MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Voting continues in the Active Citizen project for the best seasonal designcatering, trade and service enterprises. Until November 1, Muscovites can choose the most beautiful store, restaurant or beauty salon.
The prize fund, which is distributed among the first three places, helps restaurateurs and cafe owners develop their business and become better for residents and guests of the capital. The winners of previous years’ competitions for the best New Year and holiday window decoration used the money they won for repairs, purchasing new equipment, and even motivating their team.
Thus, the restaurant located on Patriarch’s Ponds took second place in the competition for the best New Year’s decoration and received three million rubles. Anastasia Danilova, the restaurant’s general director, said that thanks to the victory, it was possible to put up summer tents, green the veranda and arrange a recreation area among the birches.
The company continues to delight Muscovites and guests of the capital with new decor, paying more and more attention to the design. Seasonal decorations are harmoniously complemented by the landscape design of the space near the mansion, where the veranda is located. Thanks to this, guests see a bright change of seasons.
According to Olesya Romanova, a representative of the restaurant — the winner of the City Day competition, all the costs of beautiful decoration pay off in the end, raising the spirits of not only the visitors, but also the team. The establishment won in the nomination “Best decoration of a public catering establishment”. The prize fund was five million rubles.
The owners invested some of the money into renovations: they updated the walls, bought additional furniture and equipment for the confectionery shop. They managed to implement ideas that had been put off because there was not always the financial opportunity to implement them. In addition, the victory motivated the team and gave an additional incentive to continue decorating the cafe for the holidays.
The next holiday is New Year. Elena Melnik, the owner of the restaurant, which took second place for the festive decoration for Victory Day, is already coming up with a design. The company’s managers spent three million rubles on inventory for the bar and kitchen, beautiful dishes, invited artists who updated the interior space – added design elements. In addition, the employees who decorated the establishment received bonuses.
Project “Active Citizen” has been operating since 2014. During this time, over seven million people have joined it, taking part in more than 6.6 thousand votes. Every month, 30-40 decisions of Muscovites are implemented in the city. The project is being developed by the capital Department of Information Technologyand the State Institution “New Management Technologies”.
The use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence to improve the quality of life of city residents corresponds to the objectives of the national program “Digital Economy of the Russian Federation” and the regional project of the capital “Digital Public Administration”. More information about this and other national projects implemented in Moscow, you can find out here.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
The Moskino Cinema Park is a new point on the tourist map of Moscow. Here you can visit real film sets with decorations, take part in master classes and attend film screenings. Every weekend, a rich entertainment program and excursions are organized for guests, which also take place on weekends.
Despite its growing popularity, many city residents and visitors have not yet been to this place. You can learn about the journey into the world of cinema in service Rosspas.
How to get there
The Moskino Cinema Park is located 27 kilometers from the Moscow Ring Road. You can get to the site by your own or public transport, one of the four express routes E142, E143, E144 and E148 from the Teply Stan and Olkhovaya metro stations. Travel time is about 35 minutes. The territory has a parking lot, a restaurant, a food court and the Moskino Cinema Park cinema.
Visiting rules
There are several, and they are simple: keep the area clean, leave large pets at home (entry is only possible with dogs no taller than 35 centimeters), do not use flammable items, do not smoke or drink alcohol, do not damage the infrastructure. It is forbidden to drive a car, bicycle, scooter or roller skate on the territory – guests leave all means of transportation in the parking lot. If desired, you can go on a trip on special transport as part of excursion programs, the option is available only on weekdays.
Select and book an excursion
Guides tell in detail the history of the creation of famous films and their sets, introduce the biographies of famous actors and actresses, and take guests around sites that recreate the atmosphere of different eras.
For children aged 10 and over, there is a quest excursion “Stop! Cut!” — a detective game, the participants of which must identify and find the criminal, figure out how to move around different worlds using chromakey. Young scouts will need 2.5 hours to complete the task.
For visitors over 18 years old, a guided tour with a demonstration master class on make-up is suitable. “World of Cinema”. During this tour, participants will learn about the main tools on the set. The route lasts 2.5 hours.
Schoolchildren will learn about the professions of director, director of photography, producer, script supervisor and prop master during the excursion “Camera! Action!”Children aged 10 and over are invited to participate. The excursion lasts 2.5 hours.
The universal route “Cinema Expedition” is suitable for both adults and children from 10 years old. Viewers will get to the natural sites and see a real Tu-154 aircraft, the streets of Berlin, Moscow of the 1940s and much more. The walk lasts 1.5 hours. On weekends, guests purchase tickets for an excursion on the territory of the cinema park. Payment is made by QR code, cash payment is not allowed. On weekdays, you can sign up for excursions using cinema platforms “Moskino” or service Rosspas.
Think about clothes
Tour participants are advised to choose comfortable clothes and shoes for the walk and to prepare for the vagaries of the weather: take an umbrella in case of rain or sunglasses on a clear day.
Have a camera ready
During the tour, guests of the cinema park will be offered to take a photo with a clapperboard or in the director’s chair or against the background of unusual decorations that transport them to another era. At the end of the route, the guide breaks a special plaster plate, the fragments of which guests can take with them as a souvenir.
In addition, to the left of the entrance to the cinema park there is a small grove with three picturesque gazebos. You can have an amateur romantic photo shoot or relax there.
Be careful
Participants of the excursions “Camera! Action!” and “Film Expedition” visit the props and costume center “Firebird”, where filming costumes and props are stored – from Soviet telephones to crystal services. Many of these exhibits can be touched, but it is not recommended to enter the premises with backpacks and other bulky items.
Relax after a walk
The film park’s educational center has a restaurant where you can have lunch and relax after a tour or event, as well as a food court.
There is also a modern cinema chain “Moskino” where films, including animated films, are regularly shown.
Follow the poster
The cinema park periodically hosts festivals, historical reconstructions and quests. This summer, for the first time, it was made one of the venues for the historical festival “Times and Epochs”. On City Day, a large-scale opening with shows, castings and immersive entertainment took place here. In the future, the cinema park will take an even more active part in city events. You can follow them on the website Russpass service.
Find out more about Moscow in cinema
The capital is called one big film set: it is difficult to find a district where no filming has ever taken place. To learn more about this side of the city’s life, you can follow the route “Moscow from the Cinema”, and see the places where legendary films were shot. The Moskino cinema park was also part of this route.
Cinema Park ceremoniously opened September 7. At the moment, 18 natural sites and four pavilions have been built in it, including the sets “Center of Moscow”, “Moscow of the 1940s”, “Vitebsk Station”, “Yurovo Airport”, “Cathedral Square of Moscow”, “Deaf Village”, “Partisan Village”, “County Town”, “Cowboy Town”, “St. Petersburg Bar” and others.
The cinema park is part of the Moscow cinema cluster, which unites infrastructure facilities, services and services for filmmakers, which are being developed within the framework of Sergei Sobyanin’s project “Moscow — the city of cinema”. The structure of the cinema cluster also includes the Gorky Film Studio (sites onRyazansky Prospect, Sergei Eisenstein Street and in Valdai passage), the Moskino cinema chain, the Moskino film commission and film platform.
The current schedule of events at the cinema park can be found atplatform “Moskino”. On weekdays, you can visit the cinema park in excursion groups. You can also find out more about the site and buy a ticket for the excursion on the website tourist service Russpass.
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.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Thanks to the program of preferential investment lending, more than 1.6 million square meters of new industrial space will be built in the capital. This was reported by the Deputy Mayor of Moscow for Transport and Industry Maxim Liksutov.
“On the instructions of Sergei Sobyanin, from 2022
Moscow Foundation for Support of Industry and Entrepreneurshipis implementing a program to subsidize interest rates on preferential investment loans at three percent up to three billion rubles for the development of production for a period of three years. According to the contracts concluded since the instrument was put into effect, more than 1.6 million square meters of production space will be built in the capital, and more than 27.5 thousand new jobs will be created,” said Maxim Liksutov.
New production facilities will appear in the city, where they will produce medical products, medicines, food products, microelectronics, building materials and much more.
“In just nine months of 2024, thanks to the mechanism of preferential investment lending, Moscow enterprises attracted funds for the construction of more than 781 thousand square meters of industrial space, where 12.5 thousand jobs will be created,” noted the Minister of the Moscow Government, head of the capital’s Department of Investment and Industrial Policy
In particular, the Itelma enterprise, which produces electronics for transport, will be able to attract three billion rubles for the construction of a new industrial facility. Its area will be 84.6 thousand square meters. Research and development, information technology and electronics centers will be located inside.
The tea and spice manufacturer Ekom Company has acquired industrial infrastructure with an area of almost six thousand square meters and more than 50 units of equipment. For these purposes, the organization was able to attract 710 million rubles. The new facility will be commissioned in the second or third quarter of 2025.
Under the preferential investment lending program, the capital’s Alfa company attracted 500 million rubles. The funds will be used to build a new plant for the production of reinforced concrete structures and commercial concrete. The area of the facility will be almost 14 thousand square meters. After expansion, the enterprise will increase the output of products used in the construction of residential buildings and significant social and infrastructure facilities. When the project is completed, the city will receive 60 jobs. The plant is planned to be commissioned in 2025.
The Ankom-med company, which produces medical equipment, was able to attract 150 million rubles to purchase a production site with an area of 1.5 thousand square meters. Thanks to this, the enterprise will increase the volume of manufactured products.
To receive funds at a preferential rate, you must first enter into a loan agreement and then contact the Moscow Fund for Support of Industry and Entrepreneurship. After the application is approved, you must sign a financial support agreement to compensate for part of the costs of paying interest on the loan. After that, the required amount will be transferred to the company’s account at the bank where the loan is opened. Detailed information can be found 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.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
In September, Muscovites completed documents for housing in 75 new buildings under the renovation program. This was reported by the Minister of the Moscow Government, head of the capital’s Department of City Property Maxim Gaman.
“In September, more than 2.6 thousand city residents from 127 old houses located in 46 districts of the capital received keys to new apartments in 75 modern residential complexes built under the renovation program. The largest number of contracts for new housing in the first month of autumn were signed by residents of the Golyanovo and Izmailovo districts – 727 and 354 people, respectively. In Marfino, 258 city residents became owners of apartments,” said Maxim Gaman.
For participants in the renovation program, the mos.ru portal has created apartment viewing appointment service. It allows you to choose a convenient date and time for this. The documents required for concluding contracts are prepared by the employees of the population information centers.
The apartments that Muscovites receive under the renovation program are equipped with electric stoves, plumbing, and lighting fixtures. The area around the new buildings has been landscaped, and playgrounds and sports grounds have been installed. The necessary social infrastructure is located near the buildings.
“In September 2024, 11 residential complexes in six districts of the capital were handed over for settlement. Most of them were in the Eastern Administrative District – four new buildings, two each in the southeast and west, one each in the north, south and in the city center,” clarified the Minister of the Moscow Government, head of the capital’s Department of Urban Development Policy
Earlier Sergei Sobyanin reported, that resettlement under the renovation program has already affected more than 176 thousand city residents.
The program was approved in August 2017. It concerns about a million Muscovites and provides for the resettlement of 5,176 houses. In 2023 alone, 59 new buildings in the capital were handed over for settlement and the resettlement of over 47 thousand people was ensured. Moscow Mayor ordered to increasethe pace of implementation of the renovation program has doubled.
Moscow is one of the leaders among regions in terms of construction rates and volumes. In recent years, within the framework of the federal project “Housing” of the national project “Housing and Urban Environment” the volume of construction and commissioning of residential properties in the capital has doubled – from three to five to seven million square meters per year. More information about this and other national projects being implemented in Moscow can be found Here.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Manila, Philippines, 17 October 2024 – According to a new report released today, countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific Region experienced the smallest decline in life expectancy during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to other WHO regions. Life expectancy in the Western Pacific fell by only 0.07 years during 2020-21, a minimal drop compared to the global average decline of 1.7 years. The Western Pacific now has the highest life expectancy among WHO’s six regions, rising from 72.0 years in 2000 to 77.4 years in 2021.
