Council leaders have confirmed that City of York Council will receive more than £3.4m of funding thanks to two separate grants.
The funding, announced this week by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, will be used to upgrade around 280 homes over the next three years, to reduce carbon emissions and fuel poverty and improve the comfort and health of Council homes.
The first grant of around £1.4m will be used to improve the energy efficiency of around 140 Council homes via the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund.
The second grant of around £2m will be used to improve the energy efficiency of around 140 homes for lower-income home owners through the Warm Homes: Local Grant Scheme.
These works build on improving 73 Council homes to which 141 energy-efficiency measures have been installed. And they add to the 211 homes of lower-income owners to which have been added 241 new energy efficiency measures. The measures include loft, flat roof, external wall and cavity wall insulation, air source heat pumps, smart heating controls and solar photovoltaic panels to generate electricity.
To support eligible owners and landlords of draughty, listed buildings or of homes in conservation areas, the council’s Local Energy Advice Demonstrator (LEAD) Project has given 452 pieces of advice since November 2023. This project’s funding ends on 31 March 2025, so find out more here or call 01904 555520 or email here.
Cllr Michael Pavlovic, Executive Member for Housing at City of York Council, said:
“We know that making York’s homes warmer and better-insulated is a huge benefit to residents; financially and in terms of the positive impact on their wellbeing.
“With rising energy costs and continued concerns around climate change, it’s essential that these improvements are made as soon as possible so that residents will see the benefits for years to come.
“For free advice, assessment and coordination of energy saving measures, York residents who aren’t eligible for the LEAD scheme, should contact YorEnergy by calling 01904 211221 or emailing: hello@yorenergy.co.uk.”
Further details about how to apply for the next phase of retrofit works will be announced as soon as possible. Meanwhile, more information can be found here.
Oxford City Council is inviting residents, businesses and other organisations to share their views by taking a survey on key development issues as it prepares its new Local Plan.
The Local Plan 2042 will guide all planning decisions in Oxford for the next 17 years. It will set out how and where housing can be built, support fair economic growth and protect the city’s unique heritage, culture and environment.
As part of its preparation the Council is reviewing all consultation material, background studies and evidence underpinning its work to date.
The purpose of this early engagement is to ensure the Council drafts policies in step with views on the following key issues:
The Council will hold two rounds of statutory public consultation later this year as it finalises the plan before examination by the Planning Inspectorate in 2026.
“We’re working on our new Local Plan and we want to make sure our priorities are still relevant for people, businesses and other organisations in Oxford. That’s why we’re carrying out an early engagement survey now, ahead of statutory consultation later this year.
“Help us shape the future of our city – come and have your say on our consultation website.”
Councillor Louise Upton, Cabinet Member for Planning
Oxford City Council has published its annual Workforce Equality Report, which provides insights into the diversity of its workforce and the organisation’s gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps.
The report, covering the period from April 2023 to March 2024, was approved at Cabinet in February and highlights ongoing efforts to improve representation across all levels of the Council.
The Government requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish their annual gender pay gap. The City Council has also reported its disability and ethnicity pay gaps.
Key data from the report:
60% of the workforce are women, which is above the economically active population of Oxford at 48.2%. However, the proportion of women in senior management roles decreased slightly from 49% to 48% this year.
10.2% of employees have declared a disability, slightly down from 10.4% last year, but still above the local population average of 9.2%.
Pay gaps
The mean gender pay gap has improved, decreasing from 7.5% in 2023 to 6.5% in 2024, while the median gender pay gap has now closed (0.7% to 0.0%)
The mean disability pay gap has improved, decreasing from 4.9% in 2023 to 3.0% in 2024, while the median disability pay gap remains at 0.0%.
The mean ethnicity pay gap has widened from 10.8% in 2023 to 14.0% in 2024, likely due to the loss of a senior leader from an ethnic minority background. However the median, which is a more stable measure, has only increased slightly (11.6% to 12.0%).
Steps to improve diversity and inclusion
Oxford City Council is continuing its work to build an inclusive and representative workforce. Key initiatives include:
A management development programme supporting career development for underrepresented groups, particularly employees from minority ethnic backgrounds, women, and staff with a disability.
Anonymised recruitment processes, including removing names, age and ethnicity from applications that are scored by recruiting managers, to reduce potential bias and ensure applications are judged on merit.
“I am pleased we are making progress in reducing both the gender and disability pay gaps. Our performance compares well with many organisations in the public sector. Our workforce should reflect Oxford’s community because a more diverse team will enable us to understand the needs of Oxford’s residents. That is key to delivering the best possible services. While this year’s report shows progress, there is still more to do. We are committed to continuing our efforts to ensure our workforce truly reflects the communities we serve.”
Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services and Council Companies
For more information and to view job vacancies at Oxford City Council, please visit: www.oxford.gov.uk/jobs
A ‘Team Aberdeen’ of academics, students and energy business experts joined Aberdeen City Council representatives this week at the world’s premier energy conference in Houston.
The Aberdeen delegation at the CERAWeek Conference comprised representatives from the Council, including Council Co-leader Councillor Christian Allard, the Net Zero Technology Centre, Peterson Energy Logistics, Robert Gordon University, and the University of Aberdeen.
Councillor Allard was present during two panel sessions at the conference and the diverse group worked to underline Aberdeen’s credentials as one of the world’s leading energy cities.
Robert Gordon University student Lara Pedrosa, whose participation at the conference along with fellow Msc students Alex Sinclair and Erin Koon was made possible with the support of the SRM Foundation, said before the event: “Absolutely thrilled to be part of the NEXTGen cohort.”
“I’m looking forward to understanding how energy leaders are using data and AI to aid energy transition and what may be applicable to Aberdeen in its own journey.
“I’m excited to engage with experts and academics from a range of disciplines centred around energy transition. I am extremely grateful to the SRM Foundation and Robert Gordon University for creating this opportunity and supporting me throughout the week.”
Councillor Allard said: “The world faces the pressing challenges of climate change and the need for sustainable and secure energy solutions. The importance of collaboration in the energy transition has never been more critical.
“We seek to innovate, implement, and scale the technologies and practices that will drive a cleaner, more resilient energy future investment in the city, bringing the world of oil gas and renewable energy together for a just transition as well as bringing people back to Offshore Europe in Aberdeen in September.
“No single organisation will achieve Net Zero on their own, all of the energy sector is mobilised to achieve this in Aberdeen. It’s collaboration from the public and private sector, like we’re seeing here in Houston this week, and a ‘Team Aberdeen’ approach that will ensure we meet our Net Zero and Climate goals.”
As a founding member of the World Energy Cities Partnership (WECP), Aberdeen attends CERAWeek in Houston to participate in the conference and the annual WECP Board Working Group.
The world cities of the partnership are home to many of the world’s largest energy companies which are leading initiatives to build a lower-carbon energy future, developing the full range of energy sources to power the world today and into tomorrow.
Photograph shows: Aberdeen City Council Co-leader, Councillor Christian Allard (2nd from left) with mayors from the World Energy Cities Partnership
Edinburgh remains one of the most prosperous and green places to live in the UK, according to findings collated by the City of Edinburgh Council.
The 18th annual Edinburgh by Numbers is based on data from a variety of sources including the ONS, National Records of Scotland and the Scottish Household Survey.
Looked at together, the figures reveal that residents in the Scottish capital are 1.5 times more likely to take up cycling and running – with most (74%) able to enjoy local green spaces within a five minute walk from home.
With 144 parks making up almost half of the city (49%), 92% of people surveyed are satisfied with local green spaces and Edinburgh has almost halved greenhouse gas emissions over the last decade (by 40.9% since 2012).
Highlighting the city’s economic resilience, Edinburgh has retained its position as the UK’s most economically productive city outside of London with some of the highest wages, skilled workers and employment.
Tourism continues to recover from the pandemic, with hotel occupancy rates at their highest in 6 years (81.4%) and 5 million visitors staying overnight in Edinburgh, and air and travel also rebounding.
The city is growing almost three times faster than the rest of Scotland and house prices are valued at the highest in the country. In 10 years, our population has grown by 8.4% to 523,250 people but for the first time, fewer babies are being born.
Further statistics reveal:
Edinburgh’s weather is changing, with April to June now the wettest months
Finance leads Edinburgh’s local economy, generating £7.2 billion – that’s as much as the next three largest sectors combined
Satisfaction with public transport is very high at 86% of those surveyed, well above Scotland’s 64% average
There are more university students in Edinburgh than school pupils (together, they make up 161,000 of the population)
75.8% of workers have a degree, which is far higher than other UK cities
Audiences are eager to return to top rated visitor attractions and events with visitors flocking to Edinburgh Castle (1.9m visitors) the National Museum of Scotland (2.19 million visitors) and the festivals (4.59 million in person and online attendees).
Council Leader Jane Meagher said:
This edition of Edinburgh by Numbers reminds us of the strength and success of our capital city, which continues to punch far above its weight as a place to live, work, invest in and visit.
Thanks to our fantastic parks and air quality, ‘Auld Reekie’ is no more. We’re leading the way in climate consciousness and outdoor living – with the data pointing to more of us cycling and running, high satisfaction rates with public transport and positive scores for wellbeing.
We know that the results of Edinburgh by Numbers are hotly anticipated by professionals from across the tourism sector at home and abroad, and the outlook for hospitality is healthy – people are flocking back to the city’s main attractions and festivals and 5 million visitors are staying overnight. That’s 40% of Scotland’s total overnight tourism with hotel occupancy rates their highest in six years (81.4%).
So, we’re getting outdoors and we’re enjoying our city and, in this report, there is much to celebrate. That said, these numbers also speak to the challenges Edinburgh faces. Drawn by good jobs and a good quality of life, migration means our population is growing three times faster than other Scottish cities. We’re living longer, but the birth rate has dropped. Many residents are struggling with the cost of living – meaning poverty and homelessness remain two of the biggest challenges of our time.
All of this leads to unprecedented demand for homes and public services. Initiatives such as our affordable housebuilding programme, Visitor Levy, climate adaptation and better connectivity around the city will give us more resources and solutions for sustainably managing Edinburgh’s continued economic success and growth.
Denise Hamilton, Head of Communications at Cycling Scotland, commented:
“It’s really encouraging to see 68% of short trips now being made on foot or by bike in Edinburgh. New dedicated cycle routes, like the City Centre West to East Link and Leith Walk, are showing big increases in the proportion of journeys being cycled, compared with other transport.
“As Edinburgh continues to build its planned citywide network of safe, on-street cycle lanes, it’s likely more and more people will choose to get around by bike and benefit from being active, saving money and getting to their destination quickly. And everyone living in or visiting Edinburgh can enjoy cleaner air and less congestion.”
Two properties in Liverpool which were closed due to anti-social behaviour linked to organised crime have been transformed.
Over the last two years, the council’s Private Sector Housing team have worked in partnership with Merseyside Police to tackle organised crime within rental properties across Liverpool.
Under the Council’s Landlord Licensing scheme, the owners of privately rented properties have a duty to ensure that their tenants behave responsibly.
The Council works to support and advise landlords who have issues with their tenants, and when all other options have been exhausted, this can include the eviction of problematic tenants.
Houses on Goldie Street, in Anfield, and Geraint Street, in Toxteth, were closed in August 2022 and April 2024 respectively under the Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) Crime and Policing Act 2014. The action was taken due to drug related issues associated with the properties were having a detrimental impact on the local community.
Using powers granted under the Council’s Landlord Licensing scheme, the anti-social behaviour team were able to aid the landlords in evicting the highly problematic tenants.
The properties were refurbished to a high standard, and they were subsequently let out to new tenants to prevent a repeat of the problems that had previously occurred.
Over the last month, the Private Sector Housing team have revisited both properties to carry out compliance inspections, finding both to be a safe standard with the current tenants are delighted to be making their home there.
One resident in Geraint Street told council officers that anti-social behaviour used to severely impact her wellbeing but now describes life on the street as “heavenly”.
On Goldie Street, a local resident noted that what was once a troubled street is now “family-orientated” adding: “It’s nice to have a family living there and the children are back playing out in the street.”
Cllr Laura Robertson-Collins, Cabinet member for neighbourhoods and community safety, said: “All of our residents have a right to live in thriving communities where they feel safe and secure, but sadly we know that some don’t.
“The work that has been under taken on these streets in Anfield and Toxteth has made a positive difference to the lives of local people.
“It is a clear demonstration of the positive benefits of our Landlord Licensing scheme in bringing partners together to support landlords to evict difficult tenants.”
Anfield councillor, Billy Marrat, who referred the issue to the Private Sector Housing Team, said: “The house has been turned around and so has the street, with residents stating they are free to go about their ways and not in fear of being intimidated by drug and crack addicts.
“The residents can actually invite their friends and relatives around now, just as any other family would.
“I am really grateful to all the agencies involved and it shows what can be done with a bit of intelligence and the right actions taken.”
Chief Inspector Sarah Rotherham from Merseyside Police, said: “The successful closures send a clear message that we will not tolerate properties to become hubs for crime and antisocial behaviour.
“By working closely with our local authority partners through the landlord licensing scheme, we are ensuring that problem premises are shut down, and our communities remain safe places to live.”
To contact the Private Sector Housing team about issues related to privately rented properties, email privatesector.housing@liverpool.gov.uk or contact them online.
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
The 1st All-Russian scientific and practical conference “Modern approaches in system engineering and digital modeling of complex production systems” (SEDM-2025) was held in the Research Building of the Polytechnic University. The event was organized by the laboratories “Industrial systems of streaming data processing” and “Digital modeling of industrial systems” of the Advanced Engineering School of SPbPU “Digital Engineering” together with the industrial partner of the SPbPU PISh, the company “Tetracube”.
The conference was dedicated to systems engineering as a methodological approach to the implementation of complex projects in various industries.
Systems engineering is a highly relevant methodological direction in the technological landscape of Russia and the world. It allows implementing complex multi-component projects both for solving frontier engineering problems in the high-tech industry and in other industries – economics, medicine or education. The methodology of systems engineering is universal: it is based on the assessment of all factors, requirements and restrictions that affect the development of the project, and is also a field for the application and development of advanced digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence or mathematical modeling, – noted the chairperson of the conference program committee, head of the Laboratory of PSPOD PISh SPbPU Marina Bolsunovskaya.
