Yaoundé (Agenzia Fides) – “A person who was kidnapped along with Father Mbaibarem was released this evening,” Archbishop Faustin Ambassa Ndjodo of Garoua confirmed to Fides. In the Archdiocese of Garoua, in northern Cameroon, Father Valentin Mbaibarem, parish priest of the parish of St. John the Baptist in Madingring, was kidnapped along with other people on the road between Guidjiba and Tcholliré on May 7 (see Fides, 13/5/2025). “We do not know if the family of the released hostage paid a ransom. Unfortunately, another person captured under the same circumstances has died. Apparently, this person was in poor health and could not withstand the conditions of hostage confinement,” Archbishop Ndjodo said. At present, Father Mbaibarem is still in the hands of his kidnappers. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 14/5/2025)
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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – “You are precious”. “The Church needs you”. “Continue to be outstanding for your faith, hope, and charity, and nothing else”. Pope Leo XIV receives in audience a multitude of baptized men and women of the Eastern Catholic Churches in the Paul VI Hall who have come to Rome accompanied by their Patriarchs and Bishops to celebrate their Jubilee of Hope. And he addresses them with an intense and important speech for the entire universal Church. He uses words which highlight the great “contribution that the Christian East can offer us today is immense”. Words that recall the suffering endured by the Eastern Christian in many war scenarios and are transformed into a new, passionate appeal for peace by the new Bishop of Rome, determined in repeating “I will make every effort so that this peace may prevail”, and that “the Holy See is always ready to help bring enemies together, face to face, to talk to one another, so that peoples everywhere may once more find hope and recover the dignity they deserve, the dignity of peace”.The topicality of Leo XIII”Christ is risen. He is truly risen”. Pope Leo thus greets the multitude that today, Wednesday, May 14, welcomed him joyfully in the Nervi Hall, and immediately recalls that with those words, “Eastern Christians in many lands never tire of repeating during the Easter season, as they profess the very heart of our faith and hope, a hope unshakably grounded in the resurrection of Jesus Christ”.Then the Pontiff born in Chicago weaves a speech full of gratitude for the treasure of faith represented by the Churches of the East, a wealth that draws from the source of the faith of the Apostles.Pope Prevost quotes Pope Francis, to repeat that the Eastern Churches with their spiritual heritage “have so much to say to us about the Christian life, synodality, and the liturgy”; he quotes John Paul II, for whom the Churches of the East have “a unique and privileged role as the original setting where the Church was born”, and some of their liturgies still use the language of the Lord Jesus.The Pontiff also disseminates in his speech quotations from Eastern Fathers, from Ephrem the Syrian to Isaac of Nineveh; he also cites Pope Leo XIII, the Pontiff who inspired him in choosing his name as Successor of Peter.Pope Pecci – recalls Leo XIV – “was the first Pope to devote a specific document to the dignity of your Churches, inspired above all by the fact that, in his words, “the work of human redemption began in the East”, and above all “made a heartfelt appeal that the “legitimate variety of Eastern liturgy and discipline… may redound to the great honor and benefit of the Church”. His concern at that time – Pope Prevost recognizes that – “In our own day too, many of our Eastern brothers and sisters, including some of you, have been forced to flee their homelands because of war and persecution, instability and poverty, and risk losing not only their native lands, but also, when they reach the West, their religious identity. As a result, with the passing of generations, the priceless heritage of the Eastern Churches is being lost”. Leo XIII, in his time, took concrete measures to promote the preservation of the rites of the Eastern Catholic Churches, prohibiting missionaries of the Latin Church from “attracting any Eastern-Rite Catholic to the Latin Rite”. With the same concreteness, Pope Leo XIV emphasized today that “in addition to establishing Eastern circumscriptions wherever possible and opportune, there is a need to promote greater awareness among Latin Christians. In this regard, I ask the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches – which I thank for its work – to help me to define principles, norms, and guidelines whereby Latin Bishops can concretely support Eastern Catholics in the diaspora in their efforts to preserve their living traditions and thus, by their distinctive witness, to enrich the communities in which they live”.Familiarity with the MysteryThe help that can come from the East to Christians throughout the world touches the most intimate fibers of their baptismal faith. “We have great need”, Pope Leo recognized, “to recover the sense of mystery that remains alive in your liturgies, liturgies that engage the human person in his or her entirety, that sing of the beauty of salvation and evoke a sense of wonder at how God’s majesty embraces our human frailty”. And “it is likewise important”, continued the US-born Pontiff, “to rediscover, especially in the Christian West, a sense of the primacy of God, the importance of mystagogy and the values so typical of Eastern spirituality: constant intercession, penance, fasting, and weeping for one’s own sins and for those of all humanity (penthos)! It is vital, then, that you preserve your traditions without attenuating them, for the sake perhaps of practicality or convenience, lest they be corrupted by the mentality of consumerism and utilitarianism”.”Your traditions of spirituality,” Pope Leo recalled in one of the most intense passages of his reflection, “are medicinal. In them, the drama of human misery is combined with wonder at God’s mercy, so that our sinfulness does not lead to despair, but opens us to accepting the gracious gift of becoming creatures who are healed, divinized and raised to the heights of heaven.”The peace of Christ and the Manichean “notions”Christians of the East – Pope Leo acknowledged – often find themselves “singing a song of hope even amid the abyss of violence” and amid the horrors of war. “From the Holy Land to Ukraine, from Lebanon to Syria, from the Middle East to Tigray and the Caucasus, how much violence do we see! And rising up from this horror,” the Pontiff continued, “from the slaughter of so many young people, which ought to provoke outrage because lives are being sacrificed in the name of military conquest, there resounds an appeal: the appeal not so much of the Pope, but of Christ himself, who repeats: “Peace be with you!”Looking at the tribulations of the Christians of the East, the Successor of Peter repeated words full of suggestions and referable to the evil roots of all the conflicts that tear the world apart. “Christ’s peace,” said the Bishop of Rome, “is not the sepulchral silence that reigns after conflict; it is not the fruit of oppression, but rather a gift that is meant for all, a gift that brings new life.” After reiterating his and the Holy See’s involvement in safeguarding and making every possible seed of peace flourish, Pope Leo XIV addressed the “leaders of the peoples: let us meet – he said -, let us talk, let us negotiate! War is never inevitable. Weapons can and must be silenced, for they do not resolve problems but only increase them. Those who make history are the peacemakers, not those who sow seeds of suffering. Our neighbours are not first our enemies, but our fellow human beings; not criminals to be hated, but other men and women with whom we can speak. Let us reject” added the Pontiff “the Manichean notions so typical of that mindset of violence that divides the world into those who are good and those who are evil”, adding that “the Church will never tire of repeating: let weapons be silenced. I would like to thank God for all those who, in silence, prayer and self-sacrifice, are sowing seeds of peace. I thank God for those Christians – Eastern and Latin alike – who, above all in the Middle East, persevere and remain in their homelands, resisting the temptation to abandon them. Christians – continued the Bishop of Rome – must be given the opportunity, and not just in words, to remain in their native lands with all the rights needed for a secure existence. Please, let us strive for this!” (GV) (Agenzia Fides, 14/5/2025)
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Headline: Microsoft as customer zero: Empowering research teams with AI
Explore more of Ryen White’s work at Microsoft Research
Learn more
Research has always been an integral part of Microsoft’s identity, driving our role as a global technology leader. Since 1991, Microsoft Research has dedicated itself to a fundamental research approach—advancing knowledge, deepening our understanding of the world, and exploring how technology can empower people and organizations. Through its extensive body of publications and a commitment to openly sharing its work, Microsoft Research continues to collaborate with the global research community to drive breakthroughs in AI and beyond. Together, we are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible to extend human capability, create value for our customers, and deliver broad societal benefit.
Transforming research with AI at Microsoft Research
With Microsoft leading the charge in AI, Microsoft Research teams are at the forefront, using our expertise, fostering thought leadership, and driving innovation in AI and research. AI is at the center of many of Microsoft Research’s pioneering projects, from helping researchers analyze massive datasets within seconds, inventing new AI solutions that would benefit humanity, and collaborating with the global research community through the Accelerating Foundation Models Research (AFMR) program.
Microsoft Research is in a unique position where it can not only adopt and use AI but also invent AI. We have made significant investments in AI, building new AI methods, models, and technologies. To infuse AI more deeply into the research process, an experimental initiative is underway, helping teams move faster, think bigger, and share more effectively. This initiative breaks down into three key strategies: using, infusing, and diffusing AI across the organization.
Using AI (Tools and Operations) focuses on optimizing access and advancement of AI.
Infusing AI (Research and Development) is about maximizing the potential of AI to revolutionize research processes.
Diffusing AI (Connectivity and Information Flow) ensures rapid sharing of AI insights, tools, and learnings with others, both inside and outside of Microsoft Research.
