Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 28 (Xinhua) — China will pilot a policy allowing holders of ordinary passports from Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait and Bahrain visa-free entry to the country for 30 days from June 9, 2025 to June 8, 2026, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said on Wednesday.
At a press briefing, Mao Ning outlined the details of China’s recently announced decision to unilaterally grant visa-free entry to the four Gulf countries.
According to the diplomat, citizens of these countries arriving in China for business, tourism, visiting relatives or friends, on exchange programs or for transit purposes for up to 30 days do not need to obtain an entry visa.
“Considering that the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have introduced a mutual visa-free regime with China since 2018, the visa-free regime now covers all countries of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Persian Gulf. We invite more and more friends from the GCC countries to visit our country whenever they want, in the format of spontaneous travel,” Mao Ning said. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
JERUSALEM/SANAA, May 28 (Xinhua) — Israeli warplanes on Wednesday struck the main airport of the Yemeni capital Sanaa and several aircraft belonging to Houthi forces, the Israeli army said in a statement.
The attack destroyed the last aircraft used by Houthi forces, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement.
“This is a clear signal and a direct continuation of our policy: whoever opens fire on Israel will pay a high price,” he warned.
He noted that Israel would continue to strike Yemeni ports and strategic infrastructure used by the Houthis and their allies. “The airport in Sanaa will be destroyed again and again,” the statement said.
The Israeli minister also warned that the Houthis would find themselves “under a sea and air blockade.”
Airport CEO Khaled al-Shayef confirmed that a fourth Yemeni national airline plane, Yemenia Airline Company, was destroyed in Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday morning.
Since November 2023, the Houthis, who control much of northern Yemen, have carried out regular missile and drone strikes on Israel. They say they are doing so in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The group has said it will stop the attacks if Israel ends its military operations and blockade of Gaza. –0–
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BRUSSELS, May 28 (Xinhua) — The situation in Gaza remains “unbearable,” European Union (EU) High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday.
A senior diplomat in a post on social media site X accused Israel of carrying out strikes that “go beyond what is necessary.”
K. Kallas condemned the “disproportionate use of force” by Israeli troops in Gaza and called for a return to the ceasefire to ensure the release of hostages and pave the way for a lasting, negotiated peace.
“Israel’s military operation in Gaza, the disproportionate use of force and the loss of civilian lives cannot be tolerated,” Kallas said in a statement, adding that continued attacks on civilian infrastructure are “unacceptable.”
Insisting that humanitarian aid “must never be politicized or militarized,” Kallas stressed the central role of the UN in providing aid.
“We once again urge the immediate, unimpeded and sustained resumption of assistance on a scale commensurate with the needs of the civilian population in Gaza,” she stressed. –0–
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
MADRID, May 28 (Xinhua) — At least five people, including two minors aged 5 and 16, were killed when a boat carrying about 180 migrants capsized at the entrance to the port of La Restinga on El Hierro, one of the Canary Islands, local authorities said.
The incident occurred as the boat was being towed to a dock to allow migrants from sub-Saharan Africa to disembark. Local officials also said one infant was missing.
Search and rescue efforts are ongoing and more bodies may be found in the coming hours. –0–
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BRUSSELS, May 28 (Xinhua) — The European Union formally lifted almost all economic sanctions on Syria on Wednesday, adopting a political agreement aimed at supporting the country’s reconstruction, the EU Council said in a press release.
The EU will lift all restrictive measures related to trade, investment and finance, except those based on security considerations, the press release said.
As part of the package, 24 organisations, including the Central Bank of Syria and companies involved in key sectors such as oil production and refining, cotton production and telecommunications, are exempted from the EU asset freeze.
According to the EU Council, several media outlets and television channels were also removed from the sanctions list. –0–
May 27, 2025 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is mourning the passing of distinguished animator and director CoHoedeman, who died on May 26 in Montreal at the age of 84.
Born in Amsterdam on August 1, 1940, Co was a master of stop-motion animation whose 1977 NFB production The Sand Castle received the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film.
“Co Hoedeman was a master animator, whose long career at the NFB was distinguished by innovative filmmaking and powerful humanitarian themes. He cared deeply for the well-being of children and was also a fierce defender of the importance of public filmmaking. The NFB and the Canadian animation community have lost a dear friend and colleague. Fortunately for us, we have his legacy of beloved works, which embody so much of his unique spirit,” said Suzanne Guèvremont, Government Film Commissioner and NFB Chairperson.
Select biography
Shortly after directing his early films with the NFB, including his award-winning Oddball (1969), Co travelled to Czechoslovakia in 1970 to study puppet animation and then returned to the NFB to begin a series of stop-motion gems.
Tchou-tchou (1972), created with wooden blocks, received the British Academy award (BAFTA) for Best Animated Film.
During the 1970s, Co created a series of acclaimed animated films based on Inuit traditional stories, collaborating closely with artists from Nunavut and Nunavik.
Following his Oscar win for The Sand Castle, he continued to experiment with a range of techniques and themes.
In 1992, he worked with Indigenous inmates at La Macaza Institution to create The Sniffing Bear, a cautionary tale about substance abuse. In 1998, he began work on a beloved children’s series about Ludovic, a young teddy bear, available in the NFB collection Four Seasons in the Life of Ludovic.
After completing his final film with the NFB, Marianne’s Theatre(2004), Co began a busy independent animation career. He collaborated with the NFB on the co-production 55 Socks (2011), a deeply personal project drawing on his childhood memories during a dark period of Dutch history, the Hunger Winter of 1944–45. He would also adapt his Ludovic character into a popular children’s TV series.
In 2003, the Cinémathèque québécoise and the NFB paid tribute to Co and his importance to Quebec cinema with an exhibition entitled “Exposition Co Hoedeman – Les Jardins de l’enfance.” The exhibition was presented the following year at the Musée-Château d’Annecy in France.
Co was interviewed in 2013 for the NFB online anthology Making Movie History and was the subject of the 1980 NFB documentary Co Hoedeman, Animator. All of his NFB films are available online free of charge at nfb.ca.
The Belfast Giants celebrate a goal.(Belfast Giants)
In its simplest form, the protracted tensions in Northern Ireland have at their foundation two separate sectarian identities deeply divided over how, and by whom, they are governed — Protestant/Unionist populations wishing to maintain British rule and Catholic/Nationalists desiring a united Ireland.
The arena is a place where symbols of division, so common across Northern Ireland via flags, murals and graffiti, are not allowed.
The lack of a historical association with one side of the conflict, the fact that the sport is played predominantly by men from outside Northern Ireland — mostly from North America and Scandinavia — and a name and logo rooted in the shared regional lore of mythical giant Finn McCool has allowed the team to forge its own path post-peace agreement.
The Belfast Giants Mascot, Finn McCool, at a recent game. (Belfast Giants)
The Friendship Four
In 2015, after years of planning, the Belfast Giants hosted the inaugural Friendship Four hockey tournament.
Held over the American Thanksgiving weekend, the tournament has since become an annual event that sees four Division I hockey teams from American universities come to Belfast for a two-day experience that includes intercultural exchange, educational visits to local schools and a hockey tournament.
Since the tournament began, it has hosted teams from the New England and Boston areas as a means of fostering stronger ties between the sister cities of Belfast and Boston.
In 2024, the Friendship Four tournament notably included a school with a long association with Ireland, the University of Notre Dame. As a prominent American Catholic university with a team name — the Fighting Irish — that is directly connected to the island’s divisive history, the team’s inclusion in the Friendship Four had the potential to tarnish the neutrality of the event.
Controversial social media post
As a researcher who has engaged significantly with supporters of the Belfast Giants, and as an alumnus of the University of Notre Dame, this tournament drew me to Belfast.
The ‘Know Before You Go’ post from Notre Dame Hockey on X on Nov. 19, 2024 that was subsequently deleted. (Notre Dame Hockey X account)
Before the 2024 tournament in November, the Notre Dame Hockey account posted guidelines on X for their supporters in Belfast, including an image of what to wear, and what not to wear, around the city. It noted: “Just a reminder to avoid our Irish symbolism, that may be deemed offensive to some, while out around town.”
The post was deleted a few hours later, and an apology was issued acknowledging the tournament was meant to build bridges, not stoke division. Nonetheless, the original post drew significant attention and criticism.
Belfast media and British news outlets picked up the story about the Notre Dame post. Many of the comments on social media about the story were situated in ethno-sectarian views or pointed fingers of blame.
The outrage that greeted the Notre Dame X post demonstrates the tension and complexity of identity and symbols in Northern Ireland. But it thankfully wasn’t replicated in the Belfast hockey arena because the groundwork of social capital among hockey fans in the city has been built over the last 25 years.
‘Game on!’ and getting on with it
On Nov. 29, 2024, the Notre Dame team took to the ice to play against Harvard without any extra fanfare.
