A Chinese research ship was approached and harassed by a military speed-gunboat and a coastguard vessel of the Philippines while conducting scientific research in the South China Sea on Tuesday. According to personnel aboard the Chinese ship, a speed-gunboat from the Philippine side approached and zigzagged around the Chinese ship Haiyang Dizhi 12, or Ocean Geology 12 in English, in the early morning, disrupting its normal research operations. Subsequently, vessel No. 4411 of the Philippine coastguard crossed in front of the Chinese research vessel and passed through with malicious intent, violating international rules on averting maritime collisions and gravely hampering the safety of the Chinese vessel and its operation. According to the captain of the Chinese research ship, this was the second time that the Philippine side had harassed China’s research vessels since the start of the scientific research mission. Previously, a Philippine vessel with the number 298 painted on its side deliberately covered the name on its bow, turned off its lighting and automatic identification system, and passed in front of the Chinese research vessel about 300 meters away at a high speed during nighttime, the captain said, noting that the Philippine vessel neither steered to make way nor answered radio communication from the Chinese vessel, posing a serious threat to the latter’s safety of navigation. The Chinese scientific research mission carried out by the ship is based on peaceful purposes and aimed at enriching humankind’s scientific knowledge of the ocean, said the chief scientist of this mission, adding that the methods and tools used in the mission are scientific and appropriate. The mission comply with the general principles outlined in article 240 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea regarding the conduct of marine scientific research, and are both legitimate and legal, the chief scientist said. Ding Duo, a researcher with the National Institute for South China Sea Studies, noted that China’s marine scientific exploration activities in relevant waters are based on China’s territorial sovereignty over the Nansha Qundao and its corresponding maritime rights. China’s relevant activities are exercising the rights of coastal countries granted by international laws, including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, said Ding. China welcomes scientific research institutions of other countries in the South China Sea to conduct joint maritime scientific research activities with China, promote practical maritime cooperation in various fields, and create favorable conditions for peace and stability in the South China Sea, as well as regional development and prosperity, Ding added.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Latest information and actions from the Education and Skills Funding Agency for academies, schools, colleges, local authorities and further education providers.
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
Dmitry Chernyshenko in the State Duma at an expanded meeting of the Committees on Family Protection, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood, Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs and Control
September 25, 2024
Dmitry Chernyshenko in the State Duma at an expanded meeting of the Committees on Family Protection, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood, Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs and Control
September 25, 2024
Dmitry Chernyshenko in the State Duma at an expanded meeting of the Committees on Family Protection, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood, Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs and Control
September 25, 2024
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Dmitry Chernyshenko in the State Duma at an expanded meeting of the Committees on Family Protection, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood, Labor, Social Policy and Veterans Affairs and Control
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko spoke in the State Duma at an expanded meeting of the committees on family protection, fatherhood, motherhood and childhood, labor, social policy and veterans’ affairs and control.
The event was also attended by the Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov, the Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko, the Deputy Chairperson of the State Duma Irina Yarovaya, the Chairperson of the Committee on Labor, Social Policy and Veterans’ Affairs Yaroslav Nilov, the Chairperson of the Committee on Family Protection, Fatherhood, Motherhood and Childhood Nina Ostanina, the Chairperson of the Control Committee Oleg Morozov, the Auditor of the Accounts Chamber Dmitry Zaitsev and others.
During his speech, Dmitry Chernyshenko noted the importance of ensuring effective approaches to health promotion, upbringing and additional education in children’s camps.
“The topic that united us all here is summer recreation and health improvement for children. It is extremely important and has significance for ensuring a full future and development of our children. I would like to thank the entire deputy corps and personally the Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Viktorovich Volodin for their special attention to this area and their readiness to resolve pressing issues,” the Deputy Prime Minister noted.
He expressed confidence that all participants of the joint meeting will make every effort to make an effective approach to strengthening health, developing physical and creative skills of children, providing the opportunity for upbringing and additional education during their vacation and stay at the camp.
Dmitry Chernyshenko emphasized that education must correspond to the instructions given by Russian President Vladimir Putin and to domestic spiritual and moral values.
“We are taking a completely sober approach to assessing the situation. We understand how much still needs to be done. We clearly assess the positive dynamics, they are in all areas. It is important to understand whether they are sufficient or not and whether we need to redistribute priorities and make some more efforts. We analyze all these parameters and make sure to refer to them during our regional visits,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
He also thanked Irina Yarovaya for developing the draft law “On Amendments to the Federal Law “On the Basic Guarantees of Children’s Rights in the Russian Federation”, which provides for the preparation of a unified program of educational work in children’s camps.
Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov reported that the issue of raising the status of the interdepartmental commission on issues of organizing children’s recreation and health improvement to the level of a government commission has been worked out.
“We are discussing the interim results of the past health campaign and talking about the tasks for the future. Currently, there are slightly more than 2 thousand stationary children’s camps operating in Russia. We are building new children’s camps, the International Children’s Center “Artek” is expanding. The construction of the federal center “Pechory” continues. We hope that we will open it next year,” said Sergey Kravtsov.
The head of the Ministry of Education noted that a common strategy for the development of education is needed, which will unite the system of secondary vocational education, general education and children’s recreation.
“Today we are preparing a general strategy for the development of education, where children’s recreation will be one of the components. And we set the task of approving this strategy before the start of the next summer health campaign,” he said.
In addition, Sergey Kravtsov said that all pedagogical universities subordinate to the Ministry of Education have organized training for camp counselors, and their training program has been approved. Today, there are almost 88 thousand camp counselors in Russia. The monitoring of organizations involved in their training is currently being completed. Its results will be presented at the All-Russian forum “Big Meanings” in October of this year.
Health Minister Mikhail Murashko reported that issues of medical care for children during summer holidays are legally regulated, and that children’s camps are sufficiently staffed with medical workers.
“In 2024, 20% fewer children fell ill in health camps than the year before. The trend is positive. The health period with the formation of healthy habits and healthy behavior allows us to work with children most effectively, including with physical activity. We must not forget the issue of childhood obesity, introducing programs for proper eating behavior, prevention of bad habits,” the Minister of Health added.
Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Irina Yarovaya noted that the common task of all departments and regions is to help organizers of children’s recreation, to create conditions that will make accidents and any unfavorable consequences impossible. She emphasized that it was precisely these approaches that had yielded their high-quality results.
Irina Yarovaya added that universal formats for raising children in summer camps are needed; counselors should have a tool that will allow them, regardless of their experience and education, having a set of uniform programs, to implement them with equal quality.
During the event, the deputies asked the speakers questions of interest to them about the development of the children’s recreation system.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
http://government.ru/nevs/52792/
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
Autumn still doesn’t want to come into its own, because we haven’t yet celebrated the 75th anniversary of Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor and Head of the Department of Public Administration and Political Technologies of the State University of Management Nikolai Omelchenko. And it’s today!
Nikolay Alekseevich is one of the most active historians of our university. Having received a higher education at the history department of Lomonosov Moscow State University, in 1991 he began working at the State University of Management (at that time the State Academy of Management, let’s be historically accurate today). He defended his doctoral dissertation within our walls, and in his scientific works he reflected on the ideas of Eurasianism, when it was not yet mainstream, about 30 years ago. At the moment, he has published more than 200 scientific articles and monographs, in which the professor substantiates the uniqueness and originality of Russian civilization and the national model of public administration, explores issues of the influence of political culture on domestic political practice and public administration. That is, Nikolay Alekseevich is relevant as never before.
So let us wish him to remain on the crest of the wave of historical science for many years to come, to continue organizing interesting seminars, to enjoy observing and analyzing a new round of development of Russian statehood and strengthening of sovereignty on the world stage, to be healthy, happy and, as always, to radiate optimism and goodwill.
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 09/25/2024
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
SITI continues visit to Wuhan (with photos) SITI continues visit to Wuhan (with photos) *******************************************
The Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, Professor Sun Dong, continued his visit in Wuhan, Hubei Province today (September 25). In the morning, Professor Sun attended the 2024 China Automotive Supply Chain Conference and the Third China Intelligent Networked New Energy Vehicle Ecological Conference organised by the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers and Dongfeng Motor Corporation, as well as the launching ceremony of the International Automotive and Supply Chain (Hong Kong) Summit and the 2025 International Automotive and Supply Chain Expo (Hong Kong). Speaking at the Conference, Professor Sun said that the automobile industry has entered the new energy era, making it an emerging industry under new industrialisation. In the Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Development Blueprint, new energy vehicle is also one of the significant industries advocated for development under new industrialisation. He added that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology signed the Co-operation Agreement on the Development of New Quality Productive Forces and the Promotion of New Industrialisation last week. Those areas jointly promoted by the two sides are intertwined with the supply chain of new energy vehicle industry. Over the past two years or so, the HKSAR Government attracted over 100 strategic innovation and technology (I&T) enterprises to set up their businesses in Hong Kong, including BeyonCa, a joint enterprise established earlier in Hong Kong by today’s event co-organiser Dongfeng Motor Corporation and France’s Renault Group. He is confident that Hong Kong can make new contributions to the innovative development of the national supply chain of new energy vehicle industry, thereby augmenting the new advantages of Chinese vehicle brands. Professor Sun then visited Dongfeng Motor Corporation and learned about the corporation’s latest development, product planning and corporate culture. He had in-depth exchanges with the Chairman of the corporation, Mr Yang Qing, on the corporation’s development of new quality productive forces in the future and potential co-operation opportunities between the two parties in aspects such as new industrialisation, with the aim of making good use of Hong Kong’s roles as a “super connector” and “super value-adder” and the unique function as a dual lane to assist Mainland enterprises to go global and expand overseas markets. He particularly hoped that both sides’ collaboration on the project of BeyonCa setting up in Hong Kong will serve as a demonstration of co-operation with each other. Professor Sun also visited the corporation’s Mengshi Tech Intelligent Park to tour the assembly final workshop, and experience the functionality and performance of the latest domestic high-end off-road electric vehicles at the off-road experience field. Through on-site visits, exchanges and interactions, as well as dynamic experiences, he learned more about the production process and technology capabilities of Mengshi automobiles. Besides, Professor Sun was briefed in detail on the first model car of BeyonCa and he called for accelerating the plan of setting up assembly production line in Hong Kong. In the afternoon, Professor Sun visited Wuhan FineMEMS Inc. to gain an understanding of the national high technology enterprise’s technology research and development and products in providing MEMS (Microelectromechanical Systems) sensors, and metallic thick film pressure sensors and system. He also visited the fully automated one piece flow smart production line established by the company. Professor Sun then proceeded to the Wuhan University to meet and exchange views with leaders and experts from Wuhan University, other local higher education institutions, Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the People’s Government of Hubei Province, Department of Science and Technology of Hubei Province, as well as high-tech enterprises. Professor Sun gave the participants an update on Hong Kong’s overall I&T development. They also exchanged views on strengthening collaboration in scientific researches among higher education institutions between Hubei and Hong Kong, as well as advancing the expansion of business by Hubei I&T enterprises to Hong Kong. Professor Sun expressed his support for deepening co-operation in the I&T aspect among higher education institutions between the two places, noting that the HKSAR Government would provide appropriate support and services to university spin-off start-ups planning to establish their footholds in Hong Kong. He also encouraged start-ups in Hubei Province to leverage on Hong Kong’s edges of internationalisation and a highly market-oriented environment to expand their businesses overseas. The Commissioner for Industry (Innovation and Technology), Dr Ge Ming, also joined the visit. Professor Sun concluded his visit and returned to Hong Kong in the evening.
