Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sophie King-Hill, Associate Professor at the Health Services Management Centre, University of Birmingham
Netflix television series Adolescence has captured the attention of people across the UK – including the prime minister.
The series follows a 13-year-old boy accused of the murder of his female classmate. It touches upon incel online hate groups, toxic influencers and the misogynistic online spaces of the manosphere.
Adolescence is a drama and deserves the praise it has attracted. But it wasn’t developed as an educational resource, the kind that is produced in consultation with young people and schools and should be underpinned by robust research and well planned evaluations.
The series shows an extreme example of one teenager drawn into the world of the manosphere. Not all boys will see themselves reflected in this portrayal. And as a researcher working on masculinity and misogyny, my concern is that showing the series in schools may lead boys to think that they are all perceived as potential threats.
Showing the series as a teaching tool risks framing boyhood as monolithic, with one particular – and problematic – way of being a boy.
Already, a broad-brush, blame-heavy approach is often taken to boys in response to issues relating to sexual harassment and violence. “We may have a problem with boys and young men that we need to address”, Keir Starmer has said.
Boys dealing with blame
In research I have carried out for a forthcoming book on boys and masculinity, I worked with young men and boys aged 13 to 19. One 15-year-old boy said that “I am always told that I am part of the problem but never allowed to be part of the solution”. I also found that this broad blame culture leads to feelings of worthlessness in young men and boys, which shuts down vital dialogue and also may lead them to resort to looking for direction from negative spaces such as the manosphere.
It is evident from reports and evidence that young men and boys do carry out a large amount of reported sexual harassment and harms against young women and girls. This can be seen in the 2021 Ofsted report into sexual harassment in schools in England, for example. The 2025 2000 Women report states that, in the UK, a woman is killed by a man every three days.
There is evidently a serious, endemic and complex problem. The misogyny that can be popularised by toxic influencers online also needs urgently addressing.
But a “one-size-fits-all” approach to tackle “boys’ issues” may result in making things worse, not better, due to the lack of recognition of the intersectionality of boyhood. Other aspects of identity, such as race, age, class, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, sexuality and physical and mental health will have implications for the approaches that need to be taken.
My ongoing research has demonstrated that boyhood means differing things to different boys. In steering groups with young men and boys from various ethnicities and differing social classes, a consistent theme emerged. This was a conflict between the internal and external self that the boys felt that they had to portray. This was also highlighted in a further 16 focus groups carried out on the project, again with a range of boys.
The internal self refers to who the boys actually are, including other identity traits such as race and class, and all the other intersecting aspects of their identity. The external self is what they felt they should show as a boys to fit into the hierarchy of masculinity and how they should portray themselves to fit within the social expectations of being a boy. This causes a conflict of external and internal self.
Efforts to help boys deal with issues such as the messages of the manosphere need to be attuned to the nuance of their internal selves. Generalising boys does not account for the individual identities that they bring to the issues that affect them.
Boys as individuals
The monolithic perspective of “boys” and the ensuing group blame oversimplifies complex issues, resulting in less than effective solutions and interventions that do not acknowledge or account for the nuances and complexities that surround individual boys.
This approach ignores diversities and intersecting identities and steers societal thinking about boys as a set group. It risks stereotyping them and causing prejudicial approaches. When boys are stigmatised in such a way, it compounds issues across genders, breaks down valuable communication and can also cause resentment and hostility.
One of the key voices and valuable perspectives that is missing from this debate is that of young men and boys themselves. We need to truly listen to their perspectives and their needs and build upon these as they are the experts in the world they are experiencing. Good practice accounts for and builds upon these experiences, with young people.
My research has demonstrated that young people want to be a part of these discussions rather than having things decided for them. It also shows that, quite often, we are teaching them what they already know and providing support and education that is too little, too late. We need to move away from the broad brush blaming of boys and young men and begin to approach them based upon their own individual identities – of which gender is only a part.
Written in 1611, Shakespeare’s Cymbeline is a raw mess – full of feeling and as messy as life. The 18th-century man of letters, Samuel Johnson decried the play as a work of “unresisting imbecility”, a hotch-potch of incongruities.
It’s true that it’s hard to even know what kind of play Cymbeline is. The First Folio, the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, presents it as the last of his tragedies. But it’s also, all at once, a history play, a pastoral, a fairytale, a pantomime and a tragicomedy.
Set in ancient Britain at the time of the birth of Christ, Cymbeline stitches together three plots. In one, Posthumus (the banished husband of Innogen, King Cymbeline’s daughter) accepts a wager with Iachimo that the sleazy Italian will not be able to seduce his wife. In the second, after 20 years, King Cymbeline’s abducted sons (and Innogen’s brothers) are restored to him. And in the third, refusing to pay tribute to the emperor, tiny Britain picks a fight with the majesty of imperial Rome.
What makes Cymbeline such a potent play for our own age of anxiety is how Shakespeare weaves a tale about the collapse of everything known, as connections dissolve, and lays out how we may discover ourselves anew in the radically altered world.
This article is part of Rethinking the Classics. The stories in this series offer insightful new ways to think about and interpret classic books and artworks. This is the canon – with a twist.
Written late in his career, in Cymbeline, Shakespeare rips up all the ways he’s been doing things and suddenly starts afresh. Here, some few years before his retirement, he foregoes the complex psychology of his great tragedies and opts for archetypes of fairytale and romance.
But in striking out for this new artistic territory, he also turns to himself as his own best source. Like an ageing rock band contracted for one last farewell tour, in Cymbeline, Shakespeare’s back playing the hits.
The plot of Cymbeline explained in 60 seconds by actors of the Royal Shakespeare Company.
Like King Lear, Cymbeline is set in ancient Britain. Sneering Iachimo is Iago’s ghost and Posthumus, a dollar-store Othello.
Innogen is Shakespeare’s last cross-dressing heroine, passing as a boy, a faded echo of witty Rosalind of As You Like It and sad Viola of Twelfth Night. There’s fun in Rosalind and Viola’s changed identities, but Innogen puts on boy’s clothes to escape. Her father condemns her as disobedient for marrying Posthumus, and instead pushes her towards her step-brother, the fatuous bully Cloten.
Innogen’s time as a boy is joyless, as she learns that her beloved Posthumus wants her killed. She’s a new person now, not Innogen, but “Fidele”. Unmoored, adrift, she unwittingly finds her brothers, falls ill and mistakenly consumes a drug that puts her into a sleep so deep she appears to be dead.
She wakes from this seeming death beside a headless body that she takes to be her murdered husband, but is in fact the villainous Cloten. Desperate with grief, she touches the flowers that have been strewn on the corpse, and smears herself with his blood.
It’s as stark a scene as Shakespeare ever wrote in its unstable unity of tender beauty and suffering. Innogen sighs: “These flowers are like the pleasures of the world, This bloody man, the care on’t,” and in that conjunction sums up the extremities of life and of this play. When a Roman soldier finds her, she tells him: “I am nothing; or if not, Nothing to be were better.”
Dying to live
Politically, too, things are disintegrating. The play multiplies broken bonds, unpaid debts and contracts denied – including both the marriage contract, and the debt of tribute owed to Rome by Britain.
Following Innogen’s passage through suffering and figurative death, Posthumus undergoes the same process. He has already earned his name by outliving his parents.
Reduced, like Innogen, to all but nothing, believed to be dead, but actually in prison, Posthumus receives a vision of his dead family and of forgiving Jove, the divine father of the Roman Gods. Love and social unity have died, but in this mystical scene, the possibility returns of renewal.
Both Innogen and Posthumus must “die” to live. Off stage, in distant Bethlehem, a nativity takes place that signals the death of the old Rome – but also the regeneration of all things. And so the story commits itself to the reconciliation achieved in wonder.
This is a play where the word “miracle” becomes a verb, just as Innogen and Posthumus, and old, foolish King Cymbeline himself come to understand how even the most distressed life may open to bliss. “The gods do mean to strike me to death with mortal joy,” declares an amazed Cymbeline, as the play offers us a vision of that astonishing unity of suffering and redemption.
We may doubt that such wonder could exist for us today. But Shakespeare’s full look at the worst enables us too to imagine the sense of hopeful possibility found in his brilliant conclusion. It is a wonderful play.
Beyond the canon
As part of the Rethinking the Classics series, we’re asking our experts to recommend a book or artwork that tackles similar themes to the canonical work in question, but isn’t (yet) considered a classic itself. Here is Michael Newton’s suggestion:
There’s no other work of art so chaotic and so alive as Cymbeline. But H. F. M. Prescott’s The Man on a Donkey (1952) runs it close. I only discovered this novel a year ago, and I find it astonishing that so great a book could have remained hidden so long. Prescott follows Cymbeline in manifesting hope in a time of social collapse. It’s a novel of Henry VIII and the Reformation, centred on the “Pilgrimage of Grace”, when loyal Catholics rebelled against the dissolution of the church.
I read it while recovering from surgery, and it was just as well. If I had read it while at work I would have had to steal time off constantly to return to it. There are few novels so deep, so compelling, so beautiful. Like Cymbeline, it breaks all the rules of how to make a work of art, and caught up in its story you find out how little those rules matter when face to face with the complexity of the world and the depth of human beings.
Michael Newton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The war in Ukraine is often marked by specific dates, like February 24, 2022 – the day of the full-scale invasion. But for many Ukrainians, that February never really ended. For me, then a 22-year-old master’s student in construction engineering, that day shattered everything I understood about my future. I was glued to my phone, refreshing news updates in a frantic attempt to make sense of the chaos.
The distant echoes of explosions rumbled through the city, shaking windows and setting off endless car alarms. Air raid sirens wailed, their sound slicing through the early morning stillness. Outside, people hurried past with suitcases, their faces pale and tense, while others lined up at pharmacies and ATMs, their hands trembling as they stocked up on essentials.
My family and friends sent frantic messages (Are you safe? Are you leaving? What do we do?) but no one had an answer. Fear settled in like a second skin, thick and suffocating. The streets, once familiar, now felt unrecognisable, transformed by the weight of uncertainty.
We were all touched by the war, including my family. My father, who is a scientist and professor of Mykolaiv University of Shipbuilding, voluntarily joined the military forces to fight for Ukraine and give my family the possibility to work and study while the war raged outside.
Meanwhile, my hometown, Mykolaiv – previously a strategically important shipbuilding and port city on the Black Sea – became a key stepping-stone for Russian forces on the road to Odesa. It is very close to currently occupied territories and the frontline.
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Controlling access to the city and its bridges was crucial in the battle for Ukraine. The destruction of these bridges cut off vital supply routes, leaving Mykolaiv isolated and struggling to hold the line. What were once ordinary crossings became symbols of survival, as the city fought to stay connected and withstand the siege.
As my home was attacked, I realised something fundamental: bridges were not just engineering projects. They were lifelines.
Engineering hope
Rebuilding bridges and roads is about more than repairing physical structures; it is about restoring security, economic stability and vital connections between communities. A collapsed bridge isolates people from essential services, disrupting supply chains and deepening vulnerability. The war has exposed just how critical Ukraine’s infrastructure is for survival.
Mykolaiv is one of the hardest-hit regions. According to the Ukrainian government, more than 20 bridges were destroyed or severely damaged by Russian attacks, including the Inhul Bridge, a vital artery for the city.
The Snihurivka Bridge, another key crossing, was also wiped out, leaving thousands stranded without reliable access to healthcare and supplies. For months, humanitarian aid and commerce were forced onto alternative, unreliable routes, further isolating communities. The reconstruction of key bridges in my home region has allowed life to resume, but the scale of the challenge across the country remains immense.
Elsewhere, the destruction has been just as devastating.. The Irpin Bridge, north-west of Kyiv, which once carried 40,000 vehicles a day, became a symbol of both loss and survival. Ukrainian forces had to destroy the bridge to stop Russian advances on Kyiv. Thousands of civilians fled across its wreckage under fire.
Science: a light in the dark
Fast forward to the autumn of 2022. Ukraine’s power grid was under relentlessattack. Entire cities were plunged into darkness. I sat at my desk in Lviv, in western Ukraine, where I have been working on my PhD thesis. My laptop battery was draining and a single candle flickered beside me. I was writing a research paper on strengthening methods for buildings and infrastructure. Yet, all around me real infrastructure was collapsing, making my work feel disconnected from reality.
Laptop battery draining and a single candle flickers during one of the regular power cuts. Nadiia Kopiika
The city had endured weeks of missile strikes targeting critical infrastructure and power cuts became part of daily life. Simple tasks like boiling water for tea, charging a phone, or even sending an email became unpredictable challenges. The hum of generators filled the streets and people lined up at charging stations trying to stay connected. The darkness wasn’t just outside, it seeped into everything, a constant reminder that the war was never far away.
At that moment, a question struck me: what if science could help rebuild Ukraine? Could research, something that had once felt so theoretical, actually make a difference in the aftermath of war?
The project aimed to not only repair what was damaged but to build better infrastructure: homes that are more resilient, more sustainable and ready for future crises. Mitoulis recalled that the whole idea for BridgeUkraine was born out of a deeply personal moment:
I first thought of BridgeUkraine when I spoke with my former MSc student, Marat Khodzhaiev, who was in Ukraine when the war started. He was stranded in his house and at risk of missing the opportunity to graduate from his MSc course in the UK. All bridges around him had collapsed, there was no escape route. His wife was pregnant at the time. That call made me realise the urgent need, not only to rebuild infrastructure, but also to support and empower Ukrainian engineers to build their future. BridgeUkraine became more than just a research alliance, it became a mission that ensures that Ukraine’s recovery will be driven by its own people, equipped with the best knowledge and tools to rebuild their country.
The KSE Institute estimates that more than 300 bridges across Ukraine require urgent reconstruction, with damages exceeding US$2.6 billion. But this isn’t all about infrastructure; it is about securing Ukraine’s independence and ensuring that its economy and society can function even under the most difficult conditions. Every bridge rebuilt is a step toward recovery, a restored connection between families and communities, and a symbol of resilience.
To address these challenges, rebuilding Ukraine’s infrastructure cannot follow conventional methods. The sheer scale of destruction demands a new approach, one that not only restores what was lost but strengthens the country for the future.
At BridgeUkraine, we are developing solutions that prioritise resilience over quick fixes. Instead of rebuilding vulnerable structures, we are integrating sustainable materials, climate-adaptive engineering, and strategic planning to ensure that Ukraine’s transport networks are built to last.
Rebuilding fairly and efficiently
A comprehensive assessment conducted by the government of Ukraine, the World Bank Group, the European Commission, and the United Nations estimates that the total cost of Ukraine’s reconstruction and recovery stands at approximately €506 billion (US$524bn) over the next decade. This underscores the necessity for continued and enhanced international support to address the extensive needs arising from the conflict.
There are no academic guidelines on how to rebuild after such destruction. What is the most effective way to approach reconstruction in this context? We quickly came to the realisation that conventional methods were too slow and rigid to address the urgent and widespread damage.
