Professor Muhammad Azizul IslamA University of Aberdeen academic is one of 64 outstanding social scientists being welcomed to The Academy of Social Sciences Fellowship this spring.
Being a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences holds significant meaning for a researcher like me who is deeply committed to addressing social issues such as modern slavery, exploitation and inequality through my research and teaching.” Professor Muhammad Azizul Islam
Professor Muhammad Azizul Islam, Chair in Accountancy and Professor in Sustainability Accounting and Transparency and Director of Research for Accounting at the University of Aberdeen Business School, was named as one of the new Fellows in an announcement from The Academy of Social Sciences today (April 1). Widely recognized internationally, Professor Islam investigates sustainability accounting and transparency issues, including corporate human rights measures, modern slavery disclosures, climate change accounting, social audits, and corporate anti-bribery measures.
Spanning a range of research and practice areas including modern slavery, health inequalities, the gender wage gap, European cybersecurity governance, AI and big data analytics, and the anthropology of Britain, the Academy’s newly elected Fellows highlight the importance, breadth and relevance of the social sciences to understanding and tackling the varied challenges facing society today. As well as excellence in research and applied professional use of social science, the new Fellows, who are drawn from a variety of backgrounds, disciplines and professions, are individual who have also made significant contributions beyond the academy, including to industry, policy and higher education.
Professor Islam said: “It is truly an honour to be elected to the Fellowship.
“Being a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences holds significant meaning for a researcher like me who is deeply committed to addressing social issues such as modern slavery, exploitation and inequality through my research and teaching. Being a Fellow provides me with a platform to further collaborate with other leading social scientists, share my research findings, influence policymakers, and advocate for systemic changes that prioritise human rights and the social responsibility of businesses.”
Will Hutton FAcSS, President of the Academy, said, “I’m delighted to welcome these 64 outstanding social scientists to the Academy’s Fellowship, whose research and practice are helping to develop solutions to pressing societal issues. From informing decision-making around environmental challenges and encouraging entrepreneurial growth to improving planning systems and tackling educational inequalities, their insights, skills and understanding are delivering positive impact to improve our daily lives.”
The Academy’s Fellowship comprises 1,600 leading social scientists from academia, the public, private and third sectors. Its Fellows’ expertise covers the breadth of the social sciences, and their practice and research addresses some of the major challenges facing communities, society, places and economies. All Academy Fellows are elected for their excellence in their fields and their substantial contributions to social science for public benefit. Selection is through an independent peer review which recognises their excellence and impact.
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
A representative of the State University of Management made a presentation at the Plenary Session of the XXXVIII National (with international participation) scientific and technical conference “Operation and maintenance of automobiles, tractors and engines”.
The conference took place in the city of Pushkin and was dedicated to the 95th anniversary of the founding of the Department of Automobiles, Tractors and Technical Service of the St. Petersburg State Agrarian University.
The plenary session was attended by over 100 people – academicians and corresponding members of the Russian Academy of Sciences, including academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, director of the Center for Management of Technologies in Bioengineering of the State University of Management Otari Didmanidze, as well as famous scientists, teachers, employees of research and educational organizations and institutions, manufacturers and dealers of agricultural machinery and equipment for the agro-industrial complex and mechanical engineering of the Russian Federation, representatives of government bodies and businesses.
In his scientific report on “Methods of decision-making under uncertainty for applied problems of vehicle operation”, Chief Researcher of the Scientific Research Coordination Department of the State University of Management Alexey Terentyev presented to the scientific community original analytical models for removing uncertainty in complex organizational, economic, technical and social systems. The decision-making methods developed on the basis of these models allow expanding the capabilities of existing correlation and regression methods in terms of their application to conditions when the processes under study do not obey the known stochastic laws of distribution of random variables.
The topic of the report was recognized by the participants of the Plenary Session as relevant, and the developments were widely in demand in practice, since conditions of uncertainty currently accompany any information situations related to the functioning of research objects that are significantly influenced by environmental factors (ranging from AI models for technical objects in various external environments to management models for complex organizational systems at the level of an economic sector or state).
Other reports presented at the plenary session discussed the results of research in the field of agricultural machinery, aimed at improving the technical, economic, environmental, operational performance, technical service and repair of cars, tractors and engines.
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 04/01/2025
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.
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
The State University of Management invites students to join the All-Russian competition “Startup as a Diploma”, which is operated by the State University of Management.
The competition will give you the opportunity to take your startup to a new level, receive feedback from experts and mentoring support.
Students in their final years or graduates of bachelor’s, specialist’s, or master’s degree programs who have been admitted to defend or have already defended their final qualification work in the “Startup as a Diploma” format in the 2024/2025 academic year can participate.
Both individual and collective applications from student teams of no more than five people are accepted.
The finalists will receive expert support and useful events from the competition organizers:
Intensive work on your project with mentors and experts Improving public speaking skills to defend your project Meeting with representatives of the business community Active networking, new useful contacts and connections Events from the Competition partners Final pitching of your project to representatives of the business community and potential investors Valuable prizes and gifts
More details about the prospects that await the TOP-50 projects and the Competition Finalists are provided in the attached cards.
You can apply for participation until April 20 on the official website, and you can conveniently follow the news in the Telegram channel “Startup as a Diploma”.
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 04/01/2025
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.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
News story
Immigration Advice Authority appoints new Non-Executive Directors
Six Non-Executive Directors have been appointed for a three-year term to support the IAA’s work.
John Tuckett, Immigration Services Commissioner, has appointed Eni Bankole-Race, Susan Giles, Caroline Hattersley, Stephen McMahon, Julie Parker and Mike Venables as Non-Executive Directors for the Immigration Advice Authority (IAA).
The newly appointed non-executive members will serve a three-year term, bringing their expertise to key governance bodies within the IAA. Susan Giles and Mike Venables will join the Audit and Risk Assurance Committee (ARAC), while Eni Bankole Rice, Caroline Hattersley, and Stephen McMahon will join the Advisory Board. Julie Parker will contribute to both ARAC and the Advisory Board.
In these roles, they will provide independent advice, support, and scrutiny, helping to advance the IAA’s new vision and strengthen the regulation of immigration advice and services across the UK.
They join existing Non-Executive Director, Simon Smith, Chair of the Advisory Board and ARAC.
John Tuckett, Immigration Services Commissioner, said:
I am delighted to welcome our new Non-Executive Directors to the IAA. Their expertise and independent insight will be invaluable in strengthening our governance, enhancing our regulatory approach, and ensuring that we continue to protect the public by upholding high standards in immigration advice and services.
Their support will be instrumental as we drive forward our ambitious new vision to improve regulation and better serve those seeking reliable immigration advice across the UK.
Eni Bankole-Race
Eni is an organisational strategist with experience across the public, private, and voluntary sectors. A former Inter-Agency Coordinator for the UK Asylum Support Programme, she is now an independent researcher and visiting lecturer at the University of Hertfordshire. She has held various advisory and trustee roles, including as a Lay Assessor for the Advisory Committee on Clinical Impact Awards. Eni holds a law degree and is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute.
Susan Giles
Susan is a highly experienced governance professional. Currently a Director of Corporate Governance and Company Secretary for a large NHS Trust, Susan has over 20 years’ corporate governance and risk management experience in the NHS. She also has significant experience in the voluntary sector and currently Chairs South Liverpool Domestic Abuse Service and is a Trustee of both North West Cancer Research and Thrive Social Housing. Susan is also the appointed Independent Person for Standards for York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority and a Joint Audit Committee member for Cumbria Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner.
Caroline Hattersley MEd MIoD
Caroline is CEO of Relate London, North, East and Essex, with over 25 years’ experience in leadership, safeguarding, and mental health. She has worked for the British Red Cross, the National Autistic Society, and Providence Row and is a recognised expert in trauma, autism, and sexual violence. Caroline chairs The Gestalt Centre, serves as a trustee for PACT, and Chair of Caritas Westminster’s’ Safe in Faith Initiative. She is also an ambassador for Widowed and Young.
Stephen McMahon CBE
Stephen served in the British Army for over 36 years, holding senior operational and strategic roles across the Middle East, Balkans, Afghanistan, and Africa. He was Assistant Chief of Defence Staff for Military Strategy and Global Engagement and later a senior mentor at the Royal College of Defence Studies. Now Executive Director of VIBSA Ltd, he provides strategic advice to the public and private sectors. He also serves as His Majesty’s Honorary Ordnance Officer at the Tower of London.
Julie Parker
Julie is a skilled non-executive director with extensive finance and governance expertise. She has served as Director of Resources and Finance in multiple London boroughs and has held key audit committee roles, including at Arts Council England. Currently, she is a non-executive director at Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust and a board member of Estuary Housing Association.
Mike Venables OBE
Mike is an experienced non-executive, trustee, and consultant with expertise in governance, finance, risk management, and strategy. A former senior civil servant at the Ministry of Defence, he has held senior finance, policy, and legal roles, working internationally in Northern Ireland, Slovenia, Croatia, and on peace negotiations in Kosovo and Afghanistan.
Source: State University Higher School of Economics – State University Higher School of Economics –
Over the past decade, the world has seen an explosive development of the platform economy, the scale of which can be compared to the industrial revolution. However, not a single country has yet been able to develop a harmonious practice for regulating this phenomenon. As a result of the study, HSE experts concluded that a unified legislative framework is needed that will ensure both the protection of consumer and state rights and the development of platforms.
HSE Academic Director Yaroslav Kuzminov, Vice-Rector, Professor of the Faculty of Law Alexey Koshel and Lecturer Department of Policy and ManagementFaculty of Social Sciences Ekaterina Kruchinskaya proposed a conceptualization of types of regulation of digital platforms based on a qualitative analysis of domestic and foreign experience. Scientific article “Regulation of digital platforms as Bona fides: from economic efficiency to the norm” published in the journal “Issues of State and Municipal Management”.
Currently, economic institutions of all countries are undergoing a major transformation, and at its center are digital platforms, the authors of the article note. Online trade has near-zero transaction costs compared to traditional trade due to instant access to product information and the ability to quickly make a purchase.
E-commerce has been growing exponentially since 2010. In 2013, the global B2C e-commerce market reached $1.2 trillion, and the B2B market reached $13 trillion. In 2017, the total value of platform companies with a market capitalization of over $100 million exceeded $7 trillion, which is about 20% of global GDP. And this trend will continue, according to expert estimates, until 2029.
Three countries have a well-developed market of national digital platforms: the United States, China, and Russia. The total contribution to the economy of four ecosystem companies in the United States that operate on digital platforms is about 20% of the share capital of publicly traded companies. The added value of the main sectors of the digital economy is at least 8% of China’s GDP. In Russia, according to expert estimates, the total contribution of digitalization to GDP growth from 2024 to 2030 may amount to 2.7 p.p. to 6.7 p.p. The largest players in the platform market are also the European Union, the Republic of Korea, and India. These countries do not have their own global digital platforms; international ones operate successfully on their territory.
At the same time, in each country, the development of digital platforms occurs along its own trajectory, not only due to their adaptation to economic conditions, but also largely due to the legislation in force in this area.
“The need to set regulatory frameworks for the activities of digital platforms is due to the fact that the main component of the effective functioning of the market, along with low transaction costs, is the definition of the boundaries of property rights. If such boundaries are not defined, there is a fairly high risk of platform opportunism, as well as lost benefits for the state in the form of lost tax revenues – a classic case of lost benefits according to Pigou. This leads to Pareto non-optimality: the gain of platforms does not always compensate for the losses of other market participants, which is a failure for the state in the medium and long term,” the article notes.
The authors are convinced that clear and transparent rules established by law are necessary for the market to function effectively. At the same time, the degree of government intervention should not be excessive, so as not to harm the development of the industry. Regulation of digital platforms should create conditions under which all market participants — platforms, users and other stakeholders — would be interested in cooperation, and not just in satisfying their own interests. To date, this condition has not been achieved.
Around the world, the legal regulation of digital platforms is still the subject of debate that has been going on for more than a decade.
“Unlike the traditional economic model, the digital environment with its virtual, multi-level and opaque nature creates information asymmetry, complicating the protection of consumer rights. In this regard, the level of protection of personal data and consumer rights becomes a factor in the sustainability of both the digital and traditional economies, and in some cases, a factor in national security,” the article says.
Scientists have identified two opposing paths in the development of digital economy regulation. The first is strict regulation of personal data protection and antitrust regulation with moderate regulation of platform employment. The second is strict regulation of quality control and personal data protection with moderate self-regulation of digital platforms. Both do not sufficiently take into account the interconnectedness of different spheres.
In general, the legislation on digital platforms is poorly balanced. There is still no example of a single framework law in this area that would define the rules of the game for digital platforms in a number of key supporting provisions. The legislator most often reacts to an industry precedent by making targeted changes to individual regulations. Such regulatory practices, based on norms that are not coordinated within the jurisdiction, increase the risk of conflicts and lead to instability in the development of the platform economy and its inefficiency.
According to the authors, given the scale of development of the platform economy and its widespread penetration into various industries, the need to adopt a framework law is obvious. Industry regulation is necessary as a secondary mechanism complementing the basic law.
It is important that regulatory measures are proportionate and do not create unjustified barriers to market entry or the development of existing platforms.
“To achieve regulatory balance, a shift from reactive to proactive legislation is needed, based on the principles of fundamental integrity, but with a demonstration of flexibility and adaptability,” the authors of the article conclude.
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.
Peter Dutton came perilously close to a DOGE moment on Monday night, when he was asked about getting the “woke” agendas out of the education system.
Noting the Commonwealth government “doesn’t own or run a school”, Dutton told a Sky audience in Brisbane that people wondered why there was “a department of thousands and thousands of people in Canberra called the Education Department”.
Unsurprisingly, he dodged when pushed by the press pack on Tuesday on whether the education bureaucrats would be in for the chop under his public service cuts. It’s a fair bet quite a few would be.
“We’ve said we would take waste out of the federal budget and put it back into frontline services.” he said,
He’s indicating overall budget funding for health and education would not be cut.
But that didn’t stop Treasurer Jim Chalmers from declaring Dutton had “threatened cuts to school funding which was right from the DOGE playbook.
“This is DOGE-y Dutton, taking his cues and policies straight from the US in a way that will make Australians worse off.”
Importantly, Dutton is signalling a potentially very interventionist approach on education.
The feds mightn’t run the schools, but they provide much of the wherewithal to pay for them, and “we can condition that funding,” the opposition leader said.
“We should be saying to states and […] to those that are receiving that funding that we want our kids to be taught […] what it is they need to take on as they face the challenges of the world and not to be guided into some sort of an agenda that’s come out of universities.
“And I think there’s a lot of work to do.”
A Dutton government would face some problems trying to work through funding.
