The success of Netflix drama Adolescence, along with concerns about misogynistic influencers such as Andrew Tate, has brought the “manosphere” into public discussion.
Many parents, particularly of young boys, may fear they don’t know enough about what their children are exposed to online. I research radical misogyny online, and the pathways by which young people encounter these spaces. Here is what parents should know about this content.
What is the manosphere?
The manosphere is a network of communities that create, consume and distribute content online aimed at men and boys. It includes multiple groups that differ in their aims and focus, but are all largely anti-feminist.
These groups discuss masculinity, but also topics such as health, gaming, politics and finance. They trivialise hateful rhetoric through memes, comedy and trolling (provocation or bullying for amusement) by framing it as self-help, entertainment and tools for financial success. This can make it difficult for parents to identify and for children to realise the extreme messages they are being exposed to.
Manosphere content is promoted by various influencers on popular social media platforms. These influencers often showcase unattainable wealth and status, selling the illusion that followers can achieve success by adopting their teachings.
The most notable manosphere influencer is Andrew Tate, who rose to fame in 2022. He and his brother Tristan are currently under investigation in Romania for charges of rape, human trafficking and money laundering, and in the UK for rape and human trafficking. However, he is not the only influencer out there.
In recent years, there have been a number of incidents of violence that have been linked to manosphere content. The extent of real-world effects is difficult to measure, and not everyone who engages with the manosphere will go on to commit violence. But it’s clear that these communities can promote violence or spread harmful ideas about women and girls.
It is important to note, however, that this content also harms men and young boys. The manosphere promotes unrealistic expectations and extreme measures which can lead to poor self-esteem, mental health problems and, in some cases, suicide. This content preys on vulnerabilities and insecurities of boys and young men, especially related to social isolation and sexual rejection.
Misinformation and pseudoscience
Much of the content that spreads in the manosphere is based on disinformation or pseudoscientific theories. These provide an easy framework for men to assess and improve their status while framing women and feminism as the problem.
For example, the “80/20 rule” refers to the pseudoscientific theory that 80% of women are only attracted to the top 20% of men. In the manosphere, this rule is used to blame women for mens’ feelings of sexual or romantic rejection.
Influencers and community members promote step-by-step instructions that people can follow to improve their social standing. Many of these guides involve extreme or harmful physical transformations in a phenomenon known as “looksmaxxing”, which can even involve facial surgery in a bid to increase their sexual “value”.
The manosphere has an expansive lexicon which is used to incite hatred towards women and fuel rivalry between men. Common terms include:
Red pill: TRP, the manosphere’s core philosophy, derived from the Matrix, frames the red pill as an awakening to feminism’s oppression of men. The blue pill represents ignorance, and the black pill, used by incels, as accepting their “terminal” celibacy status.
Amog (alpha male of the group), Alpha, Gamma, Omega, Sigma, Sub-5 – These terms categorise and compare men and their social status. While sigma and alpha males or Amogs are considered the top of the hierarchy, the terms gamma, omega, and sub-5 denigrate men perceived to be of a lower status.
White Knight, Soyboy: Derogatory terms describe men who are viewed as being subservient to women.
Awalt (All women are like that), Foid/Femoid (female humanoid), Becky, Carousel: Terms used to denigrate and dehumanise women.
Parents should not panic if they hear their children using manosphere terms. They may not fully understand their meanings and may have encountered them innocently. However, changes in how boys talk about women and girls, withdrawal from family and friends, and frequent use of these terms can be an indication that they are being influenced by the manosphere.
Supporting your child
Most adolescents will come across manosphere content at some point. A recent survey found that 59% of boys accessed manosphere content through innocent and unrelated searches. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they endorse the misogynistic values spread by these groups.
Here are some steps you can take to support your child.
1. Explore online together
Research commissioned by media regulator Ofcom found that children were more likely to come across harmful content if their parents are less engaged in what they are doing. Watching content that relates to your children’s hobbies, and sending them content you think they would like, can help train algorithms to promote more moderate content and open up an avenue for discussion.
Engaging online with your child can be a natural way to start conversations about what they are exposed to. It is important that you are not trying to intervene or critique, but rather understand why they enjoy watching certain influencers or content.
2. Encourage reflection and media literacy
Research suggests that teaching children to be sceptical about what they see online can inoculate them against mis- and disinformation.
The most obvious disinformation they are most likely to come across in the manosphere may be in the form of statistics, summaries of “academic” reports, and news articles about instances of female aggression or false rape allegations. They may also come across misleading content in educational or self-help posts, about improving their appearance or how to be successful.
Ask your children why they trust certain influencers and where they think their friends get their information. These kinds of questions can help them develop their own fact-checking skills without it seeming like a lesson.
3. Ask open-ended questions
Asking children about what they consume or what slang they use online can feel cringe. The best way to get around this is to ask simple open-ended questions such as “How do boys in your class talk about girls?” or “Have you ever heard of…?”
What you hear may be shocking, but approach it with curiosity and without judgment or dismissal to let them know they can share things with you.
If you are concerned about your child’s behaviour, you can also get support from resources such as Young Minds mental health support, the Center for Countering Digital Hate’s free parents guide or the government’s radicalisation helpline ACT Early. Getting support from government services is not a punishment. It won’t go on a person’s criminal record, but can provide access to governmental services like Prevent.
Annabel Hoare 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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sophie King-Hill, Associate Professor at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham
Netflix television series Adolescence has captured the attention of people across the UK – including the prime minister.
The series follows a 13-year-old boy accused of the murder of his female classmate. It touches upon incel online hate groups, toxic influencers and the misogynistic online spaces of the manosphere.
Adolescence is a drama and deserves the praise it has attracted. But it wasn’t developed as an educational resource, the kind that is produced in consultation with young people and schools and should be underpinned by robust research and well planned evaluations.
The series shows an extreme example of one teenager drawn into the world of the manosphere. Not all boys will see themselves reflected in this portrayal. And as a researcher working on masculinity and misogyny, my concern is that showing the series in schools may lead boys to think that they are all perceived as potential threats.
Showing the series as a teaching tool risks framing boyhood as monolithic, with one particular – and problematic – way of being a boy.
Already, a broad-brush, blame-heavy approach is often taken to boys in response to issues relating to sexual harassment and violence. “We may have a problem with boys and young men that we need to address”, Keir Starmer has said.
Boys dealing with blame
In research I have carried out for a forthcoming book on boys and masculinity, I worked with young men and boys aged 13 to 19. One 15-year-old boy said that “I am always told that I am part of the problem but never allowed to be part of the solution”. I also found that this broad blame culture leads to feelings of worthlessness in young men and boys, which shuts down vital dialogue and also may lead them to resort to looking for direction from negative spaces such as the manosphere.
It is evident from reports and evidence that young men and boys do carry out a large amount of reported sexual harassment and harms against young women and girls. This can be seen in the 2021 Ofsted report into sexual harassment in schools in England, for example. The 2025 2000 Women report states that, in the UK, a woman is killed by a man every three days.
There is evidently a serious, endemic and complex problem. The misogyny that can be popularised by toxic influencers online also needs urgently addressing.
But a “one-size-fits-all” approach to tackle “boys’ issues” may result in making things worse, not better, due to the lack of recognition of the intersectionality of boyhood. Other aspects of identity, such as race, age, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, sexuality and physical and mental health will have implications for the approaches that need to be taken.
My ongoing research has demonstrated that boyhood means differing things to different boys. In steering groups with young men and boys from various ethnicities and differing social classes, a consistent theme emerged. This was a conflict between the internal and external self that the boys felt that they had to portray. This was also highlighted in a further 16 focus groups carried out on the project, again with a range of boys.
The internal self refers to who the boys actually are, including other identity traits such as race and class, and all the other intersecting aspects of their identity. The external self is what they felt they should show as a boys to fit into the hierarchy of masculinity and how they should portray themselves to fit within the social expectations of being a boy. This causes a conflict of external and internal self.
Efforts to help boys deal with issues such as the messages of the manosphere need to be attuned to the nuance of their internal selves. Generalising boys does not account for the individual identities that they bring to the issues that affect them.
Boys as individuals
The monolithic perspective of “boys” and the ensuing group blame oversimplifies complex issues, resulting in less than effective solutions and interventions that do not acknowledge or account for the nuances and complexities that surround individual boys.
This approach ignores diversities and intersecting identities and steers societal thinking about boys as a set group. It risks stereotyping them and causing prejudicial approaches. When boys are stigmatised in such a way, it compounds issues across genders, breaks down valuable communication and can also cause resentment and hostility.
One of the key voices and valuable perspectives that is missing from this debate is that of young men and boys themselves. We need to truly listen to their perspectives and their needs and build upon these as they are the experts in the world they are experiencing. Good practice accounts for and builds upon these experiences, with young people.
My research has demonstrated that young people want to be a part of these discussions rather than having things decided for them. It also shows that, quite often, we are teaching them what they already know and providing support and education that is too little, too late. We need to move away from the broad brush blaming of boys and young men and begin to approach them based upon their own individual identities – of which gender is only a part.
Written in 1611, Shakespeare’s Cymbeline is a raw mess – full of feeling and as messy as life. The 18th-century man of letters, Samuel Johnson decried the play as a work of “unresisting imbecility”, a hotch-potch of incongruities.
It’s true that it’s hard to even know what kind of play Cymbeline is. The First Folio, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, presents it as the last of his tragedies. But it’s also, all at once, a history play, a pastoral, a fairytale, a pantomime and a tragicomedy.
Set in ancient Britain at the time of the birth of Christ, Cymbeline stitches together three plots. In one, Posthumus (the banished husband of Innogen, King Cymbeline’s daughter) accepts a wager with Iachimo that the sleazy Italian will not be able to seduce his wife. In the second, after 20 years, King Cymbeline’s abducted sons (and Innogen’s brothers) are restored to him. And in the third, refusing to pay tribute to the emperor, tiny Britain picks a fight with the majesty of imperial Rome.
What makes Cymbeline such a potent play for our own age of anxiety is how Shakespeare weaves a tale about the collapse of everything known, as connections dissolve, and lays out how we may discover ourselves anew in the radically altered world.
This article is part of Rethinking the Classics. The stories in this series offer insightful new ways to think about and interpret classic books and artworks. This is the canon – with a twist.
Written late in his career, in Cymbeline, Shakespeare rips up all the ways he’s been doing things and suddenly starts afresh. Here, some few years before his retirement, he foregoes the complex psychology of his great tragedies and opts for archetypes of fairytale and romance.
But in striking out for this new artistic territory, he also turns to himself as his own best source. Like an ageing rock band contracted for one last farewell tour, in Cymbeline, Shakespeare’s back playing the hits.
The plot of Cymbeline explained in 60 seconds by actors of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Like King Lear, Cymbeline is set in ancient Britain. Sneering Iachimo is Iago’s ghost and Posthumus, a dollar-store Othello.
Innogen is Shakespeare’s last cross-dressing heroine, passing as a boy, a faded echo of witty Rosalind of As You Like It and sad Viola of Twelfth Night. There’s fun in Rosalind and Viola’s changed identities, but Innogen puts on boy’s clothes to escape. Her father condemns her as disobedient for marrying Posthumus, and instead pushes her towards her step-brother, the fatuous bully Cloten.
Innogen’s time as a boy is joyless, as she learns that her beloved Posthumus wants her killed. She’s a new person now, not Innogen, but “Fidele”. Unmoored, adrift, she unwittingly finds her brothers, falls ill and mistakenly consumes a drug that puts her into a sleep so deep she appears to be dead.
She wakes from this seeming death beside a headless body that she takes to be her murdered husband, but is in fact the villainous Cloten. Desperate with grief, she touches the flowers that have been strewn on the corpse, and smears herself with his blood.
It’s as stark a scene as Shakespeare ever wrote in its unstable unity of tender beauty and suffering. Innogen sighs: “These flowers are like the pleasures of the world, This bloody man, the care on’t,” and in that conjunction sums up the extremities of life and of this play. When a Roman soldier finds her, she tells him: “I am nothing; or if not, Nothing to be were better.”
Dying to live
Politically, too, things are disintegrating. The play multiplies broken bonds, unpaid debts and contracts denied – including both the marriage contract, and the debt of tribute owed to Rome by Britain.
Following Innogen’s passage through suffering and figurative death, Posthumus undergoes the same process. He has already earned his name by outliving his parents.
Reduced, like Innogen, to all but nothing, believed to be dead, but actually in prison, Posthumus receives a vision of his dead family and of forgiving Jove, the divine father of the Roman Gods. Love and social unity have died, but in this mystical scene, the possibility returns of renewal.
Both Innogen and Posthumus must “die” to live. Off stage, in distant Bethlehem, a nativity takes place that signals the death of the old Rome – but also the regeneration of all things. And so the story commits itself to the reconciliation achieved in wonder.
This is a play where the word “miracle” becomes a verb, just as Innogen and Posthumus, and old, foolish King Cymbeline himself come to understand how even the most distressed life may open to bliss. “The gods do mean to strike me to death with mortal joy,” declares an amazed Cymbeline, as the play offers us a vision of that astonishing unity of suffering and redemption.
We may doubt that such wonder could exist for us today. But Shakespeare’s full look at the worst enables us too to imagine the sense of hopeful possibility found in his brilliant conclusion. It is a wonderful play.
Beyond the canon
As part of the Rethinking the Classics series, we’re asking our experts to recommend a book or artwork that tackles similar themes to the canonical work in question, but isn’t (yet) considered a classic itself. Here is Michael Newton’s suggestion:
There’s no other work of art so chaotic and so alive as Cymbeline. But H. F. M. Prescott’s The Man on a Donkey (1952) runs it close. I only discovered this novel a year ago, and I find it astonishing that so great a book could have remained hidden so long. Prescott follows Cymbeline in manifesting hope in a time of social collapse. It’s a novel of Henry VIII and the Reformation, centred on the “Pilgrimage of Grace”, when loyal Catholics rebelled against the dissolution of the church.
I read it while recovering from surgery, and it was just as well. If I had read it while at work I would have had to steal time off constantly to return to it. There are few novels so deep, so compelling, so beautiful. Like Cymbeline, it breaks all the rules of how to make a work of art, and caught up in its story you find out how little those rules matter when face to face with the complexity of the world and the depth of human beings.
Michael Newton 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.
The war in Ukraine is often marked by specific dates, like February 24, 2022 – the day of the full-scale invasion. But for many Ukrainians, that February never really ended. For me, then a 22-year-old master’s student in construction engineering, that day shattered everything I understood about my future. I was glued to my phone, refreshing news updates in a frantic attempt to make sense of the chaos.
The distant echoes of explosions rumbled through the city, shaking windows and setting off endless car alarms. Air raid sirens wailed, their sound slicing through the early morning stillness. Outside, people hurried past with suitcases, their faces pale and tense, while others lined up at pharmacies and ATMs, their hands trembling as they stocked up on essentials.
My family and friends sent frantic messages (Are you safe? Are you leaving? What do we do?) but no one had an answer. Fear settled in like a second skin, thick and suffocating. The streets, once familiar, now felt unrecognisable, transformed by the weight of uncertainty.
We were all touched by the war, including my family. My father, who is a scientist and professor of Mykolaiv University of Shipbuilding, voluntarily joined the military forces to fight for Ukraine and give my family the possibility to work and study while the war raged outside.
Meanwhile, my hometown, Mykolaiv – previously a strategically important shipbuilding and port city on the Black Sea – became a key stepping-stone for Russian forces on the road to Odesa. It is very close to currently occupied territories and the frontline.
The Insights section is committed to high-quality longform journalism. Our editors work with academics from many different backgrounds who are tackling a wide range of societal and scientific challenges.
Controlling access to the city and its bridges was crucial in the battle for Ukraine. The destruction of these bridges cut off vital supply routes, leaving Mykolaiv isolated and struggling to hold the line. What were once ordinary crossings became symbols of survival, as the city fought to stay connected and withstand the siege.
As my home was attacked, I realised something fundamental: bridges were not just engineering projects. They were lifelines.
Engineering hope
Rebuilding bridges and roads is about more than repairing physical structures; it is about restoring security, economic stability and vital connections between communities. A collapsed bridge isolates people from essential services, disrupting supply chains and deepening vulnerability. The war has exposed just how critical Ukraine’s infrastructure is for survival.
Mykolaiv is one of the hardest-hit regions. According to the Ukrainian government, more than 20 bridges were destroyed or severely damaged by Russian attacks, including the Inhul Bridge, a vital artery for the city.
The Snihurivka Bridge, another key crossing, was also wiped out, leaving thousands stranded without reliable access to healthcare and supplies. For months, humanitarian aid and commerce were forced onto alternative, unreliable routes, further isolating communities. The reconstruction of key bridges in my home region has allowed life to resume, but the scale of the challenge across the country remains immense.
Elsewhere, the destruction has been just as devastating.. The Irpin Bridge, north-west of Kyiv, which once carried 40,000 vehicles a day, became a symbol of both loss and survival. Ukrainian forces had to destroy the bridge to stop Russian advances on Kyiv. Thousands of civilians fled across its wreckage under fire.
Science: a light in the dark
Fast forward to the autumn of 2022. Ukraine’s power grid was under relentlessattack. Entire cities were plunged into darkness. I sat at my desk in Lviv, in western Ukraine, where I have been working on my PhD thesis. My laptop battery was draining and a single candle flickered beside me. I was writing a research paper on strengthening methods for buildings and infrastructure. Yet, all around me real infrastructure was collapsing, making my work feel disconnected from reality.
Laptop battery draining and a single candle flickers during one of the regular power cuts. Nadiia Kopiika
The city had endured weeks of missile strikes targeting critical infrastructure and power cuts became part of daily life. Simple tasks like boiling water for tea, charging a phone, or even sending an email became unpredictable challenges. The hum of generators filled the streets and people lined up at charging stations trying to stay connected. The darkness wasn’t just outside, it seeped into everything, a constant reminder that the war was never far away.
At that moment, a question struck me: what if science could help rebuild Ukraine? Could research, something that had once felt so theoretical, actually make a difference in the aftermath of war?
