Source: United States Attorneys General 8
OVW conducted a live web-based pre-application information session for its Fiscal Year 2025 Tribal Governments Program funding opportunity. During the presentation, OVW staff reviewed this program’s requirements, discussed the opportunity, and allowed for a brief question-and-answer period.
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore)
January 28, 2025
Resolution is a direct response to Trump pardoning more than 1,500 Jan 6 insurrectionists—including those convicted of violent assaults on police officers
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today announced they have joined 47 of their Senate colleagues to introduce a resolution condemning the pardons of individuals found guilty of assaulting Capitol Police Officers on Jan. 6, 2021.
“America continues to suffer the scars of Jan. 6 as nothing less than a violent assault on democracy, our Capitol and those who protect and serve our country,” Wyden said. “Donald Trump encouraged that assault four years ago and last week acted shamelessly to rewrite this bloody history by throwing open the prison gates and letting these violent criminals walk free out on the street. Congress cannot let this unprecedented attack go unchecked.”
“President Trump’s day one priority in office was to pardon the insurrectionists who stormed the U.S. Capitol and assaulted police officers in a failed attempt to upend the peaceful transfer of power and our democratic process,” Merkley said. “These shameful pardons disrespect the rule of law, our democracy itself, and the brave men and women serving in law enforcement across America.”
The resolution follows the move by Donald Trump, on the first day of his second term, to grant full and unconditional pardons to more than 1,500 people charged with committing crimes in the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and to commute the sentences of 14 others, including leaders of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers, along with other extremely far-right militias.
Among those pardoned by Trump were 169 people who pled guilty to assaulting police officers on January 6. During the siege of the Capitol that day, more than 80 U.S. Capitol Police Officers were assaulted, along with 60 officers from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department.
A PDF of the resolution is here.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Caroline Fowler, Starr Director of the Research and Academic Program, Clark Art Institute, and lecturer in Art History, Williams College
The so-called golden age of Dutch painting in the 1600s coincided with an economic boom that had a lot to do with the transatlantic slave trade. But how did the slave trade shape the art market in the Netherlands? And how is it reflected in the paintings of the time?
This is the subject of a new book called Slavery and the Invention of Dutch Art by art historian Caroline Fowler. We asked about her study.
The earliest paintings that would be called Dutch were predominantly religious. They were made for Christian devotion. In the 1500s, major divisions in the church led to a fragmentation of Christianity called the Reformation.
In this new religious climate, artists began to create new types of paintings, studying the world around them. They included landscapes, seascapes, still lifes, and interior scenes of their homes. Instead of working for the church, many painters began to work within an art market. There was a rising middle class that could afford to buy paintings.
Historically, this period in Dutch economic prosperity has been called the “golden age”. This is when many of the most famous Dutch painters worked, such as Rembrandt van Rijn and Johannes Vermeer.
Their work was made possible by a strong Dutch economy built on global trade networks. This included the transatlantic slave trade and the rise of the middle class. Although artists did not directly paint the transatlantic slave trade, in my book I argue that it is central to understanding the paintings produced in the 1600s as it made the economic market possible.
In turn, many of the types of painting that developed, like maritime scenes and interior scenes, are often obliquely or directly about international trade. The slave trade is a haunting presence in these images.
The new “middle class” consisted of economically prosperous merchants, artisans, lawyers and doctors. For many of the wealthiest merchants, their prosperity was fuelled by their investments in trade overseas. In land and plantations, and also commodities such as sugar, salt, mace and nutmeg.
Slavery was illegal within the boundaries of the Dutch Republic on the European continent. But it was widely practised within Dutch colonies around the world. Slavery was central to their trade overseas – from the inter-Asian slave network that made possible their domination in the export of nutmeg, to the use of enslaved labour on plantations in the Americas. It also contributed in less visible ways to Dutch economic prosperity, like the development of maritime insurance.
In the new school of painting, artists would sometimes travel to the Dutch colonies. For example, Frans Post travelled to Dutch Brazil and painted the sugar plantations and mills. Another artist named Maria Sibylla Merian went to Dutch Suriname, where she studied butterflies and plants on the Dutch sugar plantations.
Both depict landscapes and the natural world but don’t directly engage with the profound dehumanisation of slavery, and an economic system dependent on enslaved labour. But this doesn’t mean that it’s absent in their sanitised renditions.
Among the sources that I used to think about the presence of the transatlantic slave trade in a culture that did not overtly depict it were inventories of paintings and early museum collections. Often the language in these sources differed from the painting in important ways. They demonstrate how the violence of the system emerges in unexpected places.
One inventory that describes paintings by Frans Post, for example, also narrates the physical punishment meted out if the enslaved tried to run away from the Dutch sugar plantations. This isn’t depicted in the painting, but it is part of the inventory that travelled beside the painting.
These moments reveal the profound presence of this system within Dutch painting, and point to the ways in which artists negotiated making this structure invisible in their paintings although they were not able to completely erase its presence.
Historically, studies of the transatlantic slave trade in early modern painting (about 1400-1700) have looked at paintings that directly depict either enslaved or Black individuals.
One of the points of this book is that this limits our understanding of the transatlantic slave trade in Dutch painting. A focus on blackness, for example, precludes understanding how whiteness is constructed at the same time. It fails to recognise the ways in which artists sought to diminish the presence of the slave trade in their sanitised rendition of Dutch society.
One painting that I use to think about this is Rembrandt van Rijn’s very famous work called Syndics of the Draper’s Guild. It’s a group portrait of wealthy, white merchants gathered around a table looking at a book of fabric samples.
Although there aren’t enslaved or black individuals depicted, this painting would be impossible without the transatlantic slave trade. Cloth from the Netherlands was often exchanged for enslaved people in west Africa, for example.
In my book, I draw attention to these understudied histories to understand how certain assumptions around whiteness, privilege, and wealth developed in tandem with an emerging visual vocabulary around blackness and the transformation of individual lives into chattel property.
I hope that readers will think about how many of our ideas about freedom, the middle class, art markets, and economic prosperity began in the 17th-century Dutch Republic. As this book demonstrates, a central part of this narrative that has been overlooked was the transatlantic slave trade in building this fantasy.
This is in many ways an invention that traces back to the paintings of overt consumption and wealth produced in the Dutch Republic – like Vermeer’s interiors of Dutch homes.
Read more:
How we proved a Rembrandt painting owned by the University of Pretoria was a fake
My aim with this book is to present not only a more complex view of Dutch painting but also a reconsideration of certain dogmas today around prosperity and the art market. The rise of our current financial system, art markets and visible celebration of landscapes, seascapes and interior scenes are all inseparable from the transformation of individual lives into property. We live with this legacy today in our systems built on racial, economic and gendered inequalities.
Caroline Fowler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
– ref. Rereading Rembrandt: how the slave trade helped establish the golden age of Dutch painting – https://theconversation.com/rereading-rembrandt-how-the-slave-trade-helped-establish-the-golden-age-of-dutch-painting-247918
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore)
January 28, 2025
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden and U.S. Representative Maxine Dexter today announced they have joined 19 legislative colleagues in a letter to Donald Trump urging him to take meaningful steps to lower grocery prices for American families.
During his campaign, Trump repeatedly promised he would lower food prices “immediately” if elected. However, during his first week, none of the many executive orders he signed addressed any sort of plan to lower food costs.
“Your sole action on costs was an executive order that contained only the barest mention of food prices and not a single specific policy to reduce them,” wrote the lawmakers. “You have tools you can use to lower grocery costs and crack down on corporate profiteering, and we write to ask if you will commit to using those tools to make good on your promises to the American people.”“To make food more affordable, you should look to the dominant food and grocery companies that have made record profits on the backs of working families who have had to pay higher prices,” continued the lawmakers. “If you are indeed committed to lowering food prices, we stand ready to work with you.”
The lawmakers laid out six recommendations for executive actions to lower prices by encouraging competition and fighting price-gouging at each level of the food supply chain:
Encourage the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to prohibit exclusionary contracting by dominant firms in the food industry, making it harder for major retailers and food brands to shut out smaller suppliers and drive up prices at smaller stores.
Encourage the FTC to issue guidance on potential violations of the Robinson Patman Act and Section 5 of the FTC Act within the food industry and take enforcement action where merited.
Work with the USDA to increase the number of government contract recipients that are very small businesses and to ensure that government contracting considers the long-term costs of food sector consolidation.
Help the Department of Justice (DOJ) and FTC scrutinize, and where appropriate, block mergers and acquisitions in the food and agricultural sectors.
Encourage the DOJ to prosecute actors in the agricultural and food sectors for price-fixing and other anticompetitive behavior.
Direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and FTC to form a joint task force to investigate food price manipulation throughout the supply chain.
“Americans are looking to you to lower food prices. Instead of working to lower their grocery bills, however, you have used the first week of your administration on attempting to end birthright citizenship, pardoning individuals who attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, and renaming a mountain,” concluded the lawmakers. “We urge you to make good on your campaign promise to lower food prices for American families.”Read the full text of the letter here.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Julius A. Amin, Professor of History, University of Dayton
What began in late 2016 as a peaceful protest by lawyers and teachers in Cameroon’s North West and South West regions quickly turned violent and developed into what’s become known as Cameroon’s anglophone crisis.
The protest was instigated by perceived marginalisation of Cameroon’s anglophone region, which makes up 20% of the nation’s 29 million people.
The conflict has resulted in immense destruction and casualties. Cameroon’s military responded to the protest with arrests and torture. Voices that called for complete secession of the anglophone regions from the Republic of Cameroon gained momentum.
They created a virtual Ambazonia Republic and an interim government in exile, and vowed to fight back. They formed a military wing, Ambazonia Self-Defence Force, which attacked and disrupted economic and social services in the region.
As of October 2024, over 1.8 million people have needed humanitarian assistance. Over 584,000 have been internally displaced. Over 73,000 have become refugees in next-door Nigeria. Over 6,500 have been killed.
Read more:
Cameroon: how language plunged a country into deadly conflict with no end in sight
And the conflict still rages.
One possible avenue that could be pursued to end the impasse is mediation, with help from other countries. But the Cameroonian government has repeatedly rebuffed intervention from organisations such as the African Union, arguing that the conflict is an internal affair.
It also ended a government-sponsored mediation by the Swiss in 2022.
It is clear to me, as a historian who has studied Cameroon foreign policy for the past three decades, that Cameroon’s leadership will not look to external actors to help solve their crisis.
Founding leader Ahmadou Ahidjo, and later his successor Paul Biya, did not respond to external pressure to address issues. Cameroon’s diplomatic relations are based on respect of national sovereignty and nonintervention in each other’s internal affairs.
My research shows that the Cameroonian leadership rejects outside intervention on issues it regards as within its sovereignty and internal affairs.
Removing Cameroon from aid programmes such as the United States Agency for International Development programme and the African Growth and Opportunity Act has not deterred its leaders.
An understanding of this background is crucial in the search for solutions to the ongoing anglophone crisis.
In the 1960s, Ahidjo used brutal force against a nationalist organisation called the Maquisard. His presidency was characterised by murders, imprisonments and torture.
Political rivals were imprisoned or forced to go into exile. Biya, who served in Ahidjo’s government, learned that repressive measures work. As president, he used similar tactics against rivals and the opposition.
But the use of force as a response to the anglophone protest was a miscalculation. The Biya regime failed to see the crisis in its context of changing times, misunderstood the sources of the conflict, and misread the role of social media in protest activities in the 21st century.
The crisis originated from a series of grievances: poverty, unemployment, political and economic neglect of the anglophone region, failure to treat French and English as equal languages in the country, and disrespect and disregard of English-speaking Cameroonians.
At the beginning protesters were generally peaceful, but things changed in 2017. Biya stated that Cameroon was being hijacked by “terrorists masking as secessionists” and vowed to eliminate them.
To anglophone leaders it was a formal declaration of war, and the message spread quickly on social media. The Biya team did little to slow or stop its spread, and anglophones inside and outside the country accepted the message as fact. It mobilised the region. And few took the time to read the full text of his remarks.
The brutality of the war on both sides intensified. Everything had all happened so quickly, and most did not anticipate the intensity of the violence.
Read more:
Cameroon after Paul Biya: poverty, uncertainty and a precarious succession battle
In its diplomatic relations, Cameroon has a long history of protecting what it sees as its own business.
One example was in 1992, after the US administration criticised Biya for electoral fraud. The Cameroon government fired back. Biya withdrew Cameroon’s ambassador from Washington DC, and informed the US ambassador that America should stay clear of Cameroon’s internal affairs.
In 2008, tension erupted again when Biya changed Cameroon’s constitution to eliminate presidential term limits. The US ambassador criticised the move in the Cameroonian press. Again, Cameroonian officials pushed back, asking the ambassador not to interfere in the nation’s internal politics.
America’s disposition towards the anglophone crisis has been one of non-interference. Other major powers have responded similarly, asking both sides to end the violence.
The Cameroon government has rebuffed initiatives from Switzerland and Canada, both friendly to the country, publicly stating it asked no nation to mediate.
The rejection of the Swiss initiative was surprising, given that Biya spends much time in that country. Unlike the Swiss plan, in which conversations began, the Canadian initiative did not even take off.
Measurable indicators show that the Biya regime is failing to end the anglophone crisis. The killings – including those of law enforcement officers – kidnaps, brutality and ransom demands are now normalised in the anglophone region, especially in rural areas.
Biya’s Grand National Dialogue and National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism have failed to address the sources of the crisis. Locals dismiss them as a joke.
People are exasperated by public service announcements about what the government has achieved. Their condition remains much worse than it was in the pre-crisis period.
