Created September 19, 2022 | 03:13

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The situation is changing

Photo: APA/dpa

youPresident Joe Biden has declared an end to the corona pandemic. “The pandemic is over, but we still have a problem with Covid,” Biden said in a TV interview broadcast Sunday night (local time). “As you can see, no one is wearing a mask here. Everyone seems to be in good shape so I think the situation is changing and I think this is a perfect example of that,” the US president continued.

The interview was taped on Thursday, including when Biden visited the Detroit, Michigan auto show. The US President tested positive for Corona in July and was treated with the Covid Paxlovid drug. In late August, his wife Jill contracted the virus and was also treated with the drug.

In the US, about 390 people die every day in an average of seven days as a result of Covid 19 disease. US authorities have recently approved two corona vaccines adapted to the omicron variant. The two preparations are bivalent mRNA vaccines from the companies Biontech/Pfizer and Moderna.

In the last ten days, King Charles III. led the country in mourning and traveled around 3,000 kilometers as the new monarch – all while mourning the loss of his “favorite mom”.

His demanding schedule has taken him from Castle to Cathedral and Reception in more than 30 assignments across the country since the Queen’s death.

And even yesterday, preparing to bury his mother, the king worked until the last moment on the eve of her funeral.

After meetings with Prime Minister Liz Truss and leaders of the realms, His Majesty hosted a grand official state reception at Buckingham Palace last night. He welcomed world leaders and foreign royals who had arrived to pay their respects to the late Queen.

Accompanied by senior working royals, His Majesty hosted VIPS including US President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau late into the evening. It was his last engagement before the funeral.

King Charles III had more than 30 engagements since the Queen’s death and worked until the last moment on the eve of his mother’s funeral

These commitments were set out long ago in a detailed ten-day plan for after the Queen’s death. The operation, codenamed London Bridge, included dozens of events marking the Queen’s farewell as well as the King’s accession to the throne.

Little could have prepared the king for such an emotional and trying schedule. Last week His Majesty, accompanied by Camilla the Queen Consort, sped around on a tour of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Between his duties as the new monarch, he has led the royal family in honoring the Queen in a series of ceremonial events that were watched by the world.

The meticulously timed strategy was put into action with the words “London Bridge is down” when the Queen died on September 8th.

13 Sept Northern Ireland: Charles III. is greeted by members of the public, including a woman with a corgi named Connie

17 Sept London: The new King chats to people queuing near Lambeth Bridge to see the Queen lying in the state formation

12 Sept Edinburgh: Charles III. leads the vigil at St Giles’ Cathedral

Charles rushed some 150 miles from Dumfries House in Cumnock to Balmoral to be by his mother’s side in the precious moments leading up to her death. With little time to think, he was in London the next day to meet the Prime Minister before he was proclaimed king.

He then flew to Edinburgh to lead his siblings in a poignant funeral procession down the Royal Mile, followed by a church service and vigil. Here he began his tour of the nations, visiting the Scottish Parliament, meeting the First Minister and attending a reception.

The next day, accompanied by the Queen Consort, he embarked on the second leg of the tour, flying to Belfast Airport.

He was driven to Hillsborough Castle to meet Northern Ireland leaders before returning to London in time to receive the Queen’s coffin, which landed at RAF Northolt at 7pm on Tuesday.

The next day, at London’s first major ceremonial event, King Charles led the royal family in a public homage to the late Queen in a majestic procession.

Watched by all the world, the new monarch marched behind her coffin, followed by his siblings and sons, and delivered his mother into the nation’s care for four days.

On the seventh day, Operation London Bridge took a break from the demanding ceremonial events to give the monarch a moment of pause. While the King retired to Highgrove House in Gloucestershire on Wednesday night, he spent his short break from public duties working on relations with world leaders.

September 16: King Charles III. and Camilla, Queen Consort, depart in the royal limousine after the Princes’ Vigil, where the King and his siblings stood vigil at the coffin of their mother Queen Elizabeth II at Westminster Hall

He spent most of Thursday speaking with more than eight presidents and governors general and is said to have been on the phone late into the evening.