The project aimed to not only repair what was damaged but to build better infrastructure: homes that are more resilient, more sustainable and ready for future crises. Mitoulis recalled that the whole idea for BridgeUkraine was born out of a deeply personal moment:
I first thought of BridgeUkraine when I spoke with my former MSc student, Marat Khodzhaiev, who was in Ukraine when the war started. He was stranded in his house and at risk of missing the opportunity to graduate from his MSc course in the UK. All bridges around him had collapsed, there was no escape route. His wife was pregnant at the time. That call made me realise the urgent need, not only to rebuild infrastructure, but also to support and empower Ukrainian engineers to build their future. BridgeUkraine became more than just a research alliance, it became a mission that ensures that Ukraine’s recovery will be driven by its own people, equipped with the best knowledge and tools to rebuild their country.
The KSE Institute estimates that more than 300 bridges across Ukraine require urgent reconstruction, with damages exceeding US$2.6 billion. But this isn’t all about infrastructure; it is about securing Ukraine’s independence and ensuring that its economy and society can function even under the most difficult conditions. Every bridge rebuilt is a step toward recovery, a restored connection between families and communities, and a symbol of resilience.
To address these challenges, rebuilding Ukraine’s infrastructure cannot follow conventional methods. The sheer scale of destruction demands a new approach, one that not only restores what was lost but strengthens the country for the future.
At BridgeUkraine, we are developing solutions that prioritise resilience over quick fixes. Instead of rebuilding vulnerable structures, we are integrating sustainable materials, climate-adaptive engineering, and strategic planning to ensure that Ukraine’s transport networks are built to last.
Rebuilding fairly and efficiently
A comprehensive assessment conducted by the government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, the European Commission, and the United Nations estimates that the total cost of Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery stands at approximately €506 billion (US$524bn) over the next decade. This underscores the necessity for continued and enhanced international support to address the extensive needs arising from the conflict.
There are no academic guidelines on how to rebuild after such destruction. What is the most effective way to approach reconstruction in this context? We quickly came to the realisation that conventional methods were too slow and rigid to address the urgent and widespread damage.
Our research team wanted to re-imagine how to rebuild infrastructure and homes that are resilient to future challenges, from war-related destruction to climate-induced disasters. As Mitoulis told me:
Rebuilding infrastructure is not just about restoring roads and bridges, it’s about rebuilding lives. Our approach is centred on people, ensuring that the infrastructure is designed by Ukrainians, for Ukrainians. It must not only reconnect communities but also support economic recovery and long-term resilience.
But such ethical reconstruction must be inclusive, sustainable and community-driven, ensuring that those who depend on infrastructure have a say in how it is rebuilt.
Reconstruction must be a participatory, creative effort – one that rebuilds cities with beauty and meaning, connecting them to their past while preparing for the future. Too often, post-war recovery efforts have been dictated by external donors, prioritising short-term economic gains over long-term resilience.
People like me, who have grown up in these places, understand the culture, the rhythm of daily life, and the importance of preserving identity as well as buildings. We want to see our cities restored in a way that reflects our history and spirit.
For example, in post-second world war Warsaw, reconstruction efforts initially ignored the city’s historical character in favour of Soviet-style urban planning. It was only through the persistence of local architects and historians that parts of the Old Town were painstakingly restored to reflect their original designs.
Ukraine cannot afford such myopic, profit-driven decision-making. Instead, it must empower local communities, integrating their knowledge, needs and skills into the reconstruction process.
This vision started to take shape through workshop discussions with experts in geography and urban planning. Everyone agreed on the need for an adaptable transportation system where modular designs and relocatable, prefabricated bridges (like the Mabey bridge in US) could respond to evolving demands and disruptions.
Similarly, at the ReBuild Ukraine 2024 conference leading engineers, policymakers and researchers showcased groundbreaking technologies designed to accelerate reconstruction while reducing long-term environmental and economic risks (for example, nature-based solutions, 3D-printing, Virtual Reality and Building Informational Modelling).
Revolutionising damage assessment with AI, radar and satellite imagery
But to effectively plan for recovery and reconstruction, it’s crucial to first accurately characterise the damage. A clear picture of what has been destroyed allows for smarter decisions, prioritising the most urgent repairs and using resources effectively.
Our latest research, published in Automation in Construction, introduces a faster, more precise way to assess damage to key infrastructure, particularly bridges. Bringing together expertise from a large multidisciplinary team, we developed a new approach that combines satellite images and radar and artificial intelligence to swiftly and accurately analyse damage.
This technology allowed us to assess the condition of bridges remotely, without having to be onsite in dangerous or inaccessible areas. By providing rapid, data-driven insights, our method helps ensure that reconstruction efforts start where they are needed most, speeding up recovery and making rebuilding efforts more effective.
We tested this approach on numerous bridges in the Irpin region of Ukraine, and the results were striking. It significantly improved both the speed and accuracy of damage assessments. Using Sentinel-1 SAR images (radar satellite images from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus program), crowdsourced data (photos and reports from people on the ground), and high-resolution imagery, we developed a comprehensive approach for damage detection and classification.
This approach works on multiple levels: it provides a big-picture view of damage across entire regions while also zooming in on specific structural issues in individual bridge components. By combining satellite data with detailed images, our method makes damage assessments more precise, faster and safer, ensuring that reconstruction efforts focus on the most critical areas first.
These findings can play a crucial role in damage and needs assessment such as those conducted by the World Bank.
Sustainable infrastructure
In war zones, destruction often affects vital humanitarian and evacuation corridors, making it essential to prioritise reconstruction based on factors such as the national importance of a bridge, its role in border crossings, and its impact on social services.
But rebuilding after a disaster is also an opportunity to create something stronger, smarter, built to last – and with a sustainable focus.
From the first day of the invasion, Nadiia began volunteering at Lviv Polytechnic National University helping to weave camouflage nets. @kathryn_moskalyuk
Given Ukraine’s commitment to net-zero emissions and resilience, we expanded our research [and published a study] which introduced an innovative model for rebuilding infrastructure that can withstand future hazards while minimising carbon emissions. At its core, the model features a “smart prioritisation system” that helps decision-makers allocate resources effectively. It assesses key factors such as repair urgency, community impact and long-term durability, ensuring that rebuilding efforts provide the greatest benefits where they are needed most.
For example, when assessing damaged structures, the system prioritises projects that will provide the most long-term benefits. That might mean restoring energy systems to prevent future blackouts or repairing bridges that serve as key evacuation routes and economic lifelines.
As Stanislav Gvozdikov, deputy director of Euro-integration Process at Ukraine’s State Road Research Institute, told me: “Every bridge we restore, every road we reopen, isn’t just about infrastructure, it’s about restoring life, reconnecting families and ensuring that communities have the resilience to withstand whatever comes next.”
This is already a reality near my home town, Mykolaiv, where newly rebuilt bridges have restored transport links and also revived local economies, giving people hope for the future.
But no one rebuilds a country alone.
The UK-Ukraine 100-year agreement, announced in February 2025, underscored a deep commitment to Ukraine’s security, economic resilience, and post-war reconstruction. The partnership recognises the importance of cooperation between the UK and Ukraine to strengthen technological innovation and to increase collaboration in transport more widely.
I’ve also had the privilege of working with some of the brightest minds in the field, including more than 50 practitioners, consultants, academics, institutions and international bodies. This alliance of experts was united by a shared vision: to change the way the world approaches post-war reconstruction.
A key part of this mission is training engineers, equipping them with the latest knowledge in damage assessment, resilience-based and people-centred design and international standards to lead Ukraine’s reconstruction.
We come from different backgrounds – engineering, economics, policy, humanitarian efforts, and governmental bodies. But we all share the same motivation in wanting to help our country.
Leading researchers from Ukraine specialising in AI technologies, infrastructure engineering, sustainable and energy-saving buildings or climate change, are also members of BridgeUkraine. AI-specialist, Ivan Izonin has spoken passionately about how he believes that the collaborative efforts we have started “will lay the foundation for large-scale scientific projects that will be pivotal in post-war reconstruction…”. While Natalya Shakhovska , also a specialist in AI, recalled: “My activity in the BridgeUkraine alliance gave me the opportunity to align my research to critical infrastructure assessment, enabled by my AI modelling…Today I really feel included, I understand that my expertise is helping [my country’s recovery]”
Another enthusiastic Ukrainian researcher, Khrystyna Myroniuk, who specialises in building physics, told me how the collaboration had given her the opportunity to continue her “research on sustainable housing solutions for Ukraine”.
Stopping the brain drain
One of the most critical challenges facing Ukraine today, aside from the physical destruction, is the brain drain – the mass exodus of skilled professionals who left the country in search of safety and better opportunities abroad.
This trend has had a significant impact on the country’s ability to rebuild. Engineers, architects and other highly trained specialists have long been a pillar of Ukraine’s development. But the war has forced many to leave, with no clear path back to contribute to the reconstruction effort. BridgeUkraine is helping to reverse this trend by offering a compelling reason for these skilled professionals to return.
Our engagement with Ukrainian engineers then sparked another idea: what if we trained local professionals to apply our expertise, equipping them to drive this transformation within their engineering communities?
This ensures that Ukraine’s recovery is driven by its own people, equipped with the latest global knowledge. By bridging the knowledge gap and integrating the best methods and ideas from across Europe, Ukraine can position itself as a leader in resilient infrastructure design.
Our research was taken up by the Ministry of Restoration of Ukraine. Stanislav Gvozdikov collaborated with us to launch a joint programme of Continuing Professional Development seminars for engineers designed to help them stay up to date with the latest knowledge and skills in their field. To date, our expertise has been shared with over 1,500 Ukrainians.
Argyroudis emphasised to me how critical the role of engineers will be in Ukraine’s reconstruction, saying: “It’s about rebuilding Ukrainian identity as a country.”
The ultimate goal is to build a culture of innovation and self-reliance among local professionals who have the expertise and passion to drive this change.
Professionals can now contribute to projects and be part of a larger community of practice, which brings together engineers, academics and international partners.
I am, personally, incredibly proud to have had the privilege, over the past two years, to help empower Ukrainians to develop world-leading research that accelerates their country’s recovery.
Shaping tomorrow
My hometown, Mykolaiv, still bears the scars of war. Returning there, I saw firsthand what was lost. But also what could be rebuilt. War has taken, and continues to take so much, but it has also forged a new generation of engineers who understand that our profession is no longer just about calculations and designs. It is about resilience, survival and national recovery.
Three years ago, I would have imagined a very different career for myself. But today, I know that engineering is more than my profession, it is my mission.
I am committed to ethical and inclusive infrastructure recovery in Ukraine, because science must be the foundation of national resilience. Ethical reconstruction must prioritise people over profits, creating systems that empower and strengthen communities.
Ukraine’s recovery is about setting a global precedent for post-conflict reconstruction. Our research, training programs and commitment to innovation are laying the groundwork for a stronger, more connected Ukraine, offering a paradigm shift to the war-torn world. Because rebuilding is about more than replacing the past. It is about creating a future that can withstand whatever comes next.
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Nadiia Kopiika receives funding from British Academy. She is affiliated with University of Birmingham, UK and Lviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nigel Mulligan, Lecturer in Psychotherapy, School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health, Dublin City University
Imagine a therapist could live in your pocket. They’d be on hand for every wobble, every meltdown, every crisis – no matter where or when. They’d be cheap and accessible, so no more worries about finding the money for expensive therapy or lingering on a waiting list for months for NHS treatment. Sounds too good to be true?
Maybe, but few can deny the appeal of AI therapy, which uses artificial intelligence, like chatbots and digital platforms, to provide mental health support, guidance, coping strategies and structured exercises, often mimicking talk therapy.
The growing popularity of AI therapy may be troublingsome experts but it’s understandable why so many people are turning to this convenient and cost-effective resource for mental health support.
In the UK, an NHS mental health referral can take 18 weeks or longer. According to 2025 data from the British Medical Association: “Services are not currently resourced to meet the increased demand, resulting in long waits and high thresholds for treatment; latest estimates put the mental health waiting list at one million people.
It’s perhaps no wonder then that a growing number of young people, in particular, are turning to AI chatbots to help them cope with mental health issues.
But, while AI can prove beneficial for some – often as a supplement to human therapy – it isn’t an effective substitute for a human therapist. And it could even prove dangerous.
Psychotherapy, known as the “talking cure”, uses dialogue to explore thoughts and feelings to help clients understand and address mental health challenges. Psychotherapists are now using AI tools to improve their work in mental health treatment. For example, software such as ChatGPT is being used by therapists to carry out client assessments. They enter details of the client, such as their sex, age, and psychological issues. In response, the chatbot collates the information to create a treatment plan for the therapist to follow.
But, although AI is proving helpful for some therapists, people turning to chatbots for help with mental health crises might find the lack of human supervision and input far less useful.
Lack of Humanity
Chatbots can simulate empathy, but don’t understand or feel emotions. Human therapists can provide emotional nuance, intuition and a personal connection, which chatbots currently cannot replicate in a meaningful way. Chatbots also have a limited ability to understand complex emotions and can struggle with understanding the complexity of human emotions, particularly when the situation involves deep trauma, cultural context or complex mental health issues.
Chatbots, then, are unsuitable for those with severe mental health issues. The software may provide some support for less severe cases, but they aren’t equipped to deal with severe mental health crises, such as suicidal thoughts or self-harm. Human therapists, however, are trained to recognise and respond to these situations with appropriate interventions.
While chatbots can be programmed to provide some personalised advice, they may not be able to adapt as effectively as a human therapist can. Human therapists tailor their approach to the unique needs and experiences of each person. Chatbots rely on algorithms to interpret user input, but miscommunication can happen due to nuances in language or context. For example, chatbots may struggle to recognise or appropriately respond to cultural differences, which are an important aspect of therapy. A lack of cultural competence in a chatbot could alienate and even harm users from different backgrounds.
So while chatbot therapists can be a helpful supplement to traditional therapy, they are not a complete replacement, especially when it comes to more serious mental health needs. Human psychotherapy provides a supportive, safe space for clients to slow down, reflect, and explore their thoughts and feelings with expert guidance. Human therapists are held accountable through ethical guidelines and professional standards.
Some people might become overly dependent on chatbot therapists, potentially avoiding traditional therapy with human professionals. This could lead to a delay in receiving more comprehensive care when needed, making vulnerable people more isolated rather than easing their suffering.
The talking cure in psychotherapy is a process of fostering human potential for greater self-awareness and personal growth. These apps will never be able to replace the therapeutic relationship developed as part of human psychotherapy. Rather, there’s a risk that these apps could limit users’ connections with other humans, potentially exacerbating the suffering of those with mental health issues – the opposite of what psychotherapy intends to achieve.
Nigel Mulligan 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.
WATERLOO, Ontario, April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — eleven-x®, a global leader in smart parking and curbside management solutions, announced today that Clemson University in South Carolina will be utilizing the company’s award-winning eXactpark™ smart parking and curbside management platform to improve the parking experience for its 29,000 students and faculty via real-time guidance and wayfinding to available parking stalls. Over 10,000 wireless sensors will be installed in single space parking spaces across the 17,000-acre campus, making this initiative the largest university smart parking program in North America.
Clemson’s goal is to provide a positive campus environment for students, staff and visitors. A core component of this objective is to better the parking experience by making it quicker and easier to find a space. Since eXactpark’s centralized platform is capturing accurate, consistent usage data for each parking spot, real-time wayfinding and guidance are key features of the solution. Last month, eleven-x’s partner, Parking Guidance Systems, began installing wireless sensors in individual parking spots across campus to acquire 24/7/365 usage data. Additionally, more than forty digital signs will be set up across key corridors to guide drivers to open spots. The university is also leveraging eleven-x’s real-time parking navigation app, eXactav™, to efficiently direct drivers to available parking. Clemson will integrate eXactpark with the university’s TigersCommute app in order to share the live parking insights.
“We are excited and proud to help Clemson University realize its vision of creating the best parking experience for its community through accurate, true occupancy data,” said Dan Mathers, CEO, eleven-x, “Furthermore, this ambitious installation will demonstrate to other institutions how smart parking technology can positively transform parking operations.”
The comprehensive eXactpark solution provides Clemson with a holistic, data-driven understanding of their parking assets and how they are being used. Accurate data aggregation allows for improved policies and smarter future planning. Furthermore, the university can leverage actionable analytics to streamline operations by optimizing resources and improving parking management.
In addition to the Clemson initiative, eleven-x’s eXactpark solution is the platform of choice for one of the largest municipal smart parking installations in North America with Arlington County, VA. Last year, Arlington County’s Performance Parking Project received a Smart 20 Award from Smart Cities Connect. For information about eleven-x and its eXactpark Smart Parking Solution visit www.eleven-x.com.
About eleven-x® eleven-x is an industry leading IoT and Smart City technology company focused on improving the parking experience for all with its award-winning, smart parking technology solution, eXactpark™. A comprehensive software platform, eXactpark enables drivers to find available parking quickly and easily in real-time while delivering accurate and reliable 24/7/365 data to support numerous use cases including curbside management, demand-based pricing and improved compliance while helping optimize parking resources. Powered by the patented SPS-X wireless space occupancy sensor, eXactpark reduces traffic, improves safety and lowers GHG emissions. The solution is being utilized by cities and institutions across North America to successfully address mobility challenges. Customers rely on the company’s world-renowned expertise for an easy-to-use, fully scalable smart solution to deliver better services. Visit eleven-x.com for more information and follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Media Contact: eleven-x Inc.: Mark Hall – mark.hall@eleven-x.com | phone: 1.226.887.0011
A team of local government experts has praised Lancaster City Council for successfully delivering a plan to make its services even better.
Following a Corporate Peer Challenge (CPC) in April 2024, the council was told how it could make improvements to the way it serves the public.
A recent review of a plan for delivering these changes found that 85% of recommendations are on track and progressing well.
Particular praise was given for the council’s approach to community wealth building, economic resilience, and environmental sustainability.
Key areas of progress include:
Strengthened Community Partnerships: The Lancaster District Strategic Partnership (LDSP) has been formally established, bringing together key stakeholders, including local universities, NHS partners, third-sector organisations, and the Chamber of Commerce.
Economic Growth and Sustainable Development: The council has taken strategic steps towards developing an inclusive economic strategy, incorporating insights from Lancaster University’s ‘Before Eden’ research.
