Since the early 1950s the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has been crucial to the protection of basic human rights in Europe. It is equally relevant to the citizens of the 47 member states of the Council of Europe and to the victims of war and persecution who seek refuge in these countries.
Denmark, once a proud Scandinavian front runner in the global work to strengthen human rights, might have surprised some observers when it was announced in November 2016 that the government had formed a task force of civil servants that were going to lobby the other 46 governments in the Council of Europe in order to change the “dynamic interpretation” of the ECHR. Those closely acquainted with developments in Denmark, however, would have noticed a series of very restrictive legislative measures following the arrivals of asylum seekers in Europe in the autumn of 2015.
While the 1951 UN Refugee Convention does not contain a right to family reunification the ECHR’s Article 8 on the right to private and family life is a vital legal instrument for the protection of this right. When undermining the “dynamic interpretation” of the ECHR, practiced by the European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR) in Strasbourg, Denmark is in fact targeting the right to family reunification.
The Danish task force started its activities in late 2016. From a reply by the German federal government to the left-wing party Die Linke in the Bundestag we have learned that the head of the task force met with German colleagues in Berlin on December 1st. And that it became clear that the German government “will, as in the past, work to strengthen the ECtHR and the ECHR protection system”. [1]
Particles split in the hot belly of a lightning bolt. Radioactive particles decay in the afterglow. Gamma rays rain down to Earth.
Teruaki Enoto, a physicist at Kyoto University in Japan, proved for the first time, in a paper published Nov. 23, that lightning bolts work as natural particle accelerators. Enoto and his co-authors' results confirm for the first time speculation dating back to 1925 about this phenomenon. Back then, scientists suggested that energized, radioactive particles might zip through the booms and flashes of a thunderstorm. Those particles emit energy at precise wavelengths, which Enoto and colleagues are the first to detect. [Electric Earth: Stunning Images of Lightning]
Here's what that means:
When lighting strikes, electrons shoot screamingly fast between clouds and Earth's surface (or between two clouds). But the particles don't travel through empty space. Along the way, they crash again and again into atmospheric gas molecules. All those collisions heat the gas into a state called plasma, which glows with blackbody radiation (a type of electromagnetic radiation given off by some opaque objects).
Our constitution is being rewritten by perhaps the most right-wing government in modern British history, propped up by an even more fanatical party, the DUP. This week, despite an orchestrated campaign to amend the legislation previously known as the ‘Great Repeal Bill’, we’ve failed to land a blow on the government.
The battle is by no means over, and the renamed EU Withdrawal Bill will shortly move to the Lords. But it should be a wake-up call, that we can’t just wait for another government. Vital protections, safeguards and rights are being removed from us right now, and the EU Withdrawal Bill is just the opening salvo. It will be followed by legislation on food, farming and fisheries, on immigration and borders, on trade and customs.
The last of these bills was introduced into parliament two weeks ago, and carries with it serious implications for everyone in the UK as well as millions more people round the world. If you were worried about US-UK trade deal TTIP, you need to take Liam Fox’s new Trade Bill seriously. If it isn’t amended, we have every reason to fear a ‘TTIP on steroids’ is coming our way.
The Trade Bill will allow the British government to negotiate trade deals after Brexit. It is our only chance to make sure that these deals done will be open, democratic and accountable. And we only have a few months to do it.
Last week Trade Secretary Liam Fox rolled out the red carpet to Trump’s trade negotiators. We’re not allowed to know what they discussed, but we do know that Trump’s Commerce Secretary, the so-called ‘King of Bankruptcy’ Wilbur Ross, has said that lower food standards will be a prerequisite for any US-UK trade deal. So TTIP’s infamous chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-filled beef are likely to appear on the British menu. We also know US politicians are desperate to open the NHS to US healthcare multinationals.
According to the first deputy chairman of Russia's Central Bank, the traditional trade system based in London has become less relevant.
The BRICS countries, comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, are mulling the possibility of creating a unified system of gold trade "both within BRICS and at the level of bilateral contacts," according to the announcement made by first deputy chairman of Russia's Central Bank Sergey Shvetsov at the "Precious metals market" conference.
"The traditional [trade] system based in London and partially in Swiss cities is becoming less relevant as new trade hubs are emerging, first of all in India, China, and South Africa," he said.
According to the Russian Central Bank official, on the basis of this unified system, it is possible to create new benchmarks (an approximate benchmark) in the future.
Wait, so after 54 years they are STILL not releasing ALL files involving the JFK investigation? Let me translate this...it means that a person(s) is still alive today, that has information related to the death and/or cover-up of John F. Kennedy, who was killed on November 22, 1963.
In 1965, the Sugar Research Foundation (SRF) secretly funded a review in the New England Journal of Medicine that discounted evidence linking sucrose consumption to blood lipid levels and hence coronary heart disease (CHD). SRF subsequently funded animal research to evaluate sucrose’s CHD risks. The objective of this study was to examine the planning, funding, and internal evaluation of an SRF-funded research project titled “Project 259: Dietary Carbohydrate and Blood Lipids in Germ-Free Rats,” led by Dr. W.F.R. Pover at the University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom, between 1967 and 1971. A narrative case study method was used to assess SRF Project 259 from 1967 to 1971 based on sugar industry internal documents. Project 259 found a statistically significant decrease in serum triglycerides in germ-free rats fed a high sugar diet compared to conventional rats fed a basic PRM diet (a pelleted diet containing cereal meals, soybean meals, whitefish meal, and dried yeast, fortified with a balanced vitamin supplement and trace element mixture). The results suggested to SRF that gut microbiota have a causal role in carbohydrate-induced hypertriglyceridemia. A study comparing conventional rats fed a high-sugar diet to those fed a high-starch diet suggested that sucrose consumption might be associated with elevated levels of beta-glucuronidase, an enzyme previously associated with bladder cancer in humans. SRF terminated Project 259 without publishing the results. The sugar industry did not disclose evidence of harm from animal studies that would have (1) strengthened the case that the CHD risk of sucrose is greater than starch and (2) caused sucrose to be scrutinized as a potential carcinogen. The influence of the gut microbiota in the differential effects of sucrose and starch on blood lipids, as well as the influence of carbohydrate quality on beta-glucuronidase and cancer activity, deserve further scrutiny.
