A new image from the Event Horizon Telescope collaboration, which includes researchers and telescopes of the University of Arizona, has uncovered strong and organized magnetic fields spiraling from the edge of the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, or Sgr A*.
The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration, which in 2022 presented the first image of Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of our Milky Way, has captured a new view of the massive object, this time in polarized light. For the first time astronomers have been able to measure polarization, a signature of magnetic fields, this close to the edge of the black hole. The lines mark the orientation of polarization, which is related to the magnetic field around the black hole’s shadow. Image credit: EHT Collaboration
Seen in polarized light for the first time, this new view of the monster lurking at the center of our Milky Way galaxy has revealed a magnetic field structure strikingly similar to that of a much more massive black hole, known as M87*, at the center of the M87 galaxy, suggesting that strong magnetic fields may be common to all black holes. This similarity also hints toward a hidden jet in Sgr A*. The results were published on March 27 in the journal The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
Scientists unveiled the first image of Sgr A*— which is approximately 27,000 light-years from Earth – in 2022, revealing that while the Milky Way’s supermassive black hole is more than a thousand times smaller and less massive than M87’s, it looks remarkably similar. This made scientists wonder whether the two shared common traits outside of their looks. To find out, the team decided to study Sgr A* in polarized light. Previous studies of light around M87* revealed that the magnetic fields around the black hole giant allowed it to launch powerful jets of material back into the surrounding environment. Building on this work, the new images have revealed that the same may be true for Sgr A*.
Boris Georgiev, an EHT postdoctoral researcher at UArizona’s Steward Observatory and co-author on the study, said: “The consistency of magnetic field structures around Sgr A* and M87* suggests that the processes by which black holes feed and eject jets into their surroundings may be universal, despite their vast differences in size and mass.”
“What we’re seeing now is that there are strong, twisted and organized magnetic fields near the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy,” said Sara Issaoun, NASA Hubble Fellowship Program Einstein Fellow at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian and co-lead of the project. “Along with Sgr A* having a strikingly similar polarization structure to that seen in the much larger and more powerful M87* black hole, we’ve learned that strong and ordered magnetic fields are critical to how black holes interact with the gas and matter around them.”
Light is a moving oscillation of electric and magnetic fields that allows us to see objects. Sometimes, light oscillates in a preferred
orientation, also known as polarized. Although polarized light surrounds us, to human eyes it is indistinguishable from “normal,” or non-polarized, light. In the plasma around these black holes, particles whirling around magnetic field lines impart a polarization pattern perpendicular to the field. This allows astronomers to see in increasingly vivid detail what is happening in black hole regions and map their magnetic field lines.
“By imaging polarized light from hot glowing gas near black holes, we are directly inferring the structure and strength of the magnetic fields that thread the flow of gas and matter that the black hole feeds on and ejects,” said Angelo Ricarte, Harvard Black Hole Initiative Fellow and project co-lead. “Polarized light teaches us a lot more about the astrophysics, the properties of the gas and mechanisms that take place as a black hole feeds.”
But imaging black holes in polarized light isn’t as easy as putting on a pair of polarized sunglasses, and this is particularly true of Sgr A*, which is changing so fast that it doesn’t sit still for pictures. Imaging the supermassive black hole requires sophisticated tools above and beyond those previously used for capturing M87*, a much steadier target. Dan Marrone, EHT co-principal investigator and a co-author of the paper who is a professor of astronomy at Steward Observatory, and his team developed instruments that detected the polarized radio waves for this result.
“Similar to the way that polarized light can tell us the orientation of the surface it is bouncing off of, such as windows or roads, it can also show us the orientation of magnetic fields around black holes,” Marrone said. “Because the magnetic fields change rapidly around Sgr A*, turning EHT observations into polarized images was a huge challenge. We’re really proud that our data carries enough information.””
Scientists say they are excited to have images of both supermassive black holes in polarized light because these images, and the data that come with them, provide new ways to compare and contrast black holes with different sizes and environments. As technology improves, the images are likely to reveal even more secrets of black holes and their similarities or differences.
“These findings help us improve our computer models and theories and give us a better idea of what happens to matter close to a black hole’s event horizon,” added co-author Chi-kwan Chan, a UArizona professor of astronomy who focuses on theoretical modeling of black holes.
The EHT has conducted several observations since 2017. Each year, the images improve as the EHT incorporates new telescopes, larger bandwidth and new observing frequencies.
“We are developing hardware and software to automate EHT observations, thereby enabling the EHT to make more frequent observations in the future in order to capture movies of black holes,” said Amy Lowitz, an EHT research scientist at Steward Observatory who leads the EHT Agility Project.