However, despite this progress, the Region – comprising 37 countries and areas across Asia and the Pacific – is still grappling with critical challenges and is off-track in achieving the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are the global goals adopted by world leaders to end poverty and inequality, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy health, justice and prosperity by 2030. The new WHO report, Health statistics in the Western Pacific Region 2023: Monitoring health for the SDGs, highlights advancements made across the Region while also emphasizing the urgent need for action. The report shows that while the COVID-19 pandemic may have done less damage to life expectancy in the Western Pacific than other regions, it nevertheless exacerbated health inequalities and disrupted progress in other areas.
Noncommunicable diseases on the rise
While infectious diseases and injuries were previously major causes of illness and death in the Western Pacific, the Region is undergoing a significant epidemiological shift. Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) like heart disease, stroke, diabetes and cancer now account for nearly nine in 10 deaths. While the probability of premature death from NCDs has declined in the Region by over 25% since 2000, major challenges remain. Moreover, the Region is experiencing rapid population ageing. There are now more than 245 million people aged 65 and older in the Region – a number that is projected to double by 2050. And many older people are living with NCDs.
A major risk factor for NCDs is alcohol and tobacco use. Consumption of alcohol in the Region has risen by 40% since 2000. Despite a decline from 7.2 litres per capita per year in 2015 to 6.1 litres in 2019, the overall increase highlights an ongoing concern for public health. Similarly, although tobacco use declined from 28.0% of adults smoking in 2000 to 22.5% in 2022, this was still above the global average of 20.9%.
Mental health issues are also taking their toll on the population, with alarmingly high suicide rates in some countries of the Western Pacific Region, influenced by factors such as stigma, limited access to mental health services and socioeconomic challenges.
Climate- and environment-related health concerns are yet another major challenge. While air pollution in urban areas of the Region was found to have decreased from 2010 to 2019, air quality levels are still much worse than the WHO-recommended levels. Populations living in urban areas are therefore continuing to breathe unhealthy air.
Mixed progress towards universal health coverage
Universal health coverage (UHC) is another important SDG target for which the Western Pacific Region has had mixed progress. The UHC service coverage index measures access to essential health services such as reproductive, maternal, newborn and child care, and prevention and treatment services for both NCDs and infectious diseases. Over the past 20 years, the overall UHC service coverage index in the Western Pacific increased impressively, from 49 to 79 points out of 100 between 2000 and 2021. However, people’s ability to access health-care services varies greatly across the Region. In some countries, the UHC service coverage index score is as low as 30, meaning many people struggle to access basic health care, while in others, it exceeds 80, indicating a much higher level of service availability and coverage. Despite these advancements, progress has slowed and stagnated since the adoption of the SDGs in 2015, and particularly since 2019.
Despite the growing burden of noncommunicable diseases, access to essential health services for NCDs did not improve significantly, increasing only slightly from 52 points in 2000 to 58 points in 2010. Even more troubling, there has been no further progress since 2010, and access to services remains low, particularly in Pacific island countries and areas.
In contrast, access to services for infectious diseases improved significantly, rising from just 18 points in 2000 to 82 points in 2021. Immunization coverage for the WHO-recommended three doses against diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, or DTP3, showed mixed results from 2000 to 2023: coverage increased in 15 countries, while four countries experienced no change and eight saw a decrease.
In the Western Pacific Region, average health spending has increased substantially, tripling from around US$ 383 per person in 2000 to US$ 1336 in 2021. On average, health spending accounted for 6.6% of gross domestic product (GDP) at country level in 2000, and rose to 8.2% by 2021. However, despite efforts to increase public spending for health, the proportion of people in the Western Pacific experiencing catastrophic health expenditure − defined as spending more than 10% of their income on health-care − has nevertheless doubled, rising from 9.9% in 2000 to 19.8% in 2019.
Critical action needed to achieve SDGs
“While we celebrate the significant health gains that the Western Pacific Region has achieved, we must also acknowledge urgent challenges in sustaining progress,” said Dr Saia Ma’u Piukala, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific. “We are living longer than ever, and more than any other region of the world, but this isn’t enough. We’re off-track to meet many of the SDG targets, and the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated health disparities. Now is the time for concerted action to address these issues. We look forward to working with health leaders from across the Region next week to finalize our new vision to weave health for families, communities and societies.”
New vision for health in the Region
Ministers of health and other senior officials are preparing for discussions at the seventy-fifth session of the WHO Regional Committee for the Western Pacific in Manila on 21−25 October 2024. The meeting will focus on the most pressing health needs in the Region and chart a course to address them.
Weaving health for families, communities and societies in the Western Pacific Region (2025-2029): Working together to improve health, well-being and save lives is the proposed new vision for the Region. The vision centres on the analogy of weaving a mat – a traditional activity across Asia and the Pacific – symbolizing the collaborative efforts required by WHO, governments and partners to improve population health and well-being. The vision centres on five vertical strands of action led by governments interwoven with three horizontal strands of action by WHO.
The five vertical strands of action led by governments, working with WHO and other stakeholders include:
Transformative primary health care for UHC Climate-resilient health systems Resilient communities, societies and systems for health security Healthier people throughout the life course Technology and innovation for future health equity.
The three horizontal strands of action by WHO are:
Country offices equipped with skills for scaling up and innovation Nimble support teams in the Regional Office Effective communication for public health.
These strands reflect the reality that the Western Pacific Region faces complex health challenges that cannot be addressed by the health sector alone. Achieving the goals of SDG 3 − Good health and well-being – will require a concerted effort from multiple sectors. Social determinants of health, including education, housing, employment, social protection, gender equality and the environment, significantly impact health outcomes. Therefore, collaboration between the health, education, urban planning, agriculture and environmental sectors, to name but a few, is crucial. Collaboration can create synergies and co-benefits for all these sectors while accelerating progress towards achieving SDG 3.
“The commitment of governments, WHO and partners to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 is a commitment to health and well-being for all,” added Dr Piukala. “We must work together to ensure that no one is left behind as we weave a healthier future.”
In addition to the vision, the Regional Committee will also consider new regional action frameworks on digital health and on health financing to achieve UHC and sustainable development. There will be panel discussions on climate-resilient health-care facilities, transformative primary health care and oral health, as well as a special event on the Investment Round to resource WHO’s work for 2025–2028.
Notes:
The seventy-fifth session of the Western Pacific Regional Committee will run from Monday, 21 October through Friday, 25 October, at the WHO Regional Office for the Western Pacific in Manila, Philippines. The Agenda and timetable are available online. A livestream of proceedings, all other official documents, as well as fact sheets and videos on the issues to be addressed can be accessed here. For real-time updates, follow @WHOWPRO on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube and the hashtag #RCM75.
Working with 194 Member States across six regions, WHO is the United Nations specialized agency responsible for public health. Each WHO region has its regional committee – a governing body composed of ministers of health and senior officials from Member States. Each regional committee meets annually to agree on health actions and to chart priorities for WHO’s work.
The WHO Western Pacific Region is home to more than 1.9 billion people across 37 countries and areas: American Samoa (United States of America), Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia (France), Guam (United States of America), Hong Kong SAR (China), Japan, Kiribati, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Macao SAR (China), Malaysia, the Marshall Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, Mongolia, Nauru, New Caledonia (France), New Zealand, Niue, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (United States of America), Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Pitcairn Islands (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland), the Republic of Korea, Samoa, Singapore, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Viet Nam, Wallis and Futuna (France).
Related links:
Health statistics in the Western Pacific Region 2023: Monitoring health for the SDGs Draft vision Weaving health for families, communities and societies in the Western Pacific Region (2025−2029): Working together to improve health and well-being and save lives WHO data on progress towards universal health coverage (UHC) Other WHO data which can be searched by country.
The Presidential Office will resume weekday and designated holiday open house tours beginning October 19, 2024. We welcome all visitors. For detailed information, please see the announcements on our official website.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The grave of a Royal Tank Regiment soldier who lost his life in Italy during World War Two has been identified 81 years after his death.
Padre David Anderson leads the service for Tpr Stobart (Crown Copyright)
The rededication service for Trooper (Tpr) Frederick Stobart was organised by the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC), also known as the ‘War Detectives’.
The service was held at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) Bolsena War Cemetery in Italy this afternoon (16 October).
Frederick Stobart was born in Sunderland in 1916. He lived with his maternal grandparents for some of his childhood, but no records exist to tell us about his young life or schooling.
He joined the Army in 1935, listing his previous occupation as a steel grinder. He served at home, and in India during the years immediately before war broke out in 1939, and then joined the British Expeditionary Force in May 1940. By August 1940 he was in the Middle East, and he remained there until June 1943, when he was sent to take part in the invasion of Italy. He appears to have been captured around Tobruk in North Africa in late June 1943 and to have become a prisoner of the Italians at Camp 54 at Fara in Sabina, in the Lazio region of Italy.
In September 1943 when Italy capitulated, many prisoners found themselves without guards and took the opportunity to escape, Stobart was one of these. He travelled north, with fellow escapee, Pte Robert Quinn of the Durham Light Infantry, into the hills where they relied on local people for help. Unfortunately, their freedom was short-lived, and they were recaptured by the Germans within a few days. According to contemporary reports, both men were shot whilst trying to escape from a transport taking them to a new camp. Quinn was hospitalised but Stobart died.
Stobart was buried in a civilian cemetery at Monte Libretto by two German soldiers, a local policeman and four other prisoners. The notes recorded on the grave register show that there were no documents or means of identifying the body, and that the other prisoners burying him did not seem to know him. After the war Stobart’s remains were recovered and moved to the war cemetery at Bolsena where he was buried as an unknown casualty of the 1939 – 45 war, with a date of death in September 1943.
Recently an independent researcher submitted evidence to the CWGC hoping to have located the final resting place of Tpr Stobart. The research included excerpts from a Red Cross interview with Stobart’s fellow escapee Pte Quinn which was conducted whilst he was a POW in hospital. Quinn had described the escape and what had happened to his Stobart, without naming him. It was his testimony along with other supporting documents which were crucial in proving this case. The researcher’s evidence was reviewed and extra work conducted by the National Army Museum and JCCC which concluded that now, 80 years after his death, it is possible to clearly identify where Tpr Stobart is buried.
The military party, representatives of the CWGC, and the researcher who submitted the original identification case for Tpr Stobart, stand behind his headstone (Crown Copyright)
JCCC Caseworker, Alexia Clark, said:
It has been a privilege for me to have been involved in restoring Tpr Stobart’s name to him, and to have organised the service of rededication for him today. I am grateful to the researcher who submitted the original evidence and thus started this process off, and to Tpr Stobart’s military family for attending today to honour his sacrifice.
Director for Central and Southern Europe at the CWGC, Geert Bekaert, said:
We are honoured to now be able to commemorate, by name, Trooper Stobart. It is a privilege to care for his grave and all those that lie here at Bolsena War Cemetery, in perpetuity.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The grave of a Scottish soldier who lost his life in Italy during World War Two has been identified and rededicated 80 years after his death.
A bugler and piper from the Royal Regiment of Scotland at Bolsena War Cemetery (Crown Copyright)
Today’s service for Private (Pte) George Alister Walker Ewan was organised by the MOD’s Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC), also known as the ‘War Detectives’.
The service was held at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s (CWGC) Bolsena War Cemetery in Italy.
George Alister Walker Ewan was born in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada in 1915 to Scottish parents Thomas Ewan, a farmer, and his wife Christina Walker Alister. George was their second, and youngest child – having a sister called Catherine, who was five years older than him.
The family returned to Scotland in the summer of 1916, living initially in Dollar with Thomas’ mother. Sadly, Christina died in 1919 and following this the family were separated for a time with George and Catherine living away from their father.
George Ewan joined the army in June 1940 and spent two years on home defence duties with a Territorial battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. In late 1941 he was transferred to the 8th Battalion and embarked with them for North Africa in October 1942. He was posted as missing in November 1942 during the second battle of El Alamein but was able to rejoin his battalion a few weeks later.
