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Category: Europe

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Scottish Greens hail private jet tax review

    Source: Scottish Greens

    08 Oct 2024 Transport Climate Action

    A private jet tax can fund our transition to a greener future.

    More in Transport

    The Scottish Greens have welcomed an announcement that the Scottish Government will be reviewing air departure tax rates, including for private jets specifically.

    Answering a question at the Finance and Public Administration Committee this morning, the Cabinet Secretary said the rates and bands, including the rates on private jet flights, would be reviewed to ensure they align with net zero ambitions.

    There were 12,911 recorded private flights to and from Scotland’s airports in 2023. A recent Oxfam study suggested a tax on these flights could raise up to £21.5 million. Private jets have estimated climate emissions of up to 14 times that of commercial flights.

    The Scottish Greens transport spokesperson, Mark Ruskell MSP, said: “Private jets have a huge environmental impact, and while their super-rich occupants pinball between their golf courses and yachts, it’s taxpayers who are left paying for the damage.

    “We all know that we urgently need to reduce aviation emissions, and one of the easiest ways to do that is to reduce private jet use. Taxing them fairly would deter such reckless flights, help move people to more sustainable modes of transport, and raise the funds to help us to mitigate the destructive impact they have on the rest of us.

    “We all know Labour cuts at Westminster mean money is tight in Scotland. But it isn’t enough to point this out, we must use every lever at our disposal to raise the funds we need for essential services and climate action. I can think of no better way of raising these funds than taxing super-rich polluters.”

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Can visiting genocide memorials make you more empathic?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Magnus Linden, Associate professor of psychology, Lund University

    National memorial to the victims of the Rwandan genocide in Kigali. Oscar Espinosa/Shutterstock

    Each year, people visit museums and memorial sites as part of educational interventions organised around the remembrance of a genocide or an atrocity. Many schools visit a concentration camp as part of Holocaust education, such as Auschwitz-Birkenau. Others travel to memorial sites associated with other genocides, such as the massacre of Muslim men fleeing Srebrenica in Bosnia or the Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Cambodia.

    Two important goals for such education are to foster empathy towards the victims and to increase students’ personal identification with them as a group. In this context, empathy is the ability to feel with the victims and to be able to take their perspective .

    But what does science say about the effect of visiting genocidal memorial sites on empathy and identification with a victim group? Our study, published in Holocaust Studies in July, sheds some light on the question.

    The science of empathy

    While we may justly think of empathy as a personality feature, it is also a capacity that can be activated through social experiences. When we identify with a group of victims we perceive a “we” connecting us with the members of the group.

    We do know that both empathy and identification with another group have been shown to foster positive relations with others.

    They are also important qualities that can protect people threatened by genocide. Empathy was an important factor among those who helped persecuted people to survive during the Holocaust and the genocide in Rwanda, for example.

    Evidence suggests that Israeli high-school students visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau may increase their empathy towards Palestinians. That’s if they initially are already somewhat positive towards Palestinians in principle and if they are prepared to see suffering in universal rather than national terms.

    Auschwitz-Birkenau.
    wikipedia, CC BY-SA

    It has also been shown that groups of Polish students visiting Auschwitz-Birkenau increased their identification with Jews as a group before and after visiting the concentration camp.

    Clear evidence

    In our recent study, we investigated 143 high-school students from Malmö in Sweden, of which 46 took a short course on the Holocaust, including a trip to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

    We collected data both before and after the trip. We measured two facets of empathy in the students, “empathic concern” (such as “I often have tender, concerned feelings for people less fortunate than me”) and “perspective taking” (such as “Before criticising somebody, I try to imagine how I would feel if I were in their place”).

    We also measured to what extent they identified with Jews as a group by ratings of how close they felt.

    The results for this group were then compared with responses from a control group of students who did not participate in the course or trip to Auschwitz.

    We found that the Holocaust education and trip increased the students’ preparedness to identify with and take the perspective of Jews compared to those who didn’t go. However, both groups showed similar amount of empathic concern.

    Looking more closely at the change registered among students after the trip, we also found that a feeling of increased closeness to Jews as a group was related to increased perspective taking.

    Our work suggests a role of genocide education in fostering a broad empathic understanding of a victim group’s life and culture. This can provide important stimulation for students to put themselves in the shoes of an often “otherised” group, whose experience of hate and violence can be appreciated as if it is known from the inside.

    This is clearly important at a time when both Holocaust denial and Islamophobia are rising.

    Remaining mysteries

    There is a great need for more research on moral education interventions that involves a site or museum visit. Evaluating how this education works, and which aspects that have the intended effects, is of key importance. Cutting edge scientific methods, such as virtual reality, are now just beginning to make a difference to education in this area.

    We will next be working to pinpoint how trips to sites of atrocity affect students’ moral values, attitudes or behaviour.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Can visiting genocide memorials make you more empathic? – https://theconversation.com/can-visiting-genocide-memorials-make-you-more-empathic-239854

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: UN extends Kenyan policing mission in Haiti in futile attempt to tackle gangs

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Amalendu Misra, Professor of International Politics, Lancaster University

    Haiti is being choked to death by its 200 or so violent criminal gangs. The latest figures to be released by the UN suggest that more than 3,600 people have been killed in the country since January, including over 100 children, while more than 500,000 Haitians have been displaced.

    The situation prompted the country’s unelected prime minister, Ariel Henry, to resign in April. And, two months later, a Kenyan-led policing mission tasked with establishing order was deployed to the Caribbean nation. But the operation has so far struggled to rein in the gangs.

    So, the UN security council unanimously adopted a resolution on September 30 to extend the mandate of the mission for another year. There was consensus that the law-and-order situation in Haiti is still deteriorating by the day.

    The move to extend the mission is, in my opinion, hollow and fails to address the real challenges on the ground. It doesn’t tackle the rampant arms trafficking that is fuelling the violence in Haiti, nor does it secure the funding that will allow the mission to operate effectively.



    Read more:
    How Haiti became a failed state

    Haiti has no firearms or ammunition manufacturing capabilities. Yet the country’s gangs are brutalising the masses with all sorts of sophisticated small arms, including sniper rifles, pump-action shotguns and automatic weapons of every kind.

    All of these weapons originate outside of the island, primarily from the US, but also from neighbouring Dominican Republic and Jamaica. Experts say lax firearm laws in the US states of Arizona, Florida and Georgia have created a sophisticated arms peddling racket into Haiti.

    There is no exact number for how many trafficked firearms are currently in Haiti. But Haiti’s disarmament commission estimated in 2020 that there could be as many as 500,000 small arms in Haiti illegally – a number that is now likely to be even higher. This figure dwarfs the 38,000 registered firearms in the country.

    The effectiveness of the Kenyan operation is also being undermined by gross resource limitations. While the mission was approved by the UN security council, it is not a UN operation and relies on voluntary financial contributions. It was originally promised US$600 million (£458 million) by UN member nations, but it has received only a fraction of that fund.

    According to Human Rights Watch, the mission has so far received a mere US$85 million in contributions through a trust fund set up by the UN. Haiti’s former colonial master, France, and several other G7 countries have not been so forthcoming.

    Inadequate funding has hindered the procurement of advanced weaponry, delayed the payment of police officers’ salaries and has prevented the deployment of more forces on the ground.

    Just 400 Kenyan officers and two dozen policemen from Jamaica have arrived in Haiti so far. This is significantly less than the 2,500 officers pledged initially by various countries including Chad, Benin, Bangladesh and Barbados.

    This financial woe has had a negative impact not only on the morale of Kenyan police officers, but it has also made Haitians despondent. Haitians are increasingly expressing impatience and disappointment with the Kenyan force in the media and online.

    Some critics have accused the officers of being “tourists”, and have pointed out that the gangs have tightened their grip on large swathes of Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, since the mission began.

    The pessimism within Haiti was eloquently highlighted by the country’s interim prime minister, Garry Conille, on September 25. Speaking on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meet in New York, he confessed: “We are nowhere near winning this, and the simple reality is that we won’t without your help.”

    Advantage gangs

    Finding the Kenyan-led operation a mere irritant, and not a worthy adversary, the gangs have only stepped up the ante. According to a spokesperson for Volker Türk, the UN’s human rights chief, the country’s armed gangs are now doing “everything they can” to maintain control. This has included using sexual assault to instil fear on local populations and expand their influence.

    Some UN member nations, such as the US and Ecuador, have requested that a formal UN peacekeeping mission takes place. And, despite previous peacekeeping operations in the country being marred in controversy, Haiti has asked the UN to consider turning the current operation into a peacekeeping mission.



    Read more:
    Haiti: first Kenyan police arrive to help tackle gang violence – but the prospects for success are slim

    This mission, which would probably include a larger contingent of troops, should not face the same financial constraints as the current operation. It would have greater visibility on the ground, and more fire power and authority to tackle the gangs.

    Past evidence also demonstrates that UN peackeeping missions significantly reduce civilian casualties, shorten conflicts and help make peace agreements stick.

    However, the recent push for a peacekeeping mission was thwarted because of opposition by China and Russia, two of the five permanent veto-wielding members of the UN security council.

    Beijing and Moscow have consistently argued that political conditions in Haiti are “not conducive” to a new UN peacekeeping operation. They have maintained that the current operation “should reach its full operational capacity before discussing such a transformation”.

    Meanwhile, the gangs continue tightening their vice-like grip on the country, with accounts emerging of rampant sexual violence against civilians, the closure of humanitarian corridors, the extension of their territorial control and – of course – even more killings.

    Amalendu Misra is a recipient of Nuffield Foundation and British Academy research grants.

    – ref. UN extends Kenyan policing mission in Haiti in futile attempt to tackle gangs – https://theconversation.com/un-extends-kenyan-policing-mission-in-haiti-in-futile-attempt-to-tackle-gangs-240234

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Turkey’s plan to recycle more has made life hard for its informal waste pickers

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Tulin Dzhengiz, Lecturer in Sustainability, Manchester Metropolitan University

    A waste picker towing his cart through a street in Antalya, Turkey. Evgeny Haritonov/Shutterstock

    Turkey’s 500,000 or so informal waste pickers carry out around 80% of the recycling in the country. These workers, who are also known as çekçekçi, are essential for separating out waste in a country where this is rarely done at source.

    But their lives are precarious. Most of them are unregistered, lack social security, and have no access to basic services such as healthcare. And now they find themselves affected by efforts that formalise Turkey’s waste management system.

    Many of the workers are migrants. But large-scale immigration over recent years, particularly from conflict zones such as Afghanistan and Syria, has contributed to a rise in nationalistic sentiment throughout the country.

    This has seen immigrants – and particularly waste pickers – portrayed in a negative fashion. Waste pickers have, for instance, been labelled “şehir eşkıyası” (urban bandits) by the media. And many people have argued that Turkiye’s informal waste-picking practices should come to an end.

    Yavuz Eroğlu, the president of a non-profit organisation called PAGÇEV that promotes plastic recycling in Turkey, pointed out recently that the country’s “real problem” is its informal waste collection system. In Eroğlu’s view, informal waste picking impedes the effective scaling of recycling initiatives and prevents Turkey from improving its position in the global recycling market.

    Recycling facilities in Turkey require a steady and substantial supply of raw waste materials to function efficiently. But, according to the Turkish Statistics Institution, a mere 12% of the country’s municipal waste was recovered in 2018 – and it is not clear how much of this was actually recycled. This is not nearly enough to keep recycling companies afloat.

    So, in an effort to improve Turkey’s domestic waste management, the Turkish government launched an initiative in 2022 to regulate and formalise waste collection. The legislation requires that local authorities work exclusively with licensed recyclers and registered pickers to sort through and sell waste.

    Resistance movements have subsequently emerged within the çekçekçi community that advocate for the rights and recognition of informal waste pickers in Turkey. These movements have either reinforced the importance of existing waste picker collectives, or led to the creation of new non-profit organisations and cooperatives.

    In Istanbul, for example, the Şişli municipality launched an environmental waste collectors cooperative in 2023 in an attempt to formally integrate informal waste pickers into the municipal waste management system.

    This has involved registering waste pickers, issuing official identification cards, and providing them with access to designated waste collection zones. Similar models have also emerged in different parts of the country. But many of Turkey’s waste pickers remain locked out of the new formal system.

    The framing of informality as the problem is not new, nor is it limited to representatives of Turkey’s plastic recycling industry. In August 2021, the governor of Istanbul’s office ordered a crackdown on informal waste collection activities.

    Police carried out raids on nearly 100 waste collection depots and seized 650 collection carts. More than 200 people were detained in the raids, including 145 Afghan migrants who were sent to a deportation centre.

    The governor’s office justified the action by citing environmental and public health concerns, as well as the unregulated nature of employment in informal waste picking. In a statement, the office argued that unauthorised waste collection leads to unfair profits and announced that inspections would continue.

    Waste workers responded by criticising the governor’s claims and expressed frustration over being labelled as benefiting from unfair profits while living in precarious conditions without social security or a stable income.

    Importing more waste

    In fieldwork carried out between March and April 2024, I spoke with representatives of waste collectors, junk shop owners and waste traders in Istanbul.

    Some reported that there had been a decline in waste-picking rates since the crackdown of 2021. Waste collectors and their representatives expressed concerns that this decline could lead to a further reduction in domestic recycling rates and increase the reliance of recycling facilities on imported waste.