Such observations, spanning several months, are one of the primary objectives for the EHT for the coming years, according to Remo Tilanus, a UArizona professor and the EHT operation manager who oversees the observation campaigns and technical developments.
“With the capabilities of the Agility Project, we should be able to see material swirling around M87* and being ejected into its jets,” Tilanus said.
Planned expansions for the next decade will also enable high-fidelity movies, may reveal a hidden jet in Sgr A* and will allow astronomers to observe similar polarization features in other black holes. There are even plans in the works to extend the EHT into space, providing much sharper images of black holes and enabling much more powerful studies of black hole rotation and the mechanisms that power black hole jets.
The EHT is scheduled to observe Sgr A* again in April, keeping the EHT UArizona team busy. Together with Lowitz and Georgiev, postdoctoral researcher Andrew Thomas West and graduate student Jasmin Washington are currently preparing the Submillimeter Telescope on Mount Graham and the 12-meter radio telescope of the Arizona Radio Observatory on Kitt Peak for the upcoming observation.
Washington, who participated in the 2021 observing campaign as a first-year graduate student, said she enjoyed the experience and is excited to be able to return this year.
“We’ll be observing with more telescopes than ever before, giving us better coverage and more sensitivity to make these polarized measurements,” she said.
West added: “Measuring with very high fidelity how these sources have changed since they were last observed will inform our models and allow us to answer fundamental questions about the physics in these extreme environments – it is very exciting!”
In the past month, WFP supported more than 300,000 people there with food, including 40,000 in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur state.
“We must be able to reach those who need us most in Sudan,” Executive Director Cindy McCain wrote in a post on social media.
Separately, UN Humanitarian Affairs Coordinator Martin Griffiths warned that an escalation of hostilities there would be “catastrophic”.
Civilians in El Fasher are already struggling to survive hunger and deprivation, and they must be spared from violence, he wrote on social media.
El Fasher has more than 330,000 people facing acute food insecurity, and nearly half of its residents are internally displaced.
Over the weekend, the UN Security Council appealed for the warring parties in Sudan to immediately halt the military build-up and take steps to de-escalate the situation in El Fasher.
The call came amid reports of an imminent offensive by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and their allied militia, which could threaten the lives of hundreds of thousands of displaced persons currently sheltering in the city.
Iraq urged to shelve new law criminalising same-sex relations
The UN human rights office, OHCHR, has urged Iraq to discard a new law that criminalises consensual same-sex relations and other forms of private consensual behaviour with heavy jail sentences.
“The law runs contrary to several human rights treaties and conventions ratified by Iraq, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and should be shelved,” spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said on Monday.
She added that “everyone, without distinction, is entitled to enjoy all human rights, including the right to privacy, the right to be treated as equal before the law and the right to protection from discrimination on various grounds that include sexual orientation and gender identity.”
Under the new law, those found guilty of “establishing a homosexual relationship” will face 10 to 15 years in jail, while anyone who “promotes homosexuality” will be imprisoned for at least seven years and fined at least 10 million Iraqi dinars (approximately $7,600).
Additionally, anyone accessing or performing gender-affirming medical treatments will face up to three years behind bars, and people who dress in clothing associated with the opposite gender will receive jail terms of up to three years or a fine of at least 5 million Iraqi dinars.
Chad: Guterres appeals for restraint ahead of presidential election
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged stakeholders in Chad to ensure a peaceful, inclusive, transparent and credible vote as the country prepares for the first round of presidential elections next week.
“The Secretary-General encourages all political leaders to refrain from any acts or discourse that could undermine a peaceful process, to overcome any disagreements through dialogue and to address complaints that may arise through established legal channels,” his spokesperson said on Monday.
Chadians go to the polls on 6 May. The elections are part of the transition back to democracy after three years of military rule following the death of President Idris Deby in April 2021.
The longtime leader died fighting rebels in the north and his son, Mahamat Idriss Deby, was installed as head of the Transitional Military Council.
The younger Mr. Deby promised a return to civilian rule and elections within 18 months, but extended the transition by two years.
The Secretary-General reiterated UN commitment to continue to support efforts towards building a peaceful and prosperous future in Chad.
Since 22 March, Ukraine’s energy infrastructure sustained four waves of attacks that killed six people, injured at least 45 and struck at least 20 facilities.
Just this past Saturday alone, missile attacks damaged four thermal power plants critical for electricity generation. Two of the plants are located in western Ukraine, far from the frontline.
Danielle Bell, Head of Mission at HRMMU, said, “These attacks have caused civilian deaths, and they also jeopardise essential services such as power generation and rail transport, further compounding the risks and harm affecting the civilian population of Ukraine.”
Recent attacks on Ukraine’s railway system have claimed the lives of at least 11 civilians and injured dozens in regions like Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Donetsk and Cherkasy.
