Message of the Holy Father for the centenary of the “Corriere dello Sport-Stadio”, 20.10.2024
The following is the text of the message sent by the Holy Father Francis to the Corriere dello Sport-Stadio on the occasion of the centenary of its founding:
Message of the Holy Father
Dear brothers and sisters,
Best wishes! A hundred years is an important milestone, a fine trophy to put in your cabinet! Even greater than that for the two million copies sold on the occasion of Italy’s victory in the 2006 World Cup! You have had a great run in these hundred years; besides, among those who contributed to the birth of the newspaper was a certain Enzo Ferrari, who knew something about engines and victories!
I thank the Director Ivan Zazzaroni for sending me a beautiful letter about the centenary of the newspaper, and it is a pleasure to be close to you on these days of celebration.
If I think about sport, and my homeland, Argentina, before I even think of the great football facilities, like the Bombonera, I think of when, as children, we played football with a ball made of rags. So many champions started this way, playing with friends in a carefree way on improvised fields between houses, even in contexts of great poverty. How beautiful it is to experience the feeling of fraternity: you play, and you play together, and you know that you are opponents only on the field, never enemies. You learn the joy of victory and you know the sweat and effort it cost, and you also learn from defeat, trying to get back up again and learn from the mistakes made so as to try to overcome them the next time, or simply to accept your own difference and your limit: we are all precious and unique, but we are not perfect.
Some say that I am a fan of San Lorenzo, an Argentine team: it remains a secret, but there is something beautiful in the history of that team. When the boys who played in the street at the beginning of the twentieth century were looking for a safe place to play football, a priest descended from Italians, a Salesian, Don Lorenzo Massa, opened the doors of the oratory, and a beautiful adventure began from there. Even today we need spaces for sport, especially in the poorest and most isolated contexts, but above all we need adults who welcome children and young people in an authentic way, who know how to listen to their dreams, who wish for a better future with them. Think about how here in Italy how much good has been done through the fields of parishes and oratories, and how many young people, now sporting champions, often remember that they started from the parish fields.
Your newspaper has a long history, and it intends to embrace the whole of Italy, for sporting events that concern it both within its borders and abroad: sport is one of the factors that make us feel like one people, such as when we stand up to sing the national anthem, at the stadium or in sports halls. How important it is to walk together, to feel part of a single family, and of a family of nations during the Olympics or the world or continental championships: in recent years we have still too often seen neighbouring peoples, or groups within the same countries, stand up against each other armed. Competition in sport is healthy, because it calls for patience, listening to the coach, respect for opponents, rules and referees, and coordination with one’s teammates: in the world, on the other hand, the aim is often to destroy the opponent, to make one’s own rules, to reject those who want to moderate the confrontation between the parties according to international law. Spreading a healthy sports culture in this sense means nurturing humanity in its most beautiful and authentic values, and for this I thank you.
Although unfortunately in recent years we have witnessed episodes of intolerance, which must be condemned, I am sure that there are many more examples in which sport has been able to “team up”, without race, class, or religious denomination being obstacles or barriers: I encourage you to foster this climate of authentic and welcoming humanity. We must reject any mindset of exclusion and violence, and for this we know that words have their value, to educate in what is good and beautiful, rather than to destroy. A newspaper article, even a sports article, can do a lot of good, but it can also damage and foment a climate of mistrust: I urge you not to be like this, though!
On the subject of acceptance and integral human promotion: for organizational reasons alone it is not possible to hold the Olympics and the Paralympics at the same time. In the recent editions in Paris we rejoiced at the many successes of incredible boys and girls: for some of them the gold medal was life-giving, because of how they were able to overcome, thanks to their inner strength and the help of everyone, the challenges of their disability. Their races are a hymn to life! May your newspaper tell of victories and defeats, but be a way of thinking and living of sport as a hymn to life!
Thank you for what you are and for what you do. Do not forget to pray for me.
Rome, Saint John Lateran, 19 October 2024
FRANCIS
AI has the unique potential to create new opportunities for everyone, drive economic growth, and advance breakthroughs in science that can change and save lives. That’s why it’s crucial to prepare young people for a future where AI plays an even bigger role.
Since its launch in 2018, Be Internet Legends has been a cornerstone of online safety education, reaching over 9 million children across the UK and over 100 million globally. Now, recognising the growing importance of AI literacy, we’re expanding the programme to equip children with the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in a world with AI.
This week, our new “Understanding AI” assembly was streamed live to 152 schools and reached 22,800 students. The assembly aims to explain AI to children in an engaging and accessible way.
The assembly explains what AI is and how it works in simple terms that children can easily understand. It helps them identify AI in their daily routines, from voice assistants in their homes to the traffic lights that manage the flow of cars on the roads. It also encourages them to think critically about AI, question AI-generated information and understand its limitations.
Importantly, the assembly emphasises that AI is a tool that can complement human abilities and creativity, not replace them. It introduces children to the concept of ethical AI and encourages them to consider when AI should be used — and to always check app and other services’ age ratings.
The “Understanding AI” assembly was developed in close collaboration with a diverse group of experts, including leading AI researchers, online safety specialists and educators. This collaborative approach, combined with insights from a pilot in eight schools, ensures the assembly’s content is accurate, age-appropriate, and engaging.
The assembly reinforces the core principles of Be Internet Legends, particularly the “Alert” pillar, which encourages children to be mindful of their online surroundings and potential risks. By integrating AI literacy into the programme, we aim to give children the tools they need to be informed and responsible digital citizens.
You can watch the “Understanding AI” assembly on-demand at goo.gle/bil-ai-watch. For more information about the next Be Internet Legends assembly, plus other events and updates, check out goo.gle/bil-assemblies.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
The Secretary of State for Justice has appointed Sir Robin Spencer as Independent Assessor of Compensation for Miscarriages of Justice for a term of 5 years from May 2024, in succession to Dame Linda Dobbs DBE.
Appointed by the Secretary of State for Justice, under section 133 of the Criminal Justice Act (the Act) 1988, the Assessor’s role is to gauge the amount of compensation to be paid once the Secretary of State has decided that the eligibility criteria are met.
Neither ministers nor officials play any role in the assessment of compensation and the Secretary of State for Justice is required by section 133 (4) to accept the award made by the Assessor.
The Assessor plays no role in deciding whether an applicant is eligible for compensation, which falls solely to the Secretary of State under Section 133(3).
Biography
After 45 years in the Law, Sir Robin Spencer DL retired as a High Court Judge in March 2023, having been appointed to the (then) Queen’s Bench Division in 2010. He continues to sit in retirement in the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division).
He was called to the Bar in 1978 and practised as a Junior in the North West of England and North Wales from Chester chambers before becoming a QC in 1999 when he also joined London chambers. He was the Leader of the Wales and Chester Circuit from 2004 to 2006, and a member of the Bar Council.
Before his appointment as a High Court Judge he sat for many years as a Recorder and a Deputy High Court Judge, trying criminal, civil and family cases,
From 2013 to 2017 he was a Presiding Judge of the South Eastern Circuit.
In 2023 he was appointed a Deputy Lieutenant of the county of Cheshire, a role which includes presiding at Citizenship Ceremonies.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
The annual student conference “Management of the Future” was held at the Higher School of Management of St. Petersburg State University. For 12 years, this event has brought together talented students and leading Russian companies. The conference has become a unique platform for exchanging ideas and experience in the field of management.
The participation of Polytechnic students in the conference “Management of the Future” is an opportunity not only to exchange knowledge, but also to establish contacts with potential employers. Masters of their field, representing leading companies, were able to assess the level of training of young specialists and, possibly, offer them internships or jobs. Such experience is invaluable for students seeking to put their skills into practice.
The topic “Growth at the intersection of competencies” opens up broad horizons for discussion. Participants were able to explore how multidisciplinary approaches can contribute to innovative development and business success. Given the current challenges associated with digitalization and changing market needs, the discussion of new management models remains particularly relevant.
The event was attended by representatives of large companies such as VTB Bank, Alfa-Bank, Baltika and Severstal. These organizations provide students with the opportunity to learn more about modern trends in management and business. The conference speakers are experts with extensive experience in their fields, who shared their knowledge and practical skills. The campus of GSOM SPbU “Mikhailovskaya Dacha” became the venue for the conference. This historical place combines classical architecture and modern technologies, creating an inspiring atmosphere for learning and communication. Participants were able not only to delve into the educational process, but also to enjoy the cultural program, which included excursions and parties.
The Conference “Management of the Future” is not just an event, but an important step towards the formation of a new generation of managers capable of coping with the challenges of the modern world. Participation in such an event opens doors to new opportunities and helps students develop their management competencies. We are confident that this experience will become an important milestone on the path to a successful career for all participants.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Government of the Russian Federation – An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.
A service for providing services to large families has been launched on the public services portal. The service’s special feature is that the services that large families need are located in one place and are provided comprehensively according to the “life situation” principle.
You can already register as a large family and receive an electronic certificate. The service allows you to save time on visiting departments and searching for information on registration of payments, benefits and documents. Reference information on measures to support large families, a list of institutions that accept electronic certificates, and the ability to leave feedback on the quality of services are also provided on a single page “life situation”.
Provision of services based on the principle of “life situations” is part of the federal project “State for People”. The implementation of the federal project “State for People” is supervised by Deputy Prime Minister – Head of the Government Staff Dmitry Grigorenko.
“The “life situation” service for large families will help citizens not only to receive government services easier and faster, but also to choose options for joint leisure from the list that is presented and will be supplemented on the government services portal. Close people will be able to pay attention to each other instead of visiting departments to process documents,” said Dmitry Grigorenko.
The list of state services for large families that can be obtained on the single page of the “life situation” service is planned to be expanded in the future. For example, it will be possible to register with a clinic, apply for a one-time payment at the birth of a child and a monthly social payment for children.
It will also be possible to receive government services that are part of the “life situation” in a proactive format. Without additional visits and requests, it will be possible to receive a social payment to provide children with school and sports uniforms, monthly cash payments for travel for large families.
In addition, large families will receive targeted notifications. For example, when receiving a compulsory medical insurance policy, a notification will be sent about the need to register the child with a clinic.
The list of benefits that large families will be able to receive using an electronic certificate by showing a QR code from the State Services application will also be expanded.
The program for using QR codes to confirm the status of a large family began with providing benefits for visiting museums. In the future, it will be expanded to other cultural institutions, such as theaters. As well as zoos and additional state, municipal and commercial services.
For example, it will be possible to obtain a discounted subscription for a child to attend additional education institutions, physical education and sports organizations, and also receive discounts on train and air tickets.
In addition, it is already possible to use the electronic certificate of a large family to apply for a loyalty card in some retail chains.
An electronic ID can be used in the same way as a paper one. But the electronic format has a number of significant advantages. The ID is always at hand, on your smartphone. The QR code can be shared with other family members, unlike a paper document, which can only be used by its owner.
The unification of public services based on the principle of “life situations” represents models of the most common events that people encounter. At the moment, 15 federal “life situations” have been launched on the portals of public services and “MSP.RF”.
These include services such as “Participation in sports competitions”, “Going on a hunting and fishing trip”, “Getting into an emergency situation”, “Organizing cargo logistics”, “Opening a private school”, “Opening a pharmacy”, “Opening a tourist site”.
To date, more than 1.4 million people have used the “life situations” services.
By combining government services according to the principle of “life situations”, their receipt has become significantly easier. The average number of documents that must be submitted within the framework of one “life situation” has decreased from 34 to 25.
The average number of in-person visits required to agencies to receive government services within one “life situation” has decreased by 4.5 times: 18 in-person visits were required, but now there are 4.
The total time to receive government services within one “life situation” has decreased by an average of 37 days – from 113 to 76. By the end of 2024, it is planned to launch 34 “life situations” at the federal level.
Work on the implementation of “life situations” is also underway at the regional level. It is planned that 85 regional “life situations” will be launched by the end of 2024.
The federal project “State for People” is included in the list of initiatives for the socio-economic development of Russia; its implementation has been carried out at the federal and regional levels of government since 2021.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
Artificial intelligence will not replace a doctor, but it can be a great assistant. At the same time, healthcare needs high-tech products that can quickly analyze and monitor the condition of patients. HSE scientists have used AI for preoperative planning and postoperative evaluation of results in spinal surgery and developed an automatic intelligent system for assessing the biomechanics of the arms and legs.
At the joint scientific seminar of the strategic project “AI technologies for humans” (as part of the Priority 2030 program), HSE scientists presented two developments related to the use of artificial intelligence in medical practice. This area is not new for the Higher School of Economics, noted HSE Vice-Rector Elena Odoevskaya in her opening remarks. Despite the fact that the university does not have educational programs in medicine, it still deals with medical products and plans to enter this market.
