. At Jesus’ cross stood His mother and His mother’s sister, Maria Cleopova, and Mary Magdalene.
For Maria Magdalena and Maria Kleopova, see the interpretation to Matt. 20:20; Luke 8:2, 24:18. Here the evangelist paints us another picture, which is in sharp contrast to the first: Christ entrusts His Mother to the care of His beloved disciple.
19:26. And Jesus, seeing His mother and the disciple standing there, whom He loved, said to His mother: woman, here is your son!
19:27. Then he says to the student: here is your mother! And from that hour the student took her with him.
How many women stood on the cross? Some commentators say that there are three, others that there are four. The second opinion seems more likely, because it would be unnatural to suppose that the evangelist would precisely name the sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary, when he does not name the Mother of Christ herself. At the same time, it is very natural to assume that the evangelist mentions four women standing in pairs, of whom he does not name the first two (this explains the double use of the particle “and”).
“His mother’s sister.” But who was this sister of the Blessed Virgin Mary?
There is nothing implausible in the supposition that John here means his own mother, whom, like himself, he does not mention by name out of modesty. With such an assumption, it is quite natural for John and James to claim a special role in Christ’s kingdom (Matt. 20:20ff.), as well as the entrusting of the Blessed Virgin to John, who was thus a close relative of Christ. Although the Blessed Virgin could have found shelter with the sons of Joseph, they were not close in spirit to Her Son (John 7:5), and therefore to Her.
“woman, behold thy son.” Why does Christ call His Mother simply a woman? On the one hand, He shows that from now on He belongs to all people, that the natural ties that connected Him with the Blessed Mother are already severed (cf. John 20:17), and on the other hand, He expresses His compassion for Her as to precisely as to an orphaned woman.
John then took the Blessed Virgin with him to take her to his father’s house in Capernaum—which was, of course, his intention at the time. But this intention was not fulfilled, and John, together with the Blessed Virgin, remained in Jerusalem until her death, after having spent three weeks in Galilee after the Resurrection of Christ, where he went by order of Christ (cf. Matt. 26:32).
19:28. After that, Jesus, knowing that everything has already been done to fulfill the Scripture, says: I am thirsty.
“Then”. Here the evangelist paints before us the third picture – the picture of the death of the Crucified Christ. After that, that is, after Christ had fulfilled His filial duty to His mother.
“Knowing that all things were already finished,” that is, knowing that all that was to be finished in His earthly life had been brought to an end.
19:29. There was a vessel full of vinegar. The soldiers soaked a sponge in vinegar, put it on a hyssop stick, and brought it to His mouth.
19:30. And when Jesus tasted of the vinegar, he said: it is finished! And bowing his head, he gave up.
“That the Scripture may be fulfilled, he says: ‘I am thirsty.'” Some interpreters (for example, Bishop Michael Luzin) refer the expression “so that the Scripture may be fulfilled” to the verb: “says” and draw the conclusion that the evangelist sees in the exclamation of Christ: “I’m thirsty!” an exact fulfillment of the prophecy contained in Psalm 68 (Ps. 68:22): “and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” But in our opinion, this is not convincing, firstly, because in the given passage from the psalm there is no expression “I am thirsty”, and secondly, because the expression from the Greek text, translated into Russian as: “in order to be fulfilled”, is more -correctly to be replaced by the expression: “to be brought to an end” (since the verb τελειοῦν is used, not πληροῦν).
Therefore, Tsang’s opinion seems plausible to us, that here the evangelist wants to say that although everything was “finished”, the most important thing in which all the Old Testament scriptures find their fulfillment was not yet reached (“to be fulfilled the Scriptures”)—namely, the death of Christ. But the death of Christ in His own consciousness and the consciousness of the apostles appeared as a free and conscious surrender of Christ’s life into the hands of God the Father, as a voluntary work of Christ’s love for humanity (John 10:11; 17:18; 14:31 ). Therefore, tormented by a terrible thirst, which in those hanged on the cross darkened the consciousness, Christ asks to drink, in order to get relief, if only for a few moments, and in full consciousness to let out His last breath. And only John reports that Christ, having supported himself with vinegar, said: “it is finished”, i.e. he no longer had any debt to bind him to life.
“hyssop trust”. See the interpretation to Ex. 12:22 p.m. It is not literally hyssop, for it does not grow in Syria and Arabia, but a similar kind of plant.
19:31. And because then it was Friday, the Jews, so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a great day), asked Pilate to beat their crucifixes and take them off.