The Albanese government recently completed its round of school funding agreements with the states. It attached broad conditions to them, around getting back to the fundamentals and ensuring kids don’t fall behind or, if they do, they are helped to catch up.
Would the Liberals want to try to reopen the funding agreements? New South Wales, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania have not just heads of agreement with the Commonwealth but bilateral agreements, covering implementation. It might be easier to make changes for Victoria and Western Australia, which don’t yet have the bilateral implementation agreements. But it would be a fraught exercise.
There’s a more general point. This route takes a government only so far. Even when states sign up, it can be hard to keep them to the conditions.
Schools expert Ben Jensen, CEO of the education research and consulting group Learning First, says a federal government’s main levers are through the national curriculum, NAPLAN assessments, and (via the universities) teacher training.
The most obvious is the national curriculum. Opposition education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson has said, “One of the big problems is our national curriculum and we simply need to fix it.” That curriculum, incidentally, was signed off under the former Coalition government exactly three years ago by the acting education minister Stuart Robert.
A Dutton government could redo it but that would involve working with the states. Anyway, the states can go their own way regardless of the national curriculum. Victoria and NSW currently run their own curriculum’s.
All in all, imposing its priorities on the schools system might be a good deal harder than it sounds for a Dutton government.
The universities would clearly be in Dutton’s sights, and there is more scope for intervention here.
The Coalition believes the universities have got the balance wrong between foreign and domestic students. Henderson told this year’s Universities Australia conference, “For too long, universities have relied on a business model which yielded them eye watering revenues which are not sustainable or in line with expectations of the Australian community”.
“We will deliver a tougher student cap than what is proposed by the government focused on excessive numbers of foreign students in metropolitan cities, particularly Melbourne and Sydney where two thirds of foreign students live and study.”
A Dutton government would also restore a much broader right for the minister to intervene on research funding decisions.
And it would require universities to implement an activist approach to combatting antisemitism.
The experience of the former Liberal government on higher education provides a salutary tale for a future one. Under the Abbott government, education minister Christopher Pyne had an ambitious plan for tertiary reform, centred on fee deregulation, but it crashed when it faced the obstacle of the Senate.
In 2020 the Morrison government did get through its Job-Ready Graduates legislation to alter fees. This is now recognised as highly flawed. Henderson has said the Coalition’s position on the scheme hasn’t changed but it would review it “in line with what our legislation said we would do”. It would be extremely surprising if such a review didn’t recommend a rework.
Michelle Grattan 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: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
The case championship “Business Solutions — Result Technologies” was held at the Institute of Industrial Management, Economics and Trade of Peter the Great St. Petersburg Polytechnic University. It was organized by the Center for Team Building and Project Solutions of IPMEiT together with the international company “First Bit”. Multipotential teams of IPMEiT students presented their solutions to the expert jury.
The event was opened by the Director of IPMEiT Vladimir Shchepinin: The case championship is held as part of the interaction between IPMEiT and employers. The main goal of this interaction is to reduce the gap between the education system and the requirements of the modern labor market. The key goal of today’s event is to give students from different fields of study the opportunity to solve an important practical problem formulated by the employer. Today, students will demonstrate not only their significant skills to a professional jury, but also prove that any complex problem must be solved comprehensively, multi-faceted, by different specialists. This academic year, IPMEiT will defend 21 projects as final qualifying work at the request of the employer, where in this way it is no longer a separate case that is solved, but a complex problem of the employer. Students develop programs and program portfolios to improve the activities of real enterprises. We hope that the strategic result of today’s event will be long-term cooperation with the international company “First Bit”.
Leading HR manager of the company “First Bit” Egor Mkritchyan, thanking the organizers of the championship, emphasized: Our goal is to build a bridge between the theoretical knowledge base and practical skills that are in demand in the labor market. Such events contribute to this.
Tatyana Chernyak, the First Bit project manager for work with universities, analyzed the teams’ work and noted: We are happy to provide students with the opportunity to work on real business cases. This became possible thanks to the support of our employees. It is nice to see how students confidently answer complex questions and do not get lost in difficult situations. We strive to continue to support students in solving current problems and implementing projects so that they enter the labor market with confidence and readiness for any challenges.
The case championship became an important stage in the process of training highly qualified specialists ready for the challenges of the modern market. IPMEiT students were able to apply the acquired knowledge in practice, gained experience working in a team and learned how to effectively present their ideas. The participation of representatives of the First Bit company gave students the opportunity to communicate and exchange experiences with representatives of real businesses and learn about the prospects for cooperation with the company. All teams were awarded diplomas and memorable prizes.
The winner of the case championship was the team “PoliMind” under the leadership of Associate Professor of the HSE IPMEiT Yulia Akimova. The jury members noted the systematic, comprehensive approach and the deepest understanding of business processes in the performance of this team. The second-degree winners were the team under the leadership of Associate Professor of the HSE IPMEiT Sergey Krasnov. The jury members noted the strategic vision in solving the case. The third-degree winners were the team under the leadership of Associate Professor of the HSE IPMEiT Alex Krasnov. This team received the audience sympathy prize “Case of Sympathy”, established by the Center for Team Building and Project Solutions, for the most original and creative approach.
Deputy Director of IPMEiT Anna Chernikova emphasized: IPMEiT has long been an innovative platform where new interesting approaches and projects in educational activities are tested. Training multipotential teams is one of such educational innovations. Within the framework of the case championship, several important tasks were solved – to implement the format of project work at the request of a qualified customer, to demonstrate the possibility of implementing projects by multipotential teams and to receive an assessment of the training of our students. I believe that such events are not only interesting and useful, but are a necessary element of the educational process.
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.
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
The Polytechnic hospitably welcomed the SVO participants who are undergoing treatment at the 442nd District Military Clinical Hospital. The fighters were given fascinating excursions with an immersion into the history of the university and the contribution of the Polytechnics to the development and prosperity of our country.
I am grateful to fate that I ended up in St. Petersburg, and also in the leading engineering university of the country. Unexpectedly for myself, I discovered many historical facts that I did not even know about. For example, about the previously classified scientist, three times Hero of Socialist Labor of the USSR, Soviet designer of armored vehicles, nuclear weapons and the hydrogen bomb Nikolai Dukhov. I have never been so impressed by what I heard. And the dedication and involvement of the director of the Museum Valery Klimov showed how you need to know history, how you can love your alma mater, – said special military operation fighter Artem.
The guests of the university visited the Polytechnic Museum, the White Hall, the Academic Council meeting room, walked through the portrait gallery on the first floor of the Main Building, and learned about its history. They learned about the outstanding contribution of polytechnicians to the development of science, technology, and industry in Russia.
Thanks to such events, we pass on historical memory, preserve the country’s heritage. This is not only a tribute to the past, but also an important step in developing the culture of volunteerism and charity that have accompanied Polytechnic for more than a century, – said Tatyana Nam, Director of the SPbPU Dobro.Center.
The tour allowed the soldiers to escape from their hospital routine, feel part of the academic community and recharge with positive emotions. For many, visiting the Polytechnic University was an opportunity to meet their brothers in arms, representing different regions of the country and combat units. At the end of the tour, the honored guests were presented with memorable gifts.
I was surprised by the great designer, inventor of the legendary T-34 tank Mikhail Koshkin, who was a successful, hereditary confectioner, director of a factory. He decided at 30 to enter the Polytechnic, and after completing his studies, he realized that his calling was to work at the Kirov Plant. What a destiny! Such people motivate you to perform feats, – said SVO participant Alexander Nikolaevich.
On March 28, the Family Living Room, a very touching and sincere meeting with the wives and mothers of SVO participants, was held at the Center for Social Assistance to Families and Children of the Kalininsky District. It was exciting to listen to their stories, to see the pride and sadness in their eyes at the same time. These families know the price of courage, because their loved ones go through difficult trials defending our country. Such meetings remind us that heroes are not only people fighting on the front lines, but also their families, who will always wait for their loved ones and believe in their victory.
Irina and Elena have both a husband and a son at the front. Angela’s husband volunteered, having a reservation, and she stayed home with five children, and still manages to help other children by teaching English at a camp. Two participants of the evening turned out to be modest winners of the family, love and fidelity contest “Bereginya” among the wives of SVO participants. One participant was awarded the public medal “Mother of the Defender of the Fatherland”.
#Mvvet provided volunteer support, presented small signs of attention to women and children, played with children, drank tea with treats, took part in pleasant master classes, talked with the fighters of the Espanyola unit.
These and other events in
The Center for Volunteer Projects “Harmony” expresses gratitude to the Polytechnic Museum, Vice-Rector for Youth Policy and Communication Technologies Maxim Pasholikov, Director of the Humanitarian Institute Natalia Chicherina for their support and development of volunteerism in the university environment.
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.
Source: Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University – Peter the Great St Petersburg Polytechnic University –
At the end of March, at the invitation of the Chinese side, a delegation from the Civil Engineering Institute visited four universities in China. The Russian delegation included the director of the institute Marina Petrochenko, deputy director for international activities Mikhail Romanov and director of the Center for additional professional programs Ksenia Strelets.
The Polytechnics visited Chang’an University in Xi’an. There, a ceremonial signing of a cooperation agreement between SPbPU and Chang’an University took place. From the Chinese side, the meeting was attended by Vice President for International Relations of Chang’an University Huang Guawen, Director of the School of Water Resources Management and Environmental Protection Professor Bei Bo, as well as Professors Luo Pingping and Li Junyuan.
Following the negotiations, agreements were reached on organizing academic mobility programs for students in the areas of “Water Resources Management”, “Environmental Safety” and “Civil Engineering”. Initiatives were also discussed on holding guest lectures by teachers and developing joint programs of additional professional education with the possibility of internships at construction sites in China.
Vice President Huang Guawen expressed confidence in the successful development of the partnership: Academician Li Peichen and President of Chang’an University Sha Aiming studied in Russia, so we are optimistic about the prospects of our cooperation.
One of the key events was the open lectures of the teachers of the Civil Engineering Institute Ksenia Strelets and Mikhail Romanov for postgraduate students of Chang’an University. Mikhail Romanov shared his experience in the field of organizing water resources management in Russia and China. Ksenia Strelets’ lecture was devoted to the topic of sustainable development and assessment of the environmental impact of construction.
Faculty from the Institute of Water Resources and the School of Water Resources and Environmental Management at Chang’an University have jointly developed an online course on Environmental Impact Assessment.
The SPbPU delegation also visited the partner Xi’an University of Architecture and Technology. Its representatives gave their colleagues from SPbPU a tour of the laboratories, including a visit to the Research Center of the Institute of Civil Engineering. Unique installations and test benches for assessing seismic impacts on the structures of buildings and structures are presented there. In addition, the Russians visited the laboratory for cleaning polluted waters.
During the negotiations with the Director of International Services Wang Chumei, Deputy Director Zhao Jingzhu and the person responsible for interaction with the CIS countries Wang Xiang, agreements were reached on developing a roadmap for interaction between the two universities. It will include academic mobility of students, joint research work, and summer and winter schools.
Director of International Services Wang Chumei noted: Our universities have already established partnerships within the framework of the Silk Road Alliance of International Universities of Architecture and Technology. Now it is time to strengthen these ties in the areas of architecture and construction.
Representatives of SPbPU received an invitation to participate in the conference of the Alliance of International Universities of Architecture and Technology of the Silk Road in May this year. An important part of the event was a visit to the international student office and dormitory located on the university campus.
The next stop for visiting partner universities was Nanjing. The SPbPU delegation visited Nanjing University of Science and Technology, where they held talks with representatives of international services and professors of the construction and energy departments. From the Chinese side, the meeting was attended by the director of the international office department Chen Ji, deputy director of the international office Chen Dan, director of the institute of construction and technosphere safety Linlin Gu, professor of the institute of construction Bo Yao, professors of the institute of energy and electric power Jun Guan and Zhang Wen.
Polytechnicians presented key scientific developments and projects in the field of modeling highways, bridges and tunnels, assessing the indoor microclimate of premises, environmental impact and technosphere safety. Director of the Institute of Construction Linling Gu spoke about the educational programs and areas of research activities of the department.
A visit to the College of Ecology and Water Resources of Hohai University became a significant event for the development of international relations in the field of water resources management and hydropower. The meeting was attended by the Director of the College of Water Resources Hua Weng, the Director of the College of Ecology Yaping Li, teachers and students of the university. Marina Petrochenko gave a presentation about SPbPU and the Civil Engineering Institute.
At the meeting, agreements were reached on preparing a cooperation agreement between SPbPU and Hohai University, conducting guest and implementing joint research projects in the field of water resources management, ecology and hydropower.
The staff of all the above-mentioned Chinese universities have received invitations and will actively participate in the II International Conference “Civil, Industrial and Urban Construction – 2025” of the Civil Engineering Institute. It will be held on April 2, 2025.
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.
Lawrence Tallon today (1 April 2025) begins his role as Chief Executive Officer of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
Lawrence brings a strong focus on patient safety, innovation and partnership working, which have been central to his previous roles including as Deputy Chief Executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust since March 2020.
Lawrence said: “I am delighted to be joining the MHRA, which plays a vital role in ensuring people across the UK and the NHS have access to safe and effective medicines and medical devices.
“My priorities are patient safety, improving patient access to new medicines and medical devices through risk-proportionate regulation, innovation and growth, and building partnerships in the UK and internationally.”
Lawrence has also been Managing Director of the Shelford Group, which represents some of England’s leading NHS teaching hospitals. This experience has given him valuable insight into the challenges and opportunities facing modern healthcare and life science systems.
Prior to this he served as Director of Strategy, Planning and Performance at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust and worked within the Department of Health and Social Care alongside ministers and NHS leaders.
Lawrence succeeds Dr June Raine DBE, who is retiring after leading the MHRA since 2019, having steered the agency through the COVID-19 pandemic and the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Lawrence was announced as the new MHRA CEO in March 2025 by the Department of Health and Social Care.
Source: United Kingdom – Executive Government & Departments
Press release
Payslip boost for millions as new minimum wage rates take effect
Over 3 million eligible workers set for a pay rise of up to £1,400 a year as new National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates take effect.
Pay rise worth an extra £1,400 per year for an eligible full-time worker delivered from today.
New rates put more money back into the pockets of working people, boosting productivity and ending low pay.
More money to be spent in Britain’s high streets, kickstarting growth as part of the Plan for Change.
Eligible full-time workers are set for a pay boost of up to £117 from this month thanks to the Government’s increase in the National Living Wage, which comes into effect today.
The move – which delivers the Government’s pledge to increase living standards in the Plan for Change – will put more money straight into working people’s pockets.
Thanks to the decision made in the Autumn Budget, the uplift means more money can be spent on the high street to boost the local economy and help kickstart economic growth – the Government’s central mission in its Plan for Change.
The changes will also see a pay boost for Britain’s young people – with the National Minimum Wage for younger workers and apprentices seeing a record cash increase.