“In terms of goals and objectives, we must understand that this is a product, not just research. This means that we must have partners, including external ones, including industrial ones, and we must understand how this product will continue to live with us or without us. This is a question of how we implement it,” she emphasized.
Spine Marking App
The first report was devoted to the use of AI for preoperative planning and postoperative outcome assessment in spinal surgery. Chief Scientific Officer International Laboratory of Dynamic Systems and Applications (NRU HSE – Nizhny Novgorod) Vladimir Klinshov spoke about how computer vision technologies can improve the speed and quality of spinal X-ray analysis, helping to optimize the routine work of neurosurgeons. The working title of the product is VerteScan (from the word vertebra – vertebra). This is a service for viewing and analyzing X-ray images of the human spine, including an automatic marking system based on artificial intelligence. “We are making a specific and very utilitarian tool for automatic marking and analysis of spinal X-ray images. We want to relieve the doctor of a fairly routine part of his work, leaving him with the most important decisions. This product is made by surgeons for surgeons. This means that it will be intuitively understandable to doctors, it will be comfortable for them to use, and doctors will need it,” he said.
Spinal pathology accounts for 76% of patient visits to the neurological service, and 72% of visits result in temporary disability. Every year, more than a thousand surgical interventions on the spine are performed at the University Clinic of the Privolzhsky Research Medical University of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation (PIMU — project partner).
VerteScan will help to determine the patient’s anatomy, the course of his disease, select the minimum permissible volume of surgical intervention, carry out a personalized selection of implants and surgical techniques to achieve the optimal result, and also predict the behavior of intact sections of the spine taking into account the change in biomechanics as a result of the intervention.
“There are many options for performing surgical interventions for spinal diseases. And each of the possible approaches must be carefully planned. Adequate preparation will lead to an adequate result, when we can not only perform the tasks that we set before the operation, but also evaluate and prevent negative changes in adjacent segments of the spine. Using the basic tools of the service that are already working, we can evaluate the parameters unique to each person – for example, the sagittal balance of the spine. It will be possible to plan the installation of implants so as not to disturb these parameters if they are normal, or we will be able to predict how much we will correct these parameters, how much we will change the local anatomy in order to bring these values u200bu200bto normal and ensure a good quality of life for the patient,” explained the team’s neurosurgeon Anatoly Bulkin.
Key partners for the project may include medical institutions, manufacturers of medical implants, and professional associations of orthopedic and spinal surgeons. A free trial version of the software is planned to attract initial users and collect feedback, while premium features will be available by subscription or one-time payment.
If the surgical intervention on the spine is performed suboptimally, it will lead to rapid wear of the intact spinal motor segments, and the treatment result will be worse than the disease itself, said Andrey Bokov, head of the neurosurgery department at PMU.
“If you do not take into account all possible parameters, the patient feels well after the operation for the first few years at most, and then decompensation sets in. This person is on sick leave for a long time, he is excluded from social life. This burden is sometimes even heavier than a life-threatening disease. Relatives who care for a patient with limited mobility are also involved. If we manage to reduce the percentage of such cases, the social effect will be very high,” he emphasized.
Physiotherapy under AI control
The second report was devoted to an automatic intelligent system designed to assess the biomechanics of the arms and legs. This system uses machine learning algorithms to analyze biomechanical data, which can significantly improve the diagnosis and rehabilitation of patients. It was presented by the project leader, research fellow Laboratory of Theory and Practice of Decision Support Systems of the Faculty of Informatics, Mathematics and Computer Science of the National Research University Higher School of Economics in Nizhny Novgorod Andrey Kovalchuk. He emphasized that diseases of the musculoskeletal system are called the non-infectious epidemic of the 21st century. A promising direction for the rehabilitation of patients with such pathologies is remote rehabilitation using digital technologies. This requires the presence of hardware and software systems (HSS) for video motion capture.
The PACs developed to date for remote motor rehabilitation have common drawbacks: high cost, complexity of operation, and the need for a doctor to be present at all times. This makes them inaccessible for mass use.
Remote rehabilitation will increase the number of patients per doctor by reducing the time of face-to-face interaction, but at the same time will improve the quality of service by transferring some of the doctor’s functionality to AI.
The patient will no longer need to visit a hospital, while maintaining a personalized approach and a flexible rehabilitation plan based on objectively measurable parameters.
“Within the framework of this project, it is planned to create a prototype of an automated system (mobile application) based on computer vision technology and designed for remote controlled rehabilitation of patients with musculoskeletal pathology, including after endoprosthetic surgery. With the help of this application, the doctor will be able to create an individual training program for the patient, and will also be able to control the following indicators: the ratio of correctly/incorrectly performed repetitions per session, the maximum, minimum and median joint flexion angles,” said Andrey Kovalchuk.
He emphasized that currently there are no domestic analogues of the mobile solution, and Western ones cannot be used in rehabilitation on the territory of the Russian Federation. The competitiveness of the system will be determined by its autonomy, efficiency and accessibility for a wide range of users, regardless of their location and financial status.
The application will not only collect and analyze video data of movement scenarios and transmit them to the doctor for monitoring and correction, but also interact with the user in real time through voice commands, voicing the mistakes and events made by the user.
Most neurological and orthopedic diseases are accompanied by movement disorders, said Anna Belova, head of the department of medical rehabilitation at PIMU, chief neurologist of the Ministry of Health of the Nizhny Novgorod Region. A patient discharged from the hospital should be regularly monitored by a doctor at home, do gymnastics for many months. But in reality, this does not happen due to a shortage of personnel. Therefore, the emphasis is placed on remote rehabilitation all over the world.
“The basis of recovery is not medication, it is not even surgery, it is therapeutic exercise. Movement is the basis of recovery, and not only for patients, but also for healthy people as they age. But these movements must be performed regularly and correctly – this is very important. For example, those who have undergone endoprosthetics should not perform a number of movements – for example, they cannot cross their legs, bend their knee more than 90 degrees, otherwise this will lead to dislocation of the joint. Therefore, this feedback for independent exercises is extremely important,” she explained.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
New Chair has a strong track record of leading organisational transformation while embracing innovation and collaboration.
Today (21 October 2024) the Department for Transport has confirmed that Richard Judge has been appointed as the new Chair of the Vehicle Certification Agency (VCA).
Richard has extensive experience as a non-executive director, chair and former CEO of government agencies including the Health and Safety Executive and at the Insolvency Service. He has also worked with UK regulators and private sector businesses, delivering high value commercial and public services.
Operating at senior levels in government, Richard brings a strong track record of leading organisational transformation while embracing innovation and collaboration to improve how the Civil Service works.
Richard will be replacing Clive Scrivener, who has been Non-Executive Chair of the VCA since August 2018.
Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said:
As a former CEO of several government agencies, Richard brings a wealth of experience to ensure the VCA continues to improve vehicle safety and sustainability across our roads. I would like to congratulate him on his appointment and I’m looking forward to working with him.
I would also like to thank our outgoing Non-Executive Chair, Clive Scrivener, for all his excellent work in championing road safety at the VCA over the past 6 years.
New Non-Executive Chair of the VCA Richard Judge said:
I am delighted to have been appointed Non-Executive Chair of the VCA. I am excited by the opportunity to support this agency at such an interesting and pivotal time in the evolution of the automotive technologies.
I look forward to us all working collectively to ensure that the VCA continues to develop as a progressive and forward-thinking approval authority and certification body that is respected globally, using its extensive experience to help inform the future of transport.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
In October, the traditional recruitment for the additional professional education program “Procurement Management at Oil and Gas Complex Enterprises” started, which is implemented by the Institute of Industrial Management, Economics and Trade with the support of PJSC Gazprom Neft. In the 2024-2025 academic year, this is already the eleventh launch of the advanced training program.
This program trains specialists in procurement and logistics for the oil and gas industry. The training is targeted and lasts two semesters, intended for master’s students, fifth-year specialists and fourth-year bachelor’s students of SPbPU. To enroll in the program, you must have an average diploma grade of at least 4.0 and be ready to undergo an internship in any region where Gazprom Neft subsidiaries are present.
Each year, no more than 13 students are admitted to the program, each of whom undergoes a multi-stage selection process. After submitting an application, including a questionnaire, resume, and motivation letter, the applicant must undergo verbal and digital testing, as well as an interview with Gazprom Neft representatives.
During their studies, students master about 20 educational modules. Among them: organization of procurement activities, project supply management, management of relationships with counterparties, transport and warehouse logistics, inventory management, basics of accounting and taxation in procurement. Classes are taught by teachers of the Polytechnic University and invited experts from Gazprom Neft.
After the theoretical course, students undergo a mandatory four-week internship at the Gazprom Neft group of companies. The program ends with the defense of their diploma theses. Students who have proven themselves during their studies and internship are offered jobs at Gazprom Neft or its subsidiaries located in many cities in Russia.
Training in the program and summer practice of students are financed by PJSC Gazprom Neft.
The additional education program has been implemented by the Higher School of Industrial Management of the Institute of Industrial Management, Economics and Trade on the basis of the Master’s program “Management in the Oil and Gas Complex”, within the framework of cooperation with Gazprom Neft since 2015.
You can follow the news about the program on the website and in the university’s social networks, as well as in the group “Management in the oil and gas complex”.
Contacts for admission questions:
From SPbPU: program administrator Vyacheslav Dmitrievich Melehin, e-mail: v4mr@yandex.ru
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
The University is marking 50 years of delivering Real Estate degree programmes. Photo credit: ThirdmanThe MSc and MA Real Estate programmes at the University of Aberdeen’s Business School have been reaccredited by the sector’s leading professional development body.
Now in its 50th year of delivering Real Estate degree programmes, the University has seen all eight courses reconfirmed as meeting a globally-recognised standard of surveying education by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).
They are the MSc Real Estate, MSc Finance and Real Estate, MA (Hons) Real Estate, MA (Hons) Finance and Real Estate, MA (Hons) Business Management and Real Estate, MA (Hons) Economics and Real Estate, MA (Hons) Accountancy and Real Estate; and MA (Hons) International Business with Real Estate specialism.
The panel consider a number of areas during the review process, including student experience, the quality of the programme content and teaching staff, access to resources and the relevance of the curriculum to industry.
Fiona Stoddard, lecturer in real estate and director of student experience at the Business School, said: “We are delighted to have received our reaccreditation from RICS, adding further confidence that our real estate programmes continue to meet the highest international standards and support students who wish to pursue a rewarding career in the sector.
“Our graduates are able to seek employment in a range of surveying specialisms through our degree accreditations.”