Commitment to a Sustainable Future: An early ‘call for sites’ process has been successfully implemented, ensuring alignment with the council’s Local Plan and climate action goals.
Enhanced Leadership and Governance: The council has invested in leadership development for senior officers and councillors, including dedicated training programmes and scrutiny enhancements.
Financial Sustainability: The ‘Fit for the Future’ transformation programme is driving efficiency, with a focus on aligning financial planning with long-term priorities and asset management.
Mark Davies, chief executive of Lancaster City Council, welcomed the findings: “The peer challenge process has helped to highlight some of the excellent work by staff and Elected Members to continually improve the council and the services we provide. The positive feedback from the LGA confirms that our strategic vision is making a real impact and we are delivering key improvements for our residents, businesses, and stakeholders.
“One of the areas the peer team highlighted was our Fit for the Future programme and the way the council is transforming its services in response to the continuing tough financial times in which local authorities are operating. This programme is helping to identify where we can become even more efficient while continuing to provide good services for our communities.”
A peer challenge is when representatives from councils nationwide spend time with another council to evaluate their performance, assess their ambition for residents, and determine if adequate resources are in place to fulfil those objectives. In the city council’s case, the peer challenge team gathered information and views from more than 50 meetings, in addition to further research, and spoke to more than 130 people, including a range of council staff, councillors and external stakeholders.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand
Eddy Maloka, the South African historian, diplomat and academic, argues in his latest book the case for South Africa to forge a “second republic”. What is meant by this is left undefined, but emerges as the making of a new constitution, establishing new institutions.
Maloka’s argument is that South Africa’s transformation since 1994 – the overthrow of an unjust political, economic and social order – has benefited only a few.
Today the country is in crisis – “think load-shedding (power cuts), potholes, economic decline, rampant corruption, collapsing state institutions etc” (p.ii).
This is not unusual, he avers. It is customary for post-revolutionary countries to encounter a crisis. South Africa must now overcome its own and move to a higher stage of development. It can do this by
reconstituting itself into a second republic.
As a social scientist, I have enjoyed Maloka’s previous work, notably his valuable history of South Africa’s Communist Party.
But his latest offering, The Case For a Second Republic – South Africa’s Second Chance, disappoints as ill-thought out, unable to rise above liberation movement theology. It fails to pull together its many interesting ruminations into a coherent whole.
Nonetheless, it is worth exploring his central argument about the need for South Africa to have a new start. It is one which has substantial popular currency – rarely spelt out in detail, but often expressed on social media, radio chat shows and in speeches by politicians who should know better.
Justification for a second republic
The storyline usually goes something like this: the former liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), and the National Party, which had been running South Africa since 1948, negotiated a political settlement in 1994. This has been undermined by the economic compromises which were agreed behind the scenes by large-scale capital and the ANC.
The incoming ANC elite was bought off with goodies such as directorships proffered by large firms, so that capitalism could continue much as usual.
The result has been that, despite the transfer of political power, the structure of the economy has been little changed. Whites continue to enjoy the major portion of the country’s wealth. Although the black elite has been enriched, the black majority continues to carry the burden of massive unemployment, poverty and inequality. It follows that South Africa needs to revisit the political settlement made in 1994.
Because there are significant elements of truth in this analysis, it has gained considerable traction. Witness the call by former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe party for the rewriting of the constitution. Zuma argues parliament should call the shots without being subject to the judgments of the constitutional court.
It’s a tempting call. However, it’s too simplistic. Yes, much of South Africa is broken, but there’s no easy way to fix it – and certainly not by an ill-informed transition to a second republic in the way Maloka suggests.
Out with the old, in with the new
The call for a second republic, declares Maloka, is a call for a strategic break with the 1994 dispensation. He cites the examples of African countries like Mali (where an attempt to re-found the state was made after a military coup in 2021) and Kenya, where after the political violence that followed the 2007 elections, there was an effort to revisit the constitutional foundations of the post-colonial state.
In both cases, new constitutions were drawn up and approved by electorates voting in referenda. In both cases, the re-foundation was principally about the state –
how it is constituted, its territorial governance, the powers of the executive, the separation of powers, and so forth.
But then Maloka admits that the re-foundation process is always going to be contested, and there is no guarantee that it will succeed.
Skotaville Publishers
Maloka views the liberation struggle as having been intended to establish a state based on “people’s power”, a vision endorsed by the ANC’s erstwhile Reconstruction and Development Plan. However, once it came into office, state power was appropriated by Leaders (capital “L”) acting only in their own interests. The people were disempowered, and now wait passively for government to deliver services to them.
There is therefore an urgent need for a post-1994 paradigm. This should:
re-mobilise people politically at a local level, so that they address local problems themselves
install a technocratic and meritocratic state led by performance-driven leaders
allow the direct election of representatives to provide for a parliament that holds the state to account.
Refounding the South African state
How to achieve all this?
Our approach should not be piecemeal … we should be decisive and overhaul the entire dispensation to align it with the times.
People’s power must be its central pillar. To do this, Maloka makes just three major recommendations.
First, he wants the machinery of government to be restructured. Provinces have not proved their worth. They should now be merged into the current system of local government, which could be incorporated into a new three tier state system (although we are not told how), with street committees as its third tier.
Second, the existing electoral system of proportional representation has made parliament and provincial legislatures accountable to party bosses, not the people. A reformed electoral system providing for public representatives and the president to be “directly elected” is necessary. (He dodges more precise discussion of electoral reform.)
Third, for these changes to be achieved, Maloka calls for the drawing up of a new constitution that should be validated through a national referendum. This should be achieved within two years.
No need for a second republic
What is so remarkable about Maloka’s book is that after delivering punchy critiques of the state of South Africa today, it fails to come up with a substantive case for a second republic, which is laid bare as an empty slogan.
If Maloka were to read paragraph 4 of chapter 3 of the existing constitution, he would find that there is already a carefully laid out provision for how bills to amend the constitution may be passed.
Why is it that this process cannot achieve the sort of changes that Maloka wants? If there is a need for wider social dialogue (there may well be), how is this to be achieved? He does not tell us.
However, there is a far more fundamental objection to his call for a second republic. That is that it would call into question the very foundation of the present constitution – its statement of the principles on which the democratic state is founded: human dignity and equality; non-racialism and non-sexism; supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law; and universal suffrage. The bill of rights affirms and protects all these values.
If Maloka wants to jettison these, he should tell us. As it is, his call for a second republic would put them up for grabs.
– South Africa needs a fresh start, says new book: but does the argument hold up? – https://theconversation.com/south-africa-needs-a-fresh-start-says-new-book-but-does-the-argument-hold-up-249502
Eddy Maloka, the South African historian, diplomat and academic, argues in his latest book the case for South Africa to forge a “second republic”. What is meant by this is left undefined, but emerges as the making of a new constitution, establishing new institutions.
Maloka’s argument is that South Africa’s transformation since 1994 – the overthrow of an unjust political, economic and social order – has benefited only a few.
Today the country is in crisis – “think load-shedding (power cuts), potholes, economic decline, rampant corruption, collapsing state institutions etc” (p.ii).
This is not unusual, he avers. It is customary for post-revolutionary countries to encounter a crisis. South Africa must now overcome its own and move to a higher stage of development. It can do this by
reconstituting itself into a second republic.
As a social scientist, I have enjoyed Maloka’s previous work, notably his valuable history of South Africa’s Communist Party.
But his latest offering, The Case For a Second Republic – South Africa’s Second Chance, disappoints as ill-thought out, unable to rise above liberation movement theology. It fails to pull together its many interesting ruminations into a coherent whole.
Nonetheless, it is worth exploring his central argument about the need for South Africa to have a new start. It is one which has substantial popular currency – rarely spelt out in detail, but often expressed on social media, radio chat shows and in speeches by politicians who should know better.
Justification for a second republic
The storyline usually goes something like this: the former liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), and the National Party, which had been running South Africa since 1948, negotiated a political settlement in 1994. This has been undermined by the economic compromises which were agreed behind the scenes by large-scale capital and the ANC.
The incoming ANC elite was bought off with goodies such as directorships proffered by large firms, so that capitalism could continue much as usual.
The result has been that, despite the transfer of political power, the structure of the economy has been little changed. Whites continue to enjoy the major portion of the country’s wealth. Although the black elite has been enriched, the black majority continues to carry the burden of massive unemployment, poverty and inequality. It follows that South Africa needs to revisit the political settlement made in 1994.
Because there are significant elements of truth in this analysis, it has gained considerable traction. Witness the call by former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe party for the rewriting of the constitution. Zuma argues parliament should call the shots without being subject to the judgments of the constitutional court.
It’s a tempting call. However, it’s too simplistic. Yes, much of South Africa is broken, but there’s no easy way to fix it – and certainly not by an ill-informed transition to a second republic in the way Maloka suggests.
Out with the old, in with the new
The call for a second republic, declares Maloka, is a call for a strategic break with the 1994 dispensation. He cites the examples of African countries like Mali (where an attempt to re-found the state was made after a military coup in 2021) and Kenya, where after the political violence that followed the 2007 elections, there was an effort to revisit the constitutional foundations of the post-colonial state.
In both cases, new constitutions were drawn up and approved by electorates voting in referenda. In both cases, the re-foundation was principally about the state –
how it is constituted, its territorial governance, the powers of the executive, the separation of powers, and so forth.
But then Maloka admits that the re-foundation process is always going to be contested, and there is no guarantee that it will succeed.
Maloka views the liberation struggle as having been intended to establish a state based on “people’s power”, a vision endorsed by the ANC’s erstwhile Reconstruction and Development Plan. However, once it came into office, state power was appropriated by Leaders (capital “L”) acting only in their own interests. The people were disempowered, and now wait passively for government to deliver services to them.
There is therefore an urgent need for a post-1994 paradigm. This should:
re-mobilise people politically at a local level, so that they address local problems themselves
install a technocratic and meritocratic state led by performance-driven leaders
allow the direct election of representatives to provide for a parliament that holds the state to account.
Refounding the South African state
How to achieve all this?
Our approach should not be piecemeal … we should be decisive and overhaul the entire dispensation to align it with the times.
People’s power must be its central pillar. To do this, Maloka makes just three major recommendations.
First, he wants the machinery of government to be restructured. Provinces have not proved their worth. They should now be merged into the current system of local government, which could be incorporated into a new three tier state system (although we are not told how), with street committees as its third tier.
Second, the existing electoral system of proportional representation has made parliament and provincial legislatures accountable to party bosses, not the people. A reformed electoral system providing for public representatives and the president to be “directly elected” is necessary. (He dodges more precise discussion of electoral reform.)
Third, for these changes to be achieved, Maloka calls for the drawing up of a new constitution that should be validated through a national referendum. This should be achieved within two years.
No need for a second republic
What is so remarkable about Maloka’s book is that after delivering punchy critiques of the state of South Africa today, it fails to come up with a substantive case for a second republic, which is laid bare as an empty slogan.
If Maloka were to read paragraph 4 of chapter 3 of the existing constitution, he would find that there is already a carefully laid out provision for how bills to amend the constitution may be passed.
Why is it that this process cannot achieve the sort of changes that Maloka wants? If there is a need for wider social dialogue (there may well be), how is this to be achieved? He does not tell us.
However, there is a far more fundamental objection to his call for a second republic. That is that it would call into question the very foundation of the present constitution – its statement of the principles on which the democratic state is founded: human dignity and equality; non-racialism and non-sexism; supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law; and universal suffrage. The bill of rights affirms and protects all these values.
If Maloka wants to jettison these, he should tell us. As it is, his call for a second republic would put them up for grabs.
Roger Southall 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.
A Palestinian woman cries while sitting on the rubble of her home, which was destroyed in an Israeli strike on March 18, 2025.Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images
Thirty years ago in Israel, advocating for genocide could land you in prison.
In April 1994, an Israeli rabbi named Ido Alba published an article that read, in part, “In war, as long as the war has not been decided, it is a commandment to kill every non-Jew from the nation one is fighting against, even women and children. Even when they do not directly endanger the one killing them, there is concern that they may assist the enemy in the continuation of the war.”
Now the legal system is ignoring similar rhetoric.
In December 2023, following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which resulted in the killing of approximately 1,200 Israeli civilians, soldiers and migrant workers, Rabbi Moshe Ratt, who’s seen as a public intellectual among Israeli West Bank settlers, composed a long post on Facebook.
In it, he noted that in the past, some people may have struggled with the morality of destroying an entire people, including women and children. Now they don’t. Obliquely referring to the Palestinians, he added, “Some nations have descended into such depths of evil and corruption that the only solution is to eradicate them completely, leaving no trace.”
Ratt’s and Vaturi’s words went unpunished. In fact, genocidal rhetoric like theirs – in which the entire destruction of a people is proposed – has become more common in Israel.
They date back to the 1930s, and have gained steam – and more public acceptance – as prospects for peace fell apart in the 1990s, existential anxiety among Israelis has grown, and religious Zionists have gained more political power in the 21st century.
Repeated violence and attacks can fuel existential anxiety among settlers, along with fantasies of achieving “permanent security” or absolute safety against future threats. Among Jewish Israelis, the collective memory of persecution – culminating in the genocide of European Jews during the Holocaust – has added another important layer to the longing for permanent security.
Biblical genocidal stories
In Israel, there’s also a history of biblical justifications for violence and genocide. This sort of rhetoric has waxed and waned over time; it’ll often exist on the margins in times of relative peace, but move into the mainstream during periods of violence and existential anxiety.
This created an opening for political leaders to use biblical texts to promote political goals.
The Bible contains some explicit narratives of annihilation. The most well known is the story of Amalek, a nomadic people identified in the Book of Deuteronomy as the archenemy of the Israelites. In Chapter 25, Moses commanded the Israelites to “blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” A related commandment involves the annihilation of the Seven Nations of Canaan, which inhabited the “promised land” when the Israelites conquered it. In Chapter 20, the Israelites are commanded: “You shall not leave a single soul alive. Completely destroy.”
Throughout Jewish history, these edicts and stories have generally been interpreted as historical accounts or as metaphors, not commands to commit genocide.
However, settlers of lands occupied by indigenous peoples – not just in Israel, but in other countries, too – have deployed these texts to condone mass violence. For example, in colonial America, Puritan settlers justified massacres of Native Americans by comparing them with Amalek.
During the Arab-Israeli war in 1948, Israeli army education officers distributed texts to soldiers that read, “In biblical times, Saul exterminated all of Amalek, men and women, youth and elderly, and even sheep and cattle.” The materials also noted that “biblical Joshua was commanded to annihilate the nations of the land and was forbidden to make any treaties with them.”
For religious Zionists, the state of Israel is a sacred endeavor. They’ve generally been less interested than secular Zionists in adhering to international norms and taking geopolitical considerations into account when pushing for the settlement of contested territories.
After 1967, religious settler movements were emboldened. Groups such as Gush Emunim pushed the government to settle the newly occupied territories, which included the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. For these religious Zionists, the settlement project is not simply a land grab: Settlers are taking land that the Bible has promised to them.
In 1980, Israel Hess, who then held the official position as rabbi of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, wrote in the student bulletin, “In a war between Israel and Amalek, it is a commandment to kill and annihilate infants and babies. And who is Amalek? Anyone who launches a war against the Jews.” These words triggered public backlash and prompted protests from several secular Zionist politicians.
Existential fears grow
In the 1990s, calls for widespread violence were largely marginalized, since there was hope for a political compromise with the Palestinians.
After these talks failed, however, the rhetoric and ideas of religious Zionists continued to migrate to the political center, particularly during and after the Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada. Taking place from 2000 to 2005, the uprising involving a series of suicide attacks in Israeli cities profoundly shocked the Jewish Israeli public, spurring the reemergence of deep existential anxiety.
Rescue workers rush an injured Israeli woman from the scene of a Palestinian suicide bombing on Jan. 27, 2002, in Jerusalem. Getty Images
With no peaceful solution for the conflict on the horizon, Israeli and Palestinian figures who viewed politics through a theological framework kept accumulating power.
In 2014, Ayelet Shaked, then a member of the Knesset and later the minister of justice, shared an article on social media that read, “The Palestinian people declared war on us, and we have to fight back … and in wars the enemy is usually an entire people, with its old men and women, its cities and villages, its property and infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, the dean of Quranic studies at the Islamic University of Gaza said in a 2015 television interview, “All Jews in Palestine today are fair game – even the women.”
As each side retaliated against the other, annihilation started to sound like a reasonable solution – a process that historian Yoav Di-Capua has termed “genocidal mirroring.”
The perfect storm
This mirroring does not imply a symmetry. Israel, with its superior military capabilities, has a significantly greater capacity to inflict harm on Palestinians.
The government formed in Israel following the 2022 election was unprecedented. For the first time in the nation’s history, the government depended upon ultranationalist religious factions, such as one called Jewish Power. The party has three official rabbis who advise its politicians. One of them, Dov Lior, is a prominent advocate of the idea that Palestinians are Amalek. Another, Yisrael Ariel, has written that the Torah’s commandment “Thou shalt not kill” does not apply to non-Jews.
As Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, the head of a military program for religious students in Jaffa, said in March 2024:
“If you don’t kill them first, they will kill you. The terrorists of today are the children of the previous operation whom you kept alive, and the women are those who produce the terrorists … Do not try to outsmart the Torah. The Torah tells you: ‘Do not keep alive any soul,’ so you should not keep alive any soul.”
Some secular Israelis joined in. Danny Neuman, a former football star and television commentator, said on TV in December 2023, “I am telling you, in Gaza, without exception, they are all terrorists, sons of dogs. They must be exterminated, all of them killed.”
Kinneret Barashi, a lawyer and a television host, tweeted in February 2025, “Every trace of the murderous mutations in Gaza must be erased, from the delivery rooms to the last elderly person in Gaza.”
These statements coincide with a grim reality on the ground. Since the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli retaliation in Gaza has cost the lives of more than 64,000 Palestinians. Public health experts estimate that the obliteration of infrastructure and corresponding starvation, lack of access to medical care and spread of infectious diseases, could bring the death toll to the hundreds of thousands.