The scientific partners of the conference were the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Kazan Federal University, Ivanovo State Polytechnic University and others. The event was supported as industrial partners by the Engineering Center for Textile and Light Industry, the North-West Scientific Center for Hygiene and Public Health of Rospotrebnadzor, Kola MMC, Viziumtex, Olvia and Amdor companies.
SEDM-2025 participants presented scientific research and practical solutions in the field of design, analysis, forecasting and optimization of complex systems in the economy, industry, transport, medicine, social sphere and education. The event attracted more than 200 speakers and listeners – research scientists and representatives of commercial companies and government organizations.
The conference consisted of scientific and practical parts. It was addressed both to “theorists” – specialists who study and develop the methodology of systems engineering, and to practitioners – project managers who use the method of systems engineering to solve specific applied problems at their enterprises.
The presentations were made by recognized experts in the field of studying and implementing approaches to system engineering and digital modeling, theorists and practitioners, as well as students and postgraduates who have chosen system engineering as the direction of their scientific and professional development. For young researchers, the conference became an excellent opportunity to present their research projects to experts, learn their opinions and discuss the practical application of the results.
The plenary session reports presented the main areas of research and development, which were then discussed in more detail in separate sections.
The plenary session was opened by Marina Bolsunovskaya. After welcoming remarks, she spoke about the development of the system engineering methodology using practical examples of the PSPOD Laboratory projects. The speaker noted possible directions for the development of the method and the specifics of its use in implementing complex projects at the enterprises of the laboratory’s industrial partners.
Marina Vladimirovna noted that the requests of enterprises now concern the development of optimization models to identify hidden patterns and develop specific methods for eliminating anomalies. For many customer enterprises, there are no ready-made solutions, so the development of libraries of standard solutions that will allow companies to immediately offer possible solutions for data analysis seems promising.
Elena Tishchenko, Advisor on Digital Economy to the Dean of the Faculty of Economics at Lomonosov Moscow State University, presented a theoretical report on the method of model-based system engineering (Model Based System Engineering) for synthesizing multi-level economic models. The method involves the widespread use of engineering descriptions of objects in the form of models and their platforms in the economy for analyzing complex economic systems.
Alexey Gintsyak, Head of the Laboratory of Digital Modeling of Industrial Systems at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic University, spoke about the development of a set of tools for generating schedules in production systems using a multi-agent approach. The work is being carried out with the support of the Russian Science Foundation in 2025-2026. The speaker defined multi-agent systems, highlighted the capabilities and features of the multi-agent approach to the applied task of generating production schedules, and revealed the complexity of generating schedules in a multi-agent environment. In conclusion, Alexey Gintsyak noted that taking multi-agency into account allows for obtaining modeling results that are much more adequate to reality.
The report by the head of the laboratory “System Dynamics” Angi Skhvediani was devoted to the application of methods of systems engineering in agriculture. He spoke about the current work on the platform for automatic prediction of the sorption properties of biochar obtained as a result of processing plant waste of the agro-industrial complex. The project includes the development of a database and a program for the analysis and prediction of the sorption properties of waste using machine learning methods, the development of a recommendation system for enterprises and scientists in terms of selecting optimal technological modes of waste processing to obtain functional materials with the best properties.
Associate Professor of the Higher School of Transport of the Institute of Metallurgical Engineering and Technology Dmitry Plotnikov touched upon the topic of digital modeling in the transport industry. The speaker listed interdisciplinary tasks in the development of unmanned ground transport and noted that digital models in the creation of transport systems and processes can be used as a means of supporting decision-making in the design of the life cycle of a vehicle and transport systems in general, as well as an element of the finished product that determines its operational properties. The speaker shared the experience of creating an unmanned car at the Polytechnic University and the complex tasks that the development team faces.
The conference became a platform for exchanging experience in the field of systems engineering in the transport industry, where there was a place for both experienced professionals and young scientists. Interesting works on the use of simulation modeling for effective traffic management were presented. The reports on the creation of intelligent transport systems deserved special attention, – the speaker noted.
The head of the control and audit department of the enterprise “Gorelektrotrans” Elena Ezhelina made a report on the development of a new model for managing the enterprise of ground urban electric transport for the automation and optimization of its work. One of the first steps in this direction, Elena Aleksandrovna believes, could be the automation of the management of the daily cycle of the enterprise’s work, which will require the creation of a single dispatch service.
Deputy Head of the Traffic Safety Service of Gorelektrotrans Alexey Vishensky spoke about his model for distributing tram and trolleybus drivers on city passenger transportation routes. The model is aimed at ensuring the required volume of transport services while complying with legal requirements. The number of drivers is calculated taking into account the design capacity of the fleet, working time fund, work schedules, vacations, knowledge of routes and other factors.
Anastasia Gorbach, an engineer at Radioavionika JSC, presented an analysis of technologies for implementing artificial intelligence in the process of spelling and punctuation checking using a systems approach. Traditional verification methods based on dictionaries and grammar rules are not effective enough for complex language structures. Using AI to check spelling and punctuation is part of a wider range of technologies that can be applied in the development and optimization of complex technical systems to automate and optimize documentation and communication within the system.
The most popular sections among the participants were on systems engineering in the field of economics and on digital modeling in industry and related industries. More than 40 reports were submitted for some sessions.
Teachers and students from various departments of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic Institute, such as the Higher School of Computer Technologies and Information Systems of the IKNK, the Higher School of Project Activity and Innovations in Industry and the Higher School of Transport of the IMMIT SPbPU, the Higher School of Engineering and Economics, the Higher School of Business Engineering and the Laboratory of System Dynamics of the IPMET SPbPU, took an active part in organizing and holding the conference.
Students of the master’s program of the St. Petersburg Polytechnical University “Systems Engineering and Digital Modeling in High-Tech Industries” presented their developments in the field of systems engineering at the conference.
The conference was organized for the first time and, it must be said, exceeded our expectations. We saw great interest in the methodology of systems engineering from industrial partners and university researchers – teachers, researchers, students and postgraduates. Next year, we plan to expand the conference topics. In particular, there will be a hybrid modeling section, entirely dedicated to this promising approach within the framework of systems engineering, which allows combining classical analytics and artificial intelligence technologies, – noted Marina Bolsunovskaya.
Based on the results of the conference, a collection of papers will be published with a DOI and ISBN assigned, and full-text article-by-article placement in the Russian Science Citation Index.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
New methods are now available for processing mined metal ores that produce essentially no pollution compared to existing techniques. The large-scale development of these methods would allow EU mines to reopen, greatly contributing to EU sovereignty targets while lowering carbon emissions. Demonstrations of these technologies in Europe already exist at industrial scale, and current regulatory frameworks could be adapted to accommodate and promote their use. With the rollout of carbon pricing on imports (CBAM), new technologies could meet demand for greener materials. Simultaneously, new recycling technologies could help fulfil circular economy goals and prevent harmful destruction of e-waste.
Tokyo (Agenzia Fides) – How can the treasure of a testimony of faith that took place centuries ago, of which only a few traces remain in historical documents, be passed on to new generations? Manga comics were used for this purpose, since the story to be told to today’s boys and girls took place in Japan.Read by an ever-growing audience all over the world, manga comics have long fascinated young and old alike. In addition to the adventures of unusual superheroes, the comics, drawn in their distinctive format, now also tell the stories of real men and women who, even in times of persecution, held fast to their faith in Christ: the Japanese “hidden Christians.” A phenomenon that began in the 17th century, when Christianity was banned and all missionaries were expelled.Without priests and without churches, Japanese Catholics organized themselves: the village chief led the community, established religious solemnities according to the liturgical calendar, and safeguarded the holy books. The catechist taught the children; those who knew the baptismal formulas administered the First Sacrament; a messenger visited families to announce Sundays, Christian feasts, and days of fasting and abstinence.The drawings are by manga artist Kan Takahama, who will present her project in Italy from March 17 to 20 as part of a series of conferences organized by the Japanese Embassy to the Holy See and the Archdiocese of Lucca. The conferences are taking place in Rome and Lucca as part of meetings organized to mark the 440th anniversary of the “Tensho Embassy.” It was in March 1585 that a delegation from Japan first arrived in Rome to be officially received by the Pope. The name of the Embassy refers to the date of its creation according to the Japanese calendar of the time, i.e., the tenth year of the Tensho era.The idea of sending a group of young Japanese representatives to Europe originated with Alessandro Valignano, an Italian Jesuit who had been engaged in missionary work in the Far East since 1573. He personally selected two boys from three of the largest Christian daimyō families in Japan at the time. The daimyō were powerful Japanese magnates and feudal lords who ruled most of Japan from the 10th century until the beginning of the Meiji period in the mid-19th century thanks to their vast hereditary landholdings.They were joined by two other young noblemen and a small group of companions, including the Jesuit priest Diogo de Mesquita, who served as guide and interpreter. With this journey, which lasted a total of eight years (1582 to 1590), Valignano wanted to raise awareness of Japan among the European church at the time and counter certain stereotypes about the Japanese country.And the story of the cartoonist is also connected to this history. Takahama is from Amakusa, the place where the Society of Jesus founded a college for the training of Japanese priests in 1591, and where the young men represented at the Tensho embassy continued their studies upon their return to Japan, thanks in part to Gutenberg’s printing press, which was introduced with the return of the embassy representatives from Europe. Thanks to them, the first books with Christian themes were printed in Japan.The Amakusa region, along with Nagasaki, became a place where Christians found refuge from persecution for 250 years. Despite the absence of priests, they continued to profess their faith in Christ. Today, these places are recognized by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. Takahama accidentally discovered old documents about the persecution of Christians in her home’s archives. She has researched how to read these documents and attempted to decipher them. She is also carefully collecting oral traditions not included in the documents, thus continuing her research into the history of the local “hidden Christians.”This was the basis for the work “Shishi to Botan” (“Lion and Peonies”). The story was inspired by another true story, the revolt of oppressed Christian peasants in 1638. The revolt was led by the Christian samurai Amakusa Shiro and bloodily suppressed. But how can historical research be translated into manga comics? This question will be addressed in the lectures given by manga artist Takahama on March 17 and 18 in Rome (at the Pontifical Gregorian University and the Pontifical Salesian University) and on March 20 in the rooms of the Archbishop’s Residence in Lucca. (F.B.) (Agenzia Fides, 14/3/2025)
Share:
Source: Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe – OSCE
Headline: Women’s role in drug trafficking and organized crime was focus of OSCE side event at 68th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs
Women’s role in drug trafficking and organized crime was focus of OSCE side event at 68th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs | OSCE
Skip navigation
Navigation
Navigation
Home Newsroom News and press releases Women’s role in drug trafficking and organized crime was focus of OSCE side event at 68th Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs
A five-story replica of a stamp of Superman in 1998 in Cleveland, home of the superhero’s creators, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster.AP Photo/Tony Dejak, File
Nearly a hundred years ago, a hastily crafted spaceship crash-landed in Smallville, Kansas. Inside was an infant – the sole survivor of a planet destroyed by old age. Discovering he possessed superhuman strength and abilities, the boy committed to channeling his power to benefit humankind and champion the oppressed.
This is the story of Superman: one of the most recognizable characters in history, who first reached audiences in the pages of Action Comics in 1938 – what many fans consider the most important single comic in history.
As a historian of American immigration and ethnicity – and a lifelong comics fan – I read this well-known bit of fiction as an allegory about immigration and the American dream. It is, at its core, the ultimate story of an immigrant in the early 20th century, when many people saw the United States as a land with open gates, providing such orphans of the world an opportunity to reach their fullest potential.
Taken in and raised by a rural family under the name Clark Kent, the baby was imbued with the best qualities of America. But, like all immigrant stories, Kent’s is a two-parter. There is also the emigrant story: the story of how Kal-El – Superman’s name at birth – was driven from his home on Planet Krypton to embrace a new land.
That origin story reflects the heritage of Superman’s creators: two of the many Jewish American writers and artists who ushered in the Golden Age of comic books.
The American comics industry was largely started by the children of Jewish immigrants. Like most publishing in the early 20th century, it was centered in New York City, home to the country’s largest Jewish population. Though they were still a very small minority, immigration had swelled the United States’ Jewish population more than a thousandfold: from roughly 3,000 in 1820 to roughly 3,500,000 in 1920.
Comic books had not yet been devised, but strip comics in newspapers were a regular feature. They began in the late 19th century with popular stories featuring recurring characters, such as Richard F. Outcault’s “Yellow Kid” and “the Little Bears” by Jimmy Swinnerton.
A few Jewish creators were able to break into the industry, such as Harry Hershfield and his comic “Abie the Agent.” Hershfield’s success was exceptional in three ways: He broke into mainstream newspaper comics, his titular character was also Jewish, and he never adopted an anglicized pen name – as many other Jewish creators felt they must.
Shoppers and vendors outside of haberdasheries on Hester Street in a Jewish neighborhood of New York’s Lower East Side around 1900. Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Generally, however, Jews were barred from the more prestigious jobs in newspaper cartooning. A more accessible alternative was the cheaper, second-tier business of reprinting previously published works.
In 1933, second-generation Jewish New Yorker Max Gaines – born Maxwell Ginzburg – began a new publication, “Funnies on Parade.” “Funnies” pulled together preexisting comic strips, reproducing them in saddle-stitched pamphlets that became the standard for the American comics industry. He went on to found All-American Comics and Educational Comics.
Another publisher, Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, founded National Allied Publications in 1934 and published the first comic book to feature entirely new material, rather than reprints of newspaper strips. He joined forces with two Jewish immigrants, Harry Donenfeld and Jack Leibowitz. At National, they created and distributed Detective and Action Comics – the precursors to DC, which would become one of the two largest comics distributors in history.
It was at Action Comics that Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, two second-generation immigrants from a Jewish neighborhood in Cleveland, found a home for Superman. It would also be where two Jewish kids from the Bronx, Bob Kane and Bill Finger – born Robert Kahn and Milton Finger – found a home for their character, Batman, in 1939.
