SPACE/COSMOS

New images show galaxy forming that is similar in mass to young Milky Way

Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected and “weighed” a galaxy that existed about 600 million years after the Big Bang

In this image from Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope, thousands of glimmering galaxies are bound together by their own gravity, making up a massive cluster formally classified as MACS J1423 (Nasa/PA)

Mon, 30 Dec, 2024 - 07:21

Jordan Reynolds, PA

New images show a galaxy forming that is similar to what our Milky Way’s mass might have been at the same stage of development.

Nasa’s James Webb Space Telescope has detected and “weighed” a galaxy that existed about 600 million years after the Big Bang.

Other galaxies Webb has detected at this time period are significantly more massive, Nasa said.

This galaxy has been nicknamed Firefly Sparkle as it looks like a “sparkle” or swarm of lightning bugs on a warm summer night.

Lamiya Mowla, co-lead author of the paper and an assistant professor at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, said: “I didn’t think it would be possible to resolve a galaxy that existed so early in the universe into so many distinct components, let alone find that its mass is similar to our own galaxy’s when it was in the process of forming.

“There is so much going on inside this tiny galaxy, including so many different phases of star formation.”

The research team modelled what the galaxy might have looked like if it were not stretched and discovered that it resembled an elongated raindrop. Suspended within it are two-star clusters toward the top and eight toward the bottom.

Kartheik Iyer, co-lead author and Nasa Hubble Fellow at Columbia University in New York, said this galaxy is “literally in the process of assembling”.

Webb’s data shows the Firefly Sparkle galaxy is on the smaller side, falling into the category of a low-mass galaxy. Billions of years will pass before it builds its full heft and a distinct shape.

Professor Mowla added: “Most of the other galaxies Webb has shown us aren’t magnified or stretched, and we are not able to see their ‘building blocks’ separately.

“With Firefly Sparkle, we are witnessing a galaxy being assembled brick by brick.”

Chris Willott from the National Research Council of Canada’s Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Centre, a co-author and the observation program’s principal investigator, said: “This galaxy has a diverse population of star clusters, and it is remarkable that we can see them separately at such an early age of the universe.

“Each clump of stars is undergoing a different phase of formation or evolution.”

The galaxy’s projected shape shows that its stars have not settled into a central bulge or a thin, flattened disk, another piece of evidence that the galaxy is still forming, Nasa added.

Researchers cannot predict how this disorganised galaxy will build up and take shape over billions of years, but there are two galaxies that the team confirmed are “hanging out” within a tight perimeter and may influence how it builds mass over billions of years.

Firefly Sparkle is 6,500 light-years away from its first companion, and its second companion is separated by 42,000 light-years. The fully formed Milky Way is about 100,000 light-years across — all three would fit inside it.

Not only are its companions very close, but the researchers also think that they are orbiting one another.

Each time one galaxy passes another, gas condenses and cools, allowing new stars to form in clumps, adding to the galaxies’ masses.

Yoshihisa Asada, a co-author and doctoral student at Kyoto University in Japan, said: “It has long been predicted that galaxies in the early universe form through successive interactions and mergers with other tinier galaxies.

“We might be witnessing this process in action.”

Moon rock donated to Ireland by Apollo astronauts was destroyed by fire



A priceless piece of Moon rock donated to Ireland following a Nasa mission was destroyed in a fire, newly released records show (Niall Carson/PA)

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

29/12/2024

A priceless piece of Moon rock donated to Ireland following a Nasa mission was destroyed in a fire, newly released records show.

Documents from the National Archives in Dublin detail the embarrassing affair, which saw the rock travel 380,000km (236,121 miles) to Earth before spending three years in a government basement and ultimately being lost in an accidental fire at Dunsink Observatory.

The lunar rock, which originated from the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, was given to President Eamon de Valera by American ambassador JG Moore in 1970.

Confidential documents from April 1984 show Irish officials were unsure where to display the specimen until the US offered to donate a second piece of lunar rock to Ireland in 1973, following another successful Apollo mission.

A memo discussing the original Moon rock notes: “This piece was given on September 4 1973, on the advice of the Department of Education, to the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies for display at the Dunsink Observatory.

“This piece of Moon rock had lain in the basement of this department for three-and-a-half years due to indecision as to where it might best be displayed.

“It was decided to give the Moon rock to Dunsink when it became known that a second gift was to be made by the US Government and it was thought that some embarrassment would be caused if the first piece was not already on display.”

Unfortunately, rehoming the rock at Dunsink resulted in the artefact’s demise.

“The first piece was destroyed during a fire at Dunsink on October 3 1977,” documents reveal.

The second piece of Moon rock was given by the US in 1973, accompanied by a special plaque including the Irish tricolour.

“As the Moon rock was given direct to the President, it was put on display in the drawing room of Aras an Uachtarain,” one document noted.

Later, the Moon rock was loaned to Aer Lingus at the request of chief executive David Kennedy so it could be featured in the Aer Lingus Young Scientist Exhibition of 1976.

A further memo noted that a permanent display for the Moon rock at the Irish president’s official residence was felt to be inappropriate given that Aras an Uachtarain was only open to invited guests – and that the US intention was clearly for the item to be available for public viewing.

“The most appropriate museum collection in which it might be exhibited would be the geological or mineralogical collection – (but) the (National) Museum has no space to mount its geological exhibition and therefore the Moon rock would have to be put in storage, which would not satisfy the requirements,” it said.

Given the lack of suitable alternatives, it was suggested that the lunar rock be temporarily given to the operator of the national airline and major airports, Aer Rianta, where it could be displayed in its main airport exhibition space.

“Aer Rianta agreed to accept the plaque for their exhibition and the Office of Public Works (OPW) transferred the plaque to them on October 28 1975,” another memo noted.

Eight years later, a document noted that the Aer Rianta display had ended and the semi-state was no longer keen to have the Moon rock in its possession.

