STORM CIARA

UK battered by 100mph winds, as Met Office warns of more to come

IT IS ALSO BATTERING EUROPE 

VIDEO

Storm Ciara: UK faces 'storm of the century' as winds up to 90mph and torrential rain hit

https://www.thesun.co.uk/9f1b347e-5c4d-45e1-9b14-1d127507acb4

PLANE PANIC 

Passengers scream and ‘throw up’ on Storm Ciara terror flight as plane fails FIFTH landing in Amsterdam

Felix Allen 10th February 2020

VIDEO
https://www.thesun.co.uk/a5e62a5d-7ad7-49f2-82f6-fed52ca1362e

The short clip shows the plane rocking and jolting as it was buffeted by the strong winds from Ciara, known as Storm Sabine in Europe.

At least one woman can be heard crying hysterically and calling out “Oh my God!” in the dimly lit cabin.

Other passengers were reportedly screaming and throwing up in an ordeal that lasted almost an hour.

Eventually the pilot aborted the landing and returned to Madrid.

Passenger Mark Haagen told RTLNieuws: “We made a restart five times at Schiphol but we were unable to land.

“People screamed and were puking.

“The turbulence was enormous, everything vibrated and went back and forth. The luggage flew back and forth.

“The pilot stopped the landing twice at the very last moment and we took off again at 150 meters above the runway. Really not cool.”

Mark, of Kamerik in the Netherlands, was returning from a weekend in Madrid with two pals.

He added: “I think it is strange at all that we were allowed to fly with this weather.

“The communication from the cockpit was pretty lousy.

“I saw on a screen that we were returning to Madrid after five attempts to land. We did not know where we were.”

Flight tracker data shows the 787 Dreamliner made its first landing approach into Schiphol around 5.10pm local time.

It flew as low as 900ft, repeatedly climbing and circling Amsterdam before descending again.

After the final attempt at 6.05pm the plane climbed and headed back to the Spanish capital where it landed at 8.10pm – five hours after it took off.

Air Europa said: “Flight UX1093 from Madrid to Amsterdam couldn’t land at Amsterdam airport due to bad weather and returned to Madrid.

“Passengers were attended to at all times, accommodated in hotels, and alternatives to reach their destinations the day after were managed by our staff.”

The hammering gale-force winds of Storm Ciara are on full display in a southern UK seaside town, where they are causing a huge crane to spin around.

Dramatic video shows Storm Ciara spinning building site crane like a top

By Press Association

Sunday, February 09, 2020 - 01:27 PM

VIDEO

The hammering gale-force winds of Storm Ciara are on full display in a southern UK seaside town, where they are causing a huge crane to spin around.

A yellow crane at a building site in Worthing, West Sussex was seen rotating freely in the wind as 41mph gusts battered the south coast.

Normally a solid presence high above a 141-home development on the seafront, Sunday’s storm has turned the crane into a spinning top.

Sussex Police said they had received several reports about the whirling crane but confirmed there is no cause for concern as it is designed to move with the wind.

The crane at a building site in Worthing, West Sussex which is rotating in the wind (Michael Drummond/PA)

The force said on Twitter: “Sussex Police have had a number of reports about the crane on Brighton Road Worthing turning in the high winds.

“Sussex Police have been in contact with the developers and the crane’s safety mechanism is designed to let it move in the wind.”

Here in Ireland, Met Éireann has lifted a status orange wind warning but high winds remain and there's a cold-snap on the way.

The forecaster has replaced the orange wind with a status yellow warning - with strong winds of up to 110km/h promised along the west coast until midday tomorrow.

A status yellow snow and ice warning has also been issued for the whole country for Monday and Tuesday.

Storm Ciara lashes sports events across Europe


Issued on: 09/02/2020


Paris (AFP)

The unusually high winds that Storm Chiara blew up on Sunday played havoc with sports events across Europe as football and rugby matches were cancelled and a London road race was called off.

Top tier football matches in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and England were called off as 140kmph gusts (87 mph) were recorded.

Manchester City's Premier League clash with West Ham was among the more high profile events called off as howling winds disrupted transport links and travellers were advised only to make journeys if absolutely necessary.

The women's Six Nations clash between Scotland and England was also postponed after Saturday's Calcutta Cup clash between the two countries' men's teams in Edinburgh had been marred by terrible conditions.

Much of France was lashed by the storm Sunday but all three Ligue 1 matches were played, as was the blustery Six Nations rugby clash between France and Italy at the Stade de France outside Paris.

A 10km London road race was also called off due to the weather as the 25,000 expected runners were advised not to travel.

Storm Ciara did help one new record get set, but not in sports.

A British Airways 747 set the fastest flight by a conventional airliner from New York to London thanks to powerful tailwinds.

The flight took off from John F Kennedy airport and had been scheduled to land at Heathrow at 0625 GMT on Sunday, but arrived 102 minutes early at 0443 GMT.

© 2020 AFP

Pakistan’s Plans to Rebuild After the Floods Are Flawed. This 82-Year-Old is Trying to Fix Them

Yasmeen Lari, founder of the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, wants Pakistan to abandon its growing reliance on concrete.

BY CIARA NUGENT
FEBRUARY 17, 2023 

Pakistan is home to one of the ancient world’s most impressive examples of flood-resilient design. The ruins of Mohenjo-Daro, a bronze age city in the southeastern province of Sindh, sit on raised platforms with sophisticated drainage systems that protected them from annual monsoon rains. Those features have helped the remains of these earthen buildings survive for 4,500 years—and weather the devastating floods that have repeatedly struck Pakistan over the last decade, most recently submerging a third of the country in August 2022.

