Scientists have engineered the microbiome of plants for the first time, boosting the prevalence of ‘good’ bacteria that protect the plant from disease.
The findings published in Nature Communicationsby researchers from the University of Southampton, China and Austria, could substantially reduce the need for environmentally destructive pesticides.
There is growing public awareness about the significance of our microbiome – the myriad of microorganisms that live in and around our bodies, most notably in our guts. Our gut microbiomes influence our metabolism, our likelihood of getting ill, our immune system, and even our mood.
Plants too host a huge variety of bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other microorganisms that live in their roots, stems, and leaves. For the past decade, scientists have been intensively researching plant microbiomes to understand how they affect a plant’s health and its vulnerability to disease.
“For the first time, we’ve been able to change the makeup of a plant’s microbiome in a targeted way, boosting the numbers of beneficial bacteria that can protect the plant from other, harmful bacteria,” says Dr Tomislav Cernava, co-author of the paper and Associate Professor in Plant-Microbe Interactions at the University of Southampton.
“This breakthrough could reduce reliance on pesticides, which are harmful to the environment. We’ve achieved this in rice crops, but the framework we’ve created could be applied to other plants and unlock other opportunities to improve their microbiome. For example, microbes that increase nutrient provision to crops could reduce the need for synthetic fertilisers.”
The international research team discovered that one specific gene found in the lignin biosynthesis cluster of the rice plant is involved in shaping its microbiome. Lignin is a complex polymer found in the cell walls of plants – the biomass of some plant species consists of more than 30 per cent lignin.
First, the researchers observed that when this gene was deactivated, there was a decrease in the population of certain beneficial bacteria, confirming its importance in the makeup of the microbiome community.
The researchers then did the opposite, over-expressing the gene so it produced more of one specific type of metabolite – a small molecule produced by the host plant during its metabolic processes. This increased the proportion of beneficial bacteria in the plant microbiome.
When these engineered plants were exposed to Xanthomonas oryzae – a pathogen that causes bacterial blight in rice crops, they were substantially more resistant to it than wild-type rice.
Bacterial blight is common in Asia and can lead to substantial loss of rice yields. It’s usually controlled by deploying polluting pesticides, so producing a crop with a protective microbiome could help bolster food security and help the environment.
The research team are now exploring how they can influence the presence of other beneficial microbes to unlock various plant health benefits.
In November 2023, negotiations between the EU and Australia for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) collapsed. This was primarily due to stringent demands from the EU on protected geographical indicators – the ability to market wines and other products as being from a particular region – as well as an inflexible approach to market access for agricultural exports.
A few weeks later, it became apparent that the ongoing impasse in the EU-Mercosur negotiations – largely due to environmental and deforestation demands from Brussels – had not been resolved, with Brazilian President Lula saying that the EU “lacks flexibility”.
At the same time, EU negotiators completed another round of negotiations with Indonesia linked to the proposed FTA: virtually no progress has been made for almost six months, and this latest meeting was no different.
The picture is clear:
trade facilitation and opening up markets has stalled. This is a particular problem because Indonesia is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing consumer markets. With our exports to China and Russia falling (for obvious and understandable reasons), opening up huge new markets should be a priority. It doesn’t look that way.
The evidence shows this is not a problem with our negotiating partner. In the past 12 months, Indonesia has completed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates (in less than a year). It recently upgraded its existing agreement with Japan, and is negotiating with Canada and the Eurasian Economic Union, among others. It is only in negotiations with the EU that Indonesia has found the progress to be slow and difficult.
It’s not only the FTA negotiations: a World Trade Organization (WTO) case against the EU, filed by Indonesia is expected to rule soon. This case, in addition to existing disputes over the Renewable Energy Directive and nickel exports, means Indonesia sees our policies as protectionist and anti-trade. Presidential elections are scheduled for February: the frontrunner Prabowo has said quite clearly that Indonesia “does not need the EU,” highlighting “double standards” in EU trade policy.
So, what is the path forward for the relationship?
The EU elections, and appointment of a new Commission, need to herald a change of approach. Promoting EU exports, and expanding market access to future giants like Indonesia and India, needs to be a priority. The technocratic obstructionism needs to be replaced with strong political leadership and commitment to new trading partners.
