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News That Matters

16/11/2022 ---- 19/11/2022

Trillions of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses and fungi, inhabit our bodies. Even though they colonize all of our body surfaces, such as skin, lungs, mouth, genital and urinary tract, the majority of them camp out in our gut. We refer to these microorganisms as gut microbiota. Several pieces of evidence show that the gut microbiota influences various processes of our body inside and outside the intestine. For example, they help digestion, protect against pathogens, make vitamins, influence the function of our immune system and maintain a balance between health and disease. A recent study support changes in the composition of the gut microbiota as a potential contributor to Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a progressive loss of neurons in the brain due to a misfolding and clumping of the alpha-synuclein protein. Such toxic aggregates promote damage to specialized neurons, also called dopaminergic neurons, therefore, triggering disease symptoms such as tremors, slow movements, rigid muscles, impaired balance and loss of automatics movements. Studies in mice suggest that alpha-synuclein clumps can form in the neurons located in the gut’s mucosal layer and spread in the brain, causing changes in dopaminergic neurons and eventually causing Parkinson’s. Further studies are needed to understand whether this evidence can be translated into humans. Overall, it is important to say that many factors, including genetics, the use of antibiotics, environment, lifestyle, and diet, can influence the composition of the gut microbiota and, therefore, the susceptibility to diseases. As more and more evidence suggests that gut microbiota is an important regulator for human health, controlling it may be one of the next frontiers in medicine.

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The G20 summit 2022, held in Bali (Indonesia), was the first in-person meeting seeing the leaders of the most important nations reunited after the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been followed in the news mostly with reports of how it was affected by the escalating Ukraine crisis after the intervention of President Volodymyr Zelensky on November 15 and the subsequent attacks by Russia (see November 16). However, the 20 delegations at the meeting discussed many more topics and achieved a mutual understanding that poses common ground for the future of international relations and economy. It happens at a time of unprecedented multidimensional crises: the devastation brought by the Covid-19 pandemic and other challenges, including climate change, have caused an economic downturn, increased poverty, slowed global recovery, and hindered the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals. On the Ukraine crisis, most G20 members strongly condemn the hostilities. All members agree that the use of nuclear weapons is inadmissible. Even more concerning is the global food crisis, exacerbated by the ongoing conflicts, on which there is a mindset for coordinated action to ensure accessibility to food for those in need. On this matter, it is mentioned appreciation for Turkey, which favoured the Istanbul Agreements in July 2022, allowing for grain trade over the Black Sea. The issue of volatile energy pricing is recognized, and the commitment to invest in clean, sustainable energy technology is reiterated. In the context of strengthening international efforts to reach the goals of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement, as well as implementing the COP26 commitments, the G20 policy includes a full range of fiscal and regulatory mechanisms. The commitment to tackle global challenges such as climate change and environmental protection, including biodiversity loss, is reiterated. It also recalled and reaffirmed the promise made by developed countries to the goal of mobilizing jointly USD 100 billion in climate finance per year by 2020 and annually through 2025 to address the needs of developing countries in the context of meaningful mitigation actions. The G20 also discussed how to support developing countries and which mechanisms should be applied to their contracted debts - the nations concerned are Chad, Zambia, and Ethiopia. It is mentioned that the potential benefits and risks to global financial stability arising from the rapid development of technological innovations in the financial sector - including cyber threats and the potential for regulatory gaps and arbitrage posed by crypto-asset markets - will be monitored addressed.

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Almost 50 years after the last Apollo mission ventured to the lunar surface, NASA has successfully started the Artemis program, which has the ultimate goal of establishing a long-term presence on the Moon’s surface. On November 16 Artemis I left the ground successfully at 6:47 UTC and started its journey to the “dark side” of the moon. Due to fuel leakage, this launch was postponed from the original date of August 29. Towards the same objective, the Chinese Space program also achieved significant advancements by assembling the Mengtian lab module and completing the country’s first space station on November 3. After the discovery in 2009 of Lunar pits and caves that could provide Earth-like temperatures - about 17 degrees Celsius, 63 Fahrenheit - long-term permanence on the Moon’s surface may not be too far away. These pit craters, and the caves to which they may potentially lead, would make safer, more thermally stable base camps for lunar exploration and long-term habitation than the rest of the Moon’s surface, which heats up to 260 degrees (126.6 Celsius) during the day and drops to 280 degrees below zero at night (-173.3 Celsius). On September 10 samples retrieved by China’s Chang’e-5 mission revealed high water content in lunar minerals, which would offer the world direct evidence for the existence of water on the Moon. Successive missions will further explore the moon's surface to identify a site for International Lunar Research Station. A competition, the one between US and China, much reminds the past Cold War which brought the first man to the moon.