The afternoon game was filled with school groups carrying homemade signs and cheering for the teams whose players had visited their schools earlier in the week with overt hopes of seeing themselves on the jumbotrons. The game could have been in Saskatoon given the lack of any sectarian tensions.
Action at the Friendship Four Championship Hockey Game on Nov. 30, 2024, in Belfast. (Notre Dame Hockey Facebook)
In an age of rising polarization and lack of human connection, the hockey arena in Belfast is worthy of attention.
Hallmarks of post-conflict reconstruction include the development of a shared understanding of the truth about past events and directly engaging with contested acts and issues. Neither effort has been particularly well-executed in Northern Ireland.
Nonetheless, as people wait for a more fulsome peace in the region, they have managed to live peacefully side by side in places like the Belfast hockey arena.
Eric Lepp 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.
Before then, recording was done mechanically, scratching sound waves onto rolled paper or a cylinder. Such recordings suffered from low fidelity and captured only a small segment of the audible sound spectrum.
By using electrical microphones, amplifiers and electromechanical recorders, record companies could capture a far wider range of sound frequencies, with much higher fidelity. For the first time, recorded sound closely resembled what a live listener would hear. Over the ensuing years, sales of vinyl records and record players boomed.
The technology also allowed some enterprising music fans to make recordings in surprising and innovative ways. As a physician and scholar in the medical humanities, I am fascinated by the use of X-ray film to make recordings – what was known as “bone music,” or “ribs.”
This rather bizarre, homemade technology became a way to skirt censors in the Soviet Union – and even played an indirect role in its dissolution.
Skirting the Soviet censorship regime
At the end of World War II, Soviet censorship shifted into high gear in an effort to suppress a Western culture deemed threatening or decadent.
Many books and poems could circulate only through “samizdat,” a portmanteau of “self” and “publishing” that involved the use of copy machines to reproduce forbidden texts. Punishments inflicted on Soviet artists and citizens for producing or disseminating censored materials included loss of employment, imprisonment in gulags and even execution.
The phonographic analog of samizdat was often referred to as “roentgenizdat,” which was derived from the name of Wilhelm Roentgen, the German scientist who received the first Nobel Prize in physics in 1901 for his discovery of X-rays.
Roentgen’s work revolutionized medicine, making it possible to peer inside the living human body without cutting it open and enabling physicians to more easily and accurately diagnose skeletal fractures and diseases such as pneumonia.
Today, X-rays are produced and stored digitally. But for most of the 20th century they were created on photographic film and stored in large film libraries, which took up a great deal of space.
Because exposed X-ray films cannot be reused, hospitals often recycled them to recoup the silver they contained.
Making music from medicine
In the Soviet Union in the 1940s, some clever people realized that X-ray film was just soft enough to be etched by an electromechanical lathe, or sound recording device.
To make a “rib,” or “bone record,” they would use a compass to trace out a circle on an exposed X-ray film that might bear the image of a patient’s skull, spine or hands. They then used scissors to cut out the circle, before cutting a small hole in the middle so it would fit on a conventional record player.
Then they would use a recording device to cut either live sound or, more commonly, a bootleg record onto the X-ray film. Sound consists of vibrations that the lathe’s stylus etches into grooves on the disc. Such devices were not widely available, meaning that only a relatively small number of people could produce such recordings.
A disc-cutting lathe demonstrates the production of an X-ray record at a 2021 exhibition in Berlin, Germany. Adam Berry/Getty Images
The censors kept a close eye on record companies. But anyone who could obtain a recording device could record music on pieces of X-ray film, and these old films could be obtained after hospitals threw them out or purchased at a relatively low price from hospital employees.
Compared with professionally produced vinyl records, the sound quality was poor, with recordings marred by extraneous noises such as hisses and crackles. The records could be played only a limited number of times before the grooves would wear out.
Nonetheless, these resourceful recordings were shared, bought and sold entirely outside of official channels into the 1960s and 1970s.
A window into another life
Popular artists “on the bone” included Ella Fitzgerald and Elvis Presley, whose jazz and rock ’n’ roll recordings, to the ears of many Soviet citizens, represented freedom and self-expression.
In his book “Bone Music,” cultural historian Stephen Coates describes how Soviet authorities viewed performers such as The Beatles as toxic because they appeared to promote a brand of amoral hedonism and distracted citizens from Communist party priorities.
“It is true that from time to time they are caught, their equipment confiscated, and they may even be brought to court. But then they may be released and be free to go wherever they like. The judges decide that they are, of course, parasites, but they are not dangerous. They are getting suspended sentences! But these record producers are not just engaged in illegal operations. They corrupt young people diligently and methodically with a squeaky cacophony and spread explicit obscenities.”
Bone music was inherently subversive.
For one thing, it was against the law. Moreover, the music itself suggested that a different sort of life is possible, beyond the strictures of Communist officials. How could a political system that prohibited beautiful music, many asked, possibly merit the allegiance of its citizens?
The ability of citizens to get around the censors and spread Western thought, whether through books or bone music, helped chip away at the government’s legitimacy.
One Soviet-era listener Coates interviewed long after the USSR’s collapse described the joy of listening to these illicit recordings:
“I was lifted up off the ground, I started flying. Rock’n’roll showed me a new world, a world of music, words, and feelings, of life, of a different lifestyle. That’s why, when I got my first records, I became a happy man. I felt like a changed person, it was as if I was born again.”
The playing of a bootleg record from the Soviet Union, recorded on an X-ray negative.
Richard Gunderman 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.
Four helicopters carrying an arrest team whirled over the mountains near Mexico’s southwestern coast toward Cervantes’ compound in the town of Villa Purificación, the heart of the infamous Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel.
As the lead helicopter pulled within range, bullets from a truck-mounted, military-grade machine gun on the ground struck the engine. Before it reached the ground, the massive helicopter was hit by a pair of rocket-powered grenades.
This .50-caliber cartridge was found stuck in the truck-mounted Browning M2HB machine gun that the Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel used to damage a Mexican Security Forces Super Cougar helicopter. ATF
Four soldiers from Mexico’s Secretariat of National Defense were killed in the crash. Three more soldiers were killed in the firefight that followed, and another 12 were injured.
The engagement was the first known incident of a cartel shooting down a military aircraft in Mexico. The cartel’s retaliation for the attempted arrest was swift and brutal. It set fire to trucks, buses, banks, gasoline stations and businesses. The distractions worked. Cervantes, also known as “El Mencho,” escaped.
The Browning machine gun that took down the helicopter was traced to a legal firearm purchase in Oregon made by a U.S. citizen. And a Barrett .50-caliber rifle used in the ambush was traced to a sale in a U.S. gun shop in Texas 4½ years before.
Many military-grade weapons like these are trafficked into Mexico from the U.S. each year, aided by loose standards for firearm dealers and gun laws that favor illicit sales.
We – a professor of economic development who has been tracking gun trafficking for more than 10 years, and an investigative journalist – spent a year sifting through documents to find the number, origins and characteristics of weapons flowing from the U.S. to Mexico.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives – the agency known as ATF tasked with regulating the industry – publishes the number of U.S. guns seized in Mexico and traced back to U.S. dealers, but it doesn’t provide an official trafficking estimate. The 2003 Tiahrt Amendments bar the ATF from creating a database of firearm sales and prohibit federal agencies from sharing detailed trace data outside of law enforcement.
To estimate weapons flow, we gathered trafficking estimates, including leaked data, previous research, firearm manufacturing totals and the ATF trace data.
The model we generated gave us a conservative middle estimate: About 135,000 firearms were trafficked across the border in 2022. In contrast, Ukraine, engaged in a war with Russia, received 40,000 small arms from the United States between January 2020 and April 2024 – an average of 9,000 per year.
An increase in guns trafficked to Mexico from the U.S. relates to an increase in Mexico’s homicide rate.
More of the most destructive weapons come from independent gun dealers versus large chain stores – 16 times as many assault-style weapons and 60 times as many sniper rifles.
The trafficking flow drives an arms race between criminals and Mexican law enforcement; the U.S. gun industry profits on sales to both.
ATF oversight of dealers reduces the likelihood their guns are resold on the illicit market.
Following the flow
Since 2008, the U.S. has spent more than US$3 billion to help stabilize Mexico through the rule of law and stem its surges of extreme violence, much of it committed with U.S. firearms. Many programs are funded through the U.S. State Department, which is facing budget cuts, and the U.S. Agency for International Development, which has sustained deep cuts.
Meanwhile, the gun industry and its supporters have undercut these efforts by fighting measures to regulate gun sales.
From 2015-2023, 185,000 guns linked to crimes in Mexico were sent to the ATF to be traced – the process of using a firearm’s serial number and other characteristics to identify the trail of gun ownership. About 125,000 of those weapons have been traced back to the U.S.
