The Humanion: London: England: United Kingdom: Year Zeta: Day 202: Tuesday: April 13: 2021: Cogito Ergo Sum: Descartes

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|| The World || This Is the Rot of Today’s World Under Capitalism: This Is the Moral Repugnance on the Conscience of This Rotting World of Ugly Jingoism: The Richer Countries Get 87% of the Vaccines While the Poorer Have Received 0.2%: This Is Why Humanics Has Rejected This Rot and the Rotting Repugnance of Capitalism ||

|| Friday: April 09: 2021 || ά. The vast majority of COVID-19 vaccines administered so far have gone to wealthy nations, the World Health Organisation:WHO reported today. Although, more than 700 million vaccine doses have been administered globally, richer countries have received more than 87% and countries with low income 0.2 per cent. And this is the rot in today’s world under capitalism. This is the moral repugnance on the conscience of this rotting world of ugly jingoism. This is why humanics has rejected this entire rot and rotting repugnance of capitalism and its entire mechanism of enforcing a monstrous stand-point: a jingoism of utter and comprehensive selfishness, irrationality, immorality, greed and endless, meaningless and destructive consumerism or in one word, monstrosity, that declares only those with money have the right to exist and those without should suffer and perish away in agony of all the high-cruelties, high-brutalities and high-barbarities capitalism enforces over the vast majority of humanity. This jingoism is the rot and it is time humanity rises up to challenge and bring into dust this monstrosity, called, capitalism.

“There remains a shocking imbalance in the global distribution of vaccines.” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanonom Ghebreyesus, speaking during the Agency’s regular briefing from Geneva. “On average in high-income countries, almost, one in four people has received a vaccine. In low-income countries, it’s one in more than 500.  Let me repeat that: one in four versus one in 500.” The global solidarity initiative, COVAX, has, also, experienced a shortage of vaccines.  While the mechanism has distributed some 38 million doses so far, it was expected to deliver nearly 100 million by the end of March. “The problem is not getting vaccines out of COVAX; the problem is getting them in.” he said.

|| The World || Vaccines For All Humanity Must Become Reality: The World States and Governments Are Still Hiding Their Faces Behind Worthless Rhetoric: It Is Time to Deliver ||

|| Friday: April 09: 2021 || ά. More than one hundred countries have received life-saving COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX, the global mechanism for equitable access to the vaccines. The milestone comes 42 days after the first COVAX doses were shipped and delivered internationally, to Ghana on February 24. COVAX has now delivered more than 38 million doses across six continents, supplied by three manufacturers, Oxford:AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and the Serum Institute of India. COVAX is the testament that humanity shall not just sit out and do nothing; however, COVAX is testament, too, of the same humanity keeping its eyes, ears, hearts, souls and consciences as shut as stones. This contradiction, this immorality, this dereliction of duty, care and compassion should drive swords into the consciences of those, who still can not ignore this repugnance, that says: those with money must have the right to exist and those without must suffer and perish away. It is time the world hears these consciences; it is time to sand up and shatter the ignominy, immorality and repugnance of this rot in the core of today’s system of economics and governance so to ensure that all humanity has equitable access to the vaccine. 

However, despite all this, 38 million doses are just a drop in the ocean against the vast number of humanity left outside the reach of the vaccine. COVAX programme is still short of an additional $02 billion, required in 2021 to finance and secure up to a total of 01.8 billion donor-funded doses of vaccines. Even, if, this additional $02 billion dollars funding is received, this figure of 01.8 billion doses is still nowhere near the vast total of the need of the vaccines. The world is still not up to scratch in coming to the point: that vaccines are the outcome of human ingenuity, imagination and creativity, to which belongs the world of science and technology and, therefore, so that its outcomes of must belong to all humanity and all humanity must have equitable access to the vaccine. The world’s entire states and governments and the international mechanisms must get their act together and deliver this vitally necessary vaccine to all humanity.