Ordinary people are focused on bread-and-butter issues and the desire for dignity and respect. But they don’t see it.
Young Cameroonians need to see both anglophone and francophone residents at every level of government, on every rung of the business ladder, in every management position, at every school — even on every billboard advertisement.
Only such a widespread and visible approach can convincingly challenge Cameroon’s pattern of discrimination and exclusion.
The Biya regime must commit to doing that and not be distracted by supporters urging him to be a candidate in the upcoming presidential election.
It is important to track and bring to justice the apparent sponsors of the killings in the country. This must be done while government keeps its promises to make things right for those living in the anglophone regions.
Finally, given China’s investment in Cameroon, it can do more to engage the Biya regime on the anglophone crisis. Like Cameroon, China’s policy also stipulates a policy of nonintervention, but it has repeatedly changed course when its strategic interests are threatened.
Major power status demands major responsibilities, and showing the will to stop chronic human rights violations remains an important obligation.
Julius A. Amin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
– ref. Cameroon could do with some foreign help to solve anglophone crisis – but the state doesn’t want it – https://theconversation.com/cameroon-could-do-with-some-foreign-help-to-solve-anglophone-crisis-but-the-state-doesnt-want-it-244770
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Maine Angus King
WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator Angus King (I-ME) is cosponsoring legislation to promote transparency, boost competition, and bring down the cost of prescription drugs. The bipartisan Drug-Price Transparency for Consumers (DTC) Act would require price disclosures on advertisements for prescription drugs in order to inform patients who are considering certain medications after seeing television commercials. By requiring direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertisements for prescription drugs to include a disclosure of the list price, patients can make informed choices when inundated with drug commercials and pharmaceutical companies may reconsider their pricing and advertising tactics.
Each year, the pharmaceutical industry spends $6 billion in DTC drug advertising to fill the airwaves with ads, resulting in the average American seeing nine DTC ads each day. Studies show that these commercials often steer patients to more expensive drugs, even when a patient may not need the medication or a lower-cost generic is available. Studies show that patients are more likely to ask their doctor, and ultimately receive a prescription, for a specific drug when they have seen ads for it. For these reasons, most countries have banned DTC prescription drug advertising — the United States and New Zealand are the only industrialized nations that allow these ads.
“Current advertisement practices in the pharmaceutical industry allow drug companies to unfairly inflate the efficacy of their products while concealing their exorbitant prices,” said Senator King. “The Drug-Price Transparency for Consumers (DTC) Act would ensure that Maine people have more transparency, choice, and competition in the prescription drug marketplace. I want to thank my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for putting Americans first above the profits of big pharma.”
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that prescription drugs advertised directly to consumers accounted for more than half of Medicare’s spending on drugs between 2016 and 2018, while a 2023 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that two-thirds of advertised drugs offered “low therapeutic value.” Additionally, a Kaiser survey found that 88 percent of Americans support this price disclosure policy for advertisements.
Below are some key findings from the GAO report:
Two-thirds of pharma’s spending between 2016 and 2018 on DTC ads ($12 billion out of $18 billion total) was concentrated on just 39 drugs.
During this period, these advertised drugs accounted for 58 percent of Medicare’s spending on drugs ($320 billion out of $560 billion).
Among the top 10 drugs with the highest cost to Medicare, four were also in the top 10 for advertising spending (Humira, Eliquis, Keytruda, Lyrica).
Joining King on this bill are Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Joni Ernst (R-IA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Peter Welch (D-VT), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI).
Senator King has consistently worked to lower healthcare costs and increase transparency for Maine people. Last year, he introduced bicameral legislation to prohibit direct-to-consumer drug advertising of pharmaceutical drugs in the first three years after the drug receives Federal Drug Administration (FDA) approval. Senator King also cosponsored the Health Care Affordability Act which permanently extends enhanced Premium Tax Credits (PTCs) — tax subsidies that increase the amount of financial assistance available to people buying their own health insurance. Additionally, Senator King has introduced legislation to prohibit pharmaceutical drug manufacturers from claiming tax deductions for consumer advertising expenses.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Gerrit Kurtz, Peace and Conflict Researcher, German Institute for International and Security Affairs
Intense fighting has ravaged Sudan since 15 April 2023. The war between the Sudanese Armed Forces and its erstwhile comrades-in-arms, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, has created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Famine, displacement and mass atrocities are wreaking havoc in the country.
International mediation efforts have been lacklustre and fruitless. The United Nations security council has been preoccupied with other crises and blocked by its own divisions. The African Union has created diplomatic groups, a high-level panel and a presidential committee, none of which has been particularly active. It has been very slow in tackling the political process it wanted to lead.
The US and Saudi Arabia convened several rounds of talks, first in Jeddah, then in Switzerland. The Sudanese Armed Forces delegation failed to turn up in Switzerland. The Rapid Support Forces expressed willingness to talk peace, while simultaneously committing sexual and gender-based violence on a massive scale. The Biden administration only lately slapped sanctions on the top leaders of both forces, Abdelfattah al-Burhan and Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (also known as Hemedti).
I have studied civil wars, mediation and peacebuilding for more than 12 years, with a focus on Sudan, including regular visits to the country and the region in the past five years. Based on this experience I have identified five reasons why mediation has failed. These are: the resistance of the conflict parties based on the dynamic nature of the war; continued military and financial aid by their external sponsors; as well as mediation attempts that were too narrow, not viewed as impartial, and lacking in coherence.
Clearly, a new approach to mediation is needed, not simply a new mediator. Turkey has recently offered to lead talks between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the United Arab Emirates, the main backer of the Rapid Support Forces, but Egypt, Kenya and several multilateral organisations also keep looking for opportunities.
Any new initiative will have to have certain components if it’s going to succeed:
political parameters, ideally set by a parallel civilian political process, of what might come next for Sudan should guide mediators
negotiations should take place in secret so that trust can be established
back channel communications networks must be established with potential spoilers without ceding undue legitimacy to them
a gender- and youth-inclusive approach
more effective international coordination
consistent pressure on the conflict parties and their external backers.
Firstly, neither the Sudanese Armed Forces nor the Rapid Support Forces have shown significant willingness to stop hostilities.
The military fortunes of the two sides has waxed and waned. As long as either side feels successful militarily, they are unlikely to commit to sincere negotiations. Outright military victory leading to control of the whole territory (and its borders) remains out of reach for all.
Secondly, their respective allies have not shown any particular interest in peace.
External actors have provided military support to the warring parties, and helped finance them. The UAE is the main sponsor of the Rapid Support Forces. The Sudanese Armed Forces cooperates with Egypt, Eritrea, Iran and Russia, for arms deliveries and training. The UAE promised the US to stop supporting the Rapid Support Forces, but the arms flows continued.
Thirdly, some conflict management efforts were based on a flawed conflict analysis. There were attempts to organise a face-to-face meeting between Hemedti and Burhan, by the Intergovernmental Authority on Development and the African Union. But the war is not primarily a contest of “two generals”. Neither Hemedti nor Burhan has full control of their forces. Nor is a renewed military government acceptable to large parts of Sudan’s vibrant civil society.
Fourth, mediation efforts suffered because some of the parties saw them as lacking impartiality. Sudanese Armed Forces leaders don’t trust Kenya, whose President William Ruto is closely aligned with the UAE and has, until recently, allowed the Rapid Support Forces to conduct meetings and a press conference in Nairobi. Kenya was supposed to lead the Intergovernmental Authority on Development quartet of mediators, which never really got off the ground. Similarly, Sudan remains suspended from the African Union.
Finally, there was a competition of mediation platforms, allowing the warring parties to shop for the most convenient forum for them.
International attention is currently focused on Turkish president Recep Erdogan, who has offered to mediate between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the UAE. The Sudanese Armed Forces has harshly criticised the UAE for its support to the Rapid Support Forces. The offer, then, is based on the assumption the UAE might actually cease that support.
Any new approach should differ from previous efforts.
But international mediators should grant the warring parties political recognition and legitimacy only in exchange for feasible concessions.
Negotiations should take place in secret, allowing confidential exchanges between declared enemies. This is particularly important for the Sudanese Armed Forces given the rivalry among its leadership.
Back channel communications should be established to all actors with real constituencies in Sudan, without empowering them unnecessarily. Turkey is well-placed to reach out to senior members of the previous (Bashir) regime who have found exile there. They control large parts of the fighting forces on the side of Sudanese Armed Forces and could prove to be a major spoiler. The armed groups in the so-called “joint forces” would also need to feel somewhat included.
Mediators should find ways to include a broad array of civilian actors, in particular women and youth groups. Instead of only targeting “men with guns”, a peace process should be gender-inclusive.
Any lead mediator should keep other interested parties such as the EU, the UK, Norway, and the other countries and organisations already mentioned, informed and engaged.
Pressure should be kept up by the US, UK and EU on external backers of the two main warring parties, and target both military and financial flows. Policies, including further targeted sanctions, should be as aligned as possible.
There’s no guarantee that the violence would cease even if these conditions were met. The main belligerents are likely to continue their current offensives. The Sudanese Armed Forces will try to oust the Rapid Support Forces from central Khartoum completely. The Rapid Support Forces will keep trying to take El Fasher, the only capital in Darfur not under their control.
The impending re-capture of Khartoum by the Sudanese Armed Forces may provide an opportunity for a new round of talks, if it comes with consistent international pressure. Mediators should be ready to push for an end to the fighting.
Gerrit Kurtz is also a non-resident fellow with the Global Public Policy Institute and a member of the Forum New Security Policy of the Heinrich Böll Foundation.
– ref. Peace in Sudan: a fresh mediation effort is needed – how it could work – https://theconversation.com/peace-in-sudan-a-fresh-mediation-effort-is-needed-how-it-could-work-248330
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Viren Swami, Professor of Social Psychology, Anglia Ruskin University
In the 1950s, the American psychologist Harry Harlow provided a stark demonstration of the importance of a mother’s touch. He famously – and controversially – showed that rhesus monkeys would rather cling to a surrogate “mother” made of soft cloth than one made of metal wire that provided milk. A loving touch seemed to be more important than food, Harlow concluded.
Today, the importance of touch has become firmly embedded in infant care. For example, UNICEF and the NHS recommend skin-to-skin contact between a parent and newborn. This involves placing a newborn on a parent’s bare chest, both of them covered in a warm blanket, for at least an hour after birth or until after the first feed.
In fact, feeling the power of touch begins long before a baby is even born. Touch is the first sense to develop. Just eight weeks after conception, a foetus already responds to the sensation of touch in the womb – and it is crucial for people of any age.
By 14 weeks, twins have been observed on ultrasound sucking on each other’s fingers and exploring each other’s faces. And frame-by-frame analyses of ultrasound have shown that, by 20 weeks, foetuses respond to mothers touching their bellies.
The benefits of parental touch become clear at birth. One review of 52 studies involving over 4,000 newborns found that touch interventions – such as skin-to-skin contact and baby massage – was associated with better newborn health, including better regulation of temperature, breathing and heart rate. The review also found that touch was more beneficial when it came from a parent compared to medical staff.
Cuddle up, because there are other benefits of skin-to-skin contact. When a parent holds their baby in skin-to-skin contact after birth, it helps to calm the newborn and stimulates an interest in feeding. In the longer-term, daily skin-to-skin contact with infants improves sleep patterns and pain tolerance, supports healthy weight gain and continued breastfeeding and strengthens brain development.
These benefits are also experienced by infants born prematurely. For example, one review of kangaroo care – skin-to-skin contact for premature or low birth-weight infants – found that it reduced the risk of death, infection and low body temperature, and improved weight gain and rates of breastfeeding.
In both healthy and premature infants, skin-to-skin contact also triggers the release of the hormone oxytocin – the so-called “love hormone” – which encourages bonding between the parent and infant. Skin-to-skin contact also lowers levels of the hormone cortisol, which helps newborns to regulate levels of stress.
In fact, the benefits of skin-to-skin contact are not exclusively experienced by the newborn. Studies have found that daily skin-to-skin contact with their babies can reduce symptoms of postpartum stress, depression and anxiety in mothers. And while most studies have focused on mothers, skin-to-skin contact also seems to reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in fathers.
While most of this research has focused the short-term outcomes of touch, scientists are also following infants over time to see what impact early touch has on long-term outcomes. For example, one study found that premature babies who received at least one hour of kangaroo care for two weeks had better mother-child interactions, sleep and brain development when they were ten years old.
Another group of researchers followed infants and their mothers for a period of nine years. When they were only one-month-old, infants who had experienced skin-to-skin contact with their mothers already showed better emotional adjustment and attachment than infants who had no skin-to-skin contact.
Nine years later, these children were also more willing and able to engage in emotive conversations with their mothers.
Some of the effects of touch are more difficult to quantify. In the 1970s, for example, the psychiatrist Donald Winnicott described how a mother’s touch helps infants and young children to experience the body as “the place where one securely lives”. This idea seems to be supported by ethnographic records and anthropological studies of communities where infants are in close contact with a caregiver.
For instance, in many communities – such as the Netsilik, !Kung, and Balinese – infants are pressed skin-to-skin with their mothers for much of the day. This means that infants are more likely to have their needs met quickly – being comforted when they cry or fed when they suckle – while also helping them develop a sensitivity to touch. These forms of “skinship” also help parents and their infants to develop deeper bonds through touch.
While this research shows the benefits of touch in infancy, what about childhood? Studies of young children and adolescents have shown that touch – particularly caring touch like hugging from a parent or other caregivers, such as teachers – can support psychological development and wellbeing. For instance, touch can help children develop a sense of emotional security, belonging and feelings of support, especially in stressful situations.