Padre David Anderson leads the service for Pte George Ewan at Bolsena War Cemetery (Crown Copyright)
Pte Ewan was wounded in an action in the Vaiano area in late June 1944, he was initially posted as missing, but this was later revised to record that he was presumed to have died of his wounds on or soon after 21 June 1944. He was buried at the civilian cemetery at Castiglione del Largo, possibly by the German army or by local civilians though the records are not clear. Either way, his name was not recorded, and he was listed in the cemetery records as an unknown British soldier.
Following the war, his remains were recovered from Castiglione del Largo and moved to the war cemetery at Bolsena, his cap badge showed that he had been a member of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, but no other identifying artefacts were found.
Recently an independent researcher submitted evidence to the CWGC hoping to have located the final resting place of Pte Ewan. This research was reviewed, and extra work was conducted by the National Army Museum and the JCCC which concluded that now, 80 years after his death, it was possible to clearly identify where Pte Ewan was buried and notify his family that he had been found. Pte Ewan’s cousins were in attendance at the service.
Pte Ewan’s cousins stand at his graveside with members of the military party (Crown Copyright)
JCCC Caseworker, Alexia Clark, said:
I am grateful to the researcher who submitted this case. Their work has led us to recognise the final resting place of Pte Ewan, to restore his name to him and to allow his family to honour his sacrifice. It has been a privilege for me to have contributed to this case and to have organised the service for the rededication of Pte Ewan’s grave today.
Director for Central and Southern Europe at the CWGC, Geert Bekaert, said:
We are grateful to everyone involved in identifying the grave of this brave soldier, who died 80 years ago today. It is our duty – and privilege – to care for the grave of Private Ewan, in perpetuity.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Joint letter from Secretary of State and Gillian Martin MSP to the Chief Executives of Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) and Renewable UK on the department’s involvement in the Energy Skills Passport project.
A joint letter from the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Scottish Government to David Whitehouse, Chief Executive of Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) and Dan McGrail, Chief Executive of Renewable UK announcing that the department will be coming onboard to assist with the industry-led Energy Skills Passport project.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Capsize of a recreational craft on Roadford Lake, Devon with the loss of two lives.
Today, we have published our accident investigation report into the capsize of Wheelyboat 123 on Roadford Lake, Devon, England on 8 June 2022, resulting in two fatalities.
Chief Inspector of Marine Accidents, Andrew Moll OBE, said:
Trips on the wheelyboat were beneficial for the continuing wellbeing and therapy of the residents of the care home; however, no-one had taken time to properly consider the risks associated with taking the wheelchair users afloat, either before the accident or on the day itself.
The condition of the wheelyboat had been allowed to deteriorate so water could enter it, and on the day no-one recognised the implications of carrying vulnerable people who were strapped into heavy motorised wheelchairs around a lake in an open boat. In short, no-one had their eye on the risk, and tragically Alison Tilsley and Alex Wood lost their lives.
As well as the catalogue of failings highlighted by the report, the investigation has also uncovered a worrying lack of oversight which must be seen as an impetus for urgent action. Charitable activities such as this seem to fall into a grey zone with no organisation or authority in a position of oversight. This meant that no-one stepped in to question what had become custom and practice. Addressing this is not simple and may only be possible with a change in the law; however, the current situation is not something that should be tolerated.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The UK and New Zealand space agencies have signed a blueprint for the removal and servicing of operational satellites that are very close together or making contact with one another.
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data, processed by ESA
The arrangement, signed at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan, is designed to support missions in the fast-growing areas of in-orbit servicing, space debris removal and satellite refuelling, known as ‘rendezvous and proximity’ operations.
Modern society is increasingly reliant on satellite technology and the Earth’s orbits are more crowded than ever before. There is an urgent need to invest in new technologies that can help remove debris from space and keep satellites operating for longer.
However, these complex missions involve moving spacecraft close to one another, and the novel nature of these missions raises difficult questions around the application of international rules and guidelines, particularly if launched and operated by more than one nation. Given the importance of improving space sustainability, New Zealand and the UK have been exploring ways to reduce the legal, policy, and regulatory barriers, and uncertainty associated with multistate rendezvous and proximity missions.
The work between the UK and New Zealand is designed to demonstrate how international corporation in this area can keep space sustainable for current and future generations. It provides a set of principles for allocating liability between different states involved in the different stages of these missions. It does this within the framework set out in the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects (the ‘Liability Convention’), as well as principles around licensing and information sharing.
As the Liability Convention was established in 1972, when most space missions were led by governments rather than companies, the UK and New Zealand are hoping to make its application to the current space age easier to navigate, reducing barriers for industry to carry out these important mission types.
Iain Cossar, Head of the New Zealand Space Agency and Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency sign the arrangement at IAC 2024 in Milan.
Dr Paul Bate, Chief Executive of the UK Space Agency said:
As space leaders from across the world gather in Milan this week, we’re pleased to agree with our partners in New Zealand a world-first arrangement to help ease the way for future missions that can help keep space sustainable.
In-orbit servicing and manufacturing and space debris removal are high-growth areas for the global space sector, and we hope our work with New Zealand can act as a blueprint for other nations to follow and benefit from.
Iain Cossar, Head of the New Zealand Space Agency said:
We place a lot of importance on space sustainability in New Zealand, and this agreement with the UK demonstrates our commitment to ensuring our space environment is safe and sustainable.
The arrangement outlines how we will cooperate on active debris removal and in-orbit servicing missions.
The principles and guidance we have developed could apply more broadly to other states, and like the UK, we hope this work can serve as a blueprint to enable these important activities internationally as we look to address the challenges posed by orbital debris.
New Zealand is home to the world’s first private spaceport which has conducted 49 launches to date. The UK is due to host its first vertical orbital launches from spaceports in Scotland in 2025, following the first horizontal launch attempt from Spaceport Cornwall last year.
Independent research published in 2022 estimates the global market for In-Orbit Services and Manufacturing to be $14.3 billion. A 2023 report from the UKspace trade association puts the opportunity for the UK at £2.7 billion.
Joanne Wheeler, Managing Director of the Earth & Space Sustainability Initiative, said:
This agreement between the UK and New Zealand space agencies for the removal and servicing of satellites shows real leadership in this important area of space sustainability and is an excellent example of the all-important international collaboration that is vital to the sustainability of space.
At the planning committee meeting held on 15th October Oxford City Council approved the plans for Marick Real Estate to redevelop 38-40 George Street
At the planning committee meeting held on 15th October Oxford City Council approved the plans for Marick Real Estate to redevelop 38-40 George Street for a new 145 room aparthotel operated by Staycity for their premium brand Wilde. The development with also include a new 400m2 community space developed in partnership with Makespace Oxford, which will be used for a wide range of community activities.
“We are delighted to see these proposals, which will improve the Gloucester Green area and contribute towards the city’s need for more overnight accommodation and community space, and reduce the pressure to turn family homes into short term lets. It will also provide 24 new cycle spaces and public realm enhancements, alongside generating employment and apprenticeship opportunities, which will pay the Oxford Living Wage as a minimum.” Councillor Ed Turner, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Asset Management
“This is fantastic news for Oxford and supports the Council’s policy to encourage more hotels to open in Oxford city centre to boost the city centre’s economy.” Andrew Heselton of Marick
A new centre dedicated to developing and uplifting the skills of its local community has opened in Collyhurst.
The Community Construction Skills Centre will offer a series of training courses and hands-on classes that will give learners vital work experience and confidence in order to create employment opportunities.
The learning hub, which will advance “community upskilling,” will make Collyhurst residents’ accessibility and travelling needs easier with training delivered on site.
The employability training will take place in a 4-week period and equip learners with accredited qualifications in health and safety and construction skills, including Trade Techniques and Health Safety and Welfare in the Workplace. Over 50 new students are expected to enrol on training courses running up until December.
The centre boasts a unique training model that is adaptable to people who are unemployed, ex-offenders and ex-military members as part of learning basic, but crucial DIY skills to increase employability.
The Community Construction Skills Centre project was initiated in partnership with FECand Manchester City Council who identified the need for construction skills to support local people to access training into the sector.
Working in collaboration with YES and the Construction Skills People and their Greater Manchester Skills Academy, the project first opened to students in September as part of wider investment through the Victoria North Development. The project will significantly transform and advance the North of Manchester by developing 15,000 homes over the next 20 years with new and improved transport links, parks, healthcare facilities and retail spaces.
The region has been hit the hardest by unemployment and mental-health related illness. Long-term and embedded worklessness has affected over 16,500 working-age adults receiving out-of-work benefits.
In Manchester, workers are on low wages with a median annual earning of £24,055 while the worst family poverty rates are in North Manchester and East Manchester with over 43% of children and young people growing up in poverty.
To ensure training at the Community Skills Centre continues to work for the needs of Collyhurst residents, the model has been localised which means that partner groups are required to undertake employability assessments and adequately advise and support those who want to take part in training.
Following this, successful candidates will be invited to attend civil engineering and groundworks Bootcamps which will enhance employability and training with the Ride on Roller, Forward Tipping Dumper and Plant Vehicle Marshall certifications.
There are also opportunities to undertake trade specific training such as Bricklaying, Plastering and Joinery, while being guaranteed an interview with local contractors.
Community days will also be held at the centre to encourage residents to learn new skills such as painting preparation and general DIY.
More information about training opportunities at the Community Construction Skills Centre is available at Construction Skills People.
John Hacking, Executive Member for Employment, Skills and Leisure, said: “I’m thrilled to see the opening of the Community Skills Centre in Collyhurst which has been created to upskill residents and build confidence as they enter into the workforce.
“This has been a significant collaborative effort with important partners who are all working towards the same goal of advancing Collyhurst residents and fully recognise the struggle the North Manchester region has had to deal with poverty and unemployment.
“By increasing the accessibility for hands-on training, this centre gives eager learners the encouragement and support they need to work through the training to employment pipeline with robust skills and confidence.”
Rebecca Kirkland, Community Liaison Manager for FEC, said: “The Community Construction Skills Centre will provide local residents with a first hand insight into the construction industry and give them access to unique employment opportunities.
The Centre has been in the works for a long time and we couldn’t have opened its doors without the support of our partners who will continue to help us find the next generation of talent from right across the community.”
James Broome, 38, from Moston, said: “The Collyhurst Community Skills Centre has been a brilliant learning experience. I’m in the final week of training for a CSCS Greencard which is giving me important skills in labouring. Once I’ve completed that I will then go on to train for the Bootcamp Dump Truck License.
“The course has been really helpful, it’s opened my eyes and broadened my horizons massively. My tutor on the course is fantastic; she’s really clear and easy to understand when she’s teaching and is also helping me write my CV for jobs.
I’ve been working in production and in warehouses too so my confidence has really grown with my hands-on skills and with all the different types of people you meet, it has really boosted my self-esteem socially.
“For anyone considering joining a course, I’d say give it a go and throw yourself into it to get the most out of it.”
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The Regulator of Social Housing (RSH) has today set out the main risks facing the social housing sector.
Its annual sector risk profile report shows that viability risks have intensified over the last year, and social landlords are facing significant and competing pressures to deliver both more and better social homes against a backdrop of higher borrowing costs.
Though the sector remains resilient overall, many landlords have less capacity to deal with new challenges. This requires more active management from boards, with less margin for error in decision making.
It is a fundamental responsibility of all landlords to ensure that tenants are safe in their homes. They must prioritise essential safety work, including issues with cladding on high-rise buildings, and tackle other issues like damp and mould. It is absolutely critical that landlords continue to be well run and financially viable, so they can carry out this important safety work, identify issues before they happen, and build new homes for people on waiting lists.
London and other urban areas are experiencing the most acute financial pressures particularly where large numbers of flats need building safety works.
These challenges are expected to persist for the foreseeable future, as social housing undergoes a long-term shift, with higher borrowing costs and an ongoing need to maintain and invest in tenants’ existing homes and build much needed new homes for the future.
Fiona MacGregor, Chief Executive at RSH, said:
Most housing associations are investing record amounts in new and existing homes without threatening their financial viability.
However, some individual landlords face particular pressures, and we expect those to sustain for some time before the position eases.