Our analyses show that U.S.-Mexico firearms trafficking has dire implications for ordinary Mexicans – and that U.S. regulatory actions can have an enormous impact. This adds to a growing body of research tying U.S.-sold guns to Mexico-based gangs and cartels, illegal drug trafficking, homicide rates, corruption of Mexican officials, illicit financial transactions and migration trends.
Oregon guns tied to cartel
The Jalisco Nueva Generación cartel is poised to be the biggest player in the drug cartel game. El Mencho, still at large, is one of the most powerful people directing the flow of heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamines into the United States, while orchestrating campaigns of fear, intimidation and displacement in Mexico.
The Browning .50-caliber rifle that aided El Mencho’s evasion in 2015 was manufactured by a company based in Morgan, Utah, and legally sold to Erik Flores Elortegui, a U.S. citizen.
Elortegui fled the country after he was indicted in Oregon for smuggling guns into Mexico and is now at the top of the ATF’s most wanted list. He wasn’t alone in his gunrunning schemes. According to a grand jury indictment, Elortegui purchased 20 firearms through an accomplice, Robert Allen Cummins, in 2013 and 2014. Cummins was straw purchasing – buying weapons under his name for Elortegui.
Two of the .50-caliber weapons that Cummins purchased for Elortegui – the long rifles on the right – were among those later recovered from a tractor trailer in Sonora, Mexico. USA v. Robert Allen Cummins. USA v. Robert Allen Cummins
Before she gave Cummins a 40-month prison sentence in 2017, Judge Ann Aiken admonished him for the pain and suffering his weapons were likely going to cause. She told him to read “Dreamland,” which chronicles America’s opioid crisis and its connection to Mexican drug cartels.
After their mother was killed by organized crime five years ago, Emylce Ines Espinoza-Alarcon’s sister’s family migrated to the States, she said.
Espinoza-Alarcon, her children and other relatives were more recently driven from their homes by violence. “As a parent, you try to flee to a different place where they might be safe,” Espinoza-Alarcon said. She said she believes American weapons are to blame, but there “is nowhere else for us to go.”
Emylce Ines Espinoza-Alarcon holds her toddler as she listens while her aunt, Alicia Zomora-Guevara, front, describes the cartel attack on her town that forced their families into exile. Zomora-Guevara’s son, Kevin Jait Alarcon-Zamora, stands to the right, and Espinoza-Alarcon’s son and teenage daughter sit on the Mexico City hotel room bed in front of her. Sean Campbell, CC BY-ND
A 2023 survey found that 88% of the 180,000 Mexican migrants to the U.S. that year were fleeing violence – a flip from 2017 when most were coming for economic opportunity.
The ATF’s enforcement
ATF inspections keep illicit guns in check, our analysis shows.
The agency’s primary enforcement tools are inspections, violations reports, warning letters and meetings, and, when inspectors find violations that are reckless or willfully endanger the public, revocation notices.
But the bureau’s 2025 congressional budget request points out that it would need 1,509 field investigators to reach its goal of inspecting each dealer at least once every three years.
This is a condensed version. To learn more about the connections between U.S. gun sales, U.S. regulations, Mexican drug cartels and migration, read the full investigation
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Nicholas J. Cull, Professor of Communication, USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
The bluegrass group Della Mae plays at an orphanage in Kyrgyzstan on its State Department-sponsored American Music Abroad tour in 2012.Photo: Paul Rockower
Previous U.S. administrations have realized this, including during President Donald Trump’s first term, when his team, led by Assistant Secretary of State for Educational and Cultural Affairs Marie Royce, raised the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs budget to an all-time high.
Modern Jazz Quartet traveled to Germany in 1960 as jazz ambassadors on a State Department-sponsored tour.
Giving politics a human dimension
Government-funded cultural diplomacy is an old practice. In 1889, President Benjamin Harrison’s government hosted a delegation of leaders from Latin America on a 5,000-mile rail tour around the American heartland as a curtain raiser for the first Pan-American conference. The visitors met a variety of American icons, from wordsmith Mark Twain to gunsmiths Horace Smith and Daniel B. Wesson.
President Teddy Roosevelt initiated the first longer-term cultural exchange program by spending money raised from an indemnity imposed on the Chinese government for its mishandling of the Boxer Rebellion, during which Western diplomats had been held hostage. The program, for the education of Chinese people, included study in the U.S. In contrast, European powers did nothing special with their share of the money.
This work went into high gear during the 1950s. The U.S. sought to stitch postwar Germany back into the community of nations, so that nation became a particular focus. Programs linked emerging global leaders to Americans with similar interests: doctor to doctor; pastor to pastor; politician to politician.
Visits gave a human dimension to political alignment, and returnees had the ability to speak to their countrymen and women with the authority of personal experience.
From jazz to promoting peace
The globally focused International Visitor Leadership Program built early-career relationships between U.S. citizens and young foreign leaders who later played a central role in aligning their nations with American policy.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s note from 10 Downing Street about her 1967 exchange visit to the US – ‘Forevermore I shall be a true friend to the United States.’ U.S. Department of State
Current programs include bringing emerging highfliers in tech, music and sports to the U.S. to connect to and be mentored by Americans in the same field and then go home to be part of a living network of enhanced understanding. Such programs are in danger of being cut under Trump.
Five U.S. hip-hop artists traveled to Harare, Zimbabwe, in 2024 to perform for audiences and collaborate with local artists as part of the State Department’s Next Level program. U.S. Department of State
Personal experience conquers stereotypes
How exactly does this work advance U.S. security?
I see these exchanges as the national equivalent to the advice given to a diplomat in kidnap training: Try to establish a rapport with your hostage-taker so that they will see the person and be inclined to mercy.
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is the part of the Department of State that cultivates empathy and implicitly counters the claims of America’s detractors with personal experience. Quite simply, it is harder to hate people you really know. More than this, exchanged people frequently become the core of each embassy’s local network.
Of course, an exchange program is just one part of a nation’s reputational security.
Reputation flows from reality, and reality is demonstrated over time. Historically, America’s reputation has rested on the health of the country’s core institutions, including its legal system and higher education as well as its standard of living.
U.S. reputational security has also required reform.
In the 1950s, when President Dwight Eisenhower faced an onslaught of Soviet propaganda emphasizing racism and racial disparities within the U.S., he understood that an effective response required that the U.S. not only showcase Black achievement but also be less racist. Civil rights became a Cold War priority.
As lawmakers in Washington debate federal spending priorities, building relationships through cultural tools may not survive budget cuts. Historically, both sides of the political aisle have failed to appreciate the significance of investing in cultural relations.
In 2013, when still a general heading Central Command, Jim Mattis, later Trump’s secretary of defense, was blunt about what such lack of regard would mean. In 2013 he told Congress: ‘If you don’t fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition, ultimately.“
Nicholas J. Cull 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.
Headline: Logic Pro amplifies beat making on Mac and iPad with advanced new capabilities
May 28, 2025
UPDATE
Logic Pro amplifies beat making on Mac and iPad with advanced new capabilities
An enhanced Stem Splitter and new features like Flashback Capture elevate hip-hop and electronic music production to a new level
Apple today introduced new Logic Pro updates for Mac and iPad, supercharging beat making and producing. The innovative Stem Splitter feature now offers even greater audio fidelity, and can separate guitar and piano into stems. With Flashback Capture, users can retrieve and restore inspiring performances they may have forgotten to record. And with energetic new sound packs like Dancefloor Rush, beat makers have fresh loops and kits to fuel their next track.
Stem Splitter Delivers Enhanced Audio Fidelity and New Stems
The updated Stem Splitter extracts greater detail from old recordings and demos, and now offers added support for guitar and piano stems.1 Producers can easily select common stem variations, such as acapella, instrumental, or instrumental with vocals using presets. Additionally, a new submix feature makes it easy for users to export just the parts of audio they want — for example, removing vocals to create an instrumental track, or pulling out the drums and bass for a custom remix.
Recall Every Moment with Flashback Capture
Flashback Capture allows artists to recover unforgettable performances, even if they forgot to hit record.2 Users can quickly restore MIDI and audio performances using a key command or a custom control bar button. By enabling Cycle mode, musicians can improvise multiple takes, and Flashback Capture will automatically organize each pass into a take folder.
New Sound Packs to Amplify Music Production
Logic Pro adds new sound packs to amplify music production. Dancefloor Rush — the latest sound pack for Mac and iPad — features a world of expertly crafted drum-and-bass sounds with over 400 dynamic loops, punchy drum kits, and a custom Live Loops grid. Today’s update also introduces two new sound packs to Logic Pro for Mac: Magnetic Imperfections and Tosin Abasi. Magnetic Imperfections brings an original texture that captures the raw, unpolished essence of analog tape, while the Tosin Abasi sound pack showcases progressive metal guitar with boutique amps, unique effects, distinctive picking techniques, and the artist’s signature riffs.