Ends/Wednesday, September 25, 2024Issued at HKT 20:45
Lori Arnett approaches her work at NASA with a simple motto: think big, start small, act fast. As the Associate Director for Digital Transformation for the Aerosciences Evaluation and Test Capabilities (AETC) within the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD), she helps manage the capability portfolio for wind tunnels across the agency. In this role and in the many ways she champions digital transformation at NASA, she is unapologetic about the ambitious mindset she brings to the table. “I know that I have a lot of passion around the work I do, and that can sometimes be seen as intimidating to others,” she says. “But I’m going to drive to something. I want to make progress.” Lori’s approach to achieving big goals and true transformation at NASA begins with small, quantifiable steps. With this strategy, she has significantly impacted the agency’s ability to deliver on its aerospace missions. In response to AETC releasing its strategic plan in June 2022, Lori and her team created a data governance board and strategy for quantifying and measuring success, positioning her mission directorate to achieve its goals on schedule. Her team successfully defined and captured data on customer data and service quality, reliability, timeliness, and other attributes for operational and maintenance costs for the wind tunnels to create a quantifiable performance metric. To complement performance, they also defined and captured data on the tunnels’ mission relevancy, future demand, test usage, adaptability, and uniqueness for a quantifiable value metric. Together, these metrics create a real-time view of progress toward agency goals for everyone from headquarters program managers to customers to wind tunnel operators. Other NASA capability portfolios have copied the construct, further demonstrating its value. By making various data available with access controls, Lori and her team drive toward agency-wide transparency and standardization. They created the first-ever integrated view of availability and access data for NASA’s wind tunnels and increased data discoverability by expanding the ARMD Test Data Portal to include ground test data in addition to flight data. Her team is currently working to bring ground and flight test data together with computational data sets—a feat that would provide unprecedented data integration and interoperability in enabling future missions. To achieve such quick turnaround with minimal budgeting needs, the team partnered with the Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) to leverage existing enterprise-wide services when building the data application ADAPT (AETC Data & Analytics Portfolio Transformation). “I’m all about leveraging and collaborating. I don’t want to reinvent the wheel,” says Lori. Her act-fast mentality drives her toward interoperable architectures, common tools, and inclusive teaming, leveraging existing solutions to help her directorate achieve increasingly complex missions. In return, Lori embraces any opportunity to share her work and enable other teams in their digital transformation journeys. “If anything I do can help somebody else, please reuse it. I don’t do this only for my organization. I’m doing this for the greater good of NASA and for this nation.” Lori believes that NASA’s ability to drive innovation hinges on how the agency maximizes the impact of its data, specifically in achieving FAIRUST principles. By 2032, AETC strives for 100% of its strategic data assets to be FAIRUST (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable, Understandable, Secure, and Trustworthy). The strategic plan also outlines requirements for a 50% return on investment; to achieve this, Lori and her team developed a construct for quantifying ROI that they shared with multiple other teams, including the Digital Transformation Working Group. By creating ways of defining performance and value, Lori drives strategic investments and data-informed business outcomes. Her motivation for delivering quantifiable value stems from her years of experience in the aerospace industry. Growing up in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio not far from Glenn Research Center (GRC), Lori knew she wanted to become an aerospace engineer from a young age. She went on to receive an undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering and a master’s in mechanical engineering from Case Western Reserve University. Prior to joining NASA as a test engineer at GRC in 2007 and a civil servant in 2010, she worked for ten years designing aerospace products and technologies. Her background influences her commitment to freeing up time for the working level through digital transformation solutions. When asked what she enjoys most about working with Digital Transformation, Lori says, “For me, it’s all about sharing and collaborating so we can innovate for the benefit of all.” She recognizes that large-scale transformation requires many smaller parts contributing their diverse skillsets to the common goal. Of her various responsibilities and achievements, this is what excites and motivates her to continue impacting the agency as a digital transformer. “I just love collaborating with others that have this same mindset.”
Climate change is among the more difficult but important topics to teach to young people. It involves complicated science and data, and it can be really depressing, given the bleak picture it paints of Earth’s future.
So how do educators get students more engaged in lessons about climate change? One way that works is to make the lessons into a game.
As a professor of educational psychology, I conducted an experiment that found that high schoolers are more interested and absorb more information about climate change when it’s presented as a game.
In the study, 248 high school students throughout the U.S. were randomly assigned to either read a text about climate science or to play a number estimation game – that is, a game in which they guessed 12 numerical facts about climate change. I found that the number estimation game improved high schoolers’ climate change understanding, interest in science and willingness to take actions to help solve climate change.
For instance, one question asked: “What is the change in percentage of the world’s ocean ice cover since the 1960s?”
After students submit an estimate, a window pops up showing the true value – a “40% decrease” in the ice cover question. Gold stars appear to indicate their accuracy, as does a short explanation of the true value. The answers also list actions that people can take to address the issue and links to the sources of the information.
I found that students who played the game had a better understanding than those who did not that there is a scientific consensus around human-caused climate change. Students who played the game also thought the activity was more interesting and reported less boredom. These boosts in positive emotions and motivation were linked to reduced sense of hopelessness about climate change and improved willingness to act on climate change.
Compounding this problem, a 2020 report suggests that 20 U.S. states do not address these challenges in their state science standards, as they were found to insufficiently address the scientific climate consensus: that climate change is real, severe, caused by humans, but that there is hope for change. Findings from my study provide some principles for addressing this curricular gap.
What other research is being done?
Researchers are actively trying to find approaches that promote accurate climate change education that helps students understand the causes and explores solutions for the challenges ahead.
One promising approach emphasized in this study, in my prior research and by other researchers, is to present a handful of surprising climate change numbers to students after they estimate them. However, there are several alternative approaches that are also effective. For example, some research found success by breaking down complicated ways to evaluate evidence, while other research engaged students taking photographs of their local environment to depict climate science and reflect on possible solutions.
What still isn’t known
One big remaining question is how to encourage teachers to implement effective climate change education in their classrooms. Evidence suggests that teachers sometimes feel pressured to teach to “both sides” of the continuum of climate change perspectives, despite one side having more supporting evidence. Such inconsistent messages can diminish needed urgency and confuse students in the process. I think it’s worthwhile to investigate the specific challenges and rewards that teachers encounter when implementing clear and consistent climate curriculum in their classrooms.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
Ian Thacker received funding to support this research from the American Psychological Association Division 15 Early Career Research Grant Award.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Richard Wood, President of the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
The Nicaraguan government recently shut down more than 1,500 nonprofits – many of them civic and religious groups doing humanitarian work in a country long mired in political violence, economic upheaval and social strife.
The August 2024 closures were the latest in a long-running crackdown on civil society, including religious groups – some of the last influential, independent organizations in the country. That same month, the government revoked churches’ tax-exempt status. Over the past few years, many houses of worship have been closed or had their bank accounts frozen.
Ortega’s FSLN party, as it is known in Spanish, is the authoritarian remnant of the group that led a broad national movement against Anastasio Somoza Debayle’s dictatorship in the 1970s. After overthrowing Somoza in 1979, Ortega and the Sandinistas governed until losing the 1990 election.
Since Ortega returned to power in the 2006 elections, moderates have fled the FSLN, which since then has used oppression and violence for political and social control. In 2013, the National Assembly removed presidential term limits set by the Nicaraguan constitution.
Parishioners attend Mass at St. Agatha Catholic Church in Miami, which has become the spiritual home of the growing Nicaraguan diaspora. AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell
Silencing churches
Among the nearly 5,500 nonprofits that closed in Nicaragua between 2018 and 2024 are Catholic, evangelical Christian and historical Protestant organizations, as well as secular humanitarian ones. Of those, 1,650 organizationsand churches were shuttered in August 2024, with government officials claiming their closure was due to ties to private enterprises or a lack of financial records.
Catholic media andradio stations, missionary orders and humanitarian groups have been shuttered, too, as Ortega and the vice president – his wife, Rosario Murillo – have sought to eliminate settings where ideas and information freely flow, and people act independently of the government.
Police officers and riot police block the main entrance of a church building in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, in August 2022 to prevent Bishop Rolando Álvarez from leaving. STR/AFP via Getty Images
With international pressure mounting, Alvarez and a group of fellow detained Catholic clergy were released in January 2024 and exiled to the Vatican – where the regime had previously expelled the apostolic nuncio, the pope’s top diplomat in Nicaragua. They are among 245 Catholic figures the country has expelled in recent years. An additional 135 people, including Catholics and evangelicals, were expelled and stripped of their citizenship in September 2024.
In Nicaragua, as in much of Latin America, the Catholic Church is the most powerful source of social authority and the largest independent institution for public debate. It represents a key channel through which democratic values may take root, grow and thrive – an obstacle, in the regime’s eyes.
I have witnessed firsthand Nicaragua’s shift from a country with promising seeds of democracy to violent autocracy. As civil war raged between the original Sandinista regime and U.S.-backed Contras in the 1980s, I led travel seminars to Nicaragua for faith groups, journalists, congressional aides and university students. I once personally encountered Ortega, serving as translator during a meeting with American journalists when his official translator failed to show up.
Today, as Ortega continues to consolidate power by crushing opposition, Nicaragua has deteriorated into an oppressive state ruled with an iron fist. This reality reflects broader dynamics globally, from autocratic movements in the U.S. and Western Europe to current regimes in Russia, India, Turkey, Hungary and China.
Nicaraguan citizens wave from a bus after being released from a Nicaraguan jail and landing in Guatemala City on Sept. 5, 2024. AP Photo/Moises Castillo
Closer to home, Ortega poses a regional threat as a model for other potential autocrats. This is especially the case for neighbors like El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele – the popular, self-described “coolest dictator” – is going down a similar path of turning the nation into an authoritarian state.
I have seen Nicaraguans’ generosity and courage in the long fight for liberty and justice. The closure of democratic spaces, civic institutions and humanitarian organizations, along with the suppression of religious freedom, is a glaring sign that the country is being marched toward more oppression and violence – and, as history shows, risks becoming ripe for revolution.
Only a gradual rebuilding of civil society, I believe, may save Nicaragua from that fate. The tragedy is what Nicaragua could have been: a thriving democratic society, with a commitment to empowering the poor.
From 1983-1987 and part-time from 1987-1992, Richard Wood worked running travel seminars in Mexico and Central America. From 2010-2012, he received funding from the Center on Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California and The John Templeton Foundation for research collaboration with Central American researchers.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Corey D. B. Walker, Dean and Wake Forest Professor of the Humanities, Wake Forest University
The decline in church attendance has not resulted in a diminished Christian presence in American public life.selimaksan/E+ via Getty images.