    Turkey is already one of the largest importers of waste from Europe. In 2022, for example, Turkey accounted for 39% of Europe’s waste exports, which included around 400,000 tonnes of plastic.

    Turkiye is a major importer of waste from Europe.
    Sahan Nuhoglu / Shutterstock

    This waste has serious consequences for the environment and human health. A Greenpeace report published in 2022 found that toxins released from Turkey’s plastic waste end up in the fruit and vegetables produced in the Çukurova valley, one of the most fertile valleys in the world.

    A continued decline in domestic waste collection in Turkey would create a vicious cycle. The value of Turkey’s own waste will decrease, further impoverishing informal waste pickers, all while the country’s reliance on imported waste grows to sustain its recycling infrastructure.

    The future of informal waste picking in Turkey remains uncertain. But as the country continues to formalise its waste management system, the challenges facing the sector’s informal workers must not be ignored.

    Tulin Dzhengiz receives funding from Manchester Metropolitan University’s Research Accelarator Grant to carry out this research.

    – ref. Turkey’s plan to recycle more has made life hard for its informal waste pickers – https://theconversation.com/turkeys-plan-to-recycle-more-has-made-life-hard-for-its-informal-waste-pickers-238661

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Sellafield Ltd welcomes its largest ever graduate cohort

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    More than 140 graduates have started at Sellafield Ltd.

    Graduate intake event 2024.

    Over 140 graduates have just started their exciting careers with the company in a range of business and technical disciplines, supporting Sellafield Ltd in its mission to create a clean and safe environment for future generations.

    Our scheme aims to equip graduates with the skills, knowledge and behaviours necessary for a successful career in the nuclear industry, while offering the opportunity to build valuable professional networks.

    One of the graduates who has just completed the two year scheme is commissioning engineer Anouschka Van Mourik.

    Just before completing the scheme, Anouschka was honoured as Graduate of the Year thanks to her consistent work delivery and enthusiasm for undertaking new opportunities to develop her skills.

    Anouschka Van Mourik, Graduate of the Year

    Anouschka has also been involved in the Gender Balance network, mentoring scheme, and local events supporting the Institute of Engineering and Technology network as well as the Women in Nuclear group.

    She said:

    Being named Graduate of the Year was an incredible honour. The graduate scheme has been an amazing journey, rich with development and personal growth. I’ve not only advanced in my day-to-day job but also nurtured my passion for inspiring others to pursue careers in STEM.

    After earning my degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Sellafield has played a vital role in further developing my skills and supporting my personal and professional growth.

    As we celebrate the successes of our current graduates, we are also excited to look ahead to the future. Applications for the 2025 graduate scheme are now open, with roles available in a variety of areas ranging from engineering to project management and finance.

    To find out more about the Sellafield graduate scheme, visit the Sellafield careers website.

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 October 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: MHRA asks patients to report without delay any safety problem with their continuous glucose monitor or insulin pump

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is asking patients who use a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) or insulin pump to report any safety problem with their device through the MHRA Yellow Card scheme without delay.

    Over 5.6 million people in the UK live with diabetes, many of whom rely on these devices to manage their condition, and their use can significantly improve the quality of life for patients.

    However, adverse incidents relating to these devices can occur, and while most of these incidents do not result in harm to the patient, they can potentially lead to the incorrect amount of insulin which can lead to abnormal blood sugar levels, with potentially serious health consequences.

    The MHRA utilises the Yellow Card reporting scheme for signal detection and trending activities to identify safety concerns that may require action. As of January 2023, the MHRA has received fewer than 300 Yellow Card reports from healthcare professionals and members of the public relating to these devices, which is significantly fewer than we would expect given their widespread use. The MHRA is therefore reminding users how to report adverse incidents and potential safety issues to us.

    To aid this vital reporting, the MHRA has today, Tuesday 08 October, introduced new step-by-step guidance, giving individuals living with diabetes detailed information on how to report any safety concerns with their device and what information they need to include. This guidance provides examples of the types of issues which should be flagged and images to help guide users in their reporting.

    Dr Alison Cave, MHRA Chief Safety Officer, said:

    Patient safety is our top priority, which is why we urge anyone using devices to manage their diabetes to report to us without delay any safety concerns they may have. We know adverse incidents can occur with the use of these devices. The vast majority of these incidents don’t result in harm but potentially could have serious consequences.

    Every report is valuable to us as it will provide valuable insight and potentially inform future regulatory measures designed to protect patients. We are ready to take whatever action is needed.

    If you are concerned that there is an issue with any of your diabetes devices, please use the guidance [LINK] to complete a Yellow Card report online using the Yellow Card website or via the free Yellow Card app.

     Douglas Twenefour, Head of Care at Diabetes UK, said:

    Diabetes technology can be a life-changing tool, helping people living with the condition improve their quality of life.

    Unfortunately, we know that sometimes this technology doesn’t work as intended, so it is important that users of diabetes tech have a clear and accessible way to report any issues with continuous glucose monitors, insulin pumps and pens.

    Diabetes UK welcomes any guidance that gives reassurance for people using diabetes tech to highlight potential problems quickly and easily. We would encourage anyone with a concern about diabetes tech to report it, as this vital information can help improve the quality of devices.

    However, if there is any immediate concern about technology that could affect a person’s safety, advice from an appropriate healthcare professional should be sought first.

    Professor Partha Kar, NHS England Type 1 Diabetes & Technology lead, said:

    We welcome this work and its important role in ensuring safety while we oversee the widespread adoption of diabetes technologies using continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps.

    These devices can be life-changing for people living with diabetes, giving them the confidence to go about their days knowing they are safe and able to enjoy themselves, so their operationally effectiveness is of paramount importance.

    This initiative will help to ensure standards stay at the highest level as the market continues to expand with new developers.

    The MHRA also urges people to speak to a healthcare professional without delay if they have concerns that their health may have been impacted by a potential safety issue relating to their device.

    Examples of the types of issue with continuous glucose monitors and insulin pumps that should be reported include:

    • Concerns with accuracy of delivery from the insulin pump (for example, suspected underdose or overdose, unexpected bolus doses, non-delivery of insulin)
    • Concerns with accuracy of results from a continuous glucose monitor (CGM). As part of your report, please tell us what the readings were on both the CGM and the approved blood glucose meter (see page 6) including the time elapsed between the 2 readings

    • Skin reaction to the sensor adhesive. If a patch test was carried out, please let us know.

    • Technology concerns, such as:

      • Connectivity issues between the various parts of the diabetes management system

      • Concerns with the touchscreen, display or buttons

    • Physical failures, including leaks and cracks

    ENDS

    Notes to editors

    1. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is responsible for regulating all medicines and medical devices in the UK by ensuring they work and are acceptably safe.  All our work is underpinned by robust and fact-based judgements to ensure that the benefits justify any risks.
    2. The MHRA is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care.
    3. More information can be found on the Device Safety Information page.
    4. For media enquiries, please contact the newscentre@mhra.gov.uk

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 October 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Have your say about new Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Natural England is seeking views on a new Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in the Yorkshire Wolds

    An image of mist on the Yorkshire Wolds.

    Natural England has today (8th October) launched a statutory and public consultation for proposed plans to designate part of the Yorkshire Wolds as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).  

    This will be the formal consultation phase and will remain open for 14 weeks (closing midnight on the 13th January 2025). Local authorities and all interested parties can comment on the proposed AONB and the evidence which supports it.   

    AONBs were recently rebranded as National Landscapes however, in legal terms, Natural England would designate an AONB.

    To avoid confusion, Natural England will use the term AONB throughout the consultation process. If an AONB is subsequently designated, it would then be known as a National Landscape.    

    Plans to designate a Yorkshire Wolds AONB are part of an ambitious programme of landscape designation and is one of four new projects to help deliver on the Government’s commitment to safeguard more of England’s beautiful and iconic landscapes for future generations.  

    The Yorkshire Wolds is a tranquil, beautiful landscape, known for dramatic steep sided dry valleys, high but gentle escarpments, dramatic coastal cliffs, and open, rolling agricultural plateaus.

    Natural and cultural heritage in the area includes ancient woodland, species rich grasslands, chalk streams, Iron Age settlements, abandoned Medieval villages and Georgian manors and parkland. The Wolds also include a prominent chalk cliff and foothills rising from the Vale of York to the west and the Vale of Pickering to the north.  

    Designating this precious landscape as an AONB could bring many benefits including conserving and enhancing the area’s natural beauty and cultural heritage, as well as the magnificent views and tranquillity of the area.

    It could give improved access to nature for the benefit of people’s health and wellbeing, whilst safeguarding an important landscape for future generations. AONBs can also boost economic growth and sustainable local tourism.   

    Paul Duncan, Deputy Director for Natural England, said:  

    The Yorkshire Wolds is a truly special area, and it is important that everyone, including people who live in and around the community, has their say in this national designation project.     

    We’re inviting anyone interested in this fantastic landscape to take the time to examine the proposals and provide their views and comments about the natural beauty of the Yorkshire Wolds, its condition, natural and cultural heritage, and scenic qualities. You can also comment on the desirability of the designation and the proposed boundary. Evidence that you provide could be vital in helping us refine our proposals.  

    Cllr Anne Handley East Riding of Yorkshire Council Leader, said:  

    I’m delighted that the Yorkshire Wolds, a large part of which is situated in East Riding, are being considered for national level designation.

    We are very lucky to have a range of fabulous natural assets from the Wolds to the coast, which attracts millions of visitors each year. It is fantastic to see the area, with its outstanding natural beauty, considered for such a significant status. 

    Shaun Berry Head of Environment & Sustainability of North Yorkshire County Council said:   

    We know how important North Yorkshire’s beautiful natural landscape is, to the people who live and work in and around it, those who visit from across the UK and the world and the businesses that serve those visitors.

    We already see these benefits in the county’s two National Parks and other areas of outstanding natural beauty in Nidderdale, the Howardian Hills and the Forest of Bowland, so I urge local people to have their say about this opportunity.    

    There will be a number of drop-in events and webinars to show the proposals and explain how people can have their say.

    Details of these events, along with copies of the consultation documents, information about the designation process and what an AONB means are available to view and download on the consultation website here.  

    People will also have the chance to view the documents at the drop in events and in a small number of local libraries and local authority offices, details of which are on the website. 

    Paper copies of the consultation pack can be requested by emailing the Natural England designation team on YorksWoldsDesignationProject@naturalengland.org.uk  or telephoning 0300 060 3900.

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 October 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Global: No antidote for bad polls: Recalling the New York Times’ 1956 election experiment in shoe-leather reporting

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By W. Joseph Campbell, Professor Emeritus of Communication, American University School of Communication

    President Dwight Eisenhower and his wife, Mamie, left, with Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife, Pat, greet crowds after Adlai Stevenson conceded defeat on Nov. 7, 1956. Bettmann/Getty Images

    In response to national pollsters’ failure in forecasting election outcomes in 1948 and 1952, The New York Times pursued in 1956 a weekslong, multistate exercise in on-the-ground reporting to assess public opinion about the presidential race.

    The Times’ experiment, which these days would be recognized as “shoe-leather reporting,” included two dozen journalists assigned to four teams that, in all, traveled to 27 battleground states over several weeks before the election – a rematch between President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a Republican, and his Democratic rival, Adlai E. Stevenson.

    The reporting teams interviewed scores of Americans from all walks of life in an attempt to gauge voter preferences qualitatively – without relying on the data of preelection polls. One of the participating Times reporters declared afterward that the teams-based campaign coverage represented “a new departure in journalism.”

    In unintended testimony to the challenges of measuring public opinion across a sprawling country, the Times’ coverage was no significant improvement over the polls. The Times’ reporting notably failed to anticipate the magnitude of Eisenhower’s reelection — a lopsided victory in which he carried 41 states.

    In its final report before the election, the Times concluded that Eisenhower would win reelection but would fail to match the sweep of his landslide four years earlier. As it turned out, Eisenhower easily exceeded the dimensions of his victory in 1952, when his winning margin was 10.5 percentage points.

    The Times’ coverage also failed to foresee Eisenhower’s state victories in 1956 in Virginia, Oklahoma and West Virginia, and markedly underestimated the president’s support in Connecticut, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Texas, among other states.

    The Times’ reporting experiment proved an imperfect substitute to election polling, as I discussed in a research paper presented recently to the American Journalism Historians Association. In the paper, I defined “shoe-leather reporting” as the gathering of newsworthy content through in-person interviews, document searches and on-the-scene observations. The idiom presumes that journalists will pursue fieldwork so energetically as to wear out their shoes.

    “Shoe-leather reporting” has been long celebrated in American media; a widely published journalism educator has described the practice as “mythical” and “one of a very few gods an American journalist can officially pray to.”

    New York Times staffer Max Frankel was taken off the rewrite desk in 1956 and sent knocking on doors ‘to gather voter sentiment’ in Wisconsin, Texas, Virginia and Missouri.
    Ban Martin/Archive Photos/Getty Images

    Crises skew projections

    The Times’ experiment in 1956 represents an exceptional case study about both the appeal and limitations of detailed, interview-based reporting as a method for measuring public opinion in a presidential race, especially when dramatic international events occur shortly before the election.