He quickly resumed public duties the next day with his crucial first visit to Wales as king on Friday. He traveled to Cardiff by helicopter from Highgrove and visited Llandaff Cathedral and the Welsh Parliament before returning to London.

The Archbishop of Canterbury last week paid tribute to King Charles’ “extraordinary courage” following the death of the Queen.

The Most Rev Justin Welby said the average person would find the fulfillment of such duties after the loss of a parent unfathomable. He added, “The courage of his to do this is extraordinary, but it also shows his … service to the people.”

A source close to the king told the Chron: “The last few days have blown us away. His perseverance was amazing and the fact that he was able to do all of this while grieving for his mother is just remarkable. He’s a fine man.’

Cuba will ratify its commitment to peace and multilateralism next week during the high-level segment of the general debate of the 77th regular session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Caribbean island’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, specified on his Twitter account that this meeting will once again “express the will to achieve a more democratic, just and equitable international order, based on full respect for the Charter of Nations and international law.” “.

Recently, the Cuban Foreign Minister declared on this social network that the General Assembly would reconsider the draft resolution calling for an end to the US blockade against the largest of the Antilles.

“The blockade is causing real and significant harm to the human rights of Cubans. Cuba has the right to live without a blockade,” he affirmed.

Source: Pl.

Several environmental organizations want to sue the new EU rules classifying nuclear power plants and gas infrastructure as climate-friendly projects from January. Among others, the WWF, Greenpeace and the BUND are calling on the European Commission to withdraw the relevant regulation, according to reports released on Monday. Brussels authorities now have until February to respond. Otherwise, environmentalists want to go to the European Court of Justice (CJ).

The background is the so-called taxonomy. In it, the Commission lists areas where citizens and businesses can invest money to fight climate change. Starting in January, nuclear power and gas will also be named climate-friendly under certain conditions. This is controversial because burning the gas produces climate-damaging carbon dioxide and there is no definitive solution to radioactive waste from nuclear power plants. EU countries and the EU Parliament agreed on the classification.

Eight Greenpeace offices – including the Austrian office – objected to the classification. It violates European climate laws and the principles of taxonomy itself, it said in a statement. Furthermore, it contradicts the Paris climate accord’s goals of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees if possible.

“The EU taxonomy gives nuclear and gas power a green thumb and undermines the EU’s environmental and climate goals. We call on the Commission to reverse this misconception. If you don’t give in, we will go to court,” announced Jasmin Duregger, an energy expert. of Greenpeace in Austria, in a broadcast. “With this taxonomy, the EU reveals the environmental and climate goals it has set itself,” said Martin Kaiser, board member of Greenpeace Germany.

Greenpeace backs its argument with two new reports: The Aurora Energy Research article shows that the controversial legal act would link Europe to climate-damaging energy gas in the long term and delay the energy transition. In his report, physicist Oda Becker shows that new nuclear power plants cannot be a transitional technology because they undermine the European 2050 climate neutrality target: subsequent construction and uptime to consider. On the other hand, nuclear energy is not CO2 neutral.

WWF, BUND and two other organizations also filed a motion specifically to challenge the inclusion of gas in the taxonomy. The gas industry is at the center of the EU’s cost-of-living crisis due to high prices, and its promotion undermines the EU’s energy transition goals, a spokesperson for the organizations said.

Another group of environmentalists, including Robin Wood, filed an annulment suit before the Court of Justice on Friday. In particular, this fights the climate-friendly rating of bioenergy and forestry projects, as this drives forest destruction and increases CO2 emissions. The EU Commission must ensure that there are no financial incentives for industrial heating of forests, said Jana Ballenthien of Robin Wood.

Last week, several organizations such as the WWF also resigned in protest at the advisory platform that had jointly developed the taxonomy with the commission. They criticized that the authority intervened in their work for political reasons and ignored the advisers’ recommendations contrary to scientific evidence.