Question for written answer E-000389/2025 to the Commission Rule 144 Emmanouil Fragkos (ECR)
Most education systems do not teach ‘learning to learn’ strategies as part of their curricula. This means pupils are often overloaded, they waste time, work too hard, repeat, and ultimately fail to use their time efficiently.
When children are taught different methods of studying, how to set goals, manage their time and self-assess, their performance improves significantly. Curricula that focus on metacognitive strategies, such as planning, monitoring and assessing progress, bring about long-term benefits in academic performance. Metacognition means being aware of one’s thought processes and understanding how learning works. Research shows that teaching children how to learn is crucial to building independence, critical thinking and adaptability.
By placing an emphasis on metacognitive skills, education systems can set children up well for lifelong adaptability in an ever-changing environment. Shifting the focus from rote learning to developing the skills needed for independent learning and introducing curricula that explicitly teach metacognition and self-regulated learning strategies can be of great benefit to our pupils.
Bearing in mind the European Year of Skills and the collective vision for a European Education Area, which aim to measurably improve pupils’ results, and taking into account its competence in ‘actions that complement the actions of the education systems of the Member States’, is the Commission considering proposing a free online course on metacognition for EU pupils?
In the last ten years since the government headed by PM Narendra Modi took over and particularly post-Covid, Indian systems of Medicine have earned global recognition India Leads Global Revival of Unani Medicine, Blending Tradition with Modern Science: Dr. Jitendra Singh
It was PM Modi who for the first time set up a separate Ministry for AYUSH and proposed International Day of Yoga
Integrative Healthcare Takes Centre Stage as India Advances Medical Innovation with AI and Genomics in Unani Medicine, says the Minister
India Emerges as a Hub for Unani Medicine Studies, Driving Academic and Medical Tourism Worldwide: Dr. Jitendra Singh
Posted On: 11 FEB 2025 7:59PM by PIB Delhi
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology; Earth Sciences and Minister of State for PMO, Department of Atomic Energy, Department of Space, Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Dr. Jitendra Singh said today that in the last ten years since the government headed by PM Narendra Modi took over and particularly post-Covid, Indian systems of Medicine have earned global recognition. He recalled, it was PM Modi who for the first time set up a separate Ministry for AYUSH and proposed International Day of Yoga.
The Minister reaffirmed the Modi Govt’s commitment to reviving and globalizing Unani medicine, emphasizing its crucial role in integrative healthcare solutions.
Speaking on the occasion of Unani Day 2025 and the International Conference on “Innovations in Unani Medicine for Integrative Health Solutions – A Way Forward,”the Minister highlighted how India’s traditional medical systems are gaining renewed global recognition, particularly in the post-2014 era.
“India possesses a vast treasure of traditional medical knowledge, which is not only our legacy but also our strength. We are ensuring that this rich legacy is preserved, modernized, and globally recognized through technology-driven innovations,” said Dr. Jitendra Singh.
The Minister underscored that the AYUSH sector has witnessed unprecedented growth, with the manufacturing value of AYUSH-based medicines and products soaring from $3 billion in 2014 to $24 billion today, an eightfold increase. This remarkable expansion, he said, reflects India’s leadership in holistic healthcare.
Dr. Jitendra Singh credited Prime Minister Narendra Modi for bringing holistic medicine into the mainstream through key policy reforms and international initiatives. He highlighted that the 2017 National Health Policy introduced the concept of integrated healthcare, combining Unani and Ayurveda with allopathy for a more comprehensive approach to treatment and wellness.
“If Prime Minister Modi had not emphasized the importance of AYUSH, we would not have seen such rapid growth in the sector. Today, traditional medicine is not just being revived but is also shaping the future of healthcare worldwide,” said Dr. Jitendra Singh.
The Minister noted that India’s leadership in preventive healthcare gained further prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people across the world turned to Unani, Ayurveda, and naturopathy for immunity-boosting solutions.
“During the pandemic, doctors and experts from across the world reached out to us for Unani and Ayurvedic formulations to boost immunity. This global recognition reinforces our responsibility to further develop and promote our traditional medical systems,” said Dr. Jitendra Singh.
Dr. Jitendra Singh also emphasized India’s role as a pioneer in modern medical innovations, recalling how the country developed the first DNA-based COVID-19 vaccine and emerged as a global hub for preventive healthcare solutions.
India’s next big leap in healthcare lies in integrating traditional knowledge with modern scientific advancements, opined the Minister. He noted that Unani and other traditional medicine systems are being strengthened through technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and Gene Therapy.
“We are now in an era where traditional knowledge is being combined with advanced scientific techniques. Whether it is AI-driven diagnostics, genome-based therapies, or evidence-backed Unani treatments, India is leading the way in medical innovation,” said Dr. Jitendra Singh.
Citing a recent medical breakthrough in gene therapy for Haemophilia, successfully conducted in India, Dr. Jitendra Singh asserted that the future of medicine lies in the fusion of traditional and modern approaches.
The Minister also highlighted India’s emergence as a leading destination for medical and academic tourism. He pointed out that postgraduate courses in Unani medicine are now being offered in Hyderabad and Srinagar, making India an academic hub for holistic medicine.
“Academic tourism is a new frontier for India. Students and researchers from across the world are now coming here to study Unani medicine. This will further strengthen India’s position as a global center for traditional medical education,” said Dr. Jitendra Singh.
In his concluding remarks, the Minister called for a global effort to integrate Unani medicine into mainstream healthcare systems.“A truly ‘Viksit Bharat’ must be built on the foundation of a healthy India. By combining our ancient knowledge with modern scientific advancements, we can provide revolutionary healthcare solutions to the world,”.
The International Conference on Unani Medicine will serve as a platform for global experts, researchers, and policymakers to discuss how digital advancements, scientific research, and policy reforms can drive the next wave of growth in Unani and integrative healthcare.
Financial regulators will update their guidance to make it easier for Australians with a HELP debt to responsibly take out a mortgage and buy a home, and also unlock the construction of more units, following a request from the Albanese Government.
We’re tackling this housing challenge from every possible angle.
These are commonsense changes that will help more Australians into a home.
I’ve agreed these changes in discussions with regulators and convened the banks to discuss them.
People with a HELP debt should be treated fairly when they want to buy a house and we’re working with the regulators to make sure they are.
By unlocking more finance from the banks we’ll see more housing projects get off the ground more quickly.
Currently, a barrier for young Australians to get into the housing market is the reluctance of banks to give them a mortgage.
The ABA has indicated that one reason for this uncertainty is the interpretation of lending regulations and guidance by APRA and ASIC.
APRA has confirmed it will start consultation soon on the treatment of HELP debts in serviceability requirements and debt reporting.
ASIC has confirmed it will move to quickly implement changes to its guidance on the treatment of HELP debts, following targeted consultation.
The government has also asked APRA to update and clarify its regulatory guidance to help unlock the construction of more units.
Some lenders have interpreted advice issued by APRA in 2017, that finance for construction of new unit blocks should depend on all properties being pre-sold. Lenders have indicated this is a barrier to financing.
The interpretation of this guidance as “100% pre-sales” by some lenders has limited housing supply, as smaller developers often don’t have the capital to finance the start of construction without support from the banks.
APRA has confirmed it will communicate to banks that while it expects banks to consider the extent of presales as part of prudent credit risk management, APRA does not expect 100% pre-sales.
ASIC has confirmed it will move to quickly implement changes to its guidance on responsible lending laws.
Helping more Australians into homes is one of the Albanese Government’s highest priorities.
This is all part of our comprehensive Homes for Australia plan which includes the biggest home building program of any government in history.
Peter Dutton’s cuts to housing would mean fewer homes when Australia desperately needs more.
Professor Tania N. Valdez, a George Washington University Law School faculty member and an attorney who has represented immigrants for more than a decade, will speak about “Immigration Law and the New Presidential Administration’’ next month.
Her March 11 virtual presentation is part of the School of Business’ Equity Now speaker series and it will be livestreamed at 6 p.m. Students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends of the university are welcome to participate.
“Our nation’s focus on immigration enforcement has increased in the last few decades, and although I’m not sure I would have predicted it being this dramatic, it has all been leading to this moment,’’ Valdez said.
More Immigrants Moving to America in Last 60 Years
Professor Tania Valdez (Contributed Photo)
For decades, the U.S. has welcomed more immigrants than any other country, and is currently home to approximately one-fifth of the world’s international immigrants, according to the Pew Research Center. The U.S. foreign-born population reached more than 47 million in 2023, composing about 14 percent of the total population. In contrast, in 1970, the immigrant population was about 4.7 percent of the total population. According to 2022 records, the largest population of U.S. immigrants were from Mexico, India, China, the Philippines, and El Salvador.
While the Biden Administration had a more immigrant-friendly policy, President Trump campaigned on a platform of immigration reform and deportation. Since taking office in January, he has essentially shut down the American asylum system, empowered ICE agents to make sweeping arrests, and assigned the Pentagon to assist with border enforcement.
Birthright Citizenship, ICE Enforcement, and Business Impact
Valdez will examine myths and truths about immigration policy, explore current events relating to immigration, including birthright citizenship, and identify the consequences of an aggressive immigration policy on individuals, businesses, and the American economy.
One of the topics that Valdez is passionate about is birthright citizenship, a constitutional right that guarantees that most people born in the United States automatically become U.S. citizens, regardless of their parents’ country of origin. A recent executive order by the Trump administration attempts to repeal that policy. Valdez will address the constitutionality of that order and the likely effects it will produce.
She will also speak about mass deportation and detention. Her research highlights the inadequacies of protections for noncitizens in removal proceedings, particularly in the current era of aggressive immigration enforcement.
“We’ve all heard about ICE enforcement and raids, and I’d like to talk about what it means for the immigration system as a whole and what rights and protections are afforded to immigrants through proceedings,’’ she said. “In the last month, there has been a ratcheting up of public displays of immigration enforcement and widespread fear about raids. By March 11, we will probably know more about the extent to which it’s actually happening.’’
Valdez also hopes to address the impact of immigration enforcement on business, such as agriculture. “To date we’ve seen masses of people not showing up for work because they are afraid,’’ she said. “We have crops rotting in the fields. Agriculture did not have enough workers to begin with, and now it is far, far worse.’’
The Equity Now Speaker Series is produced by the UConn School of Business in coordination with the Academy of Legal Studies in Business, Virginia Tech, Indiana University, and Temple University. This is the third of five programs during the 2024-25 academic year. To register for the program, please visit our Webex registration link
Australia’s road tax system has a problem. Revenue from the fuel excise – the primary way we tax motoring – has been declining steadily as a proportion of government revenue over the past two decades.
Politicians, policy experts and business leaders have all long called for reform. Now, change could be on the horizon.
The Australian Financial Review reports that at a closed-door dinner with business leaders in Canberra last week, Treasurer Jim Chalmers hinted that addressing falling fuel excise revenue would be a tax reform priority if Labor is re-elected.
One option would be a road user charge on electric vehicles (EVs), which obviously don’t pay fuel excise. But singling them out would undermine the government’s own efforts in promoting EVs to help meet the nation’s emissions reduction targets.
There are also other inequities in the way the current fuel excise works. Our previous research has shown Australia is ready for a rational and transparent discussion about road-user charging on all vehicles, not just electric ones.
How we tax roads today
Currently, Australian motorists pay several government taxes and other fees on their vehicles.
One is the fuel excise. This tax, collected by the Commonwealth, is paid per litre of fuel purchased and is indexed every six months to account for inflation.
Then there are registration fees, typically paid every six or 12 months and collected by state and territory governments.
Vehicle owners also have to pay compulsory third-party insurance, which in some states is bundled with registration fees.
When buying or transferring ownership of a vehicle, other fees can apply. These include stamp duty as well as the luxury car tax on vehicles priced above a certain threshold.
The system isn’t working
As a proportion of Australian taxation revenue, revenue from the fuel excise has dwindled from 7.4% in 2000 to 3.9% in 2025.
It might be tempting to blame electric cars for this decline. But this share began declining steadily long before EVs were introduced in Australia, and is projected to fall further.
Falling fuel excise revenue can be attributed to a range of other factors. Improvements in engine fuel consumption have had a substantial impact on the number of litres used to travel the same distances.
In Australia, the average fuel consumption of passenger cars in 2005 was 11.3 litres per 100 kilometres. In 2024, this figure was around 6.9 litres.
Fuel consumption rates are expected to improve further and match those in other nations with the introduction of the New Vehicle Efficiency Standard, which came into effect at the start of this year.
Public transport usage has also been trending upwards in many of Australia’s major cities since the turn of the millennium, reducing reliance on private cars.
The fuel excise, for example, does not properly account for traffic congestion or emissions. A driver who travels in regional Victoria or in an outer suburb of Sydney for local shopping or school drop-offs will pay the same excise as a driver who contributes to congestion by travelling into the city centre.
Similarly, car registration fees are not related to the number of kilometres travelled, congestion created, or emissions produced by driving.
One of the most widely known alternatives alternatives to a fuel excise tax is a pay-per-distance road user charge. Such charges work by charging vehicles a fee per kilometre travelled.
This would not be a new tax on top of existing taxes – it would replace current fuel excise and car registration fees.
Adjustments to this model can include exempting some groups from the charges (such as low-income families, taxis and emergency service vehicles), adjusting charges for different categories of vehicles, and applying congestion charges under certain conditions.
Failed attempts
Targeting electric vehicles with a road user charge has been an acute priority for many states, as they are currently completely exempt from paying the fuel excise.