Those killed in the attacks were railway and power station workers who were either in or near the vicinity.
“Attacks on the railway system threaten a key mode of transportation that people in Ukraine depend on for personal travel and transport of essential goods, particularly given the restriction on all air traffic and limited access to seaports,” Ms. Bell said.
Power and water supply affected
Within the last week, Ukrainian railway facilities saw three attacks, leaving civilians dead and injured. On 25 April, a missile strike killed three railway employees and injured four in Udachne in Donetsk.
That same day, several other employees were injured in a missile attack on a railway facility in Smila, located in the Cherkasy region.
In Balakliia in the Kharkiv region, 11 people were injured in a missile attack that caused damage to the railway station and a train that had just arrived. Eight more people also lost their lives due to railway attacks in Synelnykove and Dnipro.
HRMMU added that power outages frequently occurred in the immediate aftermath of attacks on energy infrastructure, affecting millions across the country and also leading to interruptions to the water supply.
Embark on a journey through the latest Alienware gaming setup, where cutting-edge technology meets sleek design. In this comprehensive article, we’ll delve into each component of the setup, from the monitor to the peripherals and the powerful gaming PC at its core.
Gaming set. Illustrative photo. Image credit: FOX via pexels.com
At the heart of the Alienware gaming setup lies the QD OLED monitor, a 32-inch marvel boasting 4K resolution and OLED technology. With vibrant colors, deep blacks, and a lightning-fast 240Hz refresh rate, this monitor delivers an unparalleled visual experience for gamers and multimedia enthusiasts alike.
Cutting-edge peripherals: pro wireless gaming mouse and keyboard
Accompanying the QD OLED monitor are Alienware’s latest peripherals: the Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse and Keyboard. With features like customizable RGB lighting, magnetic force key plates, and optical switches, these peripherals offer precision and comfort for long gaming sessions.
Complete your gaming experience with the 720 Hz Dual Mode Wireless Gaming Headset, designed for immersive audio and crystal-clear communication. With high-res audio capabilities, noise-cancelling microphones, and lightweight construction, this headset ensures comfort and performance for extended gaming sessions.
Powering the experience: Alienware Aurora R16 Gaming Desktop
Driving the entire setup is the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming PC, equipped with top-tier components like the 13th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-13900F processor and NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 4070. With customizable configurations, including memory options up to 68 GB and storage options up to 4TB, this PC offers unparalleled performance for gaming and multitasking.
Unboxing and setup experience
Experience the excitement of unboxing the Alienware gaming setup, where every component is meticulously designed and carefully packaged. From the sleek design of the monitor stand to the integrated peripherals and compact form factor of the gaming PC, the setup offers a seamless blend of style and functionality.
Performance and noise levels
Explore the performance capabilities of the Alienware gaming setup, from smooth gameplay on the QD OLED monitor to responsive input from the Pro Wireless Gaming Mouse and Keyboard. With liquid cooling and optimized airflow, the setup maintains quiet operation even under heavy load, ensuring an immersive gaming experience without distraction.
In conclusion, the Alienware gaming setup represents the pinnacle of gaming technology, offering a comprehensive solution for gamers seeking the ultimate immersive experience. With state-of-the-art components, customizable configurations, and sleek design, the setup delivers unparalleled performance and aesthetics, making it a must-have for any gaming enthusiast.
Paris, France, February 22, 2019: French Constitutional Council (Conseil Constitutionnel) located in the Palais Royal - Paris, France
On April 15th, over sixty members of the National Assembly and over sixty Senators referred the newly adopted law “to reinforce the fight against sectarian abuses” to the Constitutional Council for an a priori control of constitutionality pursuant to Article 61-2 of the Constitution.
The law creates new articles in the penal code in order to criminalize the act of “psychological subjugation” and the promotion of therapeutic or preventative unconventional practices.
In support of the argumentation developed by the Members of Parliament in their referral, the External Contribution below has been filed at the Council on Friday 26 April.
EXTERNAL CONTRIBUTION
Patricia Duval, Attorney at the Paris Bar, temporarily non practicing.
1. On Article 3 which creates the specific offence of putting a person under a state of psychological or physical subjugation (former Article 2)
In support of the argumentation developed by the Senators of the Republican Party (LR), it is important to emphasise that the very concept of “psychological subjugation” has been invalidated by the European Court of Human Rights in its decision Jehovah’s Witnesses of Moscow v. Russia (C-302/02, 10 June 2010) – this decision being referred to in their argumentation concerning Article 12 (choice of treatment and freedom to refuse blood transfusion).
In this case, the association Jehovah’s Witnesses of Moscow had referred to the European Court the decision of a Russian Court to dissolve their community.