Here the evangelist paints a fourth and final picture. The representatives of the Sanhedrin asked the procurator to collect the bodies of the crucified by the coming Sabbath, because the law of Moses required that the body of a criminal who was hanged on a tree should not be left there overnight, but should be buried on the day of execution (Deut. 21: 22 – 23). The Jews were all the more eager to fulfill this law because the Passover was approaching with the Sabbath. For this purpose, it was necessary to kill the criminals who were hanged on the cross (to break their clavicles).
19:32. Then the soldiers came and beat the legs of the first, as well as of the other who was crucified with Him.
19:33. And when they came to Jesus and saw Him already dead, they did not beat His legs;
Pilate agreed to this, and the soldiers who came to the place of execution soon finished off the two criminals, hanging on either side of Christ, and Jesus, noticing that he was dead, remained untouched.
19:34. but one of the soldiers pierced His side with a spear, and immediately blood and water flowed out.
One of the soldiers, probably wishing to remove any possibility of a mock-dead burial, stabbed Christ in the ribs with a spear. This blow, which pierced the heart of Christ, should have extinguished the last spark of life, if such was still smoldering in the heart of Christ. By mentioning this event, the evangelist wanted to prove the reality of Christ’s death in opposition to the heretics who (mainly Kerinth) claimed that Christ did not die on the cross because His body was only illusory.
“blood and water flowed out” (ἐξῆλθεν αἷμα καὶ ὕδωρ). At the same time, the evangelist points out a surprising circumstance that happened when Christ was pierced. From the wound caused by the impact of the spear, “blood and water flowed” (it is more correct to say “came out”). The evangelist mentions this, firstly, as an unusual phenomenon, because blood and water do not flow from the body of the deceased when pierced, and secondly, he wanted to show that through the death of Christ believers received blood, which cleanses them from original sin, and water, which in the Old Testament Scriptures is a symbol of the grace of the Holy Spirit (cf. Is. 44:3). John repeats this last thought in his first epistle, saying that Christ, as the true Messiah-Redeemer, came or appeared “by water and blood” (1 John 5:6).
19:35. And he who saw testifies, and his testimony is true; and he knows that he speaks the truth, so that you may believe.
“And he who saw testifies…” According to the explanation of the Fathers of the Church (St. John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria), the evangelist here speaks of himself, in humility, as in other places, without naming his name directly. He insists that his testimony is entirely true in view of the fact that in his day accounts of miraculous events in the life of Christ were sometimes viewed with great distrust (see Luke 24:11, 22; 2 Pet 1:16).
Because of his accounts of the miracles that took place at the time of Christ’s death, about which only he speaks, the evangelist could be suspected of wanting to raise his authority over the other authors of the Gospels, and he is therefore a precursor but he declares that he had no other object than to establish in his readers the faith in Christ.
19:36. Because this happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “a bone of His will not be broken”.
19:37. And yet another Scripture says: “they will look on Him whom they pierced.”
The evangelist has just said that he was prompted to testify to the extraordinary flow of blood and water from Christ’s ribs by a desire to strengthen his readers’ faith in Jesus Christ. Now, to further strengthen their faith, he points out that in this event, as well as in the fact that the shins of Christ were not broken (the Greek text says: ἐγένετο ταῦτα, that is, “these events took place,” and not “it came to pass”) two Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled: first, the original decree about the Passover lamb (Ex. 12:46) and second, the prophetic glory of Zechariah (Zech. 12:10).
As the bones of the paschal lamb were forbidden to be broken, so the bones of Christ remained perfectly intact, though they might have been expected to be certainly broken, as in the case of the robbers crucified with Christ. In this way – the evangelist wants to say – it is shown that Christ is the true paschal lamb, through whom people are saved from eternal death, just as once the Jewish firstborn were saved from temporary death by the blood of an ordinary paschal lamb.
As for the prophecy of Zechariah, who speaks of how the chosen people of God will in time with repentance look to Yahweh, Whom he pierced, the evangelist, without going into detailed explanations, only notes that this prophecy, incomprehensible to the reader the book of Zechariah, has become intelligible to one who has seen Christ pierced with a spear.
19:38. Then Joseph, of Arimathea (disciple of Jesus, but secret, for fear of the Jews), asked Pilate to remove the body of Jesus, and Pilate allowed. He came and took the body of Jesus.
19:39. Nicodemus also came (who had gone to Jesus the night before) and brought about a hundred liters of a mixture of myrrh and aloes.