Meanwhile, large swaths of the Israeli public appear to support the mass expulsion of Palestinians and condone the concept of genocide in the abstract, according to a recent poll I commissioned through the Israeli polling firm Geocartography.
In the representative sample of Jewish Israelis who were polled from March 10-11, 2025, 82% supported the forced expulsion of Gaza’s population to other countries, while 56% endorsed the expulsion of Israel’s Arab citizens. By comparison, according to a 2003 poll, only 46% supported the “transfer of Palestinian residents of the occupied territories,” and just 31% supported the “transfer of Israel’s Arab citizens.”
Moreover, in my poll I relayed a story from the Book of Joshua, in which the ancient Israelites conquered the city of Jericho and killed all of its inhabitants. When I asked respondents whether the Israeli army, when conquering an enemy city, should act similarly to the Israelites when they conquered Jericho, 47% of respondents said they should.
Tamir Sorek previously received funding from the Fullbright Program and the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation.
A portrait of President Donald Trump in the ‘America’s Presidents’ exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery.Win McNamee/Getty Images
I teach history in Connecticut, but I grew up in Oklahoma and Kansas, where my interest in the subject was sparked by visits to local museums.
I fondly remember trips to the Fellow-Reeves Museum in Wichita, Kansas, and the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. A 1908 photograph of my great-grandparents picking cotton has been used as a poster by the Oklahoma Historical Society.
This love of learning history continued into my years as a graduate student of history, when I would spend hours at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum learning about the history of human flight and ballooning. As a professor, I’ve integrated the institution’s exhibits into my history courses.
The Trump administration, however, is not happy with the way the Smithsonian Institution and other U.S. museums are portraying history.
On March 27, 2025, the president issued an executive order, “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” which asserted, “Over the past decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation’s history, replacing objective facts with a distorted narrative driven by ideology rather than truth. Under this historical revision, our Nation’s unparalleled legacy of advancing liberty, individual rights, and human happiness is reconstructed as inherently racist, sexist, oppressive, or otherwise irredeemably flawed.”
Trump singled out a few museums, including the Smithsonian, dedicating a whole section of the order on “saving” the institution from “divisive, race-centered ideology.”
Of course, history is contested. There will always be a variety of views about what should be included and excluded from America’s story. For example, in my own research, I found that Prohibition-era school boards in the 1920s argued over whether it was appropriate for history textbooks to include pictures of soldiers drinking to illustrate the 1791 Whiskey Rebellion.
But most recent debates center on how much attention should be given to the history of the nation’s accomplishments over its darker chapters. The Smithsonian, as a national institution that receives most of its funds from the federal government, has sometimes found itself in the crosshairs.
America’s historical repository
The Smithsonian Institution was founded in 1846 thanks to its namesake, British chemist James Smithson.
Smithson willed his estate to his nephew and stated that if his nephew died without an heir, the money – roughly US$15 million in today’s dollars – would be donated to the U.S. to found “an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.”
The idea of a national institution dedicated to history, science and learning was contentious from the start.
In her book “The Stranger and the Statesman,” historian Nina Burleigh shows how Smithson’s bequest was nearly lost due to battles between competing interests.
Southern plantation owners and western frontiersmen, including President Andrew Jackson, saw the establishment of a national museum as an unnecessary assertion of federal power. They also challenged the very idea of accepting a gift from a non-American and thought that it was beneath the dignity of the government to confer immortality on someone simply because of a large donation.
In the end, a group led by congressman and former president John Quincy Adams ensured Smithson’s vision was realized. Adams felt that the country was failing to live up to its early promise. He thought a national museum was an important way to burnish the ideals of the young republic and educate the public.
Today the Smithsonian runs 14 education and research centers, the National Zoo and 21 museums, including the National Portrait Gallery and the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which was created with bipartisan support during President George W. Bush’s administration.
In the introduction to his book “Smithsonian’s History of America in 101 Objects,” cultural anthropologist Richard Kurin talks about how the institution has also supported hundreds of small and large institutions outside of the nation’s capital.
In 2024, the Smithsonian sent over 2 million artifacts on loan to museums in 52 U.S. states and territories and 33 foreign countries. It also partners with over 200 affiliate museums. YouGov has periodically tracked Americans’ approval of the Smithsonian, which has held steady at roughly 68% approval and 2% disapproval since 2020.
Smithsonian in the crosshairs
Precursors to the Trump administration’s efforts to reshape the Smithsonian took place in the 1990s.
In 1991, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, which was then known as the National Museum of American Art, created an exhibition titled “The West as America, Reinterpreting Images of the Frontier, 1820-1920.” Conservatives complained that the museum portrayed western expansion as a tale of conquest and destruction, rather than one of progress and nation-building. The Wall Street Journal editorialized that the exhibit represented “an entirely hostile ideological assault on the nation’s founding and history.”
The exhibition proved popular: Attendance to the National Museum of American Art was 60% higher than it had been during the same period the year prior. But the debate raised questions about whether public museums were able to express ideas that are critical of the U.S. without risk of censorship.
In 1994, controversy again erupted, this time at the National Air and Space Museum over a forthcoming exhibition centered on the Enola Gay, the plane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima 50 years prior.
Should the exhibition explore the loss of Japanese lives? Or emphasize the U.S. war victory?
Veterans groups insisted that the atomic bomb ended the war and saved 1 million American lives, and demanded the removal of photographs of the destruction and a melted Japanese school lunch box from the exhibit. Meanwhile, other activists protested the exhibition by arguing that a symbol of human destruction shouldn’t be commemorated at an institution that’s supposed to celebrate human achievement.
Protesters demonstrate against the opening of the Enola Gay exhibit outside the Smithsonian Institution’s National Air and Space Museum in 1995. Joyce Naltchayan/AFP via Getty Images
Republicans won the House in 1994 and threatened cuts to the Smithsonian’s budget over the Enola Gay exhibition, compelling curators to walk a tightrope. In the end, the fuselage of the Enola Gay was displayed in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. But the exhibit would not tell the full story of the plane’s role in the war from a myriad of perspectives.
Trump enters the fray
In 2019, The New York Times launched the 1619 project, which aimed to reframe the country’s history by placing slavery and its consequences at its very center. The first Trump administration quickly responded by forming its 1776 commission. In January 2021, it produced a report critiquing the 1619 project, claiming that an emphasis on the country’s history of racism and slavery was counterproductive to promoting “patriotic education.”
That same year, Trump pledged to build “a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live,” with 250 statues to mark the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.
President Joe Biden rescinded the order in 2021. Trump reissued it after retaking the White House, and pointed to figures he’d like to see included, such as Christopher Columbus, George Washington, Betsy Ross, Sitting Bull, Bob Hope, Thurgood Marshall and Whitney Houston.
I don’t think there is anything wrong with honoring Americans, though I think a focus on celebrities and major figures clouds the fascinating histories of ordinary Americans. I also find it troubling that there seems to be such a concerted effort to so forcefully shape the teaching and understanding of history via threats and bullying. Yale historian Jason Stanley has written about how aspiring authoritarian governments seek to control historical narratives and discourage an exploration of the complexities of the past.
Historical scholarship requires an openness to debate and a willingness to embrace new findings and perspectives. It also involves the humility to accept that no one – least of all the government – has a monopoly on the truth.
In his executive order, Trump noted that “Museums in our Nation’s capital should be places where individuals go to learn.” I share that view. Doing so, however, means not dismantling history, but instead complicating the story – in all its messy glory.
The Conversation U.S. receives funding from the Smithsonian Institution.
Jennifer Tucker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The U.S. operates one of the largest and most punitive criminal justice systems in the world. On any given day, 1.9 million people are incarcerated in more than 6,000 federal, state and local facilities. Another 3.7 million remain under what scholars call “correctional control” through probation or parole supervision.
That means one out of every 60 Americans is entangled in the system — one of the highest rates globally.
Yet despite its vast reach, the criminal justice system often fails at its most basic goal: preventing people from being rearrested, reconvicted or reincarcerated. Criminal justice experts call this “recidivism.” About 68% of people who leave prison in any given year are rearrested within three years, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
It’s certainly easy to blame individuals for getting rearrested or reincarcerated. But if you take a closer look at life after release – which often includes employment discrimination, housing barriers and exclusion from basic social services – recidivism seems less like a personal failure, I would argue, and more the workings of a broken system.
As a sociologist, I know that people are rarely given a “second chance” after conviction. Instead, they must navigate a web of legally imposed restrictions. Roughly 19 million people in the U.S. have a felony record, subjecting them to thousands of “collateral consequences,” in the words of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. These restrictions dictate everything from what jobs they can take to where they can live.
I’ve recently undertaken research to understand the scale of this issue, aided by my former undergraduate student Skylar Hathorn, who is set to begin a master’s degree in the fall. What we found was sobering. As sociologist Reuben Miller and historian Amanda Alexander have put it, people convicted of felonies are transformed into “carceral citizens.”
Why probation and parole are part of the problem
Probation is community supervision, typically imposed by courts as an alternative to incarceration, and parole is a type of prison release under community supervision. While community supervision was originally designed to help those convicted of crimes reintegrate into society – through mentorship, supportive services and other resources – today, in my view, it largely functions as a punitive surveillance system.
Instead of helping people reintegrate, the system enforces rules – such as forbidding contact with friends or family members who have criminal records – which create new challenges for people trying to rebuild their lives after prison. As one individual from my recent study on reentry put it, “That shit ain’t helping nobody.”
On average, people under community supervision must comply with 10 to 20 conditions, such as mandatory drug tests, regular check-ins with supervising officers, or curfews. These requirements are typically set at the state, county or city level, and can be supplemented with “discretionary” or “special” conditions imposed by court or parole officials.
But while community supervision is supposed to encourage reintegration and personal responsibility, its conditions are often unrealistic, creating hidden traps rather than pathways to success.
For example, imagine you’re lucky enough to find a decent job despite having a criminal record – but your probation officer schedules weekly meetings during your work hours. Do you skip work and risk losing your job? Or miss the meeting and risk a violation? Research shows that this dilemma is common. In one study of almost 4,000 people on probation, 55% missed at least one meeting with their parole officer, increasing their risk of reincarceration.
What if you aren’t able to find a job or can’t afford to pay the supervision fees charged each month? Does contact with a family member who happens to have a criminal record defy a condition of your supervision? Will a speeding ticket land you in jail, since you aren’t supposed to have any contact with law enforcement? What happens if you struggle with addiction and fail a drug test? Or what if you forget to charge your electronic ankle monitor — will your parole officer suspect foul play?
Depending on the conditions of your release, all of these seemingly minor snags could land you back behind bars. That’s why some scholars describe this system as a “parole- and probation-to-prison pipeline.” According to recent estimates, 35% to 40% of yearly prison admissions are of people who were on community supervision at their time of rearrest. In some states, over half of all prison entries are of people on either parole or probation.
State-level success stories – and failures
Importantly, if you’re on probation or parole, your chances of being sent back to prison are very different depending on where you live. You can see just how different by visiting the Justice Outcomes Explorer, a new data dashboard created by the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System. For example, among Idahoans who began a term of probation in 2018, roughly 16.6% were sent to prison within a year. Among Minnesotans, it was just 1.6%.
According to the Justice Outcomes Explorer, parole outcomes are even worse, though yet again they vary by state. Among those released on parole in 2018 from Utah prisons, roughly 51.6% were reincarcerated within a year. In California, that number was less than 7%. Although some variation may come from differences in data collection, much of it reflects policy choices.
Part of the problem is that probation and parole offices vary considerably. For instance, some states cap how long someone may remain on parole, while others allow parole boards to extend that time indefinitely. This creates a system where, in effect, parole boards operate as resentencing entities. Differences in supervision fees, restrictions on associating with others, and the use of electronic monitoring also vary by state.
Research suggests that Americans under community supervision must comply with many more conditions than they did just a few decades ago, which raises the question: Does any of this work?
For example, one study compared people who were randomly placed under intensive probation supervision — requiring more office check-ins, home visits and drug tests — with those under traditional supervision. Researchers found that while both groups committed new crimes at the same rate, those under intensive supervision received technical violations – such as failing a drug test or not following curfew – more often, and were incarcerated more.
In another rigorous study out of Kansas, using what researchers call a “natural experiment,” legal scholar Ryan Sakoda found that post-release supervision significantly increased reincarceration rates. This suggests that community supervision keeps people trapped in the system, rather than helping them escape it.
In fact, according to estimates from the Council of State Governments, almost one-quarter of all prison admissions are due to technical violations of supervision, not new crimes. And even progressive states can enforce technical rules rigidly. For instance, Massachusetts sends a relatively small number of people back to prison or jail while they are on parole. But after retrieving data from a public records request, Skylar and I found that between 2020 and 2022, roughly 80% of all parole revocations were due to technical violations.
That said, the overall number of people admitted to U.S. prisons for technical violations has fallen significantly over the past few years. In 2018, roughly 133,000 people were admitted to prison for technical violations. By 2021, that number was around 89,000 – a decrease of about 33%.
Rethinking community supervision
Historically, community supervision wasn’t intended to be a form of punishment — it’s supposed to help individuals reintegrate. But that’s not the way it currently works. If states are serious about reducing crime, they should think about reinventing the system.
In 2021, New York implemented the “Less is More” Community Supervision and Revocation Reform Act, which reformed parole and reduced incarceration for technical violations. The act limits jail time for such violations to 30 days, allows early parole release and requires court hearings within 30 days. Within the first month of being enacted, the number of technical parole violators had fallen by 40%. By April 2022, technical violators only made up 1.7% of the daily state jail population. They had previously made up about 5% on average.
Along with policies that prevent criminalization in the first place, states that want to prevent recidivism could consider dedicating more resources to programs that help people with life after release. Offering supports such as housing and even direct cash assistance would help people reintegrate into society and create safer communities, research indicates.
On a similar note, criminal records limit access to a range of resources and opportunities such as housing, higher education, voting and social benefits like basic food assistance.
Simply having a criminal record also reduces the likelihood – by roughly 60% – that someone receives a callback after applying for a job. That’s why Skylar and I support automatic criminal record expungement, among other structural reforms.
Put plainly: Research points toward a system in need of comprehensive solutions. Without them, many will remain in the incarceration trap.
Skylar Hathorn, a recent graduate of Suffolk University and master’s student starting in September 2025, contributed to this article.
Lucius Couloute has previously received funding from Mayors for a Guaranteed Income to carry out independent research on the impacts of direct cash transfers in the lives of formerly incarcerated people. Lucius is also a board member of the Prison Policy Initiative.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Rita V. Burke, Associate Professor of Clinical Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California
The fires first erupted on Jan. 7, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades, a small enclave of Los Angeles, and in Eaton Canyon, where the tight-knit community of Altadena is nestled in the foothills just north of Pasadena. Fierce winds pushed the flames through neighborhoods, making this one of the top five most destructive wildfires in California history.
In the immediate aftermath of this disaster, much of the focus has been, rightfully, on lives lost, homes damaged or destroyed, and the ability to maintain livelihoods. But noticeably missing from most media coverage have been the consequences of the wildfires for children and discussion of the unique challenges they face surrounding disasters.
But when the destruction impacts your own community, it hits differently. Like many others, we were directly affected by the school closures and poor air quality in the Los Angeles area.
We both had friends and colleagues who suffered property damage in the fires, including Rita’s best friend who lost her home in the Altadena fire. Our work, which focuses on disaster recovery and resilience in children, suddenly felt deeply personal.
We are currently studying the effect of wildfires on families and what factors help children recover faster and lead to more resilient lives.
The importance of schools
School districts across the region closed their doors due to dangerous air quality and structural damage. This included the Los Angeles Unified School District, which is the second-largest in the nation, serving over 500,000 students. Some schools were destroyed, while others were left with hazardous conditions, including toxic ash from burned homes. Even when schools reopened, many parents and caregivers were worried about sending their children back into classrooms that might not be safe.
According to the Education Recovery Scorecard, as of spring 2024 the average U.S. student remained nearly half a grade level behind prepandemic achievement in math and reading, which points to the long-term impacts of school closures.
Rita’s best friend who lost her home shared that when it came to her children, her immediate priority “was getting them back into some type of normalcy.”
To her, this meant sending them back to school, but this wasn’t possible right away. “With the holidays and then the fires, my daughter was out of school for almost two months,” she said.
Her concerns about her children echo those of many parents in the wake of disasters.
After the 2020 Slater Fire in Happy Camp, California, a rural town about 25 miles south of the Oregon border, we conducted focus groups with children who had lost homes and schools.
Our study found that despite experiencing profound loss, many of the children expressed gratitude for their communities and an eagerness to rebuild. Their perspectives revealed both resilience and critical gaps in disaster response – gaps that we see unfolding in Los Angeles today.
One of the biggest lessons from the Slater Fire and other disasters is that children recover best when they are given a sense of stability and normalcy as quickly as possible. The faster children can return to a routine, the better their emotional and academic outcomes tend to be. Schools, child care facilities and structured activities all play a crucial role in this process.
Helping children cope with stress
To assist parents and caregivers in navigating difficult conversations after a natural disaster, substantial research has explored how to talk to kids about disasters.
For families navigating the emotional toll of this disaster, open conversations are key. Avoiding the topic in an attempt to protect children can make them more anxious. Instead, caregivers should create space for children to express their emotions and ask questions. Children’s responses to trauma vary based on their age and experiences, but common reactions may include anxiety about future wildfires, trouble sleeping, and withdrawing from activities they once enjoyed.
Children need help from the adults in their lives to cope with stress after a natural disaster.
Children may react differently, and it is important to be on the lookout for signs of stress. Younger children between ages 1 and 5 may become more irritable and may exhibit signs of developmental regression.
Tweens and teens may also find comfort in the shared experience with their friends. Rita’s best friend shared that her 11-year-old daughter and 10 of her friends named their chat group “70% homeless,” a telling reflection of how they are processing the disaster together.
Caring for our children after a disaster
Organizations such as Project:Camp, a nonprofit that provides pop-up camps for children affected by disasters, have stepped in to offer immediate child care relief in Eagle Rock, California, about 8 miles from Altadena. These programs not only support children’s mental health by offering structured, trauma-informed care in a fun environment, but they also give caregivers the time and space necessary to begin rebuilding their lives.
