NUNZIUM

News That Matters

28/09/2022 ---- 28/10/2022

PAST MONHT

month -1

HOMEPAGE

go_today

NEXT MONTH

month +1
27.10.2022
THEME: ENVIRONMENT

The habit of nose-picking is common in primates and the cause may be evolutionary

Nose-picking is a common behavior in humans, often avoided in public since generally considered rude, “low class”, or even repugnant. Probably for the same reason, it is a behavior that remains poorly understood and studied even in animals. But not for the zoologist Anne-Claire Fabre of the University of Bern, who recently published a paper in the Journal of Zoology reporting noise picking in the lemur species aye-aye. In the same article, she also reviews the presence of this habit in various primate species, showing that it is present in at least 12 species. In the aye-aye lemur - whose characteristic is an extremely long, skinny, and mobile middle finger - accurate imaging shows that the insertion depth during the gesture reaches the pharynx. Since so many primates - many humans included - would utilize their fingers to collect and ingest nasal mucus, the scientists suspect that the behavior may have evolved for selective reasons such as, for instance, a sanitary or even a medical advantage. More studies will be needed to demonstrate any of such advantages. However, nose-picking is possible only in those species - like primates - that have fine manipulative skills, and therefore are sufficiently evolved. Some primates even use utensils to collect mucus from the nose. Once more, nature offers an unparalleled source of information, crucial to understand even those behaviors that pass unseen in our quotidian life. Biodiversity is the only mirror we have for transcending the social paradigms, observing the animal features that we all share, and understanding their importance.

READ MORE
25.10.2022
THEME: HEALTH

Two respiratory viruses - RSV and Influenza - can fuse together to form a more potent hybrid virus

Each year, about 5 million people are hospitalized with influenza A worldwide. Another common virus, the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), is the leading cause of acute infections of the lower respiratory tract in children under five years old. It can spread to the lower respiratory tract, causing pneumonia or bronchiolitis - an inflammation of the small airway passages entering the lungs. Although co-infection is common, it was still unclear how these viruses would respond if they are together in the same cell. A recent study published in Nature Microbiology - led by Prof. Pablo Murcia from the University of Glasgow - showed that the two viruses, rather than competing with one another, can fuse to form a hybrid virus: a more potent and new type of pathogen. Whereas influenza usually infects cells in the nose, RSV tends to go lower down into the respiratory tract reaching the lung cells. The possibility of forming a hybrid may increase the chances of triggering severe lung infections. The study has shown that once formed, the hybrid can infect neighboring cells even in presence of neutralizing antibodies against influenza - which would normally block the infection. A likely explanation is that, although the antibodies still attack the hybrid’s surface, the RSV viral proteins are used as a Trojan horse to resist the attack and penetrate the cells. It is the very first time that such cooperation between two common respiratory viruses has been observed. Researchers believe that these findings could explain why co-infections can lead to significantly worse diseases in some patients, including hard-to-treat viral pneumonia.

READ MORE
24.10.2022
THEME: POLITICS

A week of records for UK politics: Liz Tuss marks the shortest mandate in history and Rishi Sunak is named Prime Minister

Today Rishi Sunak was named leader of the UK Conservative party and will consequently become the country's next prime minister (in the UK the leader of the majority party is automatically prime minister as well). Sunak's appointment came after British Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned last week, just six weeks into her mandate, after losing the party support mainly due to the serious financial crisis caused by her tax reform. Sunak is 42 years old and is the first non-white person to be named UK Prime Minister. He was born in Southampton, England, where his parents had emigrated from Africa: his father was born in Kenya, and his mother in Tanzania, and both were of Indian descent. In his political career, Sunak was mainly Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Economy) between 2020 and 2022, during the government of Boris Johnson. He is a graduate of Oxford University and also studied at Stanford, in the United States. He had previously worked for the major investment bank Goldman Sachs and entered politics in 2014, among the Conservatives. He is considered a pragmatic politician who belongs to the right wing of the party (in 2016 he voted in favor of Brexit). Sunak will formally take office in the next few hours, after receiving the post from King Charles III. With Miss Tuss’ resignation after only 6 weeks and Sunak’s election, the UK marks two unprecedented records in his political history.

