Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the people of West Bengal are now looking towards the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) with “immense hope.” Sharing photographs from his rally in Alipurduar on social media platform X, the Prime Minister said that the massive turnout reflected the “mood” of the people in the state.
“These pictures from the BJP rally in Alipurduar give a glimpse of the mood in West Bengal. There is so much fatigue when it comes to TMC. People are looking at the BJP with immense hope,” the PM said in a post on X.
During his address, the Prime Minister also stressed that “Bengal mein machi cheekh pukaar, nahi chahiye nirmam sarkar (There is a clamour in Bengal — people don’t want a ruthless government).” He stressed that public trust in the state government has eroded, with the judiciary increasingly required to step in due to administrative inaction.
Highlighting the larger national vision, PM Modi underlined that a developed West Bengal is critical to building a developed India. The state, he said, must “reclaim its identity.” The PM flagged what he described as a convergence of crises — from growing violence and social unrest to unemployment, weakening institutions, and a breakdown in governance.
The Prime Minister also voiced concerns over corruption in the education sector. Referring to the teacher recruitment scam, he warned that the future of thousands of aspirants had been compromised. “The absence of teachers has put the future of lakhs of students at risk,” he remarked.
The Prime Minister further noted that corruption disproportionately affects the youth and economically weaker sections, asserting that the state’s education infrastructure is in decline.
PM Modi reiterated his charge that the Trinamool government remains indifferent to the needs of tribals, Dalits, backward communities, and women. “Why is TMC hostile to the poor and marginalised?” he asked, claiming that even central schemes like Ayushman Bharat have not been fully implemented due to state-level obstruction.
Criticising what he described as the ruling party’s “24×7 politics,” he maintained that while the Centre is pushing for development in Bengal, major infrastructure projects have stalled. “TMC’s absence from the NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting shows their priorities. They are not serious about Bengal’s progress,” he noted.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday warned that India’s enemies would pay a heavy price for any terrorist attack on the country. Speaking at a rally in Alipurduar, he said Pakistan has resorted to terrorism against India since the 1947 partition and recalled the atrocities committed by the Pakistan Army ahead of the creation of Bangladesh, including widespread rapes and murders that remain etched in memory.
Referring to Operation Sindoor, the military response to the Pahalgam terror attack, PM Modi said precision strikes were carried out on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK). “Now that I stand on the sacred land of Sindoor Khela, it is only right to reaffirm our resolve against terrorism — Operation Sindoor,” the PM said. The April 22 terror attack in Pahalgam, he added, had deeply shaken the nation and provoked widespread anger, particularly in West Bengal.
“The terrorists dared to wipe off the sindoor from the foreheads of our sisters, but our brave soldiers showed them the power of that sindoor. Pakistan, which nurtures terrorism, has nothing positive to offer the world. Since its inception, it has been a breeding ground of terror and violence. But India has changed — we no longer tolerate such cowardly acts. Operation Sindoor is our firm answer,” he asserted.
The Prime Minister stressed that Operation Sindoor is ongoing. “We are people who worship Shakti, Mahishasuramardini. From Bengal, this is a declaration by 140 crore Indians that Operation Sindoor is not over yet,” he said. Modi reiterated that India had conducted surgical strikes thrice inside Pakistan.
“Terror and genocide are the Pakistan Army’s biggest expertise,” PM Modi said. “When faced with a direct battle against India, their defeat is certain, which is why they rely on terrorists. Pakistan started attacking India after partition in 1947. The terror it unleashed in what is now Bangladesh — the rapes and murders by its army — cannot be forgotten.”
Bangladesh emerged as an independent country in 1971 following its War of Liberation against Pakistan.
PM Modi described Pakistan as a “country that nurtures terrorism” and said it “has nothing positive to offer.” Operation Sindoor, launched on May 7 in response to the Pahalgam attack, resulted in the death of over 100 terrorists and saw India repel further Pakistani aggression, including targeting airbases.
In his speech, the PM strongly criticised the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government, calling for freedom from the “politics of violence, appeasement, riots, and corruption,” and urged people to turn to the “BJP’s development model.”
The Prime Minister said West Bengal is beset by multiple crises simultaneously. “First, the crisis of violence and anarchy spreading in society. Second, the insecurity of our mothers and sisters who face heinous crimes. Third, the despair and rampant unemployment among youth. Fourth, the declining trust in the system. And fifth, the selfish politics of the ruling party that steals the rights of the poor.”
He said widespread corruption has affected the state, citing the teacher recruitment scam which he said destroyed the futures of thousands of teachers and jeopardised the education of lakhs of students. “The absence of teachers has put the future of lakhs of students at risk. The TMC leaders have committed a huge sin and refuse to admit their mistakes, blaming the courts instead,” the PM said.
PM Modi also pointed to the government’s handling of violence in Murshidabad and Malda, saying that hooliganism was given a free hand in the name of appeasement. “Imagine when ruling party members identify and burn people’s houses and police act as mere spectators. Is this how a government should function? The people of Bengal no longer trust the TMC,” he said, quoting a popular local slogan: “Bengal mein machi cheekh pukaar, nahi chahiye nirmam sarkar.”
The Prime Minister further highlighted what he called hostility from the TMC government towards tribals, Dalits, backward classes, women, and the poor, saying the government had stalled tribal development and blocked access to schemes like Ayushman Bharat. “Many poor people cannot get permanent housing because TMC leaders demand cuts and commissions,” PM Modi said.
The Prime Minister added that the TMC’s focus remains on politics rather than governance, pointing out its absence from the NITI Aayog Governing Council meeting and the stalling of 16 major infrastructure projects in West Bengal.
Earlier in the day, PM Modi laid the foundation stone for the City Gas Distribution project in Alipurduar and Cooch Behar districts.
a Transferencia Electrónica de Beneficios de Verano de Oregon (Oregon Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer, EBT de Verano por sus siglas en inglés) es un programa de beneficios de alimentos que ayuda a reducir el hambre cuando los niños están de vacaciones de verano y no tienen acceso fácil a las comidas saludables en la escuela. El EBT de Verano da 120 dólares por niño eligible para comprar alimentos.
Este es el segundo año del programa de EBT de Verano de Oregon. El 22 de mayo de 2025 alrededor de 336,000 niños recibieron el beneficio en una tarjeta de EBT de Oregon. Las familias deben revisar el saldo de su tarjeta de EBT en www.ebtedge.com para confirmar si lo recibieron.
Las familias que no recibieron el EBT de Verano automáticamente el 22 de mayo de 2025 deben consultar los requisitos del programa en ebtv.oregon.gov o comunicarse con el Centro de Llamadas de EBT de Verano al 833-673-7328. El Centro de Llamadas está abierto de lunes a viernes de 8:00 a.m. a 5:00 p.m., Hora de Verano del Pacífico (PDT). Presente su solicitud en línea en inglés o español o descargue una solicitud de papel en varios idiomas en ebtv.oregon.gov.
“Cuando las escuelas cierran en el verano, la necesidad de comidas saludables regulares no desaparece. El año pasado, el programa de EBT de Verano ayudó a miles de familias en Oregon, reemplazando las 10 comidas esenciales por niño por semana que reciben cuando están en la escuela,” dijo la Dra. Charlene Williams, Directora del Departamento de Educación de Oregon (Oregon Department of Education, ODE por sus siglas en inglés). “Estamos orgullosos de continuar esta colaboración con el Departamento de Servicios Humanos de Oregon (Oregon Department of Human Services, ODHS por sus siglas en inglés) no solo para alimentar niños sino también para desarrollar su potencial durante los meses importantes de su crecimiento. Nuestro compromiso continuo garantiza que el verano sea una época de crecimiento y oportunidad para todos los niños sin importar su situación económica.”
En 2024, alrededor de 362,000 niños participaron y recibieron 43 millones de dólares en beneficios de EBT de Verano que sus familias gastaron en sus tiendas locales de alimentos, mercados agrícolas y otros lugares.
“El EBT de Verano es una forma más de prevenir que los niños pasen hambre cuando no hay clases. El EBT de Verano es un programa basado en la evidencia que se ha comprobado que reduce el hambre en los niños y apoya las dietas más saludables,” dijo Fariborz Pakseresht, Director de ODHS. “El hambre en los niños puede tener efectos duraderos en la salud y los logros académicos. Conectar a todos los niños elegibles con el EBT de Verano ayudará a que los niños de Oregon tengan éxito durante todo el año y mientras crecen.”
¿Quién es eligible para los beneficios de alimentos de EBT de Verano?
Las familias encontrarán los detalles sobre el EBT de Verano en ebtv.oregon.gov.
Es posible que su niño en edad escolar sea automáticamente eligible si:
Su familia recibió beneficios de EBT de Verano en 2024 a través de una solicitud aprobada.
Su familia recibe el Programa de Asistencia para Nutrición Suplementaria (SNAP por sus siglas en inglés), la Asistencia Temporal para Familias Necesitadas (TANF por sus siglas en inglés) o el Plan de Salud de Oregon (Medicaid) y cumple con las normas de ingresos.
Su niño recibe comidas escolares gratuitas o a precios reducidos y cumple con las normas de ingresos.
Su niño está en cuidado de crianza, en educación para migrantes, en un programa de Head Start calificado, experimenta la falta de vivienda o es parte del Programa de Distribución de Alimentos en Reservas Indígenas (Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations, FDPIR por sus siglas en inglés).
Los niños que son automáticamente elegibles recibieron el EBT de Verano el 22 de mayo de 2025.
Su niño en edad escolar puede ser eligible al presentar una solicitud si:
Su familia cumple con los requisitos federales de ingresos para recibir comidas gratuitas o a precio reducido en la escuela, y
Su niño asiste a una escuela que participa en el Programa Nacional de Almuerzos Escolares (National School Lunch Program, NSLP por sus siglas en inglés) o el Programa de Desayunos Escolares (School Breakfast Program, SBP por sus siglas en inglés).
Las familias deben de presentar sus solicitudes antes del 3 de septiembre de 2025.
Recibir el EBT de Verano no afecta la participación en otros programas de alimentos de verano.
Los beneficios de EBT de Verano no se toman en cuenta en la prueba de carga pública y están disponibles para los niños sin importar su estatus migratorio.
¿Cómo recibirán las familias los beneficios de alimentos de EBT de Verano?
Los beneficios se colocarán en una tarjeta de EBT de Oregon y se pueden usar en la mayoría de las tiendas de alimentos, mercados agrícolas y más.
Las familias que necesitan una tarjeta nueva deben llamar al 855-328-6715, de lunes a viernes, de 8:00 a.m. a 5:00 p.m., Hora de Verano del Pacífico (PDT).
Las familias que creen que sus niños podrían ser elegibles y no reciben beneficios el 22 de mayo deben presentar una solicitud antes del 3 de septiembre. Si se les aprueba, recibirán una tarjeta de EBT de Oregon por correo postal.
Los beneficios de EBT de Verano robados no se reponen.
Puede proteger su tarjeta de EBT de Oregon y sus beneficios del robo electrónico siguiendo algunos consejos sencillos.
¿Dónde pueden las familias obtener más información?
Para obtener más información o presentar una solicitud, visite ebtv.oregon.gov.
Llame al Centro de Llamadas de EBT de Verano al 1-833-673-7328 de 8:00 a.m. a 5:00 p.m., Hora de Verano del Pacífico (PDT) de lunes a viernes. Aceptamos todas las llamadas de retransmisión.
Más sobre el EBT de Verano
El programa de EBT de Verano se convirtió en un programa permanente para los estados y ciertas organizaciones tribales indígenas a través de la Ley Federal de Asignaciones Consolidadas de 2023. La mayoría de los estados empezaron a ofrecer estos beneficios en junio de 2024. La participación de Oregon fue posible gracias a una inversión de 12 millones de dólares hecha por la Legislatura del Estado de Oregon. Esta inversión permitirá que el estado de Oregon reciba 83 millones de dólares en fondos federales, la mayoría en la forma de beneficios de alimentos que las familias usarán en sus comunidades.
Recursos adicionales para ayudarle a satisfacer sus necesidades básicas
An exciting summer-long programme of performances gets underway in the city’s bandstands, parks, amphitheatres and open spaces this weekend.
An exciting summer-long programme of performances gets underway in the city’s bandstands, parks, amphitheatres and open spaces this weekend.
The first event is being held in Mowbray Park in Sunderland city centre from 10am to 3pm this Saturday 31 May.
A collaboration with Sunderland’s iconic music studio, The Bunker, this will feature live music from musicians who have worked with The Bunker from 11am onwards.
The event at the park’s bandstand, will culminate with a performance from The Everglades from NAME (Northern Academy of Music Education), which is based at the University of Sunderland.
There’ll also be arts and craft stalls and activities selling and showing local artists’ work and the chance to get involved in a range of workshops run by artists on the day, as well as a local bookseller selling new and used books.
This is the first in a series of community focused monthly performances which will run through until September.
The performances and activities are aimed at transforming parks and open spaces into lively community hubs, offering free entertainment for families, friends and neighbours.
Councillor Beth Jones, Cabinet Member for Communities, Culture and Tourism at Sunderland City Council, said: ” ‘Back to the Bandstand’ is a community-led programme celebrating our public outdoor spaces – especially our beautiful bandstands and community greenspaces – through live music, creative workshops, and wellbeing activities.
“We want to bring these spaces back to life with music, art and community spirit and we’re looking at offering something for everyone, with everything from swing bands to yoga in the sun.
“It’s also about celebrating the fantastic and vibrant local communities across our city through these fantastic green spaces in the heart of our communities.
“We’re especially keen to work with local communities and local, independent community groups and event organisers who would like to curate and run their own sessions.
“So we’d love to hear from any local groups interested in working with us to host performances, workshops, and wellbeing sessions, and bring our parks back to life together.”
Dan Donnelly from NAME (Northern Academy of Music Education), who also plays guitar in The Levellers, said: “Our students at NAME are happy to be working with the council on numerous outdoor events across the city and we are excited at the council’s attitude towards outdoor live music in Sunderland Music City. It’s a great experience for them to play at local events and great for the people of Sunderland to experience live music as a part of their everyday life.”