    Such was the case in 1956, when the Egyptian government seized the Suez Canal, prompting military intervention by Israeli, British and French armed forces — a response that Eisenhower deplored. About the same time, Soviet tanks were ordered into Hungary to crush an uprising against communist rule and install a regime compliant to Moscow.

    The international crises may have boosted the margin of victory for Eisenhower, an Army general during World War II, in a rally-round-the-president effect.

    It was, in any event, polling failure that inspired the Times’ campaign coverage experiment.

    Eight years earlier, in 1948, the polls, the press and pundits anticipated that Republican Thomas E. Dewey would oust Democrat Harry S. Truman, who had become president on the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1945.

    But on the strength of a vigorous, cross-country campaign, Truman prevailed over Dewey and two minor-party candidates to win.

    The leading national pollsters of the time — George Gallup, Archibald Crossley and Elmo Roper — all predicted Dewey’s easy victory. Roper announced in early September 1948 that Dewey was so far ahead that he would stop releasing survey results. Dewey, said Roper, would win “by a heavy margin.”

    Truman, who predicted that pollsters would be “red-faced” on the day after the election, carried 28 states and 303 electoral votes. His margin of victory over Dewey, who won 16 states and 189 electoral votes, was 4.5 percentage points. J. Strom Thurmond of the segregationist Dixiecrat Party carried four Deep South states and 39 electoral votes.

    Not tied to ‘arithmetic of polls’

    Not surprisingly, Gallup, Crossley and Roper turned exceedingly cautious in evaluating the 1952 presidential race, maintaining as the campaign closed that either candidate could win.

    Eisenhower, they said, seemed to hold a narrow lead but that Stevenson was closing fast. Or as the Times said in reporting about a public gathering of the pollsters shortly before the election: “The poll takers gave a slight edge in the popular vote to … Eisenhower, the Republican candidate, but this was their dilemma: How fast is … Stevenson, the Democratic nominee, catching up?”

    Equivocation did not serve the pollsters well. None of them anticipated Eisenhower’s sweeping victory — a 39-state landslide.

    The Times did not editorially rebuke pollsters for their misfire in 1952, but the newspaper’s editors, wrote Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Max Frankel in his memoir, had “lost confidence in polls.”

    To cover the 1956 presidential election, the Times de-emphasized opinion polls in favor of its own intensive, on-the-ground reporting that focused on states where the presidential race was believed to be closely contested.

    The New York Times sent reporters across the country to interview people like these men listening to Democratic Party presidential candidate Adlai Stevenson on his October 1956 whistle-stop tour of the Midwest.
    Bert Hardy/Picture Post/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

    Frankel, who rose through the ranks to become the Times’ executive editor, recalled being taken off the rewrite desk in 1956 and sent knocking on doors “to gather voter sentiment. I drove through odd precincts of Milwaukee and Austin (Texas), Arlington (Virginia) and St. Joseph (Missouri), feeding notes” to a colleague on one of the reporting teams.

    The teams typically spent three days in a state, conducting interviews “with political scientists and policemen, leading politicians and bartenders, laborers, housewives and farmers,” the newspaper said.

    The Times described its grassroots reporting as “surveys,” although they were not quantitative samples.

    “Team members found value in not being tied to the arithmetic of polls,” one of the participants, Donald D. Janson, wrote in a post-election assessment for the Nieman Reports, a journalism industry publication.

    “The scope and depth of the venture was a new departure in journalism,” Janson declared.

    The process was impressionistic, even idiosyncratic. “Each reporter,” Janson wrote, “was free to judge each response, from politician and voter alike, for reliability.”

    The Times published 36 state-specific preelection reports, including nine based on reporters’ follow-up visits to states where outcomes were expected to be especially close.

    In its wrap-up report two days before the election, the Times said it “seemed doubtful” that Eisenhower’s margin “would be as great as it was in 1952.” In fact, Eisenhower’s victory in 1956 far surpassed that of 1952; in the rematch, he crushed Stevenson by more than 9.5 million votes.

    The Times conceded in an after-election article that its teams-based coverage “did not anticipate the magnitude of the President’s victory,” which it attributed to the Suez crisis and turmoil in Hungary. The crises, the Times said, “apparently gave the final impetus to the Eisenhower landslide.”

    No antidote for bad polls

    The 1956 experiment in shoe-leather reporting was no rousing success. “There was some feeling,” Janson wrote afterward, “that the Times should stick to reporting trends and let the pollsters make the forecasts.”

    Preelection polls by Gallup and Roper in 1956 accurately pointed to Eisenhower’s victory but overstated the president’s popular vote. Eisenhower won by 15 points; Gallup and Roper estimated his margin of victory would be 19 points. By 1956, Crossley had sold his business and retired from preelection polling.

    Roper declared himself “personally pleased” by the outcome but reluctant to take “any bows for perfect accuracy.”

    Given the unreliability of preelection polls in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Times had ample reason to experiment in seeking a more precise understanding of popular opinion. But as results of the 1956 election demonstrated, shoe-leather reporting was no antidote for the wayward polls.

    W. Joseph Campbell 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.

    – ref. No antidote for bad polls: Recalling the New York Times’ 1956 election experiment in shoe-leather reporting – https://theconversation.com/no-antidote-for-bad-polls-recalling-the-new-york-times-1956-election-experiment-in-shoe-leather-reporting-237523

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Kamala Harris has spoken of her racial backgrounds − but a shared identity isn’t enough to attract supporters

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Pawan Dhingra, Associate Provost and Professor of American Studies, Amherst College

    Vice President Kamala Harris greets guests during a reception for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month at the White House in May 2022. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

    In one of the most memorable moments of the current presidential campaign, Donald Trump in July 2024 contended that Democratic nominee Kamala Harris recently stopped identifying as Indian and “happened to turn Black.”

    With these false remarks, Trump implied that Harris emphasized one part of her background to appeal to voters and then changed that to appeal to a different group of voters.

    Lost within this controversy has been the underlying assumption in Trump’s comments, that people tend to vote for someone with a shared identity. But is that true? Are Asian Americans, for example, especially likely to vote for Harris because of their shared identity?

    Asian Americans are a quickly growing political constituency that made a difference in 2020 in swing states such as Georgia, Nevada and Arizona, helping elect President Joe Biden. They are positioned to be influential again this November.

    Taken as a whole, Asian Americans lean Democratic in 2024, with 62% favoring Harris, compared with 38% who support Trump. But for Harris, Asian Americans are not as strong a voting bloc as Black Americans, who poll at 77% supporting Harris, according to the Pew Research Center. Harris cannot take Asian Americans’ votes for granted.

    Kamala Harris takes a photo with guests during a White House reception in May 2022 celebrating Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
    Associated Press

    What guides identity politics and voting

    Despite the assumption in Trump’s comments that voters gravitate toward a political candidate who shares parts of their identity, such as race or gender, that is not always the case.

    Voters are more likely to vote for someone with a shared identity when they see a “linked fate.” with the candidate. So, people who have the same ethnicity or race may vote in a similar fashion because they expect to experience the effects of policy changes in the same way. Latinos could be more likely to vote for a Latino candidate because the candidate would prioritize issues that matter to them, such as immigration reform.

    Politicians, for their part, can try to encourage people with whom they share an identity to believe in a linked fate to win their vote. In order to do this, candidates can play up issues that affect their identity group and then make the case that they are best equipped and more motivated to address those problems.

    For instance, women rank abortion rights as a key issue and trust Harris to understand it.

    In order to earn voters’ support, candidates must also come across as likely to act in their supporters’ shared interests. This helps explain why people who care about so-called women’s issues, such as education or health care, are more likely to vote for a Democratic woman than a Republican woman. People generally think that Democrats represent women better than Republicans do – and they would not assume that a Republican female politician would champion women’s issues just because of her gender.

    With this in mind, a candidate wanting to secure the vote of a group must first know what issues matter to them and then demonstrate that they understand the group well enough to earn their vote.

    Asian Americans, like most Americans, list the economy, inflation, health care, crime, Social Security, the price of housing and immigration as their top issues in this election.

    In order to effectively appeal to Asian American voters, Harris could demonstrate first that she identifies as Asian in order to invoke their shared identity. She could also show that she both understands the issues that Asian Americans care about and that she can be trusted to act in ways they favor on those issues.

    To an extent, Harris has already worked to publicly identify with her South Asian heritage. She has referred to her mother’s immigrant background and has talked about her grandfather who lived in Chennai, in southern India. She has made references to her ethnic culture, such as when she mentioned coconut trees and cooked the traditional South Indian dish dosa in a video with fellow Indian American Mindy Kaling.

    New Hampshire delegate Sumathi Madhure attends the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2024.
    Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

    Connecting to Asian Americans

    Once solidifying that they share an identity with a group of voters, political candidates must demonstrate that they understand how the group experiences the issues that matter to them. The concerns of Asian Americans arise out of specific experiences they have – such as immigration.

    Asian Americans, for example, often complain about the long wait to sponsor family members abroad for visas to the U.S. At the same time, Asian Americans represent 15% of immigrants living in the U.S. without a visa.

    Asian Americans are also concerned about the growing government backlog of visas and smugglers whom immigrants pay to help them illegally cross the border.

    Harris often speaks about immigration and the U.S.-Mexico border, but not in personal terms – or about how this issue specifically relates to Asians.

    While all U.S. residents are affected by inflation, small-business owners, in particular, feel the pinch. They must pay higher prices for goods but have limited capital with which to do so. They also must navigate higher interest rates.

    While Asian Americans make up about 7% of the total U.S. population, they represent 10% of business owners and are the largest nonwhite group of small-business owners.

    Harris talks about the economy and inflation, as well as the need to support small-business owners, but not about how these issues specifically affect Asian Americans. Her only ad targeting Asian Americans has focused on hate crimes against them.

    And Asian Americans, like most voters, strongly support Social Security and other federal programs that aim to ensure stability for the elderly. Harris could speak of how Social Security is the sole income source for over a quarter of Asian Americans – and for a third of African Americans – compared with 18% of white Americans.

    Harris seems poised to capture the majority of the Asian American vote, which leans Democratic. But to what extent they vote for her – and with how much enthusiasm – will depend on Harris’ ability to connect with them as Asian Americans and the issues they care about.

    Pawan Dhingra 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.

    – ref. Kamala Harris has spoken of her racial backgrounds − but a shared identity isn’t enough to attract supporters – https://theconversation.com/kamala-harris-has-spoken-of-her-racial-backgrounds-but-a-shared-identity-isnt-enough-to-attract-supporters-237107

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: European court ruling finds just cause to award soccer players greater freedom of movement

    Source: The Conversation – USA – By Stefan Szymanski, Professor of Sport Management, University of Michigan

    A ruling that Harry Kane may be happy about? James Gill/Danehouse via Getty Images

    Many of us have quit a job at some point in our lives – but how many have wondered if they had “just cause” to do so? Were you acting on a whim? Did your departure make life difficult for your employer? And did your desire to move on really outweigh the loss this meant for your boss?

    Just cause can be a real problem for professional soccer players who want to change teams. Under the soccer transfer system created and operated by FIFA, the sport’s world governing body, players who quit without showing just cause – that is, who fail to show that their employer treated them in manner that is demonstrably unfair – can be subject to significant financial and disciplinary penalties.

    But that could soon change. On Oct. 4, 2024, the European Court of Justice took a major step toward dismantling an employment system that placed undue burden on employees and, thankfully, was dispensed with for the rest of us long ago.

    As a sports economist, I have written about this subject for several years now, and I know of no system outside of sports that restrains the rights of the employee to a comparable extent.

    An object lesson for FIFA

    The legal case is complicated, but the essence of it is that Lassana Diarra, a star player for Lokomotiv Moscow back in 2014, got into a dispute with the Russian club while under contract and quit. He then got a job offer from a Belgian club but was unable to take it because of the FIFA transfer regulations.

    Europe’s top court ruled in favor of former French international Lassana Diarra.
    Photo by Jean Catuffe/Getty Images

    Under the governing body’s rules, not only was Diarra expected to pay damages to Lokomotiv amounting to US$11.5 million plus interest, but he was unable to take a job with any club until the dispute was settled. A formal suspension was not enforced, because Diarra had already been unable to work for 11 months.

    But Diarra countersued, claiming the regulations of FIFA unreasonably restricted his employment rights. The case has passed through many stages, until the highest court in Europe finally delivered its decision.

    The court struck down two specific parts of FIFA’s regulations: the rule that an International Transfer Certificate, required by a player to move from one country to another, cannot be issued until the dispute is settled; and the stipulation that any new employer of the player is jointly and severally liable for any damages against the player due to the old club, regardless of whether that employer played a role in the dispute.

    The court, which has historically been deferential toward sports governing bodies and their regulations, was highly critical of FIFA’s transfer system. It declared the rules anti-competitive “by object” and not just “by effect.” In the view of the court, the rules were not merely aimed at ensuring an orderly market for soccer player services, but amounted to a “non-poaching agreement,” arguing that they were intended to restrain competition for players in order to benefit the clubs.

    An end to transfer fees?