A new Geological Survey Office exhibition space was almost ready and the Department of the Taoiseach noted that this would represent the best future home and display for the artefact.

It was agreed that, if necessary, the Moon rock could be loaned back to the National Museum if it was a suitable inclusion for future displays.

– This article is based on documents in 2024/5/67

From new commercial Moon landers to asteroid investigations, expect a slate of exciting space missions in 2025

THE CONVERSATION
By Zhenbo Wang*, Associate professor of mechanical, aerospace and biomedical engineering, University of Tennessee

29/12/2024


A rendering of Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander and a rover developed for the company's third mission to the Moon as part of NASA's CLPS (Commercial Lunar Payload Services) initiative. Photo: Firefly Aerospace/NASA

In 2024, space exploration dazzled the world.

NASA's Europa Clipper began its journey to study Jupiter's moon Europa. SpaceX's Starship achieved its first successful landing, a critical milestone for future deep space missions. China made headlines with the Chang'e 6 mission, which successfully returned samples from the far side of the Moon. Meanwhile, the International Space Station continued to host international crews, including private missions like Axiom Mission 3.

As an aerospace engineer, I'm excited for 2025, when space agencies worldwide are gearing up for even more ambitious goals. Here's a look at the most exciting missions planned for the coming year, which will expand humanity's horizons even further, from the Moon and Mars to asteroids and beyond:
Scouting the lunar surface with CLPS

NASA's Commercial Lunar Payload Services, or CLPS, initiative aims to deliver science and technology payloads to the Moon using commercial landers. CLPS is what brought Intuitive Machines' Odysseus lander to the Moon in February 2024, marking the first US Moon landing since Apollo.

In 2025, NASA has several CLPS missions planned, including deliveries by companies Astrobotic, Intuitive Machines and Firefly Aerospace.

These missions will carry a variety of scientific instruments and technology demonstrations to different lunar locations. The payloads will include experiments to study lunar geology, test new technologies for future human missions and gather data on the Moon's environment.
Surveying the sky with SPHEREx

In February 2025, NASA plans to launch the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer, or SPHEREx, observatory. This mission will survey the sky in near-infrared light, which is a type of light that is invisible to the naked eye but that special instruments can detect. Near-infrared light is useful for observing objects that are too cool or too distant to be seen in visible light.

SPHEREx will create a comprehensive map of the universe by surveying and collecting data on more than 450 million galaxies along with over 100 million stars in the Milky Way. Astronomers will use this data to answer big questions about the origins of galaxies and the distribution of water and organic molecules in stellar nurseries - where stars are born from gas and dust.
Studying low Earth orbit with Space Rider

The European Space Agency, or ESA, plans to conduct an orbital test flight of its Space Rider uncrewed spaceplane in the third quarter of 2025. Space Rider is a reusable spacecraft designed to carry out various scientific experiments in low Earth orbit.

These scientific experiments will include research in microgravity, which is the near-weightless environment of space. Scientists will study how plants grow, how materials behave and how biological processes occur without the influence of gravity.

Space Rider will also demonstrate new technologies for future missions. For example, it will test advanced telecommunication systems, which are crucial for maintaining communication with spacecraft over long distances. It will also test new robotic exploration tools for use on future missions to the Moon or Mars.
Exploring the Moon with M2/Resilience

Japan's M2/Resilience mission, scheduled for January 2025, will launch a lander and micro-rover to the lunar surface.

This mission will study the lunar soil to understand its composition and properties. Researchers will also conduct a water-splitting test to produce oxygen and hydrogen by extracting water from the lunar surface, heating the water and splitting the captured steam. The generated water, oxygen and hydrogen can be used for enabling long-term lunar exploration.

This mission will also demonstrate new technologies, such as advanced navigation systems for precise landings and systems to operate the rover autonomously. These technologies are essential for future lunar exploration and could be used in missions to Mars and beyond.

The M2/Resilience mission is part of Japan's broader efforts to contribute to international lunar exploration. It builds on the success of Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon, or SLIM, mission, which landed on the Moon using a precise landing technique in March 2024.
Investigating an asteroid with Tianwen-2

China's Tianwen-2 mission is an ambitious asteroid sample return and comet probe mission. Scheduled for launch in May 2025, Tianwen-2 aims to collect samples from a near-Earth asteroid and study a comet. This mission will advance scientists' understanding of the solar system's formation and evolution, building on the success of China's previous lunar and Mars missions.

The mission's first target is the near-Earth asteroid 469219 Kamoʻoalewa. This asteroid is a quasi-satellite of Earth, meaning it orbits the Sun but stays close to Earth. Kamoʻoalewa is roughly 131-328 feet (40-100 meters) in diameter and may be a fragment of the Moon, ejected into space by a past impact event.

By studying this asteroid, scientists hope to learn about the early solar system and the processes that shaped it. The spacecraft will use both touch-and-go and anchor-and-attach techniques to collect samples from the asteroid's surface.

After collecting samples from Kamoʻoalewa, Tianwen-2 will return them to Earth and then set course for its second target, the main-belt comet 311P/PANSTARRS. This comet is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

By analysing the comet's materials, researchers hope to learn more about the conditions that existed in the early solar system and possibly the origins of water and organic molecules on Earth.
Solar system flybys

Besides the above planned launch missions, several space agencies plan to perform exciting deep-space flyby missions in 2025.

A flyby, or gravity assist, is when a spacecraft passes close enough to a planet or moon to use its gravity for a speed boost. As the spacecraft approaches, it gets pulled in by the planet's gravity, which helps it accelerate.

After swinging around the planet, the spacecraft is flung back out into space, allowing it to change direction and continue on its intended path using less fuel.

BepiColombo, a joint mission by ESA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, will make its sixth flyby of Mercury in January 2025. This manoeuvre will help the spacecraft enter orbit around Mercury by November 2026. BepiColombo aims to study Mercury's composition, atmosphere and surface geology.