The success of these characters inspired another prominent second-generation Jewish New Yorker, pulp magazine publisher Moses “Martin” Goodman, to enter comics production with his line, “Timely Comics.” The 1939 debut featured what would become two of the early industry’s most well-known superheroes: the Sub-Mariner and the Human Torch. These characters would be mainstays of Goodman’s company, even when it became better known as Marvel Comics.
Thus were born the “big two,” Marvel and DC, from humble Jewish origins.
…and Jewish stories
The creation and popularization of superhero comics isn’t Jewish just because of its history. The content was, too, reflecting the values and priorities of Jewish America at the time: a community influenced by its origins and traditions, as well as the American mainstream.
Some of the most foundational early comics echo Jewish history and texts, such as Superman’s story, which parallels the Jewish hero Moses. The biblical prophet was born in Egypt, where the Israelites were enslaved, and soon after Pharaoh ordered the murder of all their newborn sons. Similarly, Superman’s people, the Kryptonians, faced an existential threat: the destruction of their planet.
Moses’ life is saved when his mother floats him down the Nile in a hastily constructed and tarred basket. Kal-El, too, is sent away to safety in a hastily constructed craft. Both boys are raised by strangers in a strange land and destined to become heroes to their people.
Comics also reflected the feelings and fears of Jews in a moment in time. For example, in the wake of Kristallnacht – the 1938 night of widespread organized attacks on German Jews and their property, which many historians see as a turning point toward the Holocaust – Finger and Kane debuted Batman’s Gotham City. The city is a dark contrast to Superman’s shining metropolis, a place where villains lurked around every corner and reflected the darkest sides of modern humanity.
Some comic artists and writers used their platform to make political statements. Jack Kirby – born Kurtzberg – and Hymie “Joe” Simon, creators of Captain America, explained that they “knew what was going on over in Europe. World events gave us the perfect comic-book villain, Adolf Hitler, with his ranting, goose-stepping and ridiculous moustache. So we decided to create the perfect hero who would be his foil.” The comic debut of Captain America in 1941 featured a brightly colored cover with the brand-new hero punching Adolf Hitler in the face.
In later generations, characters penned by Jewish authors continued to grapple with issues of outsider status, hiding aspects of their identity, and maintaining their determination to better the world in spite of rejection from it. Think of Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and X-Men. All of these were created by Stan Lee – another Jewish creator, born Stanley Martin Lieber – who was hired into Timely Comics at just 17 years old.
With so many of the most popular comics written by New York Jews, and centered in the city, much of New York’s Yiddish-tinged, recognizably Jewish language made its way onto the pages. Lee’s Spider-Man, for example, frequently exclaims “oy!” or calls bad guys “putz” or “shmuck.”
In later years, Jewish authors such as Chris Claremont and Brian Michael Bendis introduced or took over mainstream characters who were overtly Jewish – reflecting an emerging comfort with a more public Jewish ethnic identity in America. In X-Men, for example, Kitty Pryde recounts her encounters with contemporary antisemitism. Magneto, who is at times friend but often foe of the X-Men, developed a backstory as a Holocaust survivor.
History is never solely about retelling; it’s about gaining a better understanding of complex narratives. Trends in comics history, particularly in the superhero genre, offer insight into the ways that Jewish American anxieties, ambitions, patriotism and sense of place in the U.S. continually changed over the 20th century. To me, this understanding makes the retelling of these classic stories even more meaningful and entertaining.
Miriam Eve Mora does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Saudi Arabia is 2,000 miles from Ukraine and even more politically distant, so at first glance it might seem like it has nothing to do with the ongoing war there. But the Gulf state has emerged as a key intermediary in the most serious ceasefire negotiations since Russia invaded its neighbor three years ago.
The resulting agreement, which is now being mulled in Moscow, is all the more notable given that it followed a diplomatic breakdown just weeks before at the Oval Office between Zelenskyy, President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
Whether the proposed interim 30-day ceasefire materializes is still uncertain. On March 14, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he agreed with the proposal in principle, but he added that a lot of the details needed to be sorted out.
Should a deal be reached, there is every reason to believe it will be inked in Saudi Arabia, which has hosted not only the latest U.S.-Ukrainian talks but earlier rounds of high-level Russian-U.S. meetings.
But why is a Gulf nation playing mediator in a conflict in Eastern Europe? As an expert on Saudi politics, I believe the answer to that lies in the kingdom’s diplomatic ambitions and its desire to present a more positive image to the world. And in the background is the goal of better positioning the nation in the event of diplomatic maneuvers in its own region, notably in regards to any talks between U.S. and Iran.
The diplomatic convertion of MBS
Saudi Arabia’s growing diplomatic role has been a feature of the kingdom’s foreign policy since 2022.
Crown Prince Mohammed, who that year succeeded his father as prime minister, views Saudi Arabia as the convening power in the Arab and Islamic world.
Accordingly, officials in the kingdom have been directed to lead regional diplomacy over a number of pressing issues, including the conflicts in Gazaand Sudan.
At the same time, Saudis have started the process of reconciliation with Iran, which has long been perceived as the chief regional rival to Saudi influence.
This approach brought little in the way of stability. Rather, it left the country ensnared in an unwinnable war in Yemen, a fruitless row with Qatar, and diplomatic isolation by Western officials.
Saudi officials, in common with their counterparts in the other Gulf states, have long sought to avoid taking sides in the emerging era of great power competition and strategic rivalry. As such, the kingdom has maintained working relations with both Russia and pro-Western Ukraine since the outbreak of war in Europe.
In 2022, for example, Saudi Arabia and Russia – both leaders of OPEC+ – coordinated oil production cuts to cushion Moscow from the effects of global sanctions the West imposed after it invaded Ukraine. Yet just months later, Saudi Arabia invited Zelenskyy to address an Arab League summit in the Saudi city of Jeddah.
It was a prelude to a 2023 international summit, also in Jeddah, which brought together representatives from 40 countries to discuss the ongoing war.
Despite failing to produce a breakthrough, the meeting illustrated the convening reach of the crown prince and his intention to act as a diplomatic go-between in the Ukraine-Russia war.
Saudi Arabia and neighboring United Arab Emirates later facilitated occasional prisoner exchanges between the two countries – rare diplomatic successes in three years of conflict.
Staging ground for diplomacy
Direct engagement in high-stakes international diplomacy over the largest war in Europe since 1945 is undoubtedly a step up in Saudi ambitions. But the country’s efforts aren’t purely altruistic. Riyadh believes there’s mileage to be gained in such diplomatic endeavors.
The advent of a Trump presidency has fit Saudi desires. Trump has made his desire to be seen as a dealmaker and peacemaker clear, but he needs a neutral venue in which the hard work of diplomacy can flourish.
Just weeks into the new U.S. administration, the Saudi capital hosted the first meeting between a U.S. secretary of state and Russian foreign minister since Russia invaded in 2022.
It yielded an agreement to “re-establish the bilateral relationship” and establish a consultation mechanism to “address irritants” in ties.
The two rounds of dialogue in Riyadh – first with Russia, then Ukraine – have positioned the Saudi leadership firmly in the diplomatic process. It has also gone some way to rehabilitate Mohammed bin Salman’s image.
The sight of the crown prince warmly greeting Zelenskyy contrasted sharply with the images from a fractious White House meeting that went around the world, presenting the crown prince as a statesmanlike figure.
Turning to Tehran
Such positive optics would have seemed inconceivable as recently as 2019, when the crown prince was shunned and then presidential candidate Joe Biden labeled the country a “pariah” state.
Changing this negative global perception of Saudi Arabia is crucial if the kingdom is to attract the tens of millions of visitors that are pivotal to the success of the “giga-projects” – sports, culture and tourism events that the Saudis hope will drive its economy and allow the kingdom to be less economically dependent on fossil fuel exports.
Whereas easing tensions with Iran and supporting Yemen’s fragile truce are about derisking the kingdom’s vulnerability to regional volatility, facilitating diplomacy over Ukraine is a relatively cost-free way to reinforce the changing narratives about Saudi Arabia.
After all, any breakdown in the Russia-U.S.-Ukraine negotiations is unlikely to be blamed on the Saudis.
Indeed, Saudi officials may view their engagement with U.S. officials over Ukraine as the prelude to further diplomatic cooperation. And this will be especially true if Crown Prince Mohammed is able to establish himself as an indispensable partner in the eyes of Trump.
Saudi officials were excluded from the last major talks between Iran and the U.S., which also involved several other major world powers and led to the 2016 Iran nuclear deal. Trump withdrew from the deal shortly after assuming office for the first time in 2017, and U.S.-Iranian relations have been moribund since then.
The U.S. administration has already mooted the idea of a resumption of negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear capabilities.
Placing Saudi Arabia in the middle of any attempts to secure a new nuclear agreement that would replace or supersede that earlier deal would be a high-risk move, given the intensity of feeling on both the U.S. and Iranian sides and the uneasy coexistence between Tehran and Riyadh.
But doing so would give the kingdom what it most desires: a seat at the table.
Kristian Coates Ulrichsen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Heston Blumenthal, the celebrity chef known for his experimental cuisine, recently shared his experience of being sectioned under the UK’s Mental Health Act, saying it was “the best thing” that could have happened to him. His openness about living with bipolar disorder highlights the little-discussed fact that people with this condition face one of the highest suicide risks of any mental illness.
Bipolar disorder is a severe mental illness characterised by episodes of mania (high energy, impulsivity) and depression (hopelessness, fatigue). Suicidal thoughts and behaviour are a core feature of the disorder, with fluctuating risk that can persist over long periods.
Although bipolar disorder affects around 2% of the population, studies suggest that up to 50% of people with the condition attempt suicide at least once, and 15-20% die by suicide – a rate much higher than in the general population. Unlike global suicide rates, suicide deaths in bipolar disorder have not declined.
Understanding why suicide is so common in people with this disorder is difficult. But one major factor is mood instability. Rapid shifts between emotional highs and lows, as well as mixed states where symptoms of mania (impulsivity) and depression (despair) occur together, can be particularly dangerous.
Social and economic factors also play a role. Research we conducted at Swansea University shows that the population suffering from bipolar disorder has become poorer over the last two decades. Financial strain, social isolation and poorer access to healthcare all lead to worse outcomes. Beyond suicide, people with the condition die up to 20 years earlier than the general population, often from preventable health problems such as heart disease.
While bipolar disorder cannot be cured, it can be managed. The most commonly used drug, lithium, has been found to reduce suicide risk significantly in some patients. However, people with the condition struggle to take it regularly.
The drug’s side-effects can affect the kidneys, thyroid, metabolism, cognition and cardiovascular health. Managing these side-effects requires regular blood tests and continuous monitoring, making long-term treatment difficult.
Many people stop taking their medication during manic phases, believing they are cured.
Other treatments, such as antipsychotics, mood stabilisers and electroconvulsive therapy (where electric currents are passed through the brain while the patient is under anaesthesia), can also be effective in some types and phases of bipolar – for example, in states of mixed mania and depression where there is a high risk of suicide – but they come with their own harms and limitations.
Even when people seek help, healthcare systems often fail to intervene effectively. Suicide risk is highest in the days following discharge from a psychiatric hospital. Many people who later die by suicide have recently visited emergency rooms after hurting themselves, but the help they received was either delayed or not enough to prevent further harm.
Existing tools to identify and measure suicide risk, such as checklists, questionnaires and structured interviews, are ineffective. Many people with bipolar disorder who die by suicide are assessed as “low risk” shortly beforehand, exposing a crucial gap between doctor and patient perceptions. This is in great part because these tools rely too heavily on past factors such as suicide attempts (which may not be disclosed), rather than dynamic, real-time distress or mood instability.
Despite the significant effect that bipolar disorder has on individuals, families and society, the development of new drugs has been frustratingly slow. Lithium, first used in the 1940s, remains the go-to treatment, while most other drugs were originally designed to treat schizophrenia. No truly new treatments have emerged in decades.
Not a single disorder
One difficulty is that bipolar is not a single disorder but a spectrum of conditions, rendering the one-size-fits-all approach inadequate — lithium is effective in only about one in three patients.
Drug development for bipolar disorder is particularly challenging. The complexity of bipolar disorder calls for equally complex trials that need to consider patient variability, ethical concerns and strict safety requirements. New treatments also face strict approval hurdles because lithium – despite its limitations – is highly effective for some patients. This results in slow treatment development, leaving patients with limited options.
Research is also slowed by concerns about whether it’s ethical to involve patients in trials. But it’s important to include people with the disorder who have experienced suicidal thoughts and behaviour, to better understand their mindset and decision-making.
However, new approaches offer hope. Several research projects, such as Datamind, are developing artificial intelligence platforms to help find new drugs quicker and to personalise treatments based on patients’ genetic and clinical profiles. AI could lead to faster, more effective therapies tailored to individual needs.
Blumenthal’s story highlights that being sectioned, while traumatic, can save lives and keep people safe. Yet the stigma around psychiatric hospitalisation prevents many from seeking care. There is a widespread belief that hospitalisation should be avoided at all costs – but for some, it can be the difference between life and death.
However, hospitalisation alone is not enough. The mental health system must do better to ensure that people with bipolar disorder receive long-term care, particularly during high-risk periods like hospital discharge. To prevent suicide, we need to rethink how risk is assessed, improve follow-up care, and reduce barriers to treatment.
While the statistics on bipolar are alarming, the message should be one of hope. The condition is treatable and suicide is preventable, but only if we commit to improving access to care, reducing stigma and advancing research.
Marcos del Pozo Banos research is funded by UKRI – Medical Research Council through the DATAMIND Hub (MRC reference: MR/W014386/1), and the Wolfson Centre for Young People’s Mental Health (established with support from the Wolfson Foundation).
Ann John receives funding from Health and Care Research Wales, NIHR, Wolfson Foundation and MRC (DATAMIND).