The anthropologist Marjorie Goodwin has described how “haptic rituals” – such as hugs between a parent and their child over the course of a day – can help the child feel loved and cared for.
Regularly experiencing caring touch can also help children to develop their social interaction skills, including empathy toward others. Caring touch also reduces aggressive behaviour in adolescence.
Unfortunately, even today, many parents hold on to old fashioned ideas – popularised by psychologists like John Watson – that they should avoid caring touch with their children, out of fear that hugging or cuddling will cause their children to become weak willed. The scientific evidence doesn’t support such ideas, so go hug your kids.
Viren Swami does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
– ref. Skin-to-skin contact is good for your baby and you – and not just straight after birth – https://theconversation.com/skin-to-skin-contact-is-good-for-your-baby-and-you-and-not-just-straight-after-birth-248260
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sijing Lu, Assistant Professor in Translation and Transcultural Studies, University of Warwick
Lunar new year is the most important traditional festival for the Chinese people, symbolising unity, prosperity and hope for the future. It is, however, celebrated all over Asia and in the diaspora.
Unlike, the new year that is celebrated only on December 31 and January 1, lunar new year celebrations begin the month before and end days after the start of the new year.
In the Chinese tradition, new year celebration begins on the eighth day of the 12th lunar month with the Laba festival (腊八节). On this day, it is customary to eat Laba congee, a porridge which is also known as “eight-treasure congee” because it’s often made with eight or more ingredients. This year the Laba festival fell on January 7.
The biggest day in this period of celebration is, of course, new year, which this year falls on January 29.
According to historical records, the Chinese people have been celebrating the lunar new year for over 4,000 years. Around 2,000BC, Shun, an ancient Chinese leader, ascended to the throne and led his followers in a worship ceremony to honour heaven and earth.
This day was regarded as the beginning of the year, corresponding to the first day of the first lunar month. This event is believed to mark the origin of the lunar new year.
During this festival, people typically express their hopes for prosperity and health in the coming year through family reunions and ancestor worship. Communities also host traditional activities to celebrate, such as lion dances, the giving of red envelopes, and putting up of spring couplets (pairs of poems written on red paper with black or gold characters), all of which symbolise good fortune and abundance.
The traditional Chinese lunar new year reunion dinner includes many symbolic dishes. For example, eating fish represents abundance, dumplings symbolise reunion and wealth, and rice cakes signify progress and success.
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But this day isn’t the end of celebrations. Instead, new year is celebrated up until the 15th day of the first lunar month when the lantern festival (元宵节) is celebrated. This festival coincides with the first full moon of the lunar year. On this day reconciliation, peace and forgiveness are sought.
To celebrate, people will cover their houses with colourful lanterns, often with riddles written on them. Children will go out and try to solve these to win small gifts. There might be lion and dragon dances as well as parades and fireworks. People eat small glutinous rice balls, known as yuanxiao or tangyuan. The round shape symbolises wholeness and unity within the family.
This year’s lantern festival – and the end of lunar new year celebrations – is on February 12. By this time, we will be well into 2025, which is the year of the snake.
The year of the snake holds profound meaning and special significance in Chinese culture. The animal symbolises wisdom, spirituality, elegance and renewal.
In Chinese traditions, the snake is also considered a “small dragon” and has a unique presence. Many scholars believe that the basic form of the dragon has evolved from the snake, with the snake’s body forming the main structure of the mythical beast.
In ancient art, images of dragons and snakes often overlap, with motifs that appear simultaneously dragon-like and snake-like being very common.
In ancient China, the snake was regarded as a mysterious and powerful creature. Its strong reproductive ability symbolised a continuous lineage and abundant offspring, while its ability to shed its skin and renew itself represented life and longevity. This process of renewal and rebirth highlighted the snake’s connection to cycles of growth and the passage of time.
Beyond its physical traits, the snake was also revered for its intelligence and adaptability, often being portrayed as a creature of wisdom and strategy.
These qualities have translated into cultural beliefs about people born in the year of the snake. For instance, for those born in this year, the snake’s flexibility and patience are seen as representing wisdom in problem-solving and overcoming challenges.
Sijing Lu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
– ref. How people will be ringing in the year of the snake – https://theconversation.com/how-people-will-be-ringing-in-the-year-of-the-snake-248468
US Senate News:
Source: United States Senator for Nevada Cortez Masto
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) passed a bipartisan resolution to recognize January 2025 as National Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery Prevention Month.
“I have been working for years, both in the Senate and as Nevada’s Attorney General, to combat the crisis of human trafficking in Nevada and across the country,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “Victims of human trafficking deserve freedom and justice, and I will always stand up for them and ensure their voices are heard.”
“We each have a role to play in protecting the most vulnerable among us, especially women and children, from becoming victims of trafficking,” said Senator Grassley. “As Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, I’m committed to making human trafficking prevention a priority in this Congress. I thank Senator Cortez Masto for joining me in this effort to raise awareness of the horrors of human trafficking.”
Senator Cortez Masto is an outspoken advocate for the survivors of human trafficking and sexual assault. Her federal legislation to help train law enforcement to identify and prevent child trafficking and combat human trafficking activity on social media was signed into law. She co-sponsored bipartisan legislation that would prevent the trafficking of children by providing grants for the training of students, parents, and school personnel to respond to the signs of human trafficking.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Barry Richards, Emeritus Professor of Political Psychology, Bournemouth University
The conviction of Axel Rudakubana for the murder of three young girls in Southport has prompted many questions about how the UK handles violence without a clear ideological motive. This case has also shown up the confusion in this area, and made clear the need for a basic reframing of how we understand murderous violence against the public today.
The home secretary may be right to keep Prevent focused on violent Islamist and extreme right-wing terror. Yet there needs to be a complementary but distinct strategy to protect against another Southport-style attacker.
The prime minister, Keir Starmer, has come rather late to his observation that the nature of terrorism has changed. Over four years ago it was becoming clear that the “terrorist” threat was increasingly coming from those with no clear and consistent attachment to any specific ideology, let alone any terrorist organisation.
This is borne out in the latest data on referrals to the Prevent counter-terrorism scheme. “Mixed, unstable and unclear” ideologies – when added to school massacre fixations and incel cases – outrank both extreme right-wing and Islamist categories.
Rudakubana had an al-Qaida-linked document in his possession, and had claimed to be a victim of racism. But overall his motive was not at all ideological, but is to be found in his mental ill-health.
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All the evidence presents him as a profoundly damaged individual who harboured an overwhelming need to inflict deathly violence, unconnected with any political aim. His choice of young children as victims is probably also of psychological significance.
Thus it may not be quite right to say, as the home secretary Yvette Cooper and others have, that Prevent “failed”. A cluster of agencies do seem collectively to have failed here. But Prevent was not designed to deal with apolitical and apparently random attacks on people unknown to the perpetrator.
What has failed is the conceptual frame underlying the UK’s counter-terrorism approach, which sees terrorism simply as an ideologically-driven response to the world. This understands it as basically different from attacks which are apparently not ideologically-driven, and so are seen as more idiosyncratic and psychological, like school massacres (though these have come to fall within Prevent’s remit).
However, it is also true that many of those who do have conventional terrorist aims are also driven by forces in their internal worlds.
While often not given a psychiatric diagnosis, many people who have carried out attacks appear to have been emotionally dysfunctional. Evidence for this goes back at least as far as 9/11, to the personality of the ringleader Mohamed Atta. It has since been accumulating in what is known of many convicted attackers, including those with lengthy ideological rationales, such as Anders Breivik.
The emergence of “incel” terror has further blurred the distinction between those with an apparent ideological rationale and those with obvious psychological problems.
At the psychological level, there is no clear separation between lone actor ideological attackers and those who are supposedly non-ideological. Common to all is some disturbance within the self, one requiring the enactment of lethal violence.
Ironically, the clear presence of psychological factors can also be seen – at a different level – in some of the people involved in the violent riots which occurred in response to the Southport murders. These were, in considerable part, the creation of online agitators, extreme right-wing activists and their bussed-in followers.
But some who took part were more casual joiners of the riots. These were people of no fixed ideological abode who were drawn by the excitement of the occasion and the opportunity to attack the police and other symbols of social order. The same psychological motive may be attributed to the “Maga tourist” element among the January 2021 invaders of the Capitol building in Washington DC.
Such problems of group-based violence in public spaces may be amenable to primarily political and policy solutions (albeit very difficult ones to achieve). However, individuals who may suddenly erupt into violence, ideological or not, are even more difficult to identify, assess, monitor and contain.
The first step towards better protecting the public should be to recognise the psychological drivers of all such attacks. These include a preoccupation with grievance, often linked to a powerful sense of humiliation and psychological defences against that. For example, the hypermasculinity and fantasied omnipotence of Islamic State.
It is necessary, for various reasons, to retain the legal category of terrorist attacks. But it should be a subcategory of a more inclusive approach that covers all violent attacks on the public.
Where there is little or no consistent ideological element, the term terrorism, which has political connotations, should not be employed. Violence that doesn’t aim to promote a political objective would be better described as the infliction of terror on innocent members of the public, as a form of revenge upon the world or as an expression of hatred. Other political terms such as “radicalisation” and “extremism” may also be inappropriate or confusing when applied to such cases.
A conceptual framework which makes that distinction, while also recognising the common psychological ground of the draw towards violence, would allow for more effective interventions.
Prevent could continue its work (with much-needed improvements) to minimise ideologically rationalised attacks. But it would be coordinated with a complementary national agency that oversees and supports local services in identifying and managing people like Rudakubana. The face-to-face client work of both prongs would be guided and overseen by forensic psychiatrists and psychotherapists.
There will be more people in both sub-categories coming along with very weak control of their violent impulses. They will need skilful management that understands the drivers of profound disturbance.
Barry Richards does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
– ref. Southport attacks: why the UK needs a unified approach to all violent attacks on the public – https://theconversation.com/southport-attacks-why-the-uk-needs-a-unified-approach-to-all-violent-attacks-on-the-public-248185
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Paul Whiteley, Professor, Department of Government, University of Essex
The US has been experiencing a long “bull” stock market, that is rapid growth in stock prices, although this week tech stocks tumbled over the future prospects for US-built AI.
But could the market hit a significant downturn during Trump’s second term in the White House? At first sight this seems unlikely because it did well during his first term, from 2016 to 2020 (see chart below). However, long term trends in the US stock market reveal a pattern suggesting that stock prices might be quite vulnerable during his second term.
The Nobel prize-winning economist, Robert Shiller, who studies financial markets thinks that the US stock market has peaked, and future returns will be much more modest than in recent history although he does not suggest that a crash is on the horizon.
Shiller’s data makes it possible to look at the relationship between who is the president and stock prices since 1925. By examining the performance of the stock market over that period we can identify the extent to which eight Democrat and nine Republican presidents have influenced the growth of the market.
Changes in stock prices during Republican presidents 1925 to 2024:
The chart shows the percentage changes in the Standard and Poor’s monthly stock price index (which gives a snapshot of the market), corrected for inflation, during the incumbencies of Republican presidents since January 1925.
The average increase in stock prices for Republican presidents was 25%. But the thing that stands out in the chart is that three major crashes in the stock market also took place under these Republicans incumbents.
The first of these, known as the Wall Street Crash, occurred on October 28 1929 when Herbert Hoover was president. This was the trigger event for the Great Depression of the 1930s and resulted in a fall of 64% in the stock market during his presidency.
His reaction to the crash (when share values fell dramatically) was to do nothing in the belief that the economy would eventually recover on its own. This cost him the 1932 presidential election when Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected for the first time. He was subsequently elected a record four times, thanks to his New Deal policies for dealing with the crisis.
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The second crash occurred during Richard Nixon’s incumbency. He would have been impeached by Congress had he not resigned in August 1974 following the revelations of the Watergate scandal.
This occurred when the White House employed burglars to break into the Democrat party headquarters in the Watergate building in Washington DC. Once Nixon’s attempt to spy on his opponents became public he was forced to resign and overall the stock market fell by 47% during his incumbency.
The third crash occurred in December 2007 when George W Bush was the president. It had its origins in the deregulation of the financial sector which had occurred in the US after Ronald Reagan became president in 1980. Lax financial regulations led to ever increasingly risky assets and trading practices on Wall Street starting in the real estate market.
The crisis spread rapidly throughout the world’s financial system and a recession of the scale of the 1930s was only averted by prompt action by the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, who worked with political leaders in other countries such as UK prime minister Gordon Brown to stabilise the system. The stock market fell by 45% during Bush’s period of office.
Many factors are at work to explain this, but the overriding fact is that Republicans are less likely to regulate the financial sector, or across the board, than Democrats. Their voters are more likely to be optimistic about the prospects for the economy, and therefore to take risks when investing in the stock market, when a Republican is in the White House.
Changes in stock prices during Democratic presidents 1925 to 2024:
The second chart shows changes in stock prices during the incumbencies of eight Democratic presidents during this period. It is very different from the Republican chart, since, of those presidents shown, only Jimmy Carter left office with the stock market lower than when he arrived, and that by a modest 13%.
Bill Clinton was the most successful president, achieving an increase of 151% during his two terms in the White House. Overall, the stock market rose by an average of 51% during Democrat incumbencies, more than twice the size of the Republican increases.
These results are surprising given that the Republicans are the traditional party of big business and so might be expected to be good for the stock market.
Donald Trump has promised to increase tariffs on imports from the rest of the world, particularly those from China. In addition, there is a burgeoning budget deficit caused by the gap between spending and taxation.