Supporters of both major U.S. political parties tend to claim their presidential candidate is the “real” Christian or the “better” Christian or just the “true” Christian.
Yet, most American adults agree that religion should be separate from government. This widely shared belief is a cornerstone of religious freedom. As a scholar of religious freedom, I have studied the complex and ever-evolving role of religion in American politics. I argue that this election year, while the Christian character of each candidate is discussed everywhere, religious freedom, one of the core freedoms of American democracy, is not.
The case of Ezra Stiles Ely
America’s history of religious freedom is filled with stories that are instructive for our current moment. One such instructive lesson comes from the early 19th century.
A striking figure from the period is the Philadelphia Presbyterian minister Ezra Stiles Ely. On July 4, 1827, the Yale-educated minister delivered his infamous call for “a Christian political party” in the run-up to the 1828 presidential election.
Before an Independence Day audience in Philadelphia’s Seventh Presbyterian Church, Ely declared, “Every ruler should be an avowed and sincere friend of Christianity. He should know and believe the doctrines of our holy religion, and act in conformity to its precepts.” Ely also advocated for “a new sort of union, or, if you will, a Christian party in politics.”
Ely closed his sermon by exhorting Christians to “awake … to our sacred duty to our Divine Master; and let us have no rulers, without our consent and cooperation, who are not known to be avowedly Christians.”
Critiques in defense of religious freedom
While Ely sought to wed Christianity and American politics, others voices responded against this move. Religious freedom was new for the young nation. Yet, its supporters recognized its importance for American democracy.
On Feb. 7, 1828, a pamphlet titled Sunday School Union, or Union of Church and State was placed on the desk of each member of the Pennsylvania Senate. The pamphlet contained excerpts of Ely’s speech that advocated the union of Christianity and politics. Ely’s speech was also the subject of debate in several 19th-century newspapers, including the Harrisburg Chronicle and The Pennsylvania Reporter.
In an 1828 speech delivered in Salem, Massachusetts, Story boldly declared his support for religious freedom. He stated: “Religious freedom is the birthright of man; that governments have no authority to inflict punishment for conscientious differences of opinion; and that to worship God according to our own belief is not only our privilege, but is our duty, our absolute duty, from which no human tribunal can absolve us.”
“Wherever religious liberty exist,” he argued, “it will, first or last, bring in, and establish political liberty.”
Politics and American democracy
America is not the same as at the time of the Second Great Awakening. Yet, the role of Christianity in political life is seemingly as alive as ever.
The steady decline in church attendance has not resulted in a diminished Christian presence in American public life. The public square still contains powerful appeals to Christianity rather than a shared democratic heritage.
Former president and Republican nominee Donald Trump recently stated, “We have to bring back our religion. We have to bring back Christianity in this country.”
Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has commended the religious convictions of citizens, stating, “People with deep religious convictions may be less likely to succumb to dominating ideologies or trends, and more likely to act in accordance with what they see as true and right. Civil society can count on them as engines of reform.”
A 2023 survey, in which the nonprofit, nonpartisan research and education organization PRRI interviewed more than 22,000 adults, found that approximately 3 in 10 Americans either supported or held Christian nationalist views. Christian nationalists tend “to see political struggles through the apocalyptic lens of revolution and to support political violence.”
In my opinion, the linkage of Christianity and politics in the United States undermines American democracy. Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, a prominent public voice, explains how Christian nationalism undermines both Christianity and American democracy. In her 2024 book “How to End Christian Nationalism,” Tyler writes, “Christian nationalism is the greatest threat to religious liberty in the U.S. today, as well as a clear and present danger to our constitutional republic.”
While debates over the Christian virtues of the candidates may be important for Christian communities, religious freedom is important for American democracy. The response to Christianity and politics is not more Christianity but more democracy. And religious freedom is key.
Corey D. B. Walker does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
“All politics is local” is a common refrain – and yet, it is also true that the president has some unique powers.
I am an expert on state policymaking, and I’m teaching presidential politics at Auburn University during this election season. Researching and teaching about both state and national politics has made me keenly aware of the stakes of the different races up and down the ballot this fall.
Power close to home
State and local governments shape our daily experiences in practical ways. State governments determine whether residents have access to expanded Medicaid, reproductive care, parental and family leave, and they set the state property, sales and income taxes, which we are all required to pay.
City councils, county boards and school boards determine the quality of the roads we travel, the selection of books in school libraries and the prices of utilities such as water and sewer service.
Most Americans will have the opportunity to vote for a variety of state and local elected officials this November. Yet many voters find their attention drawn to a more captivating contest: the presidential election.
And it is hard to deny that the president has an outsized influence on American public policy.
As the size of the judiciary and federal bureaucracy has grown over the past century, this presidential power has ballooned to include 4,000 appointments that turn over at the start of every administration. That doesn’t even include the vacancies that arise during the president’s term – for example, when a federal judge retires or dies.
Perhaps the most well-known presidential appointment power is the power to nominate Supreme Court justices. These nominations tend to be highly political and dramatic affairs. This is due to their irregular and often sudden timing and to the high stakes of lifetime appointments.
The Founding Fathers were adamant that the executive appointment power was not unilateral, as evidenced in Federalist Paper 76 penned by Alexander Hamilton. For 1,200 of the most consequential positions, the president nominates individuals, who are then confirmed – or not – by the U.S. Senate.
The Founding Fathers perceived this as important for preventing the tyranny of a sole actor, which they had just worked so hard to leave behind under English rule.
Assembling a Cabinet
Some of the most consequential of these appointments are members of the presidential Cabinet.
Much like how a head football coach assembles a team of assistants to enact their vision, the president convenes a team of policy champions to lead the 15 executive departments in the federal bureaucracy.
Each department is run by a “secretary,” nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. The president consults with Cabinet members at periodic meetings, but secretaries otherwise enjoy a great deal of autonomy. For this reason, the president tries to pick Cabinet members who share their policy perspective.
Much of the agenda presidents claim credit for is, in fact, achieved by the Cabinet departments. For example, during the current Biden administration, the Department of Labor increased guaranteed overtime compensation, the Department of Health and Human Services recommended making marijuana a legal but regulated drug, and the Department of Education launched an initiative to tackle the post-COVID surge in chronic absenteeism.
Presidents also have the power to touch voters’ lives in profound ways by serving as a unifying character during national crises, a role that differentiates the president from other elected officials.
These crises, unforeseen at the time of the election, require the president to swiftly reassure a distressed nation. For example, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush delivered an address that acknowledged the grief of Americans while imparting a stern guarantee that the United States would not cower to terrorists. President Donald Trump provided direction for a national response to an unprecedented global pandemic. President Bill Clinton shared heartfelt remarks at the memorial service of those killed in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. And Obama honored victims of a racially motivated shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Presidential candidates of course cannot campaign on their ability to handle unpredictable, emergent situations. Instead, they talk up personal traits that will equip them to carry the nation through the next four years – whatever that may bring.
During the recent 2024 presidential debate between Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump, the candidates tried to demonstrate traits such as strength, humor and mental sharpness – all of which would prove invaluable during whatever the next four years throws our way.
This November, voters will consider a diverse spread of candidates, from city mayor to president, each with important responsibilities.
National, state and local governments work together to shape our perceptions, good or bad, about the role public policy plays in our lives – and I’d encourage voters to pay attention to candidates at both the top of the ballot and further down.
Zoe Nemerever does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Alex Hinton, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology; Director, Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights, Rutgers University – Newark
Supporters watch Donald Trump speak at a rally in Uniondale, N.Y., on Sept. 18, 2024.Spencer Platt/Getty Images
For many people, especially those leaning left, Donald Trump’s disqualifications to be president seem obvious, prompting some to question: How could anyone still vote for Trump?
About 78% of Democrats and Democrat-leaning independent voters say that Trump broke the law when he allegedly tried to overturn the 2020 election results. But less than half of Republicans think he did anything wrong.
More recently, I have been examining toxic polarization – and ways to stop it. Many efforts to reduce people’s polarized views begin with an injunction: Listen and understand.
To this end, I have attended Trump rallies, populist and nonpartisan events and meetings where Democrats and Republicans connect and talk. Along the way, I have spoken with Trump supporters ranging from the Make America Great Again, or MAGA, faithful to moderate “hold the nose and vote for him” conservatives.
And indeed, many on the left fail to understand who Trump voters are and how they vary. Trump’s base cannot simply be dismissed as racist “deplorables”, as Hillary Clinton famously said in 2016, or as country bumpkins in red MAGA hats. Trump voters trend older, white, rural, religious and less educated. But they include others outside those demographic groups.
Many people have thoughtful reasons for voting for Trump, even if their reasoning – as is also true for those on the left – is often inflamed by populist polarizers and media platforms.
Here are five key lines of reasoning that, in varying combinations, inform Trump voters’ choice.
According to this line of argument, the left-leaning media dissects Trump’s every word, and the media then distorts what he says. I have found that some Trump supporters think that people who feed too much on this allegedly biased media diet can get TDS and develop a passionate, perhaps illogical dislike of Trump.
I have also heard hardcore Trump supporters argue, with no evidence, that such “fake news” media outlets, like CNN, are part of a larger deep state plot of the federal government to upend the will of the people. This plot, according to those who propagate it, includes not just leftists, government bureaucrats and people who claim to be Republicans, but really aren’t, but also people in law enforcement.
It is true that overall employment numbers and average pay went up under President Joe Biden. But for some Trump supporters, that economic boost pales in comparison to the massive surge in inflation during Biden’s term, with prices rising almost 20%. While the inflation rate has recently abated, prices remain high – as voters are reminded of every day at the grocery store.
Polls also show that Trump has a strong lead over Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris on how they would handle the economy, which is a top concern for voters, especially Republicans.
3. A border invasion
Another reason some Americans want to vote for Trump: immigration.
In 2022, a poll found 7 out of 10 Republicans worried that “open borders” were part of a Democratic plot to expand liberals’ power by replacing conservative white people with nonwhite foreigners.
Trump has played into some people’s mostly false concerns that immigrants living illegally in the U.S. are freeloaders and won’t assimilate, as illustrated by recent – untrue – allegations that immigrants are eating pets in Ohio.
In 2022, 82% of Republicans said they viewed immigration as a “very important” issue. Trump continues to tout his proposed solution, which includes shutting the border, building a wall and deporting 11 million immigrants who are living in the U.S. without legal authorization.
Some Trump voters simply compare the records of Trump and Biden-Harris and find that the tally tilts firmly toward Trump.
And it’s not just about the economy and immigration.
There were no new wars under Trump. Biden-Harris, in contrast, are saddled with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip. Trump supporters’ perception is that American taxpayers foot a large portion of the bill, even though other countries are also giving money to Ukraine, and Israel is actually buying weapons from the U.S.
I have found that Trump supporters also think he is better suited to deal with the rising power and threat of China.