Our research team wanted to re-imagine how to rebuild infrastructure and homes that are resilient to future challenges, from war-related destruction to climate-induced disasters. As Mitoulis told me:
Rebuilding infrastructure is not just about restoring roads and bridges, it’s about rebuilding lives. Our approach is centred on people, ensuring that the infrastructure is designed by Ukrainians, for Ukrainians. It must not only reconnect communities but also support economic recovery and long-term resilience.
But such ethical reconstruction must be inclusive, sustainable and community-driven, ensuring that those who depend on infrastructure have a say in how it is rebuilt.
Reconstruction must be a participatory, creative effort – one that rebuilds cities with beauty and meaning, connecting them to their past while preparing for the future. Too often, post-war recovery efforts have been dictated by external donors, prioritising short-term economic gains over long-term resilience.
People like me, who have grown up in these places, understand the culture, the rhythm of daily life, and the importance of preserving identity as well as buildings. We want to see our cities restored in a way that reflects our history and spirit.
For example, in post-second world war Warsaw, reconstruction efforts initially ignored the city’s historical character in favour of Soviet-style urban planning. It was only through the persistence of local architects and historians that parts of the Old Town were painstakingly restored to reflect their original designs.
Ukraine cannot afford such myopic, profit-driven decision-making. Instead, it must empower local communities, integrating their knowledge, needs and skills into the reconstruction process.
This vision started to take shape through workshop discussions with experts in geography and urban planning. Everyone agreed on the need for an adaptable transportation system where modular designs and relocatable, prefabricated bridges (like the Mabey bridge in US) could respond to evolving demands and disruptions.
Similarly, at the ReBuild Ukraine 2024 conference leading engineers, policymakers and researchers showcased groundbreaking technologies designed to accelerate reconstruction while reducing long-term environmental and economic risks (for example, nature-based solutions, 3D-printing, Virtual Reality and Building Informational Modelling).
Revolutionising damage assessment with AI, radar and satellite imagery
But to effectively plan for recovery and reconstruction, it’s crucial to first accurately characterise the damage. A clear picture of what has been destroyed allows for smarter decisions, prioritising the most urgent repairs and using resources effectively.
Our latest research, published in Automation in Construction, introduces a faster, more precise way to assess damage to key infrastructure, particularly bridges. Bringing together expertise from a large multidisciplinary team, we developed a new approach that combines satellite images and radar and artificial intelligence to swiftly and accurately analyse damage.
This technology allowed us to assess the condition of bridges remotely, without having to be onsite in dangerous or inaccessible areas. By providing rapid, data-driven insights, our method helps ensure that reconstruction efforts start where they are needed most, speeding up recovery and making rebuilding efforts more effective.
We tested this approach on numerous bridges in the Irpin region of Ukraine, and the results were striking. It significantly improved both the speed and accuracy of damage assessments. Using Sentinel-1 SAR images (radar satellite images from the European Space Agency’s Copernicus program), crowdsourced data (photos and reports from people on the ground), and high-resolution imagery, we developed a comprehensive approach for damage detection and classification.
This approach works on multiple levels: it provides a big-picture view of damage across entire regions while also zooming in on specific structural issues in individual bridge components. By combining satellite data with detailed images, our method makes damage assessments more precise, faster and safer, ensuring that reconstruction efforts focus on the most critical areas first.
These findings can play a crucial role in damage and needs assessment such as those conducted by the World Bank.
Sustainable infrastructure
In war zones, destruction often affects vital humanitarian and evacuation corridors, making it essential to prioritise reconstruction based on factors such as the national importance of a bridge, its role in border crossings, and its impact on social services.
But rebuilding after a disaster is also an opportunity to create something stronger, smarter, built to last – and with a sustainable focus.
From the first day of the invasion, Nadiia began volunteering at Lviv Polytechnic National University helping to weave camouflage nets. @kathryn_moskalyuk
Given Ukraine’s commitment to net-zero emissions and resilience, we expanded our research [and published a study] which introduced an innovative model for rebuilding infrastructure that can withstand future hazards while minimising carbon emissions. At its core, the model features a “smart prioritisation system” that helps decision-makers allocate resources effectively. It assesses key factors such as repair urgency, community impact and long-term durability, ensuring that rebuilding efforts provide the greatest benefits where they are needed most.
For example, when assessing damaged structures, the system prioritises projects that will provide the most long-term benefits. That might mean restoring energy systems to prevent future blackouts or repairing bridges that serve as key evacuation routes and economic lifelines.
As Stanislav Gvozdikov, deputy director of Euro-integration Process at Ukraine’s State Road Research Institute, told me: “Every bridge we restore, every road we reopen, isn’t just about infrastructure, it’s about restoring life, reconnecting families and ensuring that communities have the resilience to withstand whatever comes next.”
This is already a reality near my home town, Mykolaiv, where newly rebuilt bridges have restored transport links and also revived local economies, giving people hope for the future.
But no one rebuilds a country alone.
The UK-Ukraine 100-year agreement, announced in February 2025, underscored a deep commitment to Ukraine’s security, economic resilience, and post-war reconstruction. The partnership recognises the importance of cooperation between the UK and Ukraine to strengthen technological innovation and to increase collaboration in transport more widely.
I’ve also had the privilege of working with some of the brightest minds in the field, including more than 50 practitioners, consultants, academics, institutions and international bodies. This alliance of experts was united by a shared vision: to change the way the world approaches post-war reconstruction.
A key part of this mission is training engineers, equipping them with the latest knowledge in damage assessment, resilience-based and people-centred design and international standards to lead Ukraine’s reconstruction.
We come from different backgrounds – engineering, economics, policy, humanitarian efforts, and governmental bodies. But we all share the same motivation in wanting to help our country.
Leading researchers from Ukraine specialising in AI technologies, infrastructure engineering, sustainable and energy-saving buildings or climate change, are also members of BridgeUkraine. AI-specialist, Ivan Izonin has spoken passionately about how he believes that the collaborative efforts we have started “will lay the foundation for large-scale scientific projects that will be pivotal in post-war reconstruction…”. While Natalya Shakhovska , also a specialist in AI, recalled: “My activity in the BridgeUkraine alliance gave me the opportunity to align my research to critical infrastructure assessment, enabled by my AI modelling…Today I really feel included, I understand that my expertise is helping [my country’s recovery]”
Another enthusiastic Ukrainian researcher, Khrystyna Myroniuk, who specialises in building physics, told me how the collaboration had given her the opportunity to continue her “research on sustainable housing solutions for Ukraine”.
Stopping the brain drain
One of the most critical challenges facing Ukraine today, aside from the physical destruction, is the brain drain – the mass exodus of skilled professionals who left the country in search of safety and better opportunities abroad.
This trend has had a significant impact on the country’s ability to rebuild. Engineers, architects and other highly trained specialists have long been a pillar of Ukraine’s development. But the war has forced many to leave, with no clear path back to contribute to the reconstruction effort. BridgeUkraine is helping to reverse this trend by offering a compelling reason for these skilled professionals to return.
Our engagement with Ukrainian engineers then sparked another idea: what if we trained local professionals to apply our expertise, equipping them to drive this transformation within their engineering communities?
This ensures that Ukraine’s recovery is driven by its own people, equipped with the latest global knowledge. By bridging the knowledge gap and integrating the best methods and ideas from across Europe, Ukraine can position itself as a leader in resilient infrastructure design.
Our research was taken up by the Ministry of Restoration of Ukraine. Stanislav Gvozdikov collaborated with us to launch a joint programme of Continuing Professional Development seminars for engineers designed to help them stay up to date with the latest knowledge and skills in their field. To date, our expertise has been shared with over 1,500 Ukrainians.
Argyroudis emphasised to me how critical the role of engineers will be in Ukraine’s reconstruction, saying: “It’s about rebuilding Ukrainian identity as a country.”
The ultimate goal is to build a culture of innovation and self-reliance among local professionals who have the expertise and passion to drive this change.
Professionals can now contribute to projects and be part of a larger community of practice, which brings together engineers, academics and international partners.
I am, personally, incredibly proud to have had the privilege, over the past two years, to help empower Ukrainians to develop world-leading research that accelerates their country’s recovery.
Shaping tomorrow
My hometown, Mykolaiv, still bears the scars of war. Returning there, I saw firsthand what was lost. But also what could be rebuilt. War has taken, and continues to take so much, but it has also forged a new generation of engineers who understand that our profession is no longer just about calculations and designs. It is about resilience, survival and national recovery.
Three years ago, I would have imagined a very different career for myself. But today, I know that engineering is more than my profession, it is my mission.
I am committed to ethical and inclusive infrastructure recovery in Ukraine, because science must be the foundation of national resilience. Ethical reconstruction must prioritise people over profits, creating systems that empower and strengthen communities.
Ukraine’s recovery is about setting a global precedent for post-conflict reconstruction. Our research, training programs and commitment to innovation are laying the groundwork for a stronger, more connected Ukraine, offering a paradigm shift to the war-torn world. Because rebuilding is about more than replacing the past. It is about creating a future that can withstand whatever comes next.
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Nadiia Kopiika receives funding from British Academy. She is affiliated with University of Birmingham, UK and Lviv Polytechnic National University, Ukraine.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Nigel Mulligan, Lecturer in Psychotherapy, School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health, Dublin City University
Imagine a therapist could live in your pocket. They’d be on hand for every wobble, every meltdown, every crisis – no matter where or when. They’d be cheap and accessible, so no more worries about finding the money for expensive therapy or lingering on a waiting list for months for NHS treatment. Sounds too good to be true?
Maybe, but few can deny the appeal of AI therapy, which uses artificial intelligence, like chatbots and digital platforms, to provide mental health support, guidance, coping strategies and structured exercises, often mimicking talk therapy.
The growing popularity of AI therapy may be troublingsome experts but it’s understandable why so many people are turning to this convenient and cost-effective resource for mental health support.
In the UK, an NHS mental health referral can take 18 weeks or longer. According to 2025 data from the British Medical Association: “Services are not currently resourced to meet the increased demand, resulting in long waits and high thresholds for treatment; latest estimates put the mental health waiting list at one million people.
It’s perhaps no wonder then that a growing number of young people, in particular, are turning to AI chatbots to help them cope with mental health issues.
But, while AI can prove beneficial for some – often as a supplement to human therapy – it isn’t an effective substitute for a human therapist. And it could even prove dangerous.
Psychotherapy, known as the “talking cure”, uses dialogue to explore thoughts and feelings to help clients understand and address mental health challenges. Psychotherapists are now using AI tools to improve their work in mental health treatment. For example, software such as ChatGPT is being used by therapists to carry out client assessments. They enter details of the client, such as their sex, age, and psychological issues. In response, the chatbot collates the information to create a treatment plan for the therapist to follow.
But, although AI is proving helpful for some therapists, people turning to chatbots for help with mental health crises might find the lack of human supervision and input far less useful.
Lack of Humanity
Chatbots can simulate empathy, but don’t understand or feel emotions. Human therapists can provide emotional nuance, intuition and a personal connection, which chatbots currently cannot replicate in a meaningful way. Chatbots also have a limited ability to understand complex emotions and can struggle with understanding the complexity of human emotions, particularly when the situation involves deep trauma, cultural context or complex mental health issues.
Chatbots, then, are unsuitable for those with severe mental health issues. The software may provide some support for less severe cases, but they aren’t equipped to deal with severe mental health crises, such as suicidal thoughts or self-harm. Human therapists, however, are trained to recognise and respond to these situations with appropriate interventions.
While chatbots can be programmed to provide some personalised advice, they may not be able to adapt as effectively as a human therapist can. Human therapists tailor their approach to the unique needs and experiences of each person. Chatbots rely on algorithms to interpret user input, but miscommunication can happen due to nuances in language or context. For example, chatbots may struggle to recognise or appropriately respond to cultural differences, which are an important aspect of therapy. A lack of cultural competence in a chatbot could alienate and even harm users from different backgrounds.
So while chatbot therapists can be a helpful supplement to traditional therapy, they are not a complete replacement, especially when it comes to more serious mental health needs. Human psychotherapy provides a supportive, safe space for clients to slow down, reflect, and explore their thoughts and feelings with expert guidance. Human therapists are held accountable through ethical guidelines and professional standards.
Some people might become overly dependent on chatbot therapists, potentially avoiding traditional therapy with human professionals. This could lead to a delay in receiving more comprehensive care when needed, making vulnerable people more isolated rather than easing their suffering.
The talking cure in psychotherapy is a process of fostering human potential for greater self-awareness and personal growth. These apps will never be able to replace the therapeutic relationship developed as part of human psychotherapy. Rather, there’s a risk that these apps could limit users’ connections with other humans, potentially exacerbating the suffering of those with mental health issues – the opposite of what psychotherapy intends to achieve.
Nigel Mulligan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
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Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.
The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.
(a)Purchases and sales
Class of relevant security
Purchase/sale
Number of securities
Price per unit
1p ORDINARY
SALE
16,171
64.126p
1p ORDINARY
BUY
12,980
64.189p
(b)Cash-settled derivative transactions
Class of relevant security
Product description e.g. CFD
Nature of dealing e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position
(d)Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)
Class of relevant security
Nature of dealing e.g. subscription, conversion
Details
Price per unit (if applicable)
NONE
4.OTHER INFORMATION
(a)Indemnity and other dealing arrangements
Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer: Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state “none”
NONE
(b)Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives
Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to: (i)the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or (ii)the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced: If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state “none”
NONE
(c)Attachments
Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached?
NO
Date of disclosure:
02 APRIL 2025
Contact name:
PHIL HULME
Telephone number:
01253 376551
Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service.
The Panel’s Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code’s disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.
SOMERSET, N.J., April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) —CareCloud, Inc. (the “Company”) (Nasdaq: CCLD, CCLDO), a leading provider of practice management, healthcare technology and AI-driven solutions to medical practices across the country, today announced the acquisition of RevNu Medical Management (“RevNu”), an emerging audiology-focused revenue cycle management (“RCM”) company based in Westminster, California.
“We’ve spent years building trusted relationships within the audiology community, and we couldn’t be more excited to join forces with CareCloud,” said Clay Gililland, founder of RevNu. “That experience has given us a deep understanding of the industry’s needs—insights we’re excited to put into action as RevNu joins CareCloud. As both the founder of RevNu and the owner of more than 30 hearing health clinics across Southern California, I’m confident that our clients and the broader industry will benefit greatly from CareCloud’s technology, automation, and scale.”
“The closing of RevNu marks a significant milestone in our acquisition strategy and a strategic expansion into a specialty care market lacking a clear leader,” said Stephen Snyder, Co-CEO of CareCloud. “RevNu’s deep expertise in audiology and strong, trusted client relationships make it an exceptional addition as we accelerate growth in underserved markets. By deploying our AI-powered revenue cycle management and advanced technology infrastructure in the hearing healthcare space, we are well positioned to expand our footprint, capture new market share, and accelerate CareCloud’s overall growth.”
The U.S. audiology market is believed to include approximately 24,000 employed audiologists and hearing aid specialists, with annual spending on hearing aids exceeding $5 billion. Despite this scale, the segment remains minimally penetrated by outsourced RCM and practice management vendors. RevNu—while still relatively small—is among the leading RCM providers in this space. With the added resources and technological depth of CareCloud, the combined entity is well-positioned to accelerate growth.