The services provided by these sorts of programs can serve as models that can be incorporated into the planning process for cities and counties. This allows more time for adults to focus on recovery needs while limiting the time that children must spend alone.
For families still struggling after the LA fires, we recommend talking to school counselors, seeking community support and contacting local disaster relief programs.
Looking ahead
Rebuilding after a disaster is about more than just reconstructing homes and infrastructure. It’s about restoring a sense of security for families, especially children.
If there is one thing our research has taught us, it is that children are incredibly resilient. But resilience is not built in isolation. Rather, it comes from strong support systems, thoughtful policies and communities that put their youngest members first in times of crisis. Prioritizing schools and child care centers in recovery plans helps to ensure that children can return to safe, supportive environments as soon as possible.
Rita V. Burke received funding from funding from the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder with the Support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Science Foundation for this work. She is also funded by the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. She is also Chair of the Board of Advisors for Project:Camp.
Santina Contreras receives funding from the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder with the Support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Science Foundation.
Participants in a ‘United for Israel’ march, led by The Pursuit NW Christian Church, stand on the University of Washington’s campus in May 2024.Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images
During confirmation hearings, Mike Huckabee, President Donald Trump’s nominee as ambassador to Israel, told senators that he would “respect and represent the President,” not his own views. But the Baptist minister’s views on the Middle East – and their religious roots – came through.
“The spiritual connections between your church, mine, many churches in America, Jewish congregations, to the state of Israel is because we ultimately are people of the book,” he said on March 25, 2025, in response to a question from a senator. “We believe the Bible, and therefore that connection is not geopolitical. It is also spiritual.”
Huckabee is one of the GOP’s most prominent “Christian Zionists” – a phrase often associated with conservative evangelicals’ support for Israel.
But Christian Zionism is much older than the 1980s alliance between the Republican Party and the religious right. American Christian attitudes toward the idea of a Jewish state have been evolving and changing dramatically since long before Israel’s creation.
Theologians for Israel
Zionism’s modern form emerged in the late 19th century. Its declared aim was to create a Jewish homeland in the region of Palestine, then under control of the Ottoman Empire. This was the land from which Jews were exiled in antiquity.
The “founding father” of the modern movement was Theodore Herzl, an Austro-Hungarian Jewish intellectual and activist who convened the first Zionist Congress in Switzerland in 1897. While most of the 200 attendees were Jews from various parts of the world, there were also prominent Protestant Christian leaders in attendance: church leaders and philanthropists who supported “the restoration of the Jews to their land.” Herzl dubbed these allies “Christian Zionists.”
Catholic leaders, however, were not among the supporters of a Jewish state. The prospect of a Jewish state in the Christian Holy Land challenged the church’s view of Judaism as a religion whose people were condemned to permanent exile as punishment for rejecting Christ.
Eventually, in the wake of the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel, attitudes shifted. In 1965, reforms at the Vatican II council signaled a radical change for the better in Catholic-Jewish relations.
In contrast, Protestants were more open to Jews’ aspiration to return. In 1917, the British foreign secretary published the Balfour Declaration, announcing government support for “the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.” With the British victory over the Ottoman Empire, the area soon fell under British control in the form of the League of Nations’ Mandate for Palestine.
In the U.S., the idea elicited enthusiasm among conservative Christians who hoped that the Jews’ return to Israel would help hasten the end times, when they believed Christ would return. Within a few years, Congress endorsed the Balfour Declaration.
Pastor W. Fuller Gooch summed up the evangelical reaction to the Balfour Declaration: “Palestine is for the Jews. The most striking ‘Sign of the Times’ is the proposal to give Palestine to the Jews once more. They have long desired the land, though as yet unrepentant of the terrible crime which led to their expulsion.” This “terrible crime” refers to Jews’ rejection of Jesus – one of multiple anti-Jewish tropes in the sermon.
Pivotal moment
Two decades later, prominent American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr declared himself a supporter of political Zionism. Unlike evangelicals, Niebuhr’s support for a Jewish state was based on pragmatic grounds: Considering the dangerous situation in 1930s Europe, he argued, Jews needed a state in order to be safe.
A 1963 photo of Reinhold Niebuhr, one of the most influential theologians from the U.S. AP Photo
In the early 1940s, Niebuhr wrote a series of articles titled “Jews After the War” for The Nation magazine. His biographer Richard W. Fox called these articles “an eloquent statement of the Zionist case: The Jews had rights not just as individuals, but as a people, and they deserved not just a homeland, but a homeland in Palestine.”
Thus, in the 1930s and ‘40s, two different types of American Christian Zionism emerged. Some liberal Protestants, while giving qualified support to Zionism, expressed concern for the fate of the Palestinian Arabs. Conservative evangelicals, on the other hand, tended to be more hostile to Arab political aspirations.
In 1947, on the eve of the United Nations’ vote on the partition of Palestine, Niebuhr and six other prominent American intellectuals wrote a long letter to The New York Times, arguing that a Jewish state in the Middle East would serve American interests. “Politically, we would like to see the lands of the Middle East practice democracy as we do here,” they wrote. “Thus far there is only one vanguard of progress and modernization in the Middle East, and that is Jewish Palestine.”
In 1948, the U.S. government, at President Harry Truman’s direction, granted the newly declared state of Israel diplomatic recognition, over the objections of State Department officials.
There were, of course, prominent Americans who objected to recognizing Israel, or to embracing it so strongly. Among them was journalist Dorothy Thompson, who had turned against the Zionist cause after a Jewish militant group bombed Jerusalem’s King David Hotel in 1946. These opponents made the case for supporting emerging Arab nationalism and Palestinian autonomy and asserted that recognizing Israel would deepen America’s entanglement in the unfolding Middle Eastern conflicts.
But by the late 1950s and ‘60s, American criticism of Israel was increasingly muted. Liberal Christians, in particular, viewed it as a beleaguered democratic state and ally.
Rightward shift
Conservative Christian Zionists, meanwhile, continued to often view “love of Israel” through a biblical lens.
In the late ’60s, the American journal Christianity Today published an article by editor Nelson Bell, father-in-law of famous evangelist Billy Graham. Jewish control of Jerusalem inspires “renewed faith in the accuracy and validity of the Bible,” Bell wrote.
Rev. Jerry Falwell, on the right, listens as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gives a speech to a conservative Christian group in Washington in 1998. William Philpott/AFP via Getty Images
Fifteen years later, televangelist Jerry Falwell told an interviewer that Jewish people have both a theological and historical “right to the land.” He added, “I am personally a Zionist, having gained that perspective from my belief in Old Testament scriptures.”
These Christians, like some Jewish religious Zionists, saw “the hand of God” in Israel’s conquest of East Jerusalem during the Six-Day War of 1967. They considered any territorial compromise with Arab states and the Palestinians to be an act against God.
During the 1980s, as the Republican Party forged alliances with the emerging religious right, Israel would become a core cause for the GOP. Some liberal Jews who supported Israel grew alarmed by these ties and by the rightward shift in Israeli policies toward the Palestinians.
Yet this brand of Christian Zionism is clearly the forerunner to today’s – and holds sway in Washington. Today, 83% of Republicans view Israel favorably, compared with 33% of Democrats. Republicans in Congress are pushing to use the biblical terms “Judea and Samaria” instead of “the West Bank.” Evangelical Christian Zionists continue to call for support of the Israeli right and of settlers in the occupied territories.
In 2009, when Huckabee was considering a presidential campaign, he visited Israel and met with settler leaders. On hearing of Huckabee’s presidential aspirations, a rabbi said, “We hope that under Mike Huckabee’s presidency, he will be like Cyrus and push us to rebuild the Temple and bring the final redemption.” The rabbi was referring to the biblical story of Cyrus, King of Persia, and his proclamation that the exiled Jews be allowed to return to Zion.
Seven decades after the state of Israel’s founding, evangelical Christian Zionism’s influence is greater than ever. This turn to the political right is very far from the mid-20th century Zionism of Truman, Niebuhr and the Democratic Party.
Shalom Goldman does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Nearly 90% of U.S. Christian religious leaders believe humans are driving climate change. When churchgoers learn how widespread this belief is, they report taking steps to reduce its effects, as we found in our research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
We examined data collected in 2023 and 2024 from a nationwide survey of 1,600 religious leaders in the United States. The sample included religious leaders from fundamentalist and evangelical churches, Baptists, Methodists, Black protestants, Roman Catholic denominations and more – all recruited to match the proportions of churches across the country. The survey assessed religious leaders’ beliefs about climate change and whether they discuss climate change with their congregations.
According to that data, while the overwhelming majority of Christian religious leaders accept the human-driven reality of climate change, nearly half have never mentioned climate change or humans’ role in it to their congregations. Further, only a quarter have spoken about it more than once or twice.
Why it matters
When it comes to climate change, faith communities are often seen as divided. There is an assumption that religious conservatism and climate skepticism go hand in hand. This assumption is based on religious beliefs such as that the Earth was created by God and therefore humans cannot and should not alter it, along with rejection of climate science and diminished concern about climate change.
We then surveyed a sample of Christian Americans from major denominations across the country and found they think roughly half of Christian leaders in the U.S., and in churches like their own, deny that humans cause climate change. Given the actual number is closer to 1 in 10 based on the data we examined, it appears Christians overestimate the prevalence of climate denial among their leaders by around five times the level found in polling.
Churchgoers who think their religious leaders don’t believe humans cause climate change report being less likely to discuss it with fellow congregants and less interested in attending events that aim to address climate change or raise awareness of the issue.
The research also tested what would happen if we informed churchgoers of the true level of consensus among their religious leaders who accept that climate change is driven by humans. In a brief survey, Christians were told the percentage of Christian leaders nationally, and among their denomination specifically, who accepted that human activities cause climate change. As a result, we found, their perceptions and attitudes toward climate change shifted in a variety of ways.
Specifically, churchgoers who were informed about the actual consensus among religious leaders in accepting climate change were more likely to state that “taking action to reduce climate change” was consistent with their church’s values.
Churchgoers who received this information were also more likely to feel it would be inconsistent with their church’s values to vote for a political candidate who opposes actions that could slow climate change.
These findings highlight that religious leaders have a unique power to influence climate action – but only if they let their beliefs be known.
These findings are not focusing on what is going on in specific churches and denominations. We provided churchgoers only with information on the consensus of acceptance of human-made climate change among Christian religious leaders across the U.S. A natural next step is to conduct research with religious leaders to examine the impact of their communication directly with their congregations, including if they convey the consensus described in this work.
Religious leaders, often viewed as moral guides, have the ability to reshape climate discourse within faith communities. If they vocalize their acceptance of human-made climate change, we believe they can correct widespread misperceptions, foster dialogue and encourage action in ways that secular authorities may struggle to achieve.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
Stylianos Syropoulos is affiliated with DearTomorrow, the See Change Institute, the Applied Cooperation Initiative and Think Beyond The Pump.
Gregg Sparkman receives funding from the National Science Foundation.
As soon as the genetic testing company 23andMe filed for bankruptcy on March 23, 2025, concerns about what would happen to the personal information contained in its massive genetic and health information database were swift and widespread. A few days after, a U.S. judge ruled that the company could sell its consumer data as part of the bankruptcy.
The attorneys general of several states warned their citizens to delete their genetic data. California urged its citizens to request that 23andMe delete their data and destroy their spit samples. Michigan’s attorney general released a statement warning that “23andMe collects and stores some of the most sensitive personal information, our genetic code.”
When customers originally signed up for 23andMe, they agreed to terms and conditions and a privacy notice that allows the company to use their information for research and development as well as share their data, in aggregate, with third parties. If consumers consented to additional research, which the vast majority did, the company can additionally share their individual information with third parties. 23andMe has also been clear that if it is involved in a bankruptcy or sale of assets, consumer information might be sold or transferred.
While 23andMe has warned customers all along about everything that is currently happening, many are still surprised and concerned.
I’m a lawyer and bioethicist who has been studying direct-to-consumer genetic testing for almost a decade. Understanding what information 23andMe has been collecting, and how it might be used if sold or shared, can help clarify concerns for consumers.
The direct-to-consumer business model is fairly straightforward: A consumer orders a genetic test kit online, spits into a tube that comes in the mail, returns it to the company and accesses their results in an online portal. Over 15 million consumers bought 23andMe, and the vast majority consented to its research. At its peak, the company was valued at US$6 billion.
The fate of the trove of personal information 23andMe has gathered over the years has wide-ranging implications for consumers.
Reasons for this rapid decline include a decrease in the sale of test kits after a 2023 hack of almost 7 million people’s data, as well as a failure to profit enough from providing data access to other private sector companies. Lack of private interest in 23andMe data may be related to the fact that much of the information the company collects is self-reported, which is often considered less reliable than information written down by a doctor in a medical record.
What kind of data does 23andMe collect?
While the saying goes “If you’re not paying, you’re the product,” 23andMe managed to convince its consumers to both pay for AND be the product. It did this by selling genetic testing kits to consumers as well as collecting a massive amount of their valuable data.
This means that not only does 23andMe possess the genetic data of 15 million people, but it also possesses almost a billion additional data points associated with this genetic information. This makes the 23andMe dataset potentially very private – and very valuable.
At first, drug companies seemed to agree. For example, in 2018, 23andMe granted pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline an exclusive license to use consented customer data to develop new drugs. GlaxoSmithKline also made a $300 million equity investment in 23andMe. When 23andMe went public in 2021, its $6 billion valuation reflected the promise of this business model.
But for over a decade, scholars, including me, have been warning that allowing 23andMe to collect and use personal data was not one that customers fully understood, or were actually comfortable with.
What should 23andMe customers worry about?
In response to current public concern about data privacy, 23andMe has stated that there will be no changes to how it stores and protects data during its bankruptcy proceedings. But once that stage is through, what exactly should customers worry about?
First, law enforcement could use genetic information in civil or criminal cases. This happened in 2018, when police used the genetic testing company GEDmatch to help identify the Golden State Killer. Police pretended they were customers looking for genealogy data and sent in an old crime scene blood spot. This allowed them to connect to known suspects with blood relatives who had given their genetic information to the company as consumers. While this was in violation of GEDmatch’s own policies, the evidence was successfully used in court.
Second, genetic information could be used to discriminate against customers if it shows that they have or are at high risk of developing a genetic disease or disorder. The federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibits health insurers and employers from asking about genetic information or using it to discriminate in work or health insurance decisions. It does not, however, protect against discrimination in long-term care or life insurance.
Giving someone your genetic, medical and personal information gives them opportunities to exploit you. Westend61/Getty Images
Many of the warnings from the media and attorneys general are focused on genetic information because it is unique to only one person. But direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies also retain a massive amount of personal information from the surveys consumers are asked to complete. Much of this information could be embarrassing if it were inadvertently or intentionally revealed, such as a person’s intelligence.
In the 2025 book “Careless People,” former Meta executive Sarah Wynn-Williams reported that Facebook would use indications of self-consciousness about personal appearance, such as deleting a selfie, to promote beauty products. If companies know such intimate details about a person, they could not only be used to sell products, but also potentially manipulate them over social media or the internet in ways they do not even realize. It could be used for targeted advertising or to build algorithms that exploit a person’s vulnerabilities.
I believe consumers are right to be worried about how their genetic data could be misused. But the survey data containing all sorts of other personal information are at least as much, if not more, of a privacy problem. This is particularly concerning if the data is pooled together with other information available on the internet, like a dating profile, to create a more detailed – and personal – picture of an individual.
I am deleting my own 23andMe data. In the future, I would also warn consumers against freely gifting the private sector with information about their fears, hopes, limitations and successes.
That information is valuable to more people than just you.
Kayte Spector-Bagdady receives funding from the National Center for Advancing Transnational Sciences and the Greenwall Foundation.
Imagine you’ve planned the trip of a lifetime for your animal-loving family: a cruise to Antarctica with the unique opportunity to view penguins, whales and other rare wildlife. Your adventure-loving kids can kayak through fjords, plunge into icy water and camp under the Antarctic sky.
But rather than being ecstatic, as you anticipated, your kids whine about skipping an after-school scout meeting at a neighbor’s house. Missing this ordinary weekly event triggers such intense FOMO – “fear of missing out” – for them that they don’t want to go on your amazing expedition.
If this kind of debacle sounds familiar to you – or at least if you find it perplexing – you’re not alone. The three of us are marketingprofessors andsocial psychologists who focus on how consumers make decisions and how this shapes well-being. We’ve been studying FOMO for over a decade and recently published our work in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Over the years, we’ve learned what really drives intense feelings of FOMO – which explains why a run-of-the-mill meeting might feel more crucial than an over-the-top vacation.
FOMO’s real trigger
People use the term FOMO in many different ways. In our research, we focus on a very specific type of FOMO: the kind that occurs when people miss out on events that involve valued social connections.
With this kind of FOMO, we found that the pain of missing out is not related to missing the actual event or opportunity – although that could be there as well. The FOMO we study happens when people miss the chance to bond with friends, co-workers or teammates they care about.
So, the critical part of FOMO is missing out on interactions with people you value. FOMO about a group dinner at a restaurant isn’t really about the food and great lighting. Nor is FOMO about a concert just about the band’s performance. Instead, it’s about the lost opportunity to connect and make memories with people who are important to you.
Why is this upsetting? Imagine the scenario where all your best friends go out to dinner without you. They bond and make lasting memories with each other – and you’re not there for any of it.
If they get closer to each other, where does that leave you? What happens to your social relationships and your sense of belonging? Do you become a less important friend? Less worthy of future invites? Or even kicked out of the group altogether? The anxiety of FOMO can begin to spiral.
People with what psychologists call an anxiousattachment style chronically fear rejection and isolation from others. Because FOMO involves anxiety about future social belonging, it may not come as a surprise that people who are naturally more anxious about their friendships tend to get more intense FOMO. When we asked people in one of our studies to scroll social media until they encountered something social they missed, we found that the more anxiously attached a participant was, the more intense FOMO they experienced.
Getting FOMO for an amazing event you can’t attend makes sense. But if FOMO is less about the event itself and more about the social bonding, what happens when you miss something that’s not really fun at all?