Most economists think these policies will create inflation and slow growth.
Many investors are currently quite nervous about a possible recession after the long bull market of the last few years. The drop in the price of tech stocks this week confirms this. One effect of this has been to cause a rise in yields on US Treasury long-term bonds, reflecting fears of further inflation.
Recent comparative research shows that countries can pay a high price for populist economic policies. So, it would be well worth Trump studying the history of US stock markets rises and falls, if he wants to avoid a severe economic downturn during his second term.
Paul Whiteley has received funding from the British Academy and the ESRC.
– ref. The US stock market does better under Democrat presidents than Republicans – here’s what the data shows – https://theconversation.com/the-us-stock-market-does-better-under-democrat-presidents-than-republicans-heres-what-the-data-shows-246652
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jennifer Mallon, Postdoctoral research fellow, Nova Southeastern University
Coral reef research has focused on the twin evils birthed by record-high greenhouse gas emissions: warming oceans and increasingly acidic seawater. These global threats are caused by seawater absorbing the excess heat and carbon dioxide that fossil fuel burning has added to the atmosphere. But there is another consequence that is seldom discussed.
Globally, oceanic oxygen is being depleted because seawater holds less oxygen as it heats up. In the warm coastal waters where tropical coral reefs grow, the immediate effects of low oxygen concentrations can be catastrophic. Short-term hypoxia events are increasingly reported in which dissolved oxygen levels suddenly plummet – often triggered or exacerbated by chemical pollution running off the land, like nutrient-rich fertilisers – which can kill entire coral communities and decimate reefs within days.
Corals are animals, and like other aquatic animals, they breathe in oxygen from the water to fuel their metabolism. Thanks to a symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae, corals also turn the Sun’s energy into food – oxygen is the byproduct.
Oxygen levels on coral reefs naturally fluctuate in a daily cycle, with dissolved oxygen peaking around noon and gradually falling as the light fades. At night when photosynthesis stops, corals continue to respire (consume oxygen), and seawater oxygen is depleted.
This cyclic rise and fall in oxygen means that some corals have already evolved strategies to withstand changes in dissolved oxygen. When the amount of oxygen available to corals falls below this natural range, corals can get stressed and their normal biological processes are disrupted, in many cases leading to death.
Just like us, corals need oxygen to survive. But I (Jennifer Mallon) discovered that the effects of low oxygen on corals are not always obvious to the naked eye, and that juvenile corals may be especially vulnerable.
To understand the effects of low oxygen levels on corals I travelled to the Smithsonian Marine Station in Florida, as part of a research project led by the University of Florida’s Andrew Altieri and the Smithsonian’s Maggie Johnson and Valerie Paul.
At the Smithsonian, 24 climate-controlled seawater tanks simulate varying levels of deoxygenation already present on coral reefs around the world, ranging from severe deoxygenation, which our research observed on the Caribbean coast of Panama, to normal conditions, such as those replicated in aquariums around the world.
While some corals, like the Caribbean staghorn coral (Acropora cervicornis),
died within a few days of severe deoxygenation, other important reef-building species such as the mountainous star coral (Orbicella faveolata) survived, demonstrating that tolerance of low oxygen was different between species.
When we studied the corals that survived deoxygenation, we discovered that hypoxic stress may not always be visible. Even when exposed to deoxygenation for two weeks, some corals showed no signs of bleaching, which is when the colourful algae depart and corals turn a ghostly white. More detailed measurements revealed something worrying: despite outward appearances, low oxygen exposure had impaired coral metabolism, potentially stunting their growth and reef-building abilities.
Existing methods for measuring coral health in the field are mainly visual, and include assessments by trained divers who search for signs of paling or bleaching corals. The hypoxic stress responses we saw in our experiment could be going under the radar.
We also wanted to know how deoxygenation affects a coral’s ability to breed.
Coral sexual reproduction is already a tricky business. Spawning events, when corals release egg bundles into the water, occur just a few nights a year, and the resulting larvae are highly vulnerable. Few survive the multi-day swim to the reef where they settle and metamorphose into juvenile corals.
On modern Caribbean reefs, wild juvenile corals are rare. People involved in restoring reefs help corals to sexually reproduce in the lab and rear the juveniles in order to later transplant them onto the reef.
Juvenile corals often settle in reef crevices where they are exposed to lower oxygen levels for longer than in open water, because less water flows over them. When we incubated coral larvae in deoxygenated water throughout the settlement process, we found that initial rates of larval survival and settlement were not significantly affected.
Things changed once the larvae had settled and begun to form juvenile corals. Early-stage juvenile corals, known as primary polyps, lack symbiotic algae to help them meet their nutritional needs via photosynthesis and so rely on respiration for energy. Without enough oxygen, they cannot respire properly and begin to die off.
Our research can help those involved in restoring reefs understand the oxygen needs of corals, as well as highlight a previously overlooked threat.
Even corals that survive deoxygenation show signs of a weaker metabolism that will make it harder to conserve healthy reefs, as restoration relies on healthy coral growth to regenerate what is damaged.
As a next step, field measurements of coral metabolism will be carried out on Florida’s barrier reef tract when oxygen levels are predicted to drop during the warm summer months, to capture the real impact of deoxygenation on coral health.
Dissolved oxygen data has not always been collected as part of reef monitoring, even during warm water bleaching events when oxygen is low. As the climate crisis worsens, it will be imperative to do more of this monitoring in tropical coastal waters. Further research into how distinct coral species respond to hypoxia is also essential for targeted conservation strategies.
By confronting the silent threat of deoxygenation head on, we can safeguard the future of coral reefs and the countless marine species that depend on them.
Jennifer Mallon receives funding from US-UK Fulbright Commission, Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program, University of Glasgow Early Career Mobility Award and the Link Foundation.
Adrian Michael Bass receives funding from the Natural Environmental Research Council.
Maggie D. Johnson has received funding from NOAA’s Coastal Hypoxia Research Program and the Smithsonian Marine Global Earth Observatory.
– ref. Suffocating seas: low oxygen levels emerging as third major threat to tropical coral reefs – https://theconversation.com/suffocating-seas-low-oxygen-levels-emerging-as-third-major-threat-to-tropical-coral-reefs-224805
Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Andrew Allison, Philosophy PhD Student, University of Calgary
The independence of central banks from the democratic process has been a bedrock of economic policy for decades. The Bank of Canada is no exception, maintaining distance from elected officials to ensure monetary policy is free from political pressures.
However, a clear division between central bank and government could be tested with Mark Carney, former governor of both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England who’s running for leadership of the Liberal Party and, in turn, the role of prime minister.
Read more:
Mark Carney might have the edge as potential Liberal leader, but still faces major obstacles
His bid raises concerns about how central bank independence might be perceived under a Carney-led government. Could his tenure as a central banker result in the Bank of Canada’s independence being clawed back? After all, he has demonstrated his ability to manage monetary policy at the highest levels.
The answer, if we want to preserve the economic benefits of central bank independence, is clear: the Bank of Canada’s independence must be preserved. And Carney, who has championed the importance of politically neutral monetary policy, would likely agree.
The idea that central banks should operate independently of the democratic process is a widely held view among economists and central bankers. This is largely because there is an extremely low likelihood of elected officials committing to implement monetary policy that produces low inflation and stable prices.
If elected officials controlled monetary policy, incumbent governments would be tempted to “juice” the economy with “loose money” by reducing the interest rates right before elections.
In the short run, this would reduce unemployment, raise wages and potentially boost the chances of incumbent governments being re-elected. But, in the long run, citizens would pay the price in the form of inflation.
With repeated political interference, market entities would no longer react to injections of loose-money by investing in capital and labour and low interest rates would no longer produce the desired short-term benefits of more jobs and higher wages. But inflation would still persist. As economist Garrett Jones puts it, it would be “all hangover, no buzz.”
Empirical evidence bears this out. Central banks that with greater independence tend to have more price stability and less inflation.
This is why governments delegate monetary policy to independent central banks. Central bankers are able to implement monetary policy without the temptation to manipulate the economy for electoral gain.
It’s worth noting that the need for central bank independence is not exclusively due to politicians’ ignorance about managing monetary policy. Rather, it’s because the electoral incentives they face prevents them from being trusted to pull the levers of monetary power effectively.
This principle applies even to someone like Carney. If he were to become prime minister, he would face the same incentives as all other incumbent governments. Despite his expertise, he would still need independent central bankers to ensure monetary policy remains insulated from the political cycle.
Central bank independence is not a binary, but exists on a spectrum. When studying the effects of independence, central banks are usually scored on a number of indicators, including whether central bankers can be fired by elected officials, how long central bankers’ terms are, and the extent to which they can be instructed by democratically elected bodies.
Widespread support for central bank independence among economists only began in the mid-1980s. Prior to that, central banks often gained their independence due to political and legal circumstances, rather then a deliberate attempt to adhere to a principle of independence. Both the Federal Reserve and the Bank of Canada have this in common.
The independence of the Bank of Canada had a tumultuous 25 years after its establishment in 1935. When pressed, finance ministers could not answer whether they or the Bank of Canada were ultimately responsible for the country’s monetary policy, often giving conflicting answers.
It would not be until 1961 that this uncertainty would come to a head during the Coyne Affair. Prime Minister John Diefenbaker wanted James Coyne, governor of the Bank of Canada at the time, fired for embarrassing his government and taking a hefty pension. The House of Commons passed a one-line bill that fired Coyne, but the Senate refused to pass it. Coyne resigned the next day.
After the Coyne Affair, central bank independence grew into the de facto status quo. In 1985, the Bank of Canada Act was passed, setting some limits on the power of the governor and their responsibility to the finance minister. As a result, Canada’s central bank independence falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum compared to other wealthy, western nations.
In 2022, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre threatened to fire the governor of the Bank of Canada, Tiff Macklem, if he became prime minister.
While the Bank of Canada Act does permit this through a formal procedure, setting the precedent that cabinets can and will fire governors could undermine central bank independence. It would risk making central bankers more beholden to the political aims of incumbent governments and more likely to produce inflationary monetary policy.
Compared to Poilievre, Carney is the conservative choice, likely aiming to maintain the status quo by leaving central bankers alone. During and after his time as a central banker, Carney has favoured central bank independence. And, as it stands, it doesn’t appear that he’s changed his mind now that he’s running for Liberal leader.
So, what would a Carney government mean for the Bank of Canada’s independence? Likely, not much — and from a monetary economic perspective, that’s a good thing. Preserving the status quo would ensure the Bank of Canada remains insulated from political interference, allowing it to focus on long-term price stability.
Andrew Allison receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
– ref. What the looming federal election could mean for the Bank of Canada’s independence – https://theconversation.com/what-the-looming-federal-election-could-mean-for-the-bank-of-canadas-independence-247886
Source: France-Diplomatie – Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Development
Published on January 28, 2025
Statements made by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs Spokesperson (Paris – January 28, 2025)
Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot spoke by phone with his American counterpart, Marco Rubio, on January 27.
During their conversation, the minister congratulated the Secretary of State on his unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate. With the new U.S. administration just taking up its duties, this call gave the ministers a chance to reaffirm their commitment to transatlantic ties and to the strong historic ties between France and the United States.
The Minister and the Secretary of State discussed several international crises, in particular the war in Ukraine. France and the U.S. share the same goal: a just and lasting peace between Russia and Ukraine. To that end, close coordination between our two countries is more necessary than ever.
The Minister hailed the U.S. diplomatic efforts that led to a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages held by Hamas. He emphasized France’s desire to help ensure that the next phases of the agreement come to fruition and called for close cooperation between France and the U.S. on the situations in Lebanon and Syria.
Source: United Nations General Assembly and Security Council
SG/SM/22539
Following is the text of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ video message on the occasion of the Chinese Lunar New Year 2025, observed on 29 January:
Happy Lunar New Year. I am pleased to send my warmest wishes to everyone celebrating Lunar New Year — and this Year of the Snake.
The snake symbolizes wisdom, resilience and renewal. In these trying times, let us be guided by these qualities and renew our commitment to peace, equality and justice.
Let us embrace this time of new beginnings with hope and determination to create a better future for all. May the Year of the Snake bring good health, happiness, prosperity and new beginnings.
For information media. Not an official record.
Source: United Nations 4
The implementation of new laws banning the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA – set to take effect on Thursday – will heighten instability and deepen despair in the occupied Palestinian territory, the Security Council has heard.
Briefing ambassadors in New York on Tuesday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini warned that the laws passed in October last year jeopardize the lives of millions of Palestinians and risks undermining the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.
They require that UNRWA cease its activities in the territory of the State of Israel – including the occupied West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as the Knesset defines it, in defiance of international law – as well as restricting any Government contacts with the agency or anyone acting on its behalf.
“Curtailing our operations now – outside a political process, and when trust in the international community is so low – will undermine the ceasefire. It will sabotage Gaza’s recovery and political transition,” Mr. Lazzarini said.
He called for a “decisive intervention” by Council to support peace and stability in the occupied Palestinian territory and the broader region.
Mr. Lazzarini further stressed that the full implementation of the Knesset legislation will be “disastrous”.
In Gaza, undermining UNRWA’s operations would compromise the international humanitarian response, he said, adding that it would also degrade the capacity of the United Nations just when humanitarian assistance must be scaled up.
“This will only worsen the already catastrophic living conditions of millions of Palestinians.”
UN Photo/Manuel Elías
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, briefs the Security Council.
UNRWA was established by the UN General Assembly to provide humanitarian and other essential services to Palestine refugees until a political solution is reached. Read our explainer on how the Gaza war has impacted UNRWA services, here.