The Court specifically reviewed the validity of the accusation by the Russian authorities that the right of citizens to freedom of conscience was violated because they were submitted to psychological pressure and “mind control” techniques.
After noting that members of this community testified before the Russian courts that they had made a free and voluntary choice of their religion and therefore followed its precepts of their own will, the Court found that there is no generally accepted and scientific definition of what constitutes “mind control” and that no definition of that term was given in the domestic judgments. (§ 128 et 129) [emphasis added]
Accordingly the Court ruled that “the findings of the Russian courts on this point were based on conjecture uncorroborated by fact” and found a violation by Russia of the right to freedom of religion or belief of the Jehovah’s Witnesses members.
Similarly, Article 3 of the law referred to the Constitutional Council criminalizes the fact of placing or maintaining a person under psychological subjugation (new Article 223-15-3 of the penal code) without providing any definition of this term and leaves it open to judges to conjecture on the definition, in violation of the Constitutional principle that offences and penalties must be defined by law.
In a report submitted to the Prime Minister in July 2008, Mr. George Fenech, former President of the Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Sectarian Abuses (MIVILUDES), delineated the theory which underlies French policy on “sectarian abuses”. This stated that consenting adult members of movements characterized as “sectarian” should be considered victims under subjugation and their consent considered null and void, even though those followers are mentally competent under civil law. (Report La justice face aux dérives sectaires, page 42)
This conception constitutes an outright violation of the right to freedom of thought and conscience as protected both by the French Constitution and the case-law of the European Court.
The imprecision of the term “psychological subjugation” in the Article submitted to the Council would force judges, in order to characterize the offence, to determine whether the suspected individual belongs to any of the movements listed as “sectarian” by the government services, in order to determine if his/her acts are likely to constitute a subjugation. In this regard, Article 14 of the new law provides the possibility for magistrates to consult any relevant government agencies (for example MIVILUDES) to clarify the application of new Article 223-15-3 of the penal code.
In a contribution to the MIVILUDES Report for 2008 (page 59), the Ministry of Internal Affairs brings further clarification on which criteria should be retained in order to characterize mental subjugation:
“The specific context of mental subjugation is characteristic of sectarian abuses. Repression should be initiated by the State when a number of criteria are met: – One or more individuals start to adhere to ideas differing from those which are usually shared by social consensus. The individual who adopts them is led to change his/her references, relations and actions. His/her life gets out of hand, being thereafter directed and conditioned by the psycho-sectarian manipulator.” [emphasis added]
The second criterion being when financial contributions are deemed to be excessive.
Those guidelines evidence the role of thought censorship that the government intends to play and impose on the judges.
During the tenth anniversary celebration of the law called About-Picard which created the offence of “abuse of weakness of persons under psychological subjugation” (which unfortunately was never referred to the Constitutional Council for review), the Director of Criminal Affairs and Pardons admitted in her speech that “the process of mental subjugation is in itself difficult to characterize”. (2011-2012 Report of MIVILUDES page 58)
She added that directions circulated by the Ministry of Justice on 19 September 2011 urged the magistrates to determine whether the victims were under psychological subjugation by evaluating tangible factors such as “separation from family, professional and social environment, and refusal of conventional medical treatments”. (Report page 60)
Hence, refusal of conventional treatments constitutes a criterion for the government bodies to establish a state of subjugation and any group promoting natural health for example can be considered as liable of exerting mental subjugation.
The label of “sectarian abuse” is in itself totally improper as this category does not refer to excluding behaviour per the definition of the word “sectarian”, but to behaviour deemed undesirable by the Government and repressed as such.
It is thus clear that the element of psychological subjugation which is connected to it, and which was difficult to gauge according to the Director of Criminal Affairs and Pardons under the existing law (Article 223-15-2 of the penal code), will be more so under the new Article 223-15-3 referred to the Council, since the objective element of the state of weakness of the individual has been removed.
New Article 223-15-3 created by Article 3 of the law would allow government bodies to exert an improper influence on the magistrates as to the interpretation to be given to the term “psychological subjugation” when it is the very component of the offence.
The government tried to mitigate those effects by introducing the following two sentences: “The government bodies do not assess the facts that the individual is accused of. The elements provided by the State bodies are communicated to the defense.”
These supposed guarantees will be totally ineffective since belonging to a movement labeled as “sectarian” by the State services will create in itself a presumption of guilt against the prosecuted individual. This presumption is deemed to be compensated for by the fact that the elements provided by the government will be communicated to the defense. However, our law is based on presumption of innocence and equality of arms between the prosecution and the defense, and not on a presumption of guilt fueled by the State’s information services.
The whole apparatus created by new Article 223-15-3 of the penal code infringes the principle that offences and penalties should be provided for and defined in law, and the right to a fair trial; it constitutes an interference of the executive power in judicial matters in blatant violation of our Constitution, as well as an infringement of the right to freedom of thought and conscience of our citizens.