We find that people anticipate FOMO even for unenjoyable missed events. As long as there is some form of missed social bonding, feelings of FOMO emerge. One of our studies found that people anticipated more FOMO from missing an un-fun event that their friends would be at, than a fun event without their friends.
For better or for worse, sad and stressful events can often be emotionally bonding: Going to a funeral to support a friend, cleaning up the mess after a party, or even white-knuckling through a harrowing initiation ceremony can all offer opportunities to forge stronger connections with one another. Stressful contexts like these can be fertile grounds for FOMO.
How to fend off FOMO
Popular discussions about the negative consequences of FOMO tend to focus on the FOMO people feel from compulsively scrolling on social media and seeing what they missed out on. Consequently, much of the suggestedadvice on howto mitigate FOMO centers on turning off phones or taking a vacation from social media.
Those recommendations may be tough for many people to execute. Plus, they address the symptoms of FOMO, not the cause.
Our finding that the core of FOMO is anxiety about missed social relationships yields a simpler strategy to combat it: Reminding yourself of the last time you connected with close friends may provide a sense of security that staves off feelings of FOMO.
In an experiment testing multiple interventions, we asked 788 study participants to look through their social media feeds until they encountered a post of a missed social event. We asked about 200 of these participants to immediately rate how much FOMO they were feeling. They averaged a 3.2 on a 1-to-7 scale.
Another group of about 200 participants also scrolled through their social media feeds until they encountered a post of a missed social event. But before indicating how much FOMO they were feeling, we asked them to think back to a prior experience socializing and bonding with their friends. Encouragingly, this reflection exercise seemed to curtail FOMO. Their average FOMO rating was 2.7 out of 7, a significant drop.
Reminding yourself about other good times with your pals can help keep FOMO at bay. AJ_Watt/E+ via Getty Images
With the remaining participants, we tested other strategies for mitigating FOMO – thinking about the next time they might see their friends or imagining what they’d say to a FOMO-suffering friend – but the simple reflection exercise was by far the most promising.
So, reminding yourself of the meaningful relationships you already have and reaffirming your social belonging in the moment may help combat the rush of anxiety that is characteristic of FOMO.
And missing out on social bonding experiences doesn’t have to be anxiety-provoking. In fact, in our activity-packed, hectic lives, missing some “must-attend” events may be a welcome relief – especially if you remind yourself that your social belonging is not in jeopardy. Cue a recent wave of counter-FOMO programming called JOMO, or “Joy of Missing Out.”
To quote Stuart Smalley, the fictional self-help guru of 1990s “Saturday Night Live,” reminding yourself that “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” might be just the trick to mitigate FOMO.
Jacqueline Rifkin received grant funding support for this project from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI).
Barbara Kahn received funding from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) and research support from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Cindy Chan received grant funding support for this project from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI).
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
The international student construction team “Dune” has completed its work in Egypt. 49 people from different parts of our country worked at the construction site of the first Egyptian nuclear power plant “El-Dabaa”. Polytechnic University was represented in the team by fifth-year student of IPMET Darina Zaitseva and sixth-year student of ISI Maria Khorosheva.
The International Student Construction Team “Dune” was founded in 2021 and is a labor project of the All-Russian Youth Public Organization “Russian Student Teams”. The host organization of the labor project is the holding company “TITAN-2” (a strategic partner of the State Corporation “Rosatom”). This is one of the largest holdings that carries out construction, installation and other types of work at construction sites in Russia and abroad.
Darina Zaitseva worked at the construction site of the nuclear power plant in the economics and finance directorate (control and other expenses department). She kept a register of memos on employee transfers, processed documents and entered information into a special program. Based on the results of her work, Darina was recognized as the best fighter in the detachment.
Of course, this is an unforgettable experience. Both in terms of working in another country and in terms of working on a project of such a scale! I never thought that I would ever be able to take part in the construction of a nuclear power plant. Immersion in another culture, completely different from ours, gave me vivid impressions. It is one thing to come as a tourist, and another to live for two months in constant interaction with local residents. And I want to say a big thank you for the fascinating excursions to the management of the TITAN-2 holding. In general, no matter how you look at it, this entire trip was filled with new experiences and unforgettable emotions! – said Darina.
Maria Khorosheva worked in the quality control directorate, visiting the construction site daily as part of the inspection commission. In addition to work, excursions were organized for the children to the Alexandria Library, the World War II Museum in El Alamein, and, of course, to Cairo to visit the famous pyramids of Giza.
Working on such a large-scale project once again proved to me how much I love construction. It was very interesting not only to watch, but also to participate in the construction of a unique industrial building, such as a nuclear power plant. For me, this experience showed what kind of construction industry I would like to work in. And, of course, I went abroad for the first time and fulfilled my childhood dream – to visit Africa! – shared Maria.
El Dabaa NPP is the first nuclear power plant in Egypt. It is being built in the city of the same name in the Matrouh Governorate on the Mediterranean coast, approximately 300 kilometers northwest of Cairo. El Dabaa consists of four power units with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts each, equipped with Russian-class VVER-1200 water-moderated reactors of the latest third generation.
In 2022, workers at the El Dabaa NPP successfully completed the course of Russian as a foreign language and received certificates. The training was organized by the Rosatom Technical Academy as part of the comprehensive training of specialists. The training complex, designed for accelerated language acquisition, was developed by teachers of the Center for Russian as a Foreign Language (Center for RCL) of the Higher School of International Educational Programs of SPbPU.
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.
CAMPBELL, Calif., April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Celona, a pioneer in private 5G networks, today announced the expansion of its industry leading neutral host solution with the addition of AT&T. Celona Neutral Host allows organizations to improve the customer experience for cellular subscribers by extending public cellular coverage into environments with poor cellular reception.
Certified previously with T-Mobile, the solution is now extended to millions of AT&T subscribers when they walk into a building covered by a Celona 5G LAN network, delivering on the stringent Key Performance Indicator (KPI) requirements of each operator. The solution is powered by Celona’s cloud-based Multi Operator Exchange (MOXN) that creates a secure tunnel to the operator public network.
With Celona Neutral Host, any device, such as smart phones and tablets with SIMS/eSIMs from AT&T and T-Mobile, can automatically detect, authenticate and connect to the Celona 5G LAN over CBRS spectrum. The data and voice sessions are seamlessly routed to the respective mobile operator networks. Completely transparent to users, Celona Neutral Host appears exactly like each carrier’s regular public cellular services – allowing subscribers to automatically connect and authenticate to the service on their cellular devices with excellent quality. No special setup is required from either the user or the operator.
Celona has officially achieved the certification of its 5G LAN solution with AT&T after completing a suite of interoperability and regulatory test cases in the AT&T lab. The solution then successfully completed a large-scale live production trial with Stanford Health Care. The certification of Celona Neutral Host ensures the highest levels of service integrity for AT&T subscribers, including support for high quality voice and data services, emergency services including e911 calling, and other vital subscriber services with full regulatory compliance.
Available immediately within the United States with support for AT&T and T-Mobile subscribers, Celona Neutral Host is capable of concurrently advertising up to five different mobile network operators (MNO) as well as a discrete private wireless network signal for specific enterprise use cases.
By leveraging and sharing the existing enterprise LAN and WAN infrastructure, private 5G-based neutral host networking is a modern approach developed to provide high quality cellular coverage while roaming from the public network onto the private network. Celona Neutral Host is simply enabled on the Celona 5G LAN, increasing public cellular network coverage and capacity while dramatically reducing capital and operating expenses. This creates a unique advantage of the Celona solution – it works for businesses of all sizes – from the smallest retail store to the largest hospital. Included in the Celona solution is the flagship Celona AP 20 indoor multimode access point that supports both 4G and 5G, so that enterprise can meet both today’s and tomorrow’s coverage requirements.
At the heart of the solution is Celona’s MOXN technology. A cloud-hosted multi-site, multi-tenant software exchange, Celona’s MOXN technology simplifies operations and manageability by removing cumbersome and costly hardware burdens. With MOXN, mobile subscriber traffic is aggregated and securely tunneled to the MNO core network, making the entire experience completely seamless to users while guaranteeing subscriber service level agreements and KPIs for each MNO’s public cellular service.
Celona Neutral Host can be deployed and operational in a fraction of the time at nearly half the cost of legacy distributed antenna systems (DAS), giving enterprises unrivaled control and management over in-building public cellular services. The solution is under enterprise IT’s control, without the burden and cost of additional on-site equipment. Celona offers enterprises flexible deployment and pricing options that allow neutral host to be easily enabled on existing Celona private wireless networks or discretely deployed as a standalone solution for neutral host only services.
Private wireless neutral host solutions are ideally suited for healthcare environments, large retailers, offices, hotels and universities. Stanford plans to expand the deployment of private 5G neutral host networks to multiple buildings across several sites throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. “Stanford Health Care is pioneering advancements in healthcare, dedicated to enhancing the experience and the outcomes for our patients and clinical staff,” said Christian Lindmark, CTO of Stanford Health Care and Stanford School of Medicine. “Beyond ensuring reliable public cellular connectivity within our facilities, we envision utilizing this platform to establish a secure private wireless network dedicated to essential medical technologies, including clinical communication, patient monitoring and clinical video streaming.”
“Celona Neutral Host represents a significant advancement in enterprise connectivity and is an even more compelling solution now that AT&T has joined,” said Mehmet Yavuz, Co-founder and CTO at Celona. “Due to their rigorous test and certification process, AT&T can ensure their customers receive the superior cellular service they expect. And enterprises simply sign one contract with Celona. It’s fast, simple and cost effective.”
ABOUT CELONA
Based in Silicon Valley, Celona is a pioneer and leading innovator of enterprise private wireless solutions. The company developed the industry’s first 5G LAN system, a turnkey private 5G solution that enables enterprises to address their growing needs for secure and reliable wireless connectivity for critical business applications. Celona 5G LAN has been deployed by a wide range of global customers across industries. To date, the company has raised over $135 million in venture funding from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, NTT Ventures, Cervin Ventures, DigitalBridge and Qualcomm Ventures. For more information, please visit celona.io/neutral-host.
The “Student Health Service(SHS)Annual Health Report for 2023/24 School Year” was released today, indicating an improvement in primary students’ overweight condition, but the proportion of students spending two hours or more using the Internet or electronic screen products for recreational purposes has increased.
In the 2023-24 school year, around 257,000 primary students and 173,000 secondary students received annual health assessment services at the Department of Health’s Student Health Service Centres (SHSCs).
The prevalence of being overweight including obesity among primary students decreased from 19.5% in the 2022-23 school year to 16.4% in 2023-24, a record low since the 2014-15 school year.
However, the prevalence of being overweight among secondary school students remained high at 20%. In the 2023-24 school year, 94.4% of students reported insufficient physical activity, ie not being able to engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity per day.
About 89.9% of students, 83.5% primary and 97% secondary, reported an inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables per day, ie an average of less than four servings for primary school students and less than five servings for secondary school students.
Highlighting the inappropriate use of electronic screen products among students, the department recommended that children aged between six and 12 should limit recreational screen time to less than two hours a day.
According to health assessment questionnaires, 43.3% of primary students indicated that they spent two or more hours using the Internet or electronic screen products for recreational purposes on a typical school day, which is higher than in the pre-COVID years of around 30%. The products include computers, tablets, smartphones, video games and television.
For secondary students, the proportion was higher at 80.9%. The department has set up a webpage to assist parents and teachers in handling related issues.
The state of vision among the students remains less than ideal. The proportion of primary one students wearing glasses was 14.3%, similar to the 14.8% in the previous school year, but still much higher than the pre-COVID years of about 11%.
The proportion of students wearing glasses was higher among students at higher grades, up to 53.8% among primary six students. Among the students with a visual acuity test done in the 2023-24 school year, 18.5% required further assessment by SHS optometrists or the private sector due to a failed preliminary visual acuity test, other eye or visual problems.
Regarding psychosocial health, a majority of students reported that they very much enjoyed family life (94.3%) and school life (92.4%). However, some students were identified to have psychosocial problems warranting attention.
In the 2023-24 school year, 2.2% and 1% of students reported they had planned or attempted to commit suicide in the past 12 months, slightly lower than the previous school year (2.8% planned and 1.3% attempted) and similar to the levels in the 2018-19 school year.
The department’s professional staff promptly provided the students concerned with an immediate risk assessment, support or arranged referrals for further evaluation and management.
In the 2023-24 school year, 1.4% of students receiving annual health assessment services at SHSCs were referred to SHS clinical psychologists or other organisations for further assessment and management.
“I celebrate her,” heartwarmingly shares Mom Jacqueline Vanderhoof this World Autism Awareness Day on April 2 about the amazing difference her daughter Fiona, 4, is already making in the world to advance scientific knowledge and a potential new treatment for those with autism spectrum disorders, especially profound autism like hers.
Meet Fiona Vanderhoof, 4, of Philadelphia who is changing the world and autism research by sharing her cells for advanced study at UConn School of Medicine.
As a baby Fiona was diagnosed with a genetic condition that causes profound autism known as Dup15q Syndrome.
“We noticed Fiona wasn’t holding her head up like an infant should and she started doing some weird involuntary movements of her arms and shuttering. We called the pediatrician, and to them it seemed like she was having seizures. We took her down to the ER and ultimately, she was diagnosed with epilepsy. But as part of that journey, we did genetic testing.”
Her mother says Fiona’s medical journey speaks volumes of the vital importance of doing follow-up genetic testing to catch a possible diagnosis and to inform a child’s care.
“The genetic testing came back right away that she has what’s called Dup15q syndrome, she basically has an extra chromosome, similar to Down syndrome, so she has an extra piece of her fifteenth chromosome. Through that journey we learned the disorder causes autism among other symptoms,” shared Vanderhoof.
Due to the genetic condition of Dup15q, Fiona is very significantly developmentally delayed. Also, her verbal communication is very challenged as well as her understanding of spoken language.
“But the very good news is she says a few words now, and we never thought that could happen! We also didn’t know if she would ever walk, but she does now! She’s very active and it’s really great!” Mom happily reports. Also, Fiona’s repetitive seizures are now under control, and she’s been weaned off her epilepsy medication. But her mother says it’s a waiting game to see if the seizures ever come back.
“The unknown is very hard,” stresses Mom. “But thanks to Fiona’s shared cells we’re so close to finding a new genetic therapeutic to help her and others with autism,” Mom happily shares.
Research at UConn School of Medicine was recently awarded funding in February by the Eagles Autism Foundation and UConn’s research findings could directly impact Fiona’s future.
Fiona Vanderhoof developed profound autism due to the genetic autism-linked condition Dup15q Syndrome. But her diagnosis is not slowing her down. Fiona is a very active child.
After Fiona’s diagnosis Vanderhoof became a self-proclaimed “science nerd” to find more answers and to help more kids with autism.
“I had a mobile phlebotomist come to the house and take Fiona’s blood samples to create specialized cells in a lab in California so they could be shared with scientists for further study,” Vanderhoof says.
“I made cell lines and had them shipped to UConn for research after contacting Dr. Eric Levine’s Lab,” Vanderhoof said. “I now talk to Dr. Levine and his UConn team, and they say, ‘I’m working on Fiona’s cells’ or ‘we used Fiona’s cells today for this and that.’ I’m so glad they are putting her cells to good use! Anything we can do to help autism!”
“It’s a hope, but soon a reality, we are going to have a gene therapy in the next few years. That’s really exciting!” Vanderhoof exclaims. “Our biggest hope is to improve the quality of life for these kids like Fiona.”
“We love the Philadelphia Eagles,” says Vanderhoof whose family lives in Philadelphia and are now championing the growing grant funding awarded by the organization for the study of autism and future treatments. “This past year they were able to fund two different Dup15q syndrome researchers a total of $800,000 which is fantastic!”
For Fiona’s Dup15q genetic disorder the Eagles Autism Foundation grant is funding UConn and Levine’s research looking into the genetic makeup of that extra piece of chromosome.
“The fact that this UConn researcher is looking into that really gives me hope that in her lifetime there will be a therapeutic that will help her. I am not looking for a cure and not looking to fix Fiona. We love her,” says Vanderhoof. “That all gives me a lot of hope for kids like Fiona that have the same syndrome. One of the big things that is concerning with her Dup15q syndrome are the seizures and what that can do for her quality of life and what that does to her development.”
And this World Autism Awareness Day and every day, Fiona’s mom wishes for one thing.
“It’s so important that rare and profound autism stays top of mind too. Don’t lose sight of these kids and their challenges. They are so special!”
The cutting-edge autism research of UConn Neuroscientist Levine and his lab won $400,000 in research funds thanks to football fans donating to the annual Eagles Autism Challenge. His lab’s work explores autism’s genomic genesis and identifying genetic pathways that may cause autism spectrum disorders and better ways to study them. His team has been studying the two rare, genetic disease syndromes that also result in profound autism, Dup15q Syndrome and Angelman Syndrome. They impact about 1 in 5,000 children.
While it still is not clear yet scientifically about autism spectrum disorders’ genetic origins, it is known that both of these autism-linked syndromes are connected to a child’s genetic differences that lead to a missing piece of a chromosome (Angelman Syndrome) or chromosomal duplication (Dup15q Syndrome) in the same 15q11-q13 region.
Levine’s innovative autism research at UConn is reprogramming the donated skin or blood cells of patients like Fiona to develop them in the lab into brain cells that exactly mirror each patient’s genomics for further study.
“This is really unique, personalized medicine, and a better way for us to study the genomics and physiology of a real child’s brain cells and the possible role multiple genes may be playing leading to autism. All kids are different. We can analyze the physical structure of their neurons, measure intracellular calcium dynamics, and record functional electrical activity,” says Levine, is grateful to have received donations of cells from families for study like the Vanderhoof’s. “It’s very exciting to pivot our autism research to translational research studying actual patient-derived human neurons.”
In his translational research efforts, Levine hopes to compare neurons of patients and identify what role various genes play in the brain cells of the patients with syndromes also causing autism, and how their brain cells behave differently, and even test what possible current drugs or new drugs might be beneficial to patients to improve both their symptoms and quality of life.
“There is so much to learn about the brain,” says Levine, whose work as a neuroscientist every day is driven by his fierce curiosity to learn more and more about how the brain works, and also inspired by the autism patients and families he has had the privilege to meet like the Vanderhoof family.