In 2021, the Victorian government introduced a controversial distance-based charge for EVs. But this scheme was challenged in the High Court and ruled unconstitutional.
Victoria’s measure was found to be a form of excise, and only the Commonwealth can impose such a tax.
Following the ruling, the treasurer asked state and territory treasurers to look into the design of a national scheme in December 2023. But this process reportedly stalled.
Support for reform
Today, there are about 300,000 EVs on Australian roads (including around 248,000 battery electric cars and 53,500 plug-in hybrids).
That’s only a tiny fraction of the 21 million cars registered across the nation. Over coming decades, as EVs take a greater share of total vehicles on the road, the hit to already flagging fuel excise revenue will become acute.
In the meantime, our own previous research and public surveys show Australia is ready for a rational and transparent discussion about road-user charging on all vehicles, not only electric vehicles.
We found most respondents would support such charges if they were transparent, equitable and replace or reduce other road taxes.
There have already been several Australian studies around the shape and form of road user charges that can inform the discussions and public consultations.
We also found willingness to pay a road-user charge varies with the level of expected savings. Most respondents were willing to pay a road-user charge if it saved them on registration fees and fuel taxes.
If well planned and implemented, a national approach to road-user charges can raise enough revenue to replace the fuel excise tax. It will also ease congestion, promote sustainable transport and help achieve Australia’s targets for cutting transport emissions.
Hussein Dia receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the iMOVE Australia Cooperative Research Centre, Transport for New South Wales, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, Victorian Department of Transport and Planning, and Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.
Hadi Ghaderi receives funding from the iMOVE Cooperative Research Centre, Transport for New South Wales, Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads, Victorian Department of Transport and Planning, Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts, IVECO Trucks Australia limited, Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre, Victoria Department of Education and Training, Australia Post, Bondi Laboratories, Innovative Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre, Sphere for Good, Australian Meat Processor Corporation, City of Casey, 460degrees and Passel.
DENVER – Today, Governor Polis, Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW), and Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) announced grant recipients for the Outdoor Regional Partnerships Initiative (RPI) awarding $1.17 million dollars to coalitions around the state. Regional Partnerships convene community leaders from across outdoor recreation and conservation sectors to ensure that Colorado’s wildlife, recreation opportunities, and outdoor resources thrive into the future. This round of awards will support eight Regional Partnerships located across the state, including one new Regional Partnership for the Wet Mountain Valley covering Custer County.
“These investments support Colorado’s Outdoor Regional Partnerships, which show how we work together in Colorado to strengthen our lands, waters and wildlife that we value,” said Governor Jared Polis.
This seventh round of funding brings the total number of Colorado Outdoor Regional Partnerships to 21, covering 79% of the state. Since 2021, CPW and GOCO have awarded $6.07 million to Colorado’s Outdoor Regional Partnerships to support coalition building, conservation and outdoor recreation planning, research, and community engagement. The next grant funding round will take place in the spring of 2025.
“CPW celebrates the successes shared by Colorado’s Outdoor Regional Partnerships, which includes new outdoor recreation opportunities, stewardship of some of our most iconic mountain trails, and greater collaboration among outdoor sectors. This work ensures that we are taking care of the beautiful places and wildlife that define Colorado and draw us into the outdoors,” said CPW Director Jeff Davis.
“It’s incredibly exciting to watch the Regional Partnerships network grow,” said GOCO Executive Director Jackie Miller. “Every coalition brings invaluable knowledge of the resources and opportunities in their corners of the state. By collaborating, they make it possible for us to move together towards statewide goals, while securing the outdoors assets that make each region unique.”
This announcement follows a celebration held on Monday by one of Colorado’s Regional Partnerships, the Pikes Peak Outdoor Recreation Alliance, and Governor Polis to recognize new recreation management opportunities on Pikes Peak.
Regional Partnership Fall 2024 Grant Cycle Funding Recipients:
Eagle County Community Wildlife Roundtable (ECCWR) ($100,000) Community members and organizations established the ECCWR in 2020, leveraging diverse values, creativity, and resources to move toward positive action and enduring solutions to the complex wildlife issues in Eagle County. With this award, ECCWR is using a new Conservation Summary mapping tool to inform a regional recreation and conservation plan that will identify collaborative projects to enhance outdoor recreation opportunities while considering high-priority habitat and wildlife migration corridors.
NoCo Places ($150,000) NoCo Places is an established group of nine federal, state, and county land agencies collaborating to more effectively manage the impact of increased demand for outdoor recreation and visitation in Boulder, Clear Creek, Gilpin, Jefferson, and Larimer counties. Continued funding supports training and mapping workshops and sustained communication and marketing strategies that reach visitors to the NoCo Places region. With this award, Noco will also advance projects to map social trails and explore common management approaches to campground management.
Outside 285 ($130,000) The Outside 285 coalition seeks to conserve wildlife habitat while improving trail-based recreation experiences within the US-285 corridor, which includes Clear Creek, Douglas, Jefferson, and Park counties. This award will support continued collaboration across outdoor interest groups and land managers to advance habitat restoration projects and new opportunities for outdoor recreation at the popular mountain destinations in this region.
San Luis Valley Great Outdoors (SLV GO!) ($181,000) Formed in 2013, SLV GO! brings together 45 organizations, businesses, municipalities, and agencies who recognize the importance of enhancing outdoor recreational experiences, improving wellness, and protecting the environment across the six-county region of the San Luis Valley. This funding award will support partnership coordination, marketing and communication and the coalition’s capacity as it finalizes a regional conservation and recreation vision for the San Luis Valley.
Southwest Colorado Conservation and Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (SCCORR) ($110,000) SCCORR is building on the initial groundwork laid by the Southwest Colorado Outdoor Recreation Alliance, formed in 2018 by a group of outdoor recreation professionals focused on growing the region’s outdoor recreation economy and resources in a sustainable, collaborative manner. Upon joining the RPI, SCCORR has built a broader constituency of outdoor and conservation interests to support sustainable recreation and natural resources conservation. With this award, SCCORR will finalize a regional recreation and conservation plan informed by mapping, community engagement and collaboration among outdoor interest groups, local governments and land managers.
Spanish Peaks Outdoor Coalition (SPOC) ($250,000) SPOC was formed in the spring of 2024, building on the momentum created by CPW’s partnership with the City of Trinidad, the Trust for Public Land, The Nature Conservancy, and GOCO to establish Fishers Peak State Park. SPOC builds on the development of the Las Animas County Recreation and Economic Impact Study and Huerfano County’s Community Action Plan, convening diverse stakeholders to advance regional priorities and expand collaborative recreation and conservation planning. With this award, SPOC will develop a comprehensive, community-driven plan that prioritizes balanced approaches to wildlife conservation and the preservation of the region’s cultural and agricultural heritage.
Summit County Outdoor Coalition (SCOC) ($125,000) Established in 2023, SCOC convenes local, state, and federal land managers and nonprofit leaders to advance equitable outdoor recreation opportunities while protecting and conserving natural and cultural resources. With this award, SCOC will strengthen their coalition and engage outdoor interests from across the county, laying the foundation for a regional conservation and recreation plan.
Wet Mountain Valley Outdoors (WMVO) ($126,825) This new Wet Mountain Valley Outdoors coalition spans Custer County, connecting the Sangre de Cristo and the Wet Mountain ranges. This award will support a facilitated process to establish a new coalition informed by stakeholder conversations and listening sessions with community members and outdoor interests. This work will lay the foundation to inform recreation and conservation strategies that achieve the community’s vision.
For more information and a list of all the Regional Partnerships, please see the Regional Partnerships Initiative page on the CPW website.
SIOUX FALLS – Each year on February 11, more than one hundred countries around the world celebrate “Safer Internet Day.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Dakota takes this opportunity to remind the community that the Internet is often used for the sexual exploitation of children. In 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, alongside local, state, and federal law enforcement partners, prosecuted more than 50 cases involving child exploitation and/or the production or receipt of child pornography originating on the Internet.
For example, in April 2024, the U.S. Attorney’s Office secured a conviction against Tyler Grimes, a 26-year-old man from Aldie, Virginia, who used the Internet-based application Omegle and his cellular phone to entice a minor to engage in sexually explicit activity. The minor was born in February 2014, making her seven years old at all relevant times. During his communications with the minor, who lived in Rapid City, South Dakota, Grimes repeatedly asked her for nude photos and videos of herself. She complied. After Grimes’ communications were discovered by the minor’s father, the minor was forensically interviewed. Later, many images and videos of child pornography between Grimes and the victim were located on the victim’s iPad. In August 2024, Grimes was sentenced to ten years in federal prison.
In June 2024, October 2024, and February 2025, Justin Preuschl, age 27, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, was indicted for federal charges involving the exploitation of minors. The Indictment alleges that starting in December 2022 and continuing into 2024, Preuschl engaged in sexually explicit communications over the Internet with multiple juvenile female victims. The Indictment further alleges that Preuschl pretended to be a 15-year-old male, pressured the victims into sending him sexually explicit materials, and sent pictures of male genitals to the victims. Preuschl was employed as a teacher at Whittier Middle School in Sioux Falls at the time of many of the charged offenses.*
It is of vital importance that parents and guardians talk frequently and openly with children about responsible Internet use. It is also essential that the community understands the warning signs of cyberbullying and sextortion, including:
Sudden changes in behavior, such as becoming withdrawn, anxious, or secretive;
Abruptly deleting social media accounts or frequently creating new accounts;
Turning offs or hiding devices in the presence of a parent or other adult;
Clearing their web browser cache and/or history;
Unexplained money or gift cards; and
Spending less time with friends.
If you are concerned about particular online activity, please contact local law enforcement.
ADVISORY – CLAYSBURG – Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, Second Lady Blayre Holmes Davis to Highlight 2025-26 Proposed Budget Investments in Childcare Workforce
Lt. Gov. Austin Davis and Second Lady Blayre Holmes Davis will discuss the Shapiro-Davis Administration’s proposed 2025-26 budget and its plan to expand Pennsylvania’s childcare workforce at a roundtable conversation Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 11 a.m. at the Sheetz Corporate Support Center, 243 Sheetz Way, Claysburg.
The 2025-26 proposal builds on the Administration’s first two budgets with a $55 million investment in workforce recruitment and retention grants to increase childcare availability. These grants to licensed childcare centers with Child Care Works (CCW) Program agreements would provide an additional $1,000 annually per employee.
During their first two years in office, Gov. Josh Shapiro and Lt. Gov. Davis have expanded the state’s Child and Dependent Care Enhancement Tax Credit and created a new tax credit for businesses that want to contribute to their employees’ childcare costs.
WHO: Lt. Gov. Austin Davis, Second Lady Blayre Holmes Davis, Early Learning Investment Commission members, representatives from Sheetz and Bright Horizons Little Sproutz Early Learning Center
WHAT: Roundtable conversation about childcare in Pennsylvania and investments in the Shapiro-Davis 2025-26 proposed budget
WHEN: Wednesday, Feb. 12, at 11 a.m.
WHERE: Sheetz Corporate Support Center, 243 Sheetz Way, Claysburg
After the roundtable, there will be a brief tour of the Bright Horizons Little Sproutz Early Learning Center childcare facility next to the corporate support center.
RSVP: Members of the news media who are interested in attending must RSVP to Kirstin Alvanitakis at kirstinalv@pa.gov.
Headline: Safer Internet Day 2025: Tackling abusive AI-generated content risks
Every year, Safer Internet Day provides an opportunity to pause and reflect on the state of online safety – how far we’ve come and how we can continue to improve. For almost a decade, Microsoft has marked the occasion by releasing research on how individuals of all ages perceive and experience risk online.Last year, we highlighted the growing importance of AI. This year, in our ninth Global Online Safety Survey, we’ve dug deeper to understand how people view and are using this technology, plus how well they can identify AI-generated content.
Our findings show that while there has been a global increase in AI users (51% have ever used compared to 39% in 2023), worries about the technology have also increased: 88% of people were worried about generative AI, compared to 83% last year. Further, our data confirms that people have difficulty in identifying AI generated content, which may amplify abusive AI content risks.
Announcing new resources to empower the responsible use of AI
At Microsoft, we are committed to advancing AI responsibly to realize its benefits. Fundamental to this is the work we do to build a strong safety architecture and to safeguard our services from abuse. Unfortunately, we know that the creation of harmful content is one of the ways in which AI can be subject to abuse, which is why we are taking acomprehensive approachto addressing this issue. That approach includes public awareness and education – and this year’s research underscored the need for media literacy and guidance on the responsible use of AI. Building on the launch of ourFamily Safety Toolkitlast year, we’re pleased to announce new resources:
Partnership with Childnet: We are proud to partner with Childnet, a leading UK organization dedicated to making the internet a safer place for children. Together, we are developing educational materials aimed at preventing the misuse of AI, such as the creation of deepfakes. These resources will be available to schools and families, providing valuable information on how to protect children from online risks. This partnership underscores our comprehensiveapproachto tackling non-consensual intimate imagery (NCII) risks, including through education for teens.
Minecraft “CyberSafe AI: Dig Deeper”: We are thrilled toannouncethe release of“CyberSafe AI: Dig Deeper,”a new educational game in Minecraft and Minecraft Education that focuses on the responsible use of AI. This game is designed to engage young minds and foster curiosity while teaching important lessons about AI in a safe and controlled game environment. Players will embark on exciting adventures, solving puzzles and challenges that highlight the ethical considerations of AI and prepare them to navigate real-world digital safety scenarios at home and at school. While the player doesn’t engage with generative AI technology directly through the game, they will work through challenges and scenarios that simulate use of AI and learn how to use it responsibly. “Dig Deeper” is the fourth installment in a series of CyberSafe worlds from Minecraft created in partnership with Xbox Family Safety that have been downloaded more than 80 million times.