Any community groups or organisations interested in working with Sunderland City Council on the project are asked to contact events@sunderland.gov.uk
WASHINGTON, D.C. — As part of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s ongoing efforts to help protect Americans from fraud, today the CFTC added 43 unregistered foreign entities to its Red List, a tool that provides information to U.S. market participants about foreign entities that are acting in an unregistered capacity and to help them make more informed decisions about trading. The Red List, which stands for Registration Deficient List, launched in 2015 [See CFTC Press Release No. 7224-15], and now contains almost 300 entities. A firm is added to the RED List when the CFTC determines, from investigative leads and questions from the public, that it is not registered with the Commission and appears to be acting in a capacity that requires registration, such as trading binary options, foreign currency (forex), or other products. The Commodity Exchange Act generally requires intermediaries in the derivatives industry to register with the CFTC. An “intermediary” is a person or firm that acts on behalf of another person in connection with trading futures, swaps, or options. Depending on the nature of its activities, an intermediary may also be subject to various financial, disclosure, reporting, and recordkeeping requirements. There are some exceptions or exemptions where an intermediary does not require registration. The RED List is circulated to financial industry partners, including other regulators, consumer groups, industry participants, self-regulatory organizations, exchanges, and industry associations. It complements registration information provided by the National Futures Association.
Abnas Global Corp. Abnas Global Securities Co. Ltd. Abnas Global PLC abnasglobal.cc
Smart Magnetic Ltd. smartmagnetic.net [email protected]
Blueberry Markets blueberrymarkets.com
Stealth Finex stealthfinex.com [email protected]
ElixirVest Ltd. elixirvest.com
StocktrademarketX Stocktrademarketx.com
Equity Price Ltd. equityprice.live
SublimeFX sublimefx.comsublimefx.ca
Firephoenix.com [email protected]
SunFX Investment Company sunfx.org
Forex4Money Trading Ltd.Forex International Gain forex4money.com
Sway Markets swaymarkets.com
ForexcellForexcellsForeXcells MKT LimitedForexcells M Group LLCForexcells Markets Ltd.AbileXAG forcexcells.com
SwipeCoin swipecoin.live
Global Buck Invest globalbuckinvest.com
Trade Xtix Coins Ltd. tradextixcoins.com
Global Official Trade Globalofficialtrade.com
TradeplugxTradeplugx Capital Group trustplusfx.com
Hotbglobal Finance Limited www.hotbgl.io
TruBlueFX TruBlue FX Ares Global Ltd. trubluefx.biz
NASDAQK Limited nasdaqkfx.com
trustplusfx.net trustplusfx.net
Optimaltradeinfo optimaltradeinfo
UltimateStock ultimatestock.org
See the complete list at https://www.cftc.gov/LearnAndProtect. The following CFTC staff members are responsible for the RED List: the Office of Customer Education and Outreach staff, and Division of Enforcement staff Michelle Bougas, and Rick Glaser, as well as former staff Erica Bodin. * * * * * * * See CFTC’s Binary Options Customer Fraud Advisory The CFTC has issued a Consumer Alert to warn about fraudulent schemes involving binary options and their trading platforms. The Alert warns customers that the perpetrators of these unlawful schemes typically refuse to credit customer accounts, deny fund reimbursement, commit identity theft, and manipulate software to generate losing trades. Customers can report suspicious activities or information, such as possible violations of commodity trading laws, to the CFTC Division of Enforcement via a Toll-Free Hotline 866-FON-CFTC (866-366-2382) or file a tip or complaint online.
The Dickson Prize in Medicine is awarded annually to a leading American investigator engaged in innovative and paradigm-shifting biomedical research. It is an esteemed annual award presented by the University of Pittsburgh. Many recipients of the Dickson Prize have gone on to receive the Nobel Prize. Dr. Cato T. Laurencin is the founder and pioneer of the field of regenerative engineering.
His lecture, “Regenerative Engineering: Breakthroughs in Medicine,” will be given at 2:30 p.m. on July 11 at the University of Pittsburgh, Alan Magee Scaife Hall West Wing Auditorium. It will be followed by a panel discussion and reception at 5 p.m.
Laurencin is a University Professor (one of two at UConn) and professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, professor of Materials Science and Engineering, and professor of Biomedical Engineering. He is the chief executive officer of The Cato T. Laurencin Institute for Regenerative Engineering, a cross-university Institute created in his honor. At UConn School of Medicine he is the Albert and Wilda Van Dusen Distinguished Endowed Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery.
He is the leading international figure in polymer science and engineering as applied to musculoskeletal biology. Renowned for his work in areas including biomaterials science and materials chemistry, his broad background and insight have allowed him to move research from fundamental science to applied research, to research translation and clinical treatment.
Laurencin earned his B.S.E. in Chemical Engineering from Princeton University, his M.D., Magna Cum Laude, from the Harvard Medical School, and earned his Ph.D. in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed an orthopaedic surgery residency at Harvard, where he was named Chief Resident at the Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School. A specialist in shoulder surgery and sports medicine, he completed fellowship training at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York.
Laurencin is a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, a fellow of the American Orthopaedic Association, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, an elected member of the American Surgical Association and an elected member of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons. In orthopaedic surgery, he received the Nicolas Andry Lifetime Achievement Award, the highest honor of the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons, the Kappa Delta Award, the highest research honor from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Marshall R. Urist Award, honoring an investigator who has a sustained ongoing body of research in tissue regeneration as it relates to the musculoskeletal system, from the Orthopaedic Research Society, and the American Orthopaedic Association’s (AOA) Distinguished Contributions to Orthopaedics Award with induction into the AOA Awards Hall of Fame. He is the first individual to receive these four awards.
He is the first surgeon in history elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Inventors.
In 2025, he received Knighthood under the auspices of King Charles III of England by the Governor General of St. Lucia.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Lisa Forsberg, Senior Research Fellow, Uehiro Oxford Institute, University of Oxford
Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood is looking into a potential “national rollout” of chemical castration for sex offenders. This is a process of lowering testosterone levels with the intention of reducing libido.
The proposal is one recommendation outlined in the recent independent sentencing review that was commissioned to investigate prison overcrowding and consider alternatives to imprisonment. The review found that 21% of adults serving immediate custodial sentences had been convicted of sexual offences – making them a significant proportion of the prison population. The idea appears to be that chemical castration would make offenders’ release from prison less dangerous for the public.
A pilot scheme of voluntary chemical castration is already running and is about to be extended to 20 British prisons. But while the review emphasised that consent is a key tenet of medical law, Mahmood is reportedly investigating whether chemical castration could be made mandatory. This raises important ethical and legal questions.
Is chemical castration ethical?
Chemical castration is a dual-purpose intervention. It can be used both to benefit those who receive testosterone-reducing substances – sex offenders may themselves find their sexual desires to be a problem and so wish to have their intensity reduced by medical means – and to protect the public.
One key question, therefore, is what we are aiming to achieve in a programme of chemical castration in the prison population. Chemical castration may reduce the risk of reoffending but fail to improve a sex offender’s life. It may do the opposite – improving their wellbeing without protecting the public from their actions. Which goal are we aiming for?
This matters because the ethical permissibility of chemical castration is directly related to its purpose. Standard medical interventions are typically ethically permissible when and because they are expected to benefit recipients who validly consent.
If the goal is not to benefit the recipient but to protect the public, this question is more complicated. We don’t normally get to consent to being incarcerated or quarantined, for example. These are situations imposed on us by the state. So do we get to bypass consent in the case of chemical castration for people who are incarcerated?
And while some offenders may prefer to have their problematic sexual desires suppressed, chemical castration can have significant side-effects, including weight gain and mood changes.
If chemical castration does reduce problematic desires, sex offenders may benefit from it, side-effects notwithstanding. But it is unclear exactly how this potential “benefit” should be understood. Is it beneficial for sex offenders to have their sexual desires attenuated? Does avoiding future punishment itself count as a benefit? Can it also be beneficial to offenders who do not consent to the intervention? And is it ever ethically permissible to provide chemical castration without benefit to the recipient? We need a more clearly articulated understanding of benefit, and its interaction with consent, to determine when chemical castration is ethically permissible.
Is it legal?
Purpose also matters for legal justification. Interventions that use medical means – as chemical castration does – are usually lawful, again, because they are expected to benefit recipients. So, again, the lack of clarity over who “benefits” and how benefit should be understood is a problem.
My analysis of the legal framework in England and Wales shows that providing chemical castration to sex offenders may be consistent with obligations imposed on UK public authorities under the European Convention on Human Rights (via the Human Rights Act 1998). This may be the case even without recipients’ consent, especially when the purpose is public protection. But here too, it is necessary to clarify how the benefit or harm interacts with consent.
A dilemma for doctors
A rollout of chemical castration to sex offenders – whether voluntary or mandatory – also raises ethical and legal dilemmas for the people administering the programme.
Forensic psychiatrist Professor Don Grubin has said that the administration of chemical castration is “about doctors treating patients, rather than doctors doing a job for criminal justice agencies, but a side effect is that reoffending is likely to be reduced”. However, it’s not clear that chemical castration should always be understood primarily as “doctors treating patients” in the way we normally expect for therapeutic interventions. The idea that doctors, in administering chemical castration, are always acting primarily to benefit the recipient, and that public protection in the form of reduced recidivism risk is a mere side-effect obscures the ethical and legal issues at play. A better approach is to clarify the different values and duties at stake and how doctors and others involved in provision should weigh them against one another.
Chemical castration will often generate conflicting duties, which we must find ways to navigate. Can it be compatible with professional obligations to provide interventions that aren’t in recipients’ clinical interests if it benefits others? Do professional obligations vary according to an intervention’s purpose? Chemical castration exposes tensions in the ethical and legal obligations that individual and institutional providers owe to recipients and to society.
I’m exploring these questions in research investigating how we ought to understand, evaluate, and regulate dual-purpose interventions. These are questions the government, and those involved in chemically castrating sex offenders must also confront.
Lisa Forsberg has received funding from the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme (award pf170028), the Journal of Moral Education Trust through the British Academy /Leverhulme Small Research Grants scheme (award SRG2324241695), the European Research Council (grant number 819757), and the Uehiro Foundation for Ethics and Education.
Temperature limits the world agreed to avoid are looming into view.
The global temperature has been 1.5°C hotter than the pre-industrial average for almost two years now. The reason, overwhelmingly, is that greenhouse gas emissions are at record highs from the burning of fossil fuels and forests.
In a new analysis, the World Meteorological Organization has predicted that global average warming will remain above 1.5°C for the rest of this decade. By some measure, this would place the world nearly halfway to the lower limit of the Paris agreement, which urged countries to avoid warming of 1.5°C as a 20-year average.
Exceeding a globally agreed temperature limit is scary. Perhaps scarier is the speed at which we appear to be breaking our promises.
After 2024 was confirmed as the hottest in 175 years of temperature-keeping, some climate scientists expected 2025 to be cooler. El Niño, the warm phase in a natural cycle of Earth’s climate, was subsiding and the cooler La Niña was set to kick in.
This climate fluctuation, centred on the Pacific Ocean, slowly sloshes water and heat between ocean basins every few years and disrupts weather patterns worldwide.
“Typically, La Niña will lower the global temperature by a couple of tenths of a degree Celsius,” explains Richard P Allan, a professor of climate science at the University of Reading. “However, this time around, it’s apparently not enough to stop the world warming – even temporarily.”
January 2025 was the hottest on record – a whole 1.7°C hotter than an average January before the mass burning of coal, oil and gas. Allan argues that “human-driven ocean warming is increasingly overwhelming these natural climate patterns”.
The ocean has absorbed most of the excess heat generated by our emissions, but this blue buffer between us and a hotter atmosphere shows signs of fraying. A research station that has been taking the temperature of the western English Channel for more than 120 years now reports “almost continuous marine heatwave” conditions according to oceanographer Tim Smyth of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory.
A record-hot Atlantic Ocean is bad news for people living in the Caribbean and the south-east of North America. In its latest forecast for the 2025 hurricane season, which begins on June 1, the US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicted an “above average” number of cyclonic storms.
Much of this elevated risk is due to warmer seawater at the ocean surface fuelling stronger storms. But there’s only so much that meteorologists can do to stay ahead of the warming climate, as the rapid rate of global heating stretches long-range forecasting to its breaking point.
“The rapidly changing climate means we have not necessarily experienced the extremes that modern-day atmospheric and oceanic warmth can produce,” say atmospheric scientist Simon H Lee (University of St Andrews), climate scientist Hayley J Fowler and meteorologist Paul Davies (both of Newcastle University).
“In a stable climate, scientists would have multiple decades for the atmosphere to get into its various configurations and drive extreme events, such as heatwaves, floods or droughts,” they say. Scientists typically use weather observations gathered over 30-year periods to characterise the climate.
“But in our rapidly changing climate, we effectively have only a few years – not enough to experience everything the climate has to offer.”
How hot will it get?
Compared with its average temperature in the latter half of the 19th century, which is what scientists typically refer to as the climate’s pre-industrial baseline, Earth is on track to be 2.7°C hotter by 2100, according to an annual report by leading experts of Earth system science, published in October 2024.
This conclusion is based on governments meeting their emissions goals (a big if) and it may already be out of date, given the unexpectedly hot first half of 2025.
On its own, this charitable estimate projects nearly double the level of warming attained so far. It’s unclear if civilisation could survive climate conditions like these, which are radically more hostile than anything our ancestors have experienced.
What’s behind the accelerating rate of global warming? Here are two of the report authors, ecologists Thomas Newsome of the University of Sydney and William Ripple of Oregon State University.
“Each year, we track 35 of the Earth’s vital signs, from sea ice extent to forests. [In 2024], 25 are now at record levels, all trending in the wrong directions,” they say.
While renewable energy sources like wind and solar have grown rapidly, fossil fuel use remains 14 times greater. What’s more, aerosols that are effective at reflecting the Sun’s energy back into space and cooling the Earth (soot is one example) are thought to be falling in the atmosphere.
“Other environmental issues are now feeding into climate change,” Newsome and Ripple continue. Deforestation is shrinking the amount of carbon stored on land while rising temperatures and extreme weather are drying out and burning other carbon-rich habitats, like marshes and peatlands.
Sea ice is melting too, ensuring the ocean absorbs yet more of the heat being trapped by an increasingly thick blanket of greenhouse gas.
