News from Italy
The News: Short weekly world tour
The News: Short weekly world tour
Vita gazette – From the USA to NATO and the EU, from Russia to China and the Pacific… From energy to arms and hunger… From culture to history and art… From natural disasters to new discoveries and technology… Important history recorded notes… (1-8 October, 2022)
In order to have an idea by being informed… We choose carefully only the news that matters to start the week well. Weekly information note for those who missed important developments in history…
The 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine
Nobel Prize in Medicine
Swedish scientist Svante Paabo won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work titled “genes of extinct hominins and human evolution”. Paabo spearheaded research comparing the modern human genome and extinct Neanderthals and Denisovans, showing a relationship between the species. Known for his work on human evolution, Paobo is also the son of Sune Bergstrom, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1982.
Nobel Prize for Physics
Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger have won the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physics. The trio won “for their experiments with entangled photons, establishing the violation of Bell’s inequalities and pioneering quantum information science”.
The prize will be presented in Stockholm in December and is worth 10 million kronor ($900,000). It will be shared equally between the winners.
The 2022 Nobel Prize for Chemistry
It has been jointly awarded to three researchers: Carolyn Bertozzi, for her development of bioorthogonal chemistry, and Morten Meldal and K. Barry Sharpless, for their independent development of click chemistry. (5 Oct)
The 2022 Nobel Prize in literature
French author Annie Ernaux was awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in literature for “the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory,” the Swedish Academy said Thursday.
Ernaux, started out writing autobiographical novels but quickly abandoned fiction in favour of memoirs.
Her more than 20 books, most of them very short, chronicle events in her life and the lives of those around her. They present uncompromising portraits of sexual encounters, abortion, illness and the deaths of her parents. (6 Oct)
The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize
Belarus’s rights activist Ales Bialiatski, the Russian human rights organisation Memorial, and the Ukrainian NGO Center for Civil Liberties have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2022.
The three of them have been awarded for “outstanding effort to document war crimes, human rights abuses, and abuse of power”.The Committee further said, “The peace prize laureates represent civil society in their home countries. They have for many years promoted the right to criticise power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens…Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy.”
Animal and Human rights
US officials: Ukraine bombed Dugina
US officials believe Ukraine is behind the assassination of Russian hardliner Darya Dugina
Despite denials from Kyiv, the US now reportedly believes Ukraine was behind the assassination of the daughter of one of Putin’s closest allies. (6 Oct)
Roger Waters: “I’m on Ukraine’s ‘death list”
In an interview with the Rolling Stones, Waters criticized international power strategies. “Remember, I’m on a kill list sponsored by the Ukrainian government. They killed people recently… But when they killed you, they write ‘liquidation’ on your photo. I’m one of those photos,” he said. Blaming Western governments for the war in Ukraine, Waters said, “Russia should not have been encouraged to invade Ukraine after 20 years of trying to avoid Ukraine by proposing diplomatic measures to Western governments.”
Asked about Russia’s responsibility, Waters said, “You’ve just seen ‘these reports’ of what I described as Western propaganda. It’s the opposite of saying Russian propaganda; the Russians interfered with our election; the Russians did that. It’s all lies, lies, lies, lies.” he declared.
Pink Floyd’s concert in Poland was canceled on September 25 due to the statements of the band’s lead singer Roger Waters about the Ukraine-Russia War.
Extreme Poverty: The world can’t meet the goal of ending extreme poverty by 2030 according to a new World Bank study. The study finds that COVID-19 dealt the biggest setback to global poverty-reduction efforts since 1990 and the war in Ukraine threatens to make matters worse.As a result, an estimated 719 million people subsisted on less than $2.15 a day by the end of 2020. (5 Oct)
Most suicides in Africa
The World Health Organization (WHO): “About 11 people per 100,000 die by suicide annually in Africa, above the global average of nine per 100,000 people.” This situation is due in part to insufficient action to address and prevent risk factors, including mental health conditions that currently affect 116 million people, up from the 53 million reported in 1990.
UN: the world is in “a life-or-death struggle”
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Monday that the world is in “a life-or-death strugg le” for survival as “ climate chaos gallops ahead” and accused the world’s 20 wealthiest countries of failing to do enough to stop the planet from overheating.