This is the first step towards removing the unfair minimum wage age-bands that see a 21-year-old getting paid more than a 20-year-old for doing the same job.
Already, the UK is second in the G7 in terms of the minimum wage relative to average wages for a full-time worker – ahead of the US, Germany and Japan. This makes it one of the most financially secure countries in the world for workers.
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner said:
This pay rise for over 3 million of the lowest paid workers was a priority for this government and means we’re already giving hard working people more money in their pockets and a proper wage increase worth over twice the rate of inflation.
These changes are part of our Plan for Change – to raise living standards for people across the county, including apprentices and young people, giving them more job security and the huge pay boost they deserve too.
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said:
In the last Parliament, living standards were the worst on record and sky-high inflation was crushing working people’s finances.
Today we have raised the national minimum and living wages, meaning the lowest paid will receive an annual pay boost of up to £2,500 – something that wouldn’t have happened without my Budget last year.
Making work pay is good for workers, will strengthen businesses’ workforces, and will grow our economy for years to come. It’s a key milestone on my number one mission to get more money in people’s pockets as we deliver our Plan for Change.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:
We promised to make low pay a thing of the past. Now, as part of our Plan for Change and the biggest upgrade to worker’s rights in a generation, we are delivering that.
Low pay is not only bad for workers, it prevents them from spending on our high streets and allowing local businesses to achieve their full potential.
By ensuring that everyone gets a fair wage for the hours they work, we’re delivering the financial stability needed to kick-start economic growth and ensure our country is fit for the future.
The Government is spending billions to support people suffering with the cost of living pressure that were inherited by the previous administration. This includes:
£7.8 billion on State Pension spending, in line with the Triple Lock commitment so pensioners don’t get left behind
£3 billion to freeze the fuel duty – to help Britain’s drivers
£1 billion, including Barnett impact, to extend the Household Support Fund in England and Discretionary Housing Payments in England and Wales in 2025-2026
£460 million on Warm Homes – to help the poorest households heath their homes
£25 million boost for the carers allowance to better support people caring for a loved one.
This is on top of the additional £7.8bn that the government is spending in 25/26 to protect the value of the state pension and to reflect changes in the population.
The Government is clear that the mission to grow the economy and raise living standards is a top priority and a strong economy can only be built when people have financial security whilst in work.
Recent research from ReWAGE and the University of Warwick shows that low pay can lead to mental health issues including depression, meaning more lost days and crippling productivity, leaving employers carrying the cost burden as well increasing costs to public services such as the NHS.
By putting more money into the pockets of the lowest paid, this increases workers’ financial security instead offering stability to help increase staff retention and lowering recruitment costs for businesses in the long run.
This uplift is an essential part of the Government’s plan for long-term national renewal and growth.
To ensure workers get the fairest deal, this rise is also the first that has taken into account the cost of living and inflation.
The uplift sits alongside the Employment Rights Bill, the most significant upgrade to workers’ rights in a generation, and commitments to improve economic stability, get Britain building again, kickstart a skills revolution and bring forward a modern industrial strategy, and a plan to tackle inactivity.
The Government recognises that businesses will need more support next year. Ahead of permanently lowering tax rates for high street retail, hospitality, and leisure (RHL) from 2026/27, we have prevented the current RHL relief from ending this April, extending it for one year to ensure that over 250,000 RHL properties see a full 40 per cent reduction on their liability, and we have frozen the small business multiplier.
Julian Richer, founder of both retailer Richer Sounds and the Good Business Charter said:
One of the best ways to increase living standards and productivity in the UK is to put more money straight into people’s pockets with a National Minimum Wage increase that can be spent in shops and the economy to boost growth.
From this increase we can expect to see employee morale, productivity and retention all going up and hopefully will benefit millions of workers.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said:
This increase in the national minimum wage will make a real difference to the lowest paid in this country and setting out a path to end the outdated and unfair youth rates will give young workers a boost up and down the country.
More money in working people’s pockets means more spend on our high streets – that’s good for workers and good for local economies.
Debbie Crosbie, CEO, Nationwide said:
The Government’s Plan for Change is a welcome and clear plan for growing the economy, strengthening businesses and supporting employees.
Eliminating low pay will make sure that everyone shares in the progress the country makes.
Nationwide has long championed the national minimum and living wage and we welcome this focus on improving living standards and boosting productivity.
Peter Jelkelby, Chief Executive and Chief Sustainability Officer, IKEA UK and Ireland said:
People are at the heart of IKEA’s success, and we recognise the challenges they face from inflationary pressures and rises in the cost of living.
Businesses rely on a skilled, engaged and committed workforce, so ensuring that wages reflect the cost of living is the right route to providing that.
Centrica Group Chief Executive, Chris O’Shea, said:
A strong, sustainable economy needs wages that rise in line with productivity and needs to ensure people can live well.
As a Real Living Wage employer, we applaud this uplift in the National Minimum Wage for the millions of workers who will power the country’s economic growth. Government and business need to work together to drive prosperity to ensure workers get their fair share and to reduce inequality and raising living standards.
With the right policy choices—particularly in our energy sector—we have a vital opportunity to unlock billions of pounds of investment, boost growth and productivity, while creating thousands more well-paid jobs across the UK.
Danielle Harmer, Chief People Officer, Aviva said:
We’re proud to be a real Living Wage Employer in the UK, including for our contractors and suppliers who work on our sites.
Supporting our colleagues to thrive is good for them, our business, and our customers.
Nicola Ryan, Director of Colleague Support at One+All in Greater Manchester, said:
“We are very pleased with the increase to the National Minimum and Living Wage.
“This is great news for the millions of lower paid workers, as we know far too many working parents and their children are in poverty.
“We know that employees who have less financial stress do a much better job which leads to higher productivity and customer satisfaction.”
Notes to editors:
The changes from 1 April mean:
The National Living Wage for those aged 21 and over will rise from £11.44 per hour to £12.21 per hour.
The National Minimum Wage for 18- to 20-year-olds rises from £8.60 to £10.00 per hour.
The apprenticeship rate, and for 16- to 17-year-olds rises from £6.40 per hour to £7.55 per hour.
If someone is concerned that they’re not being paid the correct wage, they should speak to their employer. If the problem is not resolved, they can contact Acas (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) by phoning 0300 123 1122, or complain to HMRC in confidence using the link www.gov.uk/minimum-wage-complaint. HMRC looks into every single complaint.
You can report possible underpayment of the National Minimum Wage to the ACAS Helpline and also online to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC):
Workers and employers in Northern Ireland can contact the Labour Relations Agency helpline on 03300 555 300 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) or their website: www.lra.org.uk.
As of 2023, the UK had the second highest minimum wage bite of the G7 countries, that is the ratio of the minimum wage relative to median wages for a full-time worker. The OECD estimate that the bite of the minimum wage in the UK was around 60%, behind France (62%), and ahead of Germany (52%), Canada (50%), Japan (46%) and the USA (26%).
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Jessica Holloway, Senior Research DECRA Fellow, Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education, Australian Catholic University
The Coalition has previously raised concerns the national curriculum is “unwieldy” and “infused with ideology”. On Monday night, Dutton suggested states needed new funding conditions to make sure schools were teaching appropriate content. He told Sky News federal money should be conditional to ensure schools are not “guided into some sort of an agenda that’s come out of universities”.
He added to his comments on Tuesday, saying he wants students at schools (and universities) to receive an education that “reflect[s] community standards”.
I support young Australians being able to think freely, being able to assess what is before them and not being told and indoctrinated by something that is the agenda of others and that is the approach we would take.
Education Minister Jason Clare responded by claiming Dutton had a “bigger agenda” to “cut funding from schools”.
What is the curriculum and who decides what Australian students are taught?
What do students learn in Australian schools?
All Australian schools are required to teach the Australian Curriculum. Commonwealth and state and territory education ministers first approved the curriculum in 2009. It applies from the first year of schooling through to Year 10.
The curriculum sets out:
the expectations for what all young Australians should be taught, regardless of where they live in Australia or their background.
It is made up of eight “learning areas”: English, mathematics, science, humanities and social sciences, the arts, technologies, health and physical education and languages.
It can be described as a “map” of what teachers are expected to cover in each subject and year level.
This is to ensure all students across the country, whether in a small regional school or a large city one, have access to the same broad foundation of knowledge and skills.
provid[ing] teachers, parents, students and the community with a clear understanding of what students should learn regardless of where they live or what school they attend.
Every six years, the curriculum is reviewed and approved by education ministers from each state, territory and the Commonwealth. The current version was endorsed in April 2022 under the Morrison government (just before the last federal election).
The next review is expected in 2027-2028. This process includes consultation with teachers, curriculum experts, academics, professional associations and the wider public.
Do teachers and universities decide what’s taught?
Classroom teaching is guided by the Australian Curriculum. While teachers have professional discretion in how they deliver content, they are expected to “know the content and how to teach it”.
In fact, some education experts believe the curriculum is too crowded and leaves little flexibility for teachers to tailor learning to local contexts or student needs.
So while universities play an important role in preparing teachers to interpret and deliver the curriculum, they are not responsible for what schools teach.
Who does what?
Debates about what schools teach are not new and are likely to continue. But it is important they are grounded in an accurate understanding of how the system works.
Teachers, universities and governments all have different roles in shaping school education.
The Australian Curriculum is a nationally agreed framework, developed through public consultation and ministerial oversight. Teachers implement the curriculum according to professionally-acredited standards and attention to students’ individual needs. Universities support the education system through teacher preparation and research.
Jessica Holloway has received funding from the Australian Research Council.
SHANGHAI, April 01, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Queqi Culture Media: “China Consulting Model 4.0” Global Hé Project- Cultural Science and Technology Innovation Forum and Hé Global Digital Launching Ceremony was Successfully held in Shanghai
On March 22, 2025, successfully held the “China Consulting Model 4.0” Culture Technology Innovation Forum and Hé Global Digital Launching Ceremony of the Global Hé Project at the Shanghai Center with the theme of “Hé Promulgate World Wisdom. Hé Create Prosperous Future”. Global representatives from politics, business and academia conducted in-depth discussions on “Hé Coexistence and Technological Civilization”. This is a milestone event that marks the entry of “Hé” culture into a new era of digital communication.
A Feast of Ideas: Chinese Wisdom Matching World Propositions
Prof. Kou Beichen, an anthropologist, creator of the “China Consulting Model”, founder of the Hé theory in the new era, and initiator of the global Hé project, stated that in the context of accelerated changes over the past century, the “China Consulting Model” was born from the ideal of human unity, the recognition of social bottleneck issues, and the condensation of the philosophy of survival and development. After 30 years of hard work, the academic research achievements are not only China’s, but also the worlds. We hope to accelerate the dissemination of globalization through the power of technology and contribute our modest efforts to the practice of a community with a shared future for mankind and the promotion of global governance. The attendees unanimously agreed that the Kèshēng philosophy of Hé in the “China Consulting Model”, combined with the “five management and five domains” system, provides a new paradigm for global governance and has breakthrough value in the field of cross-cultural management.
Theoretical Innovation: Six in One Promotes Peace Across the World
At the launch ceremony, Dr. Li Ru, Chairman of the Academic Committee of Kou Beichen, founding researcher follow of the “China Consulting Model”, Dean of the Hé College of the Genovasi University College, and core leader of the global Hé project, gave a detailed introduction to the achievement system and innovative value of the “China Consulting Model”. The “China Consulting Model” integrates philosophy, management, ethics, harmony, consulting, and education, with the goal of resolving discord and promoting harmonious coexistence. It can be widely applied in research, consulting, education, culture, and technology industries, and embodies the unique value of intellectual assets, industrial development, and social welfare. In particular, the results of the formation of the global Hé education discipline innovation, have been carried out for eight years, training several excellent master’s and doctoral talents. In the future, the value generated by the systematic radiation to the United Nations, countries around the world, social organizations, family members, and individual groups will be more reflected in the prevention of cultural conflicts, communication barriers, and development contradictions. The attendees highly appreciated and eagerly anticipated.
Technology Empowerment: ” Hé intelligent” Digitalization Embarks on the Future
Mr. Zhao Shuo, Director of Shanghai Jupeng Group, chairman of Hainan Jupeng Culture and Technology Co., Ltd., and core leader of the global Hé project, mentioned in his keynote speech ” Hé World · Hé Future – Empowering China’s Consulting Model with Artificial Intelligence to Create a Global Paradigm for Cultural Inheritance and Technological Innovation” that Chinese civilization has lasted for five thousand years, and the ” Hé” culture, with the philosophical core of “harmony in diversity” and “harmony among nations”, provides Oriental wisdom for solving complex problems such as global governance, business decision-making, and social collaboration. And the ‘China Consulting Model’ is the crystallization of this wisdom – it is not only a theoretical framework, but also a practical methodology. Jupeng Technology has deeply integrated the “China Consulting Model” with the DeepSeek big model to create the world’s first ” Hé Theory Vertical Field Intelligent Agent” – “Harmony Intelligence” (H é AI), a new generation decision engine with “Harmony” as its soul and “Intelligence” as its body, providing global users with solutions that combine ethical warmth and technological efficiency. The development of Hé digital coding is adapted to five core scenarios, giving attendees a refreshing and uplifting experience.
Dr. Zhang Caifang, an Academician and a scientist, was appointed as the Chief Scientist of the Global Hé Project and delivered a special report titled “Cultural Inheritance and Global Collaboration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence”, which deeply analyzed the huge space for intelligent development of the “China Consulting Model”.
Cross border collaboration: practicing a community with a shared future for mankind
The “China Consulting Model 4.0” Culture, Science and Technology Innovation Forum and the Global Launching Ceremony of the Hé Global Digitalization Project of the Global Hé Project were glittering with the participation of the representatives from the scientific community, the cultural community, the educational community, the business community, the investment community and other well-known people from all walks of life. More than 50 representatives attended the launching ceremony, including the core leading members of the global “Hé” project, President of Genovasi University College Prof. Dr. James CL Nga, President University of East-West Medicine of, Founding President of Sino Ecowas Chamber of Commerce Ibrahim Bashiru, global “Hé” project U.S. Special Envoy Karen Li , and Central Asian Special Envoy Ren Li, etc., and the international friends of more than 30 countries and regions congratulated the “China Consulting Model” by video.
This event not only witnessed the globalization of China’s management wisdom but also created a new path for the synergistic development of multiple cultures in the era of digital civilization. As Prof. Kou Beichen said: When the oriental gene of Hé meets the new intelligent technology, mankind will usher in the time of building a real community of destiny.