Bleak. But how much the planet warms this century is a moving target: everything we do today, and in coming years, will lower it. On this front, Sven Teske has, if not good news, then less bad news to share.
“Humanity has shifted track enough to avert the worst climate future,” he says.
“Renewables, energy efficiency and other measures have shifted the dial. The worst case scenario of expanded coal use, soaring emissions and a much hotter world is vanishingly unlikely.”
Gonorrhoea is the second most common sexually transmitted infection in the UK. It’s caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae and is spread via unprotected sex with an infected person.
Around 10% of men and nearly half of women who test positive for gonorrhoea exhibit no symptoms. This is why this STI is so transmissible, as people without symptoms may not seek testing or treatment – meaning they may unknowingly transmit the infection to their sexual partners.
For those that do experience symptoms, the most common signs of a gonorrhoea infection include unusual vaginal or penile discharge (which is usually yellow or green in colour), pain when urinating as well as pain and discomfort in the lower abdomen. In severe cases, the infection can spread throughout the body. In rare cases it can also lead to sepsis.
Untreated gonorrhoea infections can lead to many complications, including infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease (an infection in the reproductive organs) in women and epididymitis (inflammation of the testicles) in men.
Currently, the only way to prevent a gonorrhoea infection is by practising safe sex, such as using condoms during intercourse and limiting the number of sexual partners.
This new vaccine programme will offer an added layer of protection, especially for groups at high risk of acquiring the infection.
The vaccine that will be offered on the NHS is actually an existing childhood vaccine called 4CMenB (also sold under the brand name Bexsero). This vaccine is used to protect against meningococcal group B disease, which can cause life-threatening bacterial meningitis (inflammation of the brain and spinal cord) and sepsis.
The bacterium that causes gonorrhoea, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, is genetically closely related to Neisseria meningitidis – the bacterium that causes meningococcal disease. Their genome is between 80-90% similar.
The 4CMenB vaccine contains four antigens that are deployed against Neisseria meningitidis bacteria. An antigen is usually a small molecule that the body recognises as a foreign invader. This triggers the body to mount an immune response against the antigen by producing antibodies which neutralise the bacteria and eliminate the infection.
Two of the antigens found in the 4CMenB vaccine are found on the surface of both N gonorrhoeae and N meningitidis bacteria.
This is why using the 4CMenB vaccine for protection against gonorrhoea has progressed from theory to reality, with several studies showing it has a cross-protective effect.
Research has shown that the 4CMenB vaccine provides some protection against an infection from the Neisseria gonorrhoeae bacteria. On average, the vaccine is effective in preventing gonorrhoea between 32% and 42% of the time.
So while vaccination may reduce the chance of becoming infected with gonorrhoea, it’s not an absolute protection. Nevertheless, this new vaccine programme means those who are vaccinated will have a lower risk of contracting gonorrhoea and experiencing any complications that may arise from an infection. Most importantly, it also means they are less likely to transmit the infection to others.
Vaccine programme
The main benefit of a vaccination programme will be a significant reduction in the number of gonorrhoea cases overall. This is especially important given the rise of antibiotic resistance is making it increasingly difficult to treat gonorrhoea infections.
It’s also worth noting that a previous gonorrhoea infection offers no protection against future infection and reinfection. This is why the vaccine is beneficial, even if it is only moderately effective.
Eligible recipients, which includes gay and bisexual men who have a recent history of multiple sexual partners or a sexually transmitted infection, will be offered the vaccine through local NHS services from early August 2025.
Eligible patients will be identified via their local sexual health service, as well as through a general information campaign via the NHS. Patients will also be offered the mpox, hepitatis A and B and human papillomavirus vaccinations at the same time.
Vaccinating those at risk of contracting gonorrhoea will be more cost-effective and beneficial in the long run compared to vaccinating only those who have been diagnosed with gonorrhoea. Analysis led by Imperial College London has suggested the 4CMenB vaccine could prevent up to 100,000 cases of gonorrhoea and save the NHS over £7.9 million over the next decade if a high uptake is achieved.
Bharat Pankhania is affiliated with the Liberal Democrat Party. He is an elected councillor in the city of Bath and will be the Mayor of Bath on June 7 2025.
Why won’t my baby sleep at night? It’s one of the most common – and exhausting – questions new parents ask. You’ve fed them, changed them, rocked them, cuddled them but still, they wake again. And again. And again.
Baby humans are born utterly helpless – unable to walk, grip, or regulate their own systems. From the very beginning, they are biologically wired to stay close to a caregiver, relying on your body for warmth, safety, food and reassurance. Their sleep, feeding and waking patterns aren’t disordered – they’re designed for survival.
My latest book tells you everything you need to know about your baby’s sleep during their first year, but here’s a brief explainer on what’s really going on with baby sleep, why “sleeping through the night” is often a myth, and how working with your baby’s natural biology – not against it – can help you both get more rest and feel less stressed.
Let’s take a look at what science (and evolution) tells us about newborn sleep.
1. Comfort and calm
Unlike other baby mammals who are born able to see, hear, and call, baby humans have no muscle tone and no control over their limbs. They cannot cling to or follow you, and are completely reliant on their parents to keep them safe, warm, and fed. In fact, most babies crave being in physical contact with your body for comfort, warmth and safety. Letting them snuggle into you is a good way to calm them, and on your chest is where many newborns most want to sleep from the immediate postnatal period.
Spending time with your baby snuggled on your chest is common in the first few weeks or months of new parenthood, and there are some important things to be aware of. Make sure you are sitting upright or leaning back in a reclined position, so your baby’s head is higher than their bottom. Do not lie flat on your back with your baby horizontal. This position can make babies work harder to breathe. Make sure their head is turned to one side and their chin is tilted upwards. This is important to keep their windpipe open – it can kink if their chin is down on their chest and the air cannot get through to their lungs.
Be sure to hold them in place on your body – don’t assume they won’t slip off – gravity affects babies too. Lastly, but most importantly, stay awake. Do not let yourself fall asleep in this position. Young babies are very fragile and when they are lying on you, you must monitor their safety. If you think you might fall asleep, move them to somewhere safe – a clear flat safe surface, on their back, or the arms of someone who can stay awake.
2. Safe bed-sharing
If your baby is breastfed they will feed frequently day and night, often every two hours or so. This can be difficult to cope with if you have to get in and out of bed for every feed. Many breastfeeding mothers find that safe way to share your bed for some or all of the night helps reduce the disruption of night feeds as you can feed lying down and both you and your baby can return to sleep quickly.
If you decide to bed-share learn how to make your bed as safe as possible for your baby. The Lullaby Trust, Unicef Baby Friendly Initiative and La Leche League all have good information on bed-sharing safety. If you are not able to do this safely (for instance if your baby was born prematurely, or you are a smoker) then a bedside bassinet is a good option.
3. Circadian rhythm
Newborn babies have no day-night rhythm. In the uterus they are under the influence of their mother’s circadian cycle.
After birth, their own day-night rhythm takes several months to appear, and to begin with they sleep equally across day and night. Because it responds to external triggers such as daylight, noise and activity, you can support the development of your baby’s circadian rhythm by starting daytime activities around them at a regular time (opening curtains, making noise etc) every morning. Taking babies outside in the daylight in the first half of the day also helps their body-clock to become attuned to daylight and nighttime.
4. Sleeping for longer
Over time all babies begin to spend a bit more time sleeping at night. This is called “consolidation of sleep into night-time”, and babies will begin sleeping for longer periods between feeds as they get older. But babies often still wake in the night well into the second half of their first year – sometimes this is because they are still night-feeding, but in other cases they just need to know you are nearby. A third of babies who were studied in a New Zealand research study had never slept through the night by the time they were 12 months old.
5. Sleep consolidation
As babies consolidate more of their sleep into the nighttime they will begin to sleep less during the day. You can support this process by avoiding daytime naps in silent darkened rooms, keeping sleeping babies in the daylight and in midst of household noise and activity for daytime naps, or napping on the go. This prevents babies from taking prolonged naps and keeps their sleep pressure rising until the nighttime, which also helps with sleep consolidation.
When you understand and work with your baby’s sleep biology it is unnecessary to try to train your baby how to sleep at night. Just be aware that throughout the first year and beyond, baby humans remain helpless baby mammals who need you for physical contact, comfort and safety. Their need to be close to you is vital for their survival.
Helen L. Ball has received funding from NIHR, ESRC, Lullaby Trust, Scottish Government, Northern Accelerator, Durham County Council, Northumberland County Council, and Durham University. She is currently affiliated with Lullaby Trust and Unicef UK Baby Friendly Initiative in voluntary roles.
Source: Africa Press Organisation – English (2) – Report:
DJIBOUTI CITY, Djibouti, May 29, 2025/APO Group/ —
The International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC) (www.ITFC-IDB.org), the trade finance arm of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group, in collaboration with its longstanding partner, the Société Internationale des Hydrocarbures de Djibouti (SIHD), has successfully conducted two back-to-back training workshops aimed at strengthening operational efficiency within Djibouti’s hydrocarbon sector. In total, 20 participants benefited from this initiative, demonstrating a commitment to both technical excellence and gender inclusion
The first workshop, themed “Sales and Supply Chain Management”, took place from 8th to 10th April 2025 and addressed key issues including the optimization of procurement strategies and the development of competitive pricing models. The second workshop, held from 15th to 17th April 2025, focused on “Profitability Study and Risk Analysis of Downstream Oil Projects”, covering investment evaluation and corporate purchasing processes. These sessions were conducted by IFP Training, experts in the provision of professional development and capacity-building in energy and process industries.
Through this partnership, ITFC and SIHD aim to empower professionals with the essential skills and tools to strengthen procurement strategies in the petroleum sector, implement competitive export pricing, effectively evaluate investments and manage large-scale projects, enhance leadership and team supervision, and improve compliance and efficiency within public procurement processes. These training workshops form part of broader efforts to align with Djibouti Vision 2035, the nation’s long-term development strategy aimed at positioning Djibouti as Africa’s leading trade and logistics hub.
Over the years, ITFC has maintained a strong and prevailing partnership with the Republic of Djibouti, approving a total of US$1.6 billion across 33 operations, primarily focused on the energy and health sectors. This program is in line with ITFC’s integrated approach to Trade Finance and Development which reaffirms ITFC’s vision of a leading trade solutions provider for its member countries.
Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts – Elizabeth Warren
May 29, 2025
Letter follows recent DHS attempts to terminate Harvard’s ability to enroll international students on F-1 and J-1 visas
Massachusetts hosts over 80,000 international students, who contribute almost $4 billion to state economy and support over 35,000 jobs in the state
“The Administration’s apparent hostility to international students contributes to an overall climate of fear on campuses. This trend creates a chilling effect that discourages the best and brightest students from around the world from coming to study in the United States…”
Text of Letter (PDF)
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) led Massachusetts’ Congressional delegation in pressing Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Todd Lyons on the Trump Administration’s attacks on international students, particularly last week’s attempt to terminate Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students on F-1 and J-1 visas.
The letter was signed by U.S. Senator Ed Markey (D-Mass.), along with Representatives Richard Neal (D-Mass.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Lori Trahan (D-Mass.), Jake Auchincloss (D-Mass.), Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), Seth Moulton (D-Mass.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), and Bill Keating (D-Mass.).
“As members of the Massachusetts congressional delegation, we are gravely concerned about the Trump Administration’s attacks on international students,” wrote the lawmakers. “This trend has been particularly damaging for Massachusetts, which is home to one of largest concentrations of higher education institutions and hosts over 80,000 international students, who contribute almost $4 billion to the state’s economy and support over 35,000 jobs in the state.”
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) revoked Harvard’s certification in the Student and Exchange Visitor Program (SEVP), the system that allows the university to admit international students — not only blocking Harvard’s ability to enroll new international students, but also interfering with current international students’ ability to legally remain. In effect, this action would allow DHS to arrest, detain, and deport international students who remain at Harvard. Shortly thereafter, a federal judge temporarily enjoined DHS from enforcing the revocation.
“This attack on Harvard and its international students appears to be an attempt to punish the university for not agreeing to the Trump Administration’s April 2025 demands,” wrote the lawmakers.
This is the latest in the Trump Administration’s long pattern of attacks on international students nationwide. Starting in March, the Administration effectively terminated the legal status of over 4,700 international students across at least 48 states and 160 colleges. Often without notice to students or their universities, ICE terminated students’ records in the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) — records that are “functionally equivalent to having lawful student status” — which exposed students to the “risk of arrest, detention, or removal.” The State Department also revoked many visas, adding to widespread confusion about students’ legal status.
“While DHS and the State Department claimed to target those with a criminal history or history of engaging in campus protests, some of the impacted students had neither, and in many cases, there was ‘no obvious cause for the revocations,’” wrote the lawmakers.
International students in Massachusetts and nationwide continue to face serious threats, even beyond Harvard’s campus, including: ICE expanding its authority for terminating SEVIS records; not restoring — or re-terminating — students’ legal status; and leaving problematic gaps in records of students’ legal status. Some students who left the country after their visas or records were suspended face significant hurdles to returning. This week, the State Department reportedly ordered its overseas embassies and consulates to stop scheduling any international student visa interviews, causing serious delays.
“The Administration’s apparent hostility to international students contributes to an overall climate of fear on campuses. This trend creates a chilling effect that discourages the best and brightest students from around the world from coming to study in the United States — which harms not only current and prospective international students, but also American universities, U.S. citizen students on campuses, and, in the long term, the nation’s prosperity and economic growth,” concluded the lawmakers.
Researchers supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation have provided a new understanding of how and where learning occurs in the brain. The two-part finding has implications for understanding and treating neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and other dementias, which impact more than 7 million people in the United States and account for $384 billion in health and long-term care costs, as well as for enhancing neural networks.
“Identifying how the brain actually forms new connections and learns is a question at the frontier of neuroscience,” said Paul Forlano, program officer in the NSF Directorate for Biological Sciences. “Knowing that influences our understanding of how we interact with our environment and pick up on and respond to cues, which opens the door to a range of new fundamental and applied research.”
The researchers, led by Kishore Kuchibhotla, assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University, used brain imaging to determine when mice learned a new skill. The imaging reinforced previous work, showing that mice learned quickly and that those that continued to make errors weren’t still learning; they were experimenting. The difference between mistakes and testing the rules was evident in changes in the neural activity that the researchers saw in the mice.
