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Coronavirus, i profitti sono solo delle aziende farmaceutiche

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Creato Mercoledì, 29 Gennaio 2020 19:58
Ultima modifica il Domenica, 15 Marzo 2020 19:04
Pubblicato Mercoledì, 29 Gennaio 2020 19:58
Visite: 10207

Era il 31 dicembre 2019 quando la Commissione Sanitaria Municipale di Wuhan aveva per la prima volta inviato una segnalazione all’OMS nella quale si informava l'agenzia di avere registrato in tutta la provincia di Hubei un rilevante numero di casi di polmonite derivanti da cause ignote. La diffusione di quello che verrà chiamato 2019-nCoV era iniziata verso la metà del mese. Il 10 gennaio per la prima volta veniva determinata la sequenza genomica del virus: un betacoronavirus correlato a quello che ha causato la Sindrome respiratoria mediorientale (MERS-CoV) e a quello della Sindrome respiratoria acuta grave (SARSCoV). Le ricerche sono proseguite e il 20 gennaio la National Health Commission (NHC) cinese ha scoperto la trasmissibilità da essere umano a essere umano del coronavirus. I coronavirus si chiamano così perché la parte infettiva (virioni) appare al microscopio elettronico come piccoli globuli, sui quali ci sono tante piccole punte che ricordano quelle di una corona. Questi sono piuttosto diffusi tra varie specie di mammiferi e uccelli: infettano il loro apparato respiratorio e gastrointestinale. Da 60 anni circa, sappiamo che in alcuni casi questi virus riescono a passare agli esseri umani, causando sintomi che variano a seconda delle loro caratteristiche. A oggi sono noti sette diversi coronavirus che possono infettare l'uomo. In Cina sono molto diffusi i mercati in cui si possono acquistare suini, pollame e diverse altre specie selvatiche di animali ritenuti prelibatezze per la cucina locale o utili per la medicina tradizionale, come i pipistrelli. Il legame tra esseri umani e questi animali, unita alle scarse condizioni igieniche, fa aumentare il rischio che i virus passino da una specie animale agli esseri umani, mutando per adattarsi poi ai nuovi ospiti. Il sospetto è che qualcosa di analogo sia avvenuto in passato, con la SARS, e nelle settimane scorse con il passaggio di 2019-nCoV agli esseri umani, probabilmente proprio dai pipistrelli. Anche per questo motivo, il governo cinese sta lavorando per mettere al bando, o almeno sospendere, le attività commerciali nei mercati di animali. Da sempre i virus circolano e si diffondono in tutto il mondo facendosi dare un passaggio dagli animali che infettano. Un tempo le malattie arrivavano per nave, come avvenne per esempio con la peste nera in Europa nel Trecento, oggi attraverso i viaggi aerei. Restano comunque dei punti oscuri sui quali delle testate internazionali hanno lanciato delle ipotesi. Il primo indizio sarebbe dato dal fatto che Pechino avrebbe occultato delle prove. Ad esempio nella città di Wuhan, città di forte importanza militare, è presente l’unico laboratorio cinese, in grado di trattare virus pericolosissimi come quello dell'Ebola. La pericolosità degli agenti patogeni esistenti prevede delle misure molto rigide. Ciò vale a dire che chi entra ed esce da quelle stanze deve sottoporsi a trattamenti speciali, come docce decontaminanti e indossare tute speciali pressurizzate. Che il virus possa essere uscito da quel laboratorio? Nell’incertezza ci sono però dati inconfutabili e che riguardano il settore economico, in particolar modo le Borse mondiali. Le Borse globali hanno perso nell’ultima seduta (27 gennaio) più del 2%, vedendo ridurre la capitalizzazione globale di oltre 2mila miliardi di dollari. I ribassi sono corali negli Usa e in Europa (la Borsa di Shanghai, così come quelle di Shenzen e Hong Kong, invece resteranno chiuse fino al 3 febbraio per il Capadanno cinese, esteso di tre giorni dalle autorità nel tentativo di rallentare l’epidemia del coronavirus). Numerose aziende farmaceutiche hanno annunciato di star lavorando alla creazione di un vaccino per sconfiggere il nuovo coronavirus. I loro guadagni in Borsa sono schizzati alle stelle. L'americana Vir Biotechnologies, quando i contagi sono esplosi su scala mondiale, ha visto le proprie azioni aumentare di valore per il 97%, con capitalizzazione di 3 miliardi di dollari. L'azienda si dice ora vicina a trovare una soluzione al virus di Wuhan. Anche altre aziende americane come Inovio pharmaceuticals, Moderna e Novavax, impegnate nelle ricerche, hanno guadagnato rispettivamente il 61%, il 16% e il 13%, mentre anche la Cina ha annunciato che parteciperà alla corsa per il vaccino.