The goal is not just to adopt AI, but to augment and reinvent the way research is done—empowering everyone in the organization to achieve more.
The integration of AI into research processes at Microsoft Research provides valuable insights for researchers and businesses. Using AI can accelerate innovation cycles, improve operational efficiency, and lead to the development of cutting-edge tools and products. These advancements highlight how AI can reinvent traditional workflows, streamline operations, and drive growth and profitability, making it a strategic focus for organizations to implement.
GraphRAG: Advancing research with knowledge graphs
GraphRAG is a modular graph-based retrieval augmented generation (RAG) system that uses large language models to create knowledge graphs from raw text. This technique enhances large language model performance on private datasets by providing structured data and summaries, making it easier for researchers to extract meaningful insights from complex data.
Learn more about GraphRAG
The changes that are happening in AI right now, they really are surprising. The capabilities are expanding so quickly. I think of it as kind of an accelerator. Everything that we do in research, we can do faster, we can ask more questions, and this has all been kind of a warp speed thing.
—Nathan Evans, Principal Software Architect at Microsoft Research
Data Formulator: Transforming data into insights
Exploring how AI can help analysts create rich data visualizations
Read the blog
Data Formulator is an innovative tool designed to help researchers quickly explore and analyze data. By using AI, Data Formulator lets users to create rich visualizations without the need for extensive programming knowledge. This tool combines AI and interactive approaches to communicate visualization intent, making data analysis more accessible and efficient
Explore Data Formulator
AI really speeds up our experimentation process. In the past, we really needed to do a lot of hacking over weeks to experiment on designs. But now we can have a high-level thought, we can do the prototype in a short amount of time, and we can start thinking on top of that.
—Chenglong Wang, Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research
Accelerating Foundation Models Research: Democratizing AI research
The Accelerating Foundation Models Research (AFMR) program provides academic researchers with access to state-of-the-art foundation models hosted on Microsoft Azure through Microsoft Azure AI services. This initiative fosters a global AI research network and offers robust, trustworthy models that help further research in disciplines ranging from scientific discovery and education to healthcare, multicultural empowerment, legal work, and design.
Learn more about Accelerating Foundation Models Research
The AFMR program works with the broader academic research community to explore different aspects of foundation models to accomplish three goals:
Goal 1: Align AI with shared human goals, values, and preferences
This involves enhancing the safety, robustness, sustainability, responsibility, and transparency of AI models. One notable project aligned to this goal is “ERB Bench: An Entity-Relationship based Automatically Verifiable Hallucination Benchmark for Large Language Models.” For this project, researchers created ERB Bench which helps in evaluating and improving the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated content. This ensures that AI models align with human values and reduces the risk of misinformation.
Goal 2: Improve AI-human interactions
The second goal focuses on improving AI-human interactions by increasing trust, human ingenuity, creativity, and productivity while reducing the risk of developing AI that is harmful for individuals and society. The project “As Generative Models Improve, People Adapt their Prompts” explores how prompting changes as generative AI models improve. Results showed that participants using more advanced models produced better, longer, and more descriptive prompts. This research provides valuable insights into the evolving dynamics between humans and AI, helping to create more intuitive and effective AI systems.
Goal 3: Accelerate scientific discovery
The third goal is to accelerate scientific discovery through proactive knowledge discovery, hypothesis generation, and multimodal data generation. One project that exemplifies this goal explored “Artificial Intelligence–Based Copilots to Generate Causal Evidence.” In this initiative, large language models were explored as causal “copilots” to help identify flaws in medical study designs. These models could assist researchers by providing expert guidance in study design, improving the accuracy of conclusions drawn from the studies.
AI is really important in research because AI has the potential, the huge potential to really accelerate the research, which is needed to address some of the greatest challenges of today and tomorrow.
—Evelyne Viegas, Technical Advisor at Microsoft Research
The next frontier: Looking ahead to the future of AI in research
As scientific research evolves in an era powered by AI and cloud technologies, the opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and global impact are unprecedented. From accelerating scientific discovery to improving human-agent alignment, foundation models are reshaping how research is conducted, shared, and scaled. Looking ahead, researchers and institutions must not only embrace these tools but also build robust frameworks for adoption, and evaluation.
There is still much more for us to explore on how we can advance research at Microsoft and we’re just getting started.
Explore AI transformation: Watch the Customer Zero video
Genealogist Jari Honora broke the story of the pope’s ancestors’ connection to the Creole of color community in New Orleans. A family historian at the Historic New Orleans Collection’s Williams Research Center, Honora has given research presentations to my graduate students and consulted with me on my own work. In his research on Leo’s lineage, he was also able to find several official documents that list Haiti as the birthplace of his maternal grandfather, Joseph Norval Martinez.
The pope’s Creole lineage in Louisiana is interesting enough. But many commentators have strained to make sense of the link to Haiti, if they mention it at all.
As an expert in 19th-century Haiti, I study the period during which Leo’s ancestors likely traveled between Haiti and New Orleans before migrating to Chicago. Their story is part of a broader American story of race, citizenship and migration.
A grandfather born in Haiti
It’s worth noting that Leo’s genealogy is not entirely straightforward.
At least one record indicates Joseph Norval as having been born in Louisiana. And a 1910 census seems to reinvent the family lineage: Martinez is now “Martina,” Joseph’s birthplace is “S. Domingo,” and he is supposedly Maltese.
Nevertheless, far more documents – numerous census records as well as his marriage certificate – identify Martinez’s place of birth as Haiti. An 1866 passenger list for a ship bound for New Orleans from Haiti, despite some inconsistencies, does indeed appear to list members of the Martinez family, including his father and three siblings.
Just because Leo’s grandfather was born in Haiti, it didn’t mean he was Haitian. Instead, he belonged to a class of people in New Orleans known as Creoles of color.
The descriptor “Creole of color” is somewhat anachronistic; it emerges at the end of the 19th century in Louisiana to categorize the descendants of a historically subordinate class known as free people of color, or “gens de couleur libres” in French.
It has its origins in the tripartite racial order of the French and Spanish colonial periods in the Americas, when authorities created a hierarchy of legal classes: enslaved people, free people of African descent, and white people.
In theory, free people of color encompassed a range of people. It could describe formerly enslaved people; people who had never been enslaved; people born in Africa; or people with extended, mixed-race American families.
In 19th-century Louisiana, the term generally referred to people of mixed racial ancestry who were born with free status, though at varying degrees of removal from slavery. They generally spoke French and were Catholic.
Though they were subject to repressive laws and could never become citizens and gain the right to vote, free people of color could own, inherit and sell property, including enslaved people. Most worked as artisans and shopkeepers, and a handful became quite wealthy through trade and real estate.
The Martinez family fits squarely within this community.
Census records from 1850 list Jacques Martinez – Joseph Norval Martinez’s father and Leo’s maternal great-grandfather – as a tailor and modest property owner in New Orleans. They were never enslaved but do not appear to have been enslavers, either.
Life gets worse for people of color
So why was Joseph Norval Martinez born in Haiti?
At some point, his parents probably felt they had to leave New Orleans.
Despite their relative prosperity, free people of color in Louisiana and throughout the United States were being subjected to increasing legal restrictions, repression and violence in the years leading up to the Civil War.
This situation worsened in the 1840s and ‘50s, as white Southerners worked to further restrict citizenship and rights along hard racial lines. The 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court decision affirmed that any people descended from Africa, including free people of color, had no right to citizenship.
For those who remained in the South, the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 would have made life even more difficult.
In the first half of the 19th century, many free people of color in Louisiana emigrated to France. But the two main options in the 1860s were Haiti and Mexico.
However, at the time of the Martinez family’s departure, Mexico was embroiled in conflict with France. Haiti, meanwhile, was crafting an ambitious plan to attract immigrants.
Indeed, Haiti long promoted itself as a free soil republic: Any person with African descent would enjoy freedom and, eventually, Haitian citizenship. Several Haitian presidents staged immigration campaigns to attract enslaved and formerly enslaved laborers from the United States.
In response to worsening conditions for people of color in the U.S., Haitian President Fabre Geffrard launched a particularly ambitious campaign, setting up Haitian Emigration bureaus and staffing them with agents in New York, Boston, New Orleans and other major cities. Louisiana newspapers advertised Geffrard’s immigration plan, which included land concessions for families and individuals. Geffrard’s focus was on attracting agricultural laborers – not the kind of work the Martinez family would likely be enticed to take on. Still, skilled artisans were welcomed as immigrants.
It was within this context that the Martinez family probably departed New Orleans for Haiti. At present there is scant information about their voyage, but the journey would have echoed many family histories of migration from Louisiana to Haiti in the 1860s.
Based on my study of census and notarial archives, it appears the Martinez family left sometime after the birth of daughter Adele in New Orleans in December 1861 and before the birth of Joseph Norval in Haiti in 1864.