Mr. Lazzarini emphasised that its work cannot simply be transferred to other entities, as its scale and trusted relationship with communities are unmatched.
“The Agency’s mere presence brings stability amid profound uncertainty,” he said. “Undermining UNRWA will sabotage Gaza’s recovery and any prospects for peace.”
In East Jerusalem, where the Knesset legislation calls for the immediate expulsion of UNRWA, 70,000 patients and 1,000 students will lose access to health and education services.
Mr. Lazzarini also noted that the legislation coincides with plans to expand illegal settlements on the land currently used by the Agency.
Compounding these threats are severe financial constraints, with key donors reducing or suspending contributions.
Mr. Lazzarini appealed for urgent funding to sustain UNRWA’s operations, warning that its lifesaving work could abruptly end without sufficient resources.
He also highlighted a disinformation campaign spearheaded by Israeli authorities that falsely accuses the Agency of supporting terrorism. Such propaganda, he said, undermines UNRWA’s neutrality and puts its staff at risk.
In conclusion, Mr. Lazzarini urged Security Council members to push back against the Knesset legislation, ensure continued funding for UNRWA, and advocate for a genuine political pathway to address the plight of Palestine refugees.
“UNRWA was always meant to be temporary,” he said.
“A fair and lasting political solution would allow the Agency to conclude its mandate, ensuring that its vital services are handed over to a functioning Palestinian state.”
More updates to come…
Source: United Nations 4
As fighting intensifies between the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group and Congolese forces, UN chief of Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix underscored the critical state of the battle for eastern DRC’s regional capital Goma, describing the crisis as “volatile and dangerous”.
Source: US National Education Union
By: Eric Jotkoff
Published: January 28, 2025
National Education Association President Becky Pringle released the following statement responding to the Trump Administration’s federal funding freeze:
“Parents and educators know America’s students need more opportunities to succeed, and we need to invest in our public schools where 90% of students — and 95% of students with disabilities — learn.
“Creating chaos is not leadership. The unprecedented, illegal, and reckless decision by the Trump administration to freeze federal funding will hurt students, communities, and public schools – especially students in lower-income communities who benefit most from federal funding.
“This is a move straight from the extreme Project 2025 playbook and will have an immediate and devastating impact on millions. Students will lose access to learning opportunities if Head Start programs are shuttered. Parents will be cut off from childcare services they depend on so they can go to work and provide for their families. Students will go hungry if school meals are taken away. And the dream of higher education will be further out of reach as institutional aid for programs is affected. These are the real people impacted.
“Educators won’t be silent as anti-public education politicians hurt our students, our families, and our communities across America. Together with parents and allies, we will continue to organize, advocate, and mobilize for the public schools our students deserve – no matter their race, place, or background.”
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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 3 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, students preparing to become teachers, healthcare workers, and public employees. Learn more at www.nea.org
Source: Microsoft
Headline: Microsoft is celebrating its 50-year anniversary. Check out our press pack, history timeline and more
Microsoft is commemorating our 50-year anniversary by celebrating the achievements of our employees, customers, and partners that have dreamt, built, and used Microsoft technology as a force for good, while also looking ahead to the future.
Microsoft recognizes that our success and growth globally would not have been possible without the support of the place we call home, the Puget Sound. We are honoring and awarding 50 local changemakers with $50,000 grants each to support the important work they do to address the needs of the region. Read more about the One Future, One Sound initiative.
Over the past five decades, Microsoft has driven innovation that has transformed the way that society uses technology both at work and at home, from revolutionizing personal computing with MS-DOS and Windows, and bringing the joy and community of gaming to everyone on the planet with Xbox, to driving the future of cloud computing with Azure, and AI transformation with Copilot and our AI platform. We are proud of our employees, past and present, who have seized the opportunity to reinvent our company as tech paradigms shift, to stay relevant and earn the trust of our customers and partners.
For more information on the company’s key milestones, explore this timeline of Microsoft’s journey.
The heart of Microsoft’s mission has always been about empowering people through technology, and this will continue as we look to the future.
In its beginnings, Bill Gates and Paul Allen articulated an ambitious vision for Microsoft and the industry, “a computer on every desk and in every home.” In 2002, the mission changed “to enable people and businesses throughout the world to realize their full potential,” which was later expanded to include creating technology that transforms the way people learn, work, play, and communicate. In 2015, CEO Satya Nadella evolved Microsoft’s mission “to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.”
As a platform company, we’ve learned that we do well when the world does well. That is embodied in our mission, our business model, our practices and our culture. Our cultural journey is ongoing and adaptive, and over the last decade, we’ve grounded ourselves in a Growth Mindset culture. Internally, this has helped our employees embrace challenges, be curious, learn from failures, and continuously seek improvement. Externally, this cultural transformation has enabled Microsoft to better understand and meet our customers’ needs and work to earn their trust every day.
We also believe deeply in the power of partnership and that no one person, company, or government can solve the world’s problems alone. This insight drives Microsoft’s approach to partnerships, collaboration, openness, and transparency, rooted in bringing people and organizations together to tackle challenges.
As we look to the future, our mission remains to empower every person and organization, and our success hinges on how we harness AI and other technologies to amplify human achievement and create positive change for society.
The innovations we’re developing today will define the next five decades. And we remain focused on translating innovation into enduring value for our customers.
We are also recommitting ourselves to the framework that has made us successful – investing in our people, living up to our mission, earning the trust of our customers and the countries we operate in, innovating responsibly, prioritizing fundamentals with security above all else, and building products where the world can benefit.
Source: Microsoft
Headline: The value of AI: How Microsoft’s customers and partners are reinventing how they do business today
Organizational leaders in every industry around the world are evaluating ways AI can unlock opportunities, drive pragmatic innovation and yield value across their business. At Microsoft, we are dedicated to helping our customers accelerate AI Transformation by empowering human ambition with Copilots and agents, developing differentiated AI solutions and building scalable cybersecurity foundations. At Microsoft Ignite we made over 100 announcements that bring the latest innovation directly to our customers and partners, and shared how Microsoft is the only technology leader to offer three distinct AI platforms for them to build AI solutions:
All three of these platforms are open and work synchronously to enable the development of modern AI solutions; and each is surrounded by our world-class security offerings so leaders can move their AI-first strategies forward with confidence.
As we look ahead to what we can achieve together, I remain inspired by the work we are doing today. Below are a handful of the many stories from the past quarter highlighting the differentiated AI solutions our customers and partners are driving to move business forward across industries and realize pragmatic value. Their success clearly illustrates that real results can be harnessed from AI today, and it is changing the way organizations do business.
To power its industrial IoT and AI platform, ABB Group leveraged Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to create Genix Copilot: a generative AI-powered analytics suite aimed at solving some of the most complex industrial problems. The solution helps customers analyze key functions in their operations —such as asset and process performance, energy optimization and emission monitoring — with real-time operational insights. As a result, customers are seeing up to 35% savings in operations and maintenance, and up to 20% improvement in energy and emission optimization. ABB also saw an 80% decrease in service calls with the self-service capabilities of Genix Copilot.
Serving government healthcare agencies across the US, Acentra Health turned to Microsoft to help introduce the latest AI capabilities that maximize talent and cut costs in a secure, HIPAA-compliant manner. Using Azure OpenAI Service, the company developed MedScribe — an AI-powered tool reducing the time specially trained nursing staff spend on appeal determination letters. This innovation saved 11,000 nursing hours and nearly $800,000, reducing time spent on each appeal determination letter by about 50%. MedScribe also significantly enhanced operational efficiency, enabling nurses to process 20 to 30 letters daily with a 99% approval rate.
To ease challenges for small farmers, Romanian agribusiness group Agricover revolutionized access to credit by developing MyAgricover. Built with help from partner Avaelgo, the scalable digital platform utilizes Microsoft Azure, Azure API Management and Microsoft Fabric to automate the loan process and enable faster approvals and disbursements. This has empowered small farmers to grow their businesses and receive faster access to financing by reducing loan approval time by 90 percent — from 10 working days to a maximum of 24 hours.
Building on its status as a world-class airline with a strong Indian identity, Air India sought ways to enhance customer support while managing costs. By developing AI.g, one of the industry’s first generative AI virtual assistants built on Azure OpenAI Service, the airline upgraded the customer experience. Today, 97% of customer queries are handled with full automation, resulting in millions of dollars of support costs saved and improved customer satisfaction — further positioning the airline for continued growth.
BMW Group aimed to enhance data delivery efficiency and improve vehicle development and prototyping cycles by implementing a Mobile Data Recorder (MDR) solution with Azure App Service, Azure AI and Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS). The solution achieved 10 times more efficient data delivery, significantly improved data accessibility and elevated overall development quality. The MDR monitors and records more than 10,000 signals twice per second in every vehicle of BMW’s fleet of 3,500 development cars and transmits data within seconds to a centralized cloud back end. Using Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI Service, BMW Group created an MDR copilot fueled by GPT-4o. Engineers can now chat with the interface using natural language, and the MDR copilot converts the conversations into KQL queries, simplifying access to technical insights. Moving from on-premises tools to a cloud-based system with faster data management also helps engineers troubleshoot in real time. The vehicle data covered by the system has doubled, and data delivery and analysis happen 10 times faster.
Coles Group modernized its logistics and administrative applications using Microsoft Azure Stack HCI to scale its edge AI capabilities and improve efficiency and customer experience across its 1,800 stores. By expanding its Azure Stack HCI footprint from two stores to over 500, Coles achieved a six-fold increase in the pace of application deployment, significantly enhancing operational efficiency and enabling rapid innovation without disrupting workloads. The retailer is also using Azure Machine Learning to train and develop edge AI models, speeding up data annotation time for training models by 50%.
Multinational advertising and media company Dentsu wanted to speed time to insights for its team of data scientists and media analysts to support its media planning and budget optimization. Using Microsoft Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI Service, Dentsu developers built a predictive analytics copilot that uses conversational chat and draws on deep expertise in media forecasting, budgeting and optimization. This AI-driven tool has reduced time to media insights for employees and clients by 90% and cut analysis costs.
To overcome the limitations of its current systems, scale operations and automate processes across millions of workflows, Docusign created the Intelligent Agreement Management (IAM) platform on Azure. Using Azure AI, Azure Cosmos DB, Azure Logic Apps and AKS, the platform transforms agreement data into actionable insights to enhance productivity and accelerate contract review cycles. IAM also ensures better collaboration and unification across business systems to provide secure solutions tailored to diverse customer needs. For example, its customer KPC Private funds reported a 70% reduction in time and resources dedicated to agreement processes.
Emirates Global Aluminium (EGA) transformed its manufacturing operations by leveraging a hybrid environment with Azure Arc, Azure Stack HCI and Azure Kubernetes Service. This digital manufacturing platform resulted in 86% cost savings for AI image and video analytics and a 13-fold improvement in AI response times. The seamless hybrid cloud architecture has enhanced EGA’s operational efficiency and agility, supporting its Industry 4.0 transformation strategy.
EY collaborated with Microsoft to enhance the inclusivity of AI development using Azure AI Studio. By involving neurodivergent technologists from EY’s Neuro-Diverse Centers of Excellence, they improved the accessibility and productivity of AI tools, resulting in more inclusive AI solutions, fostering innovation and ensuring that AI tools unlock the potential of all users. With an estimated 20% of the global workforce identifying as neurodivergent, inclusive AI solutions are crucial for maximizing creativity and productivity. Neurodivergent EY technologists also collaborated with Microsoft developers to make Azure AI Foundry more inclusive and help all users work productively to create innovative AI solutions.
Colombian household appliance manufacturer Haceb integrated AI to optimize processes, reduce costs and improve service quality. Using Microsoft Copilot Studio and Azure OpenAI Service, the company created a virtual technical support assistant, saving its 245 technicians 5 minutes per visit — a total of 5,000 minutes saved daily. This AI solution has enhanced efficiency and boosted customer satisfaction by allowing for faster issue resolution. Haceb’s AI adoption has also empowered employees, boosted productivity and positioned the company as a leader in AI innovation in Colombia.
To better serve its global patients, Operation Smile — in collaboration with partner Squadra — leveraged Azure AI, Machine Learning and Microsoft Fabric to develop an AI-powered solution to predict surgical outcomes and optimize resource allocation. This innovation resulted in a 30% increase in surgical efficiency, a 90% reduction in translation errors and improved patient outcomes. Additionally, report generation is now up to 95% quicker, and repeated medical events have decreased by 15%, enabling Operation Smile to provide better care to more children worldwide.
Ontada — a McKesson business dedicated to oncology data and evidence, clinical education and point-of-care technologies — needed a way to generate key insights across 150 million unstructured oncology documents. Using Microsoft Azure AI and Azure OpenAI Service, Ontada developed a data platform solution called ON.Genuity to provide AI-driven insights into the patient journey, enhance patient trial matching and identify care gaps. The company also implemented large language models to target nearly 100 critical oncology data elements across 39 cancer types, enabling the company to analyze an estimated 70% of previously inaccessible data, reduce processing time by 75% and accelerate product time-to-market from months to just one week.
As the UK’s largest pet care company, Pets at Home sought a way to combat fraud across its retail operations — particularly as its online business continued to grow. Working closely with its fraud team, it adopted Copilot Studio to develop an AI agent that quickly identifies suspicious transactions. The agent autonomously gathers relevant information, performs analysis and shares it with a fraud agent to enable a manual, data-intensive investigative process while ensuring a human remains in the loop. With this low-code agent extending and seamlessly integrating into existing systems, the company’s fraud department can act more quickly; what used to take 20 to 30 minutes is now handled by the AI agent within seconds. The company is identifying fraud 10 times faster and is processing 20 times more cases a day. Now, the company can operate at scale with speed, efficiency and accuracy — with savings expected to be in the seven figures as it continues to build more agents.