2. On Article 12 which creates the offence of incitement to refuse treatment or to adhere to non-conventional practices (former Article 4)
Here again, the invalidity of the concept of psychological subjugation used in this Article to criminalize the authors or defenders of unconventional therapeutic or preventive practices is emphasised, in support of the appeals filed by the MPs of the Republican and National Coalition parties (LR and RN).
Article 12 creates a new Article 223-1-2 of the penal code, which criminalises “the incitement, through repeated pressures and actions on sick individuals, to have them discontinue or abstain from following a therapeutic or preventive medical treatment when this discontinuance or abstention is presented as beneficial for them, when it is, in the current state of medical knowledge, manifestly liable to entail, due to their pathology, very serious consequences for their physical or mental health.”
When the circumstances under which a potential offence occurred with the free and informed consent of the individual, especially in the presence of clear and complete information on the consequences for that person’s health, the offence is not characterized, “except if it is established that the individual was placed or maintained in a state of psychological subjugation” in the meaning of Article 223-15-3.
In this case, the state of “psychological subjugation” would make the free and informed consent of the patient invalid. This provision violates the right of patients to consent to the treatment of their choice or to refuse a proposed treatment, protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union which in Article 3 (right to the integrity of the person) provides that in the field of medicine, “the free and informed consent of the person concerned, according to the procedures laid down by law” must be respected, as well as the 2002 Kouchner Law on the rights of patients.
The European Court of Human Rights has ruled in the above mentioned decision Jehovah’s Witnesses of Moscow v. Russia:
135. The very essence of the Convention is respect for human dignity and human freedom and the notions of self-determination and personal autonomy are important principles underlying the interpretation of its guarantees (see Pretty, cited above, §§ 61 and 65). The ability to conduct one’s life in a manner of one’s own choosing includes the opportunity to pursue activities perceived to be of a physically harmful or dangerous nature for the individual concerned. In the sphere of medical assistance, even where the refusal to accept a particular treatment might lead to a fatal outcome, the imposition of medical treatment without the consent of a mentally competent adult patient would interfere with his or her right to physical integrity and impinge on the rights protected under Article 8 of the Convention (see Pretty, cited above, §§ 62 and 63, and Acmanne and Others v. Belgium, no. 10435/83, Commission decision of 10 December 1984).
136. The freedom to accept or refuse specific medical treatment, or to select an alternative form of treatment, is vital to the principles of self-determination and personal autonomy. A competent adult patient is free to decide, for instance, whether or not to undergo surgery or treatment or, by the same token, to have a blood transfusion. However, for this freedom to be meaningful, patients must have the right to make choices that accord with their own views and values, regardless of how irrational, unwise or imprudent such choices may appear to others.
Article 223-1-2 which has been referred to the Council directly infringes these principles of self-determination and personal autonomy by creating criminal prosecution of the detractors of certain official medical treatments. It violates the right of patients to refuse treatment, by invalidating their choice under the imprecise and arbitrary concept of “psychological subjugation”, which is only established by the very choice of refusal of conventional treatments (abstract from the 2011 Circular cited above).
And the “incitement, through repeated pressures and actions” stated in the Article does not concern only individual relations between a practitioner and his patient for example, since paragraph 6 of the same Article provides that this offence can be “committed” through written press or audiovisual media”.
Additionally, the second paragraph of new Article 223-1-2 criminalizes “the incitement to adhere to practices presented as therapeutic or preventive when it is manifest, in the state of medical knowledge, that those practices entail a risk of immediate death or injuries leading to a mutilation or permanent disability.”
This represents a prohibition of any promotion of practices other than official medicine, even though they could be complementary, such as naturopathy or Chinese medicine for example, if the medical authorities approved by the Government have decided that their validity has not been sufficiently proven.
The infringement of the free choice of patients is flagrant, as well as of freedom of speech and opinion. These measures represent an interference which is disproportionate and not necessary for the purpose of health protection it is alleged to justify, as the existing legal provisions are by far sufficient to repress abuses, as stated in the various MPs appeals (repression of illegal practice of medicine, pharmacy, misleading commercial practices, etc.).
The actual purpose of these provisions is rather to prohibit any dissenting opinion concerning health by labeling it “sectarian” and prosecuting their author, as if democracy that prevails in France, does not apply to the area of health where the voice of the people should be muzzled.
The Government attempt to silence the critics by introducing a paragraph mentioning the protection of whistleblowers (Article 6 of the law of 9 December 2016) is ineffective. This restrictive provision concerns only the exposure of crimes and offences, or serious threats or risks to public interest.