5. The MAGA bull in a china shop
While some Harris supporters lament Trump’s destruction of democracy and decency in politics, I have found that Trump voters see a charismatic MAGA bull in a china shop.
Every campaign season brings renewed attention to the amount of money influencing American politics, and who is spending it, and for what purposes. In particular, people are concerned about what is called “dark money.” For instance, recent media coverage has pointed to escalating dark money spending on both the Democratic and Republican sides.
The term sounds scary and raises the specter of shadowy people manipulating the nation’s politics. As a researcher who studies the American democratic system, I think it’s worthwhile to unpack what dark money is, what concerns it raises and what might be done to address it.
Unidentified political donors
When people talk about dark money, they’re usually referring to money spent on elections that comes from sources that cannot be identified.
Federal and state laws impose some limits on contributions and require some political contributions and expenditures to be publicly disclosed. Candidates for federal office, for example, must report their campaign donors to the Federal Election Commission. The FEC makes these reports available to the public.
Likewise, super PACs – groups permitted to spend unlimited amounts on independent electoral advocacy – must also report some information about donations, such as the identities of and amounts given by people who donate more than US$200 in a year.
But campaign finance disclosure laws have gaps.
Federal law, for example, allows certain entities – most notably nonprofits designated as “social welfare” organizations or trade associations under Sections 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) of the tax code – to raise and spend large sums on electoral advocacy without disclosing their donors.
A CBS News investigation into dark money in U.S. politics.
Another dark money pathway involves making donations to super PACs through shell companies, which are companies set up for the purpose of hiding the financial activities of other people or groups – in this case, political contributions. Although super PACs are legally required to report who they received the contributions from, if the funds come from shell companies, the super PACs may not know and are not required to disclose where the money actually came from. That information remains hidden from public view.
A lack of donor transparency raises multiple concerns. Voters may have a harder time assessing the validity of political messages or discerning whether candidates may be beholden to certain interests. Regulators and watchdogs can have trouble detecting illegal activity, such as campaign spending by foreign nationals. And unscrupulous people and groups can spread misinformation or destructive rhetoric without being identified or held accountable.
Undisclosed political expenditures
While discussions of dark money usually focus on where it comes from, the term can also describe a lack of transparency about where it goes.
Under federal law, campaign committees must report their direct disbursements, such as payments to vendors or consultants. These vendors and consultants, however, sometimes function as pass-through entities that receive campaign funds and then purchase undisclosed goods and services. And any of these recipients can be set up as shell companies, making the flow of funds even more difficult to track.
For instance, Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee faced FEC complaints for failing to disclose indirect payments made through the campaign’s law firm to researchers who compiled a dossier on Donald Trump’s Russia ties. The Clinton campaign and the DNC paid a fine to settle the matter without conceding wrongdoing.
But enforcement can be difficult. In 2020, a watchdog group filed an FEC complaint alleging that Trump’s reelection campaign directed hundreds of millions of dollars to a pass-through entity in an improper effort to hide its expenditures – which included payments to top advisers and family members that, by law, would have otherwise been disclosed. The FEC dismissed the Trump complaint in 2022 when commissioners deadlocked 3-3 on whether to pursue it.
As with a lack of donor disclosure, a lack of expenditure disclosure can deprive voters and regulators of valuable information. Lack of transparency can also invite questionable campaign practices, such as using donated funds in ways that enrich candidates, campaign staff or their associates.
Proponents of greater campaign finance transparency have had little success pressing federal lawmakers and regulators to address dark money.
Since 2010, congressional Democrats have been introducing legislation known as the DISCLOSE Act. Among other requirements, it would make dark money groups reveal major donors and restrict the use of shell companies to conceal donors’ identities. While versions of the bill have passed the House, they have repeatedly stalled in the Senate. Opponents maintain that these measures would infringe people’s privacy rights and chill constitutionally protected speech.
Dark money is also an issue in state and local elections. The strength of state and local transparency laws varies. Because these elections typically receive less attention and scrutiny than federal elections, money sometimes flows even more opaquely.
Unlike the federal government, a number of states and localities have bolstered their disclosure rules in recent years. Arizona, California, Colorado, New Jersey and Washington, for example, have passed new laws requiring more donor information, including about the original sources of funds that are transferred between multiple groups before being spent on electioneering.
Meanwhile, states such as Iowa, Massachusetts and Texas have adopted laws requiring campaigns to provide details about how consultants and vendors spend the campaign’s funds.
Even in these states, disclosure gaps remain. The reality is that efforts to improve transparency can seem like a game of whack-a-mole: Each new round of regulations tends to generate new workarounds. But the experiences in these states and elsewhere may offer models and lessons for other jurisdictions.
Beyond the political challenge of getting stronger transparency regulations adopted, proponents of such measures also face potential constitutional challenges by opponents of disclosure.
In multiple cases, including the 2010 Citizens United v. FEC ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected First Amendment claims brought by political spenders who wished to conceal their identities. In that case, the court observed that transparency helps the electorate “make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages.”
However, the Supreme Court has also recognized a right to engage in anonymous political speech. And in recent years, the court’s conservative supermajority has become somewhat more skeptical of disclosure rules, including in a 2021 case, Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta, which overturned a state law requiring charities to identify major donors. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor warned that the court’s argument could be applied to campaign finance disclosure regulations.
Therefore, even if public momentum builds for stronger transparency regulations, the Supreme Court could stand as an obstacle to such reforms.
Emily Lau does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Have you ever taken a personality test? If you’re like me, you’ve consulted BuzzFeed and you know exactly which Taylor Swift song “perfectly matches your vibe.”
It might be obvious that internet quizzes are not scientific, but many of the seemingly serious personality tests used to guide educational and career choices are also not supported by research. Despite being a billion-dollar industry, commercial personality testing used by schools and corporations to funnel people into their ideal roles do not predict career success.
Beyond their lack of scientific support, the most popular approaches to understanding personality are problematic because they assume your traits are static – that is, you’re stuck with the personality you’re born with. But modern personality science studies find that traits can and do change over time.
In addition to watching my own personality change over time from messy and lazy to off the charts in conscientiousness, I’m also a personality change researcher and clinical psychologist. My research confirms what I saw in my own development and in my patients: People can intentionally shape the traits they need to be successful in the lives they want. That’s contrary to the popular belief that your personality type places you in a box, dictating that you choose partners, activities and careers according to your traits.
Are you a person who tends to think about situations in your life more pessimistically, or are you a glass-half-full kind of person?
Do you tend to get angry when someone cuts you off in traffic, or are you more likely to give them the benefit of the doubt – maybe they’re rushing to the hospital?
Do you wait until the last minute to complete tasks, or do you plan ahead?
You can think of personality as a collection of labels that summarize your responses to questions like these. Depending on your answers, you might be labeled as optimistic, empathetic or dependable.
Research suggests that all these descriptive labels can be summarized into five overarching traits – what psychologists creatively refer to as the “Big Five.”
As early as the 1930s, psychologists literally combed through a dictionary to pull out all the words that describe human nature and sorted them in categories with similar themes. For example, they grouped words like “kind,” “thoughtful” and “friendly” together. They found that thousands of words could be accounted for by sorting them between five traits: neuroticism, extroversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness.
Personality traits can be sorted into the ‘Big Five’ categories. They describe how you act but not necessarily the essence of who you are. Whale Design/iStock via Getty Images Plus
What personality is not: People often feel protective about their personality – you may view it as the core of who you are. According to scientific definitions, however, personality is not your likes, dislikes or preferences. It’s not your sense of humor. It’s not your values or what you think is important in life.
In other words, shifting your Big Five traits does not change the core of who you are. It simply means learning to respond to situations in life with different thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
Can you change your personality?
Can personality change? Remember, personality is a person’s characteristic way of thinking, feeling and behaving. And while it might sound hard to change personality, people change how they think, feel and behave all the time.
Suppose you’re not super dependable. If you start to think “being on time shows others that I respect them,” begin to feel pride when you arrive to brunch before your friends, and engage in new behaviors that increase your timeliness – such as getting up with an alarm, setting appointment reminders and so on – you are embodying the characteristics of a reliable person. If you maintain these changes to your thinking, emotions and behaviors over time – voila! – you are reliable. Personality: changed.
Data confirms this idea. In general, personality changes across a person’s life span. As people age, they tend to experience fewer negative emotions and more positive ones, are more conscientious, place greater emphasis on positive relationships and are less judgmental of others.
There is variability here, though. Some people change a lot and some people hold pretty steady. Moreover, studies, including my own, that test whether personality interventions change traits over time find that people can speed up the process of personality change by making intentional tweaks to their thinking and behavior. These tweaks can lead to meaningful change in less than 20 weeks, instead of 20 years.
Identifying patterns that your thoughts frequently fall into can be the first step toward making a change. Maskot via Getty Images
Cultivating personality traits that serve you best
The good news is that these cognitive-behavioral techniques are relatively simple, and you don’t need to visit a therapist if that’s not something you’re into.
The first component involves changing your thinking patterns – this is the cognitive piece. You need to become aware of your thoughts to determine whether they’re keeping you stuck acting in line with a particular trait. For example, if you find yourself thinking “people are only looking out for themselves,” you are likely to act defensively around others.
The behavioral component involves becoming aware of your current action tendencies and testing out new responses. If you are defensive around other people, they will probably respond negatively to you. When they withdraw or snap at you, for example, it then confirms your belief that you can’t trust others. By contrast, if you try behaving more openly – perhaps sharing with a co-worker that you’re struggling with a task – you have the opportunity to see whether that changes the way others act toward you.
These cognitive-behavioral strategies are so effective for nudging personality because personality is simply your characteristic way of thinking and behaving. Consistently making changes to your perspective and actions can lead to lasting habits that ultimately result in crafting the personality you desire.
Shannon Sauer-Zavala receives funding from that National Institute of Mental Health to support her research.
The job ladder: inflation vs. reallocation
Giuseppe Moscarini, Yale University
Fabien Postel-Vinay*, University College London and Institute for Fiscal Studies
Discussant: Kerstin Holzheu, Sciences Po
The search cost of inflation
Laura Pilossoph, Duke University
Jane M. Ryngaert*, University of Notre Dame
Jesse Wedewer, Duke University
Discussant: Jordi Galí, CREI and Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Strike while the Iron is Hot: Optimal Monetary Policy with a Nonlinear Phillips Curve
Peter Karadi, European Central Bank
Anton Nakov*, European Central Bank
Galo Nuño, Banco de España
Ernesto Pastén, Central Bank of Chile and Toulouse School of Economics
Dominik Thaler, European Central Bank
Discussant: Guido Ascari, University of Pavia and De Nederlandsche Bank
Data and markups: a macro-finance perspective
Jan Eeckhout*, Universitat Pompeu Fabra
Laura Veldkamp, Columbia University
Discussant: Maarten De Ridder, London School of Economics
Welcoming remarks
Luc Laeven, European Central Bank
Session 1:
The economics of financial stress
Dmitriy Sergeyev*, Bocconi University
Chen Lian, University of California, Berkeley
Yuriy Gorodnichenko, University of California, Berkeley
Discussant: Alina Bartscher, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management
Behavioural sticky prices
Sergio Rebelo, Northwestern University
Miguel Santana, Northwestern University
Pedro Teles*, Banco de Portugal and Católica-Lisbon School of Business and Economics
Discussant: Gaetano Gaballo, HEC Paris
BEDMINSTER, NJ, Sept. 25, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation (NASDAQ Global Select Market: PGC) and Peapack Private, a division of Peapack-Gladstone Bank, are proud to announce that Vanessa Tortorice has joined Peapack Private’s New York City location as Senior Managing Director. Vanessa joins a team of highly-skilled commercial bankers at Peapack Private, where she will contribute to the growth of commercial and industrial business in the New York market. She is dedicated to providing tailored banking solutions to help clients achieve their long-term financial goals.