New Gate Arts to bring Back to the Future story to The Fountain for Derry Halloween
21 October 2024
Fans of the iconic Back to the Future movie trilogy are in for a treat this Halloween as New Gate Arts and Culture Centre and North West Cultural Partnership are set to bring the films’ story to life with a dynamic street performance. The time travelling adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown will be celebrated in and around the group’s premises in The Fountain with a performance of acting, dance and special effects. The dynamic street performance will also feature a replica of the film’s famous DeLorean sports car which, famously combined with the Flux Capacitor, made time travel possible. The show is part of Derry Halloween’s Awakening the Walled City Trail in and around Derry-Londonderry’s historic city centre each evening from Monday October 28th to Wednesday October 30th. Darren Milligan, Creative Programming Executive at New Gate Arts and Culture Centre, gave the public an idea of what’s in store. “You can expect a thrilling, immersive experience,” he said. “It’s a blend of dance, music, light effects, and video projections, all working together to create a memorable street production. “It will feature live performances from eerie Halloween-themed dancers, energetic jiving and futuristic choreography. “There’ll also be rooftop musicians, a dramatic build-up of smoke and lights, and, of course, the star of the show—the DeLorean, which will make a grand entrance through the large doors of New Gate Arts & Culture Centre.” The New Gate Arts Centre is a thriving arts and cultural venue in the centre of the city and has hosted a wide range performances, classes, workshops, festivals and events since it opened last year. Their Conquer the Dragon performance as part of last year’s trail featured the Sollus Highland Dancers taming a huge dragon at the side of their premises that had invaded the city. “The idea for this year’s show came following the success of Conquer The Dragon,” Darren explained. “We needed something spectacular that could come out of the side of our building again, and we have a few staff members who have a love for the Back to the Future movies, so we said why not try to get our hands on a replica DeLoreon car, and the idea grew from there. “We wanted to create something that merges local heritage with the futuristic, adventurous spirit of Back to the Future. “The DeLorean itself is such a recognisable symbol and we saw an opportunity to incorporate it into a performance that could entertain and engage the local community. “The idea developed into a full-on spectacle with dance, music, and theatrics. “For our young people, this opportunity is something that they want to keep doing and asking about year on year. “Being able to perform at one of the world’s largest Halloween festivals in a show of this scale is an incredible experience for them. “It’s a chance to showcase their talents on a big stage, gain confidence, and be part of something that celebrates both local culture and their own creativity. “It’s not just a performance—it’s a celebration of their hard work and passion for the arts and it means the world to them to contribute to such a renowned event.” The team at New Gate are currently putting the finishing touches to preparations for the show that will feature both characters and music from the original film. “Preparations are going fantastically,” Darren added. “The team has been working tirelessly to ensure that every element comes together seamlessly, from the video projections and music to the choreography and technical effects. “The young people have been rehearsing for weeks, and their energy and excitement is infectious. “With each rehearsal, the performance is becoming more polished, and we can’t wait to bring it all to life for the audience. “We’re also delighted to get a number of community groups involved, we have Clooney Mens Shed making props for the trial, Cathedral Youth Club who are letting us turn their allotment garden into a science lab, and Sollus Highland Dancers who yet again are providing their high quality choreography. “The experience will feature appearances by Doc Brown and Marty McFly and the DeLorean will be the central prop, making a dramatic live appearance. “The rooftop musicians will bring Marty’s famous “Johnny B. Goode” performance to life, encouraging the crowd to get involved and the dancers will wear costumes that reflect the different themes—spooky Halloween, futuristic sci-fi, and 1950s jive—to complement the storyline. “We’re incredibly proud of how this performance has come together, thanks to the hard work and creativity of everyone involved. “It’s a celebration of Halloween, local culture, and the joy of performance. “We hope everyone who comes to see the show will enjoy this unique blend of Back to the Future and local creativity. “It’s going to be a night full of surprises, excitement, and unforgettable moments.” You can get the full Back to the Future experience by starting at the Bishop Street Entrance to the Fountain at 6pm,7pm,8pm, and the street production will take place outside New Gate Arts and Culture Centre at 6.15, 7.15, 8.15pm. Derry Halloween is delivered by Derry City and Strabane District Council and funded by Tourism Northern Ireland and The Executive Office, with support from Ulster University and Air Coach. Follow all the latest news at derryhalloween.com or keep up to date with the Derry Halloween Facebook page.
High-tech 3D scans have revealed the intricate inner workings of the world’s oldest model locomotive for the first time in more than 200 years.
Leeds Industrial Museum’s incredible miniature recreation of a pioneering early steam locomotive recently underwent a detailed CT X-Ray survey using sophisticated equipment at the University of Leeds.
The resulting images show how the precious model, made for the famed engineer Matthew Murray in 1811, replicated the revolutionary mechanics of its full-sized counterparts and in turn helped power a worldwide boom in the railway industry.
It is hoped the images can now illustrate to museum visitors how the model worked and exactly why it was so important to the evolution of early railways across the globe.
John McGoldrick, Leeds Museums and Galleries’ curator of industrial history, said: “This tiny model played a huge part in the development of the early rail industry, allowing Murray to showcase his brilliance to investors and giving him the opportunity to bring his trailblazing designs to life.
“Thanks to these remarkable scans, we can now explore for the first time since 1811 how the model worked, and the extraordinary ingenuity and intricacy which went into its creation.
“Short of cutting open the model, which we wouldn’t ever do, we’d never have got to see its inner workings in quite this way. Now, not only are we examining a piece of engineering history, we’re also getting a unique and unprecedented insight into the mind of one of the world’s great inventors.”
Full-sized Murray designs, such as the famous Salamanca, became the very first commercially viable steam locomotives, and were built around the same time as the model.
At least two other models of the same type were made, with one being gifted by Murray to Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia when he visited Leeds in 1816.
Murray would have used the fully working miniature replicas to woo potential investors and colliery owners, as well as impressing his fellow designers and contemporaries.
His efforts proved successful, with each engine selling for £350, galvanising Murray to create further locomotives which later inspired the great George Stephenson’s designs.
Those locomotives also revolutionised the transportation of coal in Leeds, enabling a small and relatively lightweight engine to haul more than 20 times its own weight, powered by steam from a cast iron boiler with a single flue.
Leeds Museums and Galleries teamed up with Dr Michael Bailey, an early railway historian and archaeologist of early locomotive technology, Dr Alice Macente from the University of Leeds School of Civil Engineering and Dr Sam Allshorn from the School of Earth and Environment.
The scans were carried out at Wolfson Multiphase Flow Laboratory in the School of Earth and Environment at the University of Leeds.
Dr Bailey will now be producing a detailed historical account of the model together with an assessment of its design and components.
Funding for the project came through the Leeds Cultural Institute’s Collections Research Fund, a collaboration between academics at the University of Leeds and Leeds Museums and Galleries.
The full findings of the scanning and research will be featured in a future exhibit about the model.
Councillor Salma Arif, Leeds City Council’s executive member for adult social care, active lifestyles and culture, said: “The status Leeds has as a centre for engineering excellence over the centuries is incredible, and this extraordinary model really encapsulates that spirit invention and ingenuity.
“It’s also inspiring to see partners and organisations in modern-day Leeds working together to uncover more about the city’s story and using the latest technology to add new dimensions to what we know about the past.”
Once the world’s largest woollen mill, Leeds Industrial Museum is home to models and machinery paying tribute to the city’s industrial heritage as well as its many inventors and engineers.
TALLINN, Estonia, Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — In alignment with Africa Human Rights Day, Leil Storage announces the expansion of its Green Storage Initiative, an endeavor set to revolutionize file storage across Africa. This initiative underscores commitment to sustainability and affordability, promising a profound impact on the continent’s digital infrastructure.
Energy- and Cost-Effective Solutions
Leil Storage is setting standards in energy efficiency and cost-effectiveness with its storage solutions. These solutions achieve a remarkable 43% reduction in electricity usage and lower power consumption per terabyte. Such advancements are particularly beneficial for data-intensive sectors including healthcare, oil and gas, telecommunications, research, educational institutions, local providers, and scientific organizations.
Meeting Africa’s Data Demands
Africa’s storage industry is projected to grow significantly by 2030, Leil Storage’s sustainable solutions are timely and essential. This growth is driven by the continent’s increasing population and rapid digitalization, making offerings crucial for addressing these evolving needs.
Unprecedented Pricing Structure
The Green Storage Initiative introduces a groundbreaking pricing model: storage at just 0.8 EUR per terabyte per month, charged upfront. This all-inclusive rate covers all necessary hardware, networking equipment, software, support, and upgrades—excluding only freight—providing both end users and partners with a comprehensive and transparent solution. This pricing is unprecedented in the industry and applies to capacities starting from 10 petabytes. For smaller capacities, we invite discussions to tailor solutions that meet specific needs.
Commitment to Sustainability
Central to our initiative is a commitment to green features and sustainability. By reducing energy consumption, Leil Storage aligns with global efforts towards sustainable development. This enables African nations to leapfrog outdated technologies and avoid extensive data migrations, fostering sustainable growth across the region.
Collaborative Efforts for a Sustainable Future
Leil Storage actively seeks partnerships in distribution as part of this initiative. We are dedicated to working together towards a sustainable digital future in Africa and welcome interested parties to join us on this journey. We encourage all interested bodies—including research and scientific, educational, CSPs — to get in touch by writing to africa@leil.io.
“Leil Storage offers more than just products; we offer a vision for a greener, more sustainable future in data storage, tailored to meet the unique challenges and opportunities in Africa,” stated David Gerstein, CTO at Leil Storage. By embracing innovative solutions and fostering collaboration, Leil Storage is not only transforming data storage but also contributing significantly to the sustainable development of Africa.
Golar LNG’s 3rd Quarter 2024 results will be released before the NASDAQ opens on Tuesday, November 12, 2024. In connection with this a webcast presentation will be held at 1:00 P.M (London Time) on Tuesday November 12, 2024. The presentation will be available to download from the Investor Relations section at http://www.golarlng.com
We recommend that participants join the conference call via the listen-only live webcast link provided. Sell-side analysts interested in raising a question during the Q&A session that will immediately follow the presentation should access the event via the conference call by clicking on this link. We recommend connecting 10 minutes prior to the call start. Information on how to ask questions will be given at the beginning of the Q&A session. There will be a limit of two questions per participant.
a. Listen-only live webcastlink Go to the Investors, Results Centre section at http://www.golarlng.com and click on the link to “Webcast”. To listen to the conference call from the web, you need to have a sound card on your computer, but no special plug ins are required to access the webcast. There is a “Help” link available on the webcast pages for anyone who may have issues accessing.
b. Teleconference
Conference call participants should register to obtain their dial in and passcode details. This process eliminates wait times when joining the call.
When you log in, you can either dial in using the provided numbers and your unique PIN, or select the “Call me” option and type in your phone number to be instantly connected to the call. Use the following link to register.
Please download the presentation material from http://www.golarlng.com (Investors, Results Centre) to view it while listening to the conference.
If you are not able to listen at the time of the call, you can assess a replay of the event audio for a limited time on http://www.golarlng.com (Investors, Results Centre).
This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to Section 5-12 the Norwegian Securities Trading Act
TORONTO, Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (“BlackRock Canada”), an indirect, wholly-owned subsidiary of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE: BLK), today announced the October 2024 cash distributions for the iShares ETFs listed on the TSX or Cboe Canada which pay on a monthly basis. Unitholders of record of a fund on October 28, 2024 will receive cash distributions payable in respect of that fund on October 31, 2024.
Details regarding the “per unit” distribution amounts are as follows:
Fund Name
Fund Ticker
Cash Distribution Per Unit
iShares 1-10 Year Laddered Corporate Bond Index ETF
CBH
$0.049
iShares 1-5 Year Laddered Corporate Bond Index ETF
CBO
$0.050
iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Dividend Aristocrats Index ETF
CDZ
$0.109
iShares Equal Weight Banc & Lifeco ETF
CEW
$0.059
iShares 1-5 Year Laddered Government Bond Index ETF
CLF
$0.032
iShares 1-10 Year Laddered Government Bond Index ETF
CLG
$0.037
iShares S&P/TSX Canadian Preferred Share Index ETF
CPD
$0.055
iShares US Dividend Growers Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
CUD
$0.074
iShares Convertible Bond Index ETF
CVD
$0.074
iShares Global Monthly Dividend Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
CYH
$0.076
iShares Canadian Financial Monthly Income ETF
FIE
$0.040
iShares U.S. Aggregate Bond Index ETF
XAGG
$0.101
iShares U.S. Aggregate Bond Index ETF(1)
XAGG.U
$0.073
iShares U.S. Aggregate Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XAGH
$0.088
iShares Core Canadian Universe Bond Index ETF
XBB
$0.079
iShares Core Canadian Corporate Bond Index ETF
XCB
$0.069
iShares ESG Advanced Canadian Corporate Bond Index ETF
XCBG
$0.119
iShares U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF
XCBU
$0.114
iShares U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF(1)
XCBU.U
$0.083
iShares Core MSCI Global Quality Dividend Index ETF
XDG
$0.082
iShares Core MSCI Global Quality Dividend Index ETF(1)
XDG.U
$0.059
iShares Core MSCI Global Quality Dividend Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XDGH
$0.059
iShares Core MSCI Canadian Quality Dividend Index ETF
XDIV
$0.104
iShares Core MSCI US Quality Dividend Index ETF
XDU
$0.058
iShares Core MSCI US Quality Dividend Index ETF(1)
XDU.U
$0.042
iShares Core MSCI US Quality Dividend Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XDUH
$0.053
iShares Canadian Select Dividend Index ETF
XDV
$0.112
iShares J.P. Morgan USD Emerging Markets Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XEB
$0.054
iShares S&P/TSX Composite High Dividend Index ETF
XEI
$0.109
iShares Core Canadian 15+ Year Federal Bond Index ETF
XFLB
$0.110
iShares Flexible Monthly Income ETF
XFLI
$0.185
iShares Flexible Monthly Income ETF(1)
XFLI.U
$0.134
iShares Flexible Monthly Income ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XFLX
$0.185
iShares S&P/TSX Capped Financials Index ETF
XFN
$0.142
iShares Floating Rate Index ETF
XFR
$0.074
iShares Core Canadian Government Bond Index ETF
XGB
$0.049
iShares Global Government Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XGGB
$0.038
iShares Canadian HYBrid Corporate Bond Index ETF
XHB
$0.073
iShares U.S. High Dividend Equity Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XHD
$0.083
iShares U.S. High Dividend Equity Index ETF
XHU
$0.078
iShares U.S. High Yield Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XHY
$0.083
iShares U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XIG
$0.063
iShares 1-5 Year U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XIGS
$0.102
iShares Core Canadian Long Term Bond Index ETF
XLB
$0.062
iShares S&P/TSX North American Preferred Stock Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XPF
$0.066
iShares High Quality Canadian Bond Index ETF
XQB
$0.053
iShares S&P/TSX Capped REIT Index ETF
XRE
$0.059
iShares ESG Aware Canadian Aggregate Bond Index ETF
XSAB
$0.047
iShares Core Canadian Short Term Bond Index ETF
XSB
$0.073
iShares Conservative Short Term Strategic Fixed Income ETF
XSC
$0.056
iShares Conservative Strategic Fixed Income ETF
XSE
$0.054
iShares Core Canadian Short Term Corporate Bond Index ETF
XSH
$0.060
iShares ESG Advanced 1-5 Year Canadian Corporate Bond Index ETF
XSHG
$0.116
iShares 1-5 Year U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF
XSHU
$0.118
iShares 1-5 Year U.S. IG Corporate Bond Index ETF(1)
XSHU.U
$0.085
iShares Short Term Strategic Fixed Income ETF
XSI
$0.061
iShares ESG Aware Canadian Short Term Bond Index ETF
XSTB
$0.047
iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XSTH
$0.048
iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond Index ETF
XSTP
$0.053
iShares 0-5 Year TIPS Bond Index ETF(1)
XSTP.U
$0.038
iShares 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Bond Index ETF (CAD-Hedged)
XTLH
$0.109
iShares 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Bond Index ETF
XTLT
$0.110
iShares 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Bond Index ETF(1)
XTLT.U
$0.080
iShares Diversified Monthly Income ETF
XTR
$0.040
iShares S&P/TSX Capped Utilities Index ETF
XUT
$0.081
(1) Distribution per unit amounts are in U.S. dollars for XAGG.U, XCBU.U, XDG.U, XDU.U, XFLI.U, XSHU.U, XSTP.U, XTLT.U
Estimated October Cash Distributions for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF
The October cash distributions per unit for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF are estimated to be as follows:
Fund Name
Fund Ticker
Estimated Cash Distribution Per Unit
iShares Premium Money Market ETF
CMR
$0.195
BlackRock Canada expects to issue a press release on or about October 25, 2024, which will provide the final amounts for the iShares Premium Money Market ETF.