di Giorgia Ciampitti, Romina Caterena, Filippo Sardella, Annalisa Fraraccio

Venti di antisemitismo tornano a soffiare in Italia

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Creato Domenica, 26 Gennaio 2020 10:39
Ultima modifica il Lunedì, 27 Gennaio 2020 20:54
Pubblicato Domenica, 26 Gennaio 2020 10:39
Visite: 8130

E’ da qualche anno ormai che sentiamo dai mass media notizie di episodi di razzismo e xenofobia, commessi in nome di una razza superiore, quella bianca nei confronti di soggetti di pelle scura (come quello accaduto a Macerata il 3 febbraio 2018, quando Luca Traini esplose alcuni colpi di pistola che ferirono dei ragazzi di colore) o di soggetti  con disabilità di tipo fisica o psichica (vedasi il diversamente abile di Canosa di Puglia pestato a sangue per aver difeso il fratello da un furto) o per “motivi” religiosi come successo ieri a Mondovì, dove è stata lasciata la scritta  “Juden hier” (“Qui ci sono ebrei”) sulla porta di casa del figlio di una ex deportata nei campi di sterminio dalle truppe tedesche di Hitler nel 1944. In merito a quest’ultima vicenda la Procura di Cuneo ha aperto un fascicolo, per il reato di propaganda e istigazione a delinquere per ragioni di odio razziale a carico di ignoti e su cui indagano ora i Carabinieri dei ROS di Torino. Con questa vicenda, a parere di chi scrive, si è toccato il fondo, in quanto si rievoca una tra le epoche più buie e feroci del ‘900, quella della persecuzione degli ebrei, dei rom, dei disabili da parte del governo nazista, poi internati nei campi di concentramento e barbaramente uccisi. Un modo per non esasperare i toni, già molto aspri, sarebbe portare il dibattito politico televisivo su livelli pacati, in modo da contenere gli episodi di razzismo verbale e non farli sfociare in aggressioni fisiche. Un altro deterrente per far si che non si ripetano queste situazioni è l’inasprimento delle leggi in materia da parte del Governo, per evitare che certe storie si ripetano.