With a proven track record in financial services, Vanessa brings 12 years of experience to Peapack Private. Previously, she served as Vice President and Senior Business Banker at M&T Bank, where she managed a portfolio of high-net-worth clients. Vanessa excelled at fostering relationship stewardship and driving cross-functional collaboration, significantly contributing to revenue growth. Prior to that as Vice President, Business Banking at Capital One, she managed a diverse portfolio of valued clients, consistently surpassing targeted net portfolio loan and deposit growth objectives. Veronica exceeded goals in acquiring new clients, managing existing relationships, and forging new banking alliances. She ranked within the top 10% nationally, affirming her track record of excellence.
Ms. Tortorice attended the University of Rome, Rome, Italy, and the College of Staten Island CUNY, with a focus on Liberal Arts.
About the Company
Peapack-Gladstone Financial Corporation is a New Jersey bank holding company with total assets of $6.51 billion and assets under management and/or administration of $11.5 billion as of June 30, 2024. Founded in 1921, Peapack-Gladstone Bank is a commercial bank that offers a client-centric approach to banking, providing high-quality products along with customized and innovative wealth management, investment banking, commercial and retail solutions. Peapack Private, a division of Peapack-Gladstone Bank, offers comprehensive financial, tax, fiduciary and investment advice and solutions to individuals, families, privately held businesses, family offices and not-for-profit organizations, which help them to establish, maintain and expand their legacy. Together, Peapack-Gladstone Bank and Peapack Private offer an unparalleled commitment to client service. Visit www.pgbank.com and www.peapackprivate.com for more information.
Contact: Rosanne Schwab, Peapack-Gladstone Bank, Vice President, Public Relations and Corporate Communications Manager, 500 Hills Drive, Suite 300, Bedminster, NJ 07921 rschwab@pgbank.com, (908) 719-6543.
John Maddison, Chief Marketing Officer at Fortinet “Through our longstanding investments to address the cyber talent shortage, Fortinet continues to grow and expand our programs and strategic partnerships by delivering an award-winning cybersecurity training and certification program. Addressing the cyber skills gap is vital to enhancing our society’s collective cyber resiliency and we are committed to developing the current and future cyber workforce through the Fortinet Training Institute. As part of this effort, we remain focused on our pledge to train 1 million individuals in cyber by 2026.”
News Summary Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, today announced significant progress in its mission to address the cybersecurity skills shortage through its Training Institute programs. As part of the company’s commitment to closing the cyber workforce gap, Fortinet pledged to train 1 million people in cybersecurity by the end of 2026 and through the Fortinet Training Institute programs has achieved significant strides toward this goal. With more than half a million people having been trained since the 5-year span pledge was announced, Fortinet is on track to meet this commitment by the end of 2026.
As the cybersecurity landscape grows increasingly complex, the demand for skilled professionals continues to grow with an estimated 4.8 million cybersecurity professionals required to address the industry’s workforce gap. At the same time, Fortinet’s 2024 Global Cybersecurity Skills Gap Report reveals that 70% of organizations believe the shortage of skilled cybersecurity professionals is increasing risks to their security.
Fortinet is at the forefront of working to address the skills gap by providing award-winning training and certification curriculum designed to equip individuals with the necessary skills and knowledge to better mitigate cyber risks. Additional recent key initiatives and achievements include:
Award-Winning Cybersecurity Curriculum: Fortinet’s most recent industry acknowledgement includes winning the 2024 SC Awards for Best Professional Certification Program. In the fall of 2023, Fortinet introduced enhancements to the Fortinet Network Security Expert (NSE) Certification program, providing multiple certification options focused on role-based training – such as administrator, analyst, architect – as well as a foundational certification level. Fortinet has also been honored with Gold for best cybersecurity training and Gold for best security awareness program from the Cybersecurity Excellence Awards; Gold for cyber and education and training and security awareness and training from the Globee 2024 Cyber Security Global Excellence Awards; and Most Innovative in cybersecurity training and certification, and security awareness and training service from the Global Infosec Awards, among others.
European Commission’s Cybersecurity Skills Academy Initiative Pledge: Earlier this year, Fortinet pledged to offer its award-winning cybersecurity training and security awareness curriculum to up to 75,000 individuals for free in Europe over the next three years. Since joining this initiative, Fortinet is offering its Certification program curriculum through the Cybersecurity Skills Academy and expanding learning opportunities for individuals across all 27 countries of the European Union, helping develop critical cyber skills in the region.
All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and EduSkills Foundation Partnership: Fortinet is partnering with the All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) and EduSkills Foundation to offer 100,000 virtual internships in the field of cybersecurity across India, as well as providing our Certification program free of cost.
Fortinet Cyber Bootcamps Help Develop the Future Cyber Workforce: Fortinet is partnering with organizations across the world to host cybersecurity and networking bootcamps to further increase access to its training curriculum. Earlier this year, Fortinet hosted a threat hunting workshop for participants of the MITRE Embedded Capture the Flag (eCTF) competition, which included students from around the world. Attendees of the Fortinet workshop gained hands-on cybersecurity experience, assuming the role of a security analyst to identify adversarial behaviors using renowned frameworks and procedures.
Continuing to Drive a Diverse Cyber Workforce through Partnerships: Through the Education Outreach program and Veterans program, Fortinet cultivates partnerships to drive a skilled, inclusive and diverse cyber workforce. More recently, Fortinet partnered with the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), Cyber Catalyst Talent Solutions, and Tech Vets Canada, among others, on an in-person bootcamp specifically for veterans interested in gaining technical and hands-on expertise in cyber. Fortinet also collaborated with several Fortinet Veteran program and Education Outreach program partners earlier this year – including Cerco, Helping Heroes, Hire Heroes USA, Onward 2 Opportunity, TechVets, and VetSec – to offer a nine-week Networking Fundamentals Bootcamp this year to further upskill and reskill veterans. Additionally, Fortinet is continuing to partner with Women in CyberSecurity (WiCyS) to offer members a Networking Fundamentals Bootcamp designed as an entry point for those wanting to pursue a career in cybersecurity.
Building on Fortinet’s Longstanding Commitment to Close the Global Cyber Skills Gap These initiatives build on Fortinet’s longstanding commitment to address the cybersecurity skills gap worldwide. The Fortinet Training Institute delivers training and certifications to IT and security professionals, students and educators, and underserved communities, through its various programs. The ecosystem supporting these programs – including the Education Outreach program, the Veterans program and the Academic Partner program – is comprised of more than 700 partners across more than 100 countries globally.
To further help advance this work, Fortinet is a part of various public-private partnerships, including participating in the White House’s National Cyber Workforce and Education Strategy commitments by introducing free security awareness training for primary and secondary school educators and students globally including school districts across the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Brazil. All these efforts contribute toward Fortinet’s goal to train 1 million people globally in cyber by 2026.
About Fortinet Fortinet (NASDAQ: FTNT) is a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Our mission is to secure people, devices, and data everywhere, and today we deliver cybersecurity everywhere you need it with the largest integrated portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade products. Well over half a million customers trust Fortinet’s solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented, and most validated in the industry. The Fortinet Training Institute, one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry, is dedicated to making cybersecurity training and new career opportunities available to everyone. Collaboration with esteemed organizations from both the public and private sectors, including CERTs, government entities, and academia, is a fundamental aspect of Fortinet’s commitment to enhance cyber resilience globally. FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet’s elite threat intelligence and research organization, develops and utilizes leading-edge machine learning and AI technologies to provide customers with timely and consistently top-rated protection and actionable threat intelligence. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, and FortiGuard Labs.
Media Contact:
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Analyst Contact:
Stephanie Lira Fortinet, Inc. 408-235-7700 pr@fortinet.com
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The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a pressing issue: The U.S. health care system is increasingly dependent on immigrant physicians, but it’s becoming harder for aspiring ones to work and settle in the U.S.
This immigrant workforce is key to offsetting a dire physician shortage. The need for more doctors is due, in part, to America’s growing and aging population; U.S.-born doctors’ unwillingness to move to poorer and more rural areas; and U.S.-born doctors’ lack of interest in going into primary care, which can be less lucrative and prestigious than other areas of medicine.
As a result, immigrant doctors have become indispensable in hospitals and clinics across the nation. But while they’re in demand, more and more foreign doctors are starting to see the immigration process as a risky endeavor.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, I wrote my dissertation about how immigrant physicians navigate the U.S. immigration system and foreign licensing procedures. My interviewees described how a combination of stricter immigration policies and more competition for residency spots have made the U.S. a less feasible destination.
Visa vicissitudes
U.S. visas can be categorized into two categories: immigrant and nonimmigrant. Nonimmigrant visas, such as tourist, student or exchange visitors visas, prohibit holders from having what’s called “immigrant intent,” meaning that they don’t plan to use their visas to permanently stay in the U.S.
In order for immigrant doctors to be licensed to practice in the U.S., they need to complete licensing exams. They also need to obtain clinical experience in the U.S. This can be completed while on a tourist visa or a student visa, which are relatively easy to obtain.
However, all immigrant physicians – even if they’re certified specialists in their home country – need to get accepted into and complete a U.S. residency program in order to practice in the U.S. as specialists. These are intensive, supervised training programs that can last up to seven years.
There’s a special work visa called the H-1B that allows for both immigrant and nonimmigrant intent. A few decades ago, many immigrant physicians entered residency programs that sponsored H-1B visas, which served as stepping stones to green cards.
The J-1 not only explicitly prohibits immigration intent, it also requires that doctors return to their home country for at least two years upon completing American residency training.
Foreign-born doctors nonetheless pursue the J-1 because there’s the opportunity to obtain a waiver, with limited slots that will allow them to remain in the U.S. and adjust to an H-1B visa. If selected for the waiver program, they must commit to a minimum of three years of service in a designated medically underserved area in the U.S.
While this system can offer short-term relief to physician shortages, it can also lead to exploitation.
As one interviewee told me, “We hear very scary things about the J-1 waiver. The employers can take advantage and make you work more and pay less.”
For the duration of the waiver program, immigrant physicians have minimal ability to change employers without violating the conditions of the waiver – and their path to immigration. Underserved areas are often understaffed and underresourced, which can make for stressful working conditions.