The U.N. chief said emissions of global-warming greenhouse gases are at an all-time high and rising, and it’s time for “a quantum level compromise” between rich developed countries that emitted most of (the heat-trapping gases and emerging economies that often feel its worst effects. (3 Ott)
Spain: Due to the drought problem in Spain, the city of Sevilla in the south of the country banned the use of water such as garden irrigation, pool filling, car washing, except for basic needs. (4 oct.)
Wildfire on Easter Island causes ‘irreparable’ damage to ancient moai head statues. The Unesco World Heritage Site is closed while conservators assess the damage to the almost 1,000 ancient statues. wildfire on Easter Island has wrought irreparable damage to the ancient moai head statues that dot the landscape of the Rapa Nui Natural Park, near the island’s Rano Raraku volcano, which is a designated Unesco World Heritage Site.
The statues, some of which are up to 4m in height, were created by the indigenous Polynesian tribe the Rapa Nui more than 500 years ago. (7 Oct)
Diseases
Syria reports 39 dead in the cholera outbreak
Syria’s health ministry has recorded 39 deaths from cholera and nearly 600 cases in an outbreak spreading in the war-ravaged country that the United Nations warned is “evolving alarmingly”.
“In Syria, more than 10,000 suspected cases of cholera have been reported just in the past six weeks,” the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a briefing on Wednesday.
Art – Culture – History
Silent black and white footage of the world-famous rock band The Beatles only visit to Japan in 1966, recorded as a security concern by the police, has been made available.
The faces of all but the band members were blurred for secrecy, from fans crying in the footage to officers facing the right-wing protesting the council. Fans demanding that the footage be released uncensored, arguing that the video is a historical document, applied to the Supreme Court of Japan in 2018. While the upper court rejected the case, Satoshi Shinkai, the pioneer of the legal battle for the release of the images, said the images were released late last month after four years of painstaking pixelation work. Said it was published. (3 Oct)
Native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather, who performed for Marlon Brando and refused the Oscar, has died at the age of 75. Brando was awarded the “Best Actor” Oscar for his role in “The Father” in 1973, but protested the award ceremony in support of Native American rights. Sacheen Littlefeather announced to the world that Brando was rejecting the Oscar, and proclaimed the actor’s message to the world that “the film industry did not accept the award on the ground that it was insensitive to Native American problems”. But Littlefeather faced boos and racist rhetoric. (3 oct.)
Science – Technology – Inventions
EU: The European Parliament passed a new law requiring USB Type-C to be the single charger for all mobile phones and tablets from 2024. So Common chargers for mobile devices will soon be a reality
By the end of 2024, all mobile phones, tablets and cameras sold in the EU will have to be equipped with a USB Type-C charging port. From spring 2026, the obligation will extend to laptops. (4 Oct)
Plants on the Moon
An Australian startup announced a plan to grow plants on the Moon as early as 2025. Lunaria One launched its Australian Lunar Experiment Promoting Horticulture (ALEPH) on Friday, a collaborative project with institutions including the Australian National University (ANU) to investigate whether plant life can thrive on the lunar surface.
Plants will be chosen for the project based on how quickly they germinate and their tolerance to extreme conditions. The seeds and dormant plants dehydrated for the mission will be designed on the Moon in a specially designed burgundy chamber of the Beresheet 2 spacecraft developed by SpaceIL. Upon arrival on the moon, they will sprout and reactivate through irrigation. Their growth and health will be monitored for 72 hours, with all data made available to citizens around the world. (7 Oct)
International relations and strategies
Energy: Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipeline explosions
Swedish investigators: the evidence in pipeline leaks points to sabotage.
After inspecting two giant natural gas pipelines from Russia where several leaks occurred last week, Swedish investigators said on Thursday the leaks were caused by detonations that they strongly suspect were acts of sabotage.(6 Oct)
Douglas Macgregor: “the Royal Navy (of the United Kingdom) and the United States Navy”
“The US and the UK could be behind the explosions of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines,” said Douglas Macgregor, former advisor to the US Secretary of Defense in the former president’s administration. Donald Trump, in an interview with Andrew Napolitano, host of the Judging Freedom podcast.