And yet, according to Pakistani architect Yasmeeen Lari, those tasked with rebuilding the country from the floods tend to look not to Mohenjo-Daro, but to the West. “I call it the international colonial charity model: international NGOs and UN agencies say, ‘let’s bring in concrete, let’s bring burnt brick’,” she says. “Well, those are alien materials for people in these areas.”

Lari, a slight, energetic 82-year-old who was Pakistan’s first certified female architect, is on a mission to transform how her country rebuilds from natural disasters. In the past, when floods or earthquakes have destroyed homes, aid agencies have rushed to replace them with expensive concrete or burnt brick structures, believing, per the International Organization for Migration, that they were the only durable option. But these are not miracle materials. They are not immune to collapsing under the increasingly heavy rains Pakistan faces, as thousands of buildings did during the most recent floods, and when they do they can crush residents. Concrete also absorbs a lot of heat, making life inside homes tough during Pakistan’s summers, and it’s hard for poorer villagers to maintain or expand on them once construction crews have departed. And, because manufacturing concrete and burnt brick is extremely carbon-intensive, these materials worsen the greenhouse effect that is driving more catastrophic floods in the first place. (The manufacture of building materials makes up 11% of global greenhouse emissions, with the lion’s share coming from concrete.)

A better solution for Pakistan’s climate woes, Lari says, lies in its local architectural traditions. “There is no reason for us not to follow what is already there,” she says, sitting in a cafe at the U.K.’s Cambridge University, where she is lecturing for the year. “You have to design according to the conditions where you are.”

The Heritage Foundation of Pakistan, founded by Lari in 1980, is training villagers in Sindh province to build their own flood-resilient homes from cheap, locally available, low-carbon materials. Lari’s designs use bamboo panels, which are reinforced with earth and lime, and sit on raised platforms—small twists on traditional mud huts that make them waterproof. Once they have the skills, residents can expand their villages and train others. Between mid-September and the end of 2022, the foundation helped build 3,500 homes in 60 villages. Now, Lari is trying to persuade NGOs, banks, and foreign donors to directly fund her trained artisans and local communities, with the aim of building one million homes by 2024.

A woman sits on the front step of her home, built to Lari's bamboo, earth and lime designs.   Heritage Foundation of Pakistan

The timing is urgent. Pakistan is about to launch into one of its most intense periods of rebuilding in its history. Authorities say at least two million people are in need of shelter. And money is on the way: in January, a group of banks and countries pledged some $9 billion in recovery funds.

If those resources are channeled into millions of concrete homes, built without the participation of the people who will live in them, Lari says, Pakistan will only continue in its cycle of crisis. “We have to be talking about: How will you deal with the next disaster? How do we train people to be able to defend themselves?

Read More: Pakistan Flooding Raises Tough Questions About Who Should Pay For Catastrophic Climate Impacts

Lari was not always a champion of Pakistan’s vernacular architecture. When she began her career in Karachi in the 1960s, elites in a newly independent Pakistan were still deeply influenced by British colonialism. Lari had just graduated from the U.K.’s Oxford Brookes University, and her father had been a civil servant in the colonial government. “We grew up thinking that whatever was in the West was something that we all had to emulate,” she says.

Lari spent her first four decades as an architect designing in the western-influenced, globalized palate of concrete, steel, and glass. And she was good at it. Her striking brutalist homes and hotels and other structures won a slew of national and international awards. Her most famous building is probably the headquarters for Pakistan’s state-owned oil company, a sleek, imposing, carbon-intensive behemoth that opened in downtown Karachi in 1991. “The 1980s were a very wasteful time—you could get any material in the world that you wanted,” she says. “And as a designer you do enjoy that freedom.”

She gave up that kind of freedom in 2005. That year, a magnitude 7.6 earthquake struck Pakistan-administered Kashmir, killing a staggering 79,000 people in the region. The quake also collapsed 32,000 buildings and displaced 400,000 people. Lari, who was by then working in heritage conservation, went to help rebuild. Struck by the incredible volume of debris, she determined to use recycled materials wherever possible in her shelters.

Since then, once-in-a-generation natural disasters have struck Pakistan every few years. In 2010, glacier melt combined with heavy monsoon rains swept through towns and villages along the entire length of the country, leaving 14 million without homes. Similar floods happened again the following year, and the year after that.

That cycle is only likely to get worse thanks to climate change. That’s why, Lari says, Pakistan should strive to limit the carbon footprint of its buildings—even though the country bears far less responsibility for rising global temperatures than wealthier countries. (Pakistan is home to 2.8% of the world’s population, but has contributed just 0.3% of global carbon dioxide emissions since the Industrial Revolution.) “In 2005, we built 400,000 units, mostly with concrete blocks, and then it was only five years later that we had the glaciers melting,” Lari says. “So maybe in the global emissions table, we are not that high. But I think we did hurt our own selves in some way.”

Local materials and designs are likely to be more popular in this round of rebuilding than after the 2010 floods, says Shafqat Munir, director of resilient development at Islamabad’s Sustainable Development Policy Institute. That’s in part because of who is leading the programs. Following a 2013 law change, hundreds of international NGOs that were operating in Pakistan a decade ago have departed, leaving Pakistani charities and local initiatives to take a bigger role. “Local charities will tend to use local materials, simply because concrete is too costly.”

