Declaration by the High Representative on behalf of the EU on the alignment of certain countries concerning restrictive measures in view of the situation in Belarus
The Council decided to take further restrictive measures in response to Belarus’s involvement in Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
The Candidate Countries North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania[2], the country of the Stabilisation and Association Process and potential candidate Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the EFTA countries Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, members of the European Economic Area, align themselves with this Council Decision.
They will ensure that their national policies conform to this Council Decision.
The European Union takes note of this commitment and welcomes it.
On 2 March 2022, the Council adopted Council Decision (CFSP) 2022/356[1] amending Council Decision 2012/642/CFSP.
[1] Published on 02.03.2022 in the Official Journal of the European Union no. L 67, p.103
[2] North Macedonia, Montenegro and Albania continue to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
The International Bar Association’s Human Rights Institute, the U.S. Mission to the United Nations and the Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the United Nations invite you to two side events to the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council on:
The Expendable and Targeted Communities: Religious or Belief Minorities at Risk
Religious or belief minorities are often seen as the expendable communities. However, in certain cases, religious or belief minorities are specifically targeted because of their identity, and targeted for annihilation. From the Yazidis, Christians and other religious minorities in Iraq, targeted by Daesh, to the Rohingya Muslims targeted by the Burmese military in Rakhine State, Myanmar. From the Uyghur Muslims in China to Christians targeted by Boko Haram in Nigeria or the Hazara Shia’s in Afghanistan. The targeting of religious or belief minorities requires comprehensive responses, including with domestic and multilateral approaches. The speakers will discuss the situation of various targeted communities, the responses taken to date and those urgently needed.
Session Two on the UN Special Rapporteur’s new report on conflict and instability and the situation of religious minorities in Iraq and Myanmar
1:00-2:00 PM CET on 15 March 2022 (Online)
Speaker include:
Professor Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief
Fiona Bruce MP, Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on FoRB, UK
The Russian army continues its attacks on Ukraine on a wide front, the Russian Ministry of Defense said, DPA reported.
Russian forces have shelled a mosque in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, which housed more than 80 adults and children, including Turkish citizens, Reuters reported, citing a statement from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, dariknews.bg reports.
Ukraine has accused Russia of not allowing people to leave Mariupol. Hundreds of thousands are trapped in the surrounding city. Moscow, for its part, blames Kyiv for the failure of the evacuation.
“The mosque named after Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent and his wife Roxolana in Mariupol was shelled by Russian invaders,” a tweet from Ukraine’s foreign ministry said.
The ministry did not specify whether anyone was killed or injured.
Moscow denies shelling civilian targets and calls its military operations in Ukraine a “special military operation.”
An air base in Vasilkov and a radio reconnaissance center in Brovary were destroyed near Kyiv, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a news conference today.
According to Russia, its troops and separatist forces from Luhansk and Donetsk have taken over many settlements in eastern Ukraine. Parts of the so-called People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic have advanced another nine kilometers in the last 24 hours and have taken control of two settlements. The Russian armed forces have advanced by 21 kilometers, and the detachment of the so-called Luhansk People’s Republic – 6 km. These data cannot be confirmed by an independent source, DPA notes.
Ollie, a 6-year-old Golden Doodle dog, is helping children at Radi Children’s Hospital in San Diego overcome fears of being vaccinated against COVID-19.
Ollie and 14 other dogs in the PetSmart Paws for Hope dog therapy program have been helping children ages 5 to 11 since they could be vaccinated.
In the United States, adults who adhere to conspiracy theories oppose the vaccine.
Kids are just afraid of the needle.
“I saw how many children wanted to be vaccinated, went in the door, thought about the needle and just gave up. The children were upset, crying. And Ollie is sitting next to them and there is no need to hold them as an adult. They are distracted by the down next to them,” said the owner. of Ollie, 75-year-old Christine Gist, a volunteer in dog therapy and a former director of hospital programs.
“It helps them when they’re waiting for the vaccine. Then they smile and know they’ve done it, show their sticker and take a picture with Ollie, they feel like they’ve achieved something great,” she added.
Dogs have the experience of bringing joy to patients admitted to the children’s hospital, many of whom are battling cancer or other insidious diseases.
When COVID restrictions were introduced early last year, dog visits were suspended. They were resumed about three months ago.