In reporting here the taking down from the cross and the burial of Christ, John makes some additions to the narrative of the synoptics (Matt. 27:57 – 60; Mark 15:42 – 46; Luke 23:50 – 53). For example, he is the only one who mentions the participation of Nicodemus in the burial of Christ (for Nicodemus, see John chapter 3). This secret follower of Christ brought a large quantity of aromatic substances, namely a mixture of myrrh and aloes (cf. Mark 16:1), to anoint both the body and the burial shrouds of Christ abundantly, with which Nicodemus evidently wished to expressed his great reverence for Christ. It is probable, however, that John wished to show by this mention of the two eminent representatives of Judaism, that in their person all Judaism paid its last homage to its King.
19:40. Then they took the body of Jesus and wrapped it in swaddling clothes with incense, as is the custom of the Jews to bury.
19:41. In the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid.
“there was a garden.” Also John alone notes that Christ’s tomb was in a garden. Does he not imply that this garden will be the new Eden, where the new Adam – Christ – will rise from the grave in his glorified human nature, just as the old Adam entered life in a garden?
19:42. There they laid Jesus, because of the Jewish Friday, because the tomb was nearby.
“because of the Jewish Friday.” Finally, John alone notes that Christ was buried in the garden, near the place of the crucifixion, because it was the Jewish Friday. By this he means that Joseph and Nicodemus hastened the burial of Christ, in order to complete it before the coming of the Sabbath: if they had carried the body of Christ anywhere further than Calvary, they would have had to do it in part from the Sabbath and so disturb the peace of the Sabbath day.
Source in Russian: Explanatory Bible, or Commentaries on all the books of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments: In 7 volumes / Ed. prof. A. P. Lopukhin. – Ed. 4th. – Moscow: Dar, 2009, 1232 pp.
Speaking on behalf of Secretary-General António Guterres, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said the UN and partners were continuing to deliver “critical humanitarian assistance”, focusing on communities on the frontlines, but there is “growing concern about the decrease in humanitarian funding amidst the significant scale of need.”
Infrastructure, including homes, hospitals, energy and water systems, continue to be hit as Russia continues its offensive and “support is needed now more than ever”, Mr. Steiner added.
There are 24 different UN entities and around 3,000 personnel working alongside State and local authorities to meet immediate needs but also “pave the way to recovery, reconstruction and development”.
So far, the UN has put in place $1.1 billion in recovery and development spending through the end of 2023 and expects to invest a further $1 billion by the end of this year.
These focus on four key areas being managed by the UN Resident Coordinator: support for businesses and entrepreneurs, investing in human development, prioritizing a “comprehensive model of recovery planning”, and continuing to respond to Government requests for technical assistance.
The UNDP chief stressed that the only sustainable solution to the war remains a just, lasting and comprehensive peace, anchored in the principles of the UN Charter and international law.
Bolstering education crucial
The Regional Director for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, Regina De Dominicis, said in a statement to the conference that the country’s recovery was dependent on educating children free from the scourge of war.
“The war in Ukraine is destroying the country’s greatest resource – its people. Without an increase in investment and sustained funding, children and young people will not be able to access school and training opportunities – critical for the recovery of children, families and their communities,” she said.
COVID-19 had already disrupted schooling prior to Russia’s invasion of February 2022. Around four million Ukrainian children continue to have their education disrupted, with approximately 600,000 unable to access in-person school at all.
“Latest available data from 2022 show that children in Ukraine are around two years behind in reading, a year behind in maths, and half a year behind in science. With the persistence of hostilities since, that gap has only widened,” the UNICEF official reported.
Action towards ‘green recovery’
The UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), economic cooperation and development body OECD and UN Environment Programme (UNEP), announced on Wednesday the creation of a Platform for Action on the Green Recovery of Ukraine, to assist the country’s transition towards a low-carbon economy in line with international norms overseen by the UN.
The development comes ahead of another high-level conference on Ukraine, this time in Switzerland over the coming weekend.
Some 90 countries and organizations are due to attend the Burgenstock conference; Russia is expected to take part in sustainable peace discussions at a later date, according to the Swiss authorities.
Meanwhile on the frontline, the UN and partners continue helping authorities evacuate thousands of people from frontline villages in the country’s northeast this week.
In an update on Tuesday, the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, said that most of the evacuees are “already highly vulnerable” and could not have fled on their own earlier.
They included mainly older people and those with low mobility or disabilities “who left their homes with only a few belongings”, the UN agency said.
Kharkiv in the crosshairs
In the nearby city of Kharkiv, more than one in 10 people have now lost their homes, amid renewed Russian shelling.