“We have to look at who are the state actors who have the ability to do it. And that means the Royal Navy (of the United Kingdom) and the United States Navy. I think it’s pretty clear, ”Macgregor said. Macgregor also stressed the importance of the publication of former Polish FM and current member of the European Parliament, Radoslaw Sikorski, who thanked the United States for damaging Nord Stream 1 and 2 via his Twitter page. (Oct 4)
England: not to allow Russia to investigate the emergency at Nord Stream
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, in an interview with The Telegraph, said that he opposed Russia’s participation in the investigation into the explosions on the Nord Stream and Nord Stream 2 gas pipelines. (5 Oct)
Energy crack in the Atlantic alliance
Germany’s Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck on Wednesday criticized the excessive gas prices charged by “friendly” supplier countries, such as the United States. “Some countries, even the friendly ones, are charging astronomical prices in some cases. Of course, this brings problems that we must talk about,” Habeck told the Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung (NOZ) newspaper. Gas prices in Europe are twice as high as before the start of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
“The United States turned to us when oil prices soared, and the national oil reserves were tapped in Europe as well,” Habeck said. “I think such solidarity would also be good for curbing gas prices.” No gas has been flowing from Russia to Germany via the important Nord Stream 1 pipeline since September. Last week, major leaks were discovered after explosions were detected by Norway’s earthquake service. Russia and the U.S. have accused each other of sabotage.
Armament: America – Ukraine: USA announces $625 million in new military aid for Ukraine.The Biden administration announced a new $625 million security assistance package for Ukraine on Tuesday that will include key weapons, ammunition and equipment.
The package includes advanced mobile rocket launcher systems that have been crucial to Ukrainian forces. The Pentagon said the package contains four High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as howitzers, artillery and mortar rounds, and small arms ammunition. The U.S. has now sent Ukraine more than $16.8 billion in aid. (4 Oct.)
Russian diplomats warn the US and the West
The new US military aid to Ukraine risks a direct clash between Russia and the West, two Russian diplomats warned.
The US announcde a new $625 million military aid package for Ukraine on Tuesday. Russia’s ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov reacted by saying “We perceive this as an immediate threat to the strategic interest of our country.”
“The supply of military products by the US and its allies not only entails protracted bloodshed and new casualties but also increases the danger of a direct military clash between Russia and Western countries.” (5 Oct)
Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant: Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree that transferred of Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant to Russia (5 Oct)
Russia – USA: Patrushev: NATO is at war against Russia now
“The NATO bloc is now essentially at war against Russia,” Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said, RIA Novosti reported.
“Today Russia, liberating the people of Ukraine from neo-Nazism, is fighting not only nationalist formations and the AFU. In fact, the NATO bloc is fighting against us, whose members provide the Kyiv regime with heavy weapons, ammunition, intelligence, and training of military specialists,” Patrushev said. According to him, the NATO members participate in the planning of military operations, blackmailing the use of weapons of mass destruction.
“And these are not empty words. The U.S. and its allies have long been implementing their plans to create biological weapons in laboratories deployed around the world, including near Russian borders. Some of the laboratories, as we already know, were located in Ukraine and were used to create particularly dangerous pathogens,” Patrushev noted. (5 Oct)
Angela Merkel warns the West not to be complacent over Putin’s nuclear threat
Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned the West he is not bluffing when he says he is ready to use nuclear weapons to defend Russia. Ms Merkel, speaking at a ceremony in Munich to mark the 77th anniversary of the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, said the war on Ukraine was a profound turning point
She added: “We would all be well advised to take words seriously and to deal with them seriously and not to classify them as a bluff from the outset.” .(7 Oct)
Joe Biden warns: highest risk of ‘nuclear Armageddon
President Joe Biden warns the entire world at the highest risk of ‘nuclear Armageddon in 60 years after President Vladimir Putin’s threat. Joe Biden has declared that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear stance is no bluff and warned that the threat of a major escalation is at its worst level since the Cuban Missile Crisis. While US officials have said there was no reason yet to change their own nuclear posture, Biden made his strongest statement yet that there was cause for concern. Speaking at a Democratic fundraiser in New York on Thursday (local time), the president said the nuclear threat was the worst in 60 years. (7 Oct)
EU administration: We take Putin’s threats seriously.