“It was quiet without the dogs. The children were bored,” said Carlos Delgado, a hospital spokesman.
“That’s why we were able to return the program. Even a three-minute visit to a dog changes their day. “
JACKSON, Miss. — An assistant principal in a Mississippi school district has been fired after he read a children’s book to a class of 2nd graders that district leaders said was inappropriate.
Toby Price was fired last week after reading “I Need a New Butt,” a children’s book by Dawn McMillan, to students at an elementary school in Byrum, a suburb of the state capital of Jackson. He had served in the post for three years until his firing.
“I was asked to schedule a Zoom where we were going to have a guest reader with the second graders. The Zoom reader didn’t show, and I didn’t hear back, so I was told to go ahead and read,” Price told news outlets.
The book depicts a young child trying to find a new butt after he discovers his “has a huge crack,” a description reads.
“Will he choose an armor-plated butt? A rocket butt? A robot butt? Find out in this quirky tale of a tail, which features hilarious rhymes and delightful illustrations,” it reads. “Children and parents will love this book — no ifs, ands, or butts about it!”
Price said he had read the book, which has a suggested age range from 4 to 10 years old, at previous school districts, but never heard any push-back or complaints. As far as he knows, he said, no complaints have been filed regarding his latest reading, at Gary Road Elementary in Byrum.
“I didn’t think twice about reading it because I’ve never had an issue with it before. There are other books that have much more suggestive material that are much more widely accepted,” Price said.
A letter from Hinds County Schools Superintendent Delesicia Martin cited “unnecessary embarrassment, a lack of professionalism and impaired judgment” on Price’s part in picking the book and for those reasons, he was fired.
Price said he plans to appeal his termination at a hearing later this month.
“I never had, like, a discipline referral before. I mean, I’ve been in education for 20 years. I’ve never had one, not even for being late,” Price said.
Since his dismissal, Price has received support from children’s book authors, teachers and librarians who contend the book is “hilarious and sweet,” “joyful and fun” and “lighthearted” and that Martin’s decision to let him go was wrong.
“It’s a funny, silly book,” he said, adding that it’s also one of his favorites.
“If you don’t let kids see funny and silly books, they’re not going to stick around long enough to find out that books can be other things than funny and silly. You have to hook them with the funny and silly stuff. And that’s what I’ve always done. That’s what this book was for,” Price said.
What is Jihad and to what extent do conditions in Coast support calls for physical Jihad?
The February 2 raid on Masjid Musa mosque in Mombasa to counter an alleged terrorist recruitment elicited divergent arguments from Kenyans.
On the one hand are those who defend the actions of the police, saying, they were justified in pre-empting a potential security threat. There are also those who accuse the police of disgracing mosques and targeting Muslim faithful.
The whole issue has rekindled the debate about Kenya’s approach to the war against terror and violent extremism at the coast. It has also brought into question the nexus between religion and violence.
If, as is frequently stated, no religion supports violence as its mission, what then is the role of religion in violent extremism, given that some Muslims in Coast have backed calls for armed violence?
The coastal region is inhabited predominantly by Muslims, and has, for some time, been at the centre of separatist claims and allegations of neglect by the central government.
The situation is compounded by the country’s role in the global war against terror. Muslims, especially at the coast, accuse the government of heavy-handed counter-terrorism strategies, aiding and abetting renditions, and State-sponsored assassinations of perceived radical preachers.
Following Kenya’s intervention in Somalia, the coastal region turned into one of the key targets for recruitment by al-Shabaab.
INTERPRETATIONS OF JIHAD
The subsequent police crackdown on alleged Muslim radicals, in turn, created religious tensions and ideological differences between Muslims in the region with some embracing extremist Islamic teachings, while others like the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims (Supkem) condemning the use of mosques for what it called “utter illegality, criminality and un-Islamic actions”.
Central to the ideological differences within the Muslim fraternity is the competing interpretations of Jihad between the moderates and radicals. What then is Jihad and to what extent do conditions in Coast support calls for physical Jihad?
Jihad is a term often used interchangeably with “holy war”. It is an Islamic concept that literally means: “To strive in the way of God”. There are two versions of jihad: the greater Jihad (the inner spiritual struggle against one’s ego, selfishness, greed and evil), and the lesser Jihad (the physical outer struggle in self-defence when a country in which Muslims live is unjustly attacked or illegally occupied).