Disclaimer: This press release is provided by the Queqi Culture Media Co., Ltd. The statements, views, and opinions expressed in this content are solely those of the content provider and do not necessarily reflect the views of this media platform or its publisher. We do not endorse, verify, or guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any information presented. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial, investment, or trading advice. Investing involves significant risks, including the potential loss of capital. Readers are strongly encouraged to conduct their own research and consult with a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions. Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release.Neither the media platform nor the publisher shall be held responsible for any fraudulent activities, misrepresentations, or financial losses arising from the content of this press release. In the event of any legal claims or charges against this article, we accept no liability or responsibility.
Legal Disclaimer: This media platform provides the content of this article on an “as-is” basis, without any warranties or representations of any kind, express or implied. We do not assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information presented herein. Any concerns, complaints, or copyright issues related to this article should be directed to the content provider mentioned above.
New cyber laws to safeguard UK economy and secure long-term growth
The government sets out the scope and ambition of the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill for the first time today.
New cyber laws to safeguard UK economy and secure long-term growth.
Plans set out to bolster UK’s online defences, protect the public and safeguard growth – the central pillar of the UK government’s Plan for Change.
New measures will boost protection of supply chains and critical national services, including IT service providers and suppliers.
Cyber Security and Resilience Bill to be introduced later this year to face down growing range of online threats.
Hospitals and energy suppliers are set to boost their cyber defences under the new Cyber Security Bill, protecting public services and safeguarding growth as government delivers its Plan for Change.
This will ensure firms providing essential IT services to public services and the wider economy are no longer an easy target for cyber criminals. 1,000 service providers will fall into scope of measures expected to be introduced later this year.
The move forms part of the government’s drive to secure Britain’s future through the Plan for Change, delivering security and renewal by strengthening our critical infrastructure. It will give the British public, businesses and investors greater confidence in digital services – supporting the government’s mission to kickstart economic growth.
Cyber threats cost the UK economy almost £22 billion a year between 2015 and 2019 and cause significant disruption to the British public and businesses. Last summer’s attack on Synnovis – a provider of pathology services to the NHS – cost an estimated £32.7 million and saw thousands of missed appointments for patients. Figures also show a hypothetical cyber-attack focused on key energy services in the South East of England could wipe over £49 billion from the wider UK economy.
Secretary of State for Science, Innovation, and Technology, Peter Kyle, said:
Economic growth is the cornerstone of our Plan for Change, and ensuring the security of the vital services which will deliver that growth is non-negotiable.
Attempts to disrupt our way of life and attack our digital economy are only gathering pace, and we will not stand by as these incidents hold our future prosperity hostage.
The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, will help make the UK’s digital economy one of the most secure in the world – giving us the power to protect our services, our supply chains, and our citizens – the first and most important job of any government.
Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting said:
Cyber attacks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and create real risks for our health service if we do not act now to put the right protections in place.
We are building an NHS that is fit for the future. This bill will boost the NHS’s resilience against cyber threats, secure sensitive patient data and make sure life-saving appointments are not missed as we deliver our Plan for Change.
The government is also exploring additional measures to make sure it can respond effectively to new cyber threats and take rapid action where needed to protect the UK’s national security. This includes giving the Technology Secretary powers to direct regulated organisations to shore up their cyber defences – putting the UK in the strongest possible footing to defend against new and existing threats.
Another potential avenue may include new protections for more than 200 data centres – bolstering the defences of one of the main drivers of economic growth and innovation, including through AI. Data centres process mountains of data which they need to churn out new products which have become commonplace everywhere from banking and online shopping to booking holidays and staying in touch with friends and family. The government will now consider the best route to deliver these additional measures.
In the year to September 2024, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) managed 430 cyber incidents, with 89 of these being classed as nationally significant – a rate of almost two every week. The most recent iteration of the Cyber Security Breaches Survey also highlights 50% of British businesses suffering a cyber breach or attack in the last 12 months, with more than 7 million incidents being reported in 2024.
To face down this threat, the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill will ensure the vital infrastructure and digital services the country relies on are more secure than ever, as the government sets out its legislative ambitions for the first time today.
Richard Horne, NCSC CEO, said:
The Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is a landmark moment that will ensure we can improve the cyber defences of the critical services on which we rely every day, such as water, power and healthcare.
It is a pivotal step toward stronger, more dynamic regulation, one that not only keeps up with emerging threats but also makes it as challenging as possible for our adversaries.
By bolstering their cyber defences and engaging with the NCSC’s guidance and tools, such as Cyber Assessment Framework, Cyber Essentials, and Avctive Cyber Defence, organisations of all sizes will be better prepared to meet the increasingly sophisticated challenges.
While the legislation will arm the UK with the cyber defences it needs to meet the challenges of today, it also includes measures to ensure a swift response to new threats which emerge in the future. To do this, the Technology Secretary will be given powers to update the regulatory framework to keep pace with the ever-changing cyber landscape.
Confirmed in last year’s King’s Speech, today marks the first time the government has shared full details on its plans for the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which will be introduced to Parliament this year.
A full copy of the policy statement containing details of the measures in the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill policy statement will be published today.
More organisations and suppliers will need to meet robust cyber security requirements, including data centres, Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and critical suppliers. This means third-party suppliers will need to boost their cyber security in areas such as risk assessment to minimise the possible impact of cyber- attacks, while also beefing up their data protection and network security defences.
Regulators will have more tools to improve cyber security and resilience in the areas they regulate, with companies required to report more incidents to help build a stronger picture of cyber threats and weaknesses in our online defences.
The government would have greater flexibility to update regulatory frameworks when needed, to respond swiftly to changing threats and technological advancement. This could include extending the framework to new sectors or updating security requirements.
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
At the end of March, the NSU individual arm wrestling championship was held, in which more than 50 fans of this sport took part. The boys competed in five weight categories, the girls – in the “absolute”, the results were determined by the sum of points for places taken in the fight with the right and left hand.
Winners and prize winners of the competition:
Girls
1. Karina Kapustyan, FEN
2. Yulia Ganina, GI
3. Diana Napolova, VKI
Men:
Up to 60 kg
1. Alash Boyd, SUNC
2. Alexander Ten, SUNC
3. Artemy Khramov, SUNC
Up to 70 kg
1. Mikhail Krasnikov, FIT
2. Ermak Gorkh, VKI
3. Dmitry Demidov, FIT
Up to 80 kg
1. Vyacheslav Gutsu, GGF
2. Leonid Chistopolov, EF
3. Vadim Klinkovich, VKI
Up to 90 kg
1. Danil Narseev, GGF
2. Gordey Glukhovtsev, EF
3. Ivan Osadchiy, IMPZ
Over 90kg
1. Sergey Tusyuk, VKI
2. Kirill Melnikov, GGF
3. Maxim Kirillov, FIT
Congratulations to the strongest athletes, thanks to everyone for participating, as well as our partners from the Splice club for their help in organizing and judging the tournament!
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.
Source: State University of Management – Official website of the State –
Last week, the annual International Economic Forum of the CIS member states was held in Moscow at the Congress Center of the World Trade Center on the topic: “New Impetus for the Development of the Greater Eurasian Partnership. Scientific, Technological and Innovative Development.” The forum brought together more than 2,000 participants; 13 sessions were held at the event, covering current issues of economic development, science, technology and innovation.
Representatives of the State University of Management took an active part in the session “Science and Education: Potential for Sustainable Development of the Economy of the Greater Eurasian Partnership”: Advisor to the Rector’s Office Sergey Karseka, Head of the International Cooperation Department Inessa Bogatyreva, Associate Professor of the Department of Transport Complex Management Andrey Lipatov and a group of students from the Department of Economics and Management in the Fuel and Energy Complex of the Institute of Industry Management.
The presentations at the session complemented each other, which allowed the topic to be fully covered and a number of proposals to be formulated for the final resolution of the Forum. Much credit for this goes to the session moderator, Chairman of the Committee on Education and Science of the CIS Business Center for Economic Development, Chairman of the Expert Council on International Cooperation in Education and Science of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education Dmitry Repnikov.
The tone of the session was set by the speaker, First Deputy State Secretary of the Union State, Head of the Department of Economic Policy and Economic Measurements of the State University of Management Sergey Glazyev. He presented in detail the current economic situation in the CIS countries, outlined problematic issues and ways to resolve them. “90% of the growth of industrial production in the world in recent years has come from knowledge-intensive industries,” said Sergey Yuryevich.
First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Science and Higher Education Vladimir Sipyagin devoted his speech to the problem of the shortage of qualified personnel in the Russian Federation and defined foreign graduates of Russian universities as “an enormous human resource potential.”
The issues of developing a unified educational space in the CIS countries and the directions of development of Russian education were revealed in her report by the Director of the Department of International Cooperation of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation Ksenia Trinchenko.
The remaining speakers at the session covered such issues as grant support for scientific and technical activities, the development of a Russian language teaching system in the CIS countries, as well as the interaction of university science and business.
After the end of the session, the representatives of the State University of Management continued their work “on the sidelines” of the Forum. They managed to communicate with all the speakers and many participants, discuss the details of the presentations and potential areas of further cooperation between the State University of Management and their structures.
Subscribe to the TG channel “Our GUU” Date of publication: 04/01/2025
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.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By David Smith, Associate Professor in American Politics and Foreign Policy, US Studies Centre, University of Sydney
US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy is doing little to enhance his country’s standing abroad. But it is helping to reinforce his political authority at home.
Congress and the courts are typically deferential to the president on foreign policy – and, in particular, issues related to national security. By putting most of his agenda under the banner of foreign policy, Trump is now taking advantage of that deference to minimise challenges to his power.
Trump has claimed for decades that US domestic problems can be solved with a more aggressive foreign policy.
This focus certainly helps him deal with his political problems, allowing him to attack his enemies and evade accountability under the guise of “saving the country”.
Trump has even gone so far as to call April 2 – when sweeping new tariffs are imposed on foreign goods – “Liberation Day”.
We are used to thinking of the US president as having almost unlimited power over US foreign policy. But the Constitution actually gives a lot of that power to Congress.
For example, Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare war. It also gives Congress the power to “collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises”, which include tariffs.
Given these shared responsibilities, the legal scholar Edward Corwin described the Constitution as “an invitation to struggle for the privilege of directing American foreign policy.”
Since at least the Second World War, the president has been decisively winning that struggle. Or more accurately, Congress has been declining invitations to use its power.
For example, American wars no longer begin with declarations. The US has not declared war since 1941, even though the country has been at war almost every yearsince then. Presidents instead initiate and escalate military conflict in other ways, nearly always with Congressional approval. That approval usually remains in place until a war goes badly wrong.
Congress also passed legislation in 1934 giving the president power to negotiate trade agreements and adjust tariffs. That power expanded significantly with an act in 1962 that authorised the president to impose tariffs if imports threaten “national security”.
Although Trump claims tariffs will bring economic prosperity back to the US by reviving manufacturing, his administration justifies them on national security grounds. For example, it is currently using another federal act passed in 1977 that allows tariffs in response to an international emergency as justification for its tariffs on Canada and Mexico.
The courts are supposed to review the constitutionality of government actions. But on foreign policy, the courts have been deferential to the president even longer than Congress.
In a sweeping judgement in 1918, the Supreme Court wrote that foreign relations counted as a “political power” of the executive and legislative branches, not subject to judicial review.
A federal judge recently complained the Trump administration ignored his order blocking deportation flights of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador.
Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify deporting the Venezuelans, even though some have no criminal record.
And Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued the deportations were a “foreign policy matter”, and “we can’t have the judges running foreign policy”.
Mass deportation is one of Trump’s most popular policies. If he is going to pick fights with the judiciary, it makes political sense to do it on an issue where public opinion is on his side – even if the law is not.
Rubio’s comment is also a likely preview of the arguments Trump’s lawyers will make when cases about immigration reach the Supreme Court.
Deportations under both acts are going to face legal challenges. But the Trump administration is betting the Supreme Court will take Trump’s side, given its conservative members generally hold an expansive view of executive power.
A Supreme Court win would be a major political victory for Trump. It would encourage him to focus even more on using deportation as a political weapon, and making foreign policy justifications for legally dubious acts.
War as a political tool
Trump is effectively putting the US on a war footing. He is justifying his executive actions by recasting allies as enemies who menace national security with everything from illegal drugs to unfair subsidies, and by labelling millions of foreign nationals as “invaders”.
Many Americans don’t believe him. But as long as he can make threatening foreigners the main focus of American politics, he can find political and legal support for almost anything he wants to do.
David Smith 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 (Au and NZ) – By John Hawkins, Senior Lecturer, Canberra School of Politics, Economics and Society, University of Canberra
The Reserve Bank of Australia left its benchmark interest rateunchanged at 4.1% today, stressing the uncertainty in the economic outlook.
As the Reserve Bank Governor Michele Bullock told a media conference, “since February there has been a lot more uncertainty introduced in the international context”.
The on-hold decision was widely expected and Bullock described it as a “consensus decision” by the board.
The decision to hold was not because the election campaign is underway. It was because there has not been enough new economic data to change materially its view on inflation. The governor said the board had never mentioned the election in its discussions.
In a statement, the central bank said:
Recent announcements from the United States on tariffs are having an impact on confidence globally and this would likely be amplified if the scope of tariffs widens.
As the Reserve Bank Governor put it, “we’re paid to worry” and they are discussing with peer central banks the response to global uncertainties.
Decline in inflation is welcome
The volatile monthly inflation series fell marginally, from 2.5% to 2.4%, in February.
The more trustworthy quarterly consumer price index (CPI) will come out on April 30 and will be an important factor in the Reserve Bank’s decision at its next meeting, on May 20.
The CPI report is likely to show the “trimmed mean” underlying inflation returning to the 2–3% target band for the first time since 2021. Headline inflation could be in the lower half of the band.
The unemployment rate has been steady at 4.1%. This is below what the Reserve Bank had regarded as the level consistent with steady inflation. But it has not been associated with an acceleration in wages. Indeed, wages have slowed to 3.2% growth, less than the Reserve Bank was forecasting for 2025.
This could all give the Reserve Bank the confidence to make another cut to the cash rate. Financial markets are predicting a cut in May.
The board itself said the current level of rates “remains restrictive”. So they will cut rates further once inflation is sustainably around the middle of the target band.
The (lack of) impact of the budget
The main impact of last week’s federal budget will be to delay the bounceback in electricity prices, after the end of the current rebates, for another six months. If there is a change in government, there will be a temporary fall in petrol prices for a year.
But both of these have only temporary effects on the “headline” inflation rate. The Reserve Bank is more concerned about sustained movements in underlying inflation.
Labor’s proposed income tax cuts, which will be cancelled if the Coalition wins power, are only “modest” (in the treasurer’s own words) and do not come into effect until July 2026. They are also unlikely to have a material impact on the Reserve Bank’s inflation forecasts.
The governor suggested as much, commenting that the forecasts following the budget would be similar to those made in February. She described increasing government spending as “filling a gap” in relatively weak private demand.