AI Guide for Older Adults: We are also proud to partner with Older Adults Technology Services (OATS) from AARP, whose programs and partners collectively engage over 500,000 older adults each year with free technology and AI training. As part of the partnership, OATS released an AI Guide for Older Adults that helps people age 50+ understand the benefits and risks of AI, including guidance on staying safe. Training for OATS call center staff to handle AI-related questions is also helping increase older adults’ confidence in their ability to use the technology and spot scams.
Additional resources for educators to help students navigate the digital world can be foundhere.
A deeper dive into this year’s Global Online Safety Survey findings
As the digital landscape evolves, we adapt our global survey questions to reflect these changes. This year, we identified an opportunity to quiz people on their ability to identify AI-generated content using images fromMicrosoft’s “Real or Not” quiz. We asked respondents about their confidence in spotting deepfakes before and after looking at a series of images. We found 73% of respondents admitted that spotting AI-generated images is hard, and only 38% of images were identified correctly. We also asked people about their concerns: common worries about generative AI included scams (73%), sexual or online abuse (73%) and deepfakes (72%).
Our research also shows that people worldwide continue to be exposed to a variety of online risks, with 66% exposed to at least one risk over the last year. You can find the full results, including additional data on teen and parent experiences and perceptions of life onlinehere.
Reaffirming our commitment to online safety
Our approach at Microsoft is centered on empowering users by advancing safety and human rights. We know we have a responsibility to take steps to protect our users from illegal and harmful online content and conduct, as well as to contribute to a safer online ecosystem. We also have a responsibility to protect human rights, including critical values such as freedom of expression, privacy, and access to information. At Microsoft, we achieve this balance through carefully tailoring our safety interventions across our different consumer services, depending on the nature of the service and of the harm.
Our approach to advance online safety has always been grounded in privacy and free expression. We advocate for proportionate and tailored safety regulations, supporting risk-based approaches while cautioning against over-broad measures that hinder privacy or freedom of speech. We will continue to engage closely with policymakers and regulators around the world on ways to tackle the biggest risks, especially to children, in thoughtful ways: productivity software like Microsoft Word, for example, should not be subject to the same requirements as a social media service. And finally, we will continue our advocacy for modernized legislation toprotect the public from abusive AI-generated contentin support of a safer digital environment for all.
Global Online Safety Survey Methodology
Microsoft has published annual research since 2016 that surveys how people of varying ages use and view online technology. This latest consumer-based report is based on a survey of nearly 15,000 teens (13-17) and adults that was conducted this past summer in 15 countries examining people’s attitudes and perceptions about online safety tools and interactions. Responses to online safety differ depending on the country. Full results can be accessed here.
Tags: AI, deepfakes, Microsoft Global Online Safety Survey, Online Safety, Responsible AI, Safer Internet Day
Over the past couple of years, the seemingly steady rightward drift of Elon Musk has culminated in actions and statements that have sparked broad controversy. Musk – visionary CEO of Tesla, SpaceX and founder of X Corp – is a man on a mission to get humanity to Mars. He is also the wealthiest person on the planet.
In January, sales of Tesla cars slumped across five European countries – the UK, France, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands. Sales were down too in California – the US state with the largest car market. And according to at least one survey, Musk and his politics could be a significant part of the problem.
When CEOs are in the public eye, their personal brands and values, and those of the companies they represent, can be hard to separate. Our research has found that, often, human identity and reputation will influence the CEO’s brand identity and reputation – and vice versa. As a human being, Musk’s personal actions and statements directly affect the companies he represents. His high-profile persona makes it difficult to separate the two.
This is why Musk’s controversial comments and political endorsements have alienated some Tesla consumers, particularly in progressive markets such as Europe and California. In these places, Tesla has historically been popular with environmentally aware consumers. When the profiles of a CEO and his or her brand are not aligned, it’s a problem that can undermine the brand value of both the CEO and the company.
Artists, politicians, CEOs and other public figures tend to attract fans whose personal values can at times deviate from those of the figurehead. Where this happens, devoted fans might be left at an impasse on how to respond to these figures or the products of companies or businesses they are associated with.
A common misconception is that smitten fans are too obsessed to express their distaste. Instead, they are likely to follow blindly and defend the actions of their heroes. Intense actions of “fan armies” on social media platforms have not helped with these assumptions.
But in fact, our research has shown that devoted fans can be critical. We found they are more likely than less devoted consumers to respond in extreme opposition when they feel betrayed by the behaviour of personalities they identify with or hold in high regard.
In the case of personalities like Musk, whose companies produce physical products, loyal fans and consumers could respond in a number of ways. A few hardcore Tesla fans and Musk loyalists might dismiss critiques against his behaviour as attacks against free speech or their own beliefs. They are likely to continue buying Teslas regardless – and may even adjust their own beliefs to align with those of their “hero”.
Out of step
For other consumers, owning a Tesla may no longer signal purely their beliefs about sustainability. There may be a nod to political or ideological affiliations that do not align with their own.
Some consumers may want to dissociate with Tesla if Musk’s behaviour is seen as problematic in their social circle. However, as a purchase requiring high involvement and commitment, switching from Tesla to another EV might be difficult. The recent trend of Tesla owners placing apology stickers on their vehicles is a way of negotiating the tension between owning a Tesla and the behaviour of the CEO they do not agree with.
The stickers provide a means of separating themselves from Musk’s actions while managing the fear of being perceived negatively within their social groups. This is likely to result in a gradual brand erosion rather than an immediate sales drop.
On the other hand, customers of companies such as craft beer brand BrewDog – a firm that has in the past been accused of fostering a culture of fear – may be more responsive to bad CEO behaviour. They at least can switch to an alternative brand at little cost. (BrewDog, for its part, apologised and said it was “committed to doing better”.)
And if Remain voters dislike inventor James Dyson’s stance on Brexit, they might be annoyed but still able to justify keeping a mid-value item like a vacuum cleaner (that is used privately in the home after all) until it breaks, perhaps switching for future purchases rather than abandoning outright.
Consumers can respond in a variety of ways when a figurehead CEO disappoints them. But brands taking blind, uncritical loyalty as a given – even from devoted fans – do so at their peril.
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.
The deadline is fast approaching to register for the Retirees Education and Strategy Program (RESP) to be held at the William W. Winpisinger Education and Technology Center in Hollywood, Md. from April 13-18, 2025.
Read the call letterhere. Registrations must be received by Monday, Feb. 17, 2025. The RESP program, offered by the IAM Retirees and Membership Assistance Department, includes resources and education for retired and nearly retired members on topics impacting their lives. RESP equips IAM retirees with skills and resources to assist other retirees who are seeking help for issues such as:
– Organizing and maintaining Retirees Clubs
– Legislative and political strategies
– Social Security and Medicare programs
– Create Retiree Club action plan
– Alliance for Retired Americans activities
– Retired member organizing volunteers
If you have any questions about this program, please contact the Retirees and Membership Assistance Department at 301-967-4717.
NEW YORK, Feb. 11, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Solomon Partners, a leading financial advisory firm and independent affiliate of Natixis, today announced a significant expansion of its Financial Institutions Group with the hiring of Juan Guzman as a Partner, and Faiz Vahidy and Matthew Cornish as Managing Directors. The trio previously worked at Houlihan Lokey and will now collaborate with their former colleague Arik Rashkes, who started at Solomon in December as Head of the recently formed Financial Institutions Group.
“Collectively Juan, Faiz and Matt represent a meaningful step toward rapidly building out our Financial Institutions practice. They each have substantial experience across a variety of subsectors and have successfully worked together in their prior roles,” said Marc Cooper, CEO of Solomon Partners.
Mr. Rashkes added, “My colleagues are well known and respected across the financial services industry as talented investment bankers who are dedicated to serving clients. Together we will further develop Solomon’s Financial Institutions advisory services.”
Mr. Guzman specializes in mortgage services and insurance, as well as the broader real estate services sector. He has more than 20 years of experience in financial services, advising clients on a diverse range of transactions, including M&A, capital raising, valuations, and special committee assignments. Prior to joining Solomon, Mr. Guzman was a Managing Director in Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Services Group focused on the mortgage services and insurance sectors. He earned an MBA with concentrations in Corporate Finance and Law & Business from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a BA in Economics from the University of California, Los Angeles.
“I look forward to contributing to Solomon’s growth and success by expanding the Financial Institutions Group and the sub-sectors we serve. The firm’s commitment to excellence and client-focused approach aligns with my professional values and goals,” Mr. Guzman commented.
At Solomon, Mr. Vahidy will primarily focus on advising insurance distribution companies on mergers and acquisitions, capital raising, divestitures, fairness opinions, strategic planning, and other corporate finance engagements. He has more than two decades of experience in financial services, covering insurance distribution companies including MGAs, MGUs, BGAs, IMOs, and FMOs. He has successfully executed a wide variety of transactions for insurance carriers, insurance services providers, and insurtech companies. Mr. Vahidy received a BBA from the George Washington University and an MBA from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business.
In his new role, Mr. Cornish will specialize in insurance services and illiquid financial assets, leveraging his extensive experience in corporate finance and advisory services. He previously served as a Director in Houlihan Lokey’s Financial Services Group & Illiquid Financial Assets Group. Over the past 15 years, Mr. Cornish executed transactions across multiple industries and asset classes, including benefits, claims, TPAs, property & casualty insurance, life settlements, tax receivable agreements, minority equity, receivership wind-downs, and private equity and hedge fund LP interests. He holds a BS in Accountancy, Economics, and Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Villanova University.
About Solomon Partners
Founded in 1989, Solomon Partners is a leading financial advisory firm with a legacy as one of the oldest independent investment banks. Our difference is unmatched industry knowledge in the sectors we cover, creating superior value with unrivaled wisdom for our clients. We advise clients on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, restructurings, recapitalizations, capital markets solutions and activism defense across a range of verticals. These include Business Services, Consumer Retail, Distribution, Financial Institutions, Financial Sponsors, FinTech, Grocery, Pharmacy & Restaurants, Healthcare, Industrials, Infrastructure, Power & Renewables, Media and Technology. Solomon Partners is an independently operated affiliate of Natixis, part of Groupe BPCE. For further information, visit solomonpartners.com.
Photos accompanying this announcement are available at
As the granddaughter of immigrants from Lithuania and Poland who spoke little English, I understand what it’s like to be treated as a stranger in America.
As a journalist, I covered stories of war and trauma in the 1990s, including the crushing of Chinese protests in Tiananmen Square and the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, followed by the Soviet Union’s collapse two years later. I covered the war between Iraq and Iran. I witnessed ethnic strife in South Africa and the toll poverty takes in Mexico.
And having worked in senior levels of the U.S. government for Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama on international conflict resolution, I have learned that compassion is a key ingredient of peacemaking.
Perhaps that all explains my curiosity about a new study on the state of compassion in America – part of the glue that holds communities together.
Defining compassion
Sociologists define compassion as the human regard for the suffering of others, and the notion of using action to alleviate this pain.
The report that caught my eye was issued in January 2025 by the Muhammad Ali Center, which the late boxer co-founded 20 years ago in Louisville, Kentucky, to advance social justice.
As the Ali Center explains, compassion starts with the individual – self-care and personal wellness. It then radiates out to the wider community in the form of action and engagement.
You can see compassion at work in the actions of a Pasadena, California, girl, who started a donation hub for teens affected by fires that ripped through the Los Angeles region in early 2025. She began collecting sports bras, hair ties and fashionable sweaters – helping hundreds of her peers begin to recover from their losses in material and emotional ways.
It’s also visible in the estimated 6.8 million people in the U.S. who donate blood each year, according to the American Red Cross.
The researchers who worked on the Ali Center report interviewed more than 5,000 U.S. adults living in 12 cities in 2024 in order to learn more about the prevalence of compassionate behaviors such as charitable giving, volunteering and assisting others in their recovery from disasters.
They found that the desire to help others still animates many Americans despite the nation’s current polarization and divisive politics.
The center has created an index it calls the “net compassion score.” It approximates the degree to which Americans give their time and money to programs and activities that nurture and strengthen their communities.
Cities with high compassion scores have more community engagement and civic participation than those with low scores. A higher-scoring community performs better when it comes to things like public housing and mental health resources, for example. Its residents report more career opportunities, better communications between local government and citizens, more community programs and more optimism around economic development where they live.
The report provides some clues as to what drives compassionate behavior in a city: a sense of spirituality, good education, decent health care, resources for activities like sports, and opportunities to engage in local politics.
All told, Americans rate their country as a 9 on a scale that runs from minus 100 to 100.
The report also identified some troubling obstacles that stand in the way of what it calls “self-compassion” – meaning how volunteers and donors treat their own mental and physical health. Frequent struggles with self-care can lead to rising levels of isolation and loneliness.
Jeni Stepanek, left, chair of the Muhammad Ali Index; Lonnie Ali, co-founder and vice chair of the Muhammad Ali Center; and DeVone Holt, the center’s president and CEO, at the launch of the Muhammad Ali Index on Jan. 16, 2025. Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Muhammad Ali Center
Doubting their own capacity
The 2025 Compassion Report’s findings show that many Americans still want to live in a compassionate country but also that Americans view the country as less compassionate today than four years ago.
The report delves into gaps in compassion. About one-third of those interviewed acknowledged that there are groups toward whom they feel less compassionate toward, such as people who have been convicted of crimes, immigrants living in the U.S. without authorization and the rich.
