Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Dmitry Chernyshenko held a meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad
February 3, 2025
Dmitry Chernyshenko held a meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad
February 3, 2025
Dmitry Chernyshenko held a meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad
February 3, 2025
Dmitry Chernyshenko held a meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad
February 3, 2025
Dmitry Chernyshenko held a meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad
February 3, 2025
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Dmitry Chernyshenko held a meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad
The first meeting of the organizing committee for the preparation and holding of the International Financial Security Olympiad in 2025 was held under the chairmanship of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko.
Dmitry Chernyshenko noted that the Olympiad has been held for the fifth year with the support of President Vladimir Putin. Interest in it grows every year.
In 2023, the head of state personally met with the participants of the third Olympiad finals, as a result of which the International Movement for Financial Security was created – representatives of 36 countries are participating in it.
“Over four years, more than 1,900 people have taken part in the final stage of the Olympiad, including 514 prize winners and winners. President Vladimir Putin has decided to organize the final stage of the Olympiad in different regions. In 2025, Krasnoyarsk has been chosen as the venue. The Olympiad is celebrating its first anniversary, and during this time it has acquired its own list of events and traditions. I believe that they should be expanded. Each new host city will make more and more new proposals,” the Deputy Prime Minister emphasized.
Dmitry Chernyshenko and Director of Rosfinmonitoring Yuri Chikhanchin thanked the educational foundation “Talent and Success” and its director Elena Shmeleva, the federal territory “Sirius”, the administration of Krasnodar Krai and the city of Sochi, as well as the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Southern Federal District for their assistance in organizing the first four Olympiads.
Yuri Chikhanchin noted the need to expand the geography of the Olympiad, as well as to attract more interested countries to conduct the thematic lesson “Financial Security”, which in 2025 is dedicated to the problem of droppering (a fraudulent scheme for cashing out funds).
“Interest of foreign countries in our Olympiad is growing. Schoolchildren and students from 36 countries, members of the CIS, BRICS, SCO and other international organizations, took part in the final of the fourth Olympiad. This year, new countries are going to fully participate in the Olympiad stages,” said the director of Rosfinmonitoring.
Following the meeting, Dmitry Chernyshenko supported this idea and instructed to work on the issue of increasing the representation of countries.
In 2025, the Siberian Federal University will be the venue for the Olympiad in Krasnoyarsk. Events for experts will traditionally be held on the sidelines of the finals.
Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai Mikhail Kotyukov noted that it is a great honor for the region to host the final stage of the Financial Security Olympiad, and expressed gratitude to the President of the country for supporting the idea of holding the competition in the region. Mikhail Kotyukov emphasized that the region has extensive experience in holding major events of federal and international scale (including the XXIX World Winter Universiade 2019), all the necessary infrastructure, which will allow organizing the main part of the Olympiad final, as well as its sports and cultural program, at a high level.
From February 1 to 28, the invitational stage of the fifth Olympiad is being held in Russian and English on the international social and educational platform “Commonwealth”. Pupils of grades 8-11 and students are invited to participate first. Upon completion of the stage, participants who have completed the tasks will receive a certificate. To participate, you must register on the platformKHTTPS: // Society. Org/ru.
The meeting of the organizing committee was attended by the Director of the Federal Service for Financial Monitoring Yuri Chikhanchin, Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education Dmitry Afanasyev, Governor of Krasnoyarsk Krai Mikhail Kotyukov, representatives of the Administration of the President of Russia, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Rossotrudnichestvo, ANO National Priorities, financial organizations and rectors of universities participating in the Olympiad.
The lesson “Financial Security” will be held from February 1 to April 30, 2025. The invitational stage of the Olympiad – from February 1 to 28, 2025. The selection stage will consist of two rounds: the first round – from March 31 to April 4, 2025, the second round – from April 9 to 15, 2025. The qualification stage – from August 1 to September 3, 2025. The final stage will be held in person from September 28 to October 3, 2025.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: United States Senator for Illinois Tammy Duckworth
January 31, 2025
[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Dick Durbin (D-IL) joined U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and 14 other U.S. Senators in reintroducing the Keep Our Promise to America’s Children and Teachers (PACT) Act to help put Congress on a fiscally responsible path to fully fund Title I and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) on a mandatory basis. These programs, which respectively support public education for children in low-income areas and education for individuals with learning disabilities, have been chronically underfunded since their inception, leaving our public schools, students and teachers at a disadvantage.
“When we invest in education and prioritize students across our nation—regardless of zip code—we’re really investing in their future as much as our country’s future,” said Senator Duckworth. “I’m proud to help reintroduce the Keep Our PACT Act to help provide countless teachers, school districts and young people a fairer, more equitable shot at reaching their full potential. Every child deserves the chance to succeed.”
“Our nation’s children are the future. Every student, including students with disabilities, should have equal access to a quality education, regardless of their family’s income or where they live,” said Senator Durbin. “I’m joining my colleagues in reintroducing the Keep Our Promise to America’s Children and Teachers (PACT) Act to ensure the federal government upholds its promise to fund schools, as well as Title I and IDEA programs, that serve our nation’s most vulnerable students.”
“Every child – no matter their zip code – deserves access to a high-quality education and the opportunity to succeed,” said Senator Van Hollen. “But too many children still don’t have that opportunity because the federal government has never lived up to its commitment to fully fund Title I and IDEA – the federal programs designed to keep our promise to all students, including those facing the greatest challenges. The Keep Our PACT Act will ensure the federal government finally makes good on its obligation to invest in a first-rate education for all our students.”
Duckworth and Durbin have worked hard to help ensure that every child in our country has access to a quality public education. In December, Duckworth and Durbin announced over $4 million in funding to help educators across Illinois increase the math proficiency of their students, and they also announced over $7 million in funding to help prepare young Illinoisans to succeed in high-demand careers.
The new Ta’talu Elementary has created more than 500 student seats in Surrey.
“Ta’talu Elementary is part of our government’s commitment to meeting the needs of growing communities like Surrey,” said Lisa Beare, Minister of Education and Child Care. “Providing hundreds of new seats, Ta’talu Elementary ensures more students and families in Surrey have modern spaces to learn, grow and play.”
Ta’talu Elementary is the seventh new school to open in Surrey since 2017. The three-storey school has space for 655 students, in addition to child care space. Building the new Ta’talu Elementary school was funded with more than $39 million provided by the Province and $5 million from the Surrey School District.
“More families are settling down in Surrey and we need to make sure there are safe and comfortable schools to support their kids as they grow and learn,” said Bowinn Ma, Minister of Infrastructure. “That’s why we’re making record investments in schools, housing and health-care facilities so that families can get the services they need in their communities.”
This school is part of the government’s ongoing work over the past seven years to deliver new and expanded schools in Surrey. In the past few months, an 800-seat addition was announced for Fleetwood Park Secondary, as well as prefabricated additions for Old Yale Road Elementary, Latimer Road Elementary, William Watson Elementary and Martha Currie Elementary.
Construction is also underway for the new Snokomish Elementary, and additions at Semiahmoo Trail Elementary and South Meridian Elementary. These projects will create 3,500 new student seats in Surrey.
“Ta’talu is the perfect example of the kind of learning environment every single Surrey student deserves – a beautiful building with a gym, library, music room and dedicated space for students with diverse learning needs,” said Gary Tymoschuk, chair of the Surrey Board of Education. “This is exactly the type of investment our growing communities need so that students in Surrey can thrive and succeed.”
The school’s name was gifted to Surrey school district by Chief Harley Chappell of the Semiahmoo First Nation. Derived from the SENĆOŦEN language, it translates to “little arms.” It pays homage to the school’s location near Campbell River and its tributaries, often referred to as the little arms of the river.
Ta’talu Elementary is part of an investment of nearly $1 billion in schools in the area. To further support the growing population in Surrey, the Province is also building a new hospital and cancer centre, and expanding Surrey Memorial Hospital to include a new renal hemodialysis facility and new interventional cardiology and radiology suites. In addition, the Simon Fraser University Surrey campus is set to open Western Canada’s first medical school in 55 years in 2026.
Quotes:
Garry Begg, MLA for Surrey-Guilford –
“Surrey is a wonderful place to call home. This new school will be an excellent addition to the community and provide Surrey children and families with the infrastructure they need to thrive for generations to come.”
Jessie Sunner, MLA for Surrey-Newton –
“I’m thrilled to see the completion of Ta’talu Elementary. This school will be a modern, vibrant space for Surrey’s students, ensuring they have the safe, innovative and spacious learning environments they need to succeed.”
Jagrup Brar, MLA for Surrey-Fleetwood –
“Surrey is growing quickly, and the completion of another new school is great news for students and families in our community. This school will provide lasting benefits to the community for years to come.”
Amna Shah, MLA for Surrey City Centre –
“The opening of Ta’talu Elementary is part of the Province’s continued commitment to meet the needs of growing communities like Surrey. With hundreds of new seats, we are ensuring Surrey students have the spaces they need to learn and play.”
Learn More:
For more information about Surrey School District, visit: https://www.surreyschools.ca/
For more information about K-12 school capital projects in B.C., visit: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/education-training/k-12/administration/capital
For more information about health capital projects in B.C., visit: https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/health/accessing-health-care/capital-projects
A nationwide plan to digitise immigration documents recently came into force. Since January 1, millions of foreign nationals who live in the UK must now use digital-only status documents, as all biometric residence permits expired at the end of 2024.
The Home Office says an online system will mean faster processing times and lower risk of fraud. However, the rollout has created significant problems for some migrants, with reports of non-citizens being denied entry to the UK after border agents did not accept their proof of status.
My recent work with colleagues at the Oxford Migration Observatory suggests this was predictable. When migration rules and processes change, non-citizens are less likely to understand the rules. This can have serious consequences, as their access to housing, employment and healthcare hinges on their ability to show they have a valid immigration status.
Even when migrants do understand the rules, they may still experience problems proving their status if the people they interact with – such as employers and landlords – do not, or if the processes are unclear. This has been the case for some Ukrainians in the UK, who have been unable to renew their tenancies and face losing their jobs because of uncertainty surrounding visa extensions.
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The results of an online survey by the Migration Observatory reveal non-UK citizens’ knowledge of the rights and conditions attached to their immigration status. The survey asked respondents which immigration status they held, a question not usually included in British surveys or the census.
Using this data, we compared the experiences and understanding of people who received their status under the EU Settlement Scheme (EU citizens and their family members who came to the UK under EU free movement rules) and those with “non-EUSS” statuses (typically non-EU citizens arriving on family, work or study visas).
We found that migrants were less likely to understand their rights and responsibilities when immigration rules related to their situation had recently changed.
There was, for example, no consensus among EUSS pre-settled status holders (people who arrived in the UK under EU free movement but have lived in the UK for fewer than five years) as to whether their status had an expiry date. While 72% said their status would not expire, 17% said they would need to reapply, and 11% did not know. For comparison, 99% of respondents with temporary immigration statuses – such as a work or family visa – knew their status had an expiry date.
One likely reason for the confusion is that the situation is genuinely a bit complicated and keeps changing. When the EU settlement scheme was introduced, pre-settled status lasted for only five years. People who did not upgrade to the more secure “settled status” would see their leave expire.
However, since December 2022, people with pre-settled status can stay in the UK indefinitely if they still meet the original eligibility criteria. Rules on permitted absences (the amount of time somebody can spend outside the UK without it affecting their immigration status) have also changed several times.
Similarly, almost a third of in-work pre-settled status holders did not know they were eligible for most benefits, such as universal credit. This is another area where the rules have evolved following several court cases. A surprisingly high share also did not know they were entitled to free NHS hospital treatment.
By contrast, pre-settled status holders were more likely to know they could work for any employer, an area where the conditions for access have been consistent. This suggests that some people who are not aware of what they are entitled to access may refrain from seeking support they require.
Changing immigration processes
To access the labour and housing markets, receive secondary healthcare, or get married, migrants must show they hold valid leave (permission to live in the UK). At the time of the survey, most non-EUSS status holders could show a physical document, such as a biometric residence permit.
Most EUSS status holders, however, had a digital eVisa. This is a relatively new addition to the immigration system. People with an eVisa prove their status by presenting a “share code” linked to gov.uk.
Most respondents from both groups – 92% – had not experienced issues proving their right to live and work in the UK. However, problems were more common among people with a digital-only status than with physical documentation.
In addition, this group faced different challenges — 48% of digital-only respondents who encountered an issue said it was because the person checking their status would not accept the proof provided, compared to 29% of people with physical documentation.
While most people with a digital-only status were confident they could generate a share code to demonstrate their status to an employer or landlord, a substantial minority of older respondents lacked this confidence. People who had experienced a problem proving their status in the past also lacked confidence, and they considered having a physical card to prove their status to be more important to them.
The challenges migrants face in navigating the UK immigration system are unlikely to disappear — rules and processes will continue to evolve in the years ahead in response to changes in UK migration patterns more broadly. However, policymakers cannot assume that everyone understands the rules, particularly when they keep changing.
Ben Brindle 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.
Have you ever bought a souvenir from a local market on holiday? Or tried to travel overseas with a guitar? If so, you may have been stopped at the airport if your item contains animal or plant parts. This is because most countries, and also the EU, implement Cites, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
Cites is the main global agreement regulating international wildlife trade to ensure the protection of the 41,000 species covered by the convention. Under Cites, trade measures are established for species to ensure that international trade is legal and ecologically sustainable. For most species (96%), this comprises close regulation of trade. For more threatened species (3%), commercial international trade in wild animals and plants is banned (the remaining 1% refers to a third category of species protected in at least one country).
Under Cites, countries must prohibit international trade in violation of the convention. They are also encouraged to restrict or prohibit the collection of – and domestic trade in – Indigenous species included under Cites. Crucially, countries must enact laws to implement the convention. By design, Cites relies mainly on state-led law-enforcement to achieve its goals.
This year, as Cites marks its 50th anniversary, our new study evaluates the convention’s effectiveness. It asks whether it solves the problem for which it was designed, as well as outlining how it could be more effective.
Taking stock
Cites has had several successes. It can boast an effective system of international cooperation among 184 countries and the EU. Much international trade in Cites-listed species is legally permitted and has been determined to be sustainable. The convention has helped raise the profile of, and catalysed conservation action for, species threatened by international trade, such as pangolins and seahorses.
The convention has also supported the recovery of species, such as crocodiles and vicuña, a member of the camel family that lives in South America. Since 2010, Cites has generated awareness of, and coordinated action to address, illegal wildlife trade, most notably through the establishment of the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime.
However, there are some major problems with the Cites approach. Illegal or unsustainable wildlife trade involving thousands of Cites-listed species occurred in at least 162 signatory countries from 2015 to 2021. This includes countries such as the US that are well resourced to deter it. A predominant focus on state-led law enforcement is therefore proving ineffective in many instances.
We find that many law enforcement agencies are not well enough resourced to deter illegal collection and trade of species. Simply creating laws does not necessarily mean that people or businesses will comply with them.