di Domenico Pio Abiuso

First women to join the jihad

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Creato Giovedì, 31 Ottobre 2019 12:33
Ultima modifica il Lunedì, 26 Aprile 2021 08:21
Pubblicato Giovedì, 31 Ottobre 2019 12:33
Visite: 18628
For an organization that has always tried to keep women away from the battlefield and now changes dialectics, it is difficult to find a way to get the attention and especially the approval of its supporters for a choice that would go - according to conservative Muslim doctrine - against their own ideology and their Islamic beliefs. Yet more and more women are involved in suicide attacks: since 1980, no fewer than 4400 suicide attacks have been carried out by male-bombers and female-bombers. 
Chronicles of the first kamikaze women in the Middle East date back to April 4, 1985. The first is the 17-year-old Lebanese Saana Muhaidily who blows herself up by throwing herself with her white Peugeot against an Israeli checkpoint at Batr Shaouf, killing two soldiers and injuring two others. Before she died, according to a tragic ritual that had become classic, the girl had recorded a video message in which she declared herself ready to die in order to drive the Israelis out of Lebanon. Until now, women were excluded from such actions for religious and social reasons. Saana's changing the order of things. Her gesture is interpreted as a warning to the conscience of millions of Arab men. She became a popular icon throughout the Middle East in the 1980s, received public praise from Syrian President Assad, and was given poems and prayers. But above all, a dangerous spirit of emulation is unleashed: on July 9 of the same year, another woman, always at the wheel of a car filled with explosives, launches herself against a checkpoint in Ras Bayada in southern Lebanon, killing two soldiers. She's almost considered a saint by her people.  On 27 January 2002, Wafa Idris, a 28-year-old nurse, arrived in Jerusalem probably on board a Red Crescent ambulance. She enters a shoe shop to ask for the price of a pair of shoes. Once she's out, she walks down Jaffa street. At 12. 20 p. m. the ten kilos of explosives that Wafa carries in the bag explode, killing an elderly tourist guide and injuring dozens of civilians. The rescuers are presented with a macabre spectacle: on the asphalt, a head with long black hair. The bomber is a woman. She is the first Palestinian female suicide bomber. Idris becomes a real heroine for Palestinian public opinion: since the beginning of the second Intifada (Jerusalem, 28 September 2000) no woman had yet sacrificed herself. The story of Wafa still leaves some doubt: it was impossible to establish whether it was her will to die or whether her tragic death was determined by an early trigger that had left her no escape. The consideration she enjoys from her death is envied by many Palestinian women accustomed to being mistreated and misconsidered by men. As with Saana, Wafa's gesture is imitated by other girls. In fact, only after two months, another 18-year-old girl, Ayat Al-Akhrass, handed over her "will" to her schoolmates and went to the city to get herself blown up. On 27 February 2002, 21-year-old student Darin Abu Aishe blew up at a checkpoint near Maccabim (central Israel). Darin studied English at Al-Najah University in Nablus, a real terrorist recruitment base since the student council is controlled by Hamas. Her last message, recorded on video, is a message of hatred towards Ariel Sharon. On April 12, Andaleeh Takatka explodes at bus stop 6, near a market in the sadly famous Jaffa street. On October 4, the death also arrives on the seafront of Haifa. The lawyer Hamady Tayer Jaradat brought it. Her brother was killed. She was looking for revenge. 
The first woman-bomb of the Hamas Islamists is called Reem al-Reyashi. Reem was the challenge of the female suicide bombers, young mother of two children of 3 and 1 year. The video message she leaves is a declaration of love for them. Reem killed 4 Israelis at the Erez crossing, in a building used to control the laborers who go to work in Israel. When she arrived in front of the metal detector, she explained that she had a metal plate in her knee, so that she could enter the room where the soldiers were without arousing suspicion. And here she set in motion the explosion mechanism. Isis has attracted hundreds of young girls to her network, manipulated, persuaded to leave with the promise of a better life and then reduced to slavery, such as Samra Kesinovic and Sabina Selimovic, who left Vienna on April 10, 2014 when they were 15 and 16 years old.  But the women of Isis are not just victims. The scenario has evolved. They are considered "fanatical and radicalized". 
Europe's first jihadist suicide bomber, Hasna Aitboulahcensi, blew herself up during the November 2015 raid in St. Denis. Hasna Aitboulahcen is a pioneer in Europe, but it is one of more than 220 women who have been blown up in half the world since 1985. Before her, in the occupied Palestinian territories, a dozen women have been involved in suicide attacks in the last fifteen years. As in Iraq, Turkey, Russia, Nigeria and India where the use of female suicide bombers is a less and less exceptional phenomenon.  On 29 March 2010, two women blew up at an hour's interval in two Moscow metro stations, killing 37 people and injuring dozens of people. On August 31, 2004, another Chechen woman blew herself up in Moscow, killing 10 people.  Since 1999, dozens of women, mainly Chechens, have become suicide bombers. They have been immolated in the Moscow metro, in planes, near police stations, during rock concerts, in front of buildings.  In 2002, at the Doubrokva Theatre, 19 "black widows" were wearing a bomb belt to take 130 people hostage.  In Iraq, since 2003, about fifty women have chosen to die for Allah, among them, only last year, about twenty, which represents about 10% of the total bombers. This means that the number of women involved is constantly increasing.  On 1 February 2010, for example, more than 46 people were killed and some 260 injured in an attack by a suicide bomber in Baghdad: Yasser Arafat activated the detonator while she was in line with other women waiting to be searched. Yasser Arafat, "Nobel Peace Prize", in January 2002 created the female word of martyr, Shahida, which had not existed in Arabic until then, and invited women to participate in the armed struggle by declaring: «You are my army of roses that will crush Israeli tanks».  The most respected Shiite religious in Lebanon, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, blessed Palestinian female suicide bombers by saying that they were writing the pages of a new and glorious story for Arab and Muslim women. Another example is that of Aminah, who wanted revenge for the death of her husband (killed in 2011 by an American drone) through a suicide attack.  A terrorist attack unleashed in Paris in September 2016 was conceived by an all-female IS cell, and the following month 10 women were arrested in Morocco for planning a suicide attack during the parliamentary elections.  In France, Morocco, Kenya, Indonesia and the United States there have been several cases of women active in the creation of attacks on behalf of the Islamic State. So far, the chronicle of a phenomenon that violently shakes our consciences evoking the ghost of the inexplicability of the existence of people for whom the struggle for an ideal is more important than life itself. These women, whose stories all resemble each other, seem to have given up, or been forced to give up, any faculty of free judgment, whether through persuasion, violence or the administration of drugs. As previously mentioned, death arrived in shopping malls, central streets, markets, concealed in handbags or concealed under clothing to simulate a pregnancy. Death was caused by women, through what are the symbols of femininity: the fondness of the handbag, the sweetness of an upcoming motherhood.  Almost twenty years after its debut in modern history, suicidal terrorism preserves the image of an extreme instrument of terror, and these cases of chronicle should lead us to think of the important role that women have acquired within the new military doctrine of the group, of their possible tactical use, but, above all, of how the strategic logic of the IS group has changed. Women play an increasingly important role in this game, and underestimating its presence can be a risk.
 