But Munir cautions that vernacular traditions need to be adapted to Pakistan’s new climate, in which flood waters linger for much longer than in the past. That means the use of raised platforms—like those found in Mohenjo-Daro—should be greatly expanded, he says, and new technologies, like heat-resistant roofing materials, should be incorporated where available. Guidance from skilled designers like Lari will help: to water-proof earth buildings, Lari adapted a method of slaking lime that is popular in conservation work to make materials more portable.


The Heritage Foundation of Pakistan training center in the village of Pono Markaz, Sindh province.  Heritage Foundation of Pakistan

Lari doesn’t just want to change the building materials people use, but the entire post-disaster charity system. At the Heritage Foundation of Pakistan’s two training centers in Sindh—one near Makli, an archaeological site, and one in the village of Pono Markaz—a team of 10 certified artisans teaches laborers to reinforce earth, build bamboo panels, assemble them into octagon-shaped shelters, and add a roof. Those artisans then travel to villages to teach residents how to build in three-day sessions. Once residents can build a one-room bamboo shelter, they can use earth and lime to turn them into permanent homes, personalize them with outerwall decorations, and learn to build larger versions of the structure for schools or meeting places. Then, Lari says, villages can connect with other nearby communities to train them to build the shelters too. The Heritage Foundation also arranges training sessions for villagers to learn how to make cooking stoves, terracotta tiles, woven matts, and more, with the aim of giving people skills and products to trade with nearby communities. “It is all about knowledge sharing,” Lari says. “Then it can spread massively.”

Prior to last summer’s floods, Lari’s team had helped build 950 homes in Sindh, using prefab bamboo panels assembled onsite, as well as other larger structures at Pono Markaz village. She says the Heritage Foundation surveyed the structures, some of which were left in standing water for two months following the floods, and found no structural damage.

Villagers use a stove on a raised platform, designed by Lari
Heritage Foundation of Pakistan

Lari says it costs the foundation less than $200 to build each shelter, with the money going to buy materials and pay the trainers for their work. It also provides funds for villages to set up committees, led by local women, to invest in their micro-industries. (That is compared to about $1,000 to $1,600 for the average burnt brick shelter, and even more for concrete.)

Going forward, Lari wants the foundation’s role to be purely training-based, and for donors to send their money directly to village committees. Such a system, she argues, empowers people to take ownership of the rebuilding process. It would be more efficient and less vulnerable to corruption—a problem that many in the sector are concerned about following a series of massive graft scandals at Pakistani NGOs following the 2010 floods.

It’s unclear, however, if those funding Pakistan’s rebuilding will be receptive to that local-led approach. An initial flurry of interest from donors when Lari proposed her target of one million shelters by 2024 died down, she says, after the World Bank and other development banks announced a large set of grants and loans in January. “There is no longer emphasis on self reliance or empowerment, the emphasis is only on building a shelter,” she says. “If past trends are to be relied upon, the World Bank will be pushing for concrete structures.”

Still, several international development organizations, including U.N. Habitat, Rotary International, Rizq Foundation, and Islamic Relief, are in talks with the Heritage Foundation about how to apply Lari’s model. And smaller local NGOs, as Munir says, may well favor cheaper local materials.

Lari hopes their work will convince others to rethink rebuilding—both in Pakistan and in many other developing countries now facing unrelenting climate disasters. “I really believe that this is the moment to bring about a whole change in the social system,” she says. ”Climate change shouldn’t be taken only as a threat. If we start doing the right thing, it can really transform lives.”

WRITE TO CIARA NUGENT AT CIARA.NUGENT@TIME.COM. hopes their work will convince others to rethink rebuilding—both in Pakistan and in many other developing countries now facing unrelenting climate disasters. “I really believe that this is the moment to bring about a whole change in the social system,” she says. ”Climate change shouldn’t be taken only as a threat. If we start doing the right thing, it can really transform lives.”

WRITE TO CIARA NUGENT AT CIARA.NUGENT@TIME.COM.

 Op Eds

Here is Why Iran Actually Won the World Cup Match Last Week

By Ciara S. Moezidis, Contributing Opinion Writer

Ciara S. Moezidis is a second-year Master’s student in Theological Studies at the Harvard Divinity School.

December 9, 2022

Some tell us to keep politics out of the World Cup. Others tell us to keep the World Cup out of politics. Whether we like it or not, politics and the World Cup are inextricably intertwined.

The Iran vs. United States match was not like any other game — it was more than that. And I am not saying this because the match represents my Iranian-American identity. It is because the Iran team had more at stake than just advancing to win the World Cup. Their livelihoods were on the line.

The last time Iran and the U.S. played against each other was in 1998 in France. I was not even born yet. Throughout the last 24 years, a lot has changed geopolitically, but when it comes to Iran and the U.S., not much has — until recently.

A revolution is happening in Iran. The Iran team was playing with the backdrop of over 450 killed and 18,000 arrested in Iran since mid-September. As the Iranian diaspora grappled with whether or not to support the team, one thing remained true: Iran in the World Cup was another opportunity to amplify, from the stadiums of Qatar, the atrocities happening on the other side of the Persian Gulf. Playing against the U.S. was an opportunity for the revolution to reach a large crowd who might be avid sports watchers, but not avid news readers.

