Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The SSRO has published updates to its pricing and reporting guidance, following consultation with stakeholders. We’ve also published our response to what stakeholders told us.
Pricing guidance
In January 2024 the SSRO published new pricing guidance to support the implementation of changes to the single source regulatory framework, which came into force on 1 April 2024. We consulted stakeholders between January and April 2024, seeking feedback on the new guidance. Following consideration of consultation responses we have published updated guidance on:
Alternative pricing types
Allowable Costs
The baseline profit rate and its adjustment
These updated guidance documents provide contracting parties with:
Support to use alternative pricing methods for contracts which allows non-competitive defence contracts to be priced in new ways. For example, an item can be priced by reference to competitive markets: simplifying and speeding up procurement.
More flexibility and transparency through broadening the ability for a contract to be split into different components or parts, each with its own profit rate and price (known as componentisation). This allows contract prices to better reflect the risk-sharing between the MOD and defence contractors.
A rationalisation of how the contract profit rate is calculated, removing two steps from the previous six-step process and simplifying the agreement of contract profit rates.
To read more about how we have responded to what stakeholders told us during the consultation period, have a look at the consultation response.
Reporting guidance
Alongside the pricing guidance, we have also published our response to the consultation on the updated reporting guidance, which helps contractors submit statutory reports following the legislative changes made on 1 April 2024. The consultation also included minor changes to the compliance methodology.
We issued the guidance and the proposed change to the compliance methodology in advance of concluding this consultation to give stakeholders time to familiarise themselves as early as possible and to allow their feedback to be based on initial use. Stakeholders were generally supportive of the changes which the SSRO has made.
Following consideration of consultation responses we have published updated reporting guidance on:
Contract reports.
Supplier reports.
DefCARS functionality.
To read more about how we have responded to what stakeholders told us during the consultation period, have a look at the consultation response. An explanation of the changes made across the three guidance documents are explained in Appendix 1 of the consultation response document.
Application of the guidance
This new and updated pricing and reporting guidance will apply to qualifying defence contracts and qualifying sub-contracts entered into or amended from 10 October 2024.
To assist stakeholders in understanding the guidance changes, we have included in the consultation response document a table that shows where the previous guidance text has been revised.
Headline: Verizon dona $50,000 a la Los Angeles Mission
IRVINE, CA – En honor al Día Mundial de la Salud Mental, Verizon se enorgullece de anunciar una donación de $50,000 a Los Angeles Mission. El donativo permitirá a la organización ampliar sus servicios y proporcionar suministros de socorro críticos a personas de la comunidad sin hogar durante eventos climáticos severos, como las intensas olas de calor del verano y las olas de frío durante el invierno.
Este es el segundo año consecutivo en el que Verizon apoya el trabajo vital de Los Angeles Mission brindando ayuda en casos de desastre climático estacional. La donación del año pasado fue fundamental para proporcionar recursos como ropa, alimentos, refugio de emergencia y suministros para las inclemencias del tiempo a la población vulnerable sin vivienda en todo el condado de Los Ángeles. Con la donación de este año, Verizon continua ese apoyo, especialmente porque las condiciones climáticas extremas representan cada vez más una amenaza para el bienestar físico y mental de las personas sin hogar.
“Estamos profundamente agradecidos con Verizon por su asociación continua para brindar ayuda en casos de desastres la cual es esencial para salvar las vidas de aquellos más vulnerables dentro de nuestra comunidad”, dijo el pastor Troy Vaughn, presidente y director ejecutivo de Los Angeles Mission. “Mientras enfrentamos olas de calor históricas y se aproxima la temporada de frío en el condado de Los Ángeles y en todo California, muchos de nuestros vecinos sin vivienda, veteranos e individuos que huyen de la violencia doméstica se quedan sin refugio seguro en medio de los extremos cambios climáticos. Esta generosa donación de Verizon nos permitirá ampliar nuestra capacidad y asegurar suministros vitales para proteger a más personas durante estos eventos climáticos severos, garantizando que tengan acceso a refugio, seguridad y esperanza en estos tiempos difíciles. Felicitamos a los socios corporativos como Verizon por estar a nuestro lado en momentos de crisis comunitaria”.
La donación de Verizon se alinea con la importancia del Día Mundial de la Salud Mental y enfatiza la conexión entre un hogar estable, la salud mental y el bienestar general. La organización reconoce que la población sin vivienda enfrenta riesgos desproporcionados, no sólo por el costo físico del mal tiempo sino también por el estrés y el trauma que acompañan a la inestabilidad de la vivienda. Esta financiación ayudará a aliviar algunas de esas presiones al garantizar que las personas tengan acceso a recursos importantes cuando más los necesitan.
“En Verizon, creemos que conectarse con nuestra comunidad va más allá de la tecnología: se trata de extender una mano a quienes más lo necesitan. Los Angeles Mission ha sido un faro de esperanza para la población sin vivienda, brindando servicios y apoyo esenciales”, dijo Steven Keller, presidente del Mercado Pacífico de Verizon. “En el Día Mundial de la Salud Mental, nos sentimos honrados de contribuir a su vital labor, ayudando a marcar una gran diferencia en las vidas de nuestros vecinos más vulnerables”.
El apoyo continuo de Verizon a organizaciones locales como Los Angeles Mission es para el compromiso de la compañía con la responsabilidad social y su misión de ayudar a cerrar la brecha para las comunidades desatendidas a través de donaciones corporativas y esfuerzos de voluntariado.
NEW YORK/BEIRUT, October 10, 2024 — Israeli attacks in Lebanon have forced health care facilities to close, limiting people’s access to health care at a time when medical and humanitarian needs are rising due to the ongoing conflict, said Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Medical facilities and medical personnel in Lebanon must be protected to ensure people have access to essential health care services.
Heavy Israeli bombardments have severely disrupted access to medical care across Lebanon. As of October 1, six hospitals and 40 general health care centers have closed their doors as the intensity of the fighting has made it impossible to work without safety guarantees, according to OCHA. In the last two weeks, Israeli strikes have claimed the lives of at least 50 paramedics. This brings the total number of health care workers killed since October last year to over 100, as reported by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
“We must ensure the continuation of care for those in need,” said François Zamparini, emergency coordinator for MSF in Lebanon. “We urge all parties to respect international humanitarian law. Civilians, civilian infrastructure, and medical facilities and medical personnel must not be targeted. Their safety must be guaranteed.”
Intense Israeli airstrikes impede MSF response
To reduce devastating consequences for civilians, MSF is working to ensure the continuation of health care in its existing facilities, while also scaling up and adapting activities. However, due to intense Israeli airstrikes, MSF has been forced to suspend some activities in highly affected areas.
“Given the intensity of the violence, road damage, and the lack of guaranteed safety, we are currently unable to reach all affected areas in Lebanon despite the increasing medical and humanitarian needs,” Zamparini said.
Last week, MSF was forced to completely close its clinic in the Palestinian camp of Burj el Barajneh in the southern suburbs of Beirut and temporarily stop activities in Baalbek-Hermel, northeast Lebanon. These are both areas heavily affected by the strikes. The closure of medical facilities has left vulnerable people in these areas, specifically those living with chronic diseases, without the essential services they need.
Given the intensity of the violence, road damage, and the lack of guaranteed safety, we are currently unable to reach all affected areas in Lebanon despite the increasing medical and humanitarian needs.
François Zamparini, emergency coordinator for MSF in Lebanon
“We partially reopened our clinic in Hermel this week to ensure that patients receive their medications, providing them with a two-to-three-month stock of essential drugs, depending on the severity of their conditions and medical risks,” Zamparini said. “One of the hospitals we planned to support and had donated medications and trauma kits to, in Nabatiyeh—only a few kilometers away from the active frontlines—was hit on October 5.”
In the south of Lebanon, where the conflict and needs are greatest, MSF medical teams remain unable to operate at full capacity due to a lack of safety guarantees for medical personnel. For example, an MSF mobile medical team, which had been actively supporting general health care centers in Nabatiyeh and other areas closer to the Lebanese border since last November, has been forced to stop its activities. The team, which was once able to reach areas near the border, can no longer do so and is currently limited to operating only as far as Saida, which is about 50 kilometers [31 miles] north of the southern border.
The armed conflict is worsening an ongoing humanitarian crisis. Lebanon’s health care system was already overburdened by the country’s economic crisis, which has caused the immigration of many medical staff and strained the capacity and resources of medical facilities. Local health centers—already at capacity—are now facing increasing pressure as they try to meet the growing medical needs of displaced people.
The scale of displacement in Lebanon significantly surpasses the country’s ability to provide adequate shelter, with over a million people displaced, according to UNHCR. The majority of shelters in which people are seeking safety are in dire condition. In response, MSF has deployed 12 mobile medical teams across various regions of the country, including Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Saida, Tripoli, Bekaa, and Akkar. These teams are providing psychological first aid, general medical consultations, and mental health support, in addition to donating mattresses, hygiene kits, hot meals, and clean water.
MSF first began working in Lebanon in 1976 and has worked in the country without interruption since 2000.
Girls as young as nine could be forcibly married, and protections regarding divorce and inheritance potentially removed
Urgent legal reforms are needed to protect Iraqi women and girls’ rights and criminalise marital rape
‘Iraqi lawmakers must heed the warnings of civil society and women’s rights groups on the devastating impact of these amendments’ – Razaw Salihy
Ahead of an imminent parliamentary vote in Iraq on possible changes to the country’s Personal Status Law, Amnesty International is calling on Iraqi lawmakers to drop amendments that would violate women and girls’ rights, further entrench discrimination and could allow for girls as young as nine to be forced into marriage.
The current Personal Status Law applies to all Iraqis irrespective of their religion. The proposed amendments would grant religious councils of the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam in Iraq the authority to develop their own “code of Sharia rulings on personal status matters” within six months of the law being passed, effectively threatening women’s and girls’ rightsand their equality before the law.
The amendments would also open the door to legalising unregistered marriages, which are often used to circumvent child marriage laws, and removing penalties for adult men who enter such marriages and clerics who conduct them. It would also remove critical protections for divorced women, such as the right to remain in the marital home or receive financial support from the former husband.
“Iraqi lawmakers must heed the warnings of civil society and women’s rights groups on the devastating impact of these amendments, which would eliminate the current legal marriage age of 18 for both girls and boys, paving the way for child marriages, as well as stripping women and girls of protections regarding divorce and inheritance.
“Not only does child marriage deprive girls of their education, but married girls are more vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, and health risks related to early pregnancy.
“It is alarming that these amendments to the Personal Status Law are being pushed so vehemently when completely different, urgent legal reforms are needed to protect Iraqi women and girls’ rights.
“Iraq’s parliament must reject these harmful proposed amendments and instead focus their efforts on addressing woeful shortcomings in the penal code, which permits ‘honour’ as a mitigating factor for the killings of women and girls and allows for the corporal punishment of the wife and children by the husband, as well as failing to criminalise marital rape.”
Amnesty confirmed that the proposed amendments violate international treaties ratified by Iraq including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Opposition to the bill
The first reading of the bill took place on 4 August 2024. Similar amendments were proposed in 2014 and 2017 but failed to pass due to a nationwide outcry. On 3 September, Iraq’s parliament attempted to hold a second reading of the draft bill but opposing MPs had waged a boycott campaign that succeeded in blocking this. The bill’s second reading took place on 16 September, with women MPs and other opponents of the bill raising concerns that none of their recommendations had been taken into account, nor an amended draft shared. On 17 September, the Iraqi Federal Supreme Court ruled that the amendments were aligned with Iraq’s constitution.
Analysis of more than a dozen Israeli evacuation warnings show how Lebanese civilians were given contradictory information and exposed to heightened danger
Some warnings issued in middle of night on social media and with only 30 minutes notice
Backdrop of comments from Netanyahu and others indicates that Israel considers Lebanese civilians and property to be legitimate targets
‘This is not a warning, it’s torture. It’s a sadistic game’ – resident of Burj al-Barajneh
‘We’re extremely concerned that Israel may be seeking to replicate the approach it followed in Gaza, resulting in unprecedented civilian harm’ – Agnès Callamard
The evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut and south Lebanon have been inadequate – and in some cases misleading – said Amnesty International.
Amnesty analysed more than a dozen Israeli military evacuation warnings and conducted interviews with 12 residents who fled various districts in the southern Beirut suburb of Dahieh following the Israeli evacuation warnings on 27-28 September, including al-Laylaki, Hay El Sellom, Hadi Nasrallah highway and Burj al-Barajneh. Amnesty also interviewed three residents of villages in south Lebanon.
Amnesty examined two warnings issued to residents of the crowded urban areas of Dahieh overnight on 27-28 September, after the attack that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The airstrikes demolished entire residential buildings in the densely-populated area. Each warning identified three military targets and said that residents should evacuate a 500-metre radius around that location. The warnings were issued through the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson on X at night, without a clear timeline or details on safe routes.
In the two Dahieh warnings, maps published by the Israeli military alongside the evacuation warnings covering six different areas were misleading. In each case the area highlighted on the maps indicating the danger zone for civilians covered a much smaller area than the 500-metre radius that the Israeli military had advised civilians was the minimum distance civilians should evacuate. To be effective, warnings must give clear and timely instructions for civilians on moving away from military objectives that are going to be targeted, with information on safe routes and destinations.
The Israeli military also issued evacuation warnings to residents of approximately 118 towns and villages in south Lebanon between 1-7 October, following the start of its ground invasion. These warnings, which included towns that were more than 35 km from the border with Israel and outside the UN-declared buffer zone, do not – said Amnesty – make south Lebanon a free-fire zone.