But the detractors of certain treatments of conventional medicine, when they call into question a not sufficiently tested vaccine, do not expose any crime or offence established under penal law and the defenders of alternative practices, when they promote natural remedies, do not expose any serious threat or risk to public interest. They cannot therefore benefit from this protection.
Lastly, it should be underlined that the law referred to the Council has been passed by force at the National Assembly in spite of the opposition of the Senate and the Council of State. And this, two days after the French government voted for a Recommendation of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe to the member States on countering the use of abusive lawsuits intended to limit public participation, in French poursuites-bâillons, meaning “muzzling lawsuits” – Recommendation CM/Rec(2024)2 of the Committee of Ministers to member States on countering the use of strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs) adopted on 5 April 2024.
In this Recommendation, it is requested that the Member States “pay specific attention to SLAPPs [muzzling lawsuits] in the context of their reviews of relevant domestic laws, policies and practices, including in accordance with Recommendation CM/Rec(2016)4 on the protection of journalism and safety of journalists and other media actors, to ensure full conformity with member States’ obligations under the Convention”.
It would be logical that the Constitutional Council be the first to apply this Recommendation by censoring Article 12 of the law creating “muzzling lawsuits” which violate the rights protected by our Constitution.
For all the above reasons, as maintained by LR senators in their application, it is the entire apparatus created by the law which is liable to censure by the Council.
Between 6 and 9 June 2024, more than 370 million people across 27 Member States are called to vote in the European elections. To further inform EU citizens and encourage them to vote, the European Parliament is embarking on the second phase of its institutional communication strategy.
With “Use Your Vote. Or others will decide for you” as its tagline, this second phase highlights the importance of democracy. It encompasses a multifaceted approach, including media events, digital outreach, public and private partners’ involvement, community engagement initiatives and educational programmes tailored to resonate with citizens across the EU.
Among the outreach efforts used, the 4-minute film “Use your vote” features testimonies of senior citizens from different EU countries passing on their stories about democracy to the next generations and underlining that this democratic right cannot be taken for granted.
“European Union democracy is more important today than ever. Everyone’s vote matters. It will decide the direction our Union will take for the five coming years. It will decide what Europe we want to live in”, says European Parliament President Roberta Metsola. “In order not to let someone else choose for us, we should vote on 6-9 June 2024”.
Collective responsibility
As the European Union faces evolving challenges and with the June 2024 elections approaching, the European Parliament reaffirms its commitment to fostering dialogue, unity and active citizenship. “Use your vote. Or others will decide for you” serves as a powerful reminder that democracy is a precious legacy that must be nurtured and defended by all.
“Democracy is a collective responsibility – not towards a political idea or a specific cause – but towards each other”, says the European Parliament’s spokesperson Jaume Duch. “We are more united in European democracy than we might think: across nations, political sensitivities and across generations. In our polarised times, this is easy to forget and our campaign is made to remind us of what unites us.”
More specifically, the campaign’s central video further explores the chequered history of many European countries that have experienced armed conflict or limits on individual freedom and the precarious nature of democracy if not actively sustained.
Interest in EU elections on the rise
In 2019, more than half of eligible voters in Europe turned out to vote (50.6%). The EP’s Spring 2024 Eurobarometer survey with more than 26 000 respondents in all EU Member States has shown that 60% of Europeans are interested in the 6-9 June 2024 elections, eleven points more than in spring 2019 (three months prior to the previous European elections). Additionally, 71% say that it is likely that they will vote, again 10 more points than last time.
Findings also suggest that four in five Europeans agree that “Voting is important to keep democracy strong” (81%) and that “Voting is important to ensure a better future for the next generations” (84%). More than eight in ten Europeans (81%) believe voting is even more important given the current geopolitical situation.
The film ‘Use your vote’ and nine other versions for TV, cinema, radio and social media will be released in all Member States from 29 April 2024.
UN Photo/Evan Schneider - Protesters demonstrate outside the Columbia University campus in New York City.
“The Gaza crisis is truly becoming a global crisis of the freedom of expression,” said Ms. Khan, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression. “This is going to have huge repercussions for a long time to come.”
Demonstrations around the world have been roundly calling for an end to the war, which began in October following Hamas-led attacks on Israel that left 1,200 people dead and 250 taken hostage, 133 of who remain captive in Gaza.
Since then, Israeli military operations have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, according to the local health ministry, which now faces a man-made famine UN agencies have said stems from Israel’s restrictions on aid deliveries.
In an exclusive interview on Wednesday, she told UN News the way academic freedom in the United States is being restricted is infringing on people’s rights to protest over the on-going war and occupation, including on campuses of such elite Ivy League schools as Columbia, Harvard and Yale universities.