NASA's Europa Clipper mission, which launched in October 2024, will make significant progress on its journey to Jupiter's moon Europa. In March 2025, the spacecraft will perform a flyby manoeuvre at Mars.

This manoeuvre will help the spacecraft gain the necessary speed and trajectory for its long voyage. Later in December 2026, Europa Clipper will perform a flyby of Earth, using Earths gravity to further increase its momentum so it can arrive at Europa in April 2030.

The ESA's Hera mission will also perform a flyby of Mars in March 2025. Hera is part of the Asteroid Impact and Deflection Assessment mission, which plans to study the Didymos binary asteroid system. The mission will provide valuable data on asteroid deflection techniques and contribute to planetary defense strategies.

NASA's Lucy mission will continue its journey to explore the Jupiter Trojan asteroids, which share Jupiter's orbit around the Sun, in 2025. One key event for Lucy is its flyby of the inner main-belt asteroid 52246 Donaldjohanson, scheduled for April 20, 2025.

This flyby will provide valuable data on this ancient asteroid's composition and surface features, which can help researchers gain insights into the early solar system. The asteroid is named after the paleoanthropologist who discovered the famous "Lucy" fossil.

ESA's Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer, or JUICE, mission will perform a Venus flyby in August 2025. This manoeuvre will help JUICE gain the necessary speed and trajectory for its journey to Jupiter. Once it arrives, JUICE will study Jupiter's icy moons to understand their potential for harbouring life.

2025 promises to be a groundbreaking year for space exploration. With NASA's ambitious missions and significant contributions from other countries, we are set to make remarkable strides in humanity's understanding of the universe. These missions will not only advance scientific knowledge but also inspire future generations to look to the stars.

*Zhenbo Wang receives funding from NASA.

A BIKE IS FREEDOM

WOW: How a driving school programme empowers Pakistani women

Traffic warden Humaira Rafaqat teaches women how to ride a bike while wearing an abaya.

PHOTO: REUTERS

UPDATED Dec 30, 2024, 

LAHORE – Pakistani student Laiba Rashid, 22, hopes her life will change once she learns how to drive a motorcycle after undergoing a training programme that teaches women how to operate two-wheelers in the bustling eastern city of Lahore.

Although the programme is seven years old, it is rare to see women driving motorcycles. Women driving cars or riding pillion on two-wheelers driven by a male relative is more socially acceptable in the conservative, Islamic nation.

“I hope this will change my life because I am dependent on my brother to pick me up and drop me to college,” Ms Rashid said on her first day at the Women on Wheels (WOW) driving programme offered free by the Lahore traffic police.

She said she wants to buy a motorcycle to go to college, adding that, previously, there were no women drivers in her family.

“Now, everybody is convinced that women should be independent in their movement to schools, jobs and markets,” she said.

Women driving two-wheelers has been a cultural and religious taboo, said Ms Bushra Iqbal Hussain, a social activist and director of Safe Childhood, an organisation advocating the safety of female children.


But more women are now changing the culture, she said, like they did in the 1980s with regular cars, in a bid to reduce their reliance on men to commute.


The WOW programme has been in operation since 2017, but has become increasingly popular in recent months as car prices have soared and motorcycles offer a cheaper alternative.

“Stagnant wage growth and high inflation have eroded the purchasing power of the middle class, leaving motorcycles as the only viable option for many households,” said auto sector analyst Muhammad Abrar Polani of investment house Arif Habib.

The cheapest four-wheeler in Pakistan, where the annual GDP per capita is US$1,590 (S$2,156), costs about 2.3 million rupees (S$11,100) compared with about 115,000 rupees for the most affordable China-made two-wheeler.

Ms Sohail Mudassar, a traffic warden, said the WOW programme has trained at least 6,600 women, and Ms Rashid’s batch was the 86th since it started.

“Women of different ages and segments of society join our camp,” said female trainer Humaira Rafaqat, a senior traffic warden who has trained about 1,000 women. “Young women are quick learners because they are enthusiastic and take risks.”

One of them, Ms Ghania Raza, 23, who is pursuing a doctorate in criminology, said learning to drive a two-wheeler gave her a deep sense of achievement and empowerment.

“It was like breaking a glass ceiling,” she said.

Teacher Shumaila Shafiq, 36, prepares to ride a motorcycle during a training session in Lahore.

PHOTO: REUTERS

Ms Shumaila Shafiq, 36, a mother of three and a part-time fashion designer, said she has been driving her husband’s motorcycle to the market and other places after graduating from the programme.

She has designed a special short-length abaya, a dress used by conservative Muslim women, to wear while operating the motorcycle.

“Wearing a long abaya with loose fitting poses risks as it may get entangled in the wheels,” she said, adding that she intends to market the design to fellow women riders. REUTERS

Indian workers slowly replacing Palestinians in Israeli construction industry

16,000 laborers have come to Israel from India in the last year, but analysts say it still does not make up the shortfall caused when most Palestinians were barred after Oct. 7

By Ruth Eglash

Today,  TOI

Indian builders work on a construction site in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on December 23, 2024. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

AFP – Wearing a safety belt, helmet and work boots, Raju Nishad navigates the scaffolding, hammering blocks that will form part of a building in a new neighborhood in central Israel’s town of Beer Yaakov.

While he and other Indians working alongside him do not look out of place on the expansive construction site, they are relative newcomers to Israel’s building industry.

They are part of an Israeli government effort to fill a void left by tens of thousands of Palestinian construction workers barred from entering Israel since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack.

If that attack had not happened, this site, with its slowly emerging high-rise towers, homes, roads and pavements, would have teemed with laborer’s speaking Arabic — unlike the Hindi, Hebrew and even Mandarin of today.

The Hamas attack, which saw terrorists kill some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in southern Israel and take 251 hostages, triggered the deadliest war yet between Israel and the Hamas terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip.