The European Union administration said that they took Russia’s threats seriously and would not bow to threats after US President Joe Biden said that there was a high risk of a “nuclear apocalypse” due to the threats of Russia. (7 Oct) Cremlino Dmitriy Peskov ha annunciato che i confini del regioni di Kherson e Zaporozhye saranno decisi dalle popolazioni locali delle regioni in questione. (3 ott.)
Russia – Ukraine: A truck bomb Saturday caused a fire and the collapse of a section of a bridge linking Russia-annexed Crimea with Russia, Russian officials said, damaging a key supply artery for Moscow’s faltering war effort in southern Ukraine.
The speaker of Crimea’s regional parliament immediately accused Ukraine, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly threatened to strike the bridge and some lauded the attack, but Kyiv stopped short of claiming responsibility. (8 Oct)
Political Sanction
Lithuania announced that it will expel the Russian charge d’affaires Sergey Ryabokon from the country. (3 oct.) Italy freezes real estate owned by two Russian oligarchs -sources
Italy on Monday froze some real estate properties owned by two Russian oligarchs in the luxurious seaside resort of Portofino, in Sirmione on Lake Garda and in Rome, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said.Guardia di Finanza police seized Villa Altachiara, a mansion with a park on the Portofino promontory on the Ligurian Sea, and a property and a car in Rome from Eduard Khudainatov, the former chief of Russian energy giant Rosneft. The total value of seized assets of Russian oligarchs in Italy exceeded 1.7 billion euros. Russia has declared the charge d’affaires of Lithuania in Russia, Virginija Umbrasiene, “persona non grata,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday. EU adopts restrictive measures against an additional 30 individuals and 7 entities. (3 Oct)
US statement from Russia: Dialogue between Moscow and Washington is frozen (6 Oct)
An employee from the Lithuanian Embassy was summoned to the foreign ministry on Wednesday over the “unjustified expulsion of the Russian charge d’affaires in Lithuania” earlier this week and was informed of Russia’s decision, the ministry said in a statement. (5 Ott)
Belarus – Ukraine: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko accused neighbouring Ukraine on Tuesday of sending 15,000 troops to the border area to build defences and conduct reconnaissance, actions that he called “provocations”. (4 Oct)
Peace formula from Conte
The president of the Movement, former prime minister Giuseppe Conte called on the world and the EU to restore peace.
Pointing out that the war in the world is against everyone, Conte stated that the EU has not been able to show institutional effectiveness so far and suggested the following proposal:
“The EU must promote an international peace conference, to be held in Europe under the aegis of the United Nations, with the full involvement of the Vatican.” (5 Oct)
Countries
Spain: Illegal the regime of former dictator Gen. Francisco Franco
Spain’s lower house of parliament has approved a new historical memory law that declares illegal the regime of former dictator Gen. Francisco Franco and makes the central government responsible for the recovery of the bodies of tens of thousands of people missing from the Spanish Civil War and the dictatorship.
Outlawing the nearly 40-year Franco regime that emerged after the end of the civil war in 1939, the new law nullifies the legality of the dictatorship’s courts and their rulings.
It also bans the Francisco Franco Foundation, a private institution dedicated to preserving the autocrat’s legacy, and all glorification of the former dictator.
The government is to draw up maps of where the bodies of an estimated 100,000 people still missing may be located. It will also set up a DNA bank to help with the identification processes.
The missing are those who opposed or were considered to oppose Franco and were subsequently killed and buried in unmarked graves. The law aims to improve on a 2007 Law for Historical Memory that experts and activists agreed fell far short of emptying the hundreds of still-untouched mass graves and addressing many other issues.