Kuchibhotla said the distinction between the brain dynamics in learning and the dynamics involved in using that skill could be mimicked in having a memory and being able to retrieve it. If a similar paradigm exists in humans, it could alter how scientists approach questions about neurodegenerative diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s, as well as how those conditions are treated.
The other surprising outcome of the research was that learning occurs in the sensory cortex, a region of the brain generally associated with interpreting (for example, “this stove is hot”) but not having input on behavior (like removing one’s hand from the stove). The team argues that the cortex is better described as a sensory-enriched associative cortex, wherein sensory and associative learning functions are intrinsically intermingled. The parallel functions and how the brain accomplishes them could lead to advances in how neural networks, which are modelled on the brain, process information.
Headline: App Store in the U.S. facilitated $406B in developer billings and sales in 2024
May 29, 2025
UPDATE
App Store in the U.S. facilitated over $400 billion in developer billings and sales in 2024
For more than 90 percent of billings and sales facilitated by the App Store, developers did not pay any commission to Apple
Earnings of U.S. developers more than doubled in the last five years
Apple today announced the App Store ecosystem in the U.S. facilitated $406 billion in developer billings and sales in 2024, according to a study conducted by Professor Andrey Fradkin from Boston University Questrom School of Business and economist Dr. Jessica Burley from Analysis Group. Importantly, for more than 90 percent of the billings and sales facilitated by the App Store, developers did not pay any commission to Apple.
Over the last five years, the size of the App Store ecosystem has nearly tripled from $142 billion in 2019 to $406 billion last year, and earnings for U.S.-based developers also more than doubled. Small developers in particular have done exceptionally well as their earnings increased by 76 percent between 2021 and 2024.
“For more than 15 years, the App Store has created incredible opportunity for app developers, entrepreneurs, and businesses of all sizes,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “That includes the many U.S. developers who are innovating, building their businesses, and finding exceptional success on the App Store. We’ll continue to invest in powerful tools, technology, and resources to help developers in the U.S. and around the world take their apps to new heights and create transformative experiences for users.”
Strong Growth Across App Categories
Since its launch in 2008, the App Store has been a great business opportunity for developers. The new study estimates that in 2024 the App Store ecosystem facilitated $277 billion in total billings and sales from physical goods and services, $75 billion from in-app advertising, and $53 billion from digital goods and services. Key drivers included growth in food and grocery delivery, entertainment, and enterprise apps. And the App Store continues to be a global launchpad for innovation, with AI-powered apps increasingly shaping users’ daily lives.
Since 2019, spending on physical goods and services has more than tripled, while in-app spending on digital goods and services and in-app advertising more than doubled. In the physical goods and services category, general retail spending and grocery delivery increased more than fourfold. By 2024, spending on travel and food delivery and pickup both surpassed ride hailing, with users increasingly turning to apps to book travel, and restaurants increasingly offering delivery options through apps. U.S. developers also saw their earnings grow across top categories like productivity, education, and business, with the games category seeing the highest earnings in 2024.
Global Reach for U.S. Developers
U.S. developers have also found tremendous success globally, with the ability to list their apps on storefronts in 175 countries and regions. The support of the App Store’s seamless payment and commerce system has made it easy for these developers to monetize their apps in the U.S. and around the world. Many apps from U.S. developers have also appeared on the most-downloaded app charts in storefronts outside of the U.S. and ranked among the Top 5 most-downloaded apps in 170 out of 175 App Store storefronts.
The App Store remains a safe and trusted marketplace for users, thanks to Apple’s rigorous App Review process and robust privacy and security protections. In a recent report, Apple found that the App Store prevented more than $9 billion in fraudulent transactions over the last five years, and it also rejected 1.9 million app submissions in 2024 for failing to meet Apple’s standards for security, reliability, and user experience.
Developers in the U.S. Have an Increasing Number of Incredible Resources Available from Apple
Apple continues to invest in App Store features that make it easier for developers to distribute their apps and games and get discovered across the storefront. This includes continued investments to App Store Connect, which provides developers with tools and technologies to track app performance and engagement through App Analytics, enhancements to StoreKit, custom product pages, and new features like App Store Accessibility Nutrition Labels, available to developers later this year.
Designed to accelerate innovation and help propel app businesses forward, initiatives like the App Store Small Business Program support the next generation of groundbreaking apps by small developers like Slopes. Originally launched as a passion project by a solo developer, Slopes has now achieved international success and is trusted by over 5 million skiers and snowboarders. This app is designed for winter sports enthusiasts, enabling them to track and record their personal stats, locate friends on the mountain, and explore interactive resort maps. The team behind Slopes has integrated with many Apple technologies, including HealthKit, Live Activities, and ARKit, as well as expanding to Apple Watch.
Apple also offers developers a variety of online and in-person programs to support them in elevating their apps, including Meet with Apple. The Apple Developer Center in Cupertino also serves as home to year-round activities, and offers a supportive environment for developers to improve their apps through more than 250,000 APIs including as part of frameworks such as HealthKit, Metal, Core ML, MapKit, and SwiftUI. Resources like Pathways and Apple Developer Forums are available to better connect developers within the community and help them easily access tools, documentation, and videos to create their best products on Apple’s platforms.
Apple launched its first U.S.-based Apple Developer Academy in Detroit in 2021 in collaboration with Michigan State University to help students build foundational skills in coding, AI, design, and marketing. Since its launch, the academy has trained over 1,200 students. Separately, more than 900 students have also participated in the Apple Foundation Program, an intensive four-week course that teaches students the fundamentals of app development at the academy and Henry Ford College.
Apple supports more than 2.9 million jobs across the U.S. through direct employment, work with U.S.-based suppliers and manufacturers, and developer jobs in the thriving iOS app economy.
At last, the most infamous latecomer in all of literature has arrived – not in the flesh, but in South Africa’s Afrikaans language. Irish playwright Samuel Beckett’s best-known drama, Waiting for Godot, now also lives as Ons Wag vir Godot.
As a Beckett scholar, I think it’s worth asking why Afrikaans is so late on the scene – and why it matters.
Godot in many tongues
First written in French, En attendant Godot was published in 1952 and debuted on stage the next year.
The action involves two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, who have a series of absurd conversations and encounters as they wait for a man called Godot who never arrives. Beckett would self-translate the drama into English in 1954, calling it “a tragicomedy in two acts”.
Since then, translations of the play have exploded. By 1969 – the year of Beckett’s Nobel Prize for Literature – Waiting for Godot could already be read in dozens of languages, including Albanian, Marathi, and even Icelandic.
Samuel Beckett and South Africa
Beckett’s connections with South Africa are surprisingly varied. As a young man, he unsuccessfully applied for a lectureship at the University of Cape Town. His 1951 novel, Molloy, was translated from French into English with the help of a South African student, Patrick Bowles. And in 1968, Beckett made a donation to the then-banned resistance party, the African National Congress, in the form of a manuscript for auction.
This gesture was unprecedented for the Irish writer, who was wary of political causes. Yet not only did Beckett feel strongly enough about apartheid’s injustices to make this donation, he also refused to let anyone perform his plays before South Africa’s racially segregated audiences.
Already in 1963 Beckett had signed the petition Playwrights Against Apartheid. He would continue to refuse performance rights in South Africa until 1980, when the Baxter Theatre was allowed to stage Waiting for Godot with a racially integrated cast.
Nevertheless, unauthorised Godots materialised before this. Athol Fugard, the South African playwright whose own dramas were influenced by Beckett, directed one of the earliest South African productions in 1962. Featuring an all-black cast, it testified to the play’s political charge, which Fugard emphasised:
It’s reasonable to think that Beckett would have supported this protest performance. But he would probably have denounced the first and unofficial Afrikaans version, Afspraak met Godot, translated by Suseth Brits and performed in 1970 at the Potchefstroom University College (now North-West University) behind closed doors.
For different reasons, Beckett would also have frowned on the substantial “borrowings” in Afrikaans novelist Willem Anker’s 2014 novel, Buys.
Domesticating a European classic
Fully sanctioned by Beckett’s estate and beautifully translated (from the French and English) by now-retired professor of French at the University of the Free State Naòmi Morgan, Ons Wag vir Godot arrives at a different moment altogether.
The translation retains the gallows humour of the original while adding local flavour. For instance, where Vladimir originally names the Eiffel Tower as a picturesque site to commit suicide, his Afrikaans counterpart nominates Van Stadensbrug, a bridge over a ravine in the Eastern Cape. The slave-like Lucky once entertained his master with European dances: “the farandole, the fling, the brawl, the jig, the fandango”. These now become a South African mix: “volkspele, die riel, die pantsula, selfs die horrelpyp” (folk games, riel dance, pantsula dance, a hiding).
In translation-speak, Ons Wag vir Godot is therefore fully “domesticated”: the play’s universality comes through even though – and perhaps even more so because – it’s anchored in a particular place and time.
This struck me when I attended the play’s limited-run production, expertly directed by Dion van Niekerk, at the 2024 Vrystaat Kunstefees (Free State arts festival). Its set managed to thread together subtle South African roadside details: a toppled rubbish bin, pylons on the horizon, a (broken) picnic bench.
In the text itself, we encounter familiar place names, sayings and cultural clues. Consider how Beckett’s abstract phrase “the essential doesn’t change” is grounded in African mythology: “Jakkals verander van hare, maar nie van streke nie” (The leopard doesn’t change its spots). Then there’s the charming touch of the dog in Vladimir’s song snatching “’n stukkie wors” (a piece of sausage particular to South Africa) rather than a measly “bone”.
Godot and the Afrikaans canon
Ons Wag vir Godot achieves its most profound tribute to Beckett and Afrikaans through its intertextual richness. Both the French and English originals are highly allusive texts: they invoke other works of literature to increase their range of meaning and subtlety. Morgan is attuned to this subtlety and to the parallels to be found in Afrikaans literature. There are references to works by canonical Afrikaans writers like Eugène Marais, Totius and C.J. Langenhoven, each adding its own resonance.
Yet the dilemma any translator faces is not so much in bringing in the new, but in striking a balance with the old. Consider the judicious swapping of a line from Percy Bysshe Shelley for a line from C. Louis Leipoldt.
In the English version, Estragon looks up forlornly at the moon and half-quotes the English Romantic poet: “Pale for weariness … Of climbing heaven and staring on the likes of us.” In the Afrikaans, he gives us a fragment from the wistful poem, Die Moormansgat: “ek kyk na die lig van die volle silwermaan” (I behold the light of the full silver moon). At face value, this lacks the detached, woeful quality of Shelley’s line. But read in the context of Leipoldt’s poem, it is every bit as poignant.
The virtue of waiting
“Vladimir would agree,” Morgan concludes in the preface to her translation, “that a century is a decent amount of time to hone a language for the translation of one of the best-known dramas in world literature”.
And indeed, the riches of the Afrikaans language are on display in this sensitive, witty and allusive rendering of Beckett’s European classic. But it’s also true that a certain amount of political baggage had to be shaken off before such a feat could be realised – not just in the right words, but in the right spirit. Of course, if Beckett’s play teaches us anything, it’s the virtue of waiting.
Rick de Villiers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
In the world of international child development and orphan care, it’s not uncommon for children with families to declare themselves orphans. In fact, this practice can be traced back to precolonial times in Kenya.
Andreana Prichard has done research on the practice in Kenya. We asked her to share her insights into it.
Why do some people in Kenya assume the identity of ‘orphan’?
We often think of “orphans” as children who have lost both parents and who lack kin networks. One might ask why someone would “opt in” to orphan status when they do not fall within the classical definition of the term.
In my paper I look at the issue of orphanhood over the last 160 years. Case studies from Kenya I examine illustrate that the practice I define as “opting in” to orphanhood has precolonial roots. I define “opting in” as choosing to take on the label of being an orphan. This can be done by parents, relatives or even, in some instances, the child. This is because the label “orphan” has come to confer unique opportunities.
The practice became increasingly popular in the mid-1990s, when parents in eastern and southern Africa who had contracted HIV began to die in large numbers. Activists feared many children would be left without caregivers.
In response, the number of orphanages proliferated as humanitarian actors, churches and states inundated east Africa with orphan-focused NGOs.
In 2020, officials in Kenya estimated that there were at least 910 residential institutions for children in the country (of which 581 were registered), housing between 26,198 and 85,733 Kenyan children.
The predicted “orphan crisis” never materialised, partly because families and communities stepped in to care for newly parentless children. But the idea of an “orphan crisis” remained, and so did the funding and infrastructure.
This phenomenon occurred across the continent, not just in Kenya. However, its effects were felt particularly acutely in eastern and southern Africa where HIV/Aids prevalence rates were higher and where there was more western tourism.
Today, many African families see orphan-focused NGOs as a path to access education and improve their lives. My research shows that children themselves sometimes affiliate with an institution that provides shelter, food and schooling. Children facing abuse from caregivers may also prefer the relative anonymity and safety of an institution.
In some cases, receiving orphan services actually raises the status of the “orphan” child above that of other children. They have access to more material resources than they might have had in their villages or at home. They might have more leisure time and less work. They may have access to better bedding, shoes and clothing. They are also likely able to attend school more consistently and have a real opportunity to attend university.
Does ‘opting in’ have a long history?
Yes, it does.
In the precolonial period, most parentless or vulnerable children were cared for through lasting community support systems. Orphanhood, as it exists today as a child lacking support, protection, or care from kin, was largely avoided.
However, the late 19th to mid-20th centuries brought new actors to the east African region. The practice of “opting in” became a strategic, temporary option used by families to access services from western humanitarians.
The earliest example of this shift I found in my research is from the 1890s. Fearing their children would be caught in the Indian Ocean slave trade, African parents sometimes chose to send their children to British missions until the region was safe. They knew the missionaries opposed the slave trade and knew they offered food and medical care.
African parents thought they were making temporary arrangements to keep their children safe. Missionaries, however, understood parents to have abandoned their children. When parents returned to repay the debt – with agricultural produce or trade goods – and to reclaim their children, missionaries refused them.
In another example from Kenya in the 1950s, the British colonial government opened “reform schools” for young men. The Wamumu Approved School was renowned for the relative quality of education it provided. But the state admitted only the “most vulnerable” for a free education. Feeling they had no way to access Wamumu, students claimed to be orphans.