The promise of Reconstruction crumbles
The Martinez family didn’t stay in Haiti long.
According to the passenger list, they returned to New Orleans in February 1866.
As was the experience for many émigrés to Haiti, they may have found the conditions difficult. It’s also possible that the successes of wartime Reconstruction in Louisiana encouraged them to reestablish their lives in New Orleans.
They returned to a state transformed by the abolition of slavery. Free people of color were at the forefront of the fight for civil rights and key architects behind a progressive, egalitarian state constitution that called for equal access to education for all citizens.
The Martinez children likely benefited – albeit briefly – from that provision. The 1870 census records show them all enrolled in school: Michel (14), Girard (12), Adele (9) and young Joseph Norval (6).
They would also witness the violent backlash to Reconstruction, which was especially intense in Louisiana. In 1866, a white mob laid siege to those attempting to amend the state’s constitution to enfranchise Black voters, in what became known as the Mechanics Institute Massacre. In the ensuing years, the state was gripped by ever more violence.
Joseph Norval Martinez married Louise Baquié in 1887, and they went on to have six children, all girls, in New Orleans. He worked as a cigar maker – a common enterprise for free men of color during the period – and later as a clerk.
The family was subjected to increasing segregation with the Separate Car Act, an 1890 Louisiana statute that separated train cars by race. The Supreme Court went on to uphold the Louisiana statute in 1896, enshrining the “separate but equal” doctrine throughout the South.
An American tale
Martinez and Baquié remained in New Orleans until 1910, at which point they joined the millions of other Black Americans who migrated from the South to the North and the West in the early decades of the 20th century, in what became known as the Great Migration. A significant portion, including Martinez and Baquié, ended up in Chicago.
Joseph Norval Martinez’s census records tell a complex story about the history of race in the U.S. Prior to 1900, he is listed as “m” for “mulatto.” In the 1900 census, he is listed as Black. And then in the 1910 census, he is listed as white.
The Martinez family could not dictate the racial descriptors assigned to them in the census, but they had some claim over birthplace and lineage. Against the backdrop of segregation, disenfranchisement and violence, Martinez appears to have claimed a lineage – Maltese – that the 1910 census categorized as white.
It is this – and so much more – that makes theirs a truly American story.
One thing we do know: Martinez reverted back to his original lineage after he and his family settled in Chicago. The 1920 census lists Martinez’s birthplace of record as Haiti.
Chelsea Stieber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The review process is careful for a reason – and perhaps the only real method of speeding it up is the one Zeldin has proposed: reassigning staff so there are more people to share the work.
The EPA, which regulates pesticides in the U.S., defines a pesticide as any substance or mixture of substances intended to prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate any pest, such as weeds, insects and organisms, that attack plants.
Pesticides are often referred to as toxins when found in food, water bodies or other places where they are not intended. But just because something is detected doesn’t mean it’s harmful to humans or wildlife. Toxicity depends on how much of the substance a person or animal is exposed to, how they are exposed to it – such as breathing it, or getting it on their skin – and for how long.
In 1970, the newly formed EPA took over responsibility for pesticides. It shifted its focus to the safety of consumers, farmworkers and the environment after the Federal Environmental Pesticide Control Act took effect in 1972.
The EPA determines whether the risks to people, animals or the environment are too high for the benefits the pesticide provides and whether any of those risks can be reduced. Sometimes a chemical’s risk can be lessened by recommending mitigation strategies such as wearing protective clothing, reducing environmental spread by barring the use of pesticides near the edges of a property, or decreasing the amount of a pesticide that’s legal to use.
The EPA uses all the available data on a pesticide to evaluate the dose that would be toxic to a range of organisms, as well as what residues the pesticide may leave on plants, in the soil and in water. The data is incorporated into computer models that estimate the potential amount of the chemical that may come in contact with humans, animals and the environment. Those models’ results are then combined with toxicity data to determine risk.
The models used by EPA scientists are very conservative. They often use significant overestimates of exposure, which means that when the models determine the risk of a pesticide is below a particular level, they are evaluating the risk posed by far higher quantities of the chemical than will ever actually be used. The risk from the amount actually used, therefore, is even less likely to cause harm.
If a pesticide is found to potentially be dangerous to a protected species or its habitat, the EPA will discuss those findings with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service, which enforce the Endangered Species Act, and determine what to do to ensure the species aren’t harmed.
The law’s requirement to reevaluate each pesticide every 15 years is based on the fact that science evolves and information becomes more precise. New data can shed light on potential risks and benefits, and even lead to pesticides being banned or more closely restricted.
Until recently, for instance, pesticide residues on plants, food and in the environment were measured in parts per million. Newer equipment can measure even smaller amounts, determining parts per billion, which is as precise as identifying one single second in 32 years. Some chemicals can even be measured in parts per trillion, equivalent to one drop of water in 20 Olympic-size swimming pools. That means exposures can be more accurately measured. While some chemicals can be toxic in very small concentrations, most pesticides can be detected at levels that do not pose a biological risk.
Allowing a pesticide to be used
If the EPA determines that a pesticide’s risks outweigh its benefits, then its staff will conduct additional analyses to determine how to mitigate the risks enough to justify using it. If that’s not possible, the EPA will reject the application and not allow the pesticide to be used in the U.S.
If the agency determines that the benefits outweigh the risks, the EPA approves the pesticide for sale and use in the U.S. The law requires the pesticide come with a label providing a strict set of guidelines for how, when and where to use the pesticide.
The guidelines define amounts and timing for applying the pesticide safely, and specific restrictions or protection strategies to control the target pests while eliminating or minimizing harm to the environment, workers and the public.
Jeffrey Gore receives funding from the USDA-ARS and has received funding from various state and national commodity boards, and chemical and biotechnology companies in the past.
Jeffrey Gore served on the EPA’s Farm, Ranch and Rural Communities Committee from 2019 to 2024.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11)
Legislation to lower taxes for working Americans, senior citizens and middle class families passed by House Ways & Means Committee today
(WASHINGTON, DC)– Today, Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis announced that multiple pieces of legislation she authored, co-sponsored or championed are included in the House Ways and Means legislation that will be part of Republicans’ “One, Big, Beautiful Bill.” The bill passed out of the Ways and Means Committee by a vote of 26-19 following an 18-hour marathon meeting that concluded at 8:00 AM this morning.
“Today is a great day for Staten Islanders and Brooklynites who are desperate for tax relief so they can keep more of their hard-earned money. I’m proud to have championed and successfully secured provisions into the tax package that will lower the taxes senior citizens pay on their Social Security income, increase the Standard Deduction and Child Tax Credit, and triple the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction. These provisions will save individuals and families thousands of dollars annually, and with today’s passage out of Committee, we are a step closer to delivering relief.”
Malliotakis also worked to ensure the Alternative Minimum Tax which, prior to 2017, hurt families with middle incomes, did not return, and that the reduced income tax brackets established in 2017 will be made permanent. Additionally, the legislation provides tax incentives for the expansion of domestic factories and manufacturing operations to repatriate our supply chain, create American jobs and protect our national security.
Highlights of the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill” include:
Bonus Deduction For Seniors: Would increase the additional bonus deduction for seniors age 65 and over from $1,950 to $5,950 for single filers, and from $3,100 to $11,100 for married couples for individuals with an adjusted gross income (AGI) less than $75,000 and couples with an AGI less than $150,000. This deduction phases down as adjusted gross incomes increases to $175,000 for individuals and $350,000 for married couples.
Increases the SALT Deduction: The SALT deduction will be tripled to $30,000 covering 98% of NY-11.
Prevents the Return of the Alternative Minimum Tax:Successfully stops the return of the Alternative Minimum Tax that crushed middle-income families.
Increases the Standard Deduction:Increases the standard deduction to further lower taxable income for hardworking taxpayers and families to $16,300 for individuals and $32,600 for married couples.
Expands the Child Tax Credit: Builds on the 2017 expansion by increasing the credit by an additional $500 to $2,500.
No Tax on Auto Loan Interest: Makes auto loan interest on American-made car loans fully deductible for American families
Other existing legislation sponsored or cosponsored by Malliotakis included in the bill are:
H.R. 1801 The Employer Participation in Repayment Act–extends tax-free employer reimbursement for students and college graduates is included in the package. Originally enacted under the March 2020 CARES Act, this provision allows employers to provide up to $5,250 annually tax-free to cover student loan payments, tuition, books, and course-related supplies. It is currently set to expire at the end of 2025, and would be made permanent.
H.R. 833 The Educational Choice for Children Act– expands education freedom and opportunity for students, the legislation creates a tax credit for individuals and businesses that make charitable donations to nonprofit organizations offering scholarships. These scholarships help cover K–12 education expenses for qualified students attending public or private schools, including special needs programs.