It later spread to include other Iran-backed groups including Hezbollah in Lebanon and Houthi rebels in Yemen, and even direct confrontation with the Islamic Republic itself.

An Indian builder works on a construction site in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on December 15, 2024. (Photo by Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

None of this deterred Nishad, 35, from coming to Israel.

“There’s nothing to be afraid of here,” he said, despite several air raid warnings that have sent him running for the shelters.

“Once it (the siren) stops, we just resume our work,” he told AFP.

High earnings in Israel, where some workers can make three times what they would back home, are the key to why people like Nishad flock here, thousands of kilometers (miles) away.

“I’m saving for the future, planning to make wise investments and do something meaningful for my family,” Nishad said.

He is just one of around 16,000 workers who have come from India over the past year – and Israel has plans to bring thousands more.

Indian builders work on a construction site in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on December 15, 2024. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

New recruitment drive

India is the world’s fifth-largest economy and one of the fastest growing, but it has also struggled to generate enough full-time jobs for millions of people.

Indians have been employed in Israel for decades, thousands as caregivers looking after elderly Israelis, while others work as diamond traders and IT professionals.

But since the war in Gaza escalated, recruiters have launched a drive to bring Indians in for Israel’s construction sector also.

Samir Khosla, chairman of Delhi-based Dynamic Staffing Services, which has sent about 500,000 Indians to work in more than 30 countries, has so far brought more than 3,500 workers to Israel, a new market for him.

Khosla himself arrived for the first time a month after the October 7 attack, after the authorities appealed for foreign workers in the construction industry, which ground to a halt when the Gaza war broke out.

“We didn’t know much about the market, and there wasn’t an incumbent workforce from India here,” Khosla said.

Indian builders work on a construction site in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on December 23, 2024. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

“We really had to move around and understand the needs,” he said, adding that he believed India was a natural choice for Israel given their “excellent relations.”

He now hopes to bring in up to 10,000 Indian laborer’s, as he has a large pool of skilled Indian workers across all trades.

Long-term effects possible

In nearby Tel Aviv, a group of Indians live in a small flat where, in addition to the construction skills they brought with them, they have also learned to cook the familiar spicy dishes they miss from home.

“In a short time, one can earn more money” in Israel, said Suresh Kumar Verma, 39. Like Nishad, he is from India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh. Verma works on a construction site north of Israel’s commercial capital.
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“Making money is also necessary… It’s important to continue working hard for the family’s future.”

Indian nationals working in the construction industry prepare a meal in their flat in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv on December 23, 2024. (Menahem KAHANA / AFP)

Israeli researchers believe the number of Indians working in construction still does not match the number of Palestinians who did so before the war, and this is hampering the sector’s overall growth.

Before the Hamas attack, around 80,000 Palestinians, mostly from the West Bank, were employed in construction, along with some 26,000 foreigners, Eyal Argov of the central Bank of Israel said.

Now there are about 30,000 foreigners employed, far fewer than the previous overall workforce figures, he said, adding that activity in the current quarter of 2024 is about 25 percent below pre-war levels.

“These numbers (of Indians) are still very low,” Argov said.

While this does not create an immediate “shortage of housing, it may cause delays in the supply of new housing,” he said.

“Israel has a growing population, increasing by two percent annually, and this delay might lead to some shortage in the future.”

Times of Israel Staff contributed to this report

 

Pro-Palestine students lodge complaint against University of Michigan

News code : ۱۵۷۴۰۳۴

The current and former students of the University of Michigan in the United States have filed a complaint against the university authorities for suppressing pro-Palestinian protesters and violating the right to freedom of expression.

According to UK-based Middle East Eye (MEE), the federal lawsuit was filed on Friday in the US District Court in Detroit.

“The plaintiffs allege that the school violated the students’ constitutional rights to free speech, due process and equal protection under the law,” it added.

“The six current and former students also allege that the University of Michigan initiated discipline proceedings against the students for speech-related conduct that other groups weren’t punished for,” it noted.

‘We repeat: Stop attacks on hospitals,’ WHO chief calls for Gaza health care access

By HT News Desk
Dec 30, 2024 


Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, recently caught in an Israeli strike on Yemen's airport, called for Abu Safiya’s release and condemned attacks on Al-Ahli hospital.

The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday urged an end to attacks on hospitals in Gaza. This call followed recent Israeli strikes on one hospital and a raid on another in the past few days, raising concerns over the safety of medical facilities in the region

.

World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. (via REUTERS)

“Hospitals in Gaza have once again become battlegrounds and the health system is under severe threat,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X.

“We repeat: stop attacks on hospitals. People in Gaza need access to health care. Humanitarians need access to provide health aid. Ceasefire!” he added.

The Israeli military said that Hamas militants were the intended targets of a strike on Gaza City's Al Wafa hospital on Sunday, which, according to Palestinian civil defense, resulted in seven deaths.

Israeli forces also detained over 240 Palestinians, including dozens of medical staff, from Kamal Adwan hospital on Friday, with among them being its director, Hussam Abu Safiya, as reported by health authorities in Gaza and Israel's military.

The Israeli military claimed that the hospital was being used by Hamas as a command center for military operations, and the detainees were suspected militants. It also stated that Abu Safiya was taken for questioning due to suspicions of him being a Hamas operative.

Tedros, who was recently caught in an Israeli strike on Yemen's main airport said that it could have cost him his life, called for the immediate release of Abu Safiya and highlighted attacks on Al-Ahli hospital.

He also reported that the WHO and its partners had delivered essential medical supplies, food, and water to Gaza's Indonesian hospital and transferred 10 critically ill patients to Al Shifa hospital, though four patients were detained during the transfer.

“We urge Israel to ensure their health care needs and rights are upheld,” Tedros said.

According to Gaza's health ministry, at least 45,514 Palestinians have been killed and 108,189 wounded in Israel's military offensive in Gaza since the Hamas attacks of October 7, 2023.