What have been the negative effects of Kenya’s orphan system?
There are several problems with creating a situation in which people present themselves as vulnerable just to gain safety or improve their social and economic standing.
First, research has shown that building orphanages in poor communities incentivises parents to abandon their children if they’re not also given the help to remain together.
Second, research shows that children are often put at risk in these institutions. Institutionalisation exposes children to risks such as sexual abuse, gender-based violence and neglect.
Third, orphanages have become so lucrative that African orphanage owners will go to great lengths to fit African children into the categories westerners wish to fund. The phenomenon of “paper orphans” is a prime example. “Paper orphans” are children who are recruited from their homes by proprietors (or middlemen/brokers) of orphanages and residential-care facilities. Fraudulent documentation is created for them – often including false death certificates of parents and new identity registration documents – rendering them orphans on paper, and vulnerable in practice.
Based on my research I believe that working with families to support vulnerable children in their homes of origin or with extended families is a better option. This can be done through assistance programmes for vulnerable families as well as child welfare programmes. These allow families to remain intact when experiencing hardship.
In southern Africa townships were built as segregated urban zones for black people. They were created under colonial and white minority rule policies that controlled movement, confined opportunity, and kept people apart.
I grew up in a different historic black township in Zimbabwe, but Mbare was the first of its kind. It holds a unique place in the nation’s imagination.
Mbare was originally named Harare. But in 1982 that name was reassigned to the capital city that houses it. In its storied past, it was once the heartbeat of black urban life. At its centre is Rufaro Stadium, where Bob Marley and the Wailers famously performed at Zimbabwe’s independence celebrations.
The township was a hub of cultural energy, sports, and political activism, and the community beer hall served as a vital gathering point. Today, many of these beer halls stand derelict.
These once-thriving communal spaces reflect a broader neglect of civic infrastructure in post-independence Zimbabwe. Yet out of these ruins, new life is taking shape.
One of the most influential figures in Zimbabwe’s artist-run spaces movement, Moffat Takadiwa, has transformed one of these former beer halls into the Mbare Art Space. The dynamic arts hub reclaims the building’s original spirit of gathering, creativity and public engagement.
Operating under a long lease from the Harare City Council, this nonprofit initiative is part of a wider urban renewal and adaptive reuse project aimed at reimagining the city’s cultural infrastructure.
My ongoing work in archival research includes mapping and visiting historical and cultural spaces like this. Here Takadiwa saw the potential for not just studios and an exhibition venue, but also for dialogue and community regeneration.
Transforming spaces
Beer halls were established by British colonial authorities in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) as part of a strategy of social control over the African urban population. They were designed to regulate leisure, restrict political organising and generate revenue through the sale of alcohol. By centralising drinking in state-run facilities, colonial administrators aimed to monitor and contain African social life while profiting from it.
Situated in a repurposed colonial-era beer garden, Mbare Art Space turns a former site of segregation into a vibrant centre of artistic and communal revival. It redefines a legacy of constraint and control as one of creative freedom and empowerment. The place is now an artists’ haven with studios, office space, an exhibition hall and a digital hub.
Takadiwa’s vision is informed by global precedents, notably inspired by US artist Theaster Gates, whose work includes the transformation of a derelict bank on Chicago’s South Side. It became the Stony Island Arts Bank – a hybrid space for art, archives and community engagement.
Takadiwa opened Mbare Art Space in 2019 with a vision to support emerging artists through mentorship and access to resources. True to his artistic philosophy – resurrecting abandoned, often overlooked materials suffering the effects of urban decay – he revitalised a neglected site. Most of the artists working from this space follow his lead, upcycling and recycling found materials into compelling visual forms that speak to both history and possibility.
When I arrive, Takadiwa is on his way out, but offers me a quick tour of his studio, where works in progress for his upcoming participation in the São Paulo Biennale are taking shape.
Known for his lush, densely layered sculptures and tapestry-like works made from found objects – computer keyboards, bottle tops, toothbrushes, and toothpaste tubes – Takadiwa has garnered international acclaim. His works are collected by US rapper Jay-Z and major institutions like the Centre National d’Art Plastique in Paris, the European Parliament’s art collection in Brussels, and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare.
Collaboration
What Takadiwa is building is not just an arts centre – it’s a new model space rooted in history and responsive to the present. The site itself becomes an ongoing installation, activated by the artists, curators and community members who inhabit it.
Tafadzwa Chimbumu, the operations manager, takes over the tour, guiding me through the rest of the precinct. The site retains the bones of its beer hall architecture, but it bursts with new life. Colourful murals adorn the walls. Tents draped over smaller buildings animate the exposed brickwork.
Plans are underway to establish a library here, a resource where researchers and artists can engage with Zimbabwe’s under-documented art history. Much of this history is scattered across archives and unpublished dissertations, rather than in widely available books. The aim is to bring these materials together and make them more accessible to the public.
Mbare Art Space is also becoming an exciting hub for collaboration and education. Community workshops, for example, are led by resident artists. Local schools take part in art education initiatives. Through community outreach and educational programming, the centre is extending its impact beyond its immediate geography.
As it looks to the future, Mbare Art Space is focused on expanding its artist-in-residence programme, inviting both local and international artists to immerse themselves in the context of Mbare and Zimbabwe.
Ultimately, what the space offers is something intangible – a feeling, a memory, a vision of what is possible when history and imagination meet in a shared place.
Tinashe Mushakavanhu does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
In February 2025, the New Republic, reported there were a growing number of Americans who wanted to leave the country following the election of Donald Trump.
Canadian reports backed up the assertion, particularly the news that three high-profile Yale professors would be joining the faculty of the University of Toronto in the fall of 2025.
For some Canadian observers, it may feel like a case of déjà vu. After Trump’s first election in 2016, some media predicted a sharp increase in Americans seeking to escape their country’s harsh social and political climate for Canada’s “sunny ways.”
According to Google Analytics, web searches originating in the United States involving “how to move to Canada” increased by 350 per cent on election night in 2016. A few months earlier, they’d increased by 1,500 per cent over normal search rates for the same phrase in March 2016, when Trump clinched the Republican nomination for president.
More Canadians head south
Despite such post-election musings nine years ago, the pending American mass exit didn’t materialize. According to migration data (a download is required) from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the number of Americans applying for permanent residency from January through March 2017 rose only slightly. There were 1,882 applications, just 66 more than from the same period in 2016.
As for visas and authorizations issued to people from the U.S. during the same time period, they barely increased — from 2,497 in 2016 to just 2,523 in 2017.
Americans taking up permanent residency in Canada jumped from about 8,400 in 2016 to 10,800 in 2019. However, that increase in the modest number of moves from the U.S. to Canada can hardly be construed as an exodus. Over those same two years, the number of Canadians becoming permanent residents of the U.S. continued to exceed the number of Americans who headed north.
There has been, however, a decline in the number of Canadians moving to the U.S. In 2016, the year Trump was first elected, just over 19,300 Canadians moved to the U.S. In 2019, the year before Trump lost to Joe Biden, 14,700 Canadians took up residence in the U.S.
That trend didn’t last as the gap in cross-border permanent residency widened once more during the Biden era. In 2023, while 10,600 Americans moved to Canada, 18,600 Canadians moved to the U.S.
Looking at the data from 2016 to 2023 suggests politics isn’t the primary reason why Americans head to Canada. It’s more likely driven by economic considerations, better job offers or family ties.
In terms of the apparent uptick in migrants from the U.S. heading to Canada during Trumps’s second term, it’s too early to draw definitive conclusions. But numbers for the first quarter of 2025, according to the same IRCC datasets, show no signs of any significant uptake, with a drop from 2,485 Americans headed Canada’s way between January to March 2024 to 955 over the same period in 2025.
Moving to Canada isn’t easy
Despite the surge in American internet searches on moving to Canada in 2016, when Trump won the Republican nomination and then the presidency, acting on impulse in a moment of political turmoil is complicated.
Moving to Canada is not as simple as it may seem; it can be long and arduous. There’s a process and a waiting line with requirements that include an offer of employment in Canada, liquid assets and language proficiency in English, or French if Québec is the ultimate destination.
It’s easier to immigrate to Canada if there’s a close family member already living there, but still not guaranteed. Canada’s tax rate is a migration deterrent for some, even though these higher tax rates come with more services.
This means that people from these strife-torn countries must apply for permanent residency or “self-deport” — otherwise, they will become undocumented.
Haiti is currently unsafe. Gangs control the country’s cities and neighbourhoods and have staged a successful coup. The country is also still rebuilding after the devastating 2010 earthquake.
Afghanistan remains in the throes of a decades-long war where women have have no rights. Venezuela is in a state of civil unrest; about 19 million citizens do not have enough food or sanitation. Nearly 7.7 million people have fled the country.
The plight of asylum-seekers
The crackdown on other undocumented residents and the recent issuing of large “civil penalties” in the form of fines for failing to self-deport may force others to leave the U.S. Where might they go?
Many will return to their country of residence, but others may be unable to do so and could consider Canada a convenient and safe destination. In 2016, 23,919 people made asylum claims in Canada. That number slowly rose throughout the first Trump administration to 64,020 in 2019, the last full year of the president’s first term.
Those seeking asylum in Canada declined to 23,680 in 2020 — the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic — but had increased to 171,850 by the end of 2024.
The geographic distribution of these asylum-seekers was uneven. In 2017, 50 per cent of all asylum-seekers to Canada made their claim in Québec; in 2022, 64 per cent of asylum claims were made there.
So rather than seeing a large influx of American citizens migrating to Canada during Trump’s second administration, there will likely be a larger number of asylum-seekers, many of whom have legitimate fears of persecution. How Canada chooses to handle these claims remains to be seen — but it’s urgently important for Canadian elected officials to figure it out immediately.
Jack Jedwab, CEO of the Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute, co-authored this article
Lori Wilkinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Four centuries ago, late Ming Dynasty scholar-official Yuan Hongdao (1568–1610) shifted from state administrative work to xiaopin — brief, personal essays celebrating everyday pleasures like gardening, leisurely excursions and long vigils beside a rare blossom.
The cover of ‘Burnout Society’ by Byung-Chul Han. (Stanford U Press)
Today, his Ming Dynasty-era practice resonates with uncanny urgency within our burnout epidemic.
Amid the Wanli Emperor’s neglect and escalating bureaucratic infighting in Beijing, Yuan turned away from what today we call a “toxic workplace.”
Instead, he found refuge in Jiangnan’s landscapes and literary circles. There he exchanged hierarchical pressures, administrative tedium and cut-throat careerism for moments of unhurried attention.
Yuan’s xiaopin, alongside those of his contemporaries, transformed fleeting sensory moments into radical acts of resilience, suggesting that beauty, not institutions, could outlast empires.
The Ming Dynasty: A literary rebellion
The late Ming Dynasty (1368–1644) was an era of contradictions.
While Europe hurtled toward colonialism and scientific rationalism, China’s Jiangnan region — the fertile Yangtze Delta in today’s Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces — flourished via merchant wealth, global silver trade and a thriving print culture.
The imperial examination system, a civil service written exam — once a path to prestige — had become a bottleneck. Thousands of scholars languished in bureaucratic limbo, channelling their frustrations and exhaustion into xiaopin’s intimate vignettes.
Chinese imperial examination candidates gathering around the wall where the results are posted (painting by Qiu Ying, c. 1540) (National Palace Museum)
In his preface to Meiyou Pavilion, editor Zheng Yuanxun (1603–1644) praised the genre’s “flavour beyond flavour, rhythm beyond rhythm” — a poetic nod to its rich sensory detail and subtle musicality — rejecting moralizing orthodox prose by embracing immersive aesthetics.
Against neo-Confucianism’s rigid hierarchies, xiaopin elevated the private, the ephemeral and the esthetically oblique: a well-brewed pot of tea, the texture of moss on a garden rock and incense wafting through a study.
Wei Shang, professor of Chinese culture at Columbia University, has noted such playful text flourished among late Ming literati disillusioned with the era’s constraints. The texts reframed idleness and sensory pleasure as subtle dissent within a status-obsessed society.
When doing less becomes radical
Long before French poet Charles Baudelaire’s flâneur used dandyism and idle promenades to resist the alienating pace of western modernity, Ming literati like Chen Jiru (1558–1639) and Gao Lian (1573–1620) framed idleness as defiance.
Drawing on Daoist wu wei (non-action), Gao praised the “crystal clear retreat” that scrubbed the heart of “worldly grime” and cultivated “a tranquil heart and joyful spirit.” For him, human worth lay not in bureaucratic promotions but in savouring tea, listening to crickets or resting against a well-fluffed pillow.
Hung-tai Wang, a cultural historian at Academia Sinica in Taipei, identifies xiaopin as a “leisurely and elegant” esthetic rooted in nature’s rhythms.
Chen Jiru, a Ming Dynasty-era painter and essayist, embodied this framework by disallowing transactional logic. In one essay, Chen lauds those who possess “poetry without words, serenity without sutras, joy without wine.” In other words, he admired those whose lives resonated through prioritizing lived gestures over abstract ideals.
In the Jiangnan gardens, late Ming essayists saw landscapes infused with emotion. At the time, essayist Wu Congxian called it “lodging meaning among mountains and rivers:” moonlight turned into icy jade, oar splashes to cosmic echoes.
Chen Jiru had study rituals — fingering a bronze cauldron, tapping an inkstone — curated what he termed “incense for solitude, tea for clarity, stone for refinement.”
This cultivation of object-as-presence anticipates American academic Bill Brown’s “thing theory,” where everyday items invite embodied contemplation and challenge the subject-object binary that enables commodification.
The Ming Dynasty-era scholar-connoisseur, Wen Zhenheng (1585–1645), turned domestic minutiae into philosophical resistance.
His xiaopin framed everyday choices — snowmelt for tea, rooms facing narrow water, a skiff “like a study adrift” — as rejections of abstraction. Through details like cherries on porcelain or tangerines pickled before ripening, he asserted that value lies in presence, not utility.
Wen suggests that exhaustion stems not from labour but from disconnection.
The burnout rebellions: ‘Tang ping,’ ‘quiet quitting’
Just as xiaopin turned domestic rituals into resistance, today’s movements recast the mundane as a mode of defiance.
