Monthly Archives: May 2017

Foreign Affairs, United States

President Trump pledges peace push after talks with Pope Francis

Pope Francis meets with President Donald Trump for a private audience.

AMERICAN PRESIDENT MEETS POPE FRANCIS 

Donald Trump has vowed to use his US presidency to promote peace around the world after what he depicted as an inspirational meeting with an initially grim-faced Pope Francis.

Meeting face-to-face for the first time, the two leaders sidestepped profound differences over a string of issues ranging from the environment to the plight of migrants and the poor.

And the US President emerged from a half-hour meeting at the Vatican gushing with enthusiasm about the 80-year-old pontiff, to the point of the former TV star appearing slightly star-struck.

“Honour of a lifetime to meet His Holiness Pope Francis,” Trump wrote on Twitter before leaving Rome for Brussels and the next leg of his first overseas trip as president.

“I leave the Vatican more determined than ever to pursue PEACE in our world.”

On leaving Rome, Mr Trump headed for Brussels, a city he once dubbed a “hellhole”, ahead of his first summits with wary leaders of NATO and the European Union.

Trump’s declaration of intent followed a keenly-anticipated encounter between the billionaire businessman and the former Jesuit priest who has made championing the poor and the third world major themes of his papacy.

In their world view and tastes, the Argentine pontiff who eschews the use of the palaces at his disposal and the luxury hotel tycoon appear worlds apart.

But if there was any friction when they finally met, it occurred behind closed doors. In front of the cameras, both men were mostly all smiles, relaxed and even jovial.

“He is something,” Trump later said of his host. “We had a fantastic meeting.”

The Vatican described the discussions as “cordial” and emphasised the two men’s joint opposition to abortion and shared concern for persecuted Christians in the Middle East.

The pope had presented Mr Trump with a medallion engraved with an olive tree, the international symbol of peace.

Pope Francis also gave President Trump copies of the three major texts he has published as pontiff, including one on the environment which urges the industrialised world to curb carbon emissions or risk catastrophic consequences for the planet.

Mr Trump, who has threatened to ignore the Paris accords on emissions and described global warming as a hoax, vowed to read them.

A Vatican statement on the meeting highlighted “the joint commitment in favour of life, and freedom of worship and conscience.”

The American President told his host as he left, “Thank you. Thank you. I won’t forget what you said.”

“I give it to you so you can be an instrument of peace,” he said in Spanish. “We can use peace,” Trump replied.

Trump’s gifts included a collection of first editions by Martin Luther King and a bronze sculpture.

Trump’s administration has pleased the Roman Catholic Church by axing rules protecting tax-funded financing of family planning clinics that offer abortions.

Accompanied by his wife Melania and daughter Ivanka, Mr Trump met Francis in the private library of the Apostolic Palace, the lavish papal residence that the current pope eschews in favour of more modest lodgings.

Afterwards, the first couple were given a private tour of the Sistine Chapel and St Peter’s Basilica.

While Mr Trump dropped in on Italy’s President and met Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Melania visited a children’s hospital and Ivanka met women trafficked from Africa for the sex trade.

In Brussels, he will meet EU President Donald Tusk and European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker, having previously backed Britain’s shock Brexit vote and saying the EU was a doomed would-be superstate.

He will then hold his first summit with the 28 leaders of the NATO military alliance, which he dubbed “obsolete” on the campaign trail, where he is expected to press them to join the US-led coalition against Islamic State in the wake of the Manchester attack in Britain.

Pope Francis and Trump’s past spats include the pope describing plans for a border wall with Mexico as not Christian and Trump evoking a possible Islamist attack on the Vatican which would make the pontiff glad to have him as president.

But there have also been conciliatory moves. In 2013, Trump tweeted that “the new pope is a humble man, very much like me” while Francis had promised to judge the man not the image.

Trump’s Vatican visit was the third leg of his overseas trip, after stops in Saudi Arabia and Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The high-profile trip has diverted attention from Trump’s domestic pressures over alleged campaign collusion with Russia.

