WORLD NEWS FLASH
UNITED STATES
This past week, the nation bid farewell to one public figure – and good riddance to another.
On December 1, Sandra Day O’Connor passed away at the age of 93 due to dementia and a respiratory illness. Born March 26, 1930, O’Connor holds the distinction of being the first woman ever to serve on the Supreme Court of the United States after being nominated by then-President Ronald Reagan. She served from September 25, 1981 to January 31, 2006.
Her husband, John Jay O’Connor who she married back in 1952, predeceased her in 2009. They had three sons and six grandchildren.
“Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was an American icon, the first woman on our nation’s highest court. She spent her career committed to the stable center, pragmatic and in search of common ground. I did not agree with all of her opinions, but I admired her decency and unwavering devotion to the facts, to our country, to active citizenship and the common good,” said President Joe Biden in a statement.
“Defined by her no-nonsense Arizona ranch roots, Justice O’Connor overcame discrimination early on, at a time when law firms too often told women to seek work as secretaries, not attorneys. She gave her life to public service, even holding elected office, and never forgot those ties to the people whom the law is meant to serve. She sought to avoid ideology, and was devoted to the rule of law and to the bedrock American principle of an independent judiciary. Unrelenting in her interrogations of attorneys before the Court, she was willing to learn and to change, open to the experience of fellow Americans and always conscious of the law’s real impact on their lives.
“As a U.S. Senator on the Judiciary Committee, I remember the hope surrounding her historic nomination to the Supreme Court. The Senate voted 99-0 in her favor, proof that our nation can come together to move history forward.
“Justice O’Connor never quit striving to make this nation stronger, retiring only to care for her husband, John, the love of her life. She never quit calling on us all to engage with our country and with one another, and her institute’s work to promote civics education and civil discourse has touched millions. She knew that for democracy to work, we have to listen to each other, and remember how much more we all have in common as Americans than what keeps us apart.
“Our hearts today are with Justice O’Connor’s three sons, Scott, Brian, and Jay; her brother, Alan; her six grandchildren; and all those who loved her.”
And now to the opposite end of the spectrum. Also on December 1, in a 311-114 vote, Rep. George Santos (R-NY) became the sixth member of the House and first modern day Republican ousted from the chamber after a scathing report from the Ethics Committee. Two members marked themselves as “present.” Meanwhile, Santos is also facing a myriad of federal charges.
Upon his removal, Santos said to the media, “Why would I want to stay here? To hell with this place.”
MASS SHOOTING UPDATE
Information recent as of 12-5-2023 at 12 p.m.
2023 Mass Shooting Stats: (Source: Mass Shooting Tracker – https://www.massshootingtracker.site/data/?year=2023)
Total Mass Shootings: 715
Total Dead: 857
Total Wounded: 2851
Shootings Per Day: 2.11
Days Reached in Year 2023 as of Dec. 5: 339
MIDDLE EAST
AID CUT AS WAR GOES SOUTH
Reports of hundreds of fatalities from bombing in southern Gaza over the weekend heightened deep concerns for civilians sheltering there, while UN humanitarians on Monday said that aid teams had only “extremely limited” movement and access to the north was “now entirely blocked.”
The latest update from the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, confirmed rising casualties and devastation amid “heavy Israeli bombardment from air, land and sea.”
“From the afternoon of (Saturday) December 3 to the afternoon of (Sunday) December 3, at least 316 people were killed and at least another 664 injured in Gaza,” OCHA’s situation update reported, adding that an Israeli soldier had been reportedly killed in the enclave at the weekend and another had succumbed to wounds sustained previously.
The return to bloodshed followed the breakdown of a ceasefire between Hamas and Israel last Friday, December 1, that had allowed for the release of dozens of the approximately 240 hostages taken from southern Israel during the group’s terror attack that claimed some 1,200 lives, according to Israeli authorities, and of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.
Health authorities in Gaza claim that more than 15,000 people have been killed since October 7.
Echoing humanitarians’ concerns for civilians caught up in the violence, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNWRA, said that in Rafah city in the south people were being forced to flee against a backdrop of airstrikes.