In April 2021, China’s tang ping (“lying flat”) movement surfaced with a post by former factory worker Luo Huazhong: “Lying flat is justice.” The message was simple and subversive: work had become intolerable, and opting out was not laziness but resistance.
In a backlash against China’s “996” work model extolled by tech moguls like Jack Ma, tang ping rejects the sacrifice of dignity and mental health for productivity and casts idleness as a quiet revolt against exploitative norms.
In the West, the COVID-19 pandemic sparked similar reckonings. The “Great Resignation” saw millions leave unfulfilling jobs. And “quiet quitting” rejected unpaid overtime and emotional labour. These movements emerged as a soft refusal of hustle culture.
As anthropologist David Graeber argues in Bullshit Jobs (2018), the “moral and spiritual damage” inflicted by meaningless work reflects a profound political failure.
Just like the late Ming literati who poured their lives into a state that repaid them with hollow titles and bureaucratic decay, today’s workers withdraw from institutions that exploit their labour yet treat them as disposable.
Unlike French philosopher Michel de Montaigne’s introspective self-examination in his Renaissance-era Essays, xiaopin refuses utility. In doing so, it inverts the contemporary self-help trend critiqued by Byung-Chul Han, which co-opts personal “healing” as a form of productivity through neoliberal logic.
Xiaopin proposes resistance as an existential shift beyond (self-)optimization. Its most radical gesture is not to demand change, but to live as if the system’s demands are irrelevant.
The revolution of pause
Xiaopin asks: What is progress without presence? Its fragments — on lotus ponds, summer naps, a cat’s shadow — prove that resistance need not be loud.
Like Japanese writer Haruki Murakami’s vision of contemporary literature as “space of individual recovery,” the genre shelters us from “hierarchy and efficiency.”
Here, time is not spent but reclaimed.
To pause in an age of weaponized ambition is in fact revolt. Tracing a petal’s vein, sipping tea until bitterness fades, lying flat as the machinery of productivity grinds on — these are not acts of shirking reality, but defiant gestures against the systems that feed on our exhaustion. They are affirmations of agency: microcosms where we rehearse what it means to belong to ourselves, and thus, to the world.
Xiaopin’s revolution awakens in a flicker of attention: a reminder that presence, too, is a language — one that hums beneath the buzz of progress, waiting to be heard.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Rick de Villiers, Associate professor, University of the Free State
At last, the most infamous latecomer in all of literature has arrived – not in the flesh, but in South Africa’s Afrikaans language. Irish playwright Samuel Beckett’s best-known drama, Waiting for Godot, now also lives as Ons Wag vir Godot.
The action involves two tramps, Vladimir and Estragon, who have a series of absurd conversations and encounters as they wait for a man called Godot who never arrives. Beckett would self-translate the drama into English in 1954, calling it “a tragicomedy in two acts”.
Since then, translations of the play have exploded. By 1969 – the year of Beckett’s Nobel Prize for Literature – Waiting for Godot could already be read in dozens of languages, including Albanian, Marathi, and even Icelandic.
Samuel Beckett and South Africa
Beckett’s connections with South Africa are surprisingly varied. As a young man, he unsuccessfully applied for a lectureship at the University of Cape Town. His 1951 novel, Molloy, was translated from French into English with the help of a South African student, Patrick Bowles. And in 1968, Beckett made a donation to the then-banned resistance party, the African National Congress, in the form of a manuscript for auction.
This gesture was unprecedented for the Irish writer, who was wary of political causes. Yet not only did Beckett feel strongly enough about apartheid’s injustices to make this donation, he also refused to let anyone perform his plays before South Africa’s racially segregated audiences.
Already in 1963 Beckett had signed the petition Playwrights Against Apartheid. He would continue to refuse performance rights in South Africa until 1980, when the Baxter Theatre was allowed to stage Waiting for Godot with a racially integrated cast.
Nevertheless, unauthorised Godots materialised before this. Athol Fugard, the South African playwright whose own dramas were influenced by Beckett, directed one of the earliest South African productions in 1962. Featuring an all-black cast, it testified to the play’s political charge, which Fugard emphasised:
It’s reasonable to think that Beckett would have supported this protest performance. But he would probably have denounced the first and unofficial Afrikaans version, Afspraak met Godot, translated by Suseth Brits and performed in 1970 at the Potchefstroom University College (now North-West University) behind closed doors.
For different reasons, Beckett would also have frowned on the substantial “borrowings” in Afrikaans novelist Willem Anker’s 2014 novel, Buys.
Domesticating a European classic
Fully sanctioned by Beckett’s estate and beautifully translated (from the French and English) by now-retired professor of French at the University of the Free State Naòmi Morgan, Ons Wag vir Godot arrives at a different moment altogether.
From left: Peter Taljaard (Pozzo), Charl Henning, Chris Vorster and Gerben Kamper (Lucky).Leopold Frechow/UFS
The translation retains the gallows humour of the original while adding local flavour. For instance, where Vladimir originally names the Eiffel Tower as a picturesque site to commit suicide, his Afrikaans counterpart nominates Van Stadensbrug, a bridge over a ravine in the Eastern Cape. The slave-like Lucky once entertained his master with European dances: “the farandole, the fling, the brawl, the jig, the fandango”. These now become a South African mix: “volkspele, die riel, die pantsula, selfs die horrelpyp” (folk games, riel dance, pantsula dance, a hiding).
In translation-speak, Ons Wag vir Godot is therefore fully “domesticated”: the play’s universality comes through even though – and perhaps even more so because – it’s anchored in a particular place and time.
This struck me when I attended the play’s limited-run production, expertly directed by Dion van Niekerk, at the 2024 Vrystaat Kunstefees (Free State arts festival). Its set managed to thread together subtle South African roadside details: a toppled rubbish bin, pylons on the horizon, a (broken) picnic bench.
Chris Vorster as Vladimir and Sibabalwe Jokani as Seun/Boy.Leopold Frechow/UFS
In the text itself, we encounter familiar place names, sayings and cultural clues. Consider how Beckett’s abstract phrase “the essential doesn’t change” is grounded in African mythology: “Jakkals verander van hare, maar nie van streke nie” (The leopard doesn’t change its spots). Then there’s the charming touch of the dog in Vladimir’s song snatching “’n stukkie wors” (a piece of sausage particular to South Africa) rather than a measly “bone”.
Godot and the Afrikaans canon
Ons Wag vir Godot achieves its most profound tribute to Beckett and Afrikaans through its intertextual richness. Both the French and English originals are highly allusive texts: they invoke other works of literature to increase their range of meaning and subtlety. Morgan is attuned to this subtlety and to the parallels to be found in Afrikaans literature. There are references to works by canonical Afrikaans writers like Eugène Marais, Totius and C.J. Langenhoven, each adding its own resonance.
Yet the dilemma any translator faces is not so much in bringing in the new, but in striking a balance with the old. Consider the judicious swapping of a line from Percy Bysshe Shelley for a line from C. Louis Leipoldt.
In the English version, Estragon looks up forlornly at the moon and half-quotes the English Romantic poet: “Pale for weariness … Of climbing heaven and staring on the likes of us.” In the Afrikaans, he gives us a fragment from the wistful poem, Die Moormansgat: “ek kyk na die lig van die volle silwermaan” (I behold the light of the full silver moon). At face value, this lacks the detached, woeful quality of Shelley’s line. But read in the context of Leipoldt’s poem, it is every bit as poignant.
The virtue of waiting
“Vladimir would agree,” Morgan concludes in the preface to her translation, “that a century is a decent amount of time to hone a language for the translation of one of the best-known dramas in world literature”.
And indeed, the riches of the Afrikaans language are on display in this sensitive, witty and allusive rendering of Beckett’s European classic. But it’s also true that a certain amount of political baggage had to be shaken off before such a feat could be realised – not just in the right words, but in the right spirit. Of course, if Beckett’s play teaches us anything, it’s the virtue of waiting.
– Waiting for Godot has been translated into Afrikaans: what took so long – https://theconversation.com/waiting-for-godot-has-been-translated-into-afrikaans-what-took-so-long-257345
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Tinashe Mushakavanhu, Research Associate, University of Oxford
In southern Africa townships were built as segregated urban zones for black people. They were created under colonial and white minority rule policies that controlled movement, confined opportunity, and kept people apart.
I grew up in a different historic black township in Zimbabwe, but Mbare was the first of its kind. It holds a unique place in the nation’s imagination.
Mbare was originally named Harare. But in 1982 that name was reassigned to the capital city that houses it. In its storied past, it was once the heartbeat of black urban life. At its centre is Rufaro Stadium, where Bob Marley and the Wailers famously performed at Zimbabwe’s independence celebrations.
The old beer hall that today houses artists.Tatenda Kanengoni
The township was a hub of cultural energy, sports, and political activism, and the community beer hall served as a vital gathering point. Today, many of these beer halls stand derelict.
These once-thriving communal spaces reflect a broader neglect of civic infrastructure in post-independence Zimbabwe. Yet out of these ruins, new life is taking shape.
One of the most influential figures in Zimbabwe’s artist-run spaces movement, Moffat Takadiwa, has transformed one of these former beer halls into the Mbare Art Space. The dynamic arts hub reclaims the building’s original spirit of gathering, creativity and public engagement.
Artists have transformed the beer hall.Tatenda Kanengoni
Operating under a long lease from the Harare City Council, this nonprofit initiative is part of a wider urban renewal and adaptive reuse project aimed at reimagining the city’s cultural infrastructure.
My ongoing work in archival research includes mapping and visiting historical and cultural spaces like this. Here Takadiwa saw the potential for not just studios and an exhibition venue, but also for dialogue and community regeneration.
Transforming spaces
Beer halls were established by British colonial authorities in Zimbabwe (then Rhodesia) as part of a strategy of social control over the African urban population. They were designed to regulate leisure, restrict political organising and generate revenue through the sale of alcohol. By centralising drinking in state-run facilities, colonial administrators aimed to monitor and contain African social life while profiting from it.
Situated in a repurposed colonial-era beer garden, Mbare Art Space turns a former site of segregation into a vibrant centre of artistic and communal revival. It redefines a legacy of constraint and control as one of creative freedom and empowerment. The place is now an artists’ haven with studios, office space, an exhibition hall and a digital hub.
Moffat Takadiwa, the artist behind the project.Tatenda Kanengoni
Takadiwa’s vision is informed by global precedents, notably inspired by US artist Theaster Gates, whose work includes the transformation of a derelict bank on Chicago’s South Side. It became the Stony Island Arts Bank – a hybrid space for art, archives and community engagement.
Takadiwa opened Mbare Art Space in 2019 with a vision to support emerging artists through mentorship and access to resources. True to his artistic philosophy – resurrecting abandoned, often overlooked materials suffering the effects of urban decay – he revitalised a neglected site. Most of the artists working from this space follow his lead, upcycling and recycling found materials into compelling visual forms that speak to both history and possibility.
Kimberly Tatenda Gakanje at work in the space.Tatenda Kanengoni
When I arrive, Takadiwa is on his way out, but offers me a quick tour of his studio, where works in progress for his upcoming participation in the São Paulo Biennale are taking shape.
Known for his lush, densely layered sculptures and tapestry-like works made from found objects – computer keyboards, bottle tops, toothbrushes, and toothpaste tubes – Takadiwa has garnered international acclaim. His works are collected by US rapper Jay-Z and major institutions like the Centre National d’Art Plastique in Paris, the European Parliament’s art collection in Brussels, and the National Gallery of Zimbabwe in Harare.
Collaboration
What Takadiwa is building is not just an arts centre – it’s a new model space rooted in history and responsive to the present. The site itself becomes an ongoing installation, activated by the artists, curators and community members who inhabit it.
Tafadzwa B Chataika works with recycled materials.Tatenda Kanengoni
Tafadzwa Chimbumu, the operations manager, takes over the tour, guiding me through the rest of the precinct. The site retains the bones of its beer hall architecture, but it bursts with new life. Colourful murals adorn the walls. Tents draped over smaller buildings animate the exposed brickwork.
Plans are underway to establish a library here, a resource where researchers and artists can engage with Zimbabwe’s under-documented art history. Much of this history is scattered across archives and unpublished dissertations, rather than in widely available books. The aim is to bring these materials together and make them more accessible to the public.
Mbare Art Space is also becoming an exciting hub for collaboration and education. Community workshops, for example, are led by resident artists. Local schools take part in art education initiatives. Through community outreach and educational programming, the centre is extending its impact beyond its immediate geography.
Nkosiyabo Frank Nyoni making art at the space.Tatenda Kanengoni
As it looks to the future, Mbare Art Space is focused on expanding its artist-in-residence programme, inviting both local and international artists to immerse themselves in the context of Mbare and Zimbabwe.
Ultimately, what the space offers is something intangible – a feeling, a memory, a vision of what is possible when history and imagination meet in a shared place.
– Mbare Art Space: a colonial beer hall in Zimbabwe has become a vibrant arts centre – https://theconversation.com/mbare-art-space-a-colonial-beer-hall-in-zimbabwe-has-become-a-vibrant-arts-centre-256528
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Andreana Prichard, Associate Professor of Honors and African History, University of Oklahoma
In the world of international child development and orphan care, it’s not uncommon for children with families to declare themselves orphans. In fact, this practice can be traced back to precolonial times in Kenya.
Andreana Prichard has done research on the practice in Kenya. We asked her to share her insights into it.
Why do some people in Kenya assume the identity of ‘orphan’?
We often think of “orphans” as children who have lost both parents and who lack kin networks. One might ask why someone would “opt in” to orphan status when they do not fall within the classical definition of the term.
In my paper I look at the issue of orphanhood over the last 160 years. Case studies from Kenya I examine illustrate that the practice I define as “opting in” to orphanhood has precolonial roots. I define “opting in” as choosing to take on the label of being an orphan. This can be done by parents, relatives or even, in some instances, the child. This is because the label “orphan” has come to confer unique opportunities.
The practice became increasingly popular in the mid-1990s, when parents in eastern and southern Africa who had contracted HIV began to die in large numbers. Activists feared many children would be left without caregivers.
In response, the number of orphanages proliferated as humanitarian actors, churches and states inundated east Africa with orphan-focused NGOs.
In 2020, officials in Kenya estimated that there were at least 910 residential institutions for children in the country (of which 581 were registered), housing between 26,198 and 85,733 Kenyan children.