Under international humanitarian law, parties to a conflict have a clear obligation to take all feasible precautions to avoid – or at least minimise – harm to civilians when carrying out attacks. This includes giving effective advance warning of attacks to civilians in affected areas unless circumstances do not permit. In any case, emphasised Amnesty, issuing warnings does not absolve Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian law to never target civilians and to take all possible measures to minimise harm to them.
According to the UN, a quarter of Lebanese territory has been affected by evacuation warnings.
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General, said:
“The warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of Dahieh – the densely-populated southern suburbs of Beirut – were inadequate.
“Our analysis shows that not only did the warnings issued by the Israeli military include misleading maps, but they were also issued at short notice – in one instance less than 30 minutes before strikes began – in the middle of the night, via social media, when many people would be asleep, offline or not following media reports.
“Instructing the residents of entire towns and villages in south Lebanon to evacuate is an overly-general warning that is inadequate and raises questions around whether this is intended to create the conditions for mass displacement.
“Regardless of the efficacy of the warnings, they do not mean that Israel can treat any remaining civilians as targets.
“Having spent the last 12 months investigating Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, we’re extremely concerned that Israel may be seeking to replicate the approach it followed in Gaza, resulting in unprecedented civilian harm.
“Amnesty International is calling on Israel’s allies, including the United States, to suspend all arms transfers and other forms of military assistance to Israel due to the significant risk that these weapons could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international law.
“The organisation is also calling for a suspension of all arms transfers to Hezbollah and other armed groups in Lebanon.”
Case studies – southern suburbs of Beirut
Starting at 11:06 pm on 27 September, the Israeli military began to issue evacuation warnings to residents of Dahieh, a suburb in the south of Beirut. In the first warning, the Israeli military instructed residents via X to move 500 metres away from three buildings in the districts of al-Laylaki and al-Hadath, both densely-populated areas, alleging that residents are “located near Hezbollah interests”. The order did not give a timeframe for the evacuation. The map published alongside this warning highlighted an area around the buildings to indicate what was supposedly the 500-metre radius that residents should leave. However, the highlighted area in fact only covered approximately a 135-metre radius. While the map showed 30 buildings within the red circle, there are in fact 500 buildings within the 500-metre radius. The same is true for the evacuation warnings in the al-Hadath district: the areas highlighted on the maps warning residents to stay 500 metres away from the Sheet building and the al-Salam Complex, showed only at approximately 125m and 100m radiuses respectively.
At around 12:36am, just an hour and a half later, local media reported an Israeli airstrike on al-Laylaki. Over the next hour and 10 minutes, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported 11 further attacks on Dahieh, including on buildings and areas that had not received an evacuation warning. Fatima, a journalist who lives in al-Laylaki, told Amnesty that her brother called her at around 11:15pm while she was covering news of the strike on Nasrallah, warning her to leave the area. She said:
“I jumped in the car and drove erratically … I arrived in al-Laylaki and found that everyone was acting as crazily as I was. If people could throw themselves off the balcony to leave faster [they would]. Screaming, running, cars honking, motorcycles, plastic bags … I quickly helped my parents down the stairs to my car, and I only took my cat with me … I currently have no belongings at all.”
Fatima explained that al-Laylaki is a crowded residential area that remained fully populated until that night because it is on the outskirts of Dahieh and residents did not expect it to be targeted.
Abir, who lives with her mother close to al-Laylaki, told Amnesty that she could not immediately evacuate her house because her mother is older and sick, and needs to be carried down the stairs:
“It was a night from hell. I laid my mother on the floor in the safest room, which is the old bathroom, we hid our heads with our arms [throughout the bombardment].”
They were only able to leave a few hours later after a friend helped carry her mother down from the sixth floor.
At 3am on 28 September, the Israeli military issued another evacuation warning via X to residents in the districts of Burj al-Barajneh and al-Hadath, again in Beirut’s southern suburbs, instructing them to move 500 metres away from three other identified buildings. The warning did not give a timeframe for evacuation and maps of the affected areas were similarly misleading, highlighting areas much smaller than the indicated 500 metre radius.
At 5:47 am, the National News Agency reported that Israeli airstrikes targeted al-Hadath and al-Laylaki as well as the Chouiefat and al-Kafaat districts in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which were not listed in the evacuation warning. Local media reported continued airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs throughout the day.
Taghreed, a resident of Hay el-Sellom, said that she had not heard about the Israeli warning and took the decision to flee after the major attack that killed Hassan Nasrallah. She told Amnesty: “We were hiding and couldn’t reach the television. I don’t have social media so I don’t know what the Israelis said.”
Ahmad, a resident of Burj al-Barajneh, also said that he made the decision to leave Dahieh immediately after the airstrike that killed Nasrallah, as he lives with his elderly parents. He said:
“While we were still stuck on the road out of Dahieh, with all the ambulances trying to prioritise the wounded people, we heard about the warning on the radio in the van. I felt bitter. This is not a warning, it’s torture. It’s a sadistic game: ‘we will kill you and your family soon. Show us how you can escape’.”
On 30 September, the Israeli military issued a warning to evacuate from the surroundings of residential buildings in al-Laylaki, Haret Hreik and Burj al-Barajneh. The Israeli military launched a series of airstrikes just 30 minutes later. Similarly, on 3 October, at 10:51 pm, the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the residents of Burj al-Barajneh, telling them to leave immediately. Local media reported a “heavy strike” minutes after the evacuation order was issued, and at least four attacks by 11:30 pm.
Under international law, Hezbollah and other armed groups must, to the extent feasible, avoid locating military objectives, including fighters, ammunition, weapons, and military infrastructure, in or near densely-populated areas. However, the presence of military objectives in populated areas does not absolve Israeli forces of their obligations under international humanitarian law to avoid indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks as well as to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians, including civilians who fail to leave the area after an evacuation warning. Failure to provide effective advance warnings of attacks which may affect civilians, unless circumstances do not permit, and not taking all other feasible precautions to protect civilians, constitute violations of international humanitarian law.
Case studies – southern Lebanon
On 1 October, the Israeli military issued two evacuation warnings to residents of southern Lebanon. The first, at 9:21 am, instructed residents not to move vehicles south of the Litani River “until further notice,” alleging that Hezbollah is using “the civilian environment and the population as human shields”. At 12:18 pm, the Israeli military instructed residents of more than 25 towns across southern Lebanon to evacuate and move north of the Awwali River, some 58 km from the border with Israel and about 30km farther than the Litani River, which marks the UN buffer zone created after the 2006 war.
On 2 October, at 9:11 am and then at 11:15 am, the Israeli military issued warnings for a further 24 towns and villages across southern Lebanon, telling residents to “save their lives and leave their homes immediately”, ordering them to move north of the Awwali River and saying that any movement south could expose them to danger. The Israeli military issued a similar warning at 12:49 pm on 3 October for a further 25 towns and villages, at 9:11 am on 4 October for a further 35 villages, and at 12:58 pm on 7 October for 25 additional villages.
None of the “orders” offered safe and effective evacuation information, just instructing residents to leave “immediately”.
Amnesty’s concerns about the warnings to civilians in south Lebanon are heightened by some statements from Israeli political and military leaders indicating that they considered Lebanese civilians and property to be legitimate targets. Benjamin Netanyahu said on 27 September there is “a missile in every kitchen, a rocket in every garage”. The Israeli Education Minister said on television on 21 September that there was no difference between Hezbollah and Lebanon and that Lebanon “would be annihilated”. In June, the Israeli Defence Minister said that Israel is capable of returning Lebanon “to the stone age”.
The south Lebanon warnings and instructions that vehicles do not travel south of the Litani River also raise serious concerns over civilians’ access to essential supplies and services, including food, medication, healthcare and fuel. The mukhtar of Rmeich, a village south of the Litani river close to the border with Israel, which did not receive an evacuation warning but is within the area in which Israel has said vehicles are prohibited from travelling, told Amnesty that supplies in the town were rapidly dwindling. “The area is going to become destitute. How can we continue? It’s like they want to displace us,” he said.
The conditions being created by Israel’s actions in south Lebanon risk forcibly displacing the majority of the civilian population there. One of the towns in southern Lebanon that the Israeli military warned must be evacuated is Ain Ebel, where the majority of residents are Christian and have no known affiliation with Hezbollah.
Rakan Diab, an Ain Ebel resident, told Amnesty that residents of the village were surprised when, on 1 October, Ain Ebel was included in the Israeli military’s evacuation warning on X. Shortly afterwards, the village mayor received a call from a person purporting to be a member of the Israeli military warning residents to flee within around 45 minutes because there were weapons in the village. “People panicked … we needed to pack and leave immediately,” Rakan Diab said, explaining how the majority fled to the nearby village of Rmeich and the Lebanese army and the Lebanese Red Cross facilitated safe passage for a convoy of around 100 cars from Rmeich to north of the Awwali River.
Year of Israel-Lebanon conflict
Israel’s intensified military attacks in Lebanon began on 23 September. During the first day, Israeli forces carried out at least 1,600 attacks in areas across Lebanon, killing more than 500 people and injuring more than 1,800 in the first 24 hours. Hezbollah also launched more than 200 rockets towards Israel that day, with around 10 people sustaining shrapnel or debris wounds.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in ongoing cross-border hostilities since the group launched attacks into northern Israel following the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Gaza last October. Israeli attacks on Lebanon since 7 October 2023 have killed at least 2,083 people, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Health. More than 1.2 million people have been displaced in Lebanon, and at least 400,000 have crossed the border to Syria.
Since 8 October 2023, Hezbollah and other armed groups have launched thousands of missiles at northern Israel, killing 16 civilians. A further 12 civilians, all children, were killed on 27 July in an attack on Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights. Around 63,000 residents of northern Israel have been evacuated since 8 October. In one Hezbollah attack, on 12 November 2023, an anti-tank missile hit a group of electricity company workers who were doing infrastructure work near Dovev. One worker was killed and another lightly injured. In another attack, on 9 July, two civilians were killed when a missile hit their car while driving on highway 91 in the Golan Heights. In a statement released that day, Hezbollah took responsibility and said that it targeted the nearby Nafah military base in response to the assassination of one of its members. Many of Hezbollah’s rockets are unguided and cannot be aimed at a specific target. Firing inherently inaccurate rockets into areas where civilians are present are indiscriminate attacks, and thus violate international humanitarian law. Direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks which kill or injure civilians constitute war crimes.
Following the recent interactive dialogue with the UN expert on Haiti, where Amnesty International expressed its deep concern over gang-related violence, particularly against children, perpetrated in total impunity, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, stated:
“We have documented heartbreaking stories of children forced to work for gangs: from running deliveries to gathering information and performing domestic tasks under threats of violence. Additionally, girls have been subjected to rape and sexual violence. The desperation of their situation is truly disturbing; many have been displaced or have nowhere to go.”
We have documented heartbreaking stories of children forced to work for gangs: from running deliveries to gathering information and performing domestic tasks under threats of violence. Additionally, girls have been subjected to rape and sexual violence. The desperation of their situation is truly disturbing; many have been displaced or have nowhere to go.
Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
“The violence in Haiti is devastating, and Haitian children are paying the price. Children are sustaining serious injuries that will change their lives due to stray bullets or targeted attacks. Recently, 70 people, including children, died in a gang attack against the population in the department of Artibonite, according to reports,” added Ana Piquer. “The need for resources to comprehensively protect children’s rights and prevent further abuses and violations is urgent, as is ending the impunity enjoyed by perpetrators.”
The violence in Haiti is devastating, and Haitian children are paying the price. Children are sustaining serious injuries that will change their lives due to stray bullets or targeted attacks. Recently, 70 people, including children, died in a gang attack against the population in the department of Artibonite, according to reports.
Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International.
Iraqi lawmakers must drop amendments to the Personal Status Law, which would violate women and girls’ rights, further entrench discrimination and could allow for girls as young as nine to be married, Amnesty International said today, ahead of an imminent parliamentary vote on the changes.
“Iraqi lawmakers must heed the warnings of civil society and women’s rights groups on the devastating impact of these amendments, which would eliminate the current legal marriage age of 18 for both girls and boys, paving the way for child marriages, as well as stripping women and girls of protections regarding divorce and inheritance, said Razaw Salihy, Amnesty International’s Iraq researcher.
“Not only does child marriage deprive girls of their education, but married girls are more vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse, and health risks related to early pregnancy. It is alarming that these amendments to the Personal Status Law are being pushed so vehemently when completely different urgent legal reforms are needed to protect Iraqi women and girls’ rights.
“Iraq’s parliament must reject these harmful proposed amendments and instead focus their efforts on addressing woeful shortcomings in the Penal Code, which permits ‘honour’ as a mitigating factor for the killings of women and girls and allows for the corporal punishment of the wife and children by the husband, as well as failing to criminalize marital rape.”
The current Personal Status Law applies to all Iraqis irrespective of their religion. The proposed amendments would grant religious councils of the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam in Iraq the authority to develop their own “code of Sharia rulings on personal status matters” within six months of the law being passed, effectively threatening women’s and girls’ rights and their equality before the law.
The amendments would also open the door to legalizing unregistered marriages, which are often used to circumvent child marriage laws, and removing penalties for adult men who enter such marriages and clerics who conduct them. It would also remove critical protections for divorced women, such as the right to remain in the marital home or receive financial support from the former husband.