di Noemi Genova
 
 

L'Australia in fiamme

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Creato Mercoledì, 15 Gennaio 2020 21:21
Ultima modifica il Domenica, 29 Marzo 2020 09:45
Pubblicato Mercoledì, 15 Gennaio 2020 21:21
Visite: 10279
Quindici milioni di ettari bruciati fino ad ora e con essi milioni di specie animale e vegetale. Da quasi tre mesi le fiamme divampano sul territorio australiano. Lo stato più danneggiato è il Nuovo Galles del Sud. Tra le creature più colpite vi è la popolazione dei koala con più di 9000 morti. Il WWF ha dichiarato che l l'estinzione di questi animali unici al mondo è dietro l'angolo. Secondo alcune stime per ripopolare il territorio di vegetazione servirebbero 2 miliardi di alberi da ripiantare. Oltre 180 persone sono state denunciate e 24 arrestate per aver causato questi incendi colposi.
Tutta la popolazione australiana cerca di dare il proprio contributo per risollevare la terra nativa. Alcuni adolescenti adottano e curano specie in difficoltà. Un giovane cacciatore australiano ha messo a rischio la propria vita per salvare i koala e altri animali selvatici intrappolati negli incendi. La NASA ha annunciato gli effetti del fumo: il cielo dell'America del Sud ha cambiato colore, mentre è peggiorata la qualità dell'aria in Nuova Zelanda, dove si comincia ad annerire la neve sulle montagne. Da pochi giorni sono cadute bombe d'acqua, alleviando gli interminabili incendi e ripulendo il terreno da ceneri e detriti. Una vera e propria boccata d’ossigeno per un Paese piegato in due dai roghi.
 