Engaging these partner countries on areas of EU policy that affect them – such as the Green Deal – is also essential. The Commission seems to have misjudged how big a reaction the EU Deforestation Regulation would trigger: 14 developing nations, including Indonesia, signed an open letter denouncing it, and WTO challenges are surely imminent. Proper consultation and diplomatic outreach could have prevented this from becoming a problem. That consultation needs to reach beyond Embassies: Indonesia has millions of smallholder farmers who produce palm oil, rubber, coffee, and will be badly affected by the EU regulation. A lack of outreach means that those voices are now outright hostile to the EU.
Indonesia overall is not antagonistic. It continues to pursue negotiations with the Commission, and some Member States – notably Germany and the Netherlands – are having positive bilateral discussions. But the direction of travel is a concern: we cannot afford another 5 years of stasis in the trade discussions, while political tensions rise around EU trade barriers (most of which have not even kicked in yet).
The elections could, and should, provide a fresh start for both sides. The same is true for India (elections in April-May), and maybe even the United States (November). The key point linking all of these is that they only work if the new Commission is serious about promoting EU export opportunities – and reducing trade barriers rather than erecting more of them.
The President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has signed a decree to allocate funds for the legal protection of real estate of the Russian Federation abroad, including those of the Russian Empire and the USSR. At the same time, funds are also allocated for the search for Russian properties abroad.
Russia allocated funds to the request, layout and legal protection of property belonging to a foreign country, including the times of the USSR and the Russian Empire. An order about it was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on January 18, Izvestia reports.
Subsidy for these purposes was received by a foreign property management company, which is part of the Presidential Administration (UDP) of Russia. It is assumed that the funds must cover all financial costs of carrying out the necessary actions.
Another subsidy for the reimbursement of expenses for the maintenance and operation of federal Russian real estate abroad was allocated to the company by decree of the state government.
“To designate the Federal State Unitary Enterprise “Enterprise for Property Management Abroad” under the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation as a recipient of a subsidy provided by the federal budget for financial support of expenses related to the search for real estate of the Russian Federation , the former Russian Empire, the former USSR, the correct registration of the rights of the Russian Federation in relation to the existing federal real estate and the open real estate of the Russian Federation, the former Russian Empire, the former USSR and legal protection of this property,” the document reads.
According to the decree adopted in 2015, the State Department and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation must deal with the search and layout, as well as the protection of foreign real estate in Russia, within the limits of their competence. A state subsidy was allocated for these purposes. However, starting in 2021, the rules for the allocation of funds were adjusted, and a request for similar property ceased to be the basis for the allocation of new funds. The current decree restores subsidies and appoints a specific authorized enterprise.
Recurring denials and severe access constraints continue to paralyze aid teams trying to respond to the immense needs in northern Gaza, the UN humanitarian affairs office, OCHA, has warned.
The rate of access denials by Israel so far this month marks a “significant deterioration” over December, OCHA said in its latest update, issued late on Wednesday.
Between 1 and 10 January, only three out of 21 planned deliveries of food, medicines, water, and other lifesaving items to the north of Wadi Gaza got through, it revealed.
Denials, delays and insecurity
Partners on the ground were forced to cancel or delay missions in two instances due to excessive delays at Israeli checkpoints or because agreed routes were unpassable.
The @UN and partners are delivering food, water, blankets, health supplies and more in #Gaza.
But we need safe, sustained and unimpeded humanitarian access to help people in need wherever they are and at a meaningful scale.
“Humanitarian partners’ ability to respond to extensive needs in the northern side of Gaza is being curtailed by recurring denials of access for aid deliveries and lack of coordinated safe access by the Israeli authorities,” OCHA said.
The UN agency noted that Israel has denied multiple planned missions this week to deliver urgent medical supplies to the Central Drug Store in Gaza City as well as fuel to water and sanitation facilities, both there and in the north.
‘Significant deterioration’
Since 26 December, requests to reach the Central Drug Store have been denied five times, meaning that “hospitals in northern Gaza remain without sufficient access to life-saving medical supplies and equipment.”
Fuel delivery has been refused six times, leaving people without access to clean water and increasing the risk of sewage overflows and the spread of communicable disease.
“Overall, the rate of access denials seen in January so far presents a significant deterioration when compared to those of December 2023, where more than 70 per cent (13 out of 18) of planned UN missions to the north were coordinated and undertaken, where needs are estimated to be the highest and most severe,” OCHA said.
The agency added that “every day of assistance missed results in lost lives and suffering for hundreds of thousands of people who remain in northern Gaza.”
Meanwhile, OCHA reported that 193 trucks carrying supplies entered the Gaza Strip through the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings on 10 January.