Only 29% said they feel compassion toward everyone.
The report also identifies gender gaps. Despite expressing greater awareness of systemic challenges, the women surveyed reported less self-compassion than men.
It’s not the first compassion study ever done. But I believe that this one is unique due to its focus on specific cities, and how it assessed limits on the compassion some people feel toward certain groups.
Helping health and humanity
The Compassion Institute, another nonprofit, seeks to weave compassion training into health care education to “create a more caring and humanitarian world.” It cites the benefits of compassion for human beings, with everything from reducing stress to alleviating the effects of disease on the mind and body.
Academic institutions, including Stanford University, have conducted many studies on how teaching compassion can guide health care professionals to both treat patients better and achieve better outcomes.
A team of Emory University researchers examined how training people to express more compassion can reduce stress hormones levels, triggering positive brain responses that improve immune responses.
Offering an advantage
Although there are plenty of adorable videos of dogs and cats behaving kindly with each other or their human companions, historically compassion has differentiated humans from animals.
Human beings possess powers of emotional reasoning that give us an edge.
Scholars are still working to discover how much of human compassion is rooted in emotional reasoning. Another factor they’ve identified is the aftermath of trauma. Studies have found evidence that it can increase empathy later on.
You might imagine that in a world of hurt, there’s a deficit of compassion for others. But the Ali Center’s report keeps alive the notion that Americans remain compassionate people who want to help others.
My experiences around the world and within the U.S. have taught me that human beings both have the power to be violent and destructive. But despite it all, there is, within all of us, the innate ability and desire to be compassionate. That is a net positive for our country.
Tara Sonenshine 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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sebastian Smart, Senior Research Fellow in Access to Justice, Law and Technology, Anglia Ruskin University
Brazil’s president Lula da Silva is one of the Latin American leaders who are concerned about misinformation being used to undermine democracy.Focuspix/Shutterstock
Bosses of tech giants Meta, Google and X had front row seats at Donald Trump’s recent presidential inauguration. This special treatment highlighted the increasingly cosy relationship between leaders of technology companies and the White House.
Just a few weeks before the ceremony, Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg had pledged to “work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to censor more”.
Zuckerberg also highlighted, and criticised, the restrictions that the European Union and Latin American nations had put in place to legally restrict the social media giants. These include liability for moderation and limiting targeted advertising.
However, Latin America is emerging as the region which is moving fast to protect democratic institutions from misuse of social media, and other technology.
For instance, Brazil’s proposed fake news bill (Lei das Fake News) seeks to regulate social media and curb misinformation. It has faced strong opposition from Google. The bill is still under consideration by Brazil’s Congress.
Other examples include how, in August 2024, Brazil’s Supreme Court temporarily banned X for failing to comply with legal requirements, including blocking social media accounts accused of spreading misinformation linked to the 2022 election. X had also failed to appoint a local legal official.
The platform remained suspended until October 8 2024, when X complied with the court’s orders, paid fines totalling 28 million reals (£3.9 million), and appointed a legal representative.
Brazil temporarily banned social media network X.
The court decision has been part of a broader effort in Brazil to protect its democracy and restrict potential disruption from use of technology or social media.
This push intensified after allies of then president Jair Bolsonaro used social media to spread misinformation (ahead of the 2022 elections), and then attack democratic institutions, and mobilise supporters in the lead-up to the January 8 2023 attacks on government buildings.
Digital platforms were used to spread false claims of voter fraud and discredit mainstream media as well as spread misinformation about Bolsonaro’s opponents. These efforts fuelled conspiracy theories and protests, which later turned violent. In response, Brazil’s Supreme Federal Court tightened regulations, ordering platforms to remove false election claims.
But the region’s regulatory efforts extend beyond social media into other emerging technologies. Colombia, Ecuador and Chile – among others – are currently debating regulations of artificial intelligence (AI) and looking at AI’s human rights and environmental impact.
Chile was the first country to recognise neurorights (brain rights) in its constitution, ensuring protections against the misuse of neurotechnology, such as brain-computer interfaces that could read or manipulate thoughts, emotions or cognitive processes. These developing technologies could be used in medicine, but also raise ethical concerns about privacy and cognitive freedom.
Political leaders across Latin America also regularly challenge global technology leaders over their effect on society. Chile’s president, Gabriel Boric, has criticised Elon Musk’s support for far-right movements. Brazil’s president, Lula da Silva, said the world did not have to put up with Musk’s “far-right free-for-all just because he is rich”. Brazil’s first lady, Janja Lula da Silva, was even more direct. During a global summit on social media regulation, she declared: “I’m not afraid of you, fuck you, Elon Musk.”
History of authoritarianism
Many people in Latin America remember how political power was abused in the recent past to undermine democracy. During the military dictatorships of the 1970s and 1980s in countries such as Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, many businesses supported repressive regimes.
In the early 1970s, Chilean president Salvador Allende had tried to establish the Cybersyn Project, an ambitious initiative to create an economic planning system using networked telex machines and an early form of algorithmic decision-making. It was designed to enhance state control over the economy, while reducing dependence on foreign corporations. But Cybersyn was dismantled after the US-backed military coup that installed Pinochet’s dictatorship.
Today, Latin America may be better positioned to counter foreign influence than it was in the 1970s. Brazil’s leadership at the recent G20 global summit, where it successfully pushed for social media and artificial intelligence regulation, showed that there is a regional will to push back against the demands, and power, of Silicon Valley’s technology giants.
The question is whether these countries can sustain their efforts against pressure from big companies, economic pressure (such as tariffs) and shifting geopolitical alliances. If they do, Latin American nations could provide a much-needed counterweight to corporate influence, and an example to the rest of the world of what could be achieved.
Sebastian Smart receives funding from FONDECYT-Chile
US tariffs – both threatened and imposed – on trade partners including China, Canada, Mexico and the EU quickly set off waves of retaliatory measures. The latest commodities in the sights of president Donald Trump are steel and aluminium – with tariffs of 25% announced for all imports. But not only do these taxes disrupt well-established trade flows, they ignite concerns over the very future of globalisation.
Yet amid this uncertainty, it’s possible that there may be a silver lining. Trump may inadvertently be paving the way for a realignment of trade relationships and the emergence of new economic blocs. Such partnerships could foster more resilient and regionally focused economic cooperation.
Trump’s decision to levy tariffs on its major trading partners disrupts the fundamental tenets of the gravity model of trade. According to this theory, trade between two nations is largely determined by their economic size and proximity. For instance, introducing tariffs to the close economic relationship between the US and Canada, underpinned by their shared border, effectively increases the distance between the two by raising costs and reducing the volume of bilateral trade.
However, these disruptions can inadvertently encourage diversification of trade relationships. As companies and governments seek to mitigate the risks associated with tariffs, they may begin to explore new markets and alternative supply chains. This could ultimately lead to a more dispersed and – potentially – more stable global trade system.
Yet as Trump continues to test the limits of his power, he is learning it is not so easy to defy gravity. Already, the president has dialled down tariffs on Canada and Mexico, while China has struck back with retaliatory measures.
One positive spin-off of the trade war may be the reinforcement of regional alliances. With traditional trade flows disrupted, countries are increasingly incentivised to strengthen ties with neighbouring economies.
North American outlook
Canada and Mexico, long considered natural trading partners of the US, might pivot towards deepening their economic cooperation. They may also look to bilateral agreements with other partners as well as seeking new markets, strengthening ties with China and Japan.
The USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement) provides a strong foundation for trade. But attempts to dismantle this arrangement could see Canada and Mexico accelerating efforts to build closer economic ties with other regions, reducing their exposure to the US market.
Trump reveals his plans for sweeping steel tariffs on “everybody”.
Trump’s planned tariffs on steel threaten to undermine the USMCA. After all, it is designed to foster integrated supply chains and low-tariff economic cooperation among the three countries. This is likely to escalate trade tensions across the bloc, forcing a reassessment of the trade agreement’s key terms and destabilising the established relationships.
European Union outlook
The imposition of tariffs on the EU could lead to deepening integration among its member states. Faced with new pressures from the US, the EU might accelerate initiatives aimed at consolidating internal trade, harmonising regulations and promoting intra-European supply chains.
Member states, with France at the forefront, are already advocating for a united response to counteract US protectionism. They hope to signal a strong political commitment to resist the pressures from Trump.
Asia-Pacific outlook
China, as the world’s second-largest economy behind the US, may seek to expand its trade relationships in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond. As China’s economic growth model is export-led, it may seek stronger partnerships with regional players and invest in new trade agreements. This could potentially give rise to an even more integrated Asian economic community.
A new economic order
Whatever else plays out, these tariff wars signal a reordering of the global economic landscape. Such disruptions, though painful in the short term, can create long-term changes that rebalance economic systems. The natural trading partner hypothesis reinforces this view by highlighting how countries with shared cultural, historical and geographical ties are likely to deepen their economic relationships in the face of external shocks.
Table of US trade
Source: US Bureau of Economic Analysis (2025) Author provided
In this new order, traditional superpowers may find themselves challenged by unified responses from other nations. By imposing tariffs, the US risks isolating itself from these emerging alliances, while its major trading partners may become united in their efforts to counterbalance rising American protectionism.
The ripple effects of the US tariff row extend well beyond the directly involved countries, with significant implications for global trade networks. For the UK, already coping with the aftermath of Brexit, this new environment offers both challenges and opportunities.
With US-led protectionism disrupting traditional trade channels, the UK could seize the opportunity to diversify its export markets by forging stronger ties with the EU and digging deeper into its Commonwealth alliances. It could reinforce its position as a hub for international commerce while continuing to cultivate its relationship with the US. Managing Trump is a delicate balancing act for prime minister Keir Starmer, as both are expected to be in office for four years.
A word of caution – negotiating international trade agreements is a complex and lengthy process. This is the hard lesson learned by the UK. Its trade with the EU (its most important commercial partner) shrank after Brexit, driving the quest for new trading partners and agreements. But these fruits are slow to materialise.
The UK formally requested accession to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) in February 2021, but only signed the accession protocol in July 2023.
And we should not forget that in 2024 the UK halted its trade talks with Canada after two years of negotiations, due to disagreements over the standards on some agricultural products.
Tariffs come with challenges, but they might also be the beginning of a slow and painful change towards a more balanced and robust global economic order.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: United States Senator for Wisconsin Tammy Baldwin
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) is highlighting the dire consequences for lifesaving research at Wisconsin’s Universities after President Donald Trump and Elon Musk announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will be making significant, illegal cuts to critical funding used to discover medical breakthroughs. The NIH announced that it is arbitrarily capping indirect cost rates at 15%, which will slash funding that helps research institutions, like the University of Wisconsin, conduct research, operate their facilities and labs, pay staff, and buy equipment needed for groundbreaking work to find cures for diseases and treatments for patients.
“Cutting funding for lifesaving cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and cancer will hurt Wisconsin families. Period. These illegal cuts will not only mean fewer treatment options for Americans down the road, but it also will cost Wisconsinites their jobs across our state,” said Senator Baldwin. “Elon Musk and Donald Trump are stripping away investments that help Wisconsin families to make room for their tax cut for billionaires and the biggest corporations. I’m standing up for Wisconsin and doing everything I can to push back on this illegal funding cut that will cost American lives and livelihoods.”
“For decades, the federal government and research universities have had a deep and extremely successful partnership to produce important research for the good of the nation.?UW–Madison has long been a research powerhouse, and this effort is central to our purpose. Federal funding has contributed to a wide variety of critical innovations and discoveries at UW–Madison, from weather satellites that save lives during natural disasters to the ‘UW Solution’ that advanced the practice of organ transplantation by extending the viability of human organs,” said the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Today, campus researchers are leading a major national NIH grant to unlock the mysteries surrounding Alzheimer’s disease in a quest for better treatments, and ultimately, a cure. Work done here saves lives with innovations like cell therapies to treat cancer and heart attacks, improvements in medical imaging, and new treatments for diabetes. Our research enterprise is at the heart of the Wisconsin Idea, our commitment to innovating for the public good and doing work that makes a difference for Wisconsin and the world.”
“As we continue to assess the situation and its potential impact on our university, we recognize the significant role of NIH-funded research at UW-Milwaukee, totaling $7.9 million from 2019 to 2027. These projects support critical research that enhance quality of life by improving physical and mental health interventions, disease prevention strategies and public health policies. Examples of these projects include studies on genetic mutations linked to birth defects in children, the neuroscience of aging and the effects of wheelchair use on shoulder pain,” said University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Chancellor Mark Mone.
Indirect costs are necessary expenses for universities that support research, including paying key support staff, maintaining equipment, and operating labs, among other activities. Slashing this funding will shift billions of dollars in burdens to states and their taxpayers, who cannot afford to pay the difference. According to a lawsuit filed by 22 states including Wisconsin to block the Trump Administrative directive, this cut to NIH funding at UW-Madison would eliminate approximately $65 million in funding – which would mean layoffs and immediately halting research programs including potentially terminating clinical trials. UW-Madison could be forced to not only stop admitting new patients to some clinical trials, but to scale back ongoing clinical trials. This means slower and fewer treatments for adult and pediatric cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, degenerative neurologic diseases, and more. A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the NIH funding cuts from going into effect, issuing a temporary restraining order, and setting a hearing for February 21.
Implementing the Trump Administration’s 15% cap on indirect costs would mean an immediate loss of billions of dollars that have already been committed at research institutions across the country to employ tens of thousands of researchers and other workers. It would mean an immediate halt of life-saving health research and cutting-edge biomedical innovations that produce vaccines and cures for diseases like cancer and addiction. It would have a ripple effect across the private sector as it disrupts partnerships with private institutions, causing some of them to go bankrupt. Business communities, mayors, governors, and Chambers of Commerce across the country have all expressed concerns about the devastating impact imposing this illegal, arbitrary policy would have on local and state economies.