The fallout from tariffs
We will not know the extent of the new tariffs being announced by United States President Donald Trump until later in the week. And even then he may change them within days – or even on the same day.
The US tariffs will push up prices there. But if they trigger a trade war, the global economy will weaken and this may lead to lower prices globally. The governor pointed out that trade diversion prompted by tariffs could lower the price of some imports.
Bullock said the central bank was assessing the potential impact of tariffs on Australia’s trading partners including China. If Chinese authorities boosted support for their economy, then the economic impact on Australia might be “muted”.
The Reserve Bank’s 0.25% interest rate cut in February to 4.1% was the first change in the cash rate since November 2023 and marked the first small reversal of 13 rate increases that began in the closing days of the Morrison government.
The heightened attention placed on the Reserve Bank in an election campaign is not that unusual. With Australian parliamentary terms limited to three years, but with no fixed duration, we are often approaching a possible election.
While cutting interest rates will suit one side of politics, not cutting benefits the other. The impartial approach taken by the Reserve Bank is to make the same decision as they would if no election were looming.
The new board
This is the first meeting of the new monetary policy board, which is now separate from the central bank’s governance board.
This specialisation was a recommendation of the 2023 Reserve Bank review commissioned by the treasurer. But seven of the nine member remain from the previous board. The two new members, including one of the authors of the review, are not expected to hold markedly different views to the continuing members.
John Hawkins was formerly a senior economist with the Reserve Bank.
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
Teacher Humanitarian Institute of NSU and amateur ornithologist Lyudmila Viktorovna Budneva discovered a new species of birds of the crow family. It was found in the forest of the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. The new species differs from ordinary crows in its pink plumage, which is why it was named the pink crow.
— There is a tall pine tree in my yard, where birds often stop to rest. I have seen woodpeckers, kites, waxwings on it many times, but this time I was lucky enough to see two pink crows. Since I had a camera with me, I recorded the unusual birds. I sent the pictures to my scientist friends, and they confirmed that this is not a species described by science, — said Lyudmila Budneva.
Scientists do not rule out that this species of bird is the result of a successful genetic experiment. Scientific research in the field of genetics has been conducted in the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok for many years, so it is not surprising that this pair of birds was found here.
— Earlier we discussed the fundamental possibility of such an experiment. It seems that it was carried out by some capable postgraduate student: the birds were given genes of bullfinches that give them a red color. If we add genes of attractants and aphrodisiacs, then all the birds in the forest will be red, — commented the scientific director of the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Igor Fedorovich Zhimulev.
The new species has already been given the Latin name Corvus barbicorus. In the future, ornithologists plan to describe the new species in more detail, collect and analyze morphological data, and conduct a genetic analysis. This will allow them to more accurately establish the origin of the new species, its relationship with other species of the crow family, assess the possible population, etc.
— There are more than 200 species of birds in the Akademgorodok and its environs. It is amazing that there is still a possibility and opportunity to discover new species of birds in this beautiful place, — added Lyudmila Budneva.
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.
Getting a headache during or after exercise can be seriously frustrating – especially if you have kept hydrated to try and stop them from happening.
But why do these headaches occur? And does keeping hydrated make any difference?
What are exercise headaches?
Exercise headaches (also known as “exertional headaches”) are exactly what they sound like: headaches that occur either during, or after, exercise.
French doctor Jules Tinel first reported these headaches in the medical literature in 1932 and they’ve been a regular point of discussion since.
Exercise headaches commonly present as a throbbing pain on both sides of the head. They most often occur after strenuous exercise – although what is considered “strenuous” can differ between people, depending on their fitness levels. They can last anywhere from a few minutes to a couple of days.
Exercise headaches are thought to impact about 12% of adults, although this number varies from 1% all the way up to 26% across individual studies.
In most circumstances, these headaches are harmless and will resolve on their own, over time. Some research suggests you will stop getting them after a few months of starting a new type of workout.
But while they are usually harmless, they can sometimes signal an underlying condition that requires medical attention.
What causes exercise headaches?
Despite a good amount of research looking at exertional headaches, we don’t know their exact cause, but we do think we know why they occur.
The leading theory suggests they are caused by changes in blood flow to the brain. During intense exercise, blood vessels in the brain dilate, increasing blood flow and pressure, leading to pain.
Because long-term exercise improves our cardiovascular health, including our ability to dilate and constrict our blood vessels, this theory makes sense when we consider that exercise headaches tend to resolve themselves over time. This might explain why research suggests fitter people are less likely to get exercise headaches.
People with migraines appear more likely to experience exercise headaches, which are thought to be caused by this same mechanism.
Does heat and dehydration cause exercise headaches?
There is evidence suggesting that exercise headaches are more likely to occur in the heat.
Your brain cannot dissipate heat by sweating like the rest of your body can. So when it’s hot, your body has to increase blood flow to the brain to help bring down its temperature, which can increase pressure.
Similarly, exercise headaches also seem to get worse, and occur more often, when people are dehydrated.
However, we are not sure why this happens. Some research has shown that dehydration results in increased strain during exercise. As such, dehydration might not necessarily cause the headache, but make it more likely to occur.
Red flags: when to see a doctor
Most exercise headaches resolve themselves after a few hours and result in no lasting negative effects.
it’s accompanied by other symptoms such as vision changes, confusion, or sensations of weakness
you experience a stiff neck, nausea, or vomiting with your headache
it lasts for more than 24 hours and doesn’t seem to be getting better.
Can you prevent exercise headaches?
There is no surefire way to prevent exercise headaches.
But a recent review suggests that ensuring you’re adequately hydrated and gradually warm-up to your desired exercise intensity can make them less likely to occur.
Beyond this, you may wish to keep your exercise intensity in a light-to moderate range for a couple of months. This will give your cardiovascular system some time to adapt before trying more strenuous exercise, hopefully reducing the likelihood of getting exercise headaches at all.
Exercise headaches are annoying, but are generally harmless and should subside on their own over time.
Hunter Bennett 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.
Social media has recently been flooded with images that looked like they belonged in a Studio Ghibli film. Selfies, family photos and even memes have been re-imagined with the soft pastel palette characteristic of the Japanese animation company founded by Hayao Miyazaki.
Generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems such as ChatGPT are best understood as “style engines”. And what we are seeing now is these systems offering users more precision and control than ever before.
But this is also raising entirely new questions about copyright and creative ownership.
How the new ChatGPT makes images
Generative AI programs work by producing outputs in response to user prompts, including prompts to create an image.
Previous generations of AI image generators used diffusion models. These models gradually refine random, noisy data into a coherent image. But the latest update to ChatGPT uses what’s known as an “autoregressive algorithm”.
This algorithm treats images more like language, breaking them down into “tokens”. Just as ChatGPT predicts the most likely words in a sentence, it can now predict different visual elements in an image separately.
This tokenisation enables the algorithm to better separate certain features of an image – and their relationship with words in a prompt. As a result, ChatGPT can more accurately create images from precise user prompts than previous generations of image generators. It can replace or change specific features while preserving the rest of the image, and it improves on the longstanding issue of generating correct text in images.
A particularly powerful advantage of generating images inside a large language model is the ability to draw on all the knowledge already encoded in the system. This means users don’t need to describe every aspect of an image in painstaking detail. They can simply refer to concepts such as Studio Ghibli and the AI understands the reference.
The recent Studio Ghibli trend began with OpenAI itself, before spreading among Silcon Valley software engineers and then even governments and politicians – including seemingly unlikely uses such as the White House creating a Ghiblified image of a crying woman being deported and the Indian government promoting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s narrative of a “New India”.
Understanding AI as ‘style engines’
Generative AI systems don’t store information in any traditional sense. Instead they encode text, facts, or image fragments as patterns – or “styles” – within their neural networks.
Trained on vast amounts of data, AI models learn to recognise patterns at multiple levels. Lower network layers might capture basic features such as word relationships or visual textures. Higher layers encode more complex concepts or visual elements.
This means everything – objects, properties, writing genres, professional voices – gets transformed into styles. When AI learns about Miyazaki’s work, it’s not storing actual Studio Ghibli frames (though image generators may sometimes produce close imitations of input images). Instead, it’s encoding “Ghibli-ness” as a mathematical pattern – a style that can be applied to new images.
The same happens with bananas, cats or corporate emails. The AI learns “banana-ness”, “cat-ness” or “corporate email-ness” – patterns that define what makes something recognisably a banana, cat or a professional communication.
The encoding and transfer of styles has for a long time been an express goal in visual AI. Now we have an image generator that achieves this with unprecedented scale and control.
This approach unlocks remarkable creative possibilities across both text and images. If everything is a style, then these styles can be freely combined and transferred. That’s why we refer to these systems as “style engines”. Try creating an armchair in the style of a cat, or in elvish style.
The copyright controversy: when styles become identity
While the ability to work with styles is what makes generative AI so powerful, it’s also at the heart of growing controversy. For many artists, there’s something deeply unsettling about seeing their distinctive artistic approaches reduced to just another “style” that anyone can apply with a simple text prompt.
Hayao Miyazaki has not publicly commented on the recent trend of people using ChatGPT to generate images in his world-famous animation style. But he has been critical of AI previously.
All of this also raises entirely new questions about copyright and creative ownership.
Traditionally, copyright law doesn’t protect styles – only specific expressions. You can’t copyright a music genre such as “ska” or an art movement such as “impressionism”.
This limitation exists for good reason. If someone could monopolise an entire style, it would stifle creative expression for everyone else.
But there’s a difference between general styles and highly distinctive ones that become almost synonymous with someone’s identity. When an AI can generate work “in the style of Greg Rutkowski” – a Polish artist whose name was reportedly used in over more than 93,000 prompts in AI image generator Stable Diffusion – it potentially threatens both his livelihood and artistic legacy.
Some creators have already taken legal action.
In a case filed in late 2022, three artists formed a class to sue multiple AI companies, arguing that their image generators were trained on their original works without permission, and now allow users to generate derivative works mimicking their distinctive styles.
As technology evolves faster than the law, work is under way on new legislation to try and balance technological innovation with protecting artists’ creative identities.
Whatever the outcome, these debates highlight the transformative nature of AI style engines – and the need to consider both their untapped creative potential and more nuanced protections of distinctive artistic styles.
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.
The small Queensland town of Eromanga bills itself as Australia’s town furthest from the sea. But this week, an ocean of freshwater arrived.
Monsoon-like weather has hit the normally arid Channel Country of inland Queensland. Some towns have had two years’ worth of rain in a couple of days. These flat grazing lands now resemble an inland sea. Dozens of people have been evacuated. Others are preparing to be cut off, potentially for weeks. And graziers are reporting major livestock losses – more than 100,000 and climbing. In some areas, the flooding is worse than 1974, the wettest year on record in Australia.
Why so much rain? Tropical, water-laden air has been brought far inland from the oceans to the north and east. This can happen under normal climate variability. But our ocean temperatures are the highest on record, which supercharges the water cycle.
In coming weeks, this huge volume of water will wend its way through the channels and down to fill Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre, the ephemeral lake which appears in the northern reaches of South Australia. It’s likely this will be a Lake Eyre for the ages.
In the first three months of the year, deadly record-breaking floods hit northern Queensland before Cyclone Alfred tracked unusually far south and made landfall in southeast Queensland, bringing widespread winds and rains and leaving expensive repair bills. Now the rain has come inland.
Why so much rain in arid areas?
Some meteorologists have dubbed this event a pseudo-monsoon. That’s because the normal Australian monsoon doesn’t reach this far south – the torrential rains of the monsoonal wet season tend to fall closer to the northern coasts.
Because the Arafura and Timor Seas to the north are unusually warm, evaporation rates have shot up. Once in the air, this water vapour makes for very humid conditions. These air masses are even more humid than normal tropical air, because they have flowed down from the equator. Many Queenslanders can vouch for the intense humidity.
But there’s a second factor at work. At present, Australia’s climate is influenced by a positive Southern Annular Mode. This means the belt of intense westerly winds blowing across the Southern Ocean has been pushed further south, causing a ripple effect which can lead to more summer rain in Australia’s southeast, up to inland Queensland. This natural climate driver has meant easterly winds have blown uninterrupted from as far away as Fiji, carrying yet more humid air inland.
Many inland rivers in Queensland are in major flood (red triangles) as of April 1. Bureau of Meteorology, CC BY
These two streams of converging humid tropical air were driven up into the cooler heights of the atmosphere by upper and surface low pressure troughs, triggering torrential rain over wide areas of the outback
While these humid air masses have now dumped most of their water, more rain is coming in the aftermath of the short-lived Cyclone Dianne off northwest Australia. These rains won’t be as intense but may drive more flood peaks over already saturated catchments.
This is why it has been so wet in what is normally an exceptionally dry part of Australia.
What is this doing to the Channel Country?
Many Australians have never been to the remote Channel Country. It’s a striking landscape, marked by ancient, braided river channels.
Even for an area known for drought-flood cycles, the rainfall totals are extreme. This is a very rare event.
People who live there have to be resilient and self-sufficient. But farmers and graziers are bracing for awful losses of livestock. Livestock can drown in floodwaters, but a common fate is succumbing to pneumonia after spending too long in water. After the water moves down the channels, it will leave behind notoriously boggy and sticky mud. This can be lethal to livestock and native animals, which can find themselves unable to move.
Where will the water go next?
Little of these temporary inland seas will ever reach the ocean.
Some of the rain has fallen in the catchment of the Darling River, where it will flow down and meet the Murray. The Darling is often filled by summer rains, while the Murray gets more water from autumn and winter rains. This water will eventually reach the Southern Ocean.
But most of the rain fell further inland. The waters snaking through the channels will head south, flowing slowly along the flat ground for weeks until it crosses the South Australian border and begins to fill up Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre. Here, the waters will stop, more than 300 km from the nearest ocean at Port Augusta, and fill what is normally a huge, salty depression and Australia’s lowest point, 15 metres below sea level.
When Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre fills, it creates an extraordinary spectacle. Millions of brine shrimp will hatch from eggs in the dry soil. This sudden abundance will draw waterbirds in their millions, while fish carried in the floodwaters will spawn and eat the shrimp. Then there are the remarkable shield shrimps, hibernating inland crabs and salt-adapted hardyhead fish.
It’s rare that Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre fills up – but when it does, life comes to the desert. Mandy Creighton/Shutterstock
The rain event will send enough water to keep Lake Eyre full for many months and it usually takes up to two years for it to dry out again. We can expect to see a huge lake form – the size of a small European country. Birdwatchers and biologists will flock to the area to see the sight of a temporary sea in the desert.
Eventually, the intense sun of the outback will evaporate every last drop of the floodwaters, leaving behind salted ground and shrimp eggs for the next big rains.
As the climate keeps warming, we can expect to see more sudden torrential rain dumps like this one, followed by periods of rapid drying.