Forced to go above and beyond
The challenges don’t end with the visa process. There are financial burdens as well.
International medical graduates often spend tens of thousands of dollars to pay for U.S. medical licensing exams, multiple visa applications, international travel and lodging, residency and green card applications.
While interviewing immigrant physicians, many testified to the competition getting steeper in recent years.
“I told a friend, if you don’t have scores in upper 90s in all the exams and you’re not a green card holder, don’t even bother,” an Indian physician who immigrated 20 years ago explained to me. “It’s so tough.”
Stuck in limbo
Over the course of my research I noticed a trend: Many international medical graduates will come to the U.S. on student visas to pursue U.S. graduate degrees in health-related fields, such as public health, before they even start the licensing process. This helps them get their foot in the door into a very complicated immigration system and build a stronger resume as they prepare for residency applications. It’s also another expensive investment.
But even those who match into and complete residency won’t necessarily be able to stay and work in America.
Those with positive experiences from working in underserved communities often struggle to remain in their positions after their waiver contracts are fulfilled because of the green card backlog.
The average immigrant’s wait time for a green card has doubled since the national quota system was introduced in the early 1990s.
The doctors I interviewed gave a variety of reasons for wanting to work in the U.S., including better lifestyles and opportunities for professional development. But the complexity and sheer unwieldiness of the U.S. visa regime is causing the nation to lose skilled professionals to other countries with more streamlined processes.
Selma Hedlund does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
These health problems are not only common and debilitating, but expensive. Treating high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol costs about US$400 billion per year. Within 25 years, those costs are expected to triple, to $1.3 trillion.
These facts support the need for physicians to give accurate advice about diet to help prevent these diseases. But how much does a typical physician know about nutrition?
The deficiencies in nutrition education happen at all levels of medical training.
What doctors don’t know
In a 2023 survey of more than 1,000 U.S. medical students, about 58% of respondents said they received no formal nutrition education while in medical school for four years. Those who did averaged about three hours of nutrition education per year.
But a 2015 study showed only 29% of medical schools met this goal, and a 2023 study suggests the problem has become even worse – only 7.8% of med students reported 20 or more hours of nutrition education across all four years of med school. If this is representative of medical schools throughout the country, it has happened despite efforts to bolster nutrition education through numerous government initiatives.
Not surprisingly, the lack of education has had a direct impact on physicians’ nutrition knowledge. In a study of 257 first- and second-year osteopathic medical students taking a nutrition knowledge quiz, more than half flunked the test. Prior to the test, more than half the students – 55% – felt comfortable counseling patients on nutrition.
Unfortunately, this problem is not limited to U.S. medical schools. A 2018 global study concluded that no matter the country, nutrition education of med students is insufficient throughout the world.
Bringing nutrition education back
Even though evidence suggests that nutrition education can be effective, there are many reasons why it’s lacking. Medical students and physicians are some of the busiest people in society. The amount of information taught in medical curricula is often described as overwhelming – like drinking out of a fire hose.
First- and second-year medical students focus on dense topics, including biochemistry, molecular biology and genetics, while they learn clinical skills such as interviewing patients and understanding heart and lung sounds. Third- and fourth-year students are practicing in clinics and hospitals as they learn from physicians and patients.
As a result, their schedules are already jammed. There is no room for nutrition. And once they are physicians, it gets no better. Providing preventive care including nutrition counseling to patients would take them more than seven hours per week – and that’s not counting the time they would have to spend on continuing education to keep up with new findings in nutrition science.
On top of that, the lack of nutrition education in medical schools has been attributed to a dearth of qualified instructors for nutrition courses, as most physicians do not understand nutrition well enough to teach it.
Ironically, many medical schools are part of universities that have nutrition departments with Ph.D.-trained professors; those academicians could fill this gap by teaching nutrition to medical students. But those classes are often taught by physicians who may not have adequate nutrition training – which means truly qualified instructors, within reach of most medical schools, are left out of the process.
This doctor said he learned virtually nothing about nutrition in medical school.
Finding the right advice
The best source of nutrition information, whether for medical students or the general public, is a registered dietitian, certified nutrition specialist or some other type of nutrition professional with multiple degrees and certification. They study for years and record many practice hours in order to give dietary advice.
Although anyone can make an appointment with a nutrition professional for dietary counseling, typically a referral from a health care provider like a physician is needed for the appointment to be covered by insurance. So seeing a physician or other primary care provider is often a step before meeting with a nutrition professional.
This extra step might be one reason why many people look elsewhere, such as on their phones, for nutrition advice. However, the worst place to look for accurate nutrition information is social media. There, about 94% of posts about nutrition and diet are of low value – either inaccurate or lacking adequate data to back up the claim.
Keep in mind that anyone can post nutrition advice on social media, regardless of their qualifications. Good dietary advice is individualized and takes into account one’s age, sex, goals, body weight, goals and personal preferences. This complexity is tough to capture in a brief social media post.
We hope that nutrition education, after being devalued or ignored for decades, will soon be an integral part of every medical school’s curriculum. But given its history and current status, this seems unlikely to happen anytime soon.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Monetary policy without commitment
Hassan Afrouzi, Columbia University
Marina Halac, Yale University
Kenneth S. Rogoff, Harvard University
Pierre Yared*, Columbia University
Discussant: Albert Marcet, CREI and Universitat Pompeu Fabra
The secular decline of bank balance sheet lending
Greg Buchak, Stanford University
Gregor Matvos, Northwestern University
Tomasz Piskorski, Columbia University
Amit Seru*, Stanford University
Discussant: Neeltje van Horen, Bank of England and University of Amsterdam
Specialization in banking
Kristian Blickle, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Cecilia Parlatore*, New York University
Anthony Saunders, New York University
Discussant: Diana Bonfim, Banco de Portugal and European Central Bank
The global credit cycle
Nina Boyarchenko*, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Leonardo Elias, Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Discussant: Stijn Claessens, Yale University
Source: Republic of South Africa (video statements-2)
The Minister of Basic Education, Ms Siviwe Gwarube briefs the media to provide an update on the provincial level analysis of the impact of budget cuts in the education sector
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
On October 14, the Higher School of Economics will launch a two-week advanced training program calledTeaching Workshop” . It is designed for teachers from Russian educational institutions who want to expand their professional experience: learn how to design training courses, select assessment tools, and apply elements of blended learning. In the first week, classes will be held at HSE, and in the second week, online. You can apply for participation until October 10.
At the beginning of this year, the authors of the project decided to offer their developments on the external market. This is how the advanced training program “Educational Course Design 3.0” was created, under which teachers from nine regions of Russia were trained at the beginning of 2024. Their reviews can be read Here.
It is noteworthy that, although the program was initially designed for representatives of higher education, those who work with children and teenagers and teach courses for adults have also signed up for it. So this time, when recruiting for the “Teaching Workshop”, it does not matter which educational institution the potential students work for.
“The workshop content was designed taking into account both the many years of experience of the Teach4HSE project and the feedback received from the graduates of “Educational Course Design 3.0″. The leitmotif of advanced training this time will be AI, we will dedicate a separate block to it. Students will master effective techniques for organizing classes using media technologies and AI in an interactive educational environment,” notes Oksana Chernenko, Director of Educational Innovations at HSE.
Participants of the project “Consultants on teaching in a digital environment” — HSE employees who successfully use digital tools in teaching and help their colleagues implement them. Students will be shown specific examples of how AI can be used in classes on certain subjects.
The program also includes such topics as the organization of team and group work of students, pedagogical design (designing a course in a blended format), teaching styles in a modern university from the student’s point of view, formative and final assessment as mandatory elements of the course, and others. The masters will be renowned HSE teachers representing various disciplinary fields.
As last time, classes in the first week will be held at the HSE building on Pokrovsky Boulevard, and in the second week, colleagues will travel to their regions. Using the knowledge they have gained, they will update their training courses with remote support from teaching experts. The final day of the program is the presentation of the updated training courses.
Each graduate of the program will receive a certificate of advanced training from the National Research University Higher School of Economics.
You can find out more about the workshop program and apply here Here.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
http://vvv.hse.ru/nevs/edu/966348954.html
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
On September 20-21, the largest exhibition of Russian higher education, organized by the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo, was held in Uzbekistan. Representatives of 50 Russian universities took part in the exhibition-fair “Russian Education. Tashkent-2024”. The event brought together more than 4,000 visitors, including schoolchildren and their parents, students, representatives of schools, educational centers, recruiting agencies and the media of Uzbekistan.
During the exhibition, a meeting of Russian university employees with Deputy Head of Rossotrudnichestvo Pavel Shevtsov and Head of the Representative Office in Uzbekistan Irina Staroselskaya was held, where they discussed the implementation of the 2024–2025 quota admission campaign and attracting applicants from Uzbekistan to Russia.
The opening ceremony of the exhibition was attended by representatives of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation of the Republic of Uzbekistan, the Russian Embassy and the heads of Rossotrudnichestvo. Minister-Counselor of the Russian Embassy in Uzbekistan Andrey Lanchikov welcomed the participants: It is gratifying that Russian education continues to be popular in the Republic of Uzbekistan. This is evidenced by the number of universities from 21 regions of Russia represented here. I really hope that within the framework of this fair, young people, applicants, students will find interesting specialties for themselves, discover new opportunities, see prospects for further education and improvement.
The annual educational exhibition-fair is held by the representative office of Rossotrudnichestvo in order to show the potential of Russian education and unique opportunities for everyone who wants to get to know Russia better.
Our task is to improve the quality of education and campus infrastructure so that young people can see the rise that is currently happening in Russia. It is important to demonstrate to Uzbek applicants all the opportunities that Russian education offers, as well as the modern achievements of our universities. This will create a basis for the formation of joint projects in business, science and technology, given the active development of technological potential in both Russia and Uzbekistan, – noted Pavel Shevtsov.
Irina Staroselskaya addressed schoolchildren: It is very important to make the right choice of specialty. Today you will not only get acquainted with the programs of our universities. You will be able to talk directly with their representatives and get information first-hand: find out how educational programs are organized at universities, where there are dormitories, what scholarships are available, what events are held as part of the training.
At the international exhibition and fair, the Polytechnic University was represented by the Director of the Center for International Recruitment and Communications Maria Bocharova, Deputy Head of the Department of International Education Tatyana Sytnikova and the Manager of the Center for Work with Applicants Kristina Lavrentyeva. During the exhibition, the SPbPU stand was visited by more than 300 foreign applicants, who asked many questions about their future profession. Also present at the exhibition were undergraduate students from universities in Uzbekistan interested in master’s programs.
Polytechnic University annually participates in the autumn educational exhibition of Rossotrudnichestvo. Uzbekistan is traditionally one of the priority markets for the export of Polytechnic University educational programs. We pay great attention to promoting our university so that schoolchildren and students of Uzbekistan receive the most up-to-date information about studying at the Polytechnic University within the framework of the quota of the Government of the Russian Federation and through participation in the International Olympiad Open Doors: Russian Scholarship project, as well as on a contractual basis, – commented Maria Bocharova.