Research institutions in Wisconsin, including the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Medical College of Wisconsin, Marquette University, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and Marshfield Clinic Research Institute, among other University of Wisconsin System schools, will be impacted by these funding cuts.
As Ranking Member of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Related Agencies, Senator Baldwin is responsible for writing the bill that funds the NIH, which explicitly prohibits NIH from taking this arbitrary action.
Alan W. Filion, 18, of Lancaster, California, was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for making interstate threats to injure the person of another.
According to the plea agreement, from approximately August 2022 to January 2024, Filion made over 375 swatting and threat calls, including calls in which he claimed to have planted bombs in the targeted locations or threatened to detonate bombs and/or conduct mass shootings at those locations. Filion targeted religious institutions, high schools, colleges and universities, government officials, and numerous individuals across the United States.
Filion intended his calls to cause large-scale deployment of police and emergency services units to the targeted locations. During these calls, he provided information to law enforcement and emergency services agencies that he knew to be false, such as false names, false claims that he and others had placed explosives in particular locations, false claims that he and others possessed dangerous weapons, including firearms and explosives, and false claims that he and other individuals had committed, or intended to imminently commit, violent crimes.
In some instances, armed law enforcement officers approached and entered a targeted residence with their weapons drawn and detained individuals that occupied the residence. Indeed, Filion claimed in a post on Jan. 20, 2023, that when he swats someone, he “usually get[s] the cops to drag the victim and their families out of the house cuff them and search the house for dead bodies.” Additionally, Filion’s calls caused law enforcement officers and dispatchers to respond, and to be unavailable in response to other emergencies.
Filion became a serial swatter for both profit and recreation. He claimed in a Jan. 19, 2023, online post that his “first” swatting was like “2 to 3 years ago” and that “6-9 months ago [he] decided to turn it into a business. . .” On several occasions, Filion placed posts on social media channels advertising his services and swatting-for-a-fee structure.
On Jan.18, 2024, Filion was arrested in California on Florida state charges arising from a May 2023 threat he made to a religious institution in Sanford, Florida. In that threat, he claimed to have an illegally modified AR-15, a Glock 17 pistol, pipe bombs, and Molotov cocktails. He said that he was going to imminently “commit a mass shooting” and “kill everyone” he saw. He pleaded guilty in federal court to making that threat.
Filion also pleaded guilty to making three other threatening calls: an October 2022 call to a public high school in the Western District of Washington, in which he threatened to commit a mass shooting and claimed to have planted bombs throughout the school; a May 2023 call to a Historically Black College or University in the Northern District of Florida, in which he claimed to have placed bombs in the walls and ceilings of campus housing that would detonate in about an hour; and a July 2023 call to a local police department dispatch number in the Western District of Texas, in which he falsely identified himself as a senior federal law enforcement officer, provided the federal law-enforcement officer’s residential address to the dispatcher, claimed to have killed the federal officer’s mother, and threatened to kill any responding police officers.
The FBI and U.S. Secret Service investigated the case, with valuable assistance provided by the Seminole County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office; the Anacortes (Washington) Police Department; the Florida Department of Law Enforcement; the California Department of Justice; the Los Angeles County (California) Sheriff’s Office; and the Volusia County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kara Wick for the Middle District of Florida prosecuted the case, with valuable assistance from the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section; the State Attorney’s Office for Seminole County, Florida, 18th Judicial Circuit; and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Western District of Washington, Northern District of Florida, Western District of Texas, and District of Columbia.
Headline: Azure for mission-critical workloads in healthcare: EHR and beyond
In today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, digital transformation is no longer a luxury but a necessity. One of the most critical components of this transformation is the electronic health record (EHR) system, which plays a pivotal role in healthcare operations and care delivery. Organizations are actively exploring alternatives for their traditional on-premises infrastructures to overcome significant challenges, including high capital expenditure, frequent expensive hardware refresh cycles, outdated security protocols, and most importantly, managing the data web of siloed systems. By leveraging connected EHR systems in the cloud, providers can also unlock the full potential of their data and further deliver data-driven AI innovations.
Epic® on Azure
Azure for mission-critical workloads
Migrating EHR systems to Microsoft Azure provides healthcare organizations with a robust platform for mission-critical workloads, ensuring optimized performance, fast data access, built-in disaster recovery, and enhanced security features, such as AI-powered threat detection and automated compliance monitoring. On top of that, Azure maximizes cloud investments, offering new possibilities to harness data to springboard AI innovations.
Data is at the heart of healthcare. Hospitals produce more than 50 petabytes of data across more than 10 siloed systems every year. As the healthcare industry faces the dual challenges of managing vast amounts of unstructured data and a shortage of workforce, up to 97% of healthcare data goes unused, highlighting a significant missed opportunity for operational excellence and better patient insights.1 One of the biggest benefits for healthcare customers on Azure is the ability to unify their multi-modal healthcare data for analytics and AI with healthcare data solutions in Microsoft Fabric that lets them ingest, store, and analyze data from various sources and modalities. While Fabric unifies your data, Microsoft Purview delivers the data governance service that helps you classify the data across your data estate, including identification for sensitive data. Integrating Microsoft Purview with healthcare data solutions in Fabric not only strengthens security but also help you ensure compliance, enabling healthcare organizations to govern their data with confidence. We are acutely aware of the industry expectations in which our technology is utilized, and this is one of the many reasons why our healthcare customers trust Azure for mission-critical workloads.
As we continue to deliver data innovations, we see our customers use their connected data on a wide spectrum of AI capabilities. With Azure AI, healthcare organizations can accelerate innovation through predictive analytics, automate clinical tasks, and improve patient interactions with the help of ambient AI solutions like DAX Copilot (directly embedded in EHR systems), as well as take advantage of Microsoft healthcare AI models in Azure AI Foundry and GitHub, a collection of cutting-edge multi-modal generative AI models that benefit imaging and radiology workflows.
Enhanced support for mission-critical
Mission-critical workloads demand comprehensive support. In 2024, Microsoft Unified enhanced its support for mission-critical workloads in healthcare through its Mission Critical Offerings. This initiative provides proactive support to improve the health, resiliency, and performance of healthcare systems via regular assessments, guidance, and optimization recommendations, ensuring business continuity and addressing unique healthcare challenges.
Collaborating for technology excellence: A strategic partnership that stands out
Our commitment to mission-critical is reflected in our collaborations with leading EHR providers such as Epic®. This long-standing relationship of more than 20 years has yielded an optimized solution for Epic® on Azure, offering a robust, purpose-built platform backed by joint-reference architecture. Recently, Microsoft announced expanded scalability on Azure for healthcare organizations, specifically for running Epic®’s Chronicles* Operational Database (ODB), increasing its capacity to 65 million global references per second (GRefs/s), a 171% enhancement from 2023 on the new Mbv3 VM series.
The collaboration with Epic® extends well beyond the cloud infrastructure—to several products and capabilities part of Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare. Epic® and Microsoft have expanded their collaboration to integrate advanced AI technologies such as Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service and the DAX Copilot into Epic®’s EHR system. The integration helps provide AI-powered clinical insights, streamline administrative processes, and improve clinician productivity through features like note summarization and automated coding suggestions.
Delivering value beyond infrastructure: The Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare promise
Microsoft’s well-rounded partnership with Epic® is one of the many reasons why Azure is the cloud of choice for many of our healthcare customers.
The decision to move mission-critical workloads to the cloud is often not just about infrastructure. Customers like Mercy chose Azure to not only modernize their infrastructure but also extract value from sizeable data archives. Mercy’s digital transformation on Azure enabled it to connect previously siloed data and use several Microsoft services such as Azure Data Lake to result in positive business outcomes. For example, by empowering care teams with smart dashboards and insights into factors that determine patient discharge, Mercy has been able to reduce patient stay durations significantly. Mercy employs Azure AI Document Intelligence to scan and recognize information on patient’s insurance cards which then gets updated on their EHR records automatically.
We recognize our customer’s desire to have a complete digital transformation in the cloud that transcends every layer of the stack, and Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare lets us deliver to that promise. It encapsulates a broad spectrum of innovative data and AI innovations from Microsoft, purpose-built for the healthcare industry, enabling our customers to achieve their cloud-first goals faster and easier. Recently, Microsoft announced several innovations as part of the portfolio, including new healthcare AI models in Azure AI Foundry, capabilities for healthcare data solutions in Microsoft Fabric, the healthcare agent service in Copilot Studio, and an AI-powered nursing workflow solution.
As customers realize the value of consolidating their IT investments around a single vendor, Azure is increasingly being adopted for mission-critical workloads. By seamlessly connecting and delivering value across all layers of the stack, Azure for mission-critical extends a customer’s return on cloud investments. Customers like St. Luke’s University Health System are reaping the benefits of their Epic® on Azure migration by taking advantage of several synergies in the Microsoft portfolio, like the interoperability of Microsoft Teams with Epic®. Security is of paramount importance when dealing with patient records, and customers like Jefferson Health migrate their Epic® environments to Azure with high confidence with Microsoft Defender for end-point detection and response.
Next steps
As we continue to transform mission-critical workloads in the cloud, we are making it easier for our partners and customers to create connected experiences at every point of care, empower their healthcare workforce, and unlock the value from their data, all with uncompromised privacy and security. Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is supporting healthcare organizations on every step of their journey toward shaping a healthier future.
*Epic® and Chronicles are trademarks of Epic Systems Corporation.
1World Economic Forum, 4 ways data is improving healthcare, December 2019.
When Married at First Sight Australia bride Lauren Hall said her main goal was to “serve” her man, the reality show contestant was reflecting a growing trend in western culture – the so-called tradwife lifestyle.
Tradwives are women who choose to take up traditional gendered roles within the home, centred around serving their husband and children. This version of wifehood is underpinned by a deference to one’s husband.
Because of this, tradwives tend to be financially dependent on their husbands and many also give over decision-making rights to their husbands. In essence, the tradwife lifestyle rejects the past seven decades of feminism.
But why is being a tradwife growing in popularity in 2025, and how has it become so marketable?
The rise (or return) of tradwives
Social media is partly to blame. The tradwife trend has risen in visibility across platforms such as Instagram and TikTok.
Influencer Hannah Neeleman from Ballerina Farm is one of the most prolific tradwife influencers, topping ten-million followers on her Instagram page.
Other Instagram accounts such as Ekaterina Anderson and Aria Lewis are popular in their own right, with followers ranging from 100,000 to 200,000.
All promote a joy of domesticity. They post about their daily tasks of baking, preparing meals, raising children and, for many, connecting to the land and living sustainably.
However, underneath this joy of domesticity is often an advocation of subservience. Many tradwives openly promote the daily pleasure they get from serving their husbands, who they argue are the “natural” head of the household.
Marketing a romanticised lifestyle
Why, then, is this version of femininity so desirable?
For one, tradwives market a romanticised lifestyle. Theirs is reminiscent of the 1950s: a golden age economically, where employment was high, consumables were affordable and the male breadwinner was supported at home by a subservient wife.
The tradwife lifestyle also promotes a pioneering domesticity. Tradwife influencers often post about baking their own bread, make their own preserves and mending their family’s clothes.
Many also wear pioneering-type clothing – blouses and long skirts with the signature tradwife apron. A number of tradwives such as Aria Lewis also have their own clothing and merchandise lines for their followers to buy.
People’s need for “ontological security” (security of the self) – a term coined in 1984 by sociologist Anthony Giddens – is another reason why the tradwife lifestyle is followed by so many women today.
Broadly speaking, ontological security denotes a desire for a stable identity. Academics Catarina Kinnvall and Jennifer Mitzen offer this explanation:
As the world is becoming more fragile, contentious, and conflictual, we are, Giddens argues, prone to seek a sense of security, a “protective cocoon”, in established norms and routines and in beliefs about particular narratives of home and secure pasts.
The tradwife identity offers women this security: a stable, strictly defined and seemingly uncomplicated identity that is predicated solely on serving one’s husband and children. The nostalgia for the 1950s and the pioneering “return to basics” life feeds this sense of security.
A double entanglement
It also seems women are desiring the tradwife lifestyle due to the damaging effects of “double entanglement”.
Society constantly tells women they can “have it all”: sexual freedom, any career they desire and an ability to choose whether or not to become mothers.
In reality, however, this is an empty promise. Sexually assertive women, women who appear overly dominant in the workplace, and women who choose not to mother are often heavily shamed in society.
Herein lies the double-entanglement. Women are told they can choose how to live their lives but are then shamed for choosing ways of living that are actually seen as unfeminine.
It is possible the tradwife identity offers women a version of femininity that provides safe haven from being shamed as “pariahs” in society.
Sadly, though, there is no safe haven. When you strip away the romanticism of domesticity, the tradwife lifestyle only furthers the difficulties women face today by breeding a deep misogyny that is based on an intense subjugation of women.
The new female right
This misogyny is further entrenched by many tradwives’ association with the far-right women’s movement, which is gaining popularity within the United States.
The BBC’s America’s New Female Right documentary explores the rise of this movement and how it further feeds into narratives that femininity ought to be based on submission to men.
It seems this version of womanhood will only gain momentum as the world veers even farther to the far right. The uncertainty of today – with frequent economic crises, climate emergencies and other crises of humanity – will only fuel the need for a nostalgic, seemingly simpler life.