Learn MIDI Comes to iPad for Seamless Logic Pro Integration
Learn MIDI is now available on iPad, allowing users to get hands-on control by easily assigning their favorite knobs, faders, and buttons on MIDI devices to control plug-ins, instruments, and other automatable parameters within Logic Pro.3 With Learn MIDI’s intuitive interface and real-time visual feedback, users can quickly create custom assignments, view available controls, and stay in their creative flow.
Additional features to enhance creativity on Mac:
Notepad now features integrated support for Writing Tools, powered by Apple Intelligence, giving users more flexibility and control when they’d like to make their writing more expressive, get help with a rewrite, or even collaborate on song lyrics and more right inline.4
Users can manage large projects with the new search and select feature, which makes it easy to find and choose tracks by their name or track number.
Pricing and Availability
Logic Pro for Mac 11.2 is available May 28 as a free update for existing users and for $199.99 (U.S.) for new users on the Mac App Store. It is also available as part of the Pro Apps Bundle for Education, which includes Final Cut Pro, MainStage, Motion, and Compressor for $199.99 (U.S.). Logic Pro for Mac requires macOS Sequoia 15.4 or later. For more information, visit apple.com/logic-pro.
Logic Pro for iPad 2.2 is available May 28 as a free update for existing users, and available on the App Store for $4.99 (U.S.) per month or $49 (U.S.) per year, with a one-month free trial for new users. Logic Pro for iPad requires iPadOS 18.4 or later. For more information, visit apple.com/logic-pro-for-ipad.
Stem Splitter requires iPad or Mac with M1 chip or later.
Audio support for Flashback Capture requires Logic Pro to be in active play mode.
Connecting third‑party external microphones, musical instruments, or MIDI controllers with Logic Pro for iPad requires devices compatible with iOS and iPadOS.
Apple Intelligence is available in beta on iPad mini (A17 Pro), and all iPad and Mac models with M1 and later, with Siri and device language set to Chinese (Simplified), English (Australia, Canada, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa, UK, or U.S.), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), or Spanish, as part of an iPadOS 18 and macOS Sequoia software update, with more languages coming over the course of the year, including Vietnamese. Some features may not be available in all regions or languages. For more details, visit apple.com/apple-intelligence.
The Winchester Nutrient Mitigation Strategy has been shortlisted under the ‘best project’ award by the Royal Town Planning Institute.
The joint submission from the city council and the Partnership for South Hampshire was based on the work that Winchester City Council has undertaken to protect and improve the water quality of important rivers (Itchen) and chalk streams across the district, while still being able to provide new homes.
Nitrates and Phosphorous (Nutrients) can be harmful to waterways. There is concern that without measures to prevent it, new homes can contribute to adding excessive nutrients into the water. All new developments must be able to demonstrate how they will not contribute to the problem and be ‘nitrate neutral’.
Winchester City Council has been proactive in tackling this key issue and developed a number of schemes to prevent this from happening (Nutrient mitigation). By upgrading city council owned waste-water treatment works (WWTW) and retrofitting council owned properties with water efficiency measures, the homes using these systems will not be adding harmful nutrients to our rivers and streams. The retrofitting measures also have the added advantage of also helping to reduce people’s water bills.
Instead of relying on third party mitigation schemes, the city council has created its own – and is the first council owned phosphorous mitigation in the Solent area.
An initial pilot scheme, funded by the city council, to upgrade two WWTWs was completed last year. Working with Partnership for South Hampshire, the city council has been able to access the Local Nutrient Mitigation Fund (LNMF) to be able to start work on upgrading a further 10 WWTWs this year.
Councillor Jackie Porter, Cabinet Member for Place and the Local Plan, said: “Being shortlisted for this award is testament to the teams’ commitment and ingenuity in finding solutions to an important but complex issue which both protects our rivers and waterways, but still allows for the development of much needed homes. I am delighted the Royal Institute for Town planners has recognised this project and we look forward to hearing the outcome.”
Councillor Keith House, Chair of the Partnership for South Hampshire, added: “This is great recognition for work being done in our region to safeguard the environment while enabling much-needed development. As a partnership we work collectively to ensure councils are in the best possible position to deliver projects like that will benefit everyone.”
The Russian economy has continued to grow over the past six months. The position of banks and other financial institutions remains stable, including due to the fact that the Bank of Russia tightened regulation in a timely manner.
Most companies have enough profit to service their loans and will be able to comfortably ride out the period of economic slowdown and high rates.
The measures of the Bank of Russia, as well as the budget rule, will help maintain macroeconomic stability and the sustainability of the financial system.
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Financial institutions may offer qualified investors derivative financial instruments, securities and digital financial assets, the profitability of which is tied to the value of cryptocurrency. The key condition is that such instruments should not provide for the actual delivery of cryptocurrency.
For credit institutions recommended conservatively assess the risks of such instruments: provide for their full coverage by capital, and also set a separate limit for them. During the year, the Bank of Russia plans to formalize a conservative approach to regulating the risks of credit institutions associated with changes in the value of cryptocurrencies.
The Bank of Russia still does not recommend financial institutions and their clients to invest directly in cryptocurrencies. Proposals of the Bank of Russia on the launch of an experimental regime, where only certain categories of investors will be able to make transactions with cryptocurrencies, are being approved by the Government.
Preview photo: Timofeev Vladimir / Shutterstock / Fotodom
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Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the international exhibition.
Mikhail Mishustin visited the exhibition “Metalworking – 2025”. With the Minister of Industry and Trade Anton Alikhanov and the Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov
May 28, 2025
Mikhail Mishustin visited the exhibition “Metalloobrabotka – 2025”. The stand of LASSARD LLC. General Director of LASSARD LLC Oleg Nefedov gives explanations
May 28, 2025
Mikhail Mishustin visited the exhibition “Metalloobrabotka – 2025”. The stand of LASSARD LLC. General Director of LASSARD LLC Oleg Nefedov gives explanations
May 28, 2025
Mikhail Mishustin visited the exhibition “Metalloobrabotka – 2025”. The stand of LASSARD LLC. General Director of LASSARD LLC Oleg Nefedov gives explanations
May 28, 2025
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Mikhail Mishustin visited the exhibition “Metalworking – 2025”. With the Minister of Industry and Trade Anton Alikhanov and the Minister of Science and Higher Education Valery Falkov
The International Specialized Exhibition “Equipment, Devices and Tools for the Metalworking Industry” – “Metalloobrabotka” has been held since 1984 and is one of the largest international industry expositions in the machine tool industry. This year is the 25th anniversary international exhibition. The event will be attended by more than 1.2 thousand companies, including about 840 from 50 regions of Russia, as well as exhibitors from Belarus, China, India, Korea, Italy, Turkey and South Korea.
The exhibition’s business program is focused on applied tasks and strategic issues of development of basic industries.
The key focus of the business part is on the implementation of the national project “Production and Automation Tools” – its goals and key indicators, government support measures, as well as issues of technological leadership as a priority area of industrial policy, including issues of import independence, development of scientific and technical potential and training of highly qualified personnel.
The event serves as a key platform for presenting advanced developments in the machine tool industry, and also contributes to the formation of sustainable production and technological chains. The exhibition is aimed at promoting industrial cooperation, strengthening ties between manufacturers, suppliers and consumers, implementing domestic solutions and expanding import-independent supplies of equipment and components.
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Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Xinjiang’s Alashankou port handles over 3,000 China-Europe freight trains in Jan-May
URUMQI, May 28 — As of Monday, the Alashankou Port in northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region had handled over 3,000 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight train trips this year, providing a significant boost to the stability and smooth operation of global industrial and supply chains, according to railway authorities.
Alashankou is a crucial hub connecting China with Central Asia and Europe. Currently, 123 China-Europe (Central Asia) freight train routes operate via the Alashankou Port, connecting 21 countries, including Germany and Poland.
These trains transport more than 200 categories of goods, ranging from new energy vehicles and mechanical parts to electronics and daily consumer goods.
“We operate a 24/7 ‘green channel’ to ensure the smooth operation of China-Europe freight trains,” said Yang Peng, a staff member of the Alashankou railway station.
“This year, the station has handled an average of over 21 China-Europe freight train trips daily, with a peak of 30 trips in a single day,” Yang added.
In recent years, Xinjiang’s railway authorities have consistently enhanced port logistics capacity, with the region now handling over 50 percent of China’s total China-Europe freight train volume.
In 2024 alone, the region’s Horgos and Alashankou ports processed 16,400 China-Europe freight train trips, up 14 percent year on year.
Latest information and actions from the Department for Education about funding, assurance and resource management, for academies, local authorities and further education providers.
“The dire warning today from the World Meteorological Organization (1) should serve as a wake-up call. With global temperatures predicted to breach internationally agreed safe limits in at least one of the next five years due to global inaction, we are facing a future filled with increasingly severe climate impacts.
“The Spending Review is the government’s chance to act. It must prepare for the climate consequences we can no longer avoid while also accelerating the path to net zero.