With Reuters inputs

International human rights group condemns Israel’s burning of Kamal Adwan Hospital

Action is catastrophic blow to region’s health care system, says ICHR

Merve Berker |30.12.2024 - TRT/AA


ANKARA

The Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR) strongly condemned Israel on Sunday for burning Kamal Adwan Hospital, rendering it inoperative and further crippling the health care system in northern Gaza.

The assault, marked by forced evacuations, arrests of medical staff and the destruction of critical facilities, has left the region without functioning hospitals.

Israeli forces besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital on Dec. 27, forcing patients and medical teams to evacuate under artillery fire, according to ICHR documentation.

Critically ill patients were sent to the Indonesian Hospital, which was already out of service, while others were interrogated and searched after being forced to walk to the Al-Fakhoura area, the statement said.

Following the evacuation, the hospital was set ablaze, destroying its equipment and facilities, it added.

The ICHR quoted the World Health Organization (WHO) as saying that the Israeli military’s actions amounted to "a systematic dismantling of Gaza's health care system, effectively sentencing tens of thousands of Palestinians reliant on it to death.”

Other hospitals in northern Gaza, including Beit Hanoun Governmental Hospital, are also out of service, leaving Al-Awda Hospital barely operational under constant bombardment.

The human rights group also denounced these actions as violations of international law, saying they constitute war crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Geneva Conventions.

The commission emphasized the long-term repercussions of these attacks, undermining the right to health for Gaza’s population.

The ICHR further called for urgent international action, including the prosecution of Israeli leaders, an immediate UN Security Council resolution to protect Gaza’s health care system, and an independent investigation by the International Criminal Court.

It also urged the international community to press for the release of detained health care workers and the provision of medical supplies to sustain the remaining infrastructure.

The attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital is a "heinous violation of human rights," it said, adding that such actions contribute to "an ongoing crime of genocide against the civilian population of Gaza."

On Friday, Israeli forces raided Kamal Adwan Hospital, located in the northern town of Beit Lahia, burning large sections of the medical facility and forcing patients and displaced civilians to flee.

Israel has killed more than 45,500 people in Gaza since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023 and reduced the enclave to rubble.

In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.

Israel also faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its war on the enclave.

 

Saudi Arabia slams storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque by Zionist settlers

News code : ۱۵۷۶۳۶۴The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia issued a statement condemning the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by Zionist settlers, describing it as a blatant violation of international law.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs expresses the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's condemnation in the strongest terms possible of the storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards by Israeli settlers, under the protection of the police and occupation forces," read the statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia on Sunday. 

"The Kingdom reiterates its denunciation of the continued blatant violations of international law and the continued brutal and repeated attacks on the sanctity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque," it added.

"The Kingdom affirms its categorical rejection of any actions that may undermine the historical and legal status of Jerusalem and its holy sites. The Kingdom also calls on the international community to hold the occupation authorities accountable for their ongoing and serious violations against Islamic holy sites and innocent civilians in the State of Palestine."

 

endNewsMessage1

German flying taxi startup Volocopter files for insolvency

 December 30, 2024 | 
AFP





BERLIN: Flying taxi startup Volocopter said Monday it was filing for insolvency, days after another fellow German company in the field, Lilium, was saved from collapse.


"Despite recent intensive fundraising efforts, finding a viable solution to maintain regular operations outside of insolvency proceedings has not been possible," Volocopter said in a statement, adding that the filing was made on December 26.


The company, founded in 2011, is now on the hunt for investors, and court-appointed administrator Tobias Wahl said that the aim was "to develop a restructuring concept by the end of February".

Volocopter had been aiming to enter the market in 2025 with its two-seater "Volocity" electric air taxi model.

It suffered a setback when it had to cancel test flights in Paris during this summer's Olympics at short notice when the certification for its aircraft engine didn't come through in time.

In December, Volocopter said that the Volocity model had fulfilled 75 per cent of the criteria required by the European Union's Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

The firm is also working on a five-seater model which it hopes to present in 2027.

Germany's entrants in the burgeoning "electric vertical take-off and landing" (eVTOL) sector have struggled to keep up with US and Chinese competition.

Last week a company set up by a consortium of European and North American investors swooped in to save Lilium, which had filed for bankruptcy in October.

Lilium has also been developing small electric-powered jets that can take off and land vertically.

That case renewed debate about Germany's support - or lack thereof - for the country's startup scene.

Critics have long lamented a dearth of funding for young, innovative companies, comparing the situation in Germany unfavourably with that in the United States and elsewhere.


In October, Lilium's boss Klaus Roewe said that other countries were actively backing his firm's rivals in a highly competitive field.


Volocopter CEO Dirk Hoke told Capital magazine this year that "in a sector which is as technologically complex and capital-intensive as ours, we have to look to the state" for support.

Greece 2024, historic legalisation of same-sex marriages



Greece has made history by becoming the first Orthodox-majority country to legalise same-sex marriage. A step that comes after a long journey, marked by strong opposition from the Church and conservative forces in the country

22/02/2024 - Mary Drosopoulos Thessaloniki

The Greek Parliament was a full house on the evening of Thursday 15 February 2024. Ahead of the vote, PM Mitsotakis had delivered an emotional speech: “People who have been invisible will finally be made visible around us. And with them, many children (will) finally find their rightful place. For every democratic citizen, today is a day of joy”.

Upon the passage of the law, the audience attending the hearing, including many well-known artists and human rights activists of the LGBTQI+ community, erupted in loud applause and enthusiastic cheering. Greece had just written history as the first Orthodox-majority country to legalise same-sex marriage.