For a full list of provisions that will benefit our economy, small businesses, individuals, and families visit:The House Committee on Ways and Means Website.
Here are three strategies that could help Detroit’s next mayor build a just and resilient city by focusing on transitional neighborhoods:
Stabilize housing and prevent displacement
Stable housing is the foundation of thriving communities.
Yet, housing instability in Detroit is both widespread and deeply entrenched. Before the pandemic, roughly 13% of Detroiters, or about 88,000 people, had been evicted or forced to move within the previous year. Families with children faced the highest risk.
Many Detroiters had little choice but to remain in deteriorating housing, crowd into shared living arrangements or relocate elsewhere because of an estimated shortfall of 24,000 habitable housing units.
While building more housing is essential, preventing displacement requires more than new construction. It also demands policies that preserve affordability and protect tenants. Researchers have found that household stabilization policies, such as legal representation in eviction court, rent control and property tax relief, have the most immediate impact.
In Detroit, addressing the wave of expiring Low-Income Housing Tax Credit, or LIHTC, units remains an urgent priority. When units reach the end of their compliance period in this federal program, typically 15 years, owners are no longer required to maintain affordable rents and can raise prices. This “conversion to market rate” often results in the loss of affordable housing for low-income residents.
Despite the city’s efforts, a 2023 analysis found that a substantial affordability gap persists, with many households unable to comfortably afford market-rate housing without spending more than 30% of their income, which is the standard set by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for affordability.
Stabilizing Detroit’s housing market means ensuring that those who stayed during the hardest times are not pushed out as reinvestment takes hold. To achieve this, the next mayor could expand rental assistance and support tenant organizing efforts. This is particularly needed in transitional neighborhoods where renters come together to fight unfair evictions, improve housing conditions and push for more stable rents.
Reclaim and reimagine vacant land for community benefit
Many view Detroit’s vast tracks of vacant land, estimated in the hundreds of thousands of parcels, as blight. But they could also be seen as a public asset and a generational opportunity if brought together with the right public strategies.
Land trusts can turn empty lots into valuable neighborhood spaces. A land trust is a nonprofit that holds land for the community and keeps housing affordable over the long term, a key to preventing displacement.
Research also shows that greening strategies can improve community health, cohesion and equity. Cities like Philadelphia and Cleveland have launched urban greening initiatives that transform vacant lots into community gardens, small parks and tree-filled spaces. Research shows that these projects can help stabilize property values and strengthen neighborhoods by reducing blight, encouraging investment and creating safer, more attractive environments.
By collaborating with residents to cocreate a land use vision, the next mayor could prioritize community ownership and ecological restoration instead of speculative redevelopment.
Invest in social infrastructure
Neighborhood strength is about more than buildings — it’s about people.
Detroit’s neighborhoods have long faced a lack of investment in schools, recreation centers and social services. This leaves families vulnerable and fuels cycles of poverty and criminalization. Under these conditions, young people, especially Black and brown youth, are more likely to be policed, punished and pushed into the criminal justice system.
A 2021 study found that the Detroit Public Schools Community District reported 2% of its students experienced homelessness, despite 16% of households with children reporting recent eviction or forced moves. This gap reveals major service and awareness gaps. And when families fall through those gaps, it’s often children who suffer the most.
Addressing these gaps requires investing in mental health services, youth development programs and violence prevention, rather than relying solely on policing or incarceration. These approaches recognize that true public safety comes from access to stable jobs, quality education and supportive services that meet people’s health, housing and social needs. Some of the most effective strategies include restorative justice in schools and outreach to older adults and residents experiencing homelessness.
The next mayor has the chance to shift the narrative by centering housing justice, reclaiming land for public good and investing in the people who make Detroit a city worth fighting for.
Deyanira Nevárez Martínez is a trustee of the Lansing School District Board of Education and is currently a candidate for the Lansing City Council Ward 2.
Sitting in my doctor’s examination room, I was surprised when she told me, “Genetics don’t really matter for chronic disease.” Rather, she continued, “A person’s lifestyle, what they eat, and how much they exercise, determine whether they get heart disease.”
As a researcher who studies the genetics of disease, I don’t fully disagree – lifestyle factors play a large role in determining who gets a disease and who doesn’t. But they are far from the entire story. Since scientists mapped out the human genome in 2003, researchers have learned that genetics also play a large role in a person’s disease risk.
Studies that focus on estimating disease heritability – that is, how much genetic differences explain differences in disease risk – usually attribute a substantial fraction of disease variation to genetics. Mutations across the entire genome seem to play a role in diseases such as Type 2 diabetes, which is about 17% heritable, and schizophrenia, which is about 80% heritable. In contrast to diseases such as Tay-Sachs or cystic fibrosis, where mutations in a single gene cause a disease, chronic diseases tend to be polygenic, meaning they’re influenced by multiple mutations at many genes across the whole genome.
Every complex disease has both genetic and environmental risk factors. Most researchers study these factors separately because of technical challenges and a lack of large, uniform datasets. Although some have devised techniques to overcome these challenges, they haven’t yet been applied to a comprehensive set of diseases and environmental exposures.
In our recently published research, my colleague Alkes Priceand I developed tools to leverage newly available datasets to quantify the joint effects that genetic and environmental risk factors have on the biology underlying disease.
Aspirin, genetics and colon cancer
To illustrate the effect gene-environment interactions have on disease, let’s consider the example of aspirin use and colon cancer.
In 2001, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center were studying how regularly taking aspirin decreased the risk of colon cancer. They wondered whether genetic mutations that slowed down how quickly the body broke down aspirin – meaning aspirin levels in the body would stay high longer – might increase the drug’s protective effect against colon cancer. They were right: Only patients with slow aspirin metabolism had a decreased risk of colon cancer, indicating that the effectiveness of a drug can depend on a person’s genetics.
This raises the question of how genetics and different combinations of environmental exposures, such as the medications a patient is taking, can affect a person’s disease risk and how effective a treatment will be for them. How many cases of genetic variations directly influencing a drug’s effectiveness are there?
Rather than ‘nature versus nurture,’ a more accurate way of describing gene-environment interactions is ‘nature through nurture.’
The gene-environment interaction of colon cancer and aspirin is unusual. It involves a mutation at a single location in the genome that has a big effect on colon cancer risk. The past 25 years of human genetics have shown researchers that these sorts of large-effect mutations are rare.
For example, an analysis found that the median effect of a genetic variant on height is only 0.14 millimeters. Instead, there are usually hundreds of variations that each have small but cumulative effects on a person’s disease risk, making them hard to find.
How could researchers detect these small gene-environment interactions across hundreds of spots in the genome?
Polygenic gene-environment interactions
We started by looking for cases where genetic variants across the genome showed different effects on a person’s biology in different environments. Rather than trying to detect the small effects of each genetic variant one at a time, we aggregated data across the entire genome to turn these small individual effects into a large, genome-wide effect.
Using data from the UK Biobank – a large database containing genetic and health data from about 500,000 people – we estimated the influence of millions of genetic variants on 33 complex traits and diseases, such as height and asthma. We grouped people based on environmental exposures such as air pollution, cigarette smoking and dietary patterns. Finally, we developed statistical tests to study how the effects of genetics on disease risk and biomarker levels varied with these exposures.
We found three types of gene-environment interactions.
First, we found 19 pairs of complex traits and environmental exposures that are influenced by genetic variants across the genome. For example, the effect of genetics on white blood cell levels in the body differed between smokers and nonsmokers. When we compared the effects of genetic mutations between the two groups, the strength of gene-environment interaction suggested that smoking changes the way genetics influence white blood cell counts.
Second, we looked for cases where the heritability of a trait varies depending on the environment. In other words, rather than some genetic variants having different effects in different environments, all of them are made stronger in some environments. For example, we found that the heritability of body mass index – the ratio of weight to height – increased by 5% for the most active people. This means genetics plays a larger role in BMI the more active you are. We found 28 such trait-environment pairs, including HDL cholesterol levels and alcohol consumption, as well as neuroticism and self-reported sleeplessness.
Third, we looked for a type of gene-environment interaction called proportional or joint amplification. Here, genetic effects grow with increased environmental exposures, and vice versa. This results in a relatively equal balance of genetic and environmental effects on a trait. For example, as self-reported time spent watching television increased, both genetic and environmental variance increased for a person’s waist-to-hip ratio. This likely reflects the influence of other behaviors related to time spent watching television, such as decreased physical exercise. We found 15 such trait-environment pairs, including lung capacity and smoking, and glucose levels and alcohol consumption.
Environmental factors, such as cigarette smoke and the medications you take, can interact with your genes in unexpected ways. jaouad.K/iStock via Getty Images Plus
We also looked for cases where biological sex, instead of environmental exposures, influenced interactions with genes. Previous work had shown evidence of these gene-by-sexinteractions, and we found additional examples of the effects of biological sex on all three types of gene-environment interactions. For example, we found that neuroticism had genetic effects that varied across sex.