“In our submission, the Green Party has called for an additional £7 billion annually to be invested in making the changes we need to face the impact of climate change on all our lives – from flood defences to future-proofing homes and buildings. This is no longer an optional extra. It’s vital to protect lives and livelihoods.
“Delaying now means greater costs, deeper disruption, and irreversible damage. The science couldn’t be clearer, and the warning couldn’t be louder — the Government must respond with urgency and ambition. The Spending Review is the chance to do it.”
LEICESTER’S Riverside Festival returns next month – and this year it’s bigger than ever, with more locations, more free activities and an exciting new collaboration with De Montfort University (DMU).
Taking place on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 June, the family-friendly festival on and around the River Soar’s Mile Straight will offer a packed programme of activities both on and off the water, with boat rides, kayaking sessions, dragon boat racing (Sunday only), live music and performance, international street food, licensed bars, craft markets and even a pop-up art gallery.
Little ones and their families should head for the dedicated family zone in the Bede Park tipi, where they’ll find mini discos, bubble parties and children’s entertainment from 12-2pm on both days, while Ride Leicester has teamed up with Danny Butler to bring his jaw-dropping mountain bike skills to DMU’s campus in a display that visitors of all ages will enjoy.
The Piazza Stage will feature live music from local talent – with a programme curated by HQ Recordings, EAVA FM, 2 Funky Arts, Soft Touch Arts and Leics Introducing – while there’ll be a more relaxed vibe in Castle Gardens, with acoustic sessions around the maypole from 1pm and a chill-out area where everyone is welcome.
And for those who want to explore the history of the area, there’s an opportunity to travel back in time to 1645, with a 17th century living history camp and a thrilling live skirmish – complete with muskets and loud cannons – that will recreate the drama of the Siege of Leicester.
Hidden Histories Heritage Events’ spectacular – but safe – re-enactment will bring the past to life, with battles taking place on The Newarke from 2pm to 3pm on both days.
DMU’s heritage sites will be open too, with free entry to Leicester Castle’s Great Hall, Trinity Chapel, the Herb Garden and the DMU Museum, while the incorporation of DMU’s Cultural eXchanges festival into the event will bring an electrifying mix of performances and workshops to this year’s Riverside Festival.
Organised by students in the final year of their Arts and Festivals Management degree, the Cultural eXchanges programme will feature dance, performance and workshops at DMU’s Campus Centre from 12 noon on both days.
Jill Cowley, pro vice chancellor skills & training and dean of faculty of arts, design & humanities at De Montfort University, said: “DMU is thrilled that its annual Cultural eXchanges festival is now part of the hugely popular Riverside Festival. We’re proud to partner with the city council to help put on this fabulous event and look forward to welcoming visitors to our campus on June 7th and 8th.”
DMU’s campus is one of a number of Riverside Festival locations this year. As well as the Mile Straight, activities will also be taking place at Bede Park, Castle Gardens, Western Boulevard and – for the first time – The Newarke.
Cllr Vi Dempster, assistant city mayor for leisure and culture, said: “The Riverside Festival is Leicester’s largest free festival, attracting thousands of visitors to the city each year.
“This year, it’s bigger than ever, thanks to our collaboration with De Montfort University.
“Like all our festivals, the aim of the Riverside Festival is to bring people together – and from 7-8 June, we want to invite as many people as possible to join us in celebrating Leicester’s waterways, exploring the city’s heritage, and discovering De Montfort University’s stunning campus.
“It’s also a chance to showcase the diversity of our communities and enjoy the food, music, dance and arts that make Leicester so special.
“I hope that the weather will be kind to us and we can look forward to a fun-packed Riverside Festival that will offer something for everyone.”
The Riverside Festival runs from 12 noon until 6pm on Saturday 7 June and from 12 noon until 5pm on Sunday 8 June. A full festival programme is available to download at visitleicester.info/festival/riverside-festival/
Anyone who can muster a crew of 10 enthusiastic rowers and would like to take part in the dragon boat races on Sunday 8 June should email rob@prostaid.co.uk
Following extensive negotiations and a thorough review of proposed working models, Derby City Council has withdrawn from the process of appointing Sporting Communities, a not-for-profit organisation, to run Derby’s ten community libraries.
Councillor Sarah Chambers, Cabinet Member for Cost of Living, Equalities and Communities said:
The formal evaluation process was devised with the express aim of identifying a partner who would support our long-term ambition to deliver a sustainable future for our library services and the people of Derby.
While negotiations with the preferred bidder began with considerable optimism and a shared desire to find an optimal solution, it has become clear during this detailed phase that outsourcing is not the best approach to protect our libraries.
The decision to withdraw from negotiations means the Council will continue to run the libraries. I want to reassure public, staff and volunteers that we remain committed to the future success of our libraries and our manifesto commitment to protect them.
We will continue to deliver an efficient, high-quality public service and aspire to improve that service to a standard that is truly fit for the people of Derby.
I’d like to thank our dedicated staff and invaluable volunteers who have continued to provide an excellent standard of service throughout this period of review. Their commitment and hard work are deeply appreciated.
We will continue dialogue with Sporting Communities on how we can work together to deliver quality services for our citizens.
We will now take time to assess next steps which will be discussed in detail at a future Cabinet meeting.
Cotonou (Agenzia Fides) – “The Bishops of Benin express their deepest sympathy to the entire nation and to the grieving families of our soldiers who fell in the line of duty,” said the Bishops of Benin on the sidelines of the 75th Plenary Assembly of the Bishops’ Conference, which took place from May 21 to 23. The bishops commemorated the 54 soldiers killed in two attacks by an Islamist terrorist group on April 17 in the north of the country. “Aware of the sacrifices made to preserve peace and security in our country, we pray for the eternal rest of these heroes.”The bishops also remembered the soldiers who continue their mission against terrorism in northern Benin. “We also pray for their brothers and sisters in arms who are still on the front lines, that the Lord may be their shield and their protection.”The attack on April 17, the bloodiest since the beginning of Islamist attacks in 2019, shocked the people of Benin. One hundred fighters belonging to the “Group for the Support for Islam and Muslims” (JNIM) on motorcycles simultaneously attacked two army outposts, one located in the so-called “tri-border area” (where the borders of Benin, Niger, and Burkina Faso converge), while the other is stationed near the Koudou Falls, not far from the town of Banikoara. On January 8, an Islamist attack near Karimama, in the same region, killed about 30 soldiers. The tri-border area has become an unsafe zone due to the presence of Islamist groups, which often collaborate with fuel traders in neighboring Nigeria. On the Beninese side, the area is part of the Pendjari National Park, one of the country’s five nature reserves.Meanwhile, the presence of Islamist groups also jeopardizes the conservation of the area’s biodiversity and threatens tourism, which plays a vital role in the local economy. As part of Operation “Mirador,” the Beninese army has deployed around 3,000 soldiers along the border in the north of the country, where defensive barriers have been erected with the help of drones and satellite images to thwart Islamist attacks, while the country’s defense budget has been increased by 50 percent. However, this is not enough to thwart the actions of Islamist terrorist groups in eastern Burkina Faso, a country with which the Beninese authorities are struggling to coordinate to face the common threat. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 28/5/2025)
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Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) – The Holy Father has appointed the Reverend Brice Armand Ibombo, of the clergy of Gamboma, until now vice rector of the Emile Card. Biayenda National Theological Major Seminary in Brazzaville, as bishop of the diocese of Ouesso, Republic of the Congo.Msgr. Brice Armand Ibombo was born on 23 November 1973 in Abala, in the diocese of Gamboma. After studying philosophy at the Msgr. Georges-Firmin Singha Philosophical Major Seminary of Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo, and theology at the major seminary of Concordia-Pordenone, Italy, he was awarded a doctorate in Church history from the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome.He was ordained a priest on 28 August 2004.He has held the following offices: parish vicar of the Cathedral of Santo Stefano Protomartire of Concordia Sagittaria (2004-2010), parish administrator of Santa Maria degli Angelii in Caraffa del Bianco (2010-2013), secretary of the Episcopal Conference of the Congo (2013-2023), parish cooperator in Notre-Dame des Victoires of Ouenzé (2014-2015), lecturer in the Department of History of Marien Ngouabi University, Brazzaville (since 2014), member of the College of Consultors of the diocese of Gamboma (since 2019), and vice rector of the Emile Card. Biayenda National Theological Major Seminary in Brazzaville (since 2024). (EG) (Agenzia Fides, 28/5/2025)
