The World Health Organization (WHO) European Region said Thursday it has reached a "grim milestone" and exceeded 2 million deaths due to the COVID-19 pandemic in its 53 countries.

"While this number is devastating, it represents a fraction of the overall deaths directly and indirectly associated with COVID-19, as WHO's report on excess mortality during the pandemic has shown," said the WHO Europe in a statement.

The global death toll for the disease is 6,258,023, according to the WHO.

WHO Europe extends from Greenland in the northwest to the Russian Far East.

"While case numbers are declining in the region, they remain far too high.

"COVID-19 continues to remind us that SARS-CoV-2 is still a killer virus, especially for the unvaccinated and clinically vulnerable," said the WHO.

WHO provided testimony from Safiah Ngah from the UK capital London, who said she is just one of those who lost a loved one -- in her case, her father, a doctor -- to COVID-19.

"I can't put into words how much losing my dad has affected my life and my family's life," Ngah said.

"It feels like the foundation of our lives has just been ripped apart."

WHO said the world can act together and leave the acute phase of the pandemic by taking definitive steps on many fronts, now and in the long term.

"These include protecting the most vulnerable, continuing to monitor the virus and its spread, keeping health systems ready for any developments of the pandemic, and tackling its long-term impacts," said WHO.

Such impacts include "the looming prospect of millions of people with the post-COVID condition or long COVID."/aa

Russian energy company Gazprom announced Thursday that it will no longer use the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe natural gas pipeline, which carries Russian gas to Europe.

Gazprom's representative, Sergey Kupriyanov, recalled in his written statement that the Russian government had decided to impose sanctions on various foreign companies, including the Polish company EuRoPol GAZ.

Kupriyanov explained as sanctions apply to EuRoPol GAZ, which is the owner of the Polish section of the Yamal-Europe pipeline carrying Russian gas to Europe, Russian gas will no longer be shipped through the line.

Kupriyanov said Poland, as a shareholder of EuRoPol GAZ, had violated Gazprom's rights many times and also imposed sanctions on the Russian energy giant.

The Yamal-Europe pipeline is one of the most important lines for the transit of Russian gas to Europe, along with the Nord Stream pipeline and pipelines in Ukraine.

The Yamal-Europe gas pipeline, which is owned and operated by Gazprom on the Russian side, and EuRoPol GAZ on the Polish side, has an annual capacity of 33 billion cubic meters./aa

Astronomers on Thursday unveiled the first image of the "supermassive black hole" at the center of the Milky Way galaxy.

"This result provides overwhelming evidence that the object is indeed a black hole and yields valuable clues about the workings of such giants, which are thought to reside at the center of most galaxies," said the scientists in a release at the headquarters of the European Southern Observatory in Garching, Germany.

The image of the black hole, named Sagittarius A*, or (Sgr A*), was captured by a global research team using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT), a global array of radio telescopes from Europe to Antarctica to Hawaii in the Pacific Ocean.

"Although we cannot see the black hole itself, because it is completely dark, glowing gas around it reveals a telltale signature: a dark central region (called a “shadow”) surrounded by a bright ring-like structure," said the statement.

"The new view captures light bent by the powerful gravity of the black hole, which is four million times more massive than our Sun," it added.

The breakthrough comes after the EHT team's 2019 release of the first-ever image of a black hole, called M87*, at the center of the distant Messier 87 galaxy.

Sagittarius A* is about 27,000 light-years away from Earth./aa

The cryptocurrency market has seen $1 trillion evaporating in just five weeks as the price of Bitcoin plummeted to its lowest level in 16 months with investors' panic selloff running on full throttle.

The price of Bitcoin dove below $29,000 late Wednesday, a price seen by many crypto investors as a strong support level since last July.

Its price further sank to $27,785, a more than a 7% daily loss, hitting its lowest level since Dec. 30, 2020.

Earlier Thursday, it fell further to $26,700 at 0515GMT.

This meant more than a 30% decline since last Wednesday when Bitcoin closed at $39,701, according to data compiled by Anadolu Agency.

The world's most popular and biggest cryptocurrency by market cap has lost a whopping 60% in just six months after hitting an all-time high of $69,000 in November.

The total value of the crypto market plummeted to below $1.12 trillion after 0700GMT on Thursday – a colossal $1.07 trillion loss since seeing $2.19 trillion on April 4.

Interest rate seen as culprit

Many crypto investors blame the US Federal Reserve raising interest rates last week by 50 basis points, the steepest hike since 2000, which could potentially push the US economy into recession.

Since then, the US' tech-heavy Nasdaq stock exchange dove a staggering 12%, and the crypto market has been strongly correlated to the performance of technology stocks.

American tech companies in recent weeks posted disappointing financial results for the first quarter of the year, owing to major hurdles such as rising costs due to record high inflation, softening consumer demand, chip shortages, and supply chain bottlenecks.