In an update on the massive reconstruction needs of the city in Ukraine’s northeast, the UNECE cited reports that 150,000 of the 1.3 million people there are without housing.
The commission noted data from the local authorities showing that since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, approximately 9,000 houses have been destroyed, along with 110 nurseries and half the city’s schools.
In addition, all transformer substations on the power grid have been put out of action in Kharkiv, along with 88 medical centres and 185 other public buildings, UNECE said.
Although many States have intensified their efforts towards eradication, the practice continues across the world in part due to “the clandestine nature of cross-border and transnational FGM,” it said.
“Female genital mutilation is part of a continuum of gender-based violence and has no place in a human rights-respecting universe,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk.
“It must be eliminated in all of its forms, and the gender stereotypes and patriarchal norms that anchor and perpetuate it uprooted.”
An estimated 4.3 million girls were at risk of being subjected to FGM in 2023, according to the report, which was based on in-depth desk research and submissions from States and civil society organizations around the world.
More than 600,000 women in the European Union are thought to be living with the consequences of FGM, which the World Health Organization (WHO) defines as “all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons”.
It is mainly carried out on young girls between infancy and age 15.
“The practice has no health benefits for girls and women and cause severe bleeding and problems urinating, and later cysts, infections, as well as complications in childbirth and increased risk of newborn deaths,” WHO added.
‘Vacation cutting’ during school holidays
The report said so-called “vacation cutting” is when families, particularly in Europe and North America, take their daughters to their countries and communities of origin to undergo FGM during school holidays.
In certain cases, girls are reportedly taken to countries that serve as “transnational FGM hubs”. In some cases, it is the “cutters” who move across borders to carry out the harmful procedure.
The report identified cross-border and transnational movements for the purposes of FGM, around the world. It said that girls and young women living in border communities are particularly vulnerable given border areas often host communities with cultural and ethnic ties that transcend national borders.
Address root causes
“States around the globe have made human rights commitments to eradicate FGM and to advance gender equality,” said Mr. Türk.
“They should ensure a joined-up global approach that addresses the root causes and the consequences of FGM, by among others harmonising their legal and policy frameworks and ensuring their implementation, if they are to truly meet their commitments to end this harmful practice everywhere.”
The report called for greater regional and international cooperation towards eradication.
Measures suggested include allocating adequate resources towards the establishment and implementation of regional policy frameworks and cooperation agreements to address the cross-border scourge, and to support survivors.
Researchers of the Brussels-based NGO Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) have just discovered an infiltration attempt by a pro-Putin Ukrainian media activist in the Brussels-EU Bubble where he plans to spread false information about Russia’s war on Ukraine and to damage the image of Ukraine. His name is Nikolay Moiseenko (Moysienko Mykola Viktorovich).
He is a journalist and the director of the information agency “First Cossack Channel” (ПЕРВЫЙ КОЗАЦКИЙ КАНАЛ) founded in 2017 and based in Kyiv.
In his capacity of director, he is inevitably involved in the criminal case No. 22023101110000608 dated 21 July 2023 against the said media outlet created in December 2020 and qualified by the accusation as an organized criminal group. Other journalists and media outlets are also mentioned in the case as partners.
The objectives of the “First Cossack Channel” were to create, store and disseminate information, news and press releases; to provide photos and other information products to the media, public authorities, as well as other legal entities and individuals in Ukraine and abroad, through distribution via a news agency. Brussels was and is one of the targets.
According to the prosecution, “from February 2014 to the present, Russian public organizations and pro-Russian Orthodox associations operating in Ukraine and funded by non-governmental organizations of the Russian Federation, as well as religious foundations in Ukraine, have been conducting activities aimed at harming the state security of Ukraine in the information sphere.”
The Solomyanskyi District Court of Kyiv is dealing with the case which is still in the pre-trial investigation stage. As of today, 49 court rulings have already been issued, the last one to which HRWF had access on 6 June 2024.
The criminal case includes accusations of alleged activities
directed against the foundations of Ukraine’s national security,
inciting religious enmity based on the belief in the supremacy of the Russian nation over other nations,
meant to destroy the Ukrainian state and all its attributes,
supporting the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) “in communion with the Russian Orthodox Church/ Moscow Patriarchate” (ROC/MP)) which blessed the armed aggression of the Russian Federation on Ukraine.
carried out in cooperation with the aggressor state and supporting it,
of high treason, i.e. intentionally threatening the sovereignty, the territorial integrity and inviolability, as well as the information security of Ukraine, by namely providing assistance to a foreign state in carrying out subversive activities against Ukraine under martial law.