UConn Neuroscientist Dr. Eric S. Levine in his lab at UConn School of Medicine conducting cutting-edge autism research (Photo by Lauren Woods).
“The families I have met are so grateful for our autism research efforts, and more hope is on the way. It is a very exciting time for autism research and real, tangible progress and results with research advances and drug clinical trials,” says Levine. “Our focus at UConn is finding the next generation of therapies,” says Levine, whose ultimate goal for his autism research is exploring the future power of gene testing and gene therapy for autism spectrum disorders and related-syndromes, including very early-on in life whether in-utero or during a young child’s life.
“If we can better understand the common pathway in the brain for these two genetic syndromes that lead to autism, we may someday understand other forms of autism, especially what causes behavioral issues such as loss of verbal communication, cognitive deficits, and impaired motor-function skills,” says Levine.
The University of Connecticut thanks and celebrates you, Fiona!
In the Arctic, permafrost plays a crucial role in building infrastructure. However, as the region warms and permafrost thaws, infrastructure is threatened as the ground shifts beneath the built environment. Unfortunately, the full extent of the risks associated with this process is not yet understood, but researchers are working to address this knowledge gap.
UConn Department of Natural Resources and the Environment researchers, including Ph.D. student Elias Manos and Assistant Professor Chandi Witharana, along with Anna Liljedahl from the Woodwell Climate Research Center, developed a method that uses high-resolution satellite imagery and deep machine learning to double the mapped infrastructure of Alaska and more accurately project economic risks associated with permafrost thaw. Their findings are published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment.
Witharana says this is the latest in his research group’s long-term study of how satellites can help monitor changes in the Arctic landscape over time, in this case, the largely unaccounted for risks of thawing permafrost for communities and their vital infrastructure like buildings and roads.
“The main focus here is, there was a visual gap for infrastructure, and we need to have more detail to create critical information layers for downstream analysis like economic risk. We didn’t have that for Alaska,” says Witharana.
A home in Point Lay, Alaska that is affected by thawing permafrost. (Photo courtesy of Benjamin Jones)
The motivation behind this research stems from the need to understand hazards in a changing world, says Manos. However, those assessments cannot happen without a clear understanding of what is in harm’s way.
“We know that local temperatures are rising and there is change in the frequency, intensity, and timing of extreme weather and hazardous events. Whether they are rapid onset events like hurricanes, flooding, wildfires, or slow onset hazards like droughts, permafrost thaw in this case, we need to understand the potential harm these events pose,” says Manos.
Manos says that permafrost serves as a structural foundation where piles are secured through it and buildings are designed to help maintain its thermal integrity. It is, therefore, essential that the pile foundation remains stably anchored into the permafrost, but the structural integrity is compromised as this layer thaws.
“When the temperature of permafrost starts to increase, piles start to shift out of place, and that’s what we call bearing capacity loss, or decrease in bearing capacity. That was the main hazard that we looked at which impacts buildings,” says Manos. “Then there’s also transportation infrastructure that’s primarily impacted by ground subsidence. When ice-rich permafrost thaws, the ground will cave in and that was the hazard we used to assess the disaster risk for roads.”
Previous studies made risk estimates based on data from OpenStreetMap (OSM), which is one of the most widely used geospatial data sets available, says Manos. OSM is available for every nation across the globe, and information is updated by volunteers who manually input local data, like buildings, trails, roads, or other kinds of infrastructure, from high-resolution imagery on a global scale.
For some regions, like Europe and parts of the United States, the data is accurate, says Manos, but that is not true for all locations. Unfortunately for the Arctic, OSM data is lacking.
Top four panels (and two zoom-ins) show delineations of buildings, roads, and storage tanks predicted by the infrastructure detection model from Maxar satellite imagery of four different Alaskan communities (Utqiagvik, Kotzebue, Hooper Bay, and Bethel). The bottom panel compares the map produced by the UConn team’s methodology (titled High-resolution Arctic Built Infrastructure and Terrain Analysis Tool (HABITAT)) to other existing Arctic infrastructure data products. OpenStreetMap is a widely used open-source geographic database supported by volunteer mapping efforts. As displayed, OpenStreetMap is often incomplete in many areas of the Arctic. The Sentinel-1/2 derived Arctic Coastal Human Impact dataset (SACHI) is a circumpolar-scale map of Arctic buildings, roads, and other human-modified land produced with machine- and deep-learning algorithms and Sentinel-1/2 satellite imagery. As displayed, this dataset has a comparatively coarse resolution that struggles with identifying individual objects. (Courtesy of Maxar, Inc. and Annett Bartsch)
“There are several previous risk studies that relied on this incomplete infrastructure data. It all goes back to the fact that infrastructure across the Arctic is not completely mapped, and that’s problematic if you want to understand disasters because you must have the full picture to understand the scale of what is or could potentially be exposed,” says Manos.
One of the objectives of Witharana’s research group is to improve methods to analyze large sets of satellite images quickly and accurately. Here, they developed a method to accurately map infrastructure and permafrost thaw risk called High-resolution Arctic Built Infrastructure and Terrain Analysis Tool (HABITAT). The model uses machine learning and AI to extract road and building information from high-resolution satellite images from the years 2018-2023. They compared the HABITAT data with OSM data to evaluate the new model’s quality and to look for potential misclassifications. Then they added the new information to OSM, nearly doubling the previous amount of information available for Alaska.
“The sheer amount of infrastructure and buildings that were missing from Open Street Map was, really shocking to me, 47% missing,” says Manos. “Though OpenStreetMap is a powerful volunteer-based resource, it has limitations and that is not a surprise.”
Owing to the large amount of data previously not considered, the researchers estimate that the costs of permafrost damage to infrastructure will double under low and medium emissions scenarios by 2050.
“Damages to infrastructure caused by permafrost thaw is on par with the average yearly cost of all natural disasters in the country, yet permafrost thaw is not recognized by the federal government as a natural hazard, making it harder for people in Alaska to obtain disaster relief funding. In addition, Alaska is decades behind the rest of the country in terms of geospatial data readiness. Maps are key for assessments and planning, and I think the research community can help with some of that,” says Liljedahl.
Witharana’s research group and collaborators are working to fill these knowledge gaps to create data that can be used to help prepare communities for the future. Manos plans to expand this analysis to account for the entire Arctic region to assess economic losses using a comprehensive infrastructure map.
Witharana adds that by combining OSM data with the thousands of sub-meter resolution satellite images provided by the National Science Foundation, along with access to NSF supercomputing infrastructure, it was possible for the researchers to enhance the completeness of these datasets.
“We can see that impact and do better assessments of economic disturbances and risk so we can prepare for whatever policy actions or downstream efforts that are needed,” says Witharana. “That’s a major outcome. Overall, the integration of AI and big data sets within our application has helped make useful, actionable products that researchers and communities can use right now.”
The combined HABTAT and OSM dataset is available for anyone to explore on the Permafrost Discovery Gateway. This work is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs (NSF-OPP) (grant No. 1927723 and 2052107) and Google.org’s Impact Challenge on Climate Innovation. The image in Fig. 1b was acquired and provided through NSF RISE-1928237. Furthermore, this work used the Delta supercomputer at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign through allocation #EES220055 from the Advanced Cyberinfrastructure Coordination Ecosystem: Services & Support (ACCESS) program, which is supported by National Science Foundation grants #2138259, #2138286, #2138307, #2137603, and #2138296. Geospatial support for this work was provided by the Polar Geospatial Center under NSF-OPP awards 1043681, 1559691, and 2129685.
UConn Waterbury is leading a bold transformation in higher education with the launch of its Neurovariability Initiative—a campus-wide effort rooted in neuroscience, learning science, and innovation. Rather than emphasizing challenges or labels, this initiative recognizes the natural variability in how people think and learn, designing systems that amplify cognitive strengths, remove barriers, and foster student success in a rapidly evolving world.
Co-created by Campus Dean and CAO Fumiko Hoeft and UConn Engineering Professor Arash Zaghi, both of whom bring lived experience as dyslexic, ADHD-identifying individuals—and as parents of neurodivergent learners—the initiative integrates educational neuroscience, AI-enhanced tools, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) into a cohesive and forward-looking framework.
“Our goal is to cultivate an environment where every student’s potential can be maximized—regardless of how they process information,” says Hoeft.
“This is about unlocking talent that’s often overlooked—not by lowering the bar, but by rethinking how success is defined, supported, and scaled,” adds Zaghi.
This initiative complements university-wide efforts such as CETL’s inclusive teaching programs and UConn Engineering’s Include Program, which also emphasize neuroinclusivity, faculty training, and the responsible use of AI in education.
“The Neurovariability Initiative is a powerful example of how the Waterbury campus is leading with science, innovation, and compassion,” says UConn President Radenka Maric. “By recognizing that students think and learn in different ways, and by designing systems that build on those strengths, this initiative reflects our UConn-wide commitment to empowering every learner and preparing them to thrive in a rapidly changing world.”
Co-creator and Engineering Professor Arash Zaghi leads a discussion on the future of neurodiversity and its role in innovation. (Steve Bustamante / University of Connecticut)
Spring Break Pilot Training: Building Capacity Across Campus
UConn Waterbury hosted its inaugural Neurovariability Level 1 Training—a four-day hybrid workshop during UConn’s spring break, coinciding with the Neurodiversity Celebration Week, a worldwide initiative. Faculty and staff from across campus, including Student Services, Advising, Student Health and Wellness (SHaW), the Academic Achievement Center (AAC), Operations, and Academic Affairs, participated in hands-on sessions that focused on strength-based educational practices, UDL-aligned advising and teaching, responsible use of AI, and inclusive support strategies for all learners. This milestone training laid the groundwork for a growing community of practice focused on high-impact, personalized learning.
“This training challenged me to think differently about how we engage students—not just by accommodating their needs, but by tapping into their unique strengths from the start,” said Professor Laura Donorfio of Human Development and Family Sciences (HDFS). “As someone who’s dedicated to supporting human growth across the lifespan, I found the emphasis on brain-based learning and inclusive design incredibly powerful. It’s something I’ll carry into both my teaching and mentoring.”
The training brought together an impressive roster of national and international experts in education, technology, and cognitive science:
Kate Griggs, Founder of Made by Dyslexia, joined from London for a virtual fireside chat highlighting the global movement for recognizing and nurturing diverse thinking in schools and workplaces. “If we can teach dyslexic students in the way they learn, they will change the world,” Griggs noted.
Jessica Parker & Kimberly Becker, Co-Founders of Moxie, introduced their AI-powered academic writing tool designed to support student success through ethically guided, personalized feedback. “We build tools that adapt to learners—not the other way around,” said Parker.
Sam Johnston, Chief Postsecondary & Workforce Development Officer at CAST, framed UDL as a proactive, research-driven approach to building more flexible, accessible learning environments. “UDL is about designing for variability from the beginning—not retrofitting for differences later.”
Professor Arash Zaghi, co-creator of the initiative and lead behind Include Program (originally funded by the NSF RED grant), shared how cognitive diversity drives innovation in engineering and beyond. Zaghi is also the recipient of the prestigious White House PECASE Award—the highest honor for early-career scientists in the U.S. “This initiative isn’t about fixing students—it’s about fixing the system. We’re redesigning learning to work better for everyone, including those whose talents are too often missed.”
Staff attendee Nakeia Moore collaborates with guest speakers Stan Gloss and Jessica Parker during an interactive session. (Steve Bustamante / University of Connecticut)
Jesse Sanchez, Managing Director of Programs at the Neurodiversity Alliance and an ADHD individual himself, shared his lived experience, and offered guidance on fostering student-led learning communities and promoting self-advocacy.
Stan Gloss, a dyslexic entrepreneur, also shared his lived experience and discussed neurovariability as a competitive advantage in business and workforce development.
Dr. Andi Kent from CETL led training on inclusive advising and instruction.
Professor Mary Elizabeth Bruder, UConn Health, shared a powerful personal perspective on parenting, self-advocacy, and the importance of early support.
Connie Syharat, Include Program coordinator and teaching faculty, presented an adapted version of UConn Engineering’s neurodiversity training tailored for broader campus application.
Why It Matters: A Science-Informed Strategy for Unlocking Potential
The Neurovariability Initiative offers a forward-looking, research-based approach to education that focuses on talent development and innovation. Grounded in neuroscience and learning science, it recognizes that differences in how students think and process information are natural and valuable—not obstacles to overcome.
Rather than relying on labels or diagnoses, this model is about improving educational systems to better serve all learners. By integrating proven strategies like Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and responsibly implemented AI tools, UConn Waterbury is creating an environment where students are empowered to succeed based on their strengths, and where educators are equipped to support diverse ways of thinking and problem-solving—critical skills for today’s workforce and tomorrow’s leaders.
Guest speaker Andi Kent from CETL highlights the wealth of teaching and learning resources available to faculty and staff. (Steve Bustamante / University of Connecticut)
“This marks an exciting shift in how we recognize and cultivate the full range of student talent across disciplines,” says Provost Anne D’Alleva. “UConn Waterbury is leading the way with an innovative, research-informed model that reflects our shared commitment to academic excellence, student success, and inclusive educational design. I’m proud to see this kind of bold, thoughtful leadership emerging from one of our regional campuses.”
What’s Next: Scaling for Long-Term Impact
Building on the success of this pilot, UConn Waterbury will move forward with:
Expanded training opportunities for faculty and staff;
Launch of a student learning and leadership community in Fall 2025 in partnership with the Neurodiversity Alliance;
Campus-wide adoption of Moxie, an AI-powered academic writing and research tool designed to support ethical, transparent, and personalized learning experiences;
Collaboration with CAST to evaluate and enhance the physical and instructional environment through a UDL lens;
Partnerships with K–12 schools like the Forman School and Waterbury Public Schools to co-develop flexible, strength-based academic pathways
“At UConn Waterbury, we’re not just teaching content—we’re cultivating adaptable thinkers, problem-solvers, and future innovators,” said Hoeft.
Judy Reilly, Director of the Werth Institute’s Center for Neurodiversity & Employment Innovation (CNDEI), shared: “This initiative is a critical leap forward—not just for student success, but for preparing a future-ready, innovation-focused workforce.”
Whether in advising, instruction, student life, or administration, faculty and staff across UConn Waterbury are playing a vital role in making the campus a place where all students can thrive.
As Christine Scott-Dougan, Associate Campus Director and attendee, shared: “At UConn Waterbury, we believe different ways of thinking lead to amazing ideas. Here, every mind is valued. I wish there were opportunities like this when I was in school.”
Sponsors: UConn Waterbury Enhancement Fund, R.I.S.E. Program, and Yale – UConn Haskins Global Literacy Hub.
Contact: Fumiko Hoeft, Campus Dean & CAO. wtby_leadership@uconn.edu
The UConn Finance Society hosted its 9th Annual Finance Conference today at Morgan Stanley headquarters in Manhattan. Wall Street leaders joined business students and alumni to discuss trends in equities, dealmaking, and how to start a career in the sector.
“There are a million people out there who want to help you. It may not feel like it. But they do—especially people from UConn,” UConn Board of Trustees Chair and Morgan Stanley managing director Dan Toscano ’87 (BUS) said. Toscano candidly described his own struggle to get a foothold on Wall Street when he graduated in the aftermath of the Black Monday market crash. Toscano spent five years working other jobs before a door opened for him on Wall Street—but every job he worked taught him a great deal, and he urged students to make the most of every position they take.
UConn Board of Trustees Chair and Morgan Stanley managing director Dan Toscano ’87 (BUS) speaks to students on Wall Street (photo courtesy of Stella Daniel (ENG) ‘26)
The Finance Conference is an entirely student organized event that brings together UConn students, alumni, professionals, and industry experts to explore current trends in the finance sector. This was the first time the conference had been held in lower Manhattan. Christopher Walker ’19 (CLAS), a current Morgan Stanley associate in credit risk management, arranged for the venue in the heart of the financial district.
“We hope to make the conference in New York an annual tradition going forward,” said Finance Society VP of Marketing Stella Daniel ’26 (ENG).
“We want to engage as many alumni as possible,” and the Manhattan location makes that easier, Finance Society conference director Alexander Cameron ’26 (CLAS) said.
Meeting in person and making those in person connections is extremely important, said Sheldon Kasowitz ’83 (BUS), the equity panelist at the event. He urged students to avoid remote work early on in their careers. Taking risks, moving abroad, and working in markets that are unpopular can all give you an edge, he said. Kasowitz moved to Hong Kong in his late 20s and also worked in Japan, eventually founding Indus Capital Partners, a hedge fund focused on mispriced large-cap Asian equities.
Every panelist at the event was a UConn alum, and they hailed from a wide swath of finance, from mergers and acquisitions to private equity. More than 30 UConn alumni also attended the event.
“It’s wonderful. I am incredibly impressed—it reflects the quality of the students, and it’s a credit to the school,” said Nicholas Willett ’22 (BUS), a hedge fund credit analyst.
Current students also enjoyed the event.
UConn students at Finance Day (Photo courtesy of Stella Daniel (ENG) ‘26)
“I’ll be issuing securities in the broader public equities market after graduation. Hearing Sheldon talk about trends in the private equities market was amazing,” said graduating senior Aria Penna ’25 (BUS). Penna said she found Kasowitz’s insights on the Asian markets particularly compelling.
Joseph Garcia ’27 (BUS) said he was interested in the different paths panelists took to get to their current positions. The incoming Sports Chair of the Student Board of Governors began his entrepreneurial journey early, selling snacks to fellow high school students during school and sporting events.
Garcia said his philosophy for success is “whatever opportunity there is, take it!”
The Finance Societyis one of the largest student-run organizations at UConn. Their meetings are held at 6:30pm on Wednesdays in the School of Business.
Nearly one in three workers in Canada is covered by a union contract, making union members a potentially powerful voting bloc at election time. It should therefore come as little surprise that federal parties have been making overt efforts to secure endorsements from labour unions and the votes of their members as election day nears.
But do union endorsements actually make a difference at the ballot box?
Our forthcoming survey-based research suggests that while most union members in Canada indicate their voting preferences are not swayed by union endorsements, satisfaction with one’s union significantly enhances the likelihood they’ll support union-endorsed candidates in federal, provincial and local elections.