“The amendments violate international treaties that Iraq has ratified, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Ensuring the safety, dignity and rights of women and girls is not only a state obligation under international human rights law but also a moral imperative that all Iraqi institutions must uphold,” said Razaw Salihy.
Healthcare facilities are being forced to close in areas affected by airstrikes.
Our teams are working to ensure the continuation of care in our facilities, while also suspending some activities in heavily affected areas.
All warring parties must spare civilians, medical facilities, and medical personnel.
Beirut – As Israeli attacks intensify in Lebanon, healthcare facilities in areas most affected by airstrikes are being forced to close. This is leading to devastating consequences for civilians and their access to healthcare.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams are working tirelessly to ensure the continuation of care in our existing facilities, while also scaling up our activities to address the needs emerging from the ongoing conflict. However, due to the intense Israeli airstrikes, we were forced to suspend some activities in highly affected areas. We continue to adapt our activities to provide people with much needed healthcare.
MSF urges all warring parties to spare civilians, medical facilities, and medical personnel in Lebanon to ensure that vital healthcare services can adequately address people’s urgent medical needs.
“Given the intensity of the violence, road damage, and the lack of guaranteed safety, we are currently unable to reach all affected areas in Lebanon despite the increasing medical and humanitarian needs,” says François Zamparini, emergency coordinator for MSF in Lebanon.
Distribution of essential item kits in downtown Beirut, Aazarieh building shelter. October 2, 2024.Maryam Srour/MSF
Last week, MSF was forced to completely close its clinic in the Palestinian camp of Burj el Barajneh in the southern suburbs of Beirut. We also had to temporarily stop our activities in Baalbek-Hermel, northeast Lebanon. These are both areas heavily affected by the strikes.
“We partially reopened our clinic in Hermel this week to ensure that patients receive their medications, providing them with a two-to-three-month stock of essential drugs, depending on the severity of their condition and medical risks,” adds Zamparini.
Patients in these areas are already vulnerable, struggling to access the healthcare they desperately need. The closure of medical facilities has left them, specifically people living with chronic diseases, without the essential services they need.
MSF medical teams also remain unable to operate properly in southern Lebanon due to a lack of safety guarantees for our medical personnel.
“One of the hospitals we planned to support and had donated medications and trauma kits to, in Nabatiyeh, only a few kilometres away from the active frontlines, was hit on 5 October,” explains Zamparini.
An MSF mobile medical team, which had been actively supporting general healthcare centres in Nabatiyeh and other areas closer to the Lebanese border since November 2023, has been forced to stop its activities. The team, which was once able to reach areas near the border, can no longer do so and is currently limited to operating only as far as Saida, which is about 50 kilometres north of the southern border, where needs are highest.
In the last two weeks, Israeli strikes have claimed the lives of at least fifty paramedics. This brings the total number of healthcare workers killed since October last year to over a hundred, as reported by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Healthhttps://apnews.com/article/lebanon-israel-medics-hezbollah-hospitals-6c7f75c921c9deec0fa5c160ce639664#:~:text=The%20health%20ministry%20on%20Thursday,wounded%20in%20the%20intense%20fighting.. The heavy Israeli bombardments have also severely disrupted access to medical care across Lebanon. As of 1 October 2024, six hospitals and 40 general healthcare centres have closed their doors as the intensity of the fighting made it impossible to work without safety guarantees, according to OCHA.https://www.unocha.org/news/todays-top-news-lebanon-occupied-palestinian-territory-and-israel-syria-haiti-ukraine-eastern
The armed conflict is worsening an ongoing humanitarian crisis, aggravating existing needs. Lebanon’s healthcare system was already overburdened by the country’s economic crisis, which has caused the emigration of many medical staff and strained the capacity and resources of medical facilities. Local health centres, already at capacity, are now facing increasing pressure as they try to meet the growing medical needs of displaced people.
The scale of displacement in Lebanon significantly surpasses the country’s ability to provide adequate shelter, with over a million people displaced according to UNHCRhttps://www.unhcr.org/news/press-releases/unhcr-s-grandi-appeals-urgent-humanitarian-support-and-end-bloodshed-lebanon. The majority of shelters people are seeking safety in are in dire conditions. To respond, MSF deployed 12 mobile medical teams across various regions of the country, including Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Saida, Tripoli, Bekaa, and Akkar. These teams are providing psychological first aid, general medical consultations, and mental health support, in addition to donating mattresses, hygiene kits, hot meals, and clean water. Nevertheless, people’s needs are far greater than what we are able to cover.
“We must ensure the continuation of care for those in need,” emphasises Zamparini. “We urge all parties to respect international humanitarian law. Civilians and civilian infrastructure, medical facilities and medical personnel must not be targeted. Their safety must be guaranteed.”
MSF’s response to the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon:
In response to the ongoing escalation of conflict and intense Israeli bombing in Lebanon, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has deployed 12 mobile medical teams across various regions of the country, including Beirut, Mount Lebanon, Saida, Tripoli, Bekaa, and Akkar. These teams are providing psychological first aid, general medical consultations, medication, and mental health support. MSF is also distributing essential items such as blankets, mattresses, and hygiene kits, as well as supplying water by trucks to schools and shelters where displaced people have gathered. Additionally, we are offering hot meals and drinking water to hundreds of displaced families. MSF has also donated fuel and trauma kits to several hospitals, prepositioned 10 tons of medical supplies and trained over 100 healthcare workers in trauma care and mass casualty management across the country.
About MSF in Lebanon:
MSF is an independent international medical humanitarian organisation that provides aid and free healthcare to people in need, without discrimination. MSF first began to work in Lebanon in 1976, and its teams have worked in the country without interruption since 2008.
In 2023, MSF teams worked in six locations across Lebanon, providing 13,609 free medical consultations for vulnerable communities, including Lebanese citizens, refugees, and migrant workers. MSF’s services include mental healthcare, sexual and reproductive healthcare, paediatric care, vaccinations, and treatment for non-communicable diseases such as diabetes.
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Lebanon
Israeli bombardment in Lebanon is causing mass displacement and urgent humanitarian needs
Evacuation warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut and south Lebanon were inadequate, and in some cases also misleading, said Amnesty International today, highlighting that these warnings do not absolve Israel of its obligations under international humanitarian law to never target civilians and to take all possible measures to minimize harm to them.
Under international humanitarian law, parties to a conflict have a clear obligation to take all feasible precautions to avoid, or at least minimize, harm to civilians when carrying out attacks; this includes giving effective advance warning of attacks to civilians in affected areas unless circumstances do not permit.
“The warnings issued by the Israeli military to residents of Dahieh, the densely populated southern suburbs of Beirut, were inadequate. Our analysis shows that not only did the warnings issued by the Israeli military include misleading maps, but they were also issued at short notice – in one instance less than 30 minutes before strikes began – in the middle of the night, via social media, when many people would be asleep, offline or not following media reports,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“Furthermore, instructing the residents of entire towns and villages in south Lebanon to evacuate is an overly general warning that is inadequate and raises questions around whether this is intended to create the conditions for mass displacement. Regardless of the efficacy of the warnings, they do not mean that Israel can treat any remaining civilians as targets. People who choose to stay in their homes or are unable to leave because members of their household have limited mobility, due to disability, age or other reasons, continue to be protected by international humanitarian law. Israel must at all times abide by its obligations under international law, including by taking all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians, wherever they are.”
Our analysis shows that not only did the warnings issued by the Israeli military include misleading maps, but they were also issued at short notice – in one instance less than 30 minutes before strikes began – in the middle of the night, via social media, when many people would be asleep, offline or not following media reports
Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General
To be effective a warning must be timely and provide information on safe routes and destinations. Amnesty International examined two warnings issued to residents of the crowded urban area of Dahieh overnight on 27/28 September, after the surprise strike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The airstrikes demolished entire residential buildings in the densely populated area. Each warning identified three military targets and requested that residents evacuate a 500-metre radius around that location. The warnings were issued through the Israeli military’s Arabic spokesperson on X (formerly Twitter), at night, without a clear timeline or details on safe routes.
In the two warnings issued to residents of Dahieh, the maps published by the Israeli military alongside the evacuation warnings, covering six different areas, were misleading. In each of these cases the area highlighted on the maps to indicate the danger zone for civilians covered a much smaller area than the 500-metre radius that the Israeli military had advised civilians was the minimum distance civilians should evacuate.
The Israeli military also issued evacuation warnings to residents of around 118 towns and villages in south Lebanon between 1 -7 October, following the start of its ground invasion. These warnings, which included towns that were more than 35 km from the border with Israel and outside the UN-declared buffer zone, do not make south Lebanon a free-fire zone.
To be effective, warnings must give clear instructions for civilians on moving away from military objectives that are going to be targeted. While warnings can, in some circumstances, be general in character, the definition of what constitutes general does not include overly broad warnings that ask civilians to evacuate entire areas (see for instance the 1987 Commentary on Protocol I).
Israel’s warnings in southern Lebanon covered large geographical areas, raising concerns as to whether they were designed instead to trigger mass relocation. Principle 5 of the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement states that, in all circumstances, authorities and international actors must abide by their obligations under international law so as “to prevent and avoid conditions that might lead to displacement of persons”.
Methodology
Israel’s Operation Northern Arrows began on 23 September with intense aerial bombardment of several areas across Lebanon, including the south, the Bekaa valley and Dahieh, in the southern suburbs of Beirut. According to the Lebanese government, the number of displaced people fleeing Israeli airstrikes has risen to 1.2 million – the vast majority in the last three weeks alone.
Amnesty International reviewed over a dozen evacuation warnings by the Israeli military and conducted interviews with 12 residents who fled Dahieh following the Israeli evacuation warnings on 27/28 September 2024, including al- Laylaki, Hay El Sellom, Hadi Nasrallah highway, and Burj al-Barajneh. The organization also interviewed three residents of villages in south Lebanon.
Amnesty International’s Crisis Evidence Lab mapped the areas covered by Israel’s evacuation warnings to analyse the areas impacted by the strikes.
In its analysis of these warnings, Amnesty International is not seeking at this time to determine whether Israel struck military objectives in their attacks, but rather to investigate whether or not the warnings that Israel issued were effective at protecting civilians and adhered to international law.
Southern suburbs of Beirut: ‘This is not a warning, it’s torture’
Starting at 11:06 pm on 27 September, the Israeli military began to issue evacuation warnings to residents of Dahieh. In the first warning, the Israeli military instructed residents via X (formerly Twitter) to move 500 metres away from three buildings in the neighbourhoods of al-Laylaki and al-Hadath, both of which are densely populated areas, alleging residents there are “located near Hezbollah interests”. The order did not give a timeframe for evacuation.
The map published alongside this warning highlights an area around the buildings to indicate what was supposedly the 500-metre radius that residents should leave. However, the highlighted area in fact only covered approximately a 135-metre radius. While the map showed 30 buildings within the red circle, there are in fact 500 buildings within the 500-metre radius.
Caption: A map published by the Israeli military on X misrepresents the area affected by an evacuation warning. The text over the red dotted line reads “500 metres” in Arabic, but the line covers approximately 135 metres.
Caption: Satellite imagery shows the al-Laylaki neighborhood, in southern Beirut. The red circle shows the area highlighted by the Israeli military on the map published on social media. The wider area shows the full 500 metre radius impacted by the evacuation warning.
The same is true for the evacuation warnings in the al-Hadath neighbourhood: the areas highlighted on the maps warning residents to stay 500 metres away from the Sheet building and the Al-Salam Complex, showed only approximately 125m and 100m radiuses respectively.
Caption: Satellite imagery shows the al-Hadath neighbourhood, in southern Beirut. The red circles show the area highlighted in the map published by the Israeli military on social media. The wider circles show the area impacted by the evacuation warning.
At around 12:36am, just an hour and a half later, local media reported an Israeli strike on al-Laylaki. Over the next hour and 10 minutes, Lebanon’s National News Agency reported 11 further strikes on Dahieh, including on buildings and areas that had not received an evacuation warning.
Fatima, a journalist who lives in al-Laylaki, told Amnesty International that her brother called her at around 11:15pm while she was covering news of the strike on Nasrallah, warning her to leave the area:
“I jumped in the car and drove erratically… I arrived to al-Laylaki and found that everyone was acting as crazily as I was. If people could throw themselves off the balcony to leave faster [they would]. Screaming, running, cars honking, motorcycles, plastic bags…I quickly helped my parents down the stairs to my car, and I only took my cat with me… I currently have no belongings at all.”
Fatima explained that Al-Laylaki is a crowded residential area that remained fully populated until that night because it is on the outskirts of Dahieh and residents did not expect it to be targeted.
Abir, who resides with her mother close to al-Laylaki, told Amnesty International that she could not immediately evacuate her house because her mother is older and sick, and needs to be carried down the stairs: “It was a night from hell. I laid my mother on the floor in the safest room, which is the old bathroom, we hid our heads with our arms [throughout the bombardment].” They were only able to leave a few hours later after a friend helped carry her mother down from the sixth floor.
It was a night from hell. I laid my mother on the floor in the safest room, which is the old bathroom, we hid our heads with our arms
Abir, whose mother is older and sick and needed to be carried down from the sixth floor to be evacuated
At 3am on 28 September, the Israeli military issued another evacuation warning via X to residents in the neighbourhoods of Burj al-Barajneh and al-Hadath, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, instructing them to move 500 metres away from three other identified buildings. The warning did not state a timeframe for evacuation and maps of the affected areas were similarly misleading, highlighting areas much smaller than the indicated 500 metre radius.