    The decision means that FIFA will have to rewrite its transfer rules in a way that demonstrates that the system has a clear and legal purpose. The regulations will be deemed legitimate, the court said, for the purposes of guaranteeing “contractual stability” and ensuring that clubs have the right to receive compensation when there’s breach of contract.

    A player who quits while under contract will still need to demonstrate just cause – unfair treatment by the club – or else be liable to pay a fine or penalty. But the new system will look very different, and it is hard to see how the payment of transfer fees can survive.

    Last summer alone, clubs in the top five European leagues spent around $5 billion on player transfers. Frequently, there are moves between clubs in each direction, and so cash transfers are smaller than the big money moves that grab the headlines.

    The system deprives some star players of substantial potential earnings.

    Take England national team captain Harry Kane, for example. In 2023, German club Bayern Munich paid London-based Tottenham around $100 million to buy Kane out of the last year of his contract. Kane was being paid about $13 million a year at Tottenham, and he got a four-year contract at Bayern, paying him around $27 million a year.

    While his salary doubled, Kane received only half of what Bayern was prepared to pay to obtain his services, thanks to the FIFA regulations. The rest went to his former club.

    Here is what one might expect to happen from now on: Kane would unilaterally announce that he wanted to leave, and then a club like Bayern could make an offer. Tottenham would no longer have any enforceable claim over Bayern and so no transfer fee would be paid, and Bayern would offer to pay Kane something like $52 million a year.

    Kane would have to pay damages to Tottenham for breach of contract, and the court suggested that these damages might reasonably equal the wages that the club would have paid him for the remainder of the contract – so in the case of Kane, $13 million.

    Clearly Kane would have been much better off if the judgment had arrived a year or two ago.

    Don’t fall for the trickle-down myth

    Soccer fans will be worried that this means financial ruin for their club and increases inequality as the big clubs poach the big stars.

    But I see no reason to think that the sky will fall. As recent research has shown, the transfer system has a negligible effect on the distribution of resources among the clubs. Rather, transfer fee spending is more likely the source of financial instability than its remedy, as some clubs spend extravagantly with unrealistic expectations.

    It is true that club owners hoping to grow rich by developing young players and trading them in the market will believe that they now have fewer opportunities, but for most clubs, this has always been an illusion.

    Big clubs tend to tie up the potential stars in their teens, leaving few opportunities for small clubs to find diamonds in the rough.

    Major League Soccer, the U.S. professional league, for example, has ambitions to one day match the big European leagues and has committed significant resources to developing player talent.

    But recent figures suggest that the league is still a net importer of players – and not just superstars such as Lionel Messi.

    In fact, MLS might actually benefit from the end of the transfer system. There are plenty of talented players who might fancy a year or two in the U.S. if they are not unduly tied down by transfer regulations.

    Blowing the whistle on unfair practices

    But perhaps the biggest impact of the ruling will be on the mass of professional players who do not live in the spotlight.

    FIFA estimates there are around 130,000 professional players worldwide, and most of them earn little in comparison to the super-salaried stars of the world’s biggest clubs.

    Yet, these journeymen and -women players have been bound by the same restrictive system and are often denied the opportunity to change teams – not because they are being offered great riches, but because they want a change of scene, or to be closer to their families.

    FIFPro, the players’ union, has documented numerous cases of onerous employment conditions, which were possible under the repressive transfer system.

    Thanks to the European Court of Justice, those days may soon be over.

    In 2015 I wrote a report for FIFPro on the economic consequences of the transfer system

    – ref. European court ruling finds just cause to award soccer players greater freedom of movement – https://theconversation.com/european-court-ruling-finds-just-cause-to-award-soccer-players-greater-freedom-of-movement-240403

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why a pilot scheme removing peak rail fares should have been allowed to go the distance

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Rachel Scarfe, Lecturer in Economics, University of Stirling

    A pilot removing peak fares on ScotRail trains has ended. Loch Earn/Shutterstock

    Commuters in Scotland faced a shock at ticket machines as the Scottish government abandoned a pilot scheme that removed peak rail fares. During the pilot, tickets were the same price all day. But now that it has ended, the increase in fares is significant. The cost of commuting at peak time from Glasgow to Edinburgh, for example, has gone from £16.20 to £31.40.

    The aim of the pilot, introduced in October 2023, was to encourage what’s known as a “modal shift” from cars to more sustainable transport.

    Defending its decision, the Scottish government made two claims: that the pilot increased passenger numbers by only 6.8% (when an increase of 10% was required for it to be self-financing) and that it mostly benefited wealthier passengers.

    These claims were widely reported, but are they correct? And what does this mean for similar schemes in other countries?

    Passengers using the train to get to and from work benefited most from the pilot, which made travel cheaper at peak times (early morning until around 9am and evenings until around 7pm). It is true that wealthier people in the UK tend to use trains and cars more, while poorer people are more likely to travel by bus.

    The graph below shows how much £100 of train and bus tickets, and £100 of petrol ten years ago would cost today.

    Cost of transport in the UK (2014-2024)

    The increase in train fares has been smoother, but mostly faster, than the increase in petrol prices. However, bus fares have increased faster than both. Scotland has not followed England in capping bus fares, a policy that might have benefited lower-income passengers more.

    In theory, a decrease in price for a product will result in an increase in demand. But it is impossible to calculate exactly how much passenger numbers increased due to the pilot, because we cannot know for sure how many passengers would have travelled anyway (the “counterfactual”).

    To estimate the rise in demand brought about by cheaper fares, we must make assumptions about the counterfactual, where peak fares remained in place. This is especially difficult for two reasons. First, the pilot began as passenger numbers were rising again after the COVID lockdowns.



    Read more:
    Catching public transport in Queensland will soon cost just 50 cents. Are cheap fares good policy?

    Statisticians must make assumptions about how much demand would have continued to rise in this case. Depending on these assumptions, the estimated effect of the pilot on demand for rail travel ranges from an increase of 16% to a fall of 5%, compared with the final figure of 6.8%. A change in assumptions can change the estimated rise in demand substantially.

    Second, the pilot spanned a period of disruption on the railways. Strikes in Scotland in 2022 may have put people off train travel, and again, we cannot know whether they would have returned in the counterfactual scenario.

    And bad weather in Scotland in early 2024 and disruption caused by strikes in England and Wales make it difficult to use the rest of Great Britain as a control group to compare against Scotland.

    To estimate the effects of a policy like the pilot, statisticians must make many other assumptions. For example, in April 2024 there was a big increase in fares across Scotland. The analysis underlying the report assumes that this would have happened even without the pilot.

    All these assumptions (and more) lie beneath the reported 6.8% increase in demand and make it impossible to be confident that this was the true number of passengers who shifted to rail travel because peak fares were axed.

    What’s happening elsewhere?

    Similar schemes have been piloted in other countries, including a flat rate €49 (£40) per month (increased from €9) rail pass in Germany, a 50 cent (30 pence) flat fare across all public transport in Queensland, Australia, and a £2 flat bus fare in England.

    As with the pilot in Scotland, it is difficult to determine whether these schemes have caused a modal shift. Some new evidence from Germany suggests that cheaper fares encouraged people to make more journeys overall, but that the shift from cars to trains was limited.

    However, we know that the elasticity (how much demand changes as prices change) of public transport fares is greater in the long term than in the short term. There is a danger that, as in Scotland, governments will cancel them before the long-term effects are clear.

    The SNP government in Scotland is facing difficulties balancing its budget. In these circumstances, any further subsidy to public transport seems unlikely. Instead, the government will have to find other ways to reach its net zero commitments.

    There is evidence that people respond more strongly to an increase in price than to a decrease. If this is the case, the pilot itself could even cause a long-term decrease in passenger numbers in Scotland, because the fall in people using the trains due to the reintroduction of peak fares might be greater than the increase during the pilot.

    It is impossible to tell yet, but in the long term this could make travelling on the railways more expensive for both passengers and for the government subsidising them.

    Rachel Scarfe is a member of the Labour Party.

    – ref. Why a pilot scheme removing peak rail fares should have been allowed to go the distance – https://theconversation.com/why-a-pilot-scheme-removing-peak-rail-fares-should-have-been-allowed-to-go-the-distance-240224

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Devolving justice and policing to Wales would put it on par with Scotland and Northern Ireland – so what’s holding it back?

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Stephen Clear, Lecturer in Constitutional and Administrative Law, and Public Procurement, Bangor University

    Ceri Breeze/Shutterstock

    Devolution is “a process, not an event”, according to the then-secretary of state for Wales, Ron Davies, in 1997. But it is unclear what may come next for Wales in that process under the new UK Labour government, despite the same party now being in charge in both London and Cardiff.

    One ongoing debate among politicians and experts for several years has been whether Westminster should and will devolve more powers to Wales, including justice and policing.

    It wasn’t until the passing of the Government of Wales Act 1998 that the then National Assembly was established. It allowed Wales to make decisions over issues such as education, housing and agriculture. Further primary law-making powers were subsequently granted to the now Senedd (Welsh parliament).

    But Wales doesn’t have control over all matters and some are reserved for the UK parliament. A number of these are consistent across all UK nations, including fiscal policy, foreign affairs, nuclear policy and national security. But others are different for Wales when compared to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

    One of the most obvious examples is in the area of justice and policing. Unlike Scotland and Northern Ireland, Wales is not a separate legal jurisdiction with its own system of law, policing and courts. While there are increasing areas of divergence between England and Wales, technically speaking, Wales is part of a single jurisdiction with England due to decisions made during Henry VIII’s reign in the 16th century.

    The issue of devolving justice and policing has cropped up consistently over the past 25 years. It has been the subject of a variety of debates in the Senedd, Westminster and in the media. It has also been analysed by a number of official reports and independent or cross-party commissions.

    In 2011, the Silk commission was established by the UK government to explore the issue. In its 2014 report, it recommended devolving policing and youth justice to Wales by 2017. That never happened.

    The Thomas commission, set up by the Welsh government in 2019, also recommended devolving justice to Wales, including youth justice and policing. Earlier this year, the independent commission on the constitutional future of Wales called on the UK government to agree to the devolution of responsibility for justice and policing to the Senedd and Welsh government.

    In 2023, Keir Starmer said that a Labour government would introduce a “take back control bill”, to devolve new powers to communities from Westminster. Those intentions were echoed in Labour’s election manifesto ahead of July’s general election.

    But the issue of devolving justice to Wales was absent from Labour’s manifesto. And in an interview in June, the now-secretary of state for Wales Jo Stevens described such a move as “fiddling around with structures and systems”. It is therefore unclear whether devolution to regions of England will take place in parallel to further devolution to Wales and the other nations.

    And while this issue may not be at the forefront of UK Labour policy, it is an ongoing commitment of Welsh Labour. The latter commissioned even further research in August into the devolution of justice.

    What are some of the potential challenges?

    One significant issue is the age of criminal responsibility, currently set at ten in England and Wales. The Thomas commission recommended raising this to 12, aligning Wales with Scotland and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

    But this raises logistical questions. For example, what would happen when a case crosses borders or involves children just above or below the age threshold? These practical challenges need to be addressed if justice is to be devolved smoothly.

    The Thomas Commission also laid out detailed proposals for reforms to youth justice, prisons and probation services. The Welsh youth courts have already started implementing a more preventive and restorative approach, but a jurisdictional overlap with England has slowed progress. While children’s services are devolved, youth justice remains under UK government control.



    Read more:
    Crown estate: why it’s time to devolve it and put Wales on par with Scotland

    Issues like transport to courts, funding and jurisdictional boundaries need careful consideration too. For example, how would authorities determine whether a crime committed near the Wales-England border falls under Welsh or English law?

    Of course, this is an issue which already exists between England and Scotland, and there are complex rules in place. Dependent upon the nature and circumstances of the crime, “jurisdiction” is typically dependent on where it was first initiated. In turn, further challenges arise surrounding police force cooperation, as well as mechanisms for sharing different types of evidence. There are also legally-protected agreements regarding powers to arrest people in each other’s territories.

    Ironing out these types of issues is particularly important in respect of female offenders, as Wales has made progress in providing better support for them.

    Disparities in legal expertise may also become more of a challenge. Legal experts have noted that as Welsh laws become more distinct, judges in England may lack the relevant expertise to handle Welsh cases. This concern has already arisen in Welsh tribunals, where appeals are sometimes directed to England’s Upper Tribunal, raising doubts about how well English judges can handle increasingly Wales-specific laws.

    Cooperation

    While these issues are very real, they shouldn’t block progress. With cooperation between Cardiff and Westminster, the devolution of justice could happen without major disruption. Instead of having endless debates and reviews, time and resources could be better spent acting on existing expert recommendations.

    For instance, both governments could agree on a ten-year timeline – as recommended by the independent commission – to devolve justice, starting with policing. It’s an area which already has strong ties to devolved services at the local level. Youth justice and probation could then follow.

    Despite the potential challenges, the new Labour UK government has a chance to bring about meaningful change. Devolving justice may take time, but it could bring Wales closer to achieving the legal autonomy many believe it deserves.