I came to the game somewhat indifferent about the outcome. But a few minutes in, it dawned on me that the Iranian team is not only an underdog in this game, but in real life. Under threat of crackdowns by the regime, their resistance on the field is a microcosm of what all of Iran is experiencing right now.

If you did not watch the game in this context, you missed a lot. After not singing the national anthem during the first round of games, it was allegedly reported that if the players did not behave, their families would face “violence and torture.” In their last two games, they reluctantly sang the national anthem with forlorn faces and refrained from any acts of resistance — seemingly out of fear of retribution.

Meanwhile, they played knowing that their fans who did any small act to support the revolution were being confronted and, in some alleged cases, arrested by the Qatari police for their political displays. Their experiences at the World Cup do not remain in Qatar; by way of the Qatari government, the Islamic Republic’s Basij General may have received these names and may make it difficult for these dissenters to return to Iran, as indicated in a recent leaked audio recording.

How can a team focus on playing when the real match is against the regime and its human rights violations? How can fans safely use the World Cup to draw light to the revolution knowing that Qatar is not a safe haven from this oppressive regime?

I recognize that the Iranian diaspora is fragmented on the World Cup and other things. I understand that many in the diaspora felt Iran’s presence at the World Cup was a distraction from the movement on the ground. Many Iranian Americans were not enthusiastically supporting the national team as they typically do because of the regime’s “sportswashing” aiming to act as a camouflage of its human rights violations.

Iran won in my eyes not because I am a sore loser — as I said, I was somewhat indifferent. To me, they won because the Iran team continued to persevere amidst these unprecedented circumstances. They are yet another example of victims of this brutal regime.

Many other teams will go home and train for 2026, but the players of Iran have gone home to an ongoing national movement pushing for civil rights for all and an end to the Islamic Republic. They have returned to a nation that has been on strike for three days. A nation where unlawfully detained protestors continue to face rape, torture, and executions. And a nation where the “morality police” and the ruthless terror of the regime continue, despite mainstream media attempting to prematurely confirm otherwise.

It is paramount that we recognize the people of Iran’s fight is not over. Although Iran is no longer in the World Cup, this match served as a reminder that we must dedicate the same energy we have given to this global sporting event to Iran’s historic liberation movement. We must keep our eyes on Iran as they fight for “women, life, freedom.”

Ciara S. Moezidis is a second-year Master’s student in Theological Studies at the Harvard Divinity School.

CLIMATE CHANGE

Storm Dennis wreaks havoc across UK, parts of France
by Joe Jackson

A record 594 flood warnings and alerts were in place Storm Dennis swept across Britain

Britain on Monday grappled with the fallout from Storm Dennis, with several major incidents declared due to flooding and hundreds of warnings still in place after it battered the country over the weekend.

The second severe storm in a week to hit Britain brought high winds of more than 90 miles (140 kilometres) an hour and more than a month's worth of rain in 48 hours in some places, leading officials to issue rare "danger to life" warnings.

The storm also pummelled much of France, with some 20,000 people still without electricity on Monday after suffering power cuts in the northwest of the country and rail traffic disrupted.

"This is not yet over," warned James Bevan, chief executive of the Environment Agency, which is responsible for flood protection in England.

"We still have many flood warnings in force and we may still see significant flooding in the middle of this week from larger rivers," he told BBC radio.

Bevan said more than 400 homes in England had been flooded while at least 1,000 agency staff were working around the clock alongside emergency officials "to protect and support those communities which have been hit".

Major incidents declared

More than 600 warnings and alerts—a record number—were issued on Sunday, extending from the River Tweed on the border of England and Scotland, to Cornwall in southwest England.

Flood water surrounds tomb stones at a graveyard in Tenbury Wells, after the River Teme burst its banks in western England

After a day of torrential rain, major flooding incidents were later declared in south Wales and parts of western England.

Some five "severe" warnings—denoting lives could be endangered by the flooding—remained active Monday on two rivers in Worcestershire and Herefordshire in west central England.

Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue service on Sunday airlifted to hospital one man pulled from the River Teme, who was in a stable condition on Monday.

But emergency responders suspended the search overnight for a missing woman also swept away by the floodwater near the town of flood-prone town of Tenbury, according to police.

"The search has continued this morning, including the use of the police helicopter," said Chief Superintendent Tom Harding, from West Mercia Police.

"Sadly, however, due to the circumstances of the length of time in the water and other conditions we believe that this will now be a recovery rather than rescue operation."

Two rivers in south Wales burst their banks, prompting rescue workers to launch operations in several places to evacuate people and their pets trapped in their homes.

Five 'severe' flood warnings remain in place around the River Teme in Worcestershire in western England

Police said a man in his 60s died after entering the River Tawe, north of the Welsh city of Swansea but later clarified that the death was not "linked to the adverse weather".

On Saturday, the coastguard said the bodies of two men were pulled from rough seas off the south coast of England as the storm barrelled in.

One is thought to have been the subject of a search triggered when a tanker reported that one of its crew was unaccounted for.

'More extreme'
In northern England, the defence ministry deployed troops in West Yorkshire, which suffered badly from flooding caused by last weekend's Storm Ciara.

There are fears rivers there could burst their banks later on Monday.

Newly appointed environment secretary George Eustice said the government had done "everything that we can do with a significant sum of money" to combat increased flooding.

Thousands of people were without power in France as the storm whipped through northwestern regions including Finistere

"We'll never be able to protect every single household just because of the nature of climate change and the fact that these weather events are becoming more extreme."