“Through this combination, our clients will gain access to CareCloud’s powerful suite of tools, advanced infrastructure, and culture of innovation—all of which will improve outcomes and unlock new growth potential,” said Daniel Davis, former CEO of RevNu, who will lead CareCloud’s growth as President of its new hearing healthcare division. “I’m excited to spearhead the expansion of CareCloud’s audiology and hearing aid billing division and build on the foundation RevNu has created to capture new market share and drive growth.”
The RevNu acquisition, like the MesaBilling acquisition closed a month ago, is expected to be accretive within ninety days. Consideration will be paid quarterly, based on retained revenue.
About CareCloud
CareCloud brings disciplined innovation and generative AI to the business of healthcare. Our suite of technology-enabled solutions helps clients increase financial and operational performance, streamline clinical workflows and improve the patient experience. More than 40,000 providers count on CareCloud to help them improve patient care while reducing administrative burdens and operating costs. Learn more about our products and services including revenue cycle management (RCM), practice management (PM), electronic health records (EHR), business intelligence, patient experience management (PXM) and digital health at www.carecloud.com.
This press release is for information purposes only, and does not constitute an offer to sell or solicitation of an offer to buy, nor shall there be any sale of these securities in any state or other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to the registration or qualification under the securities laws of such state or jurisdiction.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains various forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements relate to anticipated future events, future results of operations or future financial performance. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as “may,” “might,” “will,” “shall,” “should,” “could”, “intends,” “expects,” “plans,” “goals,” “projects,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “seeks,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “possible,” “potential,” “target,” or “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable terminology.
Our operations involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside our control, and any one of which, or a combination of which, could materially affect our results of operations and whether the forward-looking statements ultimately prove to be correct.
Forward-looking statements in this press release include, without limitation, statements reflecting management’s expectations for future financial performance and operating expenditures, expected growth, profitability and business outlook, the impact of pandemics on our financial performance and business activities, and the expected results from the integration of our acquisitions.
These forward-looking statements are neither historical facts nor assurances of future performance. Instead, they are only predictions, are uncertain and involve substantial known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause our (or our industry’s) actual results, levels of activity or performance to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity or performance expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. New risks and uncertainties emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for us to predict all of the risks and uncertainties that could have an impact on the forward-looking statements, including without limitation, risks and uncertainties relating to the Company’s ability to manage growth, migrate newly acquired customers and retain new and existing customers, maintain cost-effective global operations, increase operational efficiency and reduce operating costs, predict and properly adjust to changes in reimbursement and other industry regulations and trends, retain the services of key personnel, develop new technologies, upgrade and adapt legacy and acquired technologies to work with evolving industry standards, compete with other companies’ products and services competitive with ours, and other important risks and uncertainties referenced and discussed under the heading titled “Risk Factors” in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The statements in this press release are made as of the date of this press release, even if subsequently made available by the Company on its website or otherwise. The Company does not assume any obligations to update the forward-looking statements provided to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made.
SOURCE CareCloud
Company Contact:
Norman Roth Interim Chief Financial Officer and Corporate Controller CareCloud, Inc. nroth@carecloud.com
Investor Contact:
Stephen Snyder Co-Chief Executive Officer CareCloud, Inc. ir@carecloud.com
NEW YORK, April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Crowd Street, the direct-access private market investment platform dedicated to helping members reach their financial ambitions, today announced the launch of its inaugural Crowd Street Member Council. The council, comprised of 15 of Crowd Street’s most engaged users, will build a stronger partnership between Crowd Street and its members.
The member council is an open forum to discuss insights, ideas and feedback that will ensure member experience remains at the forefront of Crowd Street’s mission. Crowd Street will host council events to collect valuable feedback, encourage individuals to expand their own personal networks and foster new relationships with other Crowd Street members. Most importantly, the collaborative approach encourages transparency, fosters innovation and helps affirm that every step Crowd Street takes is aligned with the needs and expectations of its members.
“Private market investing has traditionally been out of reach for many investors, but Crowd Street is connecting members to alternative investment opportunities you can’t find elsewhere,” said Ken Maher, a member for 6 years. “The new member council gives me the opportunity to share my voice and shape the future of the platform, as the company seeks to provide investors with access to the right tools, resources and an elevated experience to enable them to pursue their financial goals.”
The Crowd Street Member Council will meet quarterly, with one in-person meeting each year. The inaugural meeting will take place on April 3, coinciding with the openingof Crowd Street’snew headquarters in the heart of New York City. Meetings will focus on strategic planning for the future of the platform, technology enhancements and new product and feature updates. The company will also invite outside experts such as Crowd Street partners, investment sponsors and other market stakeholders to speak at the member council meetings.
“Due to the long-term nature of our investments, building strong relationships with our members is paramount and an absolute priority,” said John Imbriglia, CEO of Crowd Street. “The introduction of the member council is a natural step as we scale our growth, in order to strengthen communication and gather valuable user feedback from our most engaged members. We have ambitious plans for the platform to expand beyond commercial real estate into other asset classes, and having our members be part of these strategic conversations will be essential for our success.”
“I’m excited about the Crowd Street vision moving forward and believe the diversification of its platform will add value for members,” said Randy Williamson, a member since 2020. “I’m looking forward to learning more about the company’s foray into additional asset classes, providing its members with even greater opportunities across private credit, private equity and venture capital later in 2025.”
About Crowd Street
Crowd Street empowers its members to reach their financial ambitions through direct-access private market investments. The platform offers a carefully selected marketplace of alternative investment opportunities that have historically only been available to a small group of people. In addition to providing advanced tools, research, and insights to help investors confidently explore these exclusive opportunities, Crowd Street is also building a member experience rooted in trust and experience – further bridging the gap between investment opportunities and true financial wealth. Learn more at https://www.CrowdStreet.com/.
CrowdStreet, Inc. (“Crowd Street”) offers investment opportunities and financial services on its website. Broker dealer services provided in connection with an investment are offered through CrowdStreet Capital LLC (“Crowd Street Capital”), a registered broker dealer, MemberFINRA/SIPC. Advisory services are offered through CrowdStreet Advisors, LLC (“Crowd Street Advisors”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crowd Street and a federally registered investment adviser. Investment opportunities available through Crowd Street are speculative and involve substantial risk. You should not invest unless you can sustain the risk of loss of capital, including the risk of total loss of capital. All investors should consider their individual factors in consultation with a professional advisor of their choosing when deciding if an investment is appropriate.
STAMFORD, Conn., April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Grayscale, a leading crypto asset manager, today announced the launch of Grayscale® Bitcoin Covered Call ETF (Ticker: BTCC) and Grayscale® Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (Ticker: BPI) (the “Funds”). The two Funds are Grayscale’s newest exchange-traded funds (ETFs) which offer covered call writing strategies, seeking to provide investors the ability to access the volatility characteristics of Bitcoin as a differentiated source of income.
Grayscale® Bitcoin Covered Call ETF seeks to provide current income. The Fund’s secondary objective is to participate in the returns of Bitcoin through the use of options on Bitcoin exchange-traded products whose investment objectives are to, before fees and expenses, track the price performance of Bitcoin. The Bitcoin exchange-traded products include, but are not limited to, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (Ticker: GBTC) and Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (Ticker: BTC) (the “Bitcoin ETPs”). There can be no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund attempts to achieve its investment objective by systematically writing calls very close to spot prices. This strategy leverages Bitcoin’s volatility to help prioritize income, which is then distributed to fund shareholders. By selling calls near spot prices, BTCC seeks to deliver a principal focus on income generation. This makes BTCC an income-first strategy, potentially ideal for investors seeking regular cash flows and high yielding opportunities. The option premiums collected in this type of strategy may also help cushion against market downturns, potentially leading to lower volatility during drawdowns.
In contrast, Grayscale® Bitcoin Premium Income ETF seeks to provide current income while maintaining prospects for capital appreciation through the use of options on Bitcoin exchange-traded products whose investment objectives are to, before fees and expenses, track the price performance of Bitcoin. The Bitcoin exchange-traded products include, but are not limited to, Grayscale Bitcoin Trust ETF (Ticker: GBTC) and Grayscale Bitcoin Mini Trust ETF (Ticker: BTC) (the “Bitcoin ETPs”). There can be no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. The Fund seeks to achieve this by systematically writing calls targeting strike prices that are well out-of-the-money. By focusing on this type of call writing strategy, BPI allows investors to participate in much of Bitcoin’s upside potential while possibly benefiting from some dividend income. This blended approach provides investors with an opportunity to participate in the capital appreciation potential of Bitcoin with the benefits of income. Both Funds are actively managed, fully options based, and will aim to distribute income monthly.
“Grayscale® Bitcoin Covered Call ETF may complement an investors existing Bitcoin exposure by adding income, while Grayscale® Bitcoin Premium Income ETF offers an alternative to Bitcoin ownership, aiming to balance upside participation and income generation for investors,” said David LaValle, Global Head of ETFs at Grayscale. “We understand that every investor has unique needs, and we’re excited to offer these new products that not only may capture and deliver income but also offer differentiated outcomes and behavioral characteristics tailored to their specific goals.”
Grayscale enables investors to access the digital economy through a family of future-forward investment products. Founded in 2013, Grayscale has a decade-long track record and deep expertise as an asset management firm focused on crypto investing. Investors, advisors, and allocators turn to Grayscale for single asset, diversified, and thematic exposure. For more information, please follow @Grayscale or visit grayscale.com.
Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses carefully before investing. For a prospectus or summary prospectus with this and other information about the Funds, please call (866)-775-0313 or visit our website at etfs.grayscale.com/bpi and etfs.grayscale.com/btcc. Read the prospectuses or summary prospectuses carefully before investing.
Grayscale Bitcoin Covered Calls ETF and Grayscale Bitcoin Premium Income ETF (collectively the “Funds”) will not invest in digital assets directly. The Funds also will not invest in initial coin offerings. The Funds will, however, have indirect exposure to digital assets by virtue of its investments in derivatives on exchange-traded vehicles that hold digital assets as investments. Because the Funds will not invest directly in any digital assets, they may not track price movements of any digital assets.
Investing involves risk and possible loss of principal. There is no guarantee the investment strategies will be successful. The Funds are considered to be non-diversified. The Funds are actively managed and their performance reflects the investment decisions that the Adviser makes for the Funds.
Derivative Instruments. The Funds will invest in options, a type of derivative instrument. Derivatives can be more sensitive to changes in interest rates or to sudden fluctuations in market prices than conventional securities, which can result in greater losses for the Funds. In addition, the prices of the derivative instruments and the prices of underlying securities, interest rates or currencies they are designed to reflect may not move together as expected. Derivatives are usually traded on margin, which may subject the Funds to margin calls. Margin calls may force the Funds to liquidate assets.
Options Risk. The use of options involves investment strategies and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions and depends on the ability of the Funds’ portfolio managers to forecast market movements correctly. The prices of options are volatile and are influenced by, among other things, actual and anticipated changes in the value of the underlying instrument. The effective use of options also depends on the Funds’ ability to terminate option positions at times deemed desirable to do so. There is no assurance that the Funds will be able to effect closing transactions at any particular time or at an acceptable price.
Covered Call Option Writing Risk. By writing covered call options in return for the receipt of premiums, the Fund will give up the opportunity to benefit from potential increases in the value of the security above the exercise prices of such options, but will continue to bear the risk of declines in the value of the underlying security. The premiums received from the options may not be sufficient to offset any losses sustained from the volatility of the underlying stocks over time. As a result, the risks associated with writing covered call options may be similar to the risks associated with writing put options. In addition, the Funds’ ability to sell the securities underlying the options will be limited while the options are in effect unless the Funds cancel out the option positions through the purchase of offsetting identical options prior to the expiration of the written options.
Digital Assets Risk. Digital assets, such as bitcoin, are assets designed to act as a medium of exchange, though some arguably have not achieved that purpose. Digital assets are an emerging asset class. Digital assets generally operate without a central authority (such as a bank) and are not backed by any government. Digital assets are not legal tender. Federal, state and/or foreign governments may restrict the use and exchange of digital assets, and regulation in the United States is still developing.
Bitcoin ETPs Investment Risk. Bitcoin ETPs Investment Risk. The Funds intend to obtain investment exposure to Bitcoin, indirectly via synthetic exposure to Bitcoin ETPs through derivatives. The price of Bitcoin ETPs shares may not directly correspond to the price of any digital currency and are highly volatile. Such investment also exposes the Funds to all of the risks related to digital currencies discussed herein. The shares of Bitcoin ETPs are not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, or any state securities laws, and therefore such an investment will not benefit from the protections and restrictions of such laws.
Of the Bitcoin ETPs, GBTC and BTC are sponsored by an affiliate of the Funds’ Adviser that receives a fee in exchange for assuming certain administrative and marketing expenses of GBTC and BTC. While the Funds do not invest directly in GBTC and BTC, the Funds’ strategies may result in additional purchases of shares of GBTC and BTC by options holders, which will benefit the Adviser and its affiliate in terms of the fee being received on these products.
Liquidity Risk. The market for Bitcoin ETP options is still developing and may be subject to a period of illiquidity.
New Fund Risk. The Funds are recently organized investment companies with no operating history.
The Funds are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC and Grayscale Advisors, LLC (“GSA”) is the adviser. Foreside is not related to GSA or its affiliates.
With tariffs going into effect, report uncovers trends in new car supply, consumer demand, and pricing—plus opportunities where shoppers can still find savings
BOSTON, April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — CarGurus (Nasdaq: CARG), the No. 1 visited digital auto platform for shopping, buying, and selling new and used vehicles1, today released its Quarterly Review for Q1 2025. The report provides a view into the key trends influencing pricing, inventory, and demand for new and used vehicles so far this year, along with factors that could impact the road ahead.
“It’s no secret that the first quarter has been dominated by tariff news,” said Kevin Roberts, Director of Economic and Market Intelligence at CarGurus. “Steady consumer purchase patterns for most of the first quarter suggest a market that was in wait-and-see mode. But a shift in urgency has taken hold as impending tariffs on auto imports—which account for nearly half of new listings—start to take effect, influencing an uptick in activity on dealer lots and new car sales in recent days.”
New car pricing continues to be one of the most pressing challenges for the market, with vehicles under $30,000 accounting for 13% of inventory, a sharp contrast to 37% in Q1 2020. With tariffs, affordable new vehicles may become harder to find as the average list price could increase by over $3,300 to approximately $52,800. According to a CarGurus analysis of current tariff policies, the share of listings priced under $30,000 could decline by 42%, while those above $50,000 would increase by 15%.