With his poll numbers at a record low for a recently-elected president, he will be hoping for a boost after rubbing shoulders with the popular pope.

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Arts

Ancient Greek (Roman) Sculpture: Discobolos

Discus

The original Greek Discus-Thrower statue was made in bronze and only known to have existed because of later copies made by Romans. Created by the sculptor Myron in the 5th century BCE, the original captured the moment in which an athlete was about to release a heavy disc, or discus, in an attempt to throw the farthest.

The Discobolos, a Greek sculpture, was originally sculpted in bronze in about 450 BCE by Myron.

The Discobolos is an exemplar of action statuary of the Classical period. The athlete is poised at the moment of highest tension, when he has swung his arm back and is about to fling the discus. The musculature of his body is beautifully incised and he looks like a coiled spring. His face, however, does not reflect this tension, but rather is expressionless. In the typical severe style, the facial features are simplified and emotionless. The statue is therefore exemplary of both Severe and High Classical attributes.

The moment thus captured in the statue is an example of rhythmos, harmony and balance.

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Government, Health, Medical, Science, Society

Diesel fumes study: The damage fumes do to lungs

AIR POLLUTION

Diesel Car

Diesel fumes, which are a major component of air pollution in many European cities, trigger respiratory reflexes which could potentially worsen underlying conditions, such as asthma. Researchers at Imperial College London have become the first to demonstrate how this happens.

CLEAR proof that diesel fumes causes breathing problems has finally been found by scientists.

Polluted air contains tiny particles that make nerves in the lungs misfire, triggering coughing and wheezing.

It is clear evidence of the precise way in which diesel fumes spark asthma attacks and leave sufferers in need of medical assistance, if not hospital attention. The particles are also linked to premature births as well as heart and lung disease.

Air pollution, including diesel fumes, has been blamed for up to 40,000 deaths a year.

A research team led by Imperial College London found that the particles were dangerous because they were so small the body did not recognise them as foreign objects.

Professor Maria Belvisi, the study’s lead author, said: ‘We knew that people exposed to traffic were more likely to suffer from asthma attacks, coughing and breathlessness.

‘This is the first direct evidence that diesel is doing it.

‘The symptoms are being caused by activation of the nerves in the airway. It is more of an issue for people with existing breathing problems and asthma, but this is happening to all of us.’

Diesels are so common because drivers were given financial incentives to buy them under the last Labour government.

Their engines were favoured because they emit less carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.

Dr Penny Woods, of the British Lung Foundation, said the study confirmed the serious and potentially fatal consequences of diesel fumes.

She added: ‘Diesel emissions have become the major source of pollution in urban areas, where the majority of people live. We are storing up huge unknowns for the future of our nation’s respiratory health.

‘We need the next Government to urgently implement a new clean air act that recognises the modern-day source of traffic emissions and cleans up the air we breathe.’

The Government has published draft plans to offer drivers cash for scrapping their diesels. But campaigners are calling for clean air zones, keeping polluting vehicles out of urban areas altogether. Thirty-Seven cities persistently breach legal limits of air toxins.

Although diesel particles are mainly carbon, the chemicals on their surface – polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons – are dangerous.

Testing diesel fumes on human lung tissue, animal tissue and guinea pigs, the Imperial College team found these chemicals triggered coughing.

Dr Ian Mudway, of King’s College London, said: ‘This study shines a mechanistic light on how the very small particles emitted from diesel exhaust worsen respiratory symptoms by activating airway nerves and highlights the importance of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.’

The diesel particles are so tiny that the body mistakes them for natural molecules and draws them into the lungs. The study involved the University of British Columbia and is published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Professor Belvisi added: ‘The main message here is about prevention. A significant number of hospital admissions are for people suffering with exacerbations of respiratory disease.

‘In major cities we are already exceeding the recommended levels for air pollution.’

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