There is very little margin for error, and it is absolutely critical that landlords are well run, with robust systems for identifying and mitigating risks.
Boards must maintain a real clarity of purpose to successfully navigate these competing demands while remaining financially viable.
For the first time since 2009, the cost of servicing debt for private registered providers (PRPs) exceeded net earnings last year. In aggregate terms, forecast sector interest cover over the next five years is just 111%.
RSH has a range of tools – including inspections, yearly stability checks and quarterly surveys – to identify emerging risks and work with landlords to mitigate these as far as possible.
RSH has already identified a number of individual landlords who were not financially viable and who have since merged with others to protect tenants’ homes and lenders’ capital. RSH expects that more individual landlords will fail to meet the outcomes in its economic standards over the coming months, as this challenging environment continues.
Notes to editors
The Sector Risk Profile sets out the regulator’s view of the most significant risks to providers’ ongoing compliance with its regulatory standards. The report is aimed primarily at boards of housing associations and other private registered providers and, where relevant, the councillors forming the governing bodies of local authority registered providers.
The Sector Risk Profile has a particular focus on risks to delivering the outcomes required by RSH’s economic standards. RSH’s annual consumer regulation review provides examples from recent casework that providers can learn from to help strengthen their approach.
The Regulator of Social Housing promotes a viable, efficient and well-governed social housing sector able to deliver and maintain homes of appropriate quality that meet a range of needs. It does this by undertaking robust economic regulation focusing on governance, financial viability and value for money that maintains lender confidence and protects the taxpayer. It also sets consumer standards and may take action if the outcomes in these standards are not delivered.
Local authorities must meet RSH’s new consumer standards but RSH does not regulate their governance or financial viability.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Moscow Government – Government of Moscow –
Five playgrounds were repaired in the Strogino district as part of the improvement and rehabilitation of part of the Moskvoretsky natural and historical park. The work was carried out in the Strogino floodplain and in the courtyards of residential buildings near it. Modern play equipment, made mainly of wood, was installed on the playgrounds. Young archaeologists will be able to discover a “dinosaur skeleton” on one of them.
“The surfaces on the playgrounds had become unusable over time, and in some places they were completely absent. The equipment did not meet modern standards and needed to be replaced: it was outdated, there was no stylistic uniformity, and there was significant wear and tear on the moving elements of the structures. The functionality of the playgrounds no longer met the needs of children aged three to seven, and elements that would be interesting to older children were missing,” said the deputy head of the capital’s Department of Capital Repairs.
In Stroginskaya Poima, a children’s playground near property 33 on Marshal Katukov Street has been renovated. It was equipped with landscape geoplastics — artificial bumps were made, and play elements were mounted on and in them. A hill with tunnels for climbing, slides, and an obstacle course appeared here. Various climbing elements were placed on the slopes, clinging to which you can climb to the tops of these bumps, and slides will help you go down. A sandbox with tables, chairs, a children’s excavator, and a hidden panel in the form of a dinosaur skeleton was equipped for the little ones. While digging it, children can imagine themselves as archaeologists.
At the playground near building 32, building 3 on Tallinskaya Street, swings, spring swings, a sandbox and a play complex with a climbing board, a slide and a suspended rope crossing were installed.
On Tvardovskogo Street, in addition to the usual swings, carousels and trampolines, a children’s town called “Monkeys” was installed with various climbing frames and a slide. A sandbox with play equipment was also provided for the little ones, and comfortable benches were installed for the parents. At the request of residents, the playground surface was made of natural material – rounded gravel.
Two playgrounds have been renovated near the houses between Tvardovskogo Street and Turkmensky Proezd. On one of them, a slide and climbing elements have been placed on a natural slope, by clinging to which you can climb to the upper level of the playground. Benches for parents and a hammock have been installed on the lower one. Across the path, there is a larger playground where you can find talking tubes, balance beams, a sports complex, interactive play panels, trampolines, a sandbox and swings, including ones with seats for the little ones.
The playgrounds were designed in a single style. Given the peculiarity of the territory, the play equipment was made mainly of wood. This material is environmentally friendly, harmonizes well with the environment and allows children to get acquainted with different textures.
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.
An Ohio man was sentenced yesterday to three years in prison for possessing a green card he illegally obtained by concealing that he had been charged with a war crime in Croatia prior to immigrating to the United States.
According to court documents, Jugoslav Vidic, 56, of Parma Heights, in applying to become a lawful permanent resident of the United States, falsely stated that he had never been charged with breaking any law even though he knew he had been charged in Croatia with a war crime against the civilian population. Vidic also falsely stated that his only past military service was in the Yugoslav Army from 1988 to 1989, when, in fact, he fought with the Serb Army of Krajina and its predecessors during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia from 1991 to 1995. As a result of these materially false statements, Vidic was approved for lawful permanent resident status and received a green card.
“Jugoslav Vidic lied about war crimes charged against him in an attempt to escape his past and live in the United States unlawfully,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “Thanks to the dedication of prosecutors, law enforcement, and our international partners, Vidic will serve prison time in the United States followed by his removal. His sentence demonstrates that human rights violators will not be allowed to hide from their crimes in the United States.”
“Vidic committed serious human rights violations and was convicted of war crimes in Croatia as a result. Yet, he lied to U.S. immigration officials about his conviction and participation in a violent military force to claim refugee status and obtain a green card — becoming a permanent legal resident of our country — when he was not eligible to do so,” said U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko for the Northern District of Ohio. “Those who run away from violent crimes they commit elsewhere in the world and then enter our country by brazenly lying about their past will be held to account, as yesterday’s sentence demonstrates. Vidic’s deceitful actions are detestable, and unfairly hurt people in need who legitimately seek refuge to flee real harms in their home countries.”
“Our communities here in Ohio and across the United States are not safe havens for war criminals to escape accountability in their home countries,” said Executive Associate Director Katrina W. Berger of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). “It is my hope that this sentencing provides some measure of solace to the victims’ families with the knowledge that despite the passage of time, the United States will seek justice.”
“Jugoslav Vidic intentionally circumvented the laws of the United States by lying on his green card application about his war crimes conviction in Croatia,” said Assistant Director Chad Yarbrough of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division. “This case should serve as a warning to others that the FBI will work with our law enforcement partners to identify and hold accountable those like Vidic who seek to violate U.S. law by fraud of any kind.”
“Jugoslav Vidic knowingly avoided the truth of his past to enjoy the freedoms and liberties of the United States for over two and a half decades,” said Special Agent in Charge Greg Nelsen of the FBI Cleveland Field Office. “Yesterday’s sentence underscores the work of the FBI and its local, state, federal, and international partners and sends a clear message that people in the United States who take part in war crimes, regardless of when or where they occurred, or by masking their involvement, will be identified, investigated, and prosecuted.”
Vidic admitted in his plea agreement that he was charged with a war crime in Croatia in 1994 and convicted in absentiain 1998. The Croatian court found that during an attack by ethnic Serb forces in Petrinja, Croatia, on Sept. 16, 1991, Vidic cut off the arm of civilian Stjepan Komes, who died afterward. Vidic further admitted that he knew about the Croatian charges when he immigrated to the United States as a refugee in 1999, applied to become a lawful permanent resident in 2000, and was interviewed by U.S. immigration officials and received his green card in 2005.
Vidic pleaded guilty to one count of possessing an alien registration receipt card knowing it had been procured through materially false statements. As part of the plea agreement, Vidic agreed to the entry of a judicial order of removal from the United States.
HSI and the FBI investigated the case with coordination provided by the Human Rights Violators and War Crimes Center, including the FBI’s International Human Rights Unit. The Justice Department thanks the Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Justice and Public Administration of the Republic of Croatia, which were both instrumental in furthering the investigation.
Trial Attorney Patrick Jasperse of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew W. Shepherd and Jerome J. Teresinski for the Northern District of Ohio prosecuted the case. The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs also provided assistance.
Members of the public who have information about human rights violators or immigration fraud in the United States are urged to contact the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or through the FBI online tip form, or HSI at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or through the ICE online tip form. All are staffed around the clock, and tips may be provided anonymously.
This year, all children from Reception to Year 11, including those who are home educated, are eligible for the vaccination. For the majority of children, the vaccine will be given via a nasal spray. For children who require a pork gelatine free alternative, or who are unable to have the nasal spray for medical reasons, an injectable vaccination is available on request.
Parents are urged to return their child’s consent forms as soon as possible to ensure they don’t miss out. Consent can be given online at Flu Immunisation 2024/25. Verbal consent can be given by calling Vaccination UK on 01902 200077. Requests for the injectable vaccination can be made when giving consent.
Vaccinations are scheduled to take place throughout the autumn term and each school will be visited twice by Vaccination UK, giving children who may have been off the first time the chance to have their vaccination.
Any child who misses their free vaccine in school will be able to get it at catch up clinics which will be arranged in the coming weeks, or by contacting their GP.
John Denley, Wolverhampton’s Director of Public Health, said: “The flu vaccination campaign is well underway in local schools and it’s vital that you ensure your child doesn’t miss out.
“Flu can be deadly and easily spread by children and adults. The vaccine is the best way to protect your children and other family members from becoming ill with the flu, particularly more vulnerable relatives like grandparents or those with underlying health conditions.
“I would urge parents to return their consent forms as soon as they receive them so that their children can have their free vaccine and become a Flu Fighter!”
Children aged 2 and 3, and children with some long term health conditions, are also eligible for the nasal spray, with their vaccinations given at their local GP surgery. Parents or guardians who have not yet received a letter or text from their GP inviting them for a vaccination are encouraged to contact their surgery to arrange an appointment.
To find out more about the flu vaccine for children, read the answers to frequently asked questions and enjoy the 4 exciting Flu Fighters stories for children, Flu Fighters Versus Chilly, Achy and Snotty, Flu Fighters in The Battle of Planet Bogey, Flu Fighters in Close Encounters of the Germed Kind and Flu Fighters on a Vacc-tastic Voyage, please visit Bugbusters.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
New green corridors could boost use of sustainable fuels, secure green jobs of the future and advance environmentally friendly travel within Europe.
world’s first ‘green shipping corridors’ to be created between the UK and Europe, accessing prime destinations like Amsterdam, Oslo, Copenhagen and Dublin
up to £9 million investment to decarbonise shipping and turbocharge green jobs of the future
30 projects across the country will also receive a share of funding to make smarter, cleaner shipping a reality
Passengers could reap the rewards of greener travel by sea thanks to the development of new shipping routes only accessible to zero emission vessels.
The Department for Transport (DfT) is also funding the development of green shipping routes from the UK to Norway and Demark – the organisations that will lead these are soon to be announced.
Green corridors are zero emission maritime routes between 2 or more ports. The UK led the development of green corridors through the launch of the Clydebank Declaration at COP26.
Once developed, should the world’s biggest shipping companies operate along these greener routes, it could transform the ‘fast shopping’ industry, making the global shipment of goods more environmentally friendly.
Maritime Minister, Mike Kane, said:
Shipping is a big contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, so these new green corridors could be a real game changer for industry.
This is exactly the direction we need to be going in to achieve our mission of becoming a clean energy superpower.
These new corridors could turbocharge the use of sustainable fuels, secure the green jobs of the future and advance environmentally friendly travel to major European capitals like Amsterdam and Dublin.
The funding comes from the fifth round of the government’s Clean Maritime Demonstration Competition (CMDC5), which focuses on driving innovative solutions and new technologies to decarbonise the industry and grow the economy.
Matt Beeton, CEO of the Port of Tyne, said:
Today’s funding announcement will support the development of port infrastructure for electrification and the refuelling of state-of-the-art clean powered vessels. This important green infrastructure will ensure that the Port of Tyne and the Port of Ijmuiden are supporting decarbonised routes between the North East of England and Europe with the aim of saving up to 850,000 tonnes of CO2 annually.
Bolstered by the Maritime Innovation Hub, the Port of Tyne continues to drive sustainable innovation and act as a focal point for a growing European decarbonised distribution network for green trade and passenger journeys.