SPbPU staff provided detailed consultations on admission issues, told about areas of training and opportunities for scientific and project activities. This year, applicants are most interested in specialties in the field of IT, artificial intelligence, linguistics, construction and design of buildings, law, design, economics and management, biotechnology.
The exhibition organizers also held a B2B meeting to discuss cooperation between Russian universities and educational institutions of Uzbekistan. University representatives emphasized the importance of creating a common educational space between the two countries, including joint conferences, seminars, and competitions. Agreements between educational institutions of Russia and Uzbekistan are an important step in developing cooperation in the field of education. This is an opportunity to exchange experiences, joint educational programs, and practices, which in turn will help improve the system of vocational education in Uzbekistan and provide young people with access to quality education in Russia.
During the exhibition, Tatyana Sytnikova held a number of working meetings with the heads of the Alfakom and General Lessons training centers, where they discussed options for career guidance events, the organization of preliminary entrance examinations, and assistance in the specialized training of applicants. The head of the Alfakom center, Bakhtiyor Tursunov, noted: Polytechnic consistently attracts students from Uzbekistan. Our task is to assist in their high-quality preparation as applicants.
In the near future, selection and competitive events will begin for foreign applicants wishing to study at the Polytechnic University for free under the direction of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (under a quota) in the next academic year. You can get up-to-date information about the dates of their holding inPolytechnic’s English-language Telegram channel.
The first qualifying round of the International Olympiad started on September 5 Open Doors: Russian Scholarship project. Starting this year, the winners will have the opportunity to enroll in the Polytechnic University’s bachelor’s, master’s and postgraduate programs without entrance examinations and study for free in the 2025–2026 academic year.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
In the U.S., just over 21% of the undergraduate student body identified as Hispanic in 2021. Nearly 63% of those students were enrolled at Hispanic-serving institutions (HSIs).* Despite representing only a small portion of the nation’s public and private institutions of higher education, HSIs produce key STEM research. These institutions have made great strides in advancing STEM education for the diverse populations of students they serve, including expanding undergraduate research opportunities, improving technical training at two-year institutions, and introducing active learning to calculus courses to improve student success. And to continue these efforts, HSIs require support.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, HSIs have extensive infrastructure and equipment needs due to outdated buildings, natural disasters and lack of funding. To address some of these needs, NSF has awarded more than $3 million to provide new STEM equipment to broaden STEM participation and education across five different areas through two solicitations from the NSF HSI program, Enriching Learning, Programs, and Student Experiences and Equitable Transformation in STEM Education.**
The goal of these solicitations is to meet the National Science Board’s vision for a more diverse and capable science and engineering workforce by enhancing the quality of undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics education at HSIs. These solicitations focus on transforming STEM education at HSIs through improving the student experience and the institutional infrastructure.
Here are five areas where NSF funding is changing the educational landscape for Hispanic students by providing new, state-of-the-art equipment to eight different HSIs.
Virtual reality technology
The Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico received funding to install an advanced physics laboratory equipped with high-performance computers and 3D immersive VR technology, enabling the simulation of physics principles that are difficult to replicate in a traditional lab and allowing students to visualize abstract concepts, increasing student retention and engagement.
Virtual anatomy
NSF funded the installation of Anatomage tables at three different HSIs, Cossatot Community College, Colorado State University Pueblo and Hartnell Community College District, as well as additional critical equipment, instruments and computing resources in chemistry, biology, earth science and mathematics. Anatomage clinical tables provide high-definition 3D models of systems and structures across the human body, allowing students to conduct virtual dissection. The technology also allows for the upload and study of medical images (e.g., X-ray, CT and MRI scans). Enhancing anatomy and physiology education at these community colleges will contribute to more STEM bachelor’s degrees and a more diverse STEM workforce.
Weather studies
California State University Desert Studies Center installed a research-grade weather station. The weather station will allow students to collect and analyze real-time environmental data, support data science instruction and climate science investigation, and prepare students to work with networked data systems. The weather station will be connected to the NSF-funded Dendra network of over 200 monitoring sites throughout the Mojave Desert and across the southwestern U.S., augmenting efforts to understand the consequences of climate change in one of the hottest places on the planet.
Manufacturing
Funding from NSF helped expand the industrial and manufacturing engineering capabilities at two HSIs, the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (CPP) and the University of Houston-Clear Lake. CPP secured an Industry 4.0 training system, allowing students to learn from simulations of real-world assembly processes, strengthening undergraduate learning in industrial and manufacturing engineering. The University of Houston-Clear Lake funded a metal additive manufacturing machine, giving students hands-on learning and allowing them to compete in state and national-level design and manufacturing challenges. These projects will prepare a more diverse and skilled workforce equipped with the latest technological knowledge for the industrial and manufacturing sectors.
Artificial intelligence and cybersecurity
Expanding AI and cybersecurity education at HSIs and other minority-serving institutions is critical to creating a strong, diverse STEM network. NSF funding will provide New Mexico State University (NMSU) with state-of-the-art servers and robots to expand its computer science curriculum, including adding a new Bachelor of Science degree in artificial intelligence, making NMSU the second HSI to offer an undergraduate degree program in AI. Another grant at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona will fund the installation of a Security Operations Center (SOC), which will be student-run to give students hands-on learning and combine theoretical knowledge with practical application in cybersecurity. SOC will allow students to engage in regional, national and global cybersecurity competitions, and it will aid students in seeing themselves as cybersecurity professionals.
* To qualify as an HSI, a higher education institution must be accredited, not-for-profit, and have an enrollment of full-time undergraduate students that is at least 25% Hispanic students at the end of the award year. For more information about HSI eligibility, please see the Department of Education’s definition.
Headline: MetLife Stadium to Become a Mission Ready Venue, Serving as a Vital Location During Disasters and Part of NFL and FEMA’s National Strategy to Make Venues Mission Capable During Disasters
MetLife Stadium to Become a Mission Ready Venue, Serving as a Vital Location During Disasters and Part of NFL and FEMA’s National Strategy to Make Venues Mission Capable During Disasters
New Jersey – Stadiums and venues provide a central and accessible location to help communities respond to extreme weather crises, providing safe storage and shelter in times of need. With these events becoming more frequent, severe, and expensive, FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell and NFL Chief Security Officer Cathy Lanier today announced that MetLife Stadium in New Jersey, home of the New York Jets and New York Giants, will be among the first NFL venues to be designated as a Mission Ready Venue that can be used during response and recovery missions. Through Mission Ready Venues, a public-private partnership, MetLife Stadium will increase its capabilities to better sustain public safety and be a source of support for the community they serve. The designation identifies the ways MetLife Stadium could be used for response and recovery activities during declared emergencies or disasters.
“We are honored that MetLife Stadium is one of the first NFL venues designated as a Mission Ready Venue,” said MetLife Stadium President and CEO Ron VanDeVeen. “The stadium will serve as a staging area and safe space that will offer critical support and comfort to our community in the event of a crisis.”
“During large-scale emergencies, like the COVID-19 pandemic, hurricanes, or tornados, we’ve seen how large music, sports and entertainment venues can serve as a safe space for communities,” said FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. “This new strategy we’re launching with the NFL is a groundbreaking opportunity to help our partners use these venues for emergency response and recovery needs, while keeping communities safe and making them more resilient. While we are starting with the NFL, all venues across sports organizations and leagues can become assets to their communities, and I encourage them to join in this collaborative effort as we grapple with the impacts of the climate crisis.”
“Public-private partnerships are essential to helping communities during the response and recovery phases of a disaster,” said FEMA Region 2 Administrator David Warrington. “Establishing relationships of this type will not only enhance our nation’s resilience toward the disasters we face today but will be critical in shaping tomorrow due to the ever-changing landscape of emergency management. This collaborative effort with the NFL is a true reflection of whole-community engagement and I welcome the opportunities it will bring.”
“Stadiums are valuable community assets that are often used in times of disasters,” said NFL Chief Security Officer Cathy Lanier. “This designation reflects the role that many stadiums play, not only on Sundays, but especially in times of need. We are proud to work with FEMA and first responders at the local and state level to ensure disaster response agencies have the information and tools they need to help a community recover when disaster strikes.”
According to the NYU School of Professional Studies and the U.S. Conference of Mayors, stadiums and arenas can improve the public health and well-being of their communities —including pandemic response during COVID-19.
“Collaborating with our Federal counterparts and the NFL to designate MetLife Stadium as a mission-ready venue for disasters highlights a critical step in strengthening our state’s emergency preparedness,” said Colonel Patrick J. Callahan, Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police and State Director of Emergency Management. “In times of crisis, every second counts. This partnership ensures we have a strategically located, fully equipped facility capable of supporting large-scale emergency operations, allowing us to respond swiftly and effectively to protect the lives and well-being of New Jersey’s residents.”
Given the size, capabilities, and locations of large sports venues, these existing community assets can serve the public in a variety of ways including emergency shelters, staging areas, commodity distribution sites, evacuation pick up points, disaster recovery centers, mass vaccination and testing, temporary hospitals and more. FEMA and the NFL recognized this unique opportunity for collaboration and are enlisting the support of venue owners, operators, and the tenants of these facilities to work with government officials in the planning and preparation for emergency or disaster response and recovery efforts. To receive an official Mission Ready Venue designation, venues must undergo a comprehensive assessment to determine what capabilities the venue may be able to support in emergency and disaster response and recovery efforts. The designation highlights the following attributes of selected venues:
Provide Safety and Security: Stadiums are usually centrally located, close to major roadways and transportation hubs, and critical services like hospitals. If used to respond to a disaster, the designation will save valuable time and resources and will further enhance coordination between the public and private sectors during disaster response and recovery.
Provide Accessibility: Stadiums are also compliant with Americans with Disabilities Act and can support persons with disabilities and others with access or functional needs.Additionally, 73% of NFL venues are accessible by mass transportation. This provides an avenue to promote equitable service to underserved populations to access potentially critical lifesaving/life sustaining services after an event.
Strengthen Community Resilience: Stadiums and arenas are a focal point of communities and help strengthen social networks by enhancing connections between residents with home team pride. These Mission Ready Venues can boost morale amidst disaster. By providing a more robust and resilient environment, these venues can enhance social networks amongst survivors while providing ample opportunities to establish connections with the venue’s main tenants.
Ensure Unity of Effort: Coordination of stadium resources and services can support survivors and responders and help stabilize an incident quickly. Since stadiums are fixed locations, resources and services can be deployed quickly. This promotes the community’s physical and economic recovery.
Mission Ready Venue designations are for five-year increments with a yearly check-in to ensure continued readiness of the venue. Redesignation will be necessary every five years and designation does not supersede any agreements with state, local or private sector entities.
Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Jill Tokuda (Hawaii – 2nd District)
Washington, DC – Yesterday, the House Natural Resources Committee voted to advance the Lahaina National Heritage Area Study Act – introduced by U.S. Representative Jill Tokuda (HI-02) – to the full House of Representatives. The committee reported the bill unanimously.