France was also affected by the storm, especially northwestern Brittany where the Finistere and Morbihan regions were temporarily placed on orange alert for rain and flooding, according to the national weather service Meteo-France.

Electricity provider Enedis said it had deployed 450 staff to restore power to 30,000 homes in Brittany. Power cuts also hit parts of northern and central France.

The storm interrupted two high-speed TGV train services, one stopped by a fallen tree and the other by a power failure, the national rail company SNCF said.

Explore further Storm Ciara wreaks destruction across Europe

SEE  https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=CIARA

© 2020 AFP

Venom from honeybees found to kill aggressive breast cancer cells

by Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research

Dr Ciara Duffy at the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research. Credit: Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research

Using the venom from 312 honeybees and bumblebees in Perth Western Australia, Ireland and England, Dr. Ciara Duffy from the Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research and The University of Western Australia, tested the effect of the venom on the clinical subtypes of breast cancer, including triple-negative breast cancer, which has limited treatment options.

Results published in the prestigious international journal npj Precision Oncology revealed that honeybee venom rapidly destroyed triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-enriched breast cancer cells.

Dr. Duffy said the aim of the research was to investigate the anti-cancer properties of honeybee venom, and a component compound, melittin, on different types of breast cancer cells.

"No-one had previously compared the effects of honeybee venom or melittin across all of the different subtypes of breast cancer and normal cells.

"We tested honeybee venom on normal breast cells, and cells from the clinical subtypes of breast cancer: hormone receptor positive, HER2-enriched, and triple-negative breast cancer.

"We tested a very small, positively charged peptide in honeybee venom called melittin, which we could reproduce synthetically, and found that the synthetic product mirrored the majority of the anti-cancer effects of honeybee venom," Dr. Duffy said.

"We found both honeybee venom and melittin significantly, selectively and rapidly reduced the viability of triple-negative breast cancer and HER2-enriched breast cancer cells.

"The venom was extremely potent," Dr. Duffy said.

A specific concentration of honeybee venom can induce 100% cancer cell death, while having minimal effects on normal cells.

"We found that melittin can completely destroy cancer cell membranes within 60 minutes."

Melittin in honeybee venom also had another remarkable effect; within 20 minutes, melittin was able to substantially reduce the chemical messages of cancer cells that are essential to cancer cell growth and cell division.

"We looked at how honeybee venom and melittin affect the cancer signaling pathways, the chemical messages that are fundamental for cancer cell growth and reproduction, and we found that very quickly these signaling pathways were shut down.

"Melittin modulated the signaling in breast cancer cells by suppressing the activation of the receptor that is commonly overexpressed in triple-negative breast cancer, the epidermal growth factor receptor, and it suppressed the activation of HER2 which is over-expressed in HER2-enriched breast cancer," she said.

Western Australia's Chief Scientist Professor Peter Klinken said "This is an incredibly exciting observation that melittin, a major component of honeybee venom, can suppress the growth of deadly breast cancer cells, particularly triple-negative breast cancer.

"Significantly, this study demonstrates how melittin interferes with signaling pathways within breast cancer cells to reduce cell replication. It provides another wonderful example of where compounds in nature can be used to treat human diseases", he said.

Dr. Duffy also tested to see if melittin could be used with existing chemotherapy drugs as it forms pores, or holes, in breast cancer cell membranes, potentially enabling the entry of other treatments into the cancer cell to enhance cell death.

"We found that melittin can be used with small molecules or chemotherapies, such as docetaxel, to treat highly-aggressive types of breast cancer. The combination of melittin and docetaxel was extremely efficient in reducing tumor growth in mice."

Dr. Duffy's research was conducted as part of her Ph.D. undertaken at Perth's Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research at the Cancer Epigenetics laboratory overseen by A/Prof. Pilar Blancafort. "I began with collecting Perth honeybee venom. Perth bees are some of the healthiest in the world.

"The bees were put to sleep with carbon dioxide and kept on ice before the venom barb was pulled out from the abdomen of the bee and the venom extracted by careful dissection," she said.

While there are 20,000 species of bees, Dr. Duffy wanted to compare the effects of Perth honeybee venom to other honeybee populations in Ireland and England, as well as to the venom of bumblebees.

"I found that the European honeybee in Australia, Ireland and England produced almost identical effects in breast cancer compared to normal cells. However, bumblebee venom was unable to induce cell death even at very high concentrations.

One of the first reports of the effects of bee venom was published in Nature in 1950, where the venom reduced the growth of tumors in plants. However, Dr. Duffy said it was only in the past two decades that interest grew substantially into the effects of honeybee venom on different cancers.

In the future, studies will be required to formally assess the optimum method of delivery of melittin, as well as toxicities and maximum tolerated doses

Bee venom may help treat eczema

---

More information: Ciara Duffy et al, Honeybee venom and melittin suppress growth factor receptor activation in HER2-enriched and triple-negative breast cancer, npj Precision Oncology (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41698-020-00129-0

Journal information: Nature 

Provided by Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research 

The abortion travel agents: ‘Some women know what they need, others just say: help’

Hanien supports women in Malta, where abortion is a criminal offence. 