Revenue Grid, a technology company specializing in sales engagement and revenue optimization solutions, partnered with Cloud Services to modernize its data infrastructure and develop a unified data warehouse capable of handling unstructured, semi-structured and structured data. By migrating to Microsoft Fabric, Revenue Grid can now deliver data-powered revenue intelligence, driven by a unified platform, elastic scalability, enhanced analytics capabilities and streamlined operations. Revenue Grid has reduced infrastructure costs by 60% while enhancing its analytical capabilities to improve real-time data processing, empowering sales teams with accurate and diverse data.
To better manage and integrate employee data across diverse regions and systems, UST built a comprehensive Employee Data platform on Microsoft Fabric. In under a year, UST migrated 20 years of employee data with all security measures to enhance data accessibility and employee productivity. The Meta Data Driven Integration (MDDI) framework in Fabric also helped the company cut data ingestion time by 50% so employees can focus more on analysis than preparation. As a result of this implementation, the company has seen an increase in collaboration and innovation from employees, helping put its values into action.
The Microsoft Commercial Marketplace offers millions of customers worldwide a convenient place to find, try and buy software and services across 140 countries. As a Marketplace partner, WeTransact is helping independent software vendors (ISVs) list and transact their software solutions — and find opportunities for co-selling and extending their reach to enterprise customers through development of the WeTransact platform. Powered by Azure OpenAI Service, the platform is changing the way partnerships are being built by using AI pairing to facilitate a “plug and play” reseller network. More than 300 ISVs worldwide have joined the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace using the WeTransact platform, cutting their time to publish by 75%.
The opportunity for AI to create value is no longer an ambition for the future — it is happening now, and organizational leaders across industries are investing in AI-first strategies to change the way they do business. We believe AI should empower human achievement and enrich the lives of employees; and we are uniquely differentiated to help you accelerate your AI Transformation responsibly and securely. Choosing the right technology provider comes down to trust, and I look forward to what we will achieve together as we partner with you on your AI journey.
Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:
PARIS, France, January 28, 2025/APO Group/ —
The Africa-Paris Declaration, forged during the 2024 Invest in African Energy (IAE) Forum in Paris, was a pivotal moment in Africa’s quest for sustainable energy solutions. Aimed at strengthening the continent’s energy transition while addressing the urgent issue of energy poverty, the declaration set ambitious targets for expanding access to clean, affordable and reliable energy. With the 2025 edition of the forum approaching, now is the time to reflect on the progress made since the Africa-Paris Declaration and assess how these initiatives are shaping Africa’s energy future.
Increased Engagement in Africa
In the months following the declaration, international investors, development banks and private equity firms have shown a steadfast interest in the African energy market. A key milestone was the launch of the Africa Energy Bank by the African Export-Import Bank and APPO, marking the creation of a first-of-its-kind institution designed to fund and facilitate energy initiatives across the continent. Several final investment decisions were successfully closed, including Shell’s $5.5 billion Bonga North deepwater project. Additionally, strategic partnerships, including new PSCs signed by Panoro Energy in Equatorial Guinea and BW Energy in Gabon, highlight how international collaborations are accelerating energy development and creating new opportunities for exploration and production. This increased engagement is key to addressing the financing gap that has long hindered the growth of Africa’s energy sector.
Natural gas continues to play a central role in Africa’s energy strategy as a transitional fuel. The Africa-Paris Declaration underscored its importance as a bridge between traditional energy sources and renewable energy. Over the past year, significant strides have been made in natural gas exploration and LNG exports. Notable developments include Senegal’s Greater Tortue Ahmeyim LNG reaching its first gas production, the Republic of Congo’s first LNG exports to Italy from the Congo LNG project, Nigeria’s UTM FLNG receiving its construction license, and Angola’s Sanha Lean Gas Connection project achieving first gas, among others. These initiatives are not only crucial for advancing Africa’s energy transition, but also serve as powerful drivers of economic growth by creating jobs and advancing infrastructure development.
Meanwhile, countries like South Africa, Egypt and Morocco are at the forefront of wind and solar energy development, with momentum expected to build as they meet renewable energy targets and explore new growth opportunities. These investments are driving a shift toward cleaner, more sustainable energy in Africa, though challenges remain. High costs of renewable technologies and insufficient grid infrastructure continue to hinder expansion, underscoring the need for more investment in off-grid and mini-grid solutions.
Investment Gaps Persist
Despite these advancements, Africa still faces significant investment challenges. The financing gap for large-scale energy projects remains substantial and while the private sector has become more engaged, many projects still struggle to secure the necessary capital. In particular, the cost of financing remains high due to the perceived risks associated with energy investments in Africa. This is where continued efforts to de-risk investments and foster public-private partnerships are critical to unlocking the continent’s full energy potential. Institutional capacity continues to be a challenge for many African countries. While progress has been made in improving regulatory frameworks, there is still a need for clearer policies, streamlined permitting processes and better enforcement of regulations. Governments must continue to strengthen their institutions to effectively implement energy projects and create an enabling environment for both local and international investors.
With the IAE 2025 forum just months away, industry stakeholders have an opportunity to reflect on the progress made since the Africa-Paris Declaration and determine next steps for the continent’s energy future. The forum serves as a platform for government officials, industry leaders and financial institutions to renew commitments, share success stories and address ongoing challenges. While the road to universal energy access and a sustainable energy future is long, the declaration has set the framework for a collective effort that can lead to meaningful change. With the right investments, regulatory frameworks and political will, Africa can emerge as a global leader in energy innovation and sustainability.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Duane Mellor, Visiting Academic, Aston Medical School, Aston University
For years it has been claimed that sparkling water may aid weight loss by helping you feel fuller – reducing your desire to snack and overeat.
Now, a recent hypothesis has suggested that sparkling water may help you lose weight by boosting your body’s blood sugar (glucose) uptake and metabolism.
But before you go and stock your fridge up with fizzy water, it’s important to actually take a look at the study itself and how it was conducted. This publication makes it clear that it isn’t new research – rather, it’s a new hypothesis formed by referencing the results of a study published in 2004 — alongside additional supplementary research to support the theory.
It should be noted that the old study was not even looking at the effect of fizzy water on body weight. It was actually an observation of what happens to blood when it goes through a kidney dialysis machine (haemodialysis) and how it might lower blood glucose. No fizzy water was consumed as part of this study either.
The effect of haemodialysis is said to mimic the effect of carbon dioxide in the blood – which increases the pH or alkalinity inside red blood cells. This then encourages the red blood cells to metabolise more glucose.
Using the figures from the 20-year-old paper, it’s estimated that a four hour dialysis session seems to increase glucose use by 9g – only around 36 additional calories burned.
But the study the hypothesis was based on wasn’t looking at the effects of carbon dioxide in the blood. Rather, it was looking at how haemodialysis changes the pH of red blood cells — and how that affects blood glucose. This makes it difficult to compare how the carbon dioxide in fizzy water may affect blood glucose when it enters the bloodstream.
The paper itself contains a valid scientific idea worthy of discussion. But unfortunately, some of its nuance has been lost in the way the study has been promoted – with media headlines exaggerating the paper’s findings.
To understand whether this hypothesis stands, research will need to be done which investigates whether a significant amount of carbon dioxide actually does enter our bloodstream when we drink sparkling water, and how quickly this is absorbed by the body – which will tell us how long the potential effects last.
But a glass of sparkling water contains less than a gram of carbon dioxide – and this will be absorbed in minutes. This amount of carbon dioxide is a tiny fraction compared to the kilogram our body naturally produces in an average day) through respiration – how our body uses energy.
Looking at these numbers, fizzy water will probably not have a measurable effect on blood carbon dioxide levels – and therefore no effect on metabolism and weight.
The hypothesis’s author itself is careful to state in the paper that carbonated water is not a standalone solution for weight loss and that healthy diet and physical activity are both key.
Another claim that has sometimes been made about fizzy water in the media and in other studies (though not by the author of this latest hypothesis) is that it can help you feel fuller for longer, which may aid in weight loss. However, the evidence here is not conclusive.
While some studies have found that people who drank carbonated water reported it helped them feel fuller for longer, other studies have actually shown it may have the opposite effect. Research in rats that looked specifically at weight and appetite hormones found that sparkling water increased both weight and levels of the hunger hormone ghrelin. In a parallel study these researchers conducted on 20 men, it was shown that fizzy water also increased their ghrelin levels. This suggests fizzy water could actually make people more hungry.
It seems the data is not conclusive about the effect of fizzy water on hunger. In theory, fizzy water might help to stretch our stomach causing us to feel full. However, the data does not seem to agree with this theory.
In order for fizzy water to do this, it would need to stay in the stomach longer than still water – and science suggests this isn’t the case. A study which compared drinking fizzy water versus drinking still water after a meal found both seem to leave the stomach at the same rate.
What’s more, drinking water with meals does not have a significant effect on appetite and feeling full. This is all down to the shape of the stomach and how it churns and breaks down our food. The bottom curve of our stomach has a channel called the Magenstrasse or “stomach road” which allows liquids to flow quickly into the small intestine where it can be absorbed.
While we might wish a glass of sparkling water could help support weight loss or at least help us feel fuller for longer, there’s currently little to no data to support this. The only real effect that drinking fizzy water (or even still water) has on body weight seems to be that when people use it to replace sugary drinks, it means they consume fewer calories on average.
The Conversation has spoken with Akira Takahashi, doctor of medicine and head of department at Tesseikai Neurosurgical Hospital, the author of the hypothesis. He writes that based on the 2004 study’s findings, it would be difficult to simulate the effect of haemodialysis through drinking carbonated water – and that it’s unlikely fizzy water alone could lead to weight loss.
He states that the mechanism shown in the haemodialysis study, by which CO2 can reduce blood sugar levels, may behave similarly to the CO2 absorbed from drinking fizzy water — and that this may result in glucose consumption in the blood near the stomach. However, he says more research will be needed to measure blood sugar levels before and after drinking carbonated water to validate this effect. Takahashi also thinks the feeling of fullness caused by drinking carbonated beverages warrants further research, as carbon dioxide releases bubbles that stimulate the stomach’s stretch receptors – creating a sensation of fullness.
Takahashi writes: “It is important to note that carbonated water alone is unlikely to contribute significantly to weight loss. A balanced diet and regular exercise remain essential for effective weight management.”
Duane Mellor a member of the British Dietetic Association. He has in the past undertaken advisory and consultative work with the soft drinks, sweetener and sugar industry.
– ref. Why fizzy water won’t help you lose weight – despite what some studies might suggest – https://theconversation.com/why-fizzy-water-wont-help-you-lose-weight-despite-what-some-studies-might-suggest-247940
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Anne Skeldon, Professor of Mathematics, Head of School, School of Mathematics & Physics, University of Surrey
The right to request a short working week, with four longer “shifts” and three days off is being proposed as part of new flexible working legislation in the UK. Also known as working “compressed hours”, this schedule can sound attractive, with reports claiming improved efficiency and productivity. And, of course, no pay cut for workers.
It could result in fewer commutes, which saves time for workers and can be more environmentally friendly. And it could provide more flexibility for workers with childcare or care for other dependants, for example.
But there could be negative consequences to squeezing typical workloads into fewer days. Under these plans, there is no suggestion that by compressing the working week, people will work fewer hours.
Compressed hours mean that, instead of working 7.5 hours a day for five days, you would work 9.4 hours per day for four days – putting in almost two hours more work every working day. There is strong evidence that longer work hours result in more errors and accidents. Long work hours are also linked to poorer decision-making and make it more likely people will have an accident on their drive home.
For example, it has long been understood that working longer shifts increases the risk of workplace accident and injuries. The risk of a workplace accident is on average 13% higher for a ten-hour shift than an eight-hour shift.
Accident risk remains more or less constant for the first eight or so hours of work but then rises rapidly, so that the risk of an accident in the tenth hour of work is 90% higher than in the first eight hours.
To function effectively and safely at work relies on sufficient sleep, ideally at the right time of day and in a regular pattern. This is based on fundamental physiological factors that cannot be changed by training, motivation or professionalism.
These factors that determine our ability to function are driven by time of day, how long we have been awake and accumulated sleep debt. For example, humans are sleepier during the night than the day, and it can take between two and four hours after waking to achieve full alertness.
What’s more, our ability to function decreases rapidly after we have been awake for 16 hours, and especially so at night.
But what are the health consequences of a compressed hours schedule? It is already commonplace for people to have shorter periods of sleep during the working week and then try to catch up with sleep at the weekend, with mixed results.
If people work compressed hours, then on working days they have to fit in two extra hours of work but still carry out all the other activities in their daily lives. They still need to wash, eat, communicate, provide care for children and others.
So there’s a real chance that compressed hours then also lead to “compressed sleep” and accentuate irregular patterns of rest or chronic sleep debt. Irregular or insufficient sleep is increasingly associated with a higher risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, certain cancers and dementia – the leading causes of mortality in wealthy nations. In 2017, the economic cost of insufficient sleep in the UK alone was estimated as US$50 billion (£40 billion), up to 1.86% of GDP.
Read more:
The science behind why you love a weekend lie-in
The negative effect of chronic sleep loss accumulates more rapidly than experts previously realised. This knock-on effect is most severe during night shifts, especially when those shifts are long. There are good reasons why the UK regulator, the Health and Safety Executive, supports the EU working time directive, which imposes constraints on the length, timing and number of shifts.