Caption: Satellite imagery shows the Burj al-Barajneh and al-Hadath, in Beirut’s southern suburbs. The red circles show the area highlighted in the map published by the Israeli military on social media. The wider circles show the actual area impacted by the evacuation warning.
At 5:47 am, the National News Agency reported that Israeli strikes targeted al-Hadath and al-Laylaki as well as the Chouiefat and al-Kafaat neighborhoods in Beirut’s southern suburbs, which were not listed in the evacuation warning. Local media reported continued strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs throughout the day.
Taghreed, a resident of Hay el-Sellom, said that she had not heard about the Israeli warning and took the decision to flee after the major attack that killed Hassan Nasrallah. “We were hiding and couldn’t reach the television. I don’t have social media so I don’t know what the Israelis said,” she told Amnesty International.
Ahmad, a resident of Burj al-Barajneh, also said that he made the decision to leave Dahieh immediately after the strike that killed Nasrallah, as he lives with his elderly parents. “While we were still stuck on the road out of Dahieh, with all the ambulances trying to prioritize the wounded people, we heard about the warning on the radio in the van. I felt bitter. This is not a warning; it’s torture. It’s a sadistic game: ‘we will kill you and your family soon. Show us how you can escape’.”
On 30 September 2024, the Israeli military issued a warning to evacuate from the surroundings of residential buildings in al-Laylaki, Haret Hreik, and Burj al-Barajneh. The Israeli military launched a series of strikes just 30 minutes later. Similarly, on 3 October 2024, at 10:51 pm, the Israeli military issued an evacuation warning for the residents of Burj al-Barajneh, urging them to leave immediately. Local media reported a “heavy strike” minutes after the evacuation order was issued, and at least four strikes by 11:30 pm.
Under international law, Hezbollah and other armed groups must, to the extent feasible, avoid locating military objectives, including fighters, ammunition, weapons, and military infrastructure, in or near densely populated areas. However, the presence of military objectives in populated areas does not absolve Israeli forces of their obligations under international humanitarian law to avoid indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks as well as to take all feasible precautions to spare all civilians, including civilians who fail to leave the area after an evacuation warning. Failure to provide effective advance warnings of attacks which may affect civilians, unless circumstances do not permit, and not taking all other feasible precautions to protect civilians, constitute violations of international humanitarian law.
En masse evacuation warnings to residents of south Lebanon
On 1 October, the Israeli military issued two evacuation warnings to residents of south Lebanon. The first, at 9:21am, instructed residents not to move vehicles south of the Litani River “until further notice,” alleging that Hezbollah is using “the civilian environment and the population as human shields.”
At 12:18 pm, the Israeli military instructed residents of over 25 towns across southern Lebanon to evacuate and move north of the Awwali River, some 58 km from the border with Israel and about 30km farther than the Litani River, which marks the UN buffer zone created after the 2006 war.
On 2 October 2024, at 9:11 am and then at 11:15 am, the Israeli military issued warnings for a further 24 towns and villages across southern Lebanon, telling residents to “save their lives and leave their homes immediately,” ordering them to move north of the Awwali River, and saying that any movement south could expose them to danger. The Israeli military issued a similar warning at 12:49 pm on 3 October for a further 25 towns and villages, at 9:11 am on 4 October for a further 35 villages, and at 12:58 pm on 7 October for 25 additional villages.
None of the “orders” offered safe and effective evacuation, just instructing residents to leave “immediately”.
Caption: A map showing the towns and villages impacted by evacuation warnings across southern Lebanon
Amnesty International’s concerns about the warnings to civilians in south Lebanon are heightened by some statements from Israeli political and military leaders indicating that they considered Lebanese civilians and property to be legitimate targets. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said on 27 September 2024 there is “a missile in every kitchen, a rocket in every garage”. The Israeli Education Minister said on television on 21 September 2024 that there was no difference between Hezbollah and Lebanon and that Lebanon “would be annihilated”. The Israeli Defense Minister has also previously warned in June 2024 that Israel is capable of returning Lebanon “to the stone age”.
“The massive loss of life in Lebanon in recent days raises fears that Israeli forces may be flouting their obligation to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians wherever they are, including through issuing effective warnings. Having spent the last 12 months investigating Israel’s war crimes in Gaza, Amnesty International is extremely concerned that Israel may be seeking to replicate the approach it followed in Gaza, resulting in unprecedented civilian harm,” said Agnes Callamard.
The south Lebanon warnings and the instructions that vehicles do not travel south of the Litani River also raise serious concerns over civilians’ access to essential supplies and services, including food, medication, healthcare and fuel.
The mukhtar of Rmeich, a village south of the Litani river close to the border with Israel, which did not receive an evacuation warning but is within the area in which Israel has said vehicles are prohibited from travelling, told Amnesty International that supplies in the town were rapidly dwindling. “The area is going to become destitute. How can we continue? It’s like they want to displace us,” he said.
The conditions being created by Israel’s actions in south Lebanon risk forcibly displacing the majority of the civilian population there.
One of the towns in southern Lebanon that the Israeli military warned must be evacuated is Ain Ebel, where the majority of residents are Christian and have no known affiliation with Hezbollah.
Rakan Diab, an Ain Ebel resident, told Amnesty International that residents of the village were surprised when Ain Ebel was included in the Israeli military’s evacuation warning on X (formerly Twitter) on 1 October. Shortly afterwards, the mayor of the village received a call from an individual purporting to be a member of the Israeli military warning residents to flee within around 45 minutes because there were weapons in the village.
“People panicked… we needed to pack and leave immediately,” he said explaining how the majority fled to the nearby village of Rmeich and the Lebanese army and the Lebanese Red Cross facilitated safe passage for a convoy of around 100 cars from Rmeich to north of the Awwali River.
“Amnesty International is calling on Israel’s allies, including the United States, to suspend all arms transfers and other forms of military assistance to Israel due to the significant risk that these weapons could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international law. The organization is also calling for a suspension of all arms transfers to Hezbollah and other armed groups in Lebanon,” said Agnès Callamard.
Background
Israel’s Operation Northern Arrows began on 23 September. During the first day, Israeli forces carried out at least 1,600 strikes in areas across Lebanon, killing more than 500 people and injuring over 1800 in the first 24 hours. Hezbollah also launched more than 200 rockets towards Israel that day, with around 10 people sustaining shrapnel or debris wounds.
Hezbollah and Israel have been engaged in ongoing cross-border hostilities since the group launched attacks into northern Israel following the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and the occupied Gaza Strip in October 2023.
Many of Hezbollah’s rockets are unguided and cannot be aimed at a specific target. Firing inherently inaccurate rockets into areas where civilians are present are indiscriminate attacks, and thus violate international humanitarian law. Direct attacks on civilians and indiscriminate attacks which kill or injure civilians constitute war crimes.
Since 8 October 2023, Hezbollah and other armed groups have launched thousands of missiles at northern Israel, killing 16 civilians. A further 12 civilians, all children, were killed on 27 July in an attack on Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights. Around 63,000 residents of northern Israel have been evacuated since 8 October.
In one Hezbollah attack, on 12 November 2023, an anti-tank missile hit a group of electricity company workers who were doing infrastructure work near Dovev. One worker was killed in the attack, and another lightly injured.
In another attack, on 9 July 2024, two civilians were killed when a missile hit their car while driving on highway 91 in the Occupied Golan Heights. In a statement released that day, Hezbollah took responsibility and said that it targeted the nearby Nafah military base in response to the assassination of one of its members.
Headline: Verizon dona $50,000 a la Los Angeles Mission
IRVINE, CA – En honor al Día Mundial de la Salud Mental, Verizon se enorgullece de anunciar una donación de $50,000 a Los Angeles Mission. El donativo permitirá a la organización ampliar sus servicios y proporcionar suministros de socorro críticos a personas de la comunidad sin hogar durante eventos climáticos severos, como las intensas olas de calor del verano y las olas de frío durante el invierno.
Este es el segundo año consecutivo en el que Verizon apoya el trabajo vital de Los Angeles Mission brindando ayuda en casos de desastre climático estacional. La donación del año pasado fue fundamental para proporcionar recursos como ropa, alimentos, refugio de emergencia y suministros para las inclemencias del tiempo a la población vulnerable sin vivienda en todo el condado de Los Ángeles. Con la donación de este año, Verizon continua ese apoyo, especialmente porque las condiciones climáticas extremas representan cada vez más una amenaza para el bienestar físico y mental de las personas sin hogar.
“Estamos profundamente agradecidos con Verizon por su asociación continua para brindar ayuda en casos de desastres la cual es esencial para salvar las vidas de aquellos más vulnerables dentro de nuestra comunidad”, dijo el pastor Troy Vaughn, presidente y director ejecutivo de Los Angeles Mission. “Mientras enfrentamos olas de calor históricas y se aproxima la temporada de frío en el condado de Los Ángeles y en todo California, muchos de nuestros vecinos sin vivienda, veteranos e individuos que huyen de la violencia doméstica se quedan sin refugio seguro en medio de los extremos cambios climáticos. Esta generosa donación de Verizon nos permitirá ampliar nuestra capacidad y asegurar suministros vitales para proteger a más personas durante estos eventos climáticos severos, garantizando que tengan acceso a refugio, seguridad y esperanza en estos tiempos difíciles. Felicitamos a los socios corporativos como Verizon por estar a nuestro lado en momentos de crisis comunitaria”.
La donación de Verizon se alinea con la importancia del Día Mundial de la Salud Mental y enfatiza la conexión entre un hogar estable, la salud mental y el bienestar general. La organización reconoce que la población sin vivienda enfrenta riesgos desproporcionados, no sólo por el costo físico del mal tiempo sino también por el estrés y el trauma que acompañan a la inestabilidad de la vivienda. Esta financiación ayudará a aliviar algunas de esas presiones al garantizar que las personas tengan acceso a recursos importantes cuando más los necesitan.
“En Verizon, creemos que conectarse con nuestra comunidad va más allá de la tecnología: se trata de extender una mano a quienes más lo necesitan. Los Angeles Mission ha sido un faro de esperanza para la población sin vivienda, brindando servicios y apoyo esenciales”, dijo Steven Keller, presidente del Mercado Pacífico de Verizon. “En el Día Mundial de la Salud Mental, nos sentimos honrados de contribuir a su vital labor, ayudando a marcar una gran diferencia en las vidas de nuestros vecinos más vulnerables”.
El apoyo continuo de Verizon a organizaciones locales como Los Angeles Mission es para el compromiso de la compañía con la responsabilidad social y su misión de ayudar a cerrar la brecha para las comunidades desatendidas a través de donaciones corporativas y esfuerzos de voluntariado.
We were forced to stop outpatient care for 5,000 children with acute malnutrition living in Zamzam camp for displaced people at the end of September without the supplies necessary for care.
Warring parties have blocked the delivery of food, medicines, and supplies to Zamzam camp for months.
All parties to the conflict and their allies must do everything to facilitate the delivery of aid to Zamzam camp.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been forced to stop outpatient treatment for 5,000 children with acute malnutrition in Zamzam displacement camp in North Darfur, Sudan, because the warring parties have blocked deliveries of food, medicines, and other essential supplies for months.
As supplies ran low at the end of September, MSF was forced to stop care for 5,000 children on an outpatient basis, including 2,900 children with severe acute malnutrition. Only MSF’s 80-bed hospital remains functioning in the camp to treat children at the greatest risk of dying.
“There is an urgent need for a massive supply of nutritional products and food to help people, it is currently a catastrophic situation,” says Michel-Olivier Lacharité, MSF’s head of emergency operations. “MSF is calling on the various stakeholders, the governments, the allies of the parties to the conflict, the Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Joint Forces, to facilitate humanitarian aid delivery to the camp.”
Some limited supplies have arrived in recent weeks, including medical supplies that MSF was able to transport, but the quantities remain far too low to meet the needs of people suffering from malnutrition in Zamzam camp, which has a population of approximately 450,000.
The crisis has attracted broader international attention as the IPC Famine Review Committee concluded in August that a famine was underway in Zamzam camp. MSF’s own malnutrition assessments found that 30 percent of children were malnourished in multiple surveys earlier this year, estimating that a child was dying of causes linked to malnutrition every two hours on average. As the current crisis also limits MSF’s ability to collect new data, the current rate of death among children is not known.
“In the last few days, we’ve seen some positive signs, with trucks arriving after months of almost complete blockade around the camp. However, these quantities are insufficient,” says Lacharité. “These are positive signs, and we can see that the parties to the conflict recognise the seriousness of the situation and are starting to let trucks arrive. If we are to have a massive response, the aid agencies will also have to significantly step up their efforts and all diplomatic stakeholders negotiating with the parties to the conflict will have to convince them to ensure that this delivery continues over the coming months.”
For example, providing a month’s worth of emergency food rations (around 500 calories a day per person) to the 450,000 people in Zamzam represents around 2,000 tons of rations. It would take 100 trucks a month to deliver them.
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“It’s difficult for many of them, because they have to prove their vulnerability in legal terms. It’s emotionally dehumanizing that I need to prove what has happened to me for a basic human right, which is safety.”
With these words, Panos Mylonas, a psychologist and Mental Health activity manager working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Athens, Greece, describes the emotional toll that the asylum-seeking process takes on individuals who are forced to continually justify their suffering.
On International Mental Health Day, in a conversation with Panos, the depth of the mental health crisis among migrants and refugees becomes painfully clear. Having worked with MSF for over four years, Panos shared his experiences working in the grave migration reality in Athens, where he supports unaccompanied minors, victims of sexual violence, and people with psychiatric needs.