Tania Gergel works for Bipolar UK as the Director of Research. She receives research funding from National Institute of Health Research, the Medical Research Council and King’s College London. She is also on the Board of the National Centre for Mental Health in Wales, and is an Honorary Visiting Professor at Cardiff University and Honorary Senior Research Fellow in the Division of Psychiatry at University College London.
Getting a headache and feeling sick are common side-effects for many medicines. Indulging in risky sexual behaviour or pathological gambling – not so common.
But a BBC investigation has highlighted that some drug treatments for restless leg syndrome and Parkinson’s disease can lead to such risky behaviour.
Over 150,000 people in the UK live with Parkinson’s – a degenerative condition that affects the brain. The main part of their brain that is damaged is the area that produces dopamine, a chemical messenger that regulates movement. Less dopamine in the brain can lead to symptoms such as tremors, muscle stiffness, slow movements and problems with balance.
Another movement disorder is restless legs syndrome (RLS), which affects between 5% and 10% of people in the UK, US and Europe. Twice as many women as men have RLS among those aged over 35.
People with RLS feel they need to uncontrollably move their legs, and may experience a crawling, creeping or tingling sensation in them. Usually, the symptoms are worse at night when dopamine levels tend to be lower. Although the exact cause of RLS is unknown, it has been linked to genes, underlying health conditions, and an imbalance of dopamine.
One of the main treatments for movement disorders is a group of drugs called dopamine-receptor agonists, which include cabergoline, ropinirole, bromocriptine and pramipexole. Dopamine-receptor agonists increase the levels of dopamine in the brain and help regulate movement.
Dopamine is known as the “happy” hormone because it is part of the brain’s reward system. When people do something fun or pleasurable, dopamine is released in their brain. But using dopamine-receptor agonist drugs can elevate these feelings, leading to impulsive behaviour.
While common side-effects include headaches, feeling sick and sleepiness, these drugs are also linked with the more unusual side-effect of impulse-control disorders. These include risky sexual behaviour (hypersexuality), pathological gambling, compulsive shopping, and binge eating. Hypersexuality encompasses behaviour such as a stronger-than-usual urge to have sexual activity, or being unable to resist performing a sexual act that may be harmful.
Previous reported cases include a 53-year-old woman taking ropinirole and exhibiting impulsive behaviour such as accessing internet pornography, using sex chat rooms, meeting strangers for sexual intercourse, and compulsive shopping. Another case highlighted a 32-year-old man who, after taking ropinirole, started binge eating and gambling compulsively, such that he lost his life savings.
When the drug was first being prescribed in the early 2000s, it was thought that impulse-control disorders were a rare side-effect associated with these drugs. But in 2007, a UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) public assessment report advised that “healthcare professionals should warn patients that compulsive behaviour with dopamine agonists may be dose-related”.
Between 6% and 17% of people with RLS who take dopamine agonists develop some form of impulse-control disorder, while up to 20% of people living with Parkinson’s may experience impulse control disorders.
But the true figures may be even higher, as many some patients may not associate changes in behaviour with their medication, or may be too embarrassed to report it. Case reports show that in most instances, impulsive behaviour stops when the drug is stopped.
Lawsuits
There have been several individual and class-action lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies including GlaxoSmithKline, which produces ReQuip® (ropinirole), and Pfizer, which makes Cabaser® (cabergoline). Patients taking action against these companies claimed they were unaware of these impulsive behaviour side-effects.
For example, in 2012, a French court ordered GlaxoSmithKline to pay £160,000 in damages to Didier Jambart, after he experienced “devastating-side effects” when taking the firm’s Parkinson’s drug Requip. And in 2014, an Australian federal court approved a settlement against Pfizer for a class-action lawsuit regarding its Parkinson’s drug, Cabaser. 150 patients claimed they did not have warning of potential side-effects – including increased gambling, sex addiction and other high-risk activities – of taking Cabaser.
It is now clearer in the patient information leaflets given with all prescribed medication for movement disorders that impulsive behaviour can occur in some patients.
In 2023, the MHRA advised there had been increased reports of pathological gambling with a drug called aripiprazole. This antipsychotic drug, used in the treatment of schizophrenia and mania, partly acts as a dopamine-receptor agonist.
Any drug that increases dopamine levels could theoretically be linked to impulse control disorders, and it is important to keep monitoring patients and their behaviour in such cases.
Not everyone will experience side-effects. Before you begin any course of treatment, your doctor or pharmacist should explain the potential side-effects – but it is also important to read the information leaflet with any medicine. And if you experience any impulsive behaviours with these medicines, speak to your doctor or pharmacist immediately.
Dipa Kamdar 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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Daniel O’Brien, Lecturer, Department of Literature Film and Theatre Studies, University of Essex
Opus, the film debut of former GQ editor-turned-director Mark Anthony Green has been described as a horror-musical. And while this new hybrid-genre film clearly has something to say, what that is remains frustratingly unclear.
Produced by independent film company A24, often a hallmark of quality, the film follows Ariel Ecton (Ayo Edebiri), a young writer striving to make her mark in entertainment journalism. While it gestures toward themes of celebrity culture and the toxicity of extreme fandom, the film ultimately feels tangled in a jumble of unfocused ideas and derivative references to other – arguably stronger – works.
Despite talent and determination, Ariel struggles with her boss Stan (Murray Bartlett) who redeploys her ideas to other senior colleagues and is often too self-absorbed to nurture her career development.
The very watchable Edebiri eases into centre stage after catapulting to global fame in the TV show The Bear (2022-present), for which she has received a Golden Globe and an Emmy.
Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. Sign up here.
In contrast to the achievements of The Bear’s Sydney, her character Ariel’s success as a writer seems out of reach in Opus. In an early scene, she articulates her frustrations to a friend who responds by pointing to Ariel’s ordinariness and comfortable upbringing. Apparently, her lack of disadvantage is precisely what’s holding her back, leaving her “too middle” to be noticed, promoted or considered.
Here we have the first clue that Ariel will be destined to experience trauma which will come by way of the “final girl” horror trope (a reference to the last woman standing) by the end of the film.
To Ariel’s surprise, she is selected to accompany Stan to a remote desert compound with other journalists to cover the story of reclusive pop legend Alfred Moretti (John Malkovich, returning to the big screen for the first time in five years).
Coincidentally, Moretti is about to make a return to public life after a 30-year hiatus and reset his reputation with a new album. Malkovich seems to relish the role, cranking up his flamboyant eccentricity in what feels like a mash-up of Ziggy Stardust and Frank-N-Furter.
Moretti’s ostentatiousness in contrast to Ariel’s subdued “middle-ness”, seems to be one of several binaries that the film explores, with an epilogue that discusses the left and right sides of the brain, and the division between destruction and creativity.
The theme of creativeness is a driving force in the film, with Moretti’s and Ariel’s respective musical and literary artistry used as fuel in the narrative, from a director with a similar writing background to Ariel.
Unfortunately, the film often feels more derivative than creative because of the numerous sources it takes as its inspiration. Moretti’s compound turns out, of course, to be a cult where Ariel, Stan and other invited guests will find something even more sinister than Malkovich’s rhythmic hip thrusts.
The rules of the compound mean that all guests must hand over their phones and electronic devices, so that in typical horror fashion, the characters are completely cut off from the outside world.
The knowing nod to this horror cliché is perhaps done for comedic value, but becomes another of the film’s weak spots, in the sense that it never really commits to any one thing. It’s not quite a comedy, a horror or a musical but something that is more fragmentary, borrowing elements of each.
It’s as if the director has assembled his favourite genres, but only in notes that have not yet been successfully put together. For example, there is an explicit recreation of a very distinct scene from Takashi Miike’s harrowing Audition (1999), while other parts are heavily influenced by Ari Aster’s disturbing Midsommar, (2019) a folk horror film also made by A24.
There are also nods to Mark Mylod’s The Menu (2022) in which an eccentric celebrity chef creates a meal for a group of sycophant critics with lethal consequences. As a dark comedy-horror, The Menu succeeds in satirising the absurdity of reality cooking shows, where competitiveness and TV chefs are caricatured.
However, Green’s attempt at satire in Opus doesn’t really work. That’s not to imply that the film hasn’t got something to say – Green appears to be interested in the relationship between celebrity culture and fandom. However, that idea doesn’t feel fully fleshed out, particularly when other films like Brandon Cronenberg’s dangerously underrated Antiviral (2012) was addressing this idea with visceral originality more than a decade ago.
Moretti’s songs have a deliberately dated sound which seems to be inspired by Michael Jackson, particularly around the time of his 2001 Invincible tour and album, which both failed to return the singer to his “king of pop” status.
Again, films such as Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance (2024) tackle the idea of the ageing celebrity with more clarity and originality, even while clearly being inspired by other movies.
Consequently, Opus has quite a 1990s feel to it, perhaps aided by the casting of Malkovich and Juliette Lewis, both huge stars during that decade. The film also gets a bit meta, nodding to Spike Jonze’s Being John Malkovich (1999) through a similar use of star cameos and a puppet show – both interesting elements, but again which feel disjointed in Opus.
I think Green has stronger films in him to come but, although his work raises interesting points, there are too many ideas here for a convincing film to properly materialise. I was unclear on a number of things including Moretti’s motives and his contempt for critics, including the positive ones.
Opus perhaps bites off more than it can chew, leaving me feeling that Green’s directorial opus is still to come.
Daniel O’Brien 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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Sameen Mohsin Ali, Lecturer in International Development, University of Birmingham
Pakistan’s army has freed hundreds of hostages from a passenger train that was seized by armed militants in the south-western province of Balochistan on Tuesday, March 11. A number of those on board were military officials and police personnel travelling from Balochistan’s capital, Quetta, to Peshawar further north.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) quickly claimed responsibility for the hijacking. In a written statement sent to the Guardian, the group said its actions were “a direct response to Pakistan’s decades-long colonial occupation of Balochistan and the relentless war crimes committed against the Baloch people”.
Ever since 1948, when Balochistan became a province of Pakistan months after partition from India, this territory has been marginalised by the Pakistani state. The authorities have struggled to accommodate the diverse ethnic and linguistic groups within Balochistan, leading to several rounds of insurgency.
During the recent hijack, the BLA demanded that Pakistan’s military release Baloch activists, missing people and political prisoners, and threatened to kill many of the hostages if the authorities did not comply. The subsequent military operation, which lasted two days, resulted in the deaths of all 33 militants, as well as 21 hostages and four army personnel.
The brazen nature and scale of the attack has raised difficult questions for the Pakistani state about how it addresses escalating discontent and militancy in Balochistan.
Unlike more moderate Baloch nationalist groups, which are committed to remaining part of the Pakistani state despite longstanding grievances with it, the BLA aims to achieve an independent Balochistan.
Some of the grievances expressed by the Baloch include a lack of representation both in the federal government and the armed forces. Baloch nationalists also allege the Pakistani state has exploited the province’s coal, gold, copper and gas resources while providing very little for the Baloch people in return.
Revenues from the Saindak gold and copper mine, for example, are largely shared between the Chinese company that operates it and the Pakistani government. The Balochistan provincial government only receives around 5% of the mine’s revenue.
Chaghi, the mineral-rich district of Balochistan that hosts the Saindak mine, remains one of the most underdeveloped areas of the country. Local people employed at the mine claim they are only offered menial jobs and work in unsafe conditions.
Balochistan’s persistent underdevelopment means a poor quality of life for its citizens. It consistently ranks as the Pakistani province with the lowest human development index (HDI) rating, scoring 0.421 in 2017. This index is a summary rating between 0 (low) and 1 (high) based on measures of health, education and standard of living. Punjab has the highest HDI rating at 0.732.
The separatist movement in Balochistan intensified after Nawab Akbar Bugti, a prominent Baloch nationalist leader, was killed in a military operation in 2006. The BLA was soon banned by the Pakistani government, and the military’s operations intensified in the province.
Baloch human rights defenders and activists have persistently accused Pakistan’s security forces of harassment and relying on excessive force. Protesters believe there have been thousands of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, which the Pakistani authorities have denied.
The issue has been raised by human rights organisations both in Pakistan and abroad. Families of missing people have filed cases against the government with the Pakistan Supreme Court, and disappearances have been investigated through special commissions of inquiry.
Supreme Court rulings have held the state responsible for enforced disappearances. While some missing people have been traced as a result of these rulings and inquiries, the International Commission of Jurists notes that “there has been no apparent effort made to fix responsibility for this heinous crime”.
Attacking foreign investments
The BLA’s tactics have typically involved carrying out attacks against state installations. However, in recent years, attacks against Chinese citizens and infrastructure have become the group’s focus.
Balochistan has a strategically important coastline, providing access to the Indian Ocean. China has invested heavily in the region as part of its Belt and Road Initiative, including in a deep-sea port at Gwadar. But these investments have failed to benefit local people, fuelling accusations by many in the province that the Pakistani state is systematically neglecting their needs.
The BLA’s suicide squad was responsible for an attack that injured three Chinese engineers working in the Balochistan city of Dalbandin in 2018. Later that year, BLA militants attacked the Chinese consulate in Karachi – though Chinese nationals remained safe in that attack.
The group seems to have no difficulty attracting young and well-educated Baloch people, who see the state’s actions and Chinese presence in Balochistan as exploitative. In 2022, a female graduate student carried out a suicide attack on behalf of the BLA that killed three Chinese teachers at the University of Karachi.
The BLA’s activities have expanded substantially in recent years. It has conducted more than 150 attacks in the past year alone, including on Quetta railway station and on a convoy carrying Chinese workers near Karachi airport.
However, experts have noted that the train hijacking was unprecedented in scale. It represents a significant escalation by the BLA in terms of the planning, resources and intelligence required to execute such an operation.
The Pakistani government and military appear to have mishandled Balochistan’s security situation. But they have also failed to address the growing resentment and alienation that is driving people to groups like the BLA.
According to Farzana Sheikh, an associate fellow at Chatham House, Pakistan’s military continues to favour “a heavy-handed security response to deal with what is widely judged to be a political crisis”.
Accusations of state exploitation and neglect will not go away until the Pakistani state radically alters its stance on Balochistan, starting by ensuring accountability for perpetrators of human rights violations. Only then can trust be rebuilt with the people of this province who, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, live in “a climate of fear”.