BlackRock’s purpose is to help more and more people experience financial well-being. As a fiduciary to investors and a leading provider of financial technology, we help millions of people build savings that serve them throughout their lives by making investing easier and more affordable. For additional information on BlackRock, please visit http://www.blackrock.com/corporate | Twitter: @BlackRockCA
About iShares ETFs
iShares unlocks opportunity across markets to meet the evolving needs of investors. With more than twenty years of experience, a global line-up of 1400+ exchange traded funds (ETFs) and US$4.2 trillion in assets under management as of September 30, 2024, iShares continues to drive progress for the financial industry. iShares funds are powered by the expert portfolio and risk management of BlackRock.
iShares® ETFs are managed by BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited.
Commissions, trailing commissions, management fees and expenses all may be associated with investing in iShares ETFs. Please read the relevant prospectus before investing. The funds are not guaranteed, their values change frequently and past performance may not be repeated. Tax, investment and all other decisions should be made, as appropriate, only with guidance from a qualified professional.
Standard & Poor’s® and S&P® are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC (“S&P”). Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC (“Dow Jones”). TSX is a registered trademark of TSX Inc. (“TSX”). All of the foregoing trademarks have been licensed to S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and sublicensed for certain purposes to BlackRock Fund Advisors (“BFA”), which in turn has sub-licensed these marks to its affiliate, BlackRock Asset Management Canada Limited (“BlackRock Canada”), on behalf of the applicable fund(s). The index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, and has been licensed for use by BFA and by extension, BlackRock Canada and the applicable fund(s). The funds are not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones, S&P, any of their respective affiliates (collectively known as “S&P Dow Jones Indices”) or TSX, or any of their respective affiliates. Neither S&P Dow Jones Indices nor TSX make any representations regarding the advisability of investing in such funds.
MSCI is a trademark of MSCI, Inc. (“MSCI”). The ETF is permitted to use the MSCI mark pursuant to a license agreement between MSCI and BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A., relating to, among other things, the license granted to BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A. to use the Index. BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A. has sublicensed the use of this trademark to BlackRock. The ETF is not sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by MSCI and MSCI makes no representation, condition or warranty regarding the advisability of investing in the ETF.
MILES AXLE Translation. Region: Russian Federation –
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
On October 17, the final of the interethnic student festival “Golden Autumn – 2024” took place. The culture of 22 countries and republics was represented by 24 higher and secondary specialized educational institutions of St. Petersburg. The festival of creativity and diversity of cultures, organized by the Committee on Science and Higher Education of the city government, was hosted by Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University.
27 years ago, “Golden Autumn” was born in the Polytechnic University, the largest university in the city in terms of the number of foreign students. This year, the festival opened its doors to talented children from Russia, China, Angola, Indonesia, Belarus, Latvia, Gabon, Tanzania, Serbia, Slovakia, Vietnam, Zimbabwe, Lebanon, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Abkhazia, Mongolia, Moldova.
“Every year new and varied competitions appear, they are born and disappear, and the festival “Golden Autumn” with its 27-year history already has a quality mark! Our task, as a university of the wonderful city of St. Petersburg, is to preserve traditions and continuity through such competitions,” said Maxim Pasholikov, Vice-Rector for Youth Policy and Communication Technologies at SPbPU, at the opening. “”Golden Autumn” is a vivid confirmation of the fact that culture and creativity will always unite people, helping them find a common language and build harmonious relationships.”
Children from all over the world presented their talents on the stage of the White Hall of SPbPU, gave the audience the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world of traditions and customs of different nations, introduced them to the amazing beauty and diversity of the cultural heritage of their countries. The jury members were representatives of national public organizations of St. Petersburg and higher educational institutions. They assessed the performances from the point of view of bright national color, originality of performance and artistry.
A song in the language of the African Shona people was performed by ITMO student from Zimbabwe Sauramba Yvonne Pamela, the national anthem of Angola was performed by Jose Santo Antonio Manuel, a student of the N. G. Kuznetsov Naval Academy. The fiery lezginka of the North Caucasus region was presented by the Drive ensemble from the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and a male group of students from the Russian Customs Academy performed a Kyrgyz folk dance. Performers on the piano, clarinet, and accordion presented the musical culture of their countries in the Instrumental Music nomination. The jury highly appreciated the performance of the participant from Moldova, a student of the N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory Lev Solomonovich.
“Thank you to the jury for the high rating! I received a sea of pleasure and emotions on the stage of the White Hall of the Polytechnic, performing the native music of my beloved Moldova,” Lev shared.
The best in the “Dance nomination” was recognized as the “Backshotcrew” team from the St. Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering. The guys presented modern choreography with folk and ethnic motifs. First place in the vocal nomination, which has the largest number of participants, was taken by Artem Stoyanov, a student of the P. F. Lesgaft National State University of Physical Education, Sports and Health. His baritone and the song “How Young We Were” captivated the jury.
“I have the most sincere words of gratitude to the organizers of “Golden Autumn” for the wonderful creative atmosphere. I am amazed by the level and scale of the festival, I am grateful for the opportunity to take part in the event, and thank you to the jury for the high rating,” said Artem.
The Polytechnic was represented by vocalist Ilham Maulana from Indonesia, as well as a group of students from Vietnam, who received the audience award for their dance. The multinational rock group “Secret Scarlet” opened the non-competitive program of the festival.
The winners and prize-winners of the “Golden Autumn” were presented with memorable gifts from the Committee on Science and Higher Education of the Government of St. Petersburg. These were statuettes in the form of gold, silver and bronze maple leaves and certificates for visiting cultural events. The festival finale ended with a joint performance of the song “Closing the Circle”. All participants once again proved that music is a universal language that transcends borders and national barriers, making the world brighter and kinder.
Please note: This information is raw content directly from the source of the information. It is exactly what the source states and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
Please note; This information is raw content directly from the information source. It is accurate to what the source is stating and does not reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.
PETAH TIKVA, Israel, Oct. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (Nasdaq: GILT, TASE: GILT), a worldwide leader in satellite networking technology, solutions, and services, today announced that it will release its third quarter 2024 financial results on Wednesday, November 13th, 2024.
Conference Call and Webcast Following the release, Adi Sfadia, Chief Executive Officer, and Gil Benyamini, Chief Financial Officer, will discuss Gilat’s third quarter 2024 results and business achievements and participate in a question and answer session:
The webcast will also be archived for a period of 30 days on the Company’s website and through the link above.
About Gilat Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd. (NASDAQ: GILT, TASE: GILT) is a leading global provider of satellite-based broadband communications. With over 35 years of experience, we create and deliver deep technology solutions for satellite, ground, and new space connectivity and provide comprehensive, secure end-to-end solutions and services for mission-critical operations, powered by our innovative technology. We believe in the right of all people to be connected and are united in our resolution to provide communication solutions to all reaches of the world.
Our portfolio includes a diverse offering to deliver high-value solutions for multiple orbit constellations with very high throughput satellites (VHTS) and software-defined satellites (SDS). Our offering is comprised of a cloud-based platform and high-performance satellite terminals; high-performance Satellite On-the-Move (SOTM) antennas; highly efficient, high-power Solid State Power Amplifiers (SSPA) and Block Upconverters (BUC) and includes integrated ground systems for commercial and defense, field services, network management software, and cybersecurity services.
Gilat’s comprehensive offering supports multiple applications with a full portfolio of products and tailored solutions to address key applications including broadband access, mobility, cellular backhaul, enterprise, defense, aerospace, broadcast, government, and critical infrastructure clients all while meeting the most stringent service level requirements. For more information, please visit: https://gilat.com/
Certain statements made herein that are not historical are forward-looking within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The words “estimate”, “project”, “intend”, “expect”, “believe” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause the actual results, performance or achievements of Gilat to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements that may be expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, including, among others, changes in general economic and business conditions, inability to maintain market acceptance to Gilat’s products, inability to timely develop and introduce new technologies, products and applications, rapid changes in the market for Gilat’s products, loss of market share and pressure on prices resulting from competition, introduction of competing products by other companies, inability to manage growth and expansion, loss of key OEM partners, inability to attract and retain qualified personnel, inability to protect the Company’s proprietary technology and risks associated with Gilat’s international operations and its location in Israel, including those related to the current terrorist attacks by Hamas, and the war and hostilities between Israel and Hamas, and Israel and Hezbollah and Iran; and other factors discussed under the heading “Risk Factors” in Gilat’s most recent annual report on Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements in this release are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions contained in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are made only as of the date hereof, and Gilat undertakes no obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
On 21 October, Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Malmer Stenergard and her Nordic colleagues will be joined by Germany’s foreign minister in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Nordic Embassies complex in Berlin. The event will highlight the growing Nordic-German cooperation and shared ambition to promote a secure and sustainable future. Guests of honour include the Crown Princess and Prince Daniel, the German President, the King and Queen of Denmark, the Presidents of Finland and Iceland and Norway’s Crown Prince and Crown Princess.
“Germany is a close neighbour and a reliable, like-minded partner. The 25th anniversary celebration highlights the increasingly important Nordic-German cooperation and our joint efforts to promote a peaceful, secure and sustainable future. The economic, industrial and innovative strength and cultural connection shared by the Nordic countries and Germany offer numerous possibilities for cooperation. It will be a pleasure to take part in the celebration and at the same time make use of the opportunity for meaningful discussions between friends,” says Ms Malmer Stenergard.
The celebration on 21 October will include speeches, the inauguration of artwork by Maria Miesenberger and a preview of a Nordic exhibition. The German President and First Lady will host a dinner in the evening. The five Nordic foreign ministers will also be in talks with their German counterpart Annalena Baerbock. This will be followed by a press conference.
The Nordic Embassies in Berlin
The Nordic Embassies in Berlin were inaugurated on 20 October 1999. The complex is the only one in the world that houses the embassies of five Nordic countries. It is located in Tiergarten, where the buildings of the Swedish and Finnish legations could be found prior to their destruction during the Second World War. The overall complex was designed by architects Alfred Berger and Tiina Parkkinen, and the building that houses the Embassy of Sweden was designed by Gert Wingårdh. The Embassies have a common building, the Felleshus (Pan-Nordic Building), for exhibitions and events.