The River Tyne fuelled the industrial revolution and now it’s at the forefront of greening international logistics.
Visiting the Port of Tyne, the Maritime Minister also announced separate funding to help make sea travel cleaner and smarter.
Up to £8 million of match funding will be given to 30 projects across the UK to accelerate plans to develop smart technologies, such as autonomous systems, AI, robotics and sensors.
These technologies will help position the UK as a world leader in maritime decarbonisation and will support economic growth and coastal communities by delivering local jobs and boosting local businesses.
Mike Biddle, Executive Director for Net Zero at Innovate UK, said:
Like so many industries, the maritime sector is under immense pressure to decarbonise its transport and process methods. Innovate UK is proud to be a key delivery partner for DfT’s UK SHORE programme, which provides a unique platform for innovators and collaborators to demonstrate real-world solutions to some of the sector’s most pressing challenges.
With this year’s round of competitions delivering a host of exciting prospective technologies, from smart shipping drones to methanol-fuelled vessels, UK SHORE looks to accelerate the adoption of these sustainable solutions and help the UK drive towards its net zero targets.
This latest round of funding comes from the £206 million UK SHORE programme which is focused on decarbonising the UK maritime sector through tech innovation.
PETER KHALIL MP, MEMBER FOR WILLS: Thanks everyone, I’m Peter Khalil MP, Member for Wills. Today I’m joined by Amanda Rishworth, Claudia Johnson, Assistant Principal here at Brunswick Secondary College and Hunter Johnson, the CEO of The Man Cave and these wonderful young leaders here, these young men – I’m going to get this right – Jethro, Campbell, Harry, and Marco, who have demonstrated some amazing leadership in the way that they role model to younger kids and teach respectful relationships. They’re doing a terrific job, as is the school. So it’s great to have the Minister here to hear about the work that the Man Cave is doing, and the Brunswick Secondary College are doing, and I want to hand over now to Minister Amanda Rishworth. Welcome to Wills, thanks for coming.
AMANDA RISHWORTH, MINISTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES: Thank you. Well, look, it’s really wonderful to be here, and I’d like to firstly acknowledge the advocacy that Peter Khalil does do, particularly about getting the right supports for adolescent men and boys. I’d also like to thank Hunter from The Man Cave and Claudia from Brunswick Secondary College for having us here today. We are announcing today the three providers that will be delivering our Healthy Mate program. The three providers are the Jesuit Social Services, the Foundation for Positive Masculinity and also The Man Cave. These three organisations will be delivering, in-person conversation and connection with young men, talking about what it means to be a young man: what some of the challenges they’re facing, how can they develop positive relationships with their peers, how can they develop positive relationships with their wider community. We know that there are many influences out there. Some role models are great, and it was wonderful to speak with these young men about some of those really good role models. But we know that many young men are being influenced by not-so-good role models. Influencers like Andrew Tate, and other online influencers that are really promoting really rigid, negative, aggressive, and violent portrayals of what it is to be a man. And so it’s really important that we get in and have these conversations with young men, and I’d like to thank The Man Cave for the proposal they put in. Their work really goes to actually having deep conversations, making sure that there are really healthy role models for young men to help them be able to realise that talking about your emotions is really important. We were talking before just about the fact that everyone feels sad from time to time, and that it’s not a sign of weakness for young men to talk about being sad. So this is what this program is doing, is making sure that we can work with young men and boys to make sure that we are developing healthy men into the future. This is, of course, really important for those young men as individuals, but really important as we tackle gender-based violence and this has been a critical area that not only was highlighted in the rapid review, but in our National Plan, that we must engage and work with young men and boys into the future. So I’m really pleased to hand over to Hunter now from The Man Cave, that is going to be one of the three organisations that will be delivering this important program.
HUNTER JOHNSON: Thank you, Minister. And thank you Peter, great to see you again. Thank you, Claudia as well. Amazing to be at Brunswick Secondary College, which is local for us. We really focus on boys’ strengths rather than their deficits. It is absolutely an inflection point for masculinity right now, it’s a really confusing time for many young men, but we’re surrounded by four, incredible, positive role models here today. The funding for us will allow us to scale to the many – to the hundreds of schools that reach out to us that have economic barriers to entry. It allows us to subsidise the program so that we can get it out far and wide, and really, it’s focussing on the character development, the social and emotional intelligence, and their relationship skills, the sex education in a way that really meets boys where they’re at. It can be, as I said, very confusing, a lot of these messages, but also we work with tens of thousands of boys on the front line every day and I can tell you from a position of hope, there are thousands of young men who want to be allies, both for supporting themselves but their relationships, their communities, too. So just recognise it’s such an important time in Australian culture, whether it’s men’s mental illness, men’s suicide prevention or men’s violence against women, a lot of the funding traditionally has gone to crisis management, and I fully understand why and I back it, but we’re also at a really exciting point with this generational moment where we can invest in the future generation to create a positive future state for masculinity. So this is a real landmark investment, I really back the courage of the Australian Government to do this and we’re excited to work alongside the other members of the collective to scale this work into the communities that need it most. So thank you very much and I’ll pass over to Claudia.
CLAUDIA JOHNSON: Thanks, Hunter. I’m really grateful to you, Minister Rishworth, and to The Man Cave for including Brunswick Secondary College in this wonderful opportunity. We know that young men need particular support, and they specifically need different ways to receive support. So it just can’t be one single program. It needs to be a whole range of things and certainly The Man Cave’s program will fit perfectly with what we’re doing at the school. The Man Cave, the program’s going to benefit our wonderful young men, but it also benefits the young women in our school as well and the community more broadly. So, again, we’re really grateful for this partnership and we’re excited for where it’s going to bring to our school. Thank you.
JOURNALIST: Minister, whereabouts is this program? What parts of the country is it actually rolled out in?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, this is a trial and at the moment we’re looking at predominantly rolling it out in New South Wales and Victoria, but very much looking at continuing to see the results and looking at other opportunities which allows us to roll this program out.
JOURNALIST: How long’s the trial going to go for?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: The trial is over the next year, and we will hopefully get a good evaluation of the trial. We know already anecdotally this is having a positive influence, even just speaking recently, from speaking to participants in the program, hearing directly the benefits before this trial even began about the Man Cave program. But this will allow greater accessibility and evaluation and then we’ll look at where else we can extend it to.
JOURNALIST: What about in areas like the Northern Territory? Just yesterday another woman was killed, this is the seventh woman since July in the Territory. What else needs to be done in areas like that where we don’t have access to services like this and enough help for women up there?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: In terms of particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, we have a separate action plan that was developed with States and Territories about how we address the disproportionately high rate of violence against Aboriginal women and children. And in particular, we’ve announced a number of actions, including men’s wellness camps. We are currently rolling those out, which provide culturally appropriate healing for men across the country, but there has been a particular focus on the Northern Territory under that program. These aren’t run by government. This is run by those with a cultural appropriateness to connect with men. When it comes to adolescent boys who have experienced violence, that’s another challenge because we know that trauma, in particular, can have an impact. We’ve recently announced the roll out of a number of programs to support those adolescent boys who have experienced family domestic violence themselves and that is about stopping the cycle, the generational cycle of violence. So this program is, in itself, is not the only program. In fact, under our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan, there’s $263 million. When it comes to support in the Northern Territory, we have put close to $180 million extra into support within the Northern Territory.
JOURNALIST: Something’s obviously not working up there, though?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, I would make the point about the National Plan. The National Plan is about a plan to change generations. We know that, for example, this program is about changing the attitudes and stereotypes that come along with a rigid masculinity that can lead to violence. So this is about making sure that we have adolescent boys that grow up healthy. That obviously, to see the benefits when it comes to violence, will take some time. I just visited, just then, new safe places accommodation here in Victoria, but equally we’re rolling them out across the country. This is building crisis accommodation as well. So we need to make sure that we’re investing in prevention, early intervention, crisis response and healing and recovery. We’ve invested as a Government, in the last two and a half years, an extra $3.4 billion. Obviously we’re rolling this out to get it on the ground. But some of this is about generational change, it is about culture change in Australia, and I would invite everyone to work with all levels of government, and I will remind that all levels of government have signed up to this National Plan, along with how we create change in our broader community if we’re going to achieve our goal.
JOURNALIST: How important is cracking down on social media? Obviously a lot of young people use TikTok and things like that, a lot of misinformation, a lot of values posted on TikTok. How important is cracking down on that for young kids?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Look, obviously what we know is that social media in particular feeds up information that causes a stir and what that can mean is that there is a lot of quite aggressive footage on there. There can often be views that condone violence against women, encourage violence against women, and if you’re at a particularly young age, then this could be quite influential. We were just talking before about the importance of role models at the home, and it was really lovely to hear some of the young men here talking about what an important role model their father was in particular. But we also need to acknowledge that young people are being really bombarded by some really very toxic attitudes and viewpoints on social media. So it is important that we do crack down on social media and that is why our government’s committed to having an age limit on social media in legislation introduced by the end of the year.
JOURNALIST: Can I ask Hunter a quick question about the program? In terms of how you’re going to see how effective it is in schools, how are you actually going to look at that data?
HUNTER JOHNSON: Sure, so we work with schools based on their socioeconomic status, which is basically called an ICSEA status. So we will charge a school based on how high or affluent or disadvantaged they may be. We’ve also got an in-house impact evaluation team that monitors the short, long-term behavioural change and the attitudinal change, and we partner with educational institutions like universities to measure the effectiveness.
JOURNALIST: Just a couple of questions. Obviously the Prime Minister’s just purchased that $4.3 million home. Do you think he’s shown a lack of judgment by purchasing this multi-million dollar property during a cost-of-living crisis?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: I don’t accept that. The purchase of this house is really a matter for the Prime Minister and his fiancé. And he won’t be the first person or the last person, politician or other person, to buy a property. But I think what’s important is you need to look at the actions that this Government has taken when it comes to cost of living. Actions like our immediate support for a 45 per cent increase in Commonwealth Rent Assistance, whether it’s our $32 billion in investment, whether that’s in social and affordable housing, whether that’s in our rent-to-buy plan, whether that is in our home equity scheme that supports people become homeowners. I mean, really, the Greens and the Liberal Party need to front up and explain why they are standing in the way. So we’ve got to judge us by the actions, our cheaper medicines, these are the things that our government is taking action on and are critical to support people with cost-of-living pressures.
JOURNALIST: A recent survey that was released just last week said around 80 per cent of people believed that young people aren’t going to be able to buy a new home without the help of a family member and that they’re unlikely to ever be able to purchase a new home. Does this indicate that the public doesn’t believe your government is doing enough to help first homebuyers?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Firstly, I would say that it is a challenge, of course, to get more supply online. We’ve had inaction by the previous Federal Government, the Liberal Government that did nothing when it came to housing supply in this country. So from the very beginning, we’ve been delivering things like the Housing Australia Future Fund, but also this is where our help-to-buy scheme is so important. It is providing the opportunity for 40,000 Australians to have a share – to be part of a shared equity scheme to help them own their first home. And so it is quite appalling that the Liberal Party and the Greens are standing in the way of this legislation. So I’m not surprised that Australians are feeling pretty disappointed because this legislation has been stalled in the Senate.
JOURNALIST: Is Labor divided on its housing tax policy?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: No.
JOURNALIST: Would you like to see any change to negative gearing arrangements?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: That is not part of our housing policy. As I said, we’ve committed to $32 billion extra funding when it comes to our housing policies and that includes things like the 45 per cent in Commonwealth Rent Assistance, which is flowing to people now. But it also includes increasing supply across the domains of social and affordable housing. We know that social housing has been ignored for so many years and our housing Australia Future Fund is delivering that. Our housing funding to States and Territories is delivering on that. But, of course, in addition to that, private rental and, of course, looking at home ownership. We are looking right across the board to support people. I tell you one thing that won’t help the cost of housing and that is the Liberal Party, A, standing in the way with the Greens blocking of our bill, but also, their plans that means that people have to dig into their retirement savings and to own a house. That will only ensure that more people rely on the pension and push up house prices. So it’s only Labor with a credible plan to address housing shortages in this country.