H.R. 8219, the Lahaina National Heritage Area Study Act, would direct the National Park Service, in consultation with state and local partners, to study the suitability and feasibility of a National Heritage Area designation for Lahaina. These areas are designated by Congress to complement state and local conservation efforts through recognition, federal funding, and technical assistance.
“The passage of this bill into law would mark a significant step forward in our efforts to support the community in recognizing Lahaina’s historic and cultural importance,” said Rep. Tokuda. “A designation would uplift the rich history, environment, and culture embodied by Lahaina and provide support for state and local conservation efforts through federal recognition, seed money, and technical assistance.”
Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-CA-01), House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands Ranking Member Rep. Joe Neguse (D-CO-02), and House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries Ranking Member Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA-02) are original cosponsors of the bill, along with Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA-39), Gregorio Sablan (D-MP-AL), and Rep. Ed Case (D-HI-01).
There are 62 National Heritage Areas in the United States but none in Hawaiʻi. Kaʻena Point is currently being studied for designation.
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Amanda Gouws, Professor of Political Science and Chair of the South African Research Initiative in Gender Politics, Stellenbosch University
When South Africa became a democracy in 1994, a primary goal was to grant citizenship rights to all its people, in particular, to give the majority black South Africans rights they had been denied during colonialism and apartheid. This included the right to vote.
Apartheid segregated the population into ethnic groups. All but people classified as white were stripped of their rights. The 1996 constitution conferred upon citizens civil liberties such as the right to vote, movement, association and free speech as well as substantive rights such as access to land, health, education and employment.
But, as I argue in the Palgrave Handbook of Gender and Citizenship, full citizenship is about more than a legal status that grants rights. Full citizenship also means being able to fully participate in a society.
Based on my research into South African politics and gender politics over the past three decades I argue in a recent chapter that women in South Africa don’t enjoy full citizenship because they face endemic gender-based violence.
Sexual violence against women has become normalised in South Africa. Everyday spaces are filled with violence, as indicated by the South African Police Service’s quarterly crime statistics.
I conclude in the book chapter that people who feel excluded turn to protest to claim their rights as citizens. In doing so they become activist citizens.
Acts of citizenship can occur in many different places – on streets, in courts, at borders, or even through media. They can happen on different scales, from local community action to international movements. These acts may involve protests, organising campaigns, or using digital media to spread awareness. People engaging in these acts might demand a wide range of rights, including political, social, sexual, ecological, or cultural rights.
While legal frameworks to enhance citizenship have changed over the past 30 years in South Africa, deep-seated inequalities and exclusions persist. Law reform cannot address high levels of unemployment (that need to be rectified through economic growth), neither can it address poverty that is endemic because of the legacies of apartheid, such as the exclusion from decent education and health care.
Acts of citizenship – whether through protest (such as service delivery protest), art, or everyday actions – continue to play a crucial role in expanding the boundaries of who is considered a citizen and what rights citizens can claim.
By understanding citizenship as something that is actively performed and claimed, rather than simply granted, society can better appreciate the ongoing struggles for equality and recognition.
Acts of citizenship
Emotions play a significant role in these citizenship actions, a concept known as “affective citizenship”. Expressions of fear, happiness, loneliness, anger, or grief can all be part of how people assert their rights and demand recognition. These emotional displays can be disruptive or more conventional, but they all focus on exclusions from citizenship.
Some acts of citizenship involve a “politics of refusal” – rejecting unfair conditions or norms. This refusal can expose hidden issues within citizenship, such as specific forms of gendered violence or discrimination. By disrupting “business as usual”, these acts force society to confront uncomfortable truths.
It’s important to note that acts of citizenship aren’t always large-scale or dramatic. They can also involve everyday actions that challenge norms or assert rights in smaller ways. What matters is that these acts transform the actors from passive subjects into active citizens claiming their rights.
Examples include the #EndRapeCulture campaign of 2016, when women protested against pervasive sexual violence on university campuses. At the same time, transgender students also protested against marginalisation.
Both groups of students used naked protests to show their refusal to be treated as though they were not citizens. Through their campaign, the students rejected behaviour and attitudes that normalise sexual violence on campuses.
Women students disrupted public spaces by protesting topless or in their underwear, sometimes brandishing sjamboks (plastic whips). These actions expressed anger at university authorities’ failure to address sexual violence. The activists were refusing to be treated as though they were not citizens.
By using their bodies in these acts of citizenship the protesters made visible the rage many South African women feel about sexual violence committed with seeming impunity. They highlighted how women’s bodies are vulnerable to violence due to neglect by authorities in implementing their own laws, such as the Sexual Offences Act and the Domestic Violence Act.
For its part the Trans Collective, a group of transgender students at the University of Cape Town, used a provocative art intervention to highlight the erasure or the making invisible of transgender experiences within the broader student movement during the same 2016 period.
They smeared red paint on photographs at an exhibit about student activism and used their naked, paint-covered bodies to block the entrance of the art gallery at the university to force visitors to confront the physical reality of how transgender rights are often “trampled” or ignored, even within progressive movements.
Impact
Acts of citizenship – whether through naked protests, art interventions, or other forms of activism – serve multiple purposes:
They make visible groups and issues that are overlooked or deliberately ignored.
They challenge conventional understandings of how citizens should behave or what citizenship looks like.
They create new spaces for political action and discourse.
They force society and authorities to confront uncomfortable truths about exclusion and violence.
They assert the agency of marginalised groups in defining and claiming their rights.
– South African women face exclusion from society due to gender-based violence – how they’re fighting back – https://theconversation.com/south-african-women-face-exclusion-from-society-due-to-gender-based-violence-how-theyre-fighting-back-237493
Amidst the EU’s push for a fair green transition, and further reinforced by the uncertainties of the energy market, the issue of energy poverty has come to the forefront and become a critical policy priority. Energy poverty can be measured in different ways, but its measurement is a challenge for policy formulation and action to address it.
A JRC study investigated four primary energy poverty indicators to understand the EU-wide distribution and socio-economic profiles of “energy poor”. The findings underlined the usefulness to rely on a battery of various indicators to provide a picture of energy poverty.
The Social Climate Fund regulation and the revised Energy Efficiency Directive define energy poverty as a household’s lack of access to essential energy services, such as heating, hot water, cooling, lighting and energy to power appliances. According to the Commission’ Recommendation on Energy Poverty, it is a multidimensional phenomenon driven by three underlying causes, namely, high-energy expenditures in proportion to household budget, general low levels of income and low energy performance of buildings.
What’s the challenge when measuring energy poverty?
There are numerous papers discussing advantages and disadvantages of different energy poverty indicators used in Europe, but little is known about their overlap and their inter-relationship. The JRC study addresses this gap, for the first time, by assessing the coverage, overlap, and socio-economic profiles of four primary energy poverty indicators employed in the EU for cross-country comparisons, using harmonised microdata for all 27 EU countries.
The study employs two types of indicators: “expenditure-based” indicators and “consensual approach” indicators. The expenditure-based indicators are calculated using monetary values: the 2M indicator is calculated as the proportion of households whose share of energy expenditure in income is more than twice the national median (2M indicator), i.e. energy costs represent a high share of expenditures. While the M/2 indicator (low absolute energy expenditure) is calculated as the proportion of households whose energy expenditure is below the national median energy consumption.
The “consensual approach” indicators are instead based on self-reported assessments of housing conditions: the share of people keeping their house adequately warm (AW indicator), and those who have arrears on utility bills (UB).
The calculations are based on EU statistics and income living conditions (SILC) data from 2015 matched to Household Budget Survey (HBS) data from the same year and uses EUROMOD for refining estimates of household disposable income and improve comparability across countries. For example, they show that 8.5% of Europeans were unable to keep their house warm in 2015 (indicator AW).
The analysis finds that there is very little overlap between the four energy poverty indicators examined. This explains why at least 40% of the EU population (around 180 million citizens) would be classified as ‘energy poor’ if one would follow a ‘union approach’, in which someone is energy poor by at least one indicator.
On the other side, an ‘intersection approach’ – where poor is who satisfies the poverty condition simultaneously for the four indicators – would lead to a very low energy poverty rate of 0.3% of the EU population, i.e. about 330 thousand.
The results
The aggregate analysis carried out shows that between about 8% (using consensual indicators) and about 16% (using expenditure-based indicators) of the EU population can be classified as energy poor.
Education and employment have a significant impact on energy poverty, as a higher rate of adults with jobs or higher education levels can slightly decrease the risk of experiencing energy poverty. Remarkably, about 30% of energy-poor households are also income-poor, falling below the poverty threshold. The study also reveals that middle-income households face a relatively high incidence of energy poverty, so it does not only affect to income-poor individuals.
Energy poverty among EU Member States
Energy poverty displays also significant disparities across EU countries, as it is influenced by the very heterogeneous national realities, including geography, natural resources, climate, infrastructure, national public policies, etc. Furthermore, cultural aspects can explain differences in self-reporting energy deprivation conditions.
For instance, in Greece and Bulgaria, nearly 30% of the population is energy poor by at least two indicators, while in Western and Northern EU countries, this figure drops below 5%. Moreover, the differences in energy poverty rates across EU countries is much larger when using subjective indicators. For example, AW-poverty rates, which measure the inability to adequately heat one’s home, range between almost zero in Sweden and Luxembourg to about 40% in Bulgaria.
A similar trend is observed when analysing arrears on utility bills (UB), while income shares of residential energy expenditure that are above twice the national median (2M) appear to be more similar across countries, indicating that energy poverty rates range between approximately 10% (Netherlands, Hungary) to slightly above 20% (Sweden, Malta, and Latvia).
This underscores the importance of tailored policy responses that consider national contexts and differences across countries regarding income levels, energy prices or investments in energy capital (i.e. efficient appliances, insulation, etc.). Moreover, this result points at the need to consider carefully what is the most suited indicator for cross-country comparisons.
How to tackle energy poverty across the EU?
Energy poverty has far-reaching consequences, from exacerbating health issues to limiting social and economic participation. Monitoring energy poverty is crucial for understanding the diversity of the socio-economic profiles of the energy poor and for improving the design of inclusive policies.
Relying on a single indicator may overlook significant portions of the population experiencing energy-related deprivations.
To address energy poverty, we need a policy mix
Income-support policies are essential to tackle energy poverty situations, especially for households under the poverty line. However, considering that also middle-income households experience a relative high incidence of energy poverty, other type of policies may be warranted to support them.
This is the case of price caps, which reduce the burden of expenditures on energy goods, or structural interventions that step-up energy efficiency by reducing the need of energy consumption. Further, monetary policies such as subsidies to improve energy efficiencies could also reduce the burden of energy expenditures on households.
Finally, behavioural levers, such as assisting consumers in setting goals for reducing energy consumption through apps and educational campaigns to empower individuals to make investments choices that improve energy efficiency, may also be effective in reducing the energy poverty phenomenon.