A cash-for-work pilot project ran by the UN Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has also started at Al Quds University in north Gaza, where 100 workers will be paid to support the cleaning of solid waste and sanitation over the next three months.
People gather at the Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip.
Fighting and fatalities
The update noted that intense Israeli bombardments from air, land and sea continued across much of the Gaza Strip on 9 January, resulting in further civilian casualties and destruction.
Palestinian armed groups also continued to fire rockets into Israel, and ground operations and fighting between the sides were also reported across much of the enclave.
OCHA cited the Gaza health authorities, who said 147 Palestinians were reportedly killed, and 243 injured, between the afternoons of 9 and 10 January. Israel said one of its soldiers was reportedly killed in Gaza during the same period.
The update further noted that the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported that four staff and two injured people were killed when one of its ambulances was struck at the entrance of Deir al Balah on 10 January.
Deadly toll
At least 23,357 Palestinians have been killed, and 59,410 injured, since the start of the conflict on 7 October, according to the Gaza authorities.
The hostilities were sparked by deadly Hamas attacks on southern Israel in which over 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 hostages seized, with roughly 136 still being held in captivity in Gaza.
Since the start of the ground operation, 184 Israeli soldiers have been killed, and 1,076 others injured in according to the Israeli military.
Overall, 1.9 million in Gaza, or nearly 85 per cent of the population, have been displaced, with many families uprooted multiple times as they repeatedly move in search of safety.
More than 1.7 million people are now sheltering in facilities belonging to the UN agency that assists Palestine refugees, UNRWA.
Estonian authorities have decided not to extend the residence permit of Metropolitan Yevgeniy (real name Valery Reshetnikov), head of the Estonian Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate (ROC-MP), ERR reported, citing the Police and Border Guard Directorate.
Indrek Aru, head of the Border Guard Bureau of the Northern Prefecture (the capital Tallinn), explains the decision by the fact that, according to the authorities, Reshetnikov expressed in his public activities support for Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
“Despite earlier warnings, Reshetnikov did not change his rhetoric, which is incompatible with values and inappropriate for the Estonian legal field. Therefore, Reshetnikov is recognized as a threat to the security of the state,” said the police press service.
The office specified that they took into account the activity of Metropolitan Yevgeniy as a representative of the Moscow Patriarchate in Estonia. His residence permit expires on February 6. According to the authorities, “since Reshetnikov has no reason to stay in the country, such as close relatives in Estonia, he will have to leave Estonia after his residence permit expires.”
Metropolitan Yevgeniy lived in Estonia on the basis of a temporary residence permit for a total of four years. He was issued a shortened residence permit, i.e. twice for two years. The last renewal was two years ago, shortly before the outbreak of war.
In October 2022, the Estonian authorities gave Metropolitan Yevgeniy a two-day deadline to disassociate himself from his superior, Russian Patriarch Kirill, over his infamous statement that Russians who died in the war against Ukraine would go to heaven. Otherwise, they threatened to extradite him. Then a letter appeared on the page of the Estonian Metropolitanate, with which he responded to the authorities and distanced himself from the position of Patriarch Kirill. A little later, however, the letter was removed from the church page.
Metropolitan Yevgeniy (b. 1957 in Kazakhstan) was a long-time chairman of the Educational Committee of the ROC-MP and rector of the Moscow Theological Seminary and Academy (1995-2018).
The experts had previously written to the authorities after receiving information about three cases regarding allegations of sexual abuse of several children by their fathers and violations against the mothers who sought to protect them.
In addition, the experts found that, according to the allegations, the children were victims of sexual abuse or at high risk of sexual abuse at the hands of their fathers or alleged perpetrators against whom there was credible and disturbing evidence of incestuous sexual abuse.
Despite the allegations, and in the absence of adequate investigations, the children were placed in the custody of their fathers.
“We are particularly concerned about the way in which the family court has allowed the alleged perpetrator to accuse the mother of parental alienation in order to undermine the allegations of sexual abuse of the children and divert attention from the alleged abuse to which they are subjecting their partners and children,” the experts said.
They urged the French authorities to respect the “precautionary principle” and the “due diligence principle” in child protection, particularly during legal proceedings, to allow for a preventive approach in cases of uncertainty and complexity.
The views of the child also must be sought and respected, and their best interests must be the main consideration before custody decisions are made in favour of one parent.
Boost law enforcement
The experts also highlighted the need to build the capacity of law enforcement and justice officials to effectively monitor and address human rights abuses affecting these children and their mothers.