JOURNALIST: Will you rule out making any changes to the housing tax mix before the next election?
AMANDA RISHWORTH: Well, look, as the Prime Minister, Housing Minister, Treasurer said, that is not part of our plan. We have put our plans forward and we will keep talking about how important our homes for Australia plan is, that’s delivering houses now. I just recently, just before, went out to see the capital build that will happen for crisis accommodation for women and children fleeing domestic and family violence. Our funding is allowing for over 100 safe places for women and children leaving violent circumstances. That wouldn’t have been able to be done without the investment from the Commonwealth, a capital investment, to actually build those places. Thank you.
17 October 2024 – Tax Justice Aotearoa welcomes the latest 1News-Verian poll finding which shows almost half of voters would support a capital gains tax that excludes the family home.
The poll asked “Do you support or oppose the introduction of a capital gains tax (CGT) on properties other than the family home?”
More voters than not said they would support the introduction of a CGT, with 46 per cent in favour and 41 per cent opposed. 13 per cent did not know or preferred not to say.
“This poll shows that New Zealanders are tired of the current unfair system, in which you are taxed less if you make a living from buying and selling houses than you do if you work an ordinary job,” says Tax Justice Aotearoa chair Glenn Barclay.
“New Zealand is an outlier internationally in that we do not tax capital gains in a comprehensive way. The additional revenue raised could fund vital services such as education, healthcare and infrastructure and help address climate change – leading to a better quality of life for all New Zealanders.”
“Our tax system is way out of balance and a capital gains tax (CGT) is a good first step to help level the playing field between wage earners and those who mainly earn their money through investments,” Barclay says.
“There has been growing support for a capital gains tax from a range of individuals and organisations in the media in recent weeks and this poll shows the public of New Zealand are supportive too.”
Polling commissioned by TJA also indicates a strong public appetite for a tax on capital – and showed that when the concept is properly explained, support was even stronger.
“Once people understand that gains from the sale of assets such as houses and shares is income, just like income from employment, they realise how unfair our current system is,” Barclay says.
“Given the public level of support for treating all sources of income consistently for tax purposes, we call on all political parties to act now.”
Today, President Biden announced an additional $4.5 billion in student debt cancellation for over 60,000 borrowers through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, bringing the number of public service workers who have had their student loans cancelled to over 1 million people during the Biden-Harris Administration. Before President Biden and Vice President Harris took office, only 7,000 borrowers had ever received forgiveness through PSLF. Thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration’s significant improvements to the PSLF program, over 1 million teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officials, nurses, servicemembers, and other public service workers who have dedicated their lives to serving their communities are getting the student debt relief they are entitled to under the law. Last week, President Biden met with a kindergarten teacher who has been paying her loans for 12 years and let her know that she is one of the 1 million people approved for PSLF under his Administration, and over $46,000 of her loans are being cancelled. In total, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved $175 billion in student debt relief for nearly 5 million borrowers through various actions.
From Day One of their Administration, President Biden and Vice President Harris vowed to fix the student loan system and make sure higher education is a ticket to the middle class – not a barrier to opportunity. Already, the Biden-Harris Administration has delivered life-changing relief to students and families. While Republican elected officials try every which way to block millions of their own constituents from receiving student debt relief – even proposing to get rid of the PSLF program altogether – President Biden and Vice President Harris are fighting to provide borrowers student debt relief and making higher education affordable.
Delivering Life-Changing Relief to Over 1 Million Public Servants
In 2007, Congress enacted bipartisan legislation creating PSLF to recognize the critical role public servants play in our communities and support them in their service. Under PSLF, people who dedicate at least 10 years of their careers to giving back to their communities – like teachers, firefighters, law enforcement officials, nurses, and servicemembers – can get relief on their student loans. However, the program was poorly implemented. Many public servants found out that they had spent years in the wrong student loan repayment plan or did not take out the right type of loan and were therefore ineligible for PSLF and denied forgiveness. Before the start of the Biden-Harris Administration, only 7,000 people had ever received forgiveness through PSLF and the rejection rate, in part due to administrative errors and difficult processes, was as high as 98% in some years. Public servants were also being told that, because they didn’t file the right forms years ago, there was nothing for them to do but keep paying their loans longer than the program requires.
Thanks to President Biden and Vice President Harris’ leadership, the Biden-Harris Administration has significantly improved the PSLF program to help more borrowers than ever before. This includes establishing and implementing new regulations to help borrowers earn more credit toward PSLF, simplifying criteria to help borrowers certify employment, creating fairer eligibility criteria, and providing borrowers the opportunity to apply for reconsideration of previous denials. The Biden-Harris Administration launched the Limited PSLF Waiver, providing public service workers affected by the pandemic with the opportunity to get PSLF credit for prior payments on their federal student loans regardless of repayment plan or loan type. To simplify the application process for borrowers, the Biden-Harris Administration made it so borrowers and employers can complete the entire PSLF application and submit required forms online, made it easier for borrowers to find qualifying employers and get necessary signatures verifying employment, and recently, announced new steps to allow borrowers to manage all aspects of their PSLF journey on StudentAid.gov.
Thanks to these improvements, as of today, over 1 million public service workers have been approved for debt cancellation through PSLF. The Department of Education today also released new state-by-state data showing how many borrowers have had their loans approved for cancellation under PSLF in each state under the Biden-Harris Administration.
Economic Benefits of Student Debt Relief for Public Service Workers
Today, the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) published a new analysis underscoring that the Biden-Harris Administration’s student debt policies not only benefit borrowers, but also the entire economy.
The CEA highlights that PSLF has the potential to deliver considerable benefits to those who receive it – including the ability to buy a home, start a business, and improve overall financial health. In addition, the CEA analysis shows how the PSLF program strengthens the public sector by making it more feasible for students with postsecondary debt to pursue and remain in public service careers that are essential to our economy and communities.
Despite these benefits to the U.S. economy and hard-working Americans, Republican elected officials have tried to stop the Biden-Harris Administration every step of the way, and have even attempted to end PSLF altogether, which would block millions of dedicated public servants from receiving the student debt relief they have earned. President Biden and Vice President Harris will not stop fighting for our nation’s dedicated public servants.
Encouraging Public Servants to Take Advantage of the PSLF Program
Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is also announcing a series of new steps to encourage public servants across the nation to take advantage of the PSLF program.
A number of public sector unions, including the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), American Federation of Teachers (AFT), National Education Association (NEA), and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), are amplifying today’s announcement through member-to-member outreach, social media campaigns, and more, and are encouraging people to sign up for PSLF:
AFT will be encouraging its members to sign up for student debt clinics to help members get on track with PSLF, with a goal of reaching another 500 teachers and nurses by the end of the year. This is on top of the 34,000 members AFT has reached since starting their student debt clinic series.
NEA will continue to help its members with the NEA Student Debt Navigator, a tool that provides 1-on-1 support for NEA’s members who need additional support with their PSLF application, or any other federal program related to student loans. Since the launch of the Student Debt Navigator, over 48,000 NEA members have signed up to receive support.
To celebrate this milestone, AFSCME will launch a new interactive map on its website, detailing PSLF forgiveness across the country based on Department of Education data. Additionally, AFSCME will update its online resources to facilitate applications for PSLF and create a social media toolkit its members can use to promote PSLF and forgiveness on their own social media platforms.
To encourage people to take advantage of the PSLF program, the Department of Education will send emails from President Biden to public servants who have received PSLF, encouraging them to share their stories to raise awareness about the benefits of the program. The Biden-Harris Administration will also share information about PSLF with federal employees to encourage more people to enroll in PSLF.
The Department of Education is reaching out to governors and mayors across the country to encourage state and local public service workers to take advantage of the PSLF program.
These new steps are in addition to previous actions by the Administration including working with over 15 major federal agencies to develop PSLF agency action plans. In implementing these plans, federal agencies have encouraged thousands of additional federal employees to take advantage of the PSLF program through extensive social media campaigns, principal-level engagement, engagement with stakeholder groups, press, and mass email communications.
Building On an Unparalleled Record of Student Debt Relief
Today’s announcement is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s broader set of actions to reduce the burden of student debt and ensure that student loans are not a barrier to educational and economic opportunity for students and families. President Biden and Vice President Harris secured a $900 increase to the maximum Pell Grant award – the largest increase in more than a decade. Since taking office, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved through various actions $175 billion in student debt relief for nearly 5 million Americans, each of whom have been approved for an average of roughly $35,000 in student debt cancellation. These actions have benefitted borrowers in every state, territory, and congressional district in the United States.
This approved relief includes:
$74 billion for over 1 million borrowers through the PSLF program.
$56.5 billion for more than 1.4 million borrowers through Income-Driven Repayment, including the Saving on a Valuable Education SAVE plan. This includes administrative adjustments to income-driven repayment that brought borrowers closer to forgiveness and addressed longstanding problems due to past inaccuracies and the misuse of forbearance by loan servicers.
$28.7 billion for more than 1.6 million borrowers who were cheated by their schools, saw their institutions precipitously close, or are covered by related court settlements.
$16.2 billion for nearly 572,000 borrowers with a total and permanent disability.
Cabinet have agreed to continue work to explore the future use of City Hall which will include gathering public thoughts and opinions.
Last night (Wednesday, 16 October), they considered a report setting out options to transform the historic, Grade 2* listed, heritage building.
The report recommends that Norwich City Council business and its civic activities remain at City Hall.
The first option would see the building refurbished to provide better public access, fit for purpose council office space, grade A lettable space and event and conference opportunities.
The second option would go a step further by adding an extension to the rear, as intended in the original 1938 plans for the building, that could be used for offices, homes, or a hotel.
This option also proposes a new, publicly accessible, landscaped courtyard to the rear and improvements to the public spaces around City Hall.
Cabinet agreed they would like the next stage of work to be done to develop a business case around these options.
Council Leader, Cllr Mike Stonard, said: “We’re still at an early stage and a significant part of what comes next will be gathering feedback from our residents, businesses, partners, and the voluntary and creative sectors.
“It’s vital that we hear from the people of Norwich on this so we can make the best decisions for the city about how we continue to move forward.
“We’re taking the time to plan this now and expect to be getting underway with these conversations early next year.
“We have a huge opportunity here to create a future for the building that boosts the entire city, with the potential to create up to £102million in economic benefits, depending on the scale of the option eventually taken forward.
“These benefits for Norwich would come from creating improved amenities that attract more use and increase spending in the city over the lifetime of the development.”
The agreement to develop a business case will also now see the council obtain the many architectural, technical, and financial reports needed to prepare for any change to a listed, heritage building like City Hall.
Skills passport enabling people to find new jobs in offshore wind goes live in 2025
17 October 2024
Joint RenewableUK and OEUK media release – Thursday 17th October 2024
A new scheme to help workers across the UK’s energy mix, including oil and gas, to find new roles in offshore wind will be launched in January by RenewableUK and Offshore Energies UK (OEUK), supported by the UK and Scottish Governments.
The Energy Skills Passport enables workers and employers to easily identify which qualifications and training standards, such as health and safety, are needed for specific roles in offshore wind. As part of the Energy Skills Passport, an interactive tool will provide clarity on which qualifications are mutually recognised across the sector to avoid any duplication of training courses, as well as mapping out potential career pathways. It will be managed jointly by OEUK and RenewableUK and will be available to a limited number of testers later this year before it is rolled out in full in the new year. The initial version focuses on the transition to offshore wind and future versions will include other parts of the energy sector.
The UK’s oil and gas sector supports over 200,000 jobs and the UK’s offshore wind industry already employs 32,000 people – that number is expected to rise to over 100,000 by 2030. Research commissioned by OEUK shows that 90% per cent of oil and gas industry workers have skills which can be transferred to future offshore jobs in renewable energy. Roles which may be suitable for workers to transfer into in offshore wind include maintenance technician, commissioning technician, high-voltage senior authorised person and troubleshooting technician.