Source: The Conversation – UK – By Austin Kay, Researcher in Sustainable Advanced Materials, Centre for Integrative Semiconductor Materials, Swansea University
As the world races to meet net-zero targets, emissions from all industrial sectors must be reduced more urgently than ever. Agriculture is an important area of focus as it contributes up to 22% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
One approach to decarbonising agriculture involves integrating solar panels – or photovoltaics (PVs) – into fields of crops, greenhouses and livestock areas. Often known as agrivoltaics, this can help farmers reduce their carbon footprint while continuing to produce food.
Agrivoltaics can also mitigate one of the main criticisms often made of solar power – that solar farms “waste” vast tracts of agricultural land that could otherwise be used for food production. In reality, solar farms currently occupy only 0.15% of the UK’s total land – not much compared to the 70% of land devoted to agriculture.
The simplest example of an agrivoltaic system would be conventional, crystalline silicon PVs (the market-leading type of solar panels), installed in fields alongside livestock. This method of farm diversification has become increasingly popular in recent years for three main reasons.
First, it enhances biodiversity as it means the fields are not being used for just one crop (monoculture), undergoing regular crop rotation, or being harvested for silage. Second, it increases production as livestock benefit from the shade and the healthier pasture growth.
Finally, the solar farm has reduced maintenance costs because livestock can keep the grass short. All this is achieved while the solar panels provide locally generated, clean energy.
However, if they’re not set up properly, agrivoltaics may still cause problems. One of the most important challenges, when used in fields where crops are grown, is balancing the need for sunlight between crops and solar panels. Crops need light to grow, and if solar panels block too much sunlight, they can negatively impact crop yields.
This issue varies from place to place. In countries with fewer sunny days like the UK, the panels need to let more sunlight through. But in places like Spain or Italy, some shade can actually help crops by reducing the stress of intense heat during summer months. Finding the right balance is tricky, as it depends on local conditions, the type of crop, and even the needs of pollinators like bees.
The complexity deepens when we consider the type of PV material used. Traditional solar panels aren’t always suitable because they often block the wavelengths (colours) of light needed by plants.
This is where newer materials, like organic semiconductors and perovskites, are ideal as they can be customised to let crops get the light they need while still generating energy. Unlike traditional inorganic semiconductors, which are essentially crystals of metal and metalloid atoms, organic semiconductors are molecules mainly made of carbon and hydrogen. Perovskites, meanwhile, are like a hybrid of organic and inorganic semiconductors.
In fact there are thousands of combinations of these materials to choose from, with scientific literature containing a plethora of options. Figuring out which one works best can be a daunting task.
This is where computational tools can make a big difference. Instead of testing each material in real-world conditions – which would take years and be incredibly expensive – researchers can use simulations to predict their performance. These models can help identify the best materials for specific crops and climates, saving both time and resources.
The tool
We have developed an open-source tool that helps compare various PV materials, making it easier to identify the best options for agrivoltaics. Our tool uses geographical data and realistic simulations of how different PV materials perform.
It considers how light travels through these materials and reflects off them, as well as other important performance measures like voltage and power output. The tool can also take lab-based measurements of PV materials and apply them to real-world scenarios.
Using this tool, we simulated how much power different PV materials could generate per square metre over the course of a year, across various regions. And we calculated how much light passed through these materials to ensure it was enough for crops to thrive.
By running these simulations for multiple materials, we could identify the most suitable options for specific crops and climates.
Tools like ours could play a critical role in decarbonising the agricultural sector by guiding the design of agrivoltaic systems. Future research could combine these simulations with economic and environmental impact analyses. This would help us understand how much energy we can expect from a solar panel over its lifetime compared to the resources and costs involved in producing it.
Ultimately, our tool could help researchers and policymakers in selecting the most efficient, cost-effective and eco-friendly ways to decarbonise agriculture and move us closer to achieving global net-zero emissions.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Austin Kay is a Postgraduate Student at Swansea University and receives funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) through program grant EP/T028513/1 Application Targeted and Integrated Photovoltaics.
In a significant diplomatic manoeuvre that may have far-reaching implications for the international system of alliances, Turkey has submitted a formal request to join Brics, the group of emerging-market economies, signalling its intent to diversify its partnerships beyond the west.
The Brics grouping, named after Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, comprises some of the world’s largest economies. Earlier this year, it welcomed four new members: Iran, the United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Egypt. Although Saudi Arabia has been invited to join, the official process is yet to take place. Often viewed as an alternative to western-led organisations such as the EU, G7 and Nato, Brics signifies a significant shift in global power dynamics.
Ankara’s decision could be a strategy to strengthen relations with non-western powers as the global economy’s centre continues to shift away from the west, but is also about chasing more trade with Brics members.
Announced ahead of the Brics summit starting on October 22, Turkey’s application has raised questions about the broader implications for its role within Nato. If accepted, Turkey would be the first Nato member of Brics. However, this is not to say that Turkey is entirely turning away from the west. Turkey’s institutional ties with the western world run deep. At most, this move signals Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s intention to increase the government’s flexibility in its foreign relations.
Erdoğan said on September 1 that this move shows Ankara’s aims to cultivate ties with all sides simultaneously to “become a strong, prosperous, prestigious and effective country if it improves its relations with the east and the west simultaneously”.
Turkey’s acceptance into the group could be discussed during the upcoming 16th Brics summit, in Kazan, Russia. Malaysia, Thailand and Azerbaijan are among other countries expecting to join.
Between east and west
Turkey’s balancing act between east and west is not a recent phenomenon but a continuation of its policies since the end of the cold war, and is in line with its geographical position at the edge of Europe and Asia.
This strategy has been central to Turkey’s intricate, at times conflicting, approach to international relations and remains pertinent in an increasingly complex world. The shift from a unipolar world – the idea that the world is dominated by one super power – to one with more global powers has led all governments to reassess their foreign policies, and Ankara is no different.
Turkey’s longstanding commitment to Nato makes it highly unlikely that its willingness to join the Brics group signifies a move away from its western allies. Since 2016, Turkey has strengthened its economic, political, and military ties with Russia and China, and its recent application to the Brics group reflects this trend. According to some experts in Turkish foreign policy, while this development may raise concerns in western capitals, there is no pressing reason for the west to be alarmed about Turkey making concessions to Russia or acting independently of Nato.
There are two incentives driving Turkey’s application. According to Sinan Ülgen, director of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies: “The first is Turkey’s aspiration to enhance its strategic autonomy in foreign policy which essentially involves improving ties with non-western powers like Russia and China in a way to balance the relationship with the west. The second is the accumulated frustrations over the relationship with the west. For example, the EU has not even been able to decide on the start of negotiations on the updating of the customs union, its trade deal with Turkey that dates back to 1996.”
Turkey has been keen on joining the Brics group since 2018. Putin, during a meeting with Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan in Moscow in June this year, welcomed Ankara’s interest and promised that Moscow “will support this desire to be together with the countries of this alliance [Brics], to be together, closer, to solve common problems”.
Since the war in Ukraine, Russia has been making extra efforts to gain the support of more countries. Turkey holds a particular significance in this effort due to its strategic location, and its control of the Black Sea straits, an essential trade route for both Ukraine and Russia. The Black Sea has played an important part in the Ukraine war, and Turkey has been part of an alliance that has stymied Russia’s attempts to fully control the waters, and allowed Ukraine to continue to use the waters.
The Montreux Convention regulates maritime traffic through the Turkish Straits. The convention distinguishes between Black Sea and non-Black Sea powers, acknowledging specific advantages for the former, which includes Ukraine and Russia.
In March 2022, Erdoğan indicated that the convention allows Turkey to restrict the passage of naval vessels belonging to warring parties. Putin may be hoping that with Turkey on board as a Brics ally he may be able to persuade Ankara to give him more leeway. Currently Russia’s inability to control the Black Sea and cargo ships within it are seriously weakening its ability to constrain Ukraine’s economy.
Turkey anticipates that Brics membership will enhance its geopolitical standing and expand its economic influence, especially in non-western markets. Most importantly, leveraging its geopolitical position to influence global affairs and pursuing a more balanced and diversified foreign policy.
It is evident that Turkey aims to maintain its connections with the west while also desiring the flexibility to engage with other regions. It is highly improbable that this would lead to a significant overhaul of Turkey’s ties with western countries. It may, however, cause concern among fellow Nato members about how much they can rely on Turkey in the future.
Bulent Gökay 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.
There is a city nearby that we hide from view. Its people are of all ages, ethnicities and classes. What unites them is a disease: all are diagnosed with myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME.
We hide them there because we don’t know where else to put them. Like a plague village, we have no plans to treat them, to study their disease or to trial possible drugs for them. We could choose to draw up such plans, to give the residents hope for their future health. But our country’s choice is to turn away and forget about these 250,000-plus inhabitants altogether. A city the size of Brighton that we deliberately ignore.
Worse, when we don’t ignore them, we blame them, telling them that they are all free to rise from their beds and wheelchairs, to walk away from the city. Doctors tell them they can free themselves of the disease by changing their belief systems. Make the effort, they say, and you will regain your health and previous lives.
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Outwardly, the city is quiet: its clocks have stopped, the streets are empty and house blinds are drawn. Inwardly, some lie still in their darkened rooms, masks on to protect them from their light sensitivity, keeping within their limited energy level, unable to tolerate sound, food and touch – lives spent in the shadows, barely lived. Inside, they feel like they have life-sapping toxins coursing through their veins. They say it feels like being on the verge of death; some even call it a “pseudo dying syndrome”.
A brief conversation with a friend, or washing their hair, or a sudden movement causes their symptoms to flare. This intensifies a fatigue that sleep cannot alleviate, and heightens their muscle or joint pain, headaches, or sensitivities to food, light or sound.
Simon McGrath, a close friend of mine who has lived with ME and written about it for 20 years, tells me:
I never know how much it is safe for me to do. It’s like I’m surrounded by an electric fence that will trigger a bad day if I touch it. But the fence is invisible, and moves every day.
A ‘scandal’ so much more than chronic fatigue
Fatigue does not begin to describe this disease, despite its other name being chronic fatigue syndrome, or CFS. “A bad day is like a very bad hangover lasting 24 hours or more: the morning after, without the night before,” Simon explains. “But with much more pain, much more fatigue and very bad brain fog. I feel as if all the neurons in my skull have collapsed and disconnected from each other.” By spotlighting fatigue, ME’s other name fails to convey its many debilitating symptoms.
Simon – or, rather, his illness – is why I am a ME researcher. At university, where we met, he graduated with a biochemistry degree, fizzing with energy and talent. His ME soon dimmed his bright future but would not stop him making a difference to the ME community through his writing, and in helping me understand this horrible disease.
The Times journalist, Sean O’Neill, says that ME is “routinely stigmatised and ignored by the NHS” and calls it “a scandal waiting for its Post Office moment”. O’Neill and his family had to endure the inquest into the death of his daughter, Maeve Boothby O’Neill, who died from natural causes because of severe ME.
Maeve’s ME left her unable to move, communicate or tolerate light, sound or touch. She did not want to go to hospital because, according to her GP, she “always gets worse when [she] goes in”.
Why is it that we give the least or worst treatments to those who are most in need?
Exile and misogyny
ME exiles people from their family, friends, and hoped-for futures. For most, this banishment is for life because nine in ten will never recover, and also because we expend too little effort to end this wicked disease.
That’s the irony – it’s society’s lack of effort to understand this illness and its treatment; our societal inertia; our failure to accept patients’ symptoms that perpetuate their exile.
So let’s attempt to diagnose what causes our apathy towards this cruel disease. The chief cause is misogyny, an ingrained prejudice born of the disease’s strong female bias: for every five women living with ME, there is only one man. It also has a strong age bias – young men are ten times less likely to be diagnosed with it than older women.
Another female-dominant disease is endometriosis. Like ME, the medical establishment is only just starting to appreciate the full nature of this debilitating condition.
In her memoir, Giving up the Ghost, the prize-winning novelist Hilary Mantel said of her endometriosis: “The more I said that I had a physical illness, the more they said I had a mental illness. The more I questioned the nature, the reality of the mental illness, the more I was found to be in denial, deluded.”
ME patients also report feeling that their concerns and symptoms are all too often dismissed.
Women with ME have spoken about their experiences of medical misogyny. For example, I talked to the Vikings actress Jennie Jacques who has spoken openly about her experiences of ME. She said that “Medical misogyny [is] at the heart of it. ME was psychologised when it most definitely shouldn’t have been”.