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Colombo (Agenzia Fides) – “Sri Lanka is going through a period of profound political and democratic renewal. Since November 2024, we have had a new president and a new parliament, with an absolute majority, changing the old power structure linked to a corrupt political class guilty of abuse of power and human rights violations. In a country that has emerged from a serious social and economic crisis, a new hope is emerging,” said Cardinal Albert Malcolm Ranjith, Archbishop of Colombo, in an interview with Fides. “Hope,” the Cardinal said, is precisely the right word to describe the spirit that prevails in the country today. And we Catholics celebrate the Jubilee of Hope so that our actions, our thoughts, our words, our direction are fully in line with what is happening politically, socially, culturally, and spiritually in the nation.” In the last election, “a change was expected, and it has happened: a socialist-oriented government is now in office, one that appears honest and committed to the welfare of the people and aware of its responsibilities, a government that intends to combat poverty and care for the well-being of the most disadvantaged social classes,” he notes. “The new government,” he says, “has started a new era and set to work to bring justice to those who have suffered injustice in the past, those who are in prison or have suffered violations of fundamental rights. And it is doing so through legality, with full respect for the principles of the rule of law.” “One area to which the government of new President Anura Kumara Dissanayake is devoting resources and attention,” the Cardinal said, “is the country’s economy. It is slowly recovering from the crisis and following the recommendations of the International Monetary Fund, which, in turn, has granted loans. We are in a phase of recovery, and tourism is also in a phase of recovery, and this bodes well, as it is an important sector of our economy that contributes to wealth creation.” “Of course,” Cardinal Ranjith continued, “the recovery process will take at least a few years, but we are on the right track. There is a certain optimism among the population today; we see a responsible political class and a president in whom people place their trust. The majority of the Catholic population has also supported him, and the Church has good relations with the government. There are good prospects for cooperation.”There is still an open wound in the relationship between the Catholic Church and political institutions, the Cardinal told Fides: “It is a question of justice, that is, the search for the perpetrators, executors, and sponsors responsible for the Easter terrorist attacks on churches and hotels in 2019, and their prosecution. President Dissanayake has announced a new investigation to create transparency and find the truth. We are hopeful because a commission has already been set up, which also regularly interviews some of our priests. From the beginning, we have demanded truth and justice against the cover-up of the case. Now we are waiting for a trial and for the real responsibilities or complicity within the state apparatus to come to light. The victims are waiting for justice.” In this context, the Cardinal is grateful that the Holy See has decided to include the 167 Catholic faithful who were murdered in a church in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019, in the catalogue of “Witnesses of the Faith of the 21st Century” compiled by the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints and presented in the Jubilee Year.In the meantime, he says, “the daily life of the Church continues; we walk as the people of God; we continue our social, educational, and charitable activities at the service of humanity. The parishes are celebrating the Holy Year; each diocese has prepared a calendar of celebrations and spiritual initiatives: for us, it is a moment of inner renewal and a new beginning with a new impulse that comes from the Lord. The theme of hope fits the feeling in people’s hearts: in this phase, we are bearers of hope; we have the hope that comes from God. We listen and offer our strength so that the Lord may complete his work and we may do our part humbly and with faith.”Regarding the election of Pope Leo XIV, the Cardinal says: “We see him as a person who, thanks to his missionary experience, is attentive to the reality of all the Churches. I believe that in him we will have a solid point of reference. With his reference to Pope Leo XIII, he told us that the Church today is called to offer Christian responses to modern times. We trust in his humble and wise leadership.” (PA) (Agenzia Fides, 28/5/2025)
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Ningbo (Agenzia Fides) – “Communion and unity in the love of Jesus Christ.” With this expression, Francis Xavier Jin Yangke, Bishop of the Diocese of Ningbo, summarized the recommendations addressed to the small Catholic community of Yancang, in the parish of Dinghai, Zhejiang province. A special bond unites the Bishop with this community, as he served there as parish priest for 14 years. On Sunday, May 25, accompanied by Father Wang Jiangfei, diocesan chancellor, Bishop Jin returned to his former parishioners to “confirm the brothers in the faith” and exhort everyone to bear witness to the mercy and truth of Christ. The motto chosen for this pastoral visit was: “Jesus is the heart of our life, follow him and do not be afraid.”After the solemn Eucharistic celebration, the Bishop shared a warm conversation with the faithful, recalling the years they had spent together and expressing his gratitude to the lay people who had supported his work with prayer and active participation in parish life. Bishop Jin also encouraged young people to bear witness to the faith among their peers and listened attentively to the parish committee’s report on the management of the community. The Diocese of Ningbo is historically linked to the work of the Lazarist missionaries, as well as to the work of Jesuits such as Martino Martini and Lodovico Buglio.The Apostolic Vicariate of Ningbo was erected in 1924 and elevated to a diocese in 1926. After the resumption of ecclesiastical activity in 1979, the diocese gave great importance to the reopening of churches and the formation of priests and religious, applying the teachings of the Second Vatican Council. Located in a region of strong economic development, thanks to the dynamism of the port of Ningbo, the diocese, although small in size, shows remarkable vitality in the pastoral, cultural, and social spheres. On May 24, 2024, it hosted a conference commemorating the centenary of the Primum Concilium Sinense in Shanghai. The diocesan community is experiencing abundant vocational flourishing: several priestly ordinations and religious professions are celebrated each year. The nuns of the Congregation of the Daughters of Purgatory, made up of about fifty sisters, also receive numerous vocations. Currently, the Diocese of Ningbo has more than 30,000 baptized Catholics and is organized into four deaneries, with 12 parishes, 106 churches, and chapels. It also manages a Catholic cemetery, a Marian shrine dedicated to Our Lady of the Rosary, a vocational center, and a spiritual retreat house. (NZ) (Agenzia Fides, 28/5/2025)
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The financial sector plays a central role in society, and advanced cyberattacks against a financial company or a payment system can potentially threaten financial stability. Companies in the financial sector have therefore worked targeted over the years to increase cyberresilience, both individually and at the sector level.
The geopolitical tensions continuously affect the cyberthreat, which is not only limited to digital attacks. Recently, there has been an increased focus on attacks using hybrid means. This can include, for example, influence campaigns, harassment, sabotage or destructive cyberattacks. There have been several incidents of undersea cable breaches, highlighting that the threat is real and serious.
”Strengthening cyberresilience is not only about making IT systems difficult to penetrate. It is also important to have a broad perspective on our dependencies and vulnerabilities, when it comes to, for example, telecommunication cables or central service providers,” said Ulrik Nødgaard and continued:
”Furthermore, a key focus area for strengthening cyberresilience is the financial sector’s work on contingency planning that aim to enhance individual companies’ ability to continue business even in extreme but plausible scenarios, such as a large-scale destructive cyberattack.”
Contingency planning is also a focus area in Danmarks Nationalbank’s work. This applies both in the oversight of central payment systems and solutions, and in the work with joint initiatives across the financial sector to secure the most critical activities for society. One example is the work to establish a society-wide contingency plan for card payments in Denmark, which aims to secure access to a basic consumption for at least one week.
In conclusion, Ulrik Nødgaard emphasized that a lot of good work is already being done, and the financial sector is moving in the right direction. At the same time, he mentioned that there is more work ahead.
The common element in each of these policies is a promise from Trump’s inaugural speech that his administration would recognize only two genders: male and female.
These executive orders make life difficult for transgender people, many of whom do identify as women or men, just not the sex they were assigned at birth. Apart from that, however, the emphasis on two and only two genders denies the existence of another group that is often misunderstood: nonbinary people.
Trans vs. nonbinary
I am a sociologist who studies gender. Over the past few years, co-researchers and I have interviewed 123 nonbinary people in three regions in America: the South, the Midwest and the West Coast. These interviewees spoke about how nonbinary people’s increased visibility in society in recent years helped them feel more welcome and liberated from gender stereotypes.
All of the respondents are nonbinary. They do not want to be seen as the opposite sex from what they were assigned at birth; they do not feel they were “born in the wrong body.”
Rather, they want to avoid being forced into the either/or labels that the categories “masculine” and “feminine” or “man” and “woman” entail. They opt out of those binary identifications altogether.
Decades of research, some of it our own, have shown that sex and gender are different from one another. Sex refers to primary and secondary sex characteristics, while gender is about the cultural meanings built upon sex categories.
Gender is a social system that justifies rules and expectations that differentiate between the rights and social roles of men and women. These systems vary across time and place. Today, there are societies such as those in Iceland, Barbados and Bosnia-Herzegovina where women lead the government, while in other societies women must be covered or secluded at home.
Sense of self
Most of the people we talked to were under age 30. Typically, they rejected the societal pressure to adopt the personality characteristics that are stereotypically associated with their biological sex, such as submissiveness for women and toughness for men.
Many of them also reject the ways people are expected to dress and use their bodies to show whether they are men or women. Some people who had been raised as boys wore nail polish and earrings, for example, while sporting a beard. Others wore long earrings and makeup – though those kinds of choices do not necessarily mean someone is trans or nonbinary. Many of the respondents who had been raised as girls, meanwhile, chose to wear masculine clothing. They wanted to mix and match traditional symbols of gender.
Many of the respondents had felt that binary gender identities never quite fit, and they described feeling overjoyed or relieved when they learned about the word “nonbinary”: an identity that offered a more accurate reflection of their sense of self.