Photograph: Cliona O’Flaherty/The Guardian

With reproductive rights being increasingly restricted in Europe, people are relying on a network of volunteers to help them


Introduction Margaret Atwood Interviews Candice Pires

Sat 19 Feb 2022


When The Handmaid’s Tale first came out in 1985, the initial response was broadly that people thought such threats to women’s bodies and reproductive rights “couldn’t happen here”. By the time it aired as a TV series in 2017, just after Donald Trump was inaugurated in the US, people were no longer so sure. With every headline about gains in reproductive rights – Ireland repealing the eighth amendment in 2018, which had effectively banned abortions – there are others that underscore how fragile these rights are, wherever you live.

Recent changes to abortion law in Texas, which have prohibited abortions after six weeks – one of the most restrictive rules in the nation – and Poland’s near total ban on the procedure last year make it clear just how slippery the slope still is. We have to ask: what kind of country do we want to live in? A democratic one in which every individual is free to make decisions concerning their health and body, or one in which half the population is free and the state corrals the bodies of the other half?

Women who are not allowed to make their own decisions about whether or not to give birth are, in fact, owned by the state, as the state claims the right to dictate the uses to which their bodies must be put. The work of the Abortion Support Network (ASN) and the need for it in apparently progressive Europe is a stiff reminder: democratic rights don’t grow on trees. They must be struggled for and maintained. Those at risk of forced childbearing should be very grateful to have such organisations and their volunteers in their corner.

– MARGARET ATWOOD

In the evenings, after she is done with her day job in London, Ciara makes phone calls to people across Europe. Everyone she calls has contacted the ASN, a UK-based charity that helps people from European countries to access abortions. She is one of about 80 volunteers providing logistical advice, travel planning, a place to stay and solidarity to people who live in countries with restrictive abortion access. Mara Clarke, who founded ASN in 2009, says, “People think that abortion travel is an American or developing-world thing, but it isn’t.”

While there has rightfully been extensive coverage of the US, given the introduction of restrictive abortion laws in Texas and the potential for the Roe v Wade ruling to be overturned this year, the evolving situation in Europe has received little attention.

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When she set up ASN, Clarke was told there was no demand for a European abortion helpline. “I knew that wasn’t right,” she says. “If there were women who could afford to pay to travel for an abortion, there were other women who couldn’t.”

Clarke was proved right. Calls came first from the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man, and the charity began helping hundreds of women every year. As abortion laws became more liberal in those countries in 2018 and 2019, ASN opened their services to Poland, Malta and Gibraltar, and anyone else in Europe who needs it (just because abortion is technically legal in a country does not mean it is always straightforward to access). ASN also works with partner organisations across the continent who direct people to one another for local advice and funding.
‘Money is often the biggest hurdle for our callers’: Ciara, 36, helpline volunteer, London
 

Photograph: Olivia Harris/The Guardian

I grew up in Dublin. Abortion was something I’d talk about with my friends, but the “going to England” part it entailed was mysterious to us. There was always this concern that if one of us needed an abortion, none of us would know how to go about it.
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I heard about ASN when I went to a vigil at the Irish embassy in London in 2012 for Savita Halappanavar. Savita had died from a septic miscarriage at a Galway hospital after her requests for an abortion were denied. Her death underlined to me that the fight for reproductive rights is about life and death, and it drove the campaign to repeal Ireland’s eighth amendment, which effectively banned abortion.

I began donating to ASN, and soon after responded to a call for volunteers. Working on the helpline was scary at first. I got training and support, but I was speaking to people in vulnerable situations. In my second week, a man called from a Northern Ireland hospital because his wife’s pregnancy was in danger. He thought they might have to travel to England to get an abortion and wanted to know what he needed to do.

We work with each caller to see what they need. It can be anything from a simple question about arranging an appointment at a clinic, to figuring out the most efficient travel plan for them and assisting with money. The later the abortion, the more expensive it becomes. The cost of the procedure, which is £1,300 in England for a second trimester abortion, plus travel, childcare and time off work, can be high. Money is often the biggest hurdle for our callers. I’ve given a grant of £5 before – that was all that was preventing a woman from accessing an abortion.

You need to speak to most clients several times. I fit the calls around my day job, either during lunchtime or in the evenings. When I was in the office, I’d find a meeting room where I could speak privately. It can require a mental shift to go from speaking to someone about something that is so emotionally challenging for them, to returning to my regular life.
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You really get the warm and fuzzies from doing this. In 2018, when the eighth amendment was put to a referendum in Ireland and repealed, an ASN colleague was approached by a woman who mentioned me by name and said I saved her life. I think about that often.
‘Some know what they need; others just say, “Please help me”’: Kasia, 35, adviser and helpline volunteer, London

 

Photograph: Olivia Harris/The Guardian

A few years ago I joined some activist groups on Facebook and saw ASN’s ad for Polish-speaking volunteers. This work combines my two favourite things: feminism and logistics. When someone calls, I can give tangible support. There are people who know what they need, and others who are completely lost and just say, “Please help me.”

We have a checklist of questions to understand their circumstances. We find out how far along they are, as there are different legal limits in different countries – sometimes abortion pills can be an answer. The UK has the longest limit at 24 weeks. That, and where they live, helps us figure out the most suitable place for callers to travel to. Most people from Poland travel to the Netherlands or Spain, and most people from Ireland go to England. We get calls from other countries where the law is more liberal; in Italy, many doctors conscientiously object to abortion and in France abortion is permitted on demand only up to 14 weeks.

Now we ask about passports; Brexit means people from the EU can no longer travel to the UK using only their national ID card, which affects many callers. We also find out how much money they have, to give grants.