When later asked by ME specialistByron Hyde MD “why had he written up the Free Hospital epidemics as hysteria without any careful exploration of the basis of his thesis?”, McEvedy responded devastatingly, saying: “It was an easy PhD, why not?”
In the US, female-biased conditions attract less funding than male-biased ones. Funding for ME is 400-times less than for HIV/Aids, a male-biased disease, once their different disease burdens are accounted for.
In 2021, the previous UK government acknowledged the problem stating: “Studies suggest gender biases in clinical trials and research are contributing to worse health outcomes for women.”
COVID empathy?
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic should have woken us up from our collective lethargy, and should have turned apathy into empathy. For then there were times when we all became housebound, often sick with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and moreover so many of us – a million people, more than Liverpool and Manchester combined – came down with Long COVID.
Long COVID and ME share so many symptoms: post-exertional malaise, fatigue, widespread pain, disordered sleep, and brain fog. This overlap should never have surprised us – after all, two-thirds of people with ME report having had a triggering infection, such as glandular fever, just prior to their initial symptoms. Around 10% of people with glandular fever go on to develop ME symptoms.
It is as if we have our own brain fog, obscuring everyone with ME, forgetting how we – if fortune had been different – might have been them.
If we do not act to reduce the spread of infection, through immunisation and better ventilation, then numbers of people with long COVID – and other ME-like illnesses – will continue to rise, as infections so often trigger these conditions.
Going back to Simon, ME made him housebound, then bedbound. The NHS treated him with therapies based on increasing activity levels (Graded Exercise Therapy, or GET). This involves “gradually increasing physical activity to improve fitness and get the body used to activity again”.
The other NHS treatment approach, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), is about changing “illness beliefs”. Here, patients are asked to examine “how thoughts, behaviour and CFS/ME symptoms interact with each other”.
But these treatments are ineffective as cures. And worse still, for the majority of 11,000 people with ME on one survey, GET did more harm then good.
In a different online survey, of 542 ME patients, 81% responded that their symptoms worsened because of GET treatment. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, revised in 2021, say that CBT is not curative and that GET should not be offered to people with ME. Yet this new guidance has been implemented by only 28% of English NHS Trusts and Integrated Care Boards.
So, despite GET being described by patients as causing harm, and CBT as being ineffective as a cure, they are still being offered as a treatment. Over decades, very little has changed for Simon and hundreds of thousands of others with ME.
As we grew older together, Simon watched as I changed scientific career from physics into biology. I watched as his health might begin to rebuild, before suddenly collapsing, setting him back months or years. His ME has cost so much, he told me:
It’s so isolating and there’s so much loss. I got ill in the prime of life. It cost me relationships, my social life, my career, the chance of a family, the chance to contribute. Everything. Plenty of people seem to think it’s a lifestyle choice. Nobody would choose this.
As if his ME burden was not heavy enough, he started to carry other long-term health conditions, which each alone would bring me to my knees. Even though he does not feel it, I see his strength and resolution in adversity. At a time when biomedical evidence was rarely championed, he began his ME blog, and together with co-authors re-analysed clinical trial data. They concluded that the “recovery rates in the CBT and GET groups were not significantly higher than those in the control, no-therapy group”.
His own experience of ME, and his scientific eye-for-detail, make him a go-to person for people in the ME community.
In contrast, by 2013, and despite my decades of scientific training and academic privileges, I had done nothing for ME research. Why did I hesitate? “It’s not my scientific area,” I told myself. I trusted other researchers to identify effective and potentially curative treatments soon.
I was unprepared for the shock of my first ME research meetings. When studying other diseases, I had become used to vast conference halls brimming with celebrated scientists, enthusiastic PhD students, science prize winners, funders, and journal editors, all on the hunt for the next big breakthrough, grant or career opportunity.
For ME, however, the rooms were small and half-empty, funders and journal editors were nowhere to be seen, and researchers were talking at cross-purposes, showing sparse data from small-scale studies. These meetings were also empty of robust evidence for what physiologically had gone wrong for so many. At each meeting, a single word came to my mind: “forsaken” – those who others shun, neglect and abandon, whose existence is denied. I could not then, in all conscience, turn my back and walk away.
Not once have I regretted this decision. Its professional cost – measured in traditional markers of esteem, such as “glamour” publications, international conference and seminar invitations – has been more than offset by the fulfilment from working in this long-neglected field.
The extent of scientific disinterest in ME is clear: so far this year, there have been 17-times more publications mentioning “multiple sclerosis” than those mentioning ME or CFS, despite MS being rarer.
New study
My privilege now is to walk ME’s city of stolen futures alongside many people – like Simon – whose lost decades have been spent searching for their disease’s root causes. Together, for two-and-a-half years our team went back-and-forth with the Medical Research Council MRC and the National Institute for Health and Care Research NIHR. Eventually, we managed to secure a £3.2m award for DecodeME, a hunt for ME’s genetic causes.
DecodeME is not just the world’s largest study of the genetic causes of ME, but it was the first to place people with experience of ME at its heart. A total of 27,000 people with ME in the UK took part. We will report the study’s results as soon as we can. When we do, we will give them back first to the ME community whose data and samples we hold in trust.
The UK government has pledged to publish its delivery plan on ME in 2025. Andrew Gwynne MP, parliamentary under-secretary of state at the Department of Health and Social Care, has said that it “will focus on boosting research, improving attitudes and education and bettering the lives of people with this debilitating disease”.
This delivery plan will need to be radical.
Today, we urgently need more people to move through this city of lost hope to hear and to listen.
We need scientists to develop new vaccines against infections that trigger ME.
We need researchers, clinical specialists, hospital managers, and politicians to give deserved priority to this long-forsaken community and help lead these long-lost inhabitants back into the land of the well.
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Chris Ponting’s research has been funded by MRC, NIHR, Action for M.E. and ME Research UK.
The first anniversary of the October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the beginning of conflict in Gaza left UK schools with a dilemma: how to mark the event. It has affected many around the world, including school children and their families in the UK.
Earlier in 2024, government adviser on social cohesion, Sara Khan, suggested that schools were not supporting reasonable debate about the Israel-Gaza conflict because teachers are nervous about handling such a sensitive topic in the classroom.
But if schools shut down the topic they risk encouraging mistrust, anger, hate and polarisation. Not least because students will instead seek out information online – and are quite likely to stumble upon fake news and conspiracy theories.
The leader of the UK’s biggest education union, Daniel Kebede, recently noted that there simply isn’t enough space in the curriculum for students to discuss such difficult issues. He claims the solution is to embed philosophy as a subject across England’s school curriculum.
The subject of philosophy is specifically set up to promote critical thinking skills and teach people how to have difficult conversations about controversial issues.
Teaching controversial topics
Controversial and sensitive topics are unavoidable. We encounter them discussed in the media, on the news, in the street and in our homes. Yet we are not always sure what to think, especially when the issue is complex, or how to talk to people we disagree with. And the skills of reasonable dialogue can be even harder when emotions are running high.
Young people need to learn how to discuss controversial issues like the Israel-Gaza war. The best way to do this is by including philosophy on the curriculum. Philosophy has an excellent toolkit designed to explore various points of view in a critically engaged way and, when taught dialogically – through discussion between students and teachers – students become seekers of shared knowledge and wisdom.
A key aspect of a democracy involves welcoming different ideas. Such diversity is a strength because it allows for many claims to be scrutinised, with only the best arguments gaining traction. Yet this process of sharing ideas requires our citizens to be able to hold reasoned discussions and to think critically.
The ability to hold reasoned, critical discussion is a valuable skill. fizkes/Shutterstock
To avoid aggression or chaos, people need to engage charitably with one another, being respectful of various experiences and perspectives while also being critical of the ideas presented.
The dialogical skills of philosophy
Philosophy, more than any other subject, encourages students to think about the reasons why they think something, and entertain the possibility that there are other points of view.
Philosophy is inherently dialogical. The most common teaching approach is to think about the steps in an argument, and then to consider the weaknesses in each of these.
Philosophy does this by teaching students to check: What assumptions am I making? Are the premises of my position sound? Does the conclusion logically follow from my starting point? What is a counterargument or counterexample to which I need to reply? Could I be wrong about this? What additional information do I need to draw a conclusion?
These kinds of questions encourage intellectual humility: the idea that I, like anyone else, could be wrong. Intellectual humility goes hand in hand with open-mindedness, ensuring we remain open to relevant new information.
Such skills of critical thinking and respectful disagreement are vital in a time of disinformation and fake news. Not only do we need young people to learn how to fact check and be critical of what they see and hear, but we also need them to learn that it is OK to disagree.
Being open-minded
The influential American philosopher Daniel Dennett, who died earlier this year, wrote about the importance of criticising with kindness and seeking the most charitable version of your opponent’s position. This is so important when discussing controversial topics, because reasonable people will disagree.
Criticising with kindness means staying humble and open to different points of view when having difficult conversations. And it means creating space for the airing of diverse arguments and examples. In this way, teachers who are trained in philosophy are able to remain politically neutral while helping students converse with one another about important issues that affect them and those they care about.
Philosophy is about learning to be respectful of others whose views differ from one’s own and to accept reasonable disagreement. It also teaches us to be comfortable with unsettled questions and complex answers. Teaching philosophy in the classroom leads to students engaging with ideas charitably and critically, encouraging open-mindedness and intellectual humility.
It is the skills of dialogue that we need as our society faces increasing polarisation and violent disagreement. These skills are some of the defining characteristics of a democracy. Happily, teachers are uniquely positioned to embrace the subject of philosophy and the skills it has to offer.
Laura D’Olimpio is co-founding editor of the open access Journal of Philosophy in Schools.
While many people in the creative industries are worrying that AI is about to steal their jobs, Oscar-winning film director James Cameron is embracing the technology. Cameron is famous for making the Avatar and Terminator movies, as well as Titanic. Now he has joined the board of Stability.AI, a leading player in the world of Generative AI.
In Cameron’s Terminator films, Skynet is an artificial general intelligence that has become self-aware and is determined to destroy the humans who are trying to deactivate it. Forty years after the first of those movies, its director appears to be changing sides and allying himself with AI. So what’s behind this?
Valued at around a billion dollars, Stability.AI was, until recently at least, headquartered above a chicken shop in Notting Hill. It is famous for Stable Diffusion, a text-to-image tool that creates hyperreal pictures from text requests (or prompts) by its users. Now it is moving into AI-created video.
Cameron appears to see their work as a potential game changer in film visual effects: “I was at the forefront of CGI over three decades ago, and I’ve stayed on the cutting edge since. Now, the intersection of generative AI and CGI image creation is the next wave,” he commented in a media release from Stability.AI.
Filmmakers supplement the live action reality that they shoot with two kinds of effects: special effects (SFX) and visual effects (VFX). They come at two different stages of film production. During the shoot, SFX are all the physical effects used to create spectacle – explosions, blood squibs, vehicle crashes, prosthetics, mechanical movement of sets.
During postproduction, VFX are the digital systems that add new elements to live-action filmed images – computer-generated imagery (CGI), compositing, motion capture rendering. They also combine separately shot images together.
A recent development of film technology, Virtual Production, has brought some VFX techniques into the film shoot. This process uses what are known as “games engines” – a technology developed for the creation of video games. Actors are filmed in front of sophisticated LED walls, which screen dynamic, pre-produced virtual worlds around the performer.
The real-world physicality of SFX means that artificial intelligence will have very limited impact here. It is in VFX where AI may have a transformative effect. I’ll be talking about the subject of deepfakes and AI in film at a public lecture on October 30, 2024: ‘Deepfakes and AI in film and media: seeing is not believing’.
We are also investigating the subject through the Synthetic Media Research Network, a group that I co-lead which brings together film creatives, academic researchers and AI developers. I spoke to a member of this collective, Christian Darkin, a VFX artist who now works as Head of Creative AI for Deep Fusion Films.
He sees the impact of generative AI on VFX as creating infinite choice in post-production. In future, filming the actors will be just the beginning. “You’ll put in the background later, you’ll change the camera angles, you’ll change the expressions, you’ll ramp up the emotion in the acting, you’ll change the voices, the costumes, the people’s faces, everything,” Christian told me.
One key motive for the film industry’s incorporation of AI into VFX is simple: the expense of traditional VFX. If you have watched the end credits of a blockbuster movie, you’ll have seen the number of VFX technicians that they employ. Generative AI offers a cheaper way to achieve spectacular screen images, potentially with no loss of quality.