Shifts in party-union relations
The NDP was viewed as the political arm of the labour movement and secured the lion’s share of union resources and endorsements for much of its history. However, as ties between the NDP and unions have loosened, so too have unions’ political allegiances.
In recent years, unions in Canada have made political endorsements that don’t align with traditional patterns. For example, after a decade of backing the provincial Liberals, many construction unions endorsed Conservative Premier Doug Ford’s re-election in the 2022 Ontario provincial election.
Although most other unions endorsed the opposition NDP, Ford’s union support garnered significant attention and was presented as an impressive game-changer by the media and political pundits.
In the 2025 Ontario election campaign, Ford used his commanding lead in the polls and a transactional brand of politics to lock down endorsements from an even broader cross-section of the union movement, winning additional support from firefighters, a Toronto-based hotel worker union, police unions and three large Unifor locals.
The union endorsements were symbolically significant for the Conservative campaign because they fractured labour movement opposition to Ford and provided pro-worker cover for a government with a decidedly mixed record on labour rights.
The Unifor endorsements, in particular, raised eyebrows because Canada’s largest private sector union had long championed anti-Conservative strategic voting, backing a mix of Liberal, NDP and Bloc candidates in election campaigns over the past decade.
These shifts have encouraged Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre to appeal more to blue-collar union members, especially in male-dominated industries, to broaden his party’s working-class support.
The Conservatives have also no doubt been inspired by the success of United States President Donald Trump this regard.
In the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the vast majority of unions endorsed Vice-President Kamala Harris over Trump. But exit polls indicated Trump still managed to win an impressive 45 per cent of the votes from union households, highlighting a potential disconnect between union leaders and their members on the question of endorsements.
The influence of union endorsements
Not all union endorsements carry the same weight, but they can play a strategically critical role in election campaigns depending on the dynamic.
Our survey-based research, to be published in an upcoming volume of Labour/Le Travail, reveals that while a small majority of union members in Canada feel union endorsements won’t impact their vote, such endorsements do modestly influence a good number of union members.
Outside of Québec, 37 per cent of surveyed union members report being “somewhat” or “much more likely” to vote for union-endorsed candidates. In Québec, the figure is slightly lower at 27 per cent. Conversely, only a small portion of members (11 per cent in the rest of Canada and 13 per cent in Québec) indicate a union endorsement will make them less likely to vote for their union’s preferred candidate.
Importantly, workers who indicated satisfaction with their union in the workplace are significantly more likely support union-endorsed candidates in election campaigns.
Satisfaction with one’s union matters much more to whether union members respond to an endorsement favourably than demographic factors such as age, gender, income or education level.
The survey results also suggest that union type does not make a significant difference in assessing the influence of endorsements on union members’ voting intentions. Members of public-sector unions are no more likely to respond favourably to union endorsements than members of private-sector unions, nor are members of construction unions or members of NDP-affiliated unions.
Lessons for parties and unions
Even with modest impacts on voting preferences, union endorsements may prove decisive in closely contested elections, especially in communities with large numbers of union voters.
For unions to maximize their political influence, however, they must first earn their members’ trust through effective workplace representation. Building this trust enhances the impact of endorsements by increasing member support for union-endorsed candidates.
In short, having strongly supported unions in the workplace helps to build strong unions in the political arena with improved capacity to deliver union members’ votes.
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.
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy Father has appointed the Reverend Augustin Simmel Ndiaye, of the clergy of Dakar, until now rector of the Catholic University of West Africa (UCAO) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, as bishop of the diocese of Saint-Louis du Sénégal, Senegal.Msgr. Augustin Simmel Ndiaye was born on 2 January 1959 in Fadiouth. He studied philosophy and theology at the François Libermann Interdiocesan Major Seminary of Sébikhotane, Dakar.He was ordained a priest on 9 April 1983.After ordination, he first held the role of vicar of the Cathedral of Notre Dames des Victoires in Dakar (1983-1988). He was awarded a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical Urbaniana University of Rome (1988-1922), and went on to serve as vicar of Sainte Thérèse in Grand-Dakar (1992-1993), professor of canon law, methodology and introduction to sacramental liturgical practice in the François Libermann Interdiocesan Major Seminary of Sébikhotane (1992-1998), president of the Union of Senegalese Clergy (1996-1999), rector (1998-2005) and professor of canon law (1998-2014) at the François Libermann Interdiocesan Major Seminary of Sébikhotane, president of the interdiocesan tribunal of Thiès, member of the Council for Economic Affairs of the metropolitan archdiocese of Dakar, parish priest of the Cathedral of Notre Dames des Victoires (2005-2014), fidei donum in the diocese of Angers, France, internship at the ecclesiastical tribunal of Angers (2014-2018), and parish priest of Sainte Marthe in Mbour (2018-2020). Since 2020 he has served as rector of the Catholic University of West Africa (UCAO) in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. (E.G.) (Agenzia Fides, 2/4/2025)
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Source: Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering –
As part of the cooperation between SPbGASU and the St. Petersburg regional branch of the Russian society “Knowledge”, Associate Professor of the Department of History and Philosophy Evgeny Guryev gave a lecture to employees of the linear police departments on transport of the Vitebsk and Varshavsky railway stations.
The lecture “Soviet military leadership in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945” was dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Great Victory.
Evgeny Pavlovich introduced the audience to the main periods into which the history of the Great Patriotic War is divided: the defensive period, the period of radical change and the offensive period. The lecture was based on the history of Soviet military art from the unsuccessful Border Battle of 1941 to the victorious May of 1945. The milestones of this history were the main battles of the Great Patriotic War: the Battle of Moscow, the Battle of Stalingrad, the Battle of Kursk, the Belorussian, Berlin and Manchurian offensive operations. The lecture emphasized the importance of remembering the events of the war and the efforts that were made to achieve Victory.
“I have been studying the topic of the Great Patriotic War since my first year at university. I have two textbooks on it,” the teacher said.
“The performances of the teachers of the Department of History and Philosophy of SPbGASU as speakers of the Russian Society “Knowledge” testify to their high qualifications, and form a positive public opinion about the university. Other lectures by Evgeny Guryev are also planned: the next one will take place on April 17 – for employees of the Main Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation for St. Petersburg,” said Irina Lapina, Head of the Department of History and Philosophy of SPbGASU.
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.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
LCQ6: Regulation of use of electronic screen products by children and adolescents Question:
It has been reported that obsessive use of mobile phones by infants and young children will bring them such harms as social deprivation, sleep deprivation, attention fragmentation and addiction, which are detrimental to the development of their physical movement, fine motor, language, cognitive and social skills. Earlier on, legislation was enacted in Australia to prohibit the use of social media platforms by children and adolescents under the age of 16. The Guidelines (Trial) on Early Childhood Development Services issued by the National Health Commission has also pointed out that infants and young children aged 0 to 3 should not be exposed to any form of products with display screens. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether the Government will draw on the experience of our country, Australia and other regions to enact legislation restricting or prohibiting the use of electronic screen products by infants and young children aged 0 to 3;
(2) whether the Government will consider devising relevant guidelines on the use of computers and the Internet by primary and secondary school students and adolescents; and
(3) as there are views that parents should, through such means as parent-child exchanges, help their infants and young children acquire the abilities to engage in interpersonal exchanges, express emotions and consider other people’s feelings, whether the Government will consider promoting to society the importance for children to stay away from electronic screen products, as well as providing parents with consultation channels in order to help them establish a correct concept of family education?
Reply:
President,
The Government attaches great importance to the physical and mental health of children and adolescents, and provides comprehensive health promotion and medical services by deploying substantial resources in education, public health and medical systems. In particular, we are concerned about the impact of excessive use of the Internet and electronic screen products on their physical and mental development. The Department of Health (DH) set up an Advisory Group on Health Effects of Use of Internet and Electronic Screen Products (Advisory Group) as early as 2013 comprising of members from the Education Bureau (EDB), the Social Welfare Department and relevant Colleges of the Hong Kong Academy of Medicine, etc, and published the Report of Advisory Group on Health Effects of Use of Internet and Electronic Screen Products in 2014 with recommendations for children, adolescents, parents and teachers on healthy use of the Internet and electronic screen products.
In consultation with the EDB, the DH and the Primary Healthcare Commission (PHC Commission), the reply to the question raised by the Hon Luk Chung-hung is as follows:
(1) and (3) The Mainland and other regions in the world have provided guidelines and recommended the time for infants and young children to use electronic screen products, instead of restricting or prohibiting the use of electronic screen products by infants and young children by legislation. The Australian Government enacted legislation last year to prohibit the use of social media platforms by children and adolescents under the age of 16, but has not restricted or prohibited the use of electronic screen products. Regulating the use of electronic screen products by way of legislation requires consideration of a number of factors, including public acceptance, how to regulate, how to enforce and feasibility of enforcement. The Government does not have any relevant legislative plans at present.
With reference to international guidelines, the DH updated the relevant health advice on the use of electronic screen products in 2018 and suggested that infants and young children aged below 2 should avoid exposure to electronic screen products, except for interactive video-chat under parents’ guidance; and that children aged between 2 and 5 should limit their daily screen time to within one hour, and that such screen activities should be interactive and educative, and should be carried out under the guidance of parents. These recommendations are similar to the guidelines of the Mainland, Singapore, the United States and Australia. The DH will continue to keep in view international experience and the local situation, and review the relevant recommendations in a timely manner.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
The Department of Health (DH) today (April 2) released the “Student Health Service (SHS) Annual Health Report for 2023/24 School Year”, which summarised the key findings of the annual health assessment service provided to primary and secondary school students in Hong Kong during the school year. Among these findings, there has been an improvement regarding the overweight condition of primary school students but the proportion of students spending two hours or more using the Internet or electronic screen products for recreational purposes has increased, which is a situation that warrants attention.
In the 2023/24 school year, around 257 000 primary school students and 173 000 secondary school students received annual health assessment services at the DH’s Student Health Service Centres (SHSCs). Students were provided with a series of health services, including growth monitoring, physical examinations, screenings for vision, hearing and scoliosis, health assessment questionnaires on health behaviours and psychosocial well-being, individual health counselling, health education and mop-up vaccinations.
The health assessment revealed that the weight problems and dietary patterns among Hong Kong students remain unsatisfactory. The prevalence of being overweight (including obesity) among primary school students has decreased from 19.5 per cent in the 2022/23 school year to 16.4 per cent in the 2023/24 school year, which was a record low since the 2014/15 school year. However, the prevalence of being overweight (including obesity) among secondary school students remained high at 20.0 per cent. In the 2023/24 school year, 94.4 per cent of students reported insufficient physical activity, meaning that they were not able to engage in at least 60 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous-intensity physical activity per day. About 89.9 per cent of students (83.5 per cent primary and 97.0 per cent secondary school students) reported an inadequate intake of fruits and vegetables per day (i.e. an average of less than four servings for primary school students and less than five servings for secondary school students).
“To prevent childhood and adolescent obesity from developing into a lifelong threat to health, the DH encourages students to adopt healthy lifestyles and maintain a balanced diet. The DH will continue to offer weight management advice through the SHSCs to students in need. Dietitians of the SHS will provide dietary counselling to individual students if indicated,” the Consultant Community Medicine (Family and Student Health) of the DH, Dr Chuang Shuk-kwan, said.
The inappropriate use of electronic screen products should not be overlooked. The DH recommends children aged between 6 and 12 years old to limit recreational screen time to less than two hours a day. The health assessment questionnaire revealed that 43.3 per cent of primary school students indicated that they spent two or more hours in using Internet or electronic screen products (including computers, tablets, smartphones, video games and television) for recreational purposes on a typical school day. The proportion was higher than in the pre-COVID years of around 30 per cent. For secondary school students, the proportion was higher at 80.9 per cent, which is a cause for concern.
Dr Chuang noted that, apart from reminding students of the appropriate recreational screen time, the DH has set up a webpage on Healthy Use of Internet and Electronic Screen Products to assist parents and teachers in handling related issues.
The state of vision among Hong Kong students remains less than ideal. The proportion of primary one students wearing glasses was 14.3 per cent which was similar to that of the previous school year (14.8 per cent), but still much higher than that of the pre-COVID years of about 11 per cent. The proportion of students wearing glasses was higher among students at higher grades, up to 53.8 per cent among Primary Six students. Among the primary and secondary school students with a visual acuity test done in the 2023/24 school year, 18.5 per cent required further assessment by optometrists in the SHS or private sector due to a failed preliminary visual acuity test, other eye or visual problems.
Regarding psychosocial health, a majority of students reported they very much enjoyed family life (94.3 per cent) and school life (92.4 per cent). However some students were identified to have psychosocial problems warranting attention. In the 2023/24 school year, 2.2 per cent and 1.0 per cent of students reported that they had planned or attempted to commit suicide in the past 12 months respectively, which were slightly lower than that in the previous school year (2.8 per cent planned and 1.3 per cent attempted to commit suicide) and are similar to the levels in the 2018/2019 school year. Professional staff of the DH promptly provided the students concerned (including some with emotional or mental health problems) with an immediate risk assessment, support or arranged referrals for further evaluation and management. In the 2023/24 school year, 1.4 per cent of students receiving annual health assessment services at the SHSCs were referred to the clinical psychologists of the SHS or other organisations, for further assessment and management of their psychosocial and behavioural problems.
The Government has set up the 18111 – Mental Health Support Hotline to provide one-stop, round-the-clock support for people with mental health needs. The Government has also implemented the Three-Tier School-based Emergency Mechanism through cross-departmental collaboration of the Education Bureau, the Health Bureau and the Social Welfare Department in all secondary schools in Hong Kong to ensure early identification and support for students at high risk, and provide timely assistance and seek professional counselling or treatment services for them.
Furthermore, “The Chief Executive’s 2024 Policy Address” announced that the Whole School Health Programme (WSHP) will be strengthened. Besides publishing this territory-wide health report, health reports will be compiled for each participating school to recommend targeted school‑based health promotion measures for physical activities, diet and other matters, to improve students’ physical and psychological wellbeing. So far, more than 760 schools have joined the WSHP, covering over 65 per cent of all primary and secondary schools in Hong Kong. The DH will continue to encourage more schools to join through various channels and work towards realising the vision of “Making every school a health-promoting school”.
At the same time, the Primary Healthcare Commission is actively promoting the Life Course Preventive Care Plan via the District Health Centres (DHCs), DHC Expresses and family doctors. A personalised preventive care plan will be formulated to address the health needs of citizens, including vaccinations required by children as well as prevention of infectious diseases, cancers and chronic diseases. The DHCs and DHC Expresses also provide children-targeted services, such as emotion management, weight management and healthy diet classes as well as collaborate with schools to provide outreach health education, health-risk factors assessment, low salt and sugar diet education and promotion activities. In the long run, the Government will integrate some of the DH’s primary healthcare services into the primary healthcare system, in order to enhance children’s healthcare services in Hong Kong and create a better environment for children’s medical care and healthy development.
“The DH has been safeguarding both the physical and psychological health of school children through health promotion and disease prevention services. The annual health assessment service aims to identify students with health problems at an early stage for timely advice and intervention, including referrals to appropriate organisations for further assessment or management. Enrolment is now open for the annual health assessment service of the 2024/25 school year. Students who have not yet enrolled are encouraged to enrol through their school or directly with the SHSCs,” Dr Chuang said.
For more information on a healthy lifestyle, members of the public are welcome to browse the “@DH mobile application“, DH’s social media accounts, and scan the QR codes attached.
The National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS) proudly commemorated its 7th Foundation Day celebrating its unwavering dedication to the education and empowerment of tribal students across India. Established in year 2019 under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, NESTS has been instrumental in transforming the educational landscape for tribal communities through the administration of Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS).
The event, held at Akashwani Bhavan, was graced by Shri Jual Oram, Hon’ble Minister of Tribal Affairs along with Shri Durgadas Uikey, Hon’ble Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, Shri Antar Singh Arya, Hon’ble Chairman, National Commission for Schedule Tribes (NCST)and dignitaries from the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, educationists, and key stakeholders of EMRS. The celebrations featured inspiring addresses, vibrant cultural performances, and a short film showcasing the remarkable impact of EMRS over the last year in advancing quality education for tribal children.
Lighting of lamp
Key Highlights of the Event:
The momentous occasion address was delivered by Shri Jual Oram, Hon’ble Minister of Tribal Affairs, while the keynote speech was given by Shri Durgadas Uikey, Hon’ble Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, reaffirming the government’s commitment to strengthening tribal education and outlining the vision for the future,the Chairman, (NCST) highlighted the crucial role of education in driving tribal development, emphasizing how EMRS has been instrumental and crucial to it. Outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements of EMRS students were recognized and celebrated, with twelve students felicitated in the morning session. Further, the staff of NESTS who excelled in the Sports meet, received awards in the program. Tribal students from various EMRS institutions captivated the audience with performances showcasing their rich cultural heritage.
A dedicated segment highlighted the achievements of EMRS over the past year, demonstrating its impact on fostering quality education, holistic development, and promising futures for tribal youth across the country.
Shri Jual Oram Shri Durgadas Uikey
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Ajeet Kumar Srivastava, Commissioner, NESTS stated,“NESTS has played a pivotal role in ensuring quality education for tribal students. With the expansion of EMRS and new initiatives, we aim to empower the next generation with knowledge and skills for a brighter future.”
EMRS students & teachers with dignitaries.
Transforming Education for Tribal Communities
NESTS has made significant strides, expanding to 477 functional schools with an enrolment of over 1,38,000 students. Additionally, successful recruitment efforts have resulted in the appointment of a total 9075 teaching and non-teaching staff, further strengthening the educational eco system. NESTS aims to enhance infrastructure, digital learning and skill development programs, ensuring that quality education reaches every tribal student across India.
Various capacity-building programs, including specialized training initiatives, have fortified the foundation of EMRS schools, equipping educators with the necessary tools to foster excellence and shape a promising future for tribal children.
About NESTS
The National Education Society for Tribal Students (NESTS) was established in 2019 under the Ministry of Tribal Affairs to provide high-quality education to tribal students through Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS). These schools offer holistic learning, combining academics with sports, arts and life skills, ensuring inclusive and equitable education for tribal communities.