Finally, we also found that multiple types of gene-environment interactions can affect the same trait. For example, the effects of genetics on systolic blood pressure varied by sex, indicating that some genetic variants have different effects in men and women.
New gene-environment models
How do we make sense of these distinct types of gene-environment interactions? We argue that they can help researchers better understand the underlying biological mechanisms that lead from genetic and environmental risks to disease, and how genetic variation leads to differences in disease risk between people.
Genes related to the same function work together in a unit called a pathway. For example, we can say that genes involved in making heme – the component of red blood cells that carries oxygen – are collectively part of the heme synthesis pathway. The resulting amounts of heme circulating in the body influence other biological processes, including ones that could lead to the development of anemia and cancer. Our model suggests that environmental exposures modify different parts of these pathways, which may explain why we saw different types of gene-environment interactions.
In the future, these findings could lead to treatments that are more personalized based on a person’s genome. For example, clinicians might one day be able to tell whether someone is more likely to decrease their risk of heart disease by taking weight loss drugs or by exercising.
Our results show how studying gene-environment interactions can tell researchers not only about which genetic and environmental factors increase your risk of disease, but also what goes wrong in the body where.
Arun Durvasula has received funding from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute of Science.
High-performance computing, or HPC for short, might sound like something only scientists use in secret labs, but it’s actually one of the most important technologies in the world today. From predicting the weather to finding new medicines and even training artificial intelligence, high-performance computing systems help solve problems that are too hard or too big for regular computers.
This technology has helped make huge discoveries in science and engineering over the past 40 years. But now, high-performance computing is at a turning point, and the choices the government, researchers and the technology industry make today could affect the future of innovation, national security and global leadership.
High-performance computing systems are basically superpowerful computers made up of thousands or even millions of processors working together at the same time. They also use advanced memory and storage systems to move and save huge amounts of data quickly.
With all this power, high-performance computing systems can run extremely detailed simulations and calculations. For example, they can simulate how a new drug interacts with the human body, or how a hurricane might move across the ocean. They’re also used in fields such as automotive design, energy production and space exploration.
Lately, high-performance computing has become even more important because of artificial intelligence. AI models, especially the ones used for things such as voice recognition and self-driving cars, require enormous amounts of computing power to train. High-performance computing systems are well suited for this job. As a result, AI and high-performance computing are now working closely together, pushing each other forward.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s supercomputer El Capitan is currently the world’s fastest.
I’m a computer scientist with a long career working in high-performance computing. I’ve observed that high-performance computing systems are under more pressure than ever, with higher demands on the systems for speed, data and energy. At the same time, I see that high-performance computing faces some serious technical problems.
Technical challenges
One big challenge for high-performance computing is the gap between how fast processors are and how well memory systems can keep up with the processors’ output. Imagine having a superfast car but being stuck in traffic – it doesn’t help to have speed if the road can’t handle it. In the same way, high-performance computing processors often have to wait around because memory systems can’t send data quickly enough. This makes the whole system less efficient.
Another problem is energy use. Today’s supercomputers use a huge amount of electricity, sometimes as much as a small town. That’s expensive and not very good for the environment. In the past, as computer parts got smaller, they also used less power. But that trend, called Dennard scaling, stopped in the mid-2000s. Now, making computers more powerful usually means they use more energy too. To fix this, researchers are looking for new ways to design both the hardware and the software of high-performance computing systems.
There’s also a problem with the kinds of chips being made. The chip industry is mainly focused on AI, which works fine with lower-precision math like 16-bit or 8-bit numbers. But many scientific applications still need 64-bit precision to be accurate. The greater the bit count, the more digits to the right of the decimal point a chip can process, hence the greater precision. If chip companies stop making the parts that scientists need, then it could become harder to do important research.
This report discusses how trends in semiconductor manufacturing and commercial priorities may diverge from the needs of the scientific computing community, and how a lack of tailored hardware could hinder progress in research.
One solution might be to build custom chips for high-performance computing, but that’s expensive and complicated. Still, researchers are exploring new designs, including chiplets – small chips that can be combined like Lego bricks – to make high-precision processors more affordable.
A global race
Globally, many countries are investing heavily in high-performance computing. Europe has the EuroHPC program, which is building supercomputers in places such as Finland and Italy. Their goal is to reduce dependence on foreign technology and take the lead in areas such as climate modeling and personalized medicine. Japan built the Fugaku supercomputer, which supports both academic research and industrial work. China has also made major advances, using homegrown technology to build some of the world’s fastest computers. All of these countries’ governments understand that high-performance computing is key to their national security, economic strength and scientific leadership.
The U.S.-China supercomputer rivalry explained.
The United States, which has been a leader in high-performance computing for decades, recently completed the Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project. This project created computers that can perform a billion billion operations per second. That’s an incredible achievement. But even with that success, the U.S. still doesn’t have a clear, long-term plan for what comes next. Other countries are moving quickly, and without a national strategy, the U.S. risks falling behind.
I believe that a U.S. national strategy should include funding new machines and training for people to use them. It would also include partnerships with universities, national labs and private companies. Most importantly, the plan would focus not just on hardware but also on the software and algorithms that make high-performance computing useful.
Hopeful signs
One exciting area for the future is quantum computing. This is a completely new way of doing computation based on the laws of physics at the atomic level. Quantum computers could someday solve problems that are impossible for regular computers. But they are still in the early stages and are likely to complement rather than replace traditional high-performance computing systems. That’s why it’s important to keep investing in both kinds of computing.
The good news is that some steps have already been taken. The CHIPS and Science Act, passed in 2022, provides funding to expand chip manufacturing in the U.S. It also created an office to help turn scientific research into real-world products. The task force Vision for American Science and Technology, launched on Feb. 25, 2025, and led by American Association for the Advancement of Science CEO Sudip Parikh, aims to marshal nonprofits, academia and industry to help guide the government’s decisions. Private companies are also spending billions of dollars on data centers and AI infrastructure.
All of these are positive signs, but they don’t fully solve the problem of how to support high-performance computing in the long run. In addition to short-term funding and infrastructure investments, this means:
Long-term federal investment in high-performance computing R&D, including advanced hardware, software and energy-efficient architectures.
Procurement and deployment of leadership-class computing systems at national labs and universities.
Workforce development, including training in parallel programming, numerical methods and AI-HPC integration.
Hardware road map alignment, ensuring commercial chip development remains compatible with the needs of scientific and engineering applications.
Sustainable funding models that prevent boom-and-bust cycles tied to one-off milestones or geopolitical urgency.
Public-private collaboration to bridge gaps between academic research, industry innovation and national security needs.
High-performance computing is more than just fast computers. It’s the foundation of scientific discovery, economic growth and national security. With other countries pushing forward, the U.S. is under pressure to come up with a clear, coordinated plan. That means investing in new hardware, developing smarter software, training a skilled workforce and building partnerships between government, industry and academia. If the U.S. does that, the country can make sure high-performance computing continues to power innovation for decades to come.
Jack Dongarra receives funding from the NSF and the DOE.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was still considering whether to attend talks on the war in Ukraine planned for Thursday in Turkey but he does not know whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will go.
“He’d like me to be there, and that’s a possibility. … I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there. We’re going to find out,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Qatar.
He has said he may visit Turkey for the talks as part of his trip to the Middle East this week. U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was still considering whether to attend talks on the war in Ukraine planned for Thursday in Turkey but he does not know whether Russian President Vladimir Putin will go.
“He’d like me to be there, and that’s a possibility. … I don’t know that he would be there if I’m not there. We’re going to find out,” Trump said while traveling aboard Air Force One en route to Qatar.
Trump has said he may visit Turkey for the talks as part of his trip to the Middle East this week. He cited his next stop to the United Arab Emirates on Thursday.
“We have a very full situation. Now that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it to save a lot of lives and come back,” Trump said, according to a pool report from the Washington Post. Trump noted that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio would be at Thursday’s talks in Istanbul.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday said he would only attend if Putin was also there.
On Wednesday, the Kremlin said it would send a delegation to Istanbul but did not say who would be representing Moscow.
Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday described Operation Sindoor as a defining expression of India’s national identity and a testament to the strength of the armed forces under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
Speaking to the media, Vaishnaw said the military response following the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22 not only showcases India’s strategic capabilities but also reflects the new defence doctrine shaped by the Centre’s firm approach.
“Operation Sindoor is a powerful example of India’s ‘asmita’ (identity), the decisive role of our armed forces, and the strong leadership guiding them. It represents the new doctrine we have adopted and is a praiseworthy development for the country,” he said.