Also, regulating or prohibiting international wildlife trade does not necessarily reduce the threat to the species concerned. These measures may signal scarcity and lead to price increases, which could accelerate over-exploitation by incentivising speculative collection and stockpiling. In this context, there is much room for improvement.
What needs to change
Deciding on appropriate Cites trade measures for species relies primarily on biological criteria, such as population size. Typically, that process does not involve consultation with the people extracting or trading wildlife. Nor does it really consider insights from the social sciences, including economics, on the likely impact of trade measures on wildlife and people. Decisions by the world’s governments to establish these measures are therefore highly uncertain.
To better prevent species from being overexploited for international trade through Cites, countries need to have a greater understanding of how different species are traded. This would enable them to identify the most appropriate combination of rights, rules and decision-making procedures along supply chains, and then pre-test and implement interventions specific to these systems.
Countries therefore need to analyse how species are traded. This would include looking at the relevant property rights and other laws that affect people involved in the trade, as well as understanding factors such as incentives for people to harvest species, the extent to which trade contributes to peoples’ income, and market size for traded species and products.
Countries could then reconfigure rights and rules so that they are aligned along supply chains. This is needed to avoid creating loopholes and facilitating illegal trade. Where trade (both within countries and between countries) is taking place, these arrangements should support it to be legal and sustainable. That’s the ultimate aim of Cites. The relevant actors, including collectors and traders should also be consulted – or better yet involved in co-designing regulations – so that the rules are legitimate to them.
The most appropriate interventions will depend on each country’s analysis of its own trading situation and their role in the trade of given species. They may include devolving land or use rights to Indigenous peoples so that they manage and can benefit from the species. Or interventions may be programmes to reduce consumer demand or develop responsible markets for wildlife products as appropriate.
The approach we propose in our study has the potential to reduce reliance on state-led law enforcement along international supply chains. Pluralist regulatory approaches, including self-regulation, community monitoring or the engagement of appropriate third parties, could be used to support compliance with new rules at each stage of supply chains. Where property rights are appropriately assigned, clear and enforceable, this could mean less reliance on state law-enforcement. This is because local people with a sense of ownership of wildlife are more likely to help protect it rather than overexploit it.
How could Cites be more effective? By understanding the dynamic trade systems for species in greater detail. Then, identifying the most appropriate combination of rights, rules and decision-making procedures to achieve sustainability throughout supply chains. And, finally, integrating Cites trade measures within these broader systems.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Dan Challender receives funding from the Global Challenges Research Fund through the Trade, Development, and the Environment Hub, the A. G. Leventis Foundation, and the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. He serves as CITES Focal Point for the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Pangolin Specialist Group, and is a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP)/SSC Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group.
Michael ‘t Sas-Rolfes has consulted as a technical advisor to Rhinomics, an initiative working to develop an ethical and sustainable trading model for the benefit of rhino conservation. He serves on the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) African Rhino Specialist Group, and is a member of the IUCN Commission on Environmental, Economic, and Social Policy (CEESP)/SSC Sustainable Use and Livelihoods Specialist Group.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sofia Nilsson Warkander, PhD Candidate, 17th-Century Literature, Stockholm University
José Lourenço’s film adaptation of German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s epistolary novel The Sorrows of Young Werther opens with a line on screen stating it is “based on the smash hit 1774 novel of tragic romance”. Set in contemporary Canada, it revolves around Werther (Douglas Booth), who falls tragically in love with Charlotte (Alison Pill), who is already engaged to Albert (Patrick J. Adams).
Goethe’s “smash hit” was written in a new literary landscape, where both readers and writers increasingly belonged to the growing middle class. It was one of the most influential works of the Sturm und Drang movement, also called Geniezeit (the age of genius), which cultivated individual emotion and expression, rejecting antiquated class structures in favour of an “aristocracy of feeling”.
The movement’s interest in the individual’s inner life was revolutionary at the time. Today, it has become an integral part of western ideology and culture, and is arguably part of the reason that romantic comedy is such a popular genre.
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In recent years, movie adaptations of early modern works have been made with a tongue-in-cheek style far removed from BBC adaptations of the 1990s. One notable example is Carrie Cracknell’s 2022 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Persuasion, where much of the original novel’s tone was changed for a strong flavour of the television series Fleabag. But still, successful reworkings generally show a director’s appreciation for the original.
Lourenço’s comedy, however, strips away much of the complexity of Goethe’s masterpiece. In I’ve Never Wanted Anyone More, the literary genius of The Sorrows of Young Werther is metamorphosed into tropes so contemporary that they already seem dated.
The jovial movie Werther is a trust-fund baby who loves gelato and bespoke tailoring. Instead of an artist, here he is an aspiring science-fiction writer. And although they share an enthusiasm for J.D. Salinger, the film’s Werther and Charlotte generally find more joy in sample sales and smoking joints than poetry.
The trailer for I’ve Never Wanted Anyone More.
The film also has a bizarre penis fixation. Werther’s confidant, Paul, has an obsession with semen, and his uncle repeatedly urges him to avoid condoms. In the moment of their greatest confrontation, Charlotte’s fiancé Albert and Werther agree that linden trees (a passing reference to the ones the literary Werther is buried between) smell like semen.
Apparently, after a fistfight, this is all two romantic rivals have to talk about. As the seminal male bond prevails, I can’t help feeling that the film would have been more credible without trying to be American Pie.
Adapting Goethe
Beyond passion, Goethe’s novel also depicts different social dilemmas. In the book, Werther leaves a promising bureaucratic career because he cannot overcome a sense of disgust at having to navigate social hierarchies with flattery and falseness. In fact, it often seems that it is this social order that he cannot survive, rather than his infatuation with Charlotte.
Unlike Werther, in the novel Charlotte can’t give in to her feelings, because of the expectations of female modesty of the time as well as her duty to provide for her younger siblings by marrying the well-to-do Albert.
In the film version, Charlotte is despondent about how much of her own life she has had to sacrifice to care for her family. The film’s exploration of this sacrifice, and her loneliness as Albert neglects her in favour of his work, shows the potential for a more nuanced characterisation of the heroine.
Unfortunately, I’ve Never Wanted Anyone More is typical of much contemporary screenwriting in its over-explanation of actions and desires, telling rather than showing.
Lourenço often appears inspired by Whit Stillman’s deftly crafted romantic comedies. Love and Friendship (2016), Stillman’s brilliantly funny adaptation of Jane Austen’s novella Lady Susan, could be a model for any attempt to rework centuries-old prose. However, I’ve Never Wanted Anyone More lacks the light touch and meticulous writing that made that adaptation glimmer, exposing original genius alongside the new version’s appeal.
Instead, the film turns both social analysis and tragedy into pat, moral lessons. The literary Werther’s reluctance to partake in a society still ruled by arbitrary privilege is excised from the movie. After being chastised by a friend for being unhappy instead of recognising the advantages he already possesses, Werther instead helps Albert and Charlotte improve their marital relationship.
This therapy speak seems oddly in touch with contemporary pop psychology touting the benefits of gratitude. Instead of suicide, in the film Werther’s despair is transmuted into an artistic breakthrough and an exultant trip to Berlin with Paul, as Charlotte and Albert settle into wedded bliss.
Touching on the novel’s social critique would have made for a more complex and satisfying adaptation. It also has its own interest in times of increasing income disparity and the eradication of the middle class. Keeping more such characteristic marks could have made this reworking stand out among blander cinematic fare.
I’ve Never Wanted Anyone More’s problem is that it cannot decide whether to be burlesque or emotional, whether it’s adapting a novel or its Sparknotes summary. Again, differences between model and adaptation might not be a work’s most important quality. But if the director wants to deviate so consistently, why choose a literary model at all?
Sofia Nilsson Warkander 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.
It has taken decades for some to accept the devastating effects of climate change on our planet. Despite scientific evidence that was available years ago, many people were reluctant to make the connection between increasing use of fossil fuels, rising global temperatures and devastating weather events.
A key reason for this reluctance is the dislocation of cause and effect, both in time and geography. And here there are clear parallels with another deadly human activity that is causing increasing levels of suffering across the planet: the production, trafficking and consumption of illicit drugs. Here are some troubling “highlights” from the UN’s latest World Drugs Report:
Cocaine production is reaching record highs, with production climbing in Latin America coupled with drug use and markets expanding in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Synthetic drugs are also inflicting great harm on people and communities, caused by an increase in methamphetamine trafficking in south-west Asia, the near and Middle East and south-eastern Europe, and fentanyl overdoses in North America.
Meanwhile, the opium ban imposed by the de facto authorities in Afghanistan is having a significant impact on farmers’ livelihoods and incomes, necessitating a sustainable humanitarian response.
The report notes how organised criminal groups are “exploiting instability and gaps in the rule of law” to expand their trafficking operations, “while damaging fragile ecosystems and perpetuating other forms of organised crime such as human trafficking”.
Illicit drug use is damaging large parts of the world socially, politically and environmentally. Patterns of supply and demand are changing rapidly. In our new longform series Addicted, leading drug experts bring you the latest insights on drug use and production as we ask: is it time to declare a planetary emergency?
At every stage of the process of producing drugs such as cocaine, there are not only societal impacts but environmental ones too. An example of the interconnected relationship between climate change and drugs is demonstrated in the use of land.
Demand for cocaine has grown rapidly across many western countries, and meeting this can only be met by changing how land is used. Forests are cleared in South America to make way for growing coca plants. The refinement of coca into cocaine involves toxic chemicals that pollute the soil and nearby watercourses. This in turn compromises those living in these areas as access to clean water and fertile land is reduced.
Until this is reversed, these local communities will not be able to cultivate the land to earn an income or rely on water sources to live. And each year, some of their number will add to the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who die, directly or indirectly, as a result of illicit drug use.
People in the world with drug use disorders (1990-2021)
Having spent most of my career researching the human toll of drug use at almost every stage of the supply and consumption chain, I believe a complete shift in the way we think about the world’s drug problem is required.
We already have many years of evidence of the ways that drugs – both natural and (increasingly) synthetic – are destabilising countries’ legal and political institutions, devastating entire communities, and destroying millions of lives. My question is, as with climate change, why are we so slow to recognise the existential threat that drug use poses to humanity?
The disconnect between users and producers
For decades, problems with drugs have been viewed as a mainly western issue, affecting Europe, North America and Australasia in terms of drug taking. This perception was fostered in part by US president Richard Nixon’s “war on drugs” announcement in June 1971, when he declared drug abuse to be “public enemy number one”.
This western-centric focus has come at a cost – we still have little data and information about drug use and problems in Africa, for example. But we are beginning to see how far drugs and their associated devastation has reached beyond traditional western borders.
Illicit drug use has increased by 20% over the past decade, only partly due to population growth. Almost 300 million people are estimated to consume illicit drugs regularly, with the three most popular being cannabis (228 million users), opioids (60 million) and cocaine (23 million). According to the UN report:
The range of drugs available to consumers has expanded, making patterns of use increasingly complex and polydrug use a common feature in most drug markets. One in 81 people (64 million) worldwide were suffering from a drug use disorder in 2022, an increase of 3% compared with 2018.
There are multiple harmful consequences of drug use. The largest global burden of disease continues to be attributed to opioids, use of which appears to have remained stable at the global level since 2019, in contrast to other drugs.
In the same way that climate change has threatened whole populations, so too have drugs. Yet many of us remain disconnected from how they are produced and distributed – and the misery they cause throughout the supply chain, all over the world.
The production of cocaine, for example, is associated with violence and exploitation at every stage of the manufacturing process. Death threats to farmers and unwilling traffickers have all increased in parallel with the growing demand for cocaine in the US and Europe.
Global drug use disorder deaths by substance (2000-21):
Organised crime groups not only supply and distribute drugs but also trade in people, whether for the commercial sex trade or other forms of modern slavery. This makes sense as the infrastructure and contacts to move drugs are similar to those used to move humans across borders and even continents. Yet many cocaine users are oblivious – wilfully or otherwise – of the violence associated with how this drug is supplied to them. As the UK National Crime Agency points out:
Reducing demand is another critical factor in reducing the supply of illegal drugs. Many people see recreational drug use as a victimless crime. The reality is that the production of illegal drugs for western markets has a devastating impact in source countries in terms of violence, exploitation of vulnerable and indigenous people and environmental destruction.
While some of the suffering associated with the production of drugs like cocaine makes the headlines, it’s often overshadowed by the glamorisation of criminal drug gangs in films and on TV. To the extent that people worry about the impact of drugs, it’s usually focused on those in our immediate communities, such as people dependent on heroin who are sleeping rough and vulnerable to exploitation. But there have already been other victims before the drug reaches our streets.
Shifts in the global supply chain
Tracking heroin routes demonstrates the way that drug supply is an international effort which affects every community on its journey, from the Afghan farmer to officials who are bribed so the drug can cross borders or be let through ports without being seized, to the person injecting or smoking the finished product.
Much of Europe’s heroin is produced in Afghanistan by small farming operations growing opium, which is then transformed into the drug. Most Afghan farmers are simply surviving growing the crop, and don’t reap significant wealth from their harvest. It is those supplying and distributing the opium as heroin who can make serious money from it.
Meanwhile, following the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan in August 2021, those farmers’ livelihoods have faced a new threat.
The Taliban is ideologically opposed to the production of opium. Soon after assuming control, its leaders issued a decree banning farmers from growing opium. They have enforced this by destroying crops when farmers have ignored the ban – although there is still believed to be a significant stockpile of heroin in the country, meaning that as yet, there has not been a big impact on supply to Europe and the UK. But this could change amid the emergence of more deadly synthetic alternatives, including nitazenes and other new synthetic opioids.
Heroin trafficking flows based on reported seizures (2019-22):
Either way, the drug gangs who traffic heroin won’t worry about the opium farmers’ wellbeing. As so often happens with changes in the availability of illicit drugs, when there is a shortage, these groups prove adaptable and nimble at providing alternatives quickly.
While gathering intelligence about organised crime gangs is difficult and potentially dangerous, the European Union Drugs Agency (EUDA) has provided some insights about who these groups are and how they operate. The Netherlands remains an important hub for the distribution of heroin, with several Dutch criminal groups involved in importing and distributing heroin from Afghanistan.
But others are involved too: the EUDA’s intelligence shows that criminal networks with members from Kurdish background are central to the wholesale supply and have control over many parts of the supply chain. These professional, well-organised groups have established legal businesses throughout the route of supply that facilitate their illicit activities – largely along the Balkan route with hubs in Europe.
Intermediate & final recipients of heroin shipments (2019-22):
Unlike these organised crime gangs, governments and law enforcement appear to respond to emerging threats slowly and lack the flexibility and ingenuity that the gangs repeatedly demonstrate.
As drug detection techniques have improved, organised crime has shown how inventive it can be. Taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic, dealers used consignments of surgical masks to conceal large quantities of cocaine being trafficked to China and Hong Kong from South America.