    The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Devolving justice and policing to Wales would put it on par with Scotland and Northern Ireland – so what’s holding it back? – https://theconversation.com/devolving-justice-and-policing-to-wales-would-put-it-on-par-with-scotland-and-northern-ireland-so-whats-holding-it-back-238634

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Why it’s so hard to kick fossil fuels out of sport

    Source: The Conversation – UK – By Theo Lorenzo Frixou, PhD Candidate, Social Sciences, Loughborough University

    A 52 Super Series sailing race off Palma de Mallorca. Villegas Photo/Shutterstock

    Governments and public relations firms are under pressure to, in UN secretary-general António Guterres’s words, stop “fuelling the madness” and ban fossil fuel advertising or cut ties with the industry.

    France, Amsterdam, Sheffield and Edinburgh have all restricted fossil fuel advertising to differing degrees in recognition of the industry’s responsibility for climate breakdown.

    People working in the advertising industry are among those calling for an end to working with fossil fuel companies. There is a reputational risk with continuing to represent these businesses. Four advertising agencies recently lost a sustainability certification for taking an oil company as a client.

    Oil and gas advertising is perhaps most prolific in sport. A recent report estimated that fossil fuel companies have invested more than £4 billion across 200 sponsorship deals.

    Fellow researchers have appealed for sport to be included in any further advertising bans. There is a precedent: a tobacco advertising ban came into force in the UK in 2002. Bear in mind, that ban took nearly 40 years of campaigning and tobacco executives have shown they’re capable of navigating its loopholes.

    Even so, the fossil fuel industry will prove significantly harder to purge than tobacco. Here’s why.

    ‘No fossil fuels, no sport’

    Human development is largely a story of increasing energy use. Oil in particular has transformed everyday life beyond comprehension.

    Whether it be in the form of high-profile sponsorship deals, sporting equipment made from petrol-based products like carbon fibre or flying to meet the demand for ever more fixtures, modern sport reflects society’s oil dependency.

    Sport is entwined with high-carbon industries.
    Parkdolly/Shutterstock

    The fossil fuel industry knows this. Despite the longstanding scientific consensus that fossil fuels must be phased out, the industry seeks to convince the public that oil and gas will still be needed for a very long time.

    Analysis of one oil company’s sustainability reports identified how its communications strategy shifted from denying the results of climate science to more subtle efforts to delay an energy transition. These included the argument that fossil fuels are an irreplaceable precondition for “the good life”.

    Sport is a vehicle for perpetuating this argument. In 2021, an oil and gas trade association in the US launched a campaign showcasing sports products made from petroleum, the implication being that people cannot enjoy sport without fossil fuels.

    Sport is poised for corporate piggybacking because it evokes connection, pride and security in fans and spectators – feelings the fossil fuel industry is keen to capitalise on. An analysis of the Canadian oil industry’s advertising between 2006 and 2015 documented a shift from images of the natural environment to those depicting family life and domesticity.

    This kind of pernicious messaging, which entrenches fossil fuels within the things people hold dear, will be hard for legislators to reverse.

    Oil change

    Imre Szeman, a professor of human geography who specialises in the energy transition, urges us to comprehend just how deep our relationship with oil runs.

    Addressing climate change is not simply a technical matter, but a cultural one as well. An issue of how we grasp what is so often taken for granted in everyday life.

    Change will not only require acknowledging the severity of the environmental crisis, but to recognise how its primary causes have shaped society, including in elite sport. It’s crucial to understand modern societies as oil societies if we are ever to envisage one no longer dependent on it.

    Sport sponsorships reflect the infiltration of fossil fuels in modern society.
    Trong Nguyen/Shutterstock

    So, considering sport, the first step is to remove the cognitive dissonance that surrounds modern elite sporting culture, the nature of its oil dependency and the consequences of climate change.

    Sporting organisations can start by saying no to fossil fuel sponsorship. There are examples of this happening already in tennis, rugby and the Olympics, with Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo indicating an oil company was not welcome as a sponsor of the 2024 Games.

    Change happens by disaster or by design. It’s time to recognise the decades long influence wielded by the fossil fuel industry.


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    Get our award-winning weekly roundup in your inbox instead. Every Wednesday, The Conversation’s environment editor writes Imagine, a short email that goes a little deeper into just one climate issue. Join the 35,000+ readers who’ve subscribed so far.

    Theo Lorenzo Frixou does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Why it’s so hard to kick fossil fuels out of sport – https://theconversation.com/why-its-so-hard-to-kick-fossil-fuels-out-of-sport-239620

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Transport assistance for post-16 learners with SEND: Senior councillors asked to approve proposed changes

    Source: City of Leeds

    Senior councillors are being asked to approve proposed changes to the way Leeds City Council provides transport assistance for post-16 learners with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND), as the level of discretionary support currently provided is not sustainable.

    The proposed changes would still offer a level of discretionary transport assistance for Post-16 learners with SEND and help support independence through travel training, whilst addressing the significant financial challenge.

    The council is statutorily obliged to make free-of-charge home to school travel arrangements for school-age children with SEND. There is no such requirement to provide this for post-16 learners, however the council has been doing so on a discretionary basis at a cost of around £4m-£4.5million each year.

    Following a consultation earlier this year, a report to the council’s Executive Board will propose the following changes:

    • Limiting post-16 transport assistance to learners with SEND, living three or more miles from their education setting.                                                                                                                                                                                                               
    • Independent Travel Training and a free bus pass (or equivalent cost) for a young person who is able to travel independently or could make the journey to their learning setting on public transport accompanied by an adult as necessary.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               
    • A yearly flat-rate Personal Transport Allowance for post-16 learners with SEND, allowing learners and their families to make their own travel arrangements, and based on distance between their home and learning setting:

    –          Between 3 and 10 miles – £1,000 per year.

    –          Between 10.01 and 20 miles – £2,000 per year.

    –          Over 20.01 miles – £3,000 per year.                                                                                                                                 

    • Providing council-organised transport for those meeting the exceptional circumstances criteria.

    Introducing these proposals would achieve an estimated financial saving to the council of more than £800,000 during the financial year 2025/26.

    Should the proposals be approved by the council’s Executive Board next Wednesday (16th October), the changes would be introduced for young people starting post-16 education in September 2025 and onwards. All young people already in post-16 education receiving transport assistance would continue on the current policy unless there is a change in their circumstances such as moving house or a different education setting.

    Councillor Helen Hayden, Leeds City Council’s executive member for children and families, said:

    “We absolutely recognise and understand the concerns of young people, their families and carers, in how these changes may affect them, and we have fully considered their feedback from the consultation when finalising these proposals.

    “Given the significant financial challenges the council faces and the increasing level of demand, the level of discretionary transport support we currently provide is not sustainable.

    “However, we remain committed to providing support for young people and their families through a personal transport allowance, through provision of our award winning independent travel training, and by ensuring that those with exceptional circumstances requiring council organised transport, continue to receive it.”

    Public consultation on the proposals was held between 24 June and 23 July 2024, with just over 300 responses received and views sought from children and young people, parents and carers, staff and governors of Special Inclusion Learning Centres (SILCs), primary and secondary schools, and post-16 providers, and wider stakeholders.

    Should the proposals be approved at Executive Board, the council will begin contacting families and key services to ensure they are aware of the changes well in advance of their introduction from September 2025. Officers intend to work with parent forums, young people and families to continue to inform their understanding of how the proposals impact those affected before and during the proposals’ implementation, and will also liaise with key partners such as public transport providers to continually increase their awareness of accessibility needs of young people with SEND.

    Proposals to remove transport assistance eligibility for post-19 learners, and to introduce a contributory charge for post-16 learners towards their transport, have not been recommended to Executive Board for implementation following feedback from the consultation.

    The full report can be read here. 

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Thousands expected as Run Leicester half marathon and 10k return

    Source: City of Leicester

    THOUSANDS of runners will be taking to the city’s streets this weekend for the annual Run Leicester half marathon and 10k race.

    The events will take place on Sunday 13 October, starting and finishing at Leicester’s Victoria Park.

    Runners will set out from the park from 9.15am, on a route through the city centre onto Melton Road, and into Thurmaston and Birstall, before returning to the starting point.

    A series of rolling road closures and parking restrictions will be in place along the route to enable the runners to pass safely.

    The route heads across the city including London Road, St George’s Way, Charles Street, Belgrave Gate and Melton Road, and then out towards Thurmaston, Watermead Country Park and Birstall, before the race returns via Red Hill Circle, Loughborough Road and then the canal side path.

    From there the route will heads through Abbey Park and the city centre, before continuing up New Walk via De Montfort Street and University Road on its way to the finish at Victoria Park.

    The 10k race will follow the same route as far as Melton Road, before travelling along Loughborough Road, Holden Street and Ross Walk to re-join the riverside path, past the Space Centre and Abbey Park on its way back to the city.

    Parking and loading restrictions will be in place to keep the route free of traffic, and temporary road closures will be in place while the race passes through. The measures have been clearly signposted along the route in advance.

    Roads are expected to have reopened fully by 1pm.

    The race is a hugely popular event, attracting runners ranging from enthusiastic amateurs to club athletes, all raising money for a range of charities including official charity partner, LOROS Hospice.

    The events are organised by Run Leicester and full details of the route and road closures are available at http://www.runleicester.co.uk

    Race director, Andrew Ward, said: “This year’s Run Leicester half marathon and 10k is set to be our best event ever, with over 4,000 runners expected to take to the streets on Sunday. It’s by far the biggest running event in the county and serves as inspiration to everyone watching as they cheer the runners on towards the finish line.

    “We would encourage everyone to come out and support what is such a fantastic event for the whole city. It’s a real festival atmosphere with singers and drummers all around the route for both runners and spectators to enjoy.

    “We can’t wait to see everyone on race day; the atmosphere will be incredible and the event will ultimately raise thousands of pounds for LOROS Hospice and other local charities.”

    Bus services from the city centre will be running as normal but some will be diverted to alternative bus stops nearby while the race is in progress, with any changes clearly signposted.

    Traffic and travel updates are also available from Leicester Area Traffic Control on X at @ATCLeicester

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Manchester Carbon Literate City: Climate change training goal unveiled

    Source: City of Manchester

    Manchester has launched an initiative to become the UK’s first Carbon Literate City as part of the drive to become zero carbon by 2038.

    The effort, co-ordinated by Manchester City Council working with The Carbon Literacy Project, aims to achieve the status by getting the equivalent of 15% of the city’s population – 85,349 people – trained and certified as Carbon Literate.

    Carbon Literacy® is defined as “an awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities, and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis.” It describes an awareness of climate change and the impacts which our everyday actions, whether as individuals or organisations, have. Being Carbon Literate enables people to take informed decisions, whether in their personal or work lives. Becoming a Carbon Literate City will help in the collective effort to dramatically cut harmful carbon emissions across Manchester.

    Manchester City Council is already committed to Carbon Literacy and is the first local authority to achieve The Carbon Literacy Project’s Silver organisational designation and is working towards Gold status. By December this year the Council aims to have 50% of its staff, around 3,500 people, trained and certified in Carbon Literacy. Other founding partners of the Manchester initiative include Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester Museum, Auto Trader, Manchester Digital and GMAST (a network of arts and cultural organisations working to contribute to the city’s climate ambitions.)

    Councillor Tracey Rawlins, Executive Member for Environment, said: “Earning recognition as the country’s first Carbon Literate City is going to require a step change in the number of organisations getting on board and spreading the word in their own sectors.“This has never been a city to shy away from challenges and we hope that this title will become the latest in a long line of Manchester firsts.

    “What really matters here is not the title itself but what it will mean in terms of the number of individuals and organisations who are aware of the issues and the positive actions they can take to help address them.

    “The city can only reach its zero carbon goals through collective local, regional and national effort. Having a more informed and engaged population is an important step.”

    Dave Coleman, Co-founder and Managing Director of The Carbon Literacy Project, said: “Given our origins and our deep roots in the city, it comes as no surprise that it is Manchester that has stepped up, built on all its existing hard work, and publicly declared it’s ambition to be the very first certified Carbon Literate Locality.
    “Globally more than 100,000 citizens are already certified as being Carbon Literate, but of these, more than 10,000 live, work and study in Manchester.

    “The Manchester Carbon Literate City initiative brings together people and organisations already acting on climate in the city, to further help and support each  other, and bring others along with them. Working together in this way makes our collective action on climate easier, faster and cheaper, and in Manchester at least, demonstrates that truly “the whole is far greater than the sum of its parts”. 

    More information about the Manchester Carbon Literate City initiative is available at carbonliteracy.com/mclc and about Carbon Literacy itself at carbonliteracy.com. The latest public Carbon Literacy courses are available at the Project’s events page.

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: First deadline approaches for crime procurement process

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    There are two weeks to the deadline for the first stage of the procurement process for the 2025 crime contract.

    If you want your contract to commence on Wednesday 1 October 2025 and to join duty schemes from that day, you must submit your tender by Tuesday 22 October 2024.

    If you submit your tender after this date but before Wednesday 30 April 2025, your contract will start on Wednesday 1 October 2025. However, you will be unable to join a duty rota until January 2026.

    Tenders received from Thursday 1 May 2025 to Monday 30June 2025 will be opened in early July 2025 and any tenders received from Tuesday 1 July 2025 onwards will be opened the month following submission.

    How do I tender?

    Tenders must be submitted using the LAA’s eTendering system.