The implication is that a lot of VFX technicians will lose their jobs as a result. However, in conversations that I have had with people working in these roles there’s a sense that, being highly skilled and technologically savvy, they will probably move into new roles in emerging areas of tech.
The ethics of AI technology
Media creatives are now presented with a huge selection of generative AI Tools that offer new ways of creating images, text, voices and music. However, a key problem related to the technology still needs to be addressed: have these AI tools been created ethically?
Each generative AI tool, from ChatGPT to Midjourney to Runway, rests on a foundation model that has been exposed to vast amounts of data, often from the internet, in order to help it improve at what it does. This process is called “training”.
AI developers build huge reservoirs of training data by using “crawlers”, bots that scour the internet for useful material and download trillions of files for their own use. This can include books, music, images, the spoken word and videos, created by artists who retain copyright over their material.
Stability.ai has been involved in a legal action over copyright in the UK courts. Getty Images, holder of a huge collection of pictures and photographs, is currently suing the company.
A former executive at Stability.ai, Ed Newton-Rex, resigned in November 2023 over the company scraping for creative content to train the model, without payment and claiming it is “fair use”.
Perhaps Cameron thinks that the AI developers will win the court cases against them and continue their technological trajectory. I asked Stability.ai if, before Cameron joined the company, they had scraped any of his creative material from the internet to use as training data for their foundation models – and did they ask his permission?
Their response was: “We’re not able to comment on the source of Stability
AI’s training data.”
Cameron’s Terminator films warned about the potential catastrophic effects of rogue AI. Yet the director now clearly thinks that he is now sitting on a winning horse.
Dominic Lees receives funding from the AHRC Impact Acceleration Account (University of Reading).
Coal workers suing their government over job losses. Indigenous people using the courts to block wind farms or anti-deforestation policies that violate their cultural rights. What these cases have in common is they challenge the fairness of climate policies and projects themselves.
Our new study, carried out with researchers from 16 universities and published in Nature Sustainability, finds that cases like these are increasingly being filed all over the world.
We coined the term “just transition litigation” to describe these cases. This term captures a focus on ensuring that climate action balances the transition to a low-carbon economy with social justice and the protection of vulnerable communities.
This phenomenon must be kept distinct from that of climate litigation, which tends to focus on holding governments and companies accountable for failing to reduce emissions or adapt to climate change.
Our research began in 2020, when we started noticing a growing number of cases that didn’t fit the conventional model of climate litigation. For example, in Chile, union workers sued the government, arguing that they had been excluded from discussions regarding the phase-out of coal plants. The Chilean Supreme Court ruled in favour of the workers, emphasising that a just transition strategy — one that includes consultation with affected communities — is essential for achieving carbon neutrality.
Similarly, in Norway, the Sami Indigenous people successfully challenged wind farm licenses, which the country’s Supreme Court found to have violated their cultural rights to herd reindeer. In Colombia, Indigenous people argued that projects aimed at reducing deforestation on their land violated their rights to self-determination and cultural integrity.
Just transition litigation seeks to ensure that the shift toward a greener economy is fair and inclusive, particularly for those who may be disadvantaged by the rapid changes it brings. The applicants in these cases often include regular workers, Indigenous people, women, children, minorities and other groups who are typically underrepresented in legislative and decision-making processes. (Our concept of just transition litigation excludes lawsuits brought by corporations seeking to protect their own interests at the expense of broader societal fairness.)
At the core of this litigation is the pursuit of justice. As countries shift to low-carbon economies, these policies inevitably produce both winners and losers. Oil and gas workers lose their jobs. Indigenous people are displaced or see the world around them changed by new wind or solar farms. All these people lament being treated unjustly.
To ensure widespread support for climate policies, their grievances should not be dismissed as mere nimbyism. Rather, they should be recognised as carrying precious insights into the fairness, equity, and social impacts of climate policies and projects.
The litigation we looked at calls upon courts to assess climate action against various different legal frameworks, ranging from constitutional and human rights law to corporate accountability standards. Some lawsuits use arguments of distributive justice, which focus on the allocation of resources and burdens. Some look at procedural justice, such as inclusive decision-making. Others want what is termed recognition justice, which focuses on respect for marginalised groups.
Why this matters
All this reflects a growing recognition that climate action may come at a cost to certain groups, especially those already on the margins of society. It also underscores the need to address the social justice of climate action and ensure it does not make the world even less equal.
The core issue is that, while much attention is given to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, less emphasis has been placed on ensuring we do so equitably. This is especially the case at a time when governments in the EU , the UK and the US are announcing plans to cut the red tape and expedite the transition.
As more communities turn to courts to seek justice, our study highlights an urgent need for policymakers to embrace inclusive, transparent and equitable processes. Decisions over who owns land, or what jobs people can do, should involve those most affected. Ensuring that climate policies are fair and just will not only protect vulnerable groups but also foster broader public support.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Joana Setzer receives funding from the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Foundation for International Law for the Environment, and the Grantham Foundation for the Protection of the Environment
Annalisa Savaresi 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 Mari Ellis Dunning, Associate Lecturer at the School of Languages and Literature and PhD Candidate, Aberystwyth University
For centuries, midway between the autumn equinox and winter solstice, the Welsh people have celebrated Calan Gaeaf on November 1. Nos Galan Gaeaf or “the evening before the first day of winter”, falls a day before, which the western world now recognises as Halloween.
A time of year filled with monsters and ghouls, here are five spooky winter customs and beliefs unique to Wales and its people.
1. Hwch Ddu Gwta
On Nos Galan Gaeaf, the horrifying hwch ddu gwta, or “tailess black sow”, would make its annual appearance. Usually a man draped in cloth or animal hide rising from dwindling fire embers, the hwch ddu would chase the village children home.
As the fire died and the children anticipated the materialisation of the black sow, they would often chant a spooky verse, like: “Adref, adref am y cynta’, Hwch Ddu Gwta a gipio’r ola,” (“Home, home, at once, the tailess black sow shall snatch the last one.”)
Juliette Wood, scholar of Celtic folklore, says the macabre ritual has its roots in beliefs about the souls of the dead, people and animals. But on a practical level, it was probably just an effective way of getting children to bed and teaching them about the dangers of straying from the group.
2. Fortune telling
Fortune telling would have been rife at this time of year. Questions over who was next to be married, and who may meet an untimely death, were particularly popular. Women looking for love may have wandered around the bounds of a church, chanting “here is the sheath, where is the knife”, hoping to hear the name of the person they would marry as a response.
In some parts of the country, stwmp naw rhyw, a mash made of nine different root vegetables with milk, butter, salt and pepper, would have a wedding ring placed at the centre. Whoever found the ring in their serving would be the next to be married.
Though these particular practices were performed at Calan Gaeaf, the widespread belief in fortune telling certainly wasn’t unique to this time of year, nor Wales, of course.
But Wales does have a long history of reliance on wise-women and soothsayers. Many Welsh people even regularly turned to the church for charms and curses.
3. Y Ladi Wen and other apparitions
Regarded as a seasonal boundary, Nos Galan Gaeaf was considered the most ominous of the three spirit nights. The others were Nos Galan Mai, which heralds the beginning of summer, and Noswyl Ifan, known also as the summer solstice.
As Nos Galan Gaeaf was a time to say goodbye to the recently deceased, the spirits were said to roam freely. Ghosts of the dead were believed to be seen at midnight on every stile, for example. And it makes sense that ghosts were to be found atop stiles. The fact that unbaptised children used to be buried at boundary fences suggests that these lines were liminal places and therefore the favourite perches of ghosts and apparitions.
Perhaps the most well known of these ghosts was Y Ladi Wen (the White Lady). Y Ladi Wen was an apparition who could be found haunting locations where violent deaths had occurred. She was also said to warn children about their bad behaviour.
4. Mari Lwyd
The Mari Lwyd is traditionally a Christmas and New Year wassailing folk custom popular in south Wales. It dates back to the 18th century and involves a horse’s skull placed on a pole, draped in ribbons.
A person hiding beneath a white sheet would carry the pole and snap the horse’s jaw open and shut. A procession led by Mari would go from house to house, where the group would sing verses asking to be let inside, prompting the hosts to improvise a rebuttal in verse.
The Mari Lwyd’s weird and somewhat terrifying appearance has led to her appearing earlier in the season, and adopted in different parts of Wales and as far afield as the US and Australia.
5. Gwrachod Powys
Perhaps the most sinister and spooky custom is one that could be found in Powys, mid-Wales.
Men would wander around in gangs wearing sheep skin, old ragged clothes and masks, drinking heavily and demanding gifts. They were called “gwrachod” (meaning hags or witches), probably in allusion to the Celtic belief that fiends, witches and faeries carried out their harmful and destructive tasks at night.
In the north, the name “gwrachod” was also used to describe men and women who went about their neighbours’ houses dressed in each other’s clothes and wearing masks.
During this Christmas tradition, which could be seen as a combination of the Mari Lwyd and the gwrachod, members of the party would dance, cheer and perform “antic diversions” in exchange for good cheer, ale, apples and nuts.
As October draws to a close and we creep towards the darkest days of midwinter, keep your wits about you. You might just end up face to face with a horrifying sow covered in fire ash, or confronted by a ghostly lady draped in white.
Mari Ellis Dunning 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.
Donald Trump loves tariffs. Making things more expensive if they come from foreign countries is at the heart of his bid for a second term in the White House.
“Tariffs are the greatest thing ever invented,” he said in September 2024 at a town hall event in Michigan. And he has promised that if he becomes US president again, he will impose an across-the-board tariff of up to 20% on imports – and even 200% on cars from Mexico – in a bid to encourage American manufacturing.
This is familiar ground for Trump, who showed he was fond of tariffs during his 2017-2021 presidency. Back then, he claimed his policy would address the trade imbalance with China, bring manufacturing jobs back to the US and raise revenues.
Tariffs were then imposed on a wide range of goods, from imported steel and aluminium, to solar panels and washing machines.
In fact, we found that imposing tariffs actually made the US even more reliant on foreign suppliers – and failed to stimulate the domestic job market. They also raised costs for US consumers and provoked retaliatory tariffs from trading partners including China, the EU, Canada, Mexico, India and Turkey.
China for example, responded by trebling tariffs on American cars. The EU filed a dispute with the World Trade Organisation and substantially raised tariffs on US exports including Harley Davidson motorcycles, jeans and bourbon whiskey.
And Trump’s tariffs did not lead to a boost for US manufacturing either. After tariffs were imposed, our research shows US manufacturing supply chains evolved to have fewer suppliers – but it was often US firms that got forced out of those supply chains, not their competitors from overseas.
We found that US manufacturers appeared to reduce their global reach, while actually increasing their dependence on a select few foreign companies – further evidence that Trump’s tariffs failed to produce the intended outcome.
Our research also suggests that “reshoring” – bringing production and manufacturing back to a company’s home country – is not feasible without an established ecosystem of suppliers, intermediaries and customers. So introducing trade barriers without adequate support for the development of regional supply chains is unlikely to result in stronger local economies or more jobs.
Essentially, for reshoring to work, the domestic economy needs to have the capacity to match demand. But the US (like the UK) has lost manufacturing capability in many areas, and rebuilding it is not going to happen overnight.
Establishing a new industry requires buildings, skilled staff and supply chains – and a very specific approach is required for each industry. Getting the right skills and labour is often the trickiest part and may require immigration.
However, even this may not work in the most complex industries. In the case of computer chips, for example, there are generous incentives in the US under the Biden administration to encourage chip manufacturing. Yet Taiwan still massively dominates the market, raising questions over whether the US could ever really compete.
Other industries that can use automation and robotics in manufacturing (such as chemicals and transportation equipment) might be easier to reboot, but they may not generate the expected number and range of jobs. And often reshoring strategies involve higher investment in automation, machinery and robotics, rather than jobs. Trump’s focus may have been bringing back manufacturing jobs back to the US, but the truth is that many of these jobs may be gone forever.
Trading places
Overall then, imposing tariffs without adequate domestic support mechanisms in place has led to US manufacturers increasing their dependence on foreign suppliers and reducing their dependence on local ones.
Yet tariffs are not exclusively favoured by Trump – or even right-wing politics. And there seems to be a fairly common view among politicians in the west that some tariffs can be an effective economic tool.
Trade barriers against China for instance, have continued under Joe Biden’s administration (although he has somewhat relaxed tariffs for imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico). And recently, Canada imposed 100% tariffs on Chinese cars and 25% on Chinese steel and aluminium, while the EU has also imposed tariffs on Chinese goods.