|| Jurisprudence || The Syrian Government Is Stealing Opponents’ Land ||

|| Friday: April 09: 2021 || ά. Syrian authorities are unlawfully confiscating the homes and lands of Syrians, who fled Syrian-Russian military attacks in Idlib and Hama governorates, Human Rights Watch said today. A pro-government militia and the government-controlled ‘Peasants’ Unions’ were involved in seizing and auctioning these lands to government supporters. ‘Peasants’ Unions are supposed to help protect farmers’ rights but have become one more tool in the Syrian government’s systematic repression of its own people.” said Ms Sara Kayyali, the Syria Researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“Aid organisations should ensure that Peasants’ Unions are not providing assistance for farming on stolen land.” According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, the authorities in Hama and Idlib seized, at least, 440,000 dunums or 44,000 hectares of agricultural land, following the government takeover of the area from dissident groups. Human Rights Watch interviewed six people, five of whom said that the Syrian authorities had seized land they or their immediate relatives owned in Idlib or Hama governorates without notice or compensation, between March and November 2020. The confiscations occurred after they fled the 10-month-long Syrian-Russian military alliance’s offensive on Northwest Syria in 2019.

|| Africa || Humanitarian Catastrophe Unfolding in Northern Mozambique Is Beyond Epic Proportions ||

|| Friday: April 09: 2021 || ά. The United Nations and its partners are following with deep concern new reports of violations against civilians in northern Mozambique. Citing reports of atrocities, carried out by child soldiers, alleged beheadings during attacks by non-state armed groups and clashes in the Cabo Delgado region, Mr Stéphane Dujarric told journalists at the regular daily briefing that, although, verifying information was extremely difficult, they were concerned about the situation of civilians, who fled the violence and those, who remain in Palma.

The coastal town just south of the border with Tanzania, was reportedly overrun by militant extremists on March 24 but three days ago, Mozambique’s military reported that it had regained control. According to the UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs:OCHA, attacks in and around Palma uprooted many, who had been sheltering there after having fled conflict in other parts of the province. Prior to that, nearly 670,000, including, some 160,000 women and adolescent girls, as well as, 19,000 pregnant women, were internally displaced in Cabo Delgado, Niassa and Nampula provinces, the vast majority of them reliant on host families, whose scarce resources are being exhausted. 

|| North America || Gun Violence in America: What Biden-Harris Propose to Do About It: Rightly They Have Declared It a Gun Violence Public Health Epidemic ||

|| Thursday: April 08: 2021 || ά. Today, the Biden-Harris Administration has announced six initial actions to address the gun violence public health epidemic. Followed by the recent high-profile mass shootings in Boulder, taking the lives of 10 individuals  and in Atlanta, taking the lives of eight individuals, including, six Asian American women, underscored the relentlessness of this epidemic. Gun violence takes lives and leaves a lasting legacy of trauma in communities every single day in America, even, when it is not on the nightly news. In fact, cities across the country are in the midst of a historic spike in homicides, violence, that disproportionately impacts Black and brown Americans.

Mr Joe Biden has expressed his commitment to taking action to reduce all forms of gun violence, community violence, mass shootings, domestic violence and suicide by firearm. President Biden has today reiterated his call for Congress to pass legislation to reduce gun violence. Last month, a bipartisan coalition in the House passed two bills to close loopholes in the gun background check system. The President invited the Congress to close those loopholes and go further, including, by closing ‘boyfriend’ and stalking loopholes, that currently allow people, found by the courts to be abusers to possess firearms, banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines, repealing gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability and investing in evidence-based community violence interventions.

|| Medicine || New Research Shows Cytonemes Distribute Wnt Proteins in Vertebrate Tissue ||

|| Thursday: April 08: 2021 || ά. Scientists have made a pivotal breakthrough in understanding the way cells communicate with each other. An international research team, including experts from the University of Exeter’s Living Systems Institute, has identified how signalling pathways of Wnt proteins, which orchestrate and control many cell developmental processes, operate on both molecular and cellular levels.