Sameen Mohsin Ali 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.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Colin Alexander, Senior Lecturer in Political Communications, Nottingham Trent University
The recently appointed White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, has begun her tenure combatively, aggressively defending the Trump administration’s policies and, at times, mimicking Donald Trump’s methods of dealing with the mainstream news media.
Faced recently with a legitimate question by an Associated Press (AP) reporter who challenged Trump’s introduction of tariffs against several countries, she accused the reporter of doubting her knowledge of economics. She then dismissed him, saying: “I now regret giving a question to the Associated Press.”
AP is one of the key media organisations reporting on the White House. The largest news agency in the US, its stories are carried by news groups around the world. But recently, AP was ejected from the “press pool” that covers White House business
It was excluded in mid-February for refusing to call the Gulf of Mexico “the Gulf of America”, after Trump changed its name by executive order. This was followed by an announcement that the White House would take greater control of the press pool and choose which outlets would be given most access to the president. This is likely to be based on favourable coverage rather than quality of reporting.
To appreciate how significant this is, it is important to first state the fundamental purpose of journalism in a democratic society, which is to hold the powerful to account. This is known as its “watchdog” function.
The work of Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in exposing the Watergate scandal during the 1970s is often held up as the gold standard of watchdog journalism. It ultimately led to the resignation of Richard Nixon as president and the imprisonment of his lawyer, John Dean.
“Pooling” describes the process by which a prominent organisation or individual attempts to oversee journalistic scrutiny by managing access. King Charles, for example, also operates a press pool.
It works in two stages. First, news organisations or individual journalists apply to be members of the pool. Then, a handful of journalists from the pool are selected each day or week for access. These journalists – through their pool contract – are required to share the information they gather with the other journalists in the pool, which often leads to a genericisation of the content.
Thus, while political organisations or elite individuals might claim the pooling system is used as a benign and fair tool to manage consistent press interest, in reality it is a weapon of communications control.
The White House’s press pool was first established under President Dwight Eisenhower as a reflection of the growing number of journalists based in Washington. But in the modern era, the use of pooling was most controversial during and after the first Gulf War of the early 1990s.
Rather than roaming the battlefields of Iraq and Kuwait, most western reporters spent the conflict at the media centre in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, some 250 miles from the Kuwait border. Here they were fed the information that the US military wanted the public to know. A small number of pooled journalists were then occasionally accompanied by US troops to the battlefield in what was a clear case of censorship by access and perspective limitation.
This military-media power dynamic – and the subsequent mismatch between the actuality of the war and the reporting of it – led the French philosopher Jean Baudrillard to declare in a 1991 essay, published by Liberation and The Guardian, that “The Gulf war did not take place”.
General “Stormin” Norman Schwarzkopf’s famous “luckiest man in Iraq” briefing is indicative of the close relationship that developed between military and media professionals during the conflict. Schwarzkopf showed journalists footage taken through the crosshairs of a US bomber of an Iraqi private car driving over a bridge moments before a US airstrike destroys it. You can hear the journalists laughing with Schwarzkopf as they watch this lucky escape.
Legacy of Vietnam
Despite widespread understanding that scrutiny is an important part of public officialdom, the legacy of the Vietnam War – a conflict the US was perceived both at home and around the world to have lost – led to a significant amount of distrust of journalists. US media analyst Daniel Hallin referred to Vietnam as the “uncensored war”. By this he meant that journalists enjoyed an unprecedented amount of freedom – exacerbated by the relatively new medium of television, which brought stark images of war directly into people’s living rooms.
By February 1968, the US military’s daily briefings from the Rex Hotel in Saigon had become known as the “five o’clock follies”, on account of the gulf between official claims of the war’s “progress” and what was being reported by journalists who had ventured into the field. The military consistently presented a positive narrative – in stark contrast to the esteemed CBS reporter Walter Cronkite’s analysis that: “To say that we are mired in stalemate seems the only realistic, yet unsatisfactory, conclusion.”
Vietnam could have been an opportunity for governments to think about their obligation to truth and the requirement to be more ethical in their approach. Instead, the feeling in Washington was that unfavourable press coverage had lost the war, and that journalists needed to be curtailed.
Controlling the message
The recent decision by the Trump administration to take over selection of pool journalists from the notionally independent White House Correspondents’ Association is unsurprising. The approach is consistent with the first Trump presidency’s refusal to answer questions from journalists who tried to carry out the press’s watchdog function.
It also fits with Trump’s electioneering approach during 2024 when he shunned traditional news outlets, focusing instead on social media and appearing on the podcasts of Joe Rogan and Andrew Schulz, for example.
To this end, the White House’s decision amounts to a power grab against the institution of modern journalism – even if much of the US media has been in thrall to the powerful ever since Vietnam.
Colin Alexander 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.
Prime Minister Mark Carney and his cabinet have been sworn in, ending Justin Trudeau’s time in office and paving the way for a spring election. Canadians are soon heading to the polls as they watch American democracy crumble.
United States President Donald Trump recently argued “he who saves his country does not violate any Law” as he ignores Congress and the courts, governs by executive order and threatens international laws and treaties.
Republican leaders moved dramatically to the right, and the primary system allowed the choice of an extremist. Republican voters then aligned their opinions with his. Trump’s disdain for democratic fundamentals spread quickly. Partisans defending their team slid away from democratic values.
Canada’s more centrist ideological spectrum is not foolproof against this type of extremism. Public opinion can be moved when our leaders take us there.
Decline can start slowly and then accelerate. America’s democratic backsliding in the first weeks of Trump’s second presidency follows the erosion of democratic norms over decades. Republican attacks on institutions, the opposition, the media and higher education corrosively undermined public faith in the truth, including election results.
Trust in government is holding steady in Canada, however. That provides an important guardrail for Canadian democracy.
The dangers of courting the far right
There are also lessons for our political parties. To maximize their seats, Republicans accepted extremists like Marjorie Taylor Greene, but soon needed those types of politicians for key votes.
The so-called Freedom Caucus, made up of MAGA adherents, forced the choice of a new, more extreme, leader of the House of Representatives. This provides a clear lesson that history has shown many times: it is dangerous for the party on the political right to accommodate the far right, which can quickly take control.
Once established within the ruling party, extremists can hold their party hostage.
Austria recently avoided the inclusion of the far right in its new coalition, and now Germany is working to do the same. As Canada’s Conservatives look for every vote, courting far-right voters and candidates risks destabilizing the system.
They clearly did not imagine party loyalty negating the safeguards that protect democracy from an authoritarian-minded president. The Constitution gives Congress the power to legislate and impeach, limits the executive’s power to spend and make appointments, gives the judiciary power to hold an executive accountable and contains the 25th amendment allowing cabinet to remove a president.
But when one party controls the legislative and executive branches during a time of hyper-partisanship, these mechanisms may not constrain an authoritarian. Today, Republican loyalty has eroded these checks and balances and American courts are struggling to step up to their heightened role.
Although counter-intuitive, parliamentary systems like Canada’s are usually less susceptible to authoritarianism than presidential ones because the cabinet or the House of Commons can turn against a lawless leader.
Still, if popular, authoritarian leaders can still retain their party’s support — and then things can slide quickly. The rightward pull of extremists seen in the U.S. House would be more dangerous here since the Canadian House of Commons includes our executive.
Guarding against xenophobia
Lastly, Canada should be wary of xenophobic rhetoric.
“America First” is not simply shopping advice. It began as an isolationist slogan during the First World War but was soon adopted by pro-fascists, American Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan. These entities questioned who is really American and wanted not only isolationism, but racist policies, immigration restrictions and eugenics.
Trump did not revive the phrase accidentally. It’s a call to America’s fringes. Alienating domestic groups is a sure sign of democratic decline.
“Canada First” mimics that century-long dark theme in America. In combination with contempt for the opposition, it questions the right of other parties to legitimately hold power if used as a message by one party.
Also, asserting that “Canada is broken” — as Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre often does — mimics Trump’s talk of American carnage, language and imagery he uses to justify extraordinary presidential authority.
Such language erodes citizens’ trust in democratic institutions and primes voters to support undemocratic practices in the name of patriotism. Canadian parties and politicians should exit that road.
Ultimately, institutions alone do not protect a country from the rise of authoritarianism. Democracy can be fragile. As a federal election approaches in Canada, it’s important to know the warning signs of extremism and anti-democratic practices that are creeping into our politics.
Matthew Lebo 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.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Arthur Daemmrich, Professor of Practice in the School for the Future of Innovation in Society, Arizona State University
MLB’s automated ball-strike technology could be used in big league games as soon as 2026.Rich Schultz/Getty Images
Baseball fans tuning into spring training games may have noticed another new wrinkle in a sport that’s experienced a host of changes in recent years.
Batters, pitchers and catchers can challenge a home plate umpire’s ball or strike call. Powered by Hawk-Eye ball-tracking technology, the automated ball-strike system replays the pitch trajectory to determine whether the umpire’s call was correct.
To minimize disruptions, Major League Baseball permits each team a maximum of two failed challenges per game but allows unlimited challenges as long as they’re successful. For now, the technology will be limited to the spring exhibition games. But it could be implemented in the regular season as soon as 2026.
Count future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer among the skeptics.
“We’re humans,” the Toronto Blue Jays hurler said after a spring training game in which he challenged two calls and lost both to the robo umps. “Can we just be judged by humans?”
Technological advances that lead to fairer, more accurate calls are often seen as triumphs. But as co-editors of the recently published volume “Inventing for Sports,” which includes case studies of over 20 sports inventions, we find that new technology doesn’t mean perfect precision – nor does it necessarily lead to better competition from the fan perspective.
Cue the cameras
While playing in a cricket match in the 1990s, British computer scientist Paul Hawkins fumed over a bad call. He decided to make sure the same mistake wouldn’t happen again.
Drawing on his doctoral training in artificial intelligence, he designed an array of high-speed cameras to capture a ball’s flight path and velocity, and a software algorithm that used the data to predict the ball’s likely future path.
He founded Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd. in 2001, and his first clients were cricket broadcasters who used the technology’s trajectory graphics to enhance their telecasts.
By 2006, professional tennis leagues began deploying Hawk-Eye to help officials adjudicate line calls. Cricket leagues followed in 2009, incorporating it to help umpires make what are known as “leg before wicket” calls, among others. And professional soccer leagues started using the technology in 2012 to determine whether balls cross the goal line.
A technician uses the Hawk-Eye system as part of a broadcast trial for the technology during the 2005 Masters Tennis tournament in London. Julian Finney/Getty Images
Reaction to Hawk-Eye has been mixed. In tennis, players, fans and broadcasters have generally embraced the technology. During a challenge, spectators often clap rhythmically in anticipation as the Hawk-Eye official cues up the replayed trajectory.
“As a player, and now as a TV commentator,” tennis legend Pam Shriver said in 2006, “I dreamed of the day when technology would take the accuracy of line calling to the next level. That day has now arrived.”
But Hawk-Eye isn’t perfect. In 2020 and 2022, the firm publicly apologized to fans of professional soccer clubs after its goal-line technology made errant calls after players congregated in the goal box and obstructed key camera sight lines.
Perfection isn’t possible
Critics have also raised more fundamental concerns.
In their 2016 book “Bad Call,” researchers Harry Collins, Robert Evans and Christopher Higgins reminded readers that Hawk-Eye is not a replay of the ball’s actual position; rather, it produces a prediction of a trajectory, based on the ball’s prior velocity, rotation and position.
The authors lament that Hawk-Eye and what they term “decision aids” have undermined the authority of referees and umpires, which they consider bad for the games.
Ultimately, there are no purely objective standards for fairness and accuracy in technological officiating. They are always negotiated. Even the most precise officiating innovations require human consensus to define and validate their role. Technologies like photo-finish cameras, instant replay and ball-tracking systems have improved the precision of officiating, but their deployment is shaped – and often limited – by human judgment and institutional decisions.
For example, today’s best race timing systems are accurate to 0.0001 seconds, yet Olympic sports such as swimming, track and field, and alpine skiing report results in increments of only 0.01 seconds. This can lead to situations – such as Dominique Gisin and Tina Maze’s gold medal tie in the women’s downhill ski race at the 2014 Sochi Olympics – in which the timing officials admitted that their equipment could have revealed the actual winner. But they were forced to report a dead heat under the rules established by the ski federation.
With slow-motion instant replays, determining a catch or a player’s intention for a personal foul can actually be distorted by low-speed replay, since humans aren’t adept at adjusting to shifting replay speeds.
One of the big issues with baseball’s automated ball-strike system has to do with the strike zone itself.
MLB’s rule book defines the strike zone as the depth and width of home plate and the vertical distance between the midpoint of a player’s torso to the point just below his knees. The interpretation of the strike zone is notoriously subjective and varies with each umpire. For example, human umpires often call a strike if the ball crosses the plate in the rear corner. However the automated ball-strike system uses an imaginary plane that bisects the middle – not the front or the rear – of home plate.
There are more complications. Since every player has a unique height, each has a unique strike zone. At the outset of spring training, each player’s height was measured – standing up without cleats – and then confirmed through a biomechanical analysis.
Eddie Gaedel, the shortest player in major league baseball history, had a much smaller strike zone than his peers. He drew a walk in his only at-bat. Bettmann/Getty Images
But what if a player changes their batting stance and decides to crouch? What if they change their cleats and raise their strike zone by an extra quarter-inch?
Of course, as has been the case in tennis, soccer and other sports, Hawk-Eye can help rectify genuinely bad calls. By allowing teams to correct the most disputed calls without eliminating the human element of umpiring, MLB hopes to strike a balance between tradition and change.
Fans have the final say
Finding a balance between machine precision and the human element of baseball is crucial.
Players’ and managers’ efforts to work the umpires to contract or expand the strike zone have long been a part of the game. And fans eagerly cheer or jeer players and managers who argue with the umpires. When ejections take place, more yelling and taunting ensues.
Though often unacknowledged in negotiations between leagues and athletes, fan enthusiasm is a key component of whether to adopt new technology.