And as western markets for cocaine become saturated, organised crime gangs have exploited new markets in Asia, where cocaine seizures, a proxy for use of cocaine, have increased. But the shifting landscape is also reflected in changes in consumption, with use of the synthetic stimulant methamphetamine growing rapidly in Asia – reflected in record levels of seizures in the region in 2023.
For the organised crime gangs, production and supply of synthetic drugs is in many ways easier, as it is not reliant on an agricultural crop in the way that heroin and cocaine are and can be manufactured locally. This reduces the distribution logistics and distance needed for an effective supply chain. According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, organised crime gangs are exploiting gaps in law enforcement and state governance to both traffic large volumes of drugs and expand their production in the region.
Where there is destabilisation, there is opportunity for those who seek to profit from drug addiction. In Syria, Russia and Ukraine, war has made some people very rich.
Syria and Russia: the new drug hotspots
The wars in Syria and Ukraine bear testament to the way drugs provide solutions to people who are experiencing the worst of times – and to governments that are ready to exploit evolving situations.
As the war in Syria progressed, the Bashar Al-Assad regime actively developed a strategy to dominate the captagon market in the Middle East and North Africa. First produced in the 1960s in Germany to treat conditions such as attention deficit disorders and narcolepsy and other conditions, captagon is a stimulant that staves off hunger and sleep, making it ideal for military use – particularly in countries where food supplies are inconsistent. It has been referred to as the “drug of jihad” used by Islamic fighters in the region.
As the war progressed in Syria, the country and its leader became increasingly isolated, its economy crashed creating the perfect conditions to develop the trade in captagon. Rather than drug production leading to the collapse of law and order, it was the other way round.
Isolated by the west and with a historically strained relationship with its neighbours including Saudi Arabia, the Assad regime – under the guidance, reportedly, of Assad’s brother Maher al-Assad– ruthlessly positioned itself as the world’s main producer and distributor of this drug, then used this position to leverage its influence and try to reintegrate into the Arab world.
Video by TRT World.
Captagon also provided much-needed revenue for the Assad regime. The drug was estimated to be worth US$5.7 billion annually to the Syrian economy – at a time when western governments have placed severe sanctions on the country, restricting its ability to raise revenue. Saudi Arabia was one of the main countries being supplied captagon by Syria. Until the fall of Assad, it was the senior leadership in Syria that controlled the supply and distribution of the drug – giving rise to the label “the world’s largest narco state”.
The Assad government achieved this position by making captagon good value – a viable alternative to alcohol in terms of price and for those who don’t drink. Exploiting many of its own citizens, the regime encouraged individuals and businesses to participate in manufacturing and distributing the drug.
The fall of Assad and his hurried escape to Russia left the rebel fighters to pick up vast hauls of captagon and other drug ingredients. “We found a large number of devices that were stuffed with packages of captagon pills meant to be smuggled out of the country. It’s a huge quantity,” one fighter belonging to the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group told the Guardian. What this will do to drug production and supply in the region is unclear.
While the latest UN World Drug Report highlights “a rapid increase in both the scale and sophistication of drug trafficking operations in the region over the past decade”, it goes on to highlight that “one of the most striking changes worldwide in drug trafficking and drug use over the past decade has taken place in Central Asia, Transcaucasia [Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia] and eastern Europe”, where there has been a shift “away from opiates, mostly originating in Afghanistan – towards the use of synthetic stimulants, notably cathinones … There is hardly any other region where cathinones play such a significant role.”
This is part of “a groundbreaking shift in the global drug trade, pioneered in Russia and now spreading globally,” according to the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. This shift is changing the nature of drug sales, using “darknet markets and cryptocurrency for anonymous transactions, allowing buyers to retrieve drugs from hidden physical locations or ‘dead drops’, rather than direct exchanges.”
The rise of Russia’s dead drop drug trade stems from several unique national factors: restrictive anti-drug policies, strained western trade relations, and a strong technological foundation. Enabled by these conditions, the dead drop model has reshaped how drugs are distributed in Russia.
Drug transactions now involve no face-to-face interactions; instead, orders are placed online, paid for with cryptocurrency, and retrieved from secret locations across cities within hours. This system, offering convenience and anonymity, has seen synthetic drugs – especially synthetic cathinones like mephedrone – overtake traditional imported substances like cocaine and heroin in Russia … These potent synthetic drugs are cheap, easy to manufacture, and readily distributed through Russia’s vast delivery networks.
The report notes that this shift in drug distribution has been accompanied by rising levels of violence including punishment beatings, and a public health crisis.
Podcast by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime.
Yet officially, there is very little reliable data about drug use in Russia. Under the premiership of Vladimir Putin, Russia has no sympathy with those who are dependent, viewing them as weak and without value. And its invasion of Ukraine three years ago has had ramifications for Ukraine’s users too.
Prior to the war, Ukraine had demonstrated an increasingly progressive policy towards those who had problems with drugs, establishing treatment centers and encouraging access to treatment. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, this strategy has been severely set back, with many people who need access to substitute treatments such as methadone unable to secure consistent supply of these drugs.
Another global blind spot is China, where, like Russia, little is known about the extent or type of problems that drugs are causing. Both regimes are ideologically opposed to recreational or problem drug use and, as far as we know, there is no state-funded rehabilitation provided in either country; the approach is to criminalise people rather than offer health-based interventions.
We shouldn’t be too critical as many western countries, including the UK, also need to pivot from a criminal approach to drug problems towards a health-focused one. Portugal made such a policy change several years ago, recognising that people who develop problems with drugs such as dependency need help rather than punishment.
This radical shift in thinking has made a significant change to the way those using drugs are treated, in the main offered help and specialist support rather than being arrested and sent to jail, only to be released and then repeat the same cycle of drug use, arrest and prison.
The evidence of this policy change is impressive: not only have drug-related deaths fallen, but population-level drug use is among the lowest in Europe. Nowhere is this policy shift more urgent than the US.
North America: epicentre of the opioid crisis
In the US, the synthetic opioids fentanyl and oxycodone have contributed to more than 100,000 fatal overdoses each year since 2021. While there are signs this deaths toll is at last beginning to fall, the harm and pain of addiction and overdose affects every strata of American society – as shown in moving portrayals of America’s opioid crisis such as Painkiller and Dopesick. Most fatalities are caused by respiratory depression where breathing is significantly slowed or stops altogether.
Official trailer for Painkiller (Netflix)
Fentanyl is an analgesic drug that is 50-100 times more potent than heroin or morphine. Where China used to be the principal manufacturer and supplier of fentanyl to the US, Mexico is now the primary source. In December 2024, Mexican authorities announced “the largest mass seizure of fentanyl pills ever made” – amounting to more than 20 million doses of fentanyl pills worth nearly US$400 million. The pills were found in Mexico’s Sinaloa state, home of the Sinaloa drug cartel and a hub of fentanyl production,
“This is what makes us rich,” one fentanyl cook recently told the New York Times. He was scathing about the idea that Donald Trump would be able to stamp out the supply of fentanyl from Mexico to the US by threatening Mexico’s government with tariffs. “Drug trafficking is the main economy here.”
However, the introduction of synthetic opioids to the US came not via organised crime but through a deliberate strategy of the pharmaceutical industry. Upon launching its prescription opioid painkiller OxyContin (a brand name for oxycodone) in 1996, Perdue Pharma, owned by the Sackler family, devised a plan to increase prescriptions of the drug by incentivizing and rewarding doctors to give these drugs to their patients. On a business level, this was a success; on a human level, it has been a disaster.
As patients quickly developed tolerance to drugs such as OxyContin, they had to take higher doses to avoid withdrawal symptoms or the positive feelings it gave them. Taking more of these opiates increases the risk of accidental overdose, many of which proved to be fatal. It has also driven those dependent on drugs to the black market, and into the hands of organised drug gangs, as they seek the drugs in greater quantities.
Dependency on fentanyl and other opioids is all-consuming. When not using these drugs, people are entirely focused on ensuring sufficient supply of the next dose. This includes funding supply which can take people to places they thought they would never be, for example breaking the law, shoplifting or getting involved in commercial sex to make enough money to buy drugs.
Synthetic opiates like OxyContin and fentanyl have proved to be classless, ageless and sex blind. The first-hand experience of addiction and fatalities have radically altered the way many Americans think about drugs and the problems they cause. Canada, too, is suffering a major crisis.
Compounding this tragedy is the failure of the state to provide interventions and treatment that could have reduced fatal and non-fatal overdoses. It is only now that evidence-based interventions are beginning to be made widely available, such as access to Naloxone – a drug that can reverse the effects of opiates and potentially save a life.
Of course, it isn’t just hospitals and health professionals that are challenged by the results of widespread use of opioids, but public services like the police and fire service. In some areas of the US, there have been so many daily overdoses that every service was called on to try and deal with it. Local mayors have made it a priority to train police and fire personnel to be trained as first responders, such is the scale of the problem.
But it is not just in North America that we see the failure of politicians and the state to act when faced with growing problems with drugs. In the UK, where record numbers are dying because of using drugs such as heroin, the government has not invested in overdose prevention strategies. At a time when fatal overdoses increase year on year, budgets for specialist treatment have been reduced. It remains to be seen what the recently elected Labour government will do, if anything, to tackle the tragic rise in drug related fatalities.
What connects both examples from the US and UK is the attitude and perception of drug use many of us have. Drug use and the heavy use of prescription painkillers is still heavily stigmatised. Many of us still view this as something individuals bring on themselves or have a choice about.
So, if we don’t care about what happens to people who develop problems with drugs, why should our elected representatives? In part, it is our bigotry that is enabling the lack of timely intervention, despite us possessing the knowledge and evidence of how drug harms can be minimised.
Latin America: breakdown of the rule of law
Under the last Conservative government, the UK Home Office asserted that people who used cocaine recreationally are supporting violence not only in the UK but in the countries that produce its raw ingredients. It’s not clear if this has made any difference to those using cocaine in the UK – personally, I doubt many people consider or are aware of how cocaine is produced or its provenance.
Perhaps if those using cocaine, mainly in western countries, realised the extent of violence and suffering that cocaine manufacture causes they might think again. Latin America has suffered enormously, with few countries there not touched in some way by the violence and breakdown of law associated with drug production and supply. According to the latest UN World Drugs Report:
Global cocaine supply reached a record high in 2022, with more than 2,700 tons of cocaine produced that year, 20% more than in the previous year … The impact of increased cocaine trafficking has been felt in Ecuador in particular, which has seen a wave of lethal violence in recent years linked to both local and transnational crime groups, most notably from Mexico and the Balkan countries.
Cocaine seizures and homicide rates increased five-fold between 2019 and 2022 in Ecuador, with the highest such rates reported in the coastal areas used for trafficking the drug to major destination markets in North America and Europe.
Cocaine trafficking flows based on reported seizures (2019-22):
As with opium production in Afghanistan, it is small-scale farmers in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia that grow the coca plant that will be turned into cocaine. Like their Afghan counterparts, they grow coca as it is more profitable than alternatives such as coffee. While it may be profitable in the short term, there are greater costs to them and their society.
Cocaine production brings with it violence as those further up the drug production chain try to control its trade. Few parts of these societies are unscathed, from bribing local politicians through to whole regions that are controlled by organised crime. Keeping control means that the use of firearms and violence increases. Against this backdrop, it is unsurprising that basic health and social services suffer.
So, while a coca grower may have more money, every other aspect of their life is negatively impacted. Whether it is regional or state institutions, both are compromised by the drug trade and those that control it. While this may not lead to the total collapse of law and order, it does create injustice and distorts the rule of law in many areas of Latin America and the Caribbean, where competition between gangs has also resulted in an increase in homicides.
The impact is on all sectors of society, now and into the future. For example, while historically the role of women has been largely underrepresented in research and drug policy, the UN report recognises that this is changing:
As women increasingly participate in economic activities, the role that women play in the drug phenomenon may become increasingly important. For example, a shift away from plant-based drug production may affect many women in rural households involved in opium poppy and coca bush cultivation.
The UN also identifies the specific risk to young people and the drugs trade, highlighting:
Long-term efforts to dismantle drug economies must provide socioeconomic opportunities and alternatives, which go beyond merely replacing illicit crops or incomes and instead address the root structural causes behind illicit crop cultivation, such as poverty, underdevelopment, and insecurity. They must also target the factors driving the recruitment of young people into the drug trade, who are at particular risk of synthetic drug use.
Meanwhile, demand for treatment in Europe due to problems with cocaine has risen significantly in recent years, since 2011 there has been an 80% increase in treatment presentations. This reflects the growing number of people using cocaine and the rise in purity of the drug.
Amid what may seem to be a story of unrelenting despair and hopelessness, there are local initiatives and even a few state-wide policies that provide optimism that change is possible.
In my roles both as clinician and scientist, I’ve often been amazed by how ingenious people can be when faced with the apparently impossible. For example, the way some people use heroin to dampen their psychotic symptoms, such as auditory and visual hallucinations – or the development of Naloxone, a drug that can temporarily reverse the effects of opioids, providing a short window for emergency services to treat people who have overdosed.
Early in my career, I witnessed the emergence of HIV in the UK in the 1980s. The speed at which this disease spread was not matched by our ability to treat it. Our response to HIV was undoubtedly hampered by prejudice and stigma towards marginalised groups in society, namely gay men and those using drugs (particularly injecting them).
However, unexpectedly and courageously, the Conservative government recognised those who were most at risk of contracting HIV, and organised a package of measures to contain the spread of infection. One part of this was a media campaign based on public health messaging designed to reduce the risk of contracting the disease. But the government also invested in treatment for those who had been infected and engaged with people at high risk, such as those intravenously injecting drugs.
I worked in specialist HIV clinics for those using drugs. At the time, methadone and diamorphine were provided as an alternative to heroin. Regulations and protocols that restricted the prescribing of these medical opioids were eased, so we could ensure patients attending these clinics were given sufficient oral and injectable opioids that they didn’t need to source street heroin.
This meant they had access to medical grade opioids and, crucially, were given regular supplies of sterile injecting equipment. It was this that reduced the risk of contracting HIV, as some people would share injecting equipment when using heroin.
This impressive policy ran counter to the Conservative party’s ideology at the time, which was to punish rather than help those using drugs like heroin. It showed me how, even with traditional mindsets, it is possible to shift policy thinking in the face of a health crisis. And make no mistake, the global drug problem is an ongoing health crisis. Today, the UN points to the risks that intravenous users of drugs still face:
An estimated 13.9 million people injected drugs in 2022, with the largest number living in North America and East and South-East Asia … The relative risk of acquiring HIV is 14 times higher for those who inject drugs than in the wider population globally.
There are, though, signs of positive change in the way some countries and regions are changing their drug policies. Scotland recently opened a drug consumption facility in Glasgow – a safe place for people to use their drugs, usually injecting drugs like heroin. Such spaces provide access to sterile injecting equipment, reducing the risk of blood-borne infections such as HIV or Hepatitis. At the same time, they offer the opportunity to engage with people who have not accessed traditional health services.