    For full details of the procurement process please read the Application Guide which is available at Crime Contract 2025 Tender – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 October 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Man ordered to clear illegal waste site

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    A man has been ordered to clear illegally dumped waste from a site near Saltburn in a prosecution brought by the Environment Agency. 

    Images shows dumped waste on the site.

    Martin Booker, 60, of Woodside in Brotton, operated an illegal waste site on unregistered land, burnt it and ignored warnings from the Environment Agency to stop.

    He appeared at Teesside Magistrates’ Court last month for sentencing and having previously denied the allegations, changed his plea to guilty to three offences of operating a waste site without an environmental permit.

    The court heard the land, which is at the end of Gladstone Street in Brotton, is next to council-owned allotments and does not have an environmental permit or a registered exemption, which are required by law to manage waste operations.

    Booker was fined £648 and will pay a victim surcharge of £259. A remediation order was made against Brooker for him to clear the site of all waste. If he fails to comply he could be subject to further action.

    Booker ‘largely ignored’ warnings

    Gary Wallace, Area Environment Manager for the Environment Agency, said:

    Environmental permits are in place to protect the public and environment and we told Booker a number of times that he must stop his activities and clear the waste from the site.

    He largely ignored these warnings, showing a disregard for law.

    Illegal activity such as this undermines legitimate businesses that work hard to operate within the regulations, as well as putting the environment at risk and impacting on the local community.

    In February 2022 an Environment Agency officer visited the land and saw waste including scrap electricals such as fridges and washing machines, as well as shopping trollies and scrap vehicle parts. There were clear signs of burning.

    Enquiries led the officers to Booker, and a letter was sent instructing him to cease all activity and clear the site.

    By May 2022 most of the waste had been cleared, but Boooker resumed waste activity on the land. By October the same year waste was again strewn across the site and the pathway access to the allotments – including a pram, a three piece suite and a TV.

    In January 2023 the Environment Agency gave Booker one month to clear the site, but a month later it was still full of waste – again with evidence of burning.

    When he was interviewed in May 2023 Booker said he’d owned two garages on the land that he knocked down.

    He said he’d brought rubble to the land to develop it, but that people fly tipped the plot and he cleared it by putting it into residents’ bins or throwing it in the allotments.

    He denied being responsible for disposing and burning waste. He also claimed not to have a vehicle but evidence from the council confirmed he was seen in a scrap van in Saltburn in October 2023.

    A final visit on 19 March 2024 saw the site still had waste present, with evidence of burning.

    Law is there to protect communities

    Cllr Adam Brook, Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods and Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council, said:

    Our officers work closely with colleagues in the Environment Agency and other partner agencies every day to protect the public.

    The decision to go to court is never taken lightly. However, if the law which is clearly there to protect our residents, visitors, businesses and the environment we all share is disregarded in this way this action must be taken and I fully support the EA.

    I would like to thank the Environment Agency and everyone else involved for their hard work on this case.

    Illegal waste activity can be reported to the Environment Agency on 0800 807060.

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 October 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: “Moscow Model” is seven years old: what the pavilion’s guests were able to see

    MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    The Moscow Model Pavilion at VDNKh celebrated its seventh anniversary on the first weekend of October. More than 5.2 thousand people attended the festive events in honor of this event. This was reported by the Minister of the Moscow Government, the head of the capital’s Department of Urban Development Policy Vladislav Ovchinsky.

    “On the weekend of October 5 and 6, the Moscow Model pavilion was visited not only by residents of Moscow, St. Petersburg and various Russian cities, but also by tourists from Belarus, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan and other countries. The exhibition guests were able to look at a 400-fold reduced exact copy of the capital’s center and see 36 lighting shows dedicated to various topics: the history of Moscow, the development of the capital’s architecture, the change of seasons,” said Vladislav Ovchinsky.

    The karaoke show “Songs about Moscow” was of particular interest to visitors to the exhibition. The pavilion guests also took part in a special excursion program. There they learned how the model was created, how many years it took, how many people worked on the implementation of the idea, and how the “Moscow Model” differs from other similar projects in the Russian Federation.

    Over the two days of celebration, six interactive quizzes were held for all comers. 316 people took part in them, almost 60 of whom received memorable prizes for winning.

    An electronic guest book was installed at the exit of the pavilion. Guests shared their impressions using text, images or emoji. Over 100 people took advantage of this opportunity during the holiday weekend.

    The Moscow Model Pavilion is located on Sirenevaya Alley at VDNKh. It can be visited free of charge every day from 10:00 to 20:00, except Monday.

    “Based on the results of the summer season, the pavilion entered the top 3 most visited sites of the VDNKh Museum City,” noted VDNKh General Director Sergei Shogurov.

    The scale of the city model is one to 400, the area is 429 square meters. The idea of creating a copy of the capital arose in 2011. Work began a year later, and on October 3, 2017, the pavilion was opened to visitors. During this time, the model was changed and updated approximately every two to three years. The craftsmen added houses built under the renovation program, landscaped parks, new institutions, and business centers.

    The pavilion continues to host a free exhibition of tactile models of six iconic city landmarks: the Spasskaya Tower of the Moscow Kremlin, the Bolshoi Theatre, the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the Triumphal Arch, one of Stalin’s seven skyscrapers and the State Historical Museum. For those with limited vision, all models have been supplemented with a description in Braille.

    You can find detailed information, view the schedule of light shows and VR attractions, and sign up for excursions on the website and through the mobile application “Moscow Model”.

    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.mos.ru/nevs/item/144985073/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: The city allocated eight land plots for the implementation of large-scale investment projects in ZAO

    MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    As part of the implementation of large-scale investment projects (MaIP), the city has leased land plots with a total area of almost 17 hectares in the Western Administrative District of Moscow to investors and developers. This was reported by Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Urban Development Policy and Construction Vladimir Efimov.

    “The implementation of large-scale investment projects allows us to develop urban infrastructure and create jobs. Since the beginning of 2024, investors have been provided with almost 17 hectares of land in the west of the capital for the construction of industrial, commercial, social and transport facilities within the framework of the MAIP. Thanks to this, new jobs will appear for city residents. The total area of real estate under construction will exceed 245 thousand square meters,” said Vladimir Efimov.

    Two plots of land with a total area of over 11 hectares were allocated for the creation of manufacturing enterprises.

    “The provision of land plots without tenders and at a preferential rate of one ruble per year is one of the key measures to support industrial construction, which we are implementing in accordance with the order of Sergei Sobyanin. As part of the MAIP, a food industry production and logistics complex and an enterprise for the production of components for cleaning equipment, small architectural forms and joinery will be built in the west of the capital. It will supply the city with products under an offset contract,” said the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport and Industry

    Maxim Liksutov.

    Land lease agreements were concluded with investors for five years. During this time, entrepreneurs must build and commission the facilities.

    Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Department of City Property Maxim Gaman noted that investors were provided with two plots in Solntsevo with an area of over 0.7 hectares and 1.2 hectares for the construction of educational facilities. Thus, a kindergarten for 350 children will be built on Matrosov Street, and a preschool institution for 200 children will be built on Rodnikovaya Street. The total area of the buildings will exceed 13 thousand square meters.

    In Ramenki, the city allocated 0.46 hectares of land for the construction of a supplementary education center. Here, students from family education assistance centers and special schools will receive help with their education and adaptation.

    In Novo-Peredelkino, 0.63 hectares were provided for the expansion of the Arctic sports cluster, on the territory of which there are ice arenas, football fields, gyms, a swimming pool, running tracks, a basketball court and other facilities.

    MAIP is a special status that investors can obtain for the construction of facilities necessary for the development of urban infrastructure and the creation of jobs. These can be production complexes, innovation centers, social institutions, transport, commercial and other enterprises. For their construction, the city provides land plots for lease for a period of five years.

    Earlier Sergei Sobyanin told, that since the beginning of the year, investors have been provided with about 220 hectares of land for the implementation of the MAIP. This is almost twice as much as for the same period in 2023.

    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.

    https://vvv.mos.ru/nevs/item/144952073/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Three sports facilities will be built as part of the city’s investor support program

    MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    Moscow Foundation for the Support of Industry and Entrepreneurship provided investors with preferential investment loans for the construction of sports complexes. They will be built within the framework of the industry scheme for the placement of such facilities, approved by the Moscow Sports Committee. This was reported by the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport and Industry Maxim Liksutov.

    The preferential investment lending program has been in effect since March 2022. The fund compensates industrial enterprises for part of the costs of paying interest on loan agreements. Under the program, such companies can receive up to three billion rubles at three percent per annum for up to three years.

    “In July 2024, by decision of Sergei Sobyanin, the preferential investment lending program was expanded to investors who are developing the city’s sports infrastructure. Developers can receive up to 500 million rubles at three percent per annum for up to three years. Today, within the framework of this program, a multifunctional sports complex is being prepared for opening, and two more facilities are also under construction – a hockey arena and an indoor sports ground with artificial ice,” said Maxim Liksutov.

    Under the terms of the program, companies that build football fields, indoor skating rinks, indoor arenas, tennis courts, swimming pools, sports and recreation complexes with multi-purpose sports halls and other facilities for sports and physical education can receive financial support.

    “Since the start of the program, investors have attracted over 700 million rubles to implement three new projects in the sports sector. It is planned that by 2030, thanks to this support measure, up to 300 sports facilities will appear in the capital,” said the Minister of the Moscow Government, Head of the Department of Investment and Industrial Policy

    Anatoly Garbuzov.

    Thus, a multifunctional sports complex is planned to open in Olonetsky Proezd (property 5/1a). It has ice and football fields, four indoor tennis courts and one outdoor clay court. The area of the complex is eight thousand square meters. More than 180 million rubles were attracted for this project.

    The same investor will build an indoor hockey arena with an area of 4.5 thousand square meters at the address: Balaklavsky Prospekt, Building 33. It will house two ice arenas, a gym, and a choreography hall. To implement this project, the investor attracted 280 million rubles thanks to the fund.

    The fund also supported the construction of an indoor sports ground with artificial ice, which will be located at 9 Krymsky Val Street. The complex will include an ice arena, a gym, and a choreography hall. The opening is scheduled for the second quarter of 2025. The developer raised almost 300 million rubles.

    To receive funds at a preferential rate, you must enter into a loan agreement, then contact the Moscow Fund for the Support of Industry and Entrepreneurship. After the application is approved, a financial support agreement is signed to compensate for part of the costs of paying interest on the loan. Then, depending on the terms of writing off interest, the required amount is transferred to the company’s account in the bank where the loan is opened. All information is available on the foundation’s website.

    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.mos.ru/nevs/item/144978073/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: “What you go for is what you’ll find” in Tagansky Park

    MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

    Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –

    On Friday evening, Tagansky Park will host the play “What You Go For Is What You’ll Find” based on Alexander Ostrovsky’s plays “The Marriage of Balzaminov” and “A Festive Dream – Before Lunch.” It will be presented by students of the “Teatralny Park” studio, directed by teacher Ildar Shamikov-Dasayev.

    According to the plot, the naive “mama’s boy” Balzaminov wants to marry a rich merchant woman in order to solve his financial problems and settle down in this world. “Don’t chase your mind, as long as you have happiness. With money, we can live without our minds!” – this phrase by Pavla Balzaminova vividly reflects the views and morals of the society in which her son was so eager to gain a foothold.

    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.mos.ru/poster/event/320146257/

    EDITOR’S NOTE: This article is a translation. Apologies should the grammar and or sentence structure not be perfect.

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI: Changes in the Management Board of Coop Liising AS

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    The Supervisory Council of Coop Liising AS, a subsidiary of Coop Pank AS, decided today, 08.10.2024, to elect Janek Rüütalu as a new member of the board of Coop Liising AS. Rüütalu’s mandate begins on 13.10.2024 and lasts for 3 years until 12.10.2027.

    The powers of Erki Hiiuväin, the current board member of Coop Liising AS, expire as of 12.10.2024.

    Janek Rüütalu has worked as a leasing workout specialist and leasing credit risk analyst at DNB Pank AS in 2007–2017, and as a product and business development specialist at the Estonian branch of Citadele banka AS in 2018–2020. Since 2020, Janek Rüütalu has been working as a product and business development manager at Coop Liising AS. Rüütalu graduated from Tallinn Pedagogical University in 1996, majoring in German and English philology.

    Janek Rüütalu does not own any shares or bonds of Coop Pank. Rüütalu has been issued an option for 5,900 shares with an exercise deadline of 2025, an option for 6,600 shares with an exercise deadline of 2026.

    Coop Pank, based on Estonian capital, is one of the five universal banks operating in Estonia. The number of clients using Coop Pank for their daily banking reached 200,000. Coop Pank aims to put the synergy generated by the interaction of retail business and banking to good use and to bring everyday banking services closer to people’s homes. The strategic shareholder of the bank is the domestic retail chain Coop Eesti, comprising of 320 stores.

    Additional information:
    Katre Tatrik
    Communication Manager
    Tel: +372 5151 859
    E-mail: katre.tatrik@cooppank.ee

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Konsolidator to issue new shares in private placement – Inside information

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Company announcement no 15-2024

    Søborg, October 8, 2024

    Konsolidator to issue new shares in private placement

    The Board of Directors of Konsolidator A/S (“Konsolidator”) has today exercised its authorization to issue new shares in a private placement of new shares with expected gross proceeds of up to DKK 2.2m. As announced in the H2 2024 report, the equity on June 30, 2024, was negative and management would take the necessary steps to reestablish it.