READ MORE
23.10.2022
THEME: POLITICS

Xi Jinping is confirmed for a third historical mandate

On October 23, after the 20th Communist Party National Congress, Xi Jinping was appointed as the party’s general secretary for another five years with a norm-breaking unprecedented third term. In his opening speech on October 16th, Xi reported the last five year’s successful results: achieving modernization, social stability, economic well-being, national security, solving corruption issues, advancing technology and science, and raising the attention to ecology. All achievements were due, in his words, to the principles of Marxism, which has guided the nation in the past and will continue to give political guidance in the future. In his intervention, Xi Jinping remarked that huge changes are expected in the next five years of the world economic order and that China will be the key country in the social and political international landscape. Referring to the West, he mentioned that “In pursuing modernization, China will not tread the old path of war, colonization, and plunder taken by some countries”. On the Taiwan issue, he made clear that “resolving the Taiwan question and realizing China's complete reunification is, for the Party, a historic mission and an unshakable commitment” and “the policies of peaceful reunification are the best way to realize reunification across the Taiwan Strait”. He added that the party “will continue to strive for peaceful reunification with the greatest sincerity and the utmost effort, but will never promise to renounce the use of force, and we reserve the option of taking all measures necessary”.

READ MORE
21.10.2022
THEME: POLITICS

EU Council takes measures for Ukraine war and energy market crisis

While Russia continued striking energy infrastructure in Ukraine, the EU council met on October 20-21 to formulate decisions on several open issues including the Ukraine and energy crisis. The council expressed determination “to defend the sovereignty of Ukraine and rules-based international order”. It reiterated “that Russia bears the sole responsibility for the current energy and economic crises” and the “rejection of the illegal annexation by Russia of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson regions”. The EU will continue to support Ukraine, providing “political, military, and financial support” and it decides to “conduct an EU Military Assistance Mission in support of Ukraine”. The Council condemns the acts of sabotage against critical infrastructures, such as those against the Nord Stream pipelines, and urges nations to cooperate to enhance the resilience of critical infrastructure. To contain gas pricing, the EU decided to encourage joint purchasing and implement a temporary dynamic price cap on natural gas transactions, in particular to the gas used for electricity generation. This will establish a flexible range for gas prices, but more precise details will be known in the next two to three weeks. During the press conference after the council, French president Emmanuel Macron expressed the feeling that gas pricing is not only concerning Russia but the US too. In his words “American gas is 3-4 times cheaper on the domestic market than the price at which they offer it to Europeans. These are double standards", Macron said. According to him, this should become a topic for discussion, since "it concerns sincerity in transatlantic trade". The Council also discussed external relations and pointed to the need to hold strategic discussions with China in preparation for the EU-ASEAN Commemorative Summit on 14 December 2022. This will be an opportunity to further deepen the European Union’s Strategic Partnership with ASEAN.

READ MORE
19.10.2022
THEME: HEALTH

A new DNA-based screening test has been developed to predict cervical, ovarian, and breast cancer

So far, cervical cancer screening has been the most successful personalized cancer prevention strategy. This type of screening aims to identify women with a pre-invasive lesion, which can be then surgically excised. Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV, which is sexually transmitted) could increase the risk of cancer of the cervix, vulva, and vagina. Today, many countries are adopting screening for human papillomavirus (HPV) as the primary investigation for cervical cancer. The test consists of the cytological analysis of a small biopsy of the cervix: high-risk HPV-positive women are identified and successive eventual treatment is determined. However, many patients are developing this type of cancer that are HPV-negative, implying that preventive diagnosis remains limited to a minority of cases. Scientists from the University of Innsbruck and University College London (UCL) developed a new screening test based on a DNA analysis that brings preventive diagnosis significantly beyond. The study, published in Genome Medicine, demonstrates a DNA methylation test of the cervical fluid capable of identifying women with a high risk of developing cervical, ovarian, and breast cancer. Such methodology opens the way to the more efficient and quick prediction of multiple cancer risks - and therefore a concrete possibility to a systematic early cancer diagnosis, the most important factor for increased chances of success in successive treatment.