Portugal, as mentioned earlier, has made substantial changes to the way it approaches drug use and the problems associated with it. This policy shift since 2000 has saved lives and brought a more humane way of treating people who develop problems with drugs.
Contrast this with the wasted effort and resources ploughed into the war on drugs – initiated by Nixon and followed by so many western governments ever since. My plea to policymakers is simple: employ the same evidence-based science you use for health issues towards drugs and problem drug use.
Science and research can help in many ways, if given the chance. Some of it might seem radical, like providing safe drug consumption spaces. Some of it is more mundane, but vital – like tackling inequality, a clear driver of problem drug use across the world.
But while we often look to politicians to take the lead on change, it is people – us – that really hold the solution. By far the greatest threat to people and society from drugs is ignorance and bigotry. So many lives have been lost to drugs because of shame, either as a driver of drug use or a barrier to seeking help.
Beliefs are notoriously difficult to shift. As with climate change, the most powerful driver of change is personal experience. We know that when a family or community is affected by a drug overdose, their beliefs and perceptions change. But this is not the way any of us should want to see change happen.
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Ian Hamilton 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 Jennifer Mathers, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, Aberystwyth University
North Korea is believed to be preparing to send another group of soldiers to come to Vladimir Putin’s aid in the war in Ukraine, despite heavy combat losses already suffered by troops from the east Asian country.
When Ukrainian forces crossed the border into the Kursk region of Russia in August 2024, Ukraine’s military commanders hoped that their surprise move would force Moscow to withdraw troops from eastern Ukraine to defend Russia’s own territory. Kyiv did not expect its troops to end up fighting North Koreans.
Neither Moscow nor Pyongyang have officially confirmed that North Korean troops are fighting side by side with Russians. But South Korean intelligence has been reporting on their presence since October 2024, when approximately 1,500 North Korean special forces were observed to have arrived in Russia’s far eastern city of Vladivostok, initially for training.
This group was later joined by another 10,000 or so of their comrades (some of whom are also believed to be from North Korean special forces units). They were transported nearly 7,000 kilometres across Russia to reach the combat zone.
North Korea, an isolated dictatorship with few allies, is one of Russia’s most reliable suppliers of weapons, including missiles and millions of rounds of ammunition that Russia needs to continue to fight its war against Ukraine. North Korea, however, would seem to have little reason to send its own people to risk their lives in that conflict. But North Korean soldiers appear to be at the heart of a deal struck by North Korea’s supreme leader Kim Jong-un and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
What does Putin want?
For Putin the gains are clear. His campaign in Ukraine has received a much-needed influx of trained soldiers to shore up efforts to retake Russian territory occupied by Ukrainian forces.
Although the numbers of North Korean troops are relatively small, their strategic deployment allows Russia to push the Ukrainians back without diverting any of its forces from their offensive operations in eastern Ukraine. Expectations are high that Donald Trump’s return to the White House could mean an end to the war – or at least a pause – sooner rather than later. This gives Putin an incentive to occupy as much Ukrainian territory as possible ahead of a ceasefire, when occupied areas are likely to form the basis of territorial settlements.
The suggestion that Russia is not capable of maintaining its position in Ukraine and also defending its own territory without the addition of foreign troops is very revealing.
Moscow is struggling to recruit enough of its own citizens to fight in Ukraine. This is despite offering salaries and benefits packages to prospective soldiers that are beyond generous. The lack of resistance to Kyiv’s summer incursion into Russian territory made it clear that Russia is relying upon barely trained conscripts – that is, teenage boys doing their one year of compulsory military service – to defend its borders rather than professional soldiers. And while Russia has regained control of a substantial proportion – perhaps more than 60% – of the area seized by Ukraine in the summer, this has taken nearly six months to accomplish.
What does Kim Jong-un want?
For Kim Jong-un, sending his soldiers to fight with Russia provides his troops with valuable experience of combat in a conflict that is rapidly defining how war will be waged in the future.
Since the end of the Korean War (1950-53), Pyongyang has placed a high priority on maintaining a large and heavily armed standing army. After training, North Korean soldiers are mostly used for patrolling the de-militarized zone that marks its border with South Korea. Participating in Russia’s war against Ukraine provides the North Korean military with its first experience of combat in more than 70 years.
North Korean soldiers captured in Ukraine.
Observations from Ukrainian soldiers suggest the North Korean soldiers are courageous and determined fighters but with no experience of actual combat. The Ukrainians have described the North Koreans as relying on strategies typical of the second world war – for example advancing in large groups on foot, where they provide easy targets for artillery and drone strikes. They were also apparently bemused by the appearance of drones on the battlefield and had no idea that these objects could deliver lethal attacks.
This degree of inexperience, together with Russia’s tactic of using the North Koreans to draw the fire of the Ukrainians and clear the way for the Russians to advance, is believed to be the reason for such high losses so soon after their deployment.
In January the Ukrainians managed to capture two North Koreans and question them, which has provided the clearest picture so far of their experiences of fighting with the Russian armed forces. The North Korean soldiers both had false identity papers with Russian names, which is consistent with official denials of their presence. The men, who do not speak any foreign languages and had to be questioned through an interpreter, said that they had both been soldiers for several years. This supports the Ukrainians’ impression that the North Koreans are trained and disciplined. Both prisoners, however, reportedly believed they were being sent to Russia to participate in training exercises, not to fight in a war.
Considering the heavy losses and the brutal treatment that North Korean troops have already suffered, Kim Jong-un might be expected to seek the speedy return of his soldiers rather than preparing to send more of their comrades to fight with Russia. But high casualties on the battlefield seems to be a price that North Korea’s president is willing to pay for combat experience that might give his army an edge in any future war that he fights on his own behalf.
Jennifer Mathers does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The UK government’s new plan to foster innovation through artificial intelligence (AI) is ambitious. Its goals rely on the better use of public data, including renewed efforts to maximise the value of health data held by the NHS. Yet this could involve the use of real data from patients using the NHS. This has been highly controversial in the past and previous attempts to use this health data have been at times close to disastrous.
Patient data would be anonymised, but concerns remain about potential threats to this anonymity. For example, the use of health data has been accompanied by worries about access to data for commercial gain. The care.data programme, which collapsed in 2014, had an similar underlying idea: sharing health data across the country to both publicly funded research bodies and private companies.
Poor communication about the more controversial elements of this project and a failure to listen to concerns led to the programme being shelved. More recently, the involvement of the US tech company Palantir in the new NHS data platform raised questions about who can and should access data.
The new effort to use health data to train (or improve) AI models, similarly relies on public support for success. Yet perhaps unsurprisingly, within hours of this announcement, media outlets and social media users attacked the plan as a way of monetising health data. “Ministers mull allowing private firms to make profit from NHS data in AI push,” one published headline reads.
These responses, and those to care.data and Palantir, reflect just how important public trust is in the design of policy. This is true no matter how complicated technology becomes – and crucially, trust becomes more important as societies increase in scale and we’re less able to see or understand every part of the system. It can, though, be difficult, if not impossible, to make a judgement as to where we should place trust, and how to do that well. This holds true whether we are talking about governments, companies, or even just acquaintances – to trust (or not) is a decision each of us must make every day.
The challenge of trust motivates what we call the “trustworthiness recognition problem”, which highlights that determining who is worthy of our trust is something that stems from the origins of human social behaviour. The problem comes from a simple issue: anyone can claim to be trustworthy and we can lack sure ways to tell if they genuinely are.
If someone moves into a new home and sees ads for different internet providers online, there isn’t a sure way to tell which will be cheaper or more reliable. Presentation doesn’t need – and may not even often – reflect anything about a person or group’s underlying qualities. Carrying a designer handbag or wearing an expensive watch doesn’t guarantee the wearer is wealthy.
Luckily, work in anthropology, psychology and economics shows how people – and by
consequence, institutions like political bodies – can overcome this problem. This work is known as signalling theory, and explains how and why communication, or what we can call the passing of information from a signaller to a receiver, evolves even when the individuals communicating are in conflict.
For example, people moving between groups may have reasons to lie about their identities. They might want to hide something unpleasant about their own past. Or they might claim to be a relative of someone wealthy or powerful in a community. Zadie Smith’s recent book, The Fraud, is a fictionalised version of this popular theme that explores aristocratic life during Victorian England.
Yet it’s just not possible to fake some qualities. A fraud can claim to be an aristocrat, a doctor, or an AI expert. Signals that these frauds unintentionally give off will, however, give them away over time. A false aristocrat will probably not fake his demeanour or accent effectively enough (accents, among other signals, are difficult to fake to those familiar with them).
The structure of society is obviously different than that of two centuries ago, but the problem, at its core, is the same — as, we think, is the solution. Much as there are ways for a truly wealthy person to prove wealth, a trustworthy person or group must be able to show they are worth trusting. The way or ways this is possible will undoubtedly vary from context to context, but we believe that political bodies such as governments must demonstrate a willingness to listen and respond to the public about their concerns.
The care.data project, was criticised because it was publicised via leaflets dropped at people’s doors that did not contain an opt-out. This failed to signal to the public a real desire to alleviate people’s concerns that information about them would be misused or sold for profit.
The current plan around the use of data to develop AI algorithms needs to be different. Our political and scientific institutions have a duty to signal their commitment to the public by listening to them, and through doing so develop cohesive policies that minimise the risks to individuals while maximising the potential benefits for all.
The key is to place sufficient funding and effort to signal – to demonstrate – the honest motivation of engaging with the public about their concerns. The government and scientific bodies have a duty to listen to the public, and further to explain how they will protect it. Saying “trust me” is never enough: you have to show you are worth it.
Richard Milne receives funding from Wellcome under grant 220540/Z/20/A to the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Kavli Foundation, grant G115418 to the University of Cambridge.
Jonathan R Goodman 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.
Visit a supermarket in 2025 and you’ll see that a tub of Lurpak butter can cost £5.70. It may strike you that this represents a staggering increase from £3.65 just three years ago, so instead of paying the premium, you reach for the supermarket’s own brand at £3.80.
This kind of switch, multiplied across millions of shopping baskets, represents a massive shift in consumer behaviour that has been largely invisible to official statistics. But that’s changing, as the UK embarks on its biggest revolution in measuring living costs since the second world war.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is transforming the way it tracks inflation, moving from painstakingly checking prices to analysing millions of real purchases through supermarket scanners. Consider olive oil, the price of which surged by 47% in a year, or milk, which jumped by more than 25%. While official statistics captured these price rises, they couldn’t track how households adapted – whether by switching to cheaper alternatives, buying less, or cutting back elsewhere. This was a blind spot in our understanding of consumer behaviour.
Currently, price collectors visit stores across the country each month, checking the prices of about 25,000 products. It’s like taking a snapshot of what’s on the shelves at a particular moment. But this system, designed decades ago, often misses the real impact of inflation on different household types in things like choosing different products or switching stores.
This is crucial for understanding the real impact of inflation on lower-income households. These families often have less flexibility in their budgets and must make more dramatic changes to their shopping habits when prices rise. During recent periods of high inflation, many on low incomes found that official figures didn’t match their experience, which was of even higher inflation than the headline rates. And there’s a good reason why.
Inflation statistics aren’t just academic exercises. They drive decisions that affect every aspect of our financial lives. The Bank of England uses them to set interest rates, which in turn influence mortgage payments and savings returns. Employers use them in wage negotiations. Government uses them to adjust benefits, state pensions and tax thresholds. Even commercial contracts, including mobile phone bills and rail fares, are often linked to inflation rates.
When these numbers don’t accurately reflect price pressures, it can have serious consequences. If official figures underestimate the inflation experienced by lower-income households, benefit increases might not keep pace with their actual cost increases. Similarly, if wages don’t rise in line with real living costs, workers effectively experience a pay cut.
The scanner data revolution
The ONS’s new approach, to be introduced next year, will analyse around 300 million price points from supermarket scanners, covering about half of all grocery transactions in the UK. Instead of just seeing what’s on the shelf, they’ll know exactly what prices people are paying at checkouts across the country.
This massive increase in data points – from 25,000 to 300 million – will allow for a more nuanced understanding of consumer behaviour.
The change will also enable quicker identification of emerging price trends. After the start of the COVID pandemic and the Ukraine war, prices of certain goods changed rapidly. Scanner data could help spot these changes faster, allowing for more timely policy responses. It might also reveal regional variations in price pressures.
Take the 2023 surge in food prices – while overall food inflation hit 19%, the impact varied dramatically across households. Current statistics would not capture lower-income families switching from fresh to frozen vegetables, or from branded to value ranges.
In times of cost pressures, shoppers may switch from fresh produce to frozen. sirtravelalot/Shutterstock
With scanner data, policymakers could spot these trends quickly and respond more precisely – perhaps by adjusting benefit payments or targeting support to specific households when essential food costs spike. Instead of waiting for quarterly surveys to reveal hardship, they will be able to see in real time how different groups are coping with price pressures.
The ONS recently said full implementation will come in 2026, a year later than planned. While it will have the technical capability ready by March 2025, it is opting for a year of parallel running to ensure accuracy. This approach reflects how crucial these statistics are for the economy.
It has already modernised other areas of price collection, including incorporating 40 million train fare data points and 300,000 used car prices. But grocery prices, being central to household budgets and varying significantly across different income groups, require extra attention.
The change is coming at a crucial time. Recent years have shown how rapidly economic conditions can change and how differently these changes can affect various segments of society. The pandemic, Brexit adjustments, and global supply chain disruptions have all contributed to price pressures.
For consumers, while the changes won’t directly lower prices, they could lead to more appropriate responses from the Bank of England, government and employers. Most importantly, it could ensure that official inflation figures better reflect the reality of the weekly shop, particularly during times of economic stress.
The transformation of inflation statistics might seem like a technical detail, but its implications reach far beyond government offices and economic reports. It’s about ensuring that the official measures of living costs better reflect the reality experienced by millions of households across the UK. In this challenging economic environment, that’s something worth getting right.
Marcel Lukas receives funding from the British Academy. He is the Director of Executive Education at the University of St Andrews and Fellow of the ONS. The presented views are his own and do not represent the ONS.
DENVER — Today, Governor Jared Polis, the Office of Just Transition (OJT) within the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE), and the Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) announced two new Coal Transition Community Assistance grants aimed at supporting local economic diversification efforts in Moffat and Rio Blanco Counties. These grants are part of the state’s broader initiative to support communities impacted by the decline of coal-powered electricity production in Colorado.
“Colorado is helping communities succeed in new ways, which will create more jobs for local workers and save people money. We are committed to helping communities in Western Colorado plan for the future,” said Governor Polis.
“Communities in Northwest Colorado are working hard to diversify their economies, and we are pleased to support those efforts. When economic development plans are based on local strengths and opportunities, we see greater impacts for Coloradans,” said Eve Lieberman, OEDIT Executive Director.