Other key themes from Q1 2025 include:
Tariffs trigger a late-month surge: Days to Turn during Q1 remained stable with little variation across countries of origin, showing earlier tariff speculation didn’t translate to increased urgency. But, a late-month shift took hold after the tariff news broke on March 26th, pushing estimated new car retail sales up by nearly 30% month-over-month. A focus on value and practicality drove import demand throughout the quarter, with imported models in lowest supply being compacts and fuel-efficient options mostly priced under $40,000. CarGurus analysis shows the most popular imported models with the lowest inventory include nameplates like Toyota’s RAV4 and Tacoma; Honda’s Civic and CR-V; and Subaru’s Crosstrek and Forester.
The used market has more options, but not without trade-offs: The used market offers shoppers some relief from tariff-related increases, but value for the money in this segment is also shifting. While used car inventory is up, buyers seeking affordability face a selection with older vehicles and higher mileage. In Q1 2020, a budget of $15,000 to $20,000 would afford an approximately four-year-old model with 47,000 miles, while today that translates to a nearly seven-year-old car with 73,000 miles. Further, CarGurus analysis shows that almost two-thirds of used sales (64%) in Q1 2020 were under $20,000, while that share dropped to 43% in Q1 2025.
Used electric vehicles (EVs) present a bright spot in the affordability story: The used EV market is steadily gaining ground as selection rises and prices stabilize to an average of about $36,000. With affordability taking center stage, the category is emerging as a practical, low-mileage alternative. The under-$25,000 market especially shines as used EVs turned faster than comparably priced internal combustion engine models. Used models like the Nissan LEAF and Chevrolet Bolt have averaged under $17,000 in Q1 2025 (with mileage under 32,000), standing out in a market driven by value and affordability.
CarGurus also shared tips for shoppers navigating the market today:
Stay informed on price trends: Platforms like CarGurus, which provides unbiased deal ratings on the largest selection of new and used vehicles in the U.S.2, are a powerful resource to compare prices and track inventory. Used car shoppers can also turn to CarGurus’ Price Trends tool to research and track model trends.
Understand buying power early in the process: Many sites, including CarGurus, enable shoppers to get pre-qualified for financing from the comfort of home, letting them browse listings with real interest rates in hand and filter options by estimated monthly payment.
Consider a wider search radius: For those with a specific model in mind, there may be a benefit in searching broadly to get the best price since local market demand can also impact car values. Using online search tools, shoppers can view pricing across regions and consider how delivery costs factor into getting the best deal.
To learn more about these trends, view the CarGurus Quarterly Review for Q1 2025 here.
About CarGurus, Inc.
CarGurus (Nasdaq: CARG) is a multinational, online automotive platform for buying and selling vehicles that is building upon its industry-leading listings marketplace with both digital retail solutions and the CarOffer online wholesale platform. The CarGurus platform gives consumers the confidence to purchase and/or sell a vehicle either online or in-person, and it gives dealerships the power to accurately price, effectively market, instantly acquire, and quickly sell vehicles, all with a nationwide reach. The company uses proprietary technology, search algorithms, and data analytics to bring trust, transparency, and competitive pricing to the automotive shopping experience. CarGurus is the most visited automotive shopping site in the U.S. 1
CarGurus also operates online marketplaces under the CarGurus brand in Canada and the U.K. In the U.S. and the U.K., CarGurus also operates the Autolist and PistonHeads online marketplaces, respectively, as independent brands.
CarGurus® is a registered trademark of CarGurus, Inc., and CarOffer® is a registered trademark of CarOffer, LLC. All other product names, trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
1Similarweb: Traffic Report [Cars.com, Autotrader, TrueCar, CARFAX Listings (defined as CARFAX Total visits minus Vehicle History Reports traffic)], Q4 2024, U.S. 2Compared to Autotrader.com, Cars.com, TrueCar.com (YipitData as of September 30, 2024), and CarFax (Joreca as of September 30, 2024)
Media Contact: Maggie Meluzio Director, Public Relations & External Communications pr@cargurus.com
WATERLOO, Ontario, April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — eleven-x®, a global leader in smart parking and curbside management solutions, announced today that Clemson University in South Carolina will be utilizing the company’s award-winning eXactpark™ smart parking and curbside management platform to improve the parking experience for its 29,000 students and faculty via real-time guidance and wayfinding to available parking stalls. Over 10,000 wireless sensors will be installed in single space parking spaces across the 17,000-acre campus, making this initiative the largest university smart parking program in North America.
Clemson’s goal is to provide a positive campus environment for students, staff and visitors. A core component of this objective is to better the parking experience by making it quicker and easier to find a space. Since eXactpark’s centralized platform is capturing accurate, consistent usage data for each parking spot, real-time wayfinding and guidance are key features of the solution. Last month, eleven-x’s partner, Parking Guidance Systems, began installing wireless sensors in individual parking spots across campus to acquire 24/7/365 usage data. Additionally, more than forty digital signs will be set up across key corridors to guide drivers to open spots. The university is also leveraging eleven-x’s real-time parking navigation app, eXactav™, to efficiently direct drivers to available parking. Clemson will integrate eXactpark with the university’s TigersCommute app in order to share the live parking insights.
“We are excited and proud to help Clemson University realize its vision of creating the best parking experience for its community through accurate, true occupancy data,” said Dan Mathers, CEO, eleven-x, “Furthermore, this ambitious installation will demonstrate to other institutions how smart parking technology can positively transform parking operations.”
The comprehensive eXactpark solution provides Clemson with a holistic, data-driven understanding of their parking assets and how they are being used. Accurate data aggregation allows for improved policies and smarter future planning. Furthermore, the university can leverage actionable analytics to streamline operations by optimizing resources and improving parking management.
In addition to the Clemson initiative, eleven-x’s eXactpark solution is the platform of choice for one of the largest municipal smart parking installations in North America with Arlington County, VA. Last year, Arlington County’s Performance Parking Project received a Smart 20 Award from Smart Cities Connect. For information about eleven-x and its eXactpark Smart Parking Solution visit www.eleven-x.com.
About eleven-x® eleven-x is an industry leading IoT and Smart City technology company focused on improving the parking experience for all with its award-winning, smart parking technology solution, eXactpark™. A comprehensive software platform, eXactpark enables drivers to find available parking quickly and easily in real-time while delivering accurate and reliable 24/7/365 data to support numerous use cases including curbside management, demand-based pricing and improved compliance while helping optimize parking resources. Powered by the patented SPS-X wireless space occupancy sensor, eXactpark reduces traffic, improves safety and lowers GHG emissions. The solution is being utilized by cities and institutions across North America to successfully address mobility challenges. Customers rely on the company’s world-renowned expertise for an easy-to-use, fully scalable smart solution to deliver better services. Visit eleven-x.com for more information and follow us on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and YouTube.
Media Contact: eleven-x Inc.: Mark Hall – mark.hall@eleven-x.com | phone: 1.226.887.0011
SUNNYVALE, Calif., April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Fortinet® (NASDAQ: FTNT), the global cybersecurity leader driving the convergence of networking and security, announced that it will hold a conference call to discuss its first quarter 2025 financial results on Wednesday, May 7, at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time (4:30 p.m. Eastern Time).
Fortinet’s financial results conference call will be broadcast live in listen-only mode on the company’s investor relations website at http://investor.fortinet.com. While not required, it is recommended that you join at least 10 minutes prior to the event start.
The CEO and CFO’s prepared remarks, supplemental slides and a call replay will be accessible from the Quarterly Earnings page on the Investor Relations page of Fortinet’s website at https://investor.fortinet.com/quarterly-earnings.
About Fortinet (www.fortinet.com) Fortinet (Nasdaq: FTNT) is a driving force in the evolution of cybersecurity and the convergence of networking and security. Our mission is to secure people, devices, and data everywhere, and today we deliver cybersecurity everywhere our customers need it with the largest integrated portfolio of over 50 enterprise-grade products. Well over half a million customers trust Fortinet’s solutions, which are among the most deployed, most patented, and most validated in the industry. The Fortinet Training Institute, one of the largest and broadest training programs in the industry, is dedicated to making cybersecurity training and new career opportunities available to everyone. Collaboration with esteemed organizations from both the public and private sectors, including Computer Emergency Response Teams (“CERTS”), government entities, and academia, is a fundamental aspect of Fortinet’s commitment to enhance cyber resilience globally. FortiGuard Labs, Fortinet’s elite threat intelligence and research organization, develops and utilizes leading-edge machine learning and AI technologies to provide customers with timely and consistently top-rated protection and actionable threat intelligence. Learn more at https://www.fortinet.com, the Fortinet Blog, and FortiGuard Labs.
Fortinet has not independently verified statements or certifications herein attributed to third parties and Fortinet does not independently endorse such statements. Notwithstanding anything to the contrary herein, nothing herein constitutes a warranty, guarantee, contract, binding specification or other binding commitment by Fortinet or any indication of intent related to a binding commitment, and performance and other specification information herein may be unique to certain environments.
LEWES, Del., April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — John Snow Labs, the AI for healthcare company, today announced the release of Generative AI Lab 7.0. The update enables domain experts, such as doctors or lawyers, to evaluate and improve custom-built large language models (LLMs) with precision and transparency. New capabilities include no-code features to streamline the process of auditing and tuning AI models.
While the Generative AI Lab already exists as a tool for testing, tuning, and deploying state-of-the-art (SOTA) language models, this upgrade enhances the quality of evaluation workflows. With the ability to compare LLM outputs side-by-side, annotate specific text spans, apply structured scoring, and export results, domain experts can quickly and easily train or fine-tune LLMs downstream.
Key features of the release include:
Customizable project templates for LLM output evaluation with support for HTML content, including hyperlinks to references. Two modes are supported: individual and side-by-side response evaluation. Inter-Annotator Agreement (IAA) charts are also available for those projects.
Support forHierarchical Condition Category (HCC) coding enables users to streamline clinical risk adjustment workflows by automatically linking International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes to HCC categories, prioritizing high-value tasks, and validating codes more efficiently.
Comprehensive and configurable framework forevaluating AI models across dimensions like accuracy, bias, robustness, fairness, and performance—enabling users to identify model weaknesses, improve reliability, and streamline iterative model enhancement through automated test management, visual insights, and data augmentation capabilities.
Domain experts are often best positioned to develop AI-driven solutions tailored to their specific business needs. However, limited technical skills and resources can pose significant barriers to the adoption of AI solutions. The Generative AI Lab addresses this challenge by providing a user-friendly, no-code platform that empowers teams to build reliable models, identify potential failures, evaluate output quality, and responsibly integrate AI into essential workflows.
“Evaluating custom-built AI models and LLMs for specific use cases is complex and goes beyond relying solely on public benchmarks. Determining their efficacy, safety, and value requires targeted, context-aware testing to ensure models perform reliably in real-world applications,” said David Talby, CEO, John Snow Labs. “With the new structured evaluations and detailed feedback included in the Generative AI Lab, domain experts can improve model quality, reduce errors, and accelerate safe, scalable AI deployments without the support of a data scientist.”
Click here to learn more about Generative AI Lab 7.0 or register for our upcoming training session to see the new side-by-side response evaluation feature in action.
About John Snow Labs John Snow Labs, the AI for healthcare company, provides state-of-the-art software, models, and data to help healthcare and life science organizations put AI to good use. Developer of Medical LLMS, Healthcare NLP, Spark NLP, Spark NLP, the Generative AI Lab No-Code Platform, and the Medical Chatbot, John Snow Labs’ award-winning medical AI software powers the world’s leading pharmaceuticals, academic medical centers, and health technology companies. Creator and host of The NLP Summit, the company is committed to further educating and advancing the global AI community.
Contact Gina Devine Head of Communications John Snow Labs gina@johnsnowlabs.com
NEW YORK, April 02, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Traliant, a leader in online compliance training, has introduced industry-specific and global versions of its Preventing Workplace Harassment: 2025 Edition training. Designed to create safer work environments, this expansion reinforces Traliant’s commitment to providing customizable, interactive training that meets the unique needs of today’s high-growth industries.
Workplace harassment, including sexual harassment, affects every sector, but each industry’s unique environment can shape how employees experience and respond to misconduct. A recent Traliant survey of workplace employees found that 48% of respondents had witnessed harassing behavior in the past five years.
To address these unique challenges, Traliant’s Preventing Workplace Harassment: 2025 Edition training now includes industry-specific training for seven key sectors: construction, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, office, restaurant and retail. These enhancements provide relatable, real-world scenarios tailored to employees’ daily work environments, deepening engagement and knowledge retention.
The course meets training requirements in all 50 states and aligns with the January 20 and 21, 2025 executive orders relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and the Administration’s policy on sex and gender.
Additionally, new country-specific versions align with regional laws and regulations in Australia, Canada, India and the UK, alongside a global version covering relevant laws across 40 countries. These international courses feature localized actors and scenarios, creating a more immersive and relatable learning experience tailored to diverse workplace environments.
“Across industries and geographies, every employee plays a vital role in creating a workplace free from harassment,” said Mike Dahir, CEO of Traliant. “Workplace training that is tailored to the unique scenarios they see daily equips employees with the knowledge, skills and confidence to effectively intervene and support those in need, fostering a safer environment for both them and their colleagues.”
As part of its commitment to workplace safety, Traliant also introduced an updated Bystander Intervention course designed to help build a speak-up culture and equip employees with practical intervention skills. Featuring real-world, unscripted interviews, the course ensures learning is relatable, engaging and impactful.
With these enhancements, organizations worldwide can provide legally compliant, relevant training that fosters workplaces where employees feel safe, respected and empowered to take action.
About Traliant Traliant, a leader in compliance training, is on a mission to help make workplaces better, for everyone. Committed to a customer promise of “compliance you can trust, training you will love,” Traliant delivers continuously compliant online courses, backed by an unparalleled in-house legal team, with engaging, story-based training designed to create truly enjoyable learning experiences.
Traliant supports over 14,000 organizations worldwide with a library of curated essential courses to broaden employee perspectives, achieve compliance and elevate workplace culture, including sexual harassment training, inclusion training, code of conduct training, and many more.
Backed by PSG, a leading growth equity firm, Traliant holds a coveted position on Inc.’s 5000 fastest-growing private companies in America for four consecutive years, along with numerous awards for its products and workplace culture. For more information, visit http://www.traliant.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
What if a used smartphone could become part of a brand-new device?
Previously confined to the imagination, this idea is now a reality with Samsung Electronics’ Circular Battery Supply Chain — an initiative that recovers and reuses key materials from the batteries of used Galaxy smartphones. The Galaxy S25 marks the first time this closed-loop battery recycling system has been applied to Samsung’s flagship lineup.
Samsung Newsroom spoke with Youngmin Kim from the Circular Economy Lab in the Global Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Office and Sangcheul Lee from the Battery Group in the Mobile eXperience (MX) Business at Samsung Electronics to learn more about the development and impact of this project.
▲ (From left) Sangcheul Lee and Youngmin Kim
Used Galaxy Devices Reborn as Valuable Resources
Each year, approximately 200 tons of waste battery material were collected at Samsung’s production facilities in Vietnam. Countries with proper recycling infrastructure can repurpose used batteries for applications like electric vehicle batteries. Vietnam, however, lacked the means to do so. Recognizing the need for a sustainable solution, the company decided to address the issue.