If the concept of fewer but longer work shifts is accepted, what happens next? Why not propose three 12.5-hour workdays a week, or two 18.75-hour workdays? Why not work 24 hours a day and then work only eight days a month?
This sounds fanciful, and yet it is happening. Several UK fire services have moved to 24-hour shifts, following the trend in North America where 24, 48 or even longer duty hours are common for firefighters. Also in North America, many physicians work 24-hour shifts or longer, with well-documented negative consequences including higher rates of serious medical errors and surgical complications, and increased accident risk on the drive home when compared to shorter shifts.
It’s certainly true that some workers prefer to work longer days, for example to have longer blocks of time off for childcare. But at what point do concerns over the safety of employees and the people they interact with – as well as the negative effects (and financial costs) on long-term health – outweigh employee preference?
Compressed hours of work may be effective in some scenarios for some people and businesses. But if compressed hours of work lead to compressed sleep, then we need to recognise the negative consequences.
New legislation should build in sufficient guidance and protections for both employers and employees, plus it should be evidence-based. With wearable tech like smartwatches to track behaviour, it should be feasible to collect information on sleep, health, near misses and accidents. Then mathematical models and AI could be used to design individualised work schedules that are healthy and productive for everyone.
Anne Skeldon has received funding from Transport for London and from Scotia Gas Network.
Derk-Jan Dijk received funding from AFOSR USA.
Steven W Lockley is a consultant to Timeshifter Inc, KBR Wyle Services, Apex 2100 Ltd and Illumalife Inc.
– ref. Why not all plans for a four-day working week would be a win for health – https://theconversation.com/why-not-all-plans-for-a-four-day-working-week-would-be-a-win-for-health-247839
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Svante Lundgren, Researcher, Lund University
Azerbaijan’s president, Ilham Aliyev, has launched a fierce verbal attack on Armenia, which he has called a fascist state. “Fascism must be destroyed,” he said in an interview on local TV networks on January 7. “Either the Armenian leadership will destroy it, or we will.”
This rhetoric is strongly reminiscent of baseless claims used by Vladimir Putin about Ukraine to justify Russia’s invasion. He has claimed that Ukraine must be “denazified”.
There are also reports that Azerbaijan’s acquisition of advanced Israeli weapons have increased recently, according to Israeli journalist Avi Sharf, national security, cyber and open source intelligence editor at Israeli news outlet Haaretz.
Armenia and Azerbaijan have a long history of conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh, a region within Azerbaijan until recently mainly populated by Armenians. The first war between them in the 1990s led to the establishment of a self-proclaimed Armenian republic, which no country recognised.
Then, after a 44-day war in 2020, Azerbaijan took control over most of the enclave. The rest was conquered in September 2023, prompting Armenians living there (more than 100,000 people) to flee to Armenia.
In the last few months Aliyev accused Armenia of preparing a “war of revenge”. Since its devastating defeat in the second Karabakh war in 2020, Armenia has taken steps to strengthen its defences. Among other things, it has made significant arms purchases from France. This has also provoked Aliyev to criticise France and its president, Emmanuel Macron.
But, although Armenia has been trying to reduce Azerbaijan’s military advantage through reforms in the army and arms purchases, the country is still militarily inferior to its neighbour. Any military confrontation is likely to result in an early defeat for Armenia.
Read more:
Future of Russian gas looking bleak as Ukraine turns off taps and Europe eyes ending all imports
The argument from Azerbaijan is clearly that if there is conflict in the region, it will be part of an Armenian “preparation for a war”. Baku suggests that therefore the responsibility for any conflict would lie with Armenia and those who arm the country (in particular, France). It’s possible that this rhetoric is intended to legitimise some kind of military action.
Because of escalating tension in the past few years, Armenia invited the European Union to monitor the border between the countries. This was to help address Azerbaijani accusations that Armenia was preparing for war, and to monitor, and prevent, shootings along the border.
Over the past two years Azerbaijan has denied these unarmed EU observers permission to operate on its territory, so they were only able to work from the Armenian side. It has also strongly condemned the EU for this mission.
The EU monitors have been in place since February 2023, and should be due to withdraw next month. Armenia has suggested the EU monitors continue but Baku has made clear it wants them removed.
So, why might Azerbaijan want to reignite tensions with Armenia? One point of contention between them is access to the “Zangezur corridor”, a land connection between Azerbaijan and its autonomous republic, Nakhichevan,.
Azerbaijan has long demanded access to, and control of, this route. The natural corridor runs through Armenia’s Syunik region (in Azerbaijani “Zangezur”, hence the Zangezur corridor). Armenia has declared its willingness to open up transport connections throughout the region – including between Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan – but opposes a corridor through its territory that it does not control.
The south Caucasus (the region including Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan) has long been an area that Putin sees as part of his sphere of influence. After the break-up of the Soviet Union, Russia tried to keep the region relatively calm, but in 2020 Putin allowed the war to continue until Armenia was defeated, before putting pressure on Aliyev to stop. Three years later, Azerbaijan took what was left of Nagorno-Karabakh while Russian peacekeepers looked on.
Armenian concern over what it sees as Russian bias towards Azerbaijan has led Yerevan to increasingly turn towards the west. On January 14 2025, a “strategic partnership charter” was signed between Armenia and the US, which includes an economic and defence partnership, but whether the new Trump administration will want to build on, or even ignore, that relationship is not yet clear.
In what is considered an important symbolic move Armenia is also currently negotiating with Russia over the removal of its Federal Security Service (FSB security service) guards along the Armenian border in an attempt to reduce reliance on Moscow for its security. Armenian prime minister Nikol Pashinyan said in 2024 that the nation would pull out of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization in another move that signals Armenia’s increasingly fragile relationship with Moscow.
The EU has meanwhile strengthened relations with Armenia.
While Azerbaijan may have escaped international fallout over the attack on Nagorno-Karabakh in the autumn of 2020, and over the ethnic cleansing of the enclave’s Armenian population in 2023. But if a new war led to a large-scale attack on Armenia it would unlikely to be ignored by the west.
Despite the west’s minimal reactions to Azerbaijani incursions across the Armenian border in May 2021 and September 2022, in 2025 there is more international focus on the region and on the potential consequences of ignoring what’s going on around Russia’s borders.
Although military intervention from the west is unlikely, the possibility of sanctions against Azerbaijan could be enough of an incentive for Aliyev to try to maintain the peace.
Svante Lundgren does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
– ref. Armenia and Azerbaijan are at loggerheads again – here’s why tensions are rising – https://theconversation.com/armenia-and-azerbaijan-are-at-loggerheads-again-heres-why-tensions-are-rising-247533
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Peter John McLoughlin, Lecturer in Politics, Queen’s University Belfast
The 1998 Good Friday agreement is commonly seen to have ended what were euphemistically termed “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland. However, just four months after the peace accord was signed, an attack on the town of Omagh resulted in the greatest loss of life in any single incident of the conflict.
The bombing, on August 15 1998, killed 29 people and injured an estimated 220 more. Among those who lost their lives were nine children and a woman who was pregnant with twins.
A group called “the Real IRA” claimed responsibility for the atrocity. It was one of the so-called “dissident” republican factions which broke away from the mainstream IRA after its political wing, Sinn Féin, turned toward peaceful politics. The Real IRA’s assault on Omagh was clearly intended to derail the Northern Ireland peace process and destroy the Good Friday agreement.
It could be argued, however, that the bombing had the opposite effect. The atrocity encouraged Northern Ireland’s politicians to come together and redouble their commitment to the peace process.
Public outcry over the attack also forced the Real IRA to announce a ceasefire. It later returned to violence, but widespread revulsion against the Omagh atrocity would undermine the support base that any dissident republican faction might draw upon.
Political representatives of the Real IRA and other such groups have never been able to mobilise electoral support in the way that Sinn Féin was able to, in spite of its association with the IRA.
The Omagh bombing also aided the ability of Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams and others to steer mainstream republicans towards purely peaceful politics. The atrocity had shown the utter futility of violence.
Adams’ condemnation of the attack provoked accusations of hypocrisy as he had previously defended IRA violence. Nonetheless, Adams continued to lead republicanism in ways that would cement its commitment to peaceful methods.
The indiscriminate nature of the Omagh attack also helps explain the galvanising effect that it had on the peace process. People from both sides of the communal divide in Northern Ireland were killed, and from both sides of the Irish border. Two Spanish tourists also died visiting a region which the Good Friday agreement seemed to have made safe.
The visit of Bill Clinton a month after the attack also brought global attention to Omagh. The US president had first visited Northern Ireland following the paramilitary ceasefires of 1994, receiving a rapturous reception when he turned on the Christmas lights in Belfast.
But his return was as sombre as his first visit had been joyous. Despite this, the obvious sincerity of Clinton’s words and actions in Omagh would encourage the people and politicians of Northern Ireland to continue their efforts to build a peaceful society.
More than 25 years on from the attack, they have largely succeeded in this endeavour. However, serious questions remain about the Omagh atrocity. Authorities in both parts of Ireland have been criticised for their response.
In Northern Ireland, a former policing watchdog has argued that the security services failed to properly act on intelligence that might have prevented the attack.
In the Irish Republic, where the bomb was constructed, the only person that was ever jailed over the attack would later see his conviction overturned. The latter ruling was also seen to result from the mishandling of evidence, this time by the Irish police.
This explains why survivors and families of those killed and injured in the Omagh bombing have fought long and hard for an independent investigation into the attack. Neither the British nor the Irish government seemed eager to allow this, but legal action by members of the Omagh families led to a ruling by Belfast’s High Court in July 2021 which found it plausible that the attack might have been prevented by security services. This bolstered support for a public inquiry.
Finally, in February 2023, the British government acceded and Lord Turnbull, a senior Scottish judge, was appointed to chair the investigation. The Irish government has not followed suit, but has committed to supporting the British inquiry.
The inquiry officially opened in July of last year, but is only now beginning in earnest with a period of commemorative and personal statement hearings.
Over four weeks, it will receive testimony from people who were injured, those who responded to the attack, or who were simply witnesses to the atrocity and its aftermath. Each submission will be read by Turnbull, and he has said that they will “inform the direction and approach of the Inquiry”.
There has, however, been some controversy regarding contributions to the investigation, and specifically that of a former British Army agent who infiltrated republican paramilitaries. This operative took legal action after being refused key status at the inquiry, a role which would have entitled him to make opening and closing statements, and to propose lines of questioning.
He was instead granted witness status, and the inquiry will naturally be expected to examine evidence relating to information passed on to the police in the time leading up to the bombing.
As a result, Turnbull has sought to assure those who might doubt the value of the investigation: “My inquiry may be the final opportunity to get to the truth of whether the bombing could have been prevented by the UK state.”
Survivors and victims’ families will surely hope that this is the last time that that they will have to relive their trauma, and that the end result will indeed establish the truth as to what exactly the authorities knew about the Omagh attack. Then, the families may finally experience some closure, and be able to move on from what remains the deadliest attack in Northern Ireland’s history
Peter John McLoughlin has received funding in the past from the AHRC, Leverhulme Trust, the Irish Research Council, and the Fulbright Commission. He is a member of Greenpeace.
– ref. Omagh bombing: why a public inquiry is being held more than 25 years after the atrocity – https://theconversation.com/omagh-bombing-why-a-public-inquiry-is-being-held-more-than-25-years-after-the-atrocity-248192
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Gail Taylor, Dean of Life Sciences, UCL
Plant factories are failing, with multiple companies closing or going bankrupt in recent months. This includes the largest vertical farm on the planet, in Compton, Los Angeles.
Owned by San Francisco-based startup Plenty, the farm opened in 2023 to grow salads in partnership with Walmart. It was mothballed at the end of 2024, with the company citing the rising cost of energy in California as a major problem.
Despite raising over US$1 billion (£802 million) from investors, the company’s value has reportedly plummeted from US$1.9 billion to below US$15 million. It now aims to focus solely on strawberry production in Virginia.
New York-based Bowery Farming also halted all operations in late 2024, having previously being valued at US$2.3 billion. Fellow American vertical farmers AeroFarms, Kalera and AppHarvest have similarly filed for bankruptcy in the past two years, as has the UK’s Growing Underground, among various others.
Clearly these are major setbacks. Year-round illuminated greenhouses and stacked, controlled-environment warehouses for producing food have been hailed as a sustainable alternative to traditional farming, promising fresh food close to populations.
This reduces the need for transportation, which together with other issues in traditional farming such as soil degradation and forest clearing see it contributing around 20% of the greenhouse gases that lead to planetary warming and climate change.
Multiple new indoor-farming companies sprang into life in the past decade, driven by significant venture capital. They harnessed the latest in LED lighting and hydroponic and aeroponic growing systems, using land and water ten to 100 times more efficiently than in a field and with far fewer pesticides.
Initially developed to grow leafy greens and microgreens, these farms have more recently turned to higher value produce including herbs, strawberries, tomatoes and grapes.
Among the reasons for the business failures are rising energy costs; the fact that traditional farming is cheaper, making it hard to compete on price; and the fact that rising interest rates have made financing more expensive.
Together with other challenges such as high energy consumption and finding enough skilled labour, many opponents are writing this sector off as a fad that is unlikely to ever make a big impact on food security.
This ignores success stories, such as JFC and Grow-up Farms, which are regular suppliers to the UK supermarkets. But more broadly, there are various reasons why the critics are likely to be wrong:
Vertical farming has been proving itself by “learning by doing” for the past decade. Kicked off by Nasa space scientists seeking to grow food in hostile environments with zero gravity and heavy radiation, this field is still highly experimental.