But whereas both forms of jihad are permissible according to Islamic teachings, the Qur’an places more emphasis on the inner spiritual struggle. In the recent past, however, there has been an apparent reversal in prioritisation of the physical struggle in self-defence over the inner spiritual struggle, especially in the context of the global war on terror.
Scholars argue that preconditions for physical Jihad are high such that an armed struggle can be sought only after all peaceful means of solving the problem have been exhausted.
It also has to be an act of self-defence, of the highly oppressed (including non-Muslims) and is worthy only if the probability of success is high.
Similarly, self-exposure to risk that could result in greater evil is equally prohibited, but should the preconditions for jihad be fulfilled, attack against civilians, non-combatants, prisoners of war and the injured are prohibited.
LEGITIMACY IS CONTENTIOUS
Muslim scholars maintain that conditions for Jihad in Islam are compatible with international law on armed conflict, but others use the term to generally mean defensive or retaliatory warfare against actors they perceive to have harmed Muslims.
Overall, the legitimacy for “physical Jihad” as called for by some religious leaders at the coast is contentious. The region is underpinned by structural problems of marginalisation, which may have fostered resentment toward the central government. This problem, however, is more national than regional and does not mirror the conditions necessary for declaration of Jihad.
Nonetheless, for impoverished youths, religious teachings provide hope of changing their circumstances. The government’s aggressive response to the situation has not helped matters. Its attempt at violent suppression seems to lead to further violent resistance.
A solution to ideological wars steeped in structural conditions of poverty and deprivation lies in political processes and dialogue rather on heavy-handedness.
Kenya needs to proceed carefully in responding to extremism with the need to find viable, inclusive and fair economic and political processes.
It is also important for respectable religious leaders to take the initiative to promote dialogue around the core values and commitments of Islam as a religion including on the concept of Jihad.
Ms Hawa Noor is an independent policy researcher on the Horn of Africa and communications consultant based in Nairobi. (hwnoor@yahoo.com)
Wikimedia said it would “not back down” after Russia threatened to block Wikipedia
The Wikimedia Foundation issued a statement in support of Russian volunteers, following a request for censorship by Internet regulators. On Tuesday, Roskomnadzor threatened to block Wikipedia over a Russian-language page covering Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, claiming it contained “false reports” about war victims and the effects of economic sanctions, among other things.
“On March 1, 2022, the Wikimedia Foundation received a request from the Russian government to remove content related to the unprovoked invasion of Ukraine published by volunteers participating in the Russian Wikipedia,” a statement sent to The Verge by e-mail said. “As always, Wikipedia is an important source of reliable, factual information in this crisis. Recognizing this important role, we will not give in to efforts to censor and intimidate members of our movement. We are committed to providing free knowledge to the world. . “
The request of Roskomnadzor, which was published in the channel of the Russian Wikipedia in Telegram, requires Wikimedia to review the edits of users from the version of the article from February 27. The Russian version of the site disputes “information about numerous casualties among Russian servicemen, as well as among the civilian population of Ukraine, including the number of children”, as well as “the need to withdraw funds from bank accounts of the Russian Federation in connection with sanctions imposed by foreign countries “.
Although victims of the war remain difficult to assess, the United Nations has confirmed hundreds of deaths of civilians in Ukraine since the conflict began last week, including at least 13 children, and acknowledged that its figures may underestimate the actual number of victims.
In the past, Russian authorities have sent a number of complaints about Wikipedia pages. In 2015, the government even blocked the site over an article about cannabis, but its download was short-lived. However, the current threat is part of a larger-scale online crackdown on the invasion – one in which Russia blocked Twitter and Facebook in an attempt to control information about the war. “Tuesday’s removal request threatened censorship. Depriving people of access to reliable information during a crisis could have life-changing consequences,” the Wikimedia statement warned.
Photo: Excerpt from the fresco of Michelangelo’s Doomsday
The Italian fashion house “Valentino” presented “Life in Pink” at the Paris Fashion Week – the collection for the autumn-winter 2022/2023 season was bold, but also caused a triumph.
With shocking pink decor and clothes, the designer of the brand Pierpaolo Piccioli impressed the guests. 81 outfits were presented on the catwalk and most of them were in different shades of the current color according to the Italian for the next autumn-winter season.