The journey, the future, and the trauma
Migrants and refugees arrive in Greece carrying stories of survival from their countries of origin. Many of them have faced life-threatening circumstances including violence, torture, imprisonment, and sexual violence. Panos describes how most individuals are unaware of the dangers they will face on their journey, which often includes additional trauma. He explains that the combination of their traumatic experiences at home and the violence they encounter while fleeing leads to complex mental health issues that emerge when they arrive in Greece.
“They come here, having faced traumatic events in their country of origin and during their journey, which leads to very complex mental health presentations,” says Panos.
Panos highlights several recurrent mental health issues among the migrants he works with, including suicidal ideation, hopelessness, and severe anxiety.
“Almost all of them talk about suicidal thoughts, lack of support, and sleeping problems,” he says. The overwhelming feeling of hopelessness stems from their uncertain future in Greece, where many remain in a state of limbo, waiting for their asylum claims to be processed. This uncertainty exacerbates their trauma, preventing them from finding any sense of stability.
Panos Mylonas, a psychologist and Mental Health activity manager“Almost all of them talk about suicidal thoughts, lack of support, and sleeping problems,”
One of the most severe challenges faced by migrants and refugees is the deprivation of access to healthcare, which has a direct and devastating impact on their mental health. Panos explains that “when they get, let’s say, a negative reply to their asylum claim, this means that their access to healthcare is stopped.”
For many, this loss of healthcare is a significant blow, exacerbating their feelings of helplessness and deepening their mental health struggles. The denial of essential medical services strips them of the opportunity to receive both physical and psychological care, worsening their already fragile state. Panos places great stress on the need for uninterrupted access to healthcare, regardless of asylum outcomes, asserting, “access to healthcare should always be present, regardless of the result.” Without such support, the psychological burden on these individuals intensifies, leaving them trapped in a cycle of uncertainty and despair, further complicating their ability to rebuild their lives.
A particularly vulnerable group
Among the most vulnerable are unaccompanied minors, who face specific challenges. These young individuals, already in a fragile stage of their development, are thrust into an environment where they are disconnected from their families and have limited social support. While Greece provides some legal protections and shelter, Panos explains that these minors often face a sudden withdrawal of support once they turn 18.
“Once they are no longer minors, they are sent to camps, where there is little to no follow-up,” he adds, explaining the difficult transition many minors face as they enter adulthood without sufficient support.
MSF provides crucial support
MSF plays a crucial role in providing specialized mental health support to refugees and migrants. MSF offers a space where individuals are welcomed with respect and dignity.
“We provide them a space, regardless of race or gender or sexuality, to be heard and supported,” he emphasizes. We not only offer psychological support but also works in collaboration with social workers to provide holistic care, addressing both the practical and emotional needs of the migrants.
However, the demand far exceeds the capacity of MSF. Many patients have complex mental health needs, requiring long-term support that is difficult to sustain. “The scope of MSF is limited, and the needs are much greater than we can meet,” says Panos. This underscores the need for more comprehensive support systems for migrants, including better integration strategies and expanded mental health services.
When asked what he would change in the current system, Panos calls for faster processing of asylum claims and better living conditions in the camps, which often feel like prisons to those forced to reside there. He also points to the need for greater community support and raising awareness in the host society.
“There needs to be more awareness in Greek society about what is happening and more efforts to integrate these individuals into the community,” he suggests. Improving the availability of interpreters in healthcare settings and ensuring continuous access to healthcare, even for those who receive negative asylum claims, are also critical changes MSF calls for.
Médecins Sans Frontières has been providing essential medical and humanitarian aid to asylum seekers, refugees, and migrants in Greece since 1996. In response to the 2015 humanitarian crisis, MSF expanded its efforts to address the growing needs of people arriving in Greece. Emergency interventions were set up across Lesvos, Samos, Chios, Athens, and the border town of Idomeni, offering medical and mental health care, shelter, water and sanitation services, and distributing vital relief items. From December 2015 to March 2016, MSF also carried out life-saving search and rescue operations in the Aegean Sea.
Since the beginning of 2024, our mental health services in Athens, Greece have provided vital support to more than 1,900 individuals. Our primary clinical diagnoses include anxiety disorders, PTSD, and depression, often triggered by difficult living conditions, forced displacement, and experiences of sexual violence. Over half of those we support (56.3%) have been impacted by violence, leading to symptoms such as anxiety (40.9%), depression (31,6%) and trauma-related distress (14,7%). Our team works to address these complex needs, helping people cope with the challenges of displacement and adversity.
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Italian authorities detain MSF rescue ship for 60 days
Headline: Verizon donates $50,000 to Los Angeles Mission
IRVINE, C.A. – In honor of World Mental Health Day, Verizon is proud to announce a $50,000 donation to Los Angeles Mission. This funding will enable the organization to expand its services and provide critical relief supplies to the unhoused community during severe weather events, such as the intense heat waves of summer and the frigid cold snaps of winter.
This marks the second consecutive year that Verizon has supported Los Angeles Mission’s vital work providing seasonal weather disaster relief. Last year’s donation was instrumental in providing resources like clothing, food, emergency shelter, and inclement weather supplies to the vulnerable unhoused population across Los Angeles County. With this year’s donation, Verizon aims to continue that support, especially as extreme weather conditions increasingly pose a threat to the physical and mental well-being of unhoused individuals.
“We are profoundly grateful to Verizon for their ongoing partnership in providing life-saving disaster relief to the most vulnerable among us,” said Pastor Troy Vaughn, President and CEO of Los Angeles Mission. “As we face both historic heat waves and the upcoming cold weather season in Los Angeles County and throughout California, many of our unhoused neighbors, veterans, and individuals fleeing domestic violence are left without safe refuge amid worsening weather extremes. This generous grant from Verizon will enable us to expand our capacity and secure vital supplies to protect more people during these severe weather events, ensuring they have access to shelter, safety, and hope in these trying times. We commend corporate partners like Verizon for standing by our side in moments of community crisis.”
Verizon’s donation aligns with the significance of World Mental Health Day, emphasizing the connection between stable housing, mental health, and overall well-being. The organization recognizes that the unhoused population faces disproportionate risks, not only from the physical toll of harsh weather but also from the stress and trauma that accompanies housing instability. This funding will help alleviate some of those pressures by ensuring individuals have access to important resources when they need them most.
“At Verizon, we believe that connecting with our community goes beyond technology—it’s about extending a hand to those in need. The Los Angeles Mission has been a beacon of hope for the unhoused population, providing essential services and support” said Steven Keller, Pacific Market President at Verizon. “On World Mental Health Day, we are humbled to contribute to their vital work, helping to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our most vulnerable neighbors.”
Verizon’s continued support of local organizations like Los Angeles Mission underscores the company’s broader commitment to social responsibility and its mission to help bridge the gap for underserved communities through both corporate giving and volunteer efforts.
Source: United Kingdom – Prime Minister’s Office 10 Downing Street
The Prime Minister hosted Mark Rutte, the new Secretary General of NATO, at Downing Street this morning.
The Prime Minister hosted Mark Rutte, the new Secretary General of NATO, at Downing Street this morning.
The Prime Minister thanked Secretary General Rutte for travelling to the United Kingdom so early on in his tenure.
Both leaders discussed the importance of a strong and united NATO in the face of ongoing Russian aggression. The Prime Minister set out the UK’s steadfast contribution to Allied forces, including through the UK’s nuclear deterrent, and said he said he looked forward to working closely with the NATO Secretary General in the coming months and years.
Turning to broader conflicts, the leaders agreed that the security of the Indo-Pacific and Euro Atlantic regions was indivisible, and that strong relationships between NATO and its Indo-Pacific partners were vital to global stability.
The leaders also discussed the situation in the Middle East and the importance of de-escalation and a ceasefire.
Source: United Kingdom – Prime Minister’s Office 10 Downing Street
The Prime Minister hosted President Zelenskyy in Downing Street this morning to discuss his victory plan for Ukraine.
The Prime Minister hosted President Zelenskyy in Downing Street this morning to discuss his victory plan for Ukraine.
The Prime Minister welcomed the opportunity to be briefed by the President, and underscored the UK’s steadfast commitment to a sovereign Ukraine. He added that he looked forward to hearing reflections from President Zelenskyy and the other international partners he was visiting this week.
Looking ahead to the winter, and the challenges that would bring, they both agreed on the need to ensure Ukraine was in the best possible position.
The leaders also discussed Ukraine’s long-term future, and how investment in the country’s security today would support Europe’s broader security for generations to come.
Both looked forward to seeing one another again soon.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The Prime Minister hosted President Zelenskyy in Downing Street this morning to discuss his victory plan for Ukraine.
The Prime Minister hosted President Zelenskyy in Downing Street this morning to discuss his victory plan for Ukraine.
The Prime Minister welcomed the opportunity to be briefed by the President, and underscored the UK’s steadfast commitment to a sovereign Ukraine. He added that he looked forward to hearing reflections from President Zelenskyy and the other international partners he was visiting this week.
Looking ahead to the winter, and the challenges that would bring, they both agreed on the need to ensure Ukraine was in the best possible position.
The leaders also discussed Ukraine’s long-term future, and how investment in the country’s security today would support Europe’s broader security for generations to come.
Both looked forward to seeing one another again soon.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Government appoints leading industry and academic experts to the Clean Power 2030 Advisory Commission to help accelerate UK’s mission to decarbonise the electricity grid.
Eight energy and nature experts have been appointed to accelerate UK’s mission for clean power by 2030
the 8 commissioners have almost 200 years’ worth of experience across energy policy, environment, industry and academia
experts will form new Advisory Commission for Mission Control, with Energy Secretary Ed Miliband attending their first meeting today
Eight leading figures from across industry and academia have been appointed to help accelerate the government’s world leading target to deliver clean power by 2030.
The Clean Power 2030 Advisory Commission will support Chris Stark, Head of Mission Control, in developing a Clean Power 2030 system – providing expertise to deliver the Clean Power 2030 Action Plan, expected later this year.
The Action Plan will set out the path to decarbonise the electricity grid, helping protect billpayers from volatile gas prices and strengthening Britain’s energy security.
The 8 commissioners come from across industry and academia with a wealth of expertise and experience to advise on specific aspects of developing a clean power system, including planning, infrastructure, nature, and supply chains.
The full list of commissioners include:
Nick Winser: Over 30 years’ experience in the energy sector, including having been CEO of National Grid across UK and Europe, and President of the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity.
Tim Pick: Over 25 years in the energy sector and is a passionate advocate for offshore wind having been the UK’s first Offshore Wind Champion.
Juliet Davenport: Founder of the Good Energy company and President of the Energy Institute. Juliet has been an innovator for over 20 years, working on ideas to fight climate change and transform the energy sector for the better.
Robert Gross: As well as being Director of the UK Energy Research Centre since 2020, Rob is Professor of Energy Policy and Technology at Imperial College.
Craig Bennett: Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trust and former CEO of Friends of the Earth, Craig has 20 years’ experience of designing and contributing to executive education and leadership programmes at numerous universities and business schools.
Jo Coleman: 35 years’ experience in the energy industry. Board member of several energy organisations, with a background in engineering and major project delivery in the oil and gas sector.
Lucy Yu: CEO and founder at Centre for Net Zero, Octopus Energy Group’s not-for-profit AI and data-driven research institute, which was set up to advance tech-driven energy systems that benefit humanity.
Dr Simon Harrison: A leading voice in public policy around the ways engineering can help with the energy transition and decarbonisation. Was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2023 – the highest accolade in the profession.
The Energy Secretary chaired the first Advisory Commission meeting this afternoon, emphasising the importance of the new group for removing barriers and accelerating the energy system towards clean power by 2030.
Energy Secretary Ed Miliband said:
The best way to take back control of our energy security and create highly skilled jobs is to speed up the rollout of renewables and transition towards clean homegrown power.
The Clean Power 2030 Advisory Commission, benefiting from decades of experience across industry and academia, under Chris Stark’s leadership, will have a laser-like focus on delivering our mission for clean power by 2030.
Head of Mission Control Chris Stark said:
The Clean Power by 2030 is a statement of our ambition. This mission will unlock good jobs and protect the consumer, and it is key to our energy security.
We will work closely with our partners in industry to deliver this mission at pace – these are 8 leading figures in their field to drive that partnership.
I’m looking forward to working with all 8 commissioners to unblock barriers, spot the opportunities, and deliver a clean power system by 2030.
Headline: Microsoft expands AI capabilities to shape a healthier future
REDMOND, Wash. — Oct. 10, 2024 — On Thursday, Microsoft Corp. is unveiling several Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare innovations that connect care experiences, enhance team collaboration, empower healthcare workers, and unlock clinical and operational insights.
Through new healthcare AI models in Azure AI Studio, capabilities for healthcare data solutions in Microsoft Fabric, the healthcare agent service in Copilot Studio, and an AI-driven nursing workflow solution, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is supporting healthcare organizations on every step of their journey toward shaping a healthier future.
“We are at an inflection point where AI breakthroughs are fundamentally changing the way we work and live,” said Joe Petro, corporate vice president, Healthcare and Life Sciences Solutions and Platforms at Microsoft. “Across the broader healthcare and life sciences industry, these advancements are dramatically enhancing patient care and also rekindling the joy of practicing medicine for clinicians. Microsoft’s AI-powered solutions are helping lead these efforts by streamlining workflows, improving data integration, and utilizing AI to deliver better outcomes for healthcare professionals, researchers and scientists, payors, providers, medtech developers, and ultimately the patients they all serve.”