The mechanism, controlling Wnt cytonemes at the molecular level is currently unknown. Various mechanisms exist for cells to communicate with each other and many are essential for development. This information exchange between and among cells is, often, based on signalling proteins, that activate specific intracellular signalling cascades to control cell behaviour at a distance. Wnt proteins are produced by a relatively small group of cells and orchestrate cell proliferation and differentiation but, also, cell movement and polarity of the neighbouring cells. 

|| Medicine || Double Dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Elicits Strong Antibody Immune Responses in Older People ||

|| Thursday: April 08: 2021 || ά. A University of Birmingham-led Study, supported by the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium, has found that 98% of people over 80, who had two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19, vaccine had a strong antibody immune response. The research involved 100 people, 80 to 96, who were living independently and had received the Pfizer vaccine twice at three weeks apart. Immune measurements were taken two weeks after the second vaccination.

The largest and most complete independent study of older people’s immune response to Pfizer vaccination published to date, the Study showed that, in 63% of participants, cellular T-cell responses developed and correlated with antibody response. The research, also, found that participants, who had previously had natural COVID-19 infection, had a peak antibody response after just one Pfizer vaccination. In these participants, their antibody response remained 28-fold higher, even, after the second vaccine dose.

|| Political Economics || Poland to Build the First Recycling Plant For Car Batteries ||

|| Thursday: April 08: 2021 || ά. With the help of a loan of up to €25 million from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development:EBRD, Poland will become the site of the first facility in the European Union for recycling both car batteries and other waste containing metals, in response to the rapid rise of electric vehicles. EBRD financing for Elemental Holding SA will be part of a wider package raised to finance the construction of the pioneering facility, which will be one of the first in the world to treat spent lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles and other waste containing metals that are critical for e-mobility.

Elemental Holding SA. is a Polish company engaged in the collection and recycling of platinum-group metals and electrical waste and has a worldwide presence. The company has operations in Poland, other European countries, the Middle East and the United States of America. Mr Frederic Lucenet, EBRD Director, Manufacturing and Services, said, “This is an outstanding example of how new technology and progress with the green economy are working hand in hand. EBRD is actively supporting Poland’s ambitious agenda to become a low-carbon economy and has already financed several large e-mobility projects with domestic and foreign investors.”

|| England || Siemens Mobility and University of Birmingham Announce Railway Research and Innovation Partnership ||

|| Thursday: April 08: 2021 || ά. Siemens Mobility and the University of Birmingham have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a centre of excellence for rail research and innovation in Goole, East Riding of Yorkshire. As founding partners in the UK Rail Research and Innovation Network:UKRRIN, his latest development is a natural progression for the two partner organisations.

The facility, with an investment of up to £50 million and creating up to 250 direct and supplier jobs, will be built as part of the second phase of an innovation hub, known as, the Rail Accelerator and Innovations Solutions Hub for Enterprise:RaisE. It is aimed at accelerating the adoption of technology within the rail industry and will provide practical and virtual training, prototyping labs and focus on industry innovation - including future and advanced technologies, such as, robotics and programmed algorithmic machination:PAM.

|| The World || Amnesty International’s The State of the World Report: The Pandemic Has Uncorked the Rotten World That Can Not Be Sustained Any Longer: Whose Human Rights When the Very Sanctity Value and Dignity of Human Lives Have Been Wiped Out in This Jingoistic World That Has Declared Only Those With Money Can Protect Themselves With the Vaccines While the Vast Majority of the World’s Humanity Have None ||

|| Wednesday: April 07: 2021 || ά. The global pandemic has exposed the terrible legacy of deliberately divisive and destructive policies, that have perpetuated inequality, discrimination and oppression and paved the way for the devastation, wrought by COVID-19, Amnesty International said in its annual report, published today. Amnesty International Report 2020:21: The State of the World’s Human Rights covers 149 countries and delivers a comprehensive analysis of human rights trends globally in 2020. 