As for the crypto market's internal dynamics, however, the failure of a new project added fuel to the fire sale.

A stable coin called TerraUSD, or UST, initially designed by Singapore-based Terraform Labs in 2018 to be pegged to one dollar, plummeted below $0.26 on Wednesday, worsening fears among crypto investors.

Other popular stable coins use their reserve cash and various assets to manage a 1-on-1 ratio against the US dollar, in order to present stability and avoid volatility.
UST, on the other hand, uses an algorithm of burning and minting its sibling token Luna, and this enables UST to adjust its own supply and manage a price close to one dollar.

With the price of UST in free fall, more and more Luna are being burned in order to support the price of UST by the Singapore-based non-profit Luna Foundation Guard.

Luna, however, has lost over 95% of its value in just a few days, and now crypto investors are worried that the organization would dump billions worth of Bitcoin that it owns in order to support UST.

If that happens, it could pave the way for even a bigger selloff in the crypto market./aa

Germany needs to step up its efforts to combat far-right violence as 41% of last year’s victims of politically motivated crimes were attacked by right-wing extremists, human rights activists in the capital Berlin told Anadolu Agency.

“We are very concerned about right-wing violence in Germany. We saw five murders last year. People who were killed because of right-wing violence,” Robert Kusche of the Berlin-based Association of Counseling Centers for Victims of Right-wing, Racist and Antisemitic Violence in Germany (VBRG).

“We can totally understand that the migrant community is afraid and we totally support them in the way that we are saying the German government must do more. I can totally understand these concerns because we saw in the last three years 17 murders because of racism and anti-Semitism,” he added.

Kusche stressed that while progress has been made in the fight against far-right violence, much more needs to be done.

“We are already seeing some improvements under the new German government. There is a 10-point (action) plan by the German Interior Minister (Nancy Faeser), he said.

“There are a lot of things going on but we also know that often the political process needs time," Kusche said.

"I can understand that people who are the victims or people who are afraid that they may become the next victims because they are migrants that they say you really have to speed up things to improve the situation by combating racism,” he added.

Kusche’s remarks were echoed by Said Etris Hashemi, another human rights activist whose brother was killed in a right-wing shooting massacre in the southern German city of Hanau in February 2019.

“I am very concerned about right-wing violence, especially when you see all right-wing crimes in Germany. We are seeing an enormous increase in right-wing violence and it is time now to act against this,” Hashemi said.

“It is good and correct that the federal (German) government has finally accepted that right-wing extremism is the biggest security loophole in our system and now is the time to address this,” he added.

According to the German interior minister, the far-right is “the biggest threat to democracy” in the country.

Neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists committed 21,964 crimes in Germany last year, the government reported on Tuesday.

Based on the report, neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists carried out 1,042 violent attacks last year targeting migrants, refugees or political opponents. At least 590 people were injured in those attacks./aa

The Sera Community Rhino Sanctuary in northern Kenya’s Samburu County -- the first community conservancy in East Africa to establish a black rhino breeding sanctuary -- is boasting increased rhino numbers. 

Working with the Kenya Wildlife Service and the Northern Rangelands Trust (NRT) -- a membership organization led by 43 community conservancies -- the rhino conservancy took in 10 critically endangered black rhinos in 2015 and grew the population to 19, not counting the present rhino calves.

The local pastoralist Samburu community has proven that local communities can do much in changing the narrative of endangered species conservation in Kenya.

Among them is 30-year-old Salome Lemalasia.

Lemalasia, who comes from the local community, known in the past for hunting wildlife, became the only female ranger in the sanctuary protecting the rhinos with her life.

“I sleep, eat and spend all my time with my favorite rhino, who is called Lojipu. I started taking care of him since he was nine months old till now. He is six years old,” Lemalasia told Anadolu Agency.

Among the rhinos, Lojipu is docile only to Lemalasia and will act as a wild animal to other rangers or other people.

“He would come to where I sleep and wake me up so that I can give him milk or food. He is very gentle with me. When I take walks in the wild area where there are other rhinos, Lojipu will come to me. He will smell my scent and come walk with me,” Lemalasia said, noting that the rhino, which weighs close to 1,400 kilograms, is more like a son to her.​​​​​​​

The local community here is leading the endangered species’ recovery while reaping benefits from it through tourism revenue from the Saruni Rhino Lodge, which has been erected in the sanctuary, and through conservation. They also are able to get education bursaries and security for the greater community and employment.

Since its establishment, there has been no case of poaching reported in the 107 square kilometer sanctuary.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency on Wednesday, Reuben Lendira, Sera community conservancy manager, lauded the initiative, saying it proves that local communities can do a lot to conserve and protect wildlife if given a chance.

“We are pastoralists, and we only do livestock rearing, and they do suffer because of droughts. That is why the community went into conservation because now we are benefitting from tourism and keeping the wildlife safe,” he said./aa