“I was just kind of a flesh blob to myself, until I kind of found out that there was a term … nonbinary. And I heard the term and I was like, “Oh, that actually sounds correct for me. That actually feels right …”
Another person we interviewed remembered:
“Before I knew what to call myself … it was like a sense of emptiness. … I finally found that piece to put in that empty spot. And it feels more full now. Like, I feel complete now.”
He, she, they
The implications of that discovery were quite diverse, however. Although all the interviewees identified as nonbinary, what that meant for how they wanted to interact with their friends and families differed dramatically.
For about half of our respondents, using the pronouns “they/them” rather than he/him or she/her was very important, because using that pronoun made them feel respected. Indeed, when asked how they felt being referred to as they/them, one person told us:
“It felt like magic. It felt like everything just went into place and everything fit. And I was just like, ‘Oh, my God, this is … this is it.‘”
Other people we interviewed didn’t really care how others refer to them: he, she or they. Some of these people described having a flexible sense of their own gender. Some days they feel more feminine and use “she”; other days they feel more masculine, and “he” might work better.
“I don’t have to choose one,” one person told us about their pronouns. “I just need all of them in the arsenal.”
Still others said they don’t care about a “proper” pronoun because they do not think gender should matter at all. They don’t want to be a third category, a “they.” Instead, they hope for a world where their body parts do not determine how they’re perceived or treated, and so gender is not central to their identity. They would like to do without gender entirely.
Significance – for everyone
The people we interviewed want the right to live in peace without being forced into a gender category. The recent executive orders deny this freedom by declaring that gender “does not provide a meaningful basis for identification” – contradicting a decades-long consensusin the social sciences on the distinction between sex and gender.
Understanding that sex and gender are related but different matters not only for people who identify as nonbinary or transgender, but for everyone. Without that understanding, it is far too easy to presume socially constructed gender differences are essentially biological and to stigmatize people who do not follow strict gender norms. If you believe the myth that biology alone is the sole reason women and men differ, it would be easy to presume, for example, that women are naturally less ambitious or that men cannot be as nurturing.
If I have learned anything from our team’s research on nonbinary young people, it is that human beings are creative and try to carve out a place for themselves in the world. The evidence suggests that gender nonconformity and diversity is wide and deep in America. What is at stake, however, is how much freedom or oppression individuals will face as they express themselves.
Barbara J. Risman has received funding from the National Science Foundation for the research discussed in this article.
Infectious diseases such as gonorrhea or chlamydia are often overlooked factors that affect fertility in men. Accumulating evidence suggests that a common single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii may also be a contributor: An April 2025 study showed for the first time that “human sperm lose their heads upon direct contact” with the parasite.
I am a microbiologist, and my lab studies Toxoplasma. This new study bolsters emerging findings that underscore the importance of preventing this parasitic infection.
In addition to eggs, tissue cysts present in the meat of warm-blooded animals can spread toxoplasmosis as well if they are not destroyed by cooking to proper temperature.
While most hosts of the parasite can control the initial infection with few if any symptoms, Toxoplasma remains in the body for life as dormant cysts in brain, heart and muscle tissue. These cysts can reactivate and cause additional episodes of severe illness that damage critical organ systems.
While immunocompromised patients are most at risk for testicular toxoplasmosis, it can also occur in otherwise healthy individuals. Imaging studies of infected mice confirm that Toxoplasma parasites quickly travel to the testes in addition to the brain and eyes within days of infection.
Knowing that Toxoplasma can reside in male reproductive organs has prompted analyses of fertility in infected men. A small 2021 study in Prague of 163 men infected with Toxoplasma found that over 86% had semen anomalies.
Not all studies, however, produce a link between toxoplasmosis and sperm quality.
Toxoplasma can directly damage human sperm
Toxoplasmosis in animals mirrors infection in humans, which allows researchers to address questions that are not easy to examine in people.
Testicular function and sperm production are sharply diminished in Toxoplasma-infected mice, rats and rams. Infected mice have significantly lower sperm counts and a higher proportion of abnormally shaped sperm.
In that April 2025 study, researchers from Germany, Uruguay and Chile observed that Toxoplasma can reach the testes and epididymis, the tube where sperm mature and are stored, two days after infection in mice. This finding prompted the team to test what happens when the parasite comes into direct contact with human sperm in a test tube.
After only five minutes of exposure to the parasite, 22.4% of sperm cells were beheaded. The number of decapitated sperm increased the longer they interacted with the parasites. Sperm cells that maintained their head were often twisted and misshapen. Some sperm cells had holes in their head, suggesting the parasites were trying to invade them as it would any other type of cell in the organs it infiltrates.
The researchers speculate that the harmful effects Toxoplasma may have on sperm could be contributing to large global declines in male fertility over the past decades.
Sperm exposed to Toxoplasma. Arrows point to holes and other damage to the sperm; asterisks indicate where the parasite has burrowed. The two nonconfronted controls at the bottom show normal sperm. Rojas-Barón et al/The FEBS Journal, CC BY-SA
Preventing toxoplasmosis
The evidence that Toxoplasma can infiltrate male reproductive organs in animals is compelling, but whether this produces health issues in people remains unclear. Testicular toxoplasmosis shows that parasites can invade human testes, but symptomatic disease is very rare. Studies to date that show defects in the sperm of infected men are too small to draw firm conclusions at this time.
Additionally, some reports suggest that rates of toxoplasmosis in high-income countries have not been increasing over the past few decades while male infertility was rising, so it’s likely to only be one part of the puzzle.
Regardless of this parasite’s potential effect on fertility, it is wise to avoid Toxoplasma. An infection can cause miscarriage or birth defects if someone acquires it for the first time during pregnancy, and it can be life-threatening for immunocompromised people. Toxoplasma is also the leading cause of death from foodborne illness in the United States.
Source: Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering – Projects in the exhibition hall of the Faculty of Architecture
On May 27, SPbGASU opened an exhibition of projects submitted to the competition “Concepts for the Spatial Development of Municipalities of the Leningrad Region 2025” in four of five nominations.
The competition is held by the Committee for Urban Development Policy of the Leningrad Region. The exhibition is organized at two sites of our university at once. The lower balustrade presents the concepts of the Wedding Palace in Vsevolozhsk and the museum storage facility in Staraya Ladoga. In the exhibition hall of the architectural faculty, you can see the concepts of the House of Culture in the city of Telmana and the Regional Sports Training Center in the village of Roshchino.
Both experienced and novice authors compete in the anonymous competition. The winners in each nomination will receive a cash prize of 516 thousand rubles.
“I am very glad that the Leningrad Region is exhibiting projects of such a significant competition. Moreover, this competition is not only for students, but also for professional architects. If a student wins, how will he implement his project at a serious level? In this case, we, teachers, experienced architects, will definitely help. In all cases, this is a very interesting experience, a very beautiful exhibition,” said Ekaterina Voznyak, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, at the opening.
“For me, this is the first experience of preparing a joint exhibition at SPbGASU, my alma mater, my native university. Last week, the construction block of the Leningrad Region Government held a meeting with the university management. We agreed on joint and long-term work. The site of the architectural university can be actively used, especially since the Committee for Urban Development Policy and the Committee for Construction of the Leningrad Region separately actively interact with the faculties of SPbGASU,” said First Deputy Chairman of the Committee for Urban Development Policy of the Leningrad Region – Chief Architect of the Leningrad Region, Associate Professor of the Department of Urban Development of SPbGASU Sergey Lutchenko.
Sergey Ivanovich reported that the committee strives to attract young people to its competitions, and the fruits of this approach are already there: three universities reached the finals of the competition to create a concept for the modernization of the memorial and landscape complex “Road of Life” – Moscow Architectural Institute, SPbGASU and St. Petersburg Mining University. On Children’s Day, June 1, a new recreation space opens in Tosno – a summer wooden parklet. The authors of the architectural concept are SPbGASU students who won the competition to create an architectural concept for a parklet for squares in cities of the Leningrad Region.
The fact that the exhibition is being held in one of the most authoritative universities among those that train architects will contribute to the popularization of the competition, says Deputy Chairman of the Leningrad Region Construction Committee Evgeny Enokaev. Evgeny Kemilevich emphasized that the committee is a regional government customer and plans to implement all winning projects. Perhaps there will be interested parties who will implement other projects in other cities.
The meeting of the competition committee (with defenses) in the nominations “Concept of the Wedding Palace in Vsevolozhsk”, “Concept of the House of Culture in Telmana”, “Concept of the Regional Sports Training Center in Roshchino” and “Concept of the Storage Facility in Staraya Ladoga” will be held on June 3, 2025 in the St. Petersburg House of the Architect at the address: St. Petersburg, Bolshaya Morskaya St., Bldg. 52.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Press release
‘Highly deceptive’ fraudster secured Covid loan funds under his wife’s name and claimed innocent member of the public was his boss
Bounce Back Loan fraudster also produced false invoice to liquidator
Shohid Ahmed applied for three Bounce Back Loans using his wife’s name, receiving £100,000 his Indian restaurant was not entitled to
An invoice claiming to show £15,000 of the loan was spent on refurbishing the restaurant was revealed to be false during Insolvency Service investigations
Ahmed also filed false documents with Companies House to suggest an innocent member of the public had taken over his business
A Bradford fraudster who secured £100,000 in Covid loan funds he was not entitled to and claimed an innocent member of the public was the director of his company has been jailed.