City of Craig Awarded $1,051,000 for Business and Industrial Park In Moffat County, the City of Craig has been awarded $1,051,000 to purchase property for the development of a new business and industrial park. The park will be strategically located with access to both the Union Pacific rail line and 1st Street in Craig, offering excellent opportunities for growth and investment.
“The Office of Just Transition plays a critical role in promoting stability, recovery, and sustainability for regions like NW Colorado, as we all anticipate the impacts from coal mine and power plant closures,” said Craig City Manager Peter Brixius. “In the face of these impacts, we are very pleased that OJT is a partner in our vision for the future growth and development of new and expanding opportunities for our region. The acquisition of this property in Craig will establish a business park in an area that will provide a skilled and ready workforce with a quality of life that includes world class recreational opportunities right in our backyard. We are planning a business park for those looking for flexibility and services, as they make fiscally responsible decisions, and at the same time realize their dreams.”
The City of Craig will collaborate with a private developer to begin the master planning process for the park. In addition to the Coal Transition Community grant, the project has been awarded $2.5 million in Congressionally Designated Spending to cover horizontal infrastructure costs.
Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District Awarded $100,000 for Wolf Creek Reservoir Study The Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District has been awarded $100,000 to conduct a comprehensive survey and report on the potential impacts of a new reservoir in Rio Blanco County. The study will evaluate the impact of the proposed new reservoir on agricultural production, flatwater recreation, and a countywide water augmentation plan designed to increase the supply of water available for beneficial use. This award will not bias various state and federal permitting processes required for this project.
“Our economy is transitioning away from fossil fuel electric generation, and a reliable water supply is a key component of this critical economic transition,” said Alden Vanden Brink with the Rio Blanco Water Conservancy District.
“This study will provide important information that will guide the future of the Wolf Creek Reservoir and help ensure that we understand the economic potential of the project,” said OJT Director Wade Buchanan. “By investing in such efforts, we continue to support the long-term prosperity of communities in the Yampa Valley.”
About the Office of Just Transition: Colorado created the Office of Just Transition within Colorado’s Department of Labor and Employment in 2019 to assist workers and communities that will be adversely affected by the loss of jobs and revenues due to the closure of coal mines and coal-fired power plants. Its purpose is to help workers transition to new, high-quality, jobs, to help communities continue to thrive by expanding and attracting diverse businesses, and to replace lost revenues. To learn more about the Office of Just Transition, its action plan and the corresponding legislation, please visit cdle.colorado.gov/offices/the-office-of-just-transition.
About Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade: The Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade (OEDIT) works with partners to create a positive business climate that encourages dynamic economic development and sustainable job growth. OEDIT partners with businesses and communities to offer financial, technical, and advisory assistance. From business retention services to incentives and funding, OEDIT supports economic growth across Colorado through its diverse programs and services. To learn more, visit oedit.colorado.gov.
NC CASC Tackles Climate Threats to Sagebrush Ecosystems
The North Central CASC leads initiative, holds workshop, to address threats to the “Sagebrush Sea,” one of the most expansive ecosystems in the United States.
The eastern sagebrush ecosystem, sometimes called the “Sagebrush Sea” for its vast expanse and rolling waves of silvery-green plants, is the largest continuous ecosystem in the continental United States. It provides essential habitat for wildlife like mule deer, pronghorn antelope, and greater sage-grouse, while also supporting livestock grazing, recreation, and cultural traditions. Despite its vast size, nearly half of this ecosystem has been lost under the pressures of land conversions and development, overgrazing, and invasive species – and now, these threats are compounded by changing climate conditions, like rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and more frequent extreme events.
To address these challenges, the North Central CASC (NC CASC) gathered 24 experts at a workshop at the University of Colorado Boulder. Their goal: to identify the most pressing research needs and practical solutions for adapting sagebrush ecosystems to a changing climate. Discussions focused on evaluating management practices, clarifying how ecosystems respond to environmental changes, strengthening connections with stakeholders and local communities, and understanding community values of sagebrush landscapes, as well as developing tools and datasets to support conservation efforts.
Building on the momentum of the workshop, the NC CASC is launching a two-year Science Synthesis Working Group. This collaborative effort will address the research gaps identified at the workshop and provide actionable climate-informed guidance to safeguard the Sagebrush Sea for future generations.
Headline: NCDHHS Program Celebrates 25 Years of Promoting Healthy Smiles for Young Children
NCDHHS Program Celebrates 25 Years of Promoting Healthy Smiles for Young Children hejones1
The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Into the Mouths of Babes program, a partnership that delivers preventive oral health services to young children insured by NC Medicaid. Since 2000, this program has helped medical providers across the state give infants and toddlers early dental evaluations, preventive oral health care and other dental services that lay the foundation for good health.
“Tooth decay is the most common chronic disease in children,” said Dr. Patrick Roberson, DDS, North Carolina State Dental Director. “This program provides vital oral health services for children who need it most and connects medical and dental care to improve outcomes.”
Into the Mouths of Babes was originally piloted in nine western North Carolina counties as the “Smart Smiles” program in the mid-1990’s. In 2001, the program expanded statewide and established a reimbursement package through NC Medicaid.
“Since Into the Mouths of Babes began, more than 2.8 million claims have been submitted for preventive oral health services,” said Dr. Mark Casey, DDS, MPH, Dental Officer for NC Medicaid. “This is the finest example of a cost-effective preventive oral health care program at work.”
Early oral health evaluations provided through Into the Mouths of Babes allow medical providers to identify issues before they become serious, ensuring families can get help early. Additionally, caregiver education provided by the program gives families the tools they need to support healthy habits for life.
“Our rural pediatric practice has provided fluoride treatments to infants and toddlers for over 15 years,” said Dr. Marston Crawford, MD, FAAP, pediatrician for Coastal Children’s Clinic. “These treatments, combined with caregiver discussion about early oral health, have sharply reduced cavities and preventable dental surgery. The majority of our children enter kindergarten cavity-free.”
Training and community outreach are key to the program’s long-term success. NCDHHS employs 20 public health dental hygienists in 10 regions across the state who provide training for Into the Mouths of Babes. The American Academy of Family Physicians also provides continuing medical education hours to physicians who attend an NCDHHS training session.
Key program partners include NC Medicaid, the NCDHHS Division of Public Health’s Oral Health Section, UNC Adams School of Dentistry, UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, the North Carolina Pediatric Society and the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians among others.
“The NC Academy of Family Physicians is proud to support this program,” said Gregory Griggs, Executive Vice President of the Academy. “It has made a huge difference in reducing tooth decay for children across North Carolina.”
For more information on the program, including partnerships and the online toolkit, visit the Into the Mouths of Babes webpage.
El Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos de Carolina del Norte celebra el 25 aniversario del programaInto the Mouth of Babes, una colaboración que brinda servicios preventivos de salud oral a niños pequeños asegurados por NC Medicaid. Desde el año 2000, este programa ha ayudado a los proveedores médicos de todo el estado a brindar evaluaciones dentales tempranas a bebés y niños pequeños, atención preventiva de la salud oral y otros servicios dentales que sientan las bases para una buena salud.
“La caries dental es la enfermedad crónica más común en los niños”, dijo Dr. Patrick Roberson, DDS, Director Dental del Estado de Carolina del Norte. “Este programa proporciona servicios vitales de salud oral para los niños que más lo necesitan y conecta la atención médica y dental para mejorar los objetivos”.
Into the Mouths of Babes se había iniciado originalmente en nueve condados del oeste de Carolina del Norte como el programa “Smart Smiles” a mediados de la década de 1990. En 2001, el programa se expandió por todo el estado y estableció un paquete de reembolso a través de NC Medicaid.
“Desde que comenzó Into the Mouth of Babes, se han presentado más de 2,8 millones de solicitudes de servicios preventivos de salud oral”, dijo la Dra. Mark Casey, DDS, MPH, Oficial Dental de NC Medicaid. “Este es el mejor ejemplo de un programa de costo económico de atención preventiva de la salud oral que funciona”.
Las evaluaciones tempranas de salud oral proporcionadas a través de Into the Mouth of Babes permiten a los proveedores médicos identificar los problemas antes de que se agraven, asegurando que las familias puedan obtener ayuda temprano. Además, la educación para los cuidadores proporcionada por el programa brinda a las familias las herramientas que necesitan para mantener hábitos saludables de por vida.
“Nuestra práctica pediátrica rural ha proporcionado tratamientos con flúor a bebés y niños pequeños durante más de 15 años”, dijo el Dr. Marston Crawford, MD, FAAP, pediatra de Coastal Children’s Clinic. “Estos tratamientos, combinados con la charla con los cuidadores sobre la salud oral en los primeros años de edad, han reducido drásticamente las caries e intervenciones quirúrgicas dentales menores. La mayoría de nuestros niños entran al jardín de infantes sin caries”.
La capacitación y el alcance comunitario son clave para el éxito a largo plazo del programa. El Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos de Carolina del Norte, (NCDHHS, por sus siglas en inglés), emplea a 20 higienistas dentales de salud pública en diez regiones de todo el estado quienes proporcionan formación para Into the Mouth of Babes. La Academia Estadounidense de Médicos de Familia también ofrece horas de educación médica continua a los médicos que asisten a una sesión de capacitación del NCDHHS.
Los socios clave del programa incluyen NC Medicaid, la Sección de Salud Oral de la División de Salud Pública de NCDHHS, la Escuela de Odontología UNC Adams, la Escuela de Salud Pública Global UNC Gillings, la Sociedad Pediátrica de Carolina del Norte y la Academia de Médicos de Familia de Carolina del Norte, entre otros.
“La Academia de Médicos de Familia de Carolina del Norte se enorgullece de apoyar este programa”, dijo Gregory Griggs, Vicepresidente Ejecutivo de la Academia. “Ha marcado una gran diferencia en la reducción de la caries dental en los niños de Carolina del Norte”.
Para obtener más información sobre el programa, incluidas las colaboraciones y el kit de herramientas en línea, visite la página web deInto the Mouths of Babes.
HOUSTON, Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Skyward Specialty Insurance Group, Inc.™ (NASDAQ: SKWD) (“Skyward Specialty” or “the Company”) expects to issue its fourth quarter 2024 earnings results after the market closes on Tuesday, February 25th which will be available on the Company website at investors.skywardinsurance.com/ under Quarterly Results.
Skyward Specialty will host its earnings call to review the fourth quarter 2024 financial results on Wednesday, February 26 at 9:30 a.m. EDT.
Investors may access the live audio webcast via the link on the Company’s investor site at investors.skywardinsurance.com/ under Events & Presentations. Additionally, investors can access the earnings call via conference call by registering via the conference link. Users will receive dial-in information and a unique PIN to join the call upon registering.
A webcast replay will be available two hours following the call in the same location on the Company’s investor website.
About Skyward Specialty
Skyward Specialty (NASDAQ: SKWD) is a rapidly growing and innovative specialty insurance company, delivering commercial property and casualty products and solutions on a non-admitted and admitted basis. The Company operates through eight underwriting divisions — Accident & Health, Captives, Global Property & Agriculture, Industry Solutions, Professional Lines, Programs, Surety and Transactional E&S.
Skyward Specialty’s subsidiary insurance companies consist of Houston Specialty Insurance Company, Imperium Insurance Company, Great Midwest Insurance Company, and Oklahoma Specialty Insurance Company. These insurance companies are rated A (Excellent) with a stable outlook by A.M. Best Company. For more information about Skyward Specialty, its people, and its products, please visit skywardinsurance.com.
(HARTFORD, CT) – Governor Ned Lamont today announced that the state budget proposal he will present to the Connecticut General Assembly later this week will include an increase in funding for towns and cities to provide special education services for students with disabilities, as well as the creation of a new program that incentivizes municipalities to provide special education programming to students in-district or on a regional basis.
“Over the last several years, special education services have been one of the largest cost drivers for school districts due to the increase in the number of students eligible for special education services and the rapid increase in the cost of those services, particularly for students outplaced in approved special education programs,” Governor Lamont said. “I know that special ed is a major expense when developing town and city budgets and can be unpredictable from year to year. This increased investment supports our municipalities and supports students with special needs.”
For fiscal year 2027, the governor is recommending to the legislature that the Excess Cost Grant, which subsidizes high-cost placements for students with the greatest needs, be increased by an additional $40 million.
Additionally, the governor is asking the legislature to establish the High-Quality Special Education Incentive Grant program. Administered by the Connecticut State Department of Education, this competitive grant program will increase the capacity of school districts to provide high-quality special education programming in-district and regionally, reducing reliance on out-of-district placements and meeting students’ needs as identified by their Individual Education Program in the least restrictive environment. For fiscal year 2027, the governor is proposing to allocate $10 million from the General Fund and $4 million in bond funds to support it.
The State Department of Education is also currently undergoing a study to analyze other states’ annual special education rate-setting for providers of special education services, including placements in out-of-district programs, which could result in additional recommendations by the department. Initiated by Education Commissioner Charlene M. Russell-Tucker, this initiative aims to address the financial unpredictability associated with these specialized services and help districts better manage their budgets.
“By incentivizing districts to provide high-quality special education services right within their communities through new and innovative partnerships, by devoting additional funding to the Excess Cost Grant, and by addressing special education tuition costs, this proposal will directly tackle the rising costs of special education services,” Commissioner Russell-Tucker said. “It will assist our schools in building stronger educational opportunities for the 91,847 students who are receiving special education services across Connecticut.”
Governor Lamont is scheduled to deliver his annual budget address to a joint session of the General Assembly on Wednesday, February 5, 2025. Documents containing the full details of his biennial budget proposal and other legislative proposals will be filed on that date.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The Government has announced the appointment of three non-executive directors to the Board of the UK Statistics Authority.
The Authority’s statutory objective is to promote and safeguard the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good.
The three appointees are:
Peter Barron, who is a Northern-Irish communications expert with senior experience in consumer technology and public affairs. He spent more than 20 years working in television news and current affairs at the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4, before working in external relations at Google from 2008 to 2018, and then at Stripe from 2021 to 2023. Peter holds a BSc in European Studies and Modern Languages from the University of Manchester (UMIST) and is a trustee of the Disasters Emergency Committee and the Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration.
Professor Mairi Spowage, who is Director of the Fraser of Allander Institute, Scotland’s leading economic research institute at the University of Strathclyde. Mairi leads research on modelling economic impact, economic measurement, regional economic and trade performance and public sector finances. Mairi has previously held roles as the Deputy Chief Executive of the Scottish Fiscal Commission and Head of National Accounts at the Scottish Government, with almost 20 years of experience of working in statistics and analysis, including transport, household surveys and performance measurement.
Dr Sarah Walsh, a risk and governance specialist who is currently advising clients in different sectors. Sarah has 20 years’ generalist experience, including Risk Director roles at Telegraph Media Group, Guardian Media Group, Save the Children and Imperial College London. Presently, she serves as a non-executive director at the Royal College of Nursing Publishing, including membership of the Royal College of Nursing’s Audit Committee and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She also serves as independent non-executive member of the Audit and Risk Committees for Science Museum Group, St John’s Ambulance and the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors. Sarah holds a Master’s degree in Astronautics and Space Engineering from Cranfield University, and a PhD in Aerodynamics from the University of Manchester.