On the surface, this is what many feel a traditional return to womanhood offers. But the costs of giving up the gains of feminism are not clear.
Christina Vogels 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 Sven Batke, Associate Head of Research and Knowledge Exchange – Reader in Plant Science, Edge Hill University
A tomato greenhouse in north-west England. Sven Batke, CC BY-NC-ND
When was the last time you walked into a supermarket and marvelled at the abundance of exotic fruits and vegetables, even in the dead of winter? This luxury, now an expectation, only became common in the mid-20th century, reaching the UK some decades later.
Not long ago, winter produce in UK supermarkets was limited; root vegetables like carrots, potatoes, and parsnips, alongside hardy greens such as kale and cabbage. Fruits were even scarcer, mostly apples and pears. Today’s variety owes much to advances in global trade and smarter greenhouses, which help extend growing seasons and bring once seasonal produce to shelves all year round.
Fast forward just one generation, and now supermarket shelves are stocked with dragon fruit, bananas, coconuts, avocados, and a variety of exotic nuts and vegetables. These items not only hail from the farthest reaches of the globe, but have also been bred to offer consumers unique sensory experiences or health benefits, such as higher concentrations of antioxidants. It’s no surprise that most of these exotic foods are often not grown locally or even within Europe.
According to the latest government figures from 2023, 53% of the vegetables consumed in the UK are imported, and only 17% of fruits are grown locally. The contrast is stark when you look at exports, which remain relatively small (about 100,000 tonnes in 2023).
UK food security could be improved by growing more produce inside smart greenhouses. Sven Batke, CC BY-NC-ND
How often do you eat a UK-grown strawberry or tomato outside summer? Many such vegetables come from the Netherlands, Morocco and Spain, while most fruit comes from Colombia, Costa Rica and Brazil. No surprise, given their warmer climates. The UK averages 9-12°C annually, compared to Morocco’s 18-20°C.
Increasing demand for exotic foods available year-round has made the UK’s food system vulnerable to external market fluctuations. Disruptions, such as trade barriers following Brexit or global hikes in energy prices due to the Ukraine war have placed supply chains under strain.
Empty supermarket shelves could become more common if we see disruptions in supply chains, putting further pressure on the undervalued domestic growing sector. But could the UK grow more of its own food and reduce reliance on volatile global markets?
Hi-tech solutions
Protected horticulture (specifically in the food sector, as opposed to ornamental plants) involves growing fruits and vegetables year-round in controlled environments, such as polytunnels, greenhouses and indoor vertical farms.
These facilities regulate temperature, humidity and light, and in some cases, even atmospheric gases like CO₂. Water and nutrient inputs are also tightly controlled, reducing waste by up to 95% compared to traditional field-grown methods. This allows year-around protection from the elements. They are often overlooked despite holding the key to solving some of the current food security challenges.
As part of the Greenhouse Innovation Consortium, my team of biologists, geographers and I recently mapped over 12,000 greenhouses in Britain. Estimates suggest that around 70% of these structures are more than 40 years old.
So why haven’t we seen more UK-grown fruits and vegetables on supermarket shelves if we have the technology to produce them? One major reason is the high energy demand of indoor growing, especially in cold and cloudy weather – something we are all too familiar with in the UK. For example, 2024 has seen one of the worse years in total recorded sun hours.
The UK’s horticulture sector has also received very little government support over the years. There are few incentives for growers to adopt new technology or upgrade infrastructure. Many UK growers still have not adopted technologies like automatic harvest robots or AI-controlled systems, and even simple upgrades like LED growing lights could boost yield by over 50%. However, resource management in this sector requires experience and making these changes is a fine balancing act.
Most British greenhouses are more than 40 years old so investment is needed to upgrade them. Sven Batke, CC BY-NC-ND
But the future can be bright – if we choose to make it so. To grow more produce all year round without compromising on flavour, the sector needs more investment in local expertise and cutting-edge facilities.
From precision horticulture to advanced AI-controlled greenhouses, with the right drive and investment, the UK could move towards a more sustainable food production system. Sweden for example is currently investing over £700 million into horticulture.
While achieving 100% self-sufficiency may not be feasible due to other demands on land, such as housing, conservation, and industry, creating a more resilient and less dependent food sector would benefit everyone (not to mention reducing food miles).
The UK’s food future doesn’t have to rely on global markets. With investment and innovation, the country can build a resilient, sustainable food system. Year-round demand for exotic produce has exposed supply chain fragility, but fostering domestic growth and technology can change the narrative.
It’s not about turning back the clock, but about making the most of what the UK has while driving forward the solutions that make sense for the country’s future. The answer is not just more local food. It’s smarter, more resilient food systems that can weather whatever challenges lie ahead.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Sven Batke works together with industry growers and manufactures in the horticulture industry. The work we are doing is part of the Greenhouse Innovation Consortium, which aims to support local growers in the UK.
Lung cancer cases are increasing in people who have never smoked, especially in women, a new study by the World Health Organization’s cancer agency has found.
The findings, published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, reveal that lung adenocarcinoma, the most common type of lung cancer among non-smokers, accounts for nearly 60% of lung cancer cases in women compared to 45% in men.
About 2.5 million new lung cancer cases were diagnosed worldwide in 2022 – an increase of 300,000 since 2020. The study suggests that environmental factors, particularly air pollution, along with genetic predisposition and immune responses, may be driving this rise in non-smoking-related lung cancer.
One of the most significant risk factors for lung cancer in non-smokers is genetic mutations, especially mutations in the EGFR gene. This gene provides instructions for producing a protein on the surface of cells involved in growth and division.
Mutations in this gene drive uncontrolled cell division and tumour growth. They are found in 50% of lung adenocarcinomas in non-smoking Asian women and 19% in non-smoking western women – compared with 10–20% in non-smoking men.
Advances in genetic testing have made it easier to detect these mutations. However, rising exposure to air pollution, which is known to trigger EGFR mutations – may also be contributing to their increasing prevalence.
Other genetic changes that drive tumour growth include mutations in the genes ALK and ROS1, which are found in about 5% of lung cancer cases in non-smokers. These mutations are more often seen in younger non-smoking women, particularly in Asia. Thankfully, improved screening programmes, especially in east Asian countries, have helped detect these mutations more frequently.
Mutations in TP53, a crucial tumour-suppressing gene, also appear to be more commonly found in non-smoking women than in men. This gene prevents cells from becoming cancerous, and its mutation leads to out-of-control cell growth. The hormone oestrogen can interact with TP53 mutations, making lung cancer more likely to develop in women over time.
Another gene that is worth mentioning is KRAS. Mutations in this gene are usually associated with smoking-related lung cancer, however, they are increasingly being found in non-smokers – particularly women.
Recent studies suggest that exposure to tiny particles in the air, or PM2.5 (so-called because they are 2.5 micrometres or smaller) may be responsible for these mutations in non-smoker women.
Since PM2.5 levels continue to rise in many towns and cities, exposure to these particles could be another factor not only in lung cancer but also in other types of cancers in women.
In addition to genetic predisposition, hormone fluctuations may influence tumour growth in women. Oestrogen receptors are found in lung tissue, and experimental studies suggest that oestrogen promotes tumour growth. Studieshave shown.) that women who receive hormone-replacement therapy (HRT), have a lower risk of lung cancer compared with women not on HRT, suggesting that natural oestrogen cycles may provide some level of protection.
Chronic inflammation
Beyond genetics and hormones, chronic inflammation could also explain why lung cancer is rising among non-smoking women.
Women are more likely to develop autoimmune diseases than men, and problems with the immune system can play a role in cancer. Persistent inflammation can cause repeated damage to tissues, leading to changes in DNA and promote abnormal cell growth, all of which raise the risk of cancer.
Women with autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis and lupus have a higher chance of getting lung cancer, possibly because of long-lasting inflammation in the lungs. Inflammatory molecules – like interleukin-6 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha – can exacerbate the cancer by helping tumour cells survive and spread.
Autoimmune diseases have been increasing globally, probably because of environmental changes, changes in diet and shifts in gut microbiomes (the constellation of microorganisms that live in our guts and play an important role in our health). Because women are disproportionately affected by autoimmune conditions, they may be more vulnerable to chronic inflammation-driven cancer.
As life expectancy increases, more women are accumulating years of immune system activation, leading to a higher risk of developing inflammation-related lung cancer. In addition, things like pollution, household chemicals and work-related exposures can make immune system problems worse, increasing the risk of cancer even more.
Air pollution has long been recognised as a significant factor in lung cancer risk, but emerging evidence suggests that women may be particularly vulnerable. Studies show that women’s lung anatomy and function make them more susceptible to the harmful effects of pollutants. Women’s lungs are smaller than men’s, with narrower airways, which might cause more fine particles, like PM2.5, to get trapped in their lungs.
Additionally, oestrogen has been shown to amplify inflammatory responses when exposed to pollutants, potentially making lung tissue more prone to damage that can lead to lung cancer.
Women are more exposed to air pollution than men, but in a different way. While men often face pollution from factory work, women spend more time indoors where toxic fumes from cooking and heating are more common.
Air pollution in the home, especially from things like wood, coal and kerosene, can raise the risk of lung cancer. Women working in places such as textile factories, beauty salons and hospitals are also more exposed to harmful chemicals that can damage the lungs. In rapidly growing cities, women are often in areas with high traffic and factory pollution.
More significant
Women are biologically more likely than men to develop certain genetic mutations that increase the risk of lung cancer. However, factors like rising pollution, changes in hormone levels, immune system imbalances and longer life expectancy are making these risks even more significant.
Recent research suggests that HPV, a virus, may also contribute to lung cancer in women, underscoring the need for further study and preventative measures.
Understanding the roles of immune, hormonal, genetic and viral factors is key to spotting lung cancer early, creating more effective treatments and developing better ways to prevent it.
Pinar Uysal-Onganer 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.
Narwhal tusks reveal how they’re affected by declining Arctic ice. Saifullahphtographer
We have a natural fascination with time – how landscapes have been carved over millennia, how our bodies grow and sag with age, how the stars traverse the sky each night. Scientists probe the layers beneath our feet to understand the secrets of our past. Geologists and palaeontologists sample ice, rock and fossils to reconstruct past climates and species and archaeologists pick through ancient “dustbins” (middens) in excavation sites to reimagine our historical dinner time.
Similarly, most living things produce records of their own existence in layered body tissues – often in the form of daily or yearly growth bands. The most familiar of these so-called biochronologies are tree rings, which form every year in response to seasonal cycles in temperature and rainfall.
Dendrochronology – the art of tree-ring counting – allows us to precisely date trees. Based on the rings in its trunk, a bristlecone pine in eastern California known as Methuselah is said to be the world’s oldest living thing at 4,856 years old.
Methuselah, the world’s oldest living tree. Xiaoling Sun
It’s not just the number of rings, either – their width tells us whether the tree was thriving in a particular year, or suffering due to drought. Chemical compounds locked into the wood offer clues about atmospheric changes, including those produced by volcanic eruptions.
Tree rings are famously detailed life records. Veroja
Let’s not not stop at trees – your own tooth cement, nails and hair are forming chemical and visual records of your own life experience right now, storing traces of food, drink and drugs you have consumed. They can also produce “stress marks” during trauma or pregnancy, when a mother literally breaks her own body tissues to grow and nourish her baby.
Recent studies, for instance, have applied forensic analyses of whale earwax to explore their stress levels during historic whaling days. Narwhal tusks, meanwhile, have helped explain how declining Arctic sea ice has affected their diet and exposure to pollution.
The importance of otoliths
In my lab, we work with aquatic animals – from fish scales and ear bones to squid eyes and beaks. Like decoding a biological black box, we analyse chemical constituents in the growth layers to reconstruct a detailed picture of the individual’s prior health, diet and movements.
Some biochronologies are more “fickle”, forming layers at unpredictable rates, including the eye lenses of fish and turtle scutes. Others, such as bird feathers, are shorter lived due to periodic moulting. Yet they all share the important feature of serial growth, producing valuable archives that we can probe to build a picture of the animal’s life.
Probably the best known biochronometer in the animal world – and my own personal obsession – is the fish otolith, or ear bone (Ancient Greek: oto is ear and líthos is stone). We humans have tiny ear stones (otoconia), whose primary function is to maintain balance, but fish otoliths are also crucial for hearing, as well as featuring specific properties that make them particularly valuable markers of biochronology.
Unlike “normal” bones, fish otoliths are composed of calcium carbonate crystals and are metabolically inert, meaning they never get broken down and rebuilt. Instead they keep growing – even during periods of starvation – producing daily and annual growth bands.
These beautiful crystalline structures are also highly resistant to degradation and vary in shape between species. This enables scientists to use a combination of “otolith atlases” and artificial intelligence to identify popular choices of fish from otoliths left behind in ancient human middens, as well as in the contemporary stomach contents or poop of predators such as seals, albatrosses and squid.
Otoliths have driven my research for almost two decades. I’ve been fascinated by animal migration and the ecological and evolutionary processes underpinning these long and dangerous journeys ever since taking a “movement ecology” class at the University of Edinburgh with the brilliant Professor Victoria Braithwaite in 2003.
I decided I wanted to track marine animals myself, and my lab now primarily uses otolith and eye lens chemistry to reconstruct fish habitat use and growth rates, and the temperatures they experienced through their lives. We are now also investigating how well these same structures track reproductive events, chronic stress and exposure to pollution.
And we are working with international teams to understand how hypoxia (low oxygen zones or “dead zones”) affect fish growth and reproduction. Ultimately, this data allows us to connect stressful events in a fish’s past to its lifetime health and survival, which is important for predicting a species’ persistence.