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On November 11 Russian troops withdrew from the right bank of the Dnipro River in a major military defeat for the Kremlin that led to scenes of jubilation in the port city of Kherson, the only Ukrainian regional capital Russia succeeded in occupying in almost nine months of bitter fighting.  While there were few details of exactly how the Russian Armed Forces carried out their rapid pullback, the military retreat appeared to have been prepared well in advance of the official announcement of the withdrawal. President Vladimir Putin has not publicly commented on the retreat. His spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Kherson was still Russian territory as a result of Moscow’s annexation of four regions of Ukraine in September. On November 14 President Volodymyr Zelensky made an unannounced visit to Kherson, then he called a liberated city. He said that Ukraine is ready for peace, but peace for all of its territories. "We respect international law and the sovereignty of every state, and now we are talking about the sovereignty of our state. That is why we are fighting against Russian aggression," Zelensky said. "We are not interested in the territory of other countries. We are only interested in the de-occupation of our country and our territories." Western media earlier reported that the West may be trying to push Kyiv to negotiate with Moscow. According to the Wall Street Journal, senior U.S. and EU officials are divided on the need to push Ukraine into peace talks, however, they believe that an opportunity for negotiations may appear in the coming weeks or months. This event was presented by all international media as “the beginning of peace”. On the same day, November 14 the United Nations General Assembly called for Russia to be held accountable for its conduct in Ukraine, voting to approve a resolution recognizing that Russia must be responsible for making reparations to the country. The resolution was supported by 94 of the assembly's 193 members. It recommends that member states, in cooperation with Ukraine, create an international register to record evidence and claims against Russia. General Assembly resolutions are nonbinding, but they carry political weight. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia told the General Assembly before the vote that the provisions of the resolution are "legally null and void" as he urged countries to vote against it. Fourteen countries voted against the resolution, including Russia, China, and Iran, while 73 abstained, including Brazil, India, and South Africa. Not all member states voted. These votes saw more division than the one where the annexation of the regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia was condemned. On that occasion 143 Member States voted in favor, with five voting against, and 35 abstentions. The countries who voted against were Belarus, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, Russia, and Syria. A majority of those countries abstaining were African nations, alongside China and India. With these premises on November 15 started the G20 summit in Bali, where part of the discussion concerned the Ukraine crisis. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was invited to speak and presented a plan for peace in ten points which included energy security, the release of prisoners, the withdrawal of Russian troops, and cessation of hostilities. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not attend the event, sending his foreign minister Sergei Lavrov instead. Zelenskyy mocked Putin's absence in his speech, repeatedly addressing the leaders as the "G19." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters following his attendance that Russia is not refusing to negotiate with Ukraine, it is the Kyiv regime who is doing so. "We have repeatedly confirmed through our president that we do not refuse to negotiate. If anyone is refusing to negotiate, it is Ukraine. The longer the Kyiv regime continues to refuse, the harder it will be to reach an agreement," he clarified. In the night between November 15 and 16 tensions further escalated: more than 100 missiles hit Ukraine, with Kyiv being the major target. Moreover, two explosions by Russian-made missiles have reached the small village of Przewodów in Poland, right at the border with Ukraine, making two dead. Poland, a member of NATO, raised its army's readiness level after an urgent meeting of the government committee for national security and defense affairs. While the Russian Defense Ministry has called reports of Russian missiles landing in Poland a “deliberate provocation,” denying that there were strikes made on targets near the Ukrainian-Polish state border, Hungarian and Latvian Prime Ministers also called emergency government meetings. US President Joe Biden and leaders from the G7 and NATO are in an emergency roundtable in Bali. The meeting includes Biden and leaders from Canada, the European Union, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Netherlands, and Japan, the officials said.

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