Outside the parliament, two very distinct groups were communicating diverging social messages. On the one hand, conservative protesters opposing the bill had taken to the streets brandishing Christian icons, crucifixes and bibles, chanting: ‘Voice of people, wrath of God’. On the other hand, an enthusiastic crowd of LGBT+ supporters waving rainbow flags and Pride banners started a spontaneous street celebration all over Syntagma square singing, dancing and hugging in tears of relief.

A few hours later, the first-ever same-sex wedding announcement in Greece was featured on the Greek newspaper Ta Nea. Stavros Gavriliadis and Dimitris Elefsiniotis, life-long partners and parents of three, had been publicly advocating for marriage equality for years. The couple was in Parliament during the voting.
The law in figures

The bill was voted by a cross-party majority of 176 Mps out of 300, while 76 opposed it. Two abstained from the vote and 46 were not present. This historic development makes Greece the 16th country in the EU and the 35th worldwide to legislate same-sex marriage.

This is the outcome of almost a decade of reforms aiming at gradually aligning the country with EU standards regarding marriage equality. The first important step was made in 2015, when civil partnership agreements for same-sex couples were introduced.

This law was extended in 2016, but no provisions over adoption were foreseen, with legal guardianship being granted only to the biological parent. In the same year, Greece prohibited discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation in employment and in the provision of goods and services.

Two years later, in 2017, Greek lawmakers passed legislation allowing people to have their gender identity legally recognised, paving the way for the launching of ‘training sessions on gender and sexuality for civil servants’, introduced in 2022, and the appointment of a committee responsible for drafting a national strategy to improve LGBT+ rights.

Only a couple of years ago, in 2022, did Greece join Malta, Germany and France in banning ‘Conversion therapy ’ for minors; a controversial practice designed ‘to suppress sexual orientation or gender identity’ through a number of ‘treatments’.

Despite the EU’s repeated calls on its Member States to ban such ‘degrading and discriminatory’ practices, warning of ‘permanent physical and psychological harm’, conversion therapies still exist all over the Union.
The law foresees child adoption but not surrogate parenthood

The Greek public opinion had been divided ever since January 24, when the draft bill was published and made available for public consultation.

Opponents responded with fierce criticism, accusing the government of jeopardising fundamental Greek-Orthodox values. Projecting the ideological triangle of ‘Homeland, Religion, Family’ – a slogan intertwined with Greek ultra-orthodox conservatism, the inception of which dates back to the ‘Moral reform’ of the late 19th century – political figures representing mainly right-wing ideology expressed their ardent opposition on TV channels, op-eds and the social media, focusing especially on the bill’s provision allowing child adoption by same-sex couples.

The model of the ‘traditional Greek family, consisting of a father and a mother’ was the main argument brought forward by the Greek Orthodox church. The circular of the Holy Synod, read by priests all over the country during the Sunday liturgy that followed the publication of the bill, stated clearly that the Church strongly opposes same-sex marriage.

Commenting specifically on the adoption of children by same-sex couples, identified within the bill as ‘parent 1’ and ‘parent 2’, the Synod raged: "This condemns future children to growing up without a father or mother in an environment of parental role confusion", warning that such a development would ‘threaten the sacred institution of marriage’.

LGBTQI+ couples’ right to adoption has been one of the most controversial aspects of the new law. Interviewed by OBCT, developmental psychologist Irini Makridou gives a different interpretation of this debate:

“The issue should not be who will raise a child, but how. It is not about the person, but rather the context. There are children who grow up in so-called ‘traditional’ families, but under unacceptable conditions, by abusive or negligent mothers and fathers”.

Makridou explains that children raised in a same-sex family by parents who have worked on their parenting skills can receive the affection and care that they need to feel complete and happy in life. Moreover, she expresses her scepticism regarding one of the most ambiguous topics dominating the national media:

“There is no scientific evidence supporting allegations that a child raised in a same-sex household is more prone to becoming homosexual than a child who grows up with heterosexual parents. Living and working in a peripheral area, inside a relatively more conservative society compared to big urban centres, I can say that the Greek society is not ready yet to accept and embrace these pivotal developments. Social change should start from the formal schooling system. Diversity, however, is still a taboo in Greek schools”.

PHOTO  Gay pride in Athens - © Kostas Koutsaftikis/Shutterstock

Framing the past: How Roma people are depicted in Romanian and Greek schools

Athens library - ©katatonia82/Shutterstock

The way it is represented in formal education tells a lot about the condition of a people. Even when it is present in textbooks in South Eastern Europe, the history of the Roma is often ignored or represented in a way that perpetuates stereotypes and misconceptions

30/12/2024 - Mary Drosopoulos, Oana Dumbrava

The so-called “stateless people”, originally migrated from northern India to Europe in the 14th century, today they are officially referred to as “Roma” and “Travellers”, two umbrella-terms adopted by the Council of Europe to embrace a wide range of ethnic groups, divided as follows: Roma, Sinti/Manush, Calé, Kaale, Romanichals, Boyash/Rudari; Balkan Egyptians (Egyptians and Ashkali), Eastern groups (Dom, Lom and Abdal); Travellers, Yenish, populations referred to as “nomads”, and persons that identify themselves as “Gypsies”.

The history of the Roma in Europe is one of suffering. For centuries, many were enslaved by noble families and states, until slavery was finally abolished in the 19th century. But freedom never meant equality. Forced assimilation, violent expulsions, and the horrors of the Holocaust – in which between 220,000 and 1.5 million Roma lost their lives – left deep scars. Roma continued to face systematic discrimination after World War II, yet their vibrant cultural heritage in music, dance, and storytelling endures. Today, the Roma community continues its struggle for equal rights and recognition.

What do Romanian history textbooks say about the Roma people?

During the communist regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu there were almost no reference to Roma in school textbooks. In an attempt to promote a unified national identity, centered on ethnic Romanians, the experiences and contributions of the Roma, as well as other minorities, were left out of history books. This exclusion was intentionally designed to downplay ethnic diversity and foster a monolithic version of Romanian identity. The aim of assimilationist policies was to push Roma communities to abandon their cultural practices, reinforcing their invisibility in official discourse and perpetuating old stereotypes and discriminations that still persist.