“Urgent steps must be taken to alleviate the distressing situation in which children and their mothers are being negatively affected by the lack of adequate consideration for their needs,” they added.
The experts said they have been following the workings of France’s Independent Commission on Incest and Sexual Abuse of Children (CIVIISE), whose findings confirm the concerns expressed to the Government.
Mechanism for complaints
They urged the authorities to establish an effective child-friendly complaint handling system and an investigation mechanism to process victims’ complaints.
“These efforts, including in divorce and custody cases, are essential and should go hand in hand with effective coordination between law enforcement agencies and other service providers, keeping the best interests of the child at the centre of all proceedings or decisions affecting or concerning children,” they said.
They receive their mandates from the UN Human Rights Council and are independent from any government or organization and serve in their individual capacity.
They are not UN staff and are not paid for their work.
The EU aims to put an end to greenwashing, when companies claim to be greener than they are, and provide more information to consumers on the durability of products they buy.
In order to better protect consumers’ rights, promote environmentally-friendly decisions and create a circular economy that reuses and recycles materials, the European Parliament is working on an update of existing rules regarding commercial practices and consumer protection.
Natural, eco, environmentally-friendly… Many products have these labels, but very often those claims are not proven. The EU wants to make sure that all information on a product’s impact on the environment, longevity, reparability, composition, production and usage is backed up by verifiable sources.
What is greenwashing?
The practice of giving a false impression of the environmental impact or benefits of a product, which can mislead consumers
To achieve that, the EU will ban:
generic environmental claims on products without proof
claims that a product has a neutral, reduced or positive impact on the environment because the producer is offsetting emissions
sustainability labels that are not based on approved certification schemes or established by public authorities
Promoting products’ durability
Parliament wants to make sure that consumers are fully aware of the guarantee period during which consumers can request a repair of faulty products at the expense of the seller. Under EU law, products have a guarantee of minimum two years. Updated consumer protection rules introduce a new label for products with an extended guarantee period.
The EU will also ban:
advertising goods that have design features that could reduce a product’s lifespan
making unproven durability claims in terms of usage time or intensity under normal conditions
MEPs approved the agreement in January 2024, while the Council has to approve it as well. EU countries will then have 24 months to incorporate the update into their national law.
What else is the EU doing to promote sustainable consumption?
The EU is working on other files with the aim to protect consumers and promote sustainable consumption:
Green claims: the EU wants to require companies to substantiate environmental claims by using a standard methodology
Ecodesign: the EU wants to introduce minimum standards in product development to make nearly all products on its market sustainable, durable and eco-friendly
Right to repair: the EU wants to guarantee the right of consumers to have products repaired and promote repairing over throwing away and buying new products.
Today, everyone recognizes that travel and technology are an ideal match. This relationship also makes a vital contribution to how we make hotel and flight reservations. It is so widespread that based on a Google Travel Study, over 74% of travelers make their trips online. This is why we are seeing an increase in the number of travel tech companies.
A mountain backpacker – illustrative photo. Image credit: Philipp Kämmerer via Unsplash, free license
These travel tech companies have made planning for trips manageable and convenient for everyone. Modern-day travelers are also playing a key role in popularizing this trend. Tech travel companies like cozycozy are helping tourists plan their trips with just a few clicks. Whether you are looking for sustainable travel experiences or luxury vacations, these tech companies can satisfy your wanderlust.
Lanes and Planes is an innovative platform that simplifies corporate travel management. The platform allows companies to manage their employees’ travel expenses via a centralized system. If your organization hasn’t yet implemented expense management software, you can always opt for Lanes and Planes.
Moreover, it is one of the first companies to offer a travel and expense management platform that is completely digital. You can now effectively address expense management fraud with Lanes and Planes. The company also has a mobile application your employees can use during their corporate trips.
Cozycozy
If you want to make your next trip delightful and memorable, cozycozy has got you covered. It is the most prominent hotel search and vacation rental comparison portal on the internet. Moreover, the company claims that it is the only search portal where you can compare a full range of accommodations.
We all know that the overall quality of the accommodation can make or break our travel experience. Cozycozy fully understands this pain point and aims to simplify your accommodation requirements when you travel worldwide. By comparing accommodation facilities on the company’s platform, you can find a place that best meets your needs.
When you plan a trip with multiple stops, there are higher chances of ending up with various tabs depicting different services. Cozycozy wants to simplify this process by aggregating numerous services in a single interface. So, on the company’s portal, you can find Airbnb listings, hostels, campsites, etc.