di Romina Caterena e Giorgia Ciampitti

The 'missing bombs': the voices of the survivors

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Creato Lunedì, 22 Luglio 2019 10:12
Ultima modifica il Domenica, 29 Marzo 2020 09:46
Pubblicato Lunedì, 22 Luglio 2019 10:12
Visite: 12357
«And so at the last minute I lacked the courage and madness, if you want», says the Chechen Zerema Muzhikovskaia. «I mean, I realized I'd never be able to blow myself up. So I did everything to draw attention to that July 9, 2003 in the center of Moscow. Well, I did not complete the attack and unfortunately, a few hours later, the bomb exploded in the hands of the security services responsible for defusing the device and ended up in the hands of the Creator. I was arrested and then sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment at the Maximum Security Prison in Lefortovo. I could have really pressed the button and detonated the bomb. But I didn't. I had robbed my aunt, disgraced my family, tried to kidnap my daughter and tried to run away from home. I'd become the shame of the house. So, to honor the whole thing, I had to wash the shame. So I convinced myself of the idea of martyrdom to repay the relatives who would have received a thousand dollars in reward if I had been blown up in a kamikaze attack. On July 1, 2003, I was told it was time. When I get near the chosen target, I go on tilt. Even today I do not know if I felt dazed or rather frightened by that kind of horrible fate that I had chosen. And without even realizing it, I sterted wandering the streets of Tverskaya. It's 10:00 p. m. and I'm sitting at the table at Mon Café. I press the detonator bomb, but the bomb doesn't go off. Then I go out of the club. I try to re-adjust that button. I go back in. I push again. But the device is shaky again».
Touraya Hamour, a 25-year-old Palestinian, is recruited by the military wing of al Fatah  to carry out a murderous-suicide attack on the evening of 20 May 2002 in a restaurant in the southern part of Jerusalem. But Touraya had second thoughts. It's not enough. Israeli soldiers hunt her down at her uncle's house the same day she missed the attack. Sentenced to six years' imprisonment for threatening state security. She claims to be religious but without excesses. «I was engaged for a couple of weeks but then it all ended. A story that ended four months before that fateful 20 May. And that's when it all came to my mind. I had this idea from the gesture of Wafa Idris, the first Palestinian suicide bomber. But I don't hate Jews. However, I could give many examples of Palestinian children being killed by Israelis for no reason. Or my cousin killed by the same troops in the living room of my house in Jenin. Yeah, that's them. Who invaded my land and absolutely mercilessly slaughtered my people. And that's why I decided not to take pity. Much less mercy. As for the children, I have nothing against the little Israelis. There is a possibility that once they are adults, they will kill my son, my friend's son or my neighbor's son. That's why they should die now. And this kind of mission is a credit to the family. And to me, too, if you like. The fact of being locked up as a potential danger to the security of the country already brings prestige. It does great credit to the guerrillas. But to become a martyr», says Touraya, «you need in any case a lot of strength of mind and immense will. There was only one thing that worried me. I feared that during the explosion my private parts would be visible to all. The very idea of exploding already gives a very unusual feeling. I was even thrilled by this opportunity and I was waiting anxiously, impatiently, for that moment. However, as a Palestinian woman I knew that at least for a while I would raise the hearts of many compatriots, of many people who have suffered too much and have continued to suffer. And I was not at all afraid to make the gesture». It's a secret for Touraya to blow up, a secret of her own that she never reveals. «After all, if I'd told anyone the secret, I would have risked ruining everything. My parents would never let me step outside the house again», she clarifies. As an aspiring martyr, she refuses to be filmed in a pre-death video, reiterating that the will must be something only between her and God. As the moment of truth approaches, Touraya has her first doubts and does not want to explode anymore. «I thought of all those I could kill. While those who sent me to my death didn't care about my fate. They only care about the target. "If they're gonna catch you, blow you up", they said, "even though there's no one around you"». Touraya Hamour then bursts into tears and hides her beautiful face in her flickering hands. 
Refusing to sacrifice one's life for a cause one does not believe in and finding the strength to escape a destiny of violence apparently marked in a land that has been torn apart by a fierce war for over 10 years, is what a 20-year-old Chechen has managed to do. Raisa Ganieva has officially requested police protection. «To circumvent the constriction of my older brother Rustam to kill. He offered me and then treated me for $3,000. So he wanted at all costs to hand me over that amount as a suicide bomb to Samil Basaev, leader of the Chechen guerrillas. Like he did with the other sisters. But I didn't want to. I didn't mean to kill. I hate violence. I'm sick of violence. And I didn't even want to die like that».