“Samsung’s Vietnam facilities are among those that generate the highest volume of waste batteries, including defective units from the manufacturing process and batteries recovered from a factory that repairs Galaxy phones traded in from the United States,” said Youngmin Kim. “Our goal was to create a system that would allow us to recycle these resources and reintegrate them into our products.”
▲ Youngmin Kim explains the Circular Battery Supply Chain while showcasing cobalt and cathode materials.
To develop an efficient recycling process for Vietnam’s waste batteries, Samsung partnered with multiple companies to build an optimized resource circularity system that connected cobalt extraction plants with battery production lines in neighboring countries.
“For the Galaxy S24 series, we sourced recycled cobalt externally,” he explained. “However, with the Galaxy S25, we implemented a fully closed-loop recycling system that extracts cobalt directly from discarded Galaxy batteries.”
The collected waste batteries are processed into high-purity cobalt, then shipped to the battery production line where it is integrated into Galaxy S25 batteries. This process transforms electronic waste from used Galaxy devices into a valuable resource, supporting Samsung’s vision for a sustainable circular economy.
▲ Samsung’s Circular Battery Supply Chain in action
More specifically, the Circular Battery Supply Chain begins with collecting used Galaxy smartphones, followed by dismantling and discharging their batteries. These batteries are then shredded and processed into a fine powder known as “black mass.” This material is subsequently refined to extract cobalt — which is used to produce cathode materials, a key component of the Galaxy S25 battery.
The Endless Recyclability of Cobalt
Cobalt is essential for maintaining the stability and performance of lithium-ion batteries in smartphones. While lithium carries electrons within the battery, cobalt facilitates lithium’s movement to ensure optimal battery operation.
▲ Cobalt ore samples
“Cobalt does not degrade with battery use, meaning it can theoretically be recycled indefinitely,” said Lee. “Recycled cobalt and newly mined cobalt are virtually identical — so much so that the difference is indistinguishable in the manufacturing process.”
In essence, Galaxy devices containing cobalt can be recycled and repurposed regardless of their manufacturing date.
▲ Samsung’s Circular Battery Supply Chain on display at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2025 in Barcelona
“The key to extracting high-purity cobalt lies in technology,” said Kim. “Through our Circular Battery Supply Chain, we have successfully recovered and utilized over 90% of the cobalt from the discarded batteries that have been collected.”
Half of the cobalt used in the Galaxy S25 batteries comes from recycled sources — a strong testament to Samsung’s environmental strategy and commitment to reducing its environmental impact while maintaining premium product quality.
The Road to a Reliable and Efficient Circular Supply Chain
Nonetheless, establishing the Circular Battery Supply Chain was no easy feat as the batteries were required to meet stringent global safety and environmental regulations.
▲ Sangcheul Lee explains the certification management process.
“We had to engage with numerous partner companies, navigating complex and rigorous procedures,” recalled Lee. “To prevent fire hazards during transport, the batteries had to be crushed and obtaining the necessary certifications to comply with relevant environmental regulations took considerable time.”
“With constantly evolving regulations and Samsung’s exceptionally high internal standards, we underwent multiple rounds of reviews and certifications,” he added. “Despite the challenges, we persisted as a team and successfully implemented the system in the Galaxy S25.”
Samsung’s Evolving Vision for a Circular Economy
“I felt a great sense of pride when our Circular Battery Supply Chain was showcased at the recent Galaxy Unpacked event,” said Lee, reflecting on the achievement. “I hope to continue developing sustainable batteries by expanding our recycling efforts to include lithium and other materials.”
“With the Galaxy S25, we’ve also reached another significant milestone in resource circularity — wafer trays discarded after semiconductor manufacturing have been repurposed into a plastic used in the side and volume keys,” shared Kim. “We are working on various projects to expand resource circularity across other product lines as well, and we hope our users will continue to join us on our journey.”
Samsung has successfully established a closed-loop battery recycling system through the Circular Battery Supply Chain — turning a vision launched under its 2022 environmental strategy into reality with the Galaxy S25. This milestone has sparked growing anticipation for the next innovations that will emerge from Samsung’s pursuit of a more sustainable future.
Worsening violence between armed groups in Walikale, DRC, has trapped people and our teams and is preventing the delivery of supplies.
If supply routes remain blocked, our teams will start to run out of essential medical supplies in two weeks.
We call on all warring parties to protect civilians, medical facilities, and health workers, and facilitate the delivery of medical supplies.
Escalating violence between armed groups the FARDC and the M23/AFC, and their respective allies, in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo, reached the city of Walikale on 19 March, trapping Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) staff at our base and at the local hospital.
In recent days, the situation has continued to deteriorate. The violence has severely impacted people’s access to healthcare, as 80 per cent of the community has fled the city, after hearing artillery fire and fearing hostilities. Over 700 displaced people are sheltering at the Walikale general hospital, putting additional pressure on already-limited medical resources.
“Our teams on the ground have to put their medical activities on hold when fighting erupts and are unable to move safely,” says Natalia Torrent, head of programmes for MSF in North Kivu. “The safety of our staff and patients is our top priority.”
Heavy gunfire has been heard in the vicinity of our base, highlighting the extreme risks faced by both healthcare workers and the communities they serve. Two weeks ago, a crossfire hit our logistics base, impacting our structures and some of our vehicles. Massive explosions took place near the town’s general hospital, where MSF supports the Ministry of Health in providing medical care.
Critical supply shortages of essential medicines
Today, logistical challenges remain critical, with no viable road or air routes to facilitate the transport of supplies and personnel. Our last supplies by air arrived on 17 January. With the airport remaining inoperative, the delivery of humanitarian supplies is a challenge.
“Within two weeks, our teams on the ground will start facing shortages of essential medicines, further complicating the ability of our teams to provide urgent medical assistance,” says Torrent.
MSF once again calls on all warring parties to respect and protect civilians, medical facilities, and health workers, as well as to facilitate the delivery of medical supplies to the area. We urgently demand safe and guaranteed access to healthcare for all those affected by the conflict.
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The voices of children across the continent will be amplified when more than 1000 children from the African region take part in the upcoming 2nd Biennial Africa Children’s Summit.
South Africa through the Department of Social Development, in collaboration with the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund, will be hosting the second Africa Children’s Summit, scheduled to take place at St John’s College in Parktown, Johannesburg, from 4-7 April 2025.
The summit forms part of a series of activities during the country’s Presidency of the Group of 20 (G20), which will culminate in the G20 Leaders’ Summit in November this year.
The summit aims to promote child-centred dialogue and advocacy; empower children as agents of change and ensure inclusive and equitable participation.
It also aims to provide evidence-based policy recommendations; strengthen collaboration across sectors and regions on the continent; review and advance progress; raise awareness and mobilise for national and regional action.
The child-led summit, which aims to amplify the voices of children in policymaking and decision-making processes across the continent, is also aligned to the African Union (AU) Agenda 2040, and the recent Bogotá 2024 Global Commitment to Ending Violence Against Children.
With just one day remaining before the highly anticipated summit, Social Development Minister, Nokuzola Tolashe, said it was all systems go, ahead of the start of the summit on Friday.
Addressing the media on South Africa’s state of readiness to host the summit in Cape Town on Wednesday, Tolashe said of the 54 states in Africa, 17 have confirmed participation.
“The Summit will bring together 1 300 children from 10-17 years from all five African regions, with around 300 children expected to attend in-person and about 1000 children expected to participate virtually.”
She added that the landmark gathering is aimed at championing child participation and shaping the future trajectory of the African continent with inputs from children.
This follows the inaugural summit held in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2023.
The child-led summit emphasises the importance of children’s agency under the saying “Nothing about us without us”.
“The summit creates a platform … for accelerated action needed to realise the full enjoyment of the human rights and freedoms of all children on the African continent. Because it is led by children themselves, it gives them a collective voice to share their views and hold African leaders and governments to account on key issues affecting them.
“These include democracy, emerging technologies and climate change, promoting inclusive education for all children, [the]role of artificial intelligence (AI) in education, addressing school violence [and] gender-based violence (GBV) against children, amongst others,” Tolashe said.
The Minister also highlighted that the child-friendly programme will feature a dynamic and inclusive structure that is designed to maximise engagement, encourage meaningful participation, and foster intergenerational dialogue.
The structure includes a blend of plenaries, panels, workshops, exhibitions, and cultural events, with hybrid components to enhance accessibility.
Children living with disabilities
The host has also ensured the inclusion of about 50 children with disabilities in the summit.
“Children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable people on the continent. Recent reports point to the harsh realities of their daily lives and that children with disabilities are twice as likely to be victims of sexual abuse as their non-disabled peers.
“Both the CRC [United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child] and the African Children’s Charter, put an obligation on the African State to promote the development of all children, [and] where possible prevent disabilities, and realise the rights of children with disabilities,” Tolashe said.
The CRC is a human rights convention that sets out the civil, political, economic, social, health and cultural rights of children. It was the first international convention that the newly elected democratic government ratified on 16 June 1996.
Tolashe ensured the safety and well-being of the children attending the summit, as the State Security Agency conducted a thorough security vetting, including background checks of 82 caregivers who will be accompanying child delegates at the summit. – SAnews.gov.za
Gauteng Economic Development MEC, Lebogang Maile, says the province is aiming to secure at least R300 billion in investment pledges at the Gauteng Investment Conference (GIC), to be held in Johannesburg.
The MEC was speaking during a media briefing on the state of readiness of the province to host the conference, to be held at the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, in Sandton, on 3 April 2025.
“Leaders across all tiers of government, including Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition, Parks Tau, Premier of Gauteng Premier Lesufi, and Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero, will provide inputs at the conference. The keynote address will be delivered by the Deputy President, who also serves as the Leader of Government Business in South Africa, His Excellency, Paul Mashatile.
“Of equal significance is the large contingent of leaders across the business and government sectors on the African continent, the African diaspora and the globe. With over 50 companies represented, the conference will be a convergence point of the world’s most important companies in various sectors,” Maile said.
The Gauteng province is of importance for South Africa’s economy and contributes at least 33% to the national Gross Domestic Product, and nearly 7% of sub-Saharan Africa’s output.
“The [GIC] is a transformative event in affirming the place of the Gauteng province in the continental economy. We are asserting that the development of Gauteng is in the best interest of South Africa, the Southern African Development Community and the continent broadly.
“Thus, investment in the economy of Gauteng extends beyond the confines of its provincial borders into other lands across the entire continent,” the MEC said.
Furthermore, the conference will also serve as a platform for critical dialogue that will “enable direct engagement between policy makers, investors and industry experts”.
“This will ensure that we come out with tangible and applicable outcomes. The sessions will focus on, amongst other things, public-private infrastructure investments, as well as key Gauteng most dynamic and high growth sectors, including…advanced manufacturing, green and renewable energy, ICT [information and communication technology] and data infrastructure, transport and logistics, smart property development and urban regeneration, as well as tourism and the creative economy,” he said.
Maile emphasised that these sectors are critical to ensuring development on a provincial, national and continental level.
“Investment in these sectors offers the most reliable instrument for ensuring sustainability and development, offering a clear path to economic prosperity that is anchored on inclusive growth, environmental protection and human development,” Maile said. – SAnews.gov.za
Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Roger Southall, Professor of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand
Eddy Maloka, the South African historian, diplomat and academic, argues in his latest book the case for South Africa to forge a “second republic”. What is meant by this is left undefined, but emerges as the making of a new constitution, establishing new institutions.
Maloka’s argument is that South Africa’s transformation since 1994 – the overthrow of an unjust political, economic and social order – has benefited only a few.
Today the country is in crisis – “think load-shedding (power cuts), potholes, economic decline, rampant corruption, collapsing state institutions etc” (p.ii).
This is not unusual, he avers. It is customary for post-revolutionary countries to encounter a crisis. South Africa must now overcome its own and move to a higher stage of development. It can do this by
reconstituting itself into a second republic.
As a social scientist, I have enjoyed Maloka’s previous work, notably his valuable history of South Africa’s Communist Party.
But his latest offering, The Case For a Second Republic – South Africa’s Second Chance, disappoints as ill-thought out, unable to rise above liberation movement theology. It fails to pull together its many interesting ruminations into a coherent whole.
Nonetheless, it is worth exploring his central argument about the need for South Africa to have a new start. It is one which has substantial popular currency – rarely spelt out in detail, but often expressed on social media, radio chat shows and in speeches by politicians who should know better.
Justification for a second republic
The storyline usually goes something like this: the former liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), and the National Party, which had been running South Africa since 1948, negotiated a political settlement in 1994. This has been undermined by the economic compromises which were agreed behind the scenes by large-scale capital and the ANC.
The incoming ANC elite was bought off with goodies such as directorships proffered by large firms, so that capitalism could continue much as usual.
The result has been that, despite the transfer of political power, the structure of the economy has been little changed. Whites continue to enjoy the major portion of the country’s wealth. Although the black elite has been enriched, the black majority continues to carry the burden of massive unemployment, poverty and inequality. It follows that South Africa needs to revisit the political settlement made in 1994.
Because there are significant elements of truth in this analysis, it has gained considerable traction. Witness the call by former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe party for the rewriting of the constitution. Zuma argues parliament should call the shots without being subject to the judgments of the constitutional court.
It’s a tempting call. However, it’s too simplistic. Yes, much of South Africa is broken, but there’s no easy way to fix it – and certainly not by an ill-informed transition to a second republic in the way Maloka suggests.
Out with the old, in with the new
The call for a second republic, declares Maloka, is a call for a strategic break with the 1994 dispensation. He cites the examples of African countries like Mali (where an attempt to re-found the state was made after a military coup in 2021) and Kenya, where after the political violence that followed the 2007 elections, there was an effort to revisit the constitutional foundations of the post-colonial state.
In both cases, new constitutions were drawn up and approved by electorates voting in referenda. In both cases, the re-foundation was principally about the state –
how it is constituted, its territorial governance, the powers of the executive, the separation of powers, and so forth.
But then Maloka admits that the re-foundation process is always going to be contested, and there is no guarantee that it will succeed.
Skotaville Publishers
Maloka views the liberation struggle as having been intended to establish a state based on “people’s power”, a vision endorsed by the ANC’s erstwhile Reconstruction and Development Plan. However, once it came into office, state power was appropriated by Leaders (capital “L”) acting only in their own interests. The people were disempowered, and now wait passively for government to deliver services to them.
There is therefore an urgent need for a post-1994 paradigm. This should:
re-mobilise people politically at a local level, so that they address local problems themselves
install a technocratic and meritocratic state led by performance-driven leaders
allow the direct election of representatives to provide for a parliament that holds the state to account.
Refounding the South African state
How to achieve all this?
Our approach should not be piecemeal … we should be decisive and overhaul the entire dispensation to align it with the times.
People’s power must be its central pillar. To do this, Maloka makes just three major recommendations.
First, he wants the machinery of government to be restructured. Provinces have not proved their worth. They should now be merged into the current system of local government, which could be incorporated into a new three tier state system (although we are not told how), with street committees as its third tier.