After the fall of communism, Romania’s education system was affected by the slow transition to democracy, marked by continuos reforms and frequent changes. In the years of transition, the tendency of the individual to turn to his or her own ethnic group led to the process of social categorization on an ethnic basis, determining further discrimination.

Roma camp in Sibiu - source: National Museum of Romanian History

Today, the Romanian Ministry of Education oversees multiple textbook options for each subject. The offer is very varied in terms of quality and approach: while some textbooks remain focused on traditional narratives, others include more modern, inclusive perspectives. Teachers, in principle, can choose the books they consider most suitable for their students. The freedom of choice is very welcome, but this flexibility leads to some inconsistencies.

The Highschool history textbook (Gimnasium edition), published in 2007, was one of the first schoolbooks to mention the slavery of the Roma, but it addressed the issue through stereotypes, linking the position of the Roma to their “backwardness”.

“Since their arrival in these lands – the book states – the Roma were considered an inferior people because of their backward lifestyle and physical appearance. Therefore, from the very beginning, they were marginalized and isolated”. This narrative implicitly blames Roma communities for their treatment throughout history.

It has taken time to develop more realistic perspectives in history teaching. Only in 2020 have some more comprehensive textbooks been published, but many of them still present a biased perspective, maintaining nationalist tones and downplaying the experience of slavery and the Holocaust. This selective revisiting highlights the ongoing challenge of promoting balanced narratives in education.

Today, high school students in Romania learn from a textbook (ART edition) that “enslaved” Roma lived in poverty, practicing their trades and maintaining their traditional lifestyle. This description, taken out of context, reflects prejudices and risks leading to generalizations. One of the exercises in the book asks students to organize "a debate about the impact of prejudices on a community". Although it addresses the issue of prejudice, the exercise is reductive, ignores the impact of slavery and avoids critical reflections that foster true historical understanding.

Another textbook (published by CD Press) speaks of the Roma in the Middle Ages as people "subjected to all forms of injustice and abuse by their masters”, but claims that the Roma "lived among Romanians, integrated into medieval society".

As for the Roma Holocaust, we read (Niculescu’s textbook version) that “many were deported, some of them died because of the detention regime”. The textbooks do not provide more details that could facilitate a better understanding of the historical context.

Addressing Roma history is not only about slavery, deportation and genocide, but also about giving visibility to those who have overcome these traumas. As Luiza Medeleanu, an expert in intercultural education, suggests , Romanian students should learn more about people like Anna Frank, but also Constantin Anica, a young Roma Holocaust survivor, in order to foster empathy and dialogue.

However, as history teacher Ioan Cristian Caravană points out, history taught in Romanian schools is still “an official history, to be learned by heart. Rather than encouraging critical thinking, lessons present a pre-established narrative that limits deeper understanding”. Discussing historical phenomena, like racism, would allow us to understand their persistence, helping to break the vicious circle of social exclusion. School is the best place to tell meaningful stories and initiate debates, also to encourage Roma teenagers to deeply understand their roots and history and increase their self-esteem.

Postcard - fonte: Museo nazionale di storia rumena

For Vintilă Mihăilescu, renowned Romanian anthropologist, history education deeply impacts students’ sense of belonging. When textbooks focus only on Romanian heroes, ignoring the history of Roma people, they risk sending Roma students a negative message, making them feel excluded. Mihăilescu believed in promoting critical thinking, urging students to ask difficult questions and address all aspects of their national history, including uncomfortable issues that challenge traditional narratives.

Specifically, focusing on the history of the Roma people, one should:

- acknowledge the centuries of slavery that Roma endured in Romanian territories, a historical fact often belittled or ignored in textbooks

- talk about the Holocaust, during which approximately 25,000 Roma were deported, many died under the Antonescu regime

- highlight the persistent discrimination and systematic exclusion that Roma have faced in the post-communist era

Despite the significant progress made by the education system since the fall of communism, in Romania teaching the history of the Roma people is still optional, leaving teachers the choice of whether or not to delve into the topic. 

The case of Greece

The first references to Roma populations in the region of Peloponnese date back to the 14th century. Although there is no academic consensus on the routes and circumstances of Roma migration, it is assumed that their arrival is a consequence of migratory waves towards central Europe, the Balkans and Greece – mainly in the regions of Thrace and Macedonia – conditioned by the gradual expansion of Ottoman rule to the territories of the Byzantine Empire at the end of the 14th and beginning of the 15th century culminated with the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Despite their long presence in Greece, Roma acquired political rights only in the 1970s. The first mapping of Roma communities was carried out in 1996 (Vassiliadou & Pavli Korre 2011; Μarkou 2013:132). According to 2021 data provided by the General Secretariat of Social Solidarity and Combating Poverty, the Roma population in the country amounts to 117,495 permanent residents and constitutes 1.13% of the total population. The majority of Greek Roma are Orthodox.

According to the UNICEF office in Greece, Roma are still a vulnerable minority, facing difficulties in accessing housing, health, education and employment. Over the last decades, the Hellenic Ministry of Education has launched several initiatives to combat illiteracy and delinquency among the Roma communities. Since the 1990s, several Greek universities have launched pilot programs with an ambitious goal: bring Roma children from the streets and child labor into schools (Skourtou 2003: 98). Specifically, since 2015, the state has promoted several extracurricular courses for Roma children, similar to those designed in 2016-2017 to meet the needs of refugee children in Greek schools (Drosopulos 2018).

In a study published in 2022, Eleni Mousena, Georgia Aggelidou and Anastasia Vasilopoulou observe that “a large part of the educational community believes that the causes of Roma children dropping out of school are related to their families’ negative attitude towards school and education, while the parents of Roma children are unhappy with teachers and the educational system”. The reasons why Roma children feel excluded from the national school system are mainly related to the absence of any reference to Roma in textbooks, but also to the general attitude of Greeks who perceive Roma as “others”, problematic people living on the margins of the society.