The predicted “orphan crisis” never materialised, partly because families and communities stepped in to care for newly parentless children. But the idea of an “orphan crisis” remained, and so did the funding and infrastructure.
This phenomenon occurred across the continent, not just in Kenya. However, its effects were felt particularly acutely in eastern and southern Africa where HIV/Aids prevalence rates were higher and where there was more western tourism.
Today, many African families see orphan-focused NGOs as a path to access education and improve their lives. My research shows that children themselves sometimes affiliate with an institution that provides shelter, food and schooling. Children facing abuse from caregivers may also prefer the relative anonymity and safety of an institution.
In some cases, receiving orphan services actually raises the status of the “orphan” child above that of other children. They have access to more material resources than they might have had in their villages or at home. They might have more leisure time and less work. They may have access to better bedding, shoes and clothing. They are also likely able to attend school more consistently and have a real opportunity to attend university.
Does ‘opting in’ have a long history?
Yes, it does.
In the precolonial period, most parentless or vulnerable children were cared for through lasting community support systems. Orphanhood, as it exists today as a child lacking support, protection, or care from kin, was largely avoided.
However, the late 19th to mid-20th centuries brought new actors to the east African region. The practice of “opting in” became a strategic, temporary option used by families to access services from western humanitarians.
The earliest example of this shift I found in my research is from the 1890s. Fearing their children would be caught in the Indian Ocean slave trade, African parents sometimes chose to send their children to British missions until the region was safe. They knew the missionaries opposed the slave trade and knew they offered food and medical care.
African parents thought they were making temporary arrangements to keep their children safe. Missionaries, however, understood parents to have abandoned their children. When parents returned to repay the debt – with agricultural produce or trade goods – and to reclaim their children, missionaries refused them.
In another example from Kenya in the 1950s, the British colonial government opened “reform schools” for young men. The Wamumu Approved School was renowned for the relative quality of education it provided. But the state admitted only the “most vulnerable” for a free education. Feeling they had no way to access Wamumu, students claimed to be orphans.
What have been the negative effects of Kenya’s orphan system?
There are several problems with creating a situation in which people present themselves as vulnerable just to gain safety or improve their social and economic standing.
First, research has shown that building orphanages in poor communities incentivises parents to abandon their children if they’re not also given the help to remain together.
Second, research shows that children are often put at risk in these institutions. Institutionalisation exposes children to risks such as sexual abuse, gender-based violence and neglect.
Third, orphanages have become so lucrative that African orphanage owners will go to great lengths to fit African children into the categories westerners wish to fund. The phenomenon of “paper orphans” is a prime example. “Paper orphans” are children who are recruited from their homes by proprietors (or middlemen/brokers) of orphanages and residential-care facilities. Fraudulent documentation is created for them – often including false death certificates of parents and new identity registration documents – rendering them orphans on paper, and vulnerable in practice.
Based on my research I believe that working with families to support vulnerable children in their homes of origin or with extended families is a better option. This can be done through assistance programmes for vulnerable families as well as child welfare programmes. These allow families to remain intact when experiencing hardship.
In addition to this, missionary and voluntourism trips to orphanages and residential care facilities should be banned or limited.
– Choosing to be an orphan: for some Kenyan families it’s a strategy for survival – https://theconversation.com/choosing-to-be-an-orphan-for-some-kenyan-families-its-a-strategy-for-survival-247371
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
On May 27, 2025, within the framework of the 42nd Plenary Week of the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism (EAG), the 22nd meeting of the Council of the International Network Institute in the field of AML/CFT and the conference of the International Movement for Financial Security were held with the participation of the management, teachers and students of the State University of Management, headed by Vice-Rector Dmitry Bryukhanov.
In 2025, GUU officially joined the International Movement for Financial Security, created on the initiative of a student from Brazil, Augusto Lemmertz, during a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the finalists of the III International Financial Security Olympiad in 2023. And on May 27, as part of the next conference of the International Movement for Financial Security, GUU Rector Vladimir Stroyev joined the Presidium of the movement. The Chairman of the Presidium of the movement is Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Chernyshenko, and the Deputy Chairman is Director of Rosfinmonitoring Yuri Chikhanchin.
Let us recall that the State University of Management has been a member of the ISI in the field of AML/CFT since 2014, and has been actively participating in the Olympiad movement since the selection events of the 1st International Financial Security Olympiad in 2021. Since 2023, it has been actively working in the field of promoting the financial security Olympiad movement in historical territories, in particular, in 2023 it organized the selection of participants in the Olympiad finals among students and schoolchildren from the DPR, LPR, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions, in the same year it organized a summer school for finalists from historical territories and annually participates in the training of teachers of historical territories to conduct a thematic lesson on financial security.
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.
RADNOR, Pa., May 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Surgent Income Tax School, a division of Surgent Accounting and Financial Education, today announced the release of its 2025 Comprehensive Tax Course, the nation’s leading beginner tax preparer training program.
Designed for individuals looking to start a career in tax preparation and for firms seeking to train new staff, the updated Comprehensive Tax Course combines real-world application, expert instruction and flexible delivery in one online platform.
The 2025 edition includes refreshed content aligned with the latest IRS tax law updates, along with bonus resources that support new preparers in launching their career or growing their tax business. The course provides in-depth instruction on preparing individual tax returns for most U.S. taxpayers and now features updated content aligned with 2024 tax law changes, including adjustments to filing thresholds, deductions, credits and federal forms.
“Our Comprehensive Tax Course remains the industry standard for aspiring tax preparers,” said Elizabeth Kolar, executive vice president at Surgent. “We’ve updated the course for 2025 to ensure learners are gaining relevant, applicable skills that help them start earning income quickly, whether they want to work seasonally or build a long-term business.”
Available entirely online, the course allows learners to progress at their own pace with instructor support, graded exams and hands-on exercises. Students earn a certificate of completion and a digital badge, validating their credentials to clients and employers. The course also provides a strong foundation for further advancement, including pursuit of the IRS Enrolled Agent credential.
“This course isn’t just about teaching tax law; it’s about helping people build sustainable careers,” said Nick Spoltore, vice president of tax and advisory content at Surgent. “We break down complex topics into manageable, real-life scenarios so learners feel confident applying what they’ve learned.”
Training Staff with the 2025 Comprehensive Tax Course For tax business owners, the 2025 Comprehensive Tax Course also serves as a scalable training solution for new hires. Employers can purchase the course for multiple staff members and receive access to instructor tools for lesson plans, tracking student progress, providing feedback and maintaining compliance. This cost-effective solution helps firms expand their workforce while maintaining quality and consistency.
A Unified Platform for Tax Professional Development Surgent recently consolidated its Income Tax School offerings at Surgent.com, giving students a single destination to begin and advance their careers. Aspiring tax professionals can now train to become a preparer, pursue the Enrolled Agent credential and meet annual continuing education requirements — all from one platform.
“Bringing everything together on Surgent.com makes it easier than ever for learners to take control of their future,” said Kolar.
About Surgent Accounting and Financial Education Surgent Accounting and Financial Education, a division of KnowFully Learning Group, delivers high-impact learning solutions for accounting, finance and tax professionals. Its offerings include Surgent CPE for continuing education, Surgent Exam Review for certification prep, and Surgent Income Tax School, which provides online training for aspiring and experienced tax preparers. Through flexible, expert-designed courses and real-world application, Surgent equips professionals with the skills and credentials to succeed at every career stage. Learn more at Surgent.com.
About KnowFully Learning Group The KnowFully Learning Group provides continuing professional education, exam preparation courses and education resources to the accounting, finance and healthcare sectors. KnowFully’s suite of learning solutions helps learners become credentialed, satisfy required credit hours to maintain credentials and stay informed on the latest trends and critical changes in their industries over the course of their careers. The company provides exam preparation and continuing education for accounting, finance and tax professionals headlined by the Surgent Accounting & Financial Education brand. KnowFully’s healthcare education brands include American Fitness Professionals & Associates, ChiroCredit, freeCE, Impact EMS Training, Online CE, PharmCon, Rx Consultant and Psychotherapy.net. For more information, please visit KnowFully.com.
SAN FRANCISCO, May 29, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MLCommons® today announced that it is expanding its first-of-its-kind AILuminate benchmark to measure AI reliability across new models, languages, and tools. As part of this expansion, MLCommons is partnering with NASSCOM, India’s premier technology trade association, to bring AILuminate’s globally recognized AI reliability benchmarks to South Asia. MLCommons is also unveiling new proof of concept testing for AILuminate’s Chinese-language capabilities and new AILuminate reliability grades for an expanded suite of large language models (LLMs).
”We’re looking forward to working with NASSCOM to develop India-specific, Hindi-language benchmarks and ensure companies in India and around the world can better measure the reliability and risk of their AI products,” said Peter Mattson, President of MLCommons. “This partnership, along with new AILuminate grades and proof of concept for Chinese language capabilities, represents a major step towards the development of globally inclusive industry standards for AI reliability.”
“The rapid development of AI is reshaping India’s technology sector and, in order to harness risk and foster innovation, rigorous global standards can help align the growth of the industry with emerging best practices,” said Ankit Bose, Head of NASSCOM AI. “We plan to work alongside MLCommons to develop these standards and ensure that the growth and societal integration of AI technology continues responsibly.”
The NASSCOM collaboration builds on MLCommons’ intentionally global approach to AI benchmarking. Modeled after MLCommons’ ongoing partnership with Singapore’s AI Verify Foundation, the NASSCOM partnership will help to meet South Asia’s urgent need for standardized AI benchmarks that are collaboratively designed and trusted by the region’s industry experts, policymakers, civil society members, and academic researchers. MLCommons’ partnership with the AI Verify Foundation – in close collaboration with the National University of Singapore – has already resulted in significant progress towards globally-inclusive AI benchmarking across East Asia, including just-released proof of concept scores for Chinese-language LLMs.
AILuminate is also unveiling new reliability grades for an updated and expanded suite of LLMs, to help companies around the world better measure product risk. Like previous AILuminate testing, these grades are based on LLM responses to 24,000 test prompts across 12 hazard categories – including including violent and non-violent crimes, child sexual exploitation, hate, and suicide/self-harm. None of the LLMs evaluated were given any advance knowledge of the evaluation prompts (a common problem in non-rigorous benchmarking), nor access to the evaluator model used to assess responses. This independence provides a methodological rigor uncommon in standard academic research or private benchmarking.
“Companies are rapidly incorporating chatbots into their products, and these updated grades will help them better understand and compare risk across new and constantly-updated models,” said Rebecca Weiss, Executive Director of MLCommons.”We’re grateful to our partners on the Risk and Reliability Working Group – including some of the foremost AI researchers, developers, and technical experts – for ensuring a rigorous, empirically-sound analysis that can be trusted by industry and academia like.”
Having successfully expanded the AILuminate benchmark to multiple languages, the AI Risk & Reliability Working Group is beginning the process of evaluating reliability across increasingly sophisticated AI tools, including mutli-modal LLMs and agentic AI. We hope to announce proof-of-concept benchmarks in these spaces later this year.
About MLCommons MLCommons is the world leader in building benchmarks for AI. It is an open engineering consortium with a mission to make AI better for everyone through benchmarks and data. The foundation for MLCommons began with the MLPerf® benchmarks in 2018, which rapidly scaled as a set of industry metrics to measure machine learning performance and promote transparency of machine learning techniques. In collaboration with its 125+ members, global technology providers, academics, and researchers, MLCommons is focused on collaborative engineering work that builds tools for the entire AI industry through benchmarks and metrics, public datasets, and measurements for AI risk and reliability.
MONTGOMERY – Governor Kay Ivey and the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education (ADECE) on Thursday announced that 55 new classrooms will be funded through the Pre-K through 3rd Grade Integrated Approach to Early Learning (P-3) for the 2025-2026 school year.
This expansion will increase the number of classrooms implementing the P-3 approach to 454 across 29 counties. The ADECE, in partnership with the Alabama State Department of Education, is working to align instructional practices, assessments and leadership from First Class Pre-K through third grade.
“Each year, Alabama’s P-3 approach continues to build momentum and grow to provide a smooth transition from pre-k to third grade. Through my Strong Start, Strong Finish initiative, we are setting the stage for lifelong success and empowering every child to reach their fullest potential,” said Governor Ivey. “Strong students lead to a strong Alabama, and these learning efforts will ensure we continue to strengthen our schools and provide the best education for all students.”
The recipient schools are as follows:
Highland Park Elementary in Colbert County
Webster Elementary in Colbert County
Parkside Elementary School in Cullman County
Hollywood Elementary in Jackson County
Kilby Laboratory School in Lauderdale County
Brindlee Mountain Elementary in Marshall County
Asbury Elementary in Marshall County
Sloman Elementary in Marshall County
South Shades Crest Elementary School in Shelby County
Carbon Hill Elementary in Walker County
Oakman Middle School in Walker County
Parrish Elementary School in Walker County
Valley Jr. High School in Walker County
“We are excited to welcome these new classrooms to the P-3 network of schools dedicated to aligning practices and learning environments to what research tells us works for young children,” said ADECE Secretary Jan Hume.
The Alabama Pre-K–3rd Grade Integrated Approach to Early Learning (P-3) builds upon student success and narrows the achievement gap by expanding access to Alabama’s high-quality pre-k model. P-3 is funded by the ADECE through the governor’s Strong Start, Strong Finish education initiative. For more information, visit children.alabama.gov/educators/pre-k-3/.
An intense argument is raging over whether what has been happening in Gaza since October 2023 is an act of genocide. It is the subject of a case being heard in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in which South Africa has accused Israel of committing acts of genocide. The case began in December 2023 but the ICJ has yet to reach a judgment.
The reason the issue is so controversial is that the word “genocide” holds so much power. To be accused of it is to be accused of what is considered in international law to be the “crime of crimes”. International law holds that not only should states not commit genocide, they must also prevent and punish it in their own criminal law. Some commentators would even argue that the use of armed force to stop genocide is acceptable.
Yet the legal definition of genocide is much narrower than is generally understood. That’s why so few events have ever been labelled as genocide as a matter of law. Looking at some of them might help to shed some light on the Gaza controversy.
