MaksZycinskiBlog

Syrian authorities said that they have begun rationing fuel as a result of the blockage of the Suez canal, delaying crucial shipments and worsening the country's oil shortages. Syria is suffering from civil war since 2011 and faces a serious economic crisis. It already announced a more than 50% rise in the price of petrol. Minister said that they are rationing distribution of the available oil to ensure that essential services such as bakeries and hospitals will function continuously. Global supply chain has been injured since the giant container ship Ever Given wedged in the canal and blocked one of the most popular trade routes in the world. The situation with Ever Given container ship is a tragedy on a world scale. It is causing tens of millions losses per hour and cuts of access to oil to many countries. The poorest of them, especially those in conflict, like Syria could have serious problems in proper functioning. Even though current trials on removing the container didn't...

The Covid-19 vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca was 79% effective in preventing symptomatic illness in a large study in the US, Peru, and Chile. The vaccine was 100% effective against the severe course of the disease supported by the research of more than 32 000 volunteers across all age groups. AstraZeneca hopes that any doubts in the US and in Europe will be dispelled. The US trial of this vaccine was the largest by far and about 20% of vaccinated were 65 or older and 60% were not in the best health, including diabetes, obesity, and heart diseases.   In my opinion, US and Europe should be using AstraZeneca's vaccine. There were no deaths caused by this vaccine and even blood clots, that occurred in the very small percentage of vaccinated, were not correlated with the vaccine itself. The results of the study went surprisingly good and they should be enough to allow to vaccinate people with the AstraZeneca.  The AstraZeneca vaccine was always intended ...

Researchers said that the series of droughts and heatwaves in Europe is the most extreme for more than 2000 years. The study analysed tree rings dating from the Roman empire to create the longest record ever to date. The scientists said that global heating is the main cause of the recent rise in extreme heat. This heatwaves have devastating consequences such as thousands of early deaths, destroying crops, and causing forest fires. Also, low river levels, affected transportation and cooling nuclear power stations. What is worse climate scientists predict more extreme and more frequent droughts in the future. It is terrifying that the situation is so bad for the last 2000 years. In my opinion, all countries in Europe should discuss this serious problem and try to join forces in order to prevent this irreversible catastrophe. It is unacceptable that countries like Poland do almost nothing to prevent climate tragedy. We should follow for example Denmark and invest in renewable energy, red...

 Switzerland is going to follow France, Belgium and Austria after voting in a referendum to ban women from wearing burqa or niqab in public spaces. Full facial veils will still be allowed to be worn inside places of prayer and during native customs, for example, carnival. The new law won't affect face masks worn because of Covid-19. Muslim groups have criticised the ban and said that it was clearly aimed to marginalize their communities in Switzerland even more.  Supporters of the ban argue that it was intended to stop violent street protesters and football hooligans wearing masks and that the referendum text doesn't mention Islam  or the words “niqab” or “burqa”. In my opinion, Switzerland shouldn't make it a law, because it offends the religious feelings of  Muslims, who are over 390 thousand there.  Maybe it wasn't an intention and it would help decrease the criminality rate but it should be regulated in a way that it won't negatively affect Muslim communitie...

Despite threats of Covid-19 and terrorism, first ever pope is going to visit Iraq on Friday. During this visit, Francis will meet Christian communities and one of the most influential Muslim leaders in the world. This will be the first visit abroad for 15 months for 84-year old Pope Francis, due to Covid restrictions. All of the members of the papal entourage will be vaccinated against the virus and all of the safety procedures will be required. Although, all of the security measures will be provided many says that this trip is too risky for such an important person to the Catholic church, especially considering the suicide bombing attack at a Baghdad market last month. In my opinion, it is very good news, because pope should care about the positive image of the Catholic church and keep good relations with leaders of other religions. I very much appreciate Francis's efforts to modernize Church for example his last speech about homosexuals being God's children same as others and...

Israeli authorities are trying to find the ship that is responsible for an oil spill in its Meditteranean shoreline. Specialists said that this is a huge blow to the environment and it can the years to clean it up. Last week a 55 foot-long whale was found thrown out on a beach. An autopsy had found oil-based material in the whale's body. It was called a big disaster, especially that it affected not only the environment but also millions of living creatures in the sea and on the shore. Luckily, thousands of volunteers gathered to help with cleaning the beach from oil, also Israel's military forces offered help with cleaning. Israel is looking for a ship responsible for this disaster with help of satellite images and modeling of wave movements. Israel environmental protection minister said that there were nine ships in that area at the time they are looking at and it is a big chance that the specific ship would be found. In my opinion, the ship responsible for the disaster and th...

 There has been an increase in the number of people getting involved in projects that help local environments. The Woodland Trust, the largest organization engaged in the planting and protection of trees that runs a free trees scheme for school and community groups, experienced this tendency on their own example. Last year they planted over one million trees. Despite Covid, they had more applications for spring this year than for the previous year and they are going to send close to half a million new saplings. The average of planted trees is around 4000 a day. Kay Clark manager at the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) said that there was an uplift of people wanting to help environment and that he had never seen anything like that. I think it is super interesting that people despite pandemic are so willing to help our planet. Or maybe the pandemic was the reason why the people care more about others,our planet included. Just like Kay Clark from RHS said  “Once people start to ...