Note that the company doesn’t directly work with hotels. Moreover, it also doesn’t handle reservations directly. If you want to book an Airbnb, you will be redirected to the respective website. The platform always prioritizes the needs of its users and has more than 20 million active listings.
Duffel
Duffel is a relatively new travel tech startup but has become popular among travelers. It has developed a flight booking portal that allows travel agencies to book flights directly with airlines. Moreover, Duffel has APIs that developers can utilize to integrate flight booking into the travel agency’s app.
So, if you are in the travel business, you’ll benefit from the APIs of Duffel. These feature-rich APIs can help you search, book, and sell flight tickets in a matter of few minutes. The company states that it wants to democratize the travel industry and make it accessible to all.
Limehome
Limehome has been able to disrupt the conventional concept of hotels by offering fully furnished apartments to travelers. It is a Munich-based travel tech company that allows travelers to access short-term rental apartments. The company utilizes its proprietary operating portal to automate hotel processes.
The company is also responsible for streamlining pricing, booking, check-in, and other mundane processes to offer comfortable accommodations. It aims to target business and leisure travelers by converting commercial spaces into apartment hotels and operating them through its tech platform.
Indie Campers
Indie Campers is a campervan rental agency that will let you book RVs for your road trip. It has a vast marketplace of more than 6000 RVs and campervans. So, if you are a big fan of making memories while on the go, Indie Campers is your best bet.
The process of renting a campervan from the platform is easy and straightforward. So, even if you are a first-time user, you won’t find any difficulty booking your RV from the company’s platform.
So, these are the five tech companies that are simplifying the way we travel. All these companies have showcased a commitment to putting their customers at the center of their offerings. In the future, it is pretty evident that technology will play a pivotal role in how we explore different places.
9. The belief in God eternally punishing his human ‘children’ by forsaking them in Gehenna/Hell is oddly parallel with the pagan worshipers sacrificing their children in fire in the Valley of Ge Hinnom. William Blake is clear that the ‘god’ of damnation is Satan the Accuser, not the ‘hidden father’ Yahweh.
Isaiah, 49, 14-15= “But Zion [Israel] said, Yahweh has forsaken me, my God has forgotten me.” Then Yahweh replies= “Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”
None the less, that does not mean Gehenna/Hell should be dismissed in polite company. It has a more powerful point, once free from the punitive misunderstanding.
10. One modern interpretation of Gehenna, which styles itself a ‘narrative historical’ hermeneutic, makes sense of many texts, Jewish and Christian, by understanding the iconography of Hell more in terms of Israel’s struggle with its pagan neighbours. God will vindicate the Jews, finally, whatever the beating they take on the way. So, after all that long historical and political struggle, in which the Jews are repeatedly the victim, at last, at the very end, Yahweh will support and prove, vindicate and laud, the Jews – and ‘give hell’ to their pagan persecutors.
This interpretation makes sense of Isaiah and Jeremiah as well, because it reads those references to the ‘Hell’ coming to Israel as a warning of the imminent fall of the Jewish nation and Exile to Babylon. Thus Jerusalem itself will become like Gehenna/Hell [Jeremiah, 19, 2-6; 19, 11-14] once it falls to the Assyrians. Why? Because when Israel falls, it will be like the Valley of Rubbish, fires will consume it, worms will feed off its corpses.
In short, the images of Hell as the place of “the unquenchable fire” [Mark, 9, 43-48, quoting from Isaiah] and the place “where the worm does not die” [Isaiah, 66, 24; also repeated by Jesus in Mark, 9, 44; 9, 46; 9, 48] refer not to somewhere, or some state of being, we go to after death, but are images of destruction, down-fall, in this life. Both Israel, and her Assyrian enemies, will come to this Hellish condition after they ‘tumble down’, and are brought to ruin. Their own addiction to evil will bring upon them this terrible ruin.
There are at least two very important aspects to this meaning of Hell as final destruction of the Evil Way – not punishment for those who give in to the Evil Way, yet definitely the end of what they valued, pursued, built up, by its power.
[1] The warning that evil doing ‘comes to no good’ in the end is addressed not just to the Jews in their specific context, but to all of us in ever shifting contexts. The constant is that to fight the good fight and walk the good road is not simply difficult in itself, the hard way as the converse of the easy way, but more importantly, it is opposed by worldly forces, and the evil forces ‘secretly’ running them. Hell is ‘hidden’ in this world under cloaks of respectability, validation by human law which cares nothing for real ethical uprightness and tolerates ethical transgression, and an entire patina of poisoned fantasy images of ‘the good life in the earthly paradise’ that seduce and flatter to capture and corrupt human desire. In this situation, the people trying to live by ‘faith, truthfulness, justice, mercy’, are going to get a rough ride. The Way of Evil will prosper and rule, for a time, for a long time, and those opposing it, whether religious or not religious, will ‘get hell’ for their stand.