“One after the other, the Ivy League heads of colleges and universities, their heads are rolling, they’ve been chopped off,” she said. “That clearly polarises even further the political climate on this issue between ‘them’ and ‘us’.”
Pointing to a troubling rise in hate speech on both sides of the protests, she said that at the same time, people must be allowed to express their political views.
In many of these protests, she said there is a confusion between what is hate speech or incitement to violence and what is basically a different view of the situation in Israel and the occupied territories – or criticism of the way Israel is conducting the conflict.
“Legitimate speech must be protected,” she said, “but, unfortunately, there is a hysteria that is taking hold in the US.”
Criticising Israel is ‘perfectly legitimate’
Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia must be prohibited, and hate speech violates international law, she said.
Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of expression and opinion.
“But, we must not mix that up with criticism of Israel as a political entity, as a State,” she said. “Criticising Israel is perfectly legitimate under international law.”
She said special rapporteurs have already detected a bias against pro-Palestinian supporters on social media.
“We need freedom of expression,” she said, adding that it is a fundamental right that is important for democracy, development, conflict resolution and building peace.
“If we sacrifice all that, politicising the issue and undermining the right to protest and the right to freedom of expression, then I believe we are doing a disservice for which we will pay a price,” she said. “It will be harder to negotiate if you shut down one side.”
Special Rapporteurs and other Human Rights Council-appointed experts are not UN staff and are independent from any government or organization. They serve in their individual capacity and receive no salary for their work.
“In order to realize the full potential of these electric fliers, you need an intelligent control system that improves their robustness and especially their resilience against a variety of faults,” says Soon-Jo Chung, Bren Professor of Control and Dynamical Systems at Caltech and Senior Research Scientist at JPL, which Caltech manages for NASA. “We have developed such a fault-tolerant system crucial for safety-critical autonomous systems, and it introduces the idea of virtual sensors for the detection of any failure using machine learning and adaptive control methods.”
Multiple Rotors Mean Many Possible Points of Failure
Engineers are building these hybrid electric aircraft with multiple propellers, or rotors, in part for redundancy: If one rotor fails, enough functional motors remain to stay airborne. However, to reduce the energy required to make flights between urban locations—say, 10 or 20 miles—the craft also need fixed wings. Having both rotors and wings, though, creates many points of possible failure in each aircraft. And that leaves engineers with the question of how best to detect when something has gone wrong with any part of the vehicle.
Engineers could include sensors for each rotor, but even that would not be enough, says Chung. For example, an aircraft with nine rotors would need more than nine sensors, since each rotor might need one sensor to detect a failure in the rotor structure, another to notice if its motor stops running, and still another to alert when a signal wiring problem occurs. “You could eventually have a highly redundant distributed system of sensors,” says Chung, but that would be expensive, difficult to manage, and would increase the weight of the aircraft. The sensors themselves could also fail.
With NFFT, Chung’s group has proposed an alternative, novel approach. Building on previous efforts, the team has developed a deep-learning method that can not only respond to strong winds but also detect, on the fly, when the aircraft has suffered an onboard failure. The system includes a neural network that is pre-trained on real-life flight data and then learns and adapts in real time based on a limited number of changing parameters, including an estimation of how effective each rotor on the aircraft is functioning at any given time.
“This doesn’t require any additional sensors or hardware for fault detection and identification,” says Chung. “We just observe the behaviors of the aircraft—its attitude and position as a function of time. If the aircraft is deviating from its desired position from point A to point B, NFFT can detect that something is wrong and use the information it has to compensate for that error.”
And the correction happens extremely quickly—in less than a second. “Flying the aircraft, you can really feel the difference NFFT makes in maintaining controllability of the aircraft when a motor fails,” says Staff Scientist Matthew Anderson, an author on the paper and pilot who helped conduct the flight tests. “The real-time control redesign makes it feel as though nothing has changed, even though you’ve just had one of your motors stop working.”
Introducing Virtual Sensors
The NFFT method relies on real-time control signals and algorithms to detect where a failure is, so Chung says it can give any type of vehicle essentially free virtual sensors to detect problems. The team has primarily tested the control method on the aerial vehicles they are developing, including the Autonomous Flying Ambulance, a hybrid electric vehicle designed to transport injured or ill people to hospitals quickly. But Chung’s group has tested a similar fault-tolerant control method on ground vehicles and has plans to apply NFFT to boats.
Almost 55 million people are facing further food and nutrition insecurity in West and Central Africa during the region’s three-month lean season from June through August, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) said on Friday.
This is a four million increase in the number of people currently dealing with food insecurity in that region.
Mali is facing the worst situation – around 2,600 people there are presumed to be experiencing catastrophic hunger – IPC food classification index phase 5 (read our explainer on the IPC system here).