Expanding the reach of AI beyond text: healthcare AI models in Azure AI Studio
Microsoft is announcing the launch of healthcare AI models, a collection of cutting-edge multimodal medical imaging foundation models available in the Azure AI model catalog. Developed in collaboration with partners like Providence and Paige.ai, these models enable healthcare organizations to integrate and analyze diverse data types — ranging from medical imaging to genomics and clinical records. By using these advanced models as a foundation, healthcare organizations can rapidly build, fine-tune and deploy AI solutions tailored to their specific needs, all while minimizing the extensive compute and data requirements typically associated with building multimodal models from scratch.
“The development of foundational AI models in pathology and medical imaging is expected to drive significant advancements in cancer research and diagnostics,” said Carlo Bifulco, MD, chief medical officer of Providence Genomics and a co-author of the Prov-GigaPath study. “These models can complement human expertise by providing insights beyond traditional visual interpretation and, as we move toward a more integrated, multimodal approach, will reshape the future of medicine.”
Harnessing the power of healthcare data with Microsoft Fabric
Historically, healthcare data has been difficult to access due to its unstructured nature and the limitations of existing data management systems. These challenges have limited organizations’ ability to gain a comprehensive view of patient experiences and access valuable insights.
With the general availability of healthcare data solutions in Microsoft Fabric, healthcare organizations can overcome these barriers by reshaping how users access, manage and act on data with a single, unified AI-powered platform. Additionally, healthcare security application templates for Microsoft Purview, an innovative suite of features designed to help govern healthcare data, are available in public preview. We’re also launching new capabilities in public preview within healthcare data solutions in Microsoft Fabric including:
Conversational data integration: Send conversational data, such as patient conversations, from DAX Copilot to the Fabric platform. By sending DAX Copilot audio files, transcripts and draft clinical notes to Fabric, customers and partners can leverage various native tools in Azure and Fabric to analyze this data and/or combine it with other data to generate comprehensive insights.
Social determinants of health (SDOH) public dataset transformation: Ingest, persist, harmonize and consume SDOH national and international public datasets to enable healthcare organizations to identify risks and health-related social needs to help create equitable healthcare for all patients and communities.
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) claim and claim line feed (CCLF) data ingestion: Streamline the ingestion of claims data and harmonize with clinical, imaging and SDOH data to unlock actionable insights on patients and populations.
Care management analytics: Leverage unified healthcare data and care management analytical templates to enhance patient care by identifying high-risk individuals, optimizing treatment plans and improving care coordination.
Data discovery and cohorting: Utilize an integrated workflow that allows healthcare organizations to create, manage, analyze and share patient cohorts.
Building a safe and responsible healthcare agent
Healthcare organizations face numerous challenges, including workforce shortages, rising costs and increasing patient care demands. Generative AI offers a potential solution to these challenges by automating administrative tasks, analyzing vast amounts of data for actionable insights and assisting healthcare professionals in decision-making.
To address this, Microsoft is announcing the public preview of healthcare agent service in Copilot Studio to build Copilot agents for appointment scheduling, clinical trial matching, patient triaging and more. Organizations can leverage the healthcare agent service to help create connected patient experiences, improve clinical workflows, and empower healthcare professionals while helping organizations meet industry expectations with Microsoft Copilot Studio. Early adopters, like Cleveland Clinic, which provided feedback to help optimize the solution for a healthcare setting, are already using these innovations to enhance patient experiences and improve operational efficiency.
Enhancing nursing workflows with AI: nursing early outcomes
With the World Health Organization (WHO)1 predicting a shortage of 4.5 million nurses by 2030, the urgency to deliver technology to support the nursing profession is felt more than ever.
Last month at Epic’s UGM, we announced the next focus area for our collaboration in Epic Workshop. Today, we’re sharing more about how we’re actively collaborating with several leading healthcare organizations — including Advocate Health, Baptist Health of Northeast Florida, Duke Health, Intermountain Health Saint Joseph Hospital, Mercy, Northwestern Medicine, Stanford Health Care, and Tampa General Hospital — to build an AI solution using ambient technology that addresses nursing documentation by drafting flowsheets for review, allowing nurses to focus less on paperwork and more on their patients. This innovation expands on the company’s long-standing strategic collaboration and joint development initiatives with Epic.
“AI is transforming nursing workflows by streamlining administrative tasks, allowing nurses to focus more on patient care,” said Corey Miller, vice president of R&D at Epic. “Together with Microsoft, we’re using AI-powered ambient voice technology to populate patient assessments. Nurses using the tool are already sharing positive feedback on how it enhances personalized patient interactions.”
“For nurses, the integration of AI-driven solutions into our workflows is a game changer,” said Terry McDonnell, DNP, ANCP-BC, senior vice president and chief nurse executive, Duke University Health System, vice dean for Clinical Affairs, Duke University School of Nursing, Duke Health. “It allows us to focus more on patient care rather than the administrative burden of documentation. By automating tedious tasks, Microsoft’s ambient AI solution helps alleviate burnout and gives us more time to connect with our patients at the bedside, where we truly make a difference.”
Empowering responsible AI practices across healthcare
In line with Microsoft’s dedication to responsible AI, these new solutions adhere to the company’s AI principles established in 2018 to help guide AI development and use. Microsoft remains committed to developing responsible AI by design, ensuring that these technologies positively impact both the healthcare ecosystem and broader society. In practice this means properly building, testing and monitoring systems to avoid undesirable behaviors, such as harmful content, bias, misuse and other unintended risks. Over the years, we have made significant investments in building out the necessary governance structure, policies, tools and processes to uphold these principles and build and deploy AI safely. At Microsoft, we are committed to sharing our learnings on this journey of upholding our Responsible AI principles with our customers. We use our own best practices and learnings to provide people and organizations with capabilities and tools to build AI applications that share the same high standards we strive for.
For more information on Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare and the new data and AI solutions and their impact, visit https://news.microsoft.com/hlth-2024, or visit Microsoft at booth #4004 at HLTH 2024.
Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) creates platforms and tools powered by AI to deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of our customers. The technology company is committed to making AI available broadly and doing so responsibly, with a mission to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.
1Nursing and midwifery, World Health Organization, 2024
For more information, press only:
Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications, (425) 638-7777, [email protected]
Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit Microsoft Source at https://news.microsoft.com/source. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at https://news.microsoft.com/microsoft-public-relations-contacts.
This press release includes key announcements on AI-driven healthcare innovations by Microsoft and includes a quote emphasizing AI’s transformative role in healthcare.
Epic is a registered trademark of Epic Systems Corp.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The Prime Minister hosted Mark Rutte, the new Secretary General of NATO, at Downing Street this morning.
The Prime Minister hosted Mark Rutte, the new Secretary General of NATO, at Downing Street this morning.
The Prime Minister thanked Secretary General Rutte for travelling to the United Kingdom so early on in his tenure.
Both leaders discussed the importance of a strong and united NATO in the face of ongoing Russian aggression. The Prime Minister set out the UK’s steadfast contribution to Allied forces, including through the UK’s nuclear deterrent, and said he said he looked forward to working closely with the NATO Secretary General in the coming months and years.
Turning to broader conflicts, the leaders agreed that the security of the Indo-Pacific and Euro Atlantic regions was indivisible, and that strong relationships between NATO and its Indo-Pacific partners were vital to global stability.
The leaders also discussed the situation in the Middle East and the importance of de-escalation and a ceasefire.
Education is essentially an “industry of industries,” with K-12 and higher education enterprises handling data that could include health records, financial data, and other regulated information. At the same time, their facilities can host payment processing systems, networks that are used as internet service providers (ISPs), and other diverse infrastructure. The cyberthreats that Microsoft observes across different industries tend to be compounded in education, and threat actors have realized that this sector is inherently vulnerable. With an average of 2,507 cyberattack attempts per week, universities are prime targets for malware, phishing, and IoT vulnerabilities.¹
Security staffing and IT asset ownership also affect education organizations’ cyber risks. School and university systems, like many enterprises, often face a shortage of IT resources and operate a mix of both modern and legacy IT systems. Microsoft observes that in the United States, students and faculty are more likely to use personal devices in education compared to Europe, for example. Regardless of ownership however, in these and other regions, busy users do not always have a security mindset.
This edition of Cyber Signals delves into the cybersecurity challenges facing classrooms and campuses, highlighting the critical need for robust defenses and proactive measures. From personal devices to virtual classes and research stored in the cloud, the digital footprint of school districts, colleges, and universities has multiplied exponentially.
We are all defenders.
A uniquely valuable and vulnerable environment
The education sector’s user base is very different from a typical large commercial enterprise. In the K-12 environment, users include students as young as six years old. Just like any public or private sector organization, there is a wide swath of employees in school districts and at universities including administration, athletics, health services, janitorial, food service professionals, and others. Multiple activities, announcements, information resources, open email systems, and students create a highly fluid environment for cyberthreats.
Virtual and remote learning have also extended education applications into households and offices. Personal and multiuser devices are ubiquitous and often unmanaged—and students are not always cognizant about cybersecurity or what they allow their devices to access.
Education is also on the front lines confronting how adversaries test their tools and their techniques. According to data from Microsoft Threat Intelligence, the education sector is the third-most targeted industry, with the United States seeing the greatest cyberthreat activity.
Cyberthreats to education are not only a concern in the United States. According to the United Kingdom’s Department of Science Innovation and Technology 2024 Cybersecurity Breaches Survey, 43% of higher education institutions in the UK reported experiencing a breach or cyberattack at least weekly.²
QR codes provide an easily disguised surface for phishing cyberattacks
Today, quick response (QR) codes are quite popular—leading to increased risks of phishing cyberattacks designed to gain access to systems and data. Images in emails, flyers offering information about campus and school events, parking passes, financial aid forms, and other official communications all frequently contain QR codes. Physical and virtual education spaces might be the most “flyer friendly” and QR code-intensive environments anywhere, given how big a role handouts, physical and digital bulletin boards, and other casual correspondence help students navigate a mix of curriculum, institutional, and social correspondence. This creates an attractive backdrop for malicious actors to target users who are trying to save time with a quick image scan.
Recently the United States Federal Trade Commission issued a consumer alert on the rising threat of malicious QR codes being used to steal login credentials or deliver malware.³
Microsoft Defender for Office 365 telemetry shows that approximately more than 15,000 messages with malicious QR codes are targeted toward the educational sector daily—including phishing, spam, and malware.
Legitimate software tools can be used to quickly generate QR codes with embedded links to be sent in email or posted physically as part of a cyberattack. And those images are hard for traditional email security solutions to scan, making it even more important for faculty and students to use devices and browsers with modern web defenses.
Targeted users in the education sector may use personal devices without endpoint security. QR codes essentially enable the threat actor to pivot to these devices. QR code phishing (since its purpose is to target mobile devices) is compelling evidence of mobile devices being used as an attack vector into enterprises—such as personal accounts and bank accounts—and the need for mobile device protection and visibility. Microsoft has significantly disrupted QR code phishing attacks. This shift in tactics is evident in the substantial decrease in daily phishing emails intercepted by our system, dropping from 3 million in December 2023 to just 179,000 by March 2024.
Source: Microsoft incident response engagements.
Universities present their own unique challenges. Much of university culture is based on collaboration and sharing to drive research and innovation. Professors, researchers, and other faculty operate under the notion that technology, science—simply knowledge itself—should be shared widely. If someone appearing as a student, peer, or similar party reaches out, they’re often willing to discuss potentially sensitive topics without scrutinizing the source.
University operations also span multiple industries. University presidents are effectively CEOs of healthcare organizations, housing providers, and large financial organizations—the industry of industries factor, again. Therefore, top leaders can can be prime targets for anyone attacking those sectors.
The combination of value and vulnerability found in education systems has attracted the attention of a spectrum of cyberattackers—from malware criminals employing new techniques to nation-state threat actors engaging in old-school spy craft.
Microsoft continually monitors threat actors and threat vectors worldwide. Here are some key issues we’re seeing for education systems.
Email systems in schools offer wide spaces for compromise
The naturally open environment at most universities forces them to be more relaxed in their email hygiene. They have a lot of emails amounting to noise in the system, but are often operationally limited in where and how they can place controls, because of how open they need to be for alumni, donors, external user collaboration, and many other use cases.
Education institutions tend to share a lot of announcements in email. They share informational diagrams around local events and school resources. They commonly allow external mailers from mass mailing systems to share into their environments. This combination of openness and lack of controls creates a fertile ground for cyberattacks.
AI is increasing the premium on visibility and control
Cyberattackers recognizing higher education’s focus on building and sharing can survey all visible access points, seeking entry into AI-enabled systems or privileged information on how these systems operate. If on-premises and cloud-based foundations of AI systems and data are not secured with proper identity and access controls, AI systems become vulnerable. Just as education institutions adapted to cloud services, mobile devices and hybrid learning—which introduced new waves of identities and privileges to govern, devices to manage, and networks to segment—they must also adapt to the cyber risks of AI by scaling these timeless visibility and control imperatives.
Nation-state actors are after valuable IP and high-level connections
Universities handling federally funded research, or working closely with defense, technology, and other industry partners in the private sector, have long recognized the risk of espionage. Decades ago, universities focused on telltale physical signs of spying. They knew to look for people showing up on campus taking pictures or trying to get access to laboratories. Those are still risks, but today the dynamics of digital identity and social engineering have greatly expanded the spy craft toolkit.
Universities are often epicenters of highly sensitive intellectual property. They may be conducting breakthrough research. They may be working on high-value projects in aerospace, engineering, nuclear science, or other sensitive topics in partnership with multiple government agencies.