Second, the existing electoral system of proportional representation has made parliament and provincial legislatures accountable to party bosses, not the people. A reformed electoral system providing for public representatives and the president to be “directly elected” is necessary. (He dodges more precise discussion of electoral reform.)
Third, for these changes to be achieved, Maloka calls for the drawing up of a new constitution that should be validated through a national referendum. This should be achieved within two years.
No need for a second republic
What is so remarkable about Maloka’s book is that after delivering punchy critiques of the state of South Africa today, it fails to come up with a substantive case for a second republic, which is laid bare as an empty slogan.
If Maloka were to read paragraph 4 of chapter 3 of the existing constitution, he would find that there is already a carefully laid out provision for how bills to amend the constitution may be passed.
Why is it that this process cannot achieve the sort of changes that Maloka wants? If there is a need for wider social dialogue (there may well be), how is this to be achieved? He does not tell us.
However, there is a far more fundamental objection to his call for a second republic. That is that it would call into question the very foundation of the present constitution – its statement of the principles on which the democratic state is founded: human dignity and equality; non-racialism and non-sexism; supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law; and universal suffrage. The bill of rights affirms and protects all these values.
If Maloka wants to jettison these, he should tell us. As it is, his call for a second republic would put them up for grabs.
– South Africa needs a fresh start, says new book: but does the argument hold up? – https://theconversation.com/south-africa-needs-a-fresh-start-says-new-book-but-does-the-argument-hold-up-249502
PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the “Code”)
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Eddy Maloka, the South African historian, diplomat and academic, argues in his latest book the case for South Africa to forge a “second republic”. What is meant by this is left undefined, but emerges as the making of a new constitution, establishing new institutions.
Maloka’s argument is that South Africa’s transformation since 1994 – the overthrow of an unjust political, economic and social order – has benefited only a few.
Today the country is in crisis – “think load-shedding (power cuts), potholes, economic decline, rampant corruption, collapsing state institutions etc” (p.ii).
This is not unusual, he avers. It is customary for post-revolutionary countries to encounter a crisis. South Africa must now overcome its own and move to a higher stage of development. It can do this by
reconstituting itself into a second republic.
As a social scientist, I have enjoyed Maloka’s previous work, notably his valuable history of South Africa’s Communist Party.
But his latest offering, The Case For a Second Republic – South Africa’s Second Chance, disappoints as ill-thought out, unable to rise above liberation movement theology. It fails to pull together its many interesting ruminations into a coherent whole.
Nonetheless, it is worth exploring his central argument about the need for South Africa to have a new start. It is one which has substantial popular currency – rarely spelt out in detail, but often expressed on social media, radio chat shows and in speeches by politicians who should know better.
Justification for a second republic
The storyline usually goes something like this: the former liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), and the National Party, which had been running South Africa since 1948, negotiated a political settlement in 1994. This has been undermined by the economic compromises which were agreed behind the scenes by large-scale capital and the ANC.
The incoming ANC elite was bought off with goodies such as directorships proffered by large firms, so that capitalism could continue much as usual.
The result has been that, despite the transfer of political power, the structure of the economy has been little changed. Whites continue to enjoy the major portion of the country’s wealth. Although the black elite has been enriched, the black majority continues to carry the burden of massive unemployment, poverty and inequality. It follows that South Africa needs to revisit the political settlement made in 1994.
Because there are significant elements of truth in this analysis, it has gained considerable traction. Witness the call by former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe party for the rewriting of the constitution. Zuma argues parliament should call the shots without being subject to the judgments of the constitutional court.
It’s a tempting call. However, it’s too simplistic. Yes, much of South Africa is broken, but there’s no easy way to fix it – and certainly not by an ill-informed transition to a second republic in the way Maloka suggests.
Out with the old, in with the new
The call for a second republic, declares Maloka, is a call for a strategic break with the 1994 dispensation. He cites the examples of African countries like Mali (where an attempt to re-found the state was made after a military coup in 2021) and Kenya, where after the political violence that followed the 2007 elections, there was an effort to revisit the constitutional foundations of the post-colonial state.
In both cases, new constitutions were drawn up and approved by electorates voting in referenda. In both cases, the re-foundation was principally about the state –
how it is constituted, its territorial governance, the powers of the executive, the separation of powers, and so forth.
But then Maloka admits that the re-foundation process is always going to be contested, and there is no guarantee that it will succeed.
Maloka views the liberation struggle as having been intended to establish a state based on “people’s power”, a vision endorsed by the ANC’s erstwhile Reconstruction and Development Plan. However, once it came into office, state power was appropriated by Leaders (capital “L”) acting only in their own interests. The people were disempowered, and now wait passively for government to deliver services to them.
There is therefore an urgent need for a post-1994 paradigm. This should:
re-mobilise people politically at a local level, so that they address local problems themselves
install a technocratic and meritocratic state led by performance-driven leaders
allow the direct election of representatives to provide for a parliament that holds the state to account.
Refounding the South African state
How to achieve all this?
Our approach should not be piecemeal … we should be decisive and overhaul the entire dispensation to align it with the times.
People’s power must be its central pillar. To do this, Maloka makes just three major recommendations.
First, he wants the machinery of government to be restructured. Provinces have not proved their worth. They should now be merged into the current system of local government, which could be incorporated into a new three tier state system (although we are not told how), with street committees as its third tier.
Second, the existing electoral system of proportional representation has made parliament and provincial legislatures accountable to party bosses, not the people. A reformed electoral system providing for public representatives and the president to be “directly elected” is necessary. (He dodges more precise discussion of electoral reform.)
Third, for these changes to be achieved, Maloka calls for the drawing up of a new constitution that should be validated through a national referendum. This should be achieved within two years.
No need for a second republic
What is so remarkable about Maloka’s book is that after delivering punchy critiques of the state of South Africa today, it fails to come up with a substantive case for a second republic, which is laid bare as an empty slogan.
If Maloka were to read paragraph 4 of chapter 3 of the existing constitution, he would find that there is already a carefully laid out provision for how bills to amend the constitution may be passed.
Why is it that this process cannot achieve the sort of changes that Maloka wants? If there is a need for wider social dialogue (there may well be), how is this to be achieved? He does not tell us.
However, there is a far more fundamental objection to his call for a second republic. That is that it would call into question the very foundation of the present constitution – its statement of the principles on which the democratic state is founded: human dignity and equality; non-racialism and non-sexism; supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law; and universal suffrage. The bill of rights affirms and protects all these values.
If Maloka wants to jettison these, he should tell us. As it is, his call for a second republic would put them up for grabs.
Roger Southall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
A Palestinian woman cries while sitting on the rubble of her home, which was destroyed in an Israeli strike on March 18, 2025.Eyad Baba/AFP via Getty Images
Thirty years ago in Israel, advocating for genocide could land you in prison.
In April 1994, an Israeli rabbi named Ido Alba published an article that read, in part, “In war, as long as the war has not been decided, it is a commandment to kill every non-Jew from the nation one is fighting against, even women and children. Even when they do not directly endanger the one killing them, there is concern that they may assist the enemy in the continuation of the war.”
Now the legal system is ignoring similar rhetoric.
In December 2023, following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which resulted in the killing of approximately 1,200 Israeli civilians, soldiers and migrant workers, Rabbi Moshe Ratt, who’s seen as a public intellectual among Israeli West Bank settlers, composed a long post on Facebook.
In it, he noted that in the past, some people may have struggled with the morality of destroying an entire people, including women and children. Now they don’t. Obliquely referring to the Palestinians, he added, “Some nations have descended into such depths of evil and corruption that the only solution is to eradicate them completely, leaving no trace.”
Ratt’s and Vaturi’s words went unpunished. In fact, genocidal rhetoric like theirs – in which the entire destruction of a people is proposed – has become more common in Israel.
They date back to the 1930s, and have gained steam – and more public acceptance – as prospects for peace fell apart in the 1990s, existential anxiety among Israelis has grown, and religious Zionists have gained more political power in the 21st century.
Repeated violence and attacks can fuel existential anxiety among settlers, along with fantasies of achieving “permanent security” or absolute safety against future threats. Among Jewish Israelis, the collective memory of persecution – culminating in the genocide of European Jews during the Holocaust – has added another important layer to the longing for permanent security.
Biblical genocidal stories
In Israel, there’s also a history of biblical justifications for violence and genocide. This sort of rhetoric has waxed and waned over time; it’ll often exist on the margins in times of relative peace, but move into the mainstream during periods of violence and existential anxiety.
This created an opening for political leaders to use biblical texts to promote political goals.
The Bible contains some explicit narratives of annihilation. The most well known is the story of Amalek, a nomadic people identified in the Book of Deuteronomy as the archenemy of the Israelites. In Chapter 25, Moses commanded the Israelites to “blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.” A related commandment involves the annihilation of the Seven Nations of Canaan, which inhabited the “promised land” when the Israelites conquered it. In Chapter 20, the Israelites are commanded: “You shall not leave a single soul alive. Completely destroy.”
Throughout Jewish history, these edicts and stories have generally been interpreted as historical accounts or as metaphors, not commands to commit genocide.
However, settlers of lands occupied by indigenous peoples – not just in Israel, but in other countries, too – have deployed these texts to condone mass violence. For example, in colonial America, Puritan settlers justified massacres of Native Americans by comparing them with Amalek.
During the Arab-Israeli war in 1948, Israeli army education officers distributed texts to soldiers that read, “In biblical times, Saul exterminated all of Amalek, men and women, youth and elderly, and even sheep and cattle.” The materials also noted that “biblical Joshua was commanded to annihilate the nations of the land and was forbidden to make any treaties with them.”
For religious Zionists, the state of Israel is a sacred endeavor. They’ve generally been less interested than secular Zionists in adhering to international norms and taking geopolitical considerations into account when pushing for the settlement of contested territories.
After 1967, religious settler movements were emboldened. Groups such as Gush Emunim pushed the government to settle the newly occupied territories, which included the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. For these religious Zionists, the settlement project is not simply a land grab: Settlers are taking land that the Bible has promised to them.
In 1980, Israel Hess, who then held the official position as rabbi of Israel’s Bar-Ilan University, wrote in the student bulletin, “In a war between Israel and Amalek, it is a commandment to kill and annihilate infants and babies. And who is Amalek? Anyone who launches a war against the Jews.” These words triggered public backlash and prompted protests from several secular Zionist politicians.
Existential fears grow
In the 1990s, calls for widespread violence were largely marginalized, since there was hope for a political compromise with the Palestinians.
After these talks failed, however, the rhetoric and ideas of religious Zionists continued to migrate to the political center, particularly during and after the Palestinian uprising known as the Second Intifada. Taking place from 2000 to 2005, the uprising involving a series of suicide attacks in Israeli cities profoundly shocked the Jewish Israeli public, spurring the reemergence of deep existential anxiety.
Rescue workers rush an injured Israeli woman from the scene of a Palestinian suicide bombing on Jan. 27, 2002, in Jerusalem. Getty Images
With no peaceful solution for the conflict on the horizon, Israeli and Palestinian figures who viewed politics through a theological framework kept accumulating power.
In 2014, Ayelet Shaked, then a member of the Knesset and later the minister of justice, shared an article on social media that read, “The Palestinian people declared war on us, and we have to fight back … and in wars the enemy is usually an entire people, with its old men and women, its cities and villages, its property and infrastructure.”
Meanwhile, the dean of Quranic studies at the Islamic University of Gaza said in a 2015 television interview, “All Jews in Palestine today are fair game – even the women.”
As each side retaliated against the other, annihilation started to sound like a reasonable solution – a process that historian Yoav Di-Capua has termed “genocidal mirroring.”
The perfect storm
This mirroring does not imply a symmetry. Israel, with its superior military capabilities, has a significantly greater capacity to inflict harm on Palestinians.
The government formed in Israel following the 2022 election was unprecedented. For the first time in the nation’s history, the government depended upon ultranationalist religious factions, such as one called Jewish Power. The party has three official rabbis who advise its politicians. One of them, Dov Lior, is a prominent advocate of the idea that Palestinians are Amalek. Another, Yisrael Ariel, has written that the Torah’s commandment “Thou shalt not kill” does not apply to non-Jews.
As Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, the head of a military program for religious students in Jaffa, said in March 2024:
“If you don’t kill them first, they will kill you. The terrorists of today are the children of the previous operation whom you kept alive, and the women are those who produce the terrorists … Do not try to outsmart the Torah. The Torah tells you: ‘Do not keep alive any soul,’ so you should not keep alive any soul.”
Some secular Israelis joined in. Danny Neuman, a former football star and television commentator, said on TV in December 2023, “I am telling you, in Gaza, without exception, they are all terrorists, sons of dogs. They must be exterminated, all of them killed.”
Kinneret Barashi, a lawyer and a television host, tweeted in February 2025, “Every trace of the murderous mutations in Gaza must be erased, from the delivery rooms to the last elderly person in Gaza.”
These statements coincide with a grim reality on the ground. Since the Oct. 7 attacks, Israeli retaliation in Gaza has cost the lives of more than 64,000 Palestinians. Public health experts estimate that the obliteration of infrastructure and corresponding starvation, lack of access to medical care and spread of infectious diseases, could bring the death toll to the hundreds of thousands.
Meanwhile, large swaths of the Israeli public appear to support the mass expulsion of Palestinians and condone the concept of genocide in the abstract, according to a recent poll I commissioned through the Israeli polling firm Geocartography.
In the representative sample of Jewish Israelis who were polled from March 10-11, 2025, 82% supported the forced expulsion of Gaza’s population to other countries, while 56% endorsed the expulsion of Israel’s Arab citizens. By comparison, according to a 2003 poll, only 46% supported the “transfer of Palestinian residents of the occupied territories,” and just 31% supported the “transfer of Israel’s Arab citizens.”
Moreover, in my poll I relayed a story from the Book of Joshua, in which the ancient Israelites conquered the city of Jericho and killed all of its inhabitants. When I asked respondents whether the Israeli army, when conquering an enemy city, should act similarly to the Israelites when they conquered Jericho, 47% of respondents said they should.
Tamir Sorek previously received funding from the Fullbright Program and the Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation.
The U.S. operates one of the largest and most punitive criminal justice systems in the world. On any given day, 1.9 million people are incarcerated in more than 6,000 federal, state and local facilities. Another 3.7 million remain under what scholars call “correctional control” through probation or parole supervision.
That means one out of every 60 Americans is entangled in the system — one of the highest rates globally.
Yet despite its vast reach, the criminal justice system often fails at its most basic goal: preventing people from being rearrested, reconvicted or reincarcerated. Criminal justice experts call this “recidivism.” About 68% of people who leave prison in any given year are rearrested within three years, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
It’s certainly easy to blame individuals for getting rearrested or reincarcerated. But if you take a closer look at life after release – which often includes employment discrimination, housing barriers and exclusion from basic social services – recidivism seems less like a personal failure, I would argue, and more the workings of a broken system.