A number of persons are being investigated “for discrediting Ukraine, undermining confidence in the Ukrainian patriotic society, and returning Ukraine to the zone of religious,cultural and political influence of Russia.”
According to the 6 June 2024 court ruling, the “First Cossack Channel” used officially registered business entities related to the media sphere. One of them is said by the accusation “to be systematically used to publish distorted information and is also duplicated in other resources controlled by the UOC and the ROC, including on Russian federal channels.”
According to the expert opinion No. 23309/23-36/23310/23-61 of the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine on 2 February 2024, the information contained in the publications of the “First Cossack Channel” aimed at “humiliating the honour and dignity of the clergy and believers of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU).” The Church is independent from Moscow, was established under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on 15 December 2018 and was granted autocephaly on 5 January 2019.
The expert opinion also stressed that the “First Cossack Channel” also aimed at “creating hostility towards the OCU and the representatives of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, as well as at assisting the Russian Federation in subversive activities against Ukraine in the information and religious spheres.”
The accusation also denounces the following positions:
the denial that Russia had undermined the dam at the Kakhovka hydroelectric power station
statements denying that the armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine started in 2014 and presenting it as a domestic conflict
the justification of the full-scale armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine in 2022 by claiming it was caused by the illegal actions of certain religious figures of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), independent from Moscow.
EU sanctions against propaganda media
To counteract Russian propaganda, the EU has suspended the broadcasting activities and licenses of several Kremlin-backed disinformation outlets:
Sputnik and subsidiaries including Sputnik Arabic
Russia Today and subsidiaries including Russia Today English, Russia Today UK, Russia Today Germany, Russia Today France, Russia Today Spanish, Russia Today Arabic
Vigilance is needed in the EU Bubble in Brussels as a number of Members of the European Parliament and their staff have recently been accused of complicity with Putin’s regime and acting as agents of influence.
Journalists, media outlets and religious institutions are other channels also misused by Russian propaganda.
On 18 December 2023, the Council of the European Union imposed restrictive measures on Tsargrad TV Channel (Царьград ТВ) belonging to and financed by the so-called “Orthodox oligarch” Konstantin Malofeev, as part of the 12th Package of Sanctions. On that occasion, the SPAS TV Channel of the Russian Orthodox Church was also put under EU sanctions.
Earlier this year, Human Rights Without Frontiers also identified Moldovan journalists and a Moldovan media association damaging in Brussels the image of the current pro-EU Moldovan President Maia Sandu.
Artificial intelligence is being employed in the hunt for a female partner for a critically endangered male plant species that predates dinosaurs.
One of the original stems of Encephalartos woodii at Durban Botanic Garden, South Africa. Image credit: Purves, M. via wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA 3.0
A research project led by the University of Southampton is scouring thousands of acres of forest in South Africa, where the only known ‘Encephalartos woodii’ – or E. woodii – was found, in a bid to find a female.
And if the hunt doesn’t pay off, the researchers are also exploring if they can change the plant’s sex to create a female version.
The only known E. woodii was discovered in the Ngoye Forest, South Africa, in 1895. It was moved several years later for safe keeping, with samples sent to botanical gardens – including Kew in London – where it is still propagated and grown today.
But with only one male found, all subsequent propagated samples are male clones, so the plant cannot naturally reproduce. The Ngoye Forest has, until now, never been fully explored to determine if a female could exist.
Hunting with drones
Dr Laura Cinti, research fellow at the University of Southampton’s Winchester School of Art, is leading the first project to use drones and AI to search for a female E. woodii. She said: “This plant is, as far as we know, extinct in the wild. I was very inspired by the story of the E. woodii, it mirrors a classic tale of unrequited love. I’m hopeful there is a female out there somewhere, after all there must have been at one time. It would be amazing to bring this plant so close to extinction back through natural reproduction.”
Dr Cinti is collaborating with Dr Howard Boland, a creative technology expert working in AI, and Dr Debbie Jewitt, a conservation scientist and drone pilot based in South Africa.
Initial drone flights in 2022 took tens of thousands of images and used a multispectral sensor to capture features beyond what can be seen from high above with the naked eye – such as distinguishing whether plants are living or dead, and to identify species.
But with no E. woodii yet found, the drone imaging is ongoing – now with the power of AI. They have covered 195 acres of the Ngoye Forest so far – and there are 10,000 acres in total.
“With the AI, we are using an image recognition algorithm in order to recognise plants by shape,” explained Dr Cinti. “We generated images of plants and put them in different ecological settings, to train the model to recognise them.”