“The time to act is now. We need all partners to step up, engage, adopt and implement innovative programs to prevent the situation from getting out of control while ensuring no one is left behind,” said Margot Vandervelden, WFP’s Acting Regional Director for Western Africa.
The most recent data shows that economic turmoil including stagnated production, currency devaluation, increasing inflation and trade barriers have exacerbated the food crisis in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and Mali.
These economic challenges as well as fuel and transport costs, regional body ECOWAS sanctions and restrictions on agropastoral product flows, have contributed to a sharp increase in staple grain prices across the region – a more than 100 per cent increase over the past 5 years.
To date, cereal production for the 2023-2024 agricultural season has seen a 12 million tonne deficit while the availability for cereals per person is down two per cent compared with the region’s last agricultural season.
Currently, West and Central Africa are reliant on imports to satisfy the population’s food requirements, but economic hardship has increased the cost of imports.
WFP’s Ms. Vandervelden said these issues call for a stronger investment in “resilience-building and longer-term solutions for the future of West Africa.”
Shocking highs
Malnutrition in West and Central Africa has risen to a shockingly high rate with 16.7 million children under five experiencing acute malnutrition.
More than two thirds of households are struggling to afford healthy diets and eight out of 10 children, ranging from six to 23 months lack the consumption of foods essential to their optimal growth and development.
“For children in the region to reach their full potential, we need to ensure that each girl and boy receives good nutrition and care, lives in a healthy and safe environment, and is given the right learning opportunities,” said Gilles Fagninou UNICEF Regional Director.
Parts of northern Nigeria are also experiencing many cases of acute malnutrition in about 31 per cent of women aged 15 to 49.
Ms. Fagninou explained that strengthening “education, health, water and sanitation, food, and social protection systems,” can result in lasting differences in children’s lives.
Sustainable solutions
UN agencies the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UN Children’s Fund UNICEF and WFP, are calling on national governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector, to establish sustainable solutions to strengthen and support food security and increase agricultural productivity.
These solutions should also alleviate the adverse effects of economic volatility, they said.
There is also an expectation that governments and private sectors should join forces to guarantee the human right to food for all.
UNICEF and WFP plan to extend national social protection programs to Chad and Burkina Faso, as millions of people in Senegal, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger have benefitted from such programmes.
Additionally, FAO, agricultural development fund IFAD, and WFP have collaborated across the Sahel to expand “productivity, and access to nutritious food through resilience-building programmes.”
Dr. Robert Guei, FAO Sub-Regional Coordinator for West Africa and the Sahel, said that when responding to these cases of food and nutrition insecurity, it is essential to promote and support policies that will encourage the “diversification of plant, animal, and aquatic production and the processing of local foods”.
He said this was “crucial not only to ensure healthy, affordable diets all year round, but also and above all to protect biodiversity, with the potential to mitigate the effects of climate change, and above all to counter high food prices and protect the livelihood of the affected population”.
According to media reports, over 220 civilians, including 56 children, were killed in attacks reportedly carried out by the military in two villages on a single day in late February.
Furthermore, at least two international media outlets – the BBC and Voice of America – have been “temporarily suspended” in the past few days following their reporting of the deadly attacks.
OHCHR spokesperson Marta Hurtado called for an immediate end to restrictions on media freedom and civic space.
“Freedom of expression, including the right of access to information, is crucial in any society and even more so in the context of the transition in Burkina Faso,” she said in a statement.
Burkina Faso has been under military rule since early 2022 amid an insurgency by extremist militants which triggered a series of coups and counter coups.
Capt. Ibrahim Traoré was named transitional president in September 2022, and the transitional government has continued to battle insurgents and further reported counter-coup attempts.
Ms. Hurtado added that while OHCHR has not been able to independently verify reports of the alleged massacre due to lack of access, it is crucial that allegations of such serious violations and abuses by various actors are brought to light and that the transitional authorities promptly undertake thorough, impartial and effective investigations.
“Perpetrators need to be held accountable and victims’ rights to truth, justice and reparations must be upheld. Fighting impunity and pursuing accountability is paramount to ensure people’s trust in the rule of law and social cohesion,” she stressed.
Multifaceted challenges
Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, visited the country in late March, where he highlighted the multifaceted challenges Burkinabè have been facing since the overthrow of the democratically-elected government in January 2022.
In all, about 6.3 million out of a population of 20 million people need humanitarian assistance, and in 2023, OHCHR had documented 1,335 violations and abuses of international human rights and humanitarian laws involving at least 3,800 civilian victims.
“Armed groups were responsible for the vast majority of violations against civilians in incidents involving more than 86 per cent of the victims,” Mr. Türk said, emphasising that “protection of civilians is paramount. Such wanton violence must stop and the perpetrators held accountable.”