For cyberattackers, it can be easier to first compromise somebody in the education sector who has ties to the defense sector and then use that access to more convincingly phish a higher value target.
Universities also have experts in foreign policy, science, technology, and other valuable disciplines, who may willingly offer intelligence, if deceived in social-engineering cyberattacks employing false or stolen identities of peers and others who appear to be in individuals’ networks or among trusted contacts. Apart from holding valuable intelligence themselves, compromised accounts of university employees can become springboards into further campaigns against wider government and industry targets.
Nation-state actors targeting education
Peach Sandstorm
Peach Sandstorm has used password spray attacks against the education sector to gain access to infrastructure used in those industries, and Microsoft has also observed the organization using social engineering against targets in higher education.
Mint Sandstorm
Microsoft has observed a subset of this Iranian attack group targeting high-profile experts working on Middle Eastern affairs at universities and research organizations. These sophisticated phishing attacks used social engineering to compel targets to download malicious files including a new, custom backdoor called MediaPl.
Mabna Institute
In 2023, the Iranian Mabna Institute conducted intrusions into the computing systems of at least 144 United States universities and 176 universities in 21 other countries.
The stolen login credentials were used for the benefit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and were also sold within Iran through the web. Stolen credentials belonging to university professors were used to directly access university library systems.
Emerald Sleet
This North Korean group primarily targets experts in East Asian policy or North and South Korean relations. In some cases, the same academics have been targeted by Emerald Sleet for nearly a decade.
Emerald Sleet uses AI to write malicious scripts and content for social engineering, but these attacks aren’t always about delivering malware. There’s also an evolving trend where they simply ask experts for policy insight that could be used to manipulate negotiations, trade agreements, or sanctions.
Moonstone Sleet
Moonstone Sleet is another North Korean actor that has been taking novel approaches like creating fake companies to forge business relationships with educational institutions or a particular faculty member or student.
One of the most prominent attacks from Moonstone Sleet involved creating a fake tank-themed game used to target individuals at educational institutions, with a goal to deploy malware and exfiltrate data.
Storm-1877
This actor largely engages in cryptocurrency theft using a custom malware family that they deploy through various means. The ultimate goal of this malware is to steal crypto wallet addresses and login credentials for crypto platforms.
Students are often the target for these attacks, which largely start on social media. Storm-1877 targets students because they may not be as aware of digital threats as professionals in industry.
A new security curriculum
Due to education budget and talent constraints and the inherent openness of its environment, solving education security is more than a technology problem. Security posture management and prioritizing security measures can be a costly and challenging endeavor for these institutions—but there is a lot that school systems can do to protect themselves.
Maintaining and scaling core cyberhygiene will be key to securing school systems. Building awareness of security risks and good practices at all levels—students, faculty, administrators, IT staff, campus staff, and more—can help create a safer environment.
For IT and security professionals in the education sector, doing the basics and hardening the overall security posture is a good first step. From there, centralizing the technology stack can help facilitate better monitoring of logging and activity to gain a clearer picture into the overall security posture and any vulnerabilities.
Oregon State University
Oregon State University (OSU), an R1 research-focused university, places a high priority on safeguarding its research to maintain its reputation. In 2021, it experienced an extensive cybersecurity incident unlike anything before. The cyberattack revealed gaps in OSU’s security operations.
“The types of threats that we’re seeing, the types of events that are occurring in higher education, are much more aggressive by cyber adversaries.”
—David McMorries, Chief Information Security Officer at Oregon State University
In response to this incident, OSU created its Security Operations Center (SOC), which has become the centerpiece of the university’s security effort. AI has also helped automate capabilities and helped its analysts, who are college students, learn how to quickly write code—such as threat hunting with more advanced hunting queries.
Arizona Department of Education
A focus on Zero Trust and closed systems is an area that the Arizona Department of Education (ADE) takes further than the state requirements. It blocks all traffic from outside the United States from its Microsoft 365 environment, Azure, and its local datacenter.
“I don’t allow anything exposed to the internet on my lower dev environments, and even with the production environments, we take extra care to make sure that we use a network security group to protect the app services.”
—Chris Henry, Infrastructure Manager at the Arizona Department of Education
Follow these recommendations:
The best defense against QR code attacks is to be aware and pay attention. Pause, inspect the code’s URL before opening it, and don’t open QR codes from unexpected sources, especially if the message uses urgent language or contains errors.
Consider implementing “protective domain name service,” a free tool that helps prevent ransomware and other cyberattacks by blocking computer systems from connecting to harmful websites. Prevent password spray attacks with a stringent password and deploy multifactor authentication.
Educate students and staff about their security hygiene, and encourage them to use multifactor authentication or passwordless protections. Studies have shown that an account is more than 99.9% less likely to be compromised when using multifactor authentication.
Corey Lee has always had an interest in solving puzzles and crimes. He started his college career at Penn State University in criminal justice, but soon realized his passion for digital forensics after taking a course about investigating a desktop computer break-in.
After completing his degree in security and risk analysis, Corey came to Microsoft focused on gaining cross-industry experience. He’s worked on securing everything from federal, state, and local agencies to commercial enterprises, but today he focuses on the education sector.
After spending time working across industries, Corey sees education through a different lens—the significantly unique industry of industries. The dynamics at play inside the education sector include academic institutions, financial services, critical infrastructure like hospitals and transportation, and partnerships with government agencies. According to Corey, working in such a broad field allows him to leverage skillsets from multiple industries to address specific problems across the landscape.
The fact that education could also be called underserved from a cybersecurity standpoint is another compelling challenge, and part of Corey’s personal mission. The education industry needs cybersecurity experts to elevate the priority of protecting school systems. Corey works across the public and industry dialogue, skilling and readiness programs, incident response, and overall defense to protect not just the infrastructure of education, but students, parents, teachers, and staff.
Today, Corey is focused reimagining student security operations centers, including how to inject AI into the equation and bring modern technology and training to the table. By growing the cybersecurity work force in education and giving them new tools, he’s working to elevate security in the sector in a way that’s commensurate with how critical the industry is for the future.
Next steps with Microsoft Security
To learn more about Microsoft Security solutions, visit our website. Bookmark the Security blog to keep up with our expert coverage on security matters. Also, follow us on LinkedIn (Microsoft Security) and X (@MSFTSecurity) for the latest news and updates on cybersecurity.
¹The Institutional Impacts of a Cyberattack, University of Florida Information Technology. January 18, 2024.
²Cyber security breaches survey 2024: education institutions annex, The United Kingdom Department for Science, Innovation & Technology. April 9, 2024
³Scammers hide harmful links in QR codes to steal your information, Federal Trade Commission (Alvaro Puig), December 6, 2023.
Methodology: Snapshot and cover stat data represent telemetry from Microsoft Defender for Office 365 showing how a QR code phishing attack was disrupted by image detection technology and how Security Operations teams can respond to this threat. Platforms like Microsoft Entra provided anonymized data on threat activity, such as malicious email accounts, phishing emails, and attacker movement within networks. Additional insights are from the 78 trillion daily security signals processed by Microsoft each day, including the cloud, endpoints, the intelligent edge, and telemetry from Microsoft platforms and services including Microsoft Defender. Microsoft categorizes threat actors into five key groups: influence operations; groups in development; and nation-state, financially motivated, and private sector offensive actors. The new threat actors naming taxonomy aligns with the theme of weather.
Wells Fargo has partnered with the University of Connecticut’s Center for Neurodiversity & Employment Innovation to introduce free neurodiversity workshops for corporate America. The new workshops, an academic and corporate collaboration, aim to provide instruction to key leaders from Fortune 500 companies to help design neurodiversity initiatives end-to-end.
The full-day workshops are part of a larger $3.75 million grant from Wells Fargo to create the Wells Fargo Center for Neurodiversity and Inclusive Employment at UConn. There are three components to the grant: 1) Providing neurodiversity education and training; 2) funding groundbreaking academic research study to capture much-needed metrics about the business outcomes of neurodiversity programs and to create standards for measuring success in this arena; and 3) working with universities, non-profits, and vocational rehab agencies nationwide to bring efficiency, programming, and education to their regions and better connect job seekers and inclusive employers within their local communities.
Neurodiversity refers to the natural variation in the ways people think, behave, and communicate. Neurodivergence is when that variation falls outside of what is typical, often creating barriers to success in finding and keeping meaningful employment. Neurodivergent conditions commonly include autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), dyslexia, and other differences.
Only about half of autistic college graduates are fully employed compared to their peers, according to Stephen DeStefani, the Wells Fargo team’s program executive who has led the initiative to partner with UConn.
“Partnering with Wells Fargo’s team has been amazing,” says Judy Reilly, Executive Director of UConn’s Center for Neurodiversity and Employment Innovation. “Wells Fargo’s willingness to share their real-world industry expertise to create—and deliver at no cost—education for corporate America that’s grounded in academic and research excellence is unheard of in this field.”
“This partnership enables UConn to blend academic instructional design and research with real-world industry application and expertise to create solutions for corporate America,” Reilly says.
“The workshops further the Center’s mission to create inclusive workplaces by increasing employer awareness and understanding of the value of neurodivergent talent,” says Anne D’Alleva, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at UConn. “This is a great example of how UConn’s research provides novel approaches to solve real-world problems in Connecticut and nationwide.”
“Since we launched our Neurodiversity program in 2020, we’ve experienced first-hand the significant impact these highly skilled individuals can have on the nation’s largest organizations,” said Kristy Fercho, head of Diverse Segments, Representation and Inclusion at Wells Fargo. “With continued underemployment of neurodivergent talent, we understand our responsibility to work with our corporate partners to collectively educate and bring awareness to this extraordinarily valuable and untapped talent pool.”
Too often, people living with mental health challenges are met with misunderstanding, rejection and isolation. Tackling this is the key to building healthier, more inclusive societies. That is why every year on 10 October we celebrate World Mental Health Day, with this year’s theme being prioritising mental health at work.
To mark this important occasion, the Commission has presented an EU Support Package on stigma. The Commission will work with national authorities to implement it, and connect them with mental health advocacy groups, for inclusive and informed policy-making.
Tackling stigma is about more than just policy-making, which is why the Commission also launched the new ‘In this together’ campaign. This will see it reach out to people across the EU, to challenge misconceptions and promote greater understanding and acceptance on mental health. It will also support national action in education by distributing teaching materials to schools around Europe as a way of increasing awareness and normalising mental health.
In addition, an updated tracker was published today to monitor progress on the 20 flagship initiatives that are part of the EU’s comprehensive approach to mental health. This approach, which was rolled out in 2023, has financing opportunities worth EUR 1.23 billion that will directly and indirectly support Member States. Its aim is to ensure (i) adequate and effective prevention, (ii) access to high quality and affordable mental healthcare and treatment and (iii) reintegration into society after recovery.
According to a 2023 EU survey, almost 1 in 2 people (46% of the EU population) had experienced emotional or psychosocial problems, such as feeling depressed or anxious, in the previous 12 months. The stakes are high and that is why the EU is committed to creating a future where everyone’s mental health is nurtured, valued and protected.
Headline: Apple debuts the first scripted film captured in Apple Immersive Video
October 10, 2024
UPDATE
Apple debuts the first scripted film captured in Apple Immersive Video and reveals new immersive films for Apple Vision Pro
New episodes, films, series, and concerts captured in Apple Immersive Video are set to debut later this year, with more coming early next year
Today, Apple revealed new episodes, films, series, and music performances captured in Apple Immersive Video that will debut on Apple Vision Pro for free. Apple Immersive Video is a remarkable media format that leverages ultra-high-resolution 3D video and Spatial Audio to put viewers in the center of the action.
Submerged, the first scripted short film captured in Apple Immersive Video, written and directed by Academy Award-winning filmmaker Edward Berger, is now available. Next month, Apple and The Weeknd will launch a breathtaking immersive music experience celebrating the seven-time diamond-certified artist’s highly anticipated new album, Hurry Up Tomorrow. With Concert for One, a new concert series set to debut later this year, fans will experience intimate performances from the world’s biggest artists, beginning with a special set from the award-winning British singer-songwriter RAYE. New episodes of Adventure, which follows pioneering athletes as they take on awe-inspiring challenges, will also release this year.
Submerged
This immersive fiction thriller, available to Apple Vision Pro users around the world for free, invites viewers onto a WWII-era submarine and follows its crew as they wrestle to combat a harrowing attack. This adrenaline-pumping thrill ride showcases the unique storytelling experiences made possible by Apple Immersive Video.
“Apple Immersive Video allows Apple Vision Pro users around the world to experience the next generation of sports, documentaries, and music performances. With Submerged, an immersive film from visionary director Edward Berger, we’re excited to premiere the next generation of narrative filmmaking,” said Tor Myhren, Apple’s vice president of Marketing Communications. “Vision Pro places you in the middle of the story — inside a densely packed submarine, shoulder to shoulder with its crew. That deep sense of immersion just wasn’t possible before, and we can’t wait to see how it inspires filmmakers to push the boundaries of visual storytelling.”
“Apple Immersive Video is a wonderful new medium that expands the horizon of storytelling,” said Edward Berger, director of the Academy Award-winning All Quiet on the Western Front and the upcoming, critically acclaimed Conclave. “Apple Vision Pro inspired me to tell a story in a way that just wasn’t possible before, and in the process, it changed the way my team and I think about creating a story. This immersive technology pioneered by Apple is going to change the future of filmmaking.”