Callers are often angry, especially from Poland. They feel abandoned by the government and stigmatised by society. It can be nice to offer solidarity and say, “It’s not you, it’s the system. It shouldn’t be like this.” And to remind them that they are not alone.

There’s this unspoken assumption that abortion is always a difficult choice, or there is suffering to endure, but that’s not the reality. No one wants an abortion, but there are people who don’t feel guilt. I’ve also spoken to callers who didn’t believe in abortion, but need one.

The work can get stressful and busy, but there’s a feeling of solidarity. We have a few WhatsApp groups, and when something happens, the volunteers reach out and lift each other up; that support is tremendous.
‘The people who come from Ireland are so brave and strong to travel such a distance’: Patricia, 67, host and retired social work trainer, Liverpool
 

Photograph: Simon Bray/The Guardian

My daughter works at the city’s Merseyside Clinic and told me there were women coming over from Ireland seeking abortions who had nowhere to stay. This was nine years ago and I thought, “I’ve got a spare room.” I became ASN’s first host in Liverpool. There are about seven of us now.

We get emails asking if anyone can take a client on particular dates. When I say yes, I’m given their name, age and when they’re coming. It’s not a lot of background, but it’s as much as I need.

Everybody I’ve hosted has come from Ireland. Even though the law has changed there, access to an abortion after 12 weeks is permitted only in limited circumstances, so the women who come now tend to be further along than they used to be. I’ll pick them up, make a meal and we’ll eat together. Some want to tell you everything about their lives and you have a laugh; others are feeling more vulnerable and don’t want to engage. I let people talk as much or as little as they want. Why they are having an abortion has nothing to do with me.

Most come on their own. Many have children at home. Often they haven’t told anyone what they’re doing. I had a young woman who was a refugee in Ireland. There was also a grandmother who brought her 15-year-old granddaughter. The people who come are so brave and strong to travel such a distance. They’re having to make decisions and organise things quickly. It’s rewarding to be able to support them through that.
‘In Malta, we’re taught from a young age that abortion is synonymous with murder’: Hanien, 24, volunteer for a helpline in Malta, currently living in Dublin

Photograph: Cliona O’Flaherty/The Guardian

I was against abortion when I was younger because that was the only reality I knew. Malta is a Catholic country and there is anti-abortion sentiment in its institutions. We’re taught from a young age that abortion is synonymous with murder, and that a woman who seeks one is evil.

Maltese law states that abortion is a criminal offence, with no exceptions. Any person who seeks or helps with one can face up to three years in prison. The penalty is higher for medical professionals.

I became interested in women’s rights around 2016 when the morning-after pill became legally available. I’ve volunteered for the Family Planning Advisory Service in Malta since it started in 2020. It’s a pro-choice helpline providing information about reproductive health choices. Because of the law in Malta, we cannot help people get an abortion or give them money towards travel to get one, but we can share publicly available information, like the fact that ASN exists.

The main danger in this work is the social stigma. Malta is a small country and you can be easily identified. The stigma is greater if you’re a woman and even more so if you are a person of colour. It’s framed as, “Look at this person who is foreign and bringing this evil on us.”

Sometimes people are surprised that I do this. I wear a hijab and people associate being religious with being anti-choice and anti-abortion. But that is misinformation and ignorance about how Muslims view abortion. This work is my way of standing up against damaging patriarchal structures that affect me and my peers.

‘I hate that people are panicking about money, childcare and flights’: Pip, 26, veterinary surgeon and volunteer, Manchester

Photograph: Simon Bray/The Guardian

My job is to make posts for ASN’s Instagram that help people understand the charity’s work and encourage people to donate. I fit it in around my day job.

I became interested in abortion access when I was 17. I was at boarding school and a girl asked me for help getting an abortion. She felt alone and terrified – and this was in England where abortion is legal. I hate that people from countries where abortion isn’t legal are panicking about money, childcare and booking flights.

Being an openly queer person, I’m no stranger to online abuse and harassment, which helps with the moderation side of the job. We have a coordinated response which boils down to, “Don’t feed the trolls.” So on Instagram, hateful comments get deleted immediately and people get blocked. We have a lot of evangelical Christian, American men harassing us. “Murderers” is a common insult. And there’s a lot of misogynistic harassment and insinuations that if a woman wants to have unprotected sex, then she should have to deal with the consequences.

An American man was repeatedly making threatening comments on our Facebook page and one of our followers reported him to the FBI. He was recently sentenced to 20 months.

You can feel powerless in the face of the wave of restrictions on people’s bodily autonomy. But it does feel powerful to know the work we’re doing changes lives.
‘We can’t change the law on our own, but this work gives me a sense of agency’: Aga, 27, Abortion Without Borders volunteer, Warsaw, Poland

 

Photograph: Piotr Malecki/The Guardian

After the recent death of a 37-year-old woman who was denied an abortion in Poland, there’s been an atmosphere of grief here. It’s the third known case reported since a near-total ban came into force in January 2021.

Three years ago, I moved to the Netherlands and a friend told me the Abortion Network Amsterdam (ANA) needed Polish-speaking volunteers. I did email shifts responding to people and helping them set up travel and appointments. I once accompanied someone to a clinic; my role was to translate, but there was a support element, too.

ANA helps people with costs, and when their funds aren’t enough, they contact ASN. Both are part of the Abortion Without Borders network, which is made up of groups across Europe.