Appointments to the Board of the UK Statistics Authority are regulated. These appointments were made by Rt Hon Nick Thomas–Symonds MP, Minister for Cabinet Office. The advisory assessment panel was: Sir Robert Chote, Chair, UKSA (Chair of the panel); Steffan Jones, Director, Joint Data and Analysis Centre, Cabinet Office and Zarin Patel, Non Executive Director, HM Treasury.
Appointees began their roles at the end of January 2025.
Source: United Nations General Assembly and Security Council
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed Arnaud Peral of France as the United Nations Resident Coordinator in the Philippines, with the host Government’s approval, on 1 February.
Mr. Peral was most recently the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Tunisia since 2020. Prior to that, he served successively as United Nations Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Ecuador, UNDP Country Director in Colombia, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in México and then Brazil, Programme Manager and Chief of Staff in UNDP´s Regional Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean in New York and Programme Officer in UNDP Cuba.
Prior to joining the UN system in 2000, Mr. Peral served as Cooperation Counsellor for Scientific and Technical Cooperation in the French Embassy in Cuba, Research Assistant in the Ministry of Environment in France and Research Assistant in public policy in the Ministry of Agriculture in Chile.
Mr. Peral holds a master’s degree in development economics from the University of Paris X-Nanterre and a bachelor’s degree in economic policy from the University Pierre Mendes France, Grenoble.
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* This supersedes Press Release SG/A/1982 of 17 September 2020.
The way you see nutrition labels on food packaging is about to change. By 2025, new front-of-package labels will start appearing on grocery store shelves, and by January 2026, they’ll be mandatory.
Over the past two decades, nutrition labelling has evolved into a cornerstone of public health strategies worldwide. Traditional back-of-package labels, which provide comprehensive nutritional details, are often overlooked due to their complexity and placement, making them less effective in guiding consumer choices.
Front-of-package labels address this issue by simplifying key nutritional information and positioning it in a more prominent, visible space. This streamlined approach has proven successful in leading consumers toward healthier choices, as research indicates that simplified, visible labels can influence purchasing decisions.
Globally, front-of-package systems vary, with some countries employing warning symbols to flag excessive nutrient levels, while others use colour-coded “traffic light” systems or endorsement icons to promote healthier options.
Canadian policy
The Canadian government’s new policy requiring front-of-package nutrition symbols aims to guide consumers toward healthier food choices by highlighting foods high in sodium, sugars or saturated fats. These nutrients are closely linked to chronic conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and hypertension.
Designed for simplicity and consistency, the labels feature a black-and-white magnifying glass icon. This design’s uniformity in size, placement and bilingual presentation is intended to make it easily recognizable and understandable.
Fresh produce, plain dairy products and raw, single-ingredient meats are exempt from the regulations, acknowledging their inherent nutritional benefits.
The policy is intended to promote transparency and improve public health by helping Canadians make more informed food choices. With full implementation set for January 2026, further research and targeted actions such as meetings and correspondence on healthy eating by Health Canada are required to ensure the effectiveness of the policy.
Since 2016, extensive consumer testing, including focus groups, online surveys and in-store experiments, has informed decisions regarding the labels’ design, size and placement. As a result, the labels have been refined to better meet their goal of providing consumers with clearer, more actionable nutritional information.
While the initiative holds promise, several gaps could undermine its overall effectiveness. Varying levels of health literacy may hinder consumers’ ability to fully comprehend and act on the front-of-package labels, with some potentially unaware of the health risks associated with flagged nutrients like sodium, sugars and saturated fats.
Additionally, manufacturers face challenges in adhering to new labelling standards, reformulating products to meet healthier benchmarks and overcoming potential consumer resistance.
Addressing these issues requires significant investment in consumer education, alongside targeted support for manufacturers from the Canadian government in form of consultation in adapting to the new requirements.
The policy also presents an opportunity to engage consumers more deeply in their health choices. Education campaigns such as community workshops and public health initiatives, and point of sale posters that explain the purpose and interpretation of front-of-package labels, can empower consumers to make informed decisions.
These campaigns should address disparities in health literacy, ensuring that all Canadians benefit from the initiative regardless of socioeconomic status. Collaborative efforts among government agencies, health-care providers and community organizations could amplify these educational initiatives, reaching a wider audience.
Industry response
For manufacturers, the introduction of front-of-package labels often triggers efforts to reformulate products, reducing sodium, sugars or saturated fats to avoid negative labelling.
This process frequently involves ingredient substitution, recipe adjustments or portion size reductions. However, retaining the taste, texture and overall consumer satisfaction of a product while meeting nutritional targets requires significant innovation. If reformulated products fail to meet consumer expectations, brands risk losing loyalty and market share.
The stakes are particularly high for manufacturers whose flagship products are most at risk of being flagged. To overcome these challenges, collaboration with food scientists, ingredient suppliers and regulatory bodies is essential. Research and development efforts must focus on finding innovative solutions that meet regulatory requirements without sacrificing consumer preferences.
Beyond reformulation, compliance with front-of-package labelling requirements presents logistical and financial challenges. Packaging must be redesigned to incorporate the bilingual, standardized labels, often at significant cost. Smaller manufacturers with limited resources may find these changes particularly burdensome.
Updating supply chains to include new packaging materials and ensuring consistent application across product lines add further complexity. In addition to these financial and operational pressures, reformulation may affect production processes and shelf life, necessitating further adjustments.
Potential impact
Despite these challenges, front-of-package labelling has the potential to drive significant change within the food industry. By prioritizing healthier formulations, companies can gain a competitive advantage, particularly as consumer demand for health-conscious products grows.
Over time, this shift could lead to broader industry trends, pushing manufacturers toward greater transparency and accountability in their product offerings.
However, these positive outcomes require supportive policies. Tax incentives, subsidies for reformulation and clear regulatory guidance can help ease the financial and operational burdens faced by manufacturers, particularly smaller businesses.
While front-of-package labelling shows promise in promoting healthier choices and encouraging innovation, its long-term impact remains to be fully understood.
Key areas for future research include examining how manufacturers prioritize reformulation, tracking changes in nutrient composition over time, and analyzing consumer behaviour in response to labelled products. Studies that link front-of-package labels to dietary intake and health outcomes could provide a comprehensive view of their effectiveness in achieving public health goals.
This story was co-authored by Christopher Marinangeli. He is a nutrition scientist and regulatory expert with the Centre for Regulatory Research and Innovation at Protein Industries Canada, a not-for-profit organization and one of Canada’s five Global Innovation Clusters.
Zahra Saghafi receives funding from Arrell Food Institute, Protein Industries Canada, and Mitacs for her PhD research. She is affiliated with the Lang School of Business and Economics at the University of Guelph.
Source: United Nations General Assembly and Security Council
The following Security Council press statement was issued today by Council President Amar Bendjama (Algeria):
The members of the Security Council expressed deep concern over escalating violence, including in and around El Fasher, North Darfur.
Council members strongly condemned the ongoing and intensifying assaults on El Fasher in recent days by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), as well as reports of an attack on the Saudi Teaching Maternal Hospital in El Fasher on 24 January, which killed over 70 patients receiving critical care and their relatives, and wounded dozens. Recalling resolution 2736 (2024), Council members reiterated their demand that RSF halt the siege of El Fasher; and their call for an immediate halt to the fighting and for de-escalation in and around El Fasher.
Council members called on the parties to the conflict to ensure the protection of civilians and civilian infrastructure in accordance with international humanitarian law and, as applicable, human rights law. They expressed their grave concern over the situation of civilians in El Fasher and the nearby Zamzam internally displaced persons camp who have been displaced multiple times and are already experiencing a humanitarian crisis.
Council members called on the parties to the conflict to seek an immediate cessation of hostilities and pursue a sustainable resolution to the conflict through dialogue.
They urged all Member States to refrain from external interference which seeks to foment conflict and instability and instead to support efforts for durable peace and reminded all parties to the conflict and Member States to adhere to their obligations to comply with the arms embargo measures as stipulated in paragraphs 7 and 8 of resolution 1556 (2004) and reiterated in resolution 2750 (2024).
ATLANTA – Governor Brian P. Kemp today announced that PBS Aerospace, a designer and manufacturer of world-class small turbojet engines, will invest up to $20 million to establish its North American headquarters, manufacturing, and R&D operations in Roswell. The new operations will create at least 95 new jobs in metro Atlanta, growing the company’s presence in the state.
“We are excited that PBS Aerospace has chosen to stay in Georgia to increase their footprint and establish their first R&D and headquarter facilities in the United States,” said Governor Brian Kemp. “Aerospace is one of the Georgia’s top industries thanks to innovative companies like PBS Aerospace that call Georgia home. By preparing strategic, new ready-for-development sites and supporting workforce development initiatives in high-demand careers, we will keep building on our success and creating opportunities for hardworking Georgians.”
PBS Aerospace is an international manufacturer of turbojet engines and auxiliary power units that has been present in the U.S. market for more than a decade.
“PBS Group’s owner, William Didden, made the decision to establish Georgia as the location for our U.S. headquarters because of the successful foundation we have built in Atlanta through PBS Aerospace,” said Tomas Koutsky, Managing Director of PBS Aerospace. “Atlanta has proven to be an exceptional base for our operations, offering access to an excellent education system, skilled workforce, robust infrastructure, and a thriving business environment. The positive experiences and success in Atlanta have undoubtedly influenced our choice as they reflect Georgia’s ability to support our continued growth.”
“We look forward to building our new Roswell factory, which will produce the world’s most advanced small turbojet engines designed to meet the needs of the U.S. Department of Defense,” said Erin Durham, CEO of PBS Aerospace. “This move aligns seamlessly with our larger growth strategy, which focuses on partnering with Georgia’s extensive manufacturing, aerospace, and defense sectors.”
PBS Aerospace’s footprint will include an existing, renovated building at 1350 North Meadow and a new facility that will be constructed at the Tech Village North Site in Roswell. Hiring is underway for open roles, with projections to meet full operations in April 2025. Interested individuals can learn more and apply atwww.pbsaerospace.com/career.
“Roswell offers the perfect environment for innovative companies like PBS Aerospace to thrive, and their decision reflects the strength of our community and our commitment to fostering economic growth,” said Roswell Mayor Kurt Wilson. “Our city is a sought-after destination, not only for businesses but also for families, thanks to our exceptional schools, safe neighborhoods, beautiful parks, and the strong sense of community our residents share. We are proud to welcome PBS Aerospace to Roswell and look forward to their success and contributions to our city’s future.”
“Fulton County is a hub for innovative business operations like PBS Aerospace,” said Robb Pitts, Chairman of Fulton County Board of Commissioners. “This significant development not only strengthens our position as a destination for advanced manufacturing and aerospace technology but also brings tangible benefits to residents in nearby cities through job creation and economic opportunity.”
“Metro Atlanta is where top talent meets opportunity. We are pleased to welcome PBS Aerospace as a vital part of our growing aerospace and defense ecosystem,” saidKatie Kirkpatrick, President & CEO of the Metro Atlanta Chamber. “University graduates here have seamless access to thriving industries like aerospace – which is Georgia’s No. 1 export and a $57.5 billion powerhouse industry in the state. This new presence will help fuel our regional economy and strengthen our local and global relationships.”
Statewide Project Manager Haley Casola represented the Georgia Department of Economic Development’s (GDEcD) Global Commerce team on this competitive project in partnership with the City of Roswell, Select Fulton, Metro Atlanta Chamber, Georgia Quick Start, the Georgia Center of Innovation, and Georgia Power.
“PBS Aerospace first landed in the U.S. through Georgia, so it’s incredibly exciting that the company has chosen to expand on its presence here to establish not only its North American headquarters but also its first manufacturing and R&D operations in the U.S.,” said GDEcD Commissioner Pat Wilson. “Today’s news is the result of investing in our relationships at home and internationally, taking the time to ensure companies have a great experience working with the state at their existing locations and taking the initiative to meet with company leadership in-person to learn more about their plans for the future. Congratulations to PBS Aerospace for expanding in the U.S. market, and to all of the partners involved in bringing the opportunity for a job to Georgians through this investment!”
About PBS Aerospace
PBS Aerospace Inc. is a subsidiary of PBS GROUP, an engineering holding company and has been an established brand for over 200 years. PBS Group delivers cutting-edge engineering solutions across a portfolio of companies that focus on the aerospace, energy, and transportation industries. PBS Aerospace Inc. has had a presence in the U.S. market for more than 10 years and focuses on providing highly reliable turbojet engines and auxiliary power units (APUs) for the U.S. Department of Defense and commercial customers
Headline: Governor Josh Stein Advocating for $1.07 Billion to Rebuild Western NC
Governor Josh Stein Advocating for $1.07 Billion to Rebuild Western NC bwood
Raleigh, NC
Governor Josh Stein today requested $1.07 billion in immediate funding to support urgent rebuilding needs in western North Carolina. Governor Stein’s budget request includes funds to strengthen the economy, get people back into homes faster, repair infrastructure, support farmers, fix private roads and bridges, remove debris, and help school children stay at grade level.
“The people of western North Carolina have suffered tremendously since Helene swept through,” said Governor Josh Stein. “I appreciate what the General Assembly has done so far, but it’s time for us to step up and get them the money they need right now to rebuild. We can’t forget western North Carolina – and I will do everything in my power to ensure that the state shows up for them.”
Governor Stein made his budget request at MANNA Food Bank, which works with over 300 community-based nonprofit food assistance partner agencies in 16 western North Carolina counties.
“MANNA has been an essential resource for the people it serves, and its work has become even more critical since Hurricane Helene struck,” said Governor Stein. “As these organizations continue the daily work of supporting their community, we have a responsibility to support them.”
The Governor’s budget request includes funding in the following categories. An overview of some of the programs is below; full request details are available here.
Strengthening the Economy
$150 million across two grant programs for businesses that suffered physical damage or significant economic loss.
$30 million for grants to small towns and counties to rebuild downtowns and other business districts.
$15 million to the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina’s VisitNC division to support North Carolina’s tourism industry and to attract travelers and new businesses to the area.
$100 million for revenue replacement grants to support local governments whose resources were exhausted by immediate disaster response, as they work to keep water and sewer services going, pay law enforcement, and support school operations.
Providing Safe and Warm Places to Live
$150 million for a Helene Home Construction and Repair Program to immediately start rebuilding the estimated 5,100 homes that will need to be rebuilt post-Helene.
$25 million to support people struggling to afford rent, mortgage, or utility costs because their home or livelihood was affected.
$10 million for Back@Home, a program that supports people who are without homes and provides them with case management support.
$50 million in incentives for affordable housing construction.