Dr Cinti is also working on a new partner project investigating whether it is possible to change the sex of the E. woodii using either chemical or physiological manipulation, and then generate vegetative plants from that material.
She said: “There have been reports of sex change in other cycad species due to sudden environmental changes such as temperature, so we are hopeful we can induce sex change in the E. woodii too.”
The story of the E. woodii
The Encephalartos woodii is a type of plant known as a cycad. Cycads are the oldest surviving seed-bearing plants, dating back more than 300 million years and surviving multiple mass extinctions and environmental changes.
They are dioecious, which means they are either male or female, and they produce cones from which pollen is transported by insects for reproduction.
Despite their longevity, they are now the most endangered organisms on our planet, and the Encephalartos woodii is the rarest of all.
Dr Cinti said: “Cycads sell on the black market for hundreds of thousands of pounds, and are kept in cages in botanical gardens due to the risk of theft.”
final results from 17 EU member states: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland Slovakia;
Preliminary figures suggest an estimated turnout across the EU of 51,08%.
The projections of Parliament’s composition are based on the structure of the outgoing Parliament and its political groups, without prejudice to the composition of the next Parliament at its constitutive session.
All national parties without a current official affiliation and not part of “Non-attached” in the current Parliament are assigned to a holding category called “Others”, regardless of their political orientation.
Seat projections will continue to be updated and published on https://results.elections.europa.eu where you will also find national results, seats by political group and country, the breakdown by national parties and political groups, and turnout. You will also be able to compare results, check majorities or create your widget.
“In Gaza, we are deeply committed to humanitarian aid to the population in Gaza, where UNRWA is the backbone of that support,” Mr. Guterres told journalists in Geneva. “We have faced a number of difficulties and obstacles that are well known, but nothing diminishes our commitment,” he added, amid a long-running misinformation campaign to discredit the UN agency.
Turning to the ongoing challenge of providing lifesaving humanitarian assistance, especially since early May when the Israeli military closed the vital Rafah border crossing, the UN chief noted it remains “extremely difficult to support the population that is under fire; it’s extremely difficult to support the population when there are so many restrictions to the entry of the necessary supplies for humanitarian aid”.
Asked to comment about the findings of a report published earlier in the day by a top Human Rights Council-appointed probe into the Gaza war that found Hamas and Israel guilty of war crimes, the UN chief underscored the enormous scale of destruction and death in the past eight months of hostilities.
“We have witnessed…a unique level of destruction and…unique level of casualties in the Palestinian population during these months of war that has no precedent in any other situation that I’ve lived as Secretary-General of the United Nations.”
Widening inequality
The Secretary-General was speaking on the sidelines of the Global Leaders Forum at UN Geneva, hosted by UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD), where he took the opportunity before heading to the G7 Summit in Italy beginning on Thursday to repeat his deep concerns about the unequal distribution of wealth in the global economy – and the need for richer nations to support those trying to embrace industrialization.
“Developing and emerging economies outside China have seen clean energy investments stuck at the same levels since 2015 and Africa was home to less than one per cent of last year’s renewables installations despite its wealth of resources and its vast potential,” Mr. Guterres said.
“We need advanced economies to rally behind the emerging and developing ones and to show climate solidarity by providing the technological and financial support they need to cut emissions.
Walk the talk
There must be “a clear commitment from the G7 on doubling finance for adaptation by next year and closing the adaptation finance gap.”
Echoing that message, Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary-General of the UN Trade and Development agency UNCTAD, welcomed the “resurgence of industrial policy” in some parts of the world that vindicated the State’s “vital role” in economic development and transformation.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres addresses journalists in Geneva following the opening of UNCTAD’s Global Leaders Forum.
But she cautioned that for many developing nations burdened by debt and limited fiscal space, “this resurgence is a distant horizon”, just as the UN Secretary-General told delegates that new trade barriers introduced annually “have nearly tripled since 2019, many driven by geopolitical rivalry with no concern for their impact on developing countries”.
Such a trend must be avoided if the world’s most vulnerable countries and individuals are to enjoy the benefits of the UN-backed Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Mr. Guterres insisted, as he declared that the world “cannot afford splits into rival blocs.”
Only meeting the targets will ensure peace and security where there is “one global market and one global economy in which there is no place for poverty and hunger.”
Developing world in the driving seat
Some progress has been made in tackling these enduring problems and in the 60 years since UNCTAD was created, “over a billion people have been lifted out of poverty” and the developing world “is now the engine of global trade and economic activity”, Ms. Grynspan noted.