For example, innovative “full-body” swimsuits contributed to a wave of record-breaking finishes in the sport between 2000 and 2009. But uneven access to the newest gear raised the specter of what some called “technological doping.” World Aquatics worried that as records fell simply due to equipment innovations, spectators would stop watching and broadcast and sponsorship revenue would dry up. The swimming federation ended up banning full-body swimsuits.
When managers argue balls and strikes, it can make for great TV.
Of course, algorithmic officiating differs from technologies that enhance performance and speed. But it runs a similar risk of turning off fans. So MLB, like other sports leagues, is being thrust into the role of managing technological change.
Assessing technologies for their immediate and long-term impact is difficult enough for large government agencies. Sports leagues lack those resources, yet are nonetheless being forced to carefully consider how they introduce and regulate various innovations.
MLB, to its credit, is proceeding incrementally. While the logical conclusion to the current automated ball-strike experiment would be fully electronic officiating, we think fans and players will resist going that far.
The league’s challenge system is a test. But the real umpires will ultimately be the fans.
Arthur Daemmrich receives funding from the National Science Foundation and The Lemelson Foundation.
For the research underlying this article, Eric S. Hintz and the Smithsonian Institution received funding from the National Science Foundation, the Lemelson Foundation, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, Nike, Inc., the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation, the Shō Foundation, ConocoPhillips, and the Hopper-Dean Family Fund.
Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed are the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views
of the National Science Foundation or any other funder.
Source: The Conversation – USA – By Michael Moats, Professor of Metallurgical Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Semiconductors power nearly every aspect of modern life – cars, smartphones, medical devices and even national defense systems. These tiny but essential components make the information age possible, whether they’re supporting lifesaving hospital equipment or facilitating the latest advances in artificial intelligence.
It’s easy to take them for granted, until something goes wrong. That’s exactly what happened when the COVID-19 pandemic exposed major weaknesses in the global semiconductor supply chain. Suddenly, to name just one consequence, new vehicles couldn’t be finished because chips produced abroad weren’t being delivered. The semiconductor supply crunch disrupted entire industries and cost hundreds of billions of dollars.
The crisis underscored a hard reality: The U.S. depends heavily on foreign countries – including China, a geopolitical rival – to manufacture semiconductors. This isn’t just an economic concern; it’s widely recognized as a national security risk.
That’s why the U.S. government has taken steps to invest in semiconductor production through initiatives such as the CHIPS and Science Act, which aims to revitalize American manufacturing and was passed with bipartisan support in 2022. While President Donald Trump has criticized the CHIPS and Science Act recently, both he and his predecessor, Joe Biden, have touted their efforts to expand domestic chip manufacturing in recent years.
Yet, even with bipartisan support for new chip plants, a major challenge remains: Who will operate them?
Minding the workforce gap
The push to bring semiconductor manufacturing back to the U.S. faces a significant hurdle: a shortage of skilled workers. The semiconductor industry is expected to need 300,000 engineers by 2030 as new plants are built. Without a well-trained workforce, these efforts will fall short, and the U.S. will remain dependent on foreign suppliers.
This isn’t just a problem for the tech sector – it affects every industry that relies on semiconductors, from auto manufacturing to defense contractors. Virtually every military communication, monitoring and advanced weapon system relies on microchips. It’s not sustainable or safe for the U.S. to rely on foreign nations – especially adversaries – for the technology that powers its military.
For the U.S. to secure supply chains and maintain technological leadership, I believe it would be wise to invest in education and workforce development alongside manufacturing expansion.
Building the next generation of semiconductor engineers
Filling this labor gap will require a nationwide effort to train engineers and technicians in semiconductor research, design and fabrication. Engineering programs across the country are taking up this challenge by introducing specialized curricula that combine hands-on training with industry-focused coursework.
Clean rooms, a vital part of semiconductor factories, are also where the next generation of tech innovators conduct research. Here, a Ph.D. candidate is seen in an air shower room before entering a clean room at Tokyo University on May 1, 2024. Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
Future semiconductor workers will need expertise in chip design and microelectronics, materials science and process engineering, and advanced manufacturing and clean room operations. To meet this demand, it will be important for universities and colleges to work alongside industry leaders to ensure students graduate with the skills employers need. Offering hands-on experience in semiconductor fabrication, clean-room-based labs and advanced process design will be essential for preparing a workforce that’s ready to contribute from Day 1.
Rebuilding domestic semiconductor manufacturing isn’t just about national security – it’s an economic opportunity that could benefit millions of Americans. By expanding training programs and workforce pipelines, the U.S. can create tens of thousands of high-paying jobs, strengthening the economy and reducing reliance on foreign supply chains.
And the race to secure semiconductor supply chains isn’t just about stability – it’s about innovation. The U.S. has long been a global leader in semiconductor research and development, but recent supply chain disruptions have shown the risks of allowing manufacturing to move overseas.
If the U.S. wants to remain at the forefront of technological advancement in artificial intelligence, quantum computing and next-generation communication systems, it seems clear to me it will need new workers – not just new factories – to gain control of its semiconductor production.
Michael Moats does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The advent of generative artificial intelligence has sent shock waves across industries, from the technical to the creative. AI systems that can generate viable computer code, write news stories and spin up professional-looking graphics have inspired countless headlines asking whether they will take away jobs in technology, journalism and design, among many other fields.
And these new ways of doing work and making things raise another question: In the era of AI, what does it mean to be an inventor?
Among technologists who build digital tools or programs, it is increasingly common to use AI as part of design and development processes. But as deep learning models flex their technical muscles more and more, even highly skilled researchers who are using AI in their work have begun to express concerns about becoming obsolete.
There is much debate about whether AI can augment human creativity, but emerging data suggests that the technology can boost research and development where creativity typically plays an important role. A recent study by MIT economics doctoral student Aidan Toner-Rodgers found that scientists using AI tools increased their patent filings by 39% and created 17% more prototypes than when they worked without such tools.
While this study indicates that AI seemed to help humans be more productive, it also showed there was a downside: 82% of the surveyed researchers felt less satisfied with their jobs since implementing AI in their workflows. “I couldn’t help feeling that much of my education is now worthless,” one researcher said.
This emerging dynamic leads to a related question: If a scientist uses AI in order to build something new, does the output still qualify as an invention? As a legal scholar who studies technology and intellectual property law, I see the growing power of AI shifting the legal landscape.
Natural persons
In 2020, the United States Patent and Trademark Office refused to list the AI system DABUS, which purportedly designed a food container and a flashing emergency beacon, as an inventor on patent applications. Subsequent court rulings clarified that under current U.S. law, only humans can be listed as inventors, but they left open the question of whether inventions developed by scientists with the help of AI qualify for patent protection.
The concept of inventorship and legal protections for inventions have deep roots in the U.S. The Constitution explicitly protects the “exclusive rights” of authors and inventors “to their respective writings and discoveries,” reflecting the framers’ strong conviction that the state should protect and encourage original ideas.
U.S. law today defines an inventor as a natural person who has conceived of a complete and operative invention that can be used without extensive research or experimentation. An inventor must do more than follow routine instructions – they must make an intellectual contribution in producing something novel.
That contribution can be a key idea that sparks the invention or a crucial insight that turns the concept into a working product. If a person’s input is routine or just explains what’s already known, they are not an inventor.
Role of AI
To what extent can or should AI become part of the invention process? The release of AI applications such as ChatGPT in 2022 introduced the public to large language models and sparked renewed debate about whether and how AI should be used in the inventive process. That same year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit heard a case that tested whether AI could be named as an inventor on a patent application.
The court concluded that under U.S. law, inventors must be human beings. The ruling reaffirmed the idea that Congress intended to encourage human beings, not machines, to invent. This idea remains foundational to current patent policy.
In light of the court’s decision, in 2024 the United States Patent and Trademark Office updated its guidance to clarify the role of AI in the inventive process. The guidance reaffirms that an inventor must be human. However, the Patent and Trademark Office explained that the policy did not preclude inventors from using AI tools to assist in the research and development of inventions. This approach acknowledges how the rapid development of AI technologies has allowed researchers to make exciting breakthroughs.
Policymakers seem to understand that if the U.S. is to continue to lead the world in innovation, the mythology of a sole inventor toiling away in a garage and relying on pure intellect must evolve to account for the value of AI tools that research has proven make humans more productive.
Nevertheless, since only human beings can be named as inventors on a patent, current policy does not quite answer the question of who or what should get credit for doing the work. Despite a growing trend where researchers are expected to disclose whether they’ve used AI tools, for example in academic papers, the U.S. patent system makes no such demand.
Regardless of AI’s role in the research and development process, a U.S. patent will list only the names of human inventors so long as those humans made a significant contribution to the invention. As a result, current policy is not concerned with how to recognize the contributions of AI. AI is considered a tool like a microscope or a Bunsen burner.
Personal ingenuity in the age of AI
Given this shifting legal landscape, I see that U.S. innovation policy is at a crossroads. The Patent and Trademark Office’s guidance reaffirming human inventorship and simultaneously embracing AI as an innovation tool is only a year old. It is unclear how the Trump administration’s forthcoming action plan to “enhance America’s global AI dominance” will affect this guidance.
Some observers expect the rate of scientific discovery to increase dramatically with the assistance of AI tools. But if the majority of those same productive researchers enjoy their jobs less, is the act of inventing being encouraged as the framers envisioned?
Current U.S. policy attempts to strike a balance and recognize the concept of personal ingenuity, stemming from the principle that for an invention to be patented in the U.S., a human must have led the way. Yet the guidance also implicitly acknowledges that AI can lend a helping hand in modern research and development. Whether and how policymakers maintain this balance – and how leaders in industry and science respond – will help shape the next chapter of American innovation.
W. Keith Robinson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and fellow Democrats criticize President Donald Trump’s plan to shutter the Education Department on March 6, 2025.AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
The details remain unclear, but reports suggest that staffs at six of the 12 regional OCR offices were laid off. Because of the office’s role in enforcing civil rights laws in schools and universities, the cuts will affect students across the country.
As education policy scholars who study how laws and policies shape educational inequities, we believe the Office for Civil Rights has played an important role in facilitating equitable education for all students.
The latest cuts further compound funding and staffing shortages that have plagued the office. The full effects of these changes on the most vulnerable public school students will likely be felt for many years.
Few staff members
The Education Department, already the smallest Cabinet-level agency before the recent layoffs, distributed roughly US$242 billion to students, K-12 schools and universities in the 2024 fiscal year.
About $160 billion of that money went to student aid for higher education. The department’s discretionary budget was just under $80 billion, a sliver compared with other agencies.
Within the Education Department, the Office for Civil Rights had a $140 million budget for fiscal year 2024, less than 0.2% of discretionary funding, which requires annual congressional approval.
The office’s appropriated budget in fiscal year 2017 was one-third of the budget of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission – a federal agency responsible for civil rights protection in the workplace – despite the high number of discrimination complaints that OCR handles.
Support for OCR
Despite this underfunding, the office has traditionally received bipartisan support.
Former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, for example, requested a funding decrease for the office during the first Trump administration. Congress, however, overrode her budget request and increased appropriations.
Likewise, regardless of changing administrations, the office’s budget has remained fairly unchanged since 2001.
It garners attention for investigating and resolving discrimination-related complaints in K-12 and higher education. And while administrations have different priorities in how to investigate these complaints, they have remained an important resource for students for decades.
But a key function that often goes unnoticed is its collection and release of data through the Civil Rights Data Collection.
The CRDC is a national database that collects information on various indicators of student access and barriers to educational opportunity. Historically, only 5% of the OCR’s budget appropriations has been allocated for the CRDC.
That’s because the CRDC often relies on data infrastructure that is shared with the institute.
The history of the CRDC
The CRDC originated in the late 1960s as required by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The data questionnaire, which poses questions about civil rights concerns, is usually administered to U.S. public school districts every two years.
Although there have been some changes to questions over the years, others have been consistent for 50 years to allow for examining changes over time. Some examples are counts of students disciplined by schools’ use of corporal punishment or out-of-school suspension.
The U.S. Department of Education building is seen in Washington on Dec. 3, 2024. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
During the Obama administration, the Office for Civil Rights prioritized making the CRDC more accessible to the public. The administration created a website that allows the public to view information for particular schools or districts, or to download data to analyze.
Why the CRDC matters
Our research focuses on how the CRDC has been used and how it could be improved. In an ongoing research project, we identified 221 peer-reviewed publications that have analyzed the CRDC.
Articles focusing on school discipline – out-of-school suspensions, for example – are the most common. But there are many other topics that would be difficult to study without the CRDC.
That’s especially true when making comparisons between districts and states, such as whether students have access to advanced coursework or participation in gifted and talented programs.
The data has also inspired policy changes.
The Obama administration, informed by the data on the use of seclusion and restraint to discipline students, issued a policy guidance document in 2016 regarding its overuse for students with disabilities.
Additionally, the data helps examine the effects of judicial decisions and laws – desegregation laws in the South, for example – that have improved educational opportunities for many vulnerable students.
Amid the Education Department’s continued cancellation of contracts of federally funded equity assistance centers, we believe research partnerships with policymakers and practitioners drawing on CRDC data will be more important than ever.
Erica Frankenberg and Maithreyi Gopalan received funding from the Student Experience Research Network.
Maithreyi Gopalan has received research grants and fellowships from various foundations such as the Student Experience Research Network (New Venture Fund), Federation of American Scientists, and others.
Knowing which vaccines older adults should get and hearing a clear recommendation from their health care provider about why a particular vaccine is important strongly motivated them to get vaccinated. That’s a key finding in a recent study I co-authored in the journal Open Forum Infectious Diseases.
Adults over 65 have a higher risk of severe infections, but they receive routine vaccinations at lower rates than do other groups. My colleagues and I collaborated with six primary care clinics across the U.S. to test two approaches for increasing vaccination rates for older adults.
In all, 249 patients who were visiting their primary care providers participated in the study. Of these, 116 patients received a two-page vaccine discussion guide to read in the waiting room before their visit. Another 133 patients received invitations to attend a one-hour education session after their visit.