$25 million to fill in gaps for home repairs that are not covered by FEMA.
Repairing Infrastructure
$75 million to repair private roads and bridges.
$25 million to clean up local parks and greenways in affected areas.
$12 million to expedite debris removal.
$10 million to provide backup power for emergency operations and other critical infrastructure.
$4 million to repair septic systems.
Supporting Farmers
$15 million for grants to farmers for verified uninsured losses to crops, livestock, aquaculture, and infrastructure.
$100 million to help farmers clear debris and repair their land and waterways so they can resume production and protect against future flooding.
$19.4 million to prepare for the wildfire season and mitigate future risk.
Caring For Families and Children
$34.2 million for school districts that missed 15 or more days of school to provide summer instruction and other support services to ensure students continue to perform at grade level on End of Grade and End of Course assessments.
$20 million to fund food banks in affected areas.
$2 million to help college students who are struggling to pay tuition, fees, or emergency expenses that might force them to drop out of school at UNC Asheville, Appalachian State University, and Western Carolina University.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A study published in Nature Medicine looks at microplastic accumulation in human organs.
Prof Oliver Jones, Professor of Chemistry, RMIT University, said:
“I can see this paper getting a lot of attention due to its scary-sounding title, but I’d urge caution. Before we get headlines like “Our brains are now made of plastics,” we need to step back and look at how this study was conducted and what that might mean for the results.
“There are two main questions to consider with this study: 1) Are the results correct (exceptional claims need exceptional evidence)? 2) If so, what would that mean for human health?
“Let’s look at the data first. I have questions here.
“The press release says the authors tested 28 brain samples from 2016 and 24 from 2024, which is only 52 samples in total. There is not enough data to make firm conclusions on the occurrence of microplastics in New Mexico, let alone globally.
“Only data from two years – 2016 and 2024 are presented. It is not explained why only these two years were studied, but regardless, you simply can’t make a trend from data from just two years. Data from 2017-2023 would be needed to say if there was an actual trend or if it was just a random variation.
“The concentrations of microplastics in brain samples from 2024 have much less variation than any of the other data. This does not seem likely to me, but it is not explained. Similarly, in 2016, the kidney samples seemed to contain a more diverse range of plastics than liver samples, but in 2024, the liver had a more diverse range. The brain samples are consistent at both time points. This also seems odd but is not discussed.
“The main analytical method used in this study was pyrolysis gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. This method can give false results when used to measure plastics because fats (which the brain is mainly made of) give the same pyrolysis products as polyethylene (the main plastic reported) [1]. The authors did try to address this concern but I am not certain they were able to account for everything.
“It is also challenging to properly account for potential contamination while handling or analysing samples in microplastic studies. This paper says that the findings are not likely to be lab contamination because samples were consistently handled and processed. I don’t think this is necessarily true. After all, consistent protocols could potentially result in consistent contamination. Even standard lab equipment, such as disposable lab gloves, can give false microplastic readings [2]. We also don’t know what happened to the samples during the original autopsy (bodybags are made of polyethylene, for example). There is also the issue of background contamination in any laboratory that needs to be controlled for [3]. Plastic contamination is almost everywhere, so how can we be confident that any particles found are evidence that plastic is crossing membranes in the human body or if it is just contamination from plastic in the clothes or lab equipment or background contamination in the air, etc?
“But let’s assume there are plastics in our brains. What would that mean?
“There is a suggestion that microplastics might be associated with brain disease based on testing the brains from 12 people with dementia. This is not enough data to base this conclusion on (the patients didn’t all have the same kind of dementia).
“To get to the brain, microplastics would need to cross the gut wall (which is relatively thick and well-regulated), be transported in the blood, and then cross the blood-brain barrier, which is also very well-regulated. Certainly, more work would be needed to see if this was even possible.
“If microplastics could get into the brain, then theoretically, so could other small particulates that we are exposed to every day, e.g. from air pollution. If so any actual effects might be down to those substances – but the authors only tested for microplastics.
“We don’t know if microplastics or any other particles would stay in the brain or if they would be removed by the body. Again more work would be needed to test this.
“Overall, the work is interesting, but the low sample numbers and potential analytical issues mean that care should be taken when interpreting the results. While it is not impossible that there are microplastics in the brains of some people, this study does not prove that this occurs, and, as the authors themselves note, there is as yet no strong evidence of any health effects.”
[1] Rauert C. et al. Extraction and pyrolysis-GC-MS analysis of polyethylene in samples with medium to high lipid content. Journal of Environmental Exposure Assessment 2022. 1(2): p. 13. http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/jeea.2022.04
[2] Witzig C.S. et al. When good intentions go bad—false positive microplastic detection caused by disposable gloves. Environmental Science & Technology 2020. 54(19): p. 12164-12172. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.0c03742
[3] Rauert C. et al. Blueprint for the design construction and validation of a plastic and phthalate-minimised laboratory. Journal of Hazardous Materials 2024. 468: p. 133803. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.133803
Prof Tamara Galloway, Professor of Ecotoxicology, University of Exeter, said:
“Microplastics are a ubiquitous consequence of modern life, present in air, water and food and it should come as no surprise to find that most people have microplastics present in their bodies. What we don’t yet know is what the implications are for human health.
“To understand more about this, Nihart and colleagues took a detailed look at how microplastics were distributed in the human brain, using postmortem samples. Their study identified tiny shards and flakes of plastic in the brains they studied, most of which were made out of polyethylene, a plastic widely used in food and drinks packaging and the most common component of plastic litter.
“Two things stand out from this study. The first is that there was no relationship between the age of the subjects and the amount of microplastics present in the brain samples. This is important because it suggests that microplastics do not accumulate continuously in brain tissues as we age.
“The second thing to stand out is the increase in levels of contamination over time, with a 50% increase in levels of microplastics present in the brain samples collected over the last 8 years, reflecting the increased production and use of plastics over a similar timeframe. This is significant because it suggests that if we were to reduce environmental contamination with microplastics, the levels of human exposure would also decrease, offering a strong incentive to focus on innovations that reduce exposure.
“A final note of interest is in the nature of the contamination. Polyethylene (PE) is the most widely encountered polymer in environmental plastic litter, it is used for making disposable food and drinks packaging amongst other uses and its abundance in human brain tissues reflects its abundance in wildlife samples. Perhaps of more concern is the apparent presence of other polymers including polyvinylchloride (PVC) and styrene butadiene rubber (SBD), both of which were present in smaller amounts in the samples. PVC has many uses eg. in construction and packaging, and SBD rubber is used in car tyres and other items.
“Both substances have raised concerns over their potential environment and human health effects and whilst the current study offers no evidence that they are causing harm, it does highlight the importance of understanding more about the many materials we use in daily life.”
Prof Theodore B. Henry, Professor of Environmental Toxicology from the School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure and Society at Heriot-Watt University, said:
“The Nihart et al. (2025) article presents interesting initial results about contamination of human tissues by plastics, and, as with any such results, we must be careful not to speculate about the implications until independent confirmation can validate the findings.
“Without doubt the increasing presence of plastic particles in the environment and potential negative effects on humans are a concern.
“The difficulty in assessing the accumulation of plastic particles in internal organs because of a lack of analytical methods is addressed to some extent in this paper and this advancement is noteworthy.
“A disadvantage of the pyrolysis-GC-MS analytical method used in the study is that because any plastic polymers present are disintegrated into small fragments in the process it is then not possible to determine the size, characteristics, or number of particles present in the original sample. Another challenge of interpretation of these results is the difficulty in finding suitable control tissues, or tissues that have not been exposed to plastics, for which presence of polymers does not occur and the presence in the tissues can be compared (essentially all tissues had plastic polymers, which does suggest that there could be artifacts or analytical issues that are affecting the analyses that are not accounted for).
“The reported presence of plastic particles in histological sections of tissues by polarised wave microscopy should be verified independently and could readily be done within existing banks of preserved human tissue sections held at many institutions. Given the levels of particles that are reported in the present study it is surprising that similar particles have not been detected in other studies or examinations of the same tissues that have applied the same techniques. The authors of this article correctly note in their conclusion that their results of detection of plastic polymers in tissues are associative and not linked to any negative health outcome.”
Dr Antonis Myridakis, Lecturer in Environmental Sciences, Brunel University of London, said:
“The study by Nihart et al. provides compelling evidence that microplastics (MPs) and nanoplastics (NPs) (plastic particles from 500 µm down to 1 nm) can cross the blood-brain barrier (the security filter protecting the brain from harmful entities) and accumulate in human brain tissue, particularly polyethylene, with concentrations increasing over time. The authors employ state-of -the-art and complimentary methodologies to detect, identify and quantify these particles (Py-GC-MS, SEM-EDS, ATR-FTIR), strengthening the credibility of their findings.”
Does the press release accurately reflect the science?
“Yes, the study does support convincingly the claim that these particles are detectable in human brains. However, it is crucial to emphasise that the study does not establish causality between MPs/NPs and any negative health impacts.”
Is this good quality research? Are the conclusions backed up by solid data?
“The methodology is robust and multidisciplinary, using complementary analytical techniques to measure MPs and NPs. The data show a trend of increasing microplastic accumulation over time and higher concentrations in dementia cases. However, the sample size remains relatively small, and causation cannot be inferred at this stage.”
How does this work fit with existing evidence?
“This study aligns with recent findings that MPs/NPs are present in blood and major organs. The discovery of MPs in cerebrovascular walls and immune cells adds new insight into their potential role in neuroinflammation and warrants further investigation.”
Have the authors accounted for confounders? Are there important limitations?
“The study controls for key demographic factors (age, sex, cause of death) and finds no correlation between age and MP accumulation, suggesting environmental exposure may be increasing over time. However, it does not account for lifestyle-related factors (diet, occupation, regional pollution exposure), which could influence individual MP burdens. The inevitable use of post-mortem samples also limits the ability for functional assessments of MP toxicity in living brains.”
Real-world implications: Over-speculation or justified concern?
“The finding that MPs are accumulating in human brains is concerning, however, it is too early to draw conclusions about direct health risks. Further research is needed to determine whether MPs actively contribute to neurological disorders or if they are merely bystanders in an increasingly plastic-polluted environment.”
‘Bioaccumulation of microplastics in decedent human brains’by Nihart et al. was published in Nature Medicine at 16:00 UK time on Monday 3rd February.
DOI:10.1038/s41591-024-03453-1
Declared interests:
Prof Oliver Jones “I am a Professor of Chemistry at RMIT University in Melbourne. I have no conflicts of interest to declare, but I have previously published research on microplastics in the environment. I have in the past received funds from the Environment Protection Authority Victoria and various Australian Water utilities for research into environmental pollution.”
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
A study published in Nature Aging looks at the effects of of omega-3, vitamin D and exercise on biological ageing.
Prof Dame Linda Partridge FRS FMedSci, Weldon Professor of Biometry at the Institute of Healthy Ageing, UCL; Biological Secretary of the Royal Society; and Founding Director Emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Ageing, said:
“The press release describes a study that is part of a clinical trial and is hence experimental rather than observational in nature, greatly reducing the likely involvement of confounders. The team previously found that intake of omega-3 alone reduced the rate of infections by 13% and the rate of falls by 10%, and that all three interventions (omega-3, vitamin D, exercise at home) combined had a significant additive benefit on reducing prefrailty by 39% and incident invasive cancer by 61% over a 3-year follow-up. The press release inadvertently gives the misleading impression that these findings came from the current study.
“The new study aimed to understand the molecular basis of the beneficial effects, and to develop biomarkers. Clinical trials that investigate the effects of interventions to improve health during ageing have two big challenges. First, there are multiple possible outcome measures because many aspects of health could be affected, and this can bring statistical problems. Second, it may take a long time for any benefits to become apparent. For both reasons, biomarkers are needed that report on the pathways to health improvements and that can predict clinical outcomes before they happen.
“The biomarkers investigated were derived from several well authenticated DNA methylation clocks. These clocks are trained to predict biological, as opposed to chronological age. Individuals differ in the speed of change in their DNA methylation clocks and can thus be characterised as slow or fast agers. These clock age deviations can be better predictors of time to death than chronological age.
“Omega-3 intake alone had slowed 3 of the 4 clocks used at the end of the 3-year trial period, and those individuals that started with lower omega-3 levels showed the largest response. All 3 treatments together slowed one of the 4 clocks. Omega-3 treatment thus had the greatest effect on the clocks. However, whether there is any direct link between the molecular events mediating the responses of the methylation clocks and the improvements in health awaits further study.
“The limitations of the work are well discussed. The study population was relatively healthy and homogeneous and longer term effects of the interventions are unknown. The study was well conducted, and consistent with other studies showing slowing of molecular biomarkers of ageing by interventions that improve health at later ages.”
Dr Julian Mutz, King’s Prize Research Fellow, King’s College London, said:
“Evaluating the effectiveness of preventative strategies and interventions in improving health span (i.e., how long individuals live in good health) is challenging due to the long human lifespan. Epigenetic aging clocks provide a proxy measure of biological aging and have the potential to play a crucial role in studies assessing such interventions. While most research on biological aging and health-promoting interventions has been cross-sectional (examining correlations between epigenetic age and factors such as diet at a single time point), this study provides important preliminary evidence that epigenetic aging may slow over three years in response to intervention.
“The authors identified a beneficial effect of daily omega-3 supplementation, particularly in individuals with lower baseline omega-3 levels. However, no such effect was observed for vitamin D or a three-day-per-week home exercise program. These findings contribute valuable new data but given the relatively small sample size (98 participants receiving omega-3 and 95 receiving a placebo) and the sample’s composition, which is healthier than the general population, the results should be considered preliminary. Future trials should aim to assess the generalisability of these findings, including in younger populations.”
Dr Mary Ni Lochlann, NIHR Research Fellow in Geriatric Medicine, Centre for Ageing Resilience in a Changing Environment, King’s College London, said:
“It’s exciting to see these results showing the benefits of omega-3, vitamin D and exercise on ageing. While the study was focused on healthy and active older adults, and led to a relatively small improvement in their ageing-biological-clocks, it adds to the growing evidence that these simple and fairly low-cost interventions are beneficial and, based on this and previous existing research, worth engaging in for adults as they get older.”
Prof Kevin McConway, Emeritus Professor of Applied Statistics, Open University, said:
“This is an interesting study. It has some important limitations, as the researchers themselves make clear. I think these put important boundaries around the evidence it can provide on the effects on aging of the treatments used in the clinical trial. There’s just too much that we don’t know yet.
“The press release mentions a key limitation, that there is no agreed gold-standard measure of biological aging. Because of that, the researchers concentrated on four different biological clocks, but they also presented results on another two older biological clock measures in the main research paper, and indeed present a few findings on another two in the supplementary data tables.
“These biological aging clocks were all developed by taking measurements of certain types of biomarker in large samples of people, and comparing them with the people’s chronological ages and death rates. But the details of how the developers of the clocks analysed these data and produced their biological aging measures were different from one another, and there isn’t (yet) agreement on the best way to do that. So the researchers on this new study analysed their data using several clocks, and reported the results from all of them.