The Union Minister was addressing the press following the Union Cabinet’s approval for setting up India’s sixth semiconductor manufacturing facility, a joint venture between HCL and Foxconn, in Jewar, Uttar Pradesh. The facility, to be located near the upcoming Jewar airport within the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA), will commence production in 2027.
With an investment of ₹3,700 crore, the plant will have a capacity to process 20,000 wafers per month and manufacture 36 million chips monthly. These chips will cater to sectors including mobile phones, laptops, automobiles, and personal computers.
The semiconductor industry in India remains at a nascent stage, but the initiative is expected to enhance self-reliance and address vulnerabilities exposed during the global chip shortage amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Five other semiconductor plants are currently under construction in Gujarat and Assam.
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Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:
PARIS, France, May 14, 2025/APO Group/ —
Africa holds immense energy potential, with more than 125 billion barrels of proven oil reserves, 620 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 60% of the world’s best solar resources. Yet, the continent continues to struggle with attracting the capital needed to leverage these resources for transformative development. Addressing this paradox, panelists at the Invest in African Energy Forum in Paris underscored how innovative financing mechanisms can help unlock Africa’s vast energy opportunities.
“There’s a huge amount of financing required to close the financing gap on the continent. It’s quite clear that there’s not enough capital and we need to think about innovative ways to source capital. With the right fiscal regimes, regulatory frameworks and policies, investors will come to invest in the energy sector in Africa,” stated Taiwo Okwor, Vice President: Invest Division and Natural Resources Division at development institution the Africa Finance Corporation.
By utilizing innovative financing tools and regional cooperation mechanisms, Africa will be able to scale investments and reduce risk. Additionally, by leveraging blended finance, de-risking strategies and multilateral partnerships, countries can not only secure capital but bolster energy access at a continental scale. However, challenges will need to be addressed, including lack of investor certainty, regulatory barriers and red tape.
“Investors thrive on predictability,” stated Ibra Ndiaye, Partner: Energy, Industry & Services at professional services network Forvis Mazars. “According to the African Energy Chamber, 45% of investors cite uncertainty in legal frameworks in Africa as a major concern before entering new markets. This ambiguity in regulatory frameworks creates a delay in project implementation.”
To address regulatory challenges and increase energy capacity, there is an urgent need for systemic reform in the continent’s utility companies. Stronger institutions and reforms have emerged as critical drivers for attracting private sector involvement. Panelists noted that many state-owned utilities across Africa are unable to deliver consistent and reliable energy services due to financial instability and poor infrastructure.
“What have we done to improve the quality of utilities going forward? I think 85% of utilities across Africa are technically insolvent and cannot meet the energy needs of Africans,” stated Reginald Max, Senior Advisor for Infrastructure and Independent Power Producers for financial institution the Trade and Development Bank. Max added that until the underlying inefficiencies in energy distribution and cost recovery are addressed, investor confidence will remain weak.
Another core issue raised was the necessity of implementing cost-reflective tariffs. Tariff policies in many countries have kept electricity prices artificially low, discouraging private investment and further burdening state utilities.
“The key is cost-reflective tariffs,” stated Liz Williamson, Head of Energy Corporate Finance at investment banking firm Rand Merchant Bank, adding, “We need the political will to go through the pain to get to cost-reflective tariffs. This could make a big difference in terms of liability.”
As the session concluded, the panelists emphasized that while the continent faces considerable hurdles, the combination of its resource wealth and growing investor interest presents a promising path forward – if governments and stakeholders can align on reform, innovation and regional integration.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
China will enhance the control over every link in the production and supply chain of strategic minerals to prevent their illegal outflow and safeguard national security, the Ministry of Commerce said on Wednesday.
Strengthening the export control of strategic mineral resources is crucial to national security and development interests, according to a ministry spokesperson.
On Monday, a national meeting convened in Changsha, capital of Hunan Province, stressed the need to strengthen “full-chain control over strategic mineral exports.” The meeting was attended by officials from 10 central government departments and seven strategic mineral-rich provincial-level regions including Inner Mongolia and Jiangxi.
“To effectively prevent the illegal outflow of strategic minerals, control must start at the source and be strengthened across the entire chain, including mining, smelting, processing, transportation, manufacturing, sales, and exports,” the spokesperson said.
Each department needs to effectively carry out day-to-day supervision to promptly identify risks and hidden dangers, addressing each case as it arises.
Localities should strengthen their supervisory responsibilities, keep track of the production, operation, and flow of strategic minerals, and guide enterprises to enhance their awareness and capability of compliance, ensuring that control measures for strategic minerals are effectively implemented, according to the spokesperson.
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Bilateral trade volume between China and Colombia rose 13.1 percent year on year to reach 149.63 billion yuan (about 20.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, surpassing 120 billion yuan for the fourth consecutive year, official data showed on Wednesday.
According to the General Administration of Customs, trade between the two countries hit a record high of 48.34 billion yuan in the first four months of 2025, marking an 8.5 percent year-on-year increase.
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations 45 years ago, the two countries have witnessed steady growth of economic and trade ties with tangible fruits.
China is now Colombia’s second-largest trading partner, while Colombia ranks as China’s fifth-largest trading partner in Latin America. Colombia’s agricultural products — ranging from coffee to cut flowers — are becoming increasingly popular in the Chinese market.
The Leisure & Cultural Services Department’s ICH (Intangible Cultural Heritage) Highlight Tours, which brings the public to explore ICH-related traditional craftsmanship or other items, and feel the richness and diversity of ICH will open for registration on May 16.
As the highlight programme of the first Hong Kong ICH Month in June, there will be a total of 15 field trips to Yau Tsim Mong, Tsuen Wan, Tai Po, Sha Tin, Eastern and Islands districts respectively.
Each tour of 20 participants will be conducted in Cantonese and run for approximately two hours.
Interested parties can register online from 10.30am on May 16 to 6.30pm on May 17. Admission is free. In case of excess applications, all quotas will be allocated by ballot.
Successful applicants will receive a confirmation email by May 23.
Presented by the Culture, Sports & Tourism Bureau and organised by the department’s Intangible Cultural Heritage Office, Hong Kong ICH Month’s other highlight activities include carnivals, fun days, an exhibition, a seminar, talks and workshops.
As the UK marks Foster Care Fortnight this May, Foster for East Midlands Councils is celebrating the milestone of a successful first 12 months of foster carer recruitment across the region.
Formed in April 2024, Foster for East Midlands is a collaborative initiative between Derby City, Derbyshire, Nottingham City, and Nottinghamshire Councils, funded by the Department for Education. United under one name, the councils are working together to find loving, local foster homes for children in their communities.
This regional approach brings together years of experience, good practice, and shared values. Instead of competing to recruit the same foster carers, the councils now work together making it quicker and easier for prospective foster carers to begin their journey.
Among the new carers are Sharnie and Zak, who live with their young daughter. Inspired to foster through Foster for East Midlands Councils, they are now encouraging others to explore this life-changing path.
Foster carer Sharnie said:
We chose to foster through Foster for East Midlands Councils because we knew it would connect us to a supportive network within our local community. Foster carers play a vital role in helping councils provide the best care for children, and it’s comforting to know we’re part of a system that genuinely prioritises their wellbeing. The ongoing support and resources we’ve received from our local council have been invaluable—whether it’s training, guidance, or just someone to talk to when we need it.
The moment we were approved to foster was incredible. We were excited but also nervous at first, and everyone we’ve met has been so kind and helpful. We’ve never felt alone in this journey. It’s truly rewarding to know we’re making a positive impact on children’s lives right here in our own area.
Over the past year, Foster for East Midlands Councils has also implemented the Mockingbird programme—a global award-winning model that creates extended families of foster carers for mutual support. Led by The Fostering Network, Mockingbird nurtures relationships between children, carers, and support networks, promoting resilience and long-term stability. Following its success, two new constellations will launch this year in Nottinghamshire and Derby City, extending support to even more carers.
Highlights from the first year of Foster for East Midlands Councils (April 2024 – March 2025) are:
1,204 enquiries received
420 converted into initial applications
215 initial home visits completed
110 households submitted a full application
19 households approved following panel taking the total across the two counties to 58 over the year
4 successful Mockingbird constellations
Councillor Paul Hezelgrave, Lead Council’s Cabinet Member for Foster East Midlands said:
The launch of Foster for East Midlands Councils is a big step forward in how we find and support foster carers in our region. By working together, we’ve created a more joined-up, user-friendly service for anyone thinking about fostering. This teamwork helps us break down barriers and make the process simpler, more consistent, and better suited to the needs of carers and the children we look after.
At the heart of this partnership is a shared goal: to build a strong, supportive system that helps more children stay close to home—near their schools, friends, and the communities they know. We understand how important a stable, loving home is for a child’s future, and with this new approach, we’re determined to offer that chance to even more young people across the East Midlands.