Steve Turton has previously received funding from the federal government.
Job seekers attend a job fair held in Shanghai, east China, Feb. 14, 2025. [Photo/Xinhua]
As China’s job market grows increasingly competitive, college graduates are discovering that mastering artificial intelligence (AI) skills could be their key to success.
At a recent job fair in south China’s Guangdong, a company specializing in brain-computer interface research and development made its ambitions clear, expressing a strong desire to hire algorithm engineers while noting that “there is no cap on hiring!”
“We offer a complimentary two-bedroom apartment and an annual salary of 400,000 to 700,000 yuan,” said Zheng Hui, founder of the startup NeuroDance. That’s roughly 55,000 to 96,000 U.S. dollars, a highly competitive package for new job seekers.
As China prioritizes boosting graduate employment, roles in emerging sectors like AI and robotics remain in critically short supply.
Official data shows that a record 12.22 million college graduates are expected to enter the job market in 2025. This year’s government work report has pledged to expand employment and business startup opportunities for students and other young people.
At the job fair that concluded on Monday, AI-related positions in electronics, IT and advanced manufacturing emerged as some of the most in-demand roles.
Tech firms like BYD, Pony.ai and UBTECH are actively recruiting for positions such as autonomous driving algorithm engineers and AI engine R&D engineers, drawing significant interest from job seekers.
Liu Silei, who is studying robotics, cognition and intelligence at the Technical University of Munich, returned to China for the recruitment event. “China’s AI boom is providing ample career opportunities,” Liu said.
At a similar job fair held in east China’s Hangzhou recently, 830 companies offered 21,000 positions, with half of them in AI algorithms and large models.
Chinese firm Unitree Robotics posted 10 AI-related roles, with monthly salaries reaching up to 70,000 yuan, underscoring the lucrative opportunities emerging in this sector.
“DeepSeek’s explosive growth is driving AI integration across sectors, and the intensifying competition for AI professionals is pushing companies to increase salaries,” said Li Qiang, executive vice president of Zhaopin, an online recruitment platform in China.
Data from the platform shows that job postings for algorithm engineers and machine learning roles in February grew by 46.8 percent and 40.1 percent year on year, respectively, with average monthly salaries surpassing 20,000 yuan.
The AI talent shortage deepened in Q1 2025, with demand outpacing supply by a ratio of 3:1, according to a report by Liepin, a Chinese job-seeking service provider. Specifically, there are nine job openings for every search algorithm engineer and seven for each recommendation algorithm specialist.
Demand for AI education and talent development is also surging. Job openings for AI trainers after this year’s Chinese New Year soared by 112 percent, with positions offering a monthly salary of over 15,000 yuan, according to Zhaopin.
“The most urgent needs are fundamental scientists and cross-disciplinary experts,” said Wang Liang, a researcher from the Institute of Automation under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. “They are crucial for advancing home-grown AI chip development and original algorithms while also accelerating AI’s adoption across industries.”
The DeepSeek phenomenon has sparked an AI race among China’s tech giants, including Alibaba and Tencent. At the same time, their models are being rapidly adopted across government services, manufacturing, healthcare, consumer goods and urban management, creating an unprecedented demand for professionals who can blend AI expertise with industry-specific knowledge.
AI only became an official undergraduate major in China in 2019. Currently, most AI professionals transition from backgrounds in computer science, software engineering, electronics, or mechanical engineering. These fields require a strong foundation in advanced linear algebra, probability theory, statistics and programming skills.
China’s higher education system has introduced AI programs at over 500 universities, marking one of the fastest disciplinary expansions in its history.
Leading Chinese universities such as Tsinghua University, Wuhan University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University have announced plans to expand their enrollments in AI and related interdisciplinary fields to meet the growing demand for talent.
Industry reports indicate that by 2030, China is expected to face a shortage of 4 million AI professionals.
AI entrepreneurs are urging working professionals to upskill in AI. “AI competency must become a core citizen skill,” said Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFLYTEK. “Free AI training initiatives targeting low-income and disadvantaged groups should also be considered.”
“Young professionals should dedicate weekly time to track global AI advancements across industries,” said Wang Xingxing, founder of Unitree Robotics. “This will be the opportunity multiplier.”
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
China is accelerating the digitalization of ancient texts and boosting access to oracle bone script data, aiming to integrate cultural heritage with digital Chinese, officials said on Monday.
The Ministry of Education, the National Language Commission and the Cyberspace Administration of China issued a guideline to promote the digitalization of the Chinese language and characters. The focus is on developing national language resources and large-scale Chinese language models to support artificial intelligence.
The guideline aims to establish a national corpus and strategic language resources information database by 2027. By 2035, the country hopes it will have significantly expanded the presence of the Chinese language in global digital and generative AI scenarios.
Liu Peijun, head of the Department of Language Information Management at the Ministry of Education, said the guideline calls for the digitalization of linguistic and cultural heritage, while promoting the construction of a national digital language and script museum.
It emphasizes advancing key technologies for ancient text digitalization, enhancing the accessibility of oracle bone script data and launching a multilingual digital education program to facilitate Chinese language learning globally, Liu said at a news conference.
A key aspect of this initiative is the development of large-scale linguistic data resources. The guideline outlines a plan to build a national corpus with extensive Chinese language datasets to support AI applications.
Among the pilot projects, Beijing Normal University has launched a large-scale Classical Chinese language model, an AI-driven initiative that sets a new benchmark in the field, Liu said.
Kang Zhen, vice-president of BNU, said the university has developed a range of digital language databases, including a comprehensive holographic Chinese character database, a digital resource of the ancient Chinese dictionary Shuowen Jiezi, and repositories for ancient inscriptions and handwritten texts.
These resources have played a crucial role in linguistic research and cultural preservation, Kang added.
The university’s AI Taiyan, a Classical Chinese large language model trained with 1.8 billion parameters, has been designed for high-accuracy interpretation of ancient texts, supporting tasks such as word and phrase explanations, as well as classical-to-modern Chinese translation.
China is also spearheading the construction of a new national corpus to strengthen linguistic infrastructure in the AI era, said Wang Hui, deputy head of the Ministry of Education’s Department of Language Application and Administration.
“Currently, most linguistic datasets remain limited to single-text formats and specific academic domains, lacking the scale and diversity required for AI applications,” Wang said.
The department has begun planning for the corpus this year, seeking to launch two flagship databases, the Chinese civilization corpus for AI-assisted teaching and research, and the Chinese grand reading system corpus, Wang said.
Source: Novosibirsk State University – Novosibirsk State University –
A course of lectures on financial and computer literacy “Basics of Cybersecurity for the Senior Generation” was launched at Novosibirsk State University on March 28. Its students were pensioners from the Sovietsky District of Novosibirsk. This course on financial literacy is conducted by Sber specialists with the support of Faculty of Economics, NSU. It is organized within the framework of the mandatory course “Service Learning”, which is being implemented in various formats in all universities of the country and is aimed at developing citizenship, responsibility, leadership qualities and patriotism in combination with professional competencies through the implementation of socially oriented projects. The tasks for students are set by social partners. They also supervise the activities of students throughout the academic semester.
— The mandatory course “Service Learning” is an important platform for revealing the potential of young people in solving project tasks that have practical significance, and the social focus helps to more accurately build internal motivation for their solution. This is a subtle educational approach that develops the idea of volunteering, adding to it the experience of team solutions, reflection at all stages and mentoring from curators from both the university and the social partner. As part of the course, students receive a project result and reflect it on the Dobro.RF platform. It is open to everyone and can also be implemented by other regions in the course of solving similar problems, — said Elena Obukhova, PhD in Economics, Associate Professor of the Department of Management of the Faculty of Economics of NSU.
One of such projects was a course of lectures on financial and computer literacy for pensioners, organized jointly with the Administration of the Sovietsky District of Novosibirsk with the support of State Duma deputy Alexander Aksenenko. The course consists of 4 lectures and three practical classes.
— In the modern world of technological progress, fraudsters are moving into the category of cyberspace, that is, pickpocket fraud and apartment thefts are becoming less common, because people have stopped keeping paper money at home and carrying it in their wallets. Now it is a cashless world and fraudsters are already trying to steal non-cash money, so it is important to protect yourself in cyberspace, — said Nadezhda Volkova, Head of Financial Literacy and Sales Efficiency at Sberbank Siberian Bank.
Unfortunately, the most vulnerable category of citizens to cyber fraudsters are people of retirement and pre-retirement age. Our lectures are aimed at telling about the methods of cyber fraudsters and teaching the population to identify fraudsters and not fall for their tricks.
The information campaign about recruiting students for the 2025 course was held among the active pensioners of the Sovetsky District who had previously participated in various educational programs, including the Silver Age University, Our Favorite Front Garden, and 20 Meetings with Interesting People, which had been held since 2022. The course on cybersecurity interested the audience, and almost 200 people signed up for it.
— The topics covered in the course are particularly relevant given the growing statistics of fraudulent actions against citizens of our country. People of retirement age are in a particularly vulnerable position. In Novosibirsk, the level of defrauded citizens is especially high in the Sovetsky District — this is noted by representatives of the local government. And the issues of financial stability and savings strategy are relevant in our unstable times. The accelerated pace of digitalization poses challenges for us and pushes us to continuous learning. The older generation is faced with new tasks, not only related to performing everyday activities using various devices and programs, but also more complex ones, such as promoting communities on social networks, preparing materials and data, — Elena Obukhova explained.
The first part of the course of 4 lectures from Sber experts will be held at NSU. It is dedicated to financial literacy and protection from fraudsters. On April 28, Nadezhda Volkova gave a lecture on “Cybersecurity Basics for the Older Generation”. On April 4, there will be a lecture on “Data Protection on the Internet. Drops”. It will continue the topic of cybersecurity. Representatives of the older generation will be told how to protect themselves on the Internet, how to create passwords correctly so that they are memorable only to you and at the same time meet the requirements of reliability and security. Listeners will learn who drops are (this is what attackers call people with the help of whom they hide stolen funds) and how not to become a dropper yourself. On April 11, the lecture will be dedicated to digital financial assets. It will be about a new type of money, as well as what it was created for and how to handle it correctly. The first part of the course will end on April 18 with a lecture on a long-term savings program for senior citizens.
The second part of the classes, dedicated to computer literacy, will be conducted by a team of first-year students from the Business Informatics department: Mark Roninson, Artem Kuleshov and Alexander Zhuravlev. It was developed taking into account questions and wishes from the pensioners participating in the program. It will cover topics such as storing and sending data (between devices/applications), booking tickets and hotels, shopping on marketplaces, working with messengers, a short course in preparing content for social networks, including video editing, etc.
The first lecture was met with great interest by the audience. Its listeners left the following comments:
“Thanks to all the organizers! The guys met us, quickly checked the lists, saw us off, and met us. A very interesting lecture! The students are great! They prepared, waited for us, cared, and tried! Thank you very much!”
“The lecture went by in one breath. Thanks to Nadezhda Volkova – she presented the information in an interesting, accessible way and with real examples. Thanks to the organizers of this lecture course. Special thanks to the students of the NSU Economics Department for meeting us and paying attention to us until the very end of the lecture.”
“What an interesting lecture on cybersecurity was today! Nadezhda Volkova enthusiastically shared her knowledge in this area. The hall was full, young students helped, showed the way, were attentive and polite. It was very nice!”
“A great start to the course. Organized in a very modern way: fast, comfortable, friendly, high-quality presentation. An unexpected pleasant bonus was a tour of NSU. Thank you!”
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.
Source: The Conversation – Global Perspectives – By Sarah G. Phillips, Professor of Global Conflict and Development; Non-Resident Fellow at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies (Yemen), University of Sydney
The “Signalgate” story has received wall-to-wall coverage since Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, published explosive details about a Signal group chat where senior US officials discussed impending airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the coverage has focused on details of most concern to Western audiences, including the depth of the security breach, the classification status of the material that was shared, and the implications of sending war plans through a non-secure platform.
But what are the implications of this for Yemen? In short, it helps the Houthis and hurts the civilians living under their control.
Providing the Houthis with intelligence
Yemeni civilians are caught in an impossible position. They have suffered from years of ruthless violence in a civil war that began with the Houthi capture of the capital, Sana’a, in 2014. The conflict grew even more violent when a Saudi-led (and Western-backed) military coalition entered the fray to back the Yemeni government the following year, imposing a crippling blockade that lasted until 2021.
In early 2024, the Houthis then began attacking ships in the Red Sea, bringing retaliatory strikes by the United States, United Kingdom, and Israel. Each of these have caused further civilian casualties and harm.
The Houthis (and their Iranian and Russian supporters) will draw comfort from the Signal chat group’s apparent confirmation the US strikes on March 15 were not a sign of the Trump administration’s intent to dislodge them from power:
Vice President JD Vance (14 March, 08:16am ET): The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth (14 March, 08:27am ET): This [is] not about the Houthis. I see it as two things: 1) Restoring Freedom of Navigation, a core national interest; and 2) Reestablish deterrence, which Biden cratered.
The Houthis can withstand intermittent airstrikes – they have withstood airstrikes for over two decades.
But a more substantial intervention — one that combines a coalition of local forces with guaranteed air support from Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates (with US support) — would pose a far greater threat to the Houthis.
With this apparently not being considered, the Houthis may now feel emboldened to press-gang more people into military service before a fresh assault on the strategically important oil fields in Marib. This is the last major city in northern Yemen still under government control.
The Houthis have tried to take Marib before, but were prevented by Yemeni troops supported by Saudi air cover. Controlling the oil fields in Marib is vital to the group’s ability to sustain itself economically.
Putting Yemeni civilians at risk
While the Trump administration claims the chat did not compromise sources and methods, Goldberg noted a US-based intelligence officer was named. The Atlantic removed their name for security reasons.
The publication’s decision to remove this detail is a stark reminder of whose security matters — and whose doesn’t. The transcript reads:
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz (15 March, 13:48pm ET): VP. Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID…
Waltz (15 March, 14.00pm ET): Typing too fast. The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.
Putting aside the fact this was a residential building — it should not be an aside, but this is how most news coverage has been treating it — this detail is important to the Houthis.
This is because Waltz confirms “multiple” sources had positively identified a target, which the Houthis may use to justify further crackdowns, forced disappearances and even executions of those they accuse of being spies.
The Trump administration was clearly reckless in divulging this detail. But it’s striking The Atlantic did not consider the danger posed to Yemeni civilians by publishing it. Experts on the Houthis – and their methods of subjugation – could have quickly highlighted this point if they were consulted.
From a Yemeni perspective, a named source may have even been preferable to the hazy, but authoritative, confirmation of US operational methods and sources. The lack of specificity in the transcript plays to the Houthis’ dragnet approach to extinguishing independent voices by forcibly disappearing people on fake allegations of espionage.