The guide, which we created for the study, was designed to help people start a conversation about vaccines with their providers. It included checkboxes for marking what made it hard for them to get vaccinated and which vaccines they want to know more about, as well as space to write down any questions they have. The guide also featured a chart listing recommended vaccines for older adults, with boxes where people could check off ones they had already received.
In the sessions, providers shared in-depth information about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases and facilitated a discussion to address vaccine hesitancy.
In a follow-up survey two months later, patients reported that the most significant barriers they faced were knowing when they should receive a particular vaccine, having concerns about side effects and securing transportation to a vaccination appointment.
The percentage of patients who said they wanted to get a vaccine increased from 68% to 79% after using the vaccine guide. Following each intervention, 80% of patients reported they discussed vaccines more in that visit than they had in prior visits.
Of the 14 health care providers who completed the follow-up survey, 57% reported increased vaccination rates following each approach. Half of the providers felt that the use of the vaccine guide was an effective strategy in guiding conversations with their patients.
A pamphlet at the doctor’s office can empower older patients to ask about vaccines.
My research shows that strategies that equip older adults with personalized information about vaccines empower them to start the conversation about vaccines with their clinicians and enable them to be active participants in their health care.
What’s next
In the future, we will explore whether engaging patients on this topic earlier is even more helpful than doing so in the waiting room before their visit.
My research team plans to conduct a pilot study that tests this approach. We hope to learn whether reaching out to these patients before their clinic visits and helping them think through their vaccination status, which vaccines their provider recommends and what barriers they face in getting vaccinated will improve vaccination rates for this population.
The Research Brief is a short take on interesting academic work.
Laurie Archbald-Pannone has received funding from Virginia Department of Health and PRIME education. This activity is supported by an independent educational grant from GSK.
Protesters fill the Iowa state Capitol to denounce a bill that will strip the state civil rights code of protections based on gender identity.AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall
A state law signed Feb. 28, 2025, removes gender identity as a protected status from the Iowa Civil Rights Act, leaving transgender people vulnerable to discrimination. The rights of transgender people – those who present gender characteristics that differ from what has historically been expected of someone based on their biological sex traits – are under political attack across the United States. There are now hundreds of anti-trans bills at various points in the legislative process.
Bias against trans people may not always feel like bias. For someone who believes it to be true, saying there can only be biological men who identify as men and biological women who identify as women may feel like a statement of fact. But research shows that gender is a spectrum, separate from biological sex, which is also more complex than the common male-female binary.
We are social psychologists who study and teach about the basic social, cognitive and emotion-based processes people use to make sense of themselves and the world. Research reveals psychological processes that bias people in ways they usually aren’t aware of. These common human tendencies can influence what we think about a particular group, influence how we act toward them, and prompt legislators to pass biased laws.
Root of negative views of transgender people
Social psychology theory and research point to several possible sources of negative views of transgender people.
Part of forming your own identity is defining yourself by the traits that make you unique. To do this, you categorize others as belonging to your group – based on characteristics that matter to you, such as race, age, culture or gender – or not. Psychologists call these categories in-groups and out-groups.
There is a natural human tendency to have inherent negative feelings toward people who aren’t part of your in-group. The bias you might feel against fans of a rival sports team is an example. This tendency may be rooted deep in evolutionary history, when favoring your own safe group over unknown outsiders would have been a survival advantage.
A trans person’s status as transgender may be the most salient thing about them to an observer, overshadowing other characteristics such as their height, race, profession, parental status and so on. As a small minority, transgender people are an out-group from the mainstream – making it likely out-group bias will be directed their way.
Anti-trans feeling may also result from fear that transgender people pose threats to one’s personal or group identity. Gender is part of everyone’s identity. If someone perceives their own gender to be determined by their biological sex, they may perceive other people who violate that “rule” as a threat to their own gender identity. Part of identity formation is not just out-group derogation but in-group favoritism. A cisgender person may engage in “in-group boundary protection” by making sure the parameters of “gender” are well defined and match their own beliefs.
Once you hold negative feelings about someone in an out-group, there are other social psychological processes that may solidify and amplify them in your mind.
The illusion of a causal connection
People tend to form illusory correlations between objects, people, occurrences or behaviors, particularly when those things are infrequently encountered. Two distinctive things happening at the same time makes people believe that one is causing the other.
Some superstitions result from this phenomenon. For example, you might attribute an unusual success such as winning money to wearing a particular shirt, which you now think of as your lucky shirt.
If a person only ever hears about negative events when they see or hear about a transgender person, an immigrant or a member of some other minority group, then an illusory correlation can form between the negative events and the minority group. That connection is the starting point for prejudice: automatic, negative feelings toward a group of people without justification.
Of course, it is possible that individuals from the group in question have committed some offense. But to take one individual’s bad deed and attribute it to an entire group of people isn’t justified. This kind of extrapolation is the natural human tendency of stereotyping, which can bias people’s actions.
‘That’s exactly what I thought’
Human minds are biased to confirm the beliefs they already hold, including stereotypes about trans people. A few interconnected processes are at play in what psychologists call confirmation bias.
First, there’s a natural tendency to seek out information that fits with what you already believe. If you think a shirt is lucky, then you’re more likely to look for positive things that happen when you wear it than you are to look for negative events that would seem to disconfirm its luckiness.
If you think transgender people are dangerous, you are more likely to conduct an internet search for “transgender people who are dangerous” than “transgender people are victims of crime.”
There’s a second, more passive process in play as well. Rather than actively seeking out confirming information, people also simply pay attention to information that confirms what they thought in the first place and ignore contradictory information. This can happen without you even realizing.
People also tend to interpret ambiguous events in line with their beliefs – “I must be having a good day, despite some setbacks, because I’m wearing my lucky shirt.” That confirmation bias could explain someone with anti-trans attitudes thinking “that transgender person holding hands with a child must be a pedophile” instead of “that transgender mother is showing love and care for her kid.”
Confirmation bias can strengthen an illusory correlation, making it even more likely to influence subsequent actions – whether compulsively wearing a lucky shirt to an anxiety-inducing appointment or not hiring someone because of discriminatory thoughts about the group they belong to.
Moving past biases
Awareness of biases is the first step in avoiding them. Setting bias aside allows people to make fair decisions, based on accurate information, and in line with their values.
However, this is not an easy task in the face of another social psychological process called group polarization. This phenomenon occurs when individuals’ beliefs become more extreme as they talk and listen only to people who hold the same beliefs they do. Think of the social media bubbles that result from interacting only with people who share your perspective.
Efforts to stifle or prohibit educators’ and librarians’ ability to teach and discuss gender and sexuality topics, openly and fairly, add another challenge. Education through access to impartial, evidence-based information can be one way to help neutralize inherent bias.
Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr, who is transgender, in discussion with a colleague. AP Photo/Tommy Martino
As a final, hopeful point, social psychological research has identified one strategy for overcoming intergroup conflict: forming close contacts with individuals from the “other” group. Having a friend, loved one or trusted and valued colleague who belongs to the out-group can help you recognize their humanity and overcome the biases you hold against that out-group as a whole.
A relevant and recent example of this scenario came when two transgender state representatives convinced their fellow lawmakers to vote against two extreme anti-trans bills in Montana by making the issue personal.
All of these decision-making biases influence everyone, not just the lawmakers currently in power. And they can be quite complex, with particular in-group and out-group memberships being hard to define – for instance, factions within religious groups who disagree on particular political issues.
But understanding and overcoming the biases everyone falls prey to means that optimal decisions can be made for everyone’s well-being and economic vitality. After all, psychology research has repeatedly demonstrated that diversity is good for the bottom line while it simultaneously promotes an equitable and inclusive society. Even from a solely financial perspective, discrimination is bad for all Americans.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Sir Keir Starmer, the UK prime minister, announced on March 13 that the government will move to abolish NHS England in the next two years. During this period, the government plans to bring its functions under the UK’s health ministry, with the aim of bringing the health service “into democratic control”. What does this mean, and what difference will it make?
When the NHS was established in 1948, part of the aim was to make the local health problems of patients across the country the concern of the national government. The plan succeeded. Today, the NHS is politically highly important – it matters enormously to patients and the public, and has one of the largest spending budgets in the UK.
At the same time, it is technically difficult to manage, with local needs and opportunities and complex organisation that are hard and sometimes inefficient to manage centrally.
Striking the balance between delivering high-quality patient care and addressing the technical complexity of doing so is a continual challenge for governments. The solution chosen as part of the 2012 health and welfare reforms was to establish NHS England as an organisationally independent government body to provide technical and operational leadership for the NHS – leaving ministers insulated from those day-to-day issues and free to set an overall strategy.
The government’s decision to abolish NHS England marks a change back to direct ministerial grip on the system. This may reflect high public concern about the NHS and pressure on its services, as well as a desire by the recently elected government to exercise more direct control over the health service.
How does this compare to other health systems?
The NHS has long been an unusually centralised system. Although the English NHS covers more than 55 million people, it has historically been run by central government, which this change reinforces.
In contrast, although Spain has a similar NHS-style system, the Spanish health system is run by the 17 regional governments through their departments of health, with the largest covering 8.6 million people.
Europe’s other large national health system, in Italy, now also has a decentralised system. The national government sets the overall principles and benefits, but the actual services are under the control of regional governments.
These decentralised systems strike a different balance between political control and operational management, by bringing them together at a more local level.
If the UK government was to extend its aim of bringing the NHS into democratic control by taking a similar decentralisation approach to other NHS-style systems in Europe, what would this look like?
The NHS already has 42 integrated care systems at the local level. These already work with upper-tier local authorities, such as county councils, and are mostly aligned with their boundaries, but are under the control of central government.
Other countries already decentralise their health systems to similar levels. In Sweden, for example, the 21 counties are responsible for financing, purchasing and providing their health services, under the democratic control of the county councillors. While there might be questions about the capacity of local government in England to take on such a role, experience from elsewhere shows that it should be possible.
Compared with those decentralised systems, the abolition of NHS England is a relatively minor change. It puts ministers more directly in charge of the English NHS, but does not change the basic structure of the service nor its control by central government.
Examples from other countries suggest that if the ambition is to bring the health service more into democratic control, there are options for much more profound change. This would strike a whole new balance between political control and local management.
Tom Ling is a member of the Labour party.
Hampton Toole and Nick Fahy do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Judith Smith, Professor of Health Policy and Management, University of Birmingham
The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, has announced plans to abolish NHS England, the organisation that oversees and manages the NHS in England, employing 19,000 people.
He declared he was bringing the NHS back under “democratic control” and cutting unnecessary bureaucracy by moving oversight of the NHS back into the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC). This will reverse plans put in place by the Conservative-led coalition government in 2013 when it tried to “take the politics out of the NHS” by having NHS England as an independent body.
The NHS is, however, one of the most centrally organised health systems in the world. This contrasts with many European and other countries where there is typically a national ministry of health to set strategy, with the detail of how this is implemented being left to regional and local councils, health authorities and hospitals.
Some analysts have suggested that the NHS has become even more centrally managed in recent years, but the truth is it has always been held very close by its political masters.
On the face of it, there are advantages to abolishing NHS England, allowing DHSC to focus on clarifying politicians’ priorities for how and on what NHS funding will be spent. These will include reducing waiting lists for operations, making it easier to get an appointment with a GP, and ensuring that emergency departments can deal quickly with patients without resorting to “corridor care”.
In turn, local NHS organisations such as integrated care boards (who among other things organise GP, dental, pharmacy and optometry services) and NHS trusts (who run hospitals, community, mental health and ambulance services) can concentrate on making sure these policy priorities are put into practice in ways that work best for local communities.
NHS England has a range of other important roles that will need to be reallocated, whether to an expanded DHSC or elsewhere. These include planning the training of healthcare staff, organising vaccination and screening programmes, purchasing medicines, and collating huge amounts of data about NHS activity and performance.
The government has also announced plans to halve staffing in the 42 local integrated care boards, so any move of former NHS England roles to this level will probably only happen if these local boards merge, which now seems likely.
The government appears therefore to have signalled another NHS management “redisorganisation” – something the NHS has suffered on a periodic basis, a consequence of its highly centralised and political nature. Research evidence is clear that management reorganisations struggle to achieve their objectives, causing instead significant distraction away from work to improve services for patients.
In his major review of the NHS for the new Labour government in September 2024, Lord Ara Darzi – a former Labour health minister – highlighted the urgent need for more skilled and effective managers to support NHS staff in restoring and improving the service after years of economic austerity and the challenges of the pandemic. This seems to run counter to recent announcements about “cutting bureaucracy”.
With careful planning, there is, however, potential for the abolition of NHS England to lead to a slimmer DHSC (more akin to some of its European counterparts) with a smaller number of well-resourced and managed integrated care boards who could effectively steer, support and monitor local NHS trusts and primary care services.
In 2002, Alan Milburn, then secretary of state for health in Tony Blair’s government, issued a white paper called Shifting the Balance of Power Within the NHS. Milburn is now a leading figure in the Starmer government’s health team, so it is perhaps not surprising that we have these new plans to slim the policy centre, shift power and decision-making more locally, and enable stronger accountability to politicians and the public.
What is likely to happen?
What will matter as much as what is done is how these changes are made. The government has Lord Darzi’s clear and comprehensive diagnosis of the NHS’s problems. It now needs to prioritise what should be done first and what can wait, and has made a good start on this with its recent planning guidance to the NHS.
What will be much more difficult will be to decide exactly how to reduce and then abolish NHS England – doing this in a way that ensures important roles are moved smoothly to DHSC, integrated care boards and NHS trusts.
History is not encouraging. There is a big risk that NHS managers will find themselves focusing too much attention on handling a major reorganisation when they (and patients) would rather they concentrate on improving services.
The government clearly wants to hold on to setting policy direction for the NHS while letting go of the detail of implementation to local level. But ultimately, it will be held to account by a population impatient for improvements to NHS services.
Judith Smith receives funding from the National Institute for Health and Care Research for research and evaluation of health services. She has been funded by the Health Foundation to provide expert primary care policy advice. Judith is Trustee and Chair of Health Services Research UK and Director of Health Services Research with Birmingham Health Partners. She is a Senior Associate of the Nuffield Trust.