For example, a recent study used otolith-derived metabolic rates of Atlantic bluefin tuna to show their vulnerability to future climate change. Meanwhile in California, we used otolith chemistry to understand the impact of dams on salmon migration and survival, revealing that – on many rivers – dams have made it impossible for salmon to escape into the mountains during summer, which is essential for enabling them to resist the increasingly severe droughts afflicting the region.
Conservation
Fisheries managers read the rings on millions of otoliths each year to track individual cohorts and look for warning signs of overfishing, but I would argue that biochronologies are still underused in this field. For example, fisheries managers could use otoliths to track the movements of juveniles too small to be tagged (those under 4cm long), since chemical markers make it possible to identify where they grew up. This would allow these managers to earmark productive or struggling “nursery habitats” for protection or improvement, respectively.
We consistently find that rivers and estuaries play a critical role in the survival and growth of valuable species such as salmon, sea bass and anchovies. Juvenile fish often have such high natural mortality rates – often only 1% survive to their first birthday – that even small improvements to their survival can result in large boosts in abundance and make wild fisheries more sustainable.
Small improvements to survival of wild salmon could make a huge difference to their sustainability. Jakub Rutkiewicz
As such, let’s keep up the momentum to clean and restore our rivers and beaches, and to embrace monitoring tools such as biochronologies to learn which actions produce the biggest benefits. Next time you think about banging the glass at an aquarium, just remember that the fish inside are listening – and recording you too.
Anna Sturrock receives funding from a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship
The Ugandan government and the World Health Organization recently confirmed an outbreak of Sudan virus disease. The index (first-known) case of this outbreak is thought to be a 32-year-old male nurse from a hospital in Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
The WHO reported two main clusters, related to the patient’s family and a hospital cluster. At the time of writing, the index case is the sole recorded death. The second case was the patient’s wife, and as of February 11, there were nine confirmed cases.
Outbreaks of this virus are relatively rare. This new outbreak is the ninth to have been recorded since 1976 when the virus was first identified and – as was practice at the time – named after the location where this first outbreak took place, southern Sudan.
A 2022 Sudan virus outbreak also in Uganda resulted in 164 cases and 77 deaths (a fatality rate of 47%). There are no treatments or vaccines against the Sudan virus.
Sudan virus disease is essentially a disease very similar to Ebola. The Ebola virus has caused several high-profile outbreaks. The west Africa 2014-16 outbreak was the largest with 28,600 cases and 11,325 deaths.
The Sudan and Ebola viruses both come from the orthoebolavirus family, but they have different proteins and genetic components, so the immune response to each virus is different. As such, it’s thought that the Ebola vaccines will not be effective against the Sudan virus.
For the current Sudan virus outbreak, there are efforts to deploy vaccine candidates and also monoclonal antibody medicines. These medicines create antibodies that aim to stop the virus from replicating.
In 2022, the WHO recommended two monoclonal antibodies for use against Ebola. There is enthusiasm for similar research related to treatments for the Sudan virus.
A phase 1 vaccine trial, the earliest phase of testing in humans, is underway.
The similarities in structure between these two types of orthoebolavirus mean that the symptoms in patients are similar. The illness for both viruses may typically begin with fever, aches and fatigue with potential progression onto diarrhoea, vomiting and unexplained bleeding.
Laboratory testing is needed to differentiate between the diseases, though the urgent need for isolation remains.
Early supportive treatment has been shown to reduce mortality rates of Sudan and Ebola virus disease, giving the patient time for their body to recover. This usually involves replacing fluids and treating pain, fever and other possible infections, such as malaria.
The reporting of the 2022 Sudan virus disease outbreak described how patients would first visit care facilities that were outside of the mainstream health service. There were many new infections across late August 2022 from within private health facilities that drove transmission early on in the outbreak. This suggested a low level of infection prevention and control, and quite possibly a lack of equipment and good practice to contain serious infections.
When cases were confirmed, most known contacts who developed symptoms were referred to specialist units for testing and hospital care. These referrals typically happened in October, and the outbreak was declared over by the end of November 2022. Although we lack vital tools such as effective vaccines and drugs, contact tracing and appropriate infection control can contain serious outbreaks such as these.
Climate change driving distribution
Climate change will have an effect on the geographical distribution of new and emerging infections, such as Ebola and Sudan virus disease and the Crimean-Congo virus. Mosquito-borne diseases, such as malaria and yellow fever, will find new habitats while dengue and West Nile virus are already becoming more common in Europe and North America.
International cooperation for addressing global health threats is vital. However, these efforts will be hindered by the volatility and lack of coherence from key stakeholders such as the US government. The world faces uncertain times, and these are ideal circumstances for the Sudan virus and other infectious diseases to thrive.
Michael Head has previously received funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Research England and the UK Department for International Development, and currently receives funding from the UK Medical Research Foundation.
Across England, schools are running food banks to help the children and their families. Research suggests that 21% of schools in England now offer some form of food charity.
In our recently published book, we carried out research at 12 schools and nurseries with food banks across England, interviewing 30 teachers, headteachers and school staff who ran the food banks. We wanted to explore why there has been such considerable growth in the education sector offering food to families, and the impact it has on children, parents and school staff.
Many of the schools and nurseries that we visited as part of our research initially set up the food bank in response to the COVID pandemic. This is in keeping with findings from previous research, although the cost-of-living crisis was the stimulus for others.
Learning better
Staff in the schools we visited told us that children could not learn if they were hungry. “You know what it’s like when you have nothing to eat and you’ve got nothing in your belly, you can’t concentrate,” one teacher said.
Through addressing children’s hunger, the school staff we spoke to believed, schools can improve children’s concentration and motivation to learn.
This echoed the views of almost 18,000 teachers in a 2023 National Education Union survey: 87% of school staff in the survey said that pupils they taught were unable to concentrate as a result of poverty, and over half said that they or their school were providing extra food for children during the school day.
One headteacher in our study talked about the impact of the food bank on one of the children in their school:
So he came in all full of beans. ‘I’ve got all gold. Look at my work. Can I have a sticker? ’ And I was like, ‘Someone’s had their Weetabix,’ and they’re like, ‘Yeah, I did. I had that special Weetabix’, … And then it turned out the dad had been into the food bank … that’s why, that’s why I’m doing this.
The teachers believed that having a food bank at school also led to an improvement in learning and wellbeing through other means, such as reduced family stress. “If you meet the need of the parent, they’re then available to meet the need of the child,” one school staff member said.
The food banks also helped build closer relationships between families and the school. Teachers told us that families appreciated the support and became more willing to approach the school for help with other issues.
The caring role of schools
Beyond the need to improve learning outcomes, however, the main justification for running a food bank was the moral imperative to support families who needed it and could not access help anywhere else. In the words of one teacher: “We’re humans and our natural instinct is to care. That’s why I came into this profession. It’s a caring profession.”
The teachers felt a moral imperative to care for their pupils and their families. Irina Gutyryak/Shutterstock
The school staff told us about the work that went into running the foodbanks. They sourced food from local food redistribution charities, companies and other families at the school. Often, food was delivered, but sometimes it required collection. In some cases, parent volunteers helped pick up donations. A headteacher told us about how she collected food from a distribution centre:
I would have literally had to go and root around and find what I needed … At least I am not teaching all day every day. So actually, I can take an hour and a half out – even though it’s only in term – to go and drive there, park up, open my boot, get the two pallets. And it was all heavy stuff – tins – [to] get here.
We asked the people in our research whether schools should run food banks. Most replied positively, restating the impact that the food bank had upon the learning and wellbeing of children. Others were pragmatic, accepting that right now, there is no alternative support. However, some were critical, suggesting that the government should find alternative solutions to the issue of child poverty.
While the provision of food for children and families in education settings may be having a beneficial effect, it is not sustainable.
The burden of child poverty does not fall evenly on schools. Those that provide food banks are disproportionately located in areas with more pupils from deprived backgrounds, and schools with more pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to receive poor Ofsted grades. Operating a food bank requires significant time, energy and funding, none of which are recognised in education policy, or by Ofsted, the schools inspectorate.
The work that education staff are doing to support children in this way should be celebrated and rewarded, although it is not currently recognised in measures of a school’s effectiveness. But this also risks normalising the presence of food banks in schools. One teacher argued: “Our job is to look after them and educate them and care for them while they’re at school, not to feed them at the weekends or holidays, but we can’t help but be concerned about that.”
The government should recognise the work that schools and early years settings are doing in this area and ensure that they have the resources needed. Government action to abolish the two-child benefit cap would also support families, lifting 300,000 children out of poverty.
The government is currently developing a child poverty strategy. These measures would be welcome inclusions.
Sharon Vince received funding from the British Education Research Association and the Monday Charitable Trust for the projects on food banks.
Alice Bradbury receives funding from the Helen Hamlyn Trust which funds the Helen Hamlyn Centre for Pedagogy at UCL. She has also received research funding from the British Education Research Association and the Monday Charitable Trust for the projects on food banks. She is a member of the Labour Party and the Universities and College Union.
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko spoke in the State Duma as part of a government hour dedicated to the development of the Education Development Strategy for the period up to 2036 with a perspective up to 2040.
Dmitry Chernyshenko thanked the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin and the entire deputy corps for the productive dialogue and noted the effectiveness of the government hour format.
As part of the development of the Strategy for the Development of Education for the Period up to 2036 with a Prospect up to 2040, more than 1.5 thousand experts analyzed over 600 documents from the times of the Russian Empire to the present day.
In preparing the draft strategy, the systemic instructions of President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin are taken into account.
For the first time, strategies for leading engineering universities are being developed at the Government level, and an institute of chief designers is being created.
The content of educational programs is synchronized with the tasks for the OGE and the USE. The child must receive all the knowledge to pass these exams at school.
A comprehensive plan of measures to improve the quality of mathematical and natural science education for the period up to 2030 has been approved.
A system of initial vocational education will be introduced in a pilot mode in a number of regions.
The strategy will state that artificial intelligence and digitalization will not replace live contact between student and teacher.
“It is important for us to increase the influx of young specialists, this is influenced by the reduction of the bureaucratic burden, and the number of children in the class, and the protection of teachers – their honor and dignity, wages, housing. We have already begun to fight the bureaucratic burden at the legislative level,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
The strategy should provide opportunities for the participants of the SVO: obtaining a sought-after profession, employment and involving veterans in educational work in educational organizations.
The Deputy Prime Minister proposed:
• together with deputies, within the framework of the Education Development Strategy, consider the issue of transferring schools from the municipal to the regional level;
• The Ministry of Education should work out the issue of teachers completing additional professional education programs at state universities, regional institutes for advanced training, and leading educational centers (Sirius and Innopolis);
• Rosobrnadzor must ensure monitoring and quality of implementation of these programs.
In addition, the Ministry of Education and the Russian Academy of Education have been instructed to work on the issue of balancing the workload of students.
“On the instructions of President Vladimir Putin, the development of the strategy will continue throughout this year. The draft of this fundamental document should be considered by the Council for Science and Education under the President in the second half of the year,” said Dmitry Chernyshenko.
The event was also attended by the Minister of Education Sergey Kravtsov, the Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov, the head of Rosmolodezh Grigory Gurov, the head of Rosobrnadzor Anzor Muzaev, the president of the All-Russian public organization “Russian Union of Rectors” Viktor Sadovnichy, and the president of the Russian Academy of Education Olga Vasilyeva.
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.
(L-R) Tracy Rice (Southern Regional College & ABC LMP Chairperson); Councillor Sarah Duffy (Lord Mayor of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon) and Alderman Paul Greenfield (Economic Development and Regeneration Committee Chair) at the launch of the Employability and Skills Conference.
The annual Employability and Skills Conference returns to Armagh City Hotel on Thursday 13 March! The event will focus on helping businesses to ‘get future ready’ by recruiting, retaining and reskilling a resilient and talented workforce to help secure the future growth of the local economy.
The ‘Get Future Ready: Employability and Skills’ series is part of the Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Labour Market Partnership. Funded by the Department for Communities, Labour Market Partnerships create targeted employment action plans for council areas, allowing for collaboration at local and regional level to support people towards and into work.
Hosted by Mark Simpson, this event is open to all local employers, residents and community representatives as well as education and training providers and employment support agencies.
A host of keynote speakers will share their experience and insights, including Dr Eoin Magennis from Ulster University (‘The Future is Now – Setting the Scene’); Ann Watt from Pivotal (‘Tackling Economic Inactivity with Innovative Workforce Strategies’) and Kathleen O’Hare from Northern Ireland Skills Council (‘Crafting Tomorrow’s Talent: How NI is Shaping the Skills of the Future’). Elaine Leonard from The Appleby Trust will discuss the subject of Embracing Neurodiversity and Unlocking unique strengths for a Thriving Workforce.
Lord Mayor of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon, Councillor Sarah Duffy commented:
“The Employability and Skills Conference is a key event for local employers and job seekers to explore the economic developments and challenges and to address the skills and abilities that will be needed in the workplace going forward.
“I look forward to welcoming our keynote speakers and business representatives who will be encouraging businesses toadapt and evolve to remain competitive, be open to new ideas, take calculated risks, experiment with different approaches and capitalise on the business support available.
“Council is committed to working together with stakeholders to create a talented and motivated workforce to meet future challenges and to ensure everyone can benefit from a growing and vibranteconomy.”
The conference will also feature an insightful panel discussion on the evolving landscape of recruitment and training. Leading employers will share their perspectives on rethinking traditional hiring practices and upskilling strategies, highlighting innovative approaches that foster diversity, efficiency, and future-ready talent in the workplace.