RenewableUK’s Executive Director of Offshore Wind Jane Cooper said:
“The upsurge in offshore wind jobs over the course of this decade and beyond creates excellent opportunities for highly-skilled oil and gas workers to bring their valuable experience to the clean energy sector. We’re working closely with our colleagues at Offshore Energies UK, and the UK and Scottish Governments, to make that transition as smooth as possible across all parts of the energy industry. The Energy Skills Passport is a great example of what we can achieve together and we’ll continue to look for other potential areas of work that can further support the transition of workers between sectors.”
Offshore Energies UK’s Director of Supply Chain & People, Katy Heidenreich said:
“Collaboration is key to unlocking the full potential of the UK’s offshore energy sector so we are proud to be driving this initiative with RenewableUK. This industry and its people have proven excellence and a broad range of transferable skills from engineering and construction to legal and commercial expertise. This passport can help them succeed right across our diverse energy mix. This is one way the UK can back its workforce to build a homegrown energy transition that leaves no-one behind. It’s part of the toolkit this industry is assembling to partner with government to solve the challenges and seize the opportunities of our energy future.”
The Co-Chair of the Offshore Wind Industry Council Richard Sandford said:
“The Energy Skills Passport is a crucial step forward for workers to embrace opportunities in the offshore wind industry. It simplifies movement between essential offshore energy sectors, enabling workers to apply their knowledge to the energy transition. The milestone highlights effective collaboration between OEUK and RenewableUK, supported by the UK and Scottish Governments.”
(ends)
Notes
For further information, contact
RenewableUK’s members are building our future energy system, powered by clean electricity. We bring them together to deliver that future faster; a future which is better for industry, billpayers, and the environment. We support over 490 member companies to ensure increasing amounts of renewable electricity are deployed across the UK and to access export markets all over the world. Our members are business leaders, technology innovators, and expert thinkers from right across industry. RenewableUK’s events programme is available here.
Offshore Energies UK is the leading trade body for the UK’s offshore energies industry. Its membership includes over 400 organisations with an interest in offshore oil, gas, carbon capture and storage, hydrogen, and offshore wind. Working together with its members, it is a driving force supporting the UK in ensuring security of energy supply while helping to meet its net zero ambitions.
On 3 October , the three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – the European Banking Authority (EBA), the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) and the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) – organised the 11th edition of their annual Consumer Protection Day, in Budapest.
The event followed the theme of “Empowering EU consumers: fair access to the future of financial services” and had three panels covering the topics of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial services, access to consumer centric products and services, and sustainable finance. Speakers and panellists included leaders from consumer organisations, regulatory authorities, EU institutions, academia, and market participants from across the European Union, with 300 participants on-site and more than 600 viewers online.
Speeches were delivered by the three ESAs Chairs – Verena Ross (ESMA and currently Joint Committee Chair), Jose-Manuel Campa (EBA), and Petra Hielkema (EIOPA) – as well as Csaba Kandrács, Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Hungary and Agustín Reyna, the Director General of the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC). A fire-side chat also took place with Chris Betz, Chief Information Security Officer of Amazon Web services to discuss generative AI.
On Artificial Intelligence, panellists exchanged views about the potential benefits of AI, such as fraud detection and the automation of processes to detect and prevent money laundering, as well as the risks, such as the lack of transparency and explainability. Panellists emphasised the need to better understand the technology to assess how those risks can be mitigated. Some panellists highlighted the importance for the ESAs to facilitate knowledge sharing, ensure regulatory and supervisory convergence and create the conditions for innovation to grow. Some industry players also called on the ESAs to issue ‘guardrails’ or other guidance on how financial institutions should comply with the new EU AI Act.
During the panel on access to consumer centric financial products and services, panellists discussed the need to strengthen financial education, pay greater attention to vulnerable consumers, and enable them to understand and access standard financial services packages (payment account, saving account, home/health insurance). The importance of better understanding consumer needs and preserve consumer trust was also highlighted.
On sustainable finance, panellists remarked that investors still struggle to understand the technicalities of product disclosures and the complex terminology attached to such disclosures. Simplification of the current Sustainable Finance Disclosures Requirements towards a categorisation system that works for retail investors was considered by the panellists to be the main area that regulators should focus on, in addition to enhancing the financial literacy of retail investors.
The ESAs will reflect on the input and suggestions heard from the audience and the panellists, and discuss the actions to be strenghtened or to be taken going forward.
See the EBA webpage and the recording of the event here.
A scheme aimed at reducing congestion and improving public transport and active travel has had its most recent phase completed.
The A457 Dudley Road Improvement Scheme will deliver significant improvements in network capacity and public transport, in addition to upgraded facilities for pedestrians and cyclists along the A457 corridor.
It will also support the city’s growth objectives within the Greater Icknield area.
Phase two has now been completed with a plaque installed next to the new Spring Hill bridge.
Cllr Majid Mahmood, cabinet member for transport and environment, said: “This summer, Birmingham City Council declared a road safety emergency. People have died as a direct result of dangerous driving across our city, and this must end.
“We’re taking action, including working with the police and the mayor to increase the number of average speed cameras across the city, and reducing the speed limit from 40 to 30 miles per hour on our major roads.
“We can’t just police our way out of this though. For too long, our roads have been designed with a driver-first attitude, and in order to make our roads safer, this must change.
“So it is important to highlight the completion of the latest phase of work to make the Dudley Road safer, including the development of dedicated walking and cycling lanes, improved priority for buses, reduced congestion and ultimately safer roads.”
The scheme is funded via central government levelling up money.
West Midlands Chief Constable Craig Guildford said: “Since the summer, I have chaired a gold group around road safety bringing together the local authorities and the combined authority to work collectively for safer roads. We must all work in partnership to bring down the number of collisions that result in fatalities or serious injuries.
“At WMP, we have made the biggest reinvestment in roads policing in a generation. We’ve increased the teams who target the causes of collisions as well as the teams that tackle criminal use of our roads.
“We are more determined than ever to achieve Vision Zero. But we need the help of every road user to achieve it.”
Richard Parker, Mayor of the West Midlands, said: “Cycle lanes and bus lanes, like those on Dudley Road, help reduce traffic and pollution, making our streets cleaner and safer for the community.
“I’m also working closely with the police and councils on a new road safety plan, which will introduce even more ways to make sure people can travel safely across the region.
“Alongside this, we’re expanding key routes like the cross-city bus service from Birmingham to Dudley and growing our network of cycle paths to help even more people get around safely and easily.”
Note to editors about the first two phases –
Phase 1 – Western Road junction, was completed in May 2022, which improved capacity and pedestrian facilities at the junction and facilitated the delivery of and access to approximately 3,000 new homes at the Soho Loop development, along with new local facilities and employment opportunities.
Phase 2 – Spring Hill, Barford Estate and Heath Street / Winson Green Road sections, completed in August 2024 and delivered tidal flow bus lanes and a new bus lane enforcement camera, new segregated cycle lanes, footway and pedestrian crossing upgrades, including the introduction of a new shared use foot / cycle bridge adjacent to the existing Spring Hill canal bridge.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
A public rental housing applicant was sentenced to four-week imprisonment (suspended for 12 months) and was fined $32,000 for two false statement offences for not declaring his Hong Kong domestic property ownership in his public rental housing (PRH) application and his application for purchase of a Home Ownership Scheme (HOS) flat. In addition, a family member in an HOS White Form application was sentenced to four-week imprisonment (suspended for 12 months) and was fined $20,000 for a false statement offence for not fully declaring his asset.
A spokesman for the Housing Department (HD) today (October 17) reminded PRH and HOS applicants to truthfully declare their assets and domestic property ownership.
Information on the two cases is as follows:
Case 1
A PRH applicant failed to declare during the detailed vetting stage in 2020 his ownership of a domestic property in Sha Tin when applying for PRH and thereby succeeded in applying for a Certificate of Eligibility to Purchase (Green Form) to purchase an HOS flat in Yue Tin Court, Sha Tin. He was prosecuted for making a false statement knowingly and making a statement which he knew to be false or misleading as to a material particular to the Hong Kong Housing Authority (HA), contrary to section 26(1)(c) and section 26(2) of the Housing Ordinance respectively. He was convicted in Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts on October 14, Given the gravity of the offence, the defendant was sentenced to four-week imprisonment (suspended for 12 months) and was fined $32,000. The HOS flat concerned will be dealt with pending the Court’s directive.
Case 2
A family member of a White Form application for HOS 2022 did not fully disclose his assets in the application and successfully purchased an HOS flat in Yu Nga Court, Tung Chung. After an investigation, it was discovered that the net asset value of the bank deposit, investment products, cash, etc, held by the family member at the material time exceeded the net total household asset limit of the relevant HOS application. The family member was prosecuted for making a statement that he knew to be false or misleading as to a material particular to the HA, contrary to section 26(2) of the Housing Ordinance. He was convicted in Kowloon City Magistrates’ Courts on October 14. Given the gravity of the offence, the defendant was sentenced to four-week imprisonment (suspended for 12 months) and was fined $20,000. The HOS flat concerned will be dealt with pending the Court’s directive.
The spokesman reminded applicants for PRH and subsidised sale flats (SSF) that any person who makes a false statement knowingly or makes a statement that they know to be false or misleading in their application for PRH or purchase of an SSF would commit offences under section 26(1)(c) or section 26(2) of the Housing Ordinance. If convicted, the maximum penalty is a fine of $50,000 and imprisonment for six months, or a fine of $500,000 and imprisonment for one year, respectively.
If the purchased SSF has been occupied, the court, by section 26A/26B of the Housing Ordinance, shall order either (1) that the subject flat be transferred to the HA or such person as the HA may nominate; or (2) that the purchaser forfeits to the HA a sum equivalent to the difference between the purchase price of the flat and its market value at the date of conviction or the date of the order. If the flat concerned has not been occupied yet, the HA shall rescind the Agreement of Sale and Purchase and forfeit the deposit paid by the purchaser.
The spokesman reiterated that, in general, the public recognises the HD’s efforts in combating the abuse of public housing resources. The HD will continue to adopt multipronged and risk-based measures to comprehensively combat the abuse of PRH and subsidised housing.
Press Conference by Ted Chaiban, Deputy Executive Director for Humanitarian Action and Supply Operations of the UN’s Children Fund (UNICEF), and Carl Skau, Deputy Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of the World Food Programme (WFP) on their recent visit to Lebanon.
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Briefing reporters on their recent visit to Lebanon, UNICEF’s Deputy Chief Ted Chaiban and the World Food Program (WFP) Chief Operating Officer Carl Skau today (16 Oct) described the plight of approximately 1.2 million people men, women and children have been displaced by the war.
Chaiban told reporters that this figure “includes approximately 400,000 children,” and “nearly 190,000 of those have been forced from their homes into makeshift shelters and are hoping for a semblance of safety there.”
The UNICEF official highlighted the “profound acts of solidarity” witnessed “across communal, sectarian and religious lines,” but warned that as fighting and displacement continues, this solidarity “will become stretched pretty quickly.”
He noted that “the response so far has focussed significantly on the shelters, which is understandable because a lot of the most vulnerable have gone to shelters,” but stressed the need “to support displaced families living with families or friends or renting a small place.”
Chaiban said, “he school year has started in Beirut for private schools, but the public schools are either inaccessible, largely destroyed or used as shelters. There’s about 15 percent of the public schools that can be used, but the vast majority of them cannot now accommodate students. So, we need to find a way to work on the issue of education to avoid losing a generation.”
Joining virtually from Rome, Skau said many of the displaced “have lost everything because they know that their villages or towns have been completely destroyed,” and described “a real sense of desperation.”
He noted that during their visit “the fighting escalated, and they could see the “packed minibuses heading north, and we could hear the bombing.”
WFP, he said was “ready for this” and had been “preparing for this over the past few weeks and months.”
Skau said “we were able to quickly step up, working hand in hand with other partners like UNICEF and other organisations. We are now delivering daily to some 200,000 people with ready-to-eat food and cash. And we have the capacity to scale up to a million people.”
The Conversation Weekly podcast caught up with Victor Ambros from his lab at the UMass Chan Medical School to learn more about the Nobel-winning research and what comes next. Below are edited excerpts from the podcast.