New technologies like this one often conform to the Gartner hype cycle, where big initial expectations are rarely met, leading to a trough of disillusionment. Following this, the benefits start to crystallise as new players enter the market and mainstream adoption begins.
Vertical farming is only a very small proportion of total farming, but it looks very likely to flourish given the need to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, and the threats to food security from climate change and population growth. In addition, the costs are likely to be reduced by the arrival of much more renewable energy at cheaper prices in years to come.
Society stands on the edge of an unprecedented transformation as it shifts away from fossil fuels. We’re going to move to a circular bioeconomy, in which green plants will be central as feedstocks for everything from aviation fuels to alternative proteins to vaccine production to plant-based plastics.
All this means greater pressure on land resources for food production, and an enhanced need for vertically stacked agriculture that recycles water and nutrients and requires fewer chemicals.
Unexpected scientific discoveries continue to drive vertical farming. For example, tunable wavelength LEDs have shown that certain spectral bands can affect crops profoundly.
Far-red light, which is just beyond visible red light, promotes growth and flowering, raising lettuce yields by 30%, for example. Blue light can improve shelf-life and nutritional quality, even enhancing certain plant chemicals known to help prevent cancers.
The significance of these discoveries has yet to be fully realised, but by the complete control of the farming environment that indoor farming makes possible, we will be able to more easily tailor food quality for the betterment of people and the planet.
Growing leafy greens indoors in California, as Plenty did, was always going to be challenging. This is the state where they invented the iceberg lettuce, where wall-to-wall sunshine and even temperatures enable farmers to grow enough salad greens to supply the whole of the US.
Contrast Singapore, where only 6% of fresh produce is locally grown. This has prompted the government to develop the “30 x 30” goal to supply 30% of nutritional needs by 2030, with vertical farming a key part of the strategy.
Similarly the United Arab Emirates imports over 90% of its food, and is looking towards a future that includes vertical farming. The UK and much of northern Europe, where the outdoor growing season is short and land is limited, can also benefit from these technologies (and indeed, do already).
Unlike the cutting-edge LED-illuminated, stacked warehouses, intensive hydroponic greenhouses have been operating commercially for decades. The Netherlands leads the way in supplying year-round fresh produce from these structures, and is now the second biggest food exporter in the world.
Even in the UK, its common for such greenhouses to supply potted herbs, tomatoes and strawberries all year round.
These are a half-way house to vertical farming, and are also likely to be in greater demand in the coming decades. They could well extend their reach to supply fresh nutritious food to places where food security may be particularly challenged, such as Africa, south Asia and the Middle East.
Gail Taylor has received funding for research on vertical farming from the John B. Orr Endowment from the University of California, Davis and gift funding from the company, Plenty. Between 2021 and 2024 she was a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the company Plantible Foods.
– ref. Five reasons why vertical farming is still the future, despite all the recent business failures – https://theconversation.com/five-reasons-why-vertical-farming-is-still-the-future-despite-all-the-recent-business-failures-248270
Source: St Albans City and District
Publication date:
Charges are to be introduced at some limited waiting on-street parking bays in St Albans and Harpenden following an extensive public consultation.
St Albans City and District Council’s original proposals have been modified in response to feedback from residents, Councillors, businesses and community groups.
One aim of the proposals is to encourage active travel, such as cycling and walking, where possible, rather than car use, to improve the local environment.
Another aim is to ensure a greater turnover of premium parking places and improve enforcement by enabling new methods such as Automatic Number Plate Recognition.
Four new disabled bays are also being created to provide improved parking facilities for motorists with Blue Badges in Harpenden’s town centre.
The charges will affect an additional 243 bays in Harpenden and an additional 70 in St Albans, and are due to come into effect on Monday 17 February.
Motorists will have several payment options, including contactless via pay and display machines with new equipment to be installed at key locations, the mobile phone app PayByPhone and, soon after implementation, by cash or chip and pin at PayPoint outlets.
The decision to introduce charges required a Traffic Regulation Order authorised by the Council’s Strategic Director for Community and Place Delivery in consultation with Councillor Helen Campbell, Lead for Parking.
Cllr Campbell said:
I fully understand that some people will be disappointed at being charged for a service that they have been getting for free.
In making the decision, we analysed the responses to the consultations and engaged with stakeholders such as ward Councillors and Harpenden Town Council.
We listened to the feedback and we made some significant changes as a result, such as changing the start of the controlled hours to 9am in Harpenden to help parents dropping off for school, and meeting requests for a longer free period of 30 mins. In addition, we will also be improving access to Harpenden town centre for Blue Badge holders.
Cllr Campbell added:
The charges are benchmarked against other local authorities, with many towns of a similar size to Harpenden having long had charges for on-street bays. As with other parking charges, we will monitor the impact of the changes and review if necessary.
The charges will:
Apply from 9am to 6pm in Harpenden and, reflecting local conditions, 8.30am to 6.30pm in St Albans, both Monday to Saturday, with no charge outside these hours.
Allow for a 30-minutes free period once a day.
Be £1.25 for 30 minutes, so the charge for a one-hour stay will be £1.25 while the two-hour cost will be £3.75, both including the free period.
Cover a maximum stay of two hours with no return for two hours.
Charges will not be considered at bays in York Road, St Albans, as originally proposed, until a wider review of parking in the area takes place.
Five limited waiting bays in Leyton Green, Harpenden, will be converted into resident parking bays for the benefit of local households.
Revenue from charges will go towards the Council’s on-street car parking services budget, which is currently running at a deficit, and towards greater levels of parking enforcement.
Cllr Campbell added:
The Secretary of State is clear that parking services should be self-sufficient, funded by fees and charges, instead of subsidised by other Council services as is the case at the moment. The revenue generated will help reduce the on-street parking service deficit, which is in the interest of all Council taxpayers as it will ensure we can better protect some of our other services.
Should any surplus income arise from on-street car parking, it would have to be kept in a ring-fenced budget and only be invested in parking, highways and environmental improvements.
ACCESS PASS
Alongside these changes to the way on street parking operates, the Council has also approved a brand new Access Pass to help older people who may have difficulties with digital applications. This pass will be made available for purchase from Thursday 13 February and will cover all the District Council car parks.
The pass will cost £190 a year and be valid for one visit a day for up to three hours.
To be eligible for the pass, a person would need to be a resident of the District and aged 70 or over.
Media contact: John McJannet, Principal Communications Officer: 01727- 819533; john.mcjannet@stalbans.gov.uk.
Translartion. Region: Russians Fedetion –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
The Chinese New Year in Moscow festival has begun in the capital. It will last until February 9 and will unite two dozen venues, including Manezhnaya, Tverskaya and Bolotnaya squares, Kamergersky and Stoleshnikov lanes, Tverskoy Boulevard, Novy Arbat, VDNKh, Moscow Zoo and others. The festival is held as part of a cross-program dedicated to the mutual Years of Culture of Russia and China.
The opening ceremony was attended by the Director of the Department of Information and Press, official representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Maria Zakharova, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of China to the Russian Federation Zhang Hanhui and the Deputy Mayor of Moscow Natalia Sergunina.
“We invite everyone to celebrate the New Year in Moscow once again, this time according to the Eastern calendar. The January holidays were a great success, and the New Year’s venues welcomed millions of visitors. In the next two weeks, we will also have a rich and interesting program. More than 400 events are planned – theatrical performances, master classes, lectures, film screenings and tea ceremonies. The central streets are decorated with light installations,” noted Natalia Sergunina.
The festival opened with a procession of symbols of the outgoing and incoming year – a dragon and a snake. Participants set off from the monument to Kliment Timiryazev on Tverskoy Boulevard and reached Manezhnaya Square. Here a drum show was organized for the guests.
“The festival’s events are aimed at getting Russians and Chinese to know each other’s customs and traditions better. Guests can expect a colorful program that will last 13 days. Last year, the festival was held for the first time, but already then it was visited by more than 700 thousand people. I think this year the record will be broken,” shared Maria Zakharova.
In 2024, the holiday received many positive responses from city residents and tourists. Famous Chinese bloggers attended the event and told their subscribers about it. In total, their videos collected about 45 million views. Reports from the Russian capital were shown on China’s central television channel.
“In 2024, a large-scale celebration of the Spring Festival was held for the first time in the center of the Russian capital. Russia also brightly celebrated Maslenitsa in Beijing, Xi’an and other Chinese cities, which was to the liking of the Chinese people. The holding of traditional holidays by China and Russia in each other’s countries contributes to further strengthening mutual understanding and ties between us. This year, the Chinese New Year in Moscow festival will be even larger and, I believe, will definitely attract even more Chinese tourists who will share the joy of this holiday with their Russian friends,” Zhang Hanhui emphasized.
Manezhnaya Square, the festival’s central venue, will host performances featuring Chinese artists for two weeks. In festive pagoda-style chalets, visitors will be offered traditional cuisine, from Hong Kong waffles to Peking duck. Anyone can also play xiangqi, the Chinese equivalent of chess.
On Tverskaya Square, Muscovites and tourists can expect tea ceremonies, culinary competitions and oriental music in a modern arrangement.
At VDNKh, dance master classes will be held on the skating rink and themed excursions. During them, experts will talk about the similarities and differences in celebrating the New Year in Russia and China, about painting styles and the space programs of the two countries.
The Moscow Zoo invites you to watch immersive shows and documentaries about its inhabitants, including the favorite of the capital’s residents – panda Katyusha. On February 1 and 2, admission will be free for all guests named Ekaterina or in a panda costume.
More than 120 restaurants in the city will join the event’s gastronomic program. They will present special menus with authentic dishes prepared according to traditional Chinese recipes.
You can view the event schedule and learn about the conditions for visiting individual venues in the online publication “Russpass-magazine”.
Traditional lanterns and panda figurines: how the capital was decorated in honor of the Chinese New YearDragon on Ice, Guohua Painting, and Go: VDNKh to Celebrate Chinese New Year
Today, China is a confident leader among foreign countries in the number of travelers coming to Moscow. And their number is constantly growing. In just nine months of last year, 335 thousand people from the Celestial Empire visited the capital. For comparison: in all of 2023, 245 thousand Chinese guests came to Moscow.
Many tourists choose independent travel, their share is up to 83 percent of all guests from China. This provides an additional economic effect, since they spend on average four to six times more than participants in tourist groups.
In addition, the share of business tourism has more than doubled in five years: now every fifth tourist from China comes to the capital for business purposes.
Chinese New Year Festival will become part of large-scale project “Winter in Moscow”, which unites over 1.9 thousand sites. City residents and tourists are invited to warm up with tea and hot buns, go skating, skiing and tubing, participate in master classes, watch ice shows and theatrical performances, and show concern for those who need it.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please Note; This Information is Raw Content Directly from the Information Source. It is access to What the Source Is Stating and Does Not Reflect
https: //vv.mos.ru/nevs/ite/149448073/
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Statement by Ambassador James Kariuki, UK Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, at the UN Security Council meeting on UNRWA.
I want to offer my condolences again to all UN and humanitarian staff who have been killed in this conflict, including 273 members of your team, Philippe.
President, after 15 months of conflict, we now stand at a rare moment of hope for Palestinians and Israelis. Thanks to the tireless efforts of the United States, Qatar and Egypt we have a ceasefire deal that has seen seven hostages returned, reunited with their families and an end to the violence in Gaza that has claimed so many Palestinian lives.
We cannot and must not forget the suffering that has brought us to this moment. Lives brutally cut short by Hamas. Men, women and children abducted from their families – many of whom are still being held while their loved ones suffer in anguish.
This conflict has also seen over 47,000 Palestinians killed. At least 35,000 children are thought to have lost one or both parents. And an estimated 20% of the population has been left with lifelong disabilities.
The levels of destruction in Gaza are beyond belief.
We must turn the page on this cycle of violence. I want to highlight key actions to support this.
It is vital that we now see the release of all remaining hostages, and a sustained ceasefire to allow us to move from phase one of the agreement through to further phases. Only then can we achieve a lasting peace.
We welcome reports that there has been an increase in humanitarian aid into Gaza. This needs to be sustained and complemented by much-needed supplies of commercial goods.
To support this vital effort, my Minister for Development has today announced a further $21 million in funding to ensure healthcare, food and shelter reaches tens of thousands of civilians and to support vital infrastructure across the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
However, the implementation of Knesset legislation on UNRWA risks upending this humanitarian response as well as threatening the fragile and hard-won gains made through the ceasefire deal.
The vital work of UNRWA in ensuring that Palestinians have access to education and healthcare must also be protected in Gaza as well as the West Bank and East Jerusalem. These represent the most fundamental of human rights.
For this reason, the United Kingdom urges Israel, once again, to ensure that UNRWA can continue its lifesaving operations and provision of essential services across the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
We call on Israel to work urgently with international partners, including the UN, so there is no disruption to this vital work. Israel is obligated under international law to facilitate humanitarian assistance by all means at their disposal. We stand ready to work alongside Israel, the UN and our partners to assist.
We also call on UNRWA to continue to deliver their commitment to neutrality. Implementation of reforms to strengthen their neutrality remains critical. We welcome UNRWA’s commitment to fully investigate any allegations against their employees and the continued implementation of the Colonna Report’s recommendations. We have earmarked over $1.2 million of our funding to UNRWA to support their implementation.
President, the UK will play our full part in the coming days and weeks to seize the opportunity of this ceasefire for a better future. To ensure it leads to a credible pathway towards a two-state solution in which Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in peace.
Thank you.
Published 28 January 2025