“People are pleading for advice on where to find safety,” said Director of UNRWA Affairs Thomas White. “We have nothing to tell them.”
Some 1.8 million Gazans now live in the south of Gaza after an order from the Israeli Defense Forces to residents to leave the north of the Strip in mid-October.
In a new development, OCHA reported that the Israeli military had “designated an area covering about 20 percent of Khan Younis city for immediate evacuation” on Sunday, and that this area had been “marked in an online map (and) published on social media.”
Prior to the onset of hostilities, this area was home to nearly 117,000 people, the UN aid coordination office said, noting that it housed 21 shelters with about 50,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs), the vast majority previously displaced from the north.
Meanwhile, OCHA reported that some lifesaving humanitarian supplies were continuing to roll into Gaza late on Sunday evening from Egypt, although their exact number and contents were unclear. Ten humanitarian staff also entered via the Rafah border crossing, which also saw the evacuation of 566 foreign nationals and dual citizens, 13 injured people and 11 companions.
In a sign of widespread international alarm over the continuing violence in Gaza, the UN Security Council was due to hold closed consultations on the issue on Monday.
The meeting, which was expected to feature Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo, was requested by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which expressed the “deeply concerning resumption of hostilities and the continuing dire humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.”
Meanwhile, in a social media post revealing a panorama of smashed masonry, rescue workers and distressed youngsters in southern Gaza on Saturday, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson James Elder railed against “the endless killing of children” after a night of “utterly relentless bombardments.”
WORLD
COUNTRIES PLEDGE TO ADDRESS CLIMATE
With rising temperatures leading to demand for more air conditioners and other cooling equipment, a new UN report launched Tuesday at COP28 climate talks in Dubai lays out a pathway to cut emissions across the cooling sector worldwide.
Over 60 countries signed up to a so called ‘cooling pledge’ with commitments to reduce the climate impact of the cooling sector, that could also provide “universal access to life-saving cooling, take the pressure off energy grids and save trillions of dollars by 2050.”
The UN Environment Program (UNEP) estimates that more than 1 billion people are at high risk from extreme heat due to a lack of cooling access – the vast majority living in in Africa and Asia.
Moreover, nearly one-third of the world’s population is exposed to deadly heat waves more than 20 days a year.
The cooling brings relief to people and is also essential for several other critical areas and services such as global food security and vaccine delivery through refrigeration.
But at the same time, conventional cooling, such as air conditioning, is a major driver of climate change, responsible for over seven per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. If not managed properly, energy needs for space cooling will triple by 2050, together with associated emissions.
In short, the more we try to keep cool, the more we heat the planet. If current growth trends continue, cooling equipment represents 20 percent of total electricity consumption today – and is expected to more than double by 2050.
Today’s cooling systems, such as air-conditioners (ACs) and refrigerators, consume massive amount of energy and often use refrigerants that warm the planet.
The latest UNEP report shows that by taking measures to reduce the power consumption of cooling equipment could lead to a reduction of at least 60 percent off predicted 2050 sectoral emissions by 2050.
“The cooling sector must grow to protect everyone from rising temperatures, maintain food quality and safety, keep vaccines stable and economies productive,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP, who launched the report during a press conference at Expo City, where COP28 has been underway since last Thursday.
“But this growth must not come at the cost of the energy transition and more intense climate impacts,” she urged.
The report was released in support of the ‘Global Cooling Pledge’, a joint initiative between the United Arab Emirates as host of COP28 and the UNEP-led ‘Cool Coalition.’
It outlines actions to take in passive cooling strategies – such as insulation, natural shading, ventilation and reflective surfaces, higher energy efficiency standards and a rapid phase down of climate-warming hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants.
Following the report’s recommendations could reduce the projected 2050 emissions from business-as-usual cooling by around 3.8 billion tons of CO2 equivalent.
EUROPE
PROMISING NEWS ON HIV MEDICINE
People with a history of rough sleeping and those at risk of homelessness will be helped into stable, long-term accommodation thanks to nearly £150 million of government funding.