But she added that far while for some, this may “give the illusion that the ground is less uneven today than it was six decades ago”, for “the poor, the unconnected, the discriminated, the rural, but also the women, and the youth – the ground remains uneven, the climb too steep”.
Wole Soyinka addresses a lecture series marking the 60th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 2008. (file)
This #ThrowbackThursday, when the world celebrates the Day for Countering Hate Speech, we are looking back at how Nobel Laureate for Literature Wole Soyinka wielded powerful words to clobber online hate speech, call out religious extremism, and refute the notion that human rights are imposed by the West.
“Any suggestion that freedom of expression is a luxury of the West insults the historic struggles of individuals and communities all over the world for the dignity and wellbeing of their kind, for social fulfillment, equality of opportunity, equitable sharing of resources, access to shelter, nourishment and health,” said Mr. Soyinka, who spoke in 1993 at the World Conference on Human Rights, as a special guest of the UN Secretary-General.
In 1999, the novelist and playwright was appointed as one of seven of the first UN Goodwill Ambassadors to promote awareness of the World Conference Against Racism in 2001, which aimed to take concrete steps to fight racism, xenophobia, antisemitism and other forms of intolerance.
The famed writer who penned Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth has since visited UN Headquarters on several occasions, including a memorable appearance at a debate on the culture of peace in 2012.
During that event, the online distribution of the anti-Islamic film Innocence of Muslims that triggered violent reactions around the world had featured prominently as an example of extremism and intolerance.
Futile to try and prevent ‘infantile’ insults to religion
To that, Mr. Soyinka presciently told ambassadors that it was futile to try and prevent “infantile” insults to religion from spreading through technology, but that the same technology should be used to “educate the ignorant”.
Religious extremism was holding the world to ransom by using religion as an excuse for crimes against humanity, said the author, who also served on a panel on peace and dialogue among cultures with the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Likening attacks on Islam at the time, that had resulted in violent protests and deaths in several countries, to “the infantile scribble we encounter on public toilets”, he urged people to ignore and “walk away from them” rather than answering with “equally infantile responses that are however incendiary and homicidal in dimension and largely directed against the innocent”.
Stern warning to world leaders
He also issued a stern warning to world leaders.
“The science fiction archetype of the mad scientist who craves to dominate the world has been replaced by the mad cleric, who can only conceive of the world in his own image,” said the writer.
“The sooner national leaders and authentic religious leaders understand this and admit that no nation has any lack of its own dangerous loonies – be they known as Ansar Dine of Mali or Terry Jones of Florida – the earlier they turn their attention to real issues of human priority.”
He concluded by saying it would be “pathetic to demand what cannot be guaranteed”, namely for all people to adhere to absolute tolerance all of the time.
“It is futile to reign in technology,” he said. “The solution is to use that very technology to correct noxious conceptions in the minds of the perpetrators of abuse and educate the ignorant.”
Wole Soyinka (second right) participates in a UNESCO-organized high-level debate entitled contemporary challenges and approaches to building a lasting culture of peace.
Stories from the UN Archive series
Drawn from almost 50,000 hours of historical footage and audio preserved by the UN Audiovisual Library, the series highlights moments across the first century of UN operations.
Catch up on UN Video’s Stories from the UN Archive playlist here and our accompanying series here.
Stay tuned next week for another dive into the past.
Secretary General – EMISCO -European Muslim Initiative for Social Cohesion – Strasbourg
Chair-Advisory Council-ENAR – European Network Against Racism- Brussels
Thierry Valle
Chair – CAP Liberté de Conscience
In our work with human rights, democracy, and inclusiveness in societies, we have had the possibility to exchange experiences with NGOs from Europe and abroad. In old days, people would normally ask us to share with them our impression, experiences and cooperation with EU institutions, national authorities and local NGO initiatives regarding inter-cultural living and development in the field of inter-ethnic relations. We were always excited and enthusiastic to tell them of various schemes and plans of actions that were being utilised all over Europe so that its inhabitants could live their lives as they wish but at the same time accept and respect fellow human beings.
But in recent years, the nature of their questions and our answers have changed. Now, the first question is: What is happening to European values or why far right political parties and movements are becoming so powerful. They also ask; why political extremism has been dealt with.
Since, in this age and time of the social media, people have become use to News flashes, Breaking News, and fast exchange of information. So, nothing is hidden from them. This situation does annoy and disturb us, but we are passionate believer of transparency, so we try to explain the situation as best as we can. This entails that being European, we also ask ourselves, the same questions, other are asking. To gauge the far right upward trend, we can just look at the EU Parliament’s election that were held from 6-9 June 2024.