As a sociologist, I know that people are rarely given a “second chance” after conviction. Instead, they must navigate a web of legally imposed restrictions. Roughly 19 million people in the U.S. have a felony record, subjecting them to thousands of “collateral consequences,” in the words of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. These restrictions dictate everything from what jobs they can take to where they can live.
I’ve recently undertaken research to understand the scale of this issue, aided by my former undergraduate student Skylar Hathorn, who is set to begin a master’s degree in the fall. What we found was sobering. As sociologist Reuben Miller and historian Amanda Alexander have put it, people convicted of felonies are transformed into “carceral citizens.”
Why probation and parole are part of the problem
Probation is community supervision, typically imposed by courts as an alternative to incarceration, and parole is a type of prison release under community supervision. While community supervision was originally designed to help those convicted of crimes reintegrate into society – through mentorship, supportive services and other resources – today, in my view, it largely functions as a punitive surveillance system.
Instead of helping people reintegrate, the system enforces rules – such as forbidding contact with friends or family members who have criminal records – which create new challenges for people trying to rebuild their lives after prison. As one individual from my recent study on reentry put it, “That shit ain’t helping nobody.”
On average, people under community supervision must comply with 10 to 20 conditions, such as mandatory drug tests, regular check-ins with supervising officers, or curfews. These requirements are typically set at the state, county or city level, and can be supplemented with “discretionary” or “special” conditions imposed by court or parole officials.
But while community supervision is supposed to encourage reintegration and personal responsibility, its conditions are often unrealistic, creating hidden traps rather than pathways to success.
For example, imagine you’re lucky enough to find a decent job despite having a criminal record – but your probation officer schedules weekly meetings during your work hours. Do you skip work and risk losing your job? Or miss the meeting and risk a violation? Research shows that this dilemma is common. In one study of almost 4,000 people on probation, 55% missed at least one meeting with their parole officer, increasing their risk of reincarceration.
What if you aren’t able to find a job or can’t afford to pay the supervision fees charged each month? Does contact with a family member who happens to have a criminal record defy a condition of your supervision? Will a speeding ticket land you in jail, since you aren’t supposed to have any contact with law enforcement? What happens if you struggle with addiction and fail a drug test? Or what if you forget to charge your electronic ankle monitor — will your parole officer suspect foul play?
Depending on the conditions of your release, all of these seemingly minor snags could land you back behind bars. That’s why some scholars describe this system as a “parole- and probation-to-prison pipeline.” According to recent estimates, 35% to 40% of yearly prison admissions are of people who were on community supervision at their time of rearrest. In some states, over half of all prison entries are of people on either parole or probation.
State-level success stories – and failures
Importantly, if you’re on probation or parole, your chances of being sent back to prison are very different depending on where you live. You can see just how different by visiting the Justice Outcomes Explorer, a new data dashboard created by the Criminal Justice Administrative Records System. For example, among Idahoans who began a term of probation in 2018, roughly 16.6% were sent to prison within a year. Among Minnesotans, it was just 1.6%.
According to the Justice Outcomes Explorer, parole outcomes are even worse, though yet again they vary by state. Among those released on parole in 2018 from Utah prisons, roughly 51.6% were reincarcerated within a year. In California, that number was less than 7%. Although some variation may come from differences in data collection, much of it reflects policy choices.
Part of the problem is that probation and parole offices vary considerably. For instance, some states cap how long someone may remain on parole, while others allow parole boards to extend that time indefinitely. This creates a system where, in effect, parole boards operate as resentencing entities. Differences in supervision fees, restrictions on associating with others, and the use of electronic monitoring also vary by state.
Research suggests that Americans under community supervision must comply with many more conditions than they did just a few decades ago, which raises the question: Does any of this work?
For example, one study compared people who were randomly placed under intensive probation supervision — requiring more office check-ins, home visits and drug tests — with those under traditional supervision. Researchers found that while both groups committed new crimes at the same rate, those under intensive supervision received technical violations – such as failing a drug test or not following curfew – more often, and were incarcerated more.
In another rigorous study out of Kansas, using what researchers call a “natural experiment,” legal scholar Ryan Sakoda found that post-release supervision significantly increased reincarceration rates. This suggests that community supervision keeps people trapped in the system, rather than helping them escape it.
In fact, according to estimates from the Council of State Governments, almost one-quarter of all prison admissions are due to technical violations of supervision, not new crimes. And even progressive states can enforce technical rules rigidly. For instance, Massachusetts sends a relatively small number of people back to prison or jail while they are on parole. But after retrieving data from a public records request, Skylar and I found that between 2020 and 2022, roughly 80% of all parole revocations were due to technical violations.
That said, the overall number of people admitted to U.S. prisons for technical violations has fallen significantly over the past few years. In 2018, roughly 133,000 people were admitted to prison for technical violations. By 2021, that number was around 89,000 – a decrease of about 33%.
Rethinking community supervision
Historically, community supervision wasn’t intended to be a form of punishment — it’s supposed to help individuals reintegrate. But that’s not the way it currently works. If states are serious about reducing crime, they should think about reinventing the system.
In 2021, New York implemented the “Less is More” Community Supervision and Revocation Reform Act, which reformed parole and reduced incarceration for technical violations. The act limits jail time for such violations to 30 days, allows early parole release and requires court hearings within 30 days. Within the first month of being enacted, the number of technical parole violators had fallen by 40%. By April 2022, technical violators only made up 1.7% of the daily state jail population. They had previously made up about 5% on average.
Along with policies that prevent criminalization in the first place, states that want to prevent recidivism could consider dedicating more resources to programs that help people with life after release. Offering supports such as housing and even direct cash assistance would help people reintegrate into society and create safer communities, research indicates.
On a similar note, criminal records limit access to a range of resources and opportunities such as housing, higher education, voting and social benefits like basic food assistance.
Simply having a criminal record also reduces the likelihood – by roughly 60% – that someone receives a callback after applying for a job. That’s why Skylar and I support automatic criminal record expungement, among other structural reforms.
Put plainly: Research points toward a system in need of comprehensive solutions. Without them, many will remain in the incarceration trap.
Skylar Hathorn, a recent graduate of Suffolk University and master’s student starting in September 2025, contributed to this article.
Lucius Couloute has previously received funding from Mayors for a Guaranteed Income to carry out independent research on the impacts of direct cash transfers in the lives of formerly incarcerated people. Lucius is also a board member of the Prison Policy Initiative.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Rita V. Burke, Associate Professor of Clinical Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California
The fires first erupted on Jan. 7, 2025, in the Pacific Palisades, a small enclave of Los Angeles, and in Eaton Canyon, where the tight-knit community of Altadena is nestled in the foothills just north of Pasadena. Fierce winds pushed the flames through neighborhoods, making this one of the top five most destructive wildfires in California history.
In the immediate aftermath of this disaster, much of the focus has been, rightfully, on lives lost, homes damaged or destroyed, and the ability to maintain livelihoods. But noticeably missing from most media coverage have been the consequences of the wildfires for children and discussion of the unique challenges they face surrounding disasters.
But when the destruction impacts your own community, it hits differently. Like many others, we were directly affected by the school closures and poor air quality in the Los Angeles area.
We both had friends and colleagues who suffered property damage in the fires, including Rita’s best friend who lost her home in the Altadena fire. Our work, which focuses on disaster recovery and resilience in children, suddenly felt deeply personal.
We are currently studying the effect of wildfires on families and what factors help children recover faster and lead to more resilient lives.
The importance of schools
School districts across the region closed their doors due to dangerous air quality and structural damage. This included the Los Angeles Unified School District, which is the second-largest in the nation, serving over 500,000 students. Some schools were destroyed, while others were left with hazardous conditions, including toxic ash from burned homes. Even when schools reopened, many parents and caregivers were worried about sending their children back into classrooms that might not be safe.
According to the Education Recovery Scorecard, as of spring 2024 the average U.S. student remained nearly half a grade level behind prepandemic achievement in math and reading, which points to the long-term impacts of school closures.
Rita’s best friend who lost her home shared that when it came to her children, her immediate priority “was getting them back into some type of normalcy.”
To her, this meant sending them back to school, but this wasn’t possible right away. “With the holidays and then the fires, my daughter was out of school for almost two months,” she said.
Her concerns about her children echo those of many parents in the wake of disasters.
After the 2020 Slater Fire in Happy Camp, California, a rural town about 25 miles south of the Oregon border, we conducted focus groups with children who had lost homes and schools.
Our study found that despite experiencing profound loss, many of the children expressed gratitude for their communities and an eagerness to rebuild. Their perspectives revealed both resilience and critical gaps in disaster response – gaps that we see unfolding in Los Angeles today.
One of the biggest lessons from the Slater Fire and other disasters is that children recover best when they are given a sense of stability and normalcy as quickly as possible. The faster children can return to a routine, the better their emotional and academic outcomes tend to be. Schools, child care facilities and structured activities all play a crucial role in this process.
Helping children cope with stress
To assist parents and caregivers in navigating difficult conversations after a natural disaster, substantial research has explored how to talk to kids about disasters.
For families navigating the emotional toll of this disaster, open conversations are key. Avoiding the topic in an attempt to protect children can make them more anxious. Instead, caregivers should create space for children to express their emotions and ask questions. Children’s responses to trauma vary based on their age and experiences, but common reactions may include anxiety about future wildfires, trouble sleeping, and withdrawing from activities they once enjoyed.
Children need help from the adults in their lives to cope with stress after a natural disaster.
Children may react differently, and it is important to be on the lookout for signs of stress. Younger children between ages 1 and 5 may become more irritable and may exhibit signs of developmental regression.
Tweens and teens may also find comfort in the shared experience with their friends. Rita’s best friend shared that her 11-year-old daughter and 10 of her friends named their chat group “70% homeless,” a telling reflection of how they are processing the disaster together.
Caring for our children after a disaster
Organizations such as Project:Camp, a nonprofit that provides pop-up camps for children affected by disasters, have stepped in to offer immediate child care relief in Eagle Rock, California, about 8 miles from Altadena. These programs not only support children’s mental health by offering structured, trauma-informed care in a fun environment, but they also give caregivers the time and space necessary to begin rebuilding their lives.
The services provided by these sorts of programs can serve as models that can be incorporated into the planning process for cities and counties. This allows more time for adults to focus on recovery needs while limiting the time that children must spend alone.
For families still struggling after the LA fires, we recommend talking to school counselors, seeking community support and contacting local disaster relief programs.
Looking ahead
Rebuilding after a disaster is about more than just reconstructing homes and infrastructure. It’s about restoring a sense of security for families, especially children.
If there is one thing our research has taught us, it is that children are incredibly resilient. But resilience is not built in isolation. Rather, it comes from strong support systems, thoughtful policies and communities that put their youngest members first in times of crisis. Prioritizing schools and child care centers in recovery plans helps to ensure that children can return to safe, supportive environments as soon as possible.
Rita V. Burke received funding from funding from the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder with the Support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Science Foundation for this work. She is also funded by the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response. She is also Chair of the Board of Advisors for Project:Camp.
Santina Contreras receives funding from the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado Boulder with the Support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Science Foundation.
As soon as the genetic testing company 23andMe filed for bankruptcy on March 23, 2025, concerns about what would happen to the personal information contained in its massive genetic and health information database were swift and widespread. A few days after, a U.S. judge ruled that the company could sell its consumer data as part of the bankruptcy.
The attorneys general of several states warned their citizens to delete their genetic data. California urged its citizens to request that 23andMe delete their data and destroy their spit samples. Michigan’s attorney general released a statement warning that “23andMe collects and stores some of the most sensitive personal information, our genetic code.”
When customers originally signed up for 23andMe, they agreed to terms and conditions and a privacy notice that allows the company to use their information for research and development as well as share their data, in aggregate, with third parties. If consumers consented to additional research, which the vast majority did, the company can additionally share their individual information with third parties. 23andMe has also been clear that if it is involved in a bankruptcy or sale of assets, consumer information might be sold or transferred.
While 23andMe has warned customers all along about everything that is currently happening, many are still surprised and concerned.
I’m a lawyer and bioethicist who has been studying direct-to-consumer genetic testing for almost a decade. Understanding what information 23andMe has been collecting, and how it might be used if sold or shared, can help clarify concerns for consumers.
The direct-to-consumer business model is fairly straightforward: A consumer orders a genetic test kit online, spits into a tube that comes in the mail, returns it to the company and accesses their results in an online portal. Over 15 million consumers bought 23andMe, and the vast majority consented to its research. At its peak, the company was valued at US$6 billion.
The fate of the trove of personal information 23andMe has gathered over the years has wide-ranging implications for consumers.
Reasons for this rapid decline include a decrease in the sale of test kits after a 2023 hack of almost 7 million people’s data, as well as a failure to profit enough from providing data access to other private sector companies. Lack of private interest in 23andMe data may be related to the fact that much of the information the company collects is self-reported, which is often considered less reliable than information written down by a doctor in a medical record.
What kind of data does 23andMe collect?
While the saying goes “If you’re not paying, you’re the product,” 23andMe managed to convince its consumers to both pay for AND be the product. It did this by selling genetic testing kits to consumers as well as collecting a massive amount of their valuable data.
This means that not only does 23andMe possess the genetic data of 15 million people, but it also possesses almost a billion additional data points associated with this genetic information. This makes the 23andMe dataset potentially very private – and very valuable.
At first, drug companies seemed to agree. For example, in 2018, 23andMe granted pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline an exclusive license to use consented customer data to develop new drugs. GlaxoSmithKline also made a $300 million equity investment in 23andMe. When 23andMe went public in 2021, its $6 billion valuation reflected the promise of this business model.
But for over a decade, scholars, including me, have been warning that allowing 23andMe to collect and use personal data was not one that customers fully understood, or were actually comfortable with.
What should 23andMe customers worry about?
In response to current public concern about data privacy, 23andMe has stated that there will be no changes to how it stores and protects data during its bankruptcy proceedings. But once that stage is through, what exactly should customers worry about?
First, law enforcement could use genetic information in civil or criminal cases. This happened in 2018, when police used the genetic testing company GEDmatch to help identify the Golden State Killer. Police pretended they were customers looking for genealogy data and sent in an old crime scene blood spot. This allowed them to connect to known suspects with blood relatives who had given their genetic information to the company as consumers. While this was in violation of GEDmatch’s own policies, the evidence was successfully used in court.
Second, genetic information could be used to discriminate against customers if it shows that they have or are at high risk of developing a genetic disease or disorder. The federal Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act prohibits health insurers and employers from asking about genetic information or using it to discriminate in work or health insurance decisions. It does not, however, protect against discrimination in long-term care or life insurance.
Giving someone your genetic, medical and personal information gives them opportunities to exploit you. Westend61/Getty Images
Many of the warnings from the media and attorneys general are focused on genetic information because it is unique to only one person. But direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies also retain a massive amount of personal information from the surveys consumers are asked to complete. Much of this information could be embarrassing if it were inadvertently or intentionally revealed, such as a person’s intelligence.