27-year-old Obeida Abu Aisha was arrested in Tel Aviv in June 2002 before wearing her explosive belt. Same day as the anniversary of the death of the brother of the missing-kamikaze, who at the age of 17 blew himself up in the same place, injuring about twenty people. Every friend and acquaintance of her is aware of Obeida's desire to sacrifice herself for the cause. She's been stubbornly repeating it for at least a year. «I stopped when the operation was about to take place. Backed by my boyfriend Ali, we were in fact simultaneously preparing marriage and suicide bombings. But also concluding the desire to start having children. Man to whom I promised I would never commit the action alone. That I would wait for him. But four days before the scheduled date he was killed in an Israeli raid in Ramallah. Even today I cannot explain myself, except with words of war and hatred, how I could think of myself mother, prepare the wedding party and continue to organize the massacre. 72 virgins are promised to bomb men when they die and reach Paradise. I could have just gotten closer to God. Peace requires patience. I will never forget the blood of my missed husband and my brother».
20-year-old Arin Ahmen decided to join Jad, her great love pulverized by an Israeli rocket, at the Martyrs' Paradise. And no one up there can ever separate them. After the trauma of the death of his boyfriend, Arin goes to university again and sees Ali al Magradi, an activist of Tanzim . Suddenly one day the girl reveals the idea of dying as a martyr. She doesn't realize that she just destroyed her life. Four days after expressing that thought, Ali waits for her at the entrance to the faculty. Her time had come. Arin puts on his religious clothes, records the traditional videotape and receives the belt loaded with explosives. Once they arrive at the chosen location, at the last moment the girl decides to abandon the suicide mission. She was arrested. Binyamin Ben Eliezer interrogated and investigated her at the Jerusalem prison. He wants to understand the human mechanism behind the kamikaze gestures.
This is the true story of the only Black Tiger who only at the last moment, repentant, decided not to complete the suicide mission for which she had been chosen. And now, forced to live as an illegal immigrant so as not to be killed by the Tamils, she says: «It all began in 1998. The army kidnapped my father, and then we found him dead. One day a man I knew asked me if I wanted to avenge Daddy. And, which I found rather strange, he even asked me if I was a virgin. For the first question I was affirmative, and for the second I answered no. "Too bad", replied the man, "virgins are better suited. But it's the same. Make a written request and leave it to the village suggestion box". Three months later that man came back to warn me that my wish had been granted because it was judged worthy by the supreme head Velupillai Prabhakaran . I was accompanied to the first field where they cut my hair, gave me pants, boots and shirts. They inculcated in me so many things and I believed everything. They told me so insistently that I ended up believing it. I was ready for the second phase of training. In the second camp we non-virgin women used to spend days and days with a grenade in the vagina. They made us wear copies of the suicide vest and prepare us for the day when we would have to throw ourselves on the target and actuate the detonator to explode in tandem». After a year, she is returned to the city. «We will contact you. We will be in touch. Don't worry», they just said. But they took possession of all my identity documents and ordered me to delete all traces of me because if I was arrested they could not trace my person. Finally, they forced me to look for and accept a normal, modest job». The girl gets hired in an ice cream shop. It's probably that job that saves her. «I knew it would come that day. The day when I would have to wear that vest. When I should have disguised myself among the passers-by and waited there for the target to be sacrificed. Maybe it was also an idea that made me happy but suddenly, the day they came to take me, the day I was asked if I had any relatives that I would leave in trouble to take care of. The day I was told that it had reached the end of the line and I had to take action, I was no longer ready. I had already been given the classic cyanide pill to wear around my neck, the pill that allows you not to fall into the arms of the enemy, and I was told that I was entitled to the last dinner with my head and to a hug from him. Well, that very day I was no longer available. No, I was not. I wasn't ready anymore». She's safe. She escapes. We don't know how.
 
di Noemi Genova
 

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