The NHS was hit hard by COVID. And no amount of appreciative clapping or painted rainbows could distract from the vulnerabilities which were exposed by the pandemic – or the challenges it created.
Some of those challenges – like the staggering backlog in patient care, or the huge mental and physical toll experienced by staff – will take years to overcome.
And anyone compelled to attend a hospital in the UK at the moment can see the evidence at first hand. Wards are very busy and staff are overstretched.
This is part of the legacy of a fast-spreading virus which killed 232,112 people in the UK and left an estimated 2 million suffering from the effects of long-COVID. It demanded urgent action from hospitals and health workers and brought immediate and widespread disruption to routine care, with appointments for elective surgery, cancer screenings and chronic disease management all delayed.
One 2024 study I worked on analysed appointment cancellations for cancer patients during the pandemic, and found that they waited an average of 19 days longer than before for rescheduled appointments. (Mortality rates remained stable though, indicating that the NHS effectively prioritised the most urgent cases.)
This kind of disruption has left the healthcare system facing a monumental backlog, with treatment waiting lists soaring to record levels. According to the British Medical Association, there are over 7.5 million people now on waiting lists (compared to 4.5 million before the pandemic) – and those waiting times are longer.
The basic infrastructure of the NHS – the buildings, IT equipment, offices – is creaking, with outdated facilities, insufficient beds and a lack of specialised equipment. And one study suggests that capital funding – investment in assets that will be used for more than a year – for NHS trusts in England is down by 21% over the past five years.
This is primarily because the Department of Health and Social Care has been diverting long-term investment funds to cover day-to-day operational costs such as staff salaries and medicines.
Since 2019, £500 million of capital investment has been cancelled or postponed. And while overall NHS budgets have been growing, the increased spending has often been absorbed by inflation, rising demand and the need to address immediate pressures. This leaves little for infrastructure upgrades, new equipment or technological advancements.
The Health Foundation has warned that the lack of a long-term capital funding strategy could further jeopardise patient care in the future. Many NHS facilities no longer meet the needs of a modern health service, with some hospitals requiring complete refurbishment or replacement rather than just repairs.
And of course, treating patients is not just about equipment and buildings. Nurses and doctors are under extreme pressure, facing unprecedented levels of stress, burnout and trauma. A recent survey revealed that one in three NHS doctors are experiencing extreme tiredness, impairing their ability to treat patients effectively.
NHS key workers wave from inside Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, May 2020. Guy William/Shutterstock
A similar number said their ability to practice medicine may have been negatively affected by fatigue, with some even reporting cases of patient harm or a near-miss incident.
Stressed NHS
And although the NHS workforce has actually grown over the past five years, it has not been sufficient to reduce waiting lists, deal with growing demand, or improve staff morale. Anxiety, stress and depression accounted for for over 624,300 working days lost in one month last year.
Without a healthy and motivated workforce, the NHS’s recovery efforts will remain severely hampered. Other contributing factors include increased demand for healthcare services, partly due to an ageing population and the growing prevalence of chronic conditions.
To address these challenges, the NHS needs a modernised approach to patient care. Research suggests that technology including telemedicine (online consultations) and AI-driven diagnostics, could streamline services and reduce waiting times.
Other possible steps include the expansion of community diagnostic centres, to ease access to tests, and screenings, to improve efficiency.
Overall, the pandemic has underscored the critical importance of a robust and resilient healthcare system. As the NHS navigates its own path to recovery, it must prioritise both immediate solutions to the backlog crisis and long-term strategies. This will require significant investment, but also a commitment to innovation and the wellbeing of healthcare workers.
The road ahead for the NHS will be tricky, but with the right measures in place, it could emerge stronger and more resilient than ever. The lessons learned from COVID should serve as a catalyst for transformative change, ensuring that the UK’s healthcare system is better prepared to face whatever the future may hold.
Catia Nicodemo 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.
Optical illusions are great fun, and they fool virtually everyone. But have you ever wondered if you could train yourself to unsee these illusions? Our latest research suggests that you can.
Optical illusions tell a lot about how people see things. For example, look at the picture below.
The two orange circles are identical, but the one on the right looks bigger. Why?
We use context to figure out what we are seeing. Something surrounded by smaller things is often quite big. Our visual system takes context into account, so it judges the orange circle on the right as bigger than the one on the left.
This illusion was discovered by German psychologist Herman Ebbinghaus in the 19th century. This and similar geometrical illusions have been studied by psychologists ever since.
How much you are affected by illusions like these depends on who you are. For example, women are more affected by the illusion than men – they see things more in context.
Young children do not see illusions at all. To a five-year-old, the two orange circles look the same. It takes time to learn how to use context cues.
Neurodevelopmental conditions similarly affect illusion perception. People with autism or schizophrenia are less likely to see illusions. This is because these people tend to pay greater attention to the central circle, and less to the surrounding ones.
The culture you grew up in also affects how much you attend to context. Research has found that east Asian perception is more holistic, taking everything into account. Western perception is more analytic, focusing on central objects.
These differences would predict greater illusion sensitivity in east Asia. And true enough, Japanese people seem to experience much stronger effects than British people in this kind of illusion.
This may also depend on environment. Japanese people typically live in urban environments. In crowded urban scenes, being able to keep track of objects relative to other objects is important. This requires more attention to context. Members of the nomadic Himba tribe in the almost uninhabited Namibian desert do not seem to be fooled by the illusion at all.
Gender, developmental, neurodevelopmental and cultural differences are all well established when it comes to optical illusions. However, what scientists did not know until now is whether people can learn to see illusions less intensely.
A hint came from our previous work comparing mathematical and social scientists’ judgements of illusions (we work in universities, so we sometimes study our colleagues). Social scientists, such as psychologists, see illusions more strongly.
Researchers like us have to take many factors into account. Perhaps this makes us more sensitive to context even in the way we see things. But also, it could be that your visual style affects what you choose to study. One of us (Martin) went to university to study physics, but left with a psychology degree. As it happens, his illusion perception is much stronger than normal.
Training your illusion skills
Despite all these individual differences, researchers have always thought that you have no choice over whether you see the illusion. Our recent research challenges this idea.
Radiologists need to be able to rapidly spot important information in medical scans. Doing this often means they have to ignore surrounding detail.
Radiologists train extensively, so does this make them better at seeing through illusions? We found it does. We studied 44 radiologists, compared to over 100 psychology and medical students.
Below is one of our images. The orange circle on the left is 6% smaller than the one on the right. Most people in the study saw it as larger.
The orange circle on the left is actually smaller. Radoslaw Wincza, CC BY-NC-ND
Here is another image. Most non-radiologists still saw the left one as bigger. Yet, it is 10% smaller. Most radiologists got this one right.
Does the left orange circle look bigger or smaller to you? Radoslaw Wincza, CC BY-NC-ND
It was not until the difference was nearly 18%, as shown in the image below, that most non-radiologists saw through the illusion.
Most people get this one right. Radoslaw Wincza, CC BY-NC-ND
Radiologists are not entirely immune to the illusion, but are much less susceptible. We also looked at radiologists just beginning training. Their illusion perception was no better than normal. It seems radiologists’ superior perception is a result of their extensive training.
According to current theories of expertise, this shouldn’t happen. Becoming an expert in chess, for example, makes you better at chess but not anything else. But our findings suggest that becoming an expert in medical image analysis also makes you better at seeing through some optical illusions.
There is plenty left to find out. Perhaps the most intriguing possibility is that training on optical illusions can improve radiologists’ skills at their own work.
So, how can you learn to see through illusions? Simple. Just five years of medical school, then seven more of radiology training and this skill can be yours too.
Martin Doherty received funding from the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust who partially supported this work. He continues to receive funding from the Leverhulme Trust.
Radoslaw Wincza 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.
China’s marriage rate is in steep decline. There were 6.1 million marriage registrations nationwide in 2024, down from 7.7 million the previous year. This decline has prompted Chen Songxi, a Chinese national political adviser, to propose lowering the legal marriage age from 22 to 18.
The drop in China’s marriage rate has been driven by a combination of factors. These include increased economic pressures, evolving social attitudes towards marriage, and higher levels of education.
Urban Chinese women, in particular, are increasingly pushing back against traditional gender expectations, which emphasise marriage and childbearing as essential life milestones. Rising living costs are also making it increasingly difficult for many young people to afford to get married.
At the same time, China is grappling with a longstanding gender imbalance, a legacy of the country’s sweeping one-child policy and cultural preference for male children. In the early 2000s, when the imbalance was at its peak, China’s sex ratio at birth reached 121 boys for every 100 girls. For every 100 girls born in some provinces, there were more than 130 boys.
The gender imbalance is particularly pronounced among those born in the 1980s, a generation I belong to. This is due to the widespread use of ultrasound technology from the mid-1980s onward, which offered parents the ability to terminate pregnancies if their child was female.
Unmarried men in China have become part of the so-called “era of leftover men” (shengnan shidai in Chinese). This is an internet term that loosely refers to the period between 2020 and 2050, when an estimated 30 million to 50 million Chinese men are expected to be unable to find a wife.
The conundrum is that many of these “leftover” men want to marry – I know this firsthand. Some of my peers from primary and secondary school have been desperately searching for a wife, but have struggled to find a spouse. A widely used phrase in China, “difficulty in getting married” (jiehun nan), encapsulates this struggle.
Unable to find a domestic spouse, some Chinese men have turned to “purchasing” foreign brides. The growing demand for these brides, particularly in rural areas, has fuelled a rise in illegal marriages. This includes marriages involving children and women who have been trafficked into China primarily from neighbouring countries in south-east Asia.
According to a Human Rights Watch report released in 2019 on bride trafficking from Myanmar to China “a porous border and lack of response by law enforcement agencies on both sides [has] created an environment in which traffickers flourish”.
The Chinese government has now pledged to crack down on the industry. In March 2024, China’s Ministry of Public Security launched a campaign against the transnational trafficking of women and children, calling for enhanced international cooperation to eliminate these crimes.
‘Purchased’ foreign brides
These marriages are often arranged through informal networks or commercial agencies, both of which are illegal according to China’s state council.
Human Rights Watch says that women and girls in neighbouring countries are typically tricked by brokers who promise well-paid employment in China. They find themselves at the mercy of the brokers once they reach China, and are sold for between US$3,000 (£2,300) and US$13,000 to Chinese men.
Determining the extent of illegal cross-border marriages in China is challenging due to the clandestine nature of these activities. But the most recent data from the UK’s Home Office suggests that 75% of Vietnamese human-trafficking victims were smuggled to China, with women and children making up 90% of cases.
The Woman from Myanmar, an award-winning documentary from 2022, follows the story of a trafficked Myanmar woman who was sold into marriage in China. The film exposes the harsh realities faced by many trafficked brides.
It captures not only the coercion and abuse many of these women endure, but also their struggle for autonomy and survival in a system that treats them as commodities. Larry, a trafficked woman who features in the documentary, explained that she saw her capacity to bear children as her pathway to survival.
The Chinese authorities constantly warn of scams involving brides purchased from abroad. In November 2024, for example, two people were prosecuted over their involvement in an illegal cross-border matchmaking scheme. Chinese men were lured into extremely expensive “marriage tours” abroad with promises of “affordable” foreign wives.
There have also been cases where the undocumented brides themselves have disappeared with large sums of money before marriage arrangements are completed.
Most of the foreign brides are trafficked into China from neighbouring countries in south-east Asia. MuchMania / Shutterstock
China’s marriage crisis has far-reaching implications for the country’s demographic future. A shrinking and ageing population is often cited as the greatest challenge for Chinese economic growth and social stability. Beijing has resisted this characterisation, saying that constant technological innovations will continue to drive economic growth.
The labour force is undoubtedly important when it comes to economic growth. But according to Justin Lin Yifu, a member of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference advisory body, what matters more is effective labour – the product of both the quantity and quality of the labour force.
China has increased its investment in education continually over recent years in anticipation of future challenges surrounding its ageing population.
But, notwithstanding this, an even greater concern is the large number of leftover men, as this could pose a serious threat to social stability. Studies have found a positive correlation between high male-to-female sex ratios and crime rates both in China and India, where there is also a significant gender imbalance.
In China, research has found that skewed male sex ratios have accounted for around 14% of the rise in crime since the mid-1990s. And in India, modelling suggests that a 5.5% rise in the male sex ratio would increase the odds of unmarried women being harassed by more than 20%.
The question of who China’s leftover men will marry is becoming a pressing issue for Beijing. The government’s response will shape the country’s future for decades to come.
Ming Gao receives funding from the Swedish Research Council. This research was produced with support from the Swedish Research Council grant “Moved Apart” (nr. 2022-01864). Ming Gao is a member of Lund University Profile Area: Human Rights.
Source: United States of America – Department of State (video statements)
Secretary of State Marco A. Rubio Remarks to Press in Shannon, Ireland, on March 12, 2025.
Transcript: https://www.state.gov/secretary-of-state-marco-rubio-remarks-to-press/
———-
Under the leadership of the President and Secretary of State, the U.S. Department of State leads America’s foreign policy through diplomacy, advocacy, and assistance by advancing the interests of the American people, their safety and economic prosperity. On behalf of the American people we promote and demonstrate democratic values and advance a free, peaceful, and prosperous world.
The Secretary of State, appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate, is the President’s chief foreign affairs adviser. The Secretary carries out the President’s foreign policies through the State Department, which includes the Foreign Service, Civil Service and U.S. Agency for International Development.
Get updates from the U.S. Department of State at www.state.gov and on social media!
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/statedept
X: https://x.com/StateDept
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/statedept
Flickr: https://flickr.com/photos/statephotos/
Subscribe to the State Department Blog: https://www.state.gov/blogs
Watch on-demand State Department videos: https://video.state.gov/
Subscribe to The Week at State e-newsletter: http://ow.ly/diiN30ro7Cw
State Department website: https://www.state.gov/
Careers website: https://careers.state.gov/
White House website: https://www.whitehouse.gov/
Terms of Use: https://state.gov/tou