These are typically aid workers, academics, minorities, journalists and members of civil society who are not vocally aligned with the group.
These abductions have been occurring for years, but ramped up in the middle of 2024. Dozens of members of civil society and aid organisations (and potentially many more) were kidnapped last year. Some are confirmed to have died in detention; many others have not been heard from since.
There are reports that abductions are already escalating in response to the latest US strikes.
The ongoing abductions have had a chilling effect on the willingness of local and international aid providers to speak out against the Houthis. This has helped the Houthis consolidate their control over the flow of humanitarian assistance (particularly food), which they divert based on political, rather than needs-based, calculations as a means of coercing compliance.
Yemeni civilians are seldom, if ever, a consideration in the geopolitical machinations that concern their country. The reflexive prioritisation of Western security interests exposed in the group chat – and the publication of these details – condemns them to further insecurity.
Sarah G. Phillips receives funding from The Australian Research Council as a Future Fellow (FT200100539), and is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies.
The second of a two-part series on the historic Rongelap evacuation of 300 Marshall islanders from their irradiated atoll with the help of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior crew and the return of Rainbow Warrior III 40 years later on a nuclear justice research mission. Journalist and author David Robie, who was on board, recalls the 1985 voyage.
SPECIAL REPORT:By David Robie
Mejatto, previously uninhabited and handed over to the people of Rongelap by their close relatives on nearby Ebadon Island, was a lot different to their own island. It was beautiful, but it was only three kilometres long and a kilometre wide, with a dry side and a dense tropical side.
A sandspit joined it to another small, uninhabited island. Although lush, Mejatto was uncultivated and already it was apparent there could be a food problem.Out on the shallow reef, fish were plentiful.
Shortly after the Rainbow Warrior arrived on 21 May 1985, several of the men were out wading knee-deep on the coral spearing fish for lunch.
But even the shallowness of the reef caused a problem. It made it dangerous to bring the Warrior any closer than about three kilometres offshore — as two shipwrecks on the reef reminded us.
The cargo of building materials and belongings had to be laboriously unloaded onto a bum bum (small boat), which had also travelled overnight with no navigational aids apart from a Marshallese “wave map’, and the Zodiacs. It took two days to unload the ship with a swell making things difficult at times.
An 18-year-old islander fell into the sea between the bum bum and the Warrior, almost being crushed but escaping with a jammed foot.
Fishing success on the reef The delayed return to Rongelap for the next load didn’t trouble Davey Edward. In fact, he was celebrating his first fishing success on the reef after almost three months of catching nothing. He finally landed not only a red snapper, but a dozen fish, including a half-metre shark!
Edward was also a good cook and he rustled up dinner — shark montfort, snapper fillets, tuna steaks and salmon pie (made from cans of dumped American aid food salmon the islanders didn’t want).
Returning to Rongelap, the Rainbow Warrior was confronted with a load which seemed double that taken on the first trip. Altogether, about 100 tonnes of building materials and other supplies were shipped to Mejatto. The crew packed as much as they could on deck and left for Mejatto, this time with 114 people on board. It was a rough voyage with almost everybody being seasick.
The journalists were roped in to clean up the ship before returning to Rongelap on the third journey.
‘Our people see no light, only darkness’ Researcher Dr Glenn Alcalay (now an adjunct professor of anthropology at William Paterson University), who spoke Marshallese, was a great help to me interviewing some of the islanders.
“It’s a hard time for us now because we don’t have a lot of food here on Mejatto — like breadfruit, taro and pandanus,” said Rose Keju, who wasn’t actually at Rongelap during the fallout.
“Our people feel extremely depressed. They see no light, only darkness. They’ve been crying a lot.
“We’ve moved because of the poison and the health problems we face. If we have honest scientists to check Rongelap we’ll know whether we can ever return, or we’ll have to stay on Mejatto.”
Kiosang Kios, 46, was 15 years old at the time of Castle Bravo when she was evacuated to “Kwaj”.
“My hair fell out — about half the people’s hair fell out,” she said. “My feet ached and burned. I lost my appetite, had diarrhoea and vomited.”
In 1957, she had her first baby and it was born without bones – “Like this paper, it was flimsy.” A so-called ‘jellyfish baby’, it lived half a day. After that, Kios had several more miscarriages and stillbirths. In 1959, she had a daughter who had problems with her legs and feet and thyroid trouble.
Out on the reef with the bum bums, the islanders had a welcome addition — an unusual hardwood dugout canoe being used for fishing and transport. It travelled 13,000 kilometres on board the Rainbow Warrior and bore the Sandinista legend FSLN on its black-and-red hull. A gift from Bunny McDiarmid and Henk Haazen, it had been bought for $30 from a Nicaraguan fisherman while they were crewing on the Fri. (Bunny and Henk are on board Rainbow Warrior III for the research mission).
“It has come from a small people struggling for their sovereignty against the United States and it has gone to another small people doing the same,” said Haazen.
Animals left behind Before the 10-day evacuation ended, Haazen was given an outrigger canoe by the islanders. Winched on to the deck of the Warrior, it didn’t quite make a sail-in protest at Moruroa, as Haazen planned, but it has since become a familiar sight on Auckland Harbour.
With the third load of 87 people shipped to Mejatto and one more to go, another problem emerged. What should be done about the scores of pigs and chickens on Rongelap? Pens could be built on the main deck to transport them to Mejatto but was there any fodder left for them?
The islanders decided they weren’t going to run a risk, no matter how slight, of having contaminated animals with them. They were abandoned on Rongelap — along with three of the five outriggers.
“When you get to New Zealand you’ll be asked have you been on a farm,” warned French journalist Phillipe Chatenay, who had gone there a few weeks before to prepare a Le Point article about the “Land of the Long White Cloud and Nuclear-Free Nuts”.
“Yes, and you’ll be asked to remove your shoes. And if you don’t have shoes, you’ll be asked to remove your feet,” added first mate Martini Gotjé, who was usually barefooted.
The last voyage on May 28 was the most fun. A smaller group of about 40 islanders was transported and there was plenty of time to get to know each other.
Four young men questioned cook Nathalie Mestre: where did she live? Where was Switzerland? Out came an atlas. Then Mestre produced a scrapbook of Fernando Pereira’s photographs of the voyage. The questions were endless.
They asked for a scrap of paper and a pen and wrote in English:
“We, the people of Rongelap, love our homeland. But how can our people live in a place which is dangerous and poisonous. I mean, why didn’t those American people test Bravo in a state capital? Why? Rainbow Warrior, thank you for being so nice to us. Keep up your good work.”
Each one wrote down their name: Balleain Anjain, Ralet Anitak, Kiash Tima and Issac Edmond. They handed the paper to Mestre and she added her name. Anitak grabbed it and wrote as well: “Nathalie Anitak”. They laughed.
Fernando Pereira’s birthday Thursday, May 30, was Fernando Pereira’s 35th birthday. The evacuation was over and a one-day holiday was declared as we lay anchored off Mejato.
Pereira was on the Pacific voyage almost by chance. Project coordinator Steve Sawyer had been seeking a wire machine for transmitting pictures of the campaign. He phoned Fiona Davies, then heading the Greenpeace photo office in Paris. But he wanted a machine and photographer separately.
“No, no … I’ll get you a wire machine,” replied Davies. ‘But you’ll have to take my photographer with it.” Agreed. The deal would make a saving for the campaign budget.
Sawyer wondered who this guy was, although Gotjé and some of the others knew him. Pereira had fled Portugal about 15 years before while he was serving as a pilot in the armed forces at a time when the country was fighting to retain colonies in Angola and Mozambique. He settled in The Netherlands, the only country which would grant him citizenship.
After first working as a photographer for Anefo press agency, he became concerned with environmental and social issues. Eventually he joined the Amsterdam communist daily De Waarheid and was assigned to cover the activities of Greenpeace. Later he joined Greenpeace.
Although he adopted Dutch ways, his charming Latin temperament and looks betrayed his Portuguese origins. He liked tight Italian-style clothes and fast sports cars. Pereira was always wide-eyed, happy and smiling.
In Hawai`i, he and Sawyer hiked up to the crater at the top of Diamond Head one day. Sawyer took a snapshot of Pereira laughing — a photo later used on the front page of the New Zealand Times after his death with the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by French secret agents.
While most of the crew were taking things quietly and the “press gang” caught up on stories, Sawyer led a mini-expedition in a Zodiac to one of the shipwrecks, the Palauan Trader. With him were Davey Edward, Henk Haazen, Paul Brown and Bunny McDiarmid.
Clambering on board the hulk, Sawyer grabbed hold of a rust-caked railing which collapsed. He plunged 10 metres into a hold. While he lay in pain with a dislocated shoulder and severely lacerated abdomen, his crewmates smashed a hole through the side of the ship. They dragged him through pounding surf into the Zodiac and headed back to the Warrior, three kilometres away.
“Doc” Andy Biedermann, assisted by “nurse” Chatenay, who had received basic medical training during national service in France, treated Sawyer. He took almost two weeks to recover.
But the accident failed to completely dampen celebrations for Pereira, who was presented with a hand-painted t-shirt labelled “Rainbow Warrior Removals Inc”.
Pereira’s birthday was the first of three which strangely coincided with events casting a tragic shadow over the Rainbow Warrior’s last voyage.
Dr David Robie is an environmental and political journalist and author, and editor of Asia Pacific Report. He travelled on board the Rainbow Warrior for almost 11 weeks. This article is adapted from his 1986 book,Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior. A new edition is being published in July to mark the 40th anniversary of the bombing.
Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Sarah G. Phillips, Professor of Global Conflict and Development; Non-Resident Fellow at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies (Yemen), University of Sydney
The “Signalgate” story has received wall-to-wall coverage since Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor of The Atlantic, published explosive details about a Signal group chat where senior US officials discussed impending airstrikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the coverage has focused on details of most concern to Western audiences, including the depth of the security breach, the classification status of the material that was shared, and the implications of sending war plans through a non-secure platform.
But what are the implications of this for Yemen? In short, it helps the Houthis and hurts the civilians living under their control.
Providing the Houthis with intelligence
Yemeni civilians are caught in an impossible position. They have suffered from years of ruthless violence in a civil war that began with the Houthi capture of the capital, Sana’a, in 2014. The conflict grew even more violent when a Saudi-led (and Western-backed) military coalition entered the fray to back the Yemeni government the following year, imposing a crippling blockade that lasted until 2021.
In early 2024, the Houthis then began attacking ships in the Red Sea, bringing retaliatory strikes by the United States, United Kingdom, and Israel. Each of these have caused further civilian casualties and harm.
The Houthis (and their Iranian and Russian supporters) will draw comfort from the Signal chat group’s apparent confirmation the US strikes on March 15 were not a sign of the Trump administration’s intent to dislodge them from power:
Vice President JD Vance (14 March, 08:16am ET): The strongest reason to do this is, as POTUS said, to send a message.
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth (14 March, 08:27am ET): This [is] not about the Houthis. I see it as two things: 1) Restoring Freedom of Navigation, a core national interest; and 2) Reestablish deterrence, which Biden cratered.
The Houthis can withstand intermittent airstrikes – they have withstood airstrikes for over two decades.
But a more substantial intervention — one that combines a coalition of local forces with guaranteed air support from Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates (with US support) — would pose a far greater threat to the Houthis.
With this apparently not being considered, the Houthis may now feel emboldened to press-gang more people into military service before a fresh assault on the strategically important oil fields in Marib. This is the last major city in northern Yemen still under government control.
The Houthis have tried to take Marib before, but were prevented by Yemeni troops supported by Saudi air cover. Controlling the oil fields in Marib is vital to the group’s ability to sustain itself economically.
Putting Yemeni civilians at risk
While the Trump administration claims the chat did not compromise sources and methods, Goldberg noted a US-based intelligence officer was named. The Atlantic removed their name for security reasons.
The publication’s decision to remove this detail is a stark reminder of whose security matters — and whose doesn’t. The transcript reads:
National Security Advisor Mike Waltz (15 March, 13:48pm ET): VP. Building collapsed. Had multiple positive ID…
Waltz (15 March, 14.00pm ET): Typing too fast. The first target – their top missile guy – we had positive ID of him walking into his girlfriend’s building and it’s now collapsed.
Putting aside the fact this was a residential building — it should not be an aside, but this is how most news coverage has been treating it — this detail is important to the Houthis.
This is because Waltz confirms “multiple” sources had positively identified a target, which the Houthis may use to justify further crackdowns, forced disappearances and even executions of those they accuse of being spies.
The Trump administration was clearly reckless in divulging this detail. But it’s striking The Atlantic did not consider the danger posed to Yemeni civilians by publishing it. Experts on the Houthis – and their methods of subjugation – could have quickly highlighted this point if they were consulted.
From a Yemeni perspective, a named source may have even been preferable to the hazy, but authoritative, confirmation of US operational methods and sources. The lack of specificity in the transcript plays to the Houthis’ dragnet approach to extinguishing independent voices by forcibly disappearing people on fake allegations of espionage.
These are typically aid workers, academics, minorities, journalists and members of civil society who are not vocally aligned with the group.
These abductions have been occurring for years, but ramped up in the middle of 2024. Dozens of members of civil society and aid organisations (and potentially many more) were kidnapped last year. Some are confirmed to have died in detention; many others have not been heard from since.
There are reports that abductions are already escalating in response to the latest US strikes.
The ongoing abductions have had a chilling effect on the willingness of local and international aid providers to speak out against the Houthis. This has helped the Houthis consolidate their control over the flow of humanitarian assistance (particularly food), which they divert based on political, rather than needs-based, calculations as a means of coercing compliance.
Yemeni civilians are seldom, if ever, a consideration in the geopolitical machinations that concern their country. The reflexive prioritisation of Western security interests exposed in the group chat – and the publication of these details – condemns them to further insecurity.
Sarah G. Phillips receives funding from The Australian Research Council as a Future Fellow (FT200100539), and is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Sana’a Center for Strategic Studies.
Source: United States Senator for Massachusetts Ed Markey
Family caregivers provide $600 billion in unpaid care every year
Bill Text (PDF)
Washington (March 31, 2025) – Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Ranking Member of the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Subcommittee on Primary Health and Retirement Security, Senator Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.V.), and Representatives Seth Magaziner (RI-02), and Kat Cammack (FL-03) today reintroduced the Alleviating Barriers for Caregivers (ABC) Act, legislation that would require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), Social Security Administration (SSA), and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to review their eligibility, processes, procedures, forms, and communications to reduce the administrative burden on family caregivers. The legislation would then require CMS, SSA, and CHIP to report to Congress after two years about any issues they are facing and any next steps they are taking to support family caregivers.