Genocide is about attempting to destroy a group of people. The concept was first defined in 1944 by the Polish-Jewish lawyer Raphael Lemkin, in response to his horror at the mass killing of ethnic Armenians by the Ottoman Empire amid the first world war as well as – of course – at the atrocities of the Nazis before and during the second world war.
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It was such a novel concept that it was not prosecuted in the post-war trials of the surviving leading Nazis in Nuremberg. Instead, for their role in the Holocaust, the defendants were charged with “crimes against humanity”. And to this day, in the Rome statute of the International Criminal Court, there is a close relationship between the crime of genocide and crimes against humanity. The Rome statute uses the definition of genocide agreed in the 1948 genocide convention, which was negotiated after the considerable efforts of Lemkin to bring attention to his new concept.
Despite the crime of genocide being established in 1948, the first international conviction for genocide was not until 1998. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda found Jean-Paul Akayesu, a local politician, guilty of genocide as part of the extreme violence by ethnic Hutu against (mostly) minority ethnic Tutsis in 1994. Over the course of around 100 days around 800,000 people were killed.
The mass killing was instigated at the highest levels of the Rwandan government after Tutsis were accused of killing the president of Rwanda, Juvénal Habyarimana, by shooting down a plane that was carrying him and the president of Burundi, Cyprien Ntaryamira. Both men were Hutus.
The response to this was clearly a genocide, but surely there must have been other post-war genocides before this, you might think?
Limitations of genocide
Under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, millions of people died or were killed in famines, executions and prison camps across the Soviet Union. Yet, these deaths do not fall within the 1948 definition of genocide because they were generally not aimed at groups defined by nationality, ethnicity, race, or religion. Only those four groups are protected in the genocide convention.
The same goes for murders committed by the Khmer Rouge – the radical communist regime of Pol Pot that ruled what is now Cambodia from 1975 to 1979. The regime was responsible for the deaths of between 1.5 and 3 million people. But the hybrid criminal tribunal set up in 1997 to judge these events has only been able to find that the killing of minority Vietnamese and Cham victims counted as genocide. The majority of those that the Khmer Rouge targeted for killing were fellow Cambodians selected for being “intellectuals” or were otherwise thought to oppose the regime.
The choice of protected groups in the genocide convention was the result of political horse-trading between different factions, as the cold war was gaining in intensity. There was a tension between protecting enough groups, and agreeing a treaty that enough states would actually sign.
The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the ICJ have held that Bosnian Serbs committed genocide against Bosnian Muslims in the town of Srebrenica in what is now Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1995. The Bosnian Serb army killed around 8,000 men and boys, and secretly buried them. They detained, treated badly and then expelled the remaining women.
The atrocity at Srebrenica in Bosnia-Herzegovina, where more than 8,000 Muslim men and boys were murdered, has been ruled as an act of genocide. Skrewt25 via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-NC-SA
The ICTY has held, beyond reasonable doubt, that across Bosnia and Herzegovina there was a “strategic plan” to “link Serb-populated areas […] together, to gain control over these areas and to create a separate Bosnian Serb state, from which most non-Serbs would be permanently removed”. It also found that this plan “could only be implemented by the use of force and fear”. Yet, apart from at Srebrenica, genocide has not been proved in the former Yugoslavia.
The issue here was not identifying a protected group, but a lack of evidence that the mass killings of non-Serbs were carried out as an end in themselves and not “just” to make them flee (something which is often called “ethnic cleansing”). This is because for a killing to be genocidal, it has not only to be carried out intentionally, but also to show the “special” intent to physically or biologically destroy a protected group.
The problem is that – in the absence of an admission or a bundle of incriminating documents – then such special intent can only be inferred from the facts if it is the only reasonable inference that could be made.
Why Gaza is controversial
Should the definition of genocide be expanded to cover a greater range of protected groups, either by amending the genocide convention or by creative judicial interpretation? Should it be easier to infer the existence of genocidal intent from a pattern of facts? Both are important questions.
Yet, until they are answered in the affirmative, it will remain difficult in law to apply the label of genocide even to the most egregious of mass killings. The labels of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity” are more easily applied, but the “crime of crimes” remains elusive.
James Sweeney does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Researchers Race Against the Clock to Discover Preventive Measures for Liver Abscesses in Cattle
By: Maribel Alonso Email: Maribel.Alonso@usda.gov
Researchers at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are looking to help the U.S. food industry save millions annually by reducing liver abscess formations in cattle.
The prevalence of liver abscess formations in cattle continues to raise concerns among dairy and beef producers. This problem also remains a challenge for researchers, as the primary factors driving formations are not yet fully understood.
Reducing liver abscess formation is even more critical in calves born from dairy cows mated with beef sires (“dairy-beef crossbred cattle”). These crossbred calves are becoming a greater percentage of the total beef population in the beef industry and are also shown to be more susceptible to this problem [close to 50% vs 20% for traditionally raised beef cattle].
Cattle with liver abscesses don’t show clinical signs and are generally identified too late –at harvest. The economic losses associated with this condition in cattle is in the millions.
Rand Broadway, a research microbiologist with the USDA ARS’ Livestock Issues Research Unit (LIRU) and researchers at Texas Tech University, Kansas State University, and West Texas A&M University, has studied the relationship between liver abscess formation in dairy-beef crossbred cattle for the past 5years in relation to diet type, ruminal acidosis (caused by high grain diet), and the bacteria community in the digestive system.
The researchers have made significant progress in isolating the primary drivers contributing to this problem through a series of breakthroughs, with their latest study disproving the long-held belief that acidosis and high energy diet intake are the sole cause for the development of liver abscesses.
“We confirmed that acidosis and aggressive grain feeding is not the only driver of liver abscess development, and our research indicates that pathogen presence alone is sufficient to cause an abscess,” said Broadway. “Therefore, if we can reduce the pathogen load and block its pathway to the liver, we can control the problem.”
Scientists are focusing next on identifying which bacterial pathogens are causing liver abscess formation, and where these bacteria can be found. Species of Fusobacterium and Salmonella bacteria were detected in the abscesses studied in the laboratory at LIRU. Since these bacteria can be found in the cattle environments, they can reach the animal’s liver if they gain access to the circulatory system through lacerations in any part of the animal’s digestive system.
Animals are particularly more vulnerable under some types of stress. This could be due to weather [heat/cold] stress, gastrointestinal disruptions, illnesses, or the presence of other pathogens that cause inflammation of the gastrointestinal tract. Management during weaning and relocation, most calves are shipped to new locations after weaning, may also trigger these conditions.
This study reveals that the nutritional management alone plays a less critical role in liver abscesses formations than previously believed. This insight helps producers make more informed decisions about diet management practices focusing on efficiency. Additionally, it allows researchers to redirect their efforts toward understanding the pathogens involved and the pathway(s) they use to enter the animal’s body [and get to the liver]. This shift in focus has become increasingly important for researchers and time is of the essence for producers, as every minute incurs costs.
TheAgricultural Research Serviceis the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. Daily, ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in U.S. agricultural research results in $20 of economic impact.
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There is a major educational development for health care providers. On May 28, a first stem cell medicine continuing education course launched internationally in six languages to educate the world. The course is open access to all and free of charge.
Clinicians, nurses, and medical students can access the free, online course on stem cell-medicine developed by the Education Committee of the International Society of Stem Cell Research (ISSCR) with international stem cell experts and accredited and produced by Harvard Medical School.
Stem Cell Medicine: From Scientific ResearchtoPatient Care is an essential educational resource for clinicians, scientists, healthcare providers, those in the nursing fields, medical students, and even the general public, seeking the most trusted and reliable stem cell information.
The course is critical to educate providers on the rapidly evolving stem cell medicine but in turn also to protect patients from the potential physical and financial harms associated with the growing popularity of unproven ‘stem cell tourism’ clinics.
UConn’s Dr. Jaime Imitola.
“As a practicing physician, I often hear questions from my patients that reference false claims made by clinics marketing unproven stem cell ‘therapies’ here and abroad,” said course-co-leader Dr. Jaime Imitola of UConn School of Medicine and vice-chair of the ISSCR Education Committee. “Our goal is to provide physicians worldwide with trusted and reliable information on stem cells and their applications in a CE format by authoritative sources. This will help clinicians and students guide their patients more effectively and ensure patients are making informed decisions about their health.”
Imitola adds, “This is the first time that stem cell medicine is clearly defined and that we have a course on it. This is an important paradigm shift in medical education, including for clinical practitioners. This course is an introduction to the stem cell field and its potential use in clinical care as we prepare for the future of health care which will soon fully integrate stem cells into patient care given the numerous late phase clinical trials by respected institutions around the world. Stem cell medicine is here to stay and soon stem cell therapy will be established so we need to educate all providers on this promising frontier of medicine,” says Imitola of UConn.
“Dr. Imitola’s work as vice-chair of the ISSCR Education Committee exemplifies the power of collaborative leadership and how it has led to new and exceptional educational opportunities with lasting impact on our field,” said ISSCR President Valentina Greco, professor of Genetics and Cell Biology at Yale University. “Dr. Imitola, in partnership with Dr. Piddini, who chairs the committee, ISSCR team member Dr. Prutton and the whole Education Committee, have worked tirelessly to make the continuing education course on Stem Cell Medicine a reality. Their work is rooted in their collective deep belief of the critical role that education plays in the stem cell field, and the need to present current information in ways that bridge experts across different specialties for the benefit of patients.”
Dangers of Stem Cell Tourism Imitola, professor of Neurology and vice-chair of research in the Division of Multiple Sclerosis and Translational Neuroimmunology at UConn School of Medicine trained at Harvard Medical School as a stem cell-scientist and has devoted his career to the clinical translation of stem cell research to MS care and education. He established pioneering work on migration of neural stem cells to inflammation and currently studies the impact of the inflammatory environment in neurodegeneration and repair both in the laboratory dish and clinic in MS patients using advanced 3D stem cell cultures or organoids. The scientific knowledge gained can be applied to variety of neurological diseases like brain tumors and was published in PNAS. He has also significantly researched stem cell tourism and its negative impact, since MS patient are often the target of the unproven therapy from ‘stem cell clinics’.”
According to Imitola, around the world during the last 15 years there has been an explosion in stem cell clinics. He has also researched in-depth stem cell clinics exploiting patients in search of hope and cures – and calls it a “state of emergency.”
“The translation of stem cells to patients is very complex and needs real, rigorous scientific research to move to the bedside,” says Imitola. “Stem cell tourism clinics are increasing under the disguise of ‘stem cell’ care – but they are not using stem cells. Plus, whatever cells or unproven therapies they are offering patients for high cost are not being rigorously studied,” stresses Imitola.
“Stem cell clinics are taking ill patients desperately searching for hope for a ride. We need providers, residents and medical students to help their patients avoid exploitation from stem cell tourism clinics. This is an urgent matter; we need to educate providers so they can have evidence-based medical conversations with their patients and be protective of patients,” he says.
As chief of the Division of Multiple Sclerosis and Neuroimmunology and director of the Comprehensive MS Center at UConn Health and a neurologist he is motivated to work in this area because he has seen first-hand the negative experience of patients pursuing stem cell tourism clinics. “In our MS Center we have seen the devastating consequences of MS patients receiving unproven therapy, by patients travelling abroad with a great financial impact to them that are desperate for a cure with no benefit, and this is especially hard in our patients with limited resources and medical educational background that we serve,” says Imitola. This was one of his motivations to work in this global ISSCR initiative since 2022.
In 2015 his team published a peer-reviewed perspective in JAMA Neurology raising awareness of the growing issue to begin to educate physicians in his field of neurology and how to help combat it, and a decade later legitimate stem cell products are under investigations and still not formally available to use in the neurology clinic yet, but there are hundreds of stem cell clinics offering unproven cell products. In 2019, he established the MS Program at UConn Health and in 2020, he launched a North America survey after several patients had complications of injections in the spine in stem cell tourism clinics. The survey found patients in the U.S. reported complications from their stem cell clinic “treatments” abroad and in the U.S. Also, most physicians surveyed said they didn’t understand the topic of stem cells and saw a course on stem cells as a necessary tool. The findings were published in Annals of Neurology and this educational project is part of UConn’s mission to educate, research, and provide care and solutions to real-world problems in our community, says Imitola.
“These survey results were a clear alarm that we needed to improve physician education and training in stem cell medicine and teaming with my colleagues at ISSCR and dozens of experts around the world that shared the same concern, we saw that as a tremendous unmet need at the bedside,” shared Imitola. “Now, we have more advanced clinical trials that will place pressure on clinicians to be trained and increase their fund of knowledge to provide information and develop communication skills to talk about stem cell medicine to patients.”
Fast forward to 2025, the comprehensive ISSCR Continuing Education course offers seven modules on the fundamentals of stem cell biology, methodologies and considerations for cell therapy product design and clinical trials, and the rise of unproven stem cell clinics and stem cell tourism. It aims to equip medical students, nurses, and practicing clinicians with tools and strategies for effective patient communication, ensuring that information shared is accurate and impactful.
Development of the course and its materials took Imitola and members of the education committee and collaborating international stem cell scientists from across all five continents two years to create. It will be followed by disease-specific stem cell medicine courses later in 2025.
Also, all courses also offer AMA PRA Category 1 Credits™ and American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) contact hours, allowing physicians and nurses to use the earned credits to fulfill their continuing education requirements.
International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR), with nearly 5,000 members from more than 80 countries, is the preeminent global, cross-disciplinary, science-based organization dedicated to stem cell research and its translation to the clinic. The ISSCR mission is to promote excellence in stem cell science and applications to human health. Patients and others can learn more from ISSCR at AboutStemCells.org.
Dr. Bina Katechia receives an award at the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry’s Annual Meeting.
Dr. Bina Katechia, assistant professor of pediatric dentistry, recently received the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry’s (AAPD) Dr. Lewis Kay Excellence in Education Award.
This award, given during the AAPD’s annual meeting, honors a recipient who demonstrates outstanding leadership, is committed to educating pediatric dental residents to provide children with comprehensive quality oral health care, and brings recognition to their program through their contributions to society and the profession of dentistry.
“Your leadership in the dental profession, your commitment to education pediatric dental residents, your contributions to society, and to the profession of dentistry are examples every educator should emulate,” said Dr. Scott Smith, president of the AAPD in the award announcement.
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