The new bill creates a State Prosecutors’ Office for Human Rights and Democratic Memory that guarantees the right to investigate human rights violations during the war and dictatorship. (5 Oct)
The last statue of Lenin was removed in Finland
A city in southeastern Finland on Tuesday removed the country’s last publicly displayed statue of Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin following pressure from residents in the wake of Russia’s war in Ukraine. A group of construction workers in Kotka, a port city of 52,000 not far from the border with Russia, hoisted the statue into a truck and drove it away to a warehouse of a local museum. The bronze bust was designed and constructed by Estonian sculptor Matti Varik in the late 1970s on orders from Moscow. It was presented to Kotka in 1979 as a gift from the friendship city Tallinn, then the capital of the Estonian Soviet republic and now the capital of the Baltic nation of Estonia. Presenting such statues was a common practice by Moscow, particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, to underline the Finnish-Soviet friendship in the post-WWII era. The Lenin statue is located in a central Kotka park adjacent to a wooden house where the Bolshevik party founder who became the Soviet Union’s first premier is said to have stayed. (4 Oct)
Denmark: Queen Margrethe II: The monarchy always shapes itself in keeping with the times.
Denmark’s popular monarch, Queen Margrethe II, has apologized for upsetting members of her family with a decision to strip the royal titles from four of her grandchildren but has refused to change her mind. Last week, the royal palace of Europe’s oldest royal monarchy announced that as of Jan. 1, the four children of Margrethe’s youngest son, Prince Joachim, would no longer be called prince or princess but instead count or the countess of Monpezat — the birth title of her late husband, French-born Prince Henrik. They should be addressed as “excellencies” and would maintain their places in the Danish order of succession.“It is my duty and my desire as queen to ensure that the monarchy always shapes itself in keeping with the times. Sometimes, this means that difficult decisions must be made, and it will always be difficult to find the right moment,” Margrethe, 82, said in a statement released Monday by the royal household. “This adjustment … I view as a necessary future-proofing of the monarchy,” Europe’s longest reigning monarch said. She has not altered her decision. (4 Oct)
New British PM Truss: “I am a huge Zionist”
New British Prime Minister Liz Truss referred to herself as a “huge Zionist and a huge supporter of Israel,” reports the UK-based Jewish News.
Truss’s comments were made at a Conservative Friends of Israel reception, during which she said she will seek to “take the UK-Israel relationship from strength to strength.”
“In this world – where we are facing threats from authoritarian regimes who don’t believe in freedom and democracy – two free democracies, the UK and Israel, need to stand shoulder to shoulder and we will be even closer in the future,” Truss said. (5 Oct)
Le Pen: France must close mosques
French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen reacts to the recent Paris attack on the Champs-Elysees by saying that Islamist mosques must be closed. (4 Oct.)
Bulgaria: In Bulgaria, the party of former Prime Minister Borisov won the elections.(3 oct.)
Brazil: Since no candidate received more than 50 percent of the votes in the presidential elections held in Brazil, the new president of the country will be chosen in the second round of elections to be held on October 30. (3 oct)
Poland – Germany: Poland filed an official application demanding 1.3 trillion euros in compensation from Germany for its losses in the Second World War. (3 oct.) Germany’s foreign minister told her Polish counterpart Tuesday there will be no more World War II reparations because Berlin considers the matter closed. On Monday, Rau signed and expedited a note to Germany demanding some $1.3 trillion in reparations for material and other damages and losses Poland claims were caused by Nazi Germany’s wartime occupation from 1939-45. Poland’s reparations demand includes cases of Jews killed by Poles during the Holocaust. (4 Oct.)
Danish premier calls for general election to be held on Nov. 1
Mette Frederiksen, who has headed the Social Democratic minority government since June 2019, said the poll would be on 1 November, seven months earlier than planned.
Frederiksen has seen her popularity dwindle in recent weeks due to her role in a pandemic-era decision to cull Denmark’s entire captive mink population.
In June, a Danish Parliament-appointed commission harshly criticised Frederiksen’s government for its decision to order the killing of millions of healthy mink at the height of the coronavirus pandemic to protect humans from a mutation of the virus. (4 Oct)
Canada has permanently banned membership in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
The designation of a regime is a permanent decision. This means that more than 10,000 members of the IRGC leadership, for example, will be inadmissible to Canada forever.
“We will be pursuing a listing of the Iranian regime, including the IRGC leadership, under the most powerful provision of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said. (7 Oct)