The volume of emails increased dramatically in the run-up to the Polish abortion ban. After I returned to Poland six months ago, I had to stop helping individuals directly: I work as a translator, helping with medical records and press releases, but I no longer set up abortions myself because when you’re in Poland, you have to be far more careful. You need to find where the line lies and that’s murky; the way the laws are set up means there’s a lot of room for interpretation. We’re very careful to stick to things we can’t be prosecuted for.

While we don’t have control over what happens in Polish hospitals, and we can’t change the law on our own, doing this work gives me a sense of agency in an otherwise overwhelming situation.
‘I cannot have this baby’: testimonies from women who have contacted the charity

“I am 21 weeks and three days pregnant. I wish I could have this baby, but it has been diagnosed with severe brain defects. I need help in arranging a trip abroad. I have no idea how to go about this.”

“I am eight or nine weeks pregnant. I have a very difficult family and financial situation. My husband beats me and my children, and abuses alcohol. I don’t want the same for my third child. My husband raped me and it turns out that I am pregnant.”

“I am pregnant: 21 weeks. I only found out at 16 weeks. I live in Poland. I cannot have this baby. I have no money or support because the baby’s father left me as soon as he found out. I don’t have money to go abroad to a clinic, so I ordered abortion pills, but after over a month, they still haven’t arrived. I don’t know what to do.”

“I am 18 weeks pregnant and the baby has a serious heart defect. The doctors told me to expect that at any moment the baby may die. I can’t bear it, I can’t function normally. All the antenatal tests so far have ruined us financially because they are not covered in Poland.”

“I feel incapacitated in my country and am ashamed that I live here and have to get help from people from a foreign country. I know that after the procedure a stone will fall from my heart. Carrying such a sick child is probably every mother’s worst nightmare. I will be grateful to you till the end of my life, and I will support you as much as I can because there will be more women like me because of the stupid law in this country.”

“The doctor told me the baby was very unlikely to survive in the womb, but because of our legislation I was not able to access an abortion. I wish that I lived in a country where they trusted women to make the right choices for themselves.”

“I don’t want to write that our pregnancy was a matter of life and death, but it was. You gave us a chance for further life. We are still so shocked and grateful that there is still such a thing as genuine, honest kindness and selflessness in this world.”

UK
Deadly storms force climate activists to cancel meeting
Haley Ott 

CBS News

London — As Britain entered its second week of punishing rain, wind and flooding, a group of young climate change activists said they were forced to cancel their first ever national conference due to the extreme weather.

"There's a bleak irony in our being beaten back by climate change," 15-year-old Sophia from London said in a statement released by the U.K. Student Climate Network via Greenpeace U.K. "We are now living in an age of climate storms - where the most extreme weather of the last century is becoming the norm in this one."

One woman is believed to have died in the flooding caused by Dennis, the second major storm to hit the United Kingdom in two weeks. Two men reportedly drowned in the ocean as high winds churned up huge waves over the weekend, and another man was killed after falling into a river in Wales, Britain's LBC radio news reported.

© Chris Furlong / Getty Images Storm Dennis Causes Flooding In The UKA month's worth of rain was forecast for parts of the U.K., further inundating areas that were just catching their breath after last week's storm, Ciara, slammed Britain and parts of Europe with over 90-miles-per-hour winds.

A record 634 flood warnings were issued Sunday across the U.K., according to the government's Environment Agency. On Monday, more than 200 remained in place, some of them for severe flooding, prompting officials to warn of a danger to life.

Emergency government funding was released to help those in affected areas.

"We'll never be able to protect every single household just because of the nature of climate change and the fact that these weather events are becoming more extreme," said British Environment Secretary George Eustice. He added that authorities had "done everything that we can do with a significant sum of money, and there's more to come."

© Provided by CBS News Passers by look out over a flooded parking lot as water levels in the River Ouse continue to rise on February 17, 2020 in York, England.Weather forecasters said Monday that some rivers in the north of England had yet to peak as Dennis continued to dump water on communities that were already sodden. Last week, Ciara caused major flooding and disruption in many of the same areas affected by Dennis. In Wales, authorities called the scale of the flooding "unprecedented," with some of the highest water levels on record in 40 years.

"People are furious," one resident, Adelle Stripe, told Britain's Guardian newspaper. "We've had three serious floods in eight years; what is happening here is evidence that climate change is real."

Dennis has also battered other parts of Europe, with nine people injured in weather-related car accidents in Germany. Flooding and disruptions to transportation were reported in France, Norway and Denmark.

"The longer we wait to take the action we need, the harder it will be, and the bigger the risk of it being too late," Sophia, the young climate activist, said.

RODENT PIZZA

Chuck E. Cheese parent CEC Entertainment files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy

WORST PIZZA EVER NO GREAT LOSS

Published: June 25, 2020  Ciara Linnane

CEC Entertainment Inc., the parent of Chuck E. Cheese and Peter Piper Pizza, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy late Wednesday, weighed down by restaurant closures during the coronavirus pandemic. The company said it will use the time to continue talks with its financial stakeholders, including landlords, to "achieve a comprehensive balance sheet restructuring that supports its re-opening and longer-term strategic plans." As of June 24, 266 company-operated restaurant and arcade venues had reopened for business. The company is expecting to keep these venues open through Chapter 11 and to offer dine-in, delivery and take-out services. The company's non-U.S. franchise partners and corporate entities are not included in the process.

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/06/rat-horoscope-2020-free-astrology.html