Janet Daby, Minister for Children and Families said:
As a former fostering social work registered manager, I’ve had the privilege of seeing so many children flourish thanks to foster care. It’s fantastic to see the success of Foster for East Midlands Councils, enabling more children in the region to grow up in safe, loving homes.
As part of our Plan for Change, we want to encourage more people to transform a child’s life chances through fostering, which is why we’re investing £40 million across the country to increase the number of foster homes and strengthen support for families.
Foster for East Midlands Councils welcomes people from all backgrounds, what matters most is your dedication and your desire to support children who need a safe and loving home.
If you’re considering fostering find out more visit Foster for East Midlands web page, call 03033 132 950 or email hello@fosterforeastmidlands.org.uk
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) — China’s State Administration for Market Regulation, along with four other government departments, has called on food delivery companies to address pressing issues related to growing competition in the sector.
In a meeting with representatives of companies such as JD.com, Meituan and Ele.me, officials from the above-mentioned departments required them to strictly comply with the E-Commerce Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People’s Republic of China and the Food Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China.
The said companies shall fulfill their social responsibilities, strengthen internal management, conduct legal business activities and compete fairly in order to promote the creation of a favorable market environment.
The meeting emphasized the need to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, platform operators and couriers to ensure the healthy development of the platform economy.
As of December 2024, the number of users of online food ordering and delivery platforms in China reached 592 million, accounting for 53.4 percent of the total internet users, according to data from the China Internet Information Center. Industry data also shows that there are now more than 10 million food delivery workers across the country. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) — Lai Qingde’s actions since taking office as Taiwan’s chief executive fully confirm that he is a “peace saboteur” and “crisis instigator” in the Taiwan Strait, Chen Binhua, spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, told reporters on Wednesday.
Lai Qingde completes first year as Taiwan’s chief executive. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) — Bilateral trade between China and Colombia is expected to reach 149.63 billion yuan (about 20.8 billion U.S. dollars) in 2024, up 13.1 percent year on year, exceeding 120 billion yuan for the fourth consecutive year, official data showed Wednesday.
According to the General Administration of Customs of the People’s Republic of China, trade turnover between the two countries in the first four months of this year broke another record, reaching 48.34 billion yuan (an increase of 8.5 percent).
Since China and Colombia established diplomatic relations 45 years ago, both countries have seen steady growth in trade and economic ties.
China is currently Colombia’s second-largest trading partner, while Colombia is the fifth-largest trader with China among Latin American countries. Colombian agricultural products, including coffee and cut flowers, are becoming increasingly popular in the Chinese market. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) — Chinese Vice President Han Zheng met with Chilean President Gabriel Boric in Beijing on Wednesday.
Noting that this year marks the 55th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries and the 20th anniversary of the signing of the free trade agreement, Han Zheng said that since the establishment of diplomatic relations more than half a century ago, the relations between the two countries have maintained a good momentum of development and have long occupied a leading position among China’s diplomatic relations with other Latin American and Caribbean (LAC) countries.
Han Zheng said that the fruitful meeting between the two heads of state has injected strong impetus into the development of China-Chile relations, adding that China is willing to work with Chile to effectively implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, continuously strengthen political mutual trust, continue to deepen practical cooperation, strengthen multilateral strategic coordination, advance the China-Chile comprehensive strategic partnership, and make new contributions to the building of a community with a shared future for China and the LAC.
G. Boric said that Chile is willing to actively develop cooperation within the framework of the Belt and Road, strengthen practical cooperation with China in the economic, cultural, social and technological fields, jointly combat climate change, and uphold multilateralism and world peace. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 14 (Xinhua) — State Council Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Chen Binhua on Wednesday condemned the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration for trying to push for the “de-Sinicization” of Taiwan Island and sever historical and cultural ties across the Taiwan Strait.
Chen Binhua made the remarks at a press conference in response to a request from reporters to comment on recent decisions by DPP authorities to reclassify the Han ethnic group as “other groups” in the island’s population structure in its official demographic data.
Earlier this month, Taiwan’s administration updated demographic information on its official website, removing the term “Han Chinese” and replacing it with “other groups.”
The “renewal” erased explicit recognition of the Han ethnicity, Taiwan’s largest ethnic group and the majority of the island’s population for centuries.
“This is absolutely absurd and utterly ridiculous,” he said. “How can those who commit such acts, in particular those who are classified as so-called ‘other groups’, look their ancestors in the eye without shame?”
Chen Binhua stressed that people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait share the same ancestry, culture and historical heritage, and all belong to the Chinese nation. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
RIYADH, May 14 (Xinhua) — U.S. President Donald Trump met with Syrian interim leader Ahmed al-Sharaa here on Wednesday to discuss normalizing bilateral ties and expressed readiness to reach an agreement with Iran.
D. Trump’s meeting with A. al-Sharaa – the first meeting between the US president and the Syrian leader in several decades – took place on the sidelines of D. Trump’s summit with the leaders of the Persian Gulf countries.
During the summit, D. Trump noted in his speech that the normalization of relations between the US and Syria began with his meeting with A. al-Sharaa.
He also called on Syria to join the US-brokered Abraham Accords to normalise relations with Israel, even though the Israeli military has regularly carried out air strikes and ground operations in Syria since the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
On Tuesday, D. Trump announced at an investment forum in Saudi Arabia that he would lift sanctions on Syria.
During the summit with Gulf leaders, the US president also mentioned the ongoing indirect talks with Iran on Tehran’s nuclear program and the lifting of US sanctions.
“I want to make a deal with Iran… but for that to happen, they [Iran] must stop sponsoring terrorism, stop waging bloody proxy wars, and permanently abandon their goal of building nuclear weapons,” the US president said, calling on “all countries” to comply with the sanctions he had just imposed on Iran, which he called “the most destructive force” in the region.
Trump’s statements provoked a sharp reaction from Iran – the country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that Trump was “misleading, incorrectly indicating the true source of the threat.” -0-
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
A production site entirely dedicated to the production of domestic industrial robots has opened in the Technopolis Moscow special economic zone (SEZ). This was announced by the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport and Industry Maxim Liksutov.
“On the instructions of Sergei Sobyanin, Moscow enterprises are actively introducing innovative solutions into their own production processes. Artificial intelligence, automated lines and robotic complexes are already being used in various industries. The further development of high-tech production will be facilitated by the opening of a single site in the Technopolis Moscow SEZ, where engineers and scientists will jointly develop, assemble and test industrial robots. The volume of investments in the project amounted to over 164 million rubles,” said Maxim Liksutov.
The production capacity of the robotic center at the Pechatniki site exceeds 1.7 thousand square meters. The unique project was implemented by an enterprise localized in the SEZ — the TechnoRed company. It specializes in the production of robotic systems, components and software.
“The robotics center houses a high-tech laboratory for testing and trialing technologies, which will speed up the cycle of producing innovative products from idea to implementation. This site will become the core and foundation for creating a key robotics cluster in the Central Federal District and will ensure the fulfillment of 30 percent of the national project goals
The company has been operating in the Technopolis Moscow special economic zone since 2024. It supplies its products to enterprises not only in the capital, but also in Samara, Smolensk, Chelyabinsk, Nizhny Novgorod and Novosibirsk. The commissioning of a modern robotics center will allow the enterprise to release up to 30 high-tech standard robotic solutions and produce up to 25 thousand robots by 2030, said Gennady Degtyarev, CEO of the SEZ.
The company’s portfolio includes patented developments that are superior in their characteristics to foreign analogues or are the only ones of their kind.
According to the company’s CEO Artem Lukin, standard robotic systems solve the problems of shortage of qualified personnel, increase the efficiency and flexibility of production processes, contributing to the dynamic development and competitiveness of the domestic industry and economy. The opening of the robotic center will create an ecosystem for the development of Russian robotics and reaching a new level of technological sovereignty.
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
“I thought I’d just end up as a postmaster in my hometown,” says Muthuramalingam with a soft chuckle. “But life had other plans”.
It all began at a Lions Club eye camp, where Muthuramalingam got involved in helping as a volunteer. He had no medical training, only a strong desire to help.. His dedication caught the attention of visiting doctors and trainers who saw potential in him. Encouraged by their support, he began learning about eye care and refraction—planting the seeds of what would become his life’s mission.
That decision changed his life and brought hope to countless others. Armed with simple tools and a firm resolve, Muthuramalingam rode his bicycle from one village to another, transforming school verandas and shaded spots beneath trees into makeshift clinics. His goal was clear: to restore sight to those overlooked by regular healthcare.
“Eye care is not just treating vision,” he says. “It is giving people a whole new life.”
Over the years, he witnessed community eye care evolve – from humble beginnings with basic tools to well-equipped camps with trained teams and modern facilities. Still, the heart of the work stayed focused on reaching people who needed help the most.