The imagery of Hell does not say those who opposed redemption will never be redeemed, so as to satisfy some childish urge for vengeance. It is really addressed to those working for redemption, and facing ‘an uphill battle.’ These workers in the spoiled vineyard, trying to make it flower again, have gambled their life on redemption, and to these it is disclosed= you will be vindicated, in the end. Whatever the set-backs, and ‘punishments’ to be put up with from the Evil One and his servants getting up to ‘wickedness in high places’, the leap of faith — its trust in the unknown and non-secured — must be maintained ‘despite everything.’ Carry on. Do not throw in the towel. Do not conform. Dare to ‘come out of the woodwork’, in standing up for Truth against the Lie. In this world, doing good and resisting passing on the evil done to you by doing the same evil to others, may not be respected or materially rewarded= more likely it will be punished; none the less this struggle is its own intrinsic reward, and significantly, it will ‘win out’ over the longer haul.
For people who serve nothing but falsity and lovelessness, their lives, their works, their successes in evil and edifices of vainglory, will end in whole scale and pitiless destruction.
This destruction will be in some sense a ‘final verdict’ on the betrayal of truth, and rejection of love, in such life-projects.
This need not have any implications for an afterlife, given the Jewish emphasis on the ultimate importance of this world, not just the spirit world, on the body, not just the soul, on the composite creation, not just on some supposedly better part of it as opposed to a worse part..
[2] Never the less, even if Hell speaks of the mysterious spiritual power that will be fiercely active in the End Game, it does have one very important implication for the afterlife. It does not imply eternal punishment for evil doing, but it does warn the evil doer of two realities easy to sweep under the carpet. [a] Not only that they will, in the end, ‘leave nothing behind’ as a testament to their time in this world — their legacy to the world will be that they contributed nothing to its redemption and therefore their time in the here and now leaves only a record of guilt and shame. [b] But also that it is not possible to go into the everlasting, in the direct presence of God, with filth, with rubbish, with untruth, with lovelessness. It is not that God punishes us for having done X, Y, Z. It is that such is the divine truth, and the divine love, anything untrue and unloving cannot ‘abide’ in it. In this life, we can hide from truth, and hide from love, and seem, for a while, ‘to get away with it.’ To leave this life is to be stripped naked. No more hiding. The truth of our truthfulness or untruth, our attempt to love or evasion of love, is revealed. It is more than revealed= it cannot survive ‘forever.’ It had a brief ‘shelf life’, but it cannot go into the everlasting.
This is a way of speaking about what we take with us out of this world. We may own a house, a yacht, a car, but ‘you cannot take it with you.’ We are only custodians for a brief moment of these worldly things. Is there anything we can take into the everlasting from our life in this world which will survive in that new environment? Only the deeds of truth and love can ‘go on.’ These will be our robes of honour that we do take with us. Obviously, if we are heavily identified with and invested in untruth and lovelessness, then dying will be a shock, because all that we put such value in, such hope in, will be shown up as worthless, and ephemeral. When it burns up like yesterday’s newspaper in fire, ‘we will have nothing left.’ We will, in that case, enter the everlasting as the real paupers.
11. In Isaiah, Hell is called “the burning place” [Isaiah, 30, 33], and that this burning is ‘accursed’ speaks of something not so concrete as a ruined city after an invading army has sacked it, something more powerful and mysterious.
The historical-narrative hermeneutic should itself not be pushed too literally. Downfall, or destruction, has spiritual and existential meanings as well as a definite political and historical context. What unites all these meanings is what ‘destruction’ really means to, and in, the human heart.
God does not punish, only the devil punishes, and therefore the devil is the architect of the ‘reward and punishment scenario’, as the ‘false god’ of idolatry who demands sacrificing our very humanity for the sake of Mammon. Satanic religiosity is inhuman, anti-human, and in this stance, attacks, and indeed sacrifices, the childlike in everyone. The child is too vulnerable and bendable, too bold and stroppy, too much a mixture of wheat and tares= Satanic religion wants this paradoxical mixture of our basic humanity ‘sorted out’, decided ‘one way or the other way’, and uses the threat of eternal banishment and eternal torture to enforce in this life a premature and harsh division of lambs and goats. The Satanic religion solves it, by deciding in advance of God making any judgement, who is ‘in’ and who is ‘out.’ The ‘in’ are cramped in heart, kow towing to the Satanic Threat; the ‘out’ are more expansive, conflicted, mixed, in heart, but can ‘get there’ in the end, according to God’s judgement. God reads the heart.