One of the few voices speaking out against tariffs belongs to former US vice-president Mike Pence. He recently proposed scrapping tariffs, saying they just made products more expensive for consumers – and failed to improve prosperity.
His old boss clearly disagrees. And if Trump does win a second term in office, it seems certain that imposing international tariffs will be high up on his “to do” list. But if their impact is anything like the last time, they will be of little benefit to the US economy or the voters who depend upon it.
The authors 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.
Policy and luck have bought Europe a reprieve from the heights gas prices reached between the winters of 2022 and 2023, but prices are climbing again and the global gas market remains precariously balanced.
Rising tensions in the Middle East could upend it. If conflict spills into the Persian Gulf, it could disrupt shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Qatar that equal 20% of global exports.
We believe this winter will be the final act of the gas crisis. Here’s what we should expect.
Dangerously underprepared
The case for Britain to rapidly phase out natural gas in heating and power generation is overwhelming. It would unburden household bills of expensive gas imports and leave the country less vulnerable to energy supply crunches, while also cutting carbon emissions. Doing so will take time: as of today, the UK relies on gas for 37% of all energy consumption.
Since the beginning of the recent crisis, the UK government has done little to change these facts. The end of the winter fuel payment to pensioners adds fresh concern. The Energy Crisis Commission recently found that the UK remains “dangerously underprepared” for a repeat of the gas price explosion of 2022-23.
All told, the UK cannot be oblivious to developments in the global gas market.
A crisis in the making
Resurgent gas demand after the lifting of COVID restrictions led to a quadrupling of UK gas prices in 2021. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Vladimir Putin throttled pipeline gas exports to Europe.
Europe turned to its greatest source of flexible gas supply: seaborne LNG. A price war for cargoes followed. The spending power of European economies pulled shipments away from low-income countries in Asia, such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, which caused crippling blackouts and a pivot to coal-fired generation.
Energy bills for an average household in the UK hit £4,279 in January 2023. The government protected consumers from the very worst at a cost of £51 billion in 2022-23, but the average household lost 8% of its budget to energy costs in 2022, rising to 18% for the poorest tenth of households. Roughly 2 million households on pre-payment meters were being cut off from their energy supply at least once a month at the height of the crisis.
Clement winters, moderate gas demand in Asia and successful measures to curb European gas demand saw UK gas prices fall from mid-2023. But they are still relatively high – at 48% above the average in the three years before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
One more winter
Could things get worse? Back in 2022, experts spoke of a “three-winter crisis” because significant new LNG export capacity (primarily in the US and Qatar) wasn’t expected until 2025. That has held true, and supply and demand in the global LNG market remains taut.
Several disturbances could destabilise this balance. The International Energy Agency expects that over 2024, global growth in gas demand will exceed the rate of growth in new LNG supply. Attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea by the Houthi militia in Yemen, in response to Israel’s invasion of Gaza, have rerouted LNG shipping routes. Cargoes that would have passed through the Suez Canal must now take the longer route around the Cape of Good Hope.
At the end of 2024, a major five-year agreement governing the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine will expire, and there is no prospect of renewal. Russian gas supplies to Europe will fall by around 5% of the EU’s total gas imports, or 65% of all gas imports into Austria, Hungary and Slovakia.
While Europe has been saved by mild winters over the last two years, this luck could break in 2024-25 according to some forecasts. Temperature – and the demand it creates for heating – will probably decide winter gas prices in Europe.
Geopolitical blowback
How might the worst-case scenario of conflict in the Persian Gulf happen?
Israel’s escalating military assaults on Hezbollah since September 17 have coincided with a 17% rise in UK gas prices. After Iran’s missile and drone strikes against Israel on October 1, European gas prices hit a new high for the year. This saw three LNG tankers destined for Asia change course mid-journey and head for Europe.
Israel has vowed retribution for the Iranian strike. Having obliterated Gaza and decapitated Hezbollah’s leadership, and with resolute material support from the US, Israel may now see Iran as vulnerable.
A severe response by Israel, targeting Iran’s nuclear facilities or oil infrastructure, would further up the ante. Wishing to avoid direct conflict, Iran could decide to target not Israel, but the flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz on which its western backers depend. Qatari LNG shipments through the strait account for 20% of global supply on their own.
Any interruption would also block Iran’s oil exports, afflict Iran’s friends as much as its foes, and kill Iran’s current reconciliation with the Gulf states. It is unlikely, but one would hope that the warning signs in the global gas market would remind western decision-makers that the conflict in the Middle East can continue to blow back on them.
Don’t have time to read about climate change as much as you’d like?
Michael Bradshaw receives funding from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC) that is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). He also advises the government, thinktanks and companies on energy matters.
Louis Fletcher receives funding from the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), which is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
Headline: Microsoft and NVIDIA empower AI startups for health and life sciences breakthroughs
AI isn’t just changing the game- it’s rewriting the rules of innovation. With advanced machine learning models and data-driven insights, we’re on the brink of breakthroughs in health and life sciences that once seemed impossible. Imagine accelerating drug discovery, connecting care experiences, and personalizing medicine like never before. AI is our chance to tackle some of the biggest health challenges facing humanity.
But health and life science startups can run into roadblocks when it comes to driving innovation. Building AI solutions isn’t something you can do in isolation. Founders often hit walls with limited access to GPUs and the high costs of training models, tweaking them, running tests, and everything else it takes to get a solution off the ground. Today, we’re excited to announce that Microsoft for Startups and NVIDIA Inception are joining forces to fuel AI-driven health and life sciences startups.
Empowering Health and Life Sciences Startups to Make a Difference
Microsoft for Startups and NVIDIA Inception exist to empower early-stage companies by providing them with the resources, technology, and expertise needed to build and scale their businesses. Microsoft for Startups focuses on helping startups leverage Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure, AI tools, and go-to-market support, enabling founders to overcome challenges like scaling their solutions globally and accessing enterprise customers. NVIDIA Inception offers startups in AI, data science, and deep learning access to cutting-edge GPU technology and mentorship, helping them address complex technical hurdles in product development and achieve breakthroughs in high-impact industries such as healthcare, robotics, and autonomous driving. Both programs have been instrumental in removing barriers to innovation, accelerating time-to-market, and helping tens of thousands of startups. This collaboration combines Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise expertise with NVIDIA’s pioneering advancements in AI hardware and software. Together, we are introducing a new reciprocal program to provide health and life sciences startups with the tools, resources, and support they need to fast track their ideas and deliver life-changing outcomes.
Accepted startups will have access to the following suite of benefits:
Microsoft for Startups:
Up to $150,000 in Azure Credits for Four Years: Startups can apply these credits towards leading AI models, including Azure OpenAI Service, Meta’s Llama, and Microsoft’s own small language model, Phi—enabling rapid and efficient scaling using cloud services tailored for AI, big data, and healthcare applications.
Access to Microsoft Business Tools: Including productivity and development tools such as Microsoft 365, Visual Studio, and GitHub, along with dozens of discounts to startup-friendly offerings from our trusted partners like LinkedIn.
High-Touch Technical Support: Startups will receive personalized guidance from a Microsoft technical expert, who will work directly with a corresponding NVIDIA technical expert to build optimized Azure templates for leveraging the full NVIDIA technology stack.
GTM and Pegasus Program Access: Microsoft will provide prioritized access to its Pegasus program, which offers go-to-market support, access to Microsoft’s global sales teams, and strategic co-selling opportunities.
NVIDIA Inception:
10,000 ai.nvidia.com Credits: Startups will have access to a wealth of GPU resources and AI models, enabling them to train and optimize complex models more cost-effectively.
75% Discount on NVIDIA AI Enterprise Stack: This ensures that startups can leverage the complete NVIDIA suite for developing, deploying, and managing AI models.
Dedicated Technical Support: A specialized technical resource will collaborate closely with Microsoft to evangelize the NVIDIA AI Enterprise stack and co-develop Azure templates for NVIDIA technology.
Exclusive Early Access: Startups will gain private access to new NVIDIA Healthcare products before general release, allowing them to incorporate the latest advancements in their solutions.
Unleashing the Potential of AI in Health and Life Sciences
The collaboration between Microsoft for Startups and NVIDIA Inception is a launchpad for startups eager to harness AI’s potential in health and life sciences. We’re not just supporting growth; we’re igniting a movement where startups can redefine healthcare’s future.
What Health and Life Sciences Startups Are Saying
“Working with both Microsoft for Startups and NVIDIA Inception has been transformative for Pangaea Data. By combining their resources and access to cutting-edge AI models, we are able to accelerate development and deliver real-world value to our joint customers. Leveraging AI tools from Microsoft and NVIDIA, we apply clinical guidelines to find previously overlooked patients at the point of care who need treatment or access to clinical trials, ultimately improving patient outcomes.” — Dr. Vibhor Gupta, Founder & CEO, Pangaea Data.
“Collaborating with Microsoft for Startups and NVIDIA Inception represents an incredible opportunity for Artisight to elevate healthcare delivery. By leveraging their combined resources and cutting-edge AI capabilities, we can transform productivity for healthcare providers and deliver meaningful outcomes to our customers. This partnership enables us to scale our smart hospital solutions more rapidly, from operating rooms to patient rooms, ultimately creating a future where technology empowers clinicians to focus more on patient care and less on operational hurdles.” — Andrew Gostine, Co-founder & CEO, Artisight.
Ready to join us?
If you’re a health and life sciences startup looking to harness the full potential of AI to shape the future of health innovation, we invite you to explore this reciprocal program, available to eligible startups in either Microsoft for Startups or NVIDIA Inception. Learn more about our collaboration and apply today to be part of the AI revolution with Microsoft and NVIDIA.
Apply today:
NVIDIA Inception
Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub
Tags: Health and Life Sciences, Healthcare, HLTH, HLTH 2024, NVIDIA Inception
On October 16, 2024, North Battleford RCMP Crime Reduction Team-Gang Task Force (CRT-GTF) executed a search warrant at a residence on 34th Street West in Battleford, SK, after receiving information about an individual trafficking methamphetamine.
While executing the search warrant, officers located and seized a replica firearm, 234 grams of methamphetamine and drug trafficking paraphernalia. An adult female was arrested at the scene.
As a result of investigation, 68-year-old Martha Mitchell, from Battleford, is charged with:
one count, possession for the purpose of trafficking – methamphetamine, Section 5(2), Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
Martha Mitchell is scheduled to appear in North Battleford Provincial Court on November 18, 2024.
ATLANTA (October 22, 2024) — On Wednesday, October 30th, 2024, at 11:00 a.m., the Senate Study Committee on Access to Affordable Childcare, chaired by Sen. Brian Strickland (R–McDonough), will hold its second hearing.
EVENT DETAILS:
Date: Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Time: 11:00 a.m.
Location: The Shaquille O’Neal Boys & Girls Club of Henry County, 166 Holly Smith Dr, McDonough, GA 30253
This event is open to the public andwill be live-streamed on the Georgia General Assembly websitehere.
ABOUT THE MEETING:
Members will recommend measures to increase access to affordable child care in Georgia. This committee was created pursuant to Senate Resolution 471 during the 2024 Legislative Session. You can find more information about this study committee here.
MEDIA OPPORTUNITIES:
We kindly request that members of the media confirm their attendance in advance by contacting Jantz Womack at SenatePressInquiries@senate.ga.gov.
# # # #
Sen. Brian Strickland serves as the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Judiciary. He represents the 17th Senate District, which includes all of Morgan and portions of Henry, Newton and Walton County. Sen. Strickland may be reached by phone at 404.463.6598 or by email atBrian.Strickland@senate.ga.gov.
United States Announces Significant New Military Assistance for Ukraine
Press Statement
October 21, 2024
The United States is providing another significant package of urgently needed weapons and equipment to our Ukrainian partners as they defend against Russia’s ongoing attacks. This additional assistance, provided under previously exercised Presidential Drawdown Authority from Department of Defense stocks, is valued at $400 million. It includes Munitions for HIMARS; 155mm and 105mm artillery ammunition; Mortars; M113 armored vehicle; Tube-launched, Optically tracked, Wire-guided (TOW) missiles; Javelin missiles; AT-4 rockets; Satellite communications support; Ammunition for crew-served weapons; Small arms, grenades, and training equipment; Demolitions equipment and munitions; and Spare parts, ancillary equipment, services, training, and transportation.
The United States is committed to supporting Ukraine with the equipment it needs to strengthen its position on the battlefield, defend against the Kremlin’s brutal aggression, and secure a just and lasting peace. As President Biden has made clear, the United States and the international coalition we have assembled will continue to stand with Ukraine.