How did you start thinking about this fundamental question at the heart of the discovery of microRNA, about how cells get the instructions to do what they do?
The paper that described this discovery was published in 1993. In the late 1980s, we were working in the field of developmental biology, studying C. elegans as a model organism for animal development. We were using genetic approaches, where mutations that caused developmental abnormalities were then followed up to try to understand what the gene was that was mutated and what the gene product was.
It was well understood that proteins could mediate changes in gene expression as cells differentiate, divide.
We were not looking for the involvement of any sort of unexpected kind of molecular mechanisms. The fact that the microRNA was the product of this gene that was regulating this other gene in this context was a complete surprise.
There was no reason to postulate that there should be such regulators of gene expression. This is one of those examples where the expectations are that you’re going to find out about more complexity and nuance about mechanisms that we already know about.
But sometimes surprises emerge, and in fact, surprises emerge perhaps surprisingly often.
These C. elegans worms, nematodes, is there something about them that allows you to work with their genetic material more easily? Why are they so key to this type of science?
C. elegans was developed as an experimental organism that people could use easily to, first, identify mutants and then study the development.
It only has about a thousand cells, and all those cells can be seen easily through a microscope in the living animal. But still it has all the various parts that are important to all animals: intestine, skin, muscles, a brain, sensory systems and complex behavior. So it’s quite an amazing system to study developmental processes and mechanisms really on the level of individual cells and what those cells do as they divide and differentiate during development.
You were looking at this lin-4 gene. What was your surprising discovery that led to this Nobel Prize?
In our lab, Rosalind Lee and Rhonda Feinbaum were working on this project for several years. This is a very labor intensive process, trying to track down a gene.
And all we had to go by was a mutation to guide us as we gradually homed in on the DNA sequence that contained the gene. The surprises started to emerge when we found that the pieces of DNA that were sufficient to confer the function of this gene and rescue a mutant were really small, only 800 base pairs.
And so that suggested, well, the gene is small, so the product of this gene is going to be pretty small. And then Rosalind worked to pare down the sequence more and to mutate potential protein coding sequences in that little piece of DNA. By a process of elimination, she finally showed that there was no protein that could be expressed from this gene.
And at the same time, we identified this very, very small transcript of only 22 nucleotides. So I would say there was probably a period of a week or two there where these realizations came to the fore and we knew we had something new.
You mentioned Rosalind, she’s your wife.
Yeah, we’ve been together since 1976. And we started to work together in the mid-’80s. And so we’re still working together today.
And she was the first author on that paper.
That’s right. It’s hard to express how wonderful it is to receive such validation of this work that we did together. That is just priceless.
Victor Ambros and Rosalind Lee toast the Nobel news on the day of the announcement. UMass Chan Medical School
Like it’s a Nobel Prize for her too?
Yes, every Nobel Prize has this obvious limitation of the number of people that they give it to. But, of course, behind that are the folks who worked in the lab – the teams that are actually behind the discoveries are surprisingly large sometimes. In this case, two people in my lab and several people in Gary Ruvkun’s lab.
In a way they’re really the heroes behind this. Our job – mine and Gary’s – is to stand in as representatives of this whole enterprise of science, which is so, so dependent upon teams, collaborations, brainstorming amongst multiple people, communications of ideas and crucial data, you know, all this is part of the process that underlies successful science.
That first week of the discoveries, did you anticipate at that point that this could be such a huge step for our understanding of genes?
Until other examples are found of something new, it’s very hard to know how peculiar that particular phenomenon might be.
We’re always mindful that evolution is amazingly innovative. And so it could have been that this particular small RNA base-pairing to this mRNA of lin-14 gene and turning off production of the protein from lin-14 messenger RNA, that could be a peculiar evolutionary innovation.
The second microRNA was identified in Gary Ruvkun’s lab in 1999, so it was a good six years before the second one was found, also in C. elegans. Really, the watershed discovery was when Ruvkun showed that let-7, the other microRNA, was actually conserved perfectly in sequence amongst all the bilaterian animals. So that meant that let-7 microRNA had been around for, what, 500 million years?
And so it was immediately obvious to the field that there had to be other microRNAs – this was not just a C. elegans thing. There must be others, and that quickly emerged to be the case.
You and Gary Ruvkun had been postdoctoral fellows at the same time at MIT, but by the time you made your respective discoveries, you’d both set up your own labs. Would you call them rival labs, in the same town?
No, I would certainly not call it rival labs. We were working together as postdocs basically on this problem of developmental timing in Bob Horvitz’s lab.
We just basically informally divided up the work. The understanding was, OK, Ambros lab will focus on lin-4 gene, and Ruvkun lab will focus on lin-14, and we anticipated that there would be a point that we would get together and share information about what we’ve learned and see if we could come to a synthesis.
That was the informal plan. It was not really a collaboration. It was certainly not a rivalry. The expectation was that we would divide up the work and then communicate when the time came. There was an expectation in this community of C. elegans researchers that you should share data freely.
Your lab still works on microRNA. What are you investigating? What questions do you still have?
One I find very interesting is a project where we collaborated with a clinician, a geneticist who studies intellectual disability. She had discovered that her patients, children with intellectual disabilities, in certain families carried a mutation that neither of their parents had – a spontaneous mutation – in the protein that is associated with microRNAs in humans called the Argonaute protein.
Each of our genomes contains four genes for Argonautes that are the partners of microRNAs. In fact, this is the effector protein that is guided by the microRNA to its target messenger RNAs. This Argonaute is what carries out the regulatory processes that happen once it finds its target.
These so-called Argonaute syndromes were discovered, where there are mutations in Argonautes, point mutations where only one amino acid changes to another amino acid. They have this very profound and extensive effect on the development of the individual.
And so working with these geneticists, our lab and other labs took those mutations, that were essentially gifted to us by the patient. And then we put those mutations into our system, in our case into C. elegans‘ Argonaute.
I’m excited by the very organized, active partnership between the Argonaute Alliance of families with Argonaute syndromes and the basic scientists studying Argonaute.
How does this collaboration potentially help those patients?
What we’ve learned is that the mutant protein is sort of a rogue Argonaute. It’s basically screwing up the normal process that these four Argonautes usually do in the body. And so this rogue Argonaute, in principle, could be removed from the system by trying to employ some of the technology that folks are developing for gene knockout or RNA interference of genes.
This is promising, and I’m hopeful that the payoff for the patients will come in the years ahead.
Victor Ambros receives funding from the U.S. National Institutes of Heath.
Esquire Developments Ltd, an award-winning SME housebuilder, was established in 2011 and currently delivers approximately 120 homes annually across Kent and the South East.
Esquire Developments approached Homes England to support their project Millers Field, a 1.21-acre site in Maidstone, Kent and we provided a £2.68 million loan to transform the site into 9 attractive family homes.
Esquire Developments is known for its dedication to quality and sustainability, achieving up to 50% carbon reduction in their developments compared to current building standards. They also prioritise sourcing materials and supply chains locally, and all the homes in this project were equipped with air source heat pumps and electric vehicle charging stations.
Following the successful completion of Millers Field, Homes England has supported Esquire Developments with a second scheme, Hill Farm in Sittingbourne, which is made up of 30 homes, 3 key worker homes and an overflow carpark for Demelza Children’s Hospice situated next to the development.
Audience with a delegation of Ministers participating in the G7 Meeting on Inclusion and Disability, 17.10.2024
This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Francis received in audience the participants in the G7 Meeting on Inclusion and Disability, to whom he delivered the following address:
Address of the Holy Father
Distinguished Ministers and Delegates,Ladies and Gentleman,
Excuse me for being late, but there were many things happening this morning. I greet all of you with gratitude and appreciation for your efforts to promote the dignity and rights of people with disabilities. When I was once speaking about people with disabilities, someone said to me, “be careful because we all have a disability!” All of us. It is true. This meeting, on the occasion of the G7, is concrete evidence of the desire to build a more just and inclusive world, in which each person, with his or her own abilities, can live to the full and contribute to the growth of society. Instead of speaking about disabilities, let us speak about different abilities because everyone has abilities. For example, I remember a group from a restaurant that visited here, which included both the cooks and waiters, and all of them were young men and women with disabilities. They all worked very well. I thank the Italian Minister for Disabilities, the Honourable Alessandra Locatelli, who is present today, for promoting this important initiative. Thank you.
Yesterday you signed the “Charter of Solfagnano”, the fruit of your work on such fundamental issues as inclusion, accessibility, independent living and the empowerment of persons. These themes are also present in the Church’s vision of human dignity. Indeed, every person is an integral part of the universal human family, and no one should fall victim to a throwaway culture, absolutely no one. This type of culture generates prejudice and damages society.
First, the inclusion of persons with disabilities must be recognized as a priority by all countries. I do not like the word “disability”, I prefer “differently abled”. Sadly, even today in some countries people find it hard to acknowledge the equal dignity of such persons (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 98). Creating an inclusive world entails not only adapting structures but also changing minds, in order that people with disabilities may considered full participants in social life. There can be no authentic human development without the involvement of the most vulnerable members of society. Universal accessibility is thus a great goal to be pursued, so that every physical, social, cultural and religious barrier may be eliminated and every individual can be enabled to develop his or her talents and contribute to the common good at every stage of life, from childhood to old age. It pains me when people live in a culture that discards old people. Old people offer wisdom but they are discarded as if they were a pair of old shoes.
Providing adequate facilities and services for people with disabilities is not only a matter of social assistance – it is not a policy of welfare – but it is about justice and respect for their dignity. All countries have the responsibility of ensuring the necessary conditions for the integral development of each individual within inclusive communities (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 107).
It is important, then, to work together in making it possible for persons with disabilities to choose their own path in life, free of the fetters of prejudice. The human person – let us remember – must never be a means but always an end! This means enhancing each person’s abilities and providing opportunities for dignified employment. Excluding people from the possibility of work is a grave form of discrimination (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 162). Work is the anointing of dignity. If you exclude the possibility, you take that away from them. The same thing can be said with regard to participation in cultural events and sporting activities: excluding people with disabilities is an affront to human dignity.
The new technologies can also prove to be a powerful means for increasing inclusion and participation, provided they are made accessible to everyone. These technologies need to be directed towards the common good and placed at the service of a culture of encounter and solidarity. Technology ought to be used wisely, in order to avoid creating further inequalities and to help overcoming those that already exist.
Finally, in speaking of inclusion, we must take into account the urgent needs of the earth, our common home. We cannot be indifferent to the humanitarian emergencies linked to climate crises and conflicts, which have the greatest impact on those who are most vulnerable, including persons with disabilities (cf. Laudato Si’, 25). It is our duty to ensure that those with disabilities are not left behind in such situations, and that they are properly cared for and protected. What is needed is a system of prevention and emergency response that takes into account their specific needs and guarantees that no one is excluded from protection and assistance.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I view your work as a sign of hope for a world that all too often disregards people with disabilities or unfortunately rejects them away before they are born, “returning them to the sender” after seeing a scan. I urge you to persevere in your efforts, inspired by faith and the conviction that each person is a precious gift to society. Saint Francis of Assisi, who bore witness to a boundless love for the most vulnerable, reminds us that true wealth is found in our encounter with others – this culture of encounter needs to be developed – especially with those who tend to be “discarded” by an ersatz culture of wellbeing. Among those who are victims of being discarded are grandparents. Grandparents and elderly are left in nursing homes. This is a very bad thing. It reminds me of a good story. There was a grandfather who lived with his family, but as he grew older, he would make a mess while eating. One day the father made a separate table in the kitchen and told his son, “Grandpa will eat in the kitchen, so that we can invite guests”. After some time passed, the father came home from work to find his five-year-old son playing with tables. He asked him, “What are you doing?”. The son replied “I’m making a small table”. “A small table? Why?”, asked the father. The son replied, “for you dad, for when you become old”. What we do with old people, our children will do with us. Let us not forget that. Together we can build a world in which the dignity of each person is fully recognized and respected.
May God bless you and always accompany you in this important undertaking. Thank you.