READ MORE
17.10.2022
THEME: ENVIRONMENT

Devastating floods in Nigeria kill more than 500 people and displace Millions

On October 14 devastating floods caused by heavier-than-usual rain hit Nigeria. More than 500 people were killed and roughly 90.000 homes are underwater as well as food and fuel supplies are blocked. The floods have impacted 1.4 million people which are currently displaced. According to the humanitarian ministry, flooding this year was similar to Nigeria’s last major flooding in 2012, which killed 363 people and displaced 600.000 people. The World Food Programme indicates that Nigeria is at risk of poverty and vulnerable to food shortage, often caused by periodic floods that put the agriculture sector under pressure. The abnormal floods in Nigeria this year are just one of the many recent signs of climate change: indeed, in the last months, we witnessed natural extreme events around the world. In September severe floods hit Italy, Japan, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and Pakistan. Earlier than that, in August, extreme temperatures occurred in the US, China, and central EU - where serious drought put at risk harvests and drinking water availability. Such a high frequency of events due to extreme climate demonstrates not only that climate change is happening, but in some cases that it can turn into a real humanitarian catastrophe.

READ MORE
15.10.2022
THEME: TECHNOLOGY

Neurons cultured on silicon arrays and exposed to electrical feedback learned to play game Pong

The neurons are the cells responsible for receiving input from the external world and for sending motor commands to muscles. In a recent study published by a team of scientists from Monash University, Melbourne (Australia) and UC London (UK) 800’000 neurons cultured on silicon in a petri dish have learned to play the arcade 1970’s arcade game pong. Through silicon chips and arrayed electrodes, the scientists have connected humans and murine neurons to a computer where they were made aware when the paddle was making contact with the ball. It has been monitored the activity and responses of the neurons and plotted the results as spikes on a grid with spikes getting stronger the more a neuron moves a paddle and hit the ball. The results published in the journal Neuron demonstrated that neurons can adapt the activity to a changing environment in real-time. These findings pave the way to a better understanding of how intelligence arises, which would help to develop new algorithms for machine learning. Harnessing the computational power of living neurons to create synthetic biological intelligence (SBI), previously confined to the realm of science fiction, may now be within reach of human innovation.

READ MORE
13.10.2022
THEME: TECHNOLOGY

NASA’s DART mission is a success: the first step towards planetary asteroid defense

The DART project (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) is a NASA mission designed to measure how much a spacecraft can deflect an asteroid through an impact with a spacecraft. The mission started on 24 November 2021 with the launch of a spatial probe that crushed intentionally on 26 September 2022 into Dimorphos, a minor moon of the asteroid Didymos. Two days ago, on Tuesday October 11, NASA announced that Dimorphos' orbital period had shortened by 32 minutes - surpassing the "success threshold" by more than one minute. DART is the world’s first test of its kind: a step towards a defense system for our planet against potentially threatening asteroids coming from deep space. The project cost USD 330 million and took seven years to develop. The results obtained justify further efforts toward testing and improving asteroid deflection methods. However, in order to sufficiently displace a bigger asteroid representing a threat to Earth, it is necessary to act with ample margin. It would mean identifying threats months if not years in advance, which implies having a global and connected surveillance network. A planetary defense system designed to prevent a potential doomsday meteorite collision with Earth. Something possible only with full collaboration among nations, rather than a fragmented politics of nationalistic interests. Is the world ready to protect itself from asteroids?

READ MORE
11.10.2022
THEME: WORLD

Russias attacks Ukraine’s energy infrastructures as western countries work to unite their front