The Fallout of European Elections
Hundreds of millions of Europeans have voted to elect 720 Members of the European Parliament, and Italy’s leader Giorgia Meloni has cemented her role as a key Brussels power broker with an estimated 28% of the vote. Meanwhile, Macron’s Renew party suffered a stinging defeat in the European elections, securing just 15.2% of the votes to the far-right National Rally’s 31.5%.. French President Emmanuel Macron performed so badly he was pushed to dissolve parliament and call snap elections. Macron retorted in his address that “the rise of the nationalists and demagogues is a threat not only to our nation but also to our Europe and to France’s place in Europe and in the world”.
The far-right FPÖ also topped the poll in Austria, far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) came in third, Geert Wilders’ right-wing PVV party scooped six seats and in many other countries, the situation is not very different.
Mainstream parties secured a slim majority during European Union parliamentary elections but far-right groups made the most noteworthy gains in the bloc’s legislative body. “The center is holding, but it is also true that the extremes on the left and on the right have gained support,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said following the end of Europe’s four-day vote. However, domestically, this will make the European Parliament a springboard for Euroscepticism, weakening the bloc’s liberal-democratic framework.
Far right governments are not that far
The EU parliament’s election point to a development, we have been worrying and speaking against for a long time. It did not happen in one day but is the result of political populism, media misinformation and negative academic discourse regarding asylum laws, refugees’ issue, and minority presence, especially from Muslim countries. Politicians in their public debates directly blamed minorities for societal ills and sidestepped public’s genuine socio-economic problems.
Looking at the European political landscape, we have seen that the extreme right is moving closer and closer to power around European capitals, and in several countries – e.g. Italy, Finland and in Croatia, they have even moved all the way into the government offices. Just like Wilder’s Freedom Party is in the Netherland government after many years of running. The Dutch government formation is the latest example of a trend that has become evident in Europe. According to Claes de Vreese, professor of media and Democracy, University of Amsterdam, Geert Wilders is part of Netherlands’ most far-right government to date, and Wilders will sit and pull the strings as the largest party”.
Right-wing populism expert Hans Kundnani is the author of the book ‘Euro Whiteness’ and is associated with the Chatham House Think Tank. He says that one of the biggest developments in European politics in the last decade has been the normalization of views that used to be extreme in relation to identity, immigration, and Islam, and where the line between the far-wing and centre-right has become more blurred.
While the conservative EU Commission Chairperson, Ursula von der Leyen, has opened up for cooperation with the right parties, four party groups in the EU Parliament have jointly distanced themselves from the right wing. A similar statement came from the European social democracies – with the exception of the Danish one – to exclude the far right in the form of the two right-wing party groups in the EU Parliament, which call themselves ECR and ID. The Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen has taken over the strict migration policy and Islamophobic rhetoric of the far right parties.
Seeing the situation on the ground, one can see that it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain a total exclusion of the far right on a European level. Some of the parties will, just as we saw in the Netherlands, suddenly find themselves in a situation where the only way forward is to cooperate with the extreme right.
Of course, the outcome of the European Parliament elections would play a role in EU’s policy decisions, but in the end, the member states are more important than both the parliament and the commission. The takeover of the governments by the extreme right, as we see in many EU countries, it already has draged EU in that direction. Meanwhile, democratic institutions and values have faced growing threats in several EU countries, from political violence in Germany, Slovakia and Denmark, to Hungary’s crackdown on free media, mistreatment of minorities and the talk of closing the borders to non-EU by erecting the fences towards the Easter border.
Despite the progress achieved in human rights protection over the last decades, racism, hate crimes and hate speech is rife in Europe and on the rise in many countries. Hate speech, increasingly widespread, especially in the political sphere and on the Internet, is also a reason for concern.
That is why, we urge EU-institutions, parliamentarians, Commissioners, and politicians of the national governments to be aware of the effect of their words on public opinion and should refrain from using any forms of discriminatory, insulting, or aggressive language about groups or categories of people. As racism is a complex phenomenon and entails multiple factors, the battle against it must be fought on multiple fronts. In addition to legal instruments designed to prohibit and punish all expressions of racism, including hate speech, we must fight intolerance using cultural and social instruments. Education and information must play a crucial part in training the public to respect ethnic, cultural and religious diversity. Solidarity with the groups which are victims of racism and targets of hate speech, and between these groups, contributes significantly to countering racism and discrimination in all their forms.
Europe should remain a model of freedom instead of become a Fort Europa.