In it, the Agency describes those already most marginalised, including, women and refugees, as bearing the devastating brunt of the pandemic, as a result of decades of discriminatory policy decisions by world leaders. Health workers, migrant workers and those in the informal sector, many at the frontlines of the pandemic, have, also, been betrayed by neglected health systems and patchy economic and social support. The response to the global pandemic has been further undermined by leaders, who have ruthlessly exploited the crisis and weaponised COVID-19 to launch fresh attacks on human rights, the Agency says.

|| Life Elle || Oxford:AstraZeneca Vaccine: Based on the Current Information a Causal Relationship Between the Vaccine and the Occurrence of Blood Clots With Low Platelets Is Considered Plausible But Is Not Confirmed: Specialised Studies Are Needed to Fully Understand the Potential Relationship Between Vaccination and Possible Risk Factors: WHO COVID-19 Sub-Committee ||

|| Wednesday: April 07: 2021 || ά. The COVID-19 Sub-committee of the World Health Organisation:WHO Global Advisory Committee on Vaccine Safety:GACVS has reviewed reports of rare cases of blood clots with low platelets, following vaccination with the Oxford:AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, including, Covishield, since their onset a few weeks ago. At its most recent meeting on April 07, the Sub-committee reviewed latest information from the European Medicines Agency along with information from the United Kingdom’s Medicines and other Health products Regulatory Agency:MHRA and other Member States and noted the following:

::: Based on current information, a causal relationship between the vaccine and the occurrence of blood clots with low platelets is considered plausible but is not confirmed. Specialised studies are needed to fully understand the potential relationship between vaccination and possible risk factors. ::: The GACVS Sub-committee will continue to gather and review further data, as it has done since the beginning of the COVID vaccine programme. ::: It is important to note that, whilst concerning, the events under assessment are very rare, with low numbers reported among the almost 200 million individuals, who have received the Oxford:AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine around the world.

|| Asia || The Palestinian Refugees in the Pandemic: Between Despair and Hope ||

|| Wednesday: April 07: 2021 || ά. Despair is growing in Palestinian refugee camps across the Middle East but, signs of hope are sprouting amid on-going occupation, economic hardship and the COVID-19 pandemic, the Head the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, that supports this population said on Wednesday. Mr Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner General of UNRWA, briefed Member States during an online meeting to mobilise political and financial support, ahead of a donor conference later this year.

“Last week, I was in Ein El Hilweh Camp in South Lebanon and a young unemployed Palestinian refugee told me he constantly asks himself whether he would die from COVID, from hunger or while trying to cross the Mediterranean on a dinghy.” he told ambassadors. “People are struggling daily to ensure one meal for the family.  No one should be made to feel so desperate. No one should have to choose from these three deadly options.” UNRWA supports some 05.5 million Palestinians in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, providing education and primary health care, as well as, humanitarian and social services.

|| Asia || Clashes in Myanmar Displace Thousands ||

|| Wednesday: April 07: 2021 || ά. Clashes between the Myanmar security forces and regional armed groups, which have involved military airstrikes, have, reportedly, claimed the lives of, at least, 17 civilians in several parts of the country, the UN Office for Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs:OCHA said on Wednesday. In a humanitarian update, issued on Tuesday, the Office noted that unconfirmed reports of several thousand people, fleeing the hostilities in recent days in the Kayin and Bago regions, in central Myanmar, near Yangon.

|| The Humanion || Hate Speech and Violence Are Still Rising Against the Roma People ||

|| Wednesday: April 07: 2021 || ά. More must be done to tackle online hate speech against minorities, including, the Roma and Sinti, who continue to be scapegoated for spreading the COVID-19 virus, a leading rights expert said on Wednesday. Ahead of International Roma Day on Thursday 8 April 08, Mr Fernand De Varennes called for more work to be done to control the spread of inflammatory comments on social media.

“Those forms of online hate speech violate international human rights obligations and can lead to violence against Sinti, Roma and other minorities.” he said. The first World Roma Congress was held in 1971 near London, as a forum to discuss issues, relating to Roma people around the world. It was seen as a significant push for unity by the minority and an attempt to build a common ethnic identity.