The Ukraine crisis is reaching new levels just ten days after the annexation of 15% territory to Russia. While the Kremlin declared that the annexed territories are part of Russia forever, Ukraine president Zelenski indicated that they intend to free the whole country from the invasion, Crimea included. In the last few days, the Ukrainian army has obtained some results by gaining back small portions of the subtracted regions. In a successful operation, a crucial bridge connecting Crimea and Russia was hit and temporarily put out of order. However, the answer from Russia has been serious with more than 100 cruise missiles dropped on key objectives, including Kyiv and Leopoli. The attacks, where energy infrastructures were targeted, resulted in many deaths and blackouts throughout the country. On the international front president of Belarus Lukashenko announced a plan to deploy joint forces with Russia. The EU leaders and allied countries met in Prague on October 7 to consolidate a community of 44 countries ready to contrast Russia on all fronts. Today October 11, during an emergency meeting of the G7 nations in Berlin, the leaders committed to supporting Ukraine for "as long as it takes" while promising to continue to provide financial, humanitarian, military, diplomatic, and legal support. Further, an air shield will be implemented to neutralize the Russian missiles and drones. More sanctions against Russia have also been planned. All this is happening in a tense diplomatic climate. While Russian officials have recently threatened the use of tactical nuclear weapons, US president Joe Biden said that “we have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis”.

READ MORE
10.10.2022
THEME: WORLD

The Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2022 goes to the analysis of banks role during financial crisis

Ben Bernanke (USA, 68), Douglas Diamond (DK, 68), and Philip Dybvig (USA, 67) are the winners of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences 2022, awarded “for research on banks and financial crises”. Their research shed light on the significant role of banks in the economy, particularly during financial crises. An important finding in their research is why avoiding bank collapses is vital to avoid escalating consequences during crises. They have analyzed in detail the weakness of banks when rumors of imminent collapse spread: If a large number of savers simultaneously run to the bank to withdraw their money, the rumor may become a self-fulfilling prophecy – a bank run occurs and the bank collapses. These dangerous dynamics can be prevented through the government providing deposit insurance and acting as a lender of last resort to banks. Ben Bernanke analyzed the Great Depression of the 1930s, the worst economic crisis in modern history. Among other things, he showed how bank runs were a decisive factor in the crisis becoming so deep and prolonged. When the banks collapsed, valuable information about borrowers was lost and could not be recreated quickly. Overall, their work was crucial for the implementation of the modern defense mechanisms enacted during the financial crisis.

READ MORE
08.10.2022
THEME: WORLD

The 2022 Nobel Peace Prize assigned for protection of civil and human rights in East Europe

The 2022 Peace Prize is awarded to human rights advocate Ales Bialiatski (60 - Belarus), the Russian Human Rights Organization Memorial, and the Ukrainian human rights organization Center for Civil Liberties. The laureates "have for many years promoted the right to criticize power and protect the fundamental rights of citizens. They have made an outstanding effort to document war crimes, human rights abuses, and the abuse of power. Together they demonstrate the significance of civil society for peace and democracy". The Memorial has been founded in 1989 to commemorate the crimes committed under Joseph Stalin's reign in the Soviet Union, and it was based in Moscow until its forced dissolution in 2022 for violations of "foreign agent law". The Center of Civil Liberties was founded in Kyiv in 2007. The organization is engaged in an attempt to make Ukraine more democratic and to improve the public control of law enforcement agencies and the judiciary. It also documented war crimes during the ongoing invasion of Russia in Ukraine. Ales Bialiatski is known for his work with the Viasna Human Rights Centre, based in Minsk until Belarus ordered its closure in 2003. This was an organization providing assistance to political prisoners. In 2010 controversial presidential elections were held and both Visa's offices and Bialiatski's home have been searched by state security forces repeatedly. Bialatski was summoned in the same year to the Public Prosecutor's office and warned that as Viasna was an unregistered organization, the government would seek criminal proceedings against it if the group continued to operate. More recently, following the Belarusian protests in 2020-2021, Viasna's members have been further prosecuted with politically motivated charges. Ales Bialiatski, now Nobel Peace Laureate, has been imprisoned Since 14 July 2021 for alleged tax evasion. Human rights defenders consider him a prisoner of conscience.