Shot on location in Prague, Brussels, and Malta over three weeks, Submerged was filmed using a full-scale 23-ton submarine set made with real steel, brass, and metal that was modeled after WWII-era vessels. Significant portions of the set were built to withstand being fully submerged, and featured practical camera traps and special effects that were uniquely rigged to expose Apple Immersive Video cameras to sparks, steam, water, and fire without breaking viewers’ sense of immersion. Cast members who might appear out of frame or focus in a 2D feature were meticulously scripted, and participated in extensive stunt rehearsals, including freedive training in dive tanks and open water, to maintain continuity and realism. Fans can go behind the scenes of Submerged with a short film that shows how the cast and crew crafted this immersive, action-packed drama exclusively for Apple Vision Pro.
2024 NBA All-Star Weekend
Next Friday, basketball fans will enjoy an immersive short film of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, featuring the Rising Stars, the Slam Dunk contest, the first-ever NBA vs. WNBA 3-Point Challenge, “Stephen vs. Sabrina,” and highlights from the All-Star Game.
Concert for One
Concert for One is the first music series captured in Apple Immersive Video, bringing fans closer to their favorite artists than ever before. The inaugural performance comes from six-time BRIT Award winner RAYE, who alongside her 20-piece band offers her blend of R&B, jazz, and pop to viewers from the best seat in the house.
Adventure
After stepping into thin air above Norway’s breathtaking fjords with highliner Faith Dickey, and traversing the streets and rooftops of Paris with the world’s leading parkour group, viewers are invited to swim alongside freediver Ant Williams while he attempts to best his record for the longest distance under ice with just a single breath. The next episode of Adventure, “Ice Dive,” will debut in the U.S. in December.
Early next year, viewers can experience the shores of Majorca, Spain, where world-class sport climber Kai Lightner tackles his biggest challenge yet: free-solo climbing over the secluded and rocky coves, where one slip will send him into the raging sea.
Elevated
In the next episode of Elevated, “Maine,” available early next year, viewers will experience a crisp autumn in New England, with a stunning journey along winding coastlines and above breathtakingly beautiful rivers.
These new episodes, films, series, and concerts join the growing Apple Immersive Video catalog available today, which includes Alicia Keys: Rehearsal Room, Boundless, Elevated, Prehistoric Planet Immersive, Wild Life, and more — all available from the Apple TV app on Apple Vision Pro.
Availability
Apple Vision Pro is available in Australia, Canada, China mainland, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, the U.K., and the U.S.
Users in these countries and regions can enjoy a free demo of Apple Vision Pro at their local Apple Store and receive an extended preview of Submerged upon request beginning Monday, October 14.
Apple Immersive Video is available at no additional cost from the Apple TV app in Australia, Canada, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Japan, Singapore, the U.K., and the U.S. Users in China mainland can access Apple Immersive Video from the Migu Video and Tencent Video apps, which are available to download for free from the App Store for Apple Vision Pro.
New Apple Immersive Video episodes and films debut in U.S. English with subtitles in additional languages. Title availability varies by country or region.
Source: United States Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore)
October 10, 2024
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said today he is cosponsoring legislation that would provide tax credits to generate incentives for new investments and additional resources for single-family home construction and renovations for working families in Oregon and nationwide.
Senator Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., who led the New Homes Tax Credit Act, released a report on housing supply in America, which found that underbuilding, restrictive zoning policies, and home financing hurdles have caused the supply of starter homes to shrink and prices to rise. High interest rates and mangled supply chains have also contributed to increased home prices. The legislation would address the lack of housing inventory for individuals and families whose incomes are up to 120 percent of the area median income, particularly in areas where middle-income families have historically been priced out.
“Democrats are focused on attacking the cost of living, and with rents and home prices climbing every year, the key to solving our housing crisis is to build, build, build. That’s what this bill is all about,” said Wyden. “The housing crisis is no longer just about big cities like Portland, it’s all over Oregon and the entire country – urban centers, suburban communities, even a lot of rural areas. Congress needs to look at every available solution that’ll get more housing built so that families don’t have to break the bank to pay the rent every month.”
The New Homes Tax Credit would be administered under the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund. That fund certifies Housing Development Entities, which can be Community Development Financial Institutions, government and quasi-governmental entities, or non-profits. Following certification, Housing Development Entities will use the capital raised from exchanging their tax credits with investors to provide funds for construction companies that build or renovate single-family homes.
Along with Wyden, The New Homes Tax Credit Act is cosponsored by Senators Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.
The legislation is supported by the Mortgage Bankers Association, National Association of Home Builders, National Association of Realtors, Housing New Mexico, Homewise, Yes Housing, Inc., and Strong Towns Albuquerque.
The text of the bill is here.
Source: United States Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore)
October 10, 2024
In the last two decades, Supreme Court justices have accepted hundreds of gifts valued at nearly $5 million
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ron Wyden said today he is cosponsoring legislation that would ban Supreme Court justices from receiving gifts valued at more than $50, aimed at strengthening the ethical standards of the Court.
Senators Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., led the introduction of the High Court Gift Ban Act. In addition to Wyden, Senators Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., Alex Padilla, D-Calif., and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., cosponsored the bill. Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Jamie Raskin, D-Md., introduced companion legislation in the House.
“American democracy can only work if the public has trust in its institutions,” said Wyden, who recently introduced sweeping reforms to restore public trust in the Supreme Court. “With more and more Supreme Court ethics violations being uncovered, the public’s trust in the Court has been shaken to its core. It’s not just unacceptable but morally wrong that those sitting on our nation’s highest court can get away with accepting lavish gifts from just about anybody. Supreme Court justices should be held to the same standards as other federal officials so that faith can begin to be restored in one of America’s most powerful institutions.”
Under current law, Supreme Court justices are not held to the same restrictions on accepting gifts that apply to members of Congress, federal judges, and other federal officials. A recent analysis by Fix the Court estimated that in the last two decades, Supreme Court justices have accepted hundreds of gifts valued at nearly $5 million.
The High Court Gift Ban Act does the following:
Bans Supreme Court justices and all 2,300 lower court judges from receiving gifts valued at more than $50 in a single instance or more than $100 in aggregate in a year;
Caps gifts of personal hospitality, which are currently unregulated, at a value equal to the tax threshold for personal gifts, currently about $18,000;
Contains exemptions in line with those for members of Congress;
Enforces prohibitions by requiring referrals to the attorney general for investigation;
Aligns civil and criminal penalties for non-compliance with the government-wide financial disclosure law, the Ethics in Government Act:
Up to $50,000 for civil violations;
Fines and up to one year in prison for criminal penalties.
The High Court Gift Ban Act is endorsed by Accountable.US, AFT, Alliance for Justice, American Humanist Association, Center for American Progress, Clean Elections Texas, Common Cause, Courage California, Court Accountability, Courts Matter Illinois, Demand Justice, DemCast USA, Demos Action, End Citizens United/Let America Vote Action Fund, Enough of Gun Violence, Faithful Democracy, Fix the Court, Free Speech For People, FRFF Action Fund, Get Money Out – Maryland, Greenpeace USA, Indivisible, League of Conservation Voters, Michiganders for Fair & Transparent Elections, MoveOn, National Association of Consumer Advocates, National Association of Social Workers, NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice, Ohio Fair Courts Alliance, P Street, People For the American Way, People Power United, Project on Government Oversight, Public Citizen, Reproductive Freedom for All, Secular Coalition for America, Secure Elections Network, Stand Up America, Supreme Court Integrity Project, Take Back the Court Action Fund, True North Research, United Church of Christ, Voices for Progress, and Walking To Fix Our Democracy.
The text of the bill is here.
Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE
Headline: Dialogue and partnership across religious and belief communities vital to strengthen human rights and security
Susan Kerr, ODIHR Senior Advisor on Freedom of Religion or Belief and John Kinahan from Forum 18, speaking at the ODIHR’s launch of the Belief, Dialogue and Security Guide (OSCE/Piotr Dziubak) Photo details
Dialogue and partnership across religious or belief communities play an invaluable role in strengthening human rights and security, participants agreed at the launch of a new guide entitled Belief, Dialogue and Security by the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) during the Warsaw Human Dimension Conference this week.
“Dialogue is essential to respond to the ever-changing challenges to human rights and democracy and finding ways to work together peacefully,” said Susan Kerr, ODIHR’s Senior Adviser on Freedom of Religion or Belief. “Our thanks go to the many people from across the OSCE area who helped make the guide’s recommendations relevant to all OSCE states.”
Interfaith and interreligious dialogue can help to combat fear, prejudice and hatred by promoting mutual understanding. Participants noted that meaningful dialogue is only possible when based on freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief and underscored the need for governments to demonstrate real commitment to protecting this right for all. They concluded that states must be even-handed in engaging with religious and belief communities, and work hard to build trust if they are to fully realise the potential of dialogue and joint action.
“Full respect for human rights, equality and the autonomy of religious and belief communities should be central to every dialogue. It is the obligation of every stakeholder involved, but primarily of the state, to respect fundamental human rights. The success of the Council of Religions, which has been functioning under the Ombudsperson’s umbrella in Georgia for almost two decades, is an excellent example of this. The equality of every member has been the key to its success and can inspire other interfaith and inter-religious dialogue initiatives,” said Mariam Gavtadze from Georgia’s Tolerance and Diversity Institute.
The new guide was made possible by the knowledge and experience of ODIHR’s panel of experts on freedom of religion or belief. The launch brought together state representatives, civil society, and members of religious and belief communities to discuss dialogue and joint action partnerships in the OSCE area. The discussions illustrated the benefits of the guide’s practical recommendations, which are designed to assist OSCE states in implementing their commitments to interfaith dialogue and freedom of thought, conscience, religion, or belief.
Source: Government of Ireland – Department of Jobs Enterprise and Innovation
10th October 2024
The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has opened the Emergency Humanitarian Support Scheme for small businesses, sports clubs, community and voluntary organisations who are unable to secure flood insurance and have been affected by recent flooding in County Cork.
The scheme will go some way in assisting businesses, who through no fault of their own, were unable to secure flood insurance, to put right the damage caused by the recent flood and help to ensure they get back up and running as quickly as possible.
As with similar flooding events in the past, the Irish Red Cross will administer and make payments under the Scheme on behalf of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment.
The scheme is a humanitarian support payment towards the costs of returning small businesses, sporting, voluntary and community premises to their pre-flood condition including the replacement of flooring, fixtures and fittings and damaged stock where relevant. The scheme will not provide a contribution to loss of earnings or loss of business goodwill.
This financial support is targeted at small businesses (up to 20 employees), sports clubs and community and voluntary organisations and will have two stages:
The first stage will commence immediately and will provide a contribution of up to €5,000, depending on the scale of damage incurred. It is anticipated that this will meet the needs of the majority of those affected. The intention is to process payments as fast as possible.
In the event that the premises has incurred significant damages above €5,000, businesses can apply for additional financial support, following an assessment by the Irish Red Cross. The total level of support available for both stages combined is capped at €20,000.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The Deputy Prime Minister shares her wishes for a meaningful Yom Kippur to all our Jewish communities.
As we come to the end of Rosh Hashanah, I would like to take this opportunity to send my best wishes to our Jewish communities around the country for a meaningful Yom Kippur and renewal in the year ahead.
I know that these High Holy Days, which bring their moments of reflection and celebration, have been particularly pertinent this year in what has been an incredibly challenging time for the Jewish community.
In the midst of the ten days spanning Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, we commemorated one year since the horrific October 7th Hamas terror attacks – the darkest day in Jewish history since the Holocaust.
In the 12 months following these attacks, so many people continue to be wracked by pain and anguish: for many, this is from the loss of a loved one and for many more, it is also from the hatred and intolerance they’re subjected to for simply existing as a person of Jewish faith.
I would like to take this moment to reaffirm our commitment to the pursuit of peace, the safe return of all those still held hostage in Gaza and for a better future for the Middle East. And to our Jewish communities: we stand with you.
I wish you all well over the fast, and that you find strength and hope in each other.
The President of the Council of Ministers, Giorgia Meloni, had a telephone conversation this afternoon with UNIFIL’s West Sector Commander, General Messina, who provided her with an update on the mission and on the situation of the Italian contingent serving in Lebanon, after the headquarters and two Italian bases positioned at outposts came under fire from the Israeli army.
The Italian Government has formally protested to the Israeli authorities and has strongly reiterated that what is happening near the base of the UNIFIL contingent is unacceptable. This is also why the Government, through the Minister of Defence, has summoned the Israeli Ambassador in Italy. President Meloni, who is closely following developments and is in constant contact with both the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, and the Minister of Defence, Guido Crosetto, expressed her and the Government’s strong solidarity with the Italian military personnel currently serving in Lebanon as part of the UN mission and the bilateral MIBIL mission.
President Meloni also recalled the invaluable work Italians are continuing to do to stabilise the area, in adherence to the United Nations mandate. Confirming UNIFIL’s fundamental role in the south of Lebanon, the Government is continuing to work towards a cessation of hostilities and a regional de-escalation.
Source: United Kingdom – Prime Minister’s Office 10 Downing Street
The King has been pleased to approve the appointment of Poppy Gustafsson OBE as Minister of State (Minister for Investment) jointly in the Department for Business and Trade and HM Treasury.
The King has been pleased to approve the appointment of Poppy Gustafsson OBE as Minister of State (Minister for Investment) jointly in the Department for Business and Trade and HM Treasury.
His Majesty has also been pleased to signify His intention of conferring a Peerage of the United Kingdom for Life on Poppy Gustafsson OBE.