Attendees will have the chance to connect with a diverse range of exhibitors, fostering opportunities to advance recruitment, retention and reskilling options for their business.
Alan W. Filion, 18, of Lancaster, California, was sentenced today to 48 months in prison for making interstate threats to injure the person of another.
According to the plea agreement, from approximately August 2022 to January 2024, Filion made over 375 swatting and threat calls, including calls in which he claimed to have planted bombs in the targeted locations or threatened to detonate bombs and/or conduct mass shootings at those locations. Filion targeted religious institutions, high schools, colleges and universities, government officials, and numerous individuals across the United States.
Filion intended his calls to cause large-scale deployment of police and emergency services units to the targeted locations. During these calls, he provided information to law enforcement and emergency services agencies that he knew to be false, such as false names, false claims that he and others had placed explosives in particular locations, false claims that he and others possessed dangerous weapons, including firearms and explosives, and false claims that he and other individuals had committed, or intended to imminently commit, violent crimes.
In some instances, armed law enforcement officers approached and entered a targeted residence with their weapons drawn and detained individuals that occupied the residence. Indeed, Filion claimed in a post on Jan. 20, 2023, that when he swats someone, he “usually get[s] the cops to drag the victim and their families out of the house cuff them and search the house for dead bodies.” Additionally, Filion’s calls caused law enforcement officers and dispatchers to respond, and to be unavailable in response to other emergencies.
Filion became a serial swatter for both profit and recreation. He claimed in a Jan. 19, 2023, online post that his “first” swatting was like “2 to 3 years ago” and that “6-9 months ago [he] decided to turn it into a business. . .” On several occasions, Filion placed posts on social media channels advertising his services and swatting-for-a-fee structure.
On Jan.18, 2024, Filion was arrested in California on Florida state charges arising from a May 2023 threat he made to a religious institution in Sanford, Florida. In that threat, he claimed to have an illegally modified AR-15, a Glock 17 pistol, pipe bombs, and Molotov cocktails. He said that he was going to imminently “commit a mass shooting” and “kill everyone” he saw. He pleaded guilty in federal court to making that threat.
Filion also pleaded guilty to making three other threatening calls: an October 2022 call to a public high school in the Western District of Washington, in which he threatened to commit a mass shooting and claimed to have planted bombs throughout the school; a May 2023 call to a Historically Black College or University in the Northern District of Florida, in which he claimed to have placed bombs in the walls and ceilings of campus housing that would detonate in about an hour; and a July 2023 call to a local police department dispatch number in the Western District of Texas, in which he falsely identified himself as a senior federal law enforcement officer, provided the federal law-enforcement officer’s residential address to the dispatcher, claimed to have killed the federal officer’s mother, and threatened to kill any responding police officers.
The FBI and U.S. Secret Service investigated the case, with valuable assistance provided by the Seminole County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office; the Anacortes (Washington) Police Department; the Florida Department of Law Enforcement; the California Department of Justice; the Los Angeles County (California) Sheriff’s Office; and the Volusia County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kara Wick for the Middle District of Florida prosecuted the case, with valuable assistance from the National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section; the State Attorney’s Office for Seminole County, Florida, 18th Judicial Circuit; and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices for the Western District of Washington, Northern District of Florida, Western District of Texas, and District of Columbia.
How would that scenario play out? Looking at the sheer size of the American military, many people might believe that Trump would enjoy an easy victory.
That analysis is wrong. If Trump ever decides to use military force to annex Canada, the result would not be determined by a conventional military confrontation between the Canadian and American armies. Rather, a military invasion of Canada would trigger a decades-long violent resistance, which would ultimately destroy the United States.
But in this nightmare scenario, could Canadians successfully resist an American invasion? Absolutely. I know this because I have studied insurgenciesaround the world for more than two decades, and I have spent time with ordinary people who have fought against powerful invading armies.
The research on guerrilla wars clearly shows that weaker parties can use unconventional methods to cripple a more powerful enemy over many years. This approach treats waging war as a secret, part-time job that an ordinary person can do.
Guerrillas use ambushes, raids and surprise attacks to slowly bleed an invading army, and local communities support these fighters by giving them safe havens and material support. These supporting citizens can also engage in forms of “everyday resistance,” using millions of passive-aggressive episodes of sabotage to frustrate and drain the enemy.
Trump is delusional if he believes that 40 million Canadians will passively accept conquest without resistance. There is no political party or leader willing to relinquish Canadian sovereignty over “economic coercion,” and so if the U.S. wanted to annex Canada, it would have to invade.
That decision would set in motion an unstoppable cycle of violence. Even if we imagine a scenario in which the Canadian government unconditionally surrenders, a fight would ensue on the streets. A teenager might throw a rock at invading soldiers. That kid would get shot, and then there would be more rocks, and more gunfire. An insurgency would be inevitable.
The myth of Canadian ‘niceness’
This idea may shock Canadians today because they see themselves as friendly and affable people. However, Canada’s current self-image of “niceness” only exists because they’re at peace. War changes people very quickly, and Canadians are no more innately peaceful than any other human beings.
When your child is dying in your arms, you become capable of violence. Once you lose what you love, resistance becomes as natural as breathing.
Except for a few collaborators and kapos, my research suggests many Canadians would likely engage in various forms of everyday resistance against invading forces that could involve steal, lying, cutting wires and diverting funds.
Meanwhile, the insurgents would unleash physical devastation on American targets. Even if one per cent of all resisting Canadians engaged in armed insurrection, that would constitute a 400,000-person insurgency, nearly 10 times the size of Taliban at the start of the Afghan war. If a fraction of that number engaged in violent attacks, it would set fire to the entire continent.
Canada’s geography would make this insurgency difficult to defeat. With deep forests and rugged mountains, Canada’s northern terrain could not be conquered or controlled. That means loyalists from the Canadian Armed Forces could mobilize civilian recruits into decentralized fighting units that could strike, retreat into the wilderness and blend back into the local communities that support them.
The Canada-U.S. border is also easy to cross, which would give insurgents access to American critical infrastructure. It costs tens of billions of dollars to build an energy pipeline, and only a few thousand to blow one up.
What about American air strikes?
But wouldn’t the Americans crush the rebellion with missiles and drone strikes? They would try, but that approach to counterinsurgency won’t work.
In fact, it is a well-known booby trap of insurgent warfare. The harder more powerful nations strike, the larger and more fragmented the insurgency becomes, making it impossible to achieve either a military victory or negotiated agreement. Canada’s rugged terrain would protect insurgents from those types of attacks, while global outrage at the bombings would only boost support for the rebellion.
How could Canadians pay for this decades-long insurgency? The answer lies in everysinglehistoricalexample of the old adage: “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
The prospect of Americans becoming trapped by an insurgency on their own continent would delight Moscow and Beijing, which could easily establish covert northern passages to send weapons to the insurgency. Financing an insurgency is an effective way to ensnare and bankrupt a rival power, as counter-insurgency operations are exponentially more expensive than the price of a few arms shipments.
A chronic violent insurrection in North America could financially and militarily pin down the U.S. for decades, ultimately triggering economic and political collapse. Russia and China, meantime, would enjoy an uncontested rise to power.
Forewarned
This scenario would guarantee the destruction of both Canada and the United States. No one in their right mind would choose this gruesome future over a peaceful and mutually beneficial alliance with a friendly neighbour.
Nevertheless, if Trump is reckless enough to think the violent annexation of Canada is an achievable goal, then let it be known that all these horrifying outcomes were predictable well in advance, and that he was forewarned.
Aisha Ahmad has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
In British Columbia, like elsewhere in Canada, the impacts of climate change on health and health services are apparent. In recent years, the province has experienced a range of climate change-related extreme weather events, with considerable negative consequences.
Health systems are made up of people who are often members of the same disaster-stricken communities they serve. However, to date, existing studies have focused primarily on health service provision during climate-related emergencies, rather than their specific impacts on health system workers.
Although the nature of their experiences varied depending on their position, a majority of our interviewees reported experiencing some form of physical or mental health threat during and after climate-related emergencies.
These health service workers — and particularly those in front-line positions like paramedics, home health workers and clinical staff — described being exposed to heat and poor air quality. This was the case for those working in the community as well as in health facilities, especially when facilities were not equipped with cooling and air filtration technologies.
Health service workers also described suffering negative mental health impacts like stress, trauma and anxiety. Participants reported experiencing burnout due to the challenges related to organizing logistics during an emergency, compounded by long hours and back-to-back periods of intense activity.
Climate-related events that overwhelmed infrastructure — such as the 2021 heat dome, during which wait times for an ambulance stretched up to 16 hours in some areas — caused trauma to health service workers, who were placed in situations where they were unable to provide sufficient care to all who needed it.
System problems aggravate impact
Interviewees also explained that these mental and physical health impacts were aggravated by pre-existing health system challenges, like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and staffing shortages. As described by one interviewee, concerns about COVID-19 transmission complicated clinical decision-making and created ethical dilemmas:
“It was really challenging during the heat dome to provide adequate cooling for people when you’re supposed to follow infection prevention and control guidelines about not having fans… How do I prioritize the acute risk of heat versus the more delayed risk of COVID infection?”
Meanwhile, staffing shortages meant health service workers had to work longer shifts and with greater frequency during climate-related events. They also experienced challenges getting to and from work because of flooded or blocked roads, or concerns for their family and homes. All of these factors can contribute to burnout.
Adaptations to protect workers
The good news is that adaptations are being implemented to protect against the risks shouldered by health service workers during climate-related emergencies. In our interviews, we heard about measures like facility upgrades, emergency response training, climate change education, mental health supports and the development of occupational health and safety plans.
However, these adaptations are not happening uniformly across B.C.’s health system. In many cases, participants knew of occupational health, safety and emergency response plans for climate-related events, but were unfamiliar with or had not received direct guidance on how to follow them.
Moreover, while the growing focus by B.C.’s health-care leaders on reducing carbon emissions is laudable, going “all-in” on mitigation may compete with resources needed to help health service workers adapt to the ongoing climate crisis. An overly technocratic approach focused exclusively on reducing carbon emissions risks undermining necessary preparation for the people responsible for keeping health systems going in emergencies.
Building resilience and reducing systems risk
Recognizing health service workers as community members, and understanding how they are impacted by climate-related events in their work and personal lives, is essential to building resilience.
Our research suggests that central to building this resilience in health service workers is an organizational culture led by transformative leadership that:
Fosters a sense of trust;
Prioritizes open communication, flexibility and training; and
Encourages the use of mental health supports.
In our interviews, we were heartened to hear this type of leadership within health systems is emerging.
But there are, of course, limits to personal resilience. It is both unrealistic and unfair to expect health service workers to shoulder alone the burden of increasingly frequent and severe climate-related emergencies in the absence of systemic change, including the energy transition required to reduce emissions.
Ultimately, the health system must continue to shift towards a culture of risk reduction to prepare for climate-related emergencies, increasing co-ordination and collaboration within and among health regions and authorities, governments and communities. This includes addressing chronic health system issues such as work-life balance and staffing shortages.
Creating organizational cultures that are proactive and mindful that health service workers are community members first is key to adapting health systems to climate change, in B.C. and beyond.
Christopher Buse receives funding from the Michael Smith Health Research BC, the BC Ministry of Health, Environment and Climate Change Canada and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Sandra Smiley is affiliated with UBC Medical Students for Climate Action and the UBC Political Advocacy Committee.
Tim K. Takaro receives funding from Health Canada. He is affiliated with Protect the Planet, Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.
Headline: ICC and IE University expand partnership to strengthen multilateralism
Leveraging the unique networks of both institutions across the private sector, academia, and the multilateral system, the “Rethinking Multilateralism: A New Role for the Private Sector” project aims to promote pragmatic and inclusive pathways to respond to global challenges.
The growing threat of fragmentation, the need to secure over US$1 trillion of sustainable finance to meet the Paris Agreement and rising trade frictions present major global challenges. Rethinking the role of multilateralism in addressing these global issues and advancing sustainable development goals is more urgent than ever.
ICC Secretary General, John W.H. Denton AO said:
“International organisations need to realise that the private sector has so much more to offer beyond funding in efforts to advance sustainable development and prosperity around the world. We know things can be done better, so now we need to find practical ways to make change happen.”
The “Rethinking Multilateralism” project, led by an ICC-IE Steering Committee, will provide insights and capacity-building opportunities. The two partners believe that tackling global challenges requires the private sector as a true partner in multilateral efforts, with stronger collaboration across sectors capable of delivering practical solutions.
IE University Provost Manuel Muñiz said:
“IE University, as a catalyst for change, aims to strengthen the private sector’s role in multilateralism through this project with ICC, fostering an inclusive, pragmatic model that leverages innovation and knowledge to address global challenges and drive sustainable development.”
Since 2019, ICC and IE University have developed a range of programming together, including executive master’s programmes, field trips to the ICC Court of Arbitration and ICC Global Headquarters in Paris, and capstone projects for students.
About IE University
IE University promotes positive change through education, research, and innovation. It offers a technology-based learning ecosystem for leaders with a global vision, an entrepreneurial mindset, deep respect for diversity and sustainability, and a unique focus on the humanities. IE University is comprised of six schools: IE Business School, IE Law School, IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs, IE School of Architecture and Design, IE School of Science and Technology, and IE School of Humanities. The institution has a faculty of more than 500 professors who produce high-quality research and teach students from 160 countries in Bachelors, Masters and Executive Education programs. IE University’s platform of more than 82,000 alumni is present in 185 countries.