READ MORE
07.10.2022
THEME: WORLD

Annie Ernaux wins the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature

The 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the french author Annie Ernaux “for the courage and clinical acuity with which she uncovers the roots, estrangements and collective restraints of personal memory”. Annie grew up in Normandy in a working-class family. She started her literary career in 1974 with Les Armoires Vides ("Cleaned Out"), an autobiographical novel. Very early in her career, she turned away from fiction to focus on autobiography, combining historic and individual experiences. Her books are followed by a wide readership and are reviewed in most local and national newspapers in France, as well as being the subject of many radio and television interviews and programs, and a large and growing international academic literature. Her famous works include La Place ("A Man's Place", 1983), L'événement ("Happening", 2000), L'Occupation ("The Possession", 2002), and Les Années ("The Years", 2008). Ernaux has always been adamant that she writes fiction. Many of her works have been translated into English, and she was nominated for the International Booker prize in 2019 for her book The Years. Her work is published in the US by Seven Stories Press. Ernaux is one of the seven founding authors from whom the press takes its name.

READ MORE
06.10.2022
THEME: WORLD

Bertozzi, Meldal, Barry: the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to the pioneers of “click” chemistry

Carolyn R. Bertozzi (USA, 55), Morten Meldal (DK, 68), and Barry Sharpless (USA, 81) are the winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2022, awarded “or the development of click chemistry and bioorthogonal chemistry”. Sharpless and Meldal have laid the foundation by describing the process for the first time in two independent but very similar works. Bertozzi (the 8th woman in history awarded with this Nobel) has taken click chemistry to a new dimension and started utilizing it in living organisms. Click chemistry is not a single specific reaction but describes a way of generating products by joining small modular units. By the union of biomolecules and molecular probes, they have been made notably useful in the detection, localization, and qualification of biomolecules in vivo. However, the method is not limited to biological conditions: the concept of a "click" reaction has been used in chemoproteomic, pharmacological, and various biomimetic applications. The reason for such widespread use is that these reactions are in general able to occur in relatively simple conditions, are not disturbed by water, generate little and inoffensive byproducts, and happen quickly with high characteristic yield. These qualities make click reactions particularly suitable to the problem of isolating and targeting molecules in complex biological environments. In such environments, products accordingly need to be physiologically stable and any byproducts need to be non-toxic (for in vivo systems). Their work finds even further application in all those industries and research fields where molecules need precision design and production, such as nanotechnology, pharmacology, and materials engineering.

READ MORE
05.10.2022
THEME: WORLD

Aspect, Clauser, Zeilinger: the Nobel prize in Physics goes to experimental quantum entanglement

A famous law of quantum mechanics states that two objects that are separate in space can, in some cases, maintain a strong connection: what happens to one object will immediately influence the other. Such incredible behavior, referred to as entanglement, is a characteristic of quantum mechanics which has no parallel in classical physics. If theories have been developed at the beginning of the past century, the experimental proof came much later. It is for their pioneering experiments that demonstrate these facts that today Alain Aspect (France - 75), John F Clauser (the USA - 79), and Anton Zeilinger (Austria - 77) are the winners of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics. Thanks to their work, quantum entanglement is not just a theory anymore, but rather a hard undeniable fact of nature. It is also thanks to their contribution that today many investments have been dedicated to quantum technology, which is revolutionizing the capabilities of our computers as well as bringing cybersecurity to the next level.

READ MORE
04.10.2022
THEME: WORLD

Swedish paleogeneticist Svante Pääbo wins 2022 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine

Dr. Svante Pääbo (Swedish - 67), founder of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and adjunct professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, won the 2022 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. His most important contribution to science was the sequencing of the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of present-day humans. Dr. Pääbo and his team found that the modern human - Homo Sapiens - inherited some genes from these now exinct hominis. This ancient flow of genes to present-day humans has physiological relevance today, for example affecting how our immune system reacts to infections. The anatomically modern human - Homo Sapiens - first appeared in Africa approximately 300,000 years ago, while our closest known relatives - Neanderthals - developed outside Africa and populated Europe and Western Asia from around 400,000 years until 30,000 years ago, at which point they went extinct. About 70,000 years ago, groups of Homo Sapiens migrated from Africa to the Middle East and from there they spread to the rest of the world. Homo sapiens and Neanderthals thus coexisted in large parts of Eurasia for tens of thousands of years. The research of Dr. Pääbo has proven that such coexistence may have been closer than previously thought.