Family caregivers serve as a primary source of support for seniors and people with disabilities of all ages. In the United States alone, there are more than 48 million family caregivers. More than half of family caregivers act as an advocate for their loved one with care providers, community services, or government agencies. However, one in four family caregivers say they want help with forms, paperwork, and eligibility for services. Many report competing responsibilities while experiencing serious emotional, physical, and finance challenges.
“Caregivers, like my father was, serve on the frontlines of our nation’s health care system by giving our families and friends the care and support they need to remain in their homes and communities with their loved ones,” said Senator Markey. “But caregivers are struggling needlessly to navigate complex, burdensome, and stressful processes each and every day while also still managing day-to-day family and professional responsibilities. The Alleviating Barriers for Caregivers Act will help lift the weight off caregivers by clearing the red tape that so often gets in their way. I thank Senator Capito and Representatives Magaziner and Cammack for their partnership on this critical legislation.”
“More than 1 in 4 Americans over 50 are now caregivers. I was one of these caregivers for my parents during their struggle with Alzheimer’s disease and know personally how hard it can be to balance all of the responsibilities put on individuals caring for their loved ones,” Senator Capito said. “One of the most common frustrations I hear from caregivers in West Virginia is how difficult it is to navigate federal processes and procedures. The Alleviating Barriers for Caregivers Act would attempt to ease this often-stressful time by requiring federal agencies, such as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and Social Security Administration, to review their processes, procedures, forms, and communications to reduce the administrative burden on family caregivers.”
“Family caregivers have a lot on their plates, devoting their lives to support others,” said Representative Magaziner. “They shouldn’t have to struggle with confusing paperwork and delays on top of their essential work. The bipartisan ABC Act will make it easier for families to get the support they need so caregivers can focus on what matters most — caring for their loved ones.”
“America’s family caregivers work around-the-clock to provide essential care for their loved ones, and over half act as advocates on behalf of their family members. The last thing these caregivers need is more red tape that distracts from their support for those in their care,” said Representative Cammack. “I’m honored to introduce this bipartisan and bicameral ABC Act with my colleagues to lower the burden around the important medical decisions caregivers must make every day. Together we can support the 48 million caregivers that make up a critical part of our health care landscape in the U.S.”
Cosponsors in the Senate include John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Rick Scott (R-Fla.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.), Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.), Bill Cassidy (R-La.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), and Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.).
Cosponsors in the House include Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), Jeff Van Drew (NJ-02), Steve Cohen (TN-09), Nick Langworthy (NY-23), Sharice Davids (KS-03), Rob Wittman (VA-01), Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05), Jen Kiggans (VA-02), Jared Golden (ME-02), Greg Steube (FL-17), Deborah Ross (NC-02), August Pfluger (TX-11), Ed Case (HI-01), Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-25), Mike Lawler (NY-17), Darren Soto (FL-09), and Vern Buchanan (FL-16).
The ABC Act is endorsed by: AARP, ADA Watch/Coalition for Disability Rights & Justice, Aging Life Care Association, Alliance for Aging Research, Alliance for Retired Americans, Allies for Independence, ALS Association, Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, American Academy of Nursing, American Association on Health and Disability, American Heart Association, American Network of Community Organizations and Resources (ANCOR), American Psychological Association Services, American Society for Transportation and Cellular Therapy, American Society on Aging, Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration, Association of University Centers on Disabilities, Autism Society of America, Autism Speaks, Caregiver Action Network, Caring Across Generations, Child Neurology Foundation, Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, Davis Phinney Foundation for Parkinson’s, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), Diverse Elders Coalition, Elder Services of Berkshire County Inc., Elizabeth Dole Foundation, Family Caregiver Alliance, National Center on Caregiving, Fight Colorectal Cancer, Gerontological Society of America, Grayce, Greater Lynn Senior Services, Hispanic Federation, Huntington’s Disease Society of America, Japanese American Citizens League, Justice in Aging, Lakeshore Foundation, LeadingAge, LifePath, Lymphoma Research Foundation, Massachusetts Councils on Aging, Medical Alley, Mystic Valley Elder Services, National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, National Adult Day Services Association, National Alliance on Caregiving, National Asian Pacific Center on Aging (NAPCA), National Association of Councils on Developmental Disabilities, National Council on Aging, National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, National Disability Rights Network, National Down Syndrome Congress, National Federation of Filipino American Associations, National Fragile X Foundation, National Health Council, National Partnership for Healthcare and Hospice Innovation, National Patient Advocate Foundation, National Respite Coalition, NMDP, OCA- Asian Pacific American Advocates, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Rosalynn Carter Institute for Caregivers, Senior Connection, Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services, Southeast Asian Resource Action Center (SEARAC), Speak Foundation, the Arc of the United States, The ERISA Industry Committee, The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, Third Way, USAging, Village to Village Network, and Well Spouse Association.
“Family caregivers are the backbone of our nation’s long-term care system, and they are overwhelmed managing their loved ones’ care,” said AARP Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer Nancy LeaMond. “This bill would help alleviate bureaucratic red tape for family caregivers. AARP urges Congress to swiftly pass this important legislation.”
“Millions of Americans struggle to care for loved ones while also navigating the red tape of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The Alleviating Barriers for Caregivers (ABC) Act will cut through that red tape, making it easier for families to access these vital programs. This means caregivers can spend less time fighting paperwork and more time providing essential care and taking care of themselves,” said Jason Resendez, President & CEO of the National Alliance for Caregiving.
“Family caregivers provide over $600 billion in care each year, greatly benefiting the system and the person needing care, but are overburdened by navigating the health care system and all the paperwork that comes with it. Simplifying these processes improve the caregiver’s well-being, allow them more quality time with the person they care for, and could improve coordination with health and benefits systems,” said Christina Irving, Client Services Director at Family Caregiver Alliance.
“Caregiver Action Network (CAN) strongly supports the Alleviating Barriers for Caregivers Act. CAN’s mission is to improve the quality of life for tens of millions of family caregivers, and this Act could help reduce their stress by making it easier to access the resources and information they need while caring for their loved ones,” said Marvell Adams Jr., CEO of Caregiver Action Network.
“USAging is proud to support the Alleviating Barriers for Caregivers Act, a vital step in recognizing the selfless contributions of caregivers by addressing the challenges they face when providing care to their loved ones. This bill will help reduce stress and time spent helping loved ones access important benefits, supporting the overall well-being of caregivers. With the numbers of older Americans rising at a historic rate, family caregivers need more support, and they need it now,” said Sandy Markwood, CEO of USAging.
“As an organization founded by a family caregiver, the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA) is pleased to support the Alleviating Barriers for Caregivers Act. Caring for a loved one with dementia is a 24/7 responsibility, and it becomes even more stressful trying to navigate the complexities of accessing benefits. Cutting administrative red tape and making it easier for caregivers to connect with programs, services, and assistance would alleviate a major stressor and expedite vital support to caregivers. AFA is grateful to Sen. Markey, Sen. Capito, Rep. Cammack, Rep. Magaziner, and all who support this legislation in Congress for working together to help family caregivers,” said Charles J. Fuschillo, Jr., President & CEO of the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America.
“Caregivers of the Autism community frequently reach out to the Autism Society’s helpline, citing the complex navigation of critical services like Medicaid and Social Security as major obstacles to receiving care. The ABC Act would reduce this burden, allowing caregivers to focus on what matters most — supporting their loved ones,” said Christopher Banks, President and CEO of the Autism Society of America.
“Helping older adults understand and complete documents for caregiver support is not only the right thing to do from a community perspective, but it is also significantly more cost-effective. Leveraging caregiver support avoids or delays more expensive long-term care options, such as nursing homes or assisted living facilities,” said Bill Zagorski, Board Chair for the National Adult Day Services Association. “Moreover, Adult Day Services play a significant role to caregivers. It assists with access to and reduces barriers to these vital programs as well as providing caregiver respite in order to allow aging adults, seniors and individuals with cognitive, physical, intellectual and/or developmental disabilities to age in place in their communities.”
“Caregivers are the true backbone of our nation, offering unwavering support to those in need and often sacrificing their own well-being in the process. By supporting caregivers through this act, we are taking a vital step toward providing the long-overdue assistance they so desperately need. This legislation will help to alleviate the administrative burdens that many caregivers face on a daily basis, making their challenging roles more manageable. By reducing the overwhelming paperwork, navigating complex systems, and offering additional resources, we can ensure caregivers are able to focus more on the well-being of their loved ones, while receiving the support they need. This step is essential in recognizing and honoring the incredible work that caregivers do and ensuring they are equipped with the tools necessary to continue providing care with dignity and compassion,” said Elizabeth ‘Betsy’ Connell, Executive Director of Massachusetts Association of Councils on Aging (MCOA).
In July 2024, Senator Markey celebrated the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee passage of his caregiving and Alzheimer’s provisions in the Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2024. Earlier that month, Senator Markey announced his “Caring for Caregivers” agenda, a comprehensive legislative agenda which calls for the economic security, support and resources, and protection and promotion of family caregivers and their loved ones’ health and wellbeing. In June 2024, Senator Markey introduced the Elder Pride Act, legislation to establish an Office of LGBTQI Inclusion within the Department of Health and Human Services to advocate, coordinate activities, recommend policies for, and collect data on LGBTQI+ older adults.
A new online tool that identifies areas at risk from groundwater flooding has been developed by New Zealand scientists. Groundwater flooding occurs when the water table rises close to the surface, causing issues even before the water visibly floods the ground.
The Shallow Groundwater Screening Tool, which identifies areas at threat from water table rises, will help hazard and land-use decision-makers understand the scale of the problem and which areas are likely to be the most vulnerable, says lead for the Future Coasts Aotearoa programme, NIWA Chief Scientist Coasts and Estuaries Dr Scott Stephens.
Groundwater – also known as the water table – rises with sea levels, particularly in coastal and low-lying areas, and it can be pushed even higher by persistent rainfall. Groundwater flooding is often overlooked as a threat, however it is a hazard that traditional flood defences such as stopbanks and seawalls cannot contain because the water comes up from underneath. When the groundwater rises, it can saturate soil and structures, weaken infrastructure, increase liquefaction risk and worsen surface flooding from heavy rainfall. As sea levels continue to rise, groundwater levels in the coast zone and close to tidal rivers will increase accordingly. Persistent heavy rain also pushes up the water table, a phenomenon which contributed to South Dunedin’s flooding in October 2024.
It’s not all bad – shallow groundwater can also be beneficial for some ecosystems and for buffering droughts.
The first-of-its-kind online tool, developed as part of the NIWA-led Future Coasts Aotearoa research programme, shows areas that could be exposed to shallow groundwater hazards, right now, based on existing groundwater measurements, says Dr Stephens.
“Increased flooding events will be a real driver of change in many places. Rising groundwater will destabilise roads and damage buildings. It could make farming uneconomic. Stormwater pipes will be persistently full. Councils and decision-makers need an accurate picture of current shallow groundwater levels to prepare for future risks by identifying what areas could be exposed to shallow groundwater as sea levels continue to rise. This tool will be useful for local, district and regional councils, engineers, infrastructure providers, and rural communities, as well as individual citizens who want to make better-informed decisions for their future.”
Water resource consultancy Kōmanawa Solutions created the tool. Its founder Zeb Etheridge says that we are interested in the shallow water table because that’s the part of the groundwater system that’s most affected by sea level rise.
“Two-thirds of New Zealanders live in coastal areas, meaning much of our infrastructure and land use falls within these vulnerable zones. Understanding this issue is critical for future planning.”
The Kōmanawa Solutions team pulled together 2.4 million real-life readings of groundwater depth from around the country. To fill in the gaps, they used machine learning trained on factors that influence the water table, such as land elevation, soil type and nearness to waterways. Mr Etheridge describes the result as a risk screening tool to manage hazards, guide adaptation planning for existing land use choices, and plan future developments.
“Local authorities are likely to undertake more detailed assessments of the areas that are shown to be potentially exposed before making any significant decisions,” he says. The tool is designed so that the certainty of detecting risky groundwater levels can be dialled up or down, as can the depth of groundwater that is of interest.
Further updates from the research team, which includes NIWA, Kōmanawa Solutions, GNS Science, and the University of Canterbury, are in development. These include projections of rising water tables as sea levels rise and land subsidence. The team will also investigate the risk of groundwater becoming saline as seawater infiltrates it.
What does the Shallow Groundwater Screening Tool do?
The tool shows areas that could be exposed to shallow groundwater, right now, based on existing groundwater measurements. The dataset covers the areas of New Zealand where the elevation is less than 100 m above sea level.
The model results tell us the likelihood of finding shallow groundwater in every 100 x 100 m area below 100 m above sea level and allows users to select a set of model results which suit their particular purpose.
What is the decision-support gap that this first-of-its-kind tool fills?
This tool shows us where shallow groundwater is likely to be present, or not likely to be present. We can confirm whether shallow groundwater is present or not present at a given location, either by looking at data from existing local bores or by excavating a trial pit or hand auguring and monitoring where no previous information is available. But the depth to groundwater can vary significantly over relatively short distances and hence we cannot identify areas with potential shallow groundwater at scale without either extensive and costly investigations, or modelling.
Who should be using the tool?
The outputs can be used by councils, rural communities, engineers and infrastructure providers as a risk screening tool, to understand which areas could be exposed to shallow groundwater and require more detailed local investigation and assessment, and which areas are unlikely to be exposed.
The outputs also provide information on how certain we can be that shallow groundwater is present or not present, which can be used for hazard management and development planning. In most instances, we would expect users of the information to undertake more detailed assessments of the areas that are shown to be potentially exposed before making any significant decisions.
This is a publicly available tool that anyone can use. There is a modest charge for the tool’s use that will be reinvested in related science, which could include updates to the tool.
What is the data and process that underpins the tool?
We know from both theory and practical experience that depth to groundwater varies with land elevation, proximity to rivers, streams, and the coastline, soil properties, and other environmental variables. The tool uses a machine learning technique to determine which combinations of environmental variables provide the best predictions of depth to groundwater.
The machine learning model, which uses a method called Random Forest via a novel implementation developed for this study, was trained using all groundwater readings from 79,000 locations (where the well depth or screen is less than 30 m below ground level) with data available, and national datasets of environmental variables like soil properties to provide the best possible prediction of whether shallow groundwater is likely or unlikely to be present on a 100 x 100 m grid for all land below 100 m elevation.
The model developed to create this product was trained using all accessible groundwater depth information held in Regional Council and Territorial Authority databases and in the New Zealand Geotechnical Database. This comprised readings from approximately 110,000 locations around the country.
What is the overarching research programme that is supporting the development of the tool?
The tool and associated research is part of theFuture Coasts Aotearoa programmethat aims to transform coastal lowland systems threatened by relative sea-level rise into prosperous communities. It’s an Endeavour programme funded from 2021-2026 by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment, and is a collaborative effort that includes Kōmanawa Solutions and is led by NIWA.
What other groundwater research is underway within the programme?