    The Board of Directors of Konsolidator has today exercised its authorization to resolve on an increase of the share capital in a directed issue without pre-emption rights for Konsolidator’s existing shareholders according to 3.1.8 of the articles of association.

    Consequently, the board of directors has resolved to issue up to a total of 573,979 new shares at a subscription price of DKK 3,92 per share corresponding to the volume weighted average of Konsolidator’s share price over the 5 trading days preceding the decision of the Board of Directors. Gross proceeds from the private placement corresponds to approximately DKK 2.2m.

    Use of net proceeds

    In the H1 2024 report published on August 22, 2024, Konsolidator continues to focus on the new growth initiatives including developing the new banking segment. Further, Konsolidator focuses on supporting Konsolidator Iberia in Spain and Portugal as well as developing Konsolidator into being a partner-sales driven company within the Microsoft D365 partner channel.

    In company announcement no 14-2024 on August 22, 2024, Konsolidator announced that the focus for Q3 2024 would be to strengthen the capital structure and improve operations as well as securing funding of the operations.

    CEO Claus Finderup Grove says: “We have asked a lot from our shareholders in 2024, and we are very appreciative for their patience. We have restructured our cost base in August and maintain our focus on becoming cash flow positive.”

    The resolution on the private placement of new shares

    The new shares issued as a result of the private placement will be registered at the Danish Business Authority upon receipt of final subscriptions and cash payments for the new shares. Following registration, the share capital will increase by the number of new shares subscribed, where each share will have a nominal value of DKK 0.04. Today, the company has a registered share capital of nominal DKK 886,428.84 and with full subscription the share capital will increase to nominal DKK 909,388.00.

    The new shares represent approximately 2.6% of Konsolidator’s share capital before the capital increase and 2.5% of Konsolidator’s share capital after the capital increase.

    The new shares will be negotiable instruments, and no restrictions will apply to their transferability. The new shares will not carry any special rights. The rights conferred by the new shares, including voting and dividend rights, will apply from the date when the capital increase is registered with the Danish Business Authority. The new shares are to be registered in the name of the holder in Konsolidator’s register of shareholders.

    Admission to trading and expected timetable

    Konsolidator expects to have received final subscriptions and subscription amounts no later than on October 14, 2024, following which the capital increase will be registered with the Danish Business Authority. The new shares will be issued under the ISIN code of Konsolidator’s existing shares (DK0061113511), and are expected to be admitted to trading on Nasdaq First North Growth Market Denmark no later than on 17 October, 2024.

    The offering of new shares and the admission to trading is exempt from the obligation to publish a prospectus.

    Contacts

    Certified Adviser

    About Konsolidator
    Konsolidator A/S is a financial consolidation software company whose primary objective is to make Group CFOs around the world better through automated financial consolidation and reporting in the cloud. Created by CFOs and auditors and powered by innovative technology, Konsolidator removes the complexity of financial consolidation and enables the CFO to save time and gain actionable insights based on key performance data to become a vital part of strategic decision-making. Konsolidator was listed at Nasdaq First North Growth Market Denmark in 2019. Ticker Code: KONSOL

    Attachment

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Kelly, Neal Commemorate the 100th Anniversary of U.S. – Ireland Diplomatic Relations

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Kelly (R-PA)

    Washington, D.C. – Today, U.S. Congressman Mike Kelly (R-PA-16), and U.S. Congressman Richard E. Neal (D-MA-01), Co-Chairs of the Congressional Friends of Ireland Caucus, commemorated the 100th anniversary of U.S.-Ireland diplomatic relations.

    Established on October 7, 1924, when Irish Ambassador Timothy Smiddy presented his credentials to U.S. President Calvin Coolidge, U.S.-Ireland relations have endured countless challenges, both foreign and domestic, over the last century. Spanning 16 U.S. Presidents and 15 Taoisigh, the friendship between the United States and Ireland has been unwavering, reflecting their strong ancestral ties and shared values. 

     “Like many in the United States, I’m proud to trace my roots back to Ireland,” said Congressman Kelly. “As we mark the 100th anniversary of United States-Irish diplomatic relations, it’s important to remember the role that our Irish ancestors played in developing the United States and the role that so many still play today as we chart our future together.”

    “One century has passed since Irish Ambassador Smiddy presented his credentials to President Coolidge, and the relationship between the United States and Ireland is stronger than ever. It is a relationship rooted in our shared democratic values and mutual commitment to promote freedom and rules-based international order around the globe; not to mention, the common denominator that will forever bond our two nations: winning our independence from Great Britain to become thriving republics,” said Congressman Neal. “The sanctity of that relationship was underscored when the United States helped broker the Good Friday Agreement, marking the end of the longest period of conflict in Irish history. As a guarantor of that agreement, the United States has the indispensable role of continuing to uphold the principles embodied in the peace accord and working to protect and strengthen these gains for future generations to enjoy.” 

    On July 9, 2024, Congressman Neal and Congressman Kelly introduced H.Res.1345 – Recognizing the 100th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and Ireland. The resolution calls for, among other things, the continued strengthening of U.S.-Ireland relations, including their mutually beneficial economic relationship, and reaffirms Congress’ support for peace and reconciliation on the island of Ireland. The bill also supports cooperation between the two nations to address global challenges, including insecurity, poverty, and hunger. The bill currently has 37 cosponsors.

    The bill text can be found here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: Fleet Readiness Center Southeast inducts first F-35B aircraft and F135 power module for depot-level work

    Source: United States Navy

    Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) achieved two significant milestones in the same week by inducting its first F-35B Lightning II and F135 power module (PM), one of five major modules of the F-35 propulsion system. 

    The F-35B, which came from the Flying Leathernecks of Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 122 (VMFA-122), based out of Yuma, Arizona, arrived at FRCSE on Aug. 7 and the F135 PM on Aug. 9.   

    “This is a historic time for FRC Southeast,” said FRCSE’s Commanding Officer, Capt. Al Palmer. “Between welcoming the first F-35 airframe and receiving the first F135 power module, we remain steadfast in our commitment to the Naval Aviation Enterprise. Inducting these products propels FRCSE into a new era of depot-level maintenance and paves the way for current and next-generation products.” 

    The timing of the airframe and engine inductions was purely coincidental. However, the back-to-back arrivals were indicative of the progress and effort the command put into preparing to work on these fifth-generation assets.   

    While the first F135 PM will go through the planned maintenance process, — disassembly, inspection, repair and reassembly — with an expected completion date of May 2025, the F-35 line is a corrosion speed line designed to quickly and efficiently locate corrosion and address any discovered problem areas.  

    “Hitting that 60-day target will allow us to return one aircraft this fiscal year and up to 16 aircraft next fiscal year,” said Savanna Massey, FRCSE’s F-35 production line deputy director. “We’ll eventually get to a cycle where we induct one and return one back to the fleet at the same time. It’s a corrosion speed line, so speed will be the name of the game, but without sacrificing quality.”  

    The F-35 induction is part of a more significant effort to support corrosion mitigation efforts for the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) through a process called Production Asset Inspection Requirement (PAIR). FRCSE artisans will conduct these inspections on targeted areas of the aircraft where corrosion may be taking place. 

    “A PAIR-II inspection consists of artisans removing a number of panels from the aircraft and inspecting the substructure,” said Tim Duncan, FRCSE’s F-35 general foreman. “If we find corrosion present, we will remove it, treat the aircraft’s surface and reinstall the panels.” 

    Preparation for the highly technical jet began years ago with the establishment of the F-35 product line in 2022 and the command’s activation as an F135 Department of Defense second depot source of repair (DSOR) in 2020. However, both teams had to undergo extensive training to accommodate the new products.  

    Since the F-35 line was established, the 60 artisans and support staff have not only received extensive education and training on the aircraft’s Autonomic Logistics Information System (ALIS), surface coatings and other areas, but have also had the opportunity to immerse themselves in the F-35 community by traveling to various USMC squadrons and Fleet Readiness Center East (FRCE), which has been the lead Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) site for F-35 organic depot-level maintenance since 2013. 

    “Being part of the team that established the F-35 line here at FRC Southeast gives the artisans a sense of ownership,” said Brandon Smith, an FRCSE F-35 work lead. “This being a new aircraft and corrosion line for the command, there weren’t any examples for us to utilize, so the team was empowered to collect data and implement best practices from other sites.”  

    While the command is excited to receive the fifth-generation aircraft, a shortened timeline meant overcoming hurdles – challenges that the F-35 production line team took in stride.    

    “The F-35, being a fifth-generation aircraft, comes with a whole new set of security requirements, which we typically haven’t had to engage here at FRC Southeast while working on some of the legacy platforms,” said Bruce Crooke, FRCSE’s F-35 Production Line Director. “So, there was a learning curve. There are requirements for controlled entry points at the aircraft and electronic security systems that monitor and measure the vibrations of the fencing. There will be visual barriers to prevent seeing the aircraft when it’s opened and panels removed since there are security concerns there as well.” 

    Simultaneously, the F135 team has had to conduct extensive training and overcame obstacles to get their team ready to work on this complex engine. 

    “Since being named a DSOR, FRCSE F135 artisans successfully executed over 2,600 qualification requirements shared across the Power Module and Mini Modules,” said Aaron Powers, FRCSE’s F135 product line deputy director. “This ensured that FRCSE had a proficient and qualified labor force to execute the newly established workload. The first qualification evolution trained and qualified 23 primary artisans and support group personnel, and this is the team who will execute the initial production workload.” 

    As a result of the hard work and preparation to perform maintenance on next-generation components, the F135 team expects huge milestones in the future. 

    “We expect F135 production to ramp up through 2034 to the max production requirement, or roughly 600 Mini Modules and 120 Power Modules per year, correlating to about 600,000 man-hours,” said Richard Eveson, FRCSE’s F135 product line director. 

    From the moment the Lightning II landed on the flight line at Naval Air Station Jacksonville and taxied toward the ground crew, to the uncrating of the first F135 PM in front of a skilled group of prepared artisans, a surge of tangible excitement has spread through the command. 

    “This milestone belongs to all of us,” said Palmer. “Thank you for your unwavering dedication and commitment to our mission, which has undoubtedly led us to this historic moment.” 

    As FRCSE looks to the future amid ever-changing fleet requirements, it’s clear that the command will continue to adapt to support military readiness with unwavering dedication and perseverance. 

    About Fleet Readiness Center Southeast   

    Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) is Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia’s largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, employing approximately 5,000 civilian, military and contract workers. With annual revenue exceeding $1 billion, the organization serves as an integral part of the greater U.S. Navy, Naval Air Systems Command, and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers by maintaining the combat airpower for America’s military forces. 

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Defense News: Fleet Readiness Center Southeast engineer earns NAWCAD Fellow distinction

    Source: United States Navy

    Ian Hawkins, a Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) materials engineering supervisor, was recently accepted into the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) Fellow Program coordinated by Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division’s (NAWCAD) during an award ceremony held at NAVAIR headquarters in Pawtuxet River, Md.

    “This award recognizes the technical accomplishments over my career to improve capability and readiness,” said Hawkins. “The results of my efforts are due to the teams and great teammates I’ve been lucky to work with. I was fortunate to be in positions where I could guide teams on engineering projects and programs to achieve safety and readiness goals for the Navy. Additionally, I’ve been fortunate to work on national efforts with my NAWCAD and FRC counterparts and on international efforts with our ally partners.”

    Introduced in the 1980s, the Fellows Program became a NAVAIR program in the 2000s, and NAWCAD re-established it in 2021 after a three-year pause in inductions. Inductees into the Fellow Program are nominated and selected by a team of peers based on their tenure and technical accomplishments in safety and readiness. The program is unique in that it does not have senior leadership.

    The Fellow Program has three levels of prestige: Associate Fellows, or the first tier, make up the top three percent of scientists and engineers at NAVAIR. Fellows, the second tier, represents the top three-quarters of a percent and is the level Hawkins has achieved. Finally, Esteemed Fellows make up the top one-quarter of a percent. Each level pulls new members from the tier below, and members are inducted by majority vote.

    Hawkins’ primary discipline is nondestructive inspection, or the examination of aircraft and components that does not require taking them apart.

    “It’s a privilege to work for the Navy, and I feel like I need to do more and more every day, and that’s the main reason I’m here,” said Hawkins.

    About Fleet Readiness Center Southeast 

    Fleet Readiness Center Southeast (FRCSE) is Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia’s largest maintenance, repair, overhaul and technical services provider, employing approximately 5,000 civilian, military and contract workers. With annual revenue exceeding $1 billion, the organization serves as an integral part of the greater US Navy, Naval Air Systems Command, and Commander, Fleet Readiness Centers by maintaining the combat airpower for America’s military forces.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: UN Human Rights Council 57: UK Statement for Oral Update on Ukraine

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    UK statement for Interactive dialogue with the High Commissioner on the oral update on Ukraine. Delivered by the UK’s Permanent Representative to the WTO and UN, Simon Manley.

    Location:
    Geneva
    Delivered on:
    (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)

    Thank you, Mr Vice President and thank you very much, High Commissioner. I do hope that the Russian Ambassador and his film crew were able to capture your stark account of the realities of the human rights atrocities that are being committed by the Russians, and not merely the fantasy fiction of the disinformation that we have been presented with by the Russian Ambassador. 