READ MORE
03.10.2022
THEME: POLITICS

Brazil elections took place in a violent climate: Lula is favourite after first ballot with 5% margin

More than 156 million Brazilians - those eligible to vote - were called to elect the new president and several local authorities on Sunday, October 2. To win at this first ballot a candidate must collect more than 50% consensus. A second round is foreseen otherwise. These elections, which see two main candidates - Lula and Bolsonaro - radically opposite in almost every aspect of their politics, are characterized by an extreme climate of violence. Recent events include shootings at public places, the murder of a politician, and even explosives thrown at the crowd of a political rally. Due to the tense climate, the two candidates have been seen constantly escorted by security or police, even wearing bulletproof vests. Bolsonaro - the head of the Liberal Party, now 67 - would be re-elected with a victory. His campaign focused on privatization of public companies, lowering energy prices, increasing mining activities, and welfare in continuation with his previous government (Auxilio Brasil). Lula, now 76, is representing the Worker’s Party and would also achieve re-election in the event of a victory: he governed before in two consecutive terms until 2010. He left office with a very high approval rating, and he is largely credited for lifting many Brazilians from extreme poverty with the “Bolsa Familia” welfare program. He focused his campaign on getting Bolsonaro out of office and highlighted his past achievements throughout the campaign. However, he was involved in the wide-ranging “Operation Car Wash” investigation and was convicted for corruption and money laundering in 2017. But after serving less than two years, a Supreme Court Justice annulled Lula’s conviction in March 2021, clearing the way for him to run for president for the sixth time. Lula obtained more than 48% votes in the first round and will face Bolsonaro - 43% - on October 30 in the final election round.

READ MORE
01.10.2022
THEME: HEALTH

Recent research finds that the brain “rewires” in phases during adulthood

With more than 80 billion interconnected neuronal cells, the human brain is one of the yet unsolved big mysteries of science. In popular knowledge it is accepted that the brain goes through significant changes in childhood: this is supported by evident milestones such as learning to walk, speak, paint, etc… However, brain development is often commonly thought of as a process that, starting at the youngest age, reaches a mature state in young adults and only in old age - eventually - degrades by an act of diseases such as dementia or Alzheimer’s. Recent scientific research is instead pointing to a completely different understanding. The structural, functional, and metabolic changes don’t stop in the early years and continue throughout adulthood in more than one distinct phase. A “refinement phase” takes place around the third and fourth decade of life: the executive function and attention, such as the ability to think abstractly, reason, and problem-solve will peak at this point before further changing. Around the fifth decade of life, our brains start to undergo a radical "rewiring" that results in a more integrated and connected network. Older adults display reduced activity in consolidating or learning concepts, but an improved activity in associating what is already learned. Such change likely results from the necessity to function with reduced resources and aging neurons. Overall, tasks relying on predominantly known processes are less impacted by age or may even increase slightly - such as vocabulary and general knowledge. Evidence also indicated that the variability among individuals can be large: a proper diet, regular exercise, and a healthy lifestyle can keep the mind in good working order and put networking changes on hold, sometimes well into old age. Further understanding of these matters may, in the future, positively evolve our societies as currently adult individuals are considered equals - by organizational and representative organs - independently of their age.

READ MORE
30.09.2022
THEME: POLITICS

Nations witness unprecedented attacks to gas pipelines while Russia annexes Ukraine territories

Today September 30 Putin confirmed the annexation of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia in a televised ceremony in the Kremlin's St. George's Hal, justified by the so-called “referendums”. He added that “….(they) are becoming our citizens forever” and that Russia “will defend its land with all the means available”. Ukraine and the West have renounced the vote as a sham and said they will never recognize the Ukrainian regions as being part of Russia. Reactions are escalating with the EU promising more opposition and economic sanctions, Ukraine promising continued military effort, and the US and Russia exchanging threats. Finland announced the closure of its borders to Russian tourists starting midnight. Additional tension is due to four gas leaks that occurred on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines on Monday. They were preceded by two large explosions that were registered by seismologists, indicating that it was a deliberate attack. To date, no pointers have yet emerged as to who might have done it and why. The damage now likely prevents transporting any gas to Europe even if the political situation changes. German security agencies are concerned that Nord Stream 1 may become unusable forever and the EU is now investigating the incident and promising countermeasures. Naval forces have been deployed from the Baltic to the Mediterranean seas to protect continental infrastructures. While NATO and US accused Russia, the Kremlin rejected accusations saying it was not in Russia's interest to stop the gas flow through the pipelines. Dmitry Peskov (Press Secretary) and Sergey Lavrov (Foreign Affairs) declared investigations are needed and that Russia would call for a UN Security Council over the matter. Putin himself defined it as an "unprecedented sabotage" and "an act of international terrorism”, accusing the US and saying that “it is obvious to everyone who did it”. In the meantime, Germany's government says it will spend up to €200 billion to help consumers and businesses cope with rising energy prices: a decision likely to spread through the EU countries. Further, a final measure of the EU commission on the price cap on energy imports will also be decided or rejected by mid-October.