God neither condemns, too early, the human heart, nor does he tolerate its lapsing.
God does not punish. But, God certainly does destroy.
Evil is destroyed, if not blatantly [historically-politically], then more inwardly [psychologically-spiritually], because the evil we do puts our own heart ‘in Hell.’
What all of these meanings converge in is the stark reality that the fire of untruth in the human heart cannot ‘eternally abide’ in the Fire of Truth. Thus whether the burning of Truth that consumes untruth happens in this life, or happens after we die, either way, it is an inevitable fate. The heavenly experience of this Fire of Spirit is joy and intensity of passion; the hellish experience of the same Fire of Spirit is torment of passion. ‘No rest for the wicked’= the torment is never at rest, never allows us peace.
The torment arises and then goes ‘on and on’ when we are lying to ourself and to humanity and to God, clinging on to our untruth, resisting its exposure, and repudiating the necessity to let it go, to let it, like the trash it is, be burned up and given over to the worms to feed on.
This chance for purgation starts in our life on earth, and maybe continues into an afterlife.. Let’s hope we take the opportunity for purgation, after death, if we have evaded it in life.
12. But why care about any distinction between the burning of God’s Fire that is heavenly or hellish, depending on our embrace or repudiation of it? Why not say, so what? What is the big deal? Let’s drop the fuss.. Let’s chill out..
The Hell into which untruth in the heart and its deeds brings us can only be ignored, or lightly dismissed, if actions do not matter.
If actions do not matter, then the heart does not matter.
If the heart does not matter, then the ‘organ of fire’ through which God wants to come into the world he has made is lost.
That would be catastrophic. Punishment for wrongs is Satanic. By contrast, it does matter that the evil in the heart, and in the deeds it does in the world, has dire consequences, for the doer and for everyone else.
Most of all, it matters for God, if the human heart is indeed to become the throne-chariot of God’s coming to the world.
Hence, untruth getting burned up in the Fire of Truth is a necessity for the completion of humanity’s calling to be the doorway through which God enters the world.
Hell is in the abysses of the human heart.
13. It is important, given this existential understanding of Hell, to note the way in which Jesus refers to Gehenna 11 times in the New Testament.
One of the motifs he repeats again and again is that it is better to be injured, or incomplete, if this prevents going into Hell, rather than being whole and using this health, talent, strength, to pursue wickedness. “It is better for you that one of the parts of your body perish, than for your whole body to be thrown into Gehenna” [Mathew, 5, 29; also= Mathew, 5, 30; 10, 28; 18, 9; 23, 15; 23, 33; Mark, 9, 43; 9, 45; 9, 47; Luke, 12, 5].
This points in a new direction— to the Cross.
Through our injury, through our incompletion, we may be stopped from ‘potent’ adherence to evil. If we can be broken enough to reach the heart-break in us and in everyone, deep down in the heart, we can then embrace the Cross.
In the heart-break, we are ‘in a better position’ to embrace the Cross.
The Cross undercuts Hell in the deeps of all humanity. Thus, the Cross ends the Dualism of ‘Heaven and Hell.’
This is not widely known in Christianity, because few Christians have been called to walk the extreme Way of the Cross.
Arguably the first to try it out was the Good Thief, who died on the Cross next to Christ. This man was not righteous, but admitted to being unrighteous. On any strict Dualist Judgement of his ‘worthless’ life, he must be headed after death not for paradise, but for Gehenna. Yet the Cross has a reversal whereby the thief, the unrighteous, could come in to the kingdom of the redeemed first, before the righteous. The righteous ‘don’t need the Cross’ – but that is their loss. If they do not embrace it, they miss out on what puts an End to ‘Heaven versus Hell’ by undercutting Hell from within its own root in the human heart in the fathomless abyss.
Jesus had to enter Jerusalem, and go through his Passion, to know the Cross would end Hell.. Heaven versus Hell is a relative truth, like Karma, because it takes seriously the truth or lie in our actions, and thus in the heart from which all action comes; in the Cross, it is reversed, and does not become the eternal truth. A different truth, won from suffering and reversal, emerges from the bottomless abysses where Hell had been ‘hidden.’