    The evidence presented in your report presents a stark pattern of the atrocities Russia is committing against the Ukrainian people. Your report describes systematic torture of Ukrainians by Russia – 97% of prisoners of war interviewed since March reported experiencing torture or ill treatment, and 68% said they had experienced sexual violence. Senior Russian officials calling for the execution of Ukrainian POWs. Its large-scale coordinated attacks against Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, deliberately targeting power systems which serve civilian populations, and which you rightly conclude is a violation of international humanitarian law

    Just last week, as you noted, we marked two years since Russia’s attempted annexation of four oblasts in eastern Ukraine. Those living under Russian occupation continue to face arbitrary detention, passportisation, and the seizure of land and property.

    Even children, both those living under Russian occupation and those who have been deported to Russia, are facing indoctrination and re-education programmes designed to distort and erase Ukrainian history.

    High Commissioner,

    How can we continue to remind Russia of its obligations under international humanitarian law, international human rights law and the UN Charter?

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 October 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI United Kingdom: Delivering better outcomes for our future pensioners

    Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments

    Minister for Pensions Emma Reynolds addressed an audience at the ABI ‘Pension Investment: Where Next?’ event on Thursday 3 October.

    Location:
    1 America Square London EC3N 2LS to 1 Horse Guards Rd, London SW1A 2HQ
    Delivered on:
    (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)

    Thank you for that kind introduction, and good morning everybody.

    I’m delighted to be here today. This is the third time I’ve been to the ABI in the last couple of months to discuss the government’s reform agenda for pensions, and in particular to highlight the work of the pensions Review, I’m very grateful to the ABI.

    Thank you, Yvonne and the team here for inviting me today and for also your ongoing commitment to working with the government to tackle the barriers that pension funds face to invest in growth assets. And I’d also like to give particular thanks to the ABI for your comprehensive response to our recent Call for Evidence, which closed last week.

    I’m delighted to be here today as the first joint DWP and HMT Minister for Pensions, as Yvonne has set out, the government is determined to bring down the silos between departments which too often in the past, have prevented effective Government and effective reform. And as the First Minister to sit between these two great Departments of State, I am excited by the job of work ahead.

    We face many challenges, but also we face many great opportunities to drive significant reform of pensions. As the Pensions Minister, I have two overarching objectives, first to increase pensions, investment in UK productive assets, supporting UK businesses of all sizes to grow and expand across the country. Second, to improve retirement outcomes for future pensioners, which everyone in this room and many millions of savers across the country have a stake in.

    Both of these objectives require more economic growth. The Chancellor reiterated in her commitment to powering growth in every part of Britain in her recent speech [political content redacted], growth is the most important of the government’s five missions to rebuild Britain, and as you will know, reforming pension investments is a crucial part of that.

    Earlier this year, in the King’s Speech, our new government announced a Pension Schemes Bill which includes three key elements. First, the Bill will enable the consolidation of multiple small pots, helping bring individuals eligible pots together in one place. This will support people to keep track of their savings so they can live better and more comfortably in retirement, but it will also mean that consolidators will generate scale at a greater rate, improving opportunity for investment.

    Second, the Bill will introduce a Value for Money Framework for defined contribution schemes, which you’ve already mentioned, to drive consolidation of the sector. We want to see fewer, larger providers who have the scale and expertise to invest in a more diverse portfolio. The Value for Money Framework will also contribute to economic growth, as there will be an increased focus on assets that can deliver long term value.

    Third, the Bill will introduce a requirement for pension schemes to offer retirement products, including a default retirement solution. It is crucial that we improve the options for people when they reach retirement age, and many have said to me that people feel as if they’re left on their own at that crucial time that they retire. But we need to go further, and in July, the Chancellor asked me to lead the first phase of the Pensions Review. I would like to thank all of you in this room who contributed to our Call for Evidence, especially given the short timeframe of our consultation.

    The consultation closed last week and asked questions relating to; DC and LGPS funds, driving further investment in the UK economy, scale and consolidation and driving a shift to value. We were delighted to receive over 100 responses, and it will come as no surprise that many of the themes that you’ll be discussing today have come through in those responses.

    We are putting together our proposals, taking into consideration the consultation responses and the stakeholder engagement we have been doing over the last few months, and we will publish an interim report in the autumn with the full recommendations from phase one to be published next year.

    It is essential to overcome the barriers to increasing pension fund investment in UK productive assets to support our capital markets, which in turn will drive growth in our economy and improve the retirement outcomes for future pensioners. I welcome the discussion on pension fund investments in infrastructure and illiquid assets that you will be having today, and the work that the ABI and its members are doing on this subject. Understanding the barriers that prevent DC schemes from investing more in these assets is crucial to the government’s reform agenda.

    I would also like to thank the PPI for publishing their report today ‘Pension Scheme assets a deep dive into infrastructure’. I was very pleased to read in the report that investment in infrastructure has been developing over the last five years. However, the proportion of infrastructure assets held by pension schemes is still a small minority, and DC schemes need to achieve greater scale and management capabilities to ensure infrastructure assets are a cost-effective component to their investment strategies. The PPI analysis underlines that we can collectively do more to drive this trend further, and I’m grateful for them, once again, for producing analysis and building our evidence base to support change.

    The Review is also exploring ways to drive greater scale and consolidation and working closely with employers, advisors, Trustees and pension providers on ways we can incentivise much greater competition on the basis of Pension returns, rather than purely cost in the DC market. On LGPS, I want to deliver a strong and sustainable scheme by tackling fragmentation and inefficiency. This will ensure that the LGPS serves the interests of members, employers and local communities, and supports growth across the economy.

    As part of the review, I also want to look at the way the current pension system operates. I want to ensure the market is well equipped to deal with the challenges of the future. So your discussion today around the Value for Money and other regulatory apparatus is a key enabler for getting this right. We want to shift the focus from price to value as a crucial part of delivering better retirement outcomes over the long term.

    Separate to phase one, will be a wider phase two, which will look more widely at further long-term steps we can take to improve pension outcomes, including assessing the level of savings people need to achieve the retirement that they want. There is no accident in the sequencing here. Growth is the government’s first priority, so we are prioritizing measures on pensions which can expedite growth and improve returns.

    The ABI is playing a crucial role in delivering this agenda, in particular, in monitoring the investments of some of the UK’s largest DC schemes, it is clear that rate of change and progress is required to reach the Mansion House complex commitment by 2030 the ABI has reported that schemes are taking enabling steps, by, for example, starting to recruit more resorts, engaging with clients as support and producing research to better understand the barriers.

    The ABI is instrumental in measuring developments going forward, and I hope that we will see a significant increase of pension fund investments into growth assets across the UK. The themes of today’s conference are fundamental to the pensions review, which I am leading. So, in conclusion, before you ask me some difficult questions, I want to challenge you as a collective group to continue to make changes, to drive further change. Thank you.

    Updates to this page

    Published 8 October 2024

    MIL OSI United Kingdom –

  • MIL-OSI China: Chinese high-speed trains roll with innovation progress

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    BEIJING, Oct. 8 — During the week-long National Day holiday ending on Monday, China’s high-speed railway stations were often bustling with crowds. Some passengers could be seen lined up in an orderly fashion as they prepared to board, while others could be spotted browsing their smartphones or using laptops when waiting for their boarding calls.

    The country’s railway sector experienced a surge in passenger traffic on Monday as travelers returned home from their holiday destinations.

    A total of 13,103 trains were in operation on Monday, including 1,705 additional trains scheduled to meet the significant demand. This marked a historic high for a single day’s operational capacity, according to China State Railway Group Co., Ltd.

    China has built the world’s largest high-speed railway network to address the people’s growing demand for convenient and comfortable travel.

    The total operational length of China’s high-speed railway network has exceeded 45,000 kilometers, with Fuxing high-speed trains operating across 31 provincial-level regions nationwide.

    This growing volume of railway transportation is supported by innovations and high-quality development concerning China’s rail transit equipment. Notably, the Fuxing high-speed train project received the State Scientific and Technological Progress Award in June 2024.

    CHINESE RAILWAY INNOVATION

    Once upon a time, the slow train with its signature green color dominated the travel memories of many Chinese people.

    Since the Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway, with a design speed of 350 km per hour, entered operation in 2008, a fast-expanding modern high-speed railway network has been operating efficiently in the world’s second-largest economy.

    Now it takes just over eight hours to travel from Hong Kong in south China to Beijing in the north by high-speed rail, a Canadian passenger with the Xiaohongshu username Lao Han, shared on his social media platform this April, while adding that he enjoyed the different views from south to north during the journey.

    Previously, a train connecting the two cities took more than 24 hours to complete a one-way trip.

    Such a rail experience is not confined to the Hong Kong-Beijing trip, with many bullet trains running across the country, reaching a maximum speed of 350 kilometers per hour. CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd in Changchun, northeast China’s Jilin Province, one of China’s major rail transit equipment enterprises, has long been contributing to the speeding up of the country’s railway travel options.

    Since the 1990s, China’s railway running speed has been repeatedly and significantly increased, with CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles introducing a number of upgraded and innovative products to provide equipment support for these accelerations.

    Notably, this company produced China’s first subway train and first group of high-speed trains. The country’s first aluminum alloy subway train, stainless steel subway train, monorail train, low-floor light rail vehicle, linear electric locomotive and automatic subway train were also manufactured in the factories of CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles.

    In July 2024, the company introduced a high-speed built-in bogie that can meet the needs of Electric Multiple Unit (EMU) trains at a speed of 400 km per hour.

    The high-speed built-in bogie serves as the running system and one of the core components of rail vehicles. “It acts as the legs of an EMU train,” explained Zhou Dianmai, a senior engineer of CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles. Equipped with such a bogie, a train can run faster and more steadily, while also generating less noise.

    Compared with traditional external bogies, the built-in bogie reduces the weight of the train by 20 percent — which can cut energy consumption by 15 percent during the vehicle’s operation, lower wheel-rail wear by about 30 percent, and reduce wheel-rail noise by around two decibels. In addition, maintenance cost during the whole life cycle is slashed by approximately 15 percent. This product is expected to facilitate the green and energy-saving transformation of EMU trains.

    At the EMU bogie production line of CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles, a big data analysis platform features key information, such as management costs and resource consumption. Through the processing of real-time data, this platform can generate product design and management suggestions.

    “The big data analysis platform improved the equipment utilization rate by 10 percent and decreased operation and management costs by 10 percent,” said Zhu Yan, deputy chief designer of the Fuxing bullet train at CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles. Total average annual costs were reduced by more than 5 million yuan (about 700,830 U.S. dollars).

    Through learning from overseas advanced experience and customizing according to China’s unique conditions, the company has achieved both key technologies concerning rail transit equipment and capability in terms of R&D and manufacturing of full-range EMU trains.

    On March 21, 2024, the world’s first city train powered by hydrogen, independently developed by CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles, conducted its maiden speed test run. Previously, such a combination of hydrogen energy and rail transit equipment had not been achieved.

    Running at a speed of 160 kilometers per hour at full load, the train consumed only five KWh energy per kilometer, while the data measuring each system confirmed stability during the test.

    So far, CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles has managed to build nine product platforms with advanced EMU, subway trains and maglev trains, covering R&D capabilities in terms of full-type and full-variety rail transit products.

    WELCOME ABOARD CHINESE TRAINS

    China’s high-speed trains, a successful example of independent innovation, are now regarded as a Chinese “calling card” and are welcomed globally.

    Indonesia’s Jakarta-Bandung high-speed railway (HSR) noted in July 2024 that it had carried 4 million passengers since it began commercial operations on Oct. 17, 2023. Indonesian drivers have successfully operated the trains serving the HSR at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

    This is the first overseas high-speed railway project fully utilizing Chinese railway systems, technology and industrial components.

    The China Academy of Railway Sciences (CARS) has undertaken supervision and consultation concerning this high-speed railway, and has provided support in fields such as on-site quality control, drawing reviews and technical research.

    The 142.3-km high-speed railway has shortened the journey between Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta, and Bandung, a famous tourist city, to only 40 minutes.

    Meanwhile, a landmark project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation, namely the China-Laos Railway, began operations in December 2021.

    “Before the China-Laos Railway opened, it took me two days to travel from Vientiane to Mongla by car,” said a Lao passenger. “Now, it takes me about five hours by train, which is very fast and convenient.”

    Another Chinese-built project, the Belgrade-Novi Sad high-speed railway, has transported nearly 8.8 million people between Serbia’s two largest cities since starting operation in 2022.

    At the Third Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in October 2023, CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles signed a purchase contract with Serbia to introduce China’s bullet trains to this country in Eastern Europe.

    Based on a mature and reliable technical platform, both design and production of trains are tailored according to local railway conditions and technical specifications.

    In recent years, the products of CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles have been exported to 23 countries and regions. The company’s export business model currently covers the full life cycle service of vehicles, and it has set up 11 branches and subsidiaries worldwide.

    “China’s high-speed trains feature high levels of science and technology, strong brand influence and thriving innovation,” said Tao Guidong, a scientist of CRRC.

    MIL OSI China News –