Otherness, exoticism and pseudo-interculturalism

August Moon by Voula Mastori is one of the classics of post-war Greek children’s literature, a title traditionally included in “reading lists” distributed to students before the Christmas and Easter holiadys. Published in thousands of copies by Patakis, one of the most prominent publishing houses in Greece, the book tells the story of a young tomboy who attends the last grade of primary school in a suburb. With her anticonformist behaviour, the protagonist raises concerns in conservative society: she becomes friends with a young tinsmith, a Roma whom the children from the neighborhood fear and from whom they run away. The presence of male character who, contrary to popular belief, is neither a thief nor a child abductor, is one of the “less negative” references to “Gypsie” in Greek children’s literature, that has preserved, if not even reinforced stereotypical and discriminatory representations of the Roma people (Gotovos 2004: 7).

August Moon by Voula Mastori

As for the history and fiction books used in schools, references to Roma culture are completely absent. The Roma people and their language are only briefly mentioned in the drama books for the last classes of primary school. However, these are incomplete and quite conventional references.

Aggelos Hatzinikolaou is a retired primary school teacher. Having spent most of his career teaching in Dendropotamos, the most notorious ghetto in Thessaloniki, inhabited almost exclusively by Roma, he has developed a deep understanding of Roma culture in the Greek context. Interviewed by OBCT, he comments on the ethnocentric nature of the Greek school system, where any reference to cultures that deviate from the dominant norm is superficial and usually limited to folkloristic elements.

“In the name of supposedly promoting multiculturalism, as expected in our globalized societies, there have been superficial attempts to ‘include’ populations considered as ‘others’, such as Roma, migrants and refugees. However, an intercultural dialogue cannot be achieved by stereotypical references to food, dance and songs, as is usually the case. There needs to be a much deeper dialogue, which is lacking in our education system”.

Late professor Sofia Gavriilidis has conducted important academic work in the field of pedagogy, illustrating examples of “pseudo-intercultural” books for children, both in formal education and in literature. “Pseudo-interculturalism” refers to attempts to acknowledge other cultures, but in ways that either exoticize the ”other”, further emphasizing differences rather than building bridges through shared traits, or imply the superiority of the dominant culture by depicting “others” as “victims”, in the same way that refugees and migrants are associated exclusively with war, trauma, poverty and other negative phenomena.

Georgia Kalpazidou is an activist, writer and co-founder of the NGO R.E.V.M.A. NGO (Roma Educational Vocational Maintainable Assistance), based in Ampelokipoi-Menemeni, in Northern Greece. PhD candidate in linguistics and member of the Roma community, Georgia has been mentoring young girls in accessing education. Driven by the desire to fill a gap in Greek children’s fiction, the young writer has published a children’s picture book about early school leaving among Roma children. When asked about the presence of Roma culture in textbooks, her answer confirmed the above-mentioned trend

“This is an interesting issue, I have also studied it, coming to the conclusion that there are no references, apart from some stereotypical (although not necessarily negative) images that students can come across when reading fiction books. So it is up to the teachers to decide whether to delve into the topic or not, formal schoolbooks do not contain any indication in this regard”.

In conclusion, juxtaposing the cases of two countries in South Eastern Europe, Romania and Greece, it seems that today more than ever representing history in schoolbooks is a complex challenge. It is not just about dates and events, but also about including voices, facing uncomfortable truths, and dismantling outdated perspectives. Although the history of the Roma people is marked by hardship and resilience, from enslavement to surviving the Holocaust, this reality is often belittled or misrepresented in textbooks. This raises a difficult but necessary question: how to teach history that truly reflects everyone’s experiences?


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Rumiz and the Balkans. Bastard notes speaking to the heart of man 22/07/2013


This publication has been produced within the Collaborative and Investigative Journalism Initiative (CIJI ), a project co-funded by the European Commission. The contents of this publication are the sole responsibility of Osservatorio Balcani Caucaso Transeuropa and do not reflect the views of the European Union. Go to the project page

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Larung Gar Under Siege: China’s military presence signals escalating crackdown on Tibetan Buddhism

China has stationed around 400 military personnel at the Larung Gar Buddhist Academy in Serthar County, eastern Tibet. This deployment, according to the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), is part of a broader strategy to tighten control over the region.

The arrival of troops on 20 December 2024, coupled with helicopter surveillance, signals an escalation of security measures at the world’s largest Tibetan Buddhist study centre.

Founded in 1980, Larung Gar has long been a hub for Buddhist monks and nuns seeking to deepen their spiritual education. However, it has faced increasing restrictions from the Chinese government, which views the academy as a centre of Tibetan identity and autonomy.

Previous crackdowns, particularly in 2016–2017, saw thousands of monastic dwellings demolished and many practitioners forcibly evicted. Consequently, the population at Larung Gar has been halved from around 10,000 to a significantly smaller number.

The CTA reports that China plans to impose new regulations at Larung Gar, including limiting residents’ stay to a maximum of 15 years. Additionally, all monks and nuns will be required to register with the authorities, and the total number of religious practitioners is expected to be reduced. Chinese students are reportedly being asked to leave, signalling a targeted effort to further decrease the academy’s population.

These measures represent a continued effort by the Chinese government to exert greater control over Tibetan Buddhist institutions and restrict religious freedom in Tibet, where traditional Buddhist practices have come under increasing pressure.

The Larung Gar Academy, once a beacon of Tibetan Buddhist scholarship, now faces heightened state surveillance and restrictions, reflecting the broader trend of diminishing religious autonomy in the region.

The increasing military presence and stringent regulations signify China’s ongoing efforts to control Tibetan Buddhism and consolidate state control over the region’s spiritual institutions.

(ANI)