Shohid Ahmed used his wife’s name to apply for three maximum-value Bounce Back Loans on behalf of Red Square Restaurants Limited, an Indian restaurant on Huddersfield Road in Mirfield.
The 40-year-old received £100,000 of the £150,000 he fraudulently applied for in May and June 2020, with one of the applications refused.
Ahmed then used the personal details of a woman who rented a house from his father without her knowledge to create the illusion that she was the director of the company and had taken over the business.
He also produced invoices claiming to show the legitimate use of the Bounce Back Loans, one of which Insolvency Service investigators found to be fabricated.
Ahmed, of Bardsey Crescent, Bradford, pleaded guilty to offences under the Fraud Act 2006, Companies Act 2006 and Insolvency Act 1986 earlier this year.
He was sentenced to two years in prison at Bradford Crown Court on Tuesday 27 May.
Ahmed has repaid £5,000 of the Bounce Back Loans he illegally secured. The Insolvency Service is seeking to recover the remaining fraudulently obtained funds under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002.
David Snasdell, Chief Investigator at the Insolvency Service, said:
Shohid Ahmed’s actions were highly deceptive and involved a range of serious offending.
He not only obtained two Bounce Back Loans for the restaurant he earlier had said was no longer trading, but implicated a totally innocent member of the public by creating the false impression that she was now the director of the company.
The Insolvency Service will not hesitate to prosecute Covid fraudsters such as Ahmed who have stolen from the public purse and caused harm to others.
Red Square Restaurants, which traded as Ruby’s Lounge, was incorporated in May 2018, with Ahmed’s wife as the sole director.
Ahmed himself was only officially director of the company for one day, being appointed and then resigning on 10 February 2020.
Despite not being the named director of the company, Ahmed made three Bounce Back Loan applications for Red Square Restaurants in the name of his wife as she had a better credit history than him.
Ahmed also claimed that the company was trading at the beginning of March 2020, to meet the requirements of the scheme.
That claim was contradicted by an application signed by Ahmed to strike the company off the Companies House register in early April 2020.
In the strike-off application, Ahmed said that the company had not traded in the previous three months.
Money from the Bounce Back Loans was also not used for the economic benefit of the business, as it should have been under the scheme.
Ahmed claimed that an invoice of £15,000 showed that money was spent on an interior redesign of his restaurant using a firm based in Stockton-on-Tees.
However, investigators found that the address for the design company Ahmed claimed to have used was actually a cafe which had been trading for 37 years.
Neither the cafe which occupied the unit or the landlord who manages the building had ever heard of the firm of interior designers.
A liquidator was appointed to wind-up Red Square Restaurants in July 2020.
Shortly before this, Ahmed filed false documents with Companies House claiming that a new director had been appointed on New Year’s Day in 2020.
Insolvency Service investigators spoke to the listed director who confirmed that she had no association whatsoever with Red Square Restaurants and had simply rented a house from Ahmed’s father.
However, Ahmed falsely claimed that she was the manager of the business who ran it day-to-day and had the power to recruit and dismiss members of staff.
Ahmed also falsely claimed that she had taken out both Bounce Back Loans and had access to the bank accounts where the money was deposited.
He added that he was a waiter and drew a salary of only £12,000.
Ahmed was disqualified as a company director for 11 years in December 2021 for his misconduct at Red Square Restaurants.
A restaurant under a different name now operates from the same address that Red Square Restaurants traded from. Shohid Ahmed is not a director of this company.
Further information
Shohid Ahmed is of Bardsey Crescent, Bradford. His date of birth is 23 January 1985
All resolutions approved at the 2025 STMicroelectronics’ Annual General Meeting of Shareholders
Amsterdam, May 28, 2025 – STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications, announced the results related to the voting items of its 2025 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (the “2025 AGM”), which was held today in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
All the resolutions were approved by the Shareholders:
The adoption of the Company’s statutory annual accounts for the year ended December 31, 2024, prepared in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). The 2024 statutory annual accounts1 were filed with the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) on March 27, 2025 and are posted on the Company’s website (www.st.com) and the AFM’s website (www.afm.nl);
The distribution of a cash dividend of US$ 0.36 per outstanding share of the Company’s common stock, to be distributed in quarterly installments of US$ 0.09 in each of the second, third and fourth quarters of 2025 and first quarter of 2026 to shareholders of record in the month of each quarterly payment as per the table below;
The adoption of the remuneration for the members of the Supervisory Board;
The appointment of Werner Lieberherr, as member of the Supervisory Board, for a three-year term expiring at the end of the 2028 AGM, in replacement of Ms. Janet Davidson whose mandate has expired at the end of the 2025 AGM;
The appointment of Ms. Simonetta Acri, as member of the Supervisory Board, for a three-year term expiring at the end of the 2028 AGM in replacement of Ms. Donatella Sciuto whose mandate has expired at the end of the 2025 AGM;
The reappointment of Ms. Anna de Pro Gonzalo, as member of the Supervisory Board, for a three-year term to expire at the end of the 2028 AGM;
The reappointment of Ms. Hélène Vletter-van Dort, as member of the Supervisory Board, for a three-year term to expire at the end of the 2028 AGM;
The appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountants N.V. as the Company’s external auditor for the financial years 2026-2029;
The appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers Accountants N.V. to audit the Company’s sustainability reporting for the financial years 2026-2027, to the extent required by law;
The approval of the stock-based portion of the compensation of the President and CEO;
The approval of the stock-based portion of the compensation of the Chief Financial Officer;
The authorization to the Managing Board, until the conclusion of the 2026 AGM, to repurchase shares, subject to the approval of the Supervisory Board;
The delegation to the Supervisory Board of the authority to issue new common shares, to grant rights to subscribe for such shares, and to limit and/or exclude existing shareholders’ pre-emptive rights on common shares, until the end of the 2026 AGM;
The discharge of the members of the Managing Board; and
The discharge of the members of the Supervisory Board.
The complete agenda and all relevant detailed information concerning the 2025 AGM, as well as all related AGM materials, are available on the Company’s website (www.st.com) and made available to shareholders in compliance with legal requirements.
The draft minutes of the AGM will be posted on the General Meeting of Shareholders page of the Company’s website (www.st.com) within 30 days following the 2025 AGM.
As for rule amendments from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and conforming FINRA rule changes, on US market the standard for settlement is the next business day after a trade or t+1. European settlement rule remains at t+2 for the time being.
The table below summarizes the full schedule for the quarterly dividends:
Transfer between New York and Dutch registered shares restricted:
In Europe
in NYSE
Quarter
Ex-dividend Date
Record Date
Payment Date
Ex-dividend and Record Date
Payment Date: on or after
From End of Business in NY on:
Until Open of Business in NY on:
Q2 2025
23-Jun-25
24-Jun-25
25-Jun-25
24-Jun-25
1-Jul-25
20-Jun-25
25-Jun-25
Q3 2025
22-Sep-25
23-Sep-25
24-Sep-25
23-Sep-25
30-Sep-25
19-Sep-25
24-Sep-25
Q4 2025
15-Dec-25
16-Dec-25
17-Dec-25
16-Dec-25
23-Dec-25
12-Dec-25
17-Dec-25
Q1 2026
23-Mar-26
24-Mar-26
25-Mar-26
24-Mar-26
31-Mar-26
20-Mar-26
25-Mar-26
About STMicroelectronics At ST, we are 50,000 creators and makers of semiconductor technologies mastering the semiconductor supply chain with state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities. An integrated device manufacturer, we work with more than 200,000 customers and thousands of partners to design and build products, solutions, and ecosystems that address their challenges and opportunities, and the need to support a more sustainable world. Our technologies enable smarter mobility, more efficient power and energy management, and the wide-scale deployment of cloud-connected autonomous things. We are on track to be carbon neutral in all direct and indirect emissions (scopes 1 and 2), product transportation, business travel, and employee commuting emissions (our scope 3 focus), and to achieve our 100% renewable electricity sourcing goal by the end of 2027.
INVESTOR RELATIONS Jérôme Ramel EVP Corporate Development & Integrated External Communication Tel: +41.22.929.59.20 jerome.ramel@st.com
MEDIA RELATIONS Alexis Breton Corporate External Communications Tel: +33.6.59.16.79.08 alexis.breton@st.com
1TheAnnual Report includes the sustainability statement which is prepared based on the general principles of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD).