A new research project to evaluate an expansion of the hugely successful HIV opt-out testing program to new sites across England, has today been announced (November 29, 2023). Given the success of the existing testing program, this new initiative is expected to save, and improve the quality of, thousands of lives.
Backed by £20 million of NIHR funding, the research will evaluate the testing program in 46 new sites across England. Expansion of the program could identify a significant proportion of the estimated 4,500 people living with undiagnosed HIV – preventing new transmissions and saving more lives through testing people’s blood already being taken in emergency departments for bloodborne viruses (BBVs), including HIV and hepatitis B and C.
Last year, as part of the government’s world leading HIV action plan for England, NHS England launched the BBVs opt-out testing program, with funding available for 34 emergency departments in areas with the highest prevalence of HIV. This announcement means the program will be expanded as part of a research evaluation in all 46 emergency departments covering 32 areas with high prevalence of HIV.
It will support the UK’s progress in being a world leader in the fight against HIV – and in meeting its goal to end new transmissions of HIV within England by 2030.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Victoria Atkins, said, “Less than 3 decades ago, HIV could be a death sentence. It was often – and wrongly – considered a source of shame, and diagnoses were hidden from friends, family and society. But today, thanks to effective treatments, it is possible to live a long and healthy life with HIV.
“As well as promoting prevention for all, the more people we can diagnose, the more chance we have of ending new transmissions of the virus and the stigma wrongly attached to it.
“This program, which improves people’s health and wellbeing, saves lives and money.”
The evaluation of the expansion of opt-out testing will help reach the government’s bold ambitions of reducing new HIV transmissions by 80% in 2025 and ending new transmissions by 2030, according to an update on the HIV action plan for England.
The existing program in extremely high prevalence areas has been shown to be highly effective in identifying HIV in people unaware they had the virus and re-engaging those who are not in HIV care. The program provides linkage to medication, a treatment and care pathway which enables people to live long and healthy lives, where the virus is undetectable.
During the first 18 months of the BBVs opt-out testing program, 33 emergency departments conducted 1,401,866 HIV tests, 960,328 hepatitis C virus (HCV) tests and 730,137 hepatitis B virus (HBV) tests significantly increasing the number of bloodborne virus tests conducted in England each year.
It has identified:
- 934 people living with HIV or people disengaged from HIV care
- 2,206 people living with HBV and 388 disengaged from HBV care
- 867 people living with HCV and 186 disengaged from HCV care
In 2022, England once again achieved the UN AIDS 95-95-95 target nationally: 95% of people living with HIV being diagnosed, 98% of those diagnosed being on treatment and 98% of those on treatment having an undetectable viral load – meaning the levels of HIV are so low that the virus cannot be passed on.
In a speech at the All Party Parliamentary Group on HIV and AIDS event, Atkins thanked the ongoing dedication from NHS staff, HIV charities, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), local government and professional bodies and campaigners, which have worked tirelessly to support the government in achieving its goal to end new transmissions.
People with reactive or positive tests results are linked to care and offered information and support through community organizations.
The opt-out strategy for BBVs testing is important to address health inequalities by reaching groups, such as those from ethnic minorities or women, who are less likely to attend sexual health services and may be disproportionately affected both by higher rates of some BBVs and stigma associated with BBVs testing or diagnosis.
Opt-out testing additionally provides a valuable opportunity to re-engage with people who have previously been diagnosed with a BBV but who are not accessing treatment or care.
Anne Aslett, CEO of the Elton John AIDS Foundation, said, “The Elton John AIDS Foundation launched the first HIV Social Impact Bond in 2018 because too many vulnerable people were being left behind. Together with our partners, we identified opt-out testing in emergency departments as an effective and cost-saving way of ensuring people living with HIV get the treatment they needed.
“We warmly welcomed the government’s decision to expand this successful method of HIV diagnosis to 33 sites in April last year and results from the last 18 months demonstrate how incredibly important this approach is to ensure no one is left behind. Today’s announcement to further expand opt-out testing to 46 additional emergency departments is another fantastic and very significant step towards meeting the goal of ending new HIV transmissions by 2030 and above all else will save lives.”
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