READ MORE
29.09.2022
THEME: HEALTH

Historic moment for Alzheimer's treatment: an experimental drug demonstrated slowing the disease’s progression

On Wednesday the experimental drug “lecanemab”, developed by Eisai (Japan) and Biogen (USA), has been declared efficient as a result of a large phase 3 clinical study involving 1795 patients with early Alzheimer’s disease. With high statistical significance, lecanemab has shown a reduction in clinical decline in patients. It has been shown that the drug slowed the progress of the disease by 27% compared to the placebo. Toxic plaques made of “amyloid-beta” proteins are considered the probable cause of Alzheimer’s disease. The drug reduced the number of toxic plaques in the brain and slowed the decline in memory and ability to perform daily tasks. Lecanemab has been the first one able to successfully slow cognitive decline in Alzheimer’s patients. This is a great achievement for science and medicine, which now offer hope for patients and their families desperate for effective treatment. The multinational pharmacology company Roche, together with Genentech and the Swiss laboratory AC Immune is developing a second drug based on the same principle, which hopefully will even reinforce future treatments.

READ MORE
28.09.2022
THEME: WORLD

Russia claims 15% of Ukraine territory through questioned Referenda while tensions escalate internally and abroad

On September 20 the Russian-installed leaders of four regions of southern and eastern Ukraine - Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk - called for referendums to join Russia. Today the first results have been released: with no surprise, a large majority was declared in favor of annexation to Russia. It means around 15% of Ukrainian territory - an area about the size of Hungary or Portugal - is now under the direct control of the Kremlin. From today the Kremlin’s narrative may switch to claim Russia itself is under attack from NATO weapons: this justified several threats to the use of nuclear weapons in the last few days as well as the mobilization of hundreds of thousands of Russian troops. The international reactions are mixed in the level of condemnation of the process, but almost every state (including China and India) are asking to stop the war as soon as possible. Russian state media claim that the vote has been regular and that observers from all over the world (including France and Germany) reported no violations. However, western media noted that the process has been breaching the United Nations Principles for international observation: first of all an international election observer mission must respect the “sovereignty of the country holding elections,” and the host country – in this case, Ukraine – should invite international observers. US and NATO members already condemned the vote before the results were known. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said in a tweet that he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and told him that the military alliance is "unwavering" in its support for Ukraine's sovereignty and right to self-defense. As previously stated, Kyiv is likely to continue in the pursuit of its military goals - which include the “liberation of Ukraine until Crimea”. After Putin announced mobilization last week, long queues have been reported at the frontiers with Georgia, Finland, and Kazakhstan, where men were questioned about their military eligibility before being allowed through. Spontaneous manifestations have flared across Russia and continue in a wave of protests involving thousands - despite penalties for those fleeing a mandatory military call-up by up to 10 years of jail since Saturday. In the meantime, two leaks on the Russian-owned Nord Stream 1 pipeline in Swedish and Danish waters, shortly after a leak on the nearby Nord Stream 2 project, were discovered. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak said the damage to Nord Stream 1 and 2 was "an act of aggression" towards the EU. He added that Russia wanted to cause pre-winter panic and urged the EU to increase military support for Ukraine.

READ MORE

PAST MONTH

month -1

HOMEPAGE

go_today

NEXT MONTH

month +1