The fashion designer had opted for free silhouettes with exquisite and generous proportions, with feathers and glittering ornaments. The soft tuxedo jackets were so wide that they fell from the shoulders of the models in chic segments. The shoes were on large platforms from the 70’s in pink, and the bags – with large buckles. The men were also dressed from head to toe in pink suits and accessories.
And just when pink looked endless, Piccoli abruptly switched to clothing, all in black – a stark contrast, a demonstration of his deft control over design. The Italian tried to show that by taking away the color, attention can be focused only on the shape and silhouette. The review was a triumph.
Lewis Hamilton and Zendaya were among the VIP guests at the show, which took place in the Mare district. They had to negotiate a special permit for arrival, as it was a car-free day in several areas of the French capital. Zendaya was dressed in the current “Valentino” pink color.
The art of the chic invitation is still a major part of the Parisian luxury industry, notes BTA. Fashion houses compete to produce the most eye-catching, inventive and vivid invitations to their reviews, often delivered by courier to the personal or professional address of each guest.
Small works of art sometimes hint at what the collection contains; other times, however, they are simply eccentric. The invitation to Isabel Maran’s show was an example of this: a shiny silver box containing a sculpted musical instrument.
The LOEWE fashion house had chosen a 1-meter piece of thin rubber hidden in a small metal cylinder, setting the tone for designer Jonathan Anderson’s fashion show.
Yves Saint Laurent’s invitation was a demonstration of true luxury: a black leather wallet with the name of the guest and a gold embossed YSL logo on the front.
The most eccentric and extravagant invitation ever made was probably that of the luxury brand “Balenciaga” – a damaged iPhone 6S with a cracked screen and laser engraved details of the review.
The researchers suggest that lifelong learning “clutters up” older people’s memories.
The sad fact is that with age, many people have difficulty with memory.
A research team from Harvard, Columbia and the University of Toronto tried to find an answer to the question of why this is happening. According to scientists, the information accumulated by a person over the years takes up more and more space in the brain with age, which makes it more difficult to “navigate” through memories. When searching for certain information, an elderly person has to “wade through” a lot of memories that are completely unrelated to the ones they are looking for.
This means that when looking for a particular memory, older people often find other, completely irrelevant information instead.
“Older people know the world better, but typically show lower episodic memory performance on many lab tasks compared to younger people. We suggest that this paradox can be explained, at least in part, by the fact that the memory of the elderly is heavily “cluttered” with various information. This, in turn, can create difficulty in retrieving the target information (and adversely affect episodic and working memory tasks),” the authors write in their article.
However, while rich life experiences can make memory difficult, the researchers say it has its own benefits, such as stimulating creativity and decision-making.
“Available evidence suggests that older people show preserved and sometimes improved creativity, depending on the richness of memory,” the scientists said.
The study found that older adults rely more heavily on previous knowledge when performing a cognitive task than younger people.
The experts said they hope that with more research and a better understanding of how memory works in older people, they will be able to find new ways to help people with “overflowing” memories.
In Germany, the archaeologists of the city of Augsburg have discovered end of last year the largest hoard of Roman coins ever discovered in Bavaria. It consists of coins about 1900 years old.
According to The History Blog, a treasure of approximately 5,600 silver denarii from the 1st and 2nd centuries AD was discovered in the Oberhausen area, the oldest part of the city. Archaeologists have examined a plot of land allocated for residential development there.
The most ancient coins in the hoard date from the period of the reign of the emperor Nero, that is, the middle of the 1st century. The most recent are from the reign of Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211 AD). Experts note that the treasure was found near the site of one of the first Roman bases in the region. By the way, the coins were scattered over a large area, but the ancient “container” for their storage could not be found.
“We assume that the treasure was hidden outside the city of Augusta Vindelikum, near the Via Claudia camp, around the beginning of the 3rd century,” says Sebastian Gairkhos, head of the archeology department of the city of Augsburg. the time of the rise of water in the river Vertakh. So the coins were scattered in the river gravel over a certain area. “
According to the expert, at the beginning of the 3rd century, an ordinary Roman soldier earned from 375 to 500 denarii, that is, the found treasure is equivalent to about 11-15 annual salaries of such a warrior. In addition to coins, archaeologists have also discovered hundreds of various Roman artifacts – weapons, tools, jewelry, dishes, vessels and much more.