In the 2025 book “Careless People,” former Meta executive Sarah Wynn-Williams reported that Facebook would use indications of self-consciousness about personal appearance, such as deleting a selfie, to promote beauty products. If companies know such intimate details about a person, they could not only be used to sell products, but also potentially manipulate them over social media or the internet in ways they do not even realize. It could be used for targeted advertising or to build algorithms that exploit a person’s vulnerabilities.
I believe consumers are right to be worried about how their genetic data could be misused. But the survey data containing all sorts of other personal information are at least as much, if not more, of a privacy problem. This is particularly concerning if the data is pooled together with other information available on the internet, like a dating profile, to create a more detailed – and personal – picture of an individual.
I am deleting my own 23andMe data. In the future, I would also warn consumers against freely gifting the private sector with information about their fears, hopes, limitations and successes.
That information is valuable to more people than just you.
Kayte Spector-Bagdady receives funding from the National Center for Advancing Transnational Sciences and the Greenwall Foundation.
Imagine you’ve planned the trip of a lifetime for your animal-loving family: a cruise to Antarctica with the unique opportunity to view penguins, whales and other rare wildlife. Your adventure-loving kids can kayak through fjords, plunge into icy water and camp under the Antarctic sky.
But rather than being ecstatic, as you anticipated, your kids whine about skipping an after-school scout meeting at a neighbor’s house. Missing this ordinary weekly event triggers such intense FOMO – “fear of missing out” – for them that they don’t want to go on your amazing expedition.
If this kind of debacle sounds familiar to you – or at least if you find it perplexing – you’re not alone. The three of us are marketingprofessors andsocial psychologists who focus on how consumers make decisions and how this shapes well-being. We’ve been studying FOMO for over a decade and recently published our work in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Over the years, we’ve learned what really drives intense feelings of FOMO – which explains why a run-of-the-mill meeting might feel more crucial than an over-the-top vacation.
FOMO’s real trigger
People use the term FOMO in many different ways. In our research, we focus on a very specific type of FOMO: the kind that occurs when people miss out on events that involve valued social connections.
With this kind of FOMO, we found that the pain of missing out is not related to missing the actual event or opportunity – although that could be there as well. The FOMO we study happens when people miss the chance to bond with friends, co-workers or teammates they care about.
So, the critical part of FOMO is missing out on interactions with people you value. FOMO about a group dinner at a restaurant isn’t really about the food and great lighting. Nor is FOMO about a concert just about the band’s performance. Instead, it’s about the lost opportunity to connect and make memories with people who are important to you.
Why is this upsetting? Imagine the scenario where all your best friends go out to dinner without you. They bond and make lasting memories with each other – and you’re not there for any of it.
If they get closer to each other, where does that leave you? What happens to your social relationships and your sense of belonging? Do you become a less important friend? Less worthy of future invites? Or even kicked out of the group altogether? The anxiety of FOMO can begin to spiral.
People with what psychologists call an anxiousattachment style chronically fear rejection and isolation from others. Because FOMO involves anxiety about future social belonging, it may not come as a surprise that people who are naturally more anxious about their friendships tend to get more intense FOMO. When we asked people in one of our studies to scroll social media until they encountered something social they missed, we found that the more anxiously attached a participant was, the more intense FOMO they experienced.
Getting FOMO for an amazing event you can’t attend makes sense. But if FOMO is less about the event itself and more about the social bonding, what happens when you miss something that’s not really fun at all?
We find that people anticipate FOMO even for unenjoyable missed events. As long as there is some form of missed social bonding, feelings of FOMO emerge. One of our studies found that people anticipated more FOMO from missing an un-fun event that their friends would be at, than a fun event without their friends.
For better or for worse, sad and stressful events can often be emotionally bonding: Going to a funeral to support a friend, cleaning up the mess after a party, or even white-knuckling through a harrowing initiation ceremony can all offer opportunities to forge stronger connections with one another. Stressful contexts like these can be fertile grounds for FOMO.
How to fend off FOMO
Popular discussions about the negative consequences of FOMO tend to focus on the FOMO people feel from compulsively scrolling on social media and seeing what they missed out on. Consequently, much of the suggestedadvice on howto mitigate FOMO centers on turning off phones or taking a vacation from social media.
Those recommendations may be tough for many people to execute. Plus, they address the symptoms of FOMO, not the cause.
Our finding that the core of FOMO is anxiety about missed social relationships yields a simpler strategy to combat it: Reminding yourself of the last time you connected with close friends may provide a sense of security that staves off feelings of FOMO.
In an experiment testing multiple interventions, we asked 788 study participants to look through their social media feeds until they encountered a post of a missed social event. We asked about 200 of these participants to immediately rate how much FOMO they were feeling. They averaged a 3.2 on a 1-to-7 scale.
Another group of about 200 participants also scrolled through their social media feeds until they encountered a post of a missed social event. But before indicating how much FOMO they were feeling, we asked them to think back to a prior experience socializing and bonding with their friends. Encouragingly, this reflection exercise seemed to curtail FOMO. Their average FOMO rating was 2.7 out of 7, a significant drop.
Reminding yourself about other good times with your pals can help keep FOMO at bay. AJ_Watt/E+ via Getty Images
With the remaining participants, we tested other strategies for mitigating FOMO – thinking about the next time they might see their friends or imagining what they’d say to a FOMO-suffering friend – but the simple reflection exercise was by far the most promising.
So, reminding yourself of the meaningful relationships you already have and reaffirming your social belonging in the moment may help combat the rush of anxiety that is characteristic of FOMO.
And missing out on social bonding experiences doesn’t have to be anxiety-provoking. In fact, in our activity-packed, hectic lives, missing some “must-attend” events may be a welcome relief – especially if you remind yourself that your social belonging is not in jeopardy. Cue a recent wave of counter-FOMO programming called JOMO, or “Joy of Missing Out.”
To quote Stuart Smalley, the fictional self-help guru of 1990s “Saturday Night Live,” reminding yourself that “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!” might be just the trick to mitigate FOMO.
Jacqueline Rifkin received grant funding support for this project from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI).
Barbara Kahn received funding from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI) and research support from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.
Cindy Chan received grant funding support for this project from the Marketing Science Institute (MSI).
Responding to Israel defence minister Israel Katz’s statement that the country aimed to seize large areas of the Palestinian territory and incorporate them into “security zones”, (1) Ellie Chowns, MP for North Herefordshire and Green Party Foreign Affairs spokesperson, said:
“The Green Party condemns in the strongest possible terms the Israeli government’s brutal decision to expand its military operations in Gaza. Seizing large areas of territory and forcibly displacing countless Gazans to create so-called “security zones” would be a further violation of international law against a population already devastated by 18 months of conflict.
“This is not security; it is domination and erasure. It would constitute ethnic cleansing and further collective punishment on a mass scale, and it would only deepen the unimaginable suffering already endured by the people of Gaza.
“More than 50,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, and the humanitarian crisis could not be more dire. Israeli forces have maintained a total blockade of aid since early March, cutting off food, water, and medical supplies while bombs continue to fall. Last month, Israeli forces killed yet more medics, first responders, and a UN staff member, forcing the UN to reduce its operations.
“The UK government cannot remain silent while genocide is carried out in plain sight. We cannot be complicit in this horror by continuing to arm and support the Israeli government. There is no justification—legal, moral, or political—for aiding a state that systematically targets civilians, destroys homes and hospitals, and plans to occupy yet more Palestinian land.
“The Green Party has consistently called for the release of the hostages, an immediate ceasefire, a complete halt to arms sales to Israel, and recognition of the State of Palestine. We also urgently push for humanitarian corridors to be opened so that aid can reach those who are starving and injured. We owe it to the Palestinian people, to international justice, and to our own humanity to demand an end to this bloodshed and to take a stand against genocide.
“Our thoughts are with the civilians of Gaza, whose courage and resilience in the face of such horror move us to keep fighting for justice, peace, and accountability. We will not look away.”
More football teams will be able to enjoy playing the beautiful game at Eaton Park, thanks to a transformative project to make the changing rooms more accessible, sustainable, and inclusive.
Work is underway to convert part of the Southwest Pavillion, a listed building, into a modern, FA-compliant changing space, allowing for male and female teams to use it simultaneously. This part of the pavilion was built between 1921 and 1933 and was designed to be used as a changing facility for those using the park for sporting activities.
The improvements are set to significantly increase women’s participation in football, an area currently underrepresented in the park, as well as enabling more teams, including higher league clubs, to use Eaton Park’s pitches. The changing facilities will also be made available for other sports and for events in the park.
Builders are already on-site to prepare the area for work, which is expected to be completed over the summer. There will be no access to the changing facilities for the duration of the work, but access to toilets will unaffected. The area has been fenced off to minimise disruption at the park.
This upgrade is funded by Norwich City Council, the Greater Norwich Growth Board through the Infrastructure Investment Fund, as well the the Premier League, The FA and Government via the Football Foundation. It has also been supported by the Friends of Eaton Park. The initiative aims to boost the health and wellbeing of residents by encouraging greater use of the park, particularly through improved sports facilities, enhanced infrastructure, and environmentally friendly technology integration.
Improvements include:
Upgraded changing facilities – the current nine-room facility will be transformed into four modern changing rooms with individual entrances, shower cubicles, toilets, and privacy screens, making them fully FA-compliant while respecting the building’s Grade II-listed status. Two dedicated officials’ changing rooms will also be created, ensuring male and female referees have private, compliant spaces.
Sustainable technology – the refurbished changing block will incorporate solar panels, a heat pump, PIR sensor lighting, and energy-efficient LED fixtures, aligning with the city’s environmental commitments.
Expanded cycle storage – Ten new cycle storage racks will be strategically placed throughout the park to encourage active travel, reduce car dependency, and contribute to Norwich’s climate responsive ambitions by lowering CO2 emissions.
With support from the Football Foundation and Norfolk FA, Norwich City Council will ensure these upgrades meet the highest standards while preserving the park’s historical significance.
Davina Howes, Norwich City Council’s executive director for Communities said: “Upgrading the changing rooms is a significant step in allowing more people to enjoy sport in one of our much-loved parks.
“This project will create a more inclusive, sustainable, and welcoming space for all residents, reinforcing Eaton Park as a hub for community engagement and physical activity.”
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
The international student construction team “Dune” has completed its work in Egypt. 49 people from different parts of our country worked at the construction site of the first Egyptian nuclear power plant “El-Dabaa”. Polytechnic University was represented in the team by fifth-year student of IPMET Darina Zaitseva and sixth-year student of ISI Maria Khorosheva.
The International Student Construction Team “Dune” was founded in 2021 and is a labor project of the All-Russian Youth Public Organization “Russian Student Teams”. The host organization of the labor project is the holding company “TITAN-2” (a strategic partner of the State Corporation “Rosatom”). This is one of the largest holdings that carries out construction, installation and other types of work at construction sites in Russia and abroad.
Darina Zaitseva worked at the construction site of the nuclear power plant in the economics and finance directorate (control and other expenses department). She kept a register of memos on employee transfers, processed documents and entered information into a special program. Based on the results of her work, Darina was recognized as the best fighter in the detachment.
Of course, this is an unforgettable experience. Both in terms of working in another country and in terms of working on a project of such a scale! I never thought that I would ever be able to take part in the construction of a nuclear power plant. Immersion in another culture, completely different from ours, gave me vivid impressions. It is one thing to come as a tourist, and another to live for two months in constant interaction with local residents. And I want to say a big thank you for the fascinating excursions to the management of the TITAN-2 holding. In general, no matter how you look at it, this entire trip was filled with new experiences and unforgettable emotions! – said Darina.
Maria Khorosheva worked in the quality control directorate, visiting the construction site daily as part of the inspection commission. In addition to work, excursions were organized for the children to the Alexandria Library, the World War II Museum in El Alamein, and, of course, to Cairo to visit the famous pyramids of Giza.
Working on such a large-scale project once again proved to me how much I love construction. It was very interesting not only to watch, but also to participate in the construction of a unique industrial building, such as a nuclear power plant. For me, this experience showed what kind of construction industry I would like to work in. And, of course, I went abroad for the first time and fulfilled my childhood dream – to visit Africa! – shared Maria.
El Dabaa NPP is the first nuclear power plant in Egypt. It is being built in the city of the same name in the Matrouh Governorate on the Mediterranean coast, approximately 300 kilometers northwest of Cairo. El Dabaa consists of four power units with a capacity of 1,200 megawatts each, equipped with Russian-class VVER-1200 water-moderated reactors of the latest third generation.
In 2022, workers at the El Dabaa NPP successfully completed the course of Russian as a foreign language and received certificates. The training was organized by the Rosatom Technical Academy as part of the comprehensive training of specialists. The training complex, designed for accelerated language acquisition, was developed by teachers of the Center for Russian as a Foreign Language (Center for RCL) of the Higher School of International Educational Programs of SPbPU.
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EL PASO, Texas – A Cuban national was sentenced in a federal court in El Paso to 111 months in prison for conspiracy to transport illegal aliens, conspiracy to harbor aliens, and sexual assault of an alien, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The U.S. Border Patrol assisted with the case.
“Justice was served today for a stash house operator who organized the smuggling of hundreds of illegal aliens and sexually assaulted one of them, all while cramming individuals into tractor-trailers in the sweltering Texas heat,” said ICE Homeland Security Investigations El Paso Special Agent in Charge Jason T. Stevens. “HSI is committed to aggressively targeting human smugglers and smuggling organizations that continuously exploit individuals for profit. We will relentlessly pursue these criminals who prey on vulnerable people, ensuring they are held accountable for their actions.”
According to court documents, Humberto Yosvany Arriola-Rivero, 30, assisted in the harboring of illegal aliens and managed a stash house in El Paso. He also was an occupant in a vehicle that fled law enforcement that was transporting more than a dozen illegal aliens in April 2023. An investigation revealed that Arriola-Rivero sexually assaulted one of the illegal aliens at the El Paso stash house. Arriola-Rivero was indicted by a federal grand jury on May 17, 2023, and was arrested Sept. 7, 2023. He pleaded guilty Aug. 27, 2024.
“It’s important to note that Arriola-Rivero is being held responsible not only for the significant role he played in human smuggling operations, but also for his abhorrent decision to further dehumanize and sexually violate one of his victims,” said acting U.S. Attorney Margaret Leachman for the Western District of Texas. “This sentence makes it clear to smugglers in El Paso and across the southern border, that if you engage in alien smuggling in our district, you will be held accountable.”
MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA – John Austin Perkins, III, 45, of Hagerstown, Maryland, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for lying to federal agents in the hopes of early parole from a sentence he was serving for another crime.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Perkins was serving time for a parole violation in Maryland when he devised a scheme to obtain early release. He made false claims to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and forged three letters in which he impersonated his former cellmate who had been indicted on firearms charges. In the letters (and through his statements), the defendant perpetuated a hoax claiming his former cellmate planned to escape from prison and murder an ATF agent. The defendant engaged in this scheme to garner favor with federal agents and possibly obtain early release from prison. Perkins has prior convictions for theft, drug trafficking and battery.
Perkins will serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the United States Marshals Service investigated.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Eleanor Hurney prosecuted the case on behalf of the government.