The Jews understood Hell as the converse of ‘the kingdom come.’ Yes= in Hell, we realise we betrayed redemption in this world, and thus our remorse and self reproach bites into our heart terribly.
But the Cross ends this Hell of the heart that convicts itself, because its Way Through is a Way of Failure, and Heart-brokenness. This is why in Hell is God’s secret, or ‘hidden wisdom.’
It is the devil who wills Hell to be ‘the end of the road’ for humanity. Hell is a spiritual dustbin where the rejects are thrown away, and the more full to the brim Hell is with the human trash, the better the devil likes it.
Anyone who has a heart can be redeemed= in Hell, and through Hell. Hell becomes, by the Cross, the process of ‘coming through.’
The moment of worst crisis in the burning is often the moment of the most dramatic turn around. In some people’s depths, you can hear the change-over like a summer tornado suddenly in your back yard. In other people’s depths, it happens imperceptibly, like the gentlest spring rain.
Since 1 January, in Kabul and Daykundi provinces, UNAMA has documented a series of hijab decree enforcement campaigns by the de facto Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, aided by Taliban police units.
In the capital, Kabul, large numbers of women and girls have been warned and detained, said the mission in a press statement. Some have also been detained in Nili City in Daykundi province.
UNAMA deeply concerned over recent arbitrary arrests and detentions of women and girls by #Afghanistan’s de facto authorities. Full statement: https://t.co/ToPIjUTwjJ
UNAMA is looking into allegations of ill treatment and detention. Religious and ethnic minority communities also appear to be disproportionately impacted by the clamp down.
To secure release, a mahram, or male guardian, has been required to sign a letter guaranteeing future compliance or else face punishment, and it’s alleged that payments have sometimes been demanded, UNAMA reported.
‘Demeaning’
“Enforcement measures involving physical violence are especially demeaning and dangerous for Afghan women and girls,” said Roza Otunbayeva, Special Representative of the Secretary General and head of UNAMA.
“Detentions carry an enormous stigma that put Afghan women at even greater risk,” Ms. Otunbayeva said. “They also destroy public trust.”
UNAMA has discussed these issues with the de facto authorities and calls for the immediate release of those detained.
Greater funding needed for Malians following UN mission’s withdrawal
Although UN agencies were able to reach more than 1.8 million people in Mali last year, more funding and commitment to long-term development is needed following the drawdown of the UN mission at the end of December, according to UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.
UN peacekeepers from Chad arrive in Gao bringing an end to the UN’s presence in the Kidal region of northern Mali.
Briefing reporters in New York on Thursday, he stressed that the UN and partners were “committed to staying and delivering principled assistance and protection services” despite the gap left by the end of the peacekeeping mission at the request of Mali’s military authorities.
He said the UN would continue working with national authorities, Malian organizations and local communities, “but to keep the response going, agencies urgently need support for critical enabling services such as logistics, mine action and security”.
“In some locations, these services were of course being provided previously in part by the UN peacekeeping mission,” he added.
He noted that nearly two million Malians had received assistance last year despite the already “escalating insecurity” in parts of the country, much of which is plagued by armed extremists following more than a decade of unrest and political upheaval.
Agencies also need full funding for this year’s humanitarian response, Mr. Dujarric said. The full response plan will be launched at the end of this month and is expected to require $700 million through 2024 – a 10 per cent decrease from 2023 – “which reflects a more prioritized focus on the country’s most severe needs”, he said.
While humanitarian aid remains essential, more will be needed to address future challenges, including development assistance and social cohesion programmes, he said.
UN launches plan to save migrant lives, promote legal pathways
A lack of safe and legal pathways for migrants has left many vulnerable to abuse and deadly assault, according to the UN migration agency (IOM), which launched a new strategy on Thursday designed to assist them.
Speaking at the launch, IOM Director General Amy Pope insisted that it was crucially important to reduce the risks and impacts of climate change, which has become “the top driver” of migration.
Conflict and growing inequality have also increased migration pressures today, said Ms. Pope, who was speaking from N’Djamena in Chad. It’s there that many of the seven million people displaced by violence in neighbouring Sudan have now settled.
IOM said in a statement that its strategic plan is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and that the agency is using innovation and technology “to help migrants, their families, communities, and societies flourish”.
“There is not a corner of the globe that is not touched by, or is in some way invested in, the issue of migration,” the IOM chief said.