“I think it makes good sense to look at several clocks, but we have to take into account that they give different information about the effect of the treatments in the trial, and it’s not possible to say that the findings from one biological clock are better than those from another clock.
“There is a certain amount of consistency on the findings, in that trial participants who took the omega-3 supplement had biological aging clocks that aged (on average) less over the three years of the study than was the case in people who didn’t take that supplement, at least for the main ‘clocks’ that the researchers considered. But there was a lot of statistical variability between people in how big this change in biological aging actually was, and there were also quite substantial differences in the estimates of the changes based on different biological clocks.
“One of the biological clocks produced the very neat finding that the three interventions in the trial (vitamin D supplements, omega-3 supplements, and a home exercise programme) seemed to add up in their effects, so that participants who had two of three interventions had more slowing of their biological clocks than those who had only one, and the clocks of those who had all three interventions had yet more slowing of their biological clocks.
“But that doesn’t mean that this particular clock is getting at an underlying truth more reliably than the other clocks, that don’t show this additive pattern. We just can’t say yet – because the study hasn’t yet produced relevant results beyond its three-year duration. The authors write, “Whether the DO-HEALTH treatments resulted in a persistent slowing of biological aging, leading to the prevention or delay of frailty and chronic disease beyond the 3-year follow-up, is currently unknown.” (DO-HEALTH is the name of this clinical trial.)
“Likewise, they mention that they don’t have data on long-term survival rates of the people in the study. Maybe one of the other clocks will eventually turn out to relate more closely to survival rates and future health. Maybe the pattern of how the effects of the three interventions combine will be different. We just can’t say yet.
“Also we can’t say whether the effect on biological aging clocks will continue after three years, because that wasn’t studied. Maybe taking omega-3 supplements for longer will have a greater impact on biological aging, or maybe it won’t. And the study doesn’t indicate what the effect on these biological clocks would be if people, who had been taking a supplement, stop taking it.
“This study is an interesting start, but there’s so much that it can’t tell us.
Further information
“Other findings from the same clinical trial have already been published, and some is mentioned in the new paper near the beginning. (There’s more at https://do-health.eu/.) For example, taking the omega-3 supplement reduced the rate of infections, and of falls. People who took both supplements and also participated in the home exercise programme, all together, had a substantial reduction in cancer diagnoses (61% over three years) compared to people who had none of these interventions, and also did better on measure called pre-frailty, based on weakness, fatigue, weight loss, low walking speed and low activity level.
“Whether people were classed as ‘robust’, pre-frail or frail depended on how many of these five measures were below par. (None below par meant they were robust, just one or two meant they were classified as pre-frail, more than that would classify them as frail.) The trial looked at people who started out as robust (that is, satisfactory on all these measures) and saw how many moved to being pre-frail or frail, and having all three interventions (the two supplements and the exercise) reduced pre-frailty by 39%. It didn’t have a clear effect on frailty, measured in this way, but that was probably just because very few participants moved from being robust all the way to frail in the three-year period.
“The press release seems (to me) to imply that these findings were part of the new research. They aren’t, though they do come from the same clinical trial and involved some of the same researchers. (Also, to nit-pick, the press release refers to ‘frailty’ whereas the findings are actually about pre-frailty, a somewhat different concept.).”
‘Individual and additive effects of vitamin D, omega-3 and exercise on DNA methylation clocks of biological aging in older adults from the DO-HEALTH trial’ by Heike A. Bischoff-Ferrari et al. was published in Nature Aging at 16:00 UK time on Monday 3 February 2025.
DOI: 10.1038/s43587-024-00793-y
Declared interests
Prof Dame Linda Partridge: “None.”
Dr Julian Mutz: “No COIs.”
Prof Kevin McConway: “Previously a Trustee of the SMC and a member of its Advisory Committee.”
For all other experts, no reply to our request for DOIs was received.
The Bank of Canada is pleased to announce the University of Ottawa has won the tenth annual Governor’s Challenge, a national student competition in which teams simulate the role of advisor to the Bank’s Governing Council. The winners were announced following the final round on Saturday, February 1, 2025.
Six teams competed in the final round, each one giving a presentation on the economic outlook for Canada and making a monetary policy recommendation to a panel of senior central bank officials.
The other finalists, in no particular order, were the teams from:
Université de Sherbrooke
University of Guelph
University of Alberta
Wilfrid Laurier University
Western University
The competition began on November 13, 2024, with a first round of presentations; more than 100 students from 26 Canadian universities participated. On November 25, six teams were selected to compete in the final round.
The Governor’s Challenge invites undergraduate students in economics and finance to develop a deeper understanding of the Canadian economy and the Bank’s role in it. Since the first competition, more than 60 participants have joined the Bank.
Pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order on Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, the Justice Department announced today the formation of a multi-agency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. The Task Force’s first priority will be to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.
In addition to the Department of Justice, the Task Force will include representatives from the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies as it develops. The Task Force will be coordinated through the Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Anti-Semitism in any environment is repugnant to this Nation’s ideals,” said Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Leo Terrell, who will be heading the Task Force. “The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found. The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools.”
If you have been discriminated against, you can file a complaint with the Civil Rights Division, at Contact the Civil Rights Division | Department of Justice (https://civilrights.justice.gov). President Trump’s Executive Order can be found here: Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism – The White House.
Days away from the Paris AI Action Summit, the elaboration of the emerging framework to govern the development and adoption of AI technologies is at the heart of heated, sometimes overwhelming debates and controversies. While new AI models are being released at an accelerating pace, with ever greater promises of game-changing applications, revolutionary disruptions, and prophecies of geopolitical shifts, AI governance remains partially undertheorised.
To help scaffold coherent, coordinated, and enforceable rules and institutions, Dame Wendy Hall, DBE, FRS, FREng, Regius Professor of Computer Science, Associate Vice President (International Engagement) and Director of the Web Science Institute at the University of Southampton, Kieron O’Hara, emeritus fellow in Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and Pierre Noro, advisor of the PSIA Tech & Global Affairs Innovation Hub, reinterpret the Four Internet models elaborated by Hall and O’Hara in their 2018 article and in their influential book Four Internets: Data, Geopolitics, and the Governance of Cyberspace (Oxford UP, 2021) in regard to AI technologies.
This translation, grounded in an analysis of the historical, socio-economic, and ideological differences distinguishing the context that shaped Internet governance and the current one, yields many enlightening insights and is the foundation of five Artificial Intelligence Management Strategies (AIMS):
Open AIMS: Fostering openness and transparency, common ownership and collaboration, interoperability.
Bourgeois AIMS: Fostering rights and civility with procedural rules and codes
Paternal AIMS: Mandating outcomes and confining uses.
Commercial AIMS: Allowing market solutions to resource allocation problems.
Hacker AIMS: Libertarian, anti-authoritarian, decentralised approach valorising software skills, resisting censorship, and empowering individuals and communities to make and reshape the information space.
As narratives, the AIMS do not aspire to crystal clarity, but rather are intended as sensemaking aids; the characterisations above […] may already help categorize and interpret discourses, stances, and proposals.
With many illustrations to exemplify their core tenets, their limits and their intersections, this paper offers the Five AIMS as cardinal concepts to help AI governance stakeholders, especially public and private decisionmakers, navigate the upcoming AI Action Summit and future governance conversation.
Concluding on a set of ongoing research questions reflecting open policy challenges, it is a foundational step towards cementing the Five AIMS as a suitable framework for understanding the governance of AI.
Pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order on Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism, the Justice Department announced today the formation of a multi-agency Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism. The Task Force’s first priority will be to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.
In addition to the Department of Justice, the Task Force will include representatives from the U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies as it develops. The Task Force will be coordinated through the Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“Anti-Semitism in any environment is repugnant to this Nation’s ideals,” said Senior Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Leo Terrell, who will be heading the Task Force. “The Department takes seriously our responsibility to eradicate this hatred wherever it is found. The Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism is the first step in giving life to President Trump’s renewed commitment to ending anti-Semitism in our schools.”
Cheyenne , WY , Feb. 03, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Altcoin.University, a premier educational hub for blockchain and cryptocurrency learning, is launching an innovative opportunity for crypto startups to showcase their projects while generating revenue. Through its new Project Course Submission Program, startups can submit educational guides about their projects on a revenue-sharing basis, providing valuable insights to learners while gaining visibility in the crypto community.
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Capt. Colin Price relieved Capt. Matthew Kiser and assumed duties as the ship’s commanding officer in a ceremony aboard the ship. Vice Adm. J. T. Anderson, commander of U.S. Sixth Fleet, and Striking and Support Forces NATO, presided over the ceremony and delivered remarks about Kiser’s time aboard the Mount Whitney.
“One unique aspect of serving as the commanding officer of the U.S. Sixth Fleet flagship is how the ship and crew represent the U.S. Navy in Europe and Africa, participating in many exercises, key leader engagements, and strengthening our relationships with allies and partners,” Anderson said. “Capt. Kiser built a great team that accomplished all we could ask of them.”
Kiser, a graduate of Texas A&M University and a native of Bedford, Texas assumed command in April 2023. During his tour, he led the flagship of U.S. Sixth Fleet and Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO while participating in several exercises and activities, including Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) 2023 and 2024, Large Scale Exercise (LSE) 23, as well as support to Joint Task Force 406 as it conducted multi-national maritime crisis response and contingency planning.
During his speech that he gave in the change of command ceremony, Kiser credited the success of his tour to the hard work that Mount Whitney Sailors exhibited.
“I couldn’t be prouder of our Team 20 Sailors and Civil Service Mariners, and their achievements over the last two years,” Kiser said. “It has been a privilege as commanding officer to witness the hard work and dedication in supporting command and control exercises and activities with our partner branches in the U.S. armed forces and our allies in NATO.
“My time is highlighted by the efforts of Team 20 that went into demonstrating our new capability to support two separate staffs embarked simultaneously while each were engaged with their own mission – on the only ship that can do this in the world. I am eager to watch the ship’s continued progress over the next several months as the Mount Whitney gets back out to sea.”
Price is a graduate of the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science in systems engineering. He was commissioned in 2001, and designated a Naval Aviator in January 2004.
As a junior officer he was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 137 in Lemoore, California, with deployments embarked aboard USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72), and as a global war on terror support assignment as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operator in support of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
In August 2005, he participated in Joint Task Force Katrina providing humanitarian assistance to the citizens of New Orleans. In 2015, after completion of Navy Nuclear Power training he was assigned as the 25th executive officer of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69).
“I want to express my sincere congratulations to Capt. Kiser for a job well done and for the great service he did for our nation and Navy,” Price said. “It is an honor and pleasure to assume the watch from you. I promise to take exemplary care of your Sailors and ship.”
Mount Whitney, forward deployed to Gaeta, Italy operates with a combined crew of U.S. Sailors and Military Sealift Command civil service mariners in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations in support of U.S. national security interests in Europe and Africa.
U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied, and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa. USS Mount Whitney (LCC 20) is the U.S. 6th Fleet flagship, homeported in Gaeta, and operates with a combined crew of U.S. Sailors and Military Sealift Command civil service mariners.
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
For the eighth year, the intellectual competition has been inviting talents from all over the country to become part of the universe of opportunities to receive bonuses upon admission to the HSE Master’s program, a chance to do an internship at partner companies (Yandex, VTB, Sber, Russian Railways and others) and cash prizes of up to 300,000 rubles. The results of the selection round are already known, and the final round is just around the corner. We share statistics and talk about important dates in February.
Of the 71 areas of this Olympiad season, six are implemented by the Higher School of Economics: Economics, Sociology, Urban Studies, Business Informatics, Journalism, and Design.
The qualifying stage has been completed
Based on the results of the selection round, 3,619 participants were admitted to participate in the following areas of the Higher School of Economics: Business Informatics – 558, Design – 429, Journalism – 348, Sociology – 983, Urban Studies – 419, and Economics – 882.
Participants who have scored the required number of points and presented a document confirming their student status are admitted to the final stage of the Olympiad. Passing scores may vary depending on the territorial affiliation of the university. More details are available at page.
Alexander Chepovsky, Director of Strategic Work with Applicants, shares statistics: “The Higher School of Economics has been the university organizing the Olympiad for the eighth year now.”I am a professional“Our areas traditionally enjoy great interest among students from all over Russia. For example, this year, almost 80% of students who passed to the next stage in our areas are studying at other universities in the country. Students of the Higher School of Economics showed decent results in the selection stage of the Olympiad “I am a professional” and were admitted to participate in the final stage in 70 areas. The range of interests is impressive and makes you wonder how versatile and talented the people at the HSE are.”
The final stage
The final stage in all areas will begin in February. It may be held in several rounds (semi-final and final) or in one (final) depending on each specific area.
“Business Informatics”
The final stage is held in two rounds in a remote format. The semi-final will take place on February 23 in two time slots: from 03:00 to 09:00 and from 10:00 to 16:00 Moscow time. Participants have the right to choose one most convenient slot. The completion time is fixed: participants who start completing tasks not from the beginning of the allocated interval will have less time.
“Design”
There is no semi-final in this area — only the final. Participants must upload completed projects to their personal account from 00:00 on February 17 to 23:59 on March 16 Moscow time. The defense of completed assignments will take place in April.
“Journalism”
Participants will have an online semi-final and final. In the first round, they must complete and upload their work from 00:00 on February 26 to 23:59 on March 3 Moscow time. The final will also be held in April.
“Sociology”
There is no semi-final in this category. Participants must complete the final round in person.
The competition will take place on February 15. The participants will gather and undergo the identification procedure from 09:30 to 09:50 Moscow time. The final will begin at 10:00 (Moscow time). You will have 240 minutes to complete the tasks.
The final will be held in the following cities: Barnaul, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, St. Petersburg, Stavropol, Tomsk, Tyumen and Yakutsk.
“Urban Studies”
The final stage will be held within one round (final) in person on February 16. The start is at 10:00 (Moscow time). You will have 240 minutes to complete the tasks.
The final of the direction will take place at venues in Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, St. Petersburg and Tomsk.
“Economy”
The final stage of this direction is also held in person at sites in Barnaul, Vladivostok, Yekaterinburg, Kaliningrad, Krasnoyarsk, Moscow, Nizhny Novgorod, Novosibirsk, Perm, Rostov-on-Don, Samara, St. Petersburg, Stavropol, Tomsk, Tyumen and Yakutsk.
The final will take place on February 15. The competition starts at 10:00 Moscow time. Participants will have 180 minutes to complete the tasks.
You can find the materials of the final stage and a detailed schedule for each direction at website.
Alexander Chepovsky gives advice to the participants of the final competition: “When going through the final stage, I advise you to be attentive and focused. Stay calm to easily cope with any tasks. Remember that the best will receive not only cash prizes, but also advantages when entering the HSE Master’s program, as well as valuable experience that will help in finding a job and building a career.”
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.