One of Muthuramalingam’s most cherished memeories comes from a school screening in Melur, a town near Madurai. There, he met a 12-year-old boy who struggled in school and appeared withdrawn. The reason: a severe refractive error. “Once he started wearing eyeglasses, he became one of the best students in his class,” Muthuramalingam recalls with pride in his voice. “That single pair of eyeglasses completely changed his path in life.”
Muthuramalingam estimates that over his decades-long career, he has screened and treated tens of thousands across Tamil Nadu. From Madurai to Salem, Erode to Coimbatore, he has travelled tirelessly, village by village, ensuring that no one is left in the dark.
The journey has not been easy – marked by cultural barriers, grueling travel , and constant exhaustion . Yet, the community trust and the visible impact keep him going. “Back then, we handled everything—planning, counseling, and eye exams. Now there’s support , but the mission remains the same,” he says.
Muthuramalingam still organizes school screenings and guides families through care. What motivates him to keep going? “A child smiling after seeing for the first time. That’s all I need,” he says.
As India grapples with rising preventable vision problems, his journey highlights the crucial role of grassroots health workers . “We can’t sit back and wait for people to come to the hospitals,” he explains. “We have to reach them. That’s how we build stronger, healthier communities .”
In a time when most step back from work, Muthuramalingam refuses to slow down. “The body might feel its age,” he says, “but the spirit should never get tired.”
Photo credits: Aravind Eye Foundation
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Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Hong Kong Customs on May 12 and yesterday (May 13) seized about 21 kilograms of suspected ketamine and about 1.1kg of suspected cannabis buds with a total estimated market value of about $10.25 million at Hong Kong International Airport and in Sau Mau Ping.
Through risk assessment, Customs on May 12 inspected an air cargo consignment, declared as audio cable and arriving in Hong Kong from Belgium, at the airport. The consignee address was a residential address in Sau Mau Ping. Upon inspection, Customs officers found about 21kg of suspected ketamine, with an estimated market value of about $10 million, concealed in the consignment.
After a follow-up investigation, Customs officers conducted a controlled delivery operation yesterday (May 13) and arrested a male consignee, aged 24, in the aforesaid residential unit in Sau Mau Ping. Customs officers later searched the premises and further seized about 1.1kg of suspected cannabis buds with an estimated market value of about $250,000.
The arrested person has been charged with two counts of trafficking in a dangerous drug. He will appear at the Kwun Tong Magistrates’ Courts tomorrow (May 15).
Customs will continue to step up enforcement against drug trafficking activities through intelligence analysis. The department also reminds members of the public to stay alert and not to participate in drug trafficking activities for monetary return. They must not accept hiring or delegation from another party to carry controlled items into and out of Hong Kong. They are also reminded not to carry unknown items for other people, nor to release their personal data or home address to others for receiving parcels or goods.
Customs will continue to apply a risk assessment approach and focus on selecting passengers from high-risk regions for clearance to combat transnational drug trafficking activities.
Under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance, trafficking in a dangerous drug is a serious offence. The maximum penalty upon conviction is a fine of $5 million and life imprisonment.
Members of the public may report any suspected drug trafficking activities to Customs’ 24-hour hotline 182 8080 or its dedicated crime-reporting email account (crimereport@customs.gov.hk) or online form (eform.cefs.gov.hk/form/ced002).
Secretary for Education Choi Yuk-lin today attended the 7th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Education Ministerial Meeting (AEMM) in Jeju, South Korea. The theme of this year’s meeting is “Bridging Educational Gaps & Promoting Sustainable Growth in the Era of Digital Transformation”.
Ms Choi exchanged views with education ministers from other APEC economies and spoke about the advantages of Hong Kong’s education system.
Speaking at a thematic session, “AI ‧ Digital Transformation & Personalized Education Innovation”, she outlined that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has established a “Steering Committee on Strategic Development of Digital Education”.
She added that the Education Bureau provides subsidies for students in need, ensuring that all students have equal opportunities in their access to e-learning. The bureau invests in e-learning platforms and has launched curricula on innovation and technology, including coding lessons for junior secondary and upper primary students to boost their digital literacy and skills.
The bureau is also endeavouring to enhance teachers’ use of artificial intelligence (AI) to assist in teaching. In addition to running professional development programmes, it organises Mainland study tours and a large-scale learning and teaching expo to keep teachers abreast of the latest developments in e-learning and the application of AI to teaching.
Ms Choi also mentioned that the bureau has launched a Digital Education Centre of Excellence Scheme for schools to share e-learning practices.
At another thematic session, on “Educational Cooperation & Expanding Access to Opportunities”, Ms Choi stressed that Hong Kong is committed to becoming an international post-secondary education hub and a cradle for talent. She mentioned that five publicly funded universities in Hong Kong rank among the world’s top 100.
Speaking at a third thematic session, “Strengthening Quality Education & Sustainable Economic Growth”, Ms Choi said that Hong Kong’s education system provides all students with high-quality education, thereby fostering social mobility.
She emphasised that the bureau encourages schools to adopt a “whole school approach” in supporting students with special educational needs, and provides schools with additional resources, professional support and teacher training to promote an inclusive learning environment.
At the closing of the AEMM, participating ministers issued a joint declaration recognising the importance of education in addressing global challenges such as bridging digital divides. They also underlined the need to enhance the digital and AI competencies of educators, and called for collaborative efforts to promote appropriate integration of AI in education.
Yesterday, Ms Choi met South Korea’s Acting President, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education Lee Ju-ho, as well as education ministers from other APEC economies, to discuss various aspects of education policies.
She also delivered a speech at the APEC Global Education Reform Conference, briefing attendees on Hong Kong’s practical experience in information technology education and its development as an international post-secondary education hub.
Moreover, she met South Korea’s Vice Minister of Education Oh Seok-hwan to discuss strengthening education collaboration between South Korea and Hong Kong.
Inserting brief quiz questions into an online lecture can boost learning and may reduce racial achievement gaps, even when students are tuning in remotely in a distracting environment.
That’s a main finding of our recent research published in Communications Psychology. With co-authors Dahwi Ahn, Hymnjyot Gill and Karl Szpunar, we present evidence that adding mini-quizzes into an online lecture in science, technology, engineering or mathematics – collectively known as STEM – can boost learning, especially for Black students.
In our study, we included over 700 students from two large public universities and five two-year community colleges across the U.S. and Canada. All the students watched a 20-minute video lecture on a STEM topic. Each lecture was divided into four 5-minute segments, and following each segment, the students either answered four brief quiz questions or viewed four slides reviewing the content they’d just seen.
This procedure was designed to mimic two kinds of instructions: those in which students must answer in-lecture questions and those in which the instructor regularly goes over recently covered content in class.
All students were tested on the lecture content both at the end of the lecture and a day later.
When Black students in our study watched a lecture without intermittent quizzes, they underperformed Asian, white and Latino students by about 17%. This achievement gap was reduced to a statistically nonsignificant 3% when students answered intermittent quiz questions. We believe this is because the intermittent quizzes help students stay engaged with the lecture.
To simulate the real-world environments that students face during online classes, we manipulated distractions by having some participants watch just the lecture; the rest watched the lecture with either distracting memes on the side or with TikTok videos playing next to it.
Surprisingly, the TikTok videos enhanced learning for students who received review slides. They performed about 8% better on the end-of-day tests than those who were not shown any memes or videos, and similar to the students who answered intermittent quiz questions. Our data further showed that this unexpected finding occurred because the TikTok videos encouraged participants to keep watching the lecture.
For educators interested in using these tactics, it is important to know that the intermittent quizzing intervention only works if students must answer the questions. This is different from asking questions in a class and waiting for a volunteer to answer. As many teachers know, most students never answer questions in class. If students’ minds are wandering, the requirement of answering questions at regular intervals brings students’ attention back to the lecture.
This intervention is also different from just giving students breaks during which they engage in other activities, such as doodling, answering brain teaser questions or playing a video game.
Why it matters
Online education has grown dramatically since the pandemic. Between 2004 and 2016, the percentage of college students enrolling in fully online degrees rose from 5% to 10%. But by 2022, that number nearly tripled to 27%.
Our study therefore offers a scalable, cost-effective way for schools to increase the effectiveness of online education for all students.
What’s next?
We are now exploring how to further refine this intervention through experimental work among both university and community college students.
As opposed to observational studies, in which researchers track student behaviors and are subject to confounding and extraneous influences, our randomized-controlled study allows us to ascertain the effectiveness of the in-class intervention.
Our ongoing research examines the optimal timing and frequency of in-lecture quizzes. We want to ensure that very frequent quizzes will not hinder student engagement or learning.
The results of this study may help provide guidance to educators for optimal implementation of in-lecture quizzes.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
Jason C.K. Chan receives funding from the USA National Science Foundation